Tales of Horellis ch17

Chapter 17

Daniel shook with awed terror, for reasons he could not understand. It doesn’t even look that scary, why am I shaking? Naightari put her hand on his shoulder in a comforting fashion, but he could feel her hand tremble too. Nathan grabbed the fat merchant by the collar and slammed him against the wall. Both of them too were shaking “That thing is stronger than anything I’ve ever seen, so why is it that it’s staring me in the face?” The merchant glared “That…thing…was requested by the king of the Horellian capital” Daniel was still staring at it, standing 8 feet tall it was just a statue, but it gave off such a…corrupting terror, it looked almost like a dragon from some story, but it had 8 arms, all spanning roughly 4 feet, 2 ending in scorpion pincers, 2 ending in swords and 2 ending in 3 fingered hands. Atop its back were two (much too small) tattered wings, it had three tails too, one was a lance tip, one was an axe, the last was coated in spiked ridges. But…it was just a statue why was he scared?

The merchant closed the door; the terror that had overwhelmed him disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. “That thing isn’t just a statue” he said, noting the confusion on Daniel’s face. “It’s a ritual demon, a captain of the lesser squads, and it’s been sealed” explained Naightari; her hand was still gripping his shoulder so hard her knuckles were white. She noticed and took it off. “Wrong” noted the merchant, who shook his head “It’s a general, and it has one of the kings biggest seals on it. Not only that, but it’s about 20 foot with the seal unleashed” Daniel gulped, Nathan had gone a sick pale. “That means a captain will follow those lesser…not only that, you’re trying to get a sealed demon through a portal to the capital. This general could level the whole palace!”

The merchant said nothing more and got in his carriage “consider your pay quadrupled” he grunted, slamming the door closed. The two guards un-pegged all the horses and they went on their way again. Daniel was always looking over his shoulder from then, never locking his gauntlet away. They stopped for lunch in the afternoon and were gone again. Daniel looked at the horses, they all looked tired. At this pace trying to get away from the captain, we’ll kill the horses and get caught anyway…not only that we’ll get stranded with that…thing in the caravan Daniel picked up the pace and knocked on the carriage door “what is it” answered the Merchant. “At this pace, the horses will die, we can’t get clear of the captain at a slower pace, and we can’t get clear if they’re dead. We’re better off finding a good spot to prepare to fight the captain” The merchant laughed “My friend, it’s not just one captain, it’ll be three, and have you ever fought a ritual demon?” Daniel shuddered, remembering the corpse hill in the ghost village. “Yes, and we can take them, please reconsider” 10 minutes of silence passed, until the Merchant stuck his hand out the carriage door, bringing them to a stop.

Daniel explained what was happening to Naightari and Nathan who both sighed. “Daniel, you forget that the demon we fought nearly killed you” spoke Naightari softly “I was weak then, I can take one” he growled a reply. Night time approached, they’d been taking a pass through the coldlands to avoid finding demons on the main route via the capital. Snow began falling from the sky, the uniform was definitely a special material; he couldn’t feel cold anywhere but the uncovered parts of his body. Daniel had the blood of a wolf kin assisting with his natural senses, so he still had relatively human levels of visibility in the snow. He couldn’t say the same for Naightari or Nathan, who were both swearing and raring their weapons. “We should stop and let them come to us great fucking idea genius” shouted Naightari. A roar filled the air, followed by two more. Daniel charged up a bolt of light, casting it in to the air until it fell to a stop, filling the pass with ghostly light. A demon with two heads roughly 11 feet tall and wings flew in to his vision, followed by one that looked more like a spider; crawling along the walls of the pass at a ridiculous speed, and lastly a frail looking skeleton of a demon. “I don’t trust the last one” said Nathan “let me take it” he said. Daniel nodded “I call the spider-thing” he announced. “well, I’ll take the freak show”  replied Naightari.

