Michael Mathias - Kings, Queens, Heroes, and Fools

“Take your time,” Flick suggested. “Ra’Gren has need of us once more. It seems he is about to try a run into Wildermont through the Seareach Passage again. His men will be decimated if you or I don’t lend our assistance. I would have gone already myself, but I thought that you might enjoy a chance to unleash Vrot on Jarrek’s troops.

“It seems that you’ve become a mind reader as well as a great wizard,” she told him. “I think a ride on my dragon is exactly what I need. You’re coming on the Choska?”

“Of course, Mastress,” Flick said with a flourishing bow. “With both of us there to harry Jarrek’s archers, the Dakaneese troops should be able to retake the passage with ease.”

“Ra’Gren’s fools will find a way to muck it up,” Shaella said, showing her distaste for the King of Dakahn with her expression. “They are so dependent on their slaves that they’ve grown lazy and weak. It makes me almost ashamed to be half Dakaneese.”

“What are we to do with the High King?” one of the red priests ventured.

“Leave them where they lay, both of them. I will post a potent guard around the altar before I go. Make a prayer to my lover telling him what you’ve done here, but do not disturb him otherwise.”

Commander Escott gave Master Wizard Amill a dubious look. “Do you really think it will work?”

“That demon can’t be in two places at once,” said Amill. “I think that, with what Queen Willa and General Spyra are doing to aid King Jarrek, it will all work out in the end.” He turned to the tattoo covered commander. “At least as long as it still looks like all our troops are stalled over here when the sun comes up.”

“Making five thousand men looked like ten thousand isn’t so hard at a distance,” said Escott. “It’s making them look like twenty thousand men that’s the trick.”

“My spells will hold as long as your men don’t go scattering about.”

“After the last debacle I think that they’ll do anything you say, Master Wizard. You saved a few thousand of them from getting roasted.”

The night after the first crossing attempt failed, they’d tried again. They stormed the bridge in a great snaking line of soldiers, six abreast. Once across, they went in three separate directions, forcing the demon beasts to go to extreme measures trying to stop them all. It seemed to be working until the monstrous thing began using its magic. Demon fire, in hot emerald gouts, clung to flesh and earth alike. Only a powerful wall of force that Master Amill cast into existence between the demon and the retreating troops saved them.

Hopefully, sending fifteen thousand men north to the bridge at Oktin under the cover of night would allow them to get past the demon so that they could attack O’Dakahn as planned. The new tactic would work if Commander Escott’s men, and Master Amill’s spells, could convince the demon that the Seaward force was still across the river from them waiting.

“We’ll learn in the morning if they suspect anything,” Master Amill finally said.

“The light of day will surely tell the tale,” Commander Escott had to agree.

Gerard saw them-pairs of eyes in the blackness. There were thousands of them, and they were everywhere. Some were brighter than others, some bigger, or farther away, but all of them were looking at him. They backed away as he passed, giving him ample room. Some of them did this out of respect, but most of them backed away out of fear.

From all over the hells, the demons and devils, as well as other things, had come to witness the impending battle. They gazed in awe at the only creature that ever grew bold enough to try Deezlxar a second time.

Gerard was tense. By all rights Deezlxar could set these things on him. So many attackers at once would be impossible to overcome. The Master of Hell was vain, though; the Abbadon chose not to destroy Gerard that way. He would make an example of the thing that had challenged him. Deezlxar knew that if a creature like Gerard could come maul him and get away with it, soon, other power hungry entities would try him. Such was the way of things in the Nethers.

Deezlxar wasn’t ready to hand his domain over to the likes of Kraw or Shokin just yet. He was ready to destroy Gerard, though, and he planned on doing it in fantastic fashion.

The shape of the archway that led into Deezlxar’s chamber could be seen by the deep crimson glow of all those eyes. As Gerard strode cockily up to the arch, a hissing murmur echoed through those gathered around. The buzz of anticipation was intense. The time was at hand.

Gerard learned a lesson last time. Deezlxar wouldn’t just fold under his dominant will like the other malignant creatures of this place had. Gerard’s quickness and savagery weren’t going to be enough. He had to be not only faster, but smarter. It was with that thought that he darted into Deezlxar’s chamber.

As expected, the Dark One was ready too. There were no threatening words spoken this time. The snapping teeth of one of the Abbadon’s heads, and a powerful sweep of his long spidery limbs and the battle began. After dodging the severe fangs that clacked closed just in front of him, Gerard would have been batted away by the club like appendage coming at him, but he expected such an attack this time. He flashed away in a flurry of rose and lavender sparkles, reappearing behind the Dark One. Then, with a vicious series of hacking slices, he tore into the great devil’s tail stalk. He couldn’t get all the way through the heavy member before the creature spun, but he did manage to sever the bony central core where the tail’s nerves and tendons were.

Deezlxar whipped around, but without his tail to stabilize his momentum, he spun too far. Gerard, like before, leapt and charged up one of the Dark One’s two remaining necks. He saw that the Abbadon had chewed his headless trunk down to a grisly nub. Before the thing could respond, Gerard leapt from its neck to its bulbous spider-crab body. Gerard figured that if its weak spot wasn’t on the underside, then it most likely was on the top. He landed with his dagger-like toes puncturing fleshy hide for traction, and then he tore into the thing like a badger digging a hole in the earth to escape a hungry wolf.

Skin, blood, and thick slimy matter flew out from behind him. He ripped, and thrashed, and dug a hole the size of a water well into the Dark One’s back.

The chorused roar of both of Deezlxar’s remaining heads was earsplitting. By hacking its tail, Gerard had thrown its whole equilibrium off kilter. There was little Deezlxar could do, and he had to do something quickly. His heads couldn’t reach back and over to snap at Gerard.

Gerard was digging deeper into the Abbadon’s body one moment, the next, he felt an icy wave pass through him. It was so bitterly frigid that his fiery dragon’s blood had to fight to move through his veins. Stiff and rigid he teetered and rolled from Deezlxar’s back. In a crash that nearly shattered him to pieces, he hit the flat featureless floor of the chamber. The only thing that saved him was the fiery nature of his body’s core. Had it not worked to thaw him from the solid block of ice that he had momentarily become, he would have shattered into a thousand pieces.

While he was still sluggish and groggy, and trying to regain himself, one of Deezlxar’s dragon-like heads came down on him. Huge jaws snapped shut over his body. He nearly choked on the hot fetid breath. Teeth bore down on his middle, digging sharply into his armored skin. He found that his head and shoulders were inside one of the mouths. He could feel the immense pressure of the Dark One’s jaws smashing at his middle, but the teeth couldn’t penetrate his plated body. It was no comfort, because he knew the other head would soon snap closed on his legs and tear him in two. The protective nature of his hide wouldn’t be able to save him from that. He felt his lower half being shaken violently and fought down his panic. He tried to tune out the pain and focus on his magic.