Okay, a few more chapters are up. I have to take a hiatus for a week though. As the writer's guild is on strike, they've told me unless I want to be fitted with a cement overcoat....no, I'm just kidding....I have a few doctor's appointments coming up and I won't get back to this until next week. (If I don't of course, it might mean the doctor found something...;) )
Chapter 11
Kimber
There was no sound as Kimber left Kerning. The Sunset Sky road was silent of Mushroom monsters, and tree stump monsters. Occasionally, the remains of one or the other littered the road. Clumps of mushroom flesh seemingly chewed and spitted out as well as shattered tree branches with teeth marks on the gnawed branches were the only evidence that any life once existed here. Especially frightening were the remains of adventurers that now littered the abandoned areas. She had not even found one intact body. A skull licked clean, a thigh bone broken open for the marrow, even finger bones that seemed to have been spit out like watermelon seeds littered the streets. No movement remained now though. Now there was only her…and probably whatever did this.
The Rocky Mountains dominated the landscape of the land west of Perion. The sun had begun to set on this day and Kimber silently looked back at the direction of Kerning City in what she felt might be the last time. She almost didn’t even notice the red snail that crept up behind her, snapping its tiny jaws.
“Wow!” she exclaimed, not from any sense of danger, but from the fact that the tiny snail was the first living thing she had seen all day. “Where did you come from little guy?” Even as a whisper, her voice echoed throughout the canyon and she gasped as her sixth sense cause every adrenal gland in her to fire.
Her Dark Sight power came up and she faded into a pale shadow of her former self.
“Trying to hide? I see you….” The guttural voice came from the canyon walls and Kimber could hear other voices with it. Snarling and hungry sounding voices.
She decided to make a run for it and broke into a sprint down the road. A quick glance over her should made her stifle a scream as two zombies climbed down from the surrounding cliffs and started running after her.
The fear gave new strength to her legs and she picked up the pace even as her lungs started burning and her arms felt like lead weights. Still, she could not stop and she willed her protesting body not to stop until it dropped.
Without warning, Kimber felt her leg stiffen up and she nearly stumbled. She looked down at herself and at the Ice spell that crept up her body. First her legs slowed down as the numbness deadened every sensation she had below her waist. Then it spread further, gradually freezing her motionless. Steelie spikes appeared in her hands, but she couldn’t even move them as the cold traveled up even to the ends of her fingers, deadening the nerves. Panic settled in and she tried to scream even as her still functioning ears picked up a soft rustling noise behind her.
Oh, no. No! No! No! No!!!!!
The spell wasn’t terribly strong and so some movement began to return to her extremities within seconds, but it was time enough for a withered hand to grab her face from behind. Kimber looked fearfully at the maggots crawling over the rotting flesh of the arm and her eyes widened into terror as a face, the lower jaw half eaten away, came into her view.
“FRESH MEAT!” it croaked from a shredded throat. Strips of dried flesh hung from the festering teeth and Kimber gagged from the smell. A shredded remnant of a Blue Chaos robe hung in tatters around the zombie’s shoulders and a brown Jester hat still capped the hideous head. Kimber’s dexterous fingers quickly found her Ilbi stars and she raised them up to try to cut the monstrosity down. An ice-cold grip of iron grabbed her hand so tightly; she dropped the stars onto the canyon floor with a cry of pain.
“DON’T STRUGGLE! WE’LL MAKE IT QUICK! YOU’LL MAKE IT DELICIOUS…” a zombie in Umber Shouldermail plate held a razor sharp Lion’s Fang sword to her cheek. Kimber closed her eyes and waited for the end. All around her, more and more figures crept out of the shadows. Even if she could break free now, there were just too many of them.
A soft wisp of wind was the only warning before a figure jumped down from one of the surrounding ledges. Cloaked in a blue Kendo robe and a cone hat fashioned out of bamboo, a blade flashed once, twice, three times…
The Lion’s Fang blade fell away from Kimber; as did the arm, head, and legs of the zombie that held them. Kimber collapsed in terror. She looked up just in time to see the other zombie roaring with fury only to have glowing claws of magic tear into what was left of the Blue chaos robe it wore. A figure appeared next to Kimber. She was dressed in calaf robes and wielded an Arc staff. Her blond hair was held back with a golden circlet.
Some of the zombies not quite consumed by the hunger looked warily as they recognized the swordsman, but the majority howled with animalistic glee as they set upon the group. The warrior’s blade never seemed to stop moving. His strikes were fluid and lightning quick and dispatched the creatures one by one. Barely breaking a sweat, the last zombie was beheaded with a final stroke before the weapon was sheathed back into its lacquered scabbard on the warrior’s cloth belt.
“Sacharissa, are there any more?” the warrior asked. The young cleric looked around at the towering cliffs and noted no movement.
“I think we’re clear.”
The warrior finally turned toward Kimber and held his hand out for her even as she eyed him with fear.
“I know you are scared, but I have no time for that. I am Manji and right now I am the only chance you have.”
Chapter 12
Serena
Serena and the others eyed Grendel with wide eyes as the aged wizard cackled.
“Uh, you want to run that by us again?” asked Octogarn.
“I said it was wonderful,” Grendel breathed. “Have you seen these beings? Magnificent! Immortal and yet retaining all the knowledge of their past lives!”
“You forgot about the part of them eating people,” Serena piped in.
“Throughout history, there have always been those who must serve and provide for those in power. Is it really so bad that the price this time is a little more substantial?”
“Well, when you put it that way….yeah, it kind of is pretty bad!” Serena eyes widened at the words of her teacher. Grendel’s flashing blue eyes glared at her, a hint of anger made her step back unconsciously.
“You ungrateful little…!” Grendel’s voice raised a touch enough for Octogarn to step between him and Serena; a move that made her reach over and shove him out of her way in annoyance. “This is my gift to the world! Immortality! Power and knowledge that cannot die for it is already dead!”
“Master,” one of the other mages exclaimed. “Are you saying, YOU created these zombies?”
“Of course I did!”
There was a long pause as the group of mages faced their teacher.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you were saying…” Octogarn said quietly.
A flash of light flared as a fire arrow streaked toward Grendel. Lightning flashed and poison clouds billowed forth as the other wizards around Serena understood what was happening and joined the fight. Serena, barely over the shock, slowly raised her Thorns staff only to be bowled over by an explosion of incredible power that flattened them all to the ground.
A scream left her lips as two mages were engulfed in magical fire, their screams wiped clean as they were turned to ash before her eyes. Her Thorns staff summoned lightning that streaked down and cracked a terrific shot that cracked the marble walls of the sanctuary, but left Grendel completely unharmed.
“FOOLS! You think to change our