12 Days of Fiction, Day Ten: It’s Only a Game

“Cover me!” Aynah said as she sprinted along the stone bridge over the fiery chasm. She raised her shield to intercept an incoming arrow, her sword ready in her other hand.

She heard the arrows from Glarindel’s bow swooshing by her head.She didn’t flinch: the elf never missed. Aynah saw the enemy archer bend over and fall while she got ready to charge. She crashed against the rest of the enemy forces as Glarindel’s second volley downed another orc.

Singing in her hand, Stormriser claimed her own reward in enemy souls. Aynah knew that, powerful as the Blade of Doom was, it was tainting her own soul at the same time. But that was something to worry about later, and not in the middle of a battle.

Aynah dodged under a serrated blade and killed the orc wielding it with her own. Following the same movement, she hit a second one who stumbled back, and then parried another blade with her shield. Aynah was seasoned enough to notice that she was losing ground, the force from her charge spent.

But she didn’t even stop to worry, because already Grimnga was amidst the orcs, having glided down from her eagle. The damned dwarfess was a sight to behold, her mechanical wings already contracted at her back, her axe swinging wildly around her as she sang the war songs of her race. Aynah also felt more than saw Windrider, Grimnga’s eagle, swoop down and pick up a particularly nasty-looking orc.

Aynah felt a sting on her side. Immediately she heard a muffled thud, and the orc that had injured her dropped dead, an elf arrow between his crooked eyes. The damned brute had managed to penetrate her armour. She judged it to be superficial enough not to worry about the blood loss, but she reckoned she’d have an ugly scar and a painful bruise.

The last two orcs ran away. That was odd: orcs never ran away. One fell with an arrow between his shoulder blades.

And Aynah saw why they had ran away.

“A manticore!” Grimnga said. The dwarfess was covered in blood; it was impossible to know whether any was hers. She holstered her axe, extended her wings and donned her goggles; she patted herself and, satisfied, pulled a hidden lever, and took off in a puff of smoke, towards Windrider who was already circling the scene.

Glarindel was at her side. That was something Aynah didn’t like about the elf: he was even more silent than usual for his race.

“That’s why the last two orcs ran away,” he said. The creature roared as it charged down, its tail sending poisonous thorns towards them. Aynah raised her shield, and Glarindel shot twice while he sidestepped to dodge the incoming missiles. He hit the beast twice, making it roar even louder.

The manticore landed, its coriaceous wings raising a cloud of dust. Its scorpion tail rained more thorns; Aynah heard them thud against her shield. She backed up slowly; a sword and shield was not the best combination to defeat a manticore. At least the creature had landed, instead of staying afloat and making running attacks from the sky.

The sky. Of course.

Windrider appeared out of nowhere, her talons ripping huge gashes on the manticore’s hide. The beast roared and beat its wings, intent on pursuing the eagle, but it was not to be. Having dropped from her eagle, Grimnga dived and threw a metallic ball at the manticore, as she unfolded her wings and let the gust of wind carry her. The ball touched the manticore…

… and exploded in a burst of flames that engulfed the beast.

Grimnga landed elegantly, folding her wings in a single motion.

“And that’s another evil creature that we can write off,” she said smugly.

A terrific screech filled them with dread.

“A dragon? Now?” Aynah said.

***

“C’mon, Alan, be real!”

“Yes, our characters aren’t strong enough. A manticore was even a bit too strong, but Jean got lucky with those dice rolls.”

“Yeah, Alan. This has been fun so far, but a dragon will kill us all!”

“Hey guys, trust me, okay? I know what I’m doing. I got the new supplement, it’s going to be alright.”