Monday, September 19, 2005

part three, hurray for me!
Climbing the outer walls of a fortress usually requires the proper equipment and training to accomplish. This rule of thumb falls apart when you can either punch through said wall or fly directly over it. Dralock’s black wings spread wide and he glided slowly on the thermals rising from the stone walls. Saven, as usual, was above them all watching.
Blanco gestured with his arm and smiled at Eleshia as he helped her through the hand made hole in the wall ,“This way ,Madame. Don’t mind the dust.” She looked up and scrunched her nose.
“Why does Saven always have to fly by himself? Why can’t he take me with him? You know, on his back or something,” once she was to the other side of the crater-like entrance, her hands immediately found their way to her hips.
I think I may come to regret saying this but...
“My guess would be that he is the first thing any of our enemies see. That would obviously make his job as scout very dang-”

“Don’t give me that bull! I’m still in danger coming out here on the front line. And being in the air can’t be that dangerous. And FINALLY!!”
Here it comes.
These last few words were said through gritted teeth, “ I’m his wife.” Her pupils had gone to slits and fangs hung out from behind her lips. Blanco took a step back, turned, and jogged to the fight that was about to begin. Within the walls was a courtyard of nothing but the same orangish-tan stone. Along the entire back wall was the actual complex itself. From the mouth of this came a line of ghouls, all of which would have been promised a position as a full fledged vampires if they served faithfully.
He came up next to Hoffman whose only word was ,“Silver.” Every last one of the ghouls had silver spears and swords.
Tyrant laughed and said ,“What is it, Hoffman? It’s not as if this is the first time we’ve had to fight a horde of these things waving silver around like it’s the answer to all of life’s problems. I mean they’ve been fighting us with it for the last five years of the hunt.”
“Well, I got hurt pretty badly the last time we got cocky and tried to take ‘em on claw versus silver,” said Eleshia from behind the massive form of Dralock. The force of ghouls had finished lining up across the way. Dralock pointed his finger at them and boasted, “If they wish to line up as a show of force, I urge that we do the same, and show them the proper way.”
Winter made her self visible next to Dralock and pointed her finger at him. “Now you’re not even real. I mean you’re surreal with that kinda stuff,” and then she winked out. Dralock shifted his head back to it’s human form and had an expression of incredible confusion.
Tyrant patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry. We’ll do it.” Each of them got in line beside the other, even Saven landed and took the position at the far right of everyone. Blanco took a moment to admire the one piece of clothing that Saven wore even as an eagle. He wore a belt with a banner of red cloth hanging down between his legs, it had a matching piece hanging in the back. On the front, three symbols were inlaid with golden thread. A single larger character dominated the rear cloth.
I wonder what those mean.
So there they all stood. An eagle, a viper, a bull, a dragon, a bear, a wolf, and an invisible cat. Before them was a wave of silver arrows. Eleshia turned and shouted , “Blanco!!”
Oops. Time to stop admiring Saven’s fashion sense and get to work!
Blanco leaned forward and to the rest of the world he became nothing more than a blur for the length of one breath. He ran to one side of the cloud of death and jumped into it’s flank. He landed and did it again. With each pass he collected bunches of the arrows, and threw them at other arrows. When he was finished he was standing back by the others.
If I do say so myself....
“Blanco!”
“What, Eleshia?”
“Second wave!”
“Oh, sorry.”
“You know what, never mind,” she stepped forward and moved her hands. The air picked up and the arrows were blown backwards. “That should keep them happy.” Every arrow sank into ghoul flesh, and not one ghoul died. “Oh, right. Ghouls don’t die all that easily.”
“Then it’s time for the Legendary Hoffman!,” and with that Hoffman was running to close the gap. No further volleys of arrows kissed the sky, but the entire front line of enemies raised up spears with viscously curved tips.
I guess they got a new designer. I don’t recognize that style of blade!
Saven was the first to make the enemy line. Twenty ghouls on both sides of him spilt off from the line and made a semi-circle around him. All of their spears dropped to waist level while he stood still in the middle of them. They all surged forward. He kicked the tip of the first weapon up towards the sky, allowing him to grab the shaft of the weapon. A few seconds and three spins later all of the ghouls were down. He leaned as if to lunge forward again, but was forced to go straight up instead when he realized he was completely surround. Eleshia was in a corner hurling fireballs into the crowd. The ghouls that did not die immediately lit the surrounding ghouls. It was a living, moaning wall of fire.
I want what’s inside that stone.
Blanco was at the door which had vomited out all of the ghouls a few minutes before. A small stream of the creatures split off from the main group to attack him.
Let’s see how many of these I have to kill before they leave me alone.
One second a wolf was standing there and the next a ghoul was cut into four pieces. Then he was back, studying in front of the the door. More ghouls approached him. Blanco’s image began to blink as he ran to kill and returned to the same spot over and over again. Every time he stopped to think, he held a different pose.
