Of all the fights I've had, all the battles I've been in, all the enemies I've faced and destroyed—fighting the scuttlers reminds me most of when I fought the Bane and his army just outside the walls of Regalia.
At that time, Ares and I were facing the Bane, but not only the Bane. Hundreds and hundreds of rats were scattered around the field, and I could never move freely against a single foe without putting myself in the range of another enemy. The Bane was also enormous in size, and several of the scuttlers circling, leaping, and attacking me now are too big to process. But the anatomy of the scuttlers' bodies and the location of their weaknesses is similar to when I fought the cutters in the Vineyard.
     I use my experiences now, and slip into a defensive stance, only attacking when I have complete confidence of not being injured myself. Eris takes to the air, and I catch sight of his silver body at random moments, ripping off an antennae or leg. His earlier hesitation seems to have faded, but his movements are stiffer than usual. If I had time to do anything but fight then I would be worried about him getting injured.
     The scuttlers are focused and me and Eris, and for some reason they've stopped advancing toward the city. Perhaps they can't resist a fight when it's directly in front of them.
I see a break in the wall of fiery carapaces and leap toward one, launching myself off the back of a scuttler and driving my sword into the mouth of the biggest of the creatures. It hisses, and bubbling foam spews from its jaws, splattering my spider silk shirt, then the thing falls to the ground—dead. I flick the gunk off my blade and settle back into the defensive.
Our of the corner of my eye I'm watching the castle, wondering when help will arrive. Scouts must have spotted the scuttlers before they even breached the wall, and Nerissa and Henry should have found a flier to take them to safety by now. They should have sent help. When will the Regalian army get here? Are they going to leave me to fight these things on my own? Oh, the renowned Warrior can handle this, no big deal.
     I lunge forward and take the antennae off another smaller scuttler, leaving it stumbling and blind. Another one twists around my left leg in the opening I've created. No! Don't get careless! I chide myself, and slice the thing in half, stumbling away from its carcass. I switch back to defensive and sink into a rhythm, trying to ignore the voice that's telling me I've been abandoned.
     One more scuttler dies, then another, and a moment later the overwhelming number of enemies dwindles to just a few as Eris tears off a row of legs with a swipe, immobilizing one.
Then a burning pain attaches itself to my right shoulder. My sword arm jerks involuntarily and I stumble. A small scuttler slips past my defense and slices my left ankle with a mandible. I drive my sword point through the top of its head, pinning it to the ground, and rise again.
But now my arm is trembling uncontrollably. I can't hold my sword steady, and with my leg bleeding, I can barely stand. What the hell is happening?
"Gregor!" Eris' panicked voice rushes by, but he can't get through to me without putting himself in danger too. "Gregor! It is acid!"
I just manage to deflect another creatures' mandibles away from my chest. I almost can't process what Eris is saying. Then I look down at my shirt.
The bubbling, white foam that the scuttler spit on me seems to be trying to eat away at the spider silk. The fabric is thin and starting to disintegrate in places from the acid. And some of the foam is touching the bare skin of my shoulder, blistering and bleeding and numbing everything around it with pain.
I sweep my sword in a wide circle, clearing some space around me, and tear off my shirt, trying to keep the foam away from my skin. My right arm is all but useless now, and I switch my sword to my left hand, using the flat of its blade to wipe most of the acid from my skin. Thankfully the metal seems unaffected, though I'm not really sure why.
"Be careful, Eris!" I yell, a horrible image crossing my mind. If that acid got on a flier's wings... they might never be able to fly again.
     I attack another scuttler, taking off it's small segmented head in one swing. Then another loses two legs and a feeler. While it stumbles around, half-blind, I easily dispatch it with a single stab. Then the last scuttler is lifted halfway into the air by Eris' powerful wings, and I cut through its soft underbelly, avoiding the fall of its dead carapace.
     It's...over?
     For several long seconds I don't move. The rager hum in my limbs is still going, searching for prey, immersed in the hunt. Then Eris lands next to me, and I'm back to myself again.
Where is everyone?
"Eris, why—" I start, but then I notice his shaking.
Eris' body is trembling so hard that I don't know how he's still standing. I lay my palms on his furry wing and shoulder. "Eris, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" I imagine that foam burning a hole through his wing and fear grips me. But his wings are fine. Both perfect and silvery and whole.
"Eris?" I ask again, softer this time.
"It's—" Eris shudders. "—nothing."
