Scar lunged, jaws snapping, broken teeth bared in a awful grin.

  James barely had time to raise his sword. The impact rattled his bones, steel meeting rotting fangs with a sickening scrape. Scar twisted, snarling, pushing against the blade, his breath reeking of decay and damp earth. James braced, muscles burning, the sheer unnatural strength of the beast pressing down on him.

  Scar feinted left, then right—a blur of twisted limbs and thorny sinew.

  James held, but he wouldn't last long.

  A movement in the corner of his eye—

  Ser Edwin, Bow-Breaker already in hand, moving like a force of nature. He took one heavy step forward, war maul raised—

  CRACK.

  A massive, clawed arm tore through the hut's wall, splintering wood like it was paper. James barely had time to register the attack before it snatched Edwin—dragging him bodily through the rain-rotted wall out into the storm.

  James turned just in time to dodge another swipe, rolling hard, slick with mud. He hit the ground near the dying fire, coming up with a smoking branch in one hand and a sword in the other.

  The hut groaned.

  The walls, weakened by time and Scar's assault, buckled and cracked. The roof sagged dangerously, fighting against the wind and its inevitable collapse. Scar's muzzle twisted in amusement, his red eyes glinting in the firelight.

  Then he was gone. A streak of black thorns and jagged limbs darted through the gaping hole where the wall had been. James dove. The hut collapsed.

  The air filled with the splintering of wood, the storm's roar, the choking scent of wet earth. Mud coated James from head to toe, thick and suffocating. The smoking branch hissed as it drowned in the filth, embers dying instantly. The voice came like a knife in his skull.

  "Smart. Going for the fire. Too bad it's all gone now."

  James barely had time to register the words before Scar slammed into him, claws raking down his chest. Driving him deeper into the mud,

  Pain flared hot and sharp. His coat saved him from the worst of it, but he felt the fabric tear, felt the burning sting of fresh wounds.

  I have to get up. If I stay down, I am dead.

  Crunch.

  Something massive collided with Scar, sending the beast tumbling off him. Too-long limbs, wickedly curved horns, burning red eyes—the thing was made of the same twisted and writhing thorns as Scar. The two rolled a tangled mass of limbs and brambles, shrieking and clawing at each other.

  A roar of rage.

  Deep. Human. Familiar.

  Ser Edwin.

  James looked up just in time to see Edwin charging back into the fight, Bow-Breaker raised. The war maul gleamed in the near-constant flashes of lightning, the silver inlaid along its head pulsing with an eerie glow. His silhouette was massive against the storm, unshaken and unrelenting.

  James scrambled to his feet, his body screaming in protest. His lungs burned, mud weighed down his limbs, and his wounds throbbed with each movement. But he knew they would be healing. The pain was just a reminder to keep moving. Scar struggled to get upright, snarling.

  "It's me!" James screamed before Edwin could bring the full weight of Bow-Breaker down.

  Shock flickered across the older man's face. He shifted his momentum, turning the swing into a brutal sideways strike. Slamming it into one of the creatures. Sending it flying back against a tree with a sickening crack.

  Another one of the creatures lurched toward them, its movements unnatural and jerky, like something quickly formed for this task. It growled with a maw too big for its body. And James saw them all now.

  Three more.

  Lightning flashed, illuminating the horror in stark relief.

  They were like satyrs, but wrong. The skulls of rams, but elongated, stretched, grotesque mockery of the things they had once been. Their bodies writhed, made of the same dead thorny vines as Scar, their limbs too long, lit from the glowing core in their chests. Their fingers were tipped with wickedly curved claws.

  The storm crackled above, the wind screaming through the trees. Stretching and warping the shadows. The thunders boom like drums of war.

  The creatures shifted, their heads cocking at unnatural angles, moving in slow, predatory steps. They were surrounding them.

  James' fingers clenched around his sword and brought the blade out in front of him, Ser Edwin to his back.

  All at once, the creatures screamed. The sound ripped through the air, high-pitched, a harsh, chittering screech that made James' skin crawl.

  Scar finally recovered, pulling himself from the mud and muck. Straightening, his red eyes burning with something cruel.

  "I will rip your throat from your neck," he rasped voice jagged, broken, too many mouths speaking at once. "Then I will drag your corpse to my master. And watch him feast on your flesh. On a god-seed's flesh. His ascension will be glorious."

  James was taken aback. Scar had spoken, not in his mind but with the broken maw; he blinked, trying to adjust to the change. Scar took advantage of the distraction, and like the storm itself, they attacked.

