The Demon Tamer

by user

  «Well, would you be the King of the Colosseum? Show me your full power!» Adrianus provoked him.

  «With pleasure!» Damian shouted.

  A long series of blows and repercussions began. Both fought with their gladius, all the others witnessed that breathtaking fight. Adrianus was extremely fast and Damian could not keep up with him, he concentrated more on to avoid the blows of the enemy and could not attack him.

  «So, this is the power of Rome? You are very strong I must admit it!» Damian said.

  «You too, at this hour any enemy would already be dead!» Adrianus answered.

  The struggle continued as time changed. A strong wind began to blow, a great storm was about to start and the waters of the sea began to stir.

  «Lower the sails, soon! All the men on deck!» the Captain ordered.

  «We must interrupt our fight, a grave danger is lurking!» Adrianus said.

  Damian immediately went to his friends who were at the bow.

  «What are those incoming waves?» Diosmed asked, looking at the horizon.

  «Those are not mere waves!» Tanya replied.

  «Why?» Emmanuel said, frightened.

  «Turn to port!», the Captain ordered, «We are under attack! It is not a simple storm! These waters are cursed!»

  The weather was threatening, but even more threatening was the cause of those waves.

  Tanya had a small dark purple sphere that suddenly brightened.

  «He is a demon, I feel his presence! He is here in these waters, he has enormous power!»

  «How can you tell it?» Diosmed asked.

  «More strong is the light, more strong is the power of the demon» Tanya explained.

  «I can’t see it!» Damian said.

  Sudden a huge tentacle, brown and with green suckers, came out from the water and destroyed the sail at the bow. The four heroes avoided it just in time, leaping nimbly to the back.

  «An octopus?» Diosmed asked.

  «I don’t know, but is a demon!» Damian said as the blue eyes of his dagger glittered. He had the certainty that those eyes shone in the presence of the Demons.

  «It’s not a simple octopus, It’s a Kraken! A demon living in the abyss!», Captain Maximus said, «Half of the rowers take up arms and go up to the deck’s boat! All the praetorians use yours pilum, the death is coming! The others continue to row!» Then he returned to the helm.

  Forty-five men climbed to the bridge where the ten Praetorians were with Adrianus, the four heroes and the Captain.

  «We are many, we will defeat him!» Diosmed urged them as he came out of the water a second tentacle that tried to grab him by the neck, but Damian promptly cut the tentacle with his sword and saved his friend. The beast screamed and pulled it back into the water. At that point the ship stopped.

  «What happens? Row!» the Captain ordered.

  «We are rowing, but the boat is not moving! Something holds her in place!» the oarsmen replied.

  The octopus had blocked the ship, from the water tens of tentacles came out which seized and enveloped the Roman Galea.

  «The Kraken wants to sink the ship! Soon, you cut those tentacles!» Diosmed shouted.

  All the men began to attack the beast, but those tentacles just came off, grew back again. Many of the rowers were captured and thrown into the sea. Among those screams of pain, Tanya began to cast a spell against the demon. Diosmed found himself fighting those tentacles side by side with the Captain, while Damian protected Emmanuel. Both couples stood back to back to get a better view. Those tentacles attacked very quickly and seemed endless.

  The praetorians threw their pilums, the beast was wounded, but out of anger he grabbed four praetorians and sank into the abyss. Although the spears had skewered the demon, he continued to attack the ship, which was cracked and damaged. Diosmed and Captain Maximus were attacked by five huge tentacles, six meters long, simultaneously. The two, with clever mastery, cut them off in no time at all.

  «They will be at least thirty, I had never met in my life a creature like this!

  I thought it was just a story told by drunken sailors! Someone is hunting you dear ones; the gods are angry with you!» the Captain said.

  Those words made Damian think. “It must have been the King of Evil, or some of his subordinates to send this demon” he thought.

