“Yes!” they all answered in unison.
“After you find them, bring them back to me. If you find any survivors, you know what I want you to do with them.” Mal’ak, Daimonio, and Shedim walked from the temple and started searching the city without another word. Emalf waited in the temple for a few minutes before making his way out. He felt the urge to destroy them now, but he wanted their help in finding the artifacts first.
Mal’ak found a wounded elf in a nearby building and decided to question him. He took the elf in his massive hands and placed him against the wall outside of the building he found him in. “You, elf, tell me what you know about the artifacts hidden.” The elf stared at him in silence and spit. Mal’ak commanded an answer again with irritation. The elf remained silent. Mal’ak decided that torture was the way to get the elf to speak, underestimating the strong will of the elves. Mal’ak started by breaking one of the elf’s legs, and then set the elf’s clothes on fire when the first attempt was unsuccessful. The elf, although in agonizing pain, stayed strong and silent. The elf knew of the whereabouts of the artifacts, but there was nothing that could crack him into revealing the secrets to an evil being, much less a demon leader. Mal’ak decided to leave the elf against the wall to suffer, which was not the expectation from Lord Emalf.
Daimonio went from building to building tearing apart all the furniture and bookshelves he could find. Chairs went flying and pages flew through the air as he stripped rooms clean searching for the Book of Stars, the crystal, the dagger, and the talisman that Lord Emalf so desperately craved. After searching a building and finding no clues to the whereabouts of the hidden artifacts, he set it on fire and watched it burn before moving on to the next.
Shedim took a different approach to searching. When she found a survivor, she quickly finished them off without any questioning, and when she searched a room she was basically a wrecking ball and destroyed everything that did not seem of value. She took great pleasure in ripping out pages of books, breaking glasses, throwing plates and valuables across the rooms just to watch them shatter, and used silverware in the homes to tear apart furniture for no good reason. She punched through the walls and ran her claws across the paintings hanging up inside of any home she searched. She piled up the linens she stripped from beds, windows, and even floors to start fires before leaving. Each home and building she entered was left in a state of disrepair and eventually turned to ashes. The destruction brought her a sense of joy that she had not felt in a long time. She was grateful for Lord Emalf’s summons.
Emalf watched the demon leaders search the city and waited for them to return with good news that never came. He stood on top of the crushed temple as the city burned. Mal’ak, Daimonio, and Shedim returned to him empty-handed. His rage built and he crushed the remaining roof of the temple with one blow causing them all to fall through. He, however, was able to keep himself from landing on the hard ground with his simple magic to make him briefly levitate. The demon leaders were not as lucky, though. They hit the ground with a solid thud and looked at each other in disbelief. Lord Emalf had set them on a hopeless mission, and it was not their fault that the artifacts were not in the floating dragon city. They could see in each other’s eyes that Lord Emalf should be dethroned of his mighty position.
Emalf continued his outburst and started pounding against the walls of the temple and floor. Chunks of gold and rock flew through the air. After the temple was completely demolished he turned to the demon leaders and told them that they were to search far and wide for the artifacts. “Do not return to me until you have found them.” They hitched a ride on a group of flying spiders and dispersed from the floating dragon city.
Emalf traveled down to the sea and started evaporating the waters around him creating a thick fog. Massive sea creatures floated belly-up to the surface. As his anger fueled his every thought, his body temperature increased and, in turn, made more water vanish. The lifeless bodies popped up all around him, but he did not notice them, even as boils filled their bodies and burst, spraying him.
The nes kaliba deep below sensed the change in the environment and sang out to each other. Waves of creatures started to surround them. The nes kaliba prepared themselves for a tough battle. They knew what was happening above was unnatural and dangerous, so they gathered their tridents, coral knives, spears, and crystal orbs and courageously swam up toward the boiling sea water.
