The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege

by Tony Johnson

  The barrier was tall enough to conceal Kari as she crouched behind it. She turned and slowly peeked over the short wall at the phoenix. There he is. The monster’s entire focus was set on a house he was melting about four buildings to the left of the destroyed restaurant. There was screaming coming from inside the house. The Gutlingers live there.

  The Gutlingers were a family of four, two parents and their two teenage boys. The boys were polite and well mannered. They frequented the restaurant Kari worked at and were always in good moods when Kari was their waitress. She knew they each had a crush on her, but she was too old for them.

  Kari didn’t know which one of the four Gutlingers was screaming, but she hated the thought of any of them experiencing pain. They were a giving family. Mr. Gutlinger was a farmer and didn’t make a lot of money, but he gave what gold he could to help in the local community. He, his wife, and sons were always donating their time. Kari believed spending time doing volunteer work for charity was more beneficial than just giving money.

  The side of the phoenix’s face was exposed to Kari as he was burning the residence. Kari, still crouched down, moved along the wall to get a better angle. She notched an arrow, drew back her bowstring, and stood up. The phoenix noticed the tiny movement out of the corner of his right eye. But it was too late. The arrow flying into his eye was the last sight that eye ever saw.

  It had only taken Kari a second to find her mark and release.

  Bull’s eye!

  Kari was already off and running before the shot landed. She knew it would be accurate from the moment it left the bow. She hurdled over the roof’s barrier and sprinted across the rooftops, away from the monster. Behind her, she heard the monster growl in pain as the center of his eye had been deeply impaled by the arrow.

  The phoenix’s powerful wings flapped up and down as he ascended high into the air. Since the phoenix had low energy from the amount of element he had expelled, he used his long, feathered tail to attack. The monster glided through the air, negating the distance Kari had created within seconds. The tail lashed down, smashing hard through the roof Kari had just jumped off of. The roof was nearly split in half from the impact. The next attack was horizontal instead of vertical. The phoenix smashed through the front of the next building, causing the roof Kari was on to sharply slant. Kari nearly lost her balance, but kept her footing and vaulted over the next barrier and onto the next rooftop.

  The phoenix roared again partly because of the pain he was in, but mostly it was a roar of frustration. He wanted to quickly end the life of this halfling female that had blinded his right eye.

  Kari jumped off a roof and over an alleyway gap before landing safely on another building top. She escaped her home plaza, which was now reduced to a giant ring of burning buildings. She ran over rooftops trying her best to create more distance between herself and the phoenix. Kari tried running to the right, on the phoenix’s blindside. If he lost sight of her, she would have a chance to take cover and hide.

  Another gap was jumped over, but the phoenix was still coming after her and getting closer. The beast was flying dangerously low, gliding over the rooftops she had already crossed. Kari landed on the inclined roof of a church. Shingles broke off underneath her, preventing her from finding stable footing. She started to slide down the roof, back in the direction of the phoenix.

  This is it, was all she could think. This is how I die.

  Luckily the angry phoenix was going so fast that he wasn’t able to slow his massive weight. As Kari slid down, the monster flew right over her head. He crashed through the church’s stone bell tower and spiraled down into the ground with the debris.

  Kari realized nothing was going to stop her from falling off the roof as she skidded down the steep incline. There was nothing to grab onto for support.

  A fall from this tall church roof will break both my legs, if it doesn’t kill me.

  Kari’s only option was to jump for the stone balcony jutting out from the side of the building she had been running on before transitioning to the church’s roof.

  Her stomach landed right on the railing of the balcony, knocking the wind out of her. She fell backwards to the ground and smashed the back of her head on the street. She rolled around in pain on the ground trying to breathe air back into her lungs.

  After recovering with deep breaths, she continued running without a specific destination. She didn’t know where to go for safety now that her home was gone. My aunt and uncle live too far away. I will have to head to the nearest watchtower.

  She turned the corner to run down the road and found herself staring into the eyes of three snarling dire wolves. Dire wolves were three times larger than regular wolves. Regular wolves were just animals, but dire wolves were monsters because they were created by the evil god. They were far more dangerous and vicious than regular wolves. One clean bite could tear off a person’s limb.

  The dire wolves’ mouths were all dripping with red blood as they angrily bared their teeth and snarled at the sight of her, waiting for her to make a move. Two of them had their own blood on them, gushing out from deep cuts in their sides.

  Kari knew she had no time to draw an arrow and loose it. Even if she had tried to shoot them, each dire wolf would require three or four shots to go down. There were only seven arrows left in her quiver. She turned and started sprinting back the way she came, knowing dire wolves ran five times as fast as people. The three, four legged monsters chased her down the road. Kari turned into an alley, hoping that the monsters would be too fast for their own good, like the phoenix, and not be able to stop and turn the corner as quickly as she could.

  She underestimated the abilities of the muscle-bound beasts. The dire wolves could stop and accelerate very easily. Turning into the alley bought her no time. In fact, the dire wolves gained ground on her because of the move.

  Kari kicked out the bottom of a stack of crates, sending them tumbling behind her. It took more time for her to do that than it took for the monsters to jump over them. She heard their growls getting closer and closer. There was nothing she could do to slow them down and nothing she could do to speed herself up.

