John Jackson - The 9th Fortress

"SMASH YOU BODIES!"

His club came down and struck a foot from Harmony's wings, throwing her and Eddinray ragged. They hit the dirt rolling, and a layer of thick sand covered their stunned bodies.

The soldiers ran mindlessly and the moon like club obliterated them, batting out more great chunks of fortress in the process.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRR!!"

Harmony and Eddinray now stood from under the things legs, and blurry eyed, they scurried for the open door, leaving trails of dust behind them.

Curtis and I were first to reach the doorway and the set of ascending steps inside it. Turning, I stretched my arm out for the incoming Kat and Yuki, only to witness them disappear behind a piece of fortress rock the size of a house, crashing and spewing debris everywhere. A mixture of smoke and stone consumed the doorway, and feeling my lungs filling up with dirt, I was surprised and delighted to see Kat and Yuki stumbling alive toward me, caked in soot and more than a little disorientated.

"You made it!" I gasped, coughing violently. "Where…where's Harmony? Eddinray?"

"MORE BODIES!"

Yuki pointed through broken boulder pieces to the couple racing our way, and the darkness of Cyclops foot bearing down to crush them. The knight — seeing it coming — pushed his beloved angel aside then dived to safety a moment before being flattened underfoot.

"CRUNCH BODIES!"

Harmony, quick to her feet, pulled Eddinray up by the neck, only to shriek at the monster's hand, reaching down to collect Eddinray's foot between its thumb and index finger.

"Urk!" baulked Eddinray, rising into the air "Heeeelp!"

"Godwin!" cried Harmony, loading and firing an arrow at it. Her projectile swerved off to strike the 9th Fortress. She fired another, this time clanging off the armoured back of Eddinray.

"Oh my!" she gasped. The giant put the sword-flailing knight under his nose for a cautious sniff, but the scent of Eddinray seemed to repulse the monster.

"Too good for you, eh?" said Eddinray, the blood rushing to his head. "How dare you refuse me!"

The ogre placed the Englishman into the middle of its immense palm, and squirming at the door, we expected our friend to be squished as those trunk-like fingers proceeded to close.

"Fox!" growled Kat, suddenly pressing his wife's hand onto my chest. "Look after her!"

"What you going to do?" I asked, but Kat was too busy doing it. He sprinted toward the giant, decapitating a straggling soldier on the way. He continued passed Harmony while she loaded yet another arrow into the longbow; and arriving at the monster's fat heel, Kat sliced through its Achilles tendon, causing congealed blood to burst from the wound and washed over him. The Cyclops instantly dropped Eddinray and wailed like a newborn baby.

"Catch meeee!" the knight shrieked, clattering on top of Kat, whilst the Cyclops stumbled to head-butt another dent into the 9th Fortress. A blood painted samurai angrily threw Eddinray off his stomach as Harmony appeared over the two of them.

"Time to go boys!" she said, returning the long sword to Eddinray.

The three now hauled ass for me at the door; the Cyclops, meanwhile, pulled its face from the fortress, and then searched for those bodies responsible.

"WHERE? WHERE?"

Spotted by that pulsating eyeball, the monster smiled at the samurai, knight and angel rushing to my desperate arms.

"Come on now!" I screamed. "It's coming!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRR!!"

I pulled them into the doorway while a hobbling Cyclops drew back his bat.

SMASH!

The pitted club annihilated the arched door, and we six ran for our lives from a cave in behind us.

***

The steps led us to the elevator doors on the ground floor, and Kat cold-bloodedly lacerated the guard there in half. I retraced our way down spiralling steps to arrive back at the popping moat of lava, and that thin path to the surrounding outer wall and iron gates. Almost home free, our hopes were dashed when we noticed more masked men gathering at those gates. "There must be fifty!" I said, exhausted. "Where are they coming from?"

"Worry about the moat." growled Kat. "I'll take care of the masks!"

Then, with his wife in one hand and his sword in the other, Kat charged and we followed over the narrow path. Eddinray and Harmony covered the rear with sword and arrows, whilst I joined Kat to take the army head on.

"This is mad!" cried Curtis, continually.

The army watched us coming, some falling into the moat as they fought for space on the path.

"Chop them up!" Kat roared.

"Kill them all!" I spat back.

The CLANG of meeting steel followed as the battle begun, a blurry array of arms and blades and moans. Kat received a slash down his katana arm, but the warrior was too immersed in protecting Yuki to care, so swiftly dismembered the mask responsible. I cut down three then kicked one to frazzle in the moat; even Curtis got in on the act, kicking one and punching another. Eddinray fought well too, with Harmony beside him, using her very last arrow as a makeshift sword, jabbing holes in any killer close by. Suddenly, as our minds were lost in the fury of battle, another tremendous earthquake hit us.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Like an old episode of Star Trek, all standing bodies on the path shuddered sideways, left then right.

THUD!

The boiling moat made waves and the path jolted, sending dozens spilling into the lava and causing Harmony to briefly immerse her wings in it. She howled in agony.

"You're okay!" Eddinray cried, bashing out the flames licking her back.

"The Cyclops!" moaned Kat, stretching his hand toward the trembling 9th Fortress. And there, crackled lines appeared randomly over the structures immense belly.

THUD!

THUD!

CRACK!

A gigantic piece of the 9th Fortress blew out, and the egg shaped head of the Cyclops peered out from its smouldering hole.

"BODIES!!"

Fortress boulders splashed into the moat, spitting up the great dollops of bright yellow lava. Kat and I cowered from landing magma, before focusing our energies back to the slaughter of foot soldiers.

This new hole in the face of the Fortress spanned thirty feet, but was still minute compared to the prison itself, and the Cyclops made that gap wider when forcing its body through.

Their overriding priority to protect the 9th Fortress, the masked few thankfully passed us and started toward giant. They slashed at its fat toes — and no more than a nuisance — the robotic lot were swept into the moat.

"BURN…BODIES!" he chuckled.

"Come on!" I yelled back at a dawdling Harmony and Eddinray. "Move your asses over here!"

Cyclops reached its hand back into the hole, searched a moment then pulled its pitted moon from the debris. Its eye hungrily scanning the path for more miniatures, for more bodies — ours!

Kat, Yuki, Curtis and I made it to the iron gates, and gasping, we looked back to the broken 9th Fortress, the scatterings of foot-soldier parts, the towering Cyclops and our tiny friends: Harmony and Eddinray before him. We yelled and screamed, but Harmony stood strangely still, even while a scared Eddinray tugged on her hand. "My dear!" he begged. "My love we must move! We must!"

"What is she doing?!" I cried, forcing against Kat's arm, restraining me against the gate.

"You cannot save everyone!" he said. "You understand?"

In no time, the Cyclops caught the metallic glint of Eddinray's armor, and his resulting smile formed creased crowfeet at the sides of its un-blinking eye.

"Godwin?" announced Harmony, composed. "Tear off a piece off my gown."

"My darling," he said, swallowing; "this is hardly the time nor the place — "

"TWO BODIES! MY BODIES!"

"Now!" she complained. "Be quick about it!"

Eddinray bungled to his knees and briskly tore a strip from the bottom of Harmony's gown. He placed the cloth into her hand and watched her wrap it tightly around her last arrowhead.