by LJ Davies
Towering beasts marched among them, from hulking trolls carrying monstrous cannons on their hunched backs, to savage chimera thrashing at their goblin tormentors from within wicked cages. Large humanoid ogres, with pale, scarred and putrid skin, wielded huge hammers or clubs, wearing nothing more than tattered loincloths beneath the weight of their swollen stomachs.
Small, ratty, pale and scrawny goblins, clad in spiked armour with no more than shards of scrap as weapons swarmed between feet like a living carpet. All the while winged horrors, manticores, chimera, as well as swarms of carnivorous bats and birds flew above like a great cloud of terror.
It was the vast engine of war set on destroying everything, cities, fortresses and my home. The tension that had been building in the world had finally broken, just as Mordrakk told me it would.
He's not right, I can stop it. Here and now, I have to do something!
With another loud roar, Balgore raised his hammer once more, forcing the mighty war chant to grow in volume as his wyvern lifted its head high to unleash a bone chilling bellow of its own. With a forceful beat of its tattered wings his mount took to the air, blasting the chamber with a gust of wind as it swooped down over the vast army, followed closely by Omisha.
"Did you really think I wouldn't expect you to come here? You're nothing if not predictable," Pyro pronounced triumphantly, pressing my head to the floor. "You know the truth, and yet you still think you can run?" he added through gritted fangs.
"Then finish it now, I'm right here," I growled, kicking up with my rear paws, forcing him to release his grip.
"Oh, I'm not here to kill you, as simple as that may be. I just need you to lead me home," he explained cryptically as purple light escaped from his smiling muzzle.
"I'm pretty sure your master’s been aware of where I've been all along," I added as I made a dash for the sky.
Pyro lunged at me with unnatural speed, metal talons swiping at my wings.
In an instant, I pulled them to my sides and my leap became a frantic spin as his strike sent me sprawling across the floor. In the same moment, I saw him looming overhead, and I kicked out, sending him sprawling into a rack of weaponry with a symphony of clatters and bangs. I staggered to my paws as he shook off his fall with a snort, his tail sweeping my legs out from under me before I knew it. Flames and an angry hiss seared from his nostrils as he darted over, only for me to coil and lash out with my wing blades.
"I tire of this game; you will do as the Great Master commands!" he declared as he parried my strike with his own, his dark weaponry scraping against the magical light in a shower of arcane sparks.
"If you think your pathetic creators will save you now, you're mistaken," he growled, slamming his metal claw into my back.
With all of my strength I spun, digging my talons into the metal, forcing myself back against his limb.
"I'm not counting on any gods to save me," I declared, throwing him off as I twisted his foreleg round in such a way that would have surely broken it were it still organic.
Even so, he was far from beaten, and I jumped to dodge his open muzzle, drawing my bladed tail across his forelimbs while attempting to blast flames in his face. In the same moment, he caught me around the neck with his serrated talons. I choked on fire, while the only thing preventing him from slitting my throat was my armour as it resisted the force of his grip.
"Look at you, you’re nothing but a flawed relic of a false pantheon," he hissed, claws tightening. "You know, I should thank you really. You lacked the stomach to kill me when you had the chance, and now I have become more powerful than any Dardien lacky!" he boasted.
Beating his wings, he lifted into the air, throwing me across the room with a flick of his metal claw. I slammed into the floor with a thud, my armour rattling as I slid to a halt beside a pile of orkin munitions.
"Ssstop toying with him, finisssh thissss as the massster demandsss," the vulpomancer hissed, spreading its tattered wings and swooping down onto a pile of crates.
Pyro scowled down his gnarled muzzle at me, while my insides still burned from the backfired flames.
"Still trying to be the hero?" he growled scornfully.
"I'm not a hero," I declared as I lifted myself to my paws, twirling to face the piles of explosives and volatile powder.
