Mark of the Fool

Chapter 44: The Bonedrinker

The group pushed as hard as they could, trying to scramble over broken rocks and ground. Dust scattered. Stones and pebbles shifted. The heat blazed mercilessly and their goal seemed to not get any closer.

The Barrens were starting to come alive with sound.

The flying students who had abandoned their companions had reached the top of the escarpment and disappeared out of view.

Now that they were getting closer, Alex could see a narrow circular flight of steps cut into the side of the escarpment leading up to the top. He swore. Hed hoped that reaching the foot of the escarpment would mean the test was over, but since there was no sign of the chancellor, he realised their ordeal wasnt over. It did make more sense for Baelin to be on top of the escarpment using his magic to observe them during the test.

Najyah has checked the escarpment! She says that the horned one is at the top! Khalik called as he scrambled to the next crevice over a massive stone. The chancellor waits up there!

Hope had entered his voice.

The noises around them continued to build.

Explosions sounded from the other side of the escarpment. More battle. Shouts were coming from the south, mixed with some sort of hideous clicking.

Like rheumatic bones rolling against each other.

Meanwhile, behind them, the muupkaras continued to gain. Alex glanced over his shoulder. He could see them clearly now, and there were a lot of them. Fifty, perhaps more. They loped along on all fours like a pack of feral dogs, crying and shrieking to each other. Alex remembered how easily their claws had sunk into the rock, allowing them to scale the canyon wall. If they reached the broken area, they would quickly overtake them.

Thundar grunted. Dammit, I was saving this for a big fight!

An incantation flew from his lips.

Silver-grey mana materialized around him, emerging from his mana pool and seeping into his physical form. For an instant, he was outlined in his mana before it completely vanished. His muscles tensed and swelled, and his fur bristled.

Hang on to me! He reached out and grabbed Alex and Isolde, tucking each beneath an arm feet first. The smell wasnt pleasant, but Alex had no time to dwell on that.

Thundars hooves slammed against the stone as he jumped effortlessly from the edge and over the nearby crevice, despite carrying two fully grown humans.

This wont last forever, he grunted to Khalik. Keep up.

Yes! Khalik cheered.

Alex hung on to Thundar and kept his eyes on the troop approaching the crevices.

As Thundar and Khalik jumped from stone to stone, Alex and Isolde bounced against the minotaurs sides. Alex kept his mouth shut to avoid biting his own tongue. More screeching and battle noises echoed from all around, sounding like the other groups had dragged a horde of enraged muupkaras with them.

Soon, only a handful of crevices lay between them and their goal.

Then, a human sounding scream rang out from the south.

It seemed to last forever before abruptly disappearing and reappearing at the top of the escarpment. An instant later, it disappeared again. The bonedrinkers prey must have been teleported to Baelin, and then to Generasi.

I can see other students now! And a lot of muupkaras, Thundar shouted.

Alex craned his neck, but couldnt see much around the minotaurs bulk. He exchanged a look with Isolde, who appeared more tense than a cat around Brutus. She was muttering beneath her breath again.

He glanced up, noticing their little pursuers reaching the edge of the broken rock area. They streamed over the stones, climbing through the crevices like ants swarming a fallen piece of meat.

Shit guys, theyre getting close!

So are we, Thundar grunted.

They landed hard after one last jump, and he set Alex and Isolde down. Theyd finally reached the bottom of the escarpment, now only the stairs lay between them and their goal.

Snorting, the minotaur glanced to the south. Wed better keep moving.

Alex followed his gaze and gasped.

Approaching them at frightening speed, the bonedrinker crawled over the crevices. It was hugeat least as big as a carriageand twisted. Its body was massive and ill-shapen, like a giant shelled creature that was deformed. Spikes and calcified protrusions rose from its back and limbs. Its head was crowned in misshapen horns. A long tail that looked like vertebrae swung behind it, capped by a needle the size of a longsword. The creature was humanoid in shape, but it crawled, moving with the same sinuous movements as a lizard.

From what Alex could see of its head, its massive crowned skull was also humanoid, with endless rows of fangs and bony protrusions sticking from its cheeks. Its mouth gaped open, glistening with slimy, white, pulsating flesh. Its eyes sat on a pair of long tentacles like the eye-stalks of a snail. Bone shifted and shimmered along its form as it moved, and more protrusions appeared on its back.

Oh hell no! Alex shouted. Run! Holy shit! Run!

They didnt need to be told twice and everyone sprinted for the narrow staircase on the side of the escarpment. They climbed, running as fast as they could over the rough, rocky stairs. The steps were ancient, but stable. As they rounded the side, they looked down and saw other studentsa group of threerunning from a troop of muupkaras toward the stairs.

