The underling died.
Wincing, Georgio sucked for air and mopped the sweat and blood from his eyes. All around him, metal clashed on metal. Moans and grunts of death bellowed. With effort, he took a knee, eyes searching for his friends. His shoulder burned. He tried to roll it. “Ow!” A dagger was lodged deep in the meat. He reached back to yank it out.
“I’ll take care of that,” said a deep dwarven voice. It was Pall the blood ranger. The bushy red-and-white-bearded dwarf was covered head to toe in gore. His meaty paw reached out and plucked the dagger out. He stuck the blood-coated dagger in the ground and scooped up a handful of dirt. “Here, let me rub this in it.”
Georgio’s brows lifted. “No, I’ll be just fine.” He scanned the ground until his eyes landed on the jeweled pommel of his sword. He was reaching to pick it up when the ground shook him from his feet. Aghast, he said, “What in Bish was that?”
“Trouble,” Pall said, readying his machetes. “Big trouble.”
A huge bulbous head emerged from the ground. It was a monstrous beast. Warted, fat, and ugly, it stood several horses tall. The red-skinned and spotted monster’s tongues shot out and sucked jung men in.
“What in Bish is that thing?” Georgio cried out in astonishment.
“Balfrog,” Pall muttered.
“A what frog?”
“Balfrog!” Pall’s bushy brows narrowed. “Its hide’s thicker than dwarven armor!”
A knot of striders, with their long double-kneed legs moving with the speed of gazelles, charged the balfrog. Each and every spear splintered on its hide.
Its tongue licked out and snatched up the striders, one-two-three, and gulped them down.
“That was bad,” Georgio said with a swallow. He eyed the blade of his sword. So far as he knew, the jewel encrusted blade of Tonio could cut through anything. He set his shoulders and marched forward. “I can kill it.”
Pall took him by the arm and pulled him back. “Ye ain’t slaughtering no ten tons of fat, boy!”
Georgio watched in horror as the balfrog devastated the ranks. Its tongues licked out, and it spat a strange sticky fire. Arrows, bolts, spears, skipped off its hide.
Somewhere, Billip’s voice cried out over the battle. “Retreat! Retreat!”
The jungs and striders had none of that. They slammed into the beast. Crawled up its hide. They cut and chopped like wild men.
Suddenly, the balfrog’s body heaved. The great toad sprang high in the air, topping the highest spires on the castle.
Georgio’s chin tilted up with eyes glued on the creature. “How can that fat thing jump so high?”
The balfrog went up in a slight arc. Its shadow descended another hundred feet away. Georgio followed it all the way to the ground. A score of fighters were scattering away. The balfrog landed on almost all of them. Blood and guts squirted everywhere.
Squish!
CHAPTER 19
Melegal lay stiff as a stone. Pale. Bloody. Venir had never seen his friend like that before. Grim as Melegal could be, there was always a deep spring of life inside him. Now that well of life was fading.
“Breathe, Melegal! Breathe!” Jasper was at the rogue’s side. Her ear was on his heart.
Kam and Joline stood close by with tears in their eyes. “Breathe!”
The boundless energy Venir had felt moments earlier started to sink with his heart. The peril was gone but at what cost? His eyes slid over to the woman Trinos.
Half of her platinum hair was seared from her head. Her beautiful figure was burned and blistered. Charred and scarred. The woman, or whatever she was, had put up a fight. She’d risked it all and distracted Scorch long enough for him to find an opening.
So had Melegal. He’d died.
She hadn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Trinos said. She pushed what was left of her smoldering hair from her eyes. “I tried.”
Venir ripped Helm off of his head and slung it across the room. He drove his fist through a wall, ripped it out, stormed across the room and punched another.
“Venir, please!” Kam said. She scrambled up and rushed to his side. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She choked out a sob. “But it happens.”
Melegal was his oldest friend and ally. Even though they may have wanted to kill each other half of the time, life wouldn’t be the same without him. He pushed away from Kam, grabbed a bar stool, and smashed it into the bar.