  James barely got his blade up before claws raked across his chest again. He twisted, the strike glancing off his coat's thick, soaked fabric, but the force sent him stumbling, boots skidding in the slick mud. A second beast lunged, claws outstretched. He barely ducked in time, slashing his blade across the creature's exposed stomach. Something like a hiss came from the wound as it twisted away from James.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Ser Edwin met them with a roar like thunder. Bow-Breaker sang, crushing through vines and thorns like brittle bone. One beast reared back. Its chest caved in but didn't fall. The flickering light inside pulsed with the storm. It twisted unnaturally, the snapping of brambles and vines reforming itself, even as Edwin swung again.

  James had no time to think before another beast was on him. Hooked claws lashed out, teeth snapping too close to his face. He ducked, twisted, and rammed his blade up through what he thought was the thing's heart. It shrieked, its body writhing; ichor dripped down the blade, hissing and smoking. It collapsed inward, pulling itself free of the wound. The vines knitted back together, closing over the blade before James could fully wrench it free.

  "What—"

  Pain exploded across his ribs as the creature kicked him, sending him sprawling into the muck. Cold. Wet. Mud poured into his open mouth.

  James gasped, spitting what mud he could out, rolling to his side just as a clawed foot slammed down where his head had been. He lashed out with his boot, connecting with the creature's knee. It staggered just enough for him to scramble to his feet and yanked his sword out the rest of the way. He risked a glance at Edwin.

  The older man was fighting like a man possessed. Bow-Breaker swung in wide arcs, each strike meant to break, to destroy. One beast had its arm hanging uselessly from its shoulder. Another had half its chest caved in. But they didn't stop. They just kept moving, kept coming, their unnatural limbs pulling back together, reshaping. They worked as a pack to drive Ser Edwin and James closer together, and they weren't dying.

  Scar circled the edges of the fight, red eyes gleaming. Maw opening and closing with loud snaps, as if he was issuing orders.

  "Struggling?" he crooned, voice curling through the chaos. "You can't kill what is already dead."

  James gritted his teeth, breath coming in short, hard gasps. His fingers tightened around his sword. He was close to Ser Edwin now. If he could get back to him with the older man. Something slammed into him from the side.

  James crashed into the remnants of the collapsed hut, splintered wood biting into his back. His vision blurred, and the breath was knocked from his lungs. The creature that had struck him didn't wait. It leaped forward, claws raised—Bow-Breaker crushed its skull mid-air.

  The beast collapsed instantly, thorns and branches scattering across the ground like discarded kindling. Ser Edwin loomed over James, eyes dark with focus.

  "On your feet." His voice was steady but strained. He was tiring. James could see the air mist before him, breaths coming in short gasps.

  James swallowed back bile, forcing himself up. His body ached. Everything was soaked and heavy, the cold sinking into every inch of him.

  They were losing.

  For every injury they seemed to inflicted, the creatures reformed. Even when Edwin's struck true, the bones should have broken, when bodies should have crumbled. They didn't.

  Scar had been right.

  "You can't kill what is already dead."

  Lightning flashed overhead. The storm raged, but James felt something worse brewing. A flash across his vision, a man with red pupils and black eyes, a smile that tore open the skin of his cheeks.

  The creatures spread out again, reforming their circle. Herding them. They knew Edwin was strong, that James was fast. But the creatures were learning.

  Scar grinned, his jagged teeth catching the flickering light.

  "We could do this all night," he mused. "But we don't have to, little-seed. Just come with us."

  James' chest heaved. His vision swam as he blinked away the vision, bracing himself for an attack.

  The storm raged, wind howling through the trees, rain hammering down, but…

  Something shifted. A break in the clouds. A parting, slow and deliberate, as if something unseen peeled the storm apart with careful hands. And through it, just for a moment.

  A beam of silver light.

  James gasped. It cut through the darkness, through the rain, through the very air itself, and landed on him. Calm and steady, pulsing with his heartbeat. The moment it touched his skin, something inside him stirred. His power, the door barely opened, begged to be ripped from its hinges.

  His chest tightened.

  I don't trust you.

  "But you need me, little seed."

  James took a deep breath and pulled the door open, not entirely, just enough.

  A rush of warmth flooded his veins, not fire, not heat, but light. It raced down his arms, pooled in his fingertips, and pulsed into the hilt of his sword.

  The blade shuddered at first. Resisting the magic, but James focused and pushed.

  It glowed. A bright, silver radiance, not flickering, not unsteady, but solid and unyielding. The light ran down the steel, tracing its edges, burning into its core. It hummed with power.

  Across the battlefield, Scar's head snapped up. His red eyes widened.

