Rogan's Monsters 3: Temple, page 8
It seemed that Vesh D’Agon could sense us on his tail, for just before we reached him, he jagged left, and I had to dig my blade in the ground like an anchor to avoid sailing past. I did so, gritting my teeth, swearing under my breath, and hurled the both of us forward once again.
But this time, I didn’t give Vesh the chance to zig zag away. This time, as we drew near, as I sensed Vesh preparing to change direction again, with Ecco still held behind him, I unleashed a jagged burst of chi far greater than I could have done without Camille’s support.
That jagged lightning bolt of pure energy arced out above Vesh D’Agon and then plunged into the earth, a thousand jagged points blocking his every direction. The Wraith had no option. There was nowhere he could turn where he wouldn’t end up being fried, other than back toward me, and that wasn’t what he wanted at all.
He had no choice. He came to a halt, drawing Ecco close to him in an instant, grabbing her by the throat as she kicked and cried out, struggling to get free.
“No closer!” the Wraith demanded, and his threat was plain. If I didn’t obey him, he would either snap Ecco’s neck like a twig, or crush the life out of her with his grip. This time, it was me who had no real choice. Once more, I plunged my sword into the ground, coming to a halt with the two of us, Camille and me, both glaring across at the Wraith.
If looks alone had the power of my blade, Vesh D’Agon would have been cut into small pieces in a heartbeat. As it was, we stared at each other over the rocky earth, the last of the daylight shrinking away.
“Let her go!” I bellowed, the determination I felt combined with the unity I shared with Camille lending the strength of command to my voice. It was loud enough to shake the mountain we stood on, loud enough to shake Vesh D’Agon where he stood.
Yet he didn’t relent. With one hand clutching his staff, the other still gripping Ecco by the throat, he stood firm. “My Queen demands her,” he said. “And you as well. You will both be most prized for your chi, a gift to her glory.”
With that, he raised his staff, uttered words that sounded foul, and inky blackness seemed to erupted toward me and Camille.
With the threat to Ecco still very much on my mind, there seemed to be little I could do. I planted my sword in the ground, using it as a shield against the man’s magic, expecting to be able to shrug off any attack he could muster given the power of unity that Camille and I had formed.
The sheer impact of the man’s magic, when it hit, caught me by surprise.
It seemed to flow through my sword as if it didn’t exist, and where it touched, it burned. The pain was incredible. I couldn’t maintain my unity with Camille, and just like that, I was back to my normal self.
It took me a moment to realize what the Wraith was doing. As he had done to Zera before, Vesh D’Agon had reached out with his magic, and was draining my chi.
I gritted my teeth in agony as my chi was leached from me, and within moments it was all I could do to lean on my blade, my legs all but buckled from weakness.
But in his efforts to focus on me, Vesh had made a mistake.
He was ignoring Camille completely.
I had fought Vesh D’Agon many times in the past. I had fired bolts of chi at him to no avail. He was powerful to the point of being almost invulnerable.
But that didn’t stop the lizard assassin from using Vesh’s focus on me to her own advantage.
She vanished once more, using her chi gift as well as her ability to camouflage herself. I could sense where she was, knew she was approaching Vesh and Ecco, and found myself grinning even as the Wraith drained my chi. I didn’t know what Camille had in mind, didn’t know how she might find some way to get through this monster’s protection. All I knew was that if it was possible, she would find a way.
But I wasn’t the only one who could sense where Camille was. Vesh could as well. And at the last moment, before Camille could launch her attack, Vesh turned his attention from me to her.
I heard Camille’s agonizing wail an instant before she flickered back into visibility. Just like with me, this magic was draining her of all her strength. Already, she had gone down to her knees, the daggers she had drawn in each hand next to useless if she couldn’t get close.
I drew in a deep breath and took a moment to gather what was left of my strength. With a grimace that mixed determination and hate, I plucked my bastard sword from the ground and started forward.
“Do you value your companion’s life so little?” Vesh D’Agon asked, his attention split between Camille and me. “Do you wish for me to make good on my threat?”
I stopped where I was. Stood in place so that he would have no excuse. I saw that Ecco was being drained in the same way Vesh was draining Camille, a chi vampire if there was such a thing, and wondered why he didn’t do the same with the three of us at the same time.
Then I decided it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that this monster was using Ecco against us, and until I could get him to stop, he had the upper hand.
And he knew it. He held Ecco before him, the beautiful dragonfly girl still struggling, albeit weakly, like a shield to keep me at bay.
Even from where I stood, I could sense the monster’s arrogance, his conceit. He exuded a sort of confidence just as much as he exuded dark magic, and I knew that he thought he had won.
Once he had Camille and me both under his control, once he had wrapped his bonds of dark magic about us, there would be nothing stopping him from returning to Ash, Gamma, and Zera, to complete his task.
Before the night was done, he could have completed his Queen’s mission, and captured all of us so that she could make use of us however she saw fit.
But all of that was built on a foundation of having Ecco under his complete control.
And I knew something he didn’t.
“Ecco,” I said. “Go into your seed. Do it now.”