  The men on the deck decided to attack all those tentacles at the same time, they threw against they many axes, daggers, spears and darts, nevertheless the beast continued to pull the ship down. His goal was to sink her.

  «We have to get the monster out of the water and hit it! If he does not come out of the sea, we will all die for sure!» Adrianus shouted.

  Tanya was intent on her spell, she scattered spices in the waters, cut a lock of her hair and threw it into the sea, then made a slight cut on her thumb and fell drops of blood into the water.

  «You who put an end to all things, Creature of the End! Run to my aid!» She uttered in a loud voice in his native tongue.

  A yellow light appeared where his hair had sunk.

  «Listen! We have only one chance to kill the demon, with my spell the beast will come out of the

  water only for a moment and at that very moment you will have to hit it! If my plan fails, the Creature of the End will come here for me!» Tanya said.

  «How can you be sure?» Diosmed answered, without receive an answer.

  Damian at that moment decided to abandon his position, when he saw some tentacles dashing on very young rowers. Those brown tentacles with their green suckers attacked everything. He noticed the presence of the demonic energy that enveloped them. The tentacles grabbed the two helpless boys and Damian, with a jump, promptly cut them using the Dragon’s Claw this time.

  «Whaaauu» the Octopus Demon complained.

  This time the tentacles did not grow back, indeed, to Damian’s astonishment, they began to petrify and then shattered into a thousand pieces. “It happened as with the Nimue” the young man thought.

  «Diosmed uses the power of your sword! Emmanuel believe in you and fight!» he urged his friends.

  The beast pulled the ship even harder towards the bottom and finally decided to escape from the water. When he appeared, he caused the Trireme to skid with great power. The ship, very damaged, was still stationary, but many of its tentacles let go the ship.

  The huge octopus appeared, with a brown and green body and two huge yellow eyes. He had fifty tentacles, some even ten meters long. The Kraken, compared to the Galea, looked like a giant, although part of the body was submerged in water. Seeing that fifteen-meter-tall monster, they realized that destroying all those tentacles was not the right strategy. They had to kill the beast, to end the fight. Tanya continued to speak her spell, using particular words and forming a triangle with her hands.

  «Yurù ubef zakù, yurù ubef zakù» she repeated aloud.

  At that point the Kraken destroyed the mast with its tentacles. The Trireme was in badly condition, it could have sunk at any time.

  «Throw everything you can against the monster’s head!» the Captain ordered, but the beast suffered none of this. It stirred constantly, it was hard to hit. The ship swayed like never before, the wooden planks no longer held up, they were about to yield. A tentacle was a step away from Tanya, but it was Adrianus who took the blow to protect it. That devastating attack put down his left shoulder. «I’m fine» Adrianus repeated, but the wound was profoundly serious. Five men jumped from the ship and threw themselves into the sea to strike the beast’s head with their weapons, but the Kraken with his yellow eyes petrified them all.

  «He is a demon of a thousand powers, beware!» Diosmed shouted.

  «He has yellow eyes, he is a very powerful demon!» Emmanuel noted.

  The green suckers began to detach from the tentacles and fell on the galley. Those bumps began to grow and turned into small black octopuses, similar in size to those of the Colosseum’s tigers. The whole Kraken was
four times the ship. His head was completely out of the water and so they saw the true face of that twenty meters high monster.

  «All the men come to the bridge to fight!» the Captain Maximus ordered, so the cook and the rest of the rowers also came to the bridge. A struggle for life began.

  Damian with the dagger began to kill those little demons with all his strength, along with all the others. First, he stabbed one of them to the head, then to another he cut his mini-tentacles and hit him in the eye. Two small octopuses tried to hit him at the same time, but with a jump he avoided their tentacles. Each of those little black Kraken had eight small tentacles, green suckers and yellow eyes. Damian using the Dragon’s Claw pierced through the head the two demons who, having just been defeated, turned into black smoke.

