Bradwarden recovered his wits and seized the moment, charging straight ahead, ramming the lead giant and knocking it back and to the floor, then turning out the spear, with his free hand, launching a heavy swing with his cudgel that connected on the side of the second giant's helmet, knocking the protective armor clear off the brute's head and knocking the giant against the passage wall.
Bradwarden's second swing was even harder, all the centaur's great strength behind it connecting solidly with the giant's vulnerable head, which was still braced against the stone. The massive skull cracked with a tremendous sound and the giant slumped to the floor.
But the other fomorians were back and ready, though one seemed to be partially blinded from the celestite explosions, and Bradwarden's momentum came to a swift halt.
Pony saw what was happening here, and she was not pleased. She knew Elbryan trusted her — how could he not after all their fights together? — and yet, fighting in such proximity had him on the defensive for her sake.
That the young woman could not tolerate, more for the practical reason that they could not hope to win with such a posture than for any reason of pride. Pony had to hit fast and hard, to remind her love of her prowess. She slipped the graphite rod into her sword hand, clutching it tightly against the weapon's hilt, and wondered if her plan would work.
Elbryan ducked another swing, a clear opening to score a wicked hit, but he went to the side instead, picking off a sword strike aimed for Pony — and one she could easily have avoided on her own.
The ranger's move did leave an opening, though, the surprised giant glancing to regard Elbryan, and Pony rushed ahead, jabbing hard into the brute's belly. Her sword found a bit of a crease in the armor but couldn't sink in far enough to score a decisive hit.
No need for that, the giant — and Elbryan — discovered a moment later, when Pony released the stone's magical energy. A crackling black arc raced up the weapon and leaped from its tip, right into the fomorian's belly. The giant jolted violently, again and again, and then, when the electrical barrage finally ended, fell back off the sword to the floor, stunned, if not dead.
The lesson was not lost on Elbryan, who marveled at the powerful combination of sword and stone, even as he berated himself for thinking that Pony might need his help. Not to be outdone — and with another giant ready to take the fallen one's place — the ranger leaped ahead and launched a series of furious attacks, right and left and straight ahead, Tempest moving too quickly for the fomorian's heavy sword to keep up. The mighty elvish weapon scored hit after hit, sparks flying as it banged hard against metal armor. Finally, Elbryan found that crease between breastplate and girdle, mentally marking the spot.
The ranger let up for an instant, and as he expected, the giant roared and cut mightily. Elbryan was down in a low squat before the blade ever got close to hitting him, and he skittered under as it swooshed past. The ranger came up hard, his aim perfect for that slight crease.
In slipped Tempest, past the armor, tearing guts and diving deep. Elbryan moved ahead again, wanting to be well within the arc of that monstrous sword, pushing his blade in to the hilt. The giant reached across his back with its free hand, but there was little strength in that grip. Elbryan jerked fiercely, once and then again, the tearing jolts straightening the agonized fomorian.
Then, seeing his work with this one finished, the ranger tore free the blade and let the brute fall.
The last in line was quick to join in, swinging its huge torch as a weapon.
Pony, thick into it with the third giant, took out a stone for yet another trick. But then she heard more clearly the situation at the back of the line, Bradwarden grunting, taking hits.
"Avelyn!" the woman called, and she tossed the stone, one she knew that the monk could put to much more deadly effect than she, over her shoulder.
It bounced off the monk's back, catching his attention, for he was falling into the magic of yet another gem. He noted the gift Pony had offered, though, and halted his spell, quickly retrieving the fallen stone, the lodestone.
"Ho, ho, what!" the monk bellowed happily, bringing the deadly gem in line. "This is going to hurt!"
"Well, be quick about it!" Bradwarden pleaded and then grunted, accepting a heavy club hit on his left flank, for he was too busy keeping his other opponent's sword at bay. The centaur had already taken a hit from that sword, and had a huge gash on the side of his human torso to prove it.
