The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

“How do we kill it?” said Yue. “I thought wood was poison to these things.”

“It used to be,” said Mag. “Mayhap fire will still do the trick.”

“We could retreat,” said Yue. “The building is burning. This thing will burn with it.”

I looked at King. It had stooped over the cauldron again to take another deep draught. “This chamber will not burn. The floorboards are enchanted. And even if it begins to, I think the creature will burst out before it perishes.”

As if King could understand my words, its head snapped up towards the ceiling for a moment. Slowly it turned its gaze upon us. Black eyes shone with hate.

“I think it heard you,” Yue pointed out mildly.

“I have my torch,” I muttered. “If I can get an opening, I can throw it at the vampire, and we will hope it catches.”

“Yue should get one, too, and quickly,” said Mag. King had begun to stalk closer.

Yue pulled a torch from the wall and lit it with the flames of mine. “Spread out,” I said.

I edged right, Yue left, and Mag stood in the middle with Oku. King, seeing us split up, stopped moving, crouched low, and swiveled its head back and forth to keep an eye on all of us.

“Do it as soon as you can,” said Mag suddenly, and then she threw herself at the vampire. Oku was only a half-pace behind.

They danced around each other in the center of the room. But Mag could no longer hold her own against the thing. Whereas before she had held against the vampires’ strength and somewhat outmatched them in speed, now she was like a man fighting a tiger. She and King traded blows twice in the blink of an eye, but then the vampire’s claws slammed into Mag’s shield, and she fell on her back. Instantly she rolled, coming up on her feet again, but the vampire was just behind her. This time its claws raked her scale shirt, and she was thrown away again.

Yue and I charged, torches high. But the vampire turned on us and swiped. Yue dropped to the ground to avoid it, but I was too slow. I felt its putrid claws bite into the flesh of my arm, and I cried out with pain.

Before it could follow up, Mag was there again, her spear thrusting, but each time the thing dodged or turned aside her blows with claws as long as my hands. That gave me the time I needed to scramble away from the fight, now cradling my shoulder. I backed away from the spinning, screeching creature and caught Yue’s eye from across the room.

“I will try to give you another opening,” I called out to her.

“Never mind that,” she said. “We have to distract it.”

And then she ran for the cauldron.

I cried out a warning before I could stop myself. The vampire heard, drove Mag off with a wild swipe, and turned just in time to see Yue seize the edge of the cauldron. She heaved, trying to upend it.

The vampire roared and launched itself at her. Yue spun on the spot, thrusting her torch up straight into its face. The creature recoiled, but only for a moment. Then it seized the end of the torch in one clawed hand. It shrieked, its black eyes going wide. But it tightened its grip, digging its claws into its own flesh as it completely enveloped the flames with its hand. Its whole body shuddered, spiny ridges jumping back and forth like mountains in an earthquake.

The flames guttered out. The vampire hissed straight into Yue’s face, pained, but very much alive.

“Ah,” said Yue.

The vampire scooped her up, its clawed fingers wrapping all the way around her torso, and flung her bodily across the room.

CRACK

She struck the wall, slid to the floor, and was still.

“Yue!” I cried. I tried to dart around King, to run to her, but it spun at the sound of my voice. One limb lashed out. I avoided the claws, but the palm struck me like a bear’s paw. I, too, flew into the wall, and my head struck it so hard I nearly blacked out straight away.

“Albern!” cried Mag. “The blood!”

I tried to look at her, tried to focus in a world that was suddenly swimming and hazy. She had reached the cauldron, just as Yue had. But Yue’s distraction, and mine, had given her the time she needed.

She heaved. It did not look as if she should have been able to move the giant iron bowl. But Mag knew leverage—knew how to get more out of the human body than anyone had a right to expect.

The cauldron upended. The blood flooded over the stone floor, splashing all across it, crashing against the vampire’s legs like the ocean against rocks, soaking its lower body in black liquid.

The vampire screamed in livid fury. But it was too focused on the blood to try and claim vengeance against Mag. It fell to its knees, trying desperately to lap up the blood on the ground, pressing its nose and tongue into the stones.

“The blood!” cried Mag again. “With your torch, you idiot!”

Her voice dragged my attention back from King. I frowned at her. The blood? Yue had already tried that. She might be dead. My torch?

I looked down. I still held my torch in my hand, where it burned brightly. When the vampire had struck me, I had dropped my sword, but somehow I had held onto my stupid torch.

Stupid torch. Why should I care about it. The vampire had put Yue’s flame out. Fire had caused pain, yes, but it had not killed the thing.

Then Mag was there, kneeling over me, snatching the torch out of my hand. “Honestly, I have to do everything,” she said mildly.

And then she flung the torch into the blood that soaked the floor.

It caught at once, like lamp oil. Black flames rippled out across the stones, consuming all