by Eric Vall
Still, the gods quickly regained their fearsome expressions and leaned down low, bodies tensed and ready to pounce. They were on either side of me and snarled, pink tongues licking across their chops. I shifted my gaze calmly from side to side, God Slayer at the ready to cut down whichever foolish beast god leaped at me first.
Suddenly, as if on some silent cue, both sabretooth cats let out thunderous roars as they sprang at me simultaneously. Without hesitation, I spun the God Slayer over my head as I pumped my dark energy into it, and a disc of red light formed around the spinning halberd. The circle of light rapidly expanded into a protective dome around me just as the tigers would have torn me apart. Instead, they acrobatically bounced off the shield and landed on their feet.
As the ferocious felines prowled around the perimeter of the dome with a suspicious growl, I continued to spin the God Slayer faster and faster over my head. More and more of dark power filled the crimson barrier, and it glowed brighter and brighter with the red magic. Within moments, the sanguine light was near-blinding, and when my power was at its peak, I let loose a mighty bellow as I pushed my dark energy outward.
The dome exploded as a great wave of crimson light that stretched toward the deities, but they were as quick as their feline forms would suggest. The two creatures quickly leapt back, sticking together as they barely managed to keep ahead of my attack until I cut it off before it smashed into my dear minions. Still, my tremendous show of force had shattered the icy floor into broken shards, all the way down into the stone floors a good three feet deep.
The gods gaped at the massive crater that I had created, and I quickly took advantage of their temporary shock.
I ceased spinning my halberd and summoned the power of the ice deity. I sucked in my breath sharply, tilted back my head, and then exhaled a tornado-like burst of ice from my lips toward my two foes. The frozen whirlwind flew toward my enemies at an alarming speed, and the two tigers eyes widened at the sight of the arctic assault. The whirlwind of ice only gained in lethality as it twisted and sucked up all the shards of ice and stone from the broken ground. Fear in their eyes, the saber-toothed cats ran in opposite directions to try to avoid the attack.
They would not escape so easily. I simply raised my palm in front of me and flicked it towards one of the brothers, and the ice storm followed my command. The tornado curved its path and chased after one of the tigers, wreaking havoc and destroying everything that it touched.
The other god paused for a moment and looked back and forth between his fleeing brother and me, no doubt deciding whether he should aid his brother or attack me. His tiger lips curled into a scowl as he wrestled with the choice before him.
A most unwise time to take reflection. His mistake would prove to be costly.
I spun the God Slayer around so that the spear tip pointed directly at the distracted tiger and channeled my necromantic energy through the weapon into a narrow beam of red light. The beam lanced from the tip of the spear and flew toward the deity. The cat snarled and attempted to jump out of the way, but not before the light managed to slice through one of his tails. The god roared in pain as it cast a furious look at his severed tail before shooting a glower at me, but I wasn’t finished just yet.
I raised my palm to the air once more, and I released the tornado that I had sent after the other twin. As the cyclone dissipated, the running twin skidded to a halt and looked back at where the cyclone had just been before turning to me with a menacing smile. Undoubtedly, he thought that my strength was waning as did his brother, but they were so very wrong.
The two cats turned to me with curving teeth bared and crouched down in preparation to attack me once more in my ‘moment of weakness.’ Just then, the grand double-sided staircase started to tremble and the area surrounding it started to quake. The felines whirled their great heads around as the staircase ripped away from the surrounding ice and rose high into the air. As the immense frozen structure rose ominously into the air, the white tigers reeled back and stared upward in abject fear. Their tails that had swished in the air defiantly not too long ago drooped to the ground between their legs as the terror at the sight of my power came over them.
My lips curled into a devilish smile as I watched the deities’ hindquarters tremble. They had no idea what I was going to do next, and they were just now coming to the realization that they were no match for my power.
A realization that unfortunately for them had come far too late.
