The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege

by Tony Johnson

  Aerial battles between friendly and enemy monsters were amazing to watch from the ground because the dragons, gryphons, and phoenixes were monsters with some of the brightest shades you could find. The colors of their large bodies and the elements they attacked with painted the sky.

  The monsters Ty and Klar were about to battle were a mixture of average and pale shades. It was trickier to tell how powerful the minotaur was with his element, or even what element he had. Unlike the colored skin of ogres and orcs, a minotaur’s skin was covered in fur. There was no distinguishing color. What little skin showed was the same color as its fur. The only way to tell what element it possessed was to see what color its weapon turned.

  The element of wind, Ty diagnosed as the minotaur’s mallet turned green. The glow of the weapon was faint, meaning he was not very powerful.

  The remaining orc was gray. This monster was the weakest of the five and must not have been birthed with control over an element. That was common. Not all monsters were born with an element, but he still held a sword of his own, making him just as capable of causing death.

  He is wearing armor. Monsters don’t waste armor on powerless monsters. He must make up for his lack of an element with skill in using that sword.

  It was easier to obtain armor for a smaller bodied orc than an ogre because orcs were around the same size as people. Ogres could only fit into armor that belonged to a Giant, and even then the Giant would have to be overweight and oddly proportioned.

  Ty knew his plan of attack and called out to Klar, knowing the monsters wouldn’t be able to understand what they were saying unless he slowly annunciated each word. Even if he did that, only a word or two would be comprehended, probably by the orcs. Monsters and language were two things that were not compatible. They mostly used gestures, motions, and frustrated grunts to communicate.

  “You kill the armored orc and then the fire ogre. I’ll take the blue ogre followed by the minotaur.”

  The Dwarf grunted in agreement, “Whoever gets done first can have the fun of killing the last orc.” He grunted again after he spoke, this time in excitement to battle the monsters. The two warriors ran away from each other, separating the monsters. The red orc in the middle would have to choose which warrior he wanted to fight. He decided on Klar.

  Ty turned to the blue skinned ogre and waited for her to strike first, which she did. The monster fiercely arched both of her swords sideways, parallel to each other, in the same direction. Ty ducked and rolled out of the way in a fluid motion.

  As the weapons passed closely across his back, he felt the heat of the blades and heard them sizzling. The she-ogre was using scalding hot water. Even though it was in liquid form, it held steady around the shape of the metal blade it encased. The Elven warrior came out of the roll and kicked the approaching minotaur hard in the stomach, launching him backwards. The minotaur fell to the plaza floor on his butt.

  Ty turned back to the blue female ogre whose wild swing had thrown her weight off balance. Ty had already turned back towards her before she got her large, clumsy feet squared back to him. He inserted his larger sword into her exposed ribcage. The savage monster yelped out in pain and turned away from Ty. Then Ty stabbed her in the top of the back with both blades and brought them down. A cut like the one to the ribs would quickly kill a monster the size of an orc, but with the ogre being larger, he felt safer to do more damage by slicing her entire back open.

  He glanced over at the minotaur he had kicked. It was still sitting in the spot where it had skidded to a stop, just eerily watching him. Ty had felt the stomach give in from the powerful kick, but did not hear any of the monster’s ribs break. It must not have wanted to get up and fight after seeing how quickly the ogre had been killed. Ty looked over to Klar just in time to see him cut off the armored gray orc’s arm from the elbow down.

  “Look out!” Ty yelled, but it was too late. The orange ogre swung his great axe of fire and cut cleanly through both of Klar’s thighs, right below the waist. His legs were separated from the rest of his body. Klar never saw the attack coming since he was outnumbered three to one.

  Ty knew that Klar’s chances of survival had dramatically dropped the second the red orc chose to join the orange ogre and gray orc in the fight against the Dwarf. Ty had hoped that the middle monster would have come to him. The speed of his double swords would have been more effective, when surrounded by multiple enemies, than Klar’s slow, powerful, two handed long sword was. Those types of weapons were most effective in one on one battles.

