by Paul Edwards
Chapter twelve
I felt someone shaking me, I woke up groggily pushing the hair out of my face. I was lying curled up in the middle of the carpet, Peter was sitting beside me his hand on my hip.
"Wake up sleepy head... the shows about to start," he said.
I sat up and attempted to straighten my rebellious hair. I looked around, we were still in the air hovering about a hundred feet up. The other carpets were beside us stretching in a large semi-circle. It reminded me of an audience in the higher levels of a sports stadium.
I saw the high walls of Babylon before us, there were thousands of archers standing on the top of them. Semiramis's enormous army was arranged before it, there looked to be about ten thousand men all in perfect formation.
There was a young woman and a man standing on a floating platform in front of the army, I assumed they were Semiramis and Ninus. They were hovering about ten feet above the ground.
I heard a woman's voice suddenly, as clear as if it was speaking next to me.
"King Sumuel, surrender now, the war is already over."
I heard the voice of an elderly man reply.
"I invoke the right to sent a champion, to decide the battle."
"A champion? You are indeed crazy old man... sure... he will fight... Gilgamesh!!"
Semiramis's men burst into an enormous cheer and then started banging their spears against their shields, the noise was deafening.
I looked down and saw a large bearded man emerge from the ranks of soldiers, he walked with a terrifying confidence the muscles in his enormous arms rippling as he carried his sword and shield.
"This is going to be a short fight, he's huge and probably has enchanted weapons," I said to Peter.
"You never know, I saw a hundred and fifty pound guy beat the shit out of four men once."
I saw the door of the city's gate open up a crack, a man walked out, he was not as tall as Gilgamesh but was still large. His arms were also rippling with muscles, he looked confident too but in a different way, like an athlete before a match.
"Our champion... the great Sulva," I heard the kings voice say.
I looked down at the two men as they approached each other, Sulva started doing a weird dance while he waited for Gilgamesh, making small skip like sideways hops.
I stared at Sulva's face, he suddenly looked strangely familiar, I could not place him though, I had a feeling that I had seen his likeness in a large mural.
Every myth has it's monster to be defeated, that must be Sulva, I thought to myself.
Both men stood still now, they were about five feet apart, Sulva moved suddenly throwing his shield away, he gripped his long bronze sword with both hands.
Gilgamesh laughed, then turned to his men while pointing back to Sulva derisively, he then threw his own shield away.
They both had their swords in front of them now, circling each other cautiously, Gilgamesh feinted Sulva didn't react.
Then it started, both swords moved with astonishing speed flicking to and fro, the bright sun reflecting in their polished bronze surfaces. They were spectacular swordsmen, the blades moved so fast I could scarcely follow them.
Sulva got too close then... Gilgamesh seized him in one of his powerful arms, I saw both swords go flying away as Gilgamesh prepared to finish his foe with his bare hands.
Then suddenly Sulva was free, I saw an expression of astonishment on Gilgamesh's face. Sulva squared himself brought his arms up and then in a lightning strike punched Gilgamesh in the face. Gilgamesh laughed... dropping his arms and taunting his foe, two more lightning strikes hit Gilgamesh.
He swung his own mighty fist missing wildly. I saw that for all the blows Gilgamesh was taking, they seemed to have little effect.
"Semiramis has probably enchanted him so he can't be hurt," I whispered to Peter.
Sulva circled Gilgamesh then came too close again, Gilgamesh howled grabbing his foe around the shoulders, but Sulva wasn't there, in one astonishing move he leaped over Gilgamesh while simultaneously wrapping an arm around his neck. Once behind his foe he used his other arm to anchor the first and then slowly pressed Gligamesh's head forward.
Gilgamesh tried mightily to pull the arm from his throat but I could see he was weakening fast, he staggered for a few steps and then fell to his knees. Sulva held on for a few more seconds and released him, Gilgamesh fell face forward onto the ground, not moving.
"Well that's not right... Gilgamesh is supposed to win everything," I said.
"Probably had the better publicist," Peter replied.
"Ya... and I've never heard of this Sulva guy."
I looked at Semramis expecting to see an expression of anger on her face, instead I saw an almost blank stare, like a cat staring at a caged bird.
Semiramis raised her arms, I heard a cracking sound and a huge section of the cities wall collapsed in a heap.
She turned to her troops.
"Attack," I heard as if someone had said it next to me.
I looked down, Sulva was standing by himself in front of the now charging army, strangely he looked absolutely terrified.
I heard another sound, like a loud groan, then I saw what looked like a ripple in the air advance towards the soldiers, it hit them like a hurricane, knocking them over and flattening them as if they were blades of grass.
I turned my head back towards the city, I saw dark black smoke start pouring out of a spot on the ground, it grew larger and larger twisting and turning then forming an enormous skull, there was a snake slithering through one eye socket.
"LEAVE NOW!!!" the skull bellowed in an ear-splitting baritone voice.
Semiramis stared dispassionately at the skull, clearly unimpressed.
"You have no idea the foe you have acquired.... is that you Imhotep?"
"LEAVE NOW, OR THE BATTLE WILL CONTINUE!!!"
"I will leave... but I will find you... Imhotep?"
The skull said nothing.
She turned the floating platform around and Ninus and her whizzed away back towards her troops. I saw that they had already started getting up, the uninjured ones helping the injured.
"Hmm... another sorcerer, even more strange," I said.
"You don't think it's Imhotep?" Peter asked.
"Not really his style... he doesn't strike me as the secretive type."
The three women that were with us on the carpet had gone from being cheerily drunk, to despondent.
"She has started a war with another god," one of them said, her voice shaking.
I saw that they had cracked open another amphora of wine and were busy drowning their sorrows.
"Maybe I should fly," I said as I gently pulled the pilot from away from the carpets controls.