by B. D. Suever
Ethan mustered up some courage and spat in the man’s face.
He reacted angrily. “That was not wise, boy.” He grabbed Ethan by the hair and threw him to the ground. “All I need is the amulet and you alive, but there are many versions of alive. For example, if your hands are burned off, you are still alive. Just in a lot of pain.” He gave a sinister grin. “Allow me to introduce you to one of the Four. This is Mortar. Master pyromancer and bomb expert.”
Nera watched as another man approached Ethan. “You called, Vetick?” he said.
“Do you happen to have a small present young Ethan here can hold on to?” Vetick asked with a grin.
Mortar gave a laugh. “Well, let's see what I have,” he answered. He rummaged in a pouch at his waist and pulled out some rope which he used to tie Ethan’s hands together. He went back into his pouch and next pulled out what looked like a small stick of dynamite. He placed it in Ethan's hands. “Now hold on tight and don't drop it,” he said.
“Leave him alone!” Nera yelled.
“SILENCE!” Vetick yelled. “Not another word!”
Nera wore a horrified look. Tears welled up in her eyes as she watched Ethan being tortured like this. She glanced back at Naveni and saw someone shrouded in a cloak untying the net that held the bear. “Get ready to attack, Trix,” she whispered.
“Well it’s about time dear. I'm growing impatient,” Trixxie whispered back.
Mortar lit the fuse on the grenade Ethan held. “Now count to thirty and be ready to lose them little sausages you call fingers,” he laughed.
RRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!
The deafening roar caused Vetick and Mortar to turn their attention away from Ethan for a moment. Naveni broke free of the netting and began swatting any undead near her. The undead warriors turned to attack as Naveni barreled through them, knocking them off their feet.
“Get up, you fools! Eliminate the bear!” Vetick yelled.
The diversion gave Ethan the perfect opportunity to get away from Vetick. He kicked Mortar in the crotch bringing him to his knees screaming and ran back to Nera and Trixxie.
Nera rushed over to help Ethan untie his hands. She pulled the stick of dynamite out and tossed it towards a pack of undead, “Get down!” she yelled.
BOOOOOM!
Undead body parts were blown in all directions. An undead arm smacked Vetick in the chest. “Get them!” he yelled at his army.
A few of the undead were still trying to deal with Naveni. The others turned their attention to Ethan, Nera and Trixxie. They pulled out bows and began shooting at the companions.
“This ought to do the trick,” Trixxie said as she created an ice wall barrier to block the incoming arrows.
Nera pulled three arrows from her quiver. “Time to test out this new bow,” she said as she got the drake scale bow ready. She placed the three arrows in it and jumped around the ice wall. She let all three arrows loose at once, piercing three undead warriors in the skull and dropping them to the ground.
Nera didn't notice the undead warrior flanking her from the right. He lunged at her with his sword, swiping at her. Suddenly, a dagger shot through the air, cutting off the head of the undead at the neck. Nera turned to see where the dagger had come from. The cloaked figure who had untied Naveni was standing at the back. He removed his hood.
“You?” Nera yelled, stunned.
“You can thank me later, hunter!” Xavoz yelled back. “For now, let's deal with these rotting corpses!”
Trixxie looked over at Nera, her eyes wide. “You friends with a gob, sis?”
“I showed mercy after he was struck by lightning,” Nera said. “Long story. I'll tell you about it if we survive this.” She turned and shot another arrow towards a group of undead.
Xavoz fended off a few undead warriors with Naveni while Nera and Trixxie attacked from the front.
Vetick grabbed Mortar by the neck. “Why are you just standing around laughing? Do something!” he commanded.
Mortar grabbed Vetick's arm. “I'll do something, but you better watch that tongue of yours or you're liable to get it burned off by yours truly,” he snarled. Mortar pulled out two more grenades from his pouch. “Now let's separate the groups so your guys can deal with them individually.” He lit the fuses on the grenades and tossed one between Xavoz and Naveni. The other he tossed at the ice wall protecting Nera, Trixxie and Ethan. “Get ready for a surprise, crew!” he yelled while laughing hysterically.
KABOOOOOOOM!
Xavoz and Naveni both dove out of the way in opposite directions. Each was now surrounded by three to four undead.
