FHC Chapter 45: Fiery Finish (Patreon)

Alice glanced up in surprise, but she never stopped moving. When the fireball crashed into the stalactites just above, she jumped out of the way as the explosion cracked the stone. The monsters cornering her looked up in time as an avalanche of broken stone fell upon their heads.

The elementals went down in a scattering of rocks. I saw their bright, burning blood spew out, but judging from the hissing and popping noise they made, as well as the twitch of moving limbs, they were alive.

But not for long.

Alice was upon them before they could shift a pebble off their bodies. She leveraged her axe and popped off their heads. More fire met the air and splashed onto a sheet of ice that sizzled and steamed.

That only left the two monsters ahead of me. While they were distracted, I rolled out of the way. My burnt arm touched the warm floor, and a particularly sharp stinging pain made it spasm.

I grunted but kept my mouth shut and stood up in time to avoid one of the monsters throwing its pickaxe. The metal head bounced off the ground before tumbling to a stop several feet away.

Need to distract them.

I rushed over to the pickaxe and snatched it up. Spinning around, I lobbed it at the nearest monster, who smacked it aside. The hit did nothing, and the broken rib screamed its displeasure.

It didn't matter. They had forgotten about the huntress behind them.

My feet shifted, and I held out my arm, the same one that barely responded to my demands. They stopped, and I smiled devilishly.

"Hey!"

Rocks shifted, and flames blazed as they both turned igneous.

Then, a massive axe smashed one monster into another, sending them rolling across the floor. Alice went to work on one, who fought back, but she systematically dismantled its limbs. While she handled that, I slowly limped over to the other, who was in the process of getting up and unsheathed my axe.

My wolf rose from the ground and grabbed its back leg, forcing it to fall. The back of my axe met the joint towards the shoulder and blew apart the limb. It twisted, hitting my left leg and causing me to crash to my knee.

Screw you!

I used my good hand to grab its arm and hold it taut. It struggled, but I removed its limb with another chop. It tried to flare fire, and my wolf yipped, the connection buzzing. I powered through despite the flare of heat and cracked the side of its head.

It sprawled to the floor, unable to brace its fall with no arms. I stared as it rolled around, flaring more flames before sputtering.

A tap on my shoulder made me snap my head around. I stared at the metal shaft being offered to me. Looking up, I saw Alice staring, unbothered by the snarl that escaped my lips.

I grabbed it and wedged it between the monster's neck. With the weight of my body, I braced and pulled backward. Elemental blood coated the stone, and I continued.

One more… Pull!

The stopper came off, and blood left the body. The head rolled away and came to a rest, staring at me with dimming eyes. Red-hot turned ashy white and then black. Veins of fire pulsed then faded away as the monster's body lost whatever magic that kept it together.

My strength finally failed me, and I flopped onto my back. A groan left my body that continued for five seconds too long.

Alice joined me and released her own groan of relief and pain as she bunched up her cloak's hood to use as a cushion.

I rolled my head over to her direction, and my gaze trailed down to her bleeding arm. The poor limb, streaked with bright red and covered in dust and bits of rock, was in a terrible state, not that I could boast any different.

"How's the arm?" I asked through shallow breaths.

"Cold. How's yours?" she replied.

"Cold," I chuckled, then stopped when I nearly whimpered. I blinked and found her watching me. "What?"

"You've adapted remarkably well. Seems like you're a natural for this life."

Huh?

"What are you talking about? What brought this on?"

She shook her head and closed her eyes. "You rush into battle; you fight. Sloppy, but you do not flail. You've embraced pain the way a true Grimm does to ensure victory. Are you the same you from before?"

It was an easy answer.

"No."

A comfortable pause followed, then she chuckled. "Good decision with the stalactites."

I glanced down at my arm and watched as blood oozed out of the cracks and mixed with the dirty stone. "Yeah. I need more incantations. Fire isn't cutting it."

