Heroes of Magic and Might
Chapter 31 – Men and beasts
…
It hurt, it hurt, every line across his back, it hurt, it hurt!
"Ron, please quit squirming. You're making this very difficult."
"It hurts," he growled through gritted teeth.
"Well I should hope so," said Hermione. "If it didn't no one would be afraid of a good whipping, now would they?"
"Oh, well, that makes me feel so much better," he groused.
"You were lucky," said Neville from the chair nearby.
"LUCKY!" Ron screamed in outrage, followed by a scream of pain.
"Sit still! Or I'm not going to do this," Hermione chastised.
He was more than happy to be still, moving hurt, but he could hardly let such a remark go unchallenged, it bloody well hurt. "I was whipped you know. How you bloody call that lucky?"
"Because," said Neville with a hint of iron, "you were whipped by an injured satyr with one arm in a sling and not the muscly blue man with two good arms. You couldn't tell, but the rest of us could see every lash was hurting him too. That's why he felt like twenty was enough, 'he' couldn't take any more."
"So, you're saying what? He was being nice to me?"
"Nicer than you deserve," Neville said. "I still can't believe you attacked him in the first place. What were you thinking? We're lucky he didn't take it out on all of us."
"Wouldn't expect you to understand," Ron grumbled into his arm.
It wasn't in the Weasley makeup to surrender, or so Ron believed. As he saw it, his brothers had given in to the new overlord like a pair of traitors, and Ginny. Sweet Merlin that girl. The way she was swaggering around in front of them all. She was the reason he'd lost it on the satyr.
He'd heard the horny goat man making several indecent remarks at his sister while a couple of his mates stood back and watched. In his forebrain he was protecting her purity, that's what he told himself. The traitorous scribe in the back though, the one he never listened to, had written it down as him being a cock blocking git.
Either way, he'd done what he done, and he'd got his whipping and foolishly he believed this was the end of it. But as most men know, when women are involved, it's never the end of it.
"Where is he? Where is he!"
She stormed into the common room roaring like an angry lioness, ironic since she was a badger.
"He's over here," said Neville, grinning at the glare of 'traitor' Ron shot him.
"Be careful Susan, I just finished covering his back," said Hermione, stepping away, leaving him at the mercy of his angry girlfriend.
"Ronald Bilius Weasley, you—you stupid, stupid BOY!"
"Uh, Su," he tried, but it was too late, she was crying.
Not just crying; crying was dignified, crying was restrained. Susan fell to her knees, shoved his head into her chest and bawled. "You have any idea how worried I was about you! You have any idea how it felt having to watch them whip you! Don't you ever, EVER, do something so stupid ever again, do you hear me!"
It was hard not to with her wailing right into his ear but in his current position, firmly ensconces between two magnificent mounds, he could do little more than mumble.
"It's cute how she handles him, don't ya think," Neville chuckled quietly.
"She could be a little more modest about it," said Hermione, blushing brightly at Neville's knowing look.
"You know, if you ever feel the need to yell at me like that…"
And the blush went atomic.
"Oooooo! Boys!"
… I just can't 'bear' it
"You boys ready to go now?"
The little vampire grinned at the growls directed her direction. She loved any kind of attention, so long as it was attention.
"I get you don't have to breath so you don't need a 'breather'," said Harry, "the rest of us however…"
"Yes, yes, yes," she cut him off, "take your little rest. Give them more time to throw things in our path."
"I think we could do without the snark, thank you."
After passing through the room with the snakes they'd come to a room filled with birds. Harmless looking, albeit lovely, in a wide variety of kinds and colors. Colors which all turned to shades of red when the savage blighters attacked.
After that had been a room full of bees that swarmed in ways that displayed a higher intelligence guiding them. Flying in such perfect concert they made the shape of fists, swords and arrows.
The thick skinned lizardmen were least affected but the goblins took a wretched thrashing, adding two more to the casualties before Harry tossed Rosebud under Hamma and set the whole floor ablaze, incinerating most of the swarm and smoking out the rest.