Avelyn called forth the energy of the stone and let it fly, swifter than any crossbow quarrel, more powerful than any ballists bolt. It hit the sword-wielding giant towering right in front of Bradwarden square in the chest, blasting a huge hole, lifting the brute clear of its feet and hurling it backward, crashing past the club wielder to slam heavily into the last in line, the pair going down in a heap.
Bradwarden used the moment of distraction to spin completely about, and as the club wielder regained its balance, the centaur launched a mighty double kick against its breastplate, knocking it back into the jumble.
"Forward!" Avelyn cried to the group.
Elbryan agreed wholeheartedly, and he leaped back to get beyond the swishing torch, then rushed ahead, angling to dive between the two remaining giants at the front, thrusting Tempest at Pony's foe as he went. The one battling Pony had to turn to meet the attack, and took a hit from the woman even as it parried the ranger's blade. Then, even worse for the fomorian, it got a swishing torch across the face as its partner tried to catch up to the scrambling ranger.
Pony rushed ahead and struck hard, sinking in her sword, calling forth the jolting energy of the graphite once again. Though her. lightning was much weaker this time, her magical energies taxed, the giant slumped back, stunned.
Then came a series of popping explosions in the air ahead of Pony, another celestite barrage from Avelyn, singeing and confusing the fomorian pair.
Pony stared curiously at the behemoth that had been battling Elbryan, at its suddenly too-straight posture, hips forward, shoulders back. She understood as the torch dropped away, as the brute toppled forward, sliding off the blood-dripping Tempest.
Avelyn flattened himself against the wall and instructed Bradwarden to run by, for only one of the four giants that had come in at the back had any fight left in it. Bradwarden, wounded more seriously than he had at first believed, didn't argue, but slipped past the bulky monk, moving beside Pony, stubbornly bearing down on the last giant in front.
The last in the pile at the rear finally extracted itself and, seeing Avelyn standing alone, no weapon visible, it came on wildly.
Avelyn waited until the last possible second, then loosed the magic of his latest stone, the malachite, into the corridor.
Suddenly, the giant was off balance, feet barely scraping the stone. Every movement forced a countermovement from the weightless behemoth, and so, when the stupid thing brought its club high overhead for a mighty chop, the energy lifted the giant from the ground and tuned it right over in midair, a slow-motion somersault. The giant tried desperately to get at the trickster monk, but each twist and turn only made its predicament even worse, and soon it was tumbling, floating helplessly back down the corridor. As soon as it cleared its fallen companions, Avelyn was upon them, reaching into the chest of one to retrieve his deadly magnetite. He looked up to see that last giant upside down, flailing wildly, futilely, floating even farther away.
Avelyn snorted at the sight and turned to watch his three friends finishing the last of that group. Then, with an almost apologetic shrug, when he noted that the giant was far enough from his friends, the monk ran toward it, enacting a serpentine shield and then pulling forth his powerful ruby.
Elbryan winced as he noted the centaur's wicked wound, a bleeding gash that was fast draining the life from poor Bradwarden.
"We need the hematite," Pony remarked looking back toward Avelyn.
"Try this instead," Elbryan offered, taking off his other armband, the red one, the one the elves had soaked in permanent heali
ng salves.
Pony took it and went to work, while Elbryan ran ahead, both pausing, nearly tumbling, when they heard the tremendous blast of Avelyn's fireball.
Avelyn trotted back down the corridor, the charred giant, still floating head-down, far behind him.
The tunnel continued straight for a dozen paces, then turned sharply to the right, where Elbryan had run.
"Move along," Avelyn instructed his weary friends, and they nodded, understanding that their task was far from finished. Pony looked at Bradwarden, but the centaur was smiling widely, the healing salves already at work under the red bandage.
So on they went, Avelyn in the lead. All three stopped suddenly as Elbryan came rushing back around the corner. The ranger hit the wall hard, using it to turn himself so he could dive back down the corridor, and when he came up out of the roll, the others looked past him curiously to see glowing stones fast hardening on the floor.
"A great red man!" the ranger explained, "with the black wings of a bat —"
"No man," Avelyn interrupted, knowing the truth of this newest foe, knowing that they had at last met with the demon dactyl.
