The Elf then set his sights on Arius, who was still desperately trying to heal Licius’s wound, although with very little progress.
“Now young prince, if you would be so kind as to stop trying to heal my prey,” Rallec said, as he slowly walked towards them.
“He is not your prey. He is our friend.”
“Well, those two things are not mutually exclusive and in this particular scenario, being friends with that traitor also make you my prey.” Rallec unsheathed a short sword.
Arius knew that conflict with the Elf was unavoidable, but Licius’s wounds would kill him. So he tried to focus all his energy and gave one final push to the healing spell in order to stabilize his friend for long enough for him to fight Rallec and then return.
Rallec was amazed that even while facing his imminent death, Arius would not stop healing Licius. But deep down inside, he craved a good fight and simply executing Arius would not suffice.
So Rallec walked slowly, as if to give the prince enough time to reconsider and fight.
“You should stand up and fight, a prince should not die on his knees,” Rallec said, as he finally reached the two friends.
“Someone like you would never understand; before being a prince, I am a follower of my faith and there is no way that I will sacrifice an innocent just to save my own life.”
“Very well then, if that is your wish, I shall not wait. On your knees it shall be.” Rallec raised his sword and prepared to land the final blow.
Arius knew that not fighting Rallec would mean the death of all of them. So he begged his father and all his ancestors for the strength he needed to vanquish this foe and save his friends.
Rallec craved the fight more than he would care to admit, so in order to provoke Arius, he grabbed his short sword with both hands and plunged it into Licius’s chest. But Arius’s healing spell finally made enough progress for Licius to regain some consciousness. In that moment Licius’s armor deployed once again, immediately covering his body in order to protect him.
Rallec’s sword shattered against the Bronium breast plate as the Elf general screamed in frustration.
“Well, it seems not everything worked according to your plan,” Arius said.
But all those years of experience had not been in vain, as Rallec immediately realized Arius was trying to provoke him.
“Perhaps you are right; I have certainly underestimated your healing capabilities. But it is of little importance now. Licius is not fully healed and will die from that wound anyway; so that golden armor will act as nothing more than a coffin for him.”
“Not if I heal him, once I am done with you.”
Rallec felt true joy with the prince´s words… because he would finally get the fight he craved against a descendant of his queen’s murderer.
So the Elf quickly unsheathed the long sword he carried on his back and took a swing at the prince’s head.
Arius saw the blow coming and, using the handle of his hammer, he managed to stop the blade just a few inches above his head. But the sword swing was strong and made him question if he had what it took to fight this Elf; but determined to do so, Arius focused his energy and pushed back the sword.
The prince then felt a moment of relief, as he seemed to gain an inch on his seemingly perfect opponent. But that feeling came crashing down, as he felt the blow from Rallec’s knee to his jaw.
Arius fell to floor and sat there, dazed and confused, as the blow had been not only fast and quiet, but also extremely powerful. His vision was blurry, but he could still see Rallec approaching.
But the Elf general was done playing games, as he raised his sword once again and while spinning his entire body, he unleashed a sword swing that would cut Arius completely in half through the waist.
Arius had no time left to actually react to the attack, so he simply raised his holy shield to protect him from the Elf’s sword.
The blow from Rallec’s sword was so strong that he could not stop its momentum once he saw the golden shield covering the Human prince, so he let it continue almost losing his grip on his sword, as it bounced from the shield.
Arius was still not fully recovered, but he recognized the opportunity to counterattack, yet there was no way the prince could retaliate fast enough to catch the Elf off guard. So instead of using his hammer, he made his holy shield explode, which finally managed to land a hit on the elusive Elf.
Rallec lost his grip on his sword and was sent flying a few feet away from the prince. Yet the Elf managed to regain his balance midair and landed on his feet.
“Impressive, I must say. To be honest, I thought I had you beaten. But it looks like I’m going to have my fun after all,” Rallec said, a smile on his face.
“What do you mean by fun? You think this is fun?”
“I must certainly do, young prince; otherwise I would have killed you all much faster.”
Arius noticed the Elf’s eye was drawn to his sword that was lying on the ground. He prepared his hammer for when Rallec made a move. It took no more than a second for it to happen, as the Elf jumped like a tiger, landing hands first on the ground and grabbing his sword. He then did a cartwheel, landing on his feet, but the blast of holy energy was already waiting for him when he landed.
Rallec took the full blow to the chest and was sent flying through the room until a wall broke his momentum. The Elf then fell on his knees and spat blood on the ground.
“Yes! I knew you could be a worthy opponent,” he said.
“As I said, you underestimated me.”
But before the prince could say anything else, the Elf unsheathed another dagger from his belt and threw it directly at the prince’s face. Fortunately Arius managed to block the attack using the handle of his hammer. But by then, Rallec already had made his way to Stundroff’s location.
“You are a great warrior, with a noble code. But that code is your weakness,” Rallec said, as he kicked Stundroff to flip him over and land him on his belly.
