Legend of the Iron Flower Box Set (Books 1-4)

by Billy Wong

  Brandon dashed towards the pain-stricken Rose, hewing at the tentacles which moved to obstruct him. Alphonse pointed a palm his way, but then the palm fell in the dirt with the rest of his hand. The monster looked up. Ashleigh stood over him holding one of her swords two-handed, having lost the other in the larger beast's flesh. Grimacing, she brought the blade down hard and relieved Alphonse of his head. To Rose's relief, his body immediately fell limp.

  But Rose was still trapped by two tentacles inside her. The creature reeled her in, eager to bite her to pieces. She fought against the pull, but it was stronger than her, and resistance caused her excruciating pain. Brandon fought bravely to reach her, only to fall bleeding under the press of jagged blades. Ashleigh rushed to his side flailing desperately with her sword, her strength too rapidly fading as blood ran from her gaping wounds. She took hit after hit and soon fell into Brandon's arms, gasping in torment. Their eyes met and they exchanged smiles, finding the strength to drag themselves back into the combat with renewed vigor. Even so, they could make little headway, and it seemed only a matter of time before they fell for good.

  Rose knew now she'd have to save herself, but she had left Thorn in Alphonse's chest and his body lay far behind her. Desperately she reached for the axe on her back, but while she fumbled it out of its sheath, her blood-slick hands lost their grip on the smooth metal handle and it fell away. Rose groaned. She groped for a knife on her belt, but even that was gone, the belt having been cut by one attack or another, and no way could she bend down to get the dagger out of her boot—what was she going to do?

  For frightening moments of hopelessness, Rose pounded at the tentacle impaling her abdomen with her fists, her massive strength availing her not at all against the rubbery flesh. Then, she made a decision she knew would hurt really bad. She grabbed the tentacle piercing her chest and tore it agonizingly out.

  Rose heard a horrible sucking sound from deep inside her breast as the tentacle came free with mushy bits of herself clinging to it, and blood gushed to cascade down her trunk. But she had a weapon now, and fighting back the pain that threatened to cripple her stabbed at the tentacle in her midsection. The one she held fought her, and she mostly missed, making only a shallow cut. Another attempt pierced deeply, making the target limb go limp, but it wasn't severed and still attached her to the beast. She raised the spike to try again. Then Finn ran up to the monster, jumped and brought his axe down to leave a gash over a foot deep all the way down its front.

  For moments the tentacles slackened and Rose thought the creature finished, but that was wishful thinking. It speared Finn in the upper chest with a spike, forcing him back, then slid backwards with impossible speed towards the cave. Rose screamed in agony as she was dragged forward faster after the monster, soon losing her grip on the tentacle which she'd been using as a weapon. Free, it stabbed at her again, and she blocked awkwardly with her shield. But how much longer could she keep it up, with no effective weapon to fight back against the beast that was killing her?

  #

  "Shouldn't we help them?" Ashleigh asked, the ground beneath her stained red with her blood.

  Brandon coughed, cradling the blonde who'd already taken at least a dozen wounds. "You still up for fighting?"

  "I think so. Help me stand."

  The count sighed, hugged Ashleigh and stood, dragging her up with him. "Well, if they die, we're next, so-"

  "Let's save them." They limped to aid their friends. But then Ashleigh stumbled and fell, pulling Brandon down to lie together in a puddle of mixed blood.

  #

  Rose could smell the monster's noxious breath in full force, having been dragged nearly to its many mouths. She had to act now, before those vicious fangs tore her life away. Gritting her teeth, she began to walk backwards on the appendage impaling her while fending off others with her shield, though every step almost made her faint. Blood and gore gushed out around the tentacle, and she forced herself not to think of what would happen to her when she came off. Just then Finn reached her side, and saved her from finding out just yet. He severed the tentacle, freeing her from the monster's pull. Handing her sword to her, he stared with worry at the tendril stuck through her body.

  "Are you okay, Rose?"