CHAPTER 53
Destiny
A wave of molten stone splashed around the corner, driving the group back, the heat nearly overwhelming them. A second wave, and then more — a river of the magma — coursed around the bend, and three of the group turned in full flight.
Avelyn stood his ground, though, and went quickly to work, calling upon his stone magic to enact a shield, constructing a magical wall, floor to ceiling across the corridor.
The demon fires rolled on, bearing down on the praying monk. Pony skidded to a halt, realizing that Avelyn was not with her. She turned and screamed out to him, even took a running step back toward the monk, but Elbryan held her fast.
Avelyn's faith was put to the test as the magma flow approached, as the heat intensified. He had used this gem, serpentine, to survive in the midst of a fireball, but he had no real knowledge of how it would work against the demon magma. It might defeat the heat, he supposed, but what of the sheer weight of the flowing stone?
Avelyn had no room for such doubts. He fell deeper into his prayers, into the depths of the stone magic. The magma was only a couple of feet away, rolling, bubbling.
The monk felt no heat, then, felt no hot wash from the molten stone. As the leading edge passed through the serpentine barrier, it cooled suddenly; turning black and solid, and the magma behind it began to flow over it, until it, too, cooled and hardened.
Now Avelyn saw a new problem brewing: if the lava continued to pile up, it would rise too high and block the corridor, the only way they knew to get at the demon dactyl. Boldly the monk strode forward, stepped up on the leading wall of obsidian, and forward, too, went his magical shield, stealing the demon's heat.
Seeing the spectacle, realizing that their friend had beaten the dactyl's attack, the other three were quick to join him, Elbryan, Hawkwing in hand, moving right to the side of the praying monk. They went around the bend, Avelyn stopping the magma river fully, the demon dactyl coming in sight.
Elbryan lifted his bow and let fly, and the dactyl, so obviously surprised to see its enemies, took the hit squarely in the chest between its humanlike arms.
Bestesbulzibar's eyes flared, and the demon opened wide its mouth, vomiting a stream of magma at the group, and while the serpentine shield blocked the heat, the sheer force of the missile-like spew knocked Avelyn and Elbryan back against the wall. The ranger recovered quickly, growling and sending a second arrow after the first, again with perfect aim.
The dactyl howled, more in rage than pain, for' Elbryan's arrows were but a minor inconvenience to the mighty creature.
Avelyn, though . . . that one presented a more troubling power.
The demon's arms shot forward, fingers extended, and black tendrils of crackling electricity spouted from them, biting against the wall and running the length of the straight passage, nipping and snapping at Elbryan and Avelyn, at Pony and Bradwarden as they followed their friends around the bend. Avelyn had no counter ready and the demon's magic caught him and Elbryan, holding them fast in its sparking grasp for a long painful moment, and then hurled them both backward to crash hard against the wall. Smoke wafting from various parts of their clothing, the pair darted in a quick retreat around the bend, pushing Pony and Bradwarden back the way they had come.
Avelyn desperately searched his magical repertoire, but it was Pony who struck next, thrusting forth the graphite rod and letting loose a bolt of streaking lightning, bouncing it off the, wall, angled perfectly to skip around the bend and bear down on the demon. Her aim was true, it seemed from the howl that came back at them, but that howl was followed closely by a second crackling black bolt, this one hitting with a thunderclap that launched Pony and Avelyn — and would have sent Elbryan, as well, except that he was holding to the sturdy centaur — flying to the floor.
"Time for running!" Bradwarden cried.
"Take it!" Pony called to the monk, tossing him the graphite; knowing that he could put it to more powerful use.
"Forward, I say!" Avelyn corrected the centaur, catching the stone and pulling Pony to her feet. He paused for just a moment, considering the fact that his hands were full of a confusing jumble of gems, and none of them were the particular stone he now desired. He quickly handed two stones, the malachite and the lighted diamond, back to Pony, then he scrambled on, taking the lead toward the bend once more. "Now the darkness is before us, so forward, I say!" Avelyn reached into his pouch and retrieved yet another gem, a stone he had used to defeat dactyl-inspired magic before, in a fight with a powrie general.
