The basilisk had been a guardian.

  I had wondered how they found a basilisk when they’d been in the city the day before. Finael hadn’t struck me as a mage that was strong enough to bond with a basilisk and have it willingly be his guardian. Which meant that either the dead Elf had subjugated the monster, or part of its power had been sealed to make it weak enough for him to bond with, then it had been given to him. Now that its mage was dead, the basilisk not only had access to its full potential, but the magic that bound it rebuilt its body into actual flesh and blood instead of being a magical construct.

  I furrowed my brow. If it had been a guardian, then Vin would have torn through it. His ability to negate magic would have destroyed it. There was something else going on with it.

  A second roar reverberated against the rocks as its scales cracked, shedding a skin of rocks and dirt as it pulled itself free.

  The Earth Elementalist had reinforced its body with his Elementalist ability, basically giving the guardian a golem to inhabit. I’d heard rumors of such things, but thought that was a fish story.

  “You two okay?” I glanced at my companions.

  Vin dashed in front of us, flesh crackling as the basilisk spit acid at us, followed by yellow beams of light from its eyes.

  I pulled Starna back as I tried to get us out of its range. “We’ve got to take care of those eyes!” Vin was breathing hard as was Starna. I’d stolen enough energy from Finael that I felt as good as when the fight started, but my companions had already gone through one round of fighting.

  I pulled some of the fatigue off of Starna. She shivered under my grasp as vitality flowed through her.

  “That’s…” She looked at me. “Did you do that?”

  I nodded. “I took some of your fatigue. I don’t think it’ll help your magic reserves, but you won’t be as tired.”

  “Warn me next time.” Her face blued. “That was weird.”

  “Good weird or bad weird?”

  “It felt like you were inside me, then I felt a lot better.” Her blushing deepened even further. “Just warn me next time!”

  “Would you two stop flirting and focus!” Vin cut off any response I had. “This thing is really angry!”

  “What do we do?” Starna looked at me.

  “Shoot out its eyes.” I cupped my hands. “Vin! Do you think you can hold its head still?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  My brother glared at me from over his shoulder. “Does this look like I want to get closer to that thing?”

  Most of his shirt was gone, hanging off him in tatters. The petrification didn’t work on Vin, but it did stiffen the outer layer of his clothes before the magic touched him and was canceled out. Coupled with the grappling and the acid, his shirt had all but been ripped off and his pants were barely staying up.

  “Get its eyes looking somewhere else and I’ll drain it!” I doubted I could kill something that big before it killed me, but I could weaken it. That would allow Starna to blind it with her magic and Vin to break through the fully healed scales.

  Vin grumbled something under his breath and started running towards the basilisk. Starna twisted her staff in the air, then pointed it at the large serpent. Ice shards that were six inches long rained down on its head.

  The basilisk pulled part of its body up to block the ice from hitting its face. Without clear line-of-sight, Vin would have no trouble getting close since the big snake wouldn’t be able to see him.

  As soon as Vin was within five feet of it, the basilisk dropped the part of its body that it had been using to shield against the ice and whipped out its head, knocking my brother back up the trail to where we were standing over fifty feet away.

  Vin shook his head and dusted himself off as he stood up. His pants hadn’t survived the last altercation with the ground, so now he was covered by nothing but his tight undershorts.

  “Don't blame me.” He winked at Starna as he looked at me. “Once I’m in the buff and she realizes that I’m irresistible.”

  I glared at my brother. “Who needs to stay focused on the fight in front of us?”

  “Once they go Camadt, nothing else is hot.” Vin was grinning from ear to ear as he puffed out his chest. “Besides.” He pointed towards the monster. “I think it's done.”

  I looked back at the empty space where the basilisk had been. Sure enough, the wyrm had turned and ran, heading down the mountain, away from us.

  “Um…” Starna moved to put me between her and my half naked brother. “Isn’t that a bad thing?”

  “Yeah, we have to walk, but at least we don’t have to fight that thing anymore.” Vin stretched, then walked over to Finael’s body and squatted down. “I wonder if he had anything good on him.”

  “Don’t touch that!” Starna ran out from behind me and shooed Vin away from the dead mage. “You’ll break all the magic items if you go through it!”

  “Fine…” Vin stood up and walked over to me. “She’s right, as much as I hate to admit it.” He jerked his thumb at Starna. “That thing has to eat now and it’s probably really hungry.” He nodded down the road. “There’s one really big food source with nothing that can stand up against that.”

  “Bollilundr.” I groaned. “There’s no way we can catch up to that thing, even if we’re running as fast as we can downhill.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t kill too many people before we get there then.” He softly punched me in the shoulder. “Race ya!”

  He knew I couldn’t catch him, so I didn’t try as he took off at full speed down the hill.

  “Why?” Starna stood up. “There’s no way of knowing for sure that the basilisk is going to Bollilundr. We’re tired and we’ll be even more tired if we run to the bottom.” She collapsed Finael’s staff and hooked it next to her own.

  “Those with power should protect those without.” I patted her on the shoulder. “How are you going to feel in the morning if we walk back and find Bollilundr leveled by that thing when we could have ran and given them a fighting chance?”

  Starna closed her eyes and sighed. “Let’s go.”

  The two of us took off down the road. I just hoped we could make it before too many people got hurt.

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