All eyes were glued on him.
He paid them no mind. He busted one bar stool right after the other.
“He’s such a baby,” said a weak voice. “Cough-cough. Such a temperamental lout. Cough. Always embarrassing me in front of the ladies.”
The room fell silent.
Venir stopped in mid-swing.
“Melegal!” Joline cried out. “You live!”
Everyone crowded around the thief.
The skinny man was paler than ever but breathing. “I feel like slat.” Melegal cast a grey eye on Venir. “But at least I don’t look like it.” His eyes drifted closed. “Is that pompous otherworlder gone?”
Taking a deep draw of air through his nostrils, Venir nodded.
Melegal didn’t see him, however. His eyes were closed, and he was in a deep slumber.
As the women tended to his friend’s needs, Venir turned his attention back to Trinos. There were tears in her eyes. Those ugly wounds had started to heal up a little. He pulled up a chair to her and sat down. “I’m grateful.”
“As am I.” She let out a sigh.
Venir cast a look at Scorch’s skull. “Is he—or it—gone?”
She shrugged and replied, “I’d like to think so. I don’t sense him anymore.”
“I didn’t either. Not with Helm on anyway.” Venir looked right into her eyes and said, “That was some strange talk you and Scorch were exchanging. Care to explain?”
Trinos shook her head no. “I think it’s best I don’t.”
Hand on his knee, Venir leaned forward and said, “Whoever you are, you put up quite a fight for Bish.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“No! This place is a disaster.”
CHAPTER 20
The ogre, Gondoon Stoneskin, had just made it back inside his tent when the commotion started. Pushing aside the tent flap, he stepped out again.
“What’s this?”
Staring out from beneath his heavy brows, he gazed at the oncoming carnage. A huge wild man was gutting his ranks. A wild blue-eyed berserker the likes of which he’d never seen.
Gondoon’s battle-bred blood ignited. He didn’t need weapons to kill a man. He was a crusher. An invincible juggernaut. He’d never lost a fight in his life and didn’t plan on losing one today. If ogres could smile, then that was what the gruesome look on his face was.
“Finally, a challenge.”
On swift feet that belied his formidable girth, Gondoon charged over the barren brown land. The berserker looked familiar. His size was unusual for a human, but that didn’t give the ogre pause. He’d break the human’s bones like all the others that had fallen to him before. Stoneskin crashed into the wild and unsuspecting man’s backside and drove him to the ground.
The huge blond man let out a roar. “Raaaaaawr!”
On top of the man’s back, Gondoon punched him in the ribs with his stony fists. Powerful, devastating blows.
The big man twisted around and cracked Gondoon in the nose with his forehead. Blood spewed.
Gondoon tasted his own blood in his mouth and let out his own roar. “Aaaaaghhhh!” Blocking wild haymaker swings with the meat of his forearms, he launched his own cranial assault. He busted the berserker right between the eyes.
Crack!
Faces bleeding, back and forth the titans battled. They punched, kicked, and clawed like wild animals. Thunderous blows smacked into bone and flesh. Howls of anger and pain filled the dusty valley.
Gondoon had never encountered anything like this before. This human could fight! Every punch was a mule kick that jarred his ogre bones.
He countered with horse punches of his own. Quick. Powerful. He’d killed men with single punches before but not this man. This man was different. Packed with muscle and hard bone, like an ogre. Or a giant.
Whack! Whack! Pop! Smack!
After a while, Gondoon’s arms became heavy. His breath labored. Still, he punched on and on.
The human popped him back again and again. The berserker showed no signs of slowing. His eyes were burning stars. His energy was endless.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Gondoon dropped to a knee and covered up his face, figuring punishment for all of his evil deeds was being delivered.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!
The last blow knocked Gondoon flat on his back. His limbs were noodles. Everything inside his skin throbbed and ached. Eyes swollen, all he could see was the berserk titan with the burning suns resting on his shoulders. Both of the man’s fists went up and started to come down. Gondoon squeezed his eyes shut.
