FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 4: The Cost of Power

In the previous chapter, Elijah and Ruby engaged in a little battle that spiraled out of control into a full fledged war, with an influential third party playing its hand in it all.

Setherous could see what was happening now, or what he thought was happening. Through the rain he could see what looked like a dragon had wondered onto the land and started a fight with... Maybe Elijah used the... no he can't it isn't part of his element. The only person with an earth element is... Ruby? Hmm... the dragon has to be Elijah, who else has those wings! But the golem... it could be Ruby... but I doubted. After he finished thinking of a strategy, Setherous went with an offensive plan.

"Flet, une vente. Flans saltatio pulvera!" he chanted very rapidly.

"OK Ruby, we are now complete." The weird voice announced.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby said softly still, as if she had just learned to talk, pausing and gasping through the pain she was feeling.

"Because you are fully under my control, there is nothing now you can do to stop me." It said.

"...well can you tell me who... or what you are?" Ruby whispered.

"I was the... one to the far left, remember?!" it announced.

Ruby was silent, she couldn't remember. The screeching sound and the agonizing pain decimated all her efforts.

"Ahh! Stop the screeching! Stop it all!" Ruby yelled.

There was an elongated moment of silence.

Then suddenly the screeching sound went down a bit, and Ruby was able to open her eyes slightly. She could barely see what looked like a silver tree branch; they were all over her body. Ruby then, when eyes were allowed to open fully, realized to her utter horror that these silver things were no tree branches, but silver spikes. Going through every joint and specific point in her body except for around the face and neck. There were though spikes around her ears and eyes, obviously the source of the noise and the loss of vision.

"Wha... w... what the hell is this!?" she asked in an under toning voice.

"You said the spell, you brought yourself here, I took my chances and got to you at your most vulnerable point, and now I am in control or your physical and parts of your mental being, I can see all that you see and remember. Right now we are destroying our brother..." The ominous voice made the orb zoom in on the figure in front of it; it was Elijah, in dragon form. "Then I am off to annihilate the southern wolf pack using this earth form of yours, then... I am not sure, I might let you go... or keep you as a play toy... or just kill you right there."

"B... b... but why?" Ruby asked softly, frightened more then before.

"Well me and the southern pack leader have some unfinished business, and I just plain hate you, besides, the other three, you know, our other three siblings. Well they are alive, yes, and want to kill you too so I would be doing all of us a favor here if I killed you wouldn't I?" It commanded more then asked.

Ruby didn't respond, it laughed.

"All made possible by my foolish human master and his weak magic..."

Ruby looked upon the outside world through the looking glass orb. She saw that every time she assaulted Elijah with her fists her actual fists would curl up into a ball and she could feel them punching something. She realized that she did have control over this monster, but then why couldn't she take complete control of it now?

"H... human magic?" Ruby muttered.

"Yep, it is weak but pretty useful, weak users like you and Elijah can't possible use any magic style to defeat a full power human magician, its because you all are too stupid to use your ferine magic to it full potential... well you aren't that stupid Ruby, you have already used one of the most powerful spells our native magic has to offer in terms of offense. Well anyway human magic is mostly for mind control and manipulation of the body." It explained.

"So you are using my body as a puppet?" Ruby squeaked.

"Exactly" it responded as quickly as she asked the question.

Ruby felt the pain of a spike in her hip joint, grinding, and blood spurting out of the penetration point, Ruby flinched from pain. Looking up at the orb around her, Ruby noticed that Elijah's face had just been smashed into by the golem's knee. It was bleeding relentlessly, blood dripping from his dragon face down to the ground. He seemed to be disoriented, moving around in circles. Ruby started to panic, but as she struggled her eyes were forced closed, and the screeching noise got going again. After a few seconds of screeching her body was jarred to the left, like someone had rammed her with a cart on her right side, she felt pressure against the full left side of her body, as if she had fel over and hit the ground fairly hard.

