by T. J. Hunter
Chapter 31
Thyzil used up all his Gatling gun magazines and was now shooting a shotgun in one hand and swinging his claymore in the other as only he could. Lycanthrope heads, arms, hands, and even legs flew into the air in all directions creating trails of smoke and fire.
“Want to play doggies? Come, we play more,” he said and roared in laughter.
You would think after seeing a few dozen lycanthropes get chopped into fiery body parts, the fur balls might back away from Thyzil. I guess they are less intelligent when in their furry state because more rushed Thyzil and their body parts also were sent burning through the air.
Alura threw more grenade belts that pierced lycanthropes with precise explosions. A fragment from the grenade hit my hand and it burned like hell, but didn’t pierce my skin. Alura’s daggers were flying in all directions hitting fur ball after fur ball, mostly dead center in their heads. When the daggers were gone, she pulled out both Desert Eagles and began shooting with her usually accuracy while running, jumping, and somersaulting.
I finally got closer to Ah Chuy Kak while some of his groupie fur balls were trying to free him from my trap. They were clawing at the barrier in a ferocious but futile attempt while their Mayan overlord continued banging his body into the barrier with greater velocity. Ah Chuy Kak kept screaming, “Kill them … kill ... kill … them …” He sounded desperate now and realized he might not escape this time.
The fur balls tying to free Ah Chuy Kak saw me coming and faced to battle me. I didn’t get a chance to accommodate them because Alura and Thyzil ran past me and cut their heads off.
Ah Chuy Kak stood still glaring at us with his eyes wide open, no longer showing arrogant confidence. Instead, the mighty fur ball had fear in his eyes. For millenniums the Darkzon overlord walked this world infecting and murdering innocent humans without answering to anyone. He had escaped me 25,000 years ago in the Mayan city of Tenochtitlan, and according to Yochi, it wasn’t the first time. It was different now. The fur ball was trapped like a wild animal and he knew it.
I looked over to Thyzil and saw blood running down his arm. It didn’t seem to bother him in the least.
“What happened to you?”
Thyzil looked at his arm. “This … it is nothing. Doggy bit me.”
“You’re not going to grow pointy ears are you?’
Alura laughed. “Azul, you know that Zeshtunians can’t be turned. We are immune to a lycanthrope bite.”
Thyzil rubbed his ears. “Pointy ears maybe good look on me, yes?”
“No, it would not look good Thyzil, not at all,” Alura said, laughing and shaking her head in disagreement.
“Perhaps you are right princess. I am plenty good looking now,” he said and winked at me, causing Alura to smirk and stick her tongue out at him.
I turned my attention back to Ah Chuy Kak and looked at the top pentagram, which surpassingly was undamaged. If I penetrate the barrier with my staff, it will disappear and Ah Chuy Kak would likely escape. I had to make his prison more compact, but knew of no magic word or spell that could help me.
I raised my staff up pointing it to the top pentagram, closed my eyes, and focused on lowering it. A light began to take shape in my mind and words of many tongues rushed by until one word stood alone. I opened my eyes and said, “Levitsum,” causing the wire holding the top pentagram to snap. I then moved my staff slowly down and the pentagram followed as Ah Chuy Kak watched in fear. The ceiling of his prison was closing in as he feverously slammed against the barrier and watched the pentagram get closer. A few moments later, Ah Chuy Kak curled into a ball as the barrier encased him completely leaving no room to move.
“You can not kill me wizard. If my body is destroyed, I’ll take another,” Ah Chuy Kak said. “You can not kill me,” he repeated with hatred, and in a sign of renewed confidence, he growled.
I pointed my staff a few inches from the barrier that was covering the wizard star on Ah Chuy Kak’s forehead. The star began to glow white hot and Ah Chuy Kak screamed in pain, once again appearing vulnerable.
“I’m not going to kill you Ah Chuy Kak. I’m going to send you back to oblivion,” I said and pushed my staff forward toward the wizard star.
A loud clap of thunder unexpectedly sounded when my staff touched the barrier. The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back 30 feet away looking up at the cavern ceiling. I was barely conscience. When I lifted my head up, I saw Ah Chuy Kak stretching his arms and head as he howled, and then he glared at me.
“See wizard, I told you so. You can not kill me, but I can kill you,” he said, forming a grin so wide it nearly engulfed his twisted face.
What the heck just happened? I felt like I stuck a screw driver into an electrical socket. The bigger shock though was that fur ball somehow freed himself from my trap and zapped me across the cavern floor.
Ah Chuy Kak pulled the necklace off his neck and tossed it to the floor. The center stone of the necklace, which moments ago was an amber color, was now blackened and shot sparks and small trails of smoke into the air.