  Adrianus, despite the wound, threw a pilum and speared two of them simultaneously, but the big problem was the main Kraken. With his tentacles he grabbed the men and took them to the depths of the sea. The suckers were recreated and from them new little demons were born.

  «We will never kill them all, we will die!» Diosmed said desperately.

  The losses were huge, everything seemed lost. Damian saw the killing of a man by those beings, who strangled him and fed of his flesh. Because of this, his anger went beyond all limits once again. He began to change shape, his right arm assumed the form of a dragon with blue scales and claws. When he assumed that appearance, he was enveloped by the dark energy and his wounds and damages disappeared.

  The seal of Tanya, in the form of a golden chain placed on the left side of the neck, activated and blocked its demonic transformation, so the dark energy disappeared and the blue dragon energy appeared. The transformation extended to the shoulder and the right breast. He began to massacre those Demons, hitting them with claws, sharper than a blade. Despite his anger, he kept his mind. Meanwhile, the Kraken petrified those who looked into his eyes. Diosmed, the Captain and Adrianus kept his giant tentacles at bay.

  «Jaxogmi! Come to me, join to me! You’re part of us! You are a demon like us!» a demonic voice sounded in Damian’s head. «Dragon? Who are you? Show yourself!» he said, looking around.

  «A strong demon like you must belong to us! You are not human!» the creature said.

  He understood that it was the voice of the Kraken. «Shut up, shut up! He shouted at him as his blond hair began to grow.

  «Stop Damian! You must not let that dark power prevail over you! Stop! Remember your words!» Diosmed shouted at him.

  But nothing, Damian was about to lose control. Tanya’s seal broke, nothing could stop the demonic transformation this time.

  «I will kill you Demons, I will avenge my father and my friends!» Damian shouted, when he felt great power, this time not malicious but friendly, which made him calm.

  The waters trembled, something even bigger was coming.

  «Something’s coming!» Maximus shouted.

  «Another demon?» Diosmed said in amazement.

  From the depths appeared a new creature equally frightening, white in color, with eyes that had a lance-shaped black pupil, typical of snakes, on a yellow background. It was thirty meters long, that creature did not emit dark energy, rather it was of a unique purity. It had shiny white serpentine scales and a forked red tongue.

  The King of Snakes had come to help them.

  «My Lady, I’m here to serve you» the snake said in his hissing tongue, in Tanya’s direction, as he closed his eyes in respect.

  Only Tanya understood his words, while the others trembled at the vision.

  «Son of Jormungandr defeat the Kraken and save us!» Tanya ordered in her magic tongue.

  At hearing that name, Diosmed hesitated with fear.

  «Who are you? How can you tame it?!» Diosmed shouted at Tanya, but he had no answer.

  The Kraken used his tentacles against the Jormungandr, who with his white teeth razed them in an instant. Thus, began the challenge between those two monsters.

  The octopus let go and the ship was free from its clutches. The demon had suffered damage, but despite this, he still retained extraordinary power. He still had many of his tentacles and did not want to give up. On the ship the fight continued against his sons, who fortunately were unable to petrify with their eyes. Damian was returned to him and, in that moment, he was struck by the presence of the Snake. He looked into those mysterious eyes and then looked at the Kraken, whose power had no effect on him. Even Jormungandr’s son was immune to the petrifying effect, thanks to a yellow light emanating from his body.

  «Why doesn’t that evil power work on me? Am I more like a demon, a human or perhaps a god?» he wondered as he watched the confrontation between those creatures.

  The Kraken wrapped the White Snake with its tentacles, which seemed unable to move. The King of Snakes decided to bite those tentacles and tried to take his rival into the abyss. The Kraken gave screams of pain, the beast was suffering and so let go of the grip. The White Snake, taking advantage of the moment of freedom, quickly reached the octopus and bit into his rival’s head. The Kraken with other free tentacles tried to cling to the snake and then hit it with another tentacle, wounding it in the face, but the King of Snakes did not give up. The wound to the face, positioned at the level of the right eye, began to swell and to pour green blood. He flung himself again against the octopus’s head and tore it with his fangs.

