Chronicles of Eden - Act XII

by Alexander Gordon

  “I don’t give a shit about her reputation,” Rulo snorted, herself and the others tensing up as Mika prepared to charge again. “I’m a follower of Daemon Warrick, like hell I’m going to be bested by some idiotic woman with some magical tricks!”

  Mika waved her sword down, striking the ground and erecting a large casting base of crimson and black light below her. The glyphs in the ring shined brightly as her cape fluttered wildly behind her, the woman’s eye slowly moving from one opponent to the next as she saw them all readying to fight. With a sharp swing of her sword Mika knelt down and grabbed hold of the ground, the magical ring flaring up before she waved the blade to hold in front of her, its glowing edge giving off wisps of magical energy that swirled upward from the spellbase into her weapon.

  “You think you can scare us with your stupid lightshow?” Rulo shouted at her. “You’re going down, bitch!”

  Rising up onto her feet Mika held out her hand towards the girls with her sword held across in front, a black and violet spellbase forming on her outstretched palm before multiple crimson casting rings sizzled into formation in the air behind her, all of them forming a wall of magical energy and radiant displays of casting circles that crackled with growing power.

  “I must admit that does make me a little nervous,” Hollia pointed out.

  Without pause Mika swung her sword towards the girls, casting out a barrage of magical energy from the rings behind her. The volley of crimson and black light flew past her in a wild salvo towards the girls who all jumped in alarm at the sight.

  “Move!” Sasha ordered, with the girls quickly scrambling away as the screaming bolts of magical power streaked towards their location.

  As the area was obliterated with charred rubble and flames billowing through a mighty cloud of dust and explosions that quickly filled the side of the cavern, Daemon swooped low and flew over the rolling waves of the underground lake as vines snapped up at him from the tides while bolts of liquid light shot past close to his head and wings. He raced towards Nuci and swung at her with his blade, trailing a hot arc of white light in its wake before colliding with the alurane’s magical barrier that cracked and sizzled from the force of impact. With a hard flap of his wings Daemon took off into the air as Nuci fired a powerful blast of blue light and boiling water at him, the shot streaking just past the cambion that soared high into the air with the alurane’s twin pillars of raging water wavering towards him.

  “You’re ruining everything!” Nuci screamed as she waved her hands together, causing the pillars of water to crash into Daemon and engulf him while vines continued snapping towards the cambion from below. With a bright flash of light the torrents exploded into a rainstorm while the cambion flew higher up still with his sword streaking a holy light behind it. He sliced apart the tendrils that whipped towards him before shielding himself with his wings as a barrage of liquid blue light rapidly struck and exploded violently against him. Swooshing his wings apart and keeping his altitude Daemon saw the alurane below screaming at him while the waters under her were now spinning around the woman with glowing blue light shimmering from the waves.

  “You used to be so benevolent and peaceful, Nuciferyne,” he mentioned shaking his head. “Aeon has truly committed a crime worthy of execution by doing this to you.”

  “Silence!” Nuci roared, throwing her arms towards the cambion and launching large waves of water into the air, magical radiances flowing up through them before discharging from the tops into watery spears. Daemon darted around a few while slicing apart more with his sword, his foot then being ensnared by a vine that quickly swung him down towards the raging whirlpool below. Slashing apart the tendril Daemon spiraled around more watery spears of light and snapping vines that struck at him before closing in on Nuci, the alurane again charging up her magical attack in her hands while her shield glistened in the sprinkling rain.

  “Leave this world at once!” Nuci ordered, firing a torrent of watery energy up towards the cambion. Daemon spun around the raging currents of blue radiances and struck downward with his sword, piercing the blade through the alurane’s barrier with a sharp crackling noise. Nuci stared in shock at seeing Daemon standing atop her shield with his sword struck through it, the cambion gripping the handle tightly while the blade vibrated in the alurane’s barrier.

  “Stop that!” Nuci yelled, firing another blast of water that Daemon jumped into a spiral around before landing down and kicking the Archlight’s Blade further into the shield. “Hey, I said stop! Get off my barrier!”