The other bomb destroyed the ice wall, pushing Trixxie back towards the entrance to the temple. She hit her head hard on one of the pillars cutting the back of her head.
Ethan and Nera were thrown in the opposite direction. Nera counted about eight undead warriors heading in their direction. “You all right, Ethan?” she asked as they struggled to their feet.
“I'm fine. Just a few scratches,” he said.
She pulled an arrow and drew back on the bow. “Get ready, Ethan. This is why we trained so hard.”
Ethan pulled his own bow. He got an arrow ready. His hand was shaking. He let an arrow loose and pierced one of the undead in the chest. “I did it!” he yelled, excited.
“Don't get distracted, Ethan,” Nera warned. “With undead, you have to go for their head or they just keep coming.”
Ethan pulled another arrow and let it loose. This time, he hit the knee of one of the undead and knocked its leg off. The undead lost its balance and toppled over onto another warrior. Both undead warriors began screaming at each other and started fighting amongst themselves, completely forgetting about Nera and Ethan.
“Idiots! Fight them, not each other!” Vetick yelled.
Mortar was standing behind him, laughing as he threw another grenade towards Xavoz.
Xavoz quickly jumped in the air and caught the grenade. He tossed it towards the undead chasing after Naveni, blowing them to pieces. Naveni rushed over and barreled through the undead behind Xavoz, taking them all down except for one.
The undead warrior rushed at Naveni with his axe raised high. Just as he was about to reach her, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. His legs were frozen solid, and he couldn't move.
“Stick around, dear,” Trixxie laughed.
Vetick turned to Trixxie in anger. “You and me, witch!”
“Gladly,” Trixxie said.
Vetick began to use his magic to gather up pieces of the undead. He formed a scythe made of bone.
“Cute trick, Necrom,” Trixxie smirked. She waved her hands in the air and, with a flash, instantly created a scythe of her own, made of ice. “Care to dance, dear?” she asked.
They lunged at each other. Their weapons clanged as they met in the middle.
Vetick swung his scythe slicing into Trixxie’s arm. He swiped low at Trixxie next, trying to knock her off her feet. She jumped over it and swung her scythe, barely missing Vetick. As she landed she grasped at the cut on her arm. Blood dripped to the floor. She shot an angry glare at Vetick and rushed in for another attack.
Mortar saw them fighting and began to laugh. He pulled out a stick of dynamite and was about to light it.
“How 'bout you leave the mages to their fight and me and you tango, bomb boy,” Xavoz called to him.
Mortar turned to Xavoz with an evil grin. “Boy? You calling me boy?” he snarled. Mortar rushed towards Xavoz. He launched a fireball from a contraption he had wrapped around his wrist.
Xavoz jumped out of the way at the last moment. “Been scorched enough for one life time,” he taunted.
Xavoz and Mortar continued their fight while Ethan and Nera were still having trouble with the numbers game against them. Ethan kept shooting and missing, and Nera was running low on arrows. She rushed towards a small group of undead and pulled the dagger she had found in the temple out of its sheath. She sliced through a few of the undead, causing them to fall to pi
eces.
“Nera! Help!” Ethan yelled.
Nera turned to see Ethan surrounded by three undead. There was a giant rock behind him, leaving him cornered. She tried to get back to Ethan but was blocked by a couple of undead. She felt a sharp pain in her side as one of the undead slammed his shield into her ribs. She tried to fend them off but the pain in her side made it hard for her to fight back. “Ethan, run!” she yelled, but she could see he had nowhere to go. They were closing in on him, ready to attack.
Just then, he heard a loud roar and Naveni ran through the three warriors. She stood up on her hind legs and swung at one of them, batting his head clean off his body. The other two rushed to attack her. She came crashing down on one of the undead, crushing its whole body. The other was just about to thrust its sword into Naveni's side when Ethan let his arrow loose and pierced the undead’s eye. “I did it this time!” he exulted.
Nera was finishing off the two warriors blocking her way. She jammed her knife in the skull of one of them, then ducked down to avoid the sword of the other. She grabbed an arrow off the ground and thrust it up into the undead warrior's jaw. The warrior let out one final cackle before falling to the ground.
