Emperor

by Isaac Hooke

  Timlir had his ax in hand, but none of the incoming spears seemed to be drawn to it.

  “Timlir, your ax isn’t working!” Xaxia shouted.

  “Only works against arrows!” the dwarf said.

  “How come it’s not drawing in ours?” Gwen asked, firing hers.

  “Because,” the dwarf said. “It lets me ignore those I’ve marked as friends!”

  “And how do you do that?” she pressed.

  “Magic,” he said with a wink.

  The kobolds rushed them under the light of the magic torches.

  Sylfi and Brita joined Gwen in frantically launching arrows.

  “This is… why… I hate… dungeons!” Sylfi exclaimed between bowshots.

  Abigail threw walls of flame; Ziatrice released smears of black mist. But the kobolds continued to come, howling as they leaped over the bodies of the dead, and quickly surrounded the party.

  Abigail, Gwen, Sylfi and Brita withdrew to position themselves next to Weyanna and Goldenthall, allowing those with melee weapons to engage the enemy.

  Malem swung Balethorn, aiming for oblong heads connected to those insubstantial kobold bodies. The three oraks fought beside him.

  As usual, the kobold bodies became solid masses when the kobolds died, and he used that to kick the dead out of his way before they fell.

  While he fought, Malem reached out and Broke several of the weaker among them—concentrating on those deeper in the enemy ranks—and caused the kobolds to turn upon one another.

  The gazer arrived, and it Confused several more so that soon there were a good portion of kobolds fighting amongst themselves in front of the party. It also released air magic to shove clusters of the enemies backward.

  “Wight!” Timlir screamed.

  The dwarf dove away from the front ranks.

  17

  Malem saw a lumbering humanoid lurking near where the dwarf had vacated. It stood a few heads taller than the kobolds, and moved with its arms partially splayed out in front of it. It was covered in green slime, with skin like moss or lichen, and a head vaguely reminiscent of a frog’s, minus eyes of any kind.

  As soon as he spotted it, the creature exploded.

  The kobolds immediately surrounding it were thrown backward, their heads riddled with lacerations. Pieces of the creature struck Malem himself, but bounced easily off his dragonscale armor.

  “The hell, where did that come from?” Xaxia had taken a hit to the face from one of those body parts, and she had a large red welt on her cheek.

  “Lucky that thing didn’t detonate any closer,” Ziatrice said, nodding toward the kobolds that had surrounded it. None of them got up.

  Other kobolds simply filled in the gap left by their fallen comrades.

  Mauritania, where are you?

  He backed away, moving behind the main defensive line, wanting to check on the half Eldritch. Wendolin took his place, fighting with her trident and net. She still occasionally caused stakes to erupt from the arrows Gwen and the others used to pincushion the enemy, but she was growing weak, and used such magic sparingly.

  Almost there, Mauritania finally responded.

  Beside him, Goldenthall stood up unsteadily as Weyanna finished with him. Her features were drawn and haggard, so he fed her stamina drained from Solan and Gannet. He gave a little bit to Goldenthall as well.

  Weyanna caused shards of ice to unleash from the low ceiling, and they rained down on the kobolds as the monsters rushed in.

  Satisfied that they had the battle under control, Malem switched to Mauritania’s viewpoint, and saw that she was tiptoeing across the pile of gold coins toward the Dark Eye. So far, the wyvern remained asleep, despite the muted cacophony of battle that Malem could hear through Mauritania’s ears.

  The air abruptly seemed to blur around her, becoming a translucent green, and Mauritania’s viewpoint snapped forward, appearing the thirty yards to the Dark Eye so that she was right in front of it. The green faded as she completed her teleportation, and she bent over to scoop up the black sphere. But then she paused, as if hypnotized by its depths of endless darkness.

  Don’t look at it! he sent.

  She shook her head, grabbed the sphere, and slid it into her backpack. Then she turned around, and began tiptoeing back the way she had come.

  Could use some stamina for another teleport, she sent.