It’s not a stone. Must be a technological gadget, some sort of a Darkzon magic repellent. If it were magic, like my amulet stones, I would have sensed it. Sensing technology is not a talent I possess, at least no more so than anyone who is or is not a wizard.
I stumbled to my feet as Ah Chuy Kak transformed into something that is difficult to describe. He tripled in height, grew a lobster like claw out of one arm and a long octopus tentacle out of his other arm. A long beak with a double row of three inch teeth grew out from his face and a serpent tongue stretched out of his mouth wagging like a dog’s tail. It was like watching a genetic disaster come to life in a cheap science fiction movie.
Alura saw what happened and threw a half dozen or more silver daggers into Ah Chuy Kak, but they had no effect. The fur ball casually glanced at her and grinned while the daggers popped out of his body and fell to the ground. Alura then unloaded her silver filled magnum bullets into Ah Chuy Kak which made ripples in his skin like when a stone hits water, but didn’t cause any damage.
At the same time, Thyzil began his attack from the other direction and swung his claymore clean through the fur ball’s octopus arm. The severed arm fell to the ground and began flopping like a fish out of water, causing Ah Chuy Kak to roar in pain.
I actually thought for a moment that we might have the upper hand – no pun intended – but another octopus arm grew back in seconds. The Darkzon overlord was once again his ugly whole self and ready for a fight.
The daze I felt had cleared up, except for a headache and few muscle spasms, and my shoes were no longer on my feet. What in the heck ... where’s my shoes? I then saw my shoes exactly where I was standing when trying to touch the wizard star on Ah Chuy Kak’s forehead. I also noticed that my socks were smoking a little, which oddly almost made me laugh. I looked back at Ah Chuy Kak and shrugged.
“Is that all you got? You know, I’m not really sure what to call you now. Honestly, that entire lobster-octopus-beak look is confusing, not to mention really gaudy.”
I picked up my staff and swirled it around my head, then said, “No matter, because in a few minutes you’ll look like fried calamari.”
The last breathing lycanthrope, who was standing next to Ah Chuy Kak, poised itself ready to defend its master. Ah Chuy Kak grabbed the lycanthrope with his claw and tossed the yelping beast at me, as if it was a sack of potatoes. No loyalty whatsoever from the upper fur ball echelon.
I shouted, “Aknor stellara,” and a bolt of lightning split the airborne lycanthrope in half and also pierced through Ah Chuy Kak’s leg. I then shouted, “Raza zitum,” and swirls of blue-white light shot forth magical saw bands from my staff that tore through Ah Chuy Kak’s body.
It was an amazing sight. Chunks of Ah Chuy Kak fell to the floor as he screamed in agony. As much fun as it was to watch the creep suffer, each body part grew back almost instantly, and that was much less fun to watch. My saw bands kept working
though, and each time a body part was regenerated, the bands chopped it off again.
At first, Alura looked confused at all the regeneration, but then she laugh a little as though watching a Road Runner cartoon where the coyote often gets run over by a truck, or endures other painful events. Thyzil wasn’t amused by the situation and wasted no time throwing his claymore at Ah Chuy Kak. Bullseye – the blade entered one side of Ah Chuy Kak’s head and stuck out the other side. The fur ball became silent as his eyes bulged to twice their normal size, then he slumped to his knees. My saw bands finished taking his legs and head off causing what was left of him to fall into the dirt. There was no regeneration this time. Ah Chuy Kak appeared defeated.
My magical saw bands circled his body a few more times, and with nothing more to slice and dice, they flickered and disappeared.
That was too easy. Ah Chuy Kak is a Darkzon overload, who supposedly is unable to be killed. The best one could hope for was banishment into the dark void, but there he was, all pieced out like a daily special in a meat butcher’s shop window.
“Nice shot Thyzil,” Alura said.
Thyzil smiled. “Of course princess, what else could it be from a warrior?” he said with pride, then put his foot on Ah Chuy Kak’s head to pull his claymore out.
“Careful Thyzil,” I said. “This thing is a Darkzon overlord, and as far as I know, it can’t be killed.”
“Azul’s right Thyzil,” Alura said. “Be careful.”
Thyzil slowly pulled his sword out of Ah Chuy Kak’s head and I pointed my staff ready for the unexpected. Nothing happened at first, but a few moments later, Ah Chuy Kak’s chopped off head gasped and transformed into an eagle that began flying around looking for an exit. His other body parts were obviously no longer needed and turned into gooey piles of green puss.
That’s more like it. I pointed my staff at Ah Chuy Kak and missed several times trying to hit him with lightning bolts, but got him on the fourth try. He fell to the cavern floor and transformed back into his true form. Ah Chuy Kak tried unsuccessfully to push himself up off the floor, then he glared at me while on his hands and knees.