  Ty had tried to defeat his enemies as quickly as he could, so he could provide aid to his warrior brother. Once again, having a few more seconds could have changed the fate of yet another life gone too soon.

  The warrior’s torso and legs fell to the plaza floor. For a second, the top stump of the halfman who had been cut in half was still alive and twitching as he looked right at Ty with a face full of shock and surprise. Then Klar’s eyes closed.

  The orange ogre and the red orc turned to Ty. The one armed gray orc followed behind the two fire monsters, not letting a missing limb stop him from continuing the battle. The coward minotaur that had been sitting and watching stood up to join the fight.

  What? Not afraid to fight me now that you aren’t as likely to die? Ty backed away from the line of monsters advancing on him.

  I have pressed my luck too many times. I’ve always managed to escape death, but now it’s time I pay for the good fortune I’ve always had in battle.

  Ty joked with the monsters getting closer. His questions didn’t stop them, but he continued with them nonetheless. “Four on one? Well…three and a half if you count you there with the missing arm.”

  Ty kept backing up until his back was pressed up against the window of the fur shop. He had nowhere to run.

  “I tell you what; maybe we can work something out. I have some warm furs behind me here that you can have for free. Warmth for the upcoming winter?” He gestured to the large fire ogre. “I doubt we have anything in your size, but we’ll put you on a diet and see if you can slim down a little.”

  The monsters were all smiling, but not at Ty’s humor. They were smiling just as they had been when they closed in on the pregnant woman shielding her daughters. Their prey was helpless, with no chance to escape. Monsters didn’t care if their enemy was crying like the woman or joking like the Elf. They only saw what was similar in the disappointed eyes of their victims: a look of defeat, knowing their death was imminent.

  Ty knew it wasn’t his words that supplied their amusement. I wonder if monsters get more pleasure from knowing that their enemy knows that they have been defeated or from doing the actual killing by hacking the life out of their victim’s body.

  Before the grinning monsters savagely brought their weapons down on Ty, there was a loud thud on the stone floor of the plaza behind them. The thud was followed by an ear piercing scream causing the monsters to cover their ears. It was a roaring scream Ty had heard many times before.

  The four monsters turned away from the warrior to look and see what monster had made that sound. The last question they heard before they were torn to pieces by sharp talons from a lion’s body, chewed apart by an eagle’s beak, and blasted with the element of wind was Ty asking, “Have you met my friend Wildwing?”

  Chapter 16

  Again, precious seconds cost a life. If Klar could have survived for a little bit longer; if I had killed my enemies faster; if Wildwing had arrived sooner, then...

  But Klar was dead, just like the two girls and their mother. At least Wildwing came when he did, or else my seconds would have run out too, Ty realized.

  He walked over to his gryphon and greeted him by rubbing the top of his eagle’s head as the monster kneeled down. The Elf tied his shoulder length blonde hair in a quick knot behind his head. He didn’t want the wind to whip it around in front of his eyes and obstruct his vision in the middle of battle. Elements were shooting around everywhere. If he missed out on seeing on
e headed for him and Wildwing, it would mean their death.

  His giant monster lowered the rest of its body to the ground. Ty reached up and grabbed the side of the saddle. One of the warrior trainees must have put this on Wildwing when the attack began. Ty pulled himself up onto the enormous beast, put his foot in the stirrup, and vaulted his leg over Wildwing’s back, sliding his other foot into the other stirrup. He sat down in his brown leather saddle. It always made a creaking noise when he climbed onto his dark and light green feathered friend. While buckling himself into the leather harness, Ty said, “Thanks for coming when you did, Wildwing,” and then Ty grabbed the reins.

  Flying a monster was similar to riding a horse, except that the average size of a gryphon was six to seven times larger than a steed. Phoenixes were the same size as gryphons, but dragons were far larger than both. Most flying monsters were taught and able to follow basic commands such as go faster, slow down, barrel roll, canopy roll, somersault, loop, dive, pounce attack, and element attack. Some did not have riders and were capable of fighting on their own, but a rider gave the monster an extra set of eyes. The rider could pull on the reins to give direction to his monster, which let it know if an enemy was in its blind spots or on its tail. The best monsters trusted in the more advanced and tactical minds of their riders and let them have total command over their movements and attacks.

