Despite their organization and their zeal they could not approach General Maximus's army. The priest had been careful and thorough in sanctifying the ground the General captured. The creatures could no more step onto temple ground then they could approach their once protected tower. General Maximus however was under no such restrictions. He ordered catapults be filled with bags of water and that the water be blessed and made holy. Then he sent out gallons and gallons of holy rain upon the creatures causing them to melt and sizzle. The whole while he drank his ale and casually laughed, until the water supply began to run so low the could not keep firing and supply the troops with water. "Enough of this anyway, tell the mages to prepare their destruction magic and give them a volley." He ordered. In a rare move one of his officers spoke up, "The mages have no spells left my lord. These battles have severely taxed them, they have been casting from spell book and accidents are starting to happen. You said once we took the tower we would establish a forward base of operations, secure it and rest a day until the mages and priests could come out full force."
The general look at him with more than disdain, "What gutless terd wandered into my army? Get him out of here." The officers hesitated for just a moment, "What? is that what you all think? For days we march through just mopping up broken bones and crying ghosts and now that they are ready to fight you want to take a day off. Maybe head to the tavern and find yourself a cheap woman. Disgusting. They are finally ready to fight, with or with out you, so am I."
Grabbing his two handed blade he called FURY he marched to the very edge of the camp looking down at the line which had become visible in the sand. On his side the ground was brown and packed on theirs was a thick loose gray ash as if it had fallen from the Ho Shan volcano back home. He looked up from the line and saw hundreds if not thousands of dead bastards waiting to die again at his hand. Flesh falling and decaying off bones that were frail and cracking. He drew his sword and front kicked one in the chest shattering the ribcage causing it to fall. Then he lept into the horde swinging and killing everything that was dumb enough to move.
"Protect the General!" Came the order from behind him and he was aware that men and goblins raced to his aid from the rear. He had no need of them. The fools would stay there and let glory pass them by. He only needed Aries and FURY, if his army wanted to come let them grow some guts and follow. For hours he fought embraced by the Ecstasy of death and destruction. Killing almost a dozen with every swing. Ghosts, zombies, wight, wraiths all tasted his blade and met their end. Between his wounds and the hours of fighting his arms and legs began to slow under the weight of his armor. He realized his swings and kill rate was slowing. They had not been hitting him so he cleared a small area and then cut loose the leather straps that held his armor in place. He was able to move free again like he had earlier with the armor before the fatigue set in.
A 9 foot skeleton approached and the others cleared a path for it. good. He thought as he ran toward the beast. He dodged one, two then three spears. It was the fire which spewed from his mouth that he could not dodge. He could feel his flesh baked and smell his own cooking flesh. He almost thought he heard the skeleton laughing, not for long. He ran up a small rock formation which made a ramp and lept at the creature severing its head from his spine in one clean cleave. He landed hard and rolled into a group of disembodied forms of mist. Trusting his FURY he gave several swirl attacks releasing every oath and curse he new under his breath.
He had lost track of how many more died before he finally faded to black. Out of healing potions and his blood wetting the ashy ground he saw the sun just start to crest on the eastern horizon before his muscles, despite his will, refused to hold him up any longer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He awoke with something around his wrist and two people near him. Spitting forth a vile oath he demanded their names. "We are but pedals of a great flower. Here to rescue you my General." Lotus Assassins he thought as his wrist irons were picked and unlocked. "How deep are we?" He asked them, "We are on the southern edge of the valley the army is a full days march north of us still. You are lucky they did not kill you my lord. We should be leaving."
"NO" he ordered as he wrapped the chains which had held him to the wall around his arm, "I'm alive because whatever leadership they have wanted to deal with me himself, even the dead must have their ego." Using his massive legs he ripped the chain from the wall. It could make a good flail. "I'll find him and make him regret not killing me. Help me or go home I don't care."
One of the lotus pushed open the rusted gate which made the cell door, "Our daggers are yours to command."
Using his chain flail as his only weapon he and the two lotus crawled through the catacombs breaking to dust skeleton after skeleton after skeleton. They continued, Maximus would not leave until he had killed everyone here and taken the compound for himself.
They were stopped by a ghost which seemed to wear a red cloak and have glowing green eyes beneath its cowl. "I will always love Tatyana." It said holding a medium sized sapphire. "Then I'll find your little whore and kill her too." Maximus responded with out hesitation and charged. With in about 3 feet of the ghost Maximus dropped to his knees and the ghost vanished dropping the sapphire to the ground. The greedy lotus picked it up while the other checked on the general.
The general spoke, "Must have scared him off. Lets just get out of here. I'm sure the army needs me."
The obedient lotus did as commanded and the General returned to his besieged tower.
No comments:
Post a Comment