A shower of rocks and debris tore through my arm, shattering it to the shoulder, mangling the rest and I could not care less.
"Master!" I yelled.
Stone and dust still falling all around, my voice lost in the mayhem. But the human was safe. I hurriedly traced a circle in mid-air, just in time for the barrier to intercept a volley of chitin spikes each the size of a full cavalry lance. They broke and bounced, cracking the magical shield that vanished.
Before us the six-armed lamia roared.
"Master," I insisted, "you have to flee!"
He got up instead, staggered past me with his hand on my shoulder and smiled.
"Me, flee? You should know better by now!"
"Please, you can't!"
He had already leapt forward, crossed the hundred meters between him and the giant creature to slash it with his mythical sword. The blade broke the shoulder, cut an arm, plunged so deep that it only stopped on the third rib.
The beast screamed and thrashed while its grotesque arm crashed on the ground.
Another strike! A direct thrust that cracked the creature's scales at its chest and made it reel.
Not enough!
The hit had failed to reach that monster's heart. Why? My master's creation the sword Anathema still blazed in the darkness. Still left a blinding magical trail. Why had it failed?!
I wanted to help, moved forward, felt my leg break under me.
Even on my knee, I could still do something! With my last hand I drew another circle, watched the weak flickers fade too fast, the spell fail. Before me my master was now struggling for his life.
"Master!"
He had reached the ground, dodged when the beastly scythe plowed through. Three meters of sharp bone shattered the land. Rocks and dust in plumes filling the air.
The beast raised its fifth arm, with a hand at its end, showed its palm and the smoke started to boil, turned into an inferno. So much mana... the lamia had gone mad! Its snake head bore a savage smile.
Foolish! The both of them!
My master had held onto the scythe, hopped on it and avoided the blaze entirely. Rather than jump this time he ran all along the arm, fast enough for the beast to barely notice. One swing and the tentacular limb that covered the chest and shoulder got torn.
The blade had failed to cut it but a limp arm was just as useless. The chest was open! One more hit, all the human needed was one hit to win!
Spikes rained on him, a precise volley that grazed the arm he was standing on while forcing him to fall back once more, jump away from the creature. Nearly twenty meters in the air, a speck among the darkness, a glimmer.
Its opponent had lost two arms, used it spiked one to cover the chest once more.
The tail!
The lamia's tail, discreet this whole time, had risen to meet the human mid-air. It struck with the force of a mountain. Sent him crashing down and slammed on him with a thunderous thud.
I stopped, tetanized. Anyone else would have died from that strike. Not a human though. Not a human! I had to believe that, looked at the new leg I was forging. It would not be ready in time.
So, with the belief that my master would rise, there was one thing left for me to do.
The beast had slithered, removed its tail from the wide trench left behind. It was looking at the impact, roared in rage and raised its fifth arm, with the hand ready to set the land ablaze.
Then it noticed the aura of magic.
Yes! Look here! If I had no magic left I would fake having plenty! This circle drawn on the ground had taken almost nothing to do.
Yes! The lamia took the bait, turned and weighing the threat, rather than use its hand freed its chest to swing its spiked arm. In a second the projectiles were on me, crashing all around in massive shockwaves.
I had dodged the worst of it, rolled on the rocky, dry ground. My body pierced dozens of time by the splinters for all it mattered. With the illusion broken, the beast realized its mistake, turned back to the human.
It had not yet covered its chest again.
A ray of blue light pierced through, burst on the other side in magical jets. It shrieked! The beast wailed and writhed for the seconds that beam lasted. It used its hand to try and tear free, grasped the beam, only succeeded in having the palm melt.
And when the light finally faded, the creature tried to touch its fractured chest, choked, watched its black blood splatter down.
It went mad. The lamia absolutely lost it. How does it feel to watch yourself die? Welcome to our world, you should be used to it! But it flailed in agony, started to cut its own arms with its scythe in an horrid spectacle. Limbs falling one by one around it.
And when it was done with that, its whole torso an atrocious mess, the snake bit its last arm at the shoulder, tore it apart with an energy only insanity could provide.
Then, with nothing left to attack, choking once more the beast fell.
It was over. My master had won!
My master.
I had reforged a crude leg, got up and ran. Toward the impact, toward the torn rocks, past it to see the human lying on the ground.
His mythical sword, Anathema, lay broken, the blade pulverized. His cuirass had cracked, the other plates mangled, even the chainmail ripped all around. He was wounded. But he breathed.
"Master!" I rushed to his side, pleading.
"I'm not your master..." He groaned.
"You are wounded! Why aren't you healing?!"
"Some hero I am..." He chuckled. I had never seen his smile so weak. "I tried... It doesn't work anymore..."
Which meant he was running out of mana. Drawing on it opened the wounds he was trying to close. And if I tried to heal him, my mana would come from him...
