"Do I…know you?!" Sauvanne's voice was reduced to the merest squeak of petrified distress. Could it be, Maelys wondered, that the girl recognized the spectre that now haunted them?
"Once upon a time," came the ominous intonations of the disembodied voice, "there was a poor, sad, lonely little girl. Why, the pathetic little brat had no friends at all! Some kind – very kind – monsters took pity on her and asked them to play with her. But the ungrateful little girl betrayed them. Oh yes, she betrayed them to cruel inquisitors, armed with brands of fire, so that those hypocrites could be her friends instead!"
The whirling radiant perturbations filling the air twisted with abrupt finality, and suddenly standing in their midst were two grotesquely misshapen figures, both flanking Sauvanne. Their lanky bodies were draped in loose, dun-colored cloaks, but their true lycanthropic nature was unmistakable. Maelys felt the hackles rising on her neck as the taller one bent over Sauvanne, and smiled with oversized, yellow fangs while the poor girl quailed. Foamy slobber oozed from its rancid maw onto her terrified face, splattering off her glasses.
And, unbelievably, it spoke in the same rumbling growl they had heard before.
"One fateful, very delicious day, little Sauvanne fell down, down, down. Until she landed here, in the forgotten darkness outside of time and space. Welcome back Sauvanne! Looks like you're among the monsters again."
"Carpe Retractum!"
The tall werewolf snatched at the spot where Sauvanne stood, flashing thick crescent claws, but she was already lashed by a rope of dazzling red light, dragged back by Richter's spell until he caught her in his arms. Stepping in front of them, Maelys raised her Shield Charm, throwing the monster back. Richter pushed Sauvanne behind them and drew his own blade. Swiftly, he conjured a glittering helmet and vambraces to armor himself further.
Fighting monsters once more…Maelys felt the call to battle rising in her blood. No more struggling in the frustrating mire of this foreign dimension. Opponents she could save her friends from this time. This was turf most familiar to her. Flames poured forth from her wand, enveloping the tall werewolf until it howled. Ah, she exulted. It was so much better when her opponents could scream.
The other werewolf drew from its cloak…a wand? With a wordless gesture, Maelys felt something cleave her shield, shattering it and sending her staggering back. Before the smaller werewolf could follow up, the tall werewolf cuffed it with a scorched paw.
"This girl is mine! I alone will have the satisfaction!"
It lunged forward once more, but Richter blocked with his weapon, and its claws scraped futility against his armor. As it shrieked in frustration, Maelys spun her wand to target the beast.
It leered at her with amusement. "Come on then little inquisitor. Show us your feeble little fangs!"
Maelys gritted her teeth. "Confringo!"
The werewolf was thrown back with explosive force, impacting the cavern wall in a shower of blue moss. But almost immediately it was back on its feet, snarling with blazing eyes. Under its singed fur, Maelys could see its burns rapidly knitting back into wholeness as it deflected Richter's follow-up lunge.
Ah, werewolf regeneration. Par for the course, Maelys fumed. This was not supposed to happen. We waited until the time of the month when they were supposed to be in human form for a reason!
In the back, Sauvanne was flipping through her magic journal, babbling. "Werewolves are intensely magic-resistant…That's why wizards have such a hard time fighting them…Jinxing her won't help us in time..."
Richter had the right idea challenging the beasts with cold steel, Maelys thought as another jinx fizzled harmlessly against the werewolf's hide, but we lost our strengthening and healing potions when the Raptor crashed. We need another plan. She hissed a question at the distraught Sauvanne.
"Why can they speak? Why are they casting spells?"
The query shook Sauvanne out of her terrified shaking. Though shaky, her voice resonated with wonderment: "It must be the Wolfsbane potion. They still have their human minds, and human powers. But I've never seen werewolves do this before! Traditionally they surrender completely to their bestial state! Even…even Wolfsbane should have taken away most of their energy…"
Disturbing, Maelys thought. Dumb werewolves were what they had prepared for. The idea of going toe to toe with cunning, tactical, magic-resistant monsters on ground of their own choosing did not appeal to her. Still, at least the one they now faced was not using any particularly special tricks.
A nerve-shaking clang resounded as Richter's sword bounced off the cavern wall. Richter was back-stepping rapidly as he reached for his wand, but a brutal swing of the werewolf's claws rent his conjured armor, shattering it and sending him flying backwards into the cavern wall. He slid to the ground in a heap and did not move again.
As the werewolf bared its fangs and crouched, preparing to leap and take the final bite to seal his fate, Maelys felt her instincts kick in, to cast a spell to defend him or yank him out of harm's way. But the ghastly visage of horrible white jaws filled her vision for a moment, and she froze. Her wand felt slick in her suddenly sweating hands as she fought the fear and struggled to focus, half-suspecting she would be too late…
"C-carpe Retractum!" The hastily mumbled spell did not come from Maelys, but instead from Sauvanne.
