The crowd quieted there screams for blood just in time for a resounding crack to shoot through the room, so loud it made my ears ring. I watched, horrified, as the ground split into a chasm that bisected the arena. It stopped mere inches in front of me, spewing forth a blast of air that smelled like rotting flesh. A staircase was carved into the stone, beckoning me forward to what would likely be the most difficult battle of my entire life. The crowd above me howled as I took the first step, both in anticipation of my death and disappointment that they wouldn't be able to see it.
The staircase was long, steep, and utterly boring compared to the castle itself. There was no more obsidian or horrific carvings or magical torches. There was only grey stone, faintly illuminated from the arena's light. I traveled for what felt like hours, with nothing but the clacking of Ur'Rak's claws scraping on stone to keep me company. I felt lost, traveling into an infinite void that would have me walk ever downward for eternity or until I inevitably slipped and fell to my doom.
Finally, though, the staircase leveled off into a short corridor that ended after only a few dozen feet. There was a portal there, dark and swirling like a midnight black vortex. "Stay here, the creature that lies beyond this portal is not for you." I commanded Ur'Rak, who shook his bronze mane angrily but stayed put. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, ignoring the burning itch in my lungs, and stepped forth into the dark unknown.
Chapter 11
Body? Check. Limbs? Also check. Any semblance of where the flying fuck I was? Nope. All I could remember from the portal was blistering pain, even worse than I had experienced after being bonded with Shard for the first time. Pain that was beyond what the human body was built to withstand, but by some force of magic the damn thing hadn't killed me. Still, I didn't have to check to know that I had lost a Humanity point or two from the experience.
I slowly stood up from the rather embarrassing fetal position I found myself in and looked around with eyesight worse than a professional alcoholic's. Natural clusters of crystal sprouted up all around me, flashing sporadically in a myriad of colors. They formed massive spires that shot twenty, thirty, even forty feet into the air, illuminating the damp cavern that surrounded me. Well above my head were more crystals, titanic stalactites that were mere feet away from meeting their floor bound counterparts.
Under my feet, crunching softly as I shifted my body to gaze at the once in a lifetime sight, a powdered form of the surrounding crystals formed a pathway. Behind me was the portal, which seemed to taunt me as if daring me to go back through it and witness its pain once more. I let it down gently- I had a date and couldn't reschedule.
In front of me was an immense ivory throne that was expertly crafted into the larger than life skull of what could only have been a dragon. Bleached vertebrae, ribs thrice as long as I was tall, and other bones lie behind it as if the impossibly large creature had died in that very spot. Atop the throne sat a figure covered in such heavy cloaks that I couldn't see an inch of flesh or even discern gender.
To the figure's left was a black armored warrior, whose eyes swirled in dark vortexes similar to the portal behind me. On the figure's right was a sprite of a girl, barely over half the height of the armored colossus that stood mere feet away from her. Supple dark wings sprouted from her back, dripping streamers of shadow that dissipated on contact with the floor but left greasy looking stains where they landed. Unlike the knight, her eyes shone with an intense cold light straight from the table of a maniacal surgeon. She was garbed in a simple black tunic and trousers, though they shone with an infernal light. A jade crown sat almost daintily upon her head
This looks bad. Something about these guys is giving me the real heebie jeebies.
"Given that you're gathered here, you must know why I've come." I said, trusting Aura of Dominance to help carry my voice and keep them civil. "You must also know that this doesn't have to end in bloodshed. Relinquish the Tainted Shard to me, and I can spare all of you."
The girl cocked her head to the side curiously. The edge of her lips quirked up into a slight smile, as if just now realizing that the man who faced her was a bit slow. She shot forward in a blur of movement so fast I could hardly follow it, drawing two sickly green colored daggers as she moved, and sliced toward me in a vicious attack aimed to decapitate me in a single strike.
I leaned back from her poisoned weaponry at the last instant and increased the flow of Inner Channeling to 16 Mana per second. My left hand came forward in a fist and connected with her gut, months of being pounded into the dirt by my Advisors paying off. The demoness rogue stumbled back a few steps from the hit but looked otherwise unharmed.
"The enchantments on her clothing are extremely powerful. It will take a remarkable hit to injure her."
"Thanks Shard, like I couldn't tell." I muttered. The rogue shot forward again, midnight black hair flying wildly behind her, and attacked in a dazzling display of skill that would have sliced me to pieces without Inner Channeling. The dagger in her left hand skittered off of my breastplate, sizzling and popping as it came into contact with the metal. Her right hand arced downward en route to my temple, but I ducked under the strike and managed to catch her wrist. With one sharp, vicious twist I shattered the bones of her arm.
Using her pain as a distraction, I drew on Inner Channeling to 50 mana a second for just long enough to plant a kick that sent her flying toward the colossal knight. Their torsos collided with a sickening thud that flung her to the side and into a crystal stalagmite. The armored man didn't budge an inch.