Almost at once, the dragonfly girl stopped struggling. Perhaps, in her fear, the idea hadn’t entered her head. My words came as a shock. But she didn’t hesitate. Within a matter of heartbeats, she faded out of Vesh’s grip completely, effectively disappearing.
“What is this?” Vesh D’Agon demanded, his astonishment complete.
I was still grinning. “It is your end,” I said, taking note of where Ecco’s seed fell to the ground.
With that, I roused myself as much as I could, fed chi into my blade, and hurled myself in the monster’s direction.
I attacked with everything I had, using the Divine Steps as I’d seldom used them before, swinging my blade like a helicopter rotor, doing my level best to slice chunks from Vesh D’Agon with every swing of my blade, while avoiding the inky black chi he exuded at the same time.
For his part, the Wraith first stood rooted to the spot, casting about with his magic, occasionally raising his staff to block my sword, weathering the storm of my fury like a stone of ages, effectively immune to my efforts.
Again and again, he tried to reach toward me with his dark magic, to absorb what remained of my chi. He even withdrew his attentions from Camille to do so, but that just allowed her to join the battle.
Nor did I limit myself to purely physical attacks. My chi was low, but not yet dangerously so. I countered his dark chi with my own, sending bursts of power toward him even as I whirled and spun about, forcing him to do all he could to defend himself.
Anyone else would have been sliced into thin shreds of meat under my attack. But the Wraith, this chi vampire that he was, withstood it all. Until, finally, it was too much for even him, and he took a single step back.
Encouraged, I redoubled my fury, alternating my attacks with every trick I had learned with my chi. I even reached out to Camille once again, and this proved the difference. This time, we didn’t stay united long enough for Vesh to turn our attack into an opportunity for him to respond. This time, as soon as I felt the power surge through me, I hurled myself at the monster, swinging my sword for all it was worth.
And this time, with the power granted by Camille merging with mine, I got through the monster’s defenses.
Not all the way. He covered himself with his dark magic in a way that I wondered if I could replicate. My blade bit into this layer of magic, and instead of slicing his arm off at the shoulder, I managed only to mark his flesh.
Even so, it was enough to force Vesh D’Agon to step back once again, and his towering confidence seemed to depart.
“You… cut me!” he said, his raspy voice filled with disbelief. “How dare you?”
Once again, tendrils of dark magic unwound from the staff he carried, aiming toward us. I had taken a breather, aware of the sweat on my brow and at the back of my neck, knowing that the benefits of the bath I had so recently taken would already be gone. Before the Wraith’s tendrils of power could touch me, I stepped back and to the side, aware that Camille was doing her part as best as she could, flickering in and out of existence even as she strove to cross the distance to our foe with her blades.
Again and again, I launched my attack, joining with Camille when I could, going it alone when it didn’t seem to be the best option. Vesh D’Agon tried to block, tried to use his chi to defend, even tried to run away more than once. Every time, Camille and I were up to the task.
The heavens exploded with our power, dark chi and light, the echoes of our battle reverberating around the broken hills to the point where I was certain Gamma and the others must have heard it. And, time after time, our attacks started to get through.
I sliced off sections of the Wraith’s dark robes, littering the ground with them as I chased him around. And soon enough, some of those bits of robe came away covered in blood.
There was not a decisive moment in the battle. Not one point where I delivered a single attack that he couldn’t defend. Instead, it was the sum of all our efforts, Camille’s and mine both, that proved the difference.
Camille’s blades weren’t as swift as my own, or as powerful. Yet Vesh still had to defend against her, still had to split his attention between her and me. And I used that to my advantage, making sure to avoid his dark power as I carved my signature into his chest, and scored his arms and legs with my blade.
Finally, he could battle no longer. He was a mess, blood running in streams from multiple wounds, dripping freely to the ground. I opened another cut on his forehead, a swift cut with my blade that would have taken the top of his head clean off if it weren’t for his magic, and that was enough.
Vesh D’Agon collapsed onto the ground, on his back, and lay there gasping for breath.
Cautiously, still suspecting a trap, Camille and I approached, weapons at the ready, both of us more than prepared to spring away in an instant if it became necessary. As I positioned my oversized blade above the Wraith’s chest, Vesh D’Agon started to laugh.
I paused before delivering my final thrust, wondering if this monster had more to say, and he didn’t disappoint.
“You think you have won,” he said, still laughing, still gasping for breath. He coughed weakly, spitting up blood as he did, before he continued. “You think killing me will end your trials. But it will not. I am but one of my Queen’s servants. There will be others called to you by your own power. And if I should die, if you should truly manage to kill me, my Queen will know.” The loathsome being who had given us so much trouble laughed again.
“You think you have won, but your power will still be hers. She is undeniable.” Vesh D’Agon drew in a deep breath, and I could tell he was struggling to do it. He coughed again, spitting up yet more blood, and struggled as if he was still trying to defend himself.
But it was clear such actions were beyond him, and he soon gave up. “If you end me, my Queen will come.”
I glanced at Camille and saw the hatred on the lizard woman’s face. Even then, the man’s dark magic chi seemed to form a barrier between the tip of my oversized sword and his chest. I didn’t know if I could pierce it by myself, so I extended my chi to Camille one more time.