This was followed by the peak of humiliation, the monkey room. Why they had a room full of monkeys in their tower he could not even begin to guess. And what those monkeys did to them, he didn't want to think about.
They were out in the hall again, taking their breather. None of them so foolish as to rest in the room, even after they'd cleared it out. The people at the top had shown they had power in the rooms but not since the illusion at the first level had anything happened on the stairs. It was safe, ish.
"We should get going," Harry groaned, lurching to his feet.
The others imitated their 'leader'. The siege of the tower had taken its toll, a price none of them had been prepared to pay. Level after level they ascended with no idea how much farther they would have to go.
Harry did his best not to dwell on it, not to even think about it. Approach the problem one step at a time, deal with what's in front of you, then move on. It was good advice, a little something that had been written in the back cover of the enhancement book by one of its previous owners.
He pushed through the next door, Cherry riding on his shoulder lighting the way, and came into an empty room; part of an empty room. The usual circle that had been ever room in the tower thus far was cut off three quarters of the way across by a solid stone wall.
"Is that it!" someone exclaimed behind him. "All this and they just throw a wall in front of us. Do they really think a wall is going to stop us?"
Did they? No.
Everything they'd gone through had taught him a great deal about his enemy without his ever having met them. The birds had appeared harmless, till they hadn't. The bees had buzzed around harmlessly, till they didn't. Even the monkeys had sat in their trees, which was a whole other sort of weird given they were indoors, till they'd started… FLINGING, at them.
The wall, floor to ceiling, with no doors or windows, was not just a wall, it couldn't be, he refused to believe it. But then, what was it.
"Look at the floor," said Rosebud, pointing to several long gouges in the otherwise pristine surface.
"What sort of beast could do that?" Harry wondered.
"I'LL SHOW YOU," a voice boomed.
A gentle glow encompassed the wall, then it folded in half. Scraping off the ceiling and slamming into itself as it scraped along the floor. It did it again, then again, and again, and yet again. It did it so till there was nothing left but a single lay of bricks which then folded itself into the floor, but no one saw that, they were too busy staring down the things that had been on the other side of the wall, the ones that put the gouges in the floor.
"Oh my… Oh, deary my," Bill quailed, and not alone.
"It would figure," said Rosebud, tossing aside her parasol to free up both hands.
"Unbelievable," muttered Hamma, the only one not dwarfed by the massive beasts. "What kind of idiot keeps a pair of owlbear."
Owlbears, yeah, that sounds right, Harry thought. Unlike the others, he had no idea what an owlbear was, but the name seemed to fit the two hairy beasts that were staring at them through angry avian eyes behind vicious raptor beaks.
"You all seem to know what these are," said Harry, implying he did not, "how do we fight them?"
"Any way that keeps us alive," said Rosebud.
Anything more specific was lost in the charge of battle, the two owlbears hurling into the crowd who saw them coming and threw themselves into the thick, yet again.
Harry quickly discovered their initial hesitance had been well founded. The owlbears were massively strong and vicious in a way that bordered on sadistic. Three lizardmen died in just the initial charge and the titanic Hamma was thrown back across the room.
The wolves circled warily, snapping at the heels, feinting at openings but fearful to commit, so great and frightful was the beasts presence, so vicious and terrible its wrath. The beak tore through anything it got a hold of, wood, stone and flesh alike. Two goblins fell to its razor edge and three others were swatted aside like bugs by its massive paw.
They continued to move, but the weak wheezing sounds made Harry wonder how much longer.
He was no healer, there was little he could do for them, especially when the owlbear turned on him. Rearing up before him, his mind went blank, his wand fell from his hand and he attempted to grapple the beast. This was the worst thing he could have done.
Weakened by distraction, the owlbear slammed him to the floor and began tearing at him. Snapping with its beak and scraping with its claws, the wizard hadn't even time to think as he wriggled and squirmed out of harms way, taking scrapes and cuts to avoid tears and gouges.
He took a moments respite when half the goblins slammed into the owlbear, trying to shove it off him only to be tossed back by a slight shift of its enormous bulk. He focused his strength into one hand and clocked the beast, doing little in the way of injury but much in the way of making it mad.