The Elf then quickly took the dagger out from Stundroff’s back and before the Dwarf could regain his motor functions, he once again stabbed him in the spine, but this time farther up closer to his neck. Making sure that the Dwarf was also unable to move his arms, he then grabbed him by the hair, took the dagger from the Dwarf’s arm and held it against his throat.
“Leave him alone!” Arius screamed.
“You see your devotion to your friends is your weakness. But don’t feel bad about it; I also had a friend I would have died for once. In fact, I almost lost an eye for him once. But all that was for nothing, as he betrayed everything we Elves stand for and betrayed me, during our most secret tradition.”
Arius could feel the pain in Rallec’s words, so instead of resuming his attack, he tried to reason with him.
“Look, I don’t know, what happened between the two of you. But whatever it was, it can be solved by words. Just lay down your sword and let me heal his wounds, so we can talk this out and find a solution.”
“I won’t deny that your plan sounds lovely, but we are way past that unfortunately.” Rallec stuck the dagger halfway through the Dwarf’s throat.
The blood started to flow, slowly but surely drowning him.
“I would say you have no more than a few minutes before he finally drowns. So if I were you, I would talk less and fight more.” Rallec said to Arius.
Arius knew that the time for reasoning had ended and that he had to act fast if he was to save the lives of his friends. So the prince stood up and charged at the Elf, raising his hammer.
The Elf saw the blow coming and, leaning his weight in the opposite direction, he managed to evade the attack while still remaining close to Arius. He then used the handle of his long sword to try to deliver a nasty blow to Arius’s liver.
But the prince was expecting the Elf to dodge the blow, so before Rallec could retaliate, Arius made his hammer glow with brilliant white light, blinding his opponent. He then used the momentum of his blow to spin in place, lowerin
g his hammer to sweep both of Rallec’s legs away.
The Elf was completely caught off guard by this, as he barely managed to land on his hands to perform a summersault, which would once again land him on his feet.
Temporarily blinded by the light, the confused Rallec had to rely on his other senses to continue the fight. So he focused his hearing and heard Arius raising once again his hammer and preparing to strike. The Elf grabbed his long sword and prepared to deflect the attack.
But it was not Arius’s intention to strike with a physical attack, but a holy blast instead. By that time, the little vision Rallec had, was covered by brilliant light, as it was already too late for him to react.
So the Elf took the full blast to the chest and was again sent flying though the room against the back wall, immediately followed by another and another until the Elf fell unconscious.
Arius knew he had to finish him off, but he also had to help Stundroff. So in a split second decision he decided to attend to his friend, as his opponent was down and apparently neutralized. He rushed towards Stundroff and began to pull the dagger from his neck.
Rallec started to regain consciousness. Galoosh saw this moment as an opportunity to flee. He was unsure he would survive his encounter with whoever emerged victorious from this conflict.
Galoosh turned himself into a mouse and made his way to a small hole at the bottom of the wall that led to the outside of the cabin. He ran as fast as he could in order to reach it, as he could almost smell his freedom.
Rallec’s long sword fell on the back of the mouse’s neck, both sealing the hole and chopping Galoosh’s head off.
The now headless body of the druid returned to his normal Human form, and laid gushing blood on the floor.
Arius watched helpless, unable to act while struggling to help the Dwarf.
“I am sorry. I know I said that I was going to kill you last. But you tried to escape and again make a liar out of me.”
A loud painful scream filled the air with anguish and suffering as the owl that had been watching this whole time from the window came crashing down towards the cabin. It transformed into a rhinoceros and made a huge hole in the wall.
Everything from the furniture, wall fragments and even our heroes, was sent flying as the rhino made his way through the room.
Only Rallec was able to avoid coming in contact with the beast, by jumping out of the way and letting the rhino charge the wall behind him with full force.
“What was that?” Arius asked, as he slowly got back on his feet.
“I have no idea, but at least you managed to get that dagger off my back,” Stundroff replied.
“It seems I have made a new enemy. Would you care to introduce yourself before I kill you as well?” Rallec asked.
“Why should I waste time introducing myself to someone who is about to die? Besides it’s not like we don’t know each other,” the rhino said, as it slowly transformed into a beautiful red-headed woman.
As the woman stood up and revealed her face, Rallec found himself completely in shock, as he realized that the woman was not lying.
“Lizandra, is that you? How can this be? How are you not dead? It has been two thousand years.”
“That is one of the many gifts which the monster you call Supreme Chancellor gave me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that after all the torture and experiments he performed on me, he managed to extend my life span, as if I was an Elf.”
“Shut up, you liar! There is no way that the Supreme Chancellor had anything to do with this sorcery.”
“What is wrong, Rallec? You can’t believe that you have been played for a fool for the last two thousand years?”
“She is right. Licius told us what your beloved Supreme Chancellor did to my people and to your own queen,” said Arius.
“If you think that I will question my chain of command just because that traitor told you a convenient story, then you have not been paying attention to who you are dealing with.”
“It is pointless, Human, this one does not respond to reason or logic. He is nothing more than a tool and will stop at nothing to complete his mission. Our only chance of saving your friend and avenging mine is to kill him.” Lizandra stared directly into Rallec’s eyes.
