Chapter 20
(Zarvick)
I wasn’t expecting the drow to be such ruthless and/or strategic experts. What could they possibly do with the head of a bull worm? I’ve seen one only once before this, as a child. It surfaced near Meta Village and I watched it swallow trees and animals alike whole. That was then, now I just witnessed five drow kill one without hesitation. Which has led us straight into their homeland. Not sure about Crystalline but I’m not feeling too confident about this.
“We could just go straight towards the castle and bypass any guards,” I whisper to Crystalline whom is getting restless.
“Don’t you want to see what they plan on doing with the bull worm’s head?” She’s gone delusional on me.
Knowing that we won’t be able to go through this mission without her getting answers. I stealthily follow above the drow; we go a couple of miles into the kingdom before they stop at some form of a market. All of the buildings here are forged from the earth and use stalagmites and stalactites to add dimension. You can tell the difference in social statist amongst the people based upon what kind of minerals their homes are made out of.
A few more of the earth elves appear and begin examining the carcass. All of them are dressed in spider silk clothing and begin speaking in a tongue that I can’t comprehend.
“What are they saying?” I ask quietly.
“I don’t know. It must be the drow language,” Crystalline hasn’t taken her eyes off of them this entire time. “Genu told me once that all of the major kingdoms speak in a special tongue know only to their people.”
After a short while, they begin dissecting the head and it becomes clear that they are using it for food and supplies. That much meat can feed an entire village and with all of those teeth they can make some good weapons. When the drow party gets paid for their findings they leave, as do Crystalline and I.
We speedily make our way to the kingdom but at one point Crystalline almost slips off my back; I have to push a lot of wind against her so she doesn’t fall. After that, I keep making sure that no one saw or heard us. Paranoia lingers all about me in this cavern.
I descend onto the nearest perch of the castle looking straight through the roofless structure. It is shaped like a giant stone crown, multiple stairways lead in-and-out of here, there are banners with the Terra Kingdom emblem (a basilisk breaking through the earth) located along the walls, torches rest on the walls where banners don’t, a long white carpet trails down the central room of the castle and ends at the throne.
The throne is made of a smooth grey marble and standing right in front of the chair is none other than the Drow Queen herself.
The Drow Queen is tall and slender but with excellent curves. The queen’s wardrobe consists of both armor and fashion; her torso, arms, and neck are covered with black leather armor—part of the chest has an opening in the shape of a heart. Attached to the waist of the armor is a long embroidered ebony skirt with two slits on the sides that reveal her knee-high leather boots. Pressed against her forehead is a golden tiara that, ever so elegantly, holds her hair back. A silk lace tied across her chest holds a sword against her lower back; her weapon possesses an extensive handle ended with a metal ring and topped off with a large diamond shaped stone blade. Clearly, a weapon meant to behead someone with a single swing.
“I have to admit, if we weren’t here to kill her I would probably get along with her,” Crystalline laughs in silence.
“Seriously, you don’t even know her,” I whisper back with an annoyed tone of voice.
“You’re right,” she shrugs, “she’s probably a bitch.”
Shaking my head I move us a little closer; Crystalline withdraws her bow and readies an arrow. She hesitates prior to retracting the bowstring.
“I see it.”
“See what?” I say.
“Your soul fragment is behind her right breast. Where the heart should be,” she’s intrigued.
“If you know where the target is, why are you waiting?”
She takes her aim after she finishes glaring at me. With a single breath, the arrow whips across the bow and spirals towards its target. A flash of burgundy envelops the arrow almost instantly. The queen turns her head towards the attack, promptly a stone pillar rises in front of her; as it strikes, the missile detonates and blows the pillar in half.
Drow aren’t happy people and her majesty is clearly dissatisfied with this attempt on her life. With two swift movements, the queen unties the silk lace around her waist and withdraws her stone sword. As she spins it above her head, three replicas of the sword shift into place from the original, forming an ‘X’ shape. Each end of the hilts is connected to a single metal ring.
The Drow Queen chucks her weapon at us with one hand. How stupid does she think I am? As if I’d let that thing tear us apart. I take off and begin flying in a loop around the castle. Her blades spin through our previous location and start chasing after us; I try to lure it into stalactites but it just slices right through them. Eventually, I veer straight for her majesty.
Crystalline jumps off of my back and heads to the right, I go left reading a fireball as she prepares another arrow. Simultaneously, we launch our attacks.
Raising her hands, she raises another stone wall to shield herself. Peering over my shoulder, I watch as her weapon breaks apart, two blades dive at me and the other two at Crystalline. Throwing my hands forward, I stop the swords before they reach me and let them fall to the ground; Crystalline turns just in time to create a shield construct. The tip of each blade pierces through her shield but she ignores it, pushing them aside.
I float down to the white carpet while she walks down burgundy panels that form with each step like stairs. When the wall drops, all four blades go back to their master and combine together, back into one sword.
“What do you peasants want?” The Drow Queen’s voice is harsh.
“You have something that belongs to me,” I reply.
Her head shifts to the right to express her confusion.
“You have one of his soul fragment you dense. We want it back or else we’ll have to kill you,” Crystalline cuts to the chase. She isn’t very good with small talk or niceties.
