Chapter 23 – Vanquish the Ambusher

“I am Princess Lillia. And I am my champion.”

Lillia felt the soothing calm of confidence wash over her as she walked deeper into the plains. The landscape was the same as the first time she had come here, which had given her a solid goal. Lillia needed to head to the tree to try to get her equipment back.

Even if the clattering of the chitin battlegown failed to attract the monster that had killed her before, Lillia could hold her head high if she left with her spellmaul and dress in hand, or at least in inventory.

Lillia’s foot caught a root, and she miraculously kept her balance. Well, it might not have been as flashy as the promise of lightning kicks, her new chitin boots were worth their weight in gold in the savanna considering Lillia refused to check where she was walking, instead staring up at the even blue of the false sky above.

She wasn’t far now. That was why she had used her blessing despite telling herself that she would wait. Her legs felt heavy. Her body’s resistance to approaching her own death was potent enough to pierce through the magical courage Lillia could grant herself.

“Havoc has a plan. Havoc has a plan. Havoc has a plan.” The sound of Lillia’s mantra was drowned out by the rattling of her battlegown. Twice she had seen the black beasts notice her from afar and move toward another tree. Though she had scared them away, they hadn’t stopped looking up.

Her fingers were trembling. Her legs almost refused.

If the rest she’d taken before coming here and her ascension to level four had done anything, she wasn’t feeling it now. As far as she could tell, she wasn’t even allowed to use Emergency Knighting either.

Lillia’s approach slowed to a crawl and then a standstill. She crouched in the tall grass. False sunlight radiated off her gown. She held her breath and stared deep into the gouge in the tree.

Had that been the creature’s talons? Had it been something else? How was she supposed to do this?

The princess closed her eyes. She’d just finished telling herself that she wasn’t giving up yet. She took a deep breath and pulled Vianaffir out of her dress. She white-knuckled the pommel, feeling the scales of the chitin gloves digging into leather straps.

She could see the blood, how it had splattered up the tree when she was crushed.

All Lillia had to do was get close. If the thing came for her, it was all according to plan anyway. It had only already killed her once. All Lillia had to do was get close to where she’d died.

Lillia didn’t allow herself to scream, but she let a whimper escape as she broke into a run. The princess abandoned form. Instead of holding Vianaffir out to her side, she pumped her arms while holding on to the blade. Sunlight flashed on the steel as she drove forward towards her unceremonious squishing. The chitterpede riding boots clicked impossibly against the soft dirt beneath her feet. Lillia’s heart pounded in her ears. The violet cape billowed behind her.

A screech tore across the sky. Lillia flinched. She wanted to stop. She wanted to turn around. She wanted to run away.

Lillia compromised. She ran. She just ran in the right direction.

The princess’s gaze locked on the ravine. If she grabbed her things fast enough, she could possibly dive into it. She didn’t know how deep the muddy stream at the bottom was. But it was probably better than death.

Probably.

Another screech.

Lillia looked over her shoulder. She saw the shadow streaking across the sky toward her. Giant wings beat the air and drove the monster forward. It was gaining on her. It was too fast. She wasn’t going to make it.

The monster tucked its wings in, and the flapping chase turned into a lethal descent. The grasslands fell silent as the thing dove. Its silhouette brightened as it reached out to Lillia with its cleaving talons.

The wind from its descent flattened the grass in a widening circle beneath it. Lillia could hear the air splitting around her body, a sound like tearing fabric that grew louder with each passing second.

She wasn’t going to make it.

Lillia wasn’t even going to make it to the tree.

The monster was fifty feet above her. Twenty-five. Ten.

Lillia spun to face the creature. Holding Vianaffir out just as Havoc had planned. It would spear itself. Lillia would live.

The princess saw her reflection in the outstretched talons.

The monster pulled its legs up, dodging the tip of the sword and careening past Lillia. The princess ducked under its swinging tail, slipping barely out of the way of the club-like tip as she threw herself down to the ground.

The clasp on the usurper’s cloak pulled tight around her neck and began to glow a vibrant hue.

Lillia leapt to her feet as the thing wheeled around. The monster was just out of reach, but as Lillia pointed the sword in its direction; it recoiled. Hissed. Snapped with its overlarge beak.