  Wildwing was fully submissive to Ty’s direction. He even found that the warrior’s decisions often paralleled the same choices he would have made in battle. Their camaraderie was the main reason both had survived so many aerial battles together.

  Wildwing flapped his wings as the dust on the floor of the plaza was brushed away from the gust of wind underneath the gryphon. He launched off his muscular legs, straight up into the air and then used his wings to propel himself up toward the clouds. Ty looked down over Wildwing’s feathery side to the ground. The mother, her two daughters, Klar, and five monsters were strewn dead around the bloody plaza. Wildwing flew higher and higher, until the shapes became only tiny dark specs in the plaza far below.

  What had occurred below was happening in many other streets and plazas throughout the city. The higher Wildwing flew, the larger Ty’s bird’s eye view of Celestial became.

  Monsters were everywhere. Most of them were running towards the castle. Ty watched as a brown dragon about a mile away shot a blast into a warriors’ watchtower near the castle. It toppled over, tearing the aqueduct down with it as it crashed across the Big Square and partially into the Fluorite River.

  Dense black smoke from fires rose in high pillars all the way up to where Ty was in the sky. Enemy monsters flew everywhere around him in the air. One pounced on the back of a friendly monster and tore off its warrior rider, throwing him to the ground far below. Others were in high speed chases, tailing an enemy and firing their element at them. The warriors did the best they could to swerve and dodge, trying to avoid being killed.

  A female enemy gryphon screeched as it shot through a pillar of smoke right next to Ty. Wildwing dove down just in time as the yellow feathered gryphon shot a blast of electricity right over Ty’s head. A second blast hit Wildwing’s leg. Ty felt a brief jolt travel through his own legs and through the rest of his body, followed by a sense of numbness. Wildwing flew away, trying to avoid another direct hit as the yellow gryphon gave chase.

  Ty pointed to the nearby smoke pillar. “Dive!” he yelled against the whipping winds. Wildwing shot down through the center of the smoke column. He used his element of wind to blow smoke out of his and Ty’s eyes. The smoke flew up into the eyes of the gryphon chasing them, forcing her to slow down. The technique created distance between them and the enemy on their tail. Wildwing did a backflip loop once the gryphon had lost sight of him in the smoke.

  Now it was the green gryphon’s turn to follow the yellow one. The yellow gryphon didn’t know Wildwing was above her. She slowed down and flew out of the blinding smoke to see how far down the column her target had gone. Wildwing took advantage of her moment of confusion and pounced on her from behind. She let out a wild screech of pain when he dug his sharp talons into her back, holding on. She had no way of defending herself, because he had dug so deep into her flesh that he could not be shaken off.

  There was a loud inhaling of breath as a ball of green light gathered in Wildwing’s mouth. He then blasted a beam of wind energy at point blank range down onto the enemy gryphon’s head. The blast ripped through half of her skull as blood sprayed up and hit Ty in the face. As he wiped it off, Wildwing let go of the lifeless yellow gryphon, whose limp body fell down somewhere into Celestial.

  Ty heard the whiz of an arrow. It landed with a thud as it struck Wildwing in the side and buried itself deep in his flesh. Ty reared the reins and turned Wildwing to the left, to face the next enemy. It was a phoenix with long white and blue feathers. On top of it was a saddled gray orc. It wasn’t odd to see monsters ride some of the stronger flying monsters as long as they had obtained a saddle somehow. If there was a rider, it would probably be an expendable monster with no elemental powers, such as this gray orc.

  The orc pulled back his bow string and launched another arrow at Ty and Wildwing. This time it almost hit Ty, whistling right past his pointed ear. The phoenix attacked by opening its mouth and launching hundreds of tiny frozen icicles at them. Wildwing sat back in the air and flapped his wings hard. He utilized his element of wind to send a huge gust into the icicle pack zipping at them. Most of the icicles slowed down and fell, but there were about thirty that lightly punctured Wildwing in his stomach, arms, and legs. Since Wildwing had been sitting back, Ty had avoided the strike.

