The Amber pavilion was a small manor in the ruins of a monster-infested city. Preserved, pristine and I intended to keep it that way.
Today, I had finished preparing the paint, entire pots of it piled up on the side while I checked how dry the thin layer of plaster had become. Good. Next, a coat of white paint. Luckily, a clay golem was light enough that I could walk on the surface without cracking it.
"What are you doing?" My mistress asked from upstairs.
She had just woken up, walked down to join me as I painted. The three on four meters canvas had piqued her curiosity.
"Fixing the pavilion." I explained.
"Do you never stop? No, forget I said anything" she waved before heading to the kitchen, gripping her hair.
She did not want me to cook food for her anymore.
Applying white paint proved a breeze, but now I had to wait for it to dry. A good thing since I was not done preparing all the brushes.
Drums started playing in the distance. Slow, heavy drumming, from the eastern side of the city.
Painting would wait.
"What is it?" My mistress was sit at the dining table with her bread and jam. "Monsters again?"
"Yes."
I moved past her, through the dining room and to the window to open it.
"The bull horde." I added. "They make their hunts a spectacle."
"Oh? And who do they hunt?"
"You."
Her pale rugged face turned to a frown. She looked at what she called her breakfast, swallowed the rest of her slice and got up.
"The golem is right..." The parasite's voice came up. "The battle has already begun..."
Outside, on the surrounding hills, beasts of all were leaving the ruins and jungle, dropping off the terraces and trudging in the water-filled valleys, toward the drums. Their movement was dictated by the toxins: spores floating all around, visible in the morning light.
The parasite's stems and oyster caps choked the ruins and stretched as far as the human eye could see.
Well, I mean, humans could probably see the entire realm for all I knew but... I mean...
I myself could feel the mushroom's body vibrating all the way into the city's underground.
"I promised..." It continued. "I am fighting on your side... I will stall the horde... But I cannot stop Korion..."
"Yeah, Sekres," my mistress remembered the parasite's name, "who is that Korion anyway?"
"A minotaur... No... Not a minotaur..." It seemed to hesitate. "The sight of a minotaur..."
"Kaele?"
It took me a second to realize she meant me.
"It is a minotaur, the size of a wilhorn. An elephant, I mean." I corrected myself at her raised eyebrow. "That creature forced hundreds of starved monsters to serve it. It killed the previous ruler - of the city ruins I mean - and was uncontested until your arrival."
"Weird." The human cocked her head.
She wasn't looking at me. Nor even at wherever the parasite's voice came from. No, her eyes were in mid-air, on what human system she said she had.
"Well then let's solve his case quickly," she groaned, "I have an island to get afloat."
She walked back to her room for a change of clothes. Not that she needed to, she could change them at will where she stood, but humans too had their habits.
I was waiting for her alone in the dining room.
"She should give up on that..." The parasite told me.
"Obey her, parasite." I reminded it. "Or better yet, go back to cowering in the city's depths."
The coming fight would not be even. It would not even be a fight. With a human on one side, it would be an execution.
Out there, the city was at war. An eclectic horde led by orcs clashing with all the vermin Shiranu had to offer. In a realm that lacked magic, it would already be a deadly melee; but magic flowed in the ruins and monsters were not shy of using it.
Roars and clashes, fangs and spears, maws cracking on scales, the crackling of spells and explosions.
Hill by hill the horde advanced, was pushed back, assaulted again. Wherever the combat let up, the victor devoured the weak.
We could see all of that from a bridge above. The battle soon under our feet.
"Brutal." The human whistled. "I can't even tell the good guys apart."
"They are all monsters. It is better to let them kill each other."
"Sure."
And she jumped off.
Because of course she would!
The human crashed in the water, emerged before the waves had finished washing over and crushed the first orc under her mace. It was higher than her yet still got thrown down, no more than a limp doll. She had already slain another.
The monsters saw her from the terraces and cheered. The drums afar got louder.
Some orcs threw spears at her, missing each time while the others fought in a furious melee to control the high grounds. The jungle was ablaze, the ruins emerging from their embers. The parasite's white stems were lit as well, twinging in pain.
As much as a plant could.
But against the might of my mistress, the horde had no chance! They were pushed back in the valley, falling in the water, forming a pack that she broke through with ease. The orcs, their hounds, their spells, could not even graze her.
She slammed one more at her feet, brought it back from under the water and crushed it again, put her foot on its head. Then the human looked up.
The battle had lapsed.
A mass had plunged in the water as well, in a massive wave that rippled all the way to her hips. On the other side of this valley, the minotaur had appeared.
Orcs chanting its name.
Now the battle had renewed all the harder, the horde still pressing for the hills while abandoning the valley entirely. Only the minotaur advanced there, pushing its own out of its way.
It was massive, its thick fur a sickening black on which hundreds of runes still burned, of power, healing and regeneration. It had engraved them on its skin and each movement made them pulse.
Its body a chiseled warmachine, full of scars that drew a second pattern on the muscles. That of a berzerker.
It was carrying a cleaver whose handle, going all the way, had to be held in both hands.
It roared!
