I acted on instinct as I slammed my hands onto the wall and just screamed. The words themselves sounded like a roaring fire rather than something that should be spoken by a person. In response, the outside part of the wall twisted and hissed as it turned an angry orange from the heat.

Then, a gout of molten rock erupted outwards and upwards before it spread across the wall. It engulfed the attackers, then curved over to protect those nearby. With enough time, I could have saved more people, but with the arrows already falling, it was the best I could do.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see other beast-kin dive for cover from the arrows. The molten shield was preventing further egress over this part of the wall, for now. Without a moment of hesitation, I hurried towards the nearest unprotected part of the wall. If the attackers got a foothold now, we were in trouble.

As I exited the cover, I could see several beast-kin gritting their teeth as they removed arrows from various parts of their bodies. A human would have gone into shock from that. However, beast-kin were hardy folk and, while most were severely injured, they were still alive and could continue to fight after a bit of healing.

Honestly, most of them seemed angry more than anything. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see another volley incoming. However, this one never hit. There was a flash of light from below, as the runes flared back to life and the volley was stopped short. I wasn’t a runesmith by any stretch of the word, but I knew that was too fast. Someone must have pumped mana into the runes to recharge them faster.

With the immediate danger taken care of, I dismissed the molten wall, sending it pouring down on the attackers below, so I could take stock of the situation. Just then, there were several cries of panic, followed by a gust of wind strong enough to push me up against the wall and send the attackers flying from the ladders. Then, from the sky, descended a cone of greenish-yellow flames. Dragon’s breath. Up above, Sarirrva was circling the encampment, sending blasts of flame down on the assailants.

That should change the odds in our favor, just a little. I remembered Sarirrva as imposing when I met her in her lair, but it was another thing to see her might on full display like this. She was too high for arrows to reach her with any effect, and she could shrug off most magic. Meanwhile, she was raining fire down with no hesitation, incinerating dozens of people with every attack.

A purple bolt of energy shot up and hit Sarirrva, causing a pained roar from her as she staggered and barely kept herself airborne. Even from this distance, I could see the energy arcing through her body. She shook herself and looked downwards, searching for her assailant. Most magic was a no-go against dragons. The fact she even felt that meant it was likely Void Magic. It could be a spell specifically designed to be used against dragons, but I found that unlikely. Uncle would know better than I.

I didn’t have time to keep musing about it either, as the attackers were making their weight of numbers felt. More than one spot on the wall was already in a full-blown battle as they got a foothold on top of the wall itself. To make matters worse, the areas that my fire used to protect now received new ladders that refused to burn.

A heavily armored figure clambered up atop the wall on the ladder closest to me. As soon as he was within range, I slammed Injury into his face, causing a pained groan from within as the gauntlet’s magic flash froze the helmet. Followed by a muffled scream as the cold became unbearable.

I then delivered an open palm strike in the chest, sending the figure flying off the wall and back into the throng below. However, I didn’t have time to celebrate, as more and more attackers were now pouring onto the walls. I directed my right hand towards them. I let out a blast of fire with Insult, burning several and stemming the bleeding as more beast-kin rushed from below to help reinforce.

Then there was an angry bellow from behind me and a rush of wind and two of the nearest attackers that escaped the flames staggered back. One was missing an arm, while the one to the right of him staggered back another two steps, before they fall over, sliced in half right under the rib cage.

“Get yerself away MA DAUGHTER YE DURNED PIECES OF SANDSTONE!” Dad rushed past me and cut the attackers to mincemeat as he went, followed by more Duergar to reinforce the wall itself. The sheer brutality by which they went to work on the attackers was a sight to see. Their axes and swords were going to work with far more finesse and skill than what the beast-kin could do. Not that surprising, since the Beast-kin were not trained soldiers but fought only when needed.

The quality of the gear was also having an impact. As the adamantine weapons they were using were out-preforming all but the ones I forged yesterday. A trio of overly eager attackers tried to get close to dad from behind and learned that getting anywhere near him, he was in that mood was not a good idea in the slightest.

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The battle was not going as expected. Not only did those damned newcomers somehow turn the easily overrun camp into a fortress with shielded walls and a massive gate overnight. But they somehow got a dragon to aid them. Even now, the mages were busy keeping it at bay with void magic.

Every time they thought they pushed it away and began trying to break the barrier, preventing arrows from being used, the dragon would swoop back in and threaten them by its mere presence. If this continued, taking down the shield a second time was out of the question.

The only upside was that the dragon didn’t seem keen on landing or getting so close it could just burn them. While I didn’t know why, there was likely a reason I didn’t understand. Maybe some magic it knew about that I didn’t, but it feared the mages might possess. Either way, it was benefiting us, for now.

However, I knew that wouldn’t last. Once the dragon was confident that the mages weren’t a proper threat, or it got angry enough by the small stings they would inflict, the dragon would have no qualms running rampant across the lines of mages. I should deal with the beast before then.

