Sparks of frost flew as Rue slammed his dark obsidian sword against Gannicus’s claw. The Gargoyle pushed back, gaining advantage over Rue and showering his ear with the loud grate of that claw.

  He grunted.

  The claw almost raked against his neck. But then, Paxwell rushed forward with a jab poised at Gannicus’s chest. This forced the Gargoyle to break off his engagement and parry Paxwell with a swipe.

  Claws no longer on him, Rue rushed forward with an overhead strike. He slashed down onto Gannicus’ shoulder. His sword cut into the Gargyole’s green-scaled skin.

  The Gargoyle snarled, and its power slackened.

  Paxwell stepped forward, pushing his shoulder into Gannicus’s chest. The creature stumbled backward, shoulder still bleeding, and dark frost crept into its fresh wound.

  The Gargoyle did not get any rest.

  An arrow struck into its back, making it wobble forward. The arrow did not pierce all the way through. However, this allowed for a creeping vine to slither from the floor and tie the Gargoyle in a tight embrace.

  Gannicus growled, its bone wings' edge cutting through the vines, and it roared, sending a draft of wind toward Rue.

  Holding his ground, Rue lifted his hand. In front of him, a dark obsidian shrapnel formed into the size of a long dagger. It sharpened and spun. Wind began to coalesce, sending Rue’s loose bandage flying.

  Cold air exploded as he sent the shrapnel to tear the space between them.

  Seeing the obvious danger, Gannicus did something that Rue did not see coming.

  Ilyrin vines loosened around his body. His wing disappeared.

  From Gannicus’s stump, a savage looking five long talons grew in an instant. The talon sliced Ilyrin’s vines and cleaved the dark obsidian shrapnel in a powerful swipe, breaking Rue’s magic apart.

  Motes of dark ice blasted to a small puff of dark mist, and cold seeped around them.

  “Keep going!” Paxwell screamed.

  Kept going? But, with that talon, they shouldn’t get into close combat—

  Gannicus turned into Ilyrin and Emily, who both would be dead for sure if the creature had reached them.

  Paxwell was already running after the Gargoyle, with sword held in two hands. Rue followed, and at once he dreaded that they would not make it.

  Gannicus, who still had one wing, suddenly flapped it.

  Rue expected the creature to fly, but instead, the flap sent the Gargoyle’s body veering at an unreasonable speed. And Gannicus’s claw was now streaking at Paxwell.

  The old man managed to pivot as well and brought his sword in defence. Paxwell snarled out as the talon met his steel.

  A second passed.

  Paxwell’s sword broke into pieces with a metallic hum, and the Gargoyle’s claw streaked toward the old man’s body. Without thinking, Rue bounded onward, pushing his body, and crashed his sword into the claw.

  A grating echo of talon against his obsidian sword resounded through the prison in an alien shrill.

  Rue’s arm trembled in pain.

  He stabilized his feet.

  But Gannicus overpowered him, causing Rue’s knee to buckle as the creature towered over him with his sickening talon.

  “Die!” Gannicus screamed. His spit landed on Rue’s obsidian cheek, and Rue felt his obsidian coating around his muscle start to crack.

  Paxwell did not stay idle.

  Heat mirage formed just above the swordman, and the old man had summoned a new sword. He brought it down. The last thing Rue saw was a searing molten steel rending down upon Gannicus. Paxwell slashed the Gargoyle’s wing, and his heated sword kept going until he bisected Gannicus's last arm.

  A raw, ragged scream escaped Gannicus’s mouth.

  The Gargoyle wailed, cried, and roared as he staggered backward, allowing Rue space.

  Paxwell did not stop; the swordman held the fury of a hunter; he thrust his sword forward in a jab toward Gannicus's new stump.

  Arrow and vines kept rushing at the Gargoyle, not allowing it a chance to breathe. Emily’s arrowhead hit Gannicus's chest; this time, it stuck deep. Paxwell also managed to snake his sword deep into the Gargoyle’s body. A ragged wail went through.

  Before Rue and Emily connected their next attack, Gannicus grew a new talon from his other stump, pushing Paxwell’s sword off.

  The old man stumbled but did not lose his balance.

  The Gargoyle spun. A shear of ten talons flashed, bisecting Ilyrin’s vines.

