Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 142 (Patreon)

I looked back at the landing pad where we were currently, quickly realizing there wasn't nearly enough room for the Starcaller to descend and pick us up. I let out a long string of curses, looking around us one last time before finally responding to Ezra. 

"Fuck, okay, here is the plan! We are going to keep making our way to the first landing pad since there is nowhere else you can land near us," I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. Ahsoka, Sabine, and Luke all shifted as they dropped into defensive stances and watched the treeline. "Get ready to drop down so you can pick us up." 

"You got it," He responded immediately.

I slid the comms back into the pouch along my belt before flicking my hand out and conjuring a sword. Sabine was a bit startled, but I ignored it. 

"Alright, so we have company," I said, everyone tensing at the news. "If they attack, we need to break through and head to the landing pad. Just keep running. I can keep everyone's stamina up. We-"

My following sentence was cut off as whatever had been stalking us finally made an appearance, leaping down from the shadows cast by the broken debris of a nearby building. The large monstrosity slammed into the ground hard enough that various piles of rubble and stone shifted and settled around us. It stood on all fours, its feet splayed wide with singularly clawed digits. The massive creature was easily twice as tall as I was, with many times the mass.

It was also dripping wet, sleek, and finned like some sort of aquatic beast. Two large fins ran down the top of its neck, shifting and moving as it craned its head upwards and let out a bone-rattling roar. Its face appeared to be covered in tendrils and tentacles, but as it let out its bestial cry, it all pulled back to reveal a jaw not dissimilar to a great white shark, with row after row of flesh-rending teeth. Behind the beast was a massive finned tail, flowing back and forth, constantly in motion. This creature was clearly dangerous and most likely came from the oceans that surrounded the island. 

I stepped forward, sword held out at the ready, waiting, the tension in the air only broken by the dripping moisture from the massive behemoth's body. I could hear two lightsabers ignite behind me, the monster's eyes flickering to them for a moment before focusing on me. 

Suddenly, with surprising speed, the beast moved, its attention focused on me. Its claws dug furrows into the ground as it lunged forward, its jaws snapping out as it charged at me. Rather than risk testing out the crushing strength of my armor, I jumped backward to avoid the bite, jamming my free hand forward to cast Sparks, the shock energy dancing along its face and, if it even had one, its nose. 

The monster howled and reared back, snapping at the electricity discharging into its face. It was clearly not taking much damage. As it roared and swatted, it became very clear that we would not be able to outrun this thing. It moved too fast and was way too lethal. We needed to kill it quickly, then run back to the ship before any backup arrived.

While my attack was not doing any damage, it managed to distract the monstrosity long enough for me to get back to my feet and for everyone else to react. Sabine began peppering it with blaster bolts, her Westar-35s releasing yellow bolts of plasma that stitched small craters of burned flash along its face and neck. As she fired, she moved around to my right, staying at range as she strafed.

Luke and Ashoka moved on either side of me, taking advantage of the distraction Sabine and I were creating to run forward. When they were in range, they used their sabers to slash at the creature's legs. They struck within seconds of each other, their heated plasma blades cutting along the wet, scaly hide that wrapped around the creature's limbs. Unfortunately, while it certainly did damage, it was nowhere near the instant limb removal I had been hoping for. Instead, Ahsoka had to dive back to avoid the creature's jaws, using the Force to jump clear as the beast whirled around to snap at her. 

While Ahsoka managed to dodge the bites, Luke was less successful. As the beast whirled to face the Togruta, it whipped its tail around to strike at Luke. The Force-sensitive managed to click off his lightsaber and raise his arms before the thick, limber appendage struck him. He must have used the Force to cushion the blow, because even when the tail knocked him up into the air, sending him tumbling across the ground, he was only minorly injured. I mentally sent the conjured mage to fix him up before charging forward to take advantage of the new opening the two Force-sensitives had made. 

While snapping at Ashoka and slapping its tail at Luke, the monstrosity had turned mostly to the side, all but presenting its neck to me. 

