Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds and the other scouts added the firepower of their weapons and phase spears to the battle. The wave of attacking demons wavered and began withdrawing.
“Back to the rift,” Richard shouted. “We’ve got to get out of here. There are hundreds more coming. I can sense them.”
Before anyone could act, a rolling wave of darkest evil swept over Jeena. As the evil took the strength from her limbs, she fell to the floor. She sensed Red Wing, Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds, and the other scouts fall as well. Only Richard, Sheeta, Sheba, and the twelve dolgar pups continued fighting against the demons. They didn’t fight for long.
“Fools!” shouted a voice that wasn’t a voice. “Must I do everything myself? I am Cancontus. Angels tremble at the mention of my name. Mere mortals cannot stand before me.”
A bulbous mass of flesh rolled down the tunnel half in and half out of the walls and ceiling. Dozens of thirty-meter-long tentacles extended out of the massive demon’s body. The tentacles reached out and latched onto Richard and the fourteen dolgars. Other tentacles wrapped around Jeena and the scouts. At the major demon’s touch, Jeena was racked with pain. Somehow she held on to her dagger and the Lady’s staff, but she lacked the will and strength to use them.
A tooth-filled opening the width of a tall elf appeared in the center of the demon’s body. The stench of death on the demon’s breath rolled over Jeena as the tentacle that was wrapped around her began pulling her closer to the gapping orifice.
“You first, High Priestess,” said Cancontus. “I will suck the soul from your body for a thousand years. That is when the real pain will start. All of you will beg for death, but it will not come. First the elf, then the others. And we must not forget about you, Wizard Scout. I will save you for last. Your pain will be legend, but first you will watch me tear the soul from your bondmate one agonizing piece at a time. We will savor her screams together. I will savor all of your screams.”
Jeena wanted to scream right then and there, but she could not. She lacked the strength. As the tentacle lowered her closer to the putrid smelling hole of the demon’s mouth, she gathered her fear-wracked mind together enough to send a final emotion down the link to her bondmate. She sent him all the love she could muster.
Then Jeena waited for the end as the tooth-filled mouth drew near.
Chapter 52 – On the Plain
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Telsa, Rembis, Leethor, and Master Jathar stood perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe. They were smack dab in the middle of the empty plain of the valley floor, and there was no cover. The rocky ravine where they’d previously hidden was a kilometer to their rear. The tunnel opening to the rift between dimensions was still a good half a kilometer ahead.
“Not much cover out here,” said Raj in Telsa’s shared space. “I calculate even your battle suit’s camouflage would not keep you hidden if it was not being supplemented with the two mages’ invisibility spells. Even combined with the spells, I seriously doubt any of you can remain hidden much longer. The eight scouts that were near the tunnel opening were bad enough. They have now been joined by two hundred and twenty-three demons. I would advise you to turn around, but I calculate it is too late for that now.”
Telsa couldn’t argue with her battle computer. Their plan to kill the scouts and enter the tunnel had seemed their only hope when they’d been in the ravine. The imp had readily agreed to the plan. The little demon had led the way down the ravine and into the valley while using half-hidden depressions and piles of rubble to conceal them from the scouts. When the two hundred plus demons had joined the eight scouts three minutes earlier, the purple imp had skedaddled, leaving them high and dry.
“I would lay odds the imp has gone to tell its master where we are,” whispered Rembis. The old gnome pointed at the mass of demons near the opening in the volcano’s side. “I’m betting that tall one with the ten legs is the boss of the outfit.”
“Maybe,” said Leethor, “but it has been my experience that size is not all that important. For all we know, that purple imp of ours is the master and has been playing us for fools the whole time.”
Telsa increased her battle helmet’s zoom to the max. The demons were even more hideous up close than they were at a distance. The ten-legged demon was the worst of all. Even at a distance she could sense that its Power reserve was larger than any of the others. Telsa glanced at Rembis and Master Jathar before looking back at Leethor. “Well, regardless of which demon’s in charge, we’ve got to get past them and into that rift if we want to make it back home. It’s just a matter of time until someone or something stumbles on us here and we’re forced to fight.”
