Evan slashed down this time, severing the arm at the wrist and wrenching his foot away. “Quickly. We need to get away from these steps!”
His friends followed him, evading and hacking at the exploding arms in equal fashion. Evan crashed forward as one hand yanked his boot back, but as he fell and rolled across the ground, he realised he’d made it to the chamber beyond the steps.
A breathless Jed and Elijah scrambled after him, both of them tripping over the last of the demonic hands.
“What was that?” Jed cried.
“They were like a security system, and that slug-dragon must’ve been the guard dog,” said Elijah. “Ugatho has his domain well-guarded, it seems.”
“Well, the quicker we find him, the better,” Jed said. “This whole world is disgusting, and now look.” He pointed to the walls of the new cavern they found themselves in.
As Evan looked closely, he saw a thick coating of green slime on many of the rocks.
“He’s slimy as well as smelly.” Elijah wrinkled his nose.
Ugatho might’ve been disgusting in appearance and odour, but he was also a high demon. Not like the mindless monsters who just wanted to kill and eat, but a step below a dread lord. Evan had encounter a high demon before and …
From the faint red light which suffused the room, it appeared there was no exit. But that was impossible. They’d seen Ugatho enter, he had to be here. Evan’s hand strayed to his sword and a tight knot of fear burgeoned in his chest, he always felt a thrill of fear before the kill.
The walls held no doors, but as his eyes adjusted to the gloom, Evan noticed a spiralling slope had been gouged into the far wall. The slope twisted, wrapping itself around the cavern until it reached a crater-sized hole at the top of the cave.
“Up there,” He pointed.
“Ushk,” Jed sighed. “Why can’t this guy stay still? I’m getting tired.”
The slope had nothing to stop them slipping and falling back the cave floor, so the three of them stuck close to the wall as they climbed. The immense heat began to lessen as they got closer to the sky outside. All Evan could see was clouds, so close it was like he could almost touch them. In just a few minutes, they’d nearly reached the top of the tower.
“Okay, gather your sorcery,” Evan whispered, summoning his own shock spell. “Ugatho has to be just up here. We got him corner-” Evan cut off as he was attacked. The moment he’d reached the end of the slope, a hand seized him, wrenching him up through the crater and onto the tower ramparts.
He instinctively lashed out with his shock spell, catching only a glimpse of the thing as it crouched over him, fangs dripping and green tongue lolling.
Ugatho reared back as the spell hit, but he merely stumbled from the effects, both his mouths growling in fury. Evan scarcely had time to take in the hideousness of its faces. Both heads were hairless, but covered in the same red scales as his body. Three bulbous green eyes protruded from each face, and both mouths were abnormally large.
“Get out! Monsters!” both of Ugatho’s heads snapped. It appeared the two heads worked in sync, using only one voice.
Jed and Elijah climbed onto the ramparts after Evan, crying out in alarm as they faced the demon.
Ugatho lunged at once, crashing into Jed and pouncing atop him. The demon’s mouths opened wide and its fangs came to within an inch of Jed’s face before Evan drove his sword into the brute’s back. Black blood erupted from the monster, drenching Evan’s armour. He leapt back as Ugatho turned away from Jed to face him.
Both his heads leered sadistically as Ugatho swiped at him with bear-size paws. He danced out of range, before darting back, his sword flashing through the air once again, hacking off both horns on Ugatho’s left head.
The demon howled as another black shower of blood burst forth, but then Jed was back up, jumping on Ugatho’s back and reaching for the golden amulet hanging at Ugatho’s chest.
Ugatho made to swipe Jed away, probably yanking Jed’s arm off in the process, but Elijah’s ice spell hit Ugatho just in time, freezing his arm mid-swipe.
Jed’s hand closed round the sapphire pendant and he yanked it free, dropping to the ground.
“Now!” he roared to Evan, leaping away from the demon.
Evan surged forward, a tidal wave of ferocity as he hacked off both of Ugatho’s heads.
The demon gurgled sickeningly and its many body parts writhed in terrible convulsions, then lay still.
