Chương 138: Chapter 25: The Druid and the Knight- Part III

The Stoneclaw lowers its head, but neither of us waits for it to charge. Garrick moves first, stepping toward the creature with the Aurablade, he had activated, still sheathed while I angle away from him, forcing the Stoneclaw to divide its attention between us. Its eyes settle on Garrick almost immediately, and the creature shifts its weight onto its forelegs as it prepares to close the distance.

I feel the living growth around us through my mana and instead of reaching for the ground, I reach for all of them at once. Garrick draws the Aurablade. Golden light spills along the blade just as the Stoneclaw charges. I send a thick vine snapping across its path, but the creature lowers its shoulder and tears through it without breaking stride. Garrick waits until the last possible moment before moving, his mana surging through his legs as he slips sideways beneath the first sweep of its foreleg.

The claws cut through the air beside him, and he uses the momentum of his movement to come around the creature's flank, bringing the Aurablade across its ribs. The blade bites. The Stoneclaw twists before he can follow through, turning its body so the mineral growth beneath its fur catches the rest of the strike.

The impact cracks one of the darker plates along its side, but Garrick has already moved beyond the creature's reach, and I use the moment to pull a thick vine from the ground and send it around the cracked section of armor. Rather than trying to restrain the bear, I tighten the vine against the damaged plate and pull. The Stoneclaw jerks toward me as its armor shifts. Garrick sees it and changes direction. He comes in from the opposite side, but the Stoneclaw has learned enough to understand what is happening.

It tears the vine away with a violent twist and swings its rear half toward Garrick, using its weight to turn the movement into a strike. Garrick plants one foot, reinforces his legs and core, and jumps just as the creature's hindquarters sweep through the space where he had been. He lands on the fallen trunk behind it. The wood bends beneath his weight as he pushes off.

Mana drives through his legs, carrying him upward as he comes around the creature's shoulder, and the Aurablade cuts down toward the exposed joint beneath its foreleg. The Stoneclaw catches the movement at the last moment and pulls the limb inward, but the blade still opens a deep cut along the outside of the leg. The creature roars and its forepaw comes down. Garrick twists in the air, but the claws catch the edge of his cloak and tear through the fabric before he lands hard on one knee.

I am already moving toward the Stoneclaw. I reach into the nearest trunk and feel the old wood answer my mana. One of its lower branches is thick enough to matter, heavy enough that the Stoneclaw cannot simply ignore it, and I push through the weakened fibers until the branch gives way. It crashes down toward the creature, forcing it to turn its head and raise its foreleg to protect itself. Garrick rises beneath that movement. The Aurablade flashes upward.

It strikes the underside of the raised foreleg, cutting through the softer flesh where the mineral growth is thinnest. The Stoneclaw recoils, and this time it does not pursue Garrick. Instead, it turns toward me. Its eyes settle on mine. I understand the change too late. It has decided that I am the easier target. The creature charges. I retreat between the trees, gripping my staff in both hands as I push mana through the roots beneath my feet.

The Stoneclaw comes through the undergrowth after me, tearing branches aside with its shoulders. I reach for one of the vines hanging from above and pull myself sideways just as the creature crashes through the space where I had been. Its claws tear through the trunk behind me and the tree shudders. I land hard, roll beneath another sweeping paw, and come up with my staff already moving.

I drive the reinforced end into the creature's wounded foreleg, not expecting to injure it, but using the impact to redirect its weight away from me. The Stoneclaw stumbles half a step. Garrick arrives before it can recover. He strikes from behind. The Aurablade cuts across the wounded shoulder, splitting another section of mineral growth and opening the wound beneath it. The Stoneclaw turns with a roar, but Garrick is already gone, his reinforced legs carrying him beyond the reach of its claws.

It charges after him, and I run with them rather than remaining behind, because I finally understand that trying to control the entire fight from a distance is only making the pattern easier for the creature to read. Garrick draws it toward the trees and I follow. The Stoneclaw lunges. Garrick plants one foot against the trunk of a tree and reinforces his legs so heavily that the bark cracks beneath his boot as he pushes himself sideways.

The creature passes beneath him, and I reach into the vines growing across the same trunk, pulling them loose as Garrick lands behind the bear. The vines wrap around the Stoneclaw's wounded foreleg. This time, I do not try to stop it. I pull the vines in the opposite direction from Garrick's attack. The creature's attention shifts toward me. Garrick moves. The Aurablade cuts into the exposed shoulder.

The Stoneclaw screams and tears itself free, snapping the vines and turning on Garrick with enough speed that I barely have time to react. Its forepaw comes across his body, and Garrick brings his sword arm up while reinforcing the entire limb. The impact still throws him sideways. He crashes into the trunk of a tree, and the Stoneclaw follows before he has time to regain his footing, but I step between them and bring my staff up just as the creature reaches me.