I am going to open this door. That freak thinks he can hide from me behind doors? I’m going to cut you into pieces for trying to use Eve as a weapon! YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!
By this point in the fight, the other changelings were throwing ghouls into Dralock. Their bodies fizzled into smoke on contact. Tyrant was actually giggling as if he was drunk. “Dralock for the love of God!! You always brag about how strong you are, just kill them all!”, barked Blanco from across the battlefield. All of the changelings shot him a strange looks.
Hoffman snapped a mock salute“,Yes, sir.” Dralock was already in the air. He reached the apex of his ascent and then fell backwards so that he pointed at the ground. A shadow was cast on the ground as his wings opened and stretched beyond what any of them had seen him do. “What is he doing?”, whispered Winter.
(I don’t know.)
Winter spun with blades out looking for the source of the voice she heard in her head. “No one should be able to see, smell, or hear me when I’m stealth. This is bad.” Nightmare black suddenly covered the world as Dralock’s necro-flesh passed over all of them. Blanco turned halfway back and smiled. Dralock was swallowing ghouls as he slid across the ground with his mouth wide open. His wings spanned from one stone wall to the other.
(Blanco help me!)
Eve!?!
(Yes, Blanco! Save me! Save me, please! It hurts so much.) And then all he heard in his mind was Eve weeping and screaming. He mirrored Winter and spun to find the source but was meet with utter darkness as Dralock smashed into the inner wall of the fort.
“I have to get inside! Somebody, please!,” was all he said before the maze appeared. “What? I was in front of the fort door. And....and....and now I’m here. Hoffman, Tyrant, anybody?!” No response. Not far from him, Tyrant was screaming as he fell down a bottomless pit, and Winter was riding through a misty forest on a horse. Of course she couldn’t steer the horse, her arms were tied. Everyone but Eleshia was in another world.
She clapped her hands to celebrate her realization “,These are hallucinations, and that voice isn’t even real! I recognize this spell”
(No you don’t.)
“Of course I- I mean shut up! You’re not even real! Then why am I- forget it,” and then she started to cast the counter to the cloud over their minds. A few seconds later Hoffman and Saven realized they were strangling each other and eventually let go.
“Is that really you Saven?”, said Hoffman, his hands still balled into fists. Saven slowly nodded, expecting Hoffman to turn back into the horned demon he was a moment before.
“I did it!,”piped in Eleshia.
“Did what?,” asked Blanco
“Got rid of that nasty little spell that was messing with all of our heads.”
“So then we can march forward to victory?!,” asked Dralock. Once again, Winter winked visible.
“You will never change,” she said between laughs, and disappeared.
Still in his rage, Blanco turned to the doors and shouted “,ATTACK!!”Dralock was the first one through the set of double doors leading to Eve’s father. Saven was right behind. Saven’s eagle form gracefully held itself in the air, but Dralock chose to plod straight into the center of the room
Dralock’s voice boomed ,“I AM THE GREATEST OF THE SEVEN CHANGELINGS! FIGHT ME AND DIE!”
Hoffman turned to Saven and whispered, “Does he ever get tired of that?” Saven shook his head. The vampire lord before them stopped examining his fingernails leaned in and gave a smile that was followed by a wave of rotting miasma. All of the changlings but Dralock dived for cover. After the wave of death had stopped rolling from the vampire’s throne Dralock stood with the same heroic pose.
“Dragon you’re dripping onto my floor,” the vampire pointed to the poodles of ooze building up around Dralock’s feet.
“I am no mere dragon, I am the avatar of decay. That ‘dripping’ is the essence of rot itself. Now prepare yourself for battle, wizard,” and then he roared, creating a second much longer set of jaws that slid forward out of his first.
“I am the greatest Vampire Lord of all! Address me as such!,” the sentence was punctuated by his fist coming down on the arm of his throne. Just as Blanco was stepping out from behind his cover the Vampire’s eyes went multi-colored. Saven pulled his wing up over his beaked face, but Blanco was too slow. Dralock was once again unaffected. “You have no eyes Dragon. Interesting.” Dralock’s only response was to stomp the floor and take off in a slow glide across the ground. The cloud of rot once again flowed from the vampiric throne. Saven tackled the frozen Blanco back into the cover and then lifted up above the cloud. His eyes glowed as he looked down into the miasma. What would be nothing but pitch black to almost any other living thing was nothing more than cloudy to Saven. He could see Dralock peacefully cutting through the darkness unaffected. The dragon pulled up short of the throne.
“Vampire, let’s show you what decay really is,” and then dralock wrapped his wings around Eve’s father. There was kicking and violence withing the wings for a few seconds, and then they pulled in tight and opened. Not even bones were left behind.
Winter dropped her invisibility and was standing right next to Dralock, “What did you do?”

Dralock turned his empty sockets towards her and said, “I absorbed his lesser decay into mine. He is part of me, and I am stronger for it.”
Blanco came out from behind the corner, “I can go home now.”

Comments (1)