Because with the armor broken, the seals were gone. My master's magic was irradiating. However weak it had become, it was still fiery for the realm.
But even without magic, humans could heal!
"Hang on!" I picked him up, locked him against my broken arm. "I will get you to safety!"
He winced. His body was badly battered, yet nothing too bad. A day or two of rest would suffice, with luck. The seals were the priority.
Getting away was the priority.
"Scavengers are bound to come and you are in no shape to fight!"
"I know."
I knew that he knew. He knew that I knew that... What I meant was I was sorry, so sorry I could not treat him on the spot. Preserve as much of his mana right now.
But the petrified forest was just minutes away. And if no tree could hide us I would dig a cave! I had magic now. I unfortunately had magic again. I bore the shame of stealing from my master's.
Behind us the monstrous body shook.
It convulsed. The massive snake body, with its mangled torso, was starting to squirm again. Had my master realized before me? Of course he had. He was human. He was infinitely smarter and wise.
Far from mad, the lamia had realized the human's magic and bet all on it. Cut the extra expense from its body and used that small trickle to heal. Even then, it would be too little for such a giant!
It was shedding instead.
A second snake head was emerging from the first. Smaller, weaker, blinded by black blood. It still struggled to get out. The weight of its own corpse restrained him.
And now its hisses, its struggle added to the magical attraction. Monsters were converging in the dusk, wary to venture in the open plain yet too hungry, too desperate to pass the opportunity. They plunged on the snake to break its skin and devour the meat, absorb what mana it had.
I could do hardly more than walk. My young master was heavy, my frame not built for this. Monstrous shapes looked at us and, weighing reward and risk, preferred the feast afar. A safer bet.
So we reached the woods.
There, under the rocky branches, in that dark maze we lost ourselves until the trees formed an alcove in which to rest. I touched the ground, let clay fill the open space and there, in that makeshift shelter, the rumors of beasts and fighting subsued.
My master had trouble breathing.
"It will be fine!" I reassured him. The chainmail was so damaged it was easily ripped off. "You are safe here."
I removed his cloth to start painting the glyphs on his skin. Chest first. With how weakened he was now, just the chest would make all the difference.
He had another nervous laugh.
"You still think I can save the world?"
"Of course!" I answered in a heartbeat. It was an evidence!
"Even when I'm like this? Wounded, unarmed and out of mana?"
"It doesn't matter!" I fought back. "You are human! As long as you live, nothing is outside your reach!"
I knew all of that to be true. It was true. It had to be! I could also tell I was getting frantic. What could a human without magic do? Everything. And? Everything. Everything was not much to work with.
I looked at what armor was left on his lower half.
"You can lay low, rest and, after that, rebuild everything. I will find the magic for you."
"Where?"
"I will find it! You have the system, you have me, it was just a setback! Just a setback." I repeated while finishing the glyph on his chest.
A greyhound approached the clay walls, paced toward the entrance. I could feel its vibrations in the ground. Before it could glean inside, I had earthly spikes impale it.
"Begone!"
Even with the walls, my master's magic was still this strong? I had to dampen it further. And then erase mine. And then... and then...
I grasped the beads on my necklace. I prayed. I prayed for someone to help that human. Someone, please, help him.
Save him!
Someone...
But of course, none answered. My master was looking at me with such a weak smile.
A red beak had landed on the greyhound outside, to eat its heart. Tearing through the hard flesh, looking for that speck of mana. Once it would be done, it would come here. It fled instead.
The snake was approaching.
No mistake, those vibrations were that of a giant snake. Ten, twelve meters long. Slithering between the trees. Stopping to fight more monsters. Looking for my master.
For now, they led each other astray. But that beast was on the hunt. It was only a matter of time.
"It's coming, right?" My master calmly said. "The snake. Guess I have no choice but to kill it!"
He tried to get up, only to wince and fall back, curled up a bit.
"You can't!" I pleaded once more.
"A hero doesn't face fate lying down."
He was trying again. I put my hand to stop him.
"I will go! I will fight him or distract him..."
The fight was one-sided. No distraction would last and my master would be left undefended. Digging? The snake would pursue. What to do? What to do?!
The human was up. Barely standing, he stumbled a bit, regained his balance, approached the entrance.
Outside the snake shrieked.
I rushed to my master, pushed him down on the ground, struggled to keep him pinned down. He fought back, surprised and angry.
"What are you doing?!"
"I am sorry, Tao!" I begged while using my weight to keep him from moving.
He stopped and looked at me: "You... called me by my name."
I had already removed the necklace from my neck, put the bead on his forehead and watched as his mana flowed directly into the amber. His eyes went wide, he fought some more. Not for long.
I kept the bead pressed until he stopped moving, until his body went limp, until his body started to turn to dust. I silently kept the bead pressed on the ground after he was gone.
The necklace now had five beads instead of four.
The next human, I promised myself. The next one would succeed.