The descending foreleg crashes against the shaft, and the force drives me backward, my boots cutting through the soil as I struggle to keep the staff between us while the impact sends the impact through my arms. I cannot hold it for long, so I twist the staff at the moment the paw begins to slide past, using the creature's own momentum to turn its shoulder away from me before reaching with my free hand for the thick vines climbing the nearby trunk.

The vines tighten around the Stoneclaw's neck and shoulder as I pull, not with enough force to choke it but enough to drag its head away and expose the side of its neck, and Garrick comes out from behind the tree the instant the opening appears. His Aurablade sweeps into the exposed flesh, cutting deeply before the Stoneclaw tears itself free, snapping the vines as it whips its head toward him with a furious roar.

Garrick retreats under the creature's next movement, blood running down the side of its neck as the Stoneclaw turns after him, but before it can pursue, it plants both forepaws into the ground and drives its weight downward. I feel the change through the soil before it reaches us, and I know what is coming.

"Tremor!" I drive my staff into the soil and send my mana through the roots beneath me, anchoring myself to the earth as the shock erupts through the clearing. The ground jumps violently, branches shake overhead, and several loose stones roll through the grass. Garrick drops his weight and reinforces his legs and core, but the tremor still forces him back several steps.

The Stoneclaw uses those steps to close the distance before Garrick can fully recover, accelerating into another charge that leaves me no time to reach for the ground beneath it, so I abandon the soil and reach instead for the nearest tree. Its trunk is thick, old and deeply rooted, and I send my mana through the living wood until the roots strain beneath the soil, then pull one of the heavy lateral branches sideways just as the creature bears down on Garrick.

The branch swings across its path and the Stoneclaw crashes into it with enough force to snap the wood apart, but the impact turns its charge just enough for Garrick to slip around its side, his reinforced legs carrying him clear of the snapping branches as the Aurablade sweeps across the creature's rear leg. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The blade bites deeply enough to buckle the limb, and the Stoneclaw drops heavily onto one side before catching itself with its forelegs. Garrick does not press the attack because the creature is already watching him, its head turning to track the sword rather than the wounded leg, and instead he gives ground deliberately.

The Stoneclaw follows, dragging its injured limb as it tries to bring its weight back onto all four paws, and that is when I move in from the opposite side, driving the end of my staff into the wounded shoulder before it can turn fully toward me. The Stoneclaw jerks toward the impact, exposing the opposite side of its neck, and Garrick immediately cuts into it with the Aurablade before the creature can recover.

It recoils from the strike and swings toward me, forcing me to retreat through the grass, but Garrick moves into the space I leave behind and keeps the Stoneclaw from following me. The creature turns back toward him, and I circle around again, closing the distance as he withdraws, until the two of us are moving almost continuously through the clearing without either of us needing to signal the other.

When the Stoneclaw turns toward Garrick, I move in behind it; when it turns toward me, he takes the space I have abandoned, and neither of us is waiting for the other to create an opening anymore because the movement itself has become the opening. The realization settles over me as naturally as my next breath. I do not need to keep searching for the perfect moment to help Garrick, and he no longer needs to wait for me to shape the battlefield before he attacks.

We are simply responding to what the creature gives us, each movement forcing another movement in return, until the Stoneclaw finally stops trying to chase either of us and plants its feet beneath itself. Its body lowers as Earth mana floods through its remaining mineral plates, darkening them beneath the fur while the muscles beneath its hide tighten around the reinforced frame of its body.

Its breathing slows despite the blood running from its wounds, and the pressure building around it makes the hairs along my arms rise. Garrick looks toward me, his Aurablade held low at his side, and I recognize the same understanding in his expression that has settled into my own. The Stoneclaw is not preparing to defend itself. It is preparing to end this. Before either of us can move, it launches forward. Garrick moves first, drawing its attention while I circle wide.

The creature follows him, accelerating faster than its wounded leg should allow, and Garrick waits until it is almost upon him before throwing himself sideways. The Stoneclaw changes direction in the middle of the charge, something I have not seen it do before, and its foreleg catches Garrick across the side.

Garrick's reinforced body absorbs part of the impact, but the Stoneclaw is too strong for even his mana to take the whole force, and the blow sends him crashing to the ground where he rolls through the grass before coming to a stop. The Stoneclaw turns after him, already shifting its weight forward to follow, but I step into its path and pour what remains of my Nature mana into the living growth around us.

Vines tear across the ground toward its wounded legs while roots tighten beneath the soil and a heavy branch bends down across its path, all of them converging on the creature at once. The Stoneclaw tears through the vines and snaps the roots beneath its weight, then drives through the bent branch hard enough to splinter it, but each obstruction takes something from its momentum, and by the time it reaches Garrick, he has managed to push himself back onto his feet.

His breathing is rough, and blood runs from a cut along his side where the claws caught him, yet his grip on the Aurablade remains steady as he looks across the clearing toward me. I meet his eyes, then turn toward the Stoneclaw, and the way it favors one side tells me that we have reached the point where neither of us can afford another mistake. There is only one chance left, and this time I move before the creature can choose its target.