It slapped his still raised hand hard with its head then pinned it down with one crushing paw. He tried to do something with the other hand, only to have the entire shoulder slammed into the floor, pinning him firmly in place and leaving him at the mercy of the beak.
Tired and hurting, every clever means of escape fled his mind as he stared into those predator eyes, the beak opening to strike.
Then, quite suddenly, a shadow fell over them both and two thick meaty hands wrapped around the owlbear's head. With a vicious twist the beast was rolled and Harry scrambled to freedom, summoning his wand to his hand and turning to the fight to find his rescuer still grappling the owlbear and doing a much better job of it than he had.
He was momentarily stunned, watching the minotaur wrestle the amalgam beast. The minotaur, the one he had freed, albeit in an explosive manner, and left hoping he would be alright was now saving his life. What a twist.
But the fight was starting to turn against him. The owlbear was clearly the stronger, and it had more leverage. Drawing his sword and spreading an enhancement across the blade he shoved it through the beasts neck, drawing a screech of pain which turned into a bloody gurgle when he pushed down and opened the neck up all the way.
It struggled a bit as its lifeblood poured out in buckets, then just as swiftly as it had been pulled off him, the beast went limp and was left to fall to the floor.
The minotaur heaved a great heavy breath, turning to the wizard they shared a look, and that was all they got before the room was filled with a horrible screech. The other owlbear was still alive, still fighting and, smelling the blood of its kin, enraged beyond what words could describe. No, this sort of rage could only be described by actions, swift, violent action.
Everyone within reach was swatted, slapped, or smashed. Harry was knocked to the floor again when Rosebud came flying through the air off an ursine backhand.
"Rosebud!"
The little vampire winced, winced!
The wizard saw red, then he saw green, then he saw the owlbear bearing down on him like a locomotive, and the minotaur stepping in to guard.
"Stand back!" he commanded, rising like an angry dawn, the vampire in his arms, the tip of his wand glowing sickly green. "I'm ending this now," he growled. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A brief flash lit the room, a line of green energy connecting them for the briefest instant. The owlbear, carried by its momentum, slid across the floor stopping dead at Harry's feet.
The room held its breath, waiting to see it the beast would rise. Harry lowering a shaking wand arm was all the sign they needed, and the room breathed again. It was over.
"That was, amazing," said Rosebud, staring up in something like awe, if awe could be done sarcastically.
Harry said nothing. What could he say?
"Eh hem!"
Oh, right, the minotaur.
"Thank you," Harry said. "I owe you my life."
The minotaur looked at him, rubbing his neck thoughtfully, "I think, that makes us even."
"I don't know, I think you might still owe him a little—yipe!"
The vampire scowled from her seat on the floor. Harry walked around her, offering his hand to the minotaur. The minotaur took it, despite his clear surprise at the offer.
"You're here for the witches then?"
"Witches? Is that who's at the top of this tower?"
The minotaur nodded.
"Are they the ones who put the collar on?"
Again he nodded, slower, heavier.
"This was the last floor. I had hoped to catch you before you made it to the top."
This time Harry nodded. "What do I call you?"
"Boren."
Summoning his sword from where it had fallen, he offered the weapon to the minotaur, Boren.
Smiling, and wasn't that just a weird thing to see on a cow, he took the offered weapon, no words needing be said yet understanding fully achieved.
"How many are left?" Harry asked, and flinched when he was given the answer.
They'd been halved. Bill and Gabby were alright. Rosebud was shaken but otherwise fine. Hamma was bruised, but mostly just in the pride. Two of the wolves were dead and a total of ten goblins across all the floors. The lizardmen had lost seven, all to the owlbear.
Some might have looked at the numbers, considered his inexperience and called it not bad for a first-time raider. Harry was nowhere near so generous or callous . They had followed him, and now they were dead.
"Harry? Are you alright?"
His breath was heavy, his wand hand trembled with unbridled fury, "No, I am not," he said. "Now let's go kill some witches."