Ignite the Sun

The reptile king was busy toying with Calen and Cassian, so Elira took the chance to move next to Isara.

"They won't survive for long, we have to do something." Israra said, propping herself up on her healthy arm.

"But what can we do? You're incapacitated and I'm hardly a capable fighter." She kneeled next to her carefully grabbed her. "I'm going to set your shoulder, please bear with me."

Elita skilfully fixed the dislocated joint with a loud pop, an action that was followed by a long string of curses from Isara, which were somehow worse from the ones used by Alfred.

"If we manage to stop the monster somehow then Cal should be able to kill it." Israra breathed heavily, still clearly in pain.

"Sure, but how? I need someone to stay in one place for a bit to bind them with plants, and you can't trap someone without touching them."

Israra fell silent - it's true that they couldn't do anything with their powers, but maybe there was something else they could use...

"The mucus!" She exclaimed. "You still got that powder, right?"

"I have, but how do you want to use it? Even if you restore it with water it's not like we can just chuck it at that thing"

"I can relocate it under the monster's feet using Antonio's tricks - now give me that powder."

Elira obediently poured the yellow dust on her hands; Isara mumbled a spell, and the powder slowly turned into the goopy mucus they saw on the first floor.

"Now it's up to them." Israra stated, and the slime disappeared from her hands.

***

"Cal, look out!"

Calen barely registered the warning from Isara, but he did saw the reptile king stop suddenly - and he didn't miss his chance.

His blade went flying, aiming at a creature's neck - decapitating the monter would be the easiest way to end it.

Unfortunately it didn't go as hie planned; his blade stopped 1/3 of the way through, and his enemy jerked sideways to rip out the sword from his flesh.

Before he had a chance to follow up on the attack the beast jumped back, going out of his range - but he did manage to see how the monster got trapped, and how he got out.

The remains of the yellow mucus on his legs were being absorbed by his skin, leaving him fully mobile once again.

Or it would, if it wasn't for the admittedly nasty looking wound on his neck - it was enough to make most bleed out, but the lizard either had a way of stopping bleeding or didn't have any blood to begin with. Even though it didn't kill the monster it severely limited its mobility, giving the group an edge.

The lizard king, quite predictably, wasn't particularly happy about this development.

"FILTHY... HUMANS..." Its eyes were red with blood and rage. "DIE!"

Its throat swelled up, and in a blink it shot out two large globs of the yellow mucus directly at Calen and Cassian.

There was no dodging, no parrying - before they could even register what happened their legs were stuck to the ground.

And a second later the reptile king was upon Calen - and there was no way for him to pary the blow.

The black blade pierced through his right shoulder, and the monster presses even harder - then it came closer to him and whispered:

"I... WIN."

Całen gritted his teeth and looked the beast in the eye.

"Are you sure about that?"

He jammed the fingers of his free hand into the wound on the monster's neck, and released all the flame he could muster.

The reptile king let go of the sword and tried to escape but it was too late - the fire was already raging inside of him.

It screamed and trashed but it was all for naught - moments later the monster fell to the ground, devoid of any signs of life.

"Good riddance." Całen grimaced as he grabbed the blade lodged in his shoulder, and pulled it out with one move. "Fucking shit."

"Cal!" Israra ran up to him, still holding her injured shoulder. "Please don't die, I'm gonna patch you up, Ellie give me something to heal him, quickly!"

He placed his healthy hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going to be fine Isa, I have healing factor now, remember?" He pointed at the wound. "It's not even bleeding... too much."

That was true, considering the fact that he had been basically skewered, the stab wound wasn't bleeding that much.

"You... you're really okay?" She looked up at him with worried expression.

"Well I wouldn't say that, this thing still hurts like a bitch, but I'm definitely not going to die if that's what you mean." He tried to smile, but failed miserably due to pain. "Ellie, since you're the only able-bodied person right now, could you take my lantern and light up the altar?"

Elira nodded and took the lantern off his belt - it took her some time to manoeuvre around the rubble posing as the throne, but she eventually managed to activate the altar.

Moments later the bodies of Krakee turned into into ash, and the remaining mucus transformed back into the yellow powder.

"I'm going to rest now, can someone go grab Alfred?" Całen leaned against one of the walls and let himself fall to the floor.

***

"What the hell happened here?" Alfred looked flabbergasted by the state of the group.

"It wasn't our best fight." Całen chuckled, and launched into the explanation.

The knight listened in complete silence, fully focused on the story. When Calen finished, Alfred looked very impressed.

"I'm impressed you survived that." The knight nodded in approval. "To take on a Krakee chieftain the Order would dispatch a team of no less than twelve fully trained knights."

"It's not that impressive when you consider I have a power specifically suited for fighting corrupted creatures, and the fact that we got beaten to a pulp before we won." Calen snorted.

"In the Order what matters is the ultimate result - you're all alive and all the Krakee are dead, I count that as an absolute win."

"If you say so." Całen shrugged. "Now, I suggest that we take care of any wounds that need immediate attention and find a place to sleep - this has been a busy day."

"I agree - from what I remember the sleeping chambers for priests should be at the top level, they need a bit of magic to open so they probably weren't destroyed by Krakee."

A bed that wasn't touched by a reptile sounded fantastic to Calen, and he was sure the others could relate.