Briar pulled something from the bandolier across her chest and hurled it at the creature. A net of magic formed over the beast, pinning it to the ground. The beast reared back, its large mouth splitting open as it released an ear-piercing screech.
I pressed my palms over my ears, trying to block out the sound. Something deep and instinctual urged me to run. Terror cut through my mind with the sound of the beast’s scream. The sound promised that the beast would kill me. That I was small and soft and it would suck the marrow from my bones. I squeezed my eyes shut, clamping down on the terror spiking in my veins. The creature was caught. I was fine. But something inside me still reacted to the sound, and it was all I could do to keep from turning and fleeing.
The beast tore at the magic binding it, and it was gaining ground, moving toward Briar. She cursed and threw another potion at it. The ground reached up to lock around the beast’s front legs. It bucked, screeching again. One leg broke free.
“Craft, I don’t think we’re taking this thing alive,” Briar yelled to me between the creature’s screeches.
“Obviously. It’s already dead,” I said, moving around toward its back. It ignored me. Apparently, I wasn’t near the threat Briar was. “And we don’t need it moving. Just not incinerated would be good. It’s covered with magic. We might learn something.”
The beast freed its other front leg from the trap of earth Briar had caught it in, and it charged. The magical net held, but the beast gained several feet, forcing Briar to pull back. Her hand moved over her bandolier of potions, as if taking stock and not finding what she wanted. The creature lunged again, pushing on the net and gaining another foot of ground.
“No use, Craft. We’re going to have to burn it.”
“Wait,” I yelled as she lifted her crossbow. “We could leave the clearing, wait for backup so it can be contained.”
“I’m the person they send to take care of this shit.” She sent a dart through its chest, aimed for where the heart should have been. I expected it to burst into flames, but she’d changed spells again. This one blasted a hole in its side. That didn’t slow it down. It reared and then slammed its body forward again, forcing Briar to retreat as the magical net slipped more. “You want to study the magic. Do it quick, I’m burning it.”
I’d been trying to decipher the spells on the creature, but my pulse was pounding in my ears, my heart thudding in my throat, and my brain was too frantic to make any sense of the magic I felt. We needed to neutralize its threat so there would be time to study the magic properly.
I darted toward the creature’s back flank. Reaching through what was left of the magical net, I grabbed its knee and dropped the bubblelike shield that prevented me from touching the planes of reality I could see. The beast was already dead, already rotting, and it was nothing for me to push it further into the land of the dead. The real trick was to push only its knee and nothing more.
The flesh under my fingers withered, flaking away from my touch. The muscle was next. And then my fingers touched bone, which crumbled under the push of my magic. The whole thing took only a heartbeat. I was scrambling away before the beast could even whip its head around.
The creature tottered, the sudden loss of its leg in combination with its violent turn causing it to lose balance. It toppled, falling to the ground with a crash. Its surprise didn’t last long though, and a moment later, it began scrambling up, using its three good legs. I needed to use its distraction. It was thrashing, trying to gain purchase with its one remaining back leg. I couldn’t get close enough to touch its knee, but I could get its foot. I darted forward, pushing with my magic the moment I touched cold flesh. I had to pull back almost immediately or risk getting caught by one of its saberlike talons. But it was enough. I hadn’t turned its bone to dust this time, but I’d pushed the decay far enough for the bones to turn brittle. The creature’s ankle crumbled under him as he put pressure on it.
The beast collapsed again, the stubs that were left of its back legs moving but not able to help it stand. No blood poured from the lost limbs, but it screamed, clawing the ground with its front legs.
The creature screamed again. The sound still woke terror in me, but now the emotion warred with the revulsion I felt for what I’d just done. And pity. Yes, the beast had been trying to kill us, but this was not a clean death, and I pitied it even as its long talons dug into the earth, still trying to claw its way toward us.
Briar lowered her crossbow. The massive creature on the ground was no longer charging her but thrashing spasmodically without gaining purchase. She pulled a sword out of who-knew-where and stepped closer. Holding the weapon in two hands, she brought it down hard on the creature’s long neck. The blade sizzled as it bit into flesh, but it sliced cleanly through bone, muscle, and tendons.
The creature’s screeching cut off abruptly, its severed head rolling from its body, and the beast fell still, true dead at last.
I stumbled to the edge of the clearing as my stomach heaved. What was left of my breakfast returned, leaving my throat burning and my mouth tasting sour. I wiped the back of a shaking hand across my mouth. My adrenaline was dropping now, and I wasn’t sure if I was more disgusted by what I’d seen or by what I’d done, but I had to stand back up. To turn around and face it again.
Taking a deep breath didn’t help—the air was filled with the scent of rot, ash, and vomit. It was almost enough to force me over again, but I swallowed the sick feeling, refusing to continue to dry heave. Steeling my will, I turned around.
Briar looked up from where she was studying the corpse of the large reptilian beast when I walked over, but she made no comment on my weak stomach. I was glad for that. She hadn’t released the magical net pinning the now-true-dead creature yet, and I was glad for that as well. She moved around the creature slowly, but as she reached what was left of its back legs, she stopped, staring.
“What exactly did you do?” she asked, staring between where the lower part of the left leg lay detached from the rotted stump above the knee.
I grimaced, looking away, but didn’t answer. Instead I focused on reconstructing the bubblelike shield I used to keep my planeweaving abilities in check. I couldn’t close all my shields—I’d expended too much magic, I’d be blind, but I didn’t want to accidentally push or pull anything across the planes.
When it became clear I wasn’t going to answer, Briar walked across the field toward the only other creature that had left a corpse. The buzzards had already gathered around it, and they spread their wings as she approached, trying to make themselves look bigger as they guarded their meal.
“How come you were able to drop this one from several yards away but couldn’t stop that one?” she asked as she drove off the vultures.