“Ha,” Jed shouted triumphantly. “That was easier than I thought.” He patted the pommel of the axe he hadn’t even needed to use.
Evan, walked over to his friend and looked at the amulet clutched in his hand. “Is it the right one?”
Jed shrugged. “Looks like it.”
“The mission monitors said it would be oval-shaped,” said Elijah as he joined them, “and the dark blue of a deep sea, with shades of black within. This matches the description alright.”
“Good,” Jed pocketed the amulet. “Then let’s get out of here, you have the Rambrace Elijah, right?”
Elijah froze, mid-reply. Evan heard it too, and turned back to Ugatho’s remains.
The mangled body parts of the demon were shaking and squelching horribly.
“Ushk,” Jed gasped. “You don’t think it’s a…”
“Regenerator demon!” Evan roared as the body parts melded back together and Ugatho arose again, this time its two heads separated and one giant demon became two smaller monsters.
Elijah groaned in horror as Jed feverishly grabbed for his axe as one of the demons raced towards him.
The monster leapt high, shrieking. Both Jed and Evan veered to either side, slashing with their weapons. Both blades cut deep, and two demonic arms dropped to the floor, only to fly back and meld onto the grotesque body once again.
The other demon surged for Elijah, barrelling him over before he could shoot off a spell.
Elijah’s dagger thrashed madly, as if bestowed with a manic life of its own, squelching in and out of the monster’s body.
“We can’t kill it that way,” Evan roared, throwing his sword to the side and summoning the element of fire instead. As his and Jed’s demon snapped back to face them, a ball of fire erupted from Evan’s fingertips and smashed into Ugatho’s chest.
The abhorrent creature careened backwards, its scales sizzling.
“Bull’s-eye,” Jed yelled, launching his own fireball at the demon.
Ugatho flailed in a circle before keening hideously as his torso set alight.
“Together?” Evan suggested.
Jed roared as they both raised their arms and cast twin jets of flames which consumed the demon. The monster gave one last ear-splitting screech and then he was gone, reduced to a large pile of ash on the floor.
“GUYS! A LITTLE HELP?” Elijah cried as the other demon pinned him down.
“Sorry mate.” Jed hurried over whilst Evan circled around.
Ugatho, well, the remaining half, whirled round to face Jed and himself.
“I eat you all!” Ugatho snarled, swiping at Jed.
With the demon distracted, Elijah was able to get to his feet. “Watch out,” he shouted, throwing a bolt of purple lightning.
The bolt smashed into Ugatho’s head from behind, knocking it clean off its body.
The head rolled across the rampart for several moments, before stopping and beginning to wriggle right back to its body.
“Get it!” Evan yelled, jumping for the head.
Jed ran at it too, aiming to kick the head across the rampart and off the side of the tower, like a football.
The demon head evaded both of them however, and as Evan landed on his front, Jed very nearly booted him in the head instead.
By the time Evan scrambled to his feet, the head had reattached itself to Ugatho’s torso.
“We have to burn every piece of him to stop Ugatho regenerating,” Evan shouted.
As the demon advanced toward Elijah, all three of them blasted the monster with trip
le jets of fire.
Ugatho screeched like nothing human, staggering to the edge of the tower as the flames devoured him. He walked straight off the rampart, turning to ash even as he fell.
“Huh,” said Elijah breathlessly, “lucky we got the amulet before we destroyed him, eh?”
“Is it really dead this time?” Jed rasped.
“I hope so,” Evan smiled shakily, adrenaline and relief alike shooting through his veins.
“Let’s get back to the Fortress, just in case,” Elijah said, throwing one last weary glance at what was left of the regenerative monster, before pulling the Rambrace from his belt.
“Well done, Eli.” Jed clapped him on the shoulder. “You managed to pass your first mission.”
“I told you,” Elijah replied tartly. “This is my second mission, just as it is yours.”
“C’mon you two, bicker later.” Evan chuckled. “We should get outta’ here before…” He trailed off as he saw the leviathan explode between the clouds to their left.