“Together?” I asked her.
She nodded in response. Once again, we joined our chi together, becoming so much greater than either of us by ourselves. With that combined strength, I drove my bastard sword through the cadaverous chest of the Wraith.
Vesh D’Agon stopped his laughing. He tried to struggle, a look of surprise on his face. But he had a slab of steel like the sharpened edge of a helicopter blade through his rib cage, and not even he could survive such an assault.
To my great surprise, Vesh D’Agon offered Camille and me a grin. He tried for one last laugh, but no sound emerged, and the light fled from his eyes.
Just to make sure, I wrenched the blade from his chest, and brought it down in an overhand swing, separating his head from his shoulders. That done, I took a deep breath.
“Let’s find Ecco’s seed and return to the others,” I said.
12
Almost as soon as the Wraith’s head left his body, the calm, crisp weather that had been characteristic for this part of our journey started to turn.
Before Camille and I had even defined our next steps, a cold wind sprang up from nowhere, howling through the hills and cutting through the robes I was wearing. At the same time, a layer of thick cloud blotted out the aurora, plunging us into the darkest night we’d had for a long time, darker even than the caverns, because there weren’t even any luminescent plants to give off light to see by.
With my AC lens and my robes, I could both see and stay relatively warm. But Camille had no such advantage. The leathers she wore were built for ease of movement more than warmth, and she couldn’t see in the dark very well at all.
“What do we do?” she asked.
I considered our options. “We can’t be that far from the others,” I said. “I can see clearly enough for the both of us. I will guide you.”
I didn’t even consider finding a hiding spot and waiting for dawn. Ash was formidable, proof against much of what this world could throw at her. But what if Vesh’s words proved to be true? What if there were others like him sneaking about, biding their time until they attacked?
What if, when Camille and I did manage to return to our companions, they were no more than corpses?
I shuddered, though whether because of the chill wind or the thought of Ash, Gamma, and Zera slaughtered, I didn’t know.
“What about Ecco?” Camille asked, her question caught by a gust and almost taken from my ears.
It was a good question. “We’ll come back and find her,” I said. “Until we do, she will be safe within her seed.”
Camille agreed, and even though she couldn’t see, we made our way back the way we had come. Yet it wasn’t a pleasant journey. Camille held my arm, but still stumbled every now and then when the ground was uneven, and was shivering before we had covered even a small part of the distance. Without asking, I drew her in closer to me, and wrapped my robes around the both of us. She caught the edges of them and pulled them tight, and together, we made our way into the darkness.
It may have been Vesh’s final words playing in my mind, but to me, there was an ominous feel to the darkness, to the wind. More than once, I caught flickerings of lightning as energy discharged above us. But there were no associated crashes of thunder. The lightning never made it to the ground, but instead simply lit up the deep purple clouds for a moment, before vanishing once more.
I thought about joining chi with Camille once more and using my technique to fast travel back to the others. But that method seemed dangerous in the dark. So instead, we simply walked, calling out Ecco’s name, even long after it was clear to both of us that we had passed the beautiful woman by.
I was starting to think we had got our directions wrong, and Camille was muttering under her breath when at last I caught sight of a fire in the distance. I knew that normally, Ash would have hidden the flames as best she could, to avoid attracting unwanted attention. That she had built the fire where we could see it was deliberate. She had done so in the hope of lighting our way.
“Up ahead,” I said to Camille. “I see a fire.”
By then, Camille was simply placing one foot in front of the other, trusting me as much as she ever had to not steer us wrong. But at the sight of Ash’s fire, her plod turned back into her normal, confident stride, and within just a few minutes, we were back with the others.
Camille didn’t hesitate. She sank down as close to the fire as she could get without being burnt. The others expressed their welcome and pleasure that we had returned, and I knew from Ash’s and Gamma’s expressions that they had been worried that we might be gone for good.
“Where is Ecco?” Zera asked. “What happened?”
“Ecco has gone into her seed. We will find it—find her—tomorrow, as soon as we can.” It seemed that this statement cast a bit of a pall over my companions, and Edda took the opportunity to scold me once more. For the sake of everyone present, I forced a smile. “She is safe,” I stressed. “And we know the general area where her seed fell to the ground. We will find her,” I repeated.
“And what of the other? Vesh D’Agon?” Ash rumbled.
At this question, my forced smile became more genuine. “He will trouble us no more.”
Zera wasn’t satisfied with the change in topic. “We are going to look for her, right?” she said as if I hadn’t mentioned the Wraith’s demise at all. “We’re going to get her back?” she looked from me to Ash, then to Camille, who was shivering as she held her hands close to the fire. “We can’t leave her out there alone, can we?”
“It’s cold and dark,” I said. “She has gone into her seed. We could walk right by her and never know it, and all we would get for our trouble is a dose of frostbite, if we didn’t walk over the edge of a cliff, or stumble into some other hidden danger.”
Like Camille, I had set myself down next to the fire, and was enjoying the way the heat was chasing the chill away from my bones.