"Well played," I growled with boosted confidence after my victory, "You managed to damage my armor." Acid ate away at the metal and dripped to the path of crushed crystal where it fizzled out. The breastplate was useless now, so I deconstructed it and sent in straight into my Inventory.
"I doubt that she's finished quite yet." The knight boomed, making no effort to yell but still carrying loudly through the cavern. Something about his voice was off, but it was hard to tell through its intensity.
"Be careful. The demoness has recovered."
"Huh? She was literally bent backwards Sha- Oh." The woman stalked forward from the rubble she left in the crystal. Her eyes blazed fiercely and her lips were pulled back into a snarl. The damage I had dealt, which should have been enough to kill her a dozen times over, was completely healed. The only distinctive change was a small hairline fracture running along her crown.
She ignored her daggers, which had skittered off to the side when she was launched backwards. Instead she held out her hand, where a dark, gleaming short sword materialized. At a muttered incantation runes the sickly color of her dagger flared to life, sending curls of acidic smoke into the air. She charged forward, weapon at the ready, and I fell into the defensive stance Gida had taught me during our hours of training. It would still be difficult to best someone with a weapon, especially one so agile, but I was confident that I could hold my own.
The first blow came low and fast, aiming to sever the femoral artery in my thigh. I danced back a step as the blade cut through the air, so close to me that I could feel the breeze of its passage.
Faster than should have been possible the demoness whipped her sword back around in a vicious downward arc. I dodged the blow, not realizing it was a feint until too late, and a sudden kick sent me sprawling across the cavern floor. In the space of a single blink she was back on me, and only a well placed Force Slash saved my life. The attack struck her in the armpit of her sword arm, turning a fatal blow into a strike that skittered off of my left pauldron. She reeled back from the blow, which wasn't powerful enough to slice through the enchantments on her clothing but had managed to dislocate her shoulder with a sickening crunch.
"Had enough yet?" I smiled, hopping to my feet. The armor on my left shoulder was dissolving, so I deconstructed it. The rogue demoness just snarled and charged again. Her shoulder was healed but a second long, spidery crack running through her crown. If I could avoid being eviscerated for the next few minu
tes, there was a chance I might win.
◆◆◆
Haven Clearing was in turmoil. The Watchers had returned without their charge, with the front runner of the group sending Murlough over to Niko's castle with a half decayed corpse but had yet to return. Both he and Donovan had been gone for weeks, Antuhr had been sent out with almost two hundred of the Izveir, and Austin was left as monarch pro tempore in the absence of all other Advisors.
He was a soldier, not a leader or king. with the three score Izveir he had left, most of which were Weavers and Crafters, it was up to him to lead the defense of Haven Clearing. The howling, yipping, and crying of hordes of creatures rang through the Clearing. They all knew an attack was imminent, but little and less could be done about it. Their wall was sturdy and lined with every available man and woman, armed with bow and shield and sword, but Austin knew it wouldn't be enough.
They came one by one at first, charging with wild abandon, and were easily picked off by Austin and his fellow warriors. He hadn't practiced with a bow as much as he had with his sword, but was deadly all the same as arrows sprouted from the eyes and throats of his enemies. Slowly but surely they came, more and more at a time until dozens of bodies were piled up in a makeshift barrier around the Clearing.
Some of them simply refused to die, charging through the hail of arrows and crashing into Haven Clearing's wall hard enough to shake its very foundations. The abominations made no effort to climb, as their limbs were nearly useless clubs of muscle and bone that served as little more than heavy bludgeons. Those that weren't cut down after colliding with the wall went into a frenzy, driving the misshapen lumps that were their fists into the wall with an insanity driven fervor.
"Kill them quickly," Austin shouted over the sound of cracking timber, "or they'll break through!" He pulled back the string of his bow and took a deep breath, steadying his shot, and let loose with an arrow. It wobbled slightly in the air before straightening, piercing the eye of a charging beast. It died instantly, dark ichor flowing from the destroyed eye socket. There was a brief respite in between the waves.
Nobody had died- yet -and the wall was holding, even if it was a little worse for the wear. However, they were running low on ammunition and everybody had bloody fingers from the constant shooting of bows. All around him, Izveir were hopping off of the wall and back into the Clearing. They were all Weavers, over half of his entire defense force.
"What the hell are you doing?" He called to them. If they abandoned their positions, the wall would be lost for sure. Even now, they were close to being overrun.
One of them turned around, glaring, and snapped, "Don't worry about us, worry about that damn wall of yours!" With that he turned around, ignoring Austin's cries of protest.
An immense crack drew Austin's attention back outside the wall, where a bull headed beast half the size of Donovan's earthshakers was pushing over an enormous oak tree. It creaked and groaned before lurching over. It seemed to fall in slow motion as it careened toward the wall, crashing into and through the barrier. Several Izveir were taken with it, crushed under the heavy bark and impaled on sharp branches.