The conjured rope flopped haphazardly through the air. It failed even to go near Richter. As it looped and knotted its way through the air, whether by chance or instinctual coincidence with its caster's intent, it miraculously completed a noose over the werewolf's head!
The monster howled in rage and humiliation, bloodcurdling screams filling the cave as Sauvanne's wand attempted to retract the rope, but instead forced her leashed victim headfirst into the dirt with a rigid thud. After much frenzied shaking it shattered the spell's magical grip on its neck and leveled a malicious gaze at the girls, eyeing Sauvanne in particular with a vorpal thirst.
Gulping, Maelys fixed her expression into a steely grimace and edged herself in front of Sauvanne, raising her arm to shield her as the beast leaped. Shame at her moment of weakness burned its way down Maelys's cheeks and throat, but she forced her feelings down. She could not let herself choke again.
"Petrificus Totalus" yelled Maelys, attempting to freeze the beast. The beast froze for a moment as it crashed to the cavern floor…then continued advancing on stiffened limbs as it shook off the curse, panting coarsely.
"Reducto!" cried Sauvanne, suddenly. The explosive spell glanced off the werewolf's head and impacted the ceiling, causing pebbles to plummet and bounce lightly off the werewolf's shoulders.
It looked upward and howled with gloating laughter. "Your aim sucks! And your magic sucks even more, you puny little witch!"
But Maelys immediately kenned Sauvanne's plan. "Bombarda!" Maelys yelled.
The monster folded its arms instinctively, but the blast was not aimed at it. Magical energy traced the cracks that Sauvanne's first attack had left in the ceiling, burrowing deep into the rock before erupting in a cataclysmic explosion. Debris fell from the ceiling, burying the surprised werewolf while it stood frozen by surprise in its defensive stance.
And yet, almost immediately the rubble shifted as the monster underneath casually began to dig its way out.
It won't be that easy for you or me, thought Maelys grimly.
"Inflamarae maxima!"
The hottest flames Maelys could conjure danced forth from her wand, fluttering merrily onto the heap of fallen stones where underneath their foe struggled vengefully. Maelys focused hard, trying to keep the wavering fire attached to the otherwise inflammable surface. If she succeeded, soon intense bellows and groans of agony would be issuing forth from the superheated rocks as the creature they buried began to cook alive. As Maelys knew well, even magical regeneration had its limits, and certainly did not protect the mind from agony.
"Enough," came a low, cold growl. "Finite incantatum."
Maelys's flames winked out.
"Cruel child. You're used to fighting monsters, it seems. But how about fighting men?"
The smaller werewolf's growl sounded strangely composed and erudite. Under the drab cloak, the other werewolf was short-haired, tremendously ugly and warped with strange growths and bulges covering its body...and balanced precariously on its narrow, wizened snout, Maelys caught a glimpse of…a monocle?
Well, whatever. Once more, a werewolf would burn.
"Inflamarae!"
Maelys waved her wand in a broad arc, causing flames to fan out rapidly, curving in a spiral aimed at the smaller wolf, who sneered.
"Never forget that we werewolves are wizards too!"
He met the attack with the same counter incantation, and this time Maelys felt the pressure of his magic like an iron gauntlet forcing her own spell aside.
"You don't have the foggiest idea what's happening here. The only thing you'll do is suffer eternally once I'm done with you!"
Even as he monologued Maelys felt the tension snap in the air as a curse took hold of her. Silent casting, she realized. She tried to call out to Sauvanne, and maybe Richter, if he was up, to coordinate their counter-attack – but her entire body was frozen.
Behind her she heard Sauvanne say, "Of course, it's a trap, this cavern is on the edge –" before the other girl's voice was abruptly cut off.
On all sides, the Sauvanne-figures suddenly blurred and widened, their eyes hollowing out into black pits as their expressions widened into ghastly smiles. Their outlines stretched until their bodies filled the entirety of Maelys's vision like a wall of hideous, grinning flesh. Bile rose in her throat as she fought to keep the fear at bay.
A mocking growl echoed in Maelys's ears. "Farewell, foolish child."
The ground of the cave burned away, or melted, as if it was a picture on a burning canvas. Maelys saw flakes of luminescent moss and gravel rise from the patch of cave underneath her, like threads of a fraying tapestry snagged by the wind, held aloft by a heatless updraft until they faded away in the air. Then Maelys felt herself sinking down, down, down, into the ground, as it turned into sucking, grasping black inkiness. The darkness rushed into her nose, her ears, her mouth, and it seized her with frigid arms as she screamed and suffocated until blissfully she knew nothing more.