“Do you reckon the Baron is in there?”
Bane nodded. “Our mission brief said Bargunar is fond of throwing dinner parties in a lavish throne room, which could well be behind that big door. It has to be, we’ve been through the whole ship by now. We’ll make too much noise battling those droids though.”
“So what, we sneak past them?”
“You catch on quick.” Bane rolled his eyes. “I can use illusion magic to make us blend in. Those bots are probably stupid enough not to notice.”
“Or…” Brooke ventured, “we could use water element to freeze them all in place whilst we open the doors.”
“Are you questioning my autho-”
“Nope,” Brooke interrupted. “Just that it will be quicker and won’t take as much sorcery. I heard invisibility spells take a lot of magic to do.”
Bane looked like he wanted to argue further, but begrudgingly admitted she was right. “Fine, let’s go, but hit them before they have a chance to sense us and raise any kind of alarm.”
“Duh, I’m not stupid.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Bane muttered, before running out into the foyer.
She ran after him, drawing on her water sorcery and willing the liquid into ice even as it flowed out of her hands. Bane did the same and in seconds their spells consumed the droids, turning them into icy statues before they could even raise their laser guns.
“Quick, our spells won’t keep them frozen for long,” said Bane, running to the door and punching the large blue button in its centre.
At once, the door slid into the ceiling and they entered a room that held no sign it was inside a spaceship at all, but a medieval castle. The only thing out of place was that the floor was still glass, with a large tank of water beneath.
They’d arrived at a banquet of some kind, only the guests at the feast were entirely alien.
At the head of the long table, sat a short and plump alien with three lidless eyes. His flesh was the colour of milk, save for his bulbous blue lips, long blue topknot at the base of his head, and the blue tentacles drooping from his arms. The rest of him was humanoid, despite the fact he was likely four foot tall.
Due to his place at the table, and the silver crown encircling his head, Brooke guessed this was Baron Bargunar.
Every alien feaster stopped talking at once as their heads whirled toward Brooke and Bane.
“Who dares interrupt my dinner party?” Bargunar snapped, his voice so affected by a lisp, it was barely coherent.
At once, several human men ran to Brooke and Bane, their laser spears raised high. She realised the only humans on the ship had been those serving the aliens as they dined.
She and Bane put their hands up, signalling peace. For now.
“Who are these people,” Bargunar continued in a reedy voice. “Do we have a damned translator here?”
“No worries,” said Bane. “My companion and I have a device in our armour which allows us to understand your language.”
He was referring to the charm the mission monitors had fitted. From what Brooke knew, the device worked like the spell upon Veneseron itself, which allowed Venators to understand all manner of languages.
“This human speaks to me without using my proper title,” Bargunar glowered to his fellow alien lords. “I tell you, I find it most unsettling to see humans out of servitude. Vile creatures.” He pointed to Bane. “Although that one doesn’t look completely human, a mongrel of some kind I’d wager.”
Bane swore under his breath and his hand flexed over the hilt of his sword. The Baron was likely referring to Bane’s unnatural brown skin tone, like that of a pale tree, and his crescent pupils; all features from his nymph heritage. But Brooke couldn’t let him derail the mission because of a fit of anger.
“Don’t you dare,” she snapped, catching his eye before glaring at his sword. Bane muttered darkly, but took his hand away from the weapon.
Bargunar left his seat and strode toward them, his translucent green robe trailing on the ground behind him. He also wore a long yellow scarf for some strange reason, and fiddled with something inside his pocket.
Tropical fish scattered as Bargunar strolled across the glass. The rest of the aquarium looked empty, aside from the giant pale circle in the centre of the tank.
As he got closer, she saw Bargunar appeared to have three, thick tongues in his mouth, all wrestling one another with every word he said, perhaps the reason for the lisp, as well as the drops of blue saliva that splashed out of his mouth liberally. Brooke fought to keep her breakfast in her belly.
