by Jack Knight
Finally, after watching him struggle for almost a minute, Ava reached out her hand and grabbed Xion’s forearm. She locked her legs on either side of Tenebris and heaved Xion up enough for him to throw his leg over.
“That was not as easy as I thought it would be,” he panted as he tried to get comfortable.
“Shut up and hold on,” Ava said coldly. “Tenebris, get us out of here.”
“Hold on to… whoa!”
When Tenebris stood, her entire body shifted and moved beneath Xion. He would have fallen off immediately if he had not wrapped his arms tightly around Ava’s waist. Ava had merely grabbed onto Tenebris’ fur, her body shifted at the same time as Tenebris’. Xion got the feeling she had done this before.
Xion expected jumping between shadows to be simple, the wolf would leap into the darkness, disappear in one place, and reappear in another. He was completely unprepared for the actual experience.
Tenebris dove at the shadows on the ground, and it felt like diving into a pool of ice cold water. Except, instead of getting wet, you were just compressed on all sides by tremendous pressure, as if the air around him were much heavier than it should be. Xion could not breath, when he tried to inhale, he could get no air. There was also no light. Unlike the tower they had been in, before Ava had made her orb appear, this darkness felt thick and all consuming.
All at once, he was free. Everything was bright, he could smell the wet grass, and breathe in the crisp air. Xion did not ever want to jump through the shadows again. He was quite happy with a familiar that said random words in his head every so often and nothing else.
Tenebris landed in the wet earth, surrounded by trees. Less than ten feet away, people dressed in black armor were fighting against one girl who whipped her thin black sword around so quickly that Xion could barely see it, fighting off three enemies at once.
Xion looked around for the others. Paarathax was blocking sword strikes with his bare forearms, grabbing men with blinding speed, throwing men bodily at one another, and fighting off half the army on his own. Sapphire, Warren, and Laira were yards away from the fighting.
Laira was firing arrow after arrow into the crowd of men with a tall brown bow. Xion had no idea where she had gotten a weapon, but he could tell she had never learned to use it. Every arrow she shot missed. Sapphire and Warren fired icicles, balls of fire, and small silver orbs of pure energy at the armored men, doing considerable damage, but not enough to stem the flow of men that continued to rush towards.
Xion slipped down from Tenebris’ back and landed awkwardly on the ground. He saw as every enemy not already fighting Xara or Paarathax started moving to encircle Tenebris, the new target in the fight.
“Stay on Tenebris!” Xion shouted to Ava.
It was more important than anything that Ava not be injured. They were not far from the tower, and Xion was not sure what the safe distance around the portal was. If she was injured, even a little bit, the world would be overrun with demons.
He hoped that Ava would understand that, but she was looking toward where Warren, Laira, and Sapphire were standing. Several of the armored assassins were running toward them. Xion was not worried, between Warren and Sapphire he was sure that they could incapacitate their attackers before they were in any danger. Ava did not seem to be thinking the same way.
Ava gave a fierce scream and leapt from Tenebris’ back, over many of the attackers, and landed on top of one of them. The man fell to the ground and Ava pushed two more aside as she raced to protect the others.
Xion cursed as attackers started coming at him. He could not focus on whether Ava was safe or not, he had to make sure he stayed alive long enough to worry about the consequences of Ava’s recklessness.
He drew the sword from the sheath at his hip and blocked an incoming attack. As the blades connected, the fire inside Xion burst to life. With magic coursing through him, he willed himself to move faster. He remembered the feeling of running when Warren had cast Kordonian’s Haste on him, and pushed out energy, willing himself to recreate the spell.
He felt the tug in his stomach and on his bond with Aurum, and he saw everyone around him slow down. The slow drain of energy did not bother him, it was almost unnoticeable.
It was easy to block attacks when everyone around him was moving at such a slow speed, but it felt wrong to kill anyone when he had such a powerful advantage. He knocked swords out of people’s hands, stabbed them in the legs, pushed people to the ground, and did his best to stop them from fighting without hurting anyone too badly.