The slug-dragon had returned, and it was flying straight toward them.
Chapter 2- Debt Collecting
Brooke threw herself behind a metal crate as the laser beams flew toward her. The bullets instead smashed into the crate in front of her, the laser’s high-pitched buzzing filling her ears.
“Happy now?” she roared over to Bane Madagant.
“Meh,” he replied, “I still say this mission is beneath someone of my esteemed rank. Even if there are a few robot guards.”
They’d portalled to the spaceship from Veneseron only half an hour ago, but the giant ship had been empty. Until they stumbled on the sensor droids that was. The robots must’ve picked up on their footsteps, or maybe their body heat. Either way the droids had evidently been programmed to destroy intruders on sight.
Bane crouched behind a second storage crate, wielding an energy shield to deflect the laser bolts back toward the robots. The four droids before them were like metallic stickmen, but with both arms fashioned into what looked like rifles.
Brooke poked her head above the crate, rapidly weaving the air element to seize the light cables hanging from the ceiling and direct them to ensnare the two robots nearest to her. One electric cable wrapped around the left droid’s neck, whilst another yanked the right droid by his ankle, pulling him to the ground.
Brooke had no time to do more, as another round of bullets came her way and she only just avoided getting blasted full in the face. Instead, the lasers scorched the wall above her, sending sparks flying.
“Finish off those two,” Bane commanded. “I’ll deal with the other pair.”
Bane leaped on top of his crate
Brooke followed after him, pulling out the plasma pistol she’d been given for the mission. The target practice she’d had in weaponry class got put to good use as she fired off several rounds into the first robot. He’d still been wrestling the light cables Brooke had wrapped around him, but slumped against the wall as her bullets reduced his head into a smoking wreck.
A flash of light filled her vision and her hand jerked open, dropping her pistol as a laser smashed into her hand. The gauntlet stopped her hand from being blasted off, but it stung worse than a wasp sting and the armour smoked. She looked round, seeing the robot to her left had gotten to his feet, ready to fire again.
The droid was only a foot away from her, acting on instinct, Brooke simply dived and tackled the metallic man to the ground, frantically summoning immense heat into both of her palms. As she landed on top of him, she pressed her hands either side of the robot’s head and melted his mechanical skull. The droid shuddered as his face melted and sparked.
Brooke looked up in time to see the third robot lay at Bane’s feet, whilst Bane destroyed the fourth and last droid with a powerful air spell that ripped the cyborg into pieces. Its arms, legs and head clattered to the ground around them both.
She staggered up, breathing hard and checking all of the droids were destroyed. She swiftly pulled the chestnut brown hair out of her eyes and tied it back into the knot it had fallen out of whilst she dodged laser bolts.
Bane’s pale-blond hair was slicked back from his own face, the tints of green glimmering in the spaceship lights. His gold-green eyes observed her lazily. “Not bad, rookie. I’m surprised I didn’t have to save you.”
Brooke tried to ignore his jibe, flexing her wounded hand in an effort to stop the stinging. Her gauntlet still smoked slightly where the laser had struck. She considered using healing magic, but decided the wound was too small to waste valuable sorcery she might need later.
“Well I’m not surprised,” she replied. “I’m hardly a rookie anymore.”
Bane’s lips hitched up. “This is what, your second mission? You’re the definition of an amateur.”
“Third mission actually,” said Brooke. “Two weeks ago, me and a High-Realmer, Sasha Elwyr, cleared out several fire elementals who’d been nesting in a Chilean mountain.”
It didn’t exactly prove she was a seasoned veteran or anything, she just hated Bane talking down to her. She hadn’t messed up so far today, and she prayed it stayed that way.
Bane snorted. “I’m surprised the two of you made it out of there alive, but still, you are vastly inexperienced compared to me. So, carry on following my orders and we’ll be back at Veneseron in no time.”
Brooke grit her teeth and swallowed her reply. She’d learned Bane was to be her mission companion yesterday. Joelle had warned her, ‘You’ll want to kill Bane more than you do any enemy you meet out there.’ and Brooke wholeheartedly agreed.
