Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [89]
The minion’s head held on for a moment, hanging from its shoulders, but then its neck shattered. Dougal covered his head with his arms to protect himself from the flying shards, then dove to the side to avoid the boulder-sized crystal head as it fell.
Gullik rode the creature’s now limp body down as it crashed into the ground, sending up a new cloud of finely ground dust that exploded from the spot where the thing struck. The last Dougal saw of the norn, he still had one hand on the handle of his axe, which had become embedded in the minion’s back. He had the other raised in a triumphant fist, and he shook it at the sky as he let loose a norn war cry that seemed loud enough to reach the distant Shiverpeaks.
When the dust cleared, Dougal picked himself up off the ground and shook as much of the purple crystals from his face and arms as he could. Once he could finally see again, he spotted Gullik standing on top of the fallen creature, his axe slung over his shoulder. Although the reddish glow had left him, he looked exhausted but as hale and hearty as ever.
The norn smiled, but that smile froze and his face fell. And Dougal remembered the cost at which that victory had come.
“Killeen,” he whispered.
Dougal charged over to where the minion’s fist had crushed the sylvari. He found her trapped beneath the gigantic hand from her waist down. Her eyes were open and unblinking, and she had long since stopped breathing.
Dougal knelt beside Killeen’s crumpled form. Ember, Riona, and Kranxx came up behind him, Gullik last of all, still coated in purplish dust. Riona tried to put a hand on Dougal’s shoulder, but he pushed it away. For a long while, all he could do was stand and stare at the dead sylvari and struggle to control the anger building inside him. As he did, the thunder around them grew louder, and rain began to fall.
No one said a word as they watched the drops of water start to wash the dust from Killeen.
“Dougal,” Riona started, “I’m sorry—”
Dougal cut her off. “Don’t,” he muttered, his eyes not leaving Killeen’s corpse.
“We should have run,” Kranxx said. “All of us. Any idiot could see that our best chance of surviving such an encounter was to flee.”
Dougal glanced up and hurled daggers at him with his eyes. “Well, it looks like one of us idiots paid the price.”
Kranxx stammered a moment. “I tried my lightning rod, but it had an odd effect in this environment. Its metaspell solenoids are fried out now.”
“Aye,” said Ember, “and my first two shots misfired before I could take out that thing’s eye.”
Dougal’s face flushed with anger and regret. “I should have dragged her away in the first place.”
“If you had,” said Ember, “we would have left Gullik behind to fight that creature alone.”
“You should have,” Gullik said as he looked down at Killeen. He spoke so softly that Dougal had to strain to hear him. “I did not expect any of you to be so foolhardy as to join me. Least of all, her.”
“Stop this,” Riona said. “We don’t have time for it. The battle is sure to have drawn attention. The warbands that awoke the creature are still south of the Dragonbrand and may choose to resume the chase.”
“They would challenge a foe who slew this beast that terrified them so?” asked Gullik.
“Some charr are like carrion,” said Ember, “only too happy to take on a foe when he is at his weakest.”
“Regardless,” Riona said, her face a mask, “we need to move. Now.”
Gullik pointed at Killeen’s body. “She deserves a hero’s funeral.” Despite the rain falling on her figure freely now, her skin was already starting to turn black around the edges, like the petals of a plucked flower. He became the bear, and in his ursine form shouldered the sharp-edged boulder-fist and rolled it off the sylvari. Then, as a norn once more, he knelt down and picked her crushed form up, cradling it in his arms. “If nothing else, we will not leave her body here in this damned place.”
Gunshots rang overhead. Dougal glanced