“How did intruders get on board?” Baron Bargunar demanded of the humans. “How did a ship dock here without your knowledge?”
“We didn’t use a ship.” Bane smiled icily. “We took a portal.”
Bargunar’s brow furrowed and he hissed as he realised. “Venators! My droids should’ve fried you, Eeeshnids.”
“Eeeshnid?” Brooke muttered.
“Swear word in his language,” Bane replied. “I think it means something similar to when Venators call each other Ushk-heads.”
“Tell me, demon hunters,” said Bargunar waspishly. “Why have you dared trespass upon my ship? And why shouldn’t I have my slaves kill you now?”
“You’ve angered the Realmer Republic, alien,” said Bane, purposely not referring to him by his title.
“Baron Bargunar,” Brooke said smoothly, as the alien pulled a face of outrage at Bane’s words. She needed to calm things down, quick. “We are simply here to collect the cache of Realmer weaponry you took from a cargo ship bound for Del-O-Reth, home to our Republic. The Republic needs those weapons back, I’m afraid. So if you’d be so kind to oblige, my companion and I can leave without further issue.”
“Try hard,” Bane muttered.
Unfortunately, being polite didn’t work, as the Baron drew himself up airily and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve stolen no weapons belonging to your kind and I’m offended you think so.”
“I’ll really offend you in a minute,” Bane replied.
“What my companion means,” said Brooke calmly, “is that the Yurod aliens who crafted the enchanted weapons informed the Realmer Republic that their ship was attacked by your men and the weapons stolen. We have reason to believe you aim to sell these weapons as they’d fetch quite the price. Hand them over to us now, and our superiors will consider all of this a mistake.”
“Return the weapons, or be arrested. Your choice.” Bane snarled. “It’s quite simple.”
She screamed at Bane internally. He was supposed to be the experienced Venator, yet it was like he was trying to incite Bargunar into a fight. Although, Bane antagonised everyone, so she guessed he couldn’t help it, even on missions.
“Alright, alright.” Bargunar held his hands up for peace. “It is a mistake. I raided the Yurod ship of all its supplies, how was I supposed to know they had property belonging to you interfering fools.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t raid other ships then,” said Bane.
Bargunar’s fleshy lips split into an awful grin. “Ah, but that is the natural order of things, boy. The strong devour the weak, get used to it.”
Bargunar strode away from them, heading to the back of the room. “The chest full of weapons is in my store room, just through that door.” He stopped suddenly, turning back to them, his hand once again fiddling in his pocket.
“But I think I’ll keep them…and dispose of you instead.”
Brooke cried out, summoning her sorcery even as Bargunar pulled a remote from out of his robe and pressed its large blue button.
The glass panel she and Bane stood on slid away and both of them plunged into the water, sinking fast. Brooke didn’t have time to be surprised by the water’s heat, as the panel slid back into place a moment later, leaving them trapped.
She clamped her mouth shut, holding her breath as she fought frantically to swim back up. But it was like a current pushed her down, causing her to sink further
. Brooke whirled to see Bane desperately fighting and failing against the same current.
Suddenly, her feet touched metal as she landed at the bottom of the aquarium. She heard muffled laughter above from Bargunar and his fellow alien feasters, but she saw only blurred shapes standing on the glass thirty feet above her.
Bane landed beside her, yanked down by the same gravitational force, but he wasn’t looking up, but straight ahead, his eyes wide with horror. She followed his gaze. The giant white circle she’d seen in the tank earlier was beginning to rise, expanding like an ignited hot air balloon. She realised the circle had merely been a creature lying incredibly flat, it had actually been a jellyfish the size of an army tank.
With rising dread, Brooke saw the tentacles appear underneath the jellyfish as it rose into the water. Worse, each purple tentacle was like an eel, and each one with a snapping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
She jumped as something nudged her shoulder, before realising it was just Bane. He gestured to his mouth, conjuring up an air bubble with the water element to he could breathe, and signalling for her to do the same.