“You can not kill me wizard … can not,” he said, but this time he wasn’t grinning and he looked weak and in pain.
“Gotcha now fur ball,” I said and threw my staff like a javelin, and it slammed into Ah Chuy Kak’s wizards star.
Ah Chuy Kak lit up as bright as the sun. He screamed one last time in horrible agony, and in a brilliant flash of light, the Darkzon overlord was banished into the dark void.
I looked at Alura thinking a compliment was coming, but she just dusted off the dirt from her pants.
“What, no ‘nice shot’ or ‘that a boy’?”
Alura smirked. “Okay, nice shot,” she said, arching her eyebrow and folding her arms across her chest.
She wasn’t very sincere in responding to my solicited compliment, but hey, I’ll take even the slightest praise at this point.
I picked up Ah Chuy Kak’s charred necklace and examined it more closely. Only a burnt out stone set in a gold plate remained. No wires, crystals, or anything electronic were present, and only a faint sign existed that a stone was ever set inside the necklace plate.
I put the necklace in my pocket to bring back to Keob for further examination. Perhaps Sarila or Yochi may be able to figure out how it worked so effectively against my magic. Can’t have Darkzon magic repellent being used against us, so Sarila was my best shot at figuring out how to neutralize it.
The one flood light that survived the battle popped sending sparks into the air and the cavern went dark. I heard snapping noises and saw Alura and Thyzil tossing glow sticks around on the cavern floor to provide light. As we looked around to check for anything alive besides us, we saw piles of smoking ashes, but nothing was moving.
“Well, that sure went better than I thought it might,” I said and let out an exhausted breath.
Thyzil smiled in agreement. “Yes, today was good day,” he said and Alura raised her eyebrows and smirked.
“What princess? It was good day, yes?”
We all started to laugh and moved to the center of the cavern when where Lieutenant Mack and his men were shinning lights through the ceiling hole.
“You people alright down there?” Mack asked.
“Yea, we’re good,” I responded, glad to see the Lieutenant again.
“How are you getting out of there? Do you need our help?”
“Nope, we’re good,” I said. “We’re going to make our own exit. Hey Lieutenant, thanks for all your help.”
Mack smiled. “Always a pleasure Mr. Zane.”
“You know wizard, we have many weapons not used,” Thyzil said. “I was looking forward to using shotguns.”
“Maybe next time Thyzil, but you did dust a lot of fur balls with you claymore and Gatling guns.”
Thyzil smiled. “Yes, I did kill many doggies today. Maybe shotguns next time, like you say,” he said, then got the crystals he hid and held one in each hand.
“Here we go again wizard,” he said.
“How long this time?” I asked.
“Plenty of time … 10 minutes.”
Same as last time. “Is that really 10 minutes, or about 10 minutes?”
Thyzil shrugged and placed the two crystals on the cavern floor, then pushed them together. The crystals started to glow and hum in the same way the other crystals did when destroying Moon’s office building.
“Time to go,” Thyzil said.
We used the rope ladder to descend to the cave below and saw something moving. It was a badly wounded lycanthrope crawling toward the titanium net covering the cave’s exit. As we got closer, we saw it was Senator Kendrisol. The sleazy fur ball left the battle to save its own skin – big surprise.
“Hey Kendrisol, going somewhere?” I asked.
The Senator rolled over on his back and looked up at me. He was wounded more that I thought. Half his face was missing and blood was pouring out from his chest.
“Let me go wizard,” he pleaded. “I am a powerful Senator and businessman. I can help you live a life without wanting anything.”
“You don’t look well Kendrisol,” I said. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to deliver on any more promises, not that you ever did.”
I took the two bags of silver fragments Alura gave me before the battle began and held them over the soon to be departed senator.
“Even so Kendrisol, let me help you out with a final donation for your campaign to nowhere,” I said, then poured the silver onto him as he let out one last long scream before bursting into flames. “Say hello to your boss Ah Chuy Kak.”
“Good doggie … stay,” Thyzil said.
I held out my staff and tapped the titanium net causing it to turn white hot and melt to the ground. We exited the cave and began walking to a safe distance before the crystals cleaned things up. We didn’t get far before several military vehicles approached and stopped with their headlights pointed at us. It was Lieutenant Mack.
“I’m glad to see you all made it out in one piece. Do you need a ride back to the city?” Mack asked.
“No thanks Lieutenant. We have our own way home,” I said.
“Alright sir, you all have a safe trip,” Mack said and saluted us, then drove off with the other vehicles including the rental car I left in town.
