Raskyuil raised his sword, turning toward her with bleak eyes as he shouted only one word.
“Wyrm!”
Rising to her feet, she stared as its red eyes focused on them. The color nearly matched the finned webbing between the first dozen spines and the fanned spikes at the sides of its head like enormous ears.
“What the fuck is a wyrm?” she shouted back. Fear rose like an ugly specter in her mind as she took in its features. Its head bore no true resemblance to a natural serpent. It had the shape of some sort of dragon, though lacking refined beauty and possessing far more brutality. “Is it a kind of dragon?”
“No,” he grunted as he dodged its massive head when it came crashing through the brush toward him. Diana’s breath lodged in her throat, happy to note that he managed to escape its attack unscathed. He brought his sword down, but its head snapped back up, taking chunks of the earth and greenery back into the air before they gradually dropped away.
Withdrawing into the trees above, its eyes lit up with predatory hunger as it hung still in the canopy. Diana watched as Raskyuil slid further away in an obvious bid to draw its attention. He continued to speak, no doubt to keep the wyrm’s attention focused on him. It seemed to work, because its head turned, following his movement.
“They only superficially appear similar to dragons,” he retorted with what sounded like a hint of disdain. “They aren’t creatures of magic, nor are they noble and wise as most mature dragons tend to be. A wyrm is intelligent, but only enough that it makes them formidable and destructive predators. Be on your guard and watch for the moment.”
She choked, shaking her head as she stared at the creature. She couldn’t leave him to face that thing alone now that she had seen it. In the blood red orbs of its eyes, there was no compassion or curiosity, only hunger—an insatiable need to destroy them.
The muscles in its neck tightened as it drew its head back in preparation to attack. At the last moment, however, it jerked higher in the trees with an angry scream as Keena leaped from the brush. Keech was right on her heels with Dagani close behind, and together they lunged toward the massive serpent, vicious teeth snapping and tearing at the enormous scaled body. Though the wyrm had retreated too far for the crocotta to get ahold of it, three muzzles were soon bloodied from the bites they managed before the creature concealed its enormous bulk in the trees once more.
Diana stepped to the side; her eyes fastened on the creature as she edged her way around. Her foot struck something, sending it tumbling to the side with a hollow clatter. Shooting a glance down, her throat tightened with a restrained scream as she saw the inhuman skull peering up at her from within the gap. It almost looked humanoid, except the bone structure was sharper and it still had a mouthful of sharp teeth. The bone looked almost crystalline. Even more telling was that there was no sign of rotting flesh like there should have been.
She probably would have felt better—though perhaps more revolted—if it had been a recognizable human skull decaying in the woods. This skull was almost worse in all its perfection just because it was so divorced from the familiar. Its presence sent an ominous awareness through her. If this being couldn’t escape whatever had killed it… what chance did she have now? Had the wyrm laid it low, too?
She flinched as Raskyuil darted to her side, his thick gray fingers closing around her arm as he yanked her out of the way. The wyrm’s massive head shattered the trees around them as it lunged, risking the crocotta to attack. Their warble was loud seconds before the wyrm screamed, its body jerking as blood sprayed everywhere. The troll hunched over her, protecting her despite the way he was currently glowering down at her.
“What are you doing?” he snarled. “You should have left while I had it distracted.”
She shook her head and pointed down.
The troll stilled before an oath ripped out of him. He yanked her to her feet and pulled her further away from the reach of the wyrm, his eyes fixed upon it. The creature seemed to watch them back, and Diana felt a shudder run through the troll which did nothing to reassure her.