Nera ran over to Ethan. “Are you ok?” she panted.
“Yeah, Naveni saved me,” he answered.
She gave him a quick grin. “Come on. This fight isn't over yet.”
They ran over to where Trixxie was fighting Vetick. They passed the two undead warriors who were still fighting each other, “What a couple of morons,” Ethan said as he ran by.
Trixxie and Vetick were still attacking each other. Trixxie launched a couple of ice spikes towards Vetick. He blocked them with his scythe. He spun around and launched a couple of bone spikes her way. She formed an ice shield and blocked the bones.
“You're quite skilled, witch, but not skilled enough,” Vetick said.
“Oh, sweetie, that's so nice of you to say, but you have yet to see me go all out,” Trixxie responded. She rushed at Vetick and swung her scythe with extreme force. As she did so, she molded another layer of ice on it. She brought her weapon down hard and shattered Vetick's bone scythe, knocking him to the ground. “You were saying?” she said with a wink.
Nera ran up behind Trixxie. “Are you all right, Trix?” she asked.
“How cute,” Trixxie answered. “You were worried about me.” She laughed.
BOOOOOOOOOOM
Ethan, Nera and Trixxie all looked up towards the explosion. Xavoz and Mortar were still locked in battle. It looked to Ethan as if Mortar was gaining the upper hand. That last bomb Mortar used knocked Xavoz hard into a tree. He struggled to get to his feet as he was gasping for air. The group could see he had the wind knocked out of him. Just then, Ethan saw that Mortar had a bomb hidden under his sleeve. He had it already lit and was getting ready to throw it at Xavoz. Ethan rushed over, pulled his bow out, and took aim.
“Focus, Ethan,” he said aloud. He took a deep breath and let his arrow loose. He watched the arrow fly through the air. It almost seemed to move in slow motion. The arrow pierced through both the bomb and Mortar's hand, meaning Mortar couldn't let go of the bomb.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH! Get it off, get it off!” Mortar yelled as he tried to throw the bomb. He ran around, frantic.
Ethan called to him. “Hey, flame head!”
Mortar stopped to look over at Ethan. He was still waving his arm around, trying to get rid of the bomb. He wrapped his hand around the arrow, trying to pull it out of his arm, but it was stuck fast.
Ethan had a cocky grin on his face, “You're about to lose those sausages you call fingers!”
“You little...”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The bomb detonated before Mortar could finish his insult.
Ethan looked down into the crater the bomb had created and saw Mortar's boots burning in the hole.
Xavoz walked over to Ethan and patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks, kid.”
The bodies of the undead were scattered all over the battlefield. Ethan and his group had taken care of the last of the undead. “Well, Necrom, that just leaves ...” As Nera turned to talk to Vetick, she noticed he wasn't there. “Where is he?” she asked, glancing around.
They all looked around for him. Naveni let out a roar towards the entrance to the temple.
Vetick was kneeling at the top. “This isn't over, you fools! Now witness true terror!” Vetick placed his hand on the ground and began chanting in his Necrom tongue.
Ethan and the group watched as all the bones and flesh of the undead army eerily floated towards Vetick. Nera noticed that bones and flesh were coming from behind Vetick as well.
“He's drawing the dead from the town of Janikar!” she said, shocked.
The bone and flesh pile kept growing until finally, Vetick stopped. The pile began to take form. It rose up, revealing two giant arms. The pile molded legs and it stood. The creature had to be about twenty feet tall. It had a single eye in the middle of its chest and its mouth was above the eye. “Behold my bone golem!” Vetick yelled. He pointed towards Ethan and his friends. “Destroy them!”
The ground shook as the golem stomped forward towards Ethan and his group. It stopped and let out a massive roar at them.
“Uhhh, we have a problem here, people,” Trixxie said.
They all began to back up, not knowing how to engage this new enemy.
The golem took another step, but then something slammed into its foot. It looked down upon the two undead warriors, who were still fighting amongst themselves. The golem roared again and smashed its fist into the ground, crushing the two warriors and leaving a large crater. As it lifted its fist out of the crater, the broken bodies could be seen still twitching among the rubble.
