“How’s that thing not dead?” Kegohr growled.
“I guess they’re tougher than they look,” I replied as I drove another one back with a swipe of my sword.
I lunged at one of the creatures and caught its shoulder with the tip of my blade. Blood ran down its arm, but it kept moving, and one of its companions leaped forward so that I had to pull back or see my arm torn to shreds. I allowed the lamprey to get a little closer and struck with a backhanded slash. Its head toppled from its shoulders, and blood sprayed from its severed neck.
Fire didn’t seem to have much of an effect, so I summoned the power of wood. It ran through my body, a fresh flow of life with its own pulse running parallel to the blood in my veins. I leaped over a dead monster before I sent a volley of Stinging Palm thorns into a pack of six lampreys. Black blood sprayed as the projectiles slammed into them. The pack reduced to two, and the final pair washed the Sundered Heart in their entrails as I gutted them.
I needed some way of disabling multiple lampreys at once, and my mind settled on an idea I’d been cooking up for the past week. Kegohr and Vesma had their backs turned, so they wouldn’t be affected by my technique. The lampreys, hungry for my blood, would receive the full force of it. I drew the power of fire through me, channeled it into my hand, and unleashed a blast of Untamed Torch. This time, I didn’t try to focus the flames into a concentrated, destructive force. Instead, I let them flow wide in a brief flash of light a split second after I’d closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I could still see, but the lampreys were blinded. They screeched in confusion as they flailed around. I took a step forward and swept the legs out from under a lamprey. Before it could jump to its feet, I stabbed it through the gills, and blood sprayed up along my blade as the creature died.
“Surely this is the end?” Nydarth groaned. “My blade is defiled by these cretins.”
“Drink up,” I said as I carved through the blinded pack.
I joined Kegohr and Vesma in a tight formation. We continued hewing into the monsters until scaled corpses littered the ground. Every step flooded my boots with monster blood. Every time I thought I’d gained an advantage, more lampreys replaced the ones we’d killed. If one was felled, another three would leap into the clearing.
I summoned the cold, hard power of ash, the power born of wood and fire intertwined. I held out a hand toward the nearest lamprey, and an Ash Cloud formed around it. The gills on its back strained as it tried to draw breath in the choking cloud. It staggered back as its face twisted in agony. I ended its suffering with a quick slash.
I summoned an Ash Cloud around another lamprey, and it sank to its knees as the mist around it went thick with black particles. A third cloud slowed the next lamprey as it rushed at me, claws stretched wide.
Kegohr and Vesma closed in together on one of the choking lampreys. Vesma slashed at it with her spear, but the blade slid off the thick, scaled hide. A blow from Kegohr’s mace knocked the creature flat on its face, and Vesma went in again. This time, she drove her spear point straight into the gills. There was a wet sound as the blade slid through a gap between the scales and into the lamprey’s chest. The creature writhed one last time and went still.
As my friends moved on to the next choking lamprey, I turned as another of the beasts sprang forward. It leaped into the air like some kind of oversized treefrog, and I quickly summoned a Plank Pillar. It crashed into the wooden wall, and I ended its life with a quick thrust.
I opened the channels within me again and directed Vigor down through my feet and then up again as I followed the pattern of Plank Pillar technique. A cluster of planks burst from the ground in the middle of the lampreys, dividing the pack in two. As they scrambled to reorganize, I called forth two more pillars until the pack was scattered around the clearing.
Something collided with my back and almost knocked me to the ground. Slimy arms reached around my neck and started choking me while spindly legs wrapped around my waist. I reached around behind my head and pressed my hand against the creature’s shoulder, then summoned the power of wood once more. I let fly with a spray of thorns from the palm of my hand. The thorns hit the lamprey at point-blank range, and some pierced its hide, though others glanced off the scaly skin. The creature shrieked, released me, and dropped to the ground. I drove my sword into its stomach and made a satisfying twist.
“They’re trying to escape!” Vesma yelled as the survivors attempted to flee the corpse-riddled clearing.
“Should we let them go?” Kegohr asked as he finished braining an injured lamprey.
“No,” I said. “They could come and attack us later.”
I lowered my hand and pushed the power of wood down through my feet. From there, it arced through the ground and burst up in a series of Plank Pillars that walled the lampreys in on three sides. I approached on the fourth.
Stinging Palm wouldn’t penetrate their scales at anything less than point-blank range, so I went for the lampreys with my sword. I stabbed at one of them, but it flung itself back as the other slashed at my arm with its claws. I