He was mortally wounded, he was just kicked in the face by a rock monster, and he had to reorient himself before the next attack came. He did just in time, the monster swung another kick and it missed, Elijah spit fire at the golem, having no consequence at all. When all seemed lost, when the golem wound its fist back for a finishing attack, blue javelins, giant blue glares of light hit and exploded on top of the monster, sending it hurling to the left, falling on its side promptly before rolling on its back. This was the chance Elijah sought after, he lunged at the monster, trying to get at least one attack landed on it. The monster immediately regained its feet and tripped Elijah, then pummeled him with a barrage of punches to his side, causing Elijah to fly back and hit a tree, then his dragon head plopped on the ground, he was totally out of it, could feel he had a few broken ribs.

Setherous landed on the ground a few yards away from the battleground. The monster had regained its feet, now facing the beaten dragon he believed to be Elijah. His spell has little effect on the golem; it was too weak a spell for such a strong opponent. That settled it, it could've been Ruby, and he now had to destroy it before it kills anything or anyone if it already hadn't. Elijah starting de-forming back into a regular four legged wolf, laying on the ground. The golem was standing over Elijah's beaten body.

"Magmum Brachaleos!" Setherous shouted.

His feet lit up, tail erect, emitting a pure blue aura, a blue flame spiraling out of control, eyes a misty red. Setherous initiated an attack on the golem, kicking it so furiously, so many time that it back flipped and landed on its back on the ground.

Setherous levitated over the ground a few feet above it, smiling, proud of his attack.

"I can tell by the way you fight that you are Ragjum, let her go and we can have a real battle. You know as well as I do that petty human's magic cannot hold her for much longer!" Setherous challenged. The thunder cracked and lightning glistened in the sky, the rain started pouring faster now.

"Evocatio Valcyriarum!" The monster chanted. It split into 2 more monsters that split into 2 more that split into 3 more and so on. They got duller and smaller in comparison to the original one.

"You can't take us all down Setherous!" All twenty-five of the monsters roared together.

"Your human magic is only good for mental stature, not physical abilities like body doubling, look at those last clones; they are half your size and duller then you. Let me show you the power of real magic!!"

Setherous moved his hands into different postures and gestures for a few seconds before muttering his charm. "Ferine Defense Ten! Contubernalia Gladiaria! Sword wielding brothers in arms!" He shouted. The same effect happened to Setherous, except he had only ten clones and himself at his command. None got duller, none got smaller, all had the same expression of power on their faces.

"Don't bet your luck." The original Setherous said.

There was a tremendous wolf howl from the ten clones in the background.

Elijah had never seen suck a battle, even if he was doubled over in pain he still had to do something. He witnessed the last of the clones slash and tear each other apart, and then the finial clash of the two originals.

Maybe I could force the being within her to leave; I know the Mea Virga spell does that, but it takes a while to activate. Elijah thought. At that he started to inch his way towards the battle scene, the rain had soaked his coat; it was way harder for him to move now.

Another lightning bolt flashed, sparking a fire off in the distance, followed closely by the ear splitting thunder boom.

With his last ounce of energy he pounced onto the golem's back and exclaimed clearly the spell "Mea Virga".

Both Elijah and the golem fell back, bound by paralysis, neither could move an inch.

Setherous jumped on the golem and chanted "Telenagora Virga!" Nothing seemed to happen but Setherous finally got through.

Ruby! Ruby can you hear me? You can take control of the monster! You have to power to take control of the monster, you are the monster! If you can you will save us all, the form you are now is a tireless, relentless war machine, can take extreme amounts of punishment in exchange for taking extreme amounts of its users blood and other bodily fluids to appease it. It is yours to control, take it over and save us all!!!

No answer.

Elijah's hand pinged like two swords hitting each other, and a white shockwave came from it, it was tiny, unnoticeable to anyone too far away to see it. It meant to Setherous that the paralysis effect had worn off and the Mea Virga's true effects were beginning.

The rock golem stood up again, regaining its footwork and then started crushing Elijah under its immense weight.

God DAMIT! Ruby if you don't stop him then we are all dead! I can't keep knocking it down forever; it will ALWAYS stand back up!

Setherous pushed the golem back down off of Elijah but it stood right back up, now facing him.

It laughed an evil laugh.

Ruby could hear her brother's and fathers pleas and screams, but she could do nothing, she didn't have control over the monster. They didn't get it, she couldn't fight back, she wasn't in control... was she?