It did not take long for Xion to clear out the people around him. Even so, when about fifteen of the armored warriors were on the ground, Xion could feel how much the magic was affecting him. The drain of energy was slow, but it was enough to tire him out quickly while he was fighting. When he was sure that the people around him were all going to stay on the ground, he released the magic. Instantly, it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
He took a second to breathe. He did not know when he started panting, or when the sweat had started to drip down his back, but once he stopped moving, he became fully aware of it. He looked toward his friends to see if they had fared as well as him and broke into a run.
He dodged around Tenebris, who was tearing the throat out of one of the men on the ground, ripping pieces of armor to shreds with her teeth as she did, and jumped over the bodies that covered the ground. He could not have been fighting for more than a couple of minutes, but in that time, members of The Hand had surrounded his friends. Warren was lying on the ground, Sapphire was hiding behind a shield of energy that two of the assassins were slashing at, each with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Ava was standing in front of Laira, fighting off attackers as best she could with a sword in each hand, while Laira fired off arrows at anyone who approached.
Xion did not think to help Laira or Ava. It was not that he thought that they were doing fine on their own, it did not even occur to him. All that he could think was that Sapphire was in danger.
He did not decide to yell, but he heard his voice come out as an angry scream as he got closer to the two warriors attacking Sapphire’s shield. One of them turned toward him and swung at him with a sword. Xion deflected it, but not fast enough to be able to react to the man’s other hand, which struck at him just as quickly with a dagger.
Xion tried to jump back, but the dagger slashed upward at the last second and tore the skin on his arm. His scales deflected most of the blade, but a small trickle of blood started to seep out of him. Xion lunged, and the assassin blocked his strike.
Xion was surprised to realize that the man was slower than Xara. He could tell that if he had trained with Xara longer, this man would be easy to defeat. As it was, Xion was skilled enough to fend him off, but not enough to defeat quickly.
They slashed and blocked each other, seeming to be evenly matched, for almost a full minute. Xion was not sure how much longer he could fight, the sword was growing heavy, and he could feel himself slowing down. His opponent may not have been as naturally fast or strong as he was, but he was more practiced. Xion was sure that the man could fight longer than he could, and he was going to have to end it quickly or his enemy was going to get the upper hand.
And then he heard Sapphire scream. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shield shatter. If she had let the magic break, she probably did not have the energy to do anything else to defend herself. She had no weapons. If Xion could not get to her quickly, her attacker would take her down in seconds.
The fire inside of Xion raged. He felt his bond tug hard against his mind, trying to keep his magic under control, but it burst out of him. The man he was fighting was lifted off his feet and thrown backwards as Xion turned away, almost forgetting that he was there. Xion ran at the warrior standing over Sapphire and threw his sword with every ounce of strength that he had left.
As it left his hand, the sword’s blade burst into flame and shot forward as if it were being draw
n straight toward the assassin. The man looked up, and Xion saw the surprise in his eyes just before the sword impaled him, slicing through his armor on one side. The blade pierced him all the way to the hilt, and broke through his other side, the blade still encased in fire. The man went still at the same moment the fire died.
“Are you okay?” Xion asked as he helped Sapphire stand.
She was trembling, weak from using so much magic, but she looked up at him and her eyes sparkled in the dim light of the setting sun. It looked like she might be about to cry, but she had a smile on her face. Xion thought for a second that something might be wrong with her. Her face started to get a red tint to it, and she looked like she was thinking about something really hard. He saw her heart start to beat so fast it shook her chest.
“Alright, stop!”
Xion turned around so quickly that Sapphire stumbled a step forward. He would recognize that voice anywhere. Draxis was no longer watching the tower. He had come to join the fight.