Without warning, the frozen staircase suddenly broke into millions of thick sword-shaped ice shards under my power. The felines gazed at the cloud of ice swords as their eyes brimmed with fear. Even as they slowly backed away with their tails between their legs in submission, I mercilessly unleashed the storm of ice swords. The cats attempted to run and dodge, but there was no escaping my wrath. One pierced through the one-tailed twin’s shoulder, another pierced through his hind leg, and he roared in agony. Meanwhile, the other twin let out a cry of pain as a sword tore through his back while another pinned one of his tails to the ground.
The storm of shards continued to torment them as the icy blades pierced body part after body part. Their blood spilled across the ice in a red flood. The one-tailed cat ran to the left, but with every step that he took, another sword pierced his back until he resembled a pin cushion. Even more swords tore through his paws and legs, and his movements slowed until the god’s run became a staggered walk. He took a few more slow and shaky steps and let out a feeble cry before he finally slumped to the ground.
“Brother!” the other deity shouted. “Hang on--”
Suddenly, the tiger’s growled words were cut off by a loud squish and he blinked his eyes rapidly. As he had spoken, the largest of the ice swords had run straight through his throat. The tiger coughed, and blood flew from his mouth as he staggered forward. A blink of an eye later, his eyes rolled back in his head, and his hulking body slumped to the floor.
I could feel the twins’ presences begin to fade away as their soul energy left their bodies, and just like that, they were gone. I calmly placed the God Slayer back in my void pocket, and as I did so, a small radiant orb of white light emerged from each of the tiger corpses and hovered in the air above them. With a beckoning gesture, I pulled the two colorless spheres towards me, and as they came forward, they floated toward each other and pressed together. They began to fuse together until they formed a single larger sphere right before it reached me.
The glowing white orb pressed against my chest, and as with every other godly power I had taken, it slowly pushed until it disappeared inside of me. As this newfound power began to pulse through my body, I tilted my head back and closed my eyes in ecstasy. My fingertips tingled, my mouth watered, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and my heart beat so wildly in my chest I felt as though it would burst through my human form.
I opened my eyes and breathed a sigh of satisfaction as the euphoric sensation faded, and my heartbeat returned to normal. Now that the twin gods’ power had been fused with mine, I now held their same ability to control any animal that I conquered as well as the ability to turn into a beast myself. My hope had been that the creatures that the gods had already conquered would be at my disposal as well when their power had transferred to me, and to my delight, my assumption had been correct. I knew with a thought that I was capable of transforming into a Waaknea tiger just as they had as well as the Snokka and the Rukfrost that we had battled with earlier along with a plethora of other very interesting animals. This new power would serve me well, and I couldn’t wait for the opportunity to test out these new abilities.
“Well, that was quite a show you put on,” Rana called out to me from the far end of the chamber. I broke out of my thoughts as I turned to see the others approaching me from the far end of the room. “First, that whole ice tornado thing, and then that stuff with the staircase.”
“I figured that I might as well try out the powers that I harvested from the ice deity.” I shrugged with a
grin at the fox woman.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s true, but you still wanted to be dramatic and show off as per usual,” Rana said with a wink before turning to the others as she waved her paw. “This guy doesn’t believe in subtle attacks. It’s all gotta be some grand show.”
“I thought it was a very impressive tactic,” Annalíse said. “To make use of the battlefield as a weapon against your foes is a characteristic of a true warrior.”
“Of course, you’re taking his side,” Rana retorted which made Annalíse’s freckled face turn distinctly crimson. “Anyway, let’s take a look around and see what goodies this place has. With a dungeon this size, I bet there’s some really great stuff stashed all over the place.” The fox thief rubbed her paws together excitedly.
“Yes, let’s go ahead and take a look around,” Annalíse said awkwardly as she turned to walk off toward the tunnel from which we’d emerged.
“Don’t you need to look at the map?” Carmedy called out and cocked her head to one side.