Rembis chuckled. When Telsa, Leethor, and Master Jathar looked his way, the old gnome said, “I was just thinking it wouldn’t be much of a fight. We’re outnumbered seventy to one.”
“I fail to see the humor in that,” said Master Jathar.
“Well,” smiled Rembis. “I was just imagining the four of us going down there, taking the minotaur by the horn, and demanding the demon’s surrender. I had this vision of them rolling around on the ground laughing so hard that we were able to slip past them and meet up with Rick in the rift.”
“That is not logical,” said Raj over the battle helmet’s external speaker.
Telsa chuckled. “No it’s not, but it would be one heck of a feat if we could pull it off.”
“That it would,” agreed Leethor sporting a grin of his own.
Apparently Master Jathar didn’t share their humor because he didn’t laugh. In fact, he didn’t give even the barest hint of a smile. “I would suggest we get serious for a moment and—”
Without warning, a ninth scout materialized near the mass of demons and the eight Crosioian scouts. The new scout pointed at the gash in the side of the volcano. As soon as she did, every one of the demons along with the nine scouts began running toward the tunnel. Just as the last of the demons was disappearing through the opening in the volcano, a bulbous mass of gray flesh with thirty-meter long tentacles protruding from its body materialized a hundred meters from the opening. The giant mass of gray rolled more than walked into the tunnel. As it entered the rift, Telsa heard it shout in a deep voice that grated on every nerve in her body.
“Take them! Keep the master’s variable alive. Kill the rest.”
At the sound of the voice, the meter-tall purplish form of the imp appeared from behind a pile of stones twenty meters to Telsa’s right. The pile of rubble should’ve been too small to hide its body, but somehow it had managed.
“Now!” hissed the imp as it flapped its wings. “Now is your chance. We must go now, or the master will not be pleased.”
The sounds of explosions reverberated out of the tunnel opening.
“Wizard Scout Shepard and his elf are in trouble,” said Raj. “The nine fighting-computers of the scouts we saw outside the tunnel say that their scouts and the demons are in battle with the wizard scout and the high priestess. Your friends are in the tunnel with some scouts of their own. The fighting-computers calculate that the demons and the nine scouts will be victorious in two minutes if nothing changes.”
Without taking time to consult the gnome or the two elves, Telsa jumped to her feet and began running toward the tunnel as fast as her battle suit would go. The imp flew to her front, leading the way. She heard the sound of pounding feet to her rear. The sound grew fainter as her battle suit outpaced her friends. She didn’t care. She was a wizard scout. Rick was in trouble. She had to help or die trying.
Chapter 53 – Unexpected
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A feeling of intense love came down the link from Jeena to Richard. The strong emotion only partially concealed the terror he sensed beneath his bondmate’s surface. He struggled to break the grip of the tentacle wrapped around his waist and pinning his arms. Unlike the others in the team, he wasn’t paralyzed by the demon’s aura. He’d been around too many demons during missions for ‘the One’
to be subdued by even a major demon’s aura now. That mattered little if he couldn’t break free from the tentacle. Even Sheeta, Sheba, and their pups appeared helpless as they were suspended above the tunnel floor.
“Cancontus is a major demon,” said Nickelo in their shared space. “He can exist in many times and places at once. The dolgars are not affected by the demon’s aura, but they cannot dimensional shift to escape. Cancontus is preventing their shifts. I wish I could think of something to help, but I cannot. I’m sorry.”
The tentacle holding Jeena in its grip lowered to within a meter of the tooth-filled cavity of the demon’s mouth. The tentacle’s movement stopped as if to allow the elf to stare at the doom awaiting her.
“Watch, Wizard Scout, as I devour your bondmate,” said Cancontus in the deep voice that wasn’t a voice. “You can do nothing to save her. You may have stopped me in the past, but you no longer have the Dalinfaust’s essence in your phase rod. You are as helpless as the rest of the mortals. Even the mighty Dalinfaust is my prisoner, as is my fool brother Zenthra. I alone am destined to rule the three galaxies. Every living thing shall learn to fear the name of Cancontus.”