Draxis was not far away, and coming closer, walking toward them from the direction of the tower, an amused grin on his face. At his words, all the fighting in the forest stopped. He surveyed the aftermath of the battle with a dark twinkle in his eyes, like seeing so many of the people fighting on his side laying on the ground and bloody was enjoyable for him.
“Not sure how you two got out of that tower,” Draxis called out, Xion guessed he was speaking to him and Ava, “but that was most impressive. How did you convince that dragon not to tear you apart?”
“Not every dragon is as evil as you,” Xion called back.
Draxis chuckled. “There it is again. ‘Evil’, you call it? Well, consider this: was it good to slaughter an entire race just because they frightened you? Was it good for you to burn Brawne to ash because he wanted different things than you did?”
Xion felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He had not meant to kill Brawne. Brawne had stabbed him, and fire poured out of him, another random act of his chaos magic acting on its own. Brawne had died because they happened to be fighting, and as much as Xion hated the man, he regretted his death.
Draxis seemed to notice Xion’s reaction and continued. “You see, everyone calls me ‘the Darkness’. But, everyone does things that aren’t all that great. I am a king, and I act in the best interests of my people. You only call it ‘evil’ because you want to stop me. Every dragon thinks that I am doing what is right, and I am leading my people to the justice they deserve.”
Everyone in the clearing was staring at Draxis as he walked closer to Xion. Even when he passed Xara and Paarathax, they did not move against him. None of The Hand took advantage of the distraction, they all just stared. When Draxis was only a few yards away from Xion, he stopped and put his hands on his hips.
“Not every dragon,” Xion argued. “I’m half dragon, and I think what you’re doing is wrong. The humans that killed dragons aren’t even alive anymore! You’re punishing innocent people for something that their ancestors did!”
“That may be true, but I refuse to let the dragons be wiped out again. And, don’t forget, the humans that were there may be long dead, but I was there. I remember, and I will not allow it to happen again.” As Draxis spoke, his smile disappeared, and his face became dark. A cold, calm anger that was more frightening than if he had been screaming.
“Xion,” Ava called to him, “stop talking with the evil overlord.”
Xion looked around to make sure Sapphire was still alright. She was helping Warren up. There were lines of blood on his shirt and his face, but he was not bleeding anymore. Sapphire must have healed him while Xion was talking to Draxis.
“What are you going to do?” Draxis asked, a sneer appearing on his face.
“I say we run,” Warren suggested as he steadied himself.
Xion nodded. “Run!”
He pushed out as much energy as he could, throwing out a spell to cover Sapphire, Ava, Warren, Xara, Paarathax, Tenebris, Aurum, Ferion, and himself. He tried to recreate Kordonian’s Haste again, but as the spell hit everyone, he realized it was too much. He felt a dramatic drop in his energy, and he knew he could not sustain the magic.
He pulled the spell back, pushing everyone to move faster, but not as much as he had done when he was casting the spell on just himself. They all ran away from Draxis, in the direction opposite the tower. Xion was relieved to see that the spell worked as much as it needed to. Draxis breathed a plume of flame after them, but they all moved just fast enough to escape it.
They raced through the forest, Xion felt his feet sink into the mud with every step, and he had to dodge trees and roots with every step. He kept running as long as he could keep the spell going, but it was not long. Every step felt like fifty, every breath was more difficult than the last. Xion and the others had almost made it back to the open space where they had fought the troll before Xion collapsed to the ground and let the spell go.
“Best spell for a fight!” Warren said, breathing heavily.
Sapphire knelt down in the mud beside Xion as lightning cracked across the sky, illuminating the open field only a few yards away from them.
“A storm is coming,” Paarathax noted. He looked concerned about it.
“Who cares?” Ava asked. “We just need to worry about getting farther away from Draxis.”
“How many did you guys take down?” Xara asked, stretching her arms above her, I think I got about ten. The rest of them kept falling over, what wimps.”
“Is that really important right now?” Sapphire sighed.