With a shout, I jabbed out with my conjured sword, stabbing at its neck. Just like for the sabers, the musculature of the beast was too dense to slam my blade to the hilt, but I cut plenty deep to draw blood. I also charged a Lightning Bolt, firing it at the creature's head as it whipped his head around to see who had attacked it. 

The more powerful lightning spell seemed to affect it much more, blasting off one of its face tentacles and burning away at its jaw. It screamed in pain, and in a surprising display of flexibility, it lashed out at me with its front leg. 

The kick lifted me off my feet, the creature's claws actually carving shallow slashes in my beskar. I flew over Sabine and hit the ground hard enough for my armor to spark off the stone beneath us. The dual impacts had seriously rattled my brain, and for a moment, all I could do was lay there, dazed and confused. Then, the glow of healing magic wrapped around me, and the cloud of confusion faded just enough for me to concentrate and heal myself. 

As I climbed to my feet, I could see my conjured mage casting a healing spell at Luke, who had somehow earned a gash along his chest while I was down. Despite his wound, he was still up with everyone else, engaging the monster but making little progress as the beast snapped and slapped at them. I took a deep breath and called out to everyone. 

"Pull back!" I shouted, everyone taking a second to understand my command before running, jumping, and diving away from the creature. 

Once everyone was clear, I cast one of my powerful spells, the only Expert-level Destruction spell I knew, Unbound Freezing. 

The complicated matrix filled out into my hands, magic weaving as I focused. When the spell was complete, I thrust my hands out, my palms forward. The spell swelled as it was cast, and a beam of freezing Frost energy fired off from my hands in a creaking, angry beam. It was a pale blue with a frosted aura so bright that it was hard to look at. The beam raced across the gap and slammed into the creature's face, its jaws open as it snapped at Sabine, who was still rolling out of the way.

Spikes of frozen ice and frost formed around the side of the creature's face, trialing down as I raked the beam over its body and down its neck. I could feel my Magicka reserves falling as I did my best to control the powerful beam of magic. Finally, after struggling to control it, I managed to focus the powerful and costly spell on one of its injured legs, holding it there as ice encased the limb. 

The monster screamed and howled, trying to charge me, but by then, its leg was frozen to the ground. It fell forward, and with the sound of crushing ice, its leg shattered three-fourths the way up its leg. The stump was bleeding profusely, the monster howling and screeching in pain at its partially self-inflicted wound. By then, my mana was almost completely gone. I was forced to cut the spell, stumbling back at its final discharge, my hands feeling cold. Despite its obvious injury, the monster still stumbled forward, snapping at me as it angrily roared.

To keep my distance, I walked backward, pulling out my blaster pistol and quickly opening fire as I did. I fired my weapon as fast as I could, my trusty DC-17 pistol dumping blaster bolts as quickly as I could pull the trigger. Sabine joined me, peppering the creature, keeping it pissed and focused on us. It was wounded, stumbling, in severe pain, with every single bit of its attention on us. Seeing the opportunity, Ahsoka and Luke moved in, lightsabers making humming noises as they ran to engage the monster. Ahsoka was first, cutting at its side, causing it to whirl around once again. This time, however, Luke was ready. 

He dove forward to follow the monster, staying by the stump that had once been a dangerous clawed limb. Now, it was just another opening for Luke to take advantage of. The young Force-sensitive slid up, almost under the creature, and stabbed his lightsaber into its belly.

The effect was instant. The creature panicked and scrambled, trying to escape the range of whatever was attacking his sensitive underside. Unfortunately for it, Luke knew exactly what he was doing, impaling the creature deeper and disemboweling it with a wide slice. He had to jump back to avoid getting absolutely drenched in guts and offal, but he managed. 

The creature roared one last time, the end strangling out into a pathetic whimpering whine. It stumbled to the side a few feet, leaving a trail of blood and worse before its legs gave out, and it collapsed to the ground. 

For a moment, everything was silent. Then, suddenly, two more roars echoed over the city, and then three, four, and more followed after it.

