by Stone Thomas
“You are handsome, but stupid,” the Mayor said. The blue-clad witch whispered something to the one dressed in red.
“A war approaches, Mayor,” I said. “Ready your army.”
“We have no army,” the Mayor said. “We have a well-trained, though small, corps of city guards that keep the peace. They are more than well enough prepared for whatever rogues come our way.”
“These aren’t rogues,” I said. “It’s Duul.”
“We should have accepted imperial protection,” the blue-clad mage said.
“Agreed,” the red one said.
“What would that mean?” I asked. “Is it too late?”
“Lily is wrong,” the Mayor said. “We don’t need the empire, its taxes, or its laws. We can protect ourselves.”
The faint sound of the approaching army reached our ears. Each of their faces sobered at the sound. This had suddenly become real to them.
“If you relax the law against it,” I said, “I can improve your skills and attributes now, in advance of the war.”
“You will do no such thing,” the Mayor said.
“We should consider it,” Lily said. She took her blue hat off, releasing a long, flowing head of brown hair behind her.
“You will stop speaking out of turn,” the Mayor said. “You lack the foresight of a lawmaker.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
A guard approached. “Mayor,” he said. “We spied two dozen people on their way toward the city. Shall we meet them outside the front gates?”
“No,” the Mayor said. “Assemble the guards here. If they make it through the front gate, then we will fight. I expect they’ll realize how powerful our lightning tower is and turn heel.”
I stood, uncomfortably, while the army marched toward our door. The Mayor did nothing more to warn the citizens or protect the city, he just folded his hands in front of him and stood there.
“Ambry,” Lily said to the mage in red robes, “are you ready?”
“Full power,” she said.
“Good,” Lily said. “No one messes with my city and lives.”
The ball of electric light that hovered atop Valleyvale’s magic defense tower crackled and throbbed. It grew as the threat got closer, until finally it sent a long, snaking arc of energy that filled the air with the smell of ozone.
Something in the forest outside Valleyvale screeched. It was the only cretin that would be taken unaware. The second its body hit the ground, metal crashed against metal and throaty roars erupted into the air. They rushed the doors.
The tower recharged slowly, building its throbbing energy mass from a nascent spark to a giant crackling ball over the course of thirty or so seconds. The archers in the other guard tower shot quickly at the oncoming attackers.
We just stood there, waiting. The Mayor, armed only with arrogance; Lily, whose fists were frosty with some ice spell she was preparing; Ambry, whose eyes burned with magic fire; and me, with my spear at the ready. A dozen guards with swords and shields formed a loose wall between us and the city gates.
The wooden gates to the city, dense and expertly adorned with ornamental carvings, stood up to the assault longer than I expected. Still, the cretins hacked away at them, ignoring the damage from arrows and electric bolts that whittled down their numbers.
A black blade crunched through the gates. A cretin’s shining black boot stomped through the splintered wood, opening the first entry point for Duul’s forces.
The guards sprang into action, thrusting swords at the creatures as they climbed into the city. Other cretins hacked away at the doors from the outside, widening their entry.
“Girls?” the Mayor said.
“About time,” Ambry replied. She reached forward and conjured a wall of fire that enclosed the guards and the cretins, keeping them at the city’s front in a small, sweltering area. A lightning bolt sizzled toward a cretin, striking it dead in a single blow as it climbed through the jagged aperture in the large wooden door.
Lily’s hands continued to frost, though she didn’t take action yet.
The archers had stopped shooting at the army below. Cretins had climbed the archers’ tower and were engaged in hand to hand combat, something the archers were likely ill equipped for. There was nothing on the face of the tower to stop the cretins from scurrying up the rocks like demented squirrels.
The creatures that lunged at the archers on the tower’s tiny roof were not the man-shaped cretins that wielded swords down below. These creatures were canine in form, with rippling black muscle shining across their backs like they were carved from obsidian.