The creature got low. The feathers on its gigantic wings shook and spread as it did. It swung its slender tail in the air behind it. At the end of the tail there was a club made of thick, bulbous scales that protruded outward to create a pinecone-like mass of spikes. Those same bulbous scales ran along the back of the creature, reflecting the sunlight. Two narrow black eyes stared at Lillia.

The princess held her ground.

The creature slid to the side, using the hooked claws on the end of its wings to propel itself across the grassland. Lillia followed with Vianaffir. The creature snapped at her but never close enough to be within range of the blade.

The text intruded on Lillia’s vision.

[Slay the Predator – Crashscale Ambusher]

Sensing the distraction, the ambusher leapt forward with its maw open wide. Lillia pulled back, nearly tripping over herself to buy space and time. Her boots miraculously kept her on her feet.

The bite fell short. The ambusher’s jaws snapped shut. Lillia swung Vianaffir. The ambusher had already prepared for that.

A wing talon smashed into Lillia and she felt the cruel spike dig into her ribcage, only to be stopped by the chitin armor. The princess stood firm. The attack wasn’t meant to bash but to pierce. And it had failed.

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[Charges used: 1/2]

Lillia struck back with Vianaffir, taking a step forward as she tore the dress free of the wing talon. The blade glanced off the first rounded scale, but then the clasp around Lillia’s throat pulled ever tighter. When the edge of the legendary sword caught the next scale, it cleaved through with a grinding and resounding screech. A foot into the slash, Vianaffir found flesh. Blood sprayed across the savanna and the ambusher’s matching scales.

The beast roared and pulled back its wings. Lillia flinched, pulling the blade free when she should have dug deeper. She leapt backwards, trying to avoid a blow that wasn’t coming.

The Crashscale Ambusher took off. Drops of blood fell in its wake as it climbed higher at an impossible pace. All at once it was a shadow against the sky. Lillia’s gaze drifted over to the equipment she’d left here before.

She could make it.

The princess took off in a sprint as the ambusher screeched in the air. It was going to come after her again. But if she could just get her equipment, she could—

What could she do?

The ambusher had that name for a reason. It wanted to dive on her from the sky. It had retreated from her sword. It had respected its distance despite being twelve times Lillia’s size. The ambusher didn’t want to fight her. It wanted this hunt to be over.

Havoc had been right. The monster was afraid of getting hurt. That could be Lillia’s advantage.

She could pretend that she didn’t care. She could pretend she thought she could win this fight.

Lillia stopped running and faced toward the ambusher. She held Vianaffir at the ready, letting the sunlight catch on its gleaming blade. She pictured herself not as a princess but as a brave knight worthy of a legendary sword, ready to face down a dragon.

The ambusher was not a dragon.

With another ear-splitting screech, the ambusher peeled away from its dive before Lillia could swing. This time, though, it wasn’t the creature’s last-second panicked reaction to a sword. It remembered how this had gone last time. Its feathers flattened tight against its body as it pulled up, each one snapping back into place with an audible click as it banked. The creature’s shadow swept over Lillia and was gone before she could follow it.

The ambusher snapped its tail at Lillia after it flew by. Lillia didn’t bother to duck; it wasn’t going to reach her. Several of the bulbous scales shot off the club at the end. One slammed into Lillia’s stomach and shoved the air from her lungs.

She was fine. It—

The scale hissed. Cracked. Exploded. Lillia was thrown backwards in a plume of black smoke and fire as the thrown scales erupted. She gasped for air. The smoke burned her lungs. The smell of ash stuck in her throat.

Lillia crashed to the ground as she heard the pounding wing beats of the ambusher climbing back into the sky. She batted at her stomach, patting down the flames that were still sticking to her dress.

[Charges used: 2/2]

“Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shit,” Lillia said as she rolled on the ground and found her footing again. Her stomach felt like it should have been sore, but it wasn’t yet.

What was she supposed to do now? It kept flying away. It was dodging her sword, and it could throw those big, stupid scales. What option did she have?

The clasp of the usurper’s cloak tightened around Lillia’s throat again. That would be really great if she could have hit the thing.

The ambusher screeched, which meant it was near the apex of its climb.