Drawing Power from his reserve, Richard used telekinesis to pry against the tentacle pinning his arms to his sides. Even after combining the telekinesis with the strength of his battle suit’s assistors, the meter-thick tentacle continued to hold him firm in its grasp. Richard shifted the Power from his telekinesis and converted it to pure energy as he prepared to blast the demon, but a line of energy from Cancontus knocked his Power aside.
“Fool,” laughed Cancontus. “My master forbade me from harming you directly, but he is as foolish as you.” A free tentacle reached down and picked up the headless corpse of the scout Sheeta had attacked. “Thanks to the Blood Claw tribe’s rep, my demons have positioned the Crosioians’ fleets in such a manner that they will destroy the Empire and Trecorian forces once and for all. The one hope for your foolish mortals will be gone. Neither the Crosioians nor the United Galaxy Alliance can hope to defeat the Dragars and our demon armies on their own. Soon the gate beneath the Tree of Light will be torn asunder and the Great Battle will begin in earnest.”
Cancontus laughed uncontrollably as if at an unseen joke. When his laughter stopped, the demon brought the tentacle holding Richard close to the tentacle holding Jeena. She turned fear-stricken eyes to look at him. Somehow he sensed it was fear for him more than for herself. Despite her fright, she forced a last smile. The molten silver of her eyes drew Richard in. Although she was too paralyzed by the demon’s aura to speak, he sensed his bondmate’s emotions through their link. He sensed her thoughts as clearly as any spoken words.
“Do not despair, my love. We will meet again in the next world.”
The tentacle holding Jeena flipped to hold her upside down as it renewed its descent toward the demon’s mouth. Just as the ends of her long silver hair passed over the first of several rows of jagged teeth, green balls of phase energy came streaking in from the rift’s side of the tunnel to explode against the back of the demon’s mouth. Some of the phase rounds passed down the demon’s throat, spraying geysers of black liquid into the air. Cancontus screamed in anger more than pain as two Crosioian scouts, Crush-Your-Skull and Eat-The-Flesh-Of-My-Enemy, came charging down the tunnel from the direction of the rift, firing their phase rifles as fast as they could pull the triggers. Richard sensed the two bat sisters combine Power from their reserves and force it into the demon’s mouth in a single blast of energy.
The explosion at the back of the demon’s mouth blew a double-fist-sized hole out the back of its body. Pieces of the demon’s flesh along with black body fluids splattered against the tunnel walls. As the explosion ripped through the demon, the tentacles holding Richard and Jeena moved away from its mouth. Sensing a slight relaxation in the demon’s grip, Richard shoved telekinesis between the tentacle and his left arm, prying the meter-thick mass of flesh away. The tentacle didn’t move much, but it was enough to allow him to activate his phase rod and strike down onto the demon’s flesh. As the microscopic explosions of phase energy ripped cells apart, the tentacle withered in pain and released its grip.
Richard fell to the tunnel floor and jumped up in a flash. Miraculously, the 20mm auto-cannon was still hanging from its shoulder strap. He brought the weapon to bear on the base of the tentacle holding Jeena. With a quick pull of the trigger, a score of armor-piercing rounds blasted into the tentacle, cutting it free from the demon’s body. The tentacle hit the floor, spurting its black blood in all directions. As the muscles in the tentacle relaxed, Jeena rolled free, but she didn’t move.
“The demon’s aura still has her in its spell,” said Nickelo in their shared space. “The two sisters have obviously overcome the aura’s effect. So will your elf, but it will take time. That’s time you do not have.”
Remembering how he’d freed his fellow wizard scouts from the demon’s aura when they’d fought against the vampires under Old Drepdenor Mountain, Richard formed a Circle with his bondmate. It was easy to do since their bond link was basically a miniature Circle in itself. He gathered his courage and resolve and passed it on to Jeena. At the same time, he expanded the Circle to include Red Wing, her grandmother, and the other scouts on their recon team. As his courage passed from one part of the hastily erected Circle to the other, it increased to the point that the demon’s aura no longer had an effect on his companions.
Red Wing was the first to recover. Still raised in the air, she stabbed the tip of her phase spear into the tentacle holding her airborne. At the same time, she sent a blast of pure Power at the tentacle holding Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds. Although not an efficient use of Power, the maneuver did the trick as the tentacle dropped the old bat. Sheeta, Sheba, and their pups along with the other scouts attacked the tentacles holding them as the demon tried to recover from the two sisters’ attack. The scouts and dolgars were soon free as they joined the sisters, Richard, Jeena, and Red Wing in a combined assault on the bulbous mass of the demon.
