Commander Rex And The Black Unicorn (Kingdom Chronicles Book 2)

by Jesse Wilson

  Nymie landed on the ground face first. She rolled over and looked at the beast whose acid blood was pouring from its body in various places, eyes and mouth consuming the flesh of the monster.

  “Don't come back,” she said and looked down at her shoulder, one of the blade fragments was sticking out of her shoulder. She wrapped her hand in her shirt and grabbed the blade but the thing disappeared before pulling it out. There was no way to kill a razor horn without shedding some of your own blood. “Damn it,” she said as her bright red blood began to flow to the ground.

  “Do you need some help, miss?” a child's voice asked, afraid but still willing to venture out. “No, you should stay inside where it's safe, I'll be okay,” she said, but it was no use. A young human came out with what looked like a roll of white gauze. Nymie couldn't help but laugh at this sight just a little. He was followed by a young troll and a giantess.

  “What are you kids doing here anyway?” she asked as they approached. “We are on a field trip to the police station when the monsters came. Our teacher, Miss Agra went to get help but she never came back,” the human boy said as he unrolled the gauze. “You weren't safe at the station?” Nymie asked her and troll girl shook her head, when Nymie took another look around, this was indeed, the police station.

  “The power went out, everyone had to leave, then,” she replied and looked away. “They told us to stay here,” another said.

  “Yeah,” she said and lifted her arm to allow the boy to administer first aid. “You're very nice to help me, not too many people would bother to do this,” she said. The boy was gritting his teeth, obviously disturbed by the sight of the blood but determined to finish. “Well, you fought and killed the monster, if you can do that, I can do this,” he said and finished wrapping the wound as tight as he could.

  “Don't worry miss, we got you,” the giantess said and reached down to hold the gauze as he taped it shut.

  “Thank you, I need to keep working out here and you should go back into the building to stay safe,” she said to them as she stood back up. “Okay, we will, but you need to be careful out here. There are so many of these monsters and just one of you, you should stay with us,” the troll girl said to her and Nymie nodded.

  “I should, but I need to keep working, you keep safe and stay quiet, really quiet. I am sure you'll be fine,” she said and lied, she had no idea if they would be safe or not but it was better advice than running into the smoke and dark blindly. “Okay, we can do that I guess,” the human girl replied to her and without any more words returned to their hiding place inside the police station.

  Nymie wondered just how many unicorns had invaded the city to make it look like this, and worse, where did they all go?

  Drask was walking though the smoke choked streets when she heard a hideous noise ahead of her. “Oh come on, why me,” she said quietly and pressed herself against a building nearby. Only one thing made a noise like that, a horrible, twisted and unworldly noise that chilled her despite the heat.

  It was a Flesh horn, something that haunted the grim lands of the Morglands most commonly, but now one was here. This was Tayne's main prey, this was not what she wanted to deal with. The monster screamed again, closer this time. “Drask get a hold of yourself, you can do this, take the horn off just like any other Unicorn,” she talked to herself, trying to calm down but the first hints of decaying flesh overpowered the smoke and it wasn't doing her any favors for her mental state.

  She crept up closer to the source of the noise, the smoke began to clear away and before her stood the beast in all its decayed glory. It stood ten feet tall, its skin was pale green and falling to pieces, bits of flesh dropping on the ground. It had no eyes and the horn was an ivory white bone with strips of flesh hanging off it that looked to fresh to belong to the beast.

  “Okay, you can do this, no problem,” she said to herself and raised her rifle. The beast took a step but its bone hooves never touched the ground, it was walking on bodies it had gathered, not all of them were dead and now that she was closer she could hear the quiet moans of those it was saving for later. She hated these things and didn't know exactly how she was going to do it when something else was coming down the road from the left, something noisy.

  Something metallic.

  Drask quickly retreated and watched, to her added horror the beast she'd only seen pictures of came to the intersection. It was a War Horn, a bio mechanical monster that was more tank than unicorn. “What in the hell is it with my luck today?” she asked and could only hope for one thing to happen. She could only hope that the two beasts would end up killing one another, as they couldn't be more different and neither one was native to one another's normal stomping grounds.

  The rotting unicorn turned and looked at the mechanical one as it approached, the annoyance in its body language was immediately apparent and Drask knew this wasn't where she wanted to be right now. She briefly considered helping those people who were still alive in the pile but quickly decided against it. There wasn't any hope for them. The war horn let loose a deep, trumpet like sound and the Flesh horn made no noise at all in reaction.

  “Come on, fight, kill one another so I don't have to do it,” she said quietly from her hiding place. The two unicorns immediately took aggressive stances towards one another. The back of the metal beast opened up and six small missiles fired out of it, straight up and they curved into the undead unicorn's direction. The abomination leapt into the missiles and took all six of them in one shot. The explosions erupted around the monster but despite its weak looking structure, it remained unharmed and the fire faded away.

  The undead thing appeared to be unimpressed with this and opened its maw, green smoke poured forth from it and everything it touched immediately began to decay, rust and fall to pieces.