“Ava, are you okay?” Laira asked, her voice filled with worry.
“Fine, why?” Ava asked.
Laira took Ava’s wrist and turned her arm over. On the back of Ava’s bicep, there was a small cut in her sleeve. The edges of the tear had been colored red by Ava’s blood. Just visible through the torn shirt was a small cut.
“Does anyone else feel like we’re cursed?” Warren asked with a groan. “I feel like we’re cursed.”
Chapter 17: Unleashed
Xion pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Do you remember when that happened?” he asked quickly.
Ava shook her head. “I didn’t realize that it happened.” She did not sound concerned, but she was staring at the cut on her arm intently, like she was trying to get it to admit when it happened.
Lightning lit the sky again, and Paarathax’s face darkened. “I have a feeling we made a mistake.”
“It was not a mistake,” Ava growled immediately.
“You don’t think opening the portal to the Five Hells and allowing demons to come out and destroy all of the humans in Ustama was a mistake?” Paarathax asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ava looked at Laira with a strange expression on her face. “No, I don’t,” she said fiercely.
Laira turned bright red and held out Ava’s dagger. “You, um… dropped this, before,” she stammered.
Ava took the dagger gingerly and then looked back at Paarathax. “It doesn’t matter what happened, we just need to know how to stop it.”
Paarathax nodded. “It needs to be closed from both sides,” he said.
“Yeah, Xion told me that,” Ava replied. “What I mean is, how do we get back to it. We left Draxis and The Hand there. They aren’t going to let us just walk up to it and jump in.”
It started to rain harder, and the lightning started striking every few seconds. The clothes they wore were soaked through within minutes, and the sky was lit so often that Xion could not tell if it was day or night.
Nobody had a quick response to Ava, but they all knew they could not just rush in without a plan. Warren sat down next to Sapphire with a groan.
“Okay, so,” Warren started, “we’ve got nothing, right?”
“Right,” Xion sighed. He wanted to do something, but he could not think of any course of action besides running in. There was no chance of them being able to close the portal with Draxis near it.
“How long until the world
is overrun with demons?” Warren asked Paarathax.
Paarathax shook his head. “There’s no way to know. Venitia said that the portal opening is like a door being unlocked. Unless there are demons checking the door on the other side, many will not know anything’s happened for a while.”
“Okay, so we probably have some time, right?” Sapphire clarified.
“Probably,” Paarathax nodded.
“So, let’s think this out,” Warren stated. “What’s stopping us from going to close it?”
“The dragon guy,” Laira answered.
“Draxis,” Ava corrected.
“Yeah, him,” Laira nodded.
“Okay, so we need to lure him away,” Warren mused.
“How?” Xion asked. “He seems pretty set on building his army, I don’t think he’s just going to walk away from where they’re going to come out.”
“But, he opened it before, right?” Xara asked. “So, maybe he thinks it’ll take a while for them to come out, too.”
“The sooner we try to get him to leave, the easier it’ll be,” Sapphire agreed.
“So, who volunteers to start a fight with the oldest dragon in existence?” Warren joked.
“Second oldest,” Ava corrected. She explained what had happened inside the tower, and everything that Xeraxia had said.
Once again, something bothered Xion. He knew he was forgetting something extremely important, and he knew it had to do with Xeraxia. It was starting to irritate him that he could not remember.
“I’ll fight him,” Paarathax volunteered. His face and voice were both coated in anger that Xion did not understand.
“I was definitely joking,” Warren pointed out.
“He would slaughter any one of you,” Paarathax rebutted. “And, someone has to get him away from the portal.”
Xion wanted to argue, but Paarathax was right, it was their best shot. If Paarathax could lead Draxis away, they would only have The Hand to deal with, and that gave them a real chance. Xion wanted to be the one to volunteer, but he was already weak, and if they waited long enough for Xion to even last a few minutes against Draxis, half the humans in Ustama might already be dead.