With a quick thrust, white flames snorted from my muzzle and ignited a trail of flammable dust. In a pyrotechnic shower of sparks and dancing embers, the munitions exploded. With an angry hiss, the taunting vulpomancer leapt into the air, vanishing in a cloud of shadow. Meanwhile, the explosion cast both Pyro and I aside. But I was ready, and charged with all of the strength I could muster, slamming into his forelegs horns first, throwing him into the air.
I didn't slow, leaping from the rim of the balcony; spreading my wings as the harsh wind sent me into a wild spin. For a moment, I was able to steady myself, then an ear-rending boom tore apart the structure behind me. There was a burst of light as the side of the tower exploded, the chain reaction sending an avalanche of rubble down onto the ramparts.
The shockwave tore past me, casting me into another uncontrollable spiral. I beat my wings in a desperate effort to right myself as the dark sky and the icy cliffs flashed before my eyes in a blur. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, the sound of beating wings filled the air and a ferocious pair of black talons ripped me from the sky.
"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Pyro hissed, slashing at me with all four claws.
His wings flared, pulling up from the advancing orkin legions, while I flapped like a rag in a blizzard. Instinctively, I opened my muzzle to unleash a torrent of flames, forcing him to release me. The moment I was free, I beat my wings, the icy landscape rushing by mere meters blow me as the echoes of the explosion faded into the distance.
An endless sea of snow and ice sped by, broken only by scattered pools of glowing lava and spires of smouldering rock. Swerving to avoid most of them, I revelled in the chance to fly so wildly again. However, months of confinement in the narrow tunnels had dampened my aerial skills, and I found myself skimming more than a few sharp edges, making me thankful for my armour.
As I weaved around a stack of spires, Pyro’s shadow appeared above me, surging downward like a bolt of pure darkness. His claws wrapped about my sides, instantly trying to immobilise my wings.
"See how much better I could have been for them? How great a leader I am compared to you? I wouldn't be so blind as to abandon them like a coward!" he roared over the howl of the wind as we scraped against pillars of volcanic rock.
Beating my wings harder, I pushed myself up against his underside, using the brief moment of freedom to spin round and face him.
"You did more than abandon them!" I retorted, lashing at his face with my foreclaws.
The metal of his helmet softened under the heat, but in the same instant, he struck out with his metal limb, seizing my neck. Gripping with a clench as cold as death, pain radiated through me, amplified by the scars along my side.
"I secured my place within the new world order so I may extend such a blessing to others of my choosing!" he declared, pulling up and dragging me into the sky with him.
"Are you sure you didn't do it for yourself?" I replied, kicking at his underside.
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? Be the glorious idol they all think you are?" he growled.
"Then do it, kill me! Or would your master fail to appreciate that?" I countered, pushing my tail’s glowing blade into his back in an explosion of sparks.
He roared in pain, purple flames gushing from the wound as fire surged through his bared fangs. Even so, he still possessed guile enough to throw me toward the volcanic glacier, and in the harsh wind my efforts to steady myself were in vain. I struck a mound of snow, smashing through several drifts, before tumbling into a volcanic pit of molten rock and smouldering stone. Lava had boiled up through the ice and rapidly cooled in the freezing air, creating a hostile well of fire and ash like an
arena around me.
Towering pinnacles lined its rim, oozing gooey magma across the terraces of twisted rock and bubbling pools, as I finally bounced over a small stream of molten stone and rolled to a halt at the edge of a deep fissure at the pit's far edge.
Smoke filled my lungs and my scars coursed with dark magic, causing my wounded limbs to contort and twist. Pyro's silhouette flashed by, gleaming lesions the only thing to distinguish him from the shroud of volcanic smoke. Weakened, I clambered to the edge of the pit, peering down into the fissure’s icy depths, before slumping lazily on a bank of soft snow.
No, there’s no time for rest! He's not going to stop, he'll never stop!
True to my fears, Pyro circled like a vulture, before finally settling down in front of me. My armour tightened in preparation for a strike and with a firm swipe, he threw me unceremoniously across the snow.