“Oh, right,” the swordswoman said, and she scratched at her head uncomfortably as she walked back toward us. “I forgot about the map.”
Rana took out the piece of parchment and held it up so that we could all see.
“I’ll send my shadow slaves to search the dungeon as usual,” I said to the others after a quick study of the map. “We can split up like last time to make the search go a little faster since this place is so massive.”
“We only possess one map,” Morrigan spoke up. “How will we be able to navigate our way through the labyrinth individually if there is only one?”
“I have a solution for that,” I said with a devilish grin and took the map from Rana. I looked down at the map once more, and my eyes scanned across every last detail before I looked to my minions. “Now, hold out your hands.”
“Hold out our hands?” Annalíse said as her face twisted into a confused expression, but she held out her hands as I had instructed while Carmedy and Morrigan did the same.
“Not all of us have hands you know,” Rana said with a wry grin, “but okay, if you say so.” As soon as she held out her paws, a rectangular shape started to materialize in the air above her fingers. Then an identical shape materialized above Morrigan’s pale hands, then Annalíse’s and finally Carmedy’s. The rectangles took on the form of an identical copy of the map that we had found. The women’s eyes widened with surprise as the illusionary maps that I had created floated into their grasps.
“There, now everyone has one,” I said with a smile. Rana moved to look at the original map that I held in my hands and then glanced back and forth between hers and mine to compare them.
“Huh, how about that?” the blue-eyed fox sniffed. “It’s an exact copy down to the last detail. Nice job!” She clapped me on the armored back, and then she seemed to realize that she hit me and gasped as she pulled her hand away.
“You’ve seen me create much more intricate illusions than this.” I waved my hand dismissively. “This was child’s play. Now, let’s go back the way we came, and we can start there and search the surrounding tunnels. I’ll send my shadow slaves to a different area of the dungeon, and I can mark off the areas they search as they go along. Everyone meet back here when you’ve finished.”
We made our way back through the tunnel that had led us to the deities’ nexus and split up as I had instructed. It took some time to search the place to its entirety given its vastness, but having the maps made our venture much quicker and more efficient. Close to two hours passed before we completed our search, and one by one, we arrived back at the nexus with our newfound loot.
Rana had been right. The spoils that we had discovered were in great quantity. Each of us had found a few treasure chests, and my shadow slaves had found several themselves.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Rana said excitedly. “Let’s crack these babies open!”
The five of us settled down to look through the treasure and inspected each piece carefully in the hopes that somewhere in the horde was a sacred object or something else of use.
“I wonder if there’s another augmentation stone somewhere in here.” Annalíse said enthusiastically as she scooped up a handful of gold coins and let them trickle from her fingers onto the frozen ground. “It’d be great to have another one to use on Bloodscale.”
“Hey, how come you get another one?” Carmedy stuck out her lip a bit as she removed a golden platter from the chest in front of her. “You already got one, let one of us have a turn.”
“But I’m the only one with a weapon that will--” Annalíse began, but then Rana cut her off.
“I have my daggers, and Carmedy had her slingshot. I’m sure we’ll find a cool staff or something for Morrigan. We should share the cool stuff we find.”
“I agree,” Morrigan said with a nod.
“But--” Annalíse began.
“I will determine whom the object would best serve,” I said calmly as I raised my hand. “I’ll decide who gets what and there will be no arguments on the matter. Now, if you don’t want that to happen I suggest that you split what we find in the best way that will help you survive. We’ll have no more pettiness, is that clear?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, I guess that’s fair,” The feline said, and the rest of the women nodded.
With that settled, we continued to look through the items and found the usual pieces crafted of precious metals, jewelry, gems, and other trinkets.
“Ooh, that’s pretty.” Carmedy nodded to a small ring that Rana had removed from her chest. The ring’s band was made of fine flawless gold, and at the center was fixed an oval-shaped opal. On both sides of the opal was a small diamond, and a thin strip of gold curved across the opal in an S shape to connect with the band. Rana gazed in awe as she held the ring close to her face and shifted it back and forth. The rainbow of colors within the opalescent gem shone with radiance.