"Uh, guys! You have more incoming!" Ezra shouted from my comms. "The ones under us took off towards you, and you've got three more coming from out to the coast." 

"Fuck! Okay, we need to get back to the ship," I said, now jogging to the path off of the platform. "We can't fight that many at once!"

"What about the two coming at us from there?" Sabine asked, still following after me. 

"Better than the three coming from the sea!" I responded. "We might be able to sneak by them if we are lucky!"

Luke and Ahsoka must have agreed because they quickly followed after me, Sabine following after them. Together, we moved, darting off of the landing pad and back to the broken, clogged streets and alleyways. Ezra kept us updated as the two creatures got closer and closer. 

"They are right on you!" He eventually shouted. "I'm coming to you. The commando droids can use the gunner station to-" 

Before he could finish,  monsters landed in the street we were running down, landing side by side, easily tearing the vines around them. They were snarling and snapping already. 

"Negative, Ezra, they are already too close," I responded through the comms. "We will fight them off, maybe use the street to our advantage."

Even as the two monsters approached, I quickly cast Respite on everyone to get them ready. We were slowly stepping back from the monsters, looking for some sort of opening or advantage, when I spotted something. 

"Ahsoka… left side, high… Do you think you could…?"

Ahsoka followed my directions and looked up, spotting the rather large statue, its headlong fallen but the majority of its mass still standing. It was showing sins of wear, though, with vines cracking and chipping at its base. 

"I-" 

Before she could say anything, a crack resonated through the street. The near eldritch monsters, who had just stepped under the range of the giant statue, froze at the sound, trying to find its source. While they did, the base of the massive statue crumbled as the carved hunk of rock tilted forward. After a long, silent fall, the multi-story work of ancient art slammed down onto the monsters, crushing them instantly. Barely any of the aquatic beasts was still showing, and what was had been squashed through the gaps and cracks of the stone that had killed them. 

"Fuck yeah!" I cheer, pumping a fist and giving Ahsoka a double thumbs-up. "Nicely done, now let-" 

"That wasn't me," Ahsoka said, looking over at Luke. 

"Uh… not me either," He said, his eyes wide, looking between Ahsoka and I.

"Maybe it was them," Sabine commented, pointing up to a large chunk of rubble that had previously been hidden by the statue.

I followed her finger, and sure enough, I could see three figures standing on the rubble. They were far enough away that I couldn't really see any features, but I could tell one of them was green, one was a human black, and the other was pale. 

"Deacon! I don't know where they came from, but you've got smaller company," Ezra said, coming through my comms. "Two, maybe three people! And you still have three more of those big things coming at you from the coast!" 

"We see them Ezra. Sit tight!" 

The three people dropped down from where they were standing, all of them slowing down at the last second, landing pretty easily. I slowly stepped closer, reaching up to my helmet to pull it off for the first time since we left the ship, letting the humid, salty air in.

For a long moment, all the humanoids did was watch us closely. After a moment, I got sick of waiting and tucked my helmet under my arm, waving as if to get their attention. 

This seemed to finally break whatever was keeping them back because they finally began to approach. Rather than make them walk the whole way, we moved to meet them halfway. 

"Thank you for your help," I said as they got closer. "We should move, though. Our pilot says we have more of those things incoming. Unless you think we should fight them?

As they got closer, I finally got a good look at them. The oldest was the pale man, a few inches taller than me, with all-white hair, including a beard. He gave an older, grandfatherly vibe despite the fact that he, as well as the other two, were dressed in crude clothing made from gray and gray-blue leather, probably from the beasts we had just fought. The green one was a Twi'lek male, and the darker-skinned one was a human male. 

"No, fighting them for territory is pointless," The older man said, shaking his head. "They will simply keep coming. We have much to discuss, but we should first relocate to somewhere safe. Would you come with us?" 

I gave Ashoka a look, who was staring at him with wide eyes. Eventually, she noticed me looking and focused on me, nodding in response. I looked back and nodded at the man. 

"Very well, lead the way…?" 

"Jedi Knight Casmot Amescoll, at your service."