Wil Ogden - The Nightstone

As duels go, this one was fast. The Vulak had skill. He was the first warrior I ever saw parry one of Marc’s blows. In fact he parried three. Marc threw five. When the Vulak fell, Marc knelt beside him and said, “You fought bravely; may you be among the warriors in your paradise.”

Bryan poked me with the tip of his sword. I’m sure he didn’t mean to harm me, but that sword is sharp and he did draw blood through the side of my armor. It was little more than a needle prick, but it got my attention. Bryan then pointed off through the ranks of Vulak at a large winged creature moving towards us, pushing, almost herding, a wave of fresh Vulak in our direction.

“Now!” Prince Aven shouted. “Get back in the mine. It’s closing!”

The fresh Vulak were moving too fast and Marc and Bryan insisted on being the last through. I wasn’t about to leave them behind. Five of the Princes guards were still outside the mine with us when the stone around the tunnel flowed together.

“Where I come from, we would call this a bad situation,” Marc said.

Bryan laughed then said, “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere where this would be good.”

The prince’s guards gathered close to us. One of them said, “It was an honor fighting at your side, milady and my lords. If we are to die in battle, it honors us to do so in the company of such heroes.”

If we’d had more time, I’d have told them that they were heroes too, but I was focused on the Vulak surging around us. These were more organized and all of the same clan. They were a uniform style of armor and fought in formations.

“We won’t last long if we play this defensive,” Bryan said. “Stick with me, I’m going to be moving around and changing direction. Our only hope is to not let them plan a way to overwhelm us.”

“You’re suggesting we might survive?” Marc asked.

“Well, I will,” Bryan said. “Stick with me and you might also.”

I’ll say this: I am not fond of the idea of actual death. We Abvi don’t die like the other races, we transcend. We believe that death before we achieve the completeness that leads to transcendence is a true end of our souls. I wasn’t one of those who would have been happy to die as long as it was a heroic death. However, I knew Bryan and if anyone would make it out of an army of Vulak alive, it would be him.

Bryan started running towards a unit of Vulak advancing as a shield wall. We were all behind him. Just before he hit the shields, he rolled into a somersault and came to his feet under the bottom edges of the shields, throwing them upward and bowling the Vulak aside. Marc just threw the Vulak he encountered aside. I am not a big person, even for an Abvi, I’m a bit on the wiry side. I just stayed behind Marc and parried any attack that came at us. There weren’t many. The other Abvi advanced in loose formation behind us, but kept up. They did a great job of keeping anyone from closing on our rear flank. Once we were in the middle of the Vulak unit, Bryan started swinging his huge sword. We all took that as the cue to lay into whatever Vulak was near us. For a dozen or so breaths we laid waste to any Vulak within our weapons reach.

“Moving!” Bryan shouted then rushed through a gap in the enemy and hit another unit, pressing into the middle of that unit and tearing through them as if they were stalks of wheat. The rest of us were right at his side, doing the same.

But, stalks of wheat don’t swing back. By the fourth unit of Vulak, somehow none of us had fallen but each of us had at least one bleeding wound and several minor scrapes. Then we found ourselves in a gap in the enemy forces. No Vulak came near us. We weren’t puzzled though, we knew why. Bryan stood in front of a demon.

The creature was half again as tall as him and carried a foul looking axe of black metal.

The demon made a low grunting noise that I recognized as a chuckle. “Foolish creature, your mortal steel cannot harm me or my kind.” The demon swung his axe, and Bryan blocked, severing the haft of the demon’s weapon but the force of the blow also knocked Bryan’s sword away. The creature then swiped at Bryan with his claws, cutting deep into the man’s chest. Bryan stepped up and punched the demon hard, causing it to stagger. Then the demon thrust the remaining haft of his weapon towards Bryan. Bryan grabbed it, yanking it from the demon’s hand. He then spun impaling the demon’s thigh straight through.

“Who’s foolish now?” Bryan asked.

The demon snorted than brought both of his hands down hard on Bryans shoulder. I heard the snap and two bones jutted from Bryans shoulder as he fell to the ground. I assumed he was dead. I saw Bryan’s sword lying on the ground and dove for it. It was heavy. I could lift it, but I wasn’t going to swing it more than once.

Marc had already been charging to join the fight but got there too late to help Bryan. Marc’s swords hit the demon hard enough to cause the demon to flinch, but not hard enough to penetrate the creature’s armor or even scratch the monster’s blood-red skin. The demon stepped up and grabbed Marc around the waist, lifting him into the air.

Marc dropped his swords and tried to tear free of the demon’s grip.

“Behind you!” I shouted and held out Bryan’s sword.

Marc reached back and took the huge weapon by one hand. He swung out and wide. As the blade rolled around, I heard the crunch as the demon squeezed Marc crushing his spine. But Marc’s wrap-around blow was already on course. It cut deep into the demon’s back, severing both wings and nearly cutting through the demon’s torso. They both fell and neither moved.

“Archers, left flank,” One of the guards yelled. Half a dozen Vulak with crossbows leveled towards us were only ten steps away.

Three of the bows were aimed at me. I closed my eyes and prayed to Temistar to see me as complete. If I could transcend at that moment I’d go on. My prayers were not answered.

“Get ‘em!” I heard Bryan’s voice and saw the big man stagger towards the archers, one arm hanging useless by his side. I followed behind him and the other Abvi were behind me. Just two paces from the Vulak, I heard the bowstrings snap and Bryan spun as he fell into the Vulak archers. I could see all six quarrels sticking out of his chest and I could tell by his eyes he was already dead. Even in death, Bryan killed two more Vulak when he fell on them. It was my blade, inspired by the two giants’ sacrifice that cut down the rest of the archers. But, I was fighting blind with rage; I didn’t see the spear skirmishers flank us. A sharp pain shot through my hip and I fell. As I lay on my back, I saw the spear come at me, but couldn’t defend against it as it tore into my belly, through to the ground below me. He left me impaled and looked me in the eye. I was spitting blood but couldn’t even find the strength to spit on the vile creature. He pulled a knife from his belt then leaned down and cut my left ear off. I can say I wasn’t in enough pain not to be able to feel more, and that hurt.

He then unhooked a necklace and threaded my ear onto it. I couldn’t even turn my head away; I had to watch him admire it. As he started to put the trophy necklace back on, his eyes turned from a prideful smile to a stunned look of death. A silver spear tip emerged from his chest. I barely had time to realize it wasn’t actually a spear tip, but a Unicorn’s horn before I faded to a dark, dreamless sleep.

Kehet shook the Vulak off of his horn and looked down at the battered body of Sheillene. He could see her chest moving in breath, but she was dying. He touched his horn to her body and gave her just enough strength to survive until he could finish the battle and return to her.