  Some of the living people hiding in a nearby building screamed as their flesh rotted away on their still living bodies. Drask looked away and did her best not to listen or see that. It was a horrible sound she would likely never forget.

  The mechanical thing didn't appear to register the threat of the corrosive and corrupt gas of the enemy and reacted too late before its thick metal legs started to rust and crack open.

  The War horn, despite being damaged only walked forward at the same relentless, slow pace it had since it had arrived. “Are you insane, this thing is going to wreck you if you keep doing it like that,” Drask said to herself not that she cared, she didn't want to face either of these upper level threats that each one usually required whole hunting parties to deal with.

  The War horn suddenly leaped forward and sunk its five foot long metal saber for a horn deep into the undead creature's chest, whipped its head around to throw the it in Drask's direction as if it weighed nothing at all. The dwarf's eyes widened and she quickly backed up.

  The thing landed on the ground long before it ever made it to her. She watched as the undead thing dissolved into mist and reformed into a standing position almost at once.

  The War horn didn't seem too surprised as two Gatling guns extended from its side. Drask realized that she was directly in line with these barrels and as they started to spin she took off running out of the line of sight, around the corner of the building she was using to hide.

  A second she pulled around the corner the plasma bolts began to fly. Drask turned to see the lines of green carve everything to pieces where she was standing and could only hope for the best that this is what was needed to kill the undead thing. She kicked in the door of the building and quickly made her way to the window to keep an eye on the battle, she was disappointed when she saw that the assault of plasma wasn't enough to take the monster out, or, once again even seem like it was even wounded in the slightest. “Oh, come on what's it going to take,” she said out loud, and too loud.

  Both of the Unicorns heard her and turned to look at the building. She immediately dropped out of sight. and quickly started to make her way back towards the door. When she was barely five feet away from fr
eedom she heard the heavy metal footsteps of the War horn just outside and stopped.

  “Damn it,” she whispered to herself and turned around, to her horror the flesh horn was phasing right through the wall and its skull face and those empty eye sockets were staring right at her. Drask was terrified and ran for the stairs, it was her only choice.

  She ran up the stairs, the sudden burst of activity and terror took the breath out of her in a hurry, but there was no time to try and calm down. She could hear the Unicorns downstairs one was crawling up the stairs and the other was already materializing through the floor. Drask had no idea why they just didn't kill her right away.

  The window was her only chance. She didn't have time to count to three or even plan ahead. She started at a dead run and jumped through the window and hoped to make the distance to the pile of dead and wounded bodies below.

  She didn't even hear the glass shatter as she went through it. All she was focused on was the pile of blood and bodies below and aimed for it.

  For a few seconds everything went in slow motion, but reality and time caught up with her as he landed in the gore, sending blood in all directions.

  “God damn it,” she groaned and was thankful she was a Dwarf because the impact didn't break all of the bones in her body, but it did knock the wind out of her. “No time to quit, no time to bleed,” she said and used her gun to help to stand up.

  “Help me, please,” an elf said to her weakly, he was covered by someone else and looked like he was nearly cut in half, there was nothing Drask could do about any of this.

  “Listen to me, you're going to a better place, the Gods are real, haven't you heard,” she said to him the only thing that came to mind, pointed her barrel at his head and fired.

  She didn't look back up at the building, all she had on her mind now was to get away as fast as she could and hope they didn't track her down and started fighting one another again.

  Chapter 23

  On the ship, alone, the red mage sat where they left her in the room. Suddenly her chains shattered. “I am on my way, join me,” a voice echoed in her head, deeply.

  “I will, I will find you,” she said to no one and the whole room shook. “Go to the city, wait for me,” it said to her again in the thunderous voice once more. “Yes, I will,” she said and the binding wards in her room burned out. Immediately she cast a teleportation spell. A second later she was on top of a tall building below the airship and looked out over the city, filled with smoke, screams and the sounds of sirens.

  “They got the message, I am glad something went right for me,” she said with a smile but now all she could do was wait. She was sure the wait would not be a long one.

  Calex Island, or, at least where it used to be the sky above it and the ocean cracked. The binding spell containing the black energy exploded back into reality seconds later sending a great shock wave in all directions and a column of water half a mile into the air.

  From the falling water a stream of black energy shot forth and burned its way towards the city so fast it was splitting the ocean into half underneath of it sending walls of water out in both directions.

  The journey that took the hunters almost a day to complete was finished in mere minutes. The black comet of power slowed down and landed on the roof behind the red mage without making a sound. “It is good to see you again,” he said in the same deep voice, but out loud this time. She jumped and turned around.

  “Albert, you're actually alive,” she said and rushed out to hug him but he stopped her, raising a hand. “I am alive, but I am not alone. The ritual worked but it was unfinished. The beast is inside me and I think I am the beast as well. I hear its thoughts in my head but also I hear my own as well,” he said and looked around.

  “Our children are out there, I can sense they still don't like one another. I never could solve that problem,” Grayson said to nobody, walking towards the edge of the roof.