  She looked gratefully at him and gasped, "No! I promised myself I wouldn't get skewered three damn times within a year, and look! I almost made it, and now..."

  Finn laughed. "You failed to keep your promise. But as long as you're alive, it doesn't matter how many scars you get."

  "Hey, the ones on the inside hurt like hell. I guess it is part of the job though... anyway, let's get this thing."

  Their enemy let out a roar so powerful it blew Rose's hair back from her face, as if it knew the fight almost at an end. Its tentacles assailed them furiously, which should have been more than enough against two humans as badly wounded as Rose and Finn. Somehow though, now that they were together the couple got their second wind even while blood continued to drip from their frames. Their blades scythed again and again through the ropes of flesh which darted at them, and though they were swiftly replaced, this regeneration began to diminish the monster's body and its attacks grew sluggish.

  They plowed forward, showing the creature no mercy as their weapons tore away chunk after chunk of it. Its wounds healed at first, but closed slower and slower, so it soon remained a mass of tattered flesh. Yet it wouldn't die, at least until Rose and Finn glimpsed a pulsating gray core through the gaping rents. Rose plunged her sword into it and Finn hammered the sword deeper with his axe. Suddenly the air went cold as the core seemed to draw the heat around them into it, turning white-hot—then, exploded.

  #

  Finn crawled to Rose's side after both were thrown far by the blast of their opponent's demise. She lay still, having been more wounded beforehand. But Finn only feared a little for her; he trusted in his Rose to live, for him and their family, not to mention herself.

  She didn't disappoint him. As he brushed soot off her pained visage, she coughed and choked for a few moments, then slowly opened her eyes. A grin spread across her face. "Okay, call me impressed. You beat it, Finn."

  "We both did," he said truthfully. "Sorry about blowing you up. Didn't know it was going to do that."

  "It didn't hurt that much—I'm good at rolling with the punches." She licked her lips worriedly. "If those were the minions, how the hell are we going to beat the master?"

  "That was a nice fight, in any case."

  "Yeah, it was. Just wish I didn't get skewered yet again."

  He stroked her neck adoringly and kissed her. "You'll get better."

  She nodded, pulled the tentacle out of her middle, and knowing their magic would not nearly suffice to heal such a wound—even if she'd let him try his—bound her middle tightly with her undershirt.

  "What now?" Finn asked.

  Rose's eyes grew distant as if in thought, but before she could answer, Brandon and Ashleigh staggered into view. Like Rose and Finn, they too were covered in their own blood. "Sorry," Ashleigh breathed. "Glad to see you two came through as always. We would've helped, but we turned out to be hurt worse than we thought, and needed a bit of a breather. But don't worry, we'll live."

  "Let's go deeper into the cave," Rose said.

  "What?!" Brandon sounded aghast. "There's no way we can fight another battle with wounds like this."

  A clever gleam came into Rose's eye. "You're right, if we face anything that would challenge us when we're healthy, we'll probably die. But think about it. If whatever else is in here is any sort of threat, it could have helped those two kill us off easily. So why didn't it? What I suspect is that these creatures' 'master' can't fight at all. So let's check it out and see." Seeing Brandon and Ashleigh's doubtful expressions, she said, "You two can go back first if you like."

  Ashleigh shook her head. "No, you're our friends, and besides we're probably next anyway if you get killed. So we'll help, right Brandon?"

  "Fine. But I'm sticking w
ith my bow if there is a next fight. Shoulder hurts a bit much to be swinging a two-handed sword."

  Finn helped his love to her feet, noting just how pale and weak she looked. He followed her deeper into the cave, hoping desperately that she was right. Soon the limping allies reached a widening of the tunnel into a much larger space. Stepping into the huge tan-walled chamber, they finally laid eyes on Graham in all his newfound power, recognizable now only by sparse strands of long blond hair still protruding from his loam-black cranium. He was nothing more than an enormous bloated belly set amidst a frame of spindly arms and legs, a vast yet frail bulk lying flat on the rocky ground as if immobile. None of them thought him to be faking; he looked too unbalanced to stand.