  The red, orange, and gray feathered phoenix had risen up out of the wreckage of the church’s bell tower and roof. He had located Kari and saw her being chased by the three monsters. The alley was too narrow for him to fly into, so he soared above the rooftops.

  Kari heard a snarled growl behind her and then the chomp of a jaw as the closest dire wolf, the leader of the pack, took a bite out of the tunic she was wearing. The dire wolf lunged again. Kari knew this time it would bite more than just cloth.

  Before she felt the pain, Kari felt the heat. The entire alley behind her was filled with a flaming inferno from the phoenix’s element. All of the fire had nowhere to go except to quickly follow her down the narrow alley. It consumed the three dire wolves, killing them as soon as they were touched.

  Kari burst out of the alley and into a tiny square plaza, as the flames exploded out after her. She fell to dirt floor and rolled around as her clothes caught on fire. The burning flames were suffocated, but they had not been extinguished fast enough. They had melted holes through the back of her shirt and burned her skin. It wasn’t as bad as the man she had tried to save in the arena, but she still had suffered terrible second degree burns.

  Kari cried out loud from the pain. There was nothing she could do to heal herself.

  The only thing in the plaza other than buildings was an incredibly tall iron pole standing in the center of the square. On top of it was the statue of some famous warrior. Standing at the base and looking up, you could barely even see the statue. Kari hid behind the wide iron column as the phoenix descended into the plaza. The ground shook when he landed. The monster searched for her with his one good eye.

  He hadn’t seen where she went because his bright fireball blocked his view. As far as the phoenix knew, the woman could have been incinerated just like the three dire wolves. But he was not takin
g any chances that she might still be alive. Monsters always exacted revenge for pain caused to them.

  Kari was breathing rapidly from all the sprinting she had done since she left the arena, but was trying as hard as she could to slow her breath and keep still and quiet. Her back was to the wide circular pole, and she took quiet sideways steps to keep out of the phoenix’s sight as the monster prowled around the square. He was searching the vacant plaza and peering into the buildings that surrounded it in case Kari had escaped into one of them. He saw civilians in one and blasted fire into the building, killing the people inside and setting the home aflame.

  Kari saw only two routes of escape from what she could see with her back to the tall cylinder. She could go back through the alley or sprint down the street that led into the warrior statues plaza. The third option she sarcastically refused, knowing it was a million to one shot. Or I could shoot the phoenix in the left eye, and he will never be able to find me. Too bad I already used up all my luck hitting his right eye.

  Kari considered running into one of the houses, but decided not to take the chance that the phoenix would see her. If there were people in the building she ran into, they would be killed as collateral damage. If it wasn’t for me those people in that house wouldn’t be burning alive right now, Kari thought as she covered her ears from the sounds of crackling flames and the screams of people they were being cooked.

  The back side of the plaza featured a high brick wall. There must be some rich person’s house on the other side. They always surround their magnificent houses, lawns, and gardens with high security walls for privacy. Kari grew frustrated, just like the phoenix who was trying to kill her. Any choice she made would result in her death.

  She continued to slowly step counterclockwise, keeping the phoenix on the opposite side of the statue as he searched for her. She took slow, cautious, quiet steps, trying to stay unnoticed. She hoped the monster would abandon his search and fly away. After a couple seconds, she didn’t hear the monster’s steps.

  Kari turned her head to look to the right and screamed in terror. The phoenix’s face was looking right at her; it was so close she could have reached out and touched him. The monster had been waiting for her to turn and notice that he had found her, so he could strike fear into her heart. Somehow, he had caught onto this game of hide-and-go seek they were playing.

  The phoenix turned its feathery tail into fire and swung it into the warrior’s memorial column. He hit the iron pole in the middle, causing it to snap into three pieces. Kari rolled out of the way as the heavy pieces came toppling down around her.

  She sprinted the short distance in the direction she was facing, which happened to be the tall, bricked wall. She ran full speed at it and put her foot on the wall, trying to propel herself up enough that she could grab the top, but she was still four feet short. She jumped again, flat footed from the ground, but was two feet shorter than the last attempt. Even a Giant would have trouble clearing this wall.

  Kari turned to the phoenix and put her back against the wall. The phoenix watched her (with his one eye). A hauntingly evil grin of crooked, razor sharp teeth spread across his face. He had won.

  Kari drew her bow and reached for one of the seven arrows in her quiver, but stopped. Even if she multiplied her seven arrows times seventy, she would not have enough. There was an ancient legend told of a warrior who had battled a great phoenix with his bow and arrows. On the five-hundredth shot, the phoenix finally died. Kari didn’t know if the story was true, but she knew nothing less than five hundred arrows would fall a great flying monster. The immense beasts were some of the strongest of the evil god’s creations. Just to take one down, the warriors would need an equal amount of power to attack with.

  Usually warriors used their flying monsters who had converted to serve the good god. If none of the friendly monsters were available, the warriors used all the powers they could summon: horses, catapults, and hundreds of armed men. Sometimes all that was not even enough for them to leave the battlefield with their lives.