She said nothing, and that was fine with me. I turned as I felt a strikingly cold snoot bump into my cheek.

"Hey, you did good work. Thank you," I said as I scratched its fur.

"You should feed it more mana as a gift," Alice muttered.

"I can do that?"

She shrugged. "It was in the tome I researched when I thought about doing a summoning ritual. Generally, familiars will stick around, especially if they like your mana. It's food, but some are tastier than others. Offer it more."

I do have mana to spare. Alright, let's try it.

I held out my hand, palm-side up. I let the mana running through me condense around my palm. My summon stared at it, sniffed, but then cocked its head.

Frowning, I dropped my palm. I closed my eyes and felt the connection settle around my core. It felt like a string attached to my sternum.

Have I been doing summonings wrong? Do I even need my hand?

This time, I imagined the connection like a straw. A low, constant suction of mana fed into the summon, but for the most part, the mana had already been tied up during the initial summoning. With the means of transfer open, I simply nudged it.

The reaction from my summon was immediate, and I watched as the edges of its form started to unspool and lose cohesion. I nearly stopped, but then its tail started to wag.

My jaw fell open as the wolf started to grow in size. A strange and almost hesitant tug came from the connection, and I explored it. It came again, and I understood. I nodded, and the wolf nodded back.

I fed more mana, and the strain sent my chest spasming in new pain, disturbing the broken rib. Still, I kept the flow running until my wolf regained its full size and now loomed over me with pitch-black eyes.

The void drew me in, and I couldn't see my reflection. The flow of mana stopped, not by my doing but by the wolf. I blinked, and a cold, wet tongue pressed against my cheek.

"Hey! Woah, cold. Too cold!"

It kept licking me before lowering its head. It bowed and then sank into the floor, its shadow joining mine.

A strange feeling settled in my chest but then disappeared.

Rest well, buddy.

I could have dismissed the summon, but we weren't done.

Crap, still need to find the kid.

"Hey, Alice. Kid. Any signs of an exit out of here?"

She blinked, then raised her head and pointed to the far wall. I shifted and looked to where she indicated, finding a stone wall like any other.

"I see nothing but a wall?"

"Look again; the color is off."

I squinted and slowly saw what she meant. It was a dark, ruddy brown rather than soot black.

"The smell is here too, hard to tell at first, but it's stronger near the wall."

Alice got up first, and I noticed that her arm had stopped bleeding. The werewolf perk of regeneration was already kicking in.

My arm oozed greatly, but that didn't mean much.

She offered me a hand up, and I took it, embracing the pain and biting my tongue to hide the agony that the sharp jerk inflicted on my body.

Together, we stepped past the elemental corpses and approached the wall. Up close, I could see the details more clearly. The off-wall looked rough, and you could clearly see where it was thickening in some places, but overall, it looked like a sloppy construction job. Alice used her axe to tap the stone, and the sound that came back sounded off.

Hollow?

I turned to her. "Can you break it down?"

She nodded, so I stepped back. She set herself steady and bent her knees. With a big windup, she hit the wall, and it crumbled. The stench that wafted out hit us like a truck. I nearly vomited right there before regaining control of myself and covering my nose.

"Inside, look," Alice coughed, her voice muffled by the hand over her nose and mouth.

I peered into the darkness and saw a small, sprawled-out form. Alice moved to the side, and I stepped in. I picked the girl up with one arm as gently as possible, ignoring the sharp discomfort.

Slipping her over my shoulder, I exited the closet-sized space and walked far enough away from the wall to breathe without needing to cover my mouth. I looked back and noticed that despite the relatively dirty appearance, the child looked unharmed. No obvious cuts or injuries marred their skin.

Stopping, I felt the shallow breaths and frowned.

"Hey, Alice. We should get out of here. The child's having trouble breathing."

Instead of replying with an affirmative, she paused and waited. I spun and gave her a questioning look.

And then, the rainbow-colored blip appeared in the bottom of my vision.