“Oh, I see. So this entire tantrum is all because I killed your boyfriend? Very well then, let us not waste any more time, I have a head to deliver.”
“He was not my boyfriend, nor shall you finish your mission.”
The female druid then turned into a tiger and leaped claws first towards Rallec, who barely managed to dodge her. But the tiger kept charging towards him, as he flipped his way to his sword while dodging her attacks.
The Elf finally got to his sword and in a single effortless motion retrieved it from where it was stuck; Lizandra turned into a bear and using her right claw, she hit Rallec’s sword as hard as she could, injuring the Elf ´s hand and breaking the sword in the process.
Rallec let out a painful scream, as his hand was almost torn apart by the force of the blow. But before Lizandra could strike again, he retaliated by throwing his last dagger at the bear. But since he was using his left hand and the bear was moving, the attack failed to hit is mark and barely grazed the bear´s shoulder.
Lizandra then took another swing of her claw at Rallec, who once again managed to dodge the attack by flipping backwards. But as he made his way back to the ground, his trajectory was intercepted by a wooden table that Stundroff threw at him.
The blow was strong enough to fracture one of Rallec’s ribs and sent him crashing towards the floor.
The Elf saw Arius’s hammer crashing down directly at his head, so with the strength he had left, he managed to get back on his feet in a single movement.
Rallec then stepped on the handle of Arius’s hammer and used it as a stepping-stone from which he jumped. Twisting his body in the air, he threw a spinning left kick directly at the prince’s face.
Arius managed to block the kick using his right forearm, but the strength of the kick was enough to push his arm towards his face and hit him anyway.
The prince took a step back to regain his posture, but Rallec saw this as an opportunity to attack, so, using his left hand, he threw a punch to the still seemingly disoriented Human.
But before the punch could reach the prince, Arius raised his holy shield once again letting Rallec’s hand clash against it.
The Elf broke a finger of his left hand against the golden shield of light and just like Licius once did, he noticed that the planks in the floor could be used to hurt the prince from beneath the shield. But as he lifted his foot in order to stamp on the plank, he was hit in the chest by Lizandra’s bear claw sending him flying away to the other side of the room, where he landed head first on the floor, but immediately managed to roll back and get back on his feet.
Lizandra then quickly turned into a tiger and leaped towards the injured Elf to finish the job. So the Elf flipped backwards landing with his feet on the wall and using it as a trampoline, jumping away from the tiger’s attack. Unfortunately for him he landed right next to Stundroff who was already fully recuperated and ready to fight.
Rallec had nowhere to run and with both hands injured and no more weapons at his disposal, there was no way he could take on three foes as powerful as these. But even in the midst of this impossible situation, the Elf refused to go down without finishing his mission. So he engaged Stundroff in a direct conflict, while once again avoiding his punches as fast as the Dwarf could throw them.
Rallec knew that the Dwarf and the druid were impatient and aggressive; all he needed to do was play it defensively until they made a mistake. As the Dwarf threw a punch, Lizandra leaped from behind him to claw his guts out. Rallec jumped out of the way and let his two opponents hit each other.
Lizandra’s tiger claw ripped Stundroff’s chest cage open while at the same time the Dwarf’s punch sent her flying to the other side of the room badly wounde
d.
This bought some time for Rallec to make his escape, as he was sure there was no way he could kill them, especially with a healer on their side.
So the Elf once again jumped backwards and landed just on top of Licius’s unconscious armored body.
“Well, it seems play time is over. I will admit that you put up much more of a fight than I anticipated, but I promise that you will not be so lucky next time.”
The Elf then kicked a lantern at the prince, who immediately used his holy shield to protect him and his friend from the attack. The lantern bashed against the shield of light, exploding and releasing fiery oil all over the wooden cabin.
By the time Arius’s view through the shield was clear enough for him to see, both Elves had vanished from the cabin.
The fire then began to spread quickly and without mercy.
Left with no other choice, Arius helped Stundroff back on his feet and between the two of them they carried the unconscious druid outside the cabin using the shield of golden light as their only defense against the burning flames.
Once outside and at a safe distance from the flames, they placed the druid back on the ground and Arius started to heal her wounds.
“We should look for them,” Stundroff said.
“Yes, but first we must heal her. We don’t know our way around this forest and her help may prove vital.”
“Yes, but as you heal her, that Elf gets away with our friend.”
“There is no point in going after him, trust me… I have tried,” Lizandra said very softly, as she could barely speak.
“Yes, it seems you two share a history. But how is that even possible?” Arius asked.
“I wish I could give you a good answer, but the truth is that not even I fully understand it.”
“That is all very nice, but how are we going to get our friend back?” Stundroff asked.
“I am not sure, but trust me; Rallec is too good to leave a trail, which makes following him nearly impossible. Our best chance is to ask for help from other druids and divide the territory. Maybe if we are lucky, he gets lost in the forest long enough for us to catch him.”
“Very well then, let me finish healing your wound and we shall do as you say,” Arius said.
Scorched Kingdom Page 14