"I know what you are – you're not a legend, you're no saviour. You’re the one thing preventing our true master’s return, preventing the universe's freedom from this chaos and disorder!" he hollered, striking again.
I staggered down a shallow bank at the edge of another deep fissure, leaving me inches away from plummeting into the icy underworld.
"I know what is in your mind, and it is nothing compared to the true might of the Great Master. You're nothing but a weak imposter!" Pyro went on, sneering through the streams of smoke escaping his bared fangs.
Pressing one claw to my neck, he drew the other across my body, dragging it upwards and tearing my wing.
I wonder if he can kill me – he's certainly not the first to try, or to fail.
All the while I could hear Mordrakk’s stones grinding in my mind as I looked up at the belief in my foe's baleful eyes. I wondered if he knew this was futile, that I couldn't die by his claws.
Through my blurred vision, I stared past him toward the clouded heavens, spying a lance of firelight streaking across the sky, accompanied by a fierce cry.
That glow, it can't be?
The phoenix slammed into the disfigured side of Pyro's masked face talons first. He howled and reared up, as the bird’s serrated claws gouged at his missing eye. Beating his wings, he struggled backwards, his efforts merely encouraging the phoenix’s feathers to burn even brighter.
The moment his grip loosened, I gasped for breath and staggered to my paws. I'd no idea what was going on, and I didn't have time to question as my opposition was forced, thrashing and cursing, back toward the magma pits. I turned to the cliff edge and bolted, beating my wings the best I could in an effort to fly. It wasn't enough and the next thing I knew I was tumbling into the frozen underbelly of Valcador, slamming against ice and stone before hitting the cold surface with another heavy thud.
Freezing water flowed lightly across my scales as it poured down from the plains, and peering up through the murky gloom, I could see the cliff top silhouetted against the faded glow of lava and bursts of purple flame. The phoenix’s feathers glowed like the sun as the mighty creature retreated into the smoke, before panting and battered, Pyro appeared at the cliff edge. His eye scoured the gloom, and I felt my chest throb as my heart beat faster.
Nevertheless, I crawled to the shelter of a small overhang, watching his blurred shadow against the opposite wall until, with an angry roar, he swiped at the snowy rim.
"You can't run forever, Blaze! The age of the Great Master will come regardless!" he warned. "Maybe then you'll finally come out and face the world like a real dragon!" he added with a menacing hiss, before spreading his tattered wings and disappearing into the darkening sky.
Afraid that he was just toying with me, I remained hidden for some time. Before I let out a long sigh, a stream of vapour escaping my muzzle as I slumped. A bed of smooth pebbles lay under me as my armour loosened and slowly fell away.
Things are getting worse. I can't stay here. One day he'll actually manage to catch me or find a way to activate his plans without me.
I dreaded to think, dismissing the countless horrible scenarios my mind presented.
That's if the orkin don’t bury Dardien first. My mind quipped.
With a painful wince and a weary groan, I rolled onto my front and lifted to my paws, knowing that ultimately, the waterlogged pit was not where I needed – or wanted – to be, especially when I looked toward an icy boulder opposite. The familiar sight of my mind’s dark avatar, with his coiled tail and folded wings, scowled at me with brooding menace.
He held a pair of stones in his forepaws, and with three slow strikes, beat them against one another. Yet before the fourth could ring out, the oblivion of unconsciousness stole me away and he vanished from my sight, as did the forsaken image of the frozen cave.
*
"It seems your efforts are wasted."
My eyes flashed open to gaze upon the frozen cave, only now the world felt dark and lifeless. The air itself was like a viscous soup, slowing my movements. Reality seemed to flicker and wane, as if it were a veil pulled loosely over my eyes. Ahead, I could see the dark serpent sitting upon an icy rock, yet all feelings of weakness had left me and my armour was gone.
It's just another dream, how could I expect anything else?
"I could say the same about your efforts," I responded.
"You could say that it does not matter," he continued, waving a dismissive foreclaw as the darkness below the dreary image crawled through the veil of reality like the tendrils of some great sea beast.