  She whipped her vines at him from both sides, watching in growing frustration as Daemon sliced some away with his spinning wings and even launched a dark blue fireball at a clump of roots that were quickly blasted away into cinders. Nuci screamed and thrashed her arms about in a fit as Daemon again landed down onto the shield, his eyes focusing on the enraged alurane through her cracked barrier as he stood atop it with wings arching up behind him.

  “You’re not supposed to be doing this,” Nuci stressed through her teeth. “This is not how it should be happening.”

  “I could say the same thing to you. You’re supposed to protect the world from Aeon, not hand it to her with a smile on your face. Have you really forgotten what she is? Who you are?”

  “She is my queen. She is my queen. SHE IS MY QUEEN!” Nuci shrieked, the alurane swatting Daemon off her barrier with a thick root before quickly building up a magical charge in her hands that she held out towards him. As the cambion reoriented and stopped himself with a hard flap of his wings he saw the alurane screaming while channeling water and magical light into her hands, his eyes taking notice of the monster’s thrashing roots in the rolling waves under her, a few rainbows that formed in the air from the constant rain that was thrown about, and his sword that remained lodged in place above the alurane in her shield that was shimmering erratically with bright and dark blue gleams of light.

  “And nobody talks about my queen with such insolence!” Nuci declared, waving her arms aside and creating a mighty tidal wave of flashing blue water before her. The alurane screamed as she then threw the magical buildup of watery energy into the roaring wave, a boom of energy exploding within and surging it forward with spiraling pillars of glowing water being cast out in front of it towards Daemon.

  “I still have a few more choice words to speak about her on this day,” Daemon retorted. Flying up into the air he watched the wave reaching higher to match his elevation while throwing out spears of liquid light at him. Before he could soar over it he collided with a flickering barrier of aqua radiances, his wings hitting against the magical shield as he was kept in front of the barreling tides. Covering himself with his wings he was struck with a barrage of liquid lances before the wall of water smashed against him. Nuci laughed hysterically as she watched the waves crash down into the lake where they detonated violently with magical energy, being followed by the pillars of water dropping down atop the fizzing tides and creating additional blasts of blue light that threw water all across the lake.

  “Monster or not, you’re no match for me!” Nuci bitterly said. Her large roots ripped upward from the crashing waves and then struck down into the bubbling waters while Nuci fired out a volley of blue liquid light projectiles that struck into the lake atop them, igniting the rolling waves into a massive display of radiant light, rainbows, and walls of water that were sent rolling in all directions. The alurane laughed wildly while one of her tendrils reached up and yanked the Archlight’s Blade out of her barrier, the woman eyeing over the holy sword with a derisive grin before tossing it into a sharp spin behind her and into a boulder further away from the lake’s shore.

  “Well?” Nuci snapped. “Was that all you had to offer, Daemon Warrick? Sleeping at the bottom of my lake already? Oh how you disappointed me so. The guardian of the dreaded reaper, fearsome monster and man all in one, being pulverized into mud by my water without so much as drawing a drop of my blood in combat. How very pathetic!”

  The alurane
laughed as her roots continued to smash and pound into the lake with vicious strikes, the woman watching with a twisted smile on her face as she held her arms around herself. She was then quickly yanked underwater with a sharp yelp, the alurane being dragged through the bubbling water before swung up through the surface with a scream and down into the lake with a hard splash face first. Lifting herself up and coughing out water and her hair she turned around to see Daemon surfacing from the waves while holding onto her flower’s large stamen.

  “You…” she shakily uttered with a bright blush. “You grabbed my stamen? You goddamned pervert! How dare you touch me there! Have you no shame?”

  “Coming from you that means very little,” Daemon remarked as he saw water running down the alurane’s exposed figure and breasts.

