Dungeon Master 7

by Eric Vall

  I turned and looked into the faces of my minions. Their eyes showed me no fear, and the fox’s burned with determination. Heijing’s taloned claws beat at the ground as she anxiously waited to take flight. The Akalong blood that flowed through Heijing’s veins burned and boiled for the brewing fight. Her icy blue eyes were sharp and shining as her massive maw opened and closed with puffs of black smoke.

  I felt the need within her just as I felt it in my own body. We’d been on this journey to find any clues as to where Rana’s family was hidden, and here we were, at the doorstep of the fortress that held them. We’d slaughtered the sorcerer, and now it was our turn to find the prize we’d been searching after for months.

  Annalise held both Bloodscale and the unnamed sword in offensive positions in front of her body as her chocolate brown eyes counted each of the orcs. Rana held the Eye of Alipsis in both hands, a single one of her elven daggers clenched between her sharp teeth. Carmedy placed her hands on her belt as she loosely held the slingshot in one palm. Two bundles hung on strings from the belt and dark purple smoke curled from inside as her emerald eyes met mine. The purple smoke curled at our feet then rose up around us, obscuring us entirely from view.

  I grinned down at Carmedy, and she nodded firmly as she gripped the slingshot in one hand then pulled an already prepared bundle from her belt. The feline loaded the pouch into the cradle and drew the strap back as she took aim at the massive wooden doors of the fortress.

  “This is for Rana!” Carmedy screamed as her lips curled against her pointed teeth.

  The alchemist let the bundle fly, and it whizzed through the air in a perfect arch then hit the middle of the door perfectly. My eyes widened as scarlet smoke exploded up from the spot where the bundle smacked, and a form rose from the haze. Two snake-like yellow eyes opened, and a massive jaw opened with rows of pointed teeth showing themselves.

  “Is that what I think it is…?” Rana gasped as she looked to the feline and Carmedy rocked back on her heels, satisfied.

  “Haruhi gave me this really cool alchemy book with new types of potions I could use, this one is called ‘Spirit Summoning,’ pretty cool, right?” the alchemist giggled as she leaned her head back and looked into Heijing’s eyes. “You know who that is, right?”

  “Guoshe…that’s my mother.” The Qianlong answered in a booming voice as she kept her eyes on the very real looking dragon as it lashed out at the orcs that dared to come closer.

  The dragon unfurled itself as the smoke around it solidified and molded itself into the massive length of her golden and red body. This dragon was much larger than Heijing, at least three times her size at her full maturity. Her scales were the size of my palm or larger, and the yellow eyes that stared out of its massive skull were filled with hatred. The flowing crest around her head was a deep red and bright yellow at the tips as the dragon turned her head and roared down at the orcs. The dragon’s maw snapped out at orcs left and right as blood-red fire spilled from between its teeth. This was the Akalong rage I’d read and heard so much about from Haruhi and Heijing.

  Guoshe was beautiful and terrifying as she whipped around the outside of the fortress. Her long, elegant body whipped out behind her as she climbed up the walls of the stronghold and tore some of the bricks down as she roared at the blackened sky.

  “Just wait!” Carmedy cackled with laughter as she raced ahead of us and grabbed for another bundle.

  The alchemist moved ahead of us, ducked behind one of the bushes and aimed at a large group of huddled orcs. Carmedy let the bundle fly through the air, and it landed directly in the middle of the group of creatures. This time the smoke that exploded upward was a deep cerulean, and I didn’t have to guess what was about to emerge from the cloud.

  The head that rose from the smoke was a pure alabaster, and the eyes pressed into the enormous skull were the same color as Heijing’s. This dragon was even larger than Guoshe and Heijing combined, and I assumed that was because it was a male. They may not have been real or even alive, but from the way they moved and attacked the orcs in tandem, it looked as if they were. I was amazed by Carmedy’s skills and couldn’t tear my eyes away from the conjured dragons.