Stupid, she chided herself. She’d completely forgotten the Bubblebreathe spell. It was one of the first Mistress Aqenna had taught in class.
She did as directed, gasping in air as soon as the spell took hold. It wouldn’t last forever however, each second she held the Bubblebreathe spell, the more of her sorcery it drained. But now the more pressing concern wasn’t drowning, but being murdered by the sea monster drifting their way.
Not knowing which spell to attack with, she ripped her sword free instead, preparing to defend herself as the tentacles sped toward them.
An eel the size of a python snapped for her arm, but she swung through the water as fast as she could, hacking the eel’s head off instead. Inky blue blood spurted from the tentacles as it recoiled away, only to be replaced by two more.
Brooke looked around for Bane, but he’d completely disappeared. Oh my god! Has he deserted me? Left me to die here?
She slashed out at the new tentacles biting at her, beheading another one a moment before the third eel bit down on her leg.
She yelped, stabbing the purple appendage before it could sink its teeth in through her armour. After three wild stabs, the tentacle drooped away, lifeless.
By now, however the jellyfish was right in front of her, like a thick, rippling cloud.
She wasn’t strong enough in fire magic to shoot fire at the sea monster through that water, so she planned to place her hand on the jellyfish and burn it that way. But the moment she touched its blue flesh a surge of electricity jolted into her, propelling her backwards as her whole body shook violently. The force of the shock made her lose focus on the Bubblebreathe spell and caused her to swallow water. Even as she choked, another tentacle wrapped around her throat, squeezing tight.
That was it. She was done for. Brooke tried to bring her arm up and cut the tentacle strangling her, but black spots had already appeared at the side of her vision as her body became too weak to move.
Abruptly, she heard a scream reverberate through the water and the giant jellyfish wilted like punctured balloon. A flood of inky blue liquid swirled up into the air as the monster dropped back to the ground, its flesh folding in on itself.
Brooke wrenched the tentacle off her throat as it lost its grip and only then saw Bane emerge from underneath the monster just before it hit the ground and lay still. He must’ve swam underneath the jellyfish before striking its centre from within. He’d saved her life.
Brooke hastily performed Bubblebreathe once again, before summoning air element and pushing up toward the glass ceiling. Her arms trembled with the effort of battling against the aquarium’s gravitational pull, but she made it to the ceiling.
Her hands connected with the glass panel, but it wouldn’t budge, so she morphed her fist into rock and punched up, smashing through the glass with a scream.
The feasting aliens scattered out of the room whilst Bargunar himself headed for his store room. Brooke used the last of her sorcery and conjured the Roperap spell, manipulating the air element into an invisible rope which constricted Bargunar and held him in place.
She pulled herself up out of the water and hurried over to apprehend Bargunar, placing a boot on his chest.
“You’re under arrest, scumbag.” She grinned at Bane’s confused expression. “Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that.”
He just shook his head and moved into the back room. She heard him rifling around for a few moments and then Bane returned, dragging a large chest across the floor. “Result. These are the enchanted swords we came for.”
“Awesome. So, what now?”
“We portal back to Veneseron,” said Bane, pulling out the Rambrace. “The Mission Monitors will take Bargunar, and make sure he finds his way to Del-O-Reth’s prison. They’ll be adding attempted murder to his theft charges.”
Chapter 3- The Queen’s Favourite
“Get down!” Evan roared, a second after the slug-dragon reappeared. Even as he cried out, the colossal slug opened its toothless mouth wide and clamped down on Elijah’s head. The demon’s membranous wings beat hard and the monster rose, taking Elijah with it. Although now they could only see Elijah’s legs kicking out wildly, the rest of him was obscured by the monster’s mouth.
The slug began to turn away, planning to fly off with its prize, even as he and Jed hurried to get Elijah back. They ran to the very edge of the ramparts and Evan realised they’d lose Elijah forever unless he acted now.
“Jump and grab its tail,” he bellowed to Jed, heeding his own words and leaping off of the tower as the slug-dragon flew away.