  “Let go this instant, you putrid sack of-” Nuci screamed before she was thrown back into the air over the cambion and slammed into the lake with powerful crash. The alurane screamed underwater before Daemon jumped on her back, the flowery monster surfacing from the rolling tides and thrashing about as she felt the cambion holding onto her tightly from behind.

  “Get off me! Get off me right now or else-” she demanded before freezing in place, her eyes quickly looking down to seeing one of Daemon’s reptilian hands holding onto her breast tightly. “You filthy monster, how dare you grab me like that! Nobody gropes me and lives! Ow, don’t squeeze my nipple, you pig!”

  “Not my intention,” Daemon plainly said as the alurane kept shaking around in the air. “Sorry about that.”

  With that he moved both arms to grab the woman around her neck and stomach, his wings flapping hard as he veered the alurane in circles in the air while her tendrils tried and failed to grab hold of him.

  “You vile fiend! Get off me!” Nuci yelled out, only to then be silenced as Daemon threw them both down into the water with a hard crash. Flying back out of the waves the alurane screamed as Daemon kept throwing her around with his wings flapping behind him before they again slammed down into the rolling waters. Nuci’s gurgled cry escalated as the water began swirling into a raging whirlpool, the monster gripping Daemon’s arms and struggling to remove them while the cambion tucked his wings in close and refused to let go. The alurane swirled around in the water before lifting herself up high above the roaring waves, her screaming never stopping as Daemon remained fixated to her back despite her best efforts to remove him.

  “You dirty beast!” Nuci raged, hands clenching into fists that she quickly raised up while sharp roots shot out from the water below towards them. “I’ll turn you into manure!”

  Daemon saw the spiraling roots rushing up towards him, his grip on the infuriated alurane remaining strong as he flapped his wings outward into the air. With a hard swoosh Daemon yanked himself and the alurane back, his hands moving to grab hold of her head as she screamed from being pulled backwards with him backing away from her in the air. Without pause the monster’s roots spiked up past her flower and through her backside, puncturing out of her stomach and breasts as she hoarsely gasped in shock. Dropping down with his flight Daemon yanked the alurane down further, pushing her roots up through her body while her arms flinched at her sides. Keeping his altitude Daemon moved back, observing as the alurane’s tendrils and enraged waters dropped while the woman remained still with her own spiked barbs going through her. Slowly her eyes rolled back to see the cambion watching her with a solemn gaze, her frustrated growl being accompanied with blood seeping through her bared teeth. Gradually she lifted herself upright and pulled her roots back down into the water, the alurane wavering in her flower bud that gently lowered onto the lake while she held her hands over her wounds.

  “You… bastard,” she managed to get out, a weak glare being aimed at Daemon who lowered down closer to the water while remaining silent. “How dare… you do this… to a fellow guardian… to a lady even… you filthy man.”

  Daemon offered no reply, his wings flapping behind to keep him above the rippling waters while the alurane coughed out blood and dropped down onto her knees atop her flower.

  “You’re not going to finish me?” Nuci spat out. “What are you waiting for? This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

  “Injuring a fellow guardian isn’t what I wanted,” Daemon corrected shaking his head. “You merely left me with no choice. And to be fair, you did this to yourself.”

  “Is that… so?” Nuci snarled at him. From the water a few of her tendrils rose up nearby, some having snapper-mouths on their ends that opened to pour glistening water onto the alurane and wash the blood off her. “You know, just because… I can recover from this, it doesn’t… make you any less of an asshole for… wounding me so. Not to mention… touching me… like you did. Filthy… pervert.”

  “My deepest apologies.”

  “Ah!” the alurane cringed, the water running down her body giving off glistening hues of blue light while her blood dripped into the water below her petals. “My queen… shall not forgive you for this. And neither shall I.”

  She slowly held out a hand towards Daemon, a soft blue glow building up in her palm as she feebly growled at the cambion before her. He silently watched the alurane struggling to focus her power before dropping her arm with a weak groan as she wavered atop her flower.