  When I glanced back at Heijing, her icy blue eyes were sharp and glazed over as she watched the illusions of her parents. She’d told us that the last time she’d seen them was the day that the gods attacked their sanctuary. The Qianlong had been the one to find her parents dead bodies holding each other in the palace and seeing them again brought tears to her eyes. I knew this moment must have been painful for her, but in a way, a relief. Her parents were released into the spirit realm and brought back in this very moment to aid us.

  Heijing was the first to break from our group as her talons beat against the hard ground, and she launched herself into the sky. I watched her whipping movement through the air for a moment, then settled my gaze onto the fortress ahead. Guoshe and Anteng had taken out at least ten of the orcs by themselves and body parts fell from their massive jaws as they continued the onslaught.

  I gripped the God Slayer tightly in my hands then pointed the blades forward. We all took off at once toward Tuzakeur’s stronghold. The sorcerer may have been dead, but his mercenaries certainly were not as we collided with them. Four orcs stood in our way, but before I could even lift the God Slayer, a loud shout rose from behind me.

  “Annalise, now!” Rana’s voice cried out.

  Over my shoulder, Annalise ran out in front of the redhead, smashed her two swords down into the dirt, and then knit her fingers together.

  Rana’s boots slammed against the ground then she lifted her right foot into the high queens knit fingers. Annalise brought her hands up with all of her strength and launched the fox into the sky. Rana tucked her body into a ball, flipped through the air and at the last second unfurled herself.

  The fox screamed with her fangs exposed as she brought the blade of the massive claymore down on the shoulder of one of the orcs. The blade cut through the creature like a hot knife through a slab of butter, nearly slicing the orc in two. The beast didn’t have time to scream as Rana pulled the sword out and away and kicked his corpse aside.

  In quick succession, Annalise ripped up her swords and ran straight at one of the largest orcs. The high queen flipped the two blades into the air and distracted the beast. The orc’s eyes watched the two blades flip and glint as Annalise snatched them out of the air and lunged forward. Both swords entered into the orc’s chest and out the back with loud squelching noises.

  Carmedy loaded her slingshot for the third time and aimed at the third orc. The alchemist closed one eye, stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and let the tiny bundle fly. The bundle hit the middle of the orc’s chest, and in one second the orc was there, and in the next, he was nothing more than a smudge of blood and gore on the charred ground. The feline cackled madly as she raced off into the fray with her slingshot aimed at another group of orcs.

  There was only one remaining, and it was my turn to show off my powers. The orc faced off with me as his club feet pounded the ground. The beast took off toward me, and with a wave of my hand, he was lifted from the ground. The dirt below his feet began to crumble and roil with the life of an unseen beast. Tree roots exploded up from the ground and created something like a massive mouth. Sticks and branches pointed outward as the orc hung in the air.

  The beast roared and screamed to be released as the massive maw made from roots snapped open and closed hungrily. I dangled the orc over the mouth and lowered him closer to us, and in between the wooden teeth, boiling orange magma exploded to life from the lava god’s power. The orc screamed even louder, and his meaty hands tore through the air in search of any purchase, but found none. As effortlessly as I snatched him up, I let him drop.

  The ligneous mouth snapped closed madly, as if trying to get a bite of the delicious orc meat and finally closed around the beast’s feet. I watched with a wicked grin as the conjured mouth tore the orc to bits, and the pieces dr
opped down into the bubbling magma with soft hisses. I swiped my hand up through the air, and the mouth exploded upward and formed into the colossal basilisk made from tree roots I’d used against the Tintagal army long ago. The beasts ripped up from the ground and slithered forward toward the remaining orcs.

  I made way through the fighting, the green corpses of collapsed orcs lay all over the ground as my minions and our creatures fought hard against our enemies. I was proud of my minions, they called out to because they thought they needed my help in this fight, but in fact, they were practiced warriors at this point and could handle almost anything thrown at them. I’d trained them well, and it made my chest swell with pride. I would even wager that they could’ve taken on the fortress by themselves, but I knew they still needed me, they would always need me.

  My women followed after me as I climbed the steps to the enormous wooden door. A charred hole was burned through the wood where Carmedy had summoned up Guoshe, and I stepped right through it. My minions stepped in, and Rana walked shoulder to shoulder with me. The Eye of Alipsis transformed in her hand back into a necklace, and she held the sapphire up in front of her face as she guided us through the fortress.