  “The unicorn bomb worked. That necromancer golem we set up was perfect. The hunters sent the ship back here just like you said they would,” she replied to him with a smile. “Yes, we see that it did. But now it is time to take our revenge. I will need you to witness the end of mortality on this planet so I can return the world back to before the invader gods came and played with it, watch and remember what happens tonight,” Grayson said to her and stepped off the roof, falling to the ground.

  “I will watch, you can rely on me,” she said and didn't know what was going to happen next.

  Grayson landed on the ground, breaking the pavement around him, he didn't like the way he looked so he twisted his image with a single thought. Now he was wearing a dark blue suit. “Much better,” he said to himself and began to walk forward. He didn't get more than six steps before a Razor horn appeared out of the smoke. He glanced at it and his eyes flashed red.

  The unicorn at once bowed its head in respect.

  “That's a good kid, go now, gather the others and we shall begin the purge of mortality once and for all,” he said to it, the unicorn immediately ran off into the smoke. “How did you do that?” an elf woman asked him, coming out of the shadows.

  “I asked nicely. You know, unicorns really are much smarter than people give them credit for. If you treat them with respect they will do the same to you, and kill you much quicker than they might have before,” he said, smiled and out of nowhere an invisible set of jaws reached down and grabbed the woman by her upper half and bit down, cutting her in half.

  The torso disappeared in the air. “Oh, she was tasty, we might have to keep some of you around, you know, just in case we get bored,” Grayson said with a smile and kept walking, leaving the twitching pair of legs behind him.

  Rex felt something in the air change. There was a chill in it but he was sure it didn't get any colder. “What in the hell is going on?” he asked and looked around, but around here it was hard to notice if anything changed at all. Everything looked the same, ruined and burning. He picked up his communicator.

  “Did anyone else feel that or was it just me?” he asked into it.

  “Yeah, felt like someone walked on my grave,” Nymie replied. “Ditto, where are you at, I think it'd be wise it we regrouped,” Boz replied too.

  “Good idea, I don't know where you're all at but we need to meet, um, let's see, where am I,” he said and looked around. “Sixth and Bower, meet here as soon as you can, you shouldn't be too far away according to my tracker,” he said and finished. One by one everyone said they were on their way so he decided to stand here and wait.

  He couldn't help but wonder where Evie and Calibri ended up in all this mess.

  He was sure they were fine, he had to tell himself that because anything else was horribly depressing.

  Calibri and Evie ended up in a less than desirable place. “It's like you've never teleported before,” Evie complained to her. “Hey, I'm not used to doing anyone but myself, this is what I get for helping out,” Calibri replied and crossed her arms.

  “Yeah, you got us stuck in the shadow realm. Do you even know what lives here?” Evie asked her as they walked along the empty, dead streets. “Yeah, necromancer here remember. I know what lives here. On the plus side we aren't constrained by energy usage. We can draw directly from here,” she replied to her and Evie was not happy about this.

  “So, any ideas on how to get out of here or are we just stuck, I wouldn't expect a mage school dropout like you to have any good ideas,” Evie said bitterly.

  “Hey, I have a few ideas but you need to think positive. This place feeds on negativity and if you get any worse you'll attract the dark walkers, or worse, so stay positive and stay invisible and best of all off the menu,” Calibri replied to her and the came to a crossroads in the shadow version of the city they were in. Every single direction looked the same, black and white nightmare landscape it was turning out to be.

  “I don't think there is an exit,” Evie said offhandedly and the necromancer stopped walking. “Listen. I am deadly serious a
bout the emotional output here. Suppress it, change it, do something. Keep going like this and we are both going to die. Shadow chasers use this place all the time, if they can figure it out so can we. Now start thinking of ideas, anything is better than complaining,” Calibri said to her and Evie sighed.

  “Shadow walkers are also insane, but maybe it has something to do with light. Look at this place. There is no light source anywhere but it's pretending there is,” Evie said, looking around and Calibri noticed it too.

  “Okay, let's make some light,” she said and couldn't believe she was going to do this.

  “So, a generic light spell sounds easy enough,” Calibri said and cracked her neck.

  “Let's supercharge this, let's invoke Prolexa. If we are going to do it, you should go all out,” Evie said and Calibri cringed. “She's the goddess of light, but she's not exactly nice, you should read some of the stories they didn't teach in school,” Calibri replied and the two of them put their hands together. As soon as they did, something on the wall behind Evie began to move.

  “Damn it, it's a darkling,” she said and pulled her close just as a tendril of shadow struck out in her direction. The amorphous shape slid down the wall and peeled itself off with a sickening slurp. It let loose a high pitched scream as it awkwardly walked in their direction.

  “Spell later, right now we need to get away,” Evie said as she looked at the thing. The two of them started to run as fast as they could, but the sound of the screams never felt as if they were getting any farther away.

  “Maybe we should do the spell on the run, interested,” Evie said to Calibri said and she just nodded. “Together now. Prolexia Zul Lotam Ex Juliz Mortam,” the two of them recited the most powerful light spell they or anyone else knew together and above them a disk of light exploded, blinding them and turning everything around them pure white.