If I don't do anything they will both die... then... I will be alone... she thought.

Another voice spoke to her now, not the evil ominous voice from before, but a new voice, one that sounded like Ruby herself.

We can't let that happen! Get up you fool, get up and do something, take control, don't say you can't because you KNOW you can. Stop getting pushed around and get up... GET UP!

At that instant everything rushed back at her, all of her senses came back to her in a flash, she could see everything, feel everything, smell and hear all now, but too overwhelming was this spontaneous flash of power that her brain couldn't handle it all, she lost control along with her conciseness.

"Whoa she's going crazy!" Setherous said over in Elijah's direction.

Setherous suddenly had an idea.

"Ferine Defense Eight! Are et aqua. Facti nebula illis somnum brevem. Nebula hypnotica sleep." He chanted slowly while the golem roamed about the open clearing, destroying everything in its path. Setherous's two fingers turned gold, he only had one shot, and the golem was headed his way.

The golem jumped into the air, Setherous predicted the movement and fired onto the ground below it, it landed right when the arrow from Setherous's spell hit it, making it fall over on its stomach. It then started to bleed out blood from specific points on its rock formation, the golem started to shrink. A black cloud aroused itself from the pile of earth, making a slight hissing noise before dissipating. The deformation process continued until Ruby lay atop a pile of rubble, limp and lifeless, her human body colored completely red from blood tainting the skin. Setherous just hoped that it wasn't too late...

***

Ruby awoke to the voice of a girl, not much older then herself by the sound of it. Ruby opened her eyes... She was on a bed, not her usual bed with straw and rocks but with soft, fluffy material, she also noticed two hands right above her torso.

"Ah, I see you are awake now. How do you feel?" The girl asked.

"Fine I guess" Ruby answered. The girl smiled.

"Well that's great then, hello, my name is Mew, healer from the southern pack. Your father knows my mom and dad, asked them if they could let me come and help you out. Oh course they agreed, since my mom is away on private business she couldn't heal you herself, she is the best healer in the whole pack!" She said while smiling.

"Thanks." Ruby stated plainly.

She took a deep breath and tried to sit up from her current position where she was lying. In response to her action she felt a harsh stab of pain from her arm joins and back, hips and a few other places. She promptly resumed her position below the healing woman, who was observing her.

"I can't get up!" Ruby yapped, still in a mild aching state.

"Hmm... seems you haven't fully healed then. Here I need you to close your eyes for about thirty seconds." She said softly.

The last thing Ruby saw before her eyes closed were Mew's hands turn pale white.

"Sure" Ruby replied. Eyes closed already.

There was a silent moment between them before Ruby heard Mew chant words unfamiliar to her.

"Healiose Duoze!"

Ruby felt light again, her whole body weighing nothing compared to the air and everything around here. It was like she had left the world and was in outer space, twenty seven seconds after that she was inevitably pulled out of her world back into reality, the bed came at her as if she fell down fro the sky, she gasped when she sat up.

"Better?" Mew asked.

"Yeah" Ruby said, able to move her appendages without much pain, able to sit up now.

Mew unearthed a bowl and three bottles from some unseen pocket and started mixing and mashing their contents. After a few seconds Mew presented Ruby with a bowl of blue goop.

"Here, eat it, I know it looks disgusting..." Mew said.

"What is it?" Ruby asked.

"It will help you heal from the inside out, should be done healing you in 24 hours, then you will be completely mobile, but only if you start drinking, or eating, it now." She replied.

"...OK" Ruby said, taking the bowl in her shaking hands. She counted from 3 down, three... two... one... EAT! Ruby tossed down the mixture in 2 gulps.

Ruby felt as if her throat were on fire but her face was ice, the feeling spread all throughout her body quickly.

Mew smiled again, seeing Ruby's thunderstruck expression.

"Those feelings and the grogginess should dissipate overtime. It works best if you are asleep thou Ruby." Mew explained.

Ruby took it as a cue to lie back on her new comfortable bed, falling asleep instantly. She felt very tepid and pleasant.

• To be continued in Chapter 5: The Domination Factor -