  He drained from Brita and Sylfi, who were staying behind the main defensive line and firing arrows, and gave it to Mauritania.

  Mauritania teleported again, returning to her previous position closer to the main entrance. She took a step, but slipped, causing a cascade of coins to spill down the pile beside her.

  Oh shit. She glanced over her shoulder at the wyvern. One of its eyes was open, and looking directly at her.

  Run! Malem ordered. He drained stamina from Solan and Gannet this time, and desperately sent it to Mauritania.

  She was bounding over the treasure pile as the wyvern lifted its huge head. Then she teleported as black flames ate into her previous position. The gold coins around her blackened and melted away.

  She appeared inside the tunnel that led away from the treasure chamber, and sprinted away.

  Malem dismissed her viewpoint, and a moment later she came running through the entrance.

  “Clear away from the opening!” she shouted.

  Malem and the others quickly hewed their way forward, making room along the wall so that they could move away from the side passage.

  Behind them, black flames emerged from the opening, striking the kobolds that had rushed forward to fill in the gap. Dark veins spread across the stricken bodies, disintegrating them. Their screams filled the area, magnified by the close quarters.

  But this time, the kobolds didn’t get spooked. They continued pressing the attack, probably because they knew the wyvern wouldn’t be able to get to them.

  Malem wondered if the rooftop would come collapsing down on them shortly…

  But it didn’t.

  “Well, that was fun,” Mauritania said. “What did I miss?” She drew Tiercel and Peregrine and joined the tight half circle of melee fighters that was busy hewing off kobold heads.

  He and the others continued to cut their way through the kobolds that blocked their path. They stayed close to the wall, which protected them from any attacks from that quarter, however the stone occasionally ceded to an alcove. When that happened, Malem or another melee fighter would reposition to protect the ranged fighters

  Abigail’s flaming globe followed along above, though it wasn’t strictly necessary, given the torches. He knew the stamina required to maintain it was small, so he decided he wouldn’t tell her to dismiss it, especially considering it cost a relatively higher amount to re-create the globe once dismissed.

  Speaking of stamina… endurance was low across the board, and everyone was flagging. The fire and ice attacks from Abigail and Weyanna came few and far between, and when the magic did come, it was weak. Ziatrice had stopped using her dark magic, and fought only with Wither. Wendolin’s trident blows weren’t as powerful, and she’d stopped using her net, as it had proven ineffective against the swords of the enemy. She’s also stopped using her magic entirely. Mauritania had started out relatively strong, sending out attacks of green magic that disintegrated her foes in between the blade strikes, but she was already drained from the previous teleport uses, and soon reverted only to melee blows.

  Solan and Gannet were slowing, their flaming swords seeming heavy in their arms. Gwen, Sylfi and Brita launched arrows slower, and with less accuracy. The latter two had exhausted their own arrows, and were taking from Gwen’s Infitas Quiver.

  The gazer remained next to Abigail, Gwen, Sylfi and Brita at the center of the party, but it was otherwise too weak to Confuse more enemies, or to launch air magic attacks.

  Goldenthall joined Timlir near the front ranks, but he relied solely on his sword—he was too drained for the Balor’s dark magic. Timlir moved like a farmer working l
ate into the night to reap his harvest, his ax moving slow, as if growing heavy in his tired arms.

  Even Xaxia was flagging, because these enemies didn’t feed her as much stamina as oraks would when they fell.

  One of the oraks dropped as it made a mistake out of weariness and lost its head.

  Xaxia suddenly spun, impaling the closest orak. Biter glowed a bright purple as it stole the creature’s stamina. She withdrew the blade, and swept it in a wide arc, striking down the final orak. The sword glowed even brighter.

  “They were on our side!” Goldenthall said.

  “Whoops!” She straightened, smiling hungrily as she turned to face the kobolds in front of her.

  “You did that… on purpose,” Goldenthall said, panting.

  “Yeah,” Xaxia said. “I figured, I might as well put these oraks to some better use, seeing as they were just going to die anyway!”

  She mowed through the enemy ranks, cutting a wide, energetic swath that the others poured through.