  Rose gaped at the sight, and Finn knew they all shared her shock. Staring at the enemy who'd given her and her friends so much grief, she asked, "What the hell happened to you?!"

  The pathetic creature explained everything, from his meeting the "Earth Mother" in Coblan after being carried through the portal to its passing of its power to him and what'd happened afterward. "I have received the power of my god," he concluded.

  "You can't even move!"

  "I suppose I won't be able to give you your climatic battle, then?"

  She shrugged. "I've have enough of those for a lifetime. I just want all this over with."

  "So you'll kill me?" Graham's voice trembled, and Finn wondered if he'd never thought it possible for them to make it this far, defeating all he sent against them.

  Finn knew how much Rose hated killing helpless foes, as this one was at least in a direct sense. But she said, "I... yes. You killed my friend, who was sweet and innocent and in no way a threat to you. You have no idea how she, and we, suffered."

  "I am a god. To kill me is to defy divine will. Is your hubris so great?"

  "You're no god. Besides, even if you are, you're still wrong."

  "And to slaughter me when I cannot defend myself is just?"

  "If we don't," Rose reminded them all, "you'll just keep making more and more monsters with which to try and kill us. If you didn't want to die, you should've worked things out peacefully—or made a big monster that was actually a match for us."

  Graham groaned, his huge body trying in vain to rise. "You're the ones who should die! Destroyers of the world!"

  "We'll try not to live up to your expectations." Rose walked stoically forward. He made a weak grab at her with a bony hand. She cut it off. Then she plunged her sword through his sunken chest. The creature gasped, shuddered, and went still.

  Finn draped an arm over her shoulders as she pulled Thorn out and mused, "Anticlimactic, wasn't it? I'm glad you didn't wimp out and spare him."

  Rose sighed. "There was no way I could this time. He'd just keep coming, and anyway, I couldn't face Derrick if I did."

  "You did the right thing," Brandon said. "He was gone long before you killed him."

  "Yeah, maybe. Now anyway, let's go back. Derrick must be worried sick about us."

  "Do you think he really was the avatar of a god?" Finn wondered.

  For a while, nobody spoke. Then Ashleigh said, "We'll probably never know. Maybe his Earth Mother was born from the falling star you mentioned, though that still came from the sky so maybe it was a god. But all I know for sure is that we saved Kayland from a dreadful future today."

  Rose looked down. "As wrong as he was, he had a point. We'll have to be careful not to let the world get destroyed by the magic we're trying to use to help it."

  "Of course we won't let that happen," Finn assured her with a smile. "After all the times we've saved the kingdom, that would be pretty embarrassing no?"

  "You sure you're okay, Rose?" Ashleigh asked. "You got skewered again."

  She nodded. "I'm still standing, and all my parts are still inside... if a little damaged."

  The other woman touched her own ripped up flank lightly. "I hope I'll heal up okay myself. Feel pretty bad right now."

  "I'll make sure you come through all right," Brandon told her, and they all laughed for one reason or another.

  #

  Rose sagged heavily against Finn's side on the grueling journey back to Fort Resnick, all four of them feeling the brutal toll their wounds took on their bodies. She saw Ashleigh too leaning weakly against Brandon and wondered if she really was hurt that much worse than the count, or faked it for the sake of his pride. Then again, her side was a mangled wreck... Rose imagined the injuries she bore had to be tough on a smaller woman, and that she moved under her own power was already to her credit.

  Whatever the case, Rose felt glad to see the two Resnick residents seemingly well on the way to mending their romance. She herself didn't even want to think about the shape her innards must be in after that huge tentacle went through her. Still, she'd survived equally bad wounds before. She just needed sleep...

  "Rose, you're going to make me fall if you lean any harder," Finn growled as he poked her with an elbow. "I'm hurt too, remember?"

  Smiling bashfully, she righted herself a bit and continued on. Despite the burning agony which filled her entire torso, she was content. She would finally enjoy a happy birthday for her kids, when she got home.