These war dogs had shut down one of the city’s defenses, the cretins had torn down the doors, and now other cretins had erected some kind of magic barrier that interfered with the electric tower. The rest of this battle would take place here, on the cobblestone square that welcomed visitors across the threshold of Valleyvale’s entrance.
Two guards were down, maybe more. It was hard to see through Ambry’s fire wall. A dozen cretins had climbed into the city now, with more on their way.
“You have to let me in there,” I said. I had a good weapon, and a combat skill. I could help keep the cretins from tearing out the guards’ throats.
“In time,” the Mayor said. “Let the guards prove their worth.”
“But the cretins are conjuring their black magic smog,” I said. “They’ll turn the guards against us if we don’t act soon.”
“Running out,” Ambry said. The flames of her wall began to diminish until the entire thing snuffed out.
“My turn!” Lily said. She began pumping her hands through the air, throwing snowballs that came out of nowhere. Each one landed on a cretin, turning the creatures into veritable ice sculptures. They were frozen solid, at least for the time being.
A few of the guards stepped back from the fray, still clutching their weapons. They looked back at us, then the cretins. Then they charged at the Mayor.
Ambry stepped forward with her staff to block their attacks. “Traitors!”
“It’s the cretins’ doing,” I said. I stepped forward with my spear, while Lily readied a long metal axe. “Don’t kill the guards, it’s not their fault.”
“They should have resisted this curse!” the Mayor said.
A cursed guard lunged toward me, but I activated Piercing Blow and stabbed his shield. The force of it threw him back, but my weapon had speared through his shield like a shish kabob. It was nice to know Razortooth was that sharp, but having a shield stuck to my spear made the weapon heavy and unwieldy.
I whipped my spear in a wide arc, using the attached shield to knock down the rest of the guards that had come for us. The inertia took me with it, dragging me to the ground as my legs failed to spin fast enough to keep up.
“First fight?” Ambry asked. She clobbered a fallen guard in the head with her staff, knocking him unconscious.
“Me?” I asked. “No, I’ve been fighting my whole life.” My main opponents until recently had been bats, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.
Lily continued to freeze cursed guards and cretins in place, but there were more cretins than she could keep up with. Some of them rushed at me, so I braced for their attacks. Either I’d catch their sword arms with my bare hands and stop their attacks, or I’d lose some of my precious HP in the form of stab wounds. I really didn’t want to pass out from lack of HP, because then I’d be very easy to kill, but for the time being I was unarmed.
Then the dark creatures sprinted past me. I wasn’t their target.
“Gowes,” I said. “They’re attacking the temple!”
Not weighed down by my spear, I ran. My fists pumped against the air as my legs burned with the effort. I wasn’t a natural runner, so it was only adrenaline and necessity forcing my muscles to act. When this was over, I’d need to get in better shape.
Concerned citizens looked warily out their windows, but none came to their doors. None wanted to get personally involved in the war that
had come to their doorstep. The temple was just ahead, and while I wasn’t closing in on the three cretins charging ahead, I wasn’t losing ground either.
The temple doors were locked, so the cretins started hacking away with their swords. It was the time I needed to catch up to them.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Hey, you!”
One of the cretins turned back and stepped toward me while the other two kept beating down the doors. It whipped its sword toward me and I jumped back to avoid getting hit. It slashed again, forcing me further from the temple I was trying to save. I couldn’t let the cretins steal the life energy from another god, it would only make Duul stronger and the other gods weaker, including Nola.
With another slash of its sword, the cretin got closer and I lunged. My head crashed into its chest, knocking it to the ground. I punched its face, which felt like punching a metal mailbox. My knuckles split open, bleeding onto the creature’s jaw. It sent a slimy black tongue across its lips, taking my blood into its mouth and smiling before bashing my skull with its forehead.
I reeled back, dizzy from the impact. Ahead, the temple doors splintered open, allowing the other two monster men to get inside.
The cretin that was attacking me pressed its sword against my neck. The sharp blade dug into my skin, but my hands pressed against the cretin’s arms, pushing against the force that bore down on my throat.