  I glanced over my shoulder and looked out of the hole in the door right as Heijing came into view. I stopped for a second as my minions raced past me and just watched the scene unfold. The Qianlong’s dragon form was flanked on both sides by the illusions of her parents. Her icy blue eyes were wide and frightened, but the other two dragons showed no malice toward her in any way. In an instant, I grabbed onto Carmedy’s wrist as she moved past me and slowed her to a stop.

  “Tell me about this spirit-summoning, Carmedy,” I commanded as I watched Heijing bow her head to the larger dragons. “Are those really her parents or just conjurings?”

  “I’m not sure,” Carmedy whispered as she shook her head and kept her wide emerald eyes on the three dragons. “The book Haruhi gave me didn’t say anything about it, and I didn’t think I’d be capable of that type of magic. Maybe Morrigan, but not me, I’m just an alchemist, I don’t dabble in the spirit stuff.”

  The air glittered around the Akalong’s and Qianlong’s forms, and I could almost see their human forms hidden inside. What Carmedy said was true, the alchemist had no prior practice in summoning spirits, but they were Heijing’s parents somehow. They’d passed over the ethereal plane and into our world even for just a moment. I wasn’t sure if Heijing had realized it, the Qianlong seemed to still think these two dragons were nothing more than conjured illusions made from colored smoke.

  Both Guoshe and Anteng spoke to Heijing, but their words were in a language that I couldn’t understand. The dragon’s icy blue eyes closed for a moment, and I could have sworn I saw a tear drip from the corner of her eye as her body transformed. Heijing’s human form tripped forward then hung its head back to look up into the faces of her dead parents. She didn’t need to be told, she already knew that these were the spirits of her parents.

  Heijing lay a hand flat against her father and her mother’s flanks as she whispered words that I couldn’t hear to them. I didn’t need to hear, I already understood as both Guoshe and Anteng’s heads lowered and rubbed against their only daughter affectionately. This was their final goodbye, the goodbye they were never able to have when the gods attacked.

  Heijing’s tiny body was wracked with sobs as she stroked the faces of her parents, and each dragon closed their eyes tightly as they savored the moment. I didn’t want to intrude on their private moment, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Heijing was so strong and stoic on the outside, but this was the part of her that she kept hidden from everyone else. She’d been so young when her parents were taken away from her, and this entire time, she hadn’t been able to let go of all the pain inside of her until now.

  Carmedy had unknowingly given her this moment, the goodbye with her beloved parents that died hundreds of years ago for no reason other than that the gods wanted them dead. Anteng finally lifted his head and tore himself away from his daughter’s embrace. Guoshe followed after, and both dragons looked down at their daughter with saddened eyes. It was time for them to leave, and they wanted to savor this moment for a bit longer. Heijing gave me closure with Isolda and in a way, Carmedy had given the Qianlong the same thing with her parents, and it made my heart swell.

  My women waited for me at the end of the hall as Guoshe and Anteng’s bodies began to fade from view. Heijing raised her head, and her icy blue eyes burned with a new fury that I’d never seen before. With her deceased parents returned to the spirit realm, the Qianlong stepped through the hole in the door and came to stand directly in front of me. Her heated eyes burned into mine for a moment before her plump lips opened to speak.

  “Family is the only thing that lasts in this world and the spirit realm beyond,” the Qianlong spoke in a steady voice as her icy blue eyes found Rana’s. “Your family is precious, let us continue on to them and destroy all those in our path.”

  Heijing’s eyes met mine pointedly as if there was something else she wished to say, but her lips closed into a hard line. The Qianlong slipped her tiny hand into mine, and only then did I feel it tremor with emotion. We moved on together through the dirty halls of Tuzakuer’s fortress with Rana guiding us from the front. Most of the halls were empty, and those that weren’t had more orcs guarding them, and we took them out quickly.