"Like hell it's nothing." I move in front of him and wait until he looks me in the eye. Any pain I feel in my shoulder and leg are forgotten. "Eris, is it something to do with the scuttlers?"
     Eris jerks his head in an imitation of a nod. Then his dark eyes come back in to focus.
     "You're injured!" He exclaims suddenly, and all the shakiness in his body vanishes in an instant. "The acid—it is very dangerous. We must take you to the hospital, quickly!"
     "Eris, that can wait." I try to protest, but a shock of pain in my shoulder startles me. Though I scraped most of the acid away with my sword, a little is still eating away at my skin. Without another word I slide onto Eris' back and we head for the castle wall.
     As we approach, I think that I must be dizzy from pain, because a fuzzy sort of cloud is hovering in front of the palace wall, blocking my view. But the fuzziness isn't my imagination.
     A thick cloud of bats has formed a living wall between us and the palace. They're all whipping around each other, flying circles and loops and corkscrews, forming an intertwining mess nearly impossible to see through.
     "What's going on?" I ask Eris, crouching low near his ear. He doesn't answer, but I'd bet anything that he's talking to the bats with their inaudible high-pitched squeaks. Yet the other fliers show no sign of hearing anything.
     Eris pauses for a moment, hovering in front of the living wall, then dives downward. I know instinctively what he's going to do and flatten myself against his body, face pressed into his fur. There's a flurry of motion around me and I feel the soft, papery brush of bat's wings against my back, legs, and head. A single claw tickles my scalp.
     Then we're through, and the reason for the wall of flier's becomes a little clearer.
     Luxa, Aurora, Nerissa, Henry, Howard, Vikus, and Euripedes are all here on the palace wall, facing the swarm of bats, and trying in various ways to get through. Several guards stand behind them with their own fliers, uncertainly gripping their swords and glancing around. Eris and I came out of the swarm about a hundred yards away, but I can easily see and hear the commotion.
     "Why are you stopping us?" Vikus calls to no bat in particular, fairly loud in comparison with his usual composed demeanor. "The Warrior needs our assistance!"
     Howard is calling out similar questions. Nerissa is saying something to Henry, who looks worried and confused. Euripedes crouches silently, his large gray body as calm as a statue's, but there's a sort of knowing look in his eyes. Like he understands the situation, but for some reason won't reveal what he knows to his bond.
     And Luxa... I don't know how to feel when I see her.
     Luxa is on Aurora's back, flying again and again toward the wall of bats. Together they dive forward, trying to break through the swarm, but they're forced to stop again and again to keep from crashing into another flier. Aurora's expression is determined. Luxa is frantic. Her hair is wild and half-brushed, her clothes a mismatch of random articles thrown on without thought, her mouth open and yelling wordlessly at the wall. I can see the glint of tears on her cheeks.
     "Luxa!" I yell, but she's taking another dive and doesn't seem to hear me. "LUXA!" I scream.
     Her face when she turns to me—it makes me regret every moment of the last month where I avoided her company and turned from her gaze. Eris and Aurora don't need to be asked or told. They simply carry us to each other, land and let us dismount.
     In that moment, with an aching sort of relief on her face that makes me want to hug her and maybe even kiss her, I don't know how I could ever have wanted to spend any time without her.
     We reach toward each other, and though I want to hold her more tightly than I ever have, instead I catch her wrist and say, "Wait—sorry—you'll burn yourself." Because, of course, there's this damn acid on my shoulder, creating the worst possible scenario for ruining a moment that I've ever heard of.
     "What—" Luxa's expression is so confused that I almost want to laugh. But then Howard is there as well, and despite the fact that he's a doctor, he doesn't seem to know what to do about the bubbling foam eating away at my flesh either.
     "What is that?" He asks, horrified.
     No one seems to have an answer for him, and now I really am starting to get dizzy from pain.
     Then Eris speaks up. "We must clean it quickly, with water from the bathing room. It has minerals that will stop the burning."
     Everyone stares at him, including me, then Howard rushes to comply. Trust a doctor to listen to any kind of advice, no matter how strange, when he doesn't know what to do. Howard knows that doing nothing could be worse than any kind of mistake he might make while following advice. And there's nothing in all the Underland that could make Eris want to hurt me.
     "Hey Eris," I say, as my vision blurs and I lean on Howard's shoulder. "What was your request?"
     Eris doesn't respond, but as Howard leads me around the corner and out of sight I think I hear him hiss, "I no longer deserve it."