  #

  Finn frowned to watch Rose grow weaker and weaker, his wife now close to dragging his own exhausted body down with her. Though horribly wounded, she'd still been strong and energetic during the confrontation with Graham, but now seemed barely able to walk. He remembered Derrick telling him of a similar scare after Rose's first defeat of the Spelldrinker, when she'd lost so much of her strength that the scholar began to fear for her life. Massive internal bleeding, Finn figured, along with the loss of urgency that came with no more need to keep fighting. But she did have to stay awake.

  "Rose, you've got to keep walking. We're too hurt, none of us can carry you."

  "It's okay, Finn. I'll be fine." She forced herself upright, and her strong hand squeezed his. "Wow, everyone else is nearly as messed up as me for once."

  "Not quite. Only you got skewered. How do your insides feel?"

  She squeezed his hand again as she answered, "Shredded."

  "Rose..."

  Her blood-caked lips formed the smallest grin. "It's fine. I'm used to it, remember?"

  Finn tickled the nape of her neck and whispered, "So about Count Brandon and Ashleigh, you think..?"

  She shrugged. "I hope so. Looks like it." She glanced back to see the other couple kiss and amended, "Definitely."

  "Hey Rose, how you holding up?" Brandon called.

  "She's great!" Finn answered for her. "Just a scratch." And grateful for his faith in her strength, she happily hugged his waist.

  They made it back to Fort Resnick, all of them nearly unable to stand by then, and Finn marveled that he seemed to be the least badly wounded. Ashleigh's side was badly torn, and her shoulder wound deep as well. Brandon's left arm hung useless at least for the time being, and he could barely move his wound-covered legs. And Rose, of course... His own wounds largely superficial though they numbered over a score, he sat by his love's bedside, holding her hand while he watched her shallow, ragged breaths.

  Derrick, who lay in the next bed over, turned to him and gave his huge back a reassuring pat. "She'll be fine. She's always like this after a bad fight, and she's never failed to come through. So what happened to her?"

  He recounted the battle. "Yeah, I know she'll probably recover. But she got hurt so bad... How are you, though?"

  "I'm fine. Don't think I'll be permanently crippled, although it's going to be a while before I can walk. I'm just relieved it's finally over. Graham's gone, all his monsters will soon be hunted down—and Julie can finally rest in peace." While Derrick's heart could never heal fully from his loss, there was indeed at least some closure now to the sad story. "I hope Rose will be okay She looks real bad."

  Finn gazed back at his love and touched her waxen face. She opened her eyes and admonished both men with a grin. "Relax! I'll be fine, geez! It's not as if thi
s is anything new for me. When do we leave, anyway? I want to hold my kids... and not let too much mail pile up."

  Finn stroked her hair. "Not yet. Even if you can travel, Derrick here can't even walk, and we should probably accompany him back."

  She took on a sad pout, then her expression brightened. "Wait, can he ride a cart?"

  "I don't think that'd be safe yet," Brandon said, "but maybe in a few weeks."

  "Then that's when I figure we should get going. I don't want to miss my babies' birthday. That okay with you, Derrick?"

  He smiled. "Of course. Riding in a bumpy wagon while hurt is something I've always dreamed of." For a brief time everybody was silent, then they all burst out laughing.

  #

  As mirth surrounded her and her husband bent down to hug her, Rose again broke into tears, but this time tears of joy. Feeling unequivocally happy once more after all the pain and hardship confirmed to her something she'd always tried to believe—that no matter how hopeless things might seem to get, hope sprang eternal.

  Main cover images copyright © Andreas Gradin

  Cover design copyright © Littera Book Designs http://litterabookdesigns.blogspot.ca/

  Author Billy Wong is an avid fan of heroic fantasy, with a special love for strong female warriors. He draws inspiration from the epic legends of old, and is on a quest to bring over the top deeds and larger than life heroes back to prominence in today's literary world.

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