Now that the battle was done, Brooke’s gaze was once again drawn to the circular windows that ran the length of the ship’s corridors. She still couldn’t take it in. Outer space.
The starship drifted so slowly, she’d forgotten she was inside a moving vehicle. The view outside was hard for her to process. From what the mission brief had said, she and Bane were somewhere in the Dremador galaxy, specifically in a solar system of seven planets, and Brooke could see them all. It was surreal. From here, each planet looked like a football, floating hundreds of feet away, yet the planets were the size of Earth and each one home to millions of beings.
The ship itself was bizarre, although Brooke had seen stranger. At first, the walls seemed like regular grey steel, but behind the walls was both a loud buzzing, like a fridge, and a rhythmic scrabbling, as if a small army of rats were trapped behind them. Every door of the ship was triangular with sliding doors, whilst the ceiling of every passage was lit by overhanging cables that spread neon green light.
“Like I saying, before we were interrupted,” Bane remarked, walking around the smoking robot wreck. “Working as a debt collector for the Realmer Republic is grunt work. A job worthy of Venators like you, not I.”
“But this Baron dude owes the Republic a huge amount, and isn’t the Republic made out of all the important Realmers? Sounds like a fairly big job to me.”
“This Baron stole weapons from Del-O-Reth itself,” Bane said. “Yes, the goods are valuable, but it’s still a menial task for us.”
They stepped through another triangular door and down another green-lit passage, only the ground here wasn’t metal, but glass.
Brooke froze, for a moment believing she was about to plunge into water. Beneath them was light blue water, filled with tropical fish, it was like they were standing on top of an aquarium.
“Uh, any idea what this is?” she asked.
“Nope, but it looks safe. Now keep moving,” Bane muttered irritably. “We’ve been walking about this dammed ship for half an hour, and those droids are the only thing we’ve encountered. Bargunar must be close by now.”
Brooke tentatively followed him down the fish-tank corridor, noticing the other specimens beneath her. Other than their twin heads, the tropical fish wouldn’t have been out of place on Earth. The small jellyfish that floated beneath her feet, however, possessed squid-like tentacles that trailed behind them and gave her the
creeps for some reason.
She vaguely wondered why this alien Baron kept so much marine life, and why the fish tanks were set into the floor, but Bane was right. On missions, it was best not to let yourself get distracted by all the bizarre things a Venator might encounter, that’s what the Masters had taught her at least.
She saw then, that her Satyne stone had also fallen loose in the droid battle. The stone dangled from a leather cord at her neck, and she grabbed the pendant, slipping it back under her armour. She couldn’t risk the stone getting destroyed. Without them, she and Evan wouldn’t even be allowed on missions. The Satyne stones made them undetectable to any being powerful enough to sense demonic sorcery being used.
Thinking about her demon magic, made Brooke remember Selina which made her nauseous, like it always did. She pushed Selina to the back of her mind, praying like she always did that Selina wouldn’t be believed if she told anyone she’d seen Brooke use demon sorcery.
“Nice necklace,” said Bane with a mocking smile, he must’ve seen her put it away. “Your boyfriend Arantay give that to you?”
She would’ve asked how Bane knew about Tay, but realised Veneseron was a hive of gossip between all the teenage trainees. Not that Tay was anything remotely resembling a boyfriend anyway. In fact, she’d barely seen him in weeks.
“No, and Arantay isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Oh, Lok then?”
“What’re you on about now?”
Bane chuckled. “Word is around the Fortress that you and Lok are quite cosy. I figured, if you’re not getting off with Arantay, it would be Lok. Or maybe you’re two-timing them?”
“Do you want a smack?” she growled.
Bane just laughed harder.
Several minutes later, they reached another door, this time leading to a vast hall, where the floor was also an aquarium.
They crept to the edges of the door and peered out. At the end of the hall was a triangular door four times the size of any they’d seen so far, and also with four more droids standing guard outside it.
Angels and Elves- Act I Page 2