Unfortunately, her majesty doesn’t take a lack of etiquette well. Her bright green eyes darken before she waves her hand and a cyclone of rocks and dirt knocks Crystalline into the wall. If it wasn’t for the armor Asvarp gave us, surely some of the jagged rocks sticking out of the wall would have killed her.
“Don’t you dare talk to nobility in such a manner,” the queen says.
Damn, I was hoping this wouldn’t turn into another shit storm like with Levouay. All well, she just attacked Crystalline. Now she’s going to die!
I charge, unhinging the glaive from my belt; with a quick flick of my wrist and it extends. Exciting. Leaping into the air I bring the glaive down on her head, which she counters with the flat end of her blade. Quickly, she pushes against my strength and slides her free hand across her weapon. Bringing her hand above her head reveals a sword replica firmly held in her grasp.
She swings, I parry, then spin off the attack and counterstrike. Her majesty blocks with one sword and jabs with the other sword; I push the other end of my glaive upwards, countering her attack. Her blades are too big for me to deal a direct hit. Thus, I unleash a barrage of blows, furiously swinging the weapon around and aiming for any open spot I can find. The Drow Queen effortless blocks each strike until a stray swing clips her arm, forcing her to drop her sword and take a step back. Sand flows down from her wound before it seals shut.
With a smile, the queen levitates her other sword to her. I hate it when people smile during battle. Her majesty twirls both blades in her hands, conjuring the other two replicas which create two double-bladed swords. Easily she dances around me, swinging her weapons with deadly accuracy. I parry, evade, and strike when I can; now I’m just tired of these little games. I aim for the center of her weapons and, just to add a little flare,
I ignite both ends of my glaive. That’s when I take notice of the fire runes on my glaive and the runes on my right leg; all are glowing a bright red. I sense my flames increasing in strength.
It seems that the fire provides a good distraction to the heat seeing eyes of the Drow Queen because her movements become sloppy; with the advantage, I slice both of her swords in half at the metal rings. This actually made things worse. Those blades levitate and go behind me as the queen fights me in the front. Now I have to worry about fighting in two directions.
Changing the flame to wind, I counter the queen’s strike and keep her other two blades at bay with powerful gusts. This is when out battle gets heated. I go full zouvx on her and unleash as much fighting ability as I can muster. I swing, she blocks, she jabs, and I parry; eventually, I slice the back of her knee and she cuts my arm. Finally, I pivot my glaive with full force and blowback her free swords. I drive my weapon straight for her heart; the queen crosses her blades, blocking my attack. The other two replicas dart towards my back, where I instantly form an ice wall that stops them mid-flight.
The Drow Queen pushes me back and skates backwards; the two swords break free from the ice and all three replicas morph back into the original sword.
“Cute,” she says.
Grabbing one side of her skirt, she pulls hard and tears it off revealing her bare thighs. Rapidly, her majesty lunges forth using the earth to accelerate her speed. All whilst keeping her sword extended out in front of her. I’m not sure why but my muscles tense up, paralyzing me. Just as she is about to pierce my chest, a shimmering burgundy light shatters the queen’s stone sword. Crystalline stands to my far right, arm extended as she holds her bow, with a big grin on her face.
“Guess who’s cute now you tramp!”
The fragments of the Drow Queen’s weapon rush for her. Crystalline places her other arm in front of her, forming a force field that deflects the shards. While the queen is distracted I will myself to move. I sense something in my body, hindering the use of my nerves. Shifting my glance to the cut on my arm, little black lines branch from the wound. She had paralyzation poison on her blade?! Wow, I really hate drows.
Finally, my fingers twitch after a moment and I shout. As the queen turns back to face me I raise my glaive into the air. One hasty swing later and her majesty’s head is rolling around on the floor.
“That was easier than I thought,” I boast.
“I know. I was expecting more of a fight; all while hundreds of guards storm the castle so we would have no choice but battle against tremendous odds and prevail on top,” Crystalline responds sarcastically.
She also spoke way too soon because, right then, the Drow Queen’s head and body turn into sand; a small army of drow bombarded the throne room as the sand reforms in front of her throne.
“You just had to open your mouth didn’t you,” I mutter.
Crystalline opens her mouth to respond but stops and shakes her head.
The drow have swarmed all around us and each has their weapons ready, even the ones on higher ledges have crossbows pointed at us. If we are going to have to fight all of these drow, I can’t just make it easy for them. Otherwise, what is the point of having these powers?
A white frost flows from my free hand and descends to the ground; the second an earth elf moves a muscle, a colossal ice dome raise all about us. The only opening is straight in front of Crystalline and me. As the drow rush in I slice through them while she takes out drow that are farther back.
“Why don’t you just incinerate all of them?!” Crystallines shouts.
“Because that will use up a lot of energy and we still need to kill the queen!”
“But you have the armor Asvarp gave us! You’ll be fine, besides I’m better at kicking ass than you are!”
I roll my eyes. I’m just as good of a fighter as she is. Genu may have trained her but I was trained by an angel and a demon. ‘Better at kicking ass’, I’ll show her! Before I could unleash some ass-kicking power, a deafening boom thunders above us and a huge chunk of the ice dome is blown away. They must be using the orbs from before. This isn’t good.