  «Whruuu!» the Kraken complained.

  He used the power of his eyes, but the White Snake with its golden energy thwarted its effect. An epic battle in which the power of Jormungandr’s son prevailed. He grabbed three tentacles with his mouth and then plummeted into the sea, dragging the Kraken with him into the depths of the abyss. By now that demon octopus, mortally wounded, could no longer harm anyone and remained there on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, until it disappeared into thin air like black sand. On board, even the small Kraken disappeared forever. The Kraken had finally been defeated.

  The snake climbed up from the sea, despite its wounds, and with a gesture of gratitude he greeted his mistress by moving his head.

  «Thank you for saving us, we will always be devoted to you!» Tanya said in her magic tongue.

  «How can you deal with Jormungandr? I imagined that I would never be free! He sends you, admit it!» Diosmed interrupted angrily, turning to Tanya with threatening eyes. He was ready to use the sword against the red-haired girl.

  «Stop Diosmed!» Damian said and with Emmanuel he stopped his friend by the arms.

  «No one sends me. Later I will tell you who he is. Be devoted to him, if it hadn’t been for him, by now, you would have died!» Tanya said, distraught and disappointed.

  The three stopped, the hold was left and Diosmed was free.

  «Now go, before he finds you, my protector!» Tanya said joyfully to the White Snake, who retreated into the waters and disappeared into the deep blue.

  «But can you know who you really are? What do you know about that creature? Even check it!» Diosmed asked angrily.

  «Well, I’ll tell you what you want later, but now let’s think about the wounded» Tanya replied.

  The ship was severely damaged, the mast had been broken. The bow sail, the wooden railing and the balconies had also been torn to pieces. Even the captain’s lodging had not survived to the battle. Only twenty of the ninety rowers had survived, along with Captain Maximus and Adrianus.

  «Today we have won the sea and its monsters! It is not time for us to sail the Seas of the Hell! Our comrades fallen in battle have been avenged, we owe them life. Repair the mast and the ship! Let everyone work!» the Captain said.

  «Yes, Captain!» the crew replied.

  Adrianus, seriously injured, was taken to that sort of ship’s infirmary, along with the other wounded. There was no doctor on board and the care was entrusted to Tanya. All the men who could move began to repair the ship with the material on board. It was run-down, one step away from the sink.

  «The ship
cannot take us to Egypt in this state, we must stop on an island and hope for someone’s help» Maximus Troix said to the four young men.

  While men repaired the galley as best as possible, it sailed those seas thanks to favorable winds. The hull was damaged, even the areas of the rowers had been reduced to pulp for the most part. Three seriously injured rowers, along with Adrianus and the four heroes, were in the infirmary. Tanya took care of everyone thanks to her ointments and the bandages that she took from her little magic bag, which seemed as deep as a well.

  Adrianus had received many wounds from the main Kraken, the most serious, at the head and the abdomen, were very deep. Tanya also used some petal from Nirvàh’s flower to cure them, but she no longer had the miraculous ointment. The fever was high, while the other patients, even less fortunate, had received injuries which led to the amputation of arms and legs. Tanya, along with Damian and Emmanuel, was forced to operate. One of the sailors had lost an eye in combat and the blood showed no sign of stopping. Damian had suffered minor injuries, Diosmed was bleeding from the shoulder but refused Tanya’s help, while Emmanuel was unharmed.

  The sunset came and the first day of navigation ended.

  The captain ordered the chef to prepare dinner and then, exhausted, locked himself in a room at the interior of the ship. They would spend the night in the middle of the sea.

  Damian and his friends went to rest and sat on the hammocks at the interior of a dwelling.

  «We risked our lives because of those two... What awaits us in Egypt?» Diosmed asked.