***
Panting for breath, Brak found himself on his knees staring blankly at the sky. Someone stirred on the ground in front of him. It was the massive frame of Gondoon Stoneskin.
The ogre lowered his hairy arms that covered his face and eyed him.
What happened?
Brak looked at his hands and arms. They were coated in drying blood. The jangle of armor caught his ear, and he turned his thick neck.
The brigands had him surrounded. Their eyes darted among each other. There was fear in them. Uncertainty.
Ah. I must have gone berserk.
He eyed Gondoon.
But not for long enough to kill him.
An icy shiver went up and down his back. He recalled the sound of his spine cracking.
Never again, Brak. Never!
Gondoon lifted his hand up. It was a huge hand. He could envelop an entire person’s skull with it. “Hold.”
The brigands eased back.
Reaching inside his mouth, Gondoon removed an ugly yellow tooth and flicked it away. He pointed at Brak. “You. I know you. I broke your back, berserker.” He pushed up onto his fist and rose back to his towering height. “And I’ll break it again now that your fire is out.”
“No.” Brak set his jaw and pushed up into a standing position. His body felt as though it weighed a ton. Still panting, he closed his fists. “No, you won’t.”
Gondoon the ogre cracked his bullish neck from side to side. His brawny shoulders stooped a little. He was bare chested, his skin ruddy but a little grey, and his coarse black hair was braided and tangled. He was packed with muscle underneath his thick hide. Big-faced and ugly. Five hundred pounds of unforgettable ugliness.
Brak hadn’t forgotten. Giving his best effort, he made a bead for the ogre.
Gondoon looked down at him and spat blood then extended his oversized fist. “To the death, berserker.”
Brak bumped it with his own fist. “To the death.”
Whack!
Gondoon caught Brak in the side of the jaw.
He staggered back and covered up.
Gondoon hit him all over with a flurry of hammer-like blows. Cheers exploded all around them.
Brak was getting pounded. Jostled. Whipped. Desperate, he threw an uppercut that landed.
Gondoon’s teeth clacked together, and he faded back.
Sweat poured off both man and ogre, huge drops at a time. Gondoon’s arms hung at his sides. Brak could barely lift his fists. He wasn’t a brawler, not like the ogre. It was obvious that Gondoon thrived in pounding the weak into submission. It was his arena.
Brak cast a swollen eye around. He found Jubilee and Fogle with worried looks on their faces and knives to their necks.
Jubilee was pleading, “No, Brak. No.”
He grunted, turned away, and shuffled forward. Head lowered, he waded into Gondoon and started swinging.
Whap! Whap! Whap!
It was like hitting a wall. Every punch Brak threw hurt his fist more than the last.
Gondoon absorbed it, countered it, and punched him back.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Brak crashed to the ground. A rowdy chorus of victory followed.
“It’s over, berserker.” Gondoon was doubled over with his hands on his knees. “You can’t hurt me. Gasp. But I can hurt you. Let me get a blade and vanquish you.”
Brak wiped his mouth and spat. “No.”
“You fought with honor,” the ogre said. “But you need to quit. Gasp. You stand no chance. No one ever has.”
Fighting against the anchor of fatigue that wanted to hold him down, Brak got back up. “No.”
“Then you will suffer. You will long for death.”
Brak rambled forward, stretched out his fingers, and locked them onto Gondoon’s neck.
With a throaty laugh, Gondoon dug his own nails deep into Brak’s neck and returned eye-popping pressure in kind.
CHAPTER 21
Venir stood outside the Magi Roost with his arm around Kam’s waist. Erin was tucked in Kam’s arms. Her chubby little face was smiling at him. He tickled his little girl and made some cooing noises.
“You’re awfully chipper,” Kam said to him. She didn’t smile, either.
“I have my life and all my limbs. I’d say chipper is an understatement.” He swatted her on the rump. “One would think you’d be thrilled as well.”
“I guess I should look on the brighter side of things, but it’s just been so long since I had a good day.” She sighed.