I couldn’t hold out for long. Soon, this thing would decapitate me. I kicked my legs out but couldn’t get between this monster and myself.
Then, a new blade appeared. A shining metal knife sliced into the cretin’s throat, spilling black blood sludge all over me. The creature flopped to the side. Standing over me, and offering a hand to help me up, was gangster extraordinaire Blade.
“Thank you,” I panted. “There are two more, in the temple.”
“Not my problem,” he said. “The gods and I don’t care for each other. I’ve done enough here for you to owe me, teach. Keep yourself alive long enough for me to cash that in.”
He strutted away, as if he weren’t a walking target himself. Meanwhile, the black ooze from the cretin’s dead body coalesced into a thin tendril of inky magic that soared through air, through my pant pocket, and into one of the energems I had brought with me. My skin seared from the heat of that energy transfer for a moment, then it was over.
The dizziness subsided. I got to my feet as I heard a scream from the temple. Eranza.
I ran into the temple as quickly as I could. There, with black blades aimed forward, were two cretins just inches from Gowes. The cyan god floated out of reach, just above the altar.
“You boys won’t hurt me,” he said. “My friend Arden will see to that. Over here, Arden!”
Eranza cowered behind the altar, next to the temple’s fireplace. A light blue flame flickered behind her.
“Throw me a poker!” I yelled, running toward the altar. Eranza threw the fireplace implement toward me like a javelin, which I caught in both hands. I kept running, holding the weapon across my body. When I reached the cretins, I used the force from Piercing Blow to whack them both across the heads as I thrust my new weapon forward horizontally.
The cretins tumbled ahead. I stabbed one with the sharp end of the poker, then pulled the weapon from its flesh. Its chest was torn like metal foil leaking black oil. The second cretin opened its mouth, revealing jagged, sharp teeth. It lunged at me with its scimitar and its mouth. I wasn’t sure what to block first.
I went for the mouth. The handle end of my poker was already facing the creature, so I rammed it into its gaping maw. The metal scraped against the back of its skull as I tore the monster’s head open. It fell, dead.
The other cretin was getting back to its feet. Gowes continued to waft overhead, smiling as we battled to the death below him.
“Today’s not the day I die, fellas, I’ve got a long life ahead!” he said.
“But do I?” I asked, kicking the cretin in the stomach. I didn’t know if it had a stomach inside that black shining body, but I did hope I had kicked something vital.
“If you want one,” he said, “you can have one. You just need a little ingenuity and faith!”
I found it hard to be so optimistic with a cretin slashing his dark sword at me. I ducked backward to avoid an attack, then did it again. I didn’t realize how close I had gotten to the temple’s pews until I tripped over one and landed in a heap between the wooden benches.
The cretin leapt onto the pew’s back and pointed at me with his sword. He was about to drop his body toward me and let gravity sink that blade as far into me as it would. I had nowhere to roll to, no way to stand and run before that blade fell.
Instead, I pointed my poker at the pew and activated Piercing Blow. The polearm shot forward, splintering the wooden bench and sending long shards of oak in every direction. The cretin flew across the room, slamming into another pew and destroying it. I climbed over the wreckage and stared down at it, trapped under a long, heavy stretch of the decimated bench.
“It’s over,” I said. With a final thrust, I speared the monster and killed it.
The blood of two cretins wove through the air toward me. I reached in my pocket for the energems and set them on the floor just in time to avoid adding to the third degree burns on my thigh from the first cretin.
When the stones cooled, I collected them, nodded at Gowes and Eranza, and limped out of the temple.
+20
When I stepped into the street, I saw him. The general that led this charge. He was much taller than the other cretins and his eyes burned with red energy. He was on the far side of the city gates, so he hadn’t set foot in Valleyvale yet, but time was short.