  Kari realized there was nowhere she could go and nothing she could do, except to wait until the phoenix decided to kill her. The huge colorfully feathered monster flew up into the air, above the broken remnants of the statue. Now there was enough distance for him to use all of his stamina and energy to send his most powerful attack of fire to consume her. The phoenix was overcompensating of course. He could have simply killed her with one swing of his clawed hand or one chomp with his jaws. But this woman had hurt him. He would forever be blind in one eye.

  Dragons, gryphons, and phoenixes lived for hundreds of years. This phoenix was fairly young, he had not even lived a full century. And now, for the remainder of his long life, he would be handicapped by this woman’s incredibly lucky shot.

  The woman had blinded him, annoyingly evaded him, and made him look like a fool when he crashed through the bell tower of the church. But he had her now, trapped. The phoenix saw her knees buckling in fear, but noticed she wasn’t crying or curling up into a ball on the ground, hugging herself. For a woman, she had a strength he hadn’t seen in most warrior men who he had cornered and killed. But he didn’t care about her bravery. He was going to scorch in an inferno and char her to a crisp. This time, she would not escape.

  Kari stood and awaited her imminent death. She was scared, but she tried not to show it in her final moments. She had lost all of her belongings today, her whole life. It was only fitting that she burn from the same flames.

  The half-Human, half-Elf reached down and pulled out her locket. In one hand, she held her mother’s memento and in the other, her father’s bow. Kari looked up at the monster that was about to kill her. The phoenix opened his mouth and drew in a deep breath. The glow of a red and orange fireball glowed in its throat.

  Kari closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them again she would be staring into the faces of her mother and father.

  Chapter 21

  The pain she expected from being engulfed in an inferno of fire never came.

  Kari opened her eyes and looked up just in time to see a lifeless green feathered gryphon come barreling down from the sky and crash hard into the body of the phoenix. The phoenix’s head violently twisted as he was hit in the shoulder and wing from the unexpected falling object. The pyro attack meant to disintegrate Kari shot from the phoenix’s mouth and up into the air. The impact drove the phoenix hard into the dirt floor of the plaza.

  Kari covered her eyes to shield herself from the dust that was kicked up. When it settled, she saw the two flying monsters twisted together in a contorted pile of dirt and rubble. They were combined into one feathery ball of red, orange, gray, and green.

  The gryphon’s wing started lifting up from something moving underneath it. A bloodied, armored man was crawling out of the wreckage, grimacing in pain. He dragged himself from underneath the dead body of his gryphon, coughing terribly. Kari ran to the injured warrior.

  The closer she got to the gryphon and phoenix, the more she realized how small she was compared to them. She had already seen the phoenix up close, but this was the first time she had seen a gryphon in her life, albeit a dead one. Kari knelt down next to the injured warrior of Elven descent. He didn’t say anything as he sat up and looked around half stunned and half amazed.

  “Where are you hurt?” she asked, looking over his body from top to bottom. Other than a plethora of scraps and cuts, it looked like nothing was broken. Some of the blood was his, from the crash-landing. The warrior had been thrown from the saddle of his gryphon and violently slammed into the hard ground. As far as the rest of the blood, she could not say where it came from. The gryphon? The phoenix? The monster? She was not sure.

  The warrior checked himself over as she had just done, before saying, “I it my ung.”

  “What?” Kari said. Whatever he had said was incomprehensible to her, but then she saw the red in between his teeth and understood.

  “I bit my tongue.” He said more slowly and pr
ecisely, turning to his side and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  “Anywhere else hurt?” she asked.

  The warrior thought for a moment then shook his head no and asked, “Ere em I?” as he began to look around. Before Kari had to ask for repetition of the question, he asked again, knowing he needed to focus on his words. “Where am I?”

  Before she could answer, the warrior with blonde hair tied back behind his head was dragging himself away from her. His eyes were fixated on something on the other side of the plaza. He was using his arms to scoot himself across the ground on his butt.

  The warrior started laughing quietly to himself, interrupted by bouts of coughing and spitting out blood. Kari figured he was crazy. He had slammed into the ground pretty hard. He must have smashed his head, scrambling his brains. Either that or the Darien Sea is made of ale, and he just drank it in its entirety.

  The faster he scooted, the more he was coughing, but the louder he was laughing. Kari looked around the plaza, drawing and aiming her bow thinking his laughing would bring down the army of monsters on them. She looked back to the warrior who was holding up the head of the statue, which had broken off from the body when it was knocked down by the phoenix. He was playfully tossing it in the air back and forth between his hands. Kari couldn’t hear what he was mumbling to the statue, but he kept smiling and laughing. She walked over to him, not knowing how to help the demented man.

  He held the statue next to his head, both of the faces pointing at her. His speech was starting to become more understandable. “My grandfather,” he said, laughing. “Of all the places to fall…” He took a moment to spit out more blood. ”I land in the plaza of my grandfather’s statue of honor.”

  Kari couldn’t help but notice the resemblance between the face made of iron and the face of the warrior as he held it up next to his head. Maybe he isn’t crazy after all.