  “You don’t know that,” Goldenthall said. “Just because one fell, didn’t mean they all would have!”

  “I made my choice!” Xaxia said, shouting over her shoulder. “Live with it.”

  “We all will have to live with it,” Goldenthall complained. “That’s two less swords.”

  As Malem drove into the wedge Xaxia carved, he began to take hits out of weariness as well. He parried incorrectly, causing the enemy blade to glance off his armor. Sometimes he didn’t block a blade in time at all. So far his dragonscale armor protected him, but it was only a matter of time until a blade nicked an ear, or perhaps an eye.

  The kobolds he had Broken had been dropped, and he managed to drain most of them before they died, so he didn’t suffer too badly from their deaths, but still, he was too weak to Break any others.

  He was beginning to sorely miss the near infinite pool of stamina Vorgon provided. It was too bad that pool came at such a high cost.

  “We can’t keep this up!” Abigail said.

  “We enter the next alcove or side passageway!” Malem said. “And hope it doesn’t lead to a dead end! Stay close to Xaxia.”

  And then ahead of Xaxia, another wight waded through the kobolds.

  She quickly retreated. The wight didn’t explode this time, at least not immediately—obviously it intended to get closer to the party.

  “Wight!” Xaxia shouted, but Gwen, Sylfi and Brita were already concentrating on the creature with their arrows, trying to slow it down. Arrows quilled its chest and head area.

  Abigail launched a weak fireball, which struck its head, and ignited the entire area.

  Malem wrapped his will around the creature. He was happy to discover that the attacks had weakened it. He didn’t have quite enough strength to Break the creature, however.

  He decided to take some stamina from Solan and Gannet.

  “Hey!” Solan said. “I’m already dying here!”

  “Sorry,” Malem said.

  He wrapped his will around the wight, and squeezed, hard, Breaking the creature.

  He turned it around, and directed it into the mass of bodies ahead. Then he commanded it to explode.

  The wight cleared out a good chunk of kobolds ahead.

  But there was still no side passage or alcove for them to take.

  “Where’s a branching passageway when you need one?” Xaxia said, rushing into the void left by the exploding creature.

  Mauritania was at her side, and together they mowed through the enemies. Malem guarded their sides with Timlir, Wendolin and Goldenthall, with Ziatrice, Solan and Gannet bringing up the rear behind the archers and magic users.

  “Gazer!” Mauritania shouted.

  “Eyes closed!” Malem said.

  He obeyed his own instructions, and fed the viewpoint of his own gazer to himself and the others, to guide their attacks.

  The gazer was immune to the Confuse command of its enemy, and through its eyes, Gwen, Sylfi and Brita were able to target the creature with their arrows.

  They had only just begun to pincushion the creature, when a vortex began to swirl in front of the party.

  Malem realized the gazer was summoning a wind elemental.

  Great.

  He drained Solan and Gannet even further, so that the pair were forced to leave the perimeter of the defensive half ring formed by the melee combatants, and instead joined the ranged fighters in the center, as they could scarcely lift their swords.

  Malem fed that stamina to Ziatrice, and she released streams of dark magic as the wind elemental coalesced. Goldenthall apparently managed to dig deep, because he launched a few black smears as well, joining those the night elf unleashed, and the ribbons of evil magic were caught up by the vortex that was the wind elemental, and swirled within its depths. The darkness spread, and the wind elemental shrieked as it turned completely black before dissipating.

  Dark magic. The bane of wind elementals.

  We were lucky it wasn’t immune, Abigail sent. Some are.

  Mauritania, using the vision Malem shared with her, broke through the enemy ranks with Tiercel and Peregrine, and stabbed both blades into the gazer before it could react. She slid the blades apart in opposite directions, splitting the enemy gazer in half.

  “It’s down!” Malem said for the benefit of Xaxia, Timlir and Goldenthall, so they would know to open their eyes.

  Xaxia did so, and once more darted ahead, joining Mauritania.