I ran. My vision blurred like I might pass out from over exertion, but I couldn’t care about that. I could only run, toward the guards, the Mayor, the witches that struggled to keep the cretins at bay. If we didn’t turn this menace away, Duul would add Valleyvale’s men to his cabal of warmongering subjects, and trap the women in a state of constant uncertainty.
“Six!” Lily yelled as I approached. She had slashed her axe through a frozen cretin’s neck, sending its head rolling away in a frosted block of frozen death. “Seven!” she slashed again.
Ambry straddled a cretin on the ground, pressing the length of her staff against its throat. It went limp as she finished strangling it to death.
I took out the energems again. The cretins’ bodies turned to a river of black energy that filled the gems with power and heat.
“We have company,” I said.
The only cretin standing was the largest of the bunch. He stood outside the front gates, accepting arrows from Valleyvale’s last living archer as though they were flakes of snow on a mild winter day. The sizzling ball of yellow energy that grew atop the other tower prepared to jolt him with electric magic, but the oversized monster didn’t seem to care.
A feeble punch in my back spun me around. It was the Mayor. His eyes were black as night, his skin a deathly shade of gray. He had succumbed to Duul’s curse.
I realized then that he had been right to keep the citizens from pitching in against the cretins. Extra bodies would have only added to Duul’s forces once the curse took hold.
The Mayor was too old and weak to inflict much damage, so I turned away and let him attack me. “What do you want?” I yelled toward Duul’s largest minion.
“What I came for,” the creature bellowed in a deep, gravelly voice. It reached its black hand toward the electric tower, which stood barely taller than he did. He curled his fingers around the damaging magic. Yellow sparks snaked up his arm, forcing his body to tremble from the damage he took. Then the spell ceased, beginning its thirty second recharge.
The cretin general pulled his fist away and uncurled his fingers. In his hand sat a massive black energem, larger than any I had found so far. The electric energy stopped gathering on the tower’s roof. He hadn’t come for the city, or for Gowes. Not yet, anyway. He came to take the gem that powered
the city’s defenses, and which could add to Duul’s own power if put to that purpose.
He turned to walk away, leaving the city in shambles. The guards were dead, save a single archer. The electric tower was powered down. The gates were in smithereens.
“We did it,” the Mayor said. Somehow, the death of the cretins and the departure of their general had lifted the curse. It wasn’t permanent. It must depend on proximity to the spell’s source. If that were the case, maybe I could liberate Meadowdale one day.
“Come,” the Mayor said. “We must give credit where it is due.”
I retrieved Razortooth and pried the metal shield from its blade, then followed behind the Mayor, Ambry, and Lily. The archer looked down at us and shook his head. He wouldn’t leave his post while the massive general of Duul’s army walked away through the woods.
“People of Valleyvale!” the Mayor called out. Gradually, citizens amassed in the city’s center. They walked from side streets and alleys. They came from their homes and their shops. Eranza came, and so did Gowes. I hadn’t seen him outside his temple before this, but he radiated the same cyan glow here as he did there.
“Today, we sustained casualties in a war that we did not seek,” the Mayor said. “These are important times for the city to attract adventurers, else we shall have no champions against the forces of evil. While today’s battle ended in victory, we may not always be so lucky or so strong.”
Victory?, I wondered. They got what they came here for. They took your energem!
“I need to thank our city guards,” the Mayor said, “whose brave sacrifices allow us to live and prosper another day. Let us take a moment of silence to remember their valor.
“I need also to thank Ambry and Lily, whose magic kept those evil warriors from entering the city and fouling our fair home.
“Finally, I must thank Eranza, whose quick thinking allowed the temple to be defended.”
“To be defended?” I thought, I’m the one who defended it!
“And, lest we allow our home to suffer intrusions most unwelcome,” the Mayor said, “take a long look at this face.” He gestured toward me. “This is the face of a man once banished from our city, who returned without invitation. His lack of respect for my authority, and his partial destruction of our temple, prove that his banishment was well earned. Should he enter Valleyvale again, he must be detained before he wreaks more havoc.