Surrounding Lord Emalf, the nes kaliba surfaced. Their heads and shoulders popped up above the water. The nes kaliba bobbed up and down in the water to take breaths underwater, and they stared at Emalf being blind to the havoc he was causing around him. They started to move in toward him, but the heat held them back. They called their spellcasters up to begin their assault. White sparks of water and ice struck at the demon lord and he fought back with fireballs and spits of fire.
Jhamdean was leading one of the groups of nes kaliba into the battle. He was a great leader and knew of nothing but victory and survival. Water started spraying up from the sea creatures and spellcasters working their magic. Emalf laughed at the threat they presented. Their spells collided and neutralized each other. Even the ice shards sent in his direction melted away and only splashed him in the face with cold water. A large whale swam at Emalf at full speed and slammed into his back knocking the wind out of him. The nes kaliba saw this moment as their time to strike.
They pushed forward and struck at Emalf while he tried to regain his composure. The demon lord was stabbed multiple times by sharp, enchanted oceanic weapons before he could catch his breath. Each strike penetrated his tough skin, and when the weapon was removed, a ray of white light escaped from the wound. The nes kaliba’s magic sapped his demonic strength through tiny cuts. Emalf started to feel weaker after each little strike and knew right away that his power was limited. For survival, he decided to flee.
A portal opened up above him, and he tried to levitate out of the water to escape. He was quickly pulled down by a net that had a magical spell protecting it, and he was unable to burn his way out. The nes kaliba swam in circles around him and pulled him down into the water. They were not going to let him flee that easily. Pushing the dead bodies aside, the nes kaliba worked together to move in toward Emalf and overcome him. He let out a terrible roar.
The battle went on for several minutes before Emalf’s roar was answered by an enormous sea creature that the nes kaliba had thought extinct. A portal must have opened underwater and brought the new attacker to Palatovia’s seas. It was a sixty-foot creature shaped much like a shark but was covered in hard, spiny fins with a mouth full of long razor sharp teeth. Its eyes glowed a deadly crimson red. The nes kaliba instantly knew that the demon lord had possessed the creature and it would do his bidding. Jhamdean ordered his group to keep Emalf bound and try to distract him while the others fought off the new beast.
The nes kaliba dodged the attacks of the shark creature as it sped past them very quickly. They knew the creature could outlast them in a game of attack and parry, so they called out to each other to begin striking the beast and summon more help.
A waterhorn was blown underwater that echoed through the depths down to the deepest parts of the sea so any nes kaliba not in the battle heard the calling. They swam as quickly as they could to help their comrades, and they weren’t the only ones that heard the horn go off. The horn sounded like a whale humans hunted for game and profit.
The hunters turned their sails so their ships would move toward the battle hopeful of a good hunt and a big prize. Sӧldner was captain of the leading ship with Anne-Marie by his side. Many hunters worked the ships in the fleet and they pushed toward the sound of the calling. The wind blew in the hunters’ favor and they got caught up in Serpent’s Current and it pushed them north much faster. When the spotter in the crow’s nest was able to see the nes kaliba and the demon lord fighting above the surface of the water, he called down to the crew. The message was relayed back to Sӧldner and Anne-Marie. They grinned from ear to ear wit
h the news. Capturing one of the nes kaliba could prove much more valuable than catching a large whale, no matter how large it was. Sӧldner called out a new order to his crew and the following ships. Sӧldner looked at Anne-Marie and said, “Today is our big day. This may prove to be worth much more than a silly fight.”
The ships started sailing as fast as nature would allow them. The green waves licked the side of the ships and changed to different shades as the water started to rise and lift the ships into the air to drop them with a violent thrust against the surface of the water. After regaining their footing, the hunters looked over the sides of the ships to see what had caused the jerk. The sun reflected off the surface of the water and made it near impossible to see what lay beneath. Hearts started racing and the crew members silently prayed for success. They wanted to gain the riches of the catch, but also feared that if they became too greedy the gods would get angry with them and intervene. The water rose again and dropped the ships from high waves. Crew members stumbled across the deck and fell. The violent thrashing and drops were more than even an experienced sailor could handle. Sӧldner called out an order to continue onward.