The leviathan flew fast, but its giant tail was directly beneath Evan as he jumped. He landed on top of the slimy appendage, seizing the tail’s end before he slipped off. A moment after he grabbed the tail, he was almost yanked off as a huge weight seized his ankles.
He looked down to see Jed dangling from his legs, yelling in fear as they both sailed through the sky. Flying through the air rendered him unable to breathe as the cold air whooshed around him and tiny fragments of ice stung his face. He could barely keep his eyes open and his arms ached as he desperately clung to the demon and Jed’s weight nearly pulled him off.
Fortunately, he saw a slime-covered Elijah slide out of the demon’s mouth and hang on to the slug’s bottom lip. He could still fall at any moment, but at least he wasn’t in the process of being eaten.
The wasteland whizzed past them below and Evan was terrified they were about to meet it face-first if he couldn’t hold on.
“Sorry,” Jed shouted over the rushing wind.
“It’s okay,” Evan managed after he managed to grab lungfuls of air back. “Just hold on.”
It was easier said than done, as the demonic dragon raced through the clouds at terrifying speed.
Evan felt the splash of vapor as he smashed through several clouds. He felt helpless. He couldn’t attack the demon, not from this height, it was far too dangerous for all three of them. All they could do was wait for the monster to land. The demon however, had no intention of stopping and seemed to be flying higher. Just as Evan considered taking the huge gamble and using his magic, the world blinked as the slug passed through a rift in the sky.
Everything shimmered around them, and suddenly they’d left Ugatho’s world behind and were in the neighbouring realm.
The sky vanished, replaced by red all around. The walls, ceiling and ground were so bright, they were almost pink.
Travelling between worlds seemed to surprise the slug too as he shook his head from side to side and groaned.
Elijah screamed as he lost his grip and plummeted to the ground. Evan flung out his hand, summoning the air element as fast as he could to stop Elijah’s fall, but he wasn’t fast enough and Elijah crashed to the floor.
Evan thought he’d just seen his friend fall to his death, but as Elijah landed he bounced back up into the air several times, panic
-stricken, but apparently unhurt.
As Evan tore his eyes away and back in front of him he saw the demon was hurling straight towards what looked like twin rows of stalagmites and stalactites. He and Jed would be ripped to pieces.
“Let go, now!” he bellowed.
“What, we’ll die,” Jed yelled back.
“Just trust me,” Evan replied, letting go of the slug-dragon’s tail a second before it crashed into the razor-sharp rock.
He never saw what happened to the demon as he plunged down, his stomach bottoming out as gravity took over. The wind was driven out of Evan as he slammed onto the floor, only to bounce back up like it was a trampoline. He wheezed desperately as he bounced several more times before lying still. He looked round, still gasping to get his breath back as Elijah crawled over to him.
“It’s okay,” Elijah murmured, “whatever this floor is made out of is soft.”
Jed’s body stopped bouncing beside him as he too tried to regain his breath. Other than being winded, the three of them appeared to be fine.
Even as Jed recovered, he broke into a laugh at the sight of Elijah. Elijah’s head and shoulders were coated in a gelatinous green slime, the slug demon had slobbered all over him whilst Elijah had been trapped in its mouth.
“It’s not funny,” Elijah snapped. “I thought the monster was going to swallow me whole. Luckily, it had no teeth.”
“It travelled through one of the realm rifts,” said Evan as he looked around. “But I have no idea what kind of world we’re in now.”
“A cave of some kind?” Jed asked.
Jed might’ve been right. Although the walls were a very bright red, they had ridges and appeared to be wet, perhaps with condensation. But caves weren’t soft and squishy, and as Evan watched the walls appeared to move in and out slightly, as if the cave was breathing.
He turned back toward what he thought were stalagmites and stalactites at the end of the cave. The upper row slotted in-between the bottom row, leaving only small gaps where water seeped in.
Angels and Elves- Act I Page 3