The Outcast (Summoner #4)(27)
Elaine lay curled up on the floor in front of a broken locker, covering her head with her hands. Brave little Valens was buzzing around the Wendigo’s head, stabbing his undeveloped stinger at its eyes. With each swipe of the Wendigo’s claws, the Mite dodged into the maze of antlers that branched from the monster’s forehead, so that his attacks clattered ineffectually against them. Arcturus realized that Elaine must have overheard him and Charles, and then hidden in a locker to watch their fight.
“Elaine, get out of there!” he yelled.
But Elaine didn’t move. She was motionless, as helpless as a newborn lamb.
“Fetch her, Sacha,” Arcturus ordered, running toward the Wendigo, his dirk outstretched. Sacharissa bounded beside him, skittering as she struggled to find purchase on the smooth floor.
It was a good fifty yards to run, but it felt like a mile as the Wendigo flailed its claws around the room, each step dangerously close to Elaine’s prone figure beneath.
Sacharissa reached her first, snatching Elaine’s shirt collar and dragging her to the open door of the summoning room. It was slow going, and they had barely made any progress when the Wendigo spotted his two new opponents.
Enraged by the stinging insect, it bellowed a challenge at Sacharissa, raking its claws along the ground to leave deep scores in the floorboards. Sacharissa paused, lowering her head and crouching against the floor. Arcturus sensed her intent: to meet the Wendigo head-on.
“No, get her out of here,” he yelled, stepping between them. “I’ll keep it busy.”
He held the dirk in front of him, cutting back and forth at the air. It looked tiny next to the long talons that the Wendigo bore. One blade against ten.
A wyrdlight drifted between them. For a moment the Wendigo’s eyes were transfixed upon it, then it was gone, floating past them.
“How about this,” Arcturus yelled, shooting a wyrdlight from his finger to zoom around the Wendigo’s head. It blinked stupidly, then swiped its claw at it, just as it had done with Valens. The wyrdlight was extinguished, but another few seconds had been bought. Valens took this opportunity to sting at the Wendigo’s eyes again. The monster swiped blindly at its face and left a groove of raw flesh in its own skin before the Mite was forced to take refuge in the antlers once again.
“Take this, this and this,” Arcturus yelled, sending one wyrdlight after the other to circle the Wendigo’s head. The Wendigo staggered in confusion, slapping at them like flies on a hot day. Arcturus glanced back, to see Sacharissa was almost at the door. That was his mistake.
The Wendigo lunged, its claws slicing through the air to grasp for his throat. It was only by sheer luck that Arcturus managed to dive aside, but a grasping claw sliced him at the hip.
He was barely up and running before the next claw came slashing toward him. This time, there was no time to dodge. Instead, Arcturus blasted wyrdlight in a thick pulse of mana, a beam that left the Wendigo staggering as it clutched its scorched retinas. The claw knocked Arcturus flying, but the bulk of it was caught in the satchel on his back. Still, as he landed on the ground he could feel blood trickling down his spine and a streak of fierce pain across his shoulder blades.
Then he was running again, driven by adrenaline and fear as the Wendigo roared behind him. Valens zoomed over his shoulder, abandoning his perch to return to his mistress. Sacharissa was moments from the door, but Elaine was fighting against her now, oblivious that the Canid was trying to help—beating at Sacharissa’s snout with her fists.
It was the blood that did it. The puddle of blood Arcturus had left on the ground from his nosebleed, wet against the smooth surface of the oak floorboards. His boot slipped from under him, no more than a few feet from the entrance. His head cracked against the ground, blackening his vision as the senses were knocked from him. So close. He had been so close.
He could feel Sacharissa dragging him, and the dull vibrations as the Wendigo approached from across the room. There was a strangled snarl and the pressure on his leg loosened. Then Sacharissa was leaping over his body, claws outstretched.
“No,” Arcturus whispered weakly, forcing himself to his knees.
But Sacharissa was already there, dodging beneath the Wendigo’s outstretched claws to bite at the legs beneath. She took a calf in her teeth and shook her head violently, tearing into the hard flesh. Even as the Wendigo lashed at her, she had disappeared between its legs, only to swipe at its thigh with her claws. But as Arcturus rejoiced, the Wendigo kicked blindly like a mule, catching her in the chest and hurling her across the room. She lay there, barely able to breathe. Arcturus heaved with the pain of it, and knew her ribs were broken.
The Wendigo advanced upon her, saliva dripping on the floorboards, ready for the killing blow. It raised its hands high in the air, claws pointing down, like a mad pianist ready to play his first note.
Arcturus roared, leaping onto its back and burying the dirk up to the hilt in its spine. The Wendigo screeched like a banshee, spinning and slapping at him. But Arcturus was well placed, right in the small of its back. He clung on to the hilt, swinging back and forth as it leaped this way and that. Valens was there too, burying his mandibles in the Wendigo’s ear.
It couldn’t last though. The Wendigo bucked, breaking Arcturus’s grip and sending him tumbling away. He fell in a tangle of limbs, right on top of Elaine. She sobbed beneath him, still frozen in fear. The end was near now. There were no cards left to play. He barely had the strength to walk, let alone drag Elaine out of the door.