Before I could act on that notion, a searing pain struck my head, unlike anything I had felt before. “Mistress, you’re bleeding! Someone get a healer over here!” Izrah’s voice rang hollow and distant in my ears, as if spoken from a great distance or in a large empty hall.

Several hands took hold of me and led me away from the battle itself. I was in no state to deny them, as my voice was so slurred I couldn’t even order them to let me go. A warm, soothing feeling entered my body as healing magic began pouring in. It was like sitting in front of a fireplace on a stormy winter night.

My eyes opened. “How long was I out?” Izrah came into view immediately. “About five minutes, Mistress. Are you sure you are alright?” I wanted to throttle her. How dare she even question my ability? However, her concerns were well-founded. Something was wrong, very wrong.

“No, I am not. However, the cause isn’t physical, so this is just postponing the symptoms.” The seal. It couldn’t be anything else. This body was made via magic and alchemy. Physically, it was perfect for me. It shouldn’t be showing symptoms like this without the soul of the body rejecting me, and the only soul in here was my host. That left me with precious few alternatives.

But who could be messing with the seal? The gods couldn’t get anywhere near the void energies swirling around the island. They were all bound by Rubolgs’ decree. And their servants would be driven mad and consumed by the void energies, becoming yet another puppet or beast I could use.

A useless conundrum. I couldn’t do anything about it in my present condition. If I left this vessel now, I wouldn’t be able to return to the front lines and the cohesion of the troops would falter. I got back up and began moving towards the entrance of the tent I was in. “I got no time to dally around here. That dragon needs to be dealt with.”

For a moment, it looked like Izrah was about to object. However, she was as much a puppet as the rest of them. She could no more disobey my orders than a fish could breathe on land. In the end, she followed me without a word, like a good dog should.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Miss Amber, your alchemical skills are something else. Mind if I ask who taught you?” Ozweld was looked up from chopping up a bunch of mushrooms to mix into the potion brew. It was an odd sensation to be praised for my skills like this. “Most of it I learned from the Duergar at mount Theranos, where I live. However, they themselves learned the craft before they left Lady Labyrinthia’s maze. The rest is self-taught through trial and error.”

Ozweld nodded as he watched me pour a small spoon of powdered sulfur to the mix. “It helps with the taste and amplifies the instant healing. It will cause an upset stomach though, but given the situation, better to have a torturous trip to the lavatory tomorrow, than being dead today.” Ozweld hesitated. Then he added the mushrooms with obvious hesitation, as he did.

“Right you are, hmm. I was going to add some of my special ingredients, but since you added sulfur the effects would get a bit too random if we also added moonsugar.” I blinked. “Yeah, don’t do that. Speaking from personal experience, we’d all go around with whiskers and bunny ears for a week, and you can forget about any healing.”

Ozweld blinked a few times. “Why did you ever think to mix those two ingredients?” I stirred the mix carefully three times clockwise, once counterclockwise, repeat. “Because I was curious, more than anything. Both can amplify the effect of healing potions, but moonsugar makes it taste so damn sweet I want to barf. So, I figured, since they both make excellent amplifiers and the one with sulfur gets somewhat bitter, maybe they can balance each other out?”

Ozweld nodded. “And the result was bunny ears and whiskers.” I nodded. “I guess they caused a mutative reaction with one another or something. Might have also been other influences, like the phase of the moon or the weather. Potions are so damn finicky that way.”

Just then, Edri ran past me with a basket full of various bottles. “That old man Moor told me to give you this, said it might be useful.” She grinned like it was the best day ever. Ozweld looked over the different ingredients. “Oh my, these are some high-quality stuff. If we used these in the next batch, we could add a strengthening and speed enhancement to the healing.

I looked over the different bottles. “Hmm, given what we’re up against, it might be better to add this gloamroot to enhance mental fortitude and concentration. We would have to forgo enhancing the healing, though.” Ozweld looked at me for a moment in complete silence.

“Right you are, Miss Amber. A far better idea, well, what say you? Shall we wrap up this batch and get brewing on the next one, eh?” I shook my head. “Hold on. We could still add this into the current batch.” I held up a small bottle with a warning label, filled with luminescent silvery liquid.

“Is that… Leviathan blood?” Ozweld sounded like he was in awe. And I couldn’t fault him. This stuff was something you couldn’t get a hold of under normal circumstances. But as an ingredient for magic or alchemy, you couldn’t get anything better. Anything you added even a single drop too would have its effects enhanced tenfold.

If one considered this stuff flowed through the veins of the leviathans, there was no question of where their power came from. Was the situation less dire, I would have a severe case of “too good to use” right about now. But we were in a bad spot right now. “Here’s hoping the pot can withstand it…”

I carefully uncorked the bottle and took out a dropper and with the greatest care dropped a single drop into the cauldron. The pale red liquid bubbled angrily, before turning a dark crimson. “Superior Healing potions ready for distribution. Let’s get these bottled up.” Ozweld and Edri shook themselves from their shocked stupors and began following my directions. We didn’t have time to be in awe right now.