“Yeah, that was a pretty good job, wasn’t it?” Teryn said, feeling pretty full of himself. All his life he had dreamt of real combat, but this was his first time with a real opponent. “I never imagined real combat to be like that, but I think I got the hang of it pretty quick.”
Talon let out a grim chuckle. “Okay, hero,” he said, patting him on the back again. “But we still haven’t found Valeria. We better keep going if you want to rescue her.”
Teryn nodded sheepishly and started walking. Talon ran past him and punched him on the arm to goad him forward. He smiled again and ran after him. The two turned it into a bit of a game, passing each other while running along in pursuit of Valeria’s captors.
They ran quite a ways further into the woods before coming across more of the ant-creatures. This time, there were seven of the strange bugs blocking their path forward. These bugs seemed smarter than the ones before, or at least more prepared. The bugs spread out in a circular pattern. Soon, they had the two rescuers completely surrounded.
“Back to back!” Talon shouted at Teryn, motioning for him to take a defensive position behind him.
Teryn simply nodded, not really understanding but trying to do as he was told.
“And this time, try to be useful!”
He balked at the insult and then jumped into position. The two moved slowly while staying in contact with one another, watching for the bugs to make their move. Teryn saw one of the purple creatures salivate, and it disgusted him. A few of the others made some quick jabs at him to fake him out, making him wince, but he glanced at Talon and saw the big man hadn’t moved yet, so he stood firm, waiting for the things to make the first move.
And move they did.
Two of the creatures on the right side ran at Teryn and made a few wild swipes with their strange weapons. Teryn, aided by his magic, quickly dodged the blows, setting the two bugs off-balance.
Behind him, he heard Talon howl, face flushed with anger as one of the bugs’ blades sliced through his thigh.
Teryn spun to try and aid Talon, but the big man shushed him angrily. “I’ve got this!” he spat. “Go kill your own bugs.”
He turned back around and faced the bugs near him, intent on doing his part to help out. He conjured a magilance, which struck one of the bugs in the mandible, setting it ablaze from the outside in and slamming it into a nearby tree. The other bug near him inched backward at that, but the two bugs to either side of it slammed into it, forcing it back toward Teryn.
The bug lunged forward, quick as lightning, hacking and slicing. He felt a surge of pain shoot up his arm as something warm welled along his forearm. He glanced at the wound and noticed a two-inch gash in his tender skin. Steam rose from the wound as it hissed and turned black almost instantly.
He held onto the arm with his other hand to nurse it and staggered back a bit. He tried to bite back the pain and concentrate, but the pain threatened to knock him unconscious. Teryn retreated slightly and tried to cast a spell to heal the wound, but it resisted his attempts.
Another bug lurched forward and he was forced to duck to avoid his head getting skewered in a similar fashion to his arm.
He lashed out at the bugs nearest to him with the first magical spell that came to his mind – a lightning bolt. The skies were clear, but the force and desperation in his mind fed into the spell, causing lightning to erupt from the sky and strike the ant-warrior anyway, charring its body beyond recognition.
Teryn took a quick breath and tried again to cast a fixhurt spell on himself to seal his wound. It worked slightly, dulling the pain, though a big, hissing scar still remained.
The two healthy ant-warriors on his side charged at him, but he dodged out of the way at the last minute, and the ant-warriors crashed into each other instead, skulls cracking from the pressure.
While the ants were still dazed from the impact, Teryn looked over at Talon, who was standing over a small pile of charred ant remains, a big grin on his face.
“See?” the big man said. “I told you I had it.”
Talon spun around then and used his momentum to kick at one of the beast’s heads while Teryn fired another gustblast into the other one. The resulting carnage cracked both of the ant-warriors’ shells wide open as bug guts flew everywhere and the two creatures slunk to the ground.
There was only bug left now – the one with the shattered eye. It tried to make a pathetic attempt to escape back to the east and run for cover. Teryn snickered. The poor thing couldn’t even run straight enough to avoid running into a tree.
He gave the creature a few seconds of miserable existence before sending a fireball its direction. The fireball engulfed the thing as it ran, and some of the ashes kept moving even after the ant-warrior had died from the burns.
Talon and Teryn couldn't help but laugh at the last ant-warrior's attempt to escape. Then, they took a look around them and congratulated themselves at the fine havoc they had created.
“Slap me a five-finger chauncey launcey, my good friend,” Teryn said as he held out his hand, palm up. “That was fun!”
“Dimgate yeah, it was!” Talon exclaimed, slapping Teryn’s outstretched hand in some sort of victory ritual. “We sure taught them a thing or two.”
Teryn took a few deep breaths and looked at his arm, which was still throbbing, black scar glistening in the sunlight. He rubbed his arm to ease the pain and winced a bit, hoping those weapons weren’t poisonous.
He looked over at Talon, who had suffered a wound of