  "No," Scar snarled, stepping back. "You don't get to do that."

  Scar's voice tried to force itself into his mind, James could feel the attempt, but it was turned back. As if a wall of light surrounded his mind. His gaze flicked to Ser Edwin. The older man was panting, mud streaking his face. His grip was white knuckled tight on Bow-Breaker.

  James reached for it. The war man shuddered when his fingers brushed the handle, drinking in the silver light. The runes along its surface, low and faded, blazed to life.

  Ser Edwin's breath caught, and the glowing weapon reflected in his eyes. James met his gaze and nodded.

  "We can kill them now."

  Ser Edwin's lips split into a wicked grin.

  "Then let's get to work."

  The creatures hesitated. Scar snarled and barked something in that too-wrong voice. But now, in a language James couldn't understand.

  The creatures charged, their gate uneven, looping. James moved. His sword cut through the first beast like a falling star. The blade didn't glance off this time or catch against the vines. It sliced clean through. The hissing was louder, and where he cut, the vines glowed as if burned.

  The beast screamed, not the chittering screech from before, but something raw, broken, agonized. Its body shuddered, red light spilling from the wound as if something inside was being burned away. James cut again and again. Each blow drawing out more red light.

  It collapsed, but James had no time to marvel. Another beast fell upon him.

  He ducked and sidestepped the snapping jaws. Driving his blade up under its ribs. The silver glow seared through the vines and thorns straight to whatever cursed thing held it together. The creature let out a choking gasp, eyes flaring bright before its body crumbled into dust.

  Behind him, he heard a sound like cracking stone.

  CRACK.

  Ser Edwin swung Bow-Breaker in a brutal arc. As the maul connected with the nearest beast's skull, the runes burned a blinding white. The thing's head caved in. Unlike before, where it would reform, this time it shattered, eyes flaring silver as though burned from the inside out.

  "Oh, how I've missed this." Edwin laughed, a deep, booming sound.

  Scar lunged.

  James had no time to react before claws raked across his shoulder. The pain flared, and he spun, catching Scar across the side with a brutal slash. Dark blood poured from the wound, and the wolf-thing screeched, leaping back. Its vine-made body writhed, twisting in pain, its vine edges burning.

  James wiped the blood from his mouth. His breathing was heavy. But now they were winning. Only one of the twisted satyrs remained. It hesitated, glancing at Scar, at the bodies littering the mud.

  "Fall Back. Tell our master what happened." Scar snarled, his red eyes locked on the pair of humans.

  The remaining creature paused, glancing between Scar and the bodies strewn in the mud. But then, with an eerie, skittering screech, it turned and bolted, disappearing into the rain and the dark.

  But Scar, he stayed.

  James saw the flicker of hesitation in the beast's glowing red eyes. Its vine-like body shuddered as though its form could barely hold together. Scar was afraid.

  "You don't get to run." James tightened his grip on his sword as he moved.

  Scar lunged, jaws snapping, but James was faster.

  Silver light in James' eyes flared. James slid under, Scar's claws whistling past his head, and then he drove his sword straight up into the monster's chest.

  Scar howled. The sound ripped through the storm, the glow in his eyes wild and burning; desperately he flailed to get off James' sword. But James pushed it deeper. Scar Clawed at his arm. Pain laced his arm with each ragged scratch, but they healed as soon as they formed, leaving glowing silvery scars.

  The light from his sword seeped into Scar's body, racing through the dark, tangled mass of thorns and brambles, burning it from the inside out. Scar twitched and convulsed, his form shaking, but he couldn't break free.

  James could feel it, the pull, the power. He pushed it into Scar. His arms were trembling, legs burning under the weight of the beast. But he held.

  The silver glow swelled, pulsing through Scar like a heartbeat.

  "Y—you—Little–Sh–" Scar choked, his voice splintering, his jagged teeth parting in something almost like a grin. But it was weak and dying.

  James twisted the blade. The light flooded into him.

  Scar let out a final, strangled scream as his body disintegrated, the vines unraveling, the thorns crumbling, the cursed shape of him burning away to nothing.

  James staggered back, sword still glowing in his hands, his breath coming fast.

  The storm raged on, thunder crashing overhead, but at that moment, all James could hear was the pounding of his own heart.

  Ser Edwin dropped Bow-Breaker into the mud with a thunk.

  "Well," he muttered, rolling his shoulders. "I guess it's time we talk about the Orchard…"

  James turned to him, ready to say something, but his vision swam. The world tilted sideways as its body gave out.

  The last thing he felt was Ser Edwin catching him before he hit the mud.