  Rue stepped back, shielding himself from the pure wind force of Gannicus's magic. In a way, he felt sorry for the poor creature.

  Actually, screw that.

  Rue built a dark Frost Blast on his left hand. Void cold sphere gathered atop his palm, and Rue slammed it forward.

  A wave of dark frost rushed forward into the Gargoyle’s small tornado. Gannicus’s body crusted over, and the creature’s spell stopped. The Gargoyle’s body was edged with dark frost, and cold vapor swayed up, highlighting the creature on its knee.

  “Coward, coward, coward!” It wailed.

  Before another of Emily’s arrows managed to hit, Gannicus brought its two talons together. It sent a shrill screeching through the air.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Rue did not intend to wait on whatever that would do. He summoned another Frost Shrapnel, now watchful of his mana. If he could take down this creature at least…

  He released the Frost Shrapnel at Gannicus.

  Emily’s arrow was about to hit first.

  In mid-air, both projectiles were severed by an invisible force. Rue’s shrapnel looked like it had just been cut into pieces before it was destroyed and reduced to nothingness.

  What in the hell.

  Gannicus kept scratching his claws into each other. And around him, an almost invisible force cut apart the surrounding air.

  Rue and Paxwell retreated without a word. This was a spell? Was magic capable of something like this? Emily and Ilyrin kept losing arrows and vines. Arrows sundered into a thousand pieces, and vines sheared apart despite their sheer mass.

  This was bad. Very bad. Emily and Ilyrin would have no chance if—Gannicus's head snapped up—locking its eyes on Rue and Paxwell. Then the creature walked forward, not toward Emily and Ilyrin, who would be helpless, but toward them.

  “Back up!” Paxwell ordered, and Rue did.

  But behind them were Yom and Agi still fighting with their summons to hold the exit.

  Rue studied Gannicus’s invisible cut. They appeared in a circle around the Gargoyle like a sphere. There was still space for them to creep away as the Gargoyle magic did not cover a large area.

  Why did it not run?

  Rue tapped Paxwell back, earning the old man’s gaze. He pointed at Yom and Agi, moving his finger to the prison wall’s edge.

  Paxwell nodded and turned. “Both of you, make way! Hug the wall now!”

  “W-What?” Agi stuttered. Looked like he had levelled up and had regained his mind.

  Yom quickly pulled the other young man by the collar whilst commanding his golems to keep pushing down the exit. Rue could see some Imps struggling to get through them. And Agi’s direwolves had been hunting loose imps that managed to get in.

  Both Agi and Yom managed to follow Rue and Paxwell, and they hoped for the best, with their backs against the wall. Clutching his obsidian sword, Rue prepared to charge in and pit his obsidian armor against that spell of Gannicus should it be necessary.

  “My golem just died,” Yom said. “That Gargoyle is going to turn on us!”

  “Go!” Agi shouted, and his Direwolves leapt toward Gannicus. Three of them were completely sheared into mere air, and even their blood was cut apart. “We need to run—”

  “Hold on, watch,” Paxwell said calmly.

  Gannicus kept going, down the exit.

  Soon, cries of imps followed as the sound of the body being ripped apart tore through the prison.

  The three let out an exhale, and Agi fell to his knees.

  “You three all right?” Ilyrin shouted, running over to them with Emily.

  “We’re fine ladies…” Agi grinned, then he threw his stomach inside when his gaze found the bodies of Imps strewn all over the prison floor.

  Rue pointed at the exit, hoping they caught his meaning.

  They looked at him, confused—all of them except for Paxwell.

  “Yes, we cannot let it go. It was dying. That magic is some sort of last resort, probably.”

  “Can we talk about this after drinking those potions?” Yom asked.

  “Here, I brought them,” Emily said, opening the satchel.

  Rue gratefully took the mana potions and drank three of them to fill his mana.

  “They’re coming again,” Ilyrin said suddenly.

  Rue clicked his tongue. This was clearly an attempt to buy time for Gannicus so they could not give chase. Was there anything he could do?

  Ilyrin knelt and slapped the floor. Vines grew and rushed toward the exit, in time to block five imps from entering as she choked them.

  “One, I can send one of you,” Agi said.

  “What are you talking about?” Emily asked, as she loosed arrows, already killing two of the imps.

  “I turn to bat last time, remember?” Agi said, picking six vials and using Rue’s bandages to tie them around his hip.

