She just hoped it wasn’t chimeras. She’d had enough of them to last her a lifetime.
A snarl sounded from nearby.
Aimilia turned her head and spotted it just as the words left Commander Prisca’s lips. Cerberus. One for each of them.
Maybe Aimilia would prefer a chimera.
The three-headed dogs were snarling, jaws snapping at the air as they struggled against the vitae leashes their handlers had around them. One was being particularly unruly, although they were all giving them a run for their money. Runes filled the air and soon enough Aimilia and a cerberus were surrounded by walls of vitae.
Hypatia had mentioned the sound of a dog snarling. Maybe this was it. This could be the trap.
If this was the trap, did that mean Nikias was innocent?
“The faster you defeat your cerberus, the better the judges will score you, but remember, speed isn’t the only skill we’re examining. Now…” Commander Prisca backed away from the six commanders, all isolated with a half-starved cerberus, straining to sate their hunger.
“Begin!”
The handlers released the cerberuses and Aimilia began casting.
The dog’s middle head rammed right into her shield and sent the creature bouncing back. Aimilia quickly set the shield to buy her enough time to cast again. The dog returned to his advance, angrier than before, lunging and swiping its paw at the shield. Its sharp claws screeched against her vitae, but her shield wouldn’t let it through. Aimilia sent a vitae whip out around the shield, wrapping it around its back paws and ripping its legs out from under it.
The three heads yelped as they slammed into the ground and Aimilia quickly began running and maneuvering her vitae to drag the dog across the dirt, heads away from her. It kept twisting and writhing in the dirt, trying to turn back around and get back on its feet, but Aimilia was ruthless.
She said a silent apology to Marcella as it was the same maneuver she’d once done to her, and it was particularly brutal.
The dog finally got back on its feet, and Aimilia released the whip as the third head nearly closed its jaw around her ankle. A quick blast of vitae in its eyes gave her enough time to dodge out of the way.
A scream ripping through the air told her that one of her cousins was not faring well against their dog. She hoped it was Cyprian, but she knew it wasn’t.
Her rune casting was interrupted when she was jerked back, and Aimilia gasped as the first head had its teeth sunk into her cloak. She slammed into the ground, one head still pulling onher cloak and the other two moving to sink their teeth into her arms. Aimilia reached up and tore her clasp off, rolling out of the way and leaving the cloak behind.
She threw out another blinding rune and right after two illusions, one of herself running in the other direction and another hiding herself as she darted behind the dog. The creature started for the illusion, leaping forward, one head sinking its teeth into the illusion’s leg, and she could hear the crowd cry out in shock and someone yell her name.
But the real Aimilia dropped the illusion hiding her as she grabbed her cloak still dangling from one head’s jaw. She took the red fabric and swept it around the dog, taking its legs out from under it again as she enveloped it with the fabric before she pulled another corner over the other two heads, teeth grazing her arm and drawing blood as she did so, but it was too late.
She had the dog bundled up in her cloak despite its furious attempts to fight its way out.
She pulled it against her chest, the dog longer than her torso, and her fingers flew, getting her rune ready. When the first head tore through the fabric and went for her throat, she was ready. She slammed her hands to the head, catching it right before its teeth sank into her skin, and activated her rune.
Paralysis.
A hard rune to master and ever harder to use in combat, especially against another mage. Runai battles rarely involved being with arms’ distance. This rune in particular was one commanders rarely paid attention to, leaving it for the healers. When would a commander ever be close enough to an opponent to be able to physically cast on them?
The dog went completely still, and Aimilia held her breath to see if her gamble paid off. If not, she was dead. The other two heads slumped down.
Aimilia sighed and pushed the dog off her and to the ground.
Her cloak slid off it, exposing the paralyzed creature, eyes open and a starving fury in them, but the creature was powerless now.
Aimilia huffed for breath.
All magical creatures had a bit of resistance to vitae attacks, so it had taken quite a bit of vitae for her to power the resistance, and that was on top of an already complex, draining rune.
Cheers ripped through the stands, and Aimilia turned to see her walls falling. Three of her cousins were still in the midst of their fights. She looked over to see Cyprian had already finished, and her stomach rolled at the sight.
All three heads had been separated from the body, making for a gruesome sight.
She hadn’t realized just how much blood a dog could hold, even a fairly large one that stood just below her waist height.