“It is pretty nice, isn’t it?” the fox woman said as her eyes roamed across the jewelry. “But it’s not a sacred object, and that’s my top priority. I’m guessing it’s not an augmentation stone since it’s a ring, right?” The curly haired thief glanced at Morrigan and me for confirmation.
The pale elf shook her head. “No, it is not an augmentation stone.”
“It is something of use though,” I pointed out.
“Really?” Rana raised her eyebrows. “What is it?”
“I think the best way for you to understand is for you to see first how it works,” I replied. “Put it on, twist the opal, and see what happens.”
“Okay,” the fox-tailed woman said slowly. “Let’s see what this baby can do.” She stood to her feet, slid the opal ring onto one of her furry digits, then gently twisted the opal so that the oval was turned sideways. A soft click echoed off the ice, and Rana lifted up her paw to look at the piece, silent for a moment. The fox woman tilted her head to one side and tapped her foot impatiently, but the ring performed no visible action.
“It’s not doing anything,” Rana finally said to me as she wrinkled her nose. “No awesome armor popped out like with Annalíse’s augmentation stone. Is mine a dud?”
“No, it’s not a dud.” I chuckled and shook my head. “Remember, this ring isn’t an augmentation stone. It works differently. We’ll have to test it out so you can see what it does.”
“And I’m guessing that you know what it does?” Rana raised her eyebrow again.
“Well, of course,” I said with a smile. “When you’ve been a dungeon deity for as long as I have, you amass a catalog of sorts in your mind of these various magical objects. I’ve never had much reason to care about the effects, but now that I have four wonderful minions, my knowledge is useful.”
“Makes sense,” Rana said.
“Now, let’s see.” I looked around at the items on the floor that we’d all removed from the chests. “Ah, this will do just fine after a few moments of searching. Carmedy, take this.” I handed the cat the golden platter t
hat she’d taken out of her treasure chest earlier. “I want you to throw this at Rana.”
“What?” Rana and Carmedy cried out in disbelief simultaneously while Morrigan and Annalíse looked at me in surprise.
“Why would you want me to do that?” Carmedy asked me. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
“Yeah, what’s the big idea?” Rana folded her arms over her chest.
“You both know I would never allow any harm to come to any of you.” I held up my hand. “Just trust me.”
“Well, okay then,” Carmedy said as she slowly stood to her feet. She looked down at the gold platter that she held in both hands and then looked up at Rana with a wince.
“If I end up getting knocked out and have a huge knot on my head, you two will never hear the end of this,” Rana warned as she looked back and forth between Carmedy and me.
“Carmedy, walk over here and throw it.” I ignored Rana’s comment and gestured for the petite feline to stand several feet in front of the fox. “It’s all right, go on,” I urged.
Carmedy walked over to the area that I had indicated, hesitated for a few moments, and then reeled back her arm to throw the platter. The dish flew toward the fox woman’s head, and right before it was about to hit, Rana closed her eyes and shielded her face with her arms.
She didn’t need to though, for when the platter was about to strike, a large pink sphere suddenly appeared around the fox’s body. The platter bounced off the sphere harmlessly and clattered to the icy floor. Rana slowly lowered her arms and opened her eyes to behold the protective field that surrounded her with a look of wonder.
“What is this thing?” Rana said as she carefully placed a paw against the inside of the ball. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Neither have I,” Annalíse said with a look of amazement as Carmedy gaped at the pink sphere. Even Morrigan seemed impressed.
“It is called a force ring,” I explained. “The ring can be activated whenever the wearer chooses. As you might have guessed, Rana activated the ring when she twisted the opal, as I instructed. Once activated, the ring projects a sphere of protective magic that can protect the user from most any missile attack for five minutes.