"Eh, Kaele!" My mistress called. "This will take a while so no matter what, don't interrupt the fight! Got it? Same for you gramps!"
The parasite was too busy defending the hills to listen.
But the hills had become meaningless. The minotaur approached, pushing all the assailants thrown at him aside like insects.
A monster had three ways to talk. Okay more than that but three that mattered here. One, gestures. Another greyhound went crashing on the hillside. The minotaur, not even bothering to kill them, was making its intent crystal clear.
Two, voices. Like the parasite. Three, thoughts. Plain letting others read your mind. No middleman, no risk of misunderstanding and offering yourself wide open, or the most brazen bravado one could offer.
That's what the minotaur went with.
"Human!" Its mind screamed. "Come fight me!"
"Sorry for the wait!" She shot back and started to walk forth herself.
They strode, they rushed, they lunged at each other at the last second and their weapons clashed. Waves went crashing over the hills, pouring into the ruined towers and palaces. The ground had cracked and what boiling water was left at their feet drained in the faults.
Another clash! A terrace plain shattered while the waves, barely back, were sent flying once more.
The minotaur, a bit faster, got his opening on the third swing.
His cleaver fell on my mistress, hit a magic barrier and melted. The heavy blade sizzled and turned to lava, melting down and the drops in turn vanishing into dust. The weapon's glyphs, on the metal and wooden handle, failed one after the other.
The beast broke its attack, smirked and threw the broken weapon away.
My mistress never gave him time to do more, hit him at the belly, one swing! That he stopped with his palm. The shockwave blasted through the valley, pulverizing what few house walls had remained standing. Smoke and steam rose all the way to the opposite terraces.
How could the minotaur still be standing?!
It blocked another strike and I finally saw it, the small sphere above the palms of his hands, absorbing the light. Each time the mace approached, they extended into a shield that blocked the attack.
The beast punched back with a fist, pushed my mistress out of reach and in that moment of respite let the spheres vanish, replaced by its own black blood dripping fast.
Forming two wooden handles and from liquid bone two axe blades like metal.
It bellowed, charged the human and struck the barrier with full force. The weapons shattered! It didn't stop, dodged the mace and with new ones, striked again. Each time shaking the ground, stronger and faster until my mistress only defended.
It kept attacking, breaking weapons and forming new ones until the barrier fractured.
The young lady looked at the crack with wide eyes.
The axes crossed, one last cut and the spell collapsed, exposing the human. Exposing the beast! It was wide open, the mace hitting its belly and going white. A burst of holy fire engulfed half of the valley.
No way the minotaur withstood that! It still faced my mistress!
Its belly was gone, the chest was gone! An arm as well and half of its face, only the bones remained where it stood and the beast only grinned mad.
Punched my mistress in the face with its remaining hand and the fist crackled with dark, lightless energy.
The explosion shook the entire city.
"Mistress!" I yelled.
I knew better than to doubt a human. They were indomitable. That probably not even scratched her and yet, how could I not worry?
The towers nearby vascillated, then one crumbled on itself, forcing the beasts from all sides to flee that hill. Smoke and dust fell on the valley, taking time to settle.
The minotaur emerged first. It was regenerating. runes coming back first, then the muscles underneath, then the fur. Already almost back in one piece.
My mistress second. Her black hair flowing mad. Her face bruised. Smiling.
She hit back, bypassing the crackling sphere to tear off the beast's shoulder. It roared and hit in turn, making her spit blood. And hit, and hit, and hit, weakening each other, heaving, swinging fast. Both of them unable to block the other's attack.
My mistress was taking the worst of this exchange. While the minotaur's runes fizzled, enough reminded and she had started to wobble, her whole body bruised, gashes on her arms and chest.
One more punch and she went flying, rolled on the wet rock and pulverized pavings.
The beast bellowed, enraged, approached and, with a fist crackling with power...
... Yeah no, I was not going to stand by.
I had plunged in turn, just in time to raise a barrier and stone wall that both broke before me. The fist hit me with the force of a battering ram. It was okay. Most of my clay body fractured but it was okay. Only fell in pain.
"Kaele!" My mistress screamed.
"I'm fine!"
I certainly wasn't. But who cared? My mistress didn't need me. She had enough power to win this battle on a whim. I had broken her order, I was insulting her and I only thought of protecting the savior of this realm.
The minotaur pulled another fist, wide and large, crashed it on me and it had left all the time in the universe to cast a new protection. Still, it hurt. I felt my legs crack again and press into the ground and it was fine. So fine.
"You are not letting a finger on my mistress!" I cried. "Not as long as I stand!"
Not much of me was standing but still, I gathered what magic I could, cast a new circle just in time to endure the next punch. It broke half of me, including my mask and half of my head.
And while agonizing against this overwhelming enemy, the oddest fear came to me: my mistress could not see my face.
So I faced the next hit head-on and found myself lying on the floor, pretty much in pieces. Barely sensing anything. It was fine. I had bought time, that was the least I could do.
"Kaele, why..." Her trembling, exasperated voice reached me. She walked past me to face the beast. "I was just testing my skills."
Yeah, figures.
"And one of them is..." she rose her hand, turned two fingers up, "... mass heal!"