Avelyn focused the energy of the sunstone, building a wall before him, shaping it and thrusting it forward, taking some comfort in the fact that Pony, who was behind him, kept the diamond glowing brightly.
The dactyl loosed another tremendous bolt as Avelyn rounded the bend, but the crackling magic fell away to nothingness as it entered the disenchanted zone.
"Ho, ho, what!" Avelyn roared, and all the friends came on in full charge.
Bestesbulzibar was confused, had not seen such a display of anti-magic in all its millennia of life. It narrowed its gaze upon Avelyn, upon the gemstone the monk held tightly in his extended hand, and, ignoring the charge, thinking nothing, of the next stinging arrow that soared its way, the dactyl gathered all its magical energy.
They were barely thirty feet away.
Twenty — another arrow zipped in, deflecting off the dactyl's bone-hard forehead.
Ten feet away, Avelyn roaring wildly, the ranger hooking his bow over his shoulder and drawing forth his sword — an elvish sword!
The dactyl's shriek echoed all through the tunnel maze of Aida, deafened the four friends, and made them reach for their ears. The demon, recognizing the power of Elbryan's silverel blade and wanting nothing to do with an elven-forged weapon — Dinoniel had wielded such a weapon! — loosed a stream of its purest magical force, a green line of sizzling, tingling energy aimed directly at Avelyn, at the monk's extended hand.
The beam stopped right before the monk, wavered there, holding Avelyn in his place, crackling sparks flying wide, forcing Elbryan to slow and shield his eyes.
Avelyn screamed, and the dactyl shrieked again, throwing all its magical strength, every ounce, behind the beam.
On came the green line, engulfing Avelyn's hand, the sunstone glowing fiercely. They held for a long moment, the monk's will against the demon's hellish strength.
The sunstone absorbed the dactyl energy, stole the line from the demon's hand. But Avelyn's expression of joy, of victory, was short-lived, for the stone could not contain such energy, and it threw it out, dispersed as green smoke into the air, the sheer force of the expulsion throwing Elbryan and Avelyn backward into Pony and Bradwarden, the resulting smoke filling the corridor.
None of the group was hurt; but the momentary distraction gave the drained dactyl the time to retreat.
Elbryan scrambled to untangle himself from Pony, and charged off behind the monk, the woman coming next, and bulky Bradwarden bringing up the rear.
They sped past several side passages, around turns in the corridor, Avelyn leading boldly, trying to keep the demon in sight, ready but without fear in case the creature was walling for him around each bend.
They raced up some stairs, pounded fast down a long, narrow descending slope, and came at last into a long, straight corridor, the demon visible before them. Elbryan tried hard to get past his monk friend, then, to take up the lead and close tile distance to the monster. But Avelyn was too focused even to notice the ranger's attempt; even to consider letting the faster Elbryan squeeze by him.
The monk was trying furiously to bring up the magic of the sunstone again, but even if he couldn't manage it, Avelyn meant to get to the dactyl, to tackle the damned thing and beat it with his bare hands if he had to!
Up ahead, the corridor widened, like the top half of an hourglass, and then ended in a wall, broken only by a large archway, through which the demon dactyl scrambled. Beyond this portal, Avelyn saw a huge room, braced by columns and lit by the orange flow of molten stone.
This was the throne room, he knew, the very heart of the demon's power.
That notion only spurred the furious monk on even more, Avelyn lowering his head and running full out, with his telltale cry of "Ho, ho, what!" He charged through the archway with no consideration that it might be trapped, and Elbryan, though he slowed a bit for caution, was but two running strides behind.
The dactyl, back on its obsidian throne, was ready for them. As Avelyn passed into the room, he was hit full force with more demonic magic: a great gust of wind that held the monk in his tracks, that sent the huge bronze doors to the side of Avelyn swinging mightily.
DemonWars Saga Volume 1 Page 66