"It doesn't, but that doesn't mean I'll do what you ask of me," I reasoned, not daring to look at him.
He contemplated his response, raising a foreclaw to his muzzle.
"Isn’t the reason you stay here to ensure the safety of those you failed to protect?" he taunted.
My lack of a response raised his interest, seemingly confirming his suspicions.
"You're afraid, I know – I can feel it," he stated, snaking deliberately down from his perch and stalking toward me like a predator would its injured prey.
"Death and pain, they are not your fears. You're afraid of failure, because after so long, and so many attempts, you know you cannot win," he taunted, drawing out his words as if spoken to a child.
"You could stop me. There is no point in hiding that fact, because I know you will not. You are too afraid that in the end, you'll be alone, left for eternity to live with the fact that you failed. That when all is finished and the last star has faded, you will hear nothing but their screams cast upon my new creation!"
I swept a claw back through his shadowed form, even though I knew such an action was futile. He simply faded and laughed mockingly.
"Another example of how pitiful you really are," he scoffed, his disembodied voice flowing about me like water.
"If I'm so pointless, then so are you!" I called out to nowhere in particular.
Then something that Pyro had mentioned took its place at the forefront of my mind.
‘You're nothing but a weak imposter.’
"I don't think you're as all-powerful as you say you are."
There was a brief flutter as the illusion rematerialized before me, water parting at his paws as if fearing to meet his dark hide.
"What did he mean?" I pressed, feeling great satisfaction in the fact that I was the one pressuring him for change. "Surely, if you were in charge, you wouldn't have Pyro speaking ill of you like that."
He stepped backwards, sly expression fading as he hissed spouts of flame.
"It matters not," he retorted haughtily.
His manipulative nature turned to anger; he would stop at nothing to make anyone who spoke down to him suffer, and he didn't disappoint me when my scars began to burn.
He's hiding something... He's not who he says he is, not entirely.
My thoughts waned as a wave of pain lanced through me, threads of agony seeping deep into my body like the digging roots of penetrating weeds. Gritting my teeth, I staggered, but didn't take my eyes off him.
"I never wished for it to come to this," he procla
imed, raising a foreclaw and bringing it down over my eyes with one swift strike, severing my connection to the dreary dreamscape, plunging me into darkness once more.
*
Consciousness found me as reality drifted back into place. My eyes reluctantly flickered open, affording me a brief glimpse of my surroundings. It looked like another icy cave, much the same as any I'd lingered in for the past few months. The only notable observation was that it was different from that in which unconsciousness had claimed me. It was larger, and through the cover of my eyelids, I could still perceive a light source. I could only assume the river had washed me downstream. Opening my eyes, I could see there was a large gap in the ice, allowing the waterway to flow out over a cliff and into the snowy depths of a thick pine forest outside.
Dim sunlight illuminated the world beyond, allowing me to surmise I'd been unconscious for the night at least. The healed feeling, which had replaced the strained agony in my limbs, also supported my assumption as I tested each leg with a slow shift. After a few moments confirming my recovery, I stood up, the shards of armour still clinging to my scales shifting, while those that had fallen away resumed their position.
I glanced around, trying to get my bearings, first to the back of the cave where the river snaked off under the ice to be joined by other streams running down from melt holes in the walls. Piles of logs and fallen trees covered the ground around me, and I could only assume the river had washed them out from deeper within the frozen labyrinth.
Better be glad the water's not as formidable as it evidently can be, some of those logs are huge!
My instinct also told me there was even more reason to assume it had no problem washing me away from Pyro's ebon wings and their orkin lackeys.
What is it with me and escaping down rivers? I wondered as I rolled my aching shoulders.
Moments later, another sound quickly caught my attention, and my senses prickled as my instincts sharpened instantly – the sound was a gentle, unmistakable coo, and as I turned, I saw the phoenix perched on top of a crooked tree branch. It had the same curious look I'd seen in its eyes before. I checked my surroundings for any other disturbances, and when none presented themselves, I turned away from the bird.