The selachar woman and the two doberman-like beastmen scrambled over the stones, firing behind them with bolts of blue and green light that tore rock apart or blasted muupkaras in their chests. The selachar student shimmered as though she were coated in armour made of liquid and shadow, and when she cast spells at their pursuers, blasts of water emerged which froze on impact. Ice coated some of the muupkaras and the ground beneath their feet, sending them slipping and falling into the crevices.

Another exhausted looking group of students appeared, tearing across the landscape. Nothing pursued the foursome. Behind, they had left a trail of blackened craters and the twitching bodies of burnt monsters.

Get back! one of the group of four shouted. Roaring an incantation, fire danced around his hands and then a glowing orange orb shot toward the back of the muupkaras chasing the other three students.

Boom!

Half the pursuing troop was swallowed by fire, reducing them to burning corpses in instants. The rest of the group shrieked and scattered.

Im out of mana! the fireball slinger shouted, exchanging nods with the other group of students as they came together and all seven raced up the stairs. The troop of muupkaras that had followed Alexs group started to swarm toward the escarpment, then froze, pulling back as they saw the bonedrinker. They didnt flee, but stayed back, watching from a distance.

The students were a quarter way up the escarpment when the massive bonedrinker reached the bottom of the rise. It was too large for the steps, so it paused and let out a gurgle from deep within its chest like it was choking on liquid, then flexed its clawed hands.

It slammed the claws into the stonebiting deep into the rockand started climbing up the escarpment walls after the fleeing students.

Run! Alex shouted. Its coming!

It climbed at a frightening rate, much faster than the running wizards scaling the ridge.

Back beast! another of the group of four shouted.

He screamed another incantation and launched a glowing orange ball down. The bonedrinker gurgled again, withdrawing its slimy tentacles into its eye sockets and slamming its bony face into the stone for protection.

Only its bone carapace was exposed when the fireball went off.

Boom!

The spell tore along the side of the rocky elevation, bathing the creature in flame magic. There was a hiss and whine as its flesh heated in its bony covering, and it let out a scream that was like the hiss of steam escaping a pot lid.

The monster raised its head and gurgled at them. Some of its bones were blackened, but it started to climb again, undeterred. The fireball wizards raced up the stairs, but the bonedrinker pulled itself up even faster.

One student was falling behind, winded by the sprint. The bonedrinkers tentacles flailed wildly and it surged toward him.

Its tail whipped back then lashed out.

Crnch!

Aaaaaargh!

Alex knew hed never forget those sounds until the day he died.

The student wailed, falling backward, impaled through the arm as the bone drinkers tail held steady. The young mans arm began to collapse as his bone liquified. His scream intensified.

Then he shimmered, and was gone.

The creature paused, then bolted up the wall after the other students. Its carapace shifted and another protrusion formed on its back. It had absorbed the bone of the injured wizard.

Alexs stomach churned.

Dammit! Khalik swore. We wont be able to outrun it!

Isolde glared down at the creature, she trembled but her eyes were set and dangerous. Get back from me!

She raised her hands and began to chant an incantation. Lightning shot between her fingers, then creeped down her hands and arms. Thunder rumbled as she shot her hands down.

Bang!

With a crack, a lightning bolt flew from between her arms.

The electricity magic crackled as it struck the bonedrinkeras it again pressed its head into the walland blue and white light flashed over the stone. The creature groanedstiffeningthen fell.

It hit the stone with a colossal impact, snapping many of the protrusions on its back. It lay still, and for a moment, Alexs heart jumped. The other students caught up with his group and he grinned, happy to see them.

You see that? he laughed. One boiled bonedrinker courtesy of our resident thunderstorm, Isolde Von Anmut! Weareoh shit!

With a gurgle, the bonedrinker rolled off its back and climbed back to its hands and feet, shaking itself like a wet dog.

Do you uh He glanced at Isolde. You got another one of those in you?

Not without drawing on my lifeforce; not a spell that grand. I can cast one of the lesser electricity bolts, but then Ill be done. She gritted her teeth. Infernal creature.

Alex grimaced, watching the monster shake itself. It definitely wasnt unharmed. It wasnt dead or badly wounded, but it definitely wasnt unharmed.

Hey. He glanced at the other students on the steps. That fall did not do that thing any favours, but its gonna keep coming. If we can get higher and drive it off the wall again, it might not get back up.

Good idea! Plan as we run! Khalik shouted, and the other students tore up the stairs after him.

Alex kept glancing down to the bonedrinker as its tentacles emerged from its eye sockets. He watched them turn and twist in the air, then focus on the fleeing students above.