“Get them, you fools,” shouted Cancontus sounding close to panic.
At his command, the mass of demons that had earlier begun to withdraw surged forward. Before the demon’s charge could gather momentum, two fireballs exploded in their midst. At the same time, a nearly solid stream of red plasma rounds along with several black arrows struck the demon in the eye, causing Cancontus to howl in rage as much as pain.
“Give ’em hell, Rick,” shouted Telsa over her battle helmet’s external speakers as she, Rembis, Leethor, and Master Jathar came running down the tunnel. Leading their way was a meter-high purple demon flapping its wings as it bared its teeth and hissed a war cry of its own.
Richard brought his auto-cannon to bear on the part of Cancontus’s mass that he sensed was the most vulnerable. While Telsa’s group drew the attention of the mass of charging demons, Red Wing, Jeena, and the other scouts on their team brought all their firepower to bear on the same spot as Richard. Cancontus was driven back screaming and snapping his blood-filled mouth. Sheeta, Sheba, and their pups attacked the demon from the sides, rear, and overhead as the auto-cannon’s deadly rounds cut gaping holes in the major demon’s flesh.
Hope swelled in Richard’s breast. We’re going to win, he thought.
Then everything froze.
Richard’s mind continued to work, but his limbs were frozen in place despite his best efforts to make them move. His eyes focused on a 20mm round suspended in midair an arms-length in front of the auto-cannon’s barrel. Jeena stood off to his right side with her staff raised. A ball of blue energy from the staff’s gem was heading directly toward the gapping wounds the auto-cannon had made in Cancontus’s body. Like the auto-cannon’s rounds, the high priestess’s ball of magic was frozen in midair halfway between Jeena and her intended target. Red Wing and her scouts were also frozen stiff. A line of green balls of energy traced a line from the scouts to the major demon, but like everything else, their plasma and phase
rounds weren’t moving.
What’s going on? Richard thought.
“You fool,” came Cancontus’s voice that wasn’t a voice. “Do you think I am limited by time? I am a major demon. Time and distance are nothing to me. I can heal this body with a thought. I can draw on the Power of my ten thousand avatars on other worlds and dimensions to crush you and your pathetic allies. I am too powerful to be defeated by a weak mortal. Watch as I destroy your allies one by one.”
As if in a trance, Richard saw the massive wounds in the demon’s flesh heal. Two of its healed tentacles moved forward obviously unaffected by whatever time-freeze held everyone else in its clutches. The tentacles wrapped around the frozen forms of the two sisters, Crush-Your-Skull and Eat-The-Flesh-Of-My-Enemy. Tightening their grip, the meter-thick tentacles squeezed, crushing the bats’ fighting-suits until blood dripped out of the crumpled armor. Richard noticed a shimmering in the air as the sisters’ life force left their bodies. With a final ripple of Power, the shimmering disappeared. Richard knew the sisters were gone.
Cancontus laughed. “You see, fool? I can kill your friends at my leisure. I will take my time with your elf. There is no hurry. You and I are in a special time-bubble created by me. As the universe stands still, I will destroy all my enemies. I will save you for last. I am Cancontus. No one is as powerful as I. No one.”
“Oh really?” said a pleasant-sounding voice that sounded strangely familiar to Richard but that he couldn’t quite place.
Out the corner of his eye, Richard saw a dark-haired man walking down the tunnel past Telsa, Rembis, Leethor, and Master Jathar. The dark-haired man wore knee-high boots and a white shirt with fancy ruffles around the neck and collar. The man was walking through the parts of the tunnel floor that were covered with a layer of deep sludge left by disintegrating demon bodies. Even so, the man’s boots and clothing remained unsoiled. A memory stirred inside Richard as he recognized the man who was no man. A chill ran down his back clear to the base of his spine. The approaching man was a master demon. The last time Richard had seen the master demon was during his first mission on Portalis. He had hoped he’d never see the master demon again.
Wizard Defender (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 8) Page 43