The hunters prepared their nets, harpoons, cannons, and other equipment they used when hunting big game as the ships rocked violently. Anne-Marie moved away from Sol’s side to give orders to the crew to take position while a hidden creature and its tentacles whipped into the deep, dark green waters. Two of the ships were grasped by the suckers on the tentacles and tossed around. The crew of the ships aimed their weapons and fired. Spears from harpoon launchers penetrated the slimy tentacles and large explosions from the cannons forced them away.
More large tentacles started appearing above the surface of the water surrounding the great fight taking place between the nes kaliba and the demon lord. Sӧldner muttered words under his breath that he did not want even Anne-Marie to hear. The creature with the large tentacles was a sea god. Sӧldner knew that if they did not act fast, all of his ships and men would be lost.
The sea god turned toward the ships and started thrashing toward them. Tentacles whipped the hulls and stuck to them with suckers. Anne-Marie called out to Sӧldner, “We cannot fight this creature with our fleet. What do you want us to do, sir?”
“Get one of those nes kaliba and we flee.”
“Understood!” she yelled back over the chaos.
The crew on Sӧldner’s ship heard his order and started making preparations to capture one of the nes kaliba. They had a tank on the lower deck with sea water for live catches. Returning with live catches proved to be more valuable to the dealers in the harbors. Some fish shops even used them as a display in their stores to attract more customers. The hunters were wise about who they sold live catches to in order to keep the demand high and the number of shops carrying live sea creatures low. It was a game to them. They monopolized the fishing industry and had dirty hands when it came down to the black market, from where they earned most of the money they needed to run a fleet. The hunters also had the best weaponry with nothing on the ship of low quality; the equipment lasted for years and through countless numbers of hunters.
The cannons were turned toward the sea god and lit torches were used to ignite them. Cannonballs fired out of the heavy iron and blasted the sea god. Each hit made the tentacle creature flinch and wither. The tentacles slapped onto the hull of the ships released as the sea god withdrew. The nes kaliba were simultaneously surrounding the sea god and the shark creature and attacking them with their coral weapons and magic. Lights erupted out of tridents, spears, nets, and daggers that flew through the air.
Emalf closed his current portal that he was unable to reach in time to open but opened a new one slightly closer. The magic of the nes kaliba kept him from fleeing, but he wasn’t trying to flee anymore. The new spinning vortex was being used to summon the flying spiders down to his location. The flying spiders poured out of the portal and spun around a few times before gathering their equilibrium. Their high-pitched call filled the air. The nes kaliba had to dive underwater to avoid the paralyzing effects of the high pitch. Hunters on the ship became disoriented and fell over. Several of them tumbled across the deck of the rocking ships. Sӧldner barked orders at his crew to get up. Emalf raised his arms into the air as flying spiders surrounded him and lifted him out of the water. The spiders were overcoming the magic binding him. They flew into the portal and just after Emalf disappeared in the spinning vortex it had rapidly closed. The nes kaliba were left to deal with the sea god, and the remaining flying spiders, and the other creatures of the deep sea that Emalf had summoned.
Jhamdean was furious. He did not want the demon lord to escape and they tried everything they could to keep that from happening, but Emalf found a way out once again. The sea god slapped its tentacles across another hunter ship and splashed the dark green water. Jhamdean had resurfaced multiple times to see what was going on above with the hunters. He had no interest in saving the hunters from the sea god, but he did want to stop the behemoth from causing more destruction. He ordered his tribe of nes kaliba to focus their attack on the sea god and asked other tribal leaders to attack the shark creature and the flying spiders that remained. The nets around the sea god’s tentacles tore and whipped across the water like a rock skipping over the surface. Tentacles and nes kaliba that happened to be above water were cut in half by the ropes zipping by.