The frail demon threw a bolt of fire at his light, casting the place in to darkness again. Nathan replied with a volley of blasts himself, Daniel couldn’t catch anything else, the spider had gotten within his range. He fired a few testing shots, the spider-thing spat out a web that intercepted them, the web broke but took all the strength from the bolts, causing them to burst harmlessly. It cackled and jumped off the wall at breakneck speed, landing before him and swinging out a claw. Daniel jumped over it and flicked out his gauntlet, channelling in to it long enough to cut in to the demon. Daniel ducked from the second claw, and rolled to the left to avoid the first one again. At closer inspection, it was just a giant spider, but with pentagrams all over its body, albeit it had 12 claws instead of 2 (along with the original 8 legs). The spider flailed all of its claws at him, some stretching further than it seemed they could” damn! Daniel ducked and rolled in the only direction he could escape in: forwards. He swung out his gauntlet and channelled in to it, slicing in to the stomach. The demon spider let forth a gurgle of a laugh and jumped again, directly upwards. It spat out a thick web which Daniel avoided easily. As the spider landed it spat another web, causing Daniel to jump away again.

it’s leading me from the others the gouts of flame and bolts of light were dimmer in his range of sight now. I gotta end this soon Daniel hadn’t used his cable yet, but decided not to waste what might catch it by surprise. He charged up with his left hand and let out a thicker bolt, it blew off one of the spider arms; piercing screams shattered his mind. “Holy mother of—“ Daniel stopped in mid yell, jumping backwards and throwing more bolts. I need to conserve energy! Daniel ducked under a thick gooey ball of web, moving fast enough to seriously hurt. He dug his toes in and pushed forward, moving as fast as he could, gauntleted arm held behind him, he stopped abruptly and swung his arm forward, using the extra momentum and channelling  a large dose of energy, he cut clean through 8 claws that were held out to block the blow and took off half of it’s arachnidan head. His efforts were replied by the remaining three claws diving in to his shoulders and a web ball shot at him from close range. He could feel blood come out of his mouth as the web hurtled in to his gut; launched backwards at least 6 feet. The spider didn’t stop and jumped straight for him, smashing Daniel in the ribs and launching him again, this time in to the wall of the pass. More blood trickled from his mouth and his vision blurred. Shit, why am I losing…why won’t you die? “Why won’t you die? Why!” he yelled, the spider backed off and crouched, ready to jump again. Daniel lifted up his arm, leaving himself open. The moment the spider sprang he fired his kunai, embedding it in the rocks above him and retracting as quick as he could. The Kunai came loose after he retracted halfway and he span around, so the spider was below him.

It was going to jump again, this time he couldn’t avoid it. Fine Daniel held his arm behind him again, he swung it forward, firing the cable in to one of its remaining three arms, channelling in to it so it plunged through and in to its neck. Retracting he shot forwards, gauntlet going clean through its face, mincing the brain and emptying gore everywhere. Daniel gasped now as the adrenaline flow slowed down, his injuries hurt, at least three ribs were cracked and his gut hurt so much he couldn’t bear the thought of jumping or crouching too fast.

Nathan was faring well, the demon wasn’t so tough, it was almost half a demon now, it had no lower body, it look like a short starved human had been cut in two. The snow was helping him; every time it was about to throw more fire at him, all the surrounding snow melted. He even had time to see the flash of blue light that indicated the conclusion of Daniel’s fight. “Help Naightari!” he shouted in Daniel’s direction, before jumping out of the way of the fire and returning a volley of bolts.

Naightari was scared; she knew it should be easier than this for her. The demon towered over her, both heads laughing; it just looked like a really tall human (apart from the two head thing. It swung one gigantic fist down, smashing the floor as she jumped back, she dug both her Kamas in to the arm; it barely damaged it. “God damnit” she swore, She charged up a thick bolt of energy and threw it at its chest, burning away at least an inch of flesh. “Where are the organs on this fu—“ she jumped away again, but her guard dropped and the second hand swung around and grabbed her. The demon laughed in victory and began squeezing, the air left her lungs and sparks filled her vision. Suddenly the squeezing stopped, she couldn’t see past the sparks, but the world was turning upside down. The hand was still grabbed around her and protected her from harm when she hit the floor. Someone grabbed the fingers and opened them. Air finally filled her lungs. She could see again, and a bleeding, bruised Daniel was looking at her, grinning. “Come on, what’s up with you…its weak point is behind it, the flesh is weakest there” Daniel suddenly ‘wasn’t there’ anymore where he was standing a moment ago, a fist hung; he’d been punched through the air, and was lying 13 feet away from her in a pool of his own blood.