  I felt the beat of Rana’s family’s hearts and the rush of their blood through their veins. Though they were captured, they were still in good health and very much alive, which gave me a bit of relief. We’d be able to rescue all of them and put the redhead’s worries at rest finally. This was the end to a long journey, Rana had been searching for them for so long, and it made me glad that I was able to do this one thing for her.

  We came around a corner, and the massive oak door came into view. It spanned from ceiling to floor with metal bolts holding it into place. No guards stood outside this door, but I felt the pulse of another, foreign heart, and I gripped the God Slayer tightly in my hands. I moved to the front of our group and slammed my right hand out. I ripped my hand back, and both of the huge doors slammed open to reveal something like a great hall.

  I held up a hand for my women to wait and stepped inside without them. The room was dim, and most of the high windows were covered with thick tapestries. What little light filtered in created large dust motes that swirled as I walked through them. I could make out Rana’s family clearly on a raised dais within a large cage. A woman with a striking resemblance to the redhead held all the smaller children to her chest while five adolescent fox-boys stood around her like a wall of protection. Their blues eyes stabbed into me but quickly moved away as they realized I was there to save them.

  The cage and Rana’s family wasn’t what caught my attention, but rather the colossal beast that stood in front of the cage. The creature stood in front of the cage filled with cowering fox-people, and its wholly black eyes met mine. It looked to be once human but not anymore, its flesh was rotted blacks and blues with bulbous veins racing underneath. If I had to guess, I would’ve thought it was a corpse come back to life but that couldn’t be true, this thing was very much alive. The man was huge, towering above me at over eight-feet and its arms bulged with meaty muscles as it stepped closer to me and sniffed at the air.

  He wore very little armor but what he did have came up over his shoulders in vicious spikes. The man held no weapon, but from the size of his closed fists, I knew he didn’t need one.

  “Momma!” Rana’s voice rang out behind me, but I didn’t turn to look.

  “Rana?” a hoarse feminine voice called as the fox-woman in the cage stepped forward and wrapped her paws around the bars of the cage. “Look, babies, it’s your big sister come to save us!”

  I didn’t let all of this distract me as I kept my eyes on the rotted man in front of me. I wished for a moment that Haruhi was with us so she could tell me what type of creature this was, but I didn’t have to wait f
or an answer. I looked over his flesh once more and saw the runes and arcane symbols branded there. He was once a necromancer, that much I could tell, but it seemed that the dark power he dabbled in had taken control of his body. He was no longer human, but he also wasn’t dead, he was something stuck in between life and death. But he needn’t worry, I would send him into the depths of the Underworld soon.

  The cursed necromancer lumbered forward, and I gripped the God Slayer in my hand. I pushed all of my dark power into the haft of the polearm, and it thrummed under my hand excitedly. I didn’t hesitate or move out of the way, we were so close to our goal, and I wasn’t going to let this half-life stand in our way for a second.

  I lunged forward as an orb of my power appeared between all three blades of the God Slayer. The sphere grew in size, and I put all of my strength behind the weapon. The blades sunk into the flesh of the necromancer’s belly and the black orb absorbed into the bloody meat. The man gasped for breath then bellowed angrily as he grabbed for me, but I stepped away. The blades of the God Slayer pulled out of his stomach, and blackened blood fell to the stone at our feet.

  The necromancer swung one of his closed fists at me, and I ducked underneath it as my eyes settled in on my next target. I jabbed out with the God Slayer once more and slammed the blades into his exposed ribcage. The man screamed and swiped a hand at me, but I was gone in a flash. I let go of the God Slayer, and it floated in the air freely as the necromancer turned and searched for me. My boots pounded against the polished floor as I advanced on his turned back. I launched myself into the air and landed squarely on his shoulders.

  The necromancer thrashed below me, but I held on tightly as my hands were consumed with black energy. I placed my hands around his thick neck, them braced myself. A sound like tearing fabric reached my ears as the tendons in his neck stretched and began to rip. I pushed all of my strength into my arms, gritted my teeth, and then tore my arms up and back. The man’s head came cleanly off and dripped blackened blood from my hands as his massive body began to sway on its feet.