  Wilding had been hit by similar attacks in the past. It felt like getting stung by a swarm of bees all at once and then left an odd cooling sensation in each puncture wound. Ty’s gryphon was briefly stunned as he felt the effect. The brief pause was all the enemy needed for his next attack.

  The phoenix and its rider flew in close to Wildwing and shot out a freezing vapor all over Wildwing’s exposed underbelly, arms, and wings. The gryphon’s green feathers were frozen into solid ice where he had been hit. Ty felt his stomach twist as they rapidly began to fall down toward the earth. The phoenix flew down after them, waiting for its stamina to build back up, so it could produce its next attack. Ty knew the monster would try to frost the rest of Wildwing, so that he would have no chance of breaking free of the ice.

  The orc fired a fleet of arrows down at Ty. They had all missed him, but each one painfully lodged into Wildwing’s topside. Ty needed to do something to save his gryphon from the onslaught of attacks. He reached behind his shoulders and took out his two swords. He quickly brought them out and dangerously swung the tips towards himself, cutting the leather straps of the harness that attached him to Wildwing. Ty wasn’t afraid of cutting himself; his accuracy with the two swords was beyond excellent. He always landed his attacks precisely where he wanted.

  The tension of the straps released, and they flew behind Ty, flapping in the wind. The Elf removed his feet from the stirrups and let himself fall off his monster. He felt like he hovered in the air for a brief moment as he saw Wildwing plummet down towards the Circle City without him. Ty turned in the air, facing towards the white and blue phoenix flying down at him.

  The phoenix tried to bite him in the air, but Ty bent out of the way as the phoenix’s large jaws snapped just inches from his face. The Elf stabbed his swords into the side of the enemy monster. Ty almost lost his grip when it felt like his shoulders were going to be ripped out of their sockets from the change of direction, but he had successfully transferred monsters in a death defying move.

  With no holds for his feet, Ty used every ounce of muscle in his arms to pull out each sword and then plant it higher than the previous impalement. The phoenix stopped giving chase and leveled out in the air, unsuccessfully trying to reach his neck around to bite off Ty, who was in his blind spot.

  Since the beast was at the same horizontal level as the gro
und, the orc got out of his saddle and began walking towards Ty, who had been able to pull himself up onto the phoenix. Ty was lying on his back on the phoenix’s back, exhausted from the physical toll climbing the monster had taken on his biceps and shoulders.

  He rolled out of the way to avoid the orc stomping down in an attempt to crush his face. Ty created space by spinning on his butt and somersaulting towards the phoenix’s saddle, rolling past the orc. He stood up and turned around to face his enemy.

  The orc had already drawn an arrow from his quiver and was pulling it back in his bowstring. There was no way Ty could kill the monster before he released, so Ty ran at the gray orc with his bloodied swords. The moment Ty saw the orc’s bicep twitch, he ducked, and the arrow sailed over his back, grazing his cross diagonal sheaths.

  Ty stood back up to a full upright position and continued charging towards the orc. He swung both swords down onto the enemy. The orc dropped his bow and caught both of Ty’s wrists in his hands. The two struggled. Neither had an advantage in leverage. The savage monster reached his head down and bit his sharp teeth into Ty’s right forearm. Ty yelled in pain and reeled backwards from the unexpected attack. He accidently let go of his primary sword as it bounced off the phoenix and fell down to Element.

  The orc bent down and picked up his steel bow. He brought it up in defense to block the warrior’s downward strike with the secondary sword in his left hand. Sparks flew as steel hit steel. With the sword being the more balanced weapon, the orc needed to use both of his hands to hold up the bow.

  Ty used his free right hand (covered in blood from the deep bite) to reach down into the small sheath on the right side of his thigh to pick up the only other weapon he carried – a dagger. Every warrior, no matter what, carried their main weapon, and then somewhere on their person had a secondary backup weapon. Ty had his attached to his leg.