  “Got an alcove here!” she said after a moment. “Quite a few kobolds inside. I’d say it’s a good candidate for joining up with some side tunnel beyond.”

  “Why, because of the kobolds?” Gwen asked.

  “Yup!” Xaxia said, cutting her way through the creatures and entering the alcove.

  Malem and the others followed her inside. The courtyard within was tight, and the circle of party members became a square, with each row containing three of them abreast. They trampled over the bodies of fallen kobolds.

  Xaxia carved through the head of the kobold blocking the door, and kicked its lifeless body out of the way. Malem charged one of the windows, and parried the blow a kobold launched at his face from within. Its sword struck a glancing blow to his cheek. He barely felt the pain, carried on by bloodlust and exhaustion, and he struck the kobold beneath the chin on the riposte. He felt the blade penetrate the gristle and cartilage of that throat, and he twisted it as he pulled it away, spraying his armor in blood.

  Then he barreled through the window and landed on the hard floor inside. He was surrounded by three kobolds.

  From her position at the main entrance, Xaxia hewed down the kobold to his left. Meanwhile, he defended against the two to his right. These particular creatures both wielded two swords. Behind them, he spotted a kobold crossbowman, and ducked as it unleashed a bolt.

  An arrow fired from the window behind him—Gwen. It found the crossbowman’s eye, and the creature dropped.

  Malem parried another blow, and aimed at the heads of his foes, but they blocked his blade.

  Timlir burst past in a blur, and leaped up, swinging his ax as he passed right through the kobold’s insubstantial body. The blade struck the creature’s own sword, and forced it backward, into its head, so that both ax and sword struck that face. The ax descended deep into the bone of its skull, bringing the creature down.

  Malem used the distraction to slide his blade through the eye of the second kobold.

  The others flooded inside, and they beat back the kobold attackers. They knocked over the different furniture—mostly ancient couches and tables—until they were on the far side of the room. Stairs led up, but there was also a back door, currently open.

  Xaxia dove through. “There’s a clear corridor back here!”

  Malem and the others flooded inside, and they made their way down the cramped corridor. It would fit them in single file only.

  There were no torches here, and Abigail’s globe was the only thing lighting the way. Said globe was weak, but he
wasn’t about to tell her to increase the brightness, given how tired she was. Not yet, anyway.

  Other doors opened into houses that bordered the corridor. Kobolds occasionally intercepted them from those corridors, but it seemed most of the attackers were unaware that Malem and the others had traveled into the back area, and were still trying to flood into the main chamber.

  The doorways ceased after a time so that Malem and the others no longer had to face any further attackers, at least from the front. Kobolds still occasionally rushed forth to harry Ziatrice on drag.

  Gwen was frantically drawing arrows from her Infitas Quiver, and passing them to Sylfi and Brita behind her so that they could refill their own quivers.

  Xaxia led the way, and when the corridor branched left, she paused.

  Before she could ask which direction, he said, on a whim: “Left!”

  And she turned left.

  The party continued down that passage, and it began to widen so that they could travel two abreast.

  Behind them, the corridor was again filling up with kobolds; apparently, the rest of the horde had begun to realize where Malem and his party had fled.

  The corridor widened further, until it became a rectangular passageway half again as tall as Malem himself, and capable of fitting three of the party members side by side. Some kind of paving stones covered the floor, while large bricks padded the walls and ceiling.

  Similar passageways joined up with this one, which led Malem to believe it was a central corridor or road of some sort.

  “Got kobold archers!” Ziatrice announced.

  “Timlir, rear of the party!” Malem said.

  The dwarf quickly repositioned, and used his ax to attract the arrows that came in.

  Malem hurried forward.

  Ahead, stairs appeared at the edge of the cone of light produced by Abigail’s flaming globe.

  “Got some stairs!” Malem said. “I’m taking them.”

  “And down we go to level two of the dungeon!” Xaxia said.

  “Why am I dreading this?” Gwen asked.

  “You’re not the only one,” Timlir muttered.

  “Maybe we’ll die soon!” Goldenthall said gleefully.