  “I’m going… to make you pay… Daemon Warrick,” Nuci coughed out while slumping down on her knees, the alurane’s petals then slowly closing up around her as she began curling into a ball atop the bud. “When we… meet again… I… will… get you… back… for this…”

  Daemon watched the alurane’s flower closing before it lowered into the water, her tendrils slowly receding after it while the guardian’s powerful aura diminished in the cavern.

  “And I’ll make Aeon pay for what she did to you,” he promised, his eyes then turning towards the continuing fight between his girls and the remaining assailant.

  A heavy bombardment of explosive might detonated around Mika, the swordswoman holding her arms across her chest and channeling her magic into a protective barrier over herself. Slashing with her sword she cast out a dark blaze of fiery energy through the swirling clouds of haze and just past Saffron who jumped into a roll away from the attack. The ant girl squeaked and hurled another bomb at the hunter followed by one more, with Mika slashing her sword again and again to send out two more streaking arcs of magical energy at the crystalline rods. Saffron leapt back into a tumble as the strikes cut through and detonated her bombs in front of her followed by passing by the squeaking ant girl who stumbled with her steps and dropped onto her rear from the near misses.

  “You’re so dead, Mika!” Rulo shouted, jumping through the haze behind the human and striking down on her barrier with a smash of her hammer. The magical shield flickered and sizzled against the mighty stone weapon while Mika merely slashed her sword behind without looking, sending out an arc of energy that narrowly missed Rulo as she leapt aside and dropped to the ground. Following around with her swing Mika sent out another magical wave at the orc, with Rulo quickly rolling away from the searing energy and jumping to her feet before swinging her hammer around and into the barrier again with a heavy thud. The shield crackled with energy as the hunter again swiped at her and then behind at Sasha who quickly evaded the attack before striking the barrier with her sword, again doing nothing to break it as the sorceress struck at the reptile girl with another magical attack without pause. Sasha and Rulo continued to dodge and weave around Mika’s strikes while trying and failing to break the human’s barrier with their weapons, their futile efforts not going unnoticed by their comrades who kept on guard nearby.

  “Her magic is too powerful!” Hollia complained with a stomp of her hoof. “And call me crazy but I don’t think she’s growing remotely tired just yet. Her magical reserves are insane!”

  “She’s going to bring the ceiling down on top of us if we don’t stop her soon,” Forrus cursed. “Saffron’s bombs are volatile enough, but Mika’s magic is causing far more damage to the
surrounding area.”

  “And just how are we supposed to do that?” Tabitha asked. “We can’t break her stupid shield. All of us bashing on it isn’t doing anything and Saffron couldn’t even blow it up with a handful of her bombs. Mika’s using too much magic with her defenses, we can’t touch her now!”

  “Hey, where is Saffron?” Scay asked spinning in circles. “She was just here, wasn’t she? Saffron? Where did you go? Are you still alive?”

  The girls looked around for the missing ant girl, seeing that she was nowhere to be seen while Sasha and Rulo continued their struggle against Mika, before spotting Scay now examining a hole in the ground, the naga sticking her head and upper body down into it while giggling strenuously with a wiggling tail. Mika wound back to send out another magical attack at Rulo before she suddenly looked down as she felt the ground moving a little. Everyone noticed the human staring at the dirt beneath her, the woman stepping around in circles as she felt something was amiss, before Scay jumped back with a squeal followed by Saffron pulling herself out of the hole and flipping off Mika with a sly grin on her face.

  “Hey, you’re not dead,” Scay applauded. “Good for you.”

  “What was she doing?” Sasha asked.

  Almost instantly the ground below Mika exploded violently, throwing charred rubble and smoke into the air along with the human who screamed while being sent into a tumbling crash down to the ground further away. The hunter’s sword struck into the dirt near where she was slowly getting up with a frustrated groan, the woman then being pelted with falling debris from the blast that knocked her back down.

  “I believe she was going under Mika’s pesky barrier,” Hollia mused with a smirk.

  “Nice trick,” Forrus chuckled.

  “That was a big boom,” Scay mentioned rubbing her ear.