  Am I the one going?

  Hold on, shouldn’t they talk about this?

  Luckily, then Yom asked, “So, Rue is going? It's probably between Rue and Paxwell, right?”

  “The young lad will fit for this more than I can. Go, lad, work together with that Succubus when you’re out of here.”

  Still hesitating, Rue looked at them one by one. They clearly did not know if this was wise either. Still, though, Rue hated it if he had to stay here and kept fighting wave after wave. Outside, he might be able to do something. So Rue looked at Agi and gave him a nod.

  “Good, just released your mana if you want to undo your transformation,” Agi said. Then he tapped Rue on the shoulder, wincing from the searing cold.

  The next instant, Rue’s body turned small.

  A brief void consumed him, and Rue opened his eyes to a ghostly world filled with darkness. His body felt skeletal and wrong, and so small… But he was hovering, flapping his wings, and soaring up high. He quickly found the exit, which slowly filled with Ilyrin’s vines.

  Deciding he did not have enough time, Rue glanced once at the humans and dived outside through a slight gap. He burst forward through darkness into a downward stair tunnel, lined with strong torchlight.

  More and more Imps appeared. Rue passed by perhaps thirty of them, a mix of regular Imps, laborers, and a couple of forgers waiting in line as the front hacked onto Ilyrin’s vines.

  The humans might be able to handle this if no one else comes. But as Rue passed beyond the tunnel into a hallway with concrete white walls, he saw a figure of a Knight. Fully armored with stark silver full-plate. His head armor had a plume on top, and he wielded a great sword that was clearly too big for the tunnel.

  [Human Knight—Level 27]

  Level 27?

  Rue was almost tempted to fly back and warn them. In fact, he probably would if he did not spot Gannicus at the other end of the long hallway with blood trailing above the luxurious brown carpet.

  “Nobody help me!” Gannicus screamed, shrugging off an Imp laborer's attempt to lend him a hand.

  “Stubborn one,” the Knight sighed beneath Rue and shook his head.

  Rue hesitated, but ultimately decided to fly over to Gannicus. He might be able to mount a surprise attack here.

  “I heard that Diaz!” Gannicus howled across. “Don’t you dare kill them, you hear me? They’re my prey. They will pay for this.”

  “Fool,” Diaz said. “They belong to Sruka’s alone.”

  “Why would she need them? They have chosen their class! I guarantee that none chose Warlock, besides the girl already suffices, does she not?”

  “There’s another way,” Diaz merely said.

  “What other way is there when she is already this weakened from just forming a binding contract with one!” Gannicus bristled. “No matter, I will have some of them myself.”

  “Keep saying that, she won’t heal you.”

  That shut Gannicus' mouth off.

  “Now go get going, you brute. Enjoy Sruka’s healing.”

  “Oh, I will. You know she always loves me the most, right? I will be back by sundown soon.”

  By sundown?

  Rue peeked at the window and saw that it was indeed probably almost sundown. So, they had a method of healing fast? Well, they probably had Potions too, which was all the more reason that he could not let the Gargoyle go.

  All right, here goes.

  Rue dived forward. Wings glided through the air.

  The Knight noticed.

  “Gannicus! Behind!”

  “Oh, Sruka! My love!” Gannicus was about to open a double door different than the rest of the single doors in this hallway. Sunlight beamed through the grand window behind, which stretched the entire wall section at the end of the hallway.

  Rue undid his bat form just as he was about to crash down upon the Gargoyle.

  The Gargoyle turned. Too late. He found Rue with all of his obsidian armor, and Rue rammed the Gargoyle shoulder-first, hurling both of them through the window into a free fall.

  [Participant:

  Rue Hazard—16 [ArchMage-Knight] [Authority of Frost]

  Paxwell Hazard—11 [ArchSword-Fighter] [Authority of Swordmaster]

  Ilyrin Hazard—8 [ArchWitch-Druid] [Authority of Vine]

  Agi Hazard—3 [ArchDruid-Summoner] [Authority of Beastwill]

  Yom Hazard—5 [ArchMage-Summoner] [Authority of Earth]

  Emily Hazard—6 [ArchRogue-Archer] [Authority of Truestrike]

  Gilbert Hazard—3 [ArchPaladin-Beastmaster] [Authority of Light]