Our Second World book three: Personal Truth

Chapter 21:Nephinae

"Marylyn that's—"

"Don't look back. We can't fight it. Just run!" Marylyn ordered.

I swallowed the words I was going to say and nodded. She was right. We can't fight that. Our only hope of surviving is getting away.

"Can we use a spell to slow it down?" Marylyn asked, turning another corner.

I shook my head," this part of the ruins seems to be blocking my magic. I can't use any of my spells."

"Well that's just great," she groaned.

"Maybe...maybe if we get higher I can—"

"There's no time."

"Then what should—" I stopped mid sentence as an odd smell tickled my nose. We were coming up on another turn. This time, one hall led left and the other went right. The smell was getting stronger and I realized what it was," this way." As Marylyn was about to go right, I pulled her down the left path instead.

The short hallway led to a large room and, as I hopped it would, it had a shallow pool of crystal clear water in the middle. When I ran past I waved my hand over the pool. The water rose up and shot towards the hallway we'd come from. Freezing solid in the opening to block it with a thick wall of ice.

"I thought you said you couldn't use your magic," Marylyn said as we ran down the next hallway.

"I manipulated the water by forcing mana into it. The ice won't hold for long, but it should buy us some time," the words had barely left my mouth when a loud crash sounded from the room behind us,"...or not."

"If we find more water, can you use it?" Marylyn asked.

"Yes, but I doubt we'll find any more down here."

"If there's a chance, we have to try."

After a short time, the hallway ended in another big rooms

"Look! Over there!" I looked over to where Marylyn was pointing to see a large stone staircase spiraling upward. The steps looked worn out, and some of them were broken.

The two of us ran over and quickly started scaling the stairs. We were almost half way up when the monster crashed into the room.

It was smaller than a dragon, but still big for a monster. It's gleaming red eyes stared us down, and the black monster lunged toward the stairs. When it landed on the bottom steps I could feel the entire staircase shake. The old stone wasn't strong enough to hold the creature; the stairs crumbled under the weight.

As we neared the top of the stairs I felt the whole thing shake again. This time, however, it also started to tip.

"Jump!" Marylyn shouted, leaping for the ledge to the next floor.

I jumped too late and missed the platform, but Marylyn grabbed my hand. She pulled me up as the monster and the stairs crashed down to the floor.

"Thanks for the save."

"Let's keep going. That thing won't stay down for long."

I nodded and we continued. It wasn't long before I heard a crash from behind us. I looked to see the black wyvern clawing it's way onto the ledge with the help of its wings.

"Oh no!"

"What?" I turned to see the next room.

"It's a dead end!" Marylyn cried in dismay," those rocks are blocking the way up."

I looked to see that the stairs leading to the next floor were completely broken. Laying in a heap of boulders and stones on the floor. Without them, the next floor was too high for us to reach. We were trapped.

"What now?"

"There's nothing we can do," Marylyn said bitterly," We're out of options now."

"We still have one option."

"No—no! We can't beat an ancient black wyvern. It's impossible!"

"Well it's better than waiting for it to kill us!" I spat," it doesn't matter if you're ready to give up, because I'm not!"

There was a short silence, and I heard Marylyn chuckle," y'know, it's funny; I'm supposed to be the older one, yet here I am, cowering in the corner while you're prepared to fight."

"What are you talking about?"

"I made a promise to protect my little sis, so if fighting here means keeping that promise then I suppose I've got no other choice," a small smile crept onto her face as she pulled out both her daggers," let's kill us a monster."

I nodded," my magic is still being blocked for the most part, but I should be able to cast some spells now that we're higher up."

"Then we have a chance."

"Yeah."

As the thundering footsteps of the wyvern drew closer, I held out my hand and made a scimitar with mana.

"Here it comes."

In a moment, the black wyvern burst into the room with an earsplitting roar. Marylyn and I jumped to the side as the beast shot a fireball at us. With one of us on each side, the wyvern was forced to choose which one of us to attack. It swiped a clawed foot at me and whipped its tail at Marylyn. The two of us dodged. Though it was closer to a near Miss for me. I jumped back to avoid the attack, but lost my footing as I tripped over a rock. When I hit the floor pain exploded in my left shoulder and my weapon flew out of my hand before disappearing.

"Nephinae!"

"I'm ok!" I called, rolling to my feet to avoid another attack and put some distance between myself and the wyvern.

Marylyn tried to get close while the wyverns attention was on me, but the black beast forced her back with a swing of its tail.

"It's trying to keep us separate!" I realized as it focused on me again," but why?"

Distracted by my thoughts, I didn't see the attack until it was too late. The wyverns tail slammed into my chest. Sending me flying across the room.

I hit the wall with force enough to make my head spin and my vision went blurry; I could taste blood in my mouth. As the edges of my vision started going black, I caught a glimpse of something red slam into the wyvern.

As I felt my consciousness fading, a comforting warmth spread through my body and the pain melted away. Filled with more energy, I opened my eyes. Though blurry, I could see the face of a blonde woman with blue eyes staring at me. I blinked to clear my vision to find Graces green eyes staring at me. Her face full of worry.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"I am now. What happened to the monster?" Sitting up, I saw that the room was empty, and Artemis was sitting by Marylyn on the other side.

"Harens fighting it," grace pointed in the direction of the other room.

"Alone?" Marylyn exclaimed.

"What's wrong?"

"This is bad! That monsters not a normal ancient wyvern. It's stronger than a dragon!" Marylyn explained," even if it's Haren fighting, that monster won't go down easy."

My eyes widened," it was playing with us," I muttered," If it goes all out against Haren, he won't stand a chance!"

"We have to help him." Marylyn stood up, but Artemis caught her arm.

"The three of us can't use magic down here and your weapons did nothing against that...that thing. What help are you suggesting we give him?" Artemis spat," if anything, we'll just get in the way."

"I won't leave him!" Marylyn challenged.

"You'll get yourself killed!"

"I know that!" Marylyn dropped to her knees, tears falling down her face," I know but... I can't loose him."

"Your dads strong. He'll win because you're waiting for him," Artemis said.