One of the earth elves points his crossbow right at Crystalline, as the quarrel is fired, I close the breach. More of them hack away on the outside of the dome, I can feel their blades moving in specific patterns. This isn’t going to turn out so well. There is a sudden plop on top of the dome and they begin retreating.
“Crystalline!”
Instantly, she drops her bow and clasps her hands together before her chest; a barrier forms around us just in time as the explosion occurs. When the dust and ice debris settles, the elves surround us.
“Now?” Crystalline ask.
I stab my glaive into the ground, “now.”
Crystalline pulls her barrier in closer to herself. The Drow Queen stares questioningly at us. Now we are going to see some real power! The ice symbol on my left leg shines a bright white, chilling my body to the touch. As the elves grow nearer I unleash as much frost as I can muster. Thrusting my hands forwards, the white frost sweeps forth and freezes the ground; rapidly, I move around in circles, spreading the ice, and leaving the drow frozen solid. Lifting my hands the ice fans out even further and covers the entire throne room; it has basically become the arctic in here. I hear Crystalline laughing behind the thick layer of frost that coats her barrier.
The queen breaks through her ice coating and is dazed by the sight of her people’s cold statues. I clench my fingers, gradually cracking the ice, then I throw my hands down and all of the frozen drow shatter.
I combine all of the ice fragments to create several large and sharp spikes; with a flick of my hands, they shoot towards her majesty. Immediately, she snaps back to the fight and forms a stone barricade. My spikes manage to penetrate the wall but aren’t strong enough to go completely through it. As the queen crushes the ice inside of the rock, three shadows descend from above, landing in front of her. Each takes the form of a drow with ebony skin, hollow eyes, and a spectral body.
“Say hello to my friends,” she smiles, “they’re going to help me kill you!”
As she laughs menacingly, Crystalline breaks through the ice. After taking one look at the shadows, she shakes her head in disgust and smiles. Honestly, she creeps me out sometimes.
“I can’t express how much I absolutely fucking hate you damn shadows. Where did you even come from?!”
A shadow flies at her, taking on a gaseous form, its fingers turn into claws and its teeth into fangs. With lightning reflexes, she picks up her bow, draws an arrow, and fires it right into the shadow’s mouth. Her spiritual energy purifies the creature and little white orbs dissolve into the air.
“Satisfied?” I ask.
“A little. Not sure why you used ice instead of fire but you got the job done,” she gives me a smirk.
The Drow Queen doesn’t show any sign of being annoyed, only intrigued. Nevertheless, she moves her hands forward sending a shockwave through the earth that knocks us off our feet. The shadows move in, unsheathing their phantom scimitars. Crystalline drops her bow and charges them; first, she claps her hands together, second, she slides them apart creating a pole construct and, third, she starts to fight.
One end of her pole transforms into a blade and the other into a morning star. As she dodges one shadow, she attacks the other. All three of them go back and forth with attacking and evading. While she’s fighting them, I decide to take care of the queen who is impressed with Crystalline. I fly over them and, with a fell swoop, I slash through her majesty’s chest. This time, actual blood trickles down her body.
“You made me bleed!” She’s outraged. I honestly don’t know why her bleeding is just as shocking to me as it is to her.
Throwing her hands forward, rugged rocky tentacles burst through the wall behind her and attempt to grab me. I cut through a few of them before jumping backwards and taking off above the castle. They continue to chase me, I try to form an ice wall to slow them down but th
at immediately fails as the tentacles ram through it. Next, the earth above me moves as more tentacles and spikes shoot out from all around me. I can feel the Terra Kingdom begin to tremble as the Drow Queen’s anger grows.
I take a look over my shoulder to see if Crystalline is alright. Her pole construct is suddenly broken in half as one of the shadow’s ghostly scimitar slices through her weapon. Transforming the two halves into swords, she drops down and stabs that shadow in the knee; the other shade tries to attack her from behind but she synthesizes a shield behind her. As the first shadow drow reconfigures into a cloud of black smoke, Crystalline penates the cloud with her other blade. A single flash of burgundy light and the creature is purified. Don’t even understand why they try.
The other shadow breaks through her shield and soon meets the same fate. She reconstructs her sword into a sphere of spiritual energy that plunges into the shadow’s chest. After it is purified, a slab of earth pins her to the ground.
I dive down, dodge around or cut through any obstacle in my way until I reach her. She’s barely capable holding the rock above her with the queen’s power shoving down on it.
“Hurry up and get this thing off of me so I can rip her head off,” she yells.
I have to admit, it is pretty hilarious watching her getting crushed by a giant rock. She’s probably going to kill me for laughing but I do it anyways. I anchor the glaive beneath it and push with all my might. She rolls out before the rock collapses.
“You shall die you, peasants!” The Drow Queen roars with rage.
“Okay, I guess we can’t be friends then,” Crystalline speaks sarcastically.
“Woah! Did she just call us peasants, again?” I chuckle. She’s bad with the insults.
Dark Form_Book 1 of the Shadow War Trilogy Page 19