"God damnit, conceal the breach!" Austin shouted, dropping his bow and leaping off of the wall. He drew his broadsword as he ran toward the decimated section of the wall. Unlike the other Izveir, he wielded nothing but the enormous weapon in his hands. The others had shields, but he trusted sheer violence of action to keep him safe.
Several of the abominations were already charging in, trampling over the wreckage and fallen Izveir, hungry for blood that wasn't theirs. Austin leapt at them with the ferocity of a well trained warrior, so far from even the soldier that he had been in the past. Now, muscles hardened by months and months of training and Levels wielded his weapon with impossible strength that he knew nobody from earth had ever possessed. Vile creatures fell in droves around him, spurting their thick black blood through the air.
And still they kept coming. More Izveir came to Austin's aid as bodies once again started to pile up, but this time there were casualties on both sides. The Weavers were nowhere to be found, but could be heard chanting loudly even over the din of battle.
"Is there no end to them?" Austin heard a Gruff say, shortly before having the head cleaved from his head by an insectoid mutant. Despite his strength, at that moment he felt like the smallest man alive, helpless to watch while his friends and comrades were slaughtered around him.
Haven Clearing was doomed.
◆◆◆
"I'll admit, that was impressive." I hissed, holding a hand to my side, "Now let's see if Mr. Knight can do any better." The cut on my side was shallow and long, but burned with the demoness's acidic poison. It wasn't the first time she had cut me but was by far the worst, even though it had cost her a blow to the temple hard enough to splinter bone and splatter brain matter onto the ground. Her jade crown had shattered with the impact, scattering along the floor like so much dust.
I kicked her body to the side, ready to charge the monolithic suit of armor before me. The robed figure sat there, ever silent, but I could feel his eyes boring into me. "Enough!" The figure bellowed as I started forward, freezing me in my tracks. He stood up and sauntered toward me, waving at the knight to stay put. "My servant really would be no match for you," he drawled, "after all, he is much less capable a fighter as the woman you just killed. It is time for you to die."
With one half-assed flick of his wrist, the robed mage sent a spear of oily darkness screaming toward me. I side stepped the attack, shivering as the cold touch of dark magic traced a thin line across my cheek. I returned fire with a trio of Force Spears accompanied by a wide sweeping Force Slash that would be damn near impossible to dodge.
The first two Spears went to either side of the mage, missing by less than a centimeter, while the third aimed for his head and the Force Slash was poised to strike at his midsection. The man ducked and all three Force Spears flew by him, but Force Slash slammed into his stomach with enough power to blow a full grow elephant apart. Blood spurted from the robe's deep cowl, and the man fell to one knee.
Yes! Perfect shot!
The robed figure was struggling to regain his feet, somehow still alive. Half of my entire mana pool had gone into the single Slash, and even though the other attacks were less powerful my supply was down to less than a third.
Cold shot through me, pulsating from my wounded cheek. The flesh there turned numb, and I could see the skin under my eyes start to wither and turn gray. Red flashed in my peripheral, and I focused on the alert.
New Debuff: Necrotization- Hungry for the flesh of the living, dark magic eats through tissue at extreme rates. Every 10 seconds, 1% of your healthy flesh will decay starting from a point dictated by the original wound. After 100 seconds, if you still live, the effects begin to dissipate at a rate similar to that which they appeared (Note: While this form of Necrotization does not affect brain or heart tissue, other organs may be at risk of destruction).
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, I'm fucked... Fuck it.
I summoned all of my mana into a barrage of Force Spears and let them loose, all poised to pierce the robed figured in an explosive and brutal death. They soared unerringly toward their target, who was still too weak to move out of the way. Every single strike hit its mark, but with a force of will that made me cough up blood I prevented them from instantly exploding.
I staggered forward as exhaustion from mana depletion overcame me, half falling and half walking toward my nemesis. Blood poured from his wounds, more than should have been humanly possible. As I drew close to the fallen figure, his knightly body guard did not move an inch. I was only a few feet away from the throne, mere inches away from the impaled man.
He threw back his head, cowl flying backwards with a spray of blood as the man's face was revealed to me. It was covered in blood, marred by a sudden burst of maniacal laughter, but I knew the man behind that face well.
"Th-that's impossible." I stammered, but the man said nothing. He just
laughed, voice ever increasing in strength.
"I just killed Lucia, didn't I? A-and that's..." I trailed off, pointing stupidly to the massive suit of armor, "Felix." I dropped to my knees, coming parallel to the necromancer that had, in a life that seemed so long ago, sacrificed himself to save me. My old friend Felix, and brief friend Lucia, somehow back alive only to die once again at my hands.
Lord of Creation Page 20