Slimy creatures working in conjunction with the sea god climbed up the hulls of the ship and shrieked as their master was wounded. Their cry was nearly as bad as the spiders’ high-pitched screams. The hunters looked over the edge of their ships and fired arrows at the horrific creatures grinding hundreds of sharp teeth at them and through the wood of the ship while they climbed. A trail of sticky gray ooze was left behind. The ooze smelled purulent and started to take over the fresh scent of the ocean air. The hunters gagged at its stench as they continued to fire down. Many of the hunters had bandanas that they pulled over their faces to block out some of the smell.
A hunter armed with a bow made of brown hickory loaded a fire lit arrow and shot it down into the mouth of one of the creatures climbing up. The creature ate the arrow and when it chomped down on the shaft it exploded. Guts splattered all over the side of the ship and the slimy creatures next to it made deafening shrieks. The other hunters took notice of the effectiveness of the explosive arrows and called for more to be brought over. The crew heard the calling and answered. The ship rocked as a tentacle pushed against the hull trying to tip the ship onto its side. The hunters braced themselves. The sea god was trying to sink the ship by flipping it. The hunter that shot the first explosive arrow moved toward the tentacle that was pushing on the hull, and continued firing similar arrows at it. There was a constant battle of trying to keep his balance on the rocking ship, firing arrows downward, and watching out for the smaller creatures that started climbing aboard the top deck.
The creatures that made it onto the deck were fierce, quick, and violent. They threw their bodies over top of the other crew members and chomped at their faces and limbs without hesitation. Blood started to puddle on the deck making it even more difficult for the hunters to keep their footing. The hunters used swords, axes, harpoons, spears, fishing hooks, splinters of wood that happened to break off when the sea god whipped the side of the ship, and pole-arms designed for attacks several feet away. The hunters were skilled in whatever they chose to use as a weapon, and although they lost a few comrades in battle, they overcame the slimy creatures. The hunters on other ships were also successful in overcoming their invaders. Yet, the sea god remained a threat to all the ships.
The giant tentacled monster became furious as its spawns were killed off. It went underwater and came up under a ship to force it into the air, and then it dropped back under the surface of the water, rapidly forcing the ship to hit the water at high speed. It was only able to do this once, but the ship it attacked split in half and started to sink. Sӧldner made his crew go to their rescue and while they were
busy saving the other hunters, he dove into the water and searched for the nes kaliba he saw earlier leading an attack. Sӧldner had an orange crystal in his buttoned pocket and a short sword dangling at his side. It did not take him long to spot the nes kaliba leader. He felt like the creature was purposefully keeping himself out in the open to be seen. Sӧldner swam up to the nes kaliba and placed the sword over its neck. “Come with me!” he demanded. Four other hunters had followed Sӧldner into the water and kept him covered as he led the nes kaliba leader back to their ship. The captured nes kaliba tried to perform magic to get free, but the orange crystal had neutralized his ability to perform any. Jhamdean was unaware of the cause and thought the gods had stripped him of his magical abilities. He gave in to the hunters’ demands, and followed them without further struggle.
Aboard Sӧldner’s ship, the crew had seen them coming back with a nes kaliba in their custody. They made preparations for the prisoner to be placed in the cell below with sea water. The nes kaliba leader was thrown into the tank, and the cage was shut above him. Knowing full well the nes kaliba could speak, Sӧldner looked down at him and asked, “What is your name?”
“I am Jhamdean! Why are you taking me prisoner?”
“For coin, of course. You will bring riches to my fleet like no other could.” Then he laughed and walked away.
The nes kaliba had seen what happened to their leader, but they were ordered not to try and rescue him without knowing why. They continued to fight the sea god and the other spawns of Emalf in the dark waters. The battle went on for a good amount of time and the nes kaliba began to tire. They had to come up with a plan quickly before they were unable to stop the creatures. Several of them took out warhorns and blew them under the water calling for more help. It was not long before more nes kaliba had heard the call and answered it. They were briefed on the situation quickly, but by the time they had arrived the ship with Jhamdean was already gone. It had caught Serpent’s Current with its sails fully open and escaped the battle. The other hunter ships were soon to follow.
Rise of Centuria: Fall of Centuria Volume 2 Page 16