“The good ones are the ones that see you through to the next.” He wiped his face off with a bar rag. The Magi Roost creaked in the stiff winds. He made a head count. Melegal, Joline, and Jasper were all accounted for. “Say, where did that woman go?”
“I am here,” a voice said from behind him. Trinos stood tall and beautiful. Her armor was gone, replaced with some refined and casual green robes. Her platinum hair sparkled in the sun. “Is there something you want?”
The woman’s wounds were gone. Her refined features had been restored.
Kam’s elbow stopped his gazing.
“I’m just making sure everyone was accounted for. I can’t determine whether I should worry about you or not. I assumed you might have floated away or something.”
“No, not yet.” Trinos walked up and stood between them and the building. Her hands were locked behind her back. She nodded back at the Magi Roost. “You’re fond of it, aren’t you.”
Kam looked up at Venir and gave him a ‘Is she talking to me?’ face.
He shrugged.
Kam replied. “I built it. It was full of many wonderful times, but of late it’s been nothing but a tavern of nightmares.”
“I see,” said Trinos.
The boards of the tavern popped and cracked. The rooftop swayed from side to side and came to a stop.
“That was close,” Venir said. “Maybe I should go inside and see if I can secure some of the posts. Melegal! You coming? You’d make an excellent beam.”
Melegal was sitting on the ground with his hand on his tummy. He took Jasper’s hand and let her help him to his feet. “Why the slat not? Besides, my tumbler could use a refill.”
Venir’s voice brightened. “Aye, now you’re thinking. I believe it’s time for a celebration. I’m sure there’s some grog bottles that held up pretty well.” He marched toward the porch, side by side with Melegal.
The Magi Roost groaned, cracked, popped, and collapsed.
Boom!
“Son of a Bish!” Venir exclaimed.
“Slat,” Melegal replied.
Venir turned back toward Kam.
Her pretty but drained face held a blank expression. She was a tough woman, but things had taken a heavy toll on her.
He’d never meant to put her through anything, but he felt responsible for all of her problems somehow. It had to end, whatever was going on. For her, Erin’s, and everybody’s sake.
“That’s that, I guess,” Kam said. She looked at Venir and gave a little nod. “I’m fine.”
“You know, a woman being fine is never a good thing,” Melegal whispered in his ear. “So don’t say anything stupid. As a matter of fact, don’t say anything at all … Stupid.”
Kam huddled with Erin and Joline.
Melegal huddled with Jasper.
Venir eased away from all of them and found himself within close proximity of Trinos.
The woman stood gazing at the heaped-up building with a spacey look in her eyes.
Finally, Venir decided to give his tired limbs a rest and sit down. “Ah.” Gazing up at the clouds drifting through the sky, he tried to remember the last time he’d breathed without his life hanging in the balance. He looked at his missing fingers. It was that imp who had done that—the same imp who had aided them today.
Bish is such a strange and screwed up place. He felt eyes on him.
Trinos was looking right at him.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said. She walked over and sat down beside him. “Enjoy these moments, Venir. You’ve a long road ahead of you yet.”
“It’s always been a long road. Tell me something new.”
“Hmmm, that’s an odd request.”
“Who said it was a request?”
“You’re toying with me.” She smiled at him. “It’s thrilling in some odd way. I think I like it.”
“Most women like it, but some of them hate it.”
“Does Kam like it?”
“She used to, but I’m not so sure how she feels about it now.”
“She has deep feelings for you,” Trinos said, placing her hand on his back.
Venir felt his tensions ease. Her touch was so warm and soothing. Caring. “I’m not sure what you’re doing,” he yawned, “but it’s making me sleepy.”
“Then rest.”
“I’ll rest when all the underlings are dead.”
Trinos removed her hand and frowned. “A part of me wants to apologize to you, Venir.”
“For what?”
“You are what you are because of me.”
Venir shook his head and laughed. “No, I am what I am because of me. I just need to like it again.”
Trinos lifted a brow. “So you don’t regret all the fighting and killing?”
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