Bright red lights began to emit from the cave exit and hole in the cavern ceiling. The light grew more intense, causing us to hold our hands over our eyes while we peeked through open fingers. The cave and cavern were melting fast into molten rock.
I heard a noise from behind us and turned quickly pointing my staff while Alura and Thyzil drew their swords ready to strike. The light from my staff stone showed a man walking toward us, and as he got closer, I saw it was Henry Twyer accompanied by three wolfs that were walking on all fours. Henry stopped ten feet in front of us and the wolves, appearing to be friendly, calmly sat at his side.
“It is over,” Hen
ry said. “We owe you and your friends a debt of gratitude Daniel. Our pack will never forget what you have done for us.”
I lowered my staff and Alura and Thyzil lowered their swords.
“No problem, it was nothing really,” I said, causing Alura and Thyzil to arched their eyebrows, then they looked at each other and grinned.
The three wolves slowly walked over to us wagging their tails and dropped something from their mouths at our feet, then darted back to Henry’s side. We each bent down and picked up what was finely crafted leather bracelets.
“What are these for?” I asked.
“Outsiders are not normally welcomed into our pack,” Henry said. “There are exceptions, and in those rare cases, our custom requires a pack member to give a gift to the outsider as an invitation.”
Henry began to pat one of the wolf’s head. “This is Felicia, my youngest daughter. She and her two brothers made the bracelets for you and your friends. Accepting them will make you honorary members of our pack and always welcomed here in Howe. We will become family.”
I looked at the bracelet and then at Henry and Felicia. Thyzil and Alura looked at each other and then to me and nodded. We then smiled and slipped the bracelets over our wrist.
“It is an honor for us to accept your gifts,” I said. “Thank you.”
Henry smiled and the three wolves began jumping and chasing each other in a playful manner.
“Please come visit us again soon,” Henry said as he walked away into the night with his children happily scampering behind him.
The entrance to the cave continued glowing white hot as rocks melted together. It was fitting to have fire cleanse the stench of Ah Chuy Kak who was now banished into the dark void. It wasn’t over though, not by a long shot. The picture I saw showed Ah Chuy Kak with two other overlords at the feet of Itzam-Yeh. Who or what these other dark creatures are is anyone’s guess, not to mention the big enchilada Itzam-Yeh. All I know is that they are Darkzon, and that makes them my enemy.
Lycanthrope packs still existed all over the world, but now they would begin fighting each other again for the position of alpha. With Ah Chuy Kak out of the picture, I suspect the fighting will wage among the packs for a very long time. Good, let them tear each others throats out. When the new alpha shows its furry face in New York, or anyplace else, I’ll be ready to dust it.
I drew a pentagram in the dirt and reached in my wizard bag for a blue coin. Instead of removing the coin, I paused.
“What is it?” Alura asked.
“Not sure, but I think we can transport without the coin.”
I stepped into the pentagram with Alura and Thyzil, then placed the end of my staff in the center. I closed my eyes and focused on my magic and said, “Transmati domas,” and nothing happened. I opened my eyes and saw Alura jab Thyzil in his side while letting out a little laugh.
“Let’s try that again,” I said and focused harder, then felt my magic flowing inside me out through my staff onto the pentagram. “Transmati domas,” I said in a slow deliberate voice, causing blue-white light to shoot up into the clouds and light up the night sky.
When I opened my eyes, we were back in my Manhattan bedroom. I smiled and raised my eyebrows up and down several times giving them a silent I told you so look.
“Impressive,” Alura said. “Looks like you have bonded well with your staff big brother. Now, all the magic you need is in you.”
Thyzil put me in one of his death grip hugs and said, “Reminds me of old times wizard.”
I somehow knew what Alura told me was true. I held my staff up and thought to put it away and it disappeared. It wasn’t gone, only not there physically. I could sense it was with me ready to be summoned by a single thought. Magic coins were no longer needed because my staff was now a part of me.
My phone buzzed. It was a text message from Sarila that read: Need to meet. New situation. Very serious.
“Are you kidding me? I didn’t even get to sit down,” I said and let out a long sigh.
Alura laughed. “I told you brother. Things really never quiet down for us.”
In the course of only a couple months, I went from being a Harvard professor to becoming a master wizard from a planet called Zeshtune. I traveled to another planet called Keob and its moon Galbria, which no one knows orbits the Earth’s sun. I discovered I have a sister, can summon a magical construct named Kyiel, and am friends with a warrior of the likes only seen in movies. I learned that the dark creatures, once only existing in my dreams or late night television, are real and roam the Earth. I also met and fell for a white witch and became a member of a wolf pack.
That’s a lot to take in, and you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