So that was how it saw

He called his forceball close to him.

They climbed as fast as they could, making it halfway up the escarpment before Thundar glanced down. Its getting closer! he warned.

Alex whirled. Ill distract it! When its distracted, everyone do whatever you can to get it off the wall!

Can you really divert its attention without getting killed? the selachar woman asked from her armour of sea-water.

He can; you shouldve seen him do his tricks with the muupkaras! Thundar said.

Ill open up the road, Alex said. All of you just have to run it!

As the creature closed on them, he shot his forceball down.

The glowing crimson orb shot between the bonedrinkers eye-tentacles. They twitched. The monster hesitated. He shot the forceball back at it, skimming around its tentacles to the right. Then he swung it back around, swinging to the left.

The monster paused, unsure about this new threat. Thats when Alex started to get complex. As hed done in training, he shot the forceball all around the creatures eyes, making it swirl in figure-eights, zig-zags and other confusing patterns. The bonedrinker gurgled as its tentacles tried to follow the object that kept threatening to smash into them.

Crunch.

It tore a claw away from the wall and swung at the forceball with surprising speed. If his spell had been at the same level as when he and Theresa had fought the hive-queen, then the bonedrinker could have easily crushed it. Now, though, he danced the orb rapidly around the creature.

Then the others acted.

With a screech, Najyah dived at the bonedrinkers left eye-tentacle. Distracted, it wasnt able to react in time.

Riiiiip!

Her talons tore away the bulbous eye at the end of the tentacle. As she swooped past the second, Khaliks magic shimmered around her, launching sharp rocks that drove into the creatures other eye tentacle, wounding it.

It gurgled in agony, slamming its head into the wall to protect the soft eyeball.

Bolts of magic slammed into its bony hide, but it was too tough to crack.

It will not drop! Khalik snapped.

With a roar, Thundar pulled back his mace and threw it down toward the creatures head. It wasnt the most masterful throw in the history of battle, but the monster was large and not moving. It made for the perfect target.

Crack.

The maces flanges smashed into the skull, cracking it.

The bonedrinker wrenched its face away from the rockface gurglinghalf blindand rushed along the wall toward them.

They screamed.

The selachar wizard shot a bolt of water into the creatures open mouth as it clung to the rock. The bolt froze solid. Isolde aimed her twinned rays of electricity into the ice. It conducted through the frozen water and into the creatures soft flesh. It stiffened and shuddered, its teeth clenching so hard, they cracked.

Then Alex moved his spell.

Slowly.

Slow enough not to trigger The Mark.

As the electricity passed, the monster opened its mouth.

Remembering the first silence-spider theyd fought outside Coille forest, he guided his spell gently into the creatures mouth. Then he sent it rampaging. The Mark threw every failure in combat at him, but he let them come, confident that he couldnt miss with his forceball solidly in the creatures maw.

He slammed it into the soft, wounded flesh, battering it further. The monster swiped at its mouth, and lost balance.

Its claws ripped away from the rock.

Gurgling, it plummeted toward the escarpment.

Crash!

It slammed into the stones. Bone exploded and flesh burst. The creature screeched and writhed, convulsing in the dirt. Then, the muupkaras attacked. They charged the now helpless predator and spread their monstrous jaws. Leaping into its cracked shell, they began sucking the soft flesh into their toothy mouths.

The bonedrinker writhed as more swarmed over it like ants on a fallen fly. They clawed at the soft nourishing body parts, until the massive monster finally shuddered, and went still.

Spellbound, the students looked down in silence at...

Victory.

They all drew a breath.

Yeeeeeeeeeah! Khalik shouted, raising his fists like the victor in an arena challenge. He roared something in his mother tongue.

Yeeeeeeeah! Thundar raised his head and roared, punching the air.

Isolde smiled.

The canine beastmen howled.

Ek-u-Dari be praised! the selachar wizard cried.

Pride filled Alexs chest, and he mouthed off at the defeated bonedrinker. Thats what you get! Thats what you get!

On the ancient stairs overlooking the Barrens of Kravernus, the students of the University of Generasi roared out their victory like gladiators from a lost age.

Are you finished with your celebration? Baelin asked, his tone amused aspantingthey climbed up the rest of the way to meet him.

The chancellor was seated on a large boulder, and the two students who had flown to the top of the escarpment were sitting nearby. They didnt meet their classmates eyes.

Baelin rose from his seat, his beard clasps swaying in the hot breeze. Congratulations, you have passed the first test of The Art of the Wizard in Combat. Where twenty of you started, now there are twelve. An admirable performance.

He took a deep breath.

I must say, I am pleasedbut there are things for you to learn.