I step toward it, drawing its attention away from Garrick, and the Stoneclaw turns to face me with its wounded foreleg raised. I plant my staff against the ground and twist aside as the paw crashes down, the claws tearing through my cloak as I slip beneath the strike, while my mana reaches through the vines beneath the creature's wounded leg and pulls them tight around the limb.

The Stoneclaw tries to lift the leg immediately, but the roots have found enough purchase to hold it for the briefest moment, and that is all Garrick needs. He comes across the clearing with his reinforced legs driving every step forward, the Aurablade brightening in his hands as the distance disappears between them.

The Stoneclaw tears one leg free before he reaches it, but the other remains caught long enough for Garrick to close in from the exposed side, and he brings the Aurablade through the weakened mineral growth along its shoulder. The cracked armor finally gives way beneath the blade, opening the wound Garrick has been working toward throughout the fight, and the Stoneclaw twists violently in an attempt to tear itself away. Garrick does not resist the movement.

He lets the creature's turn carry him around its side, releasing the strike as he moves so that the Stoneclaw's own momentum pulls him beyond the reach of its claws. The movement exposes its neck, and I see Garrick's eyes settle on it at the same instant that the Stoneclaw sees him. I tighten the remaining vines around its rear leg, not trying to hold the creature completely but delaying the turn just enough to keep its body from following its head.

The Stoneclaw tears against the restraint, Earth mana surging through its limbs as it tries to free itself, but Garrick is already moving again. He drives forward with his reinforced legs, the Aurablade rising as the creature finally wrenches one rear leg free and begins turning toward him. Its remaining foreleg comes up to strike, but Garrick steps inside the arc rather than away from it, allowing the claws to pass behind his shoulder as he turns his entire body into the final swing.

The Aurablade cuts through the exposed neck. The blade passes cleanly through flesh and bone, and the Stoneclaw's head falls into the grass while its body remains upright for a brief moment, its momentum carrying it another half-step before the strength leaves its legs. It collapses heavily onto its side, sending a dull shudder through the ground that fades almost as quickly as it comes. The clearing falls silent.

I remain where I am, my staff still pressed against the soil, listening through the roots for any movement that does not come. Garrick stands several paces away with the Aurablade lowered, his chest rising and falling heavily as the golden light fades from the weapon. For several breaths, neither of us speaks. Then Garrick looks at the Stoneclaw.

"That was unpleasant." I look at him.

"You got hit."

"So did you."

"I got hit less." He considers that for a moment, then gives a tired nod.

"Fair." I finally pull my staff from the earth, the motion making the ache in my arms more noticeable now that the fight is over, and glance back toward the Stoneclaw. Its body lies motionless in the trampled grass, surrounded by the broken vines, splintered branches and scattered pieces of mineral growth that mark the struggle. The clearing is a mess around us. Broken branches hang from the trees, vines lie severed across the grass, and the ground bears the marks of the creature's claws and Tremors.

The Stoneclaw's blood darkens the soil beneath its body, while fragments of mineral armor are scattered among the leaves. Garrick wipes the blade clean before sheathing it. I look at the fallen creature for a long moment. It had been stronger than either of us expected. Faster too. Every time we thought we had learned its pattern, it had found another way to challenge ours, and if we had tried to fight it alone, I am not sure either of us would still be standing. Garrick walks over and stops beside me.

"We learned something." I glance at him, "What?" He looks toward the ruined clearing, "We don't have to fight the same way." I consider that. Then I look at the vines hanging from the trees, the broken branches, the blood on the grass and the blade at his side.

"No." I shake my head, "We don't." A quiet voice comes from beyond the trees, "Good." I turn. Elyrion steps into the clearing, his expression as composed as it was when the fight began. His eyes move over the Stoneclaw, then across the damage surrounding it before settling on Garrick and me.

"You finally stopped trying to fight as two separate people." Garrick looks at him, "We were doing all right." Elyrion's gaze shifts toward the broken tree beside us, "You destroyed part of the forest." Garrick glances at me. I look at the snapped branches, "That was mostly him." I turn toward Garrick. He gives me a completely innocent look, "You pulled the vines."

"And you broke the tree."

"It was already broken."

"It wasn't." Elyrion watches us for a moment. Then, very faintly, the corner of his mouth moves.

"Come. We should return before you destroy anything else." Garrick looks toward the Stoneclaw one last time before following him. I remain for another moment. The creature lies quietly beneath the trees, its amber eyes dark now, its body finally still after a battle that demanded everything we had. I place one hand against the trunk beside me and let my mana touch the living wood, feeling the damaged tree, slowly settle back into itself. Then I turn away.

Garrick is already walking ahead with Elyrion, and I follow them into the trees. The fight is over. But as I walk beside the knight, I find myself thinking less about the Stoneclaw we killed and more about the way we fought it. Not druid and knight. Not two fighters sharing the same battlefield. Something closer. Something neither of us had known how to name when we entered the clearing. And for the first time, I begin to wonder what we might become if we learn how to do it again.