“All right. Might as well start this show off with a bang,” Xavoz said as he pulled out a couple of grenades. “A parting gift from that flaming fool. I managed to pilfer them before he went boom,” he added with a grin.
Nera looked at Ethan and Trixxie. “Everyone, hit it with everything you've got all at once. Try to make a dent.”
Xavoz lit the fuses and tossed the grenades at the golem. Ethan and Nera both hopped back a little and let loose a couple arrows, while Trixxie conjured up three large ice spikes. She threw the spikes at the golem, hitting it directly in the chest close to its eye. The grenades went off near the golem's mouth.
The group stood there, waiting for the smoke to clear. They heard a loud roar come from behind the smoke. The golem was still standing, undamaged, and was enraged at the attack. It brought its fist down hard towards the group. They all scattered, narrowly missing being crushed.
“How do we stop this thing?” Ethan asked Nera.
She looked at him. “I have no idea. It doesn't seem to have a weak point. We just have to keep trying.”
“I say we go after the creator,” Xavoz said.
Trixxie grinned. “Now there's a plan I can get behind.”
The golem stamped down its massive foot, smashing the tree trunk Xavoz was hiding behind, leaving it in pieces. Xavoz ran around the golem's massive body, trying to make his way to Vetick. The golem's eye disappeared from its chest and opened up on its back. It brought its fist down in front of Xavoz, blocking off his path to Vetick.
“What the hell kind of creature is this?” Xavoz said, frustrated.
Nera hopped up to a tree branch and tried shooting her arrows at the golem's eye. Yet the eyelids were made of bone and helped to shield the eye from her arrows.
Trixxie attempted to freeze the golem's feet, making it harder for it to move, but with no luck. The golem's strength was too much for her to handle.
“We need to find a way to get it off its feet so we can buy time to attack it,” Nera yelled.
Vetick was just standing at the temple entrance, watching the destruction his creature was causing with an evil smile. “Go, my golem. Finish them all,” he said. Suddenly, he saw an ice spike headed his way and quickly conjured a bone shield, blockin
g it before it could get to him. He looked over at Trixxie.
She gazed back with a smile and a wink. She motioned to him that she was watching him.
“Damn witch!” Vetick grumbled.
As Vetick spoke, the golem turned its attention to Trixxie. It swung its massive arm at her, narrowly missing her as she ducked underneath. She ran in the opposite direction, throwing multiple ice spikes, trying to pierce through the golem's shell. “This damn thing has no weak spot!” she yelled.
“Trix! Ice the ground!” Nera yelled.
Trixxie nodded. She conjured up an ice storm and began to freeze the ground under the golem's feet. The golem began to lose balance as it slipped on the ice.
Xavoz and Naveni rushed up to the golem and rammed their heads into it, knocking it off its feet.
“See if you can freeze its hands down!” Nera yelled.
Trixxie tried freezing the golem's hands to the ground but the creature struggled continuously, making it hard for her to pin it down. Finally, it shrugged off the ice on its hands and began to get up again. Trixxie tried to keep the ground under the golem iced to keep it off balance, but it began to swing wildly while it was on its knees. It took one massive swing towards Trixxie. She was unable to dodge it in time and the golem's fist connected with her, launching her hard backwards and into a large tree.
Ethan rushed over to see if she was all right. He shook her repeatedly yet there was no response. She had been knocked unconscious. Ethan looked around and noticed no one was paying attention to him. He pulled Trixxie behind a tree to keep her out of harm's way. He noticed she had blood on the back of her head. She’s lost a lot of blood, He gently laid her head down near some leaves then he rushed back out and began shooting his arrows at the golem. They bounced off its back like pebbles hitting concrete.
Nera attached a rope to one of her arrows and launched it towards the temple doors. She tied the other end of the rope to the tree she was perched on. She hopped over to another tree and repeated the same thing. Ethan watched as Nera tried to trap the golem between the ropes. She had about six arrows with ropes attached. As she was getting ready to launch another, the golem became agitated at the ropes around it and grabbed hold of them. He pulled hard on the ropes and yanked them towards his body. The golem's massive strength caused him to uproot the trees connected by the ropes, bringing them crashing down—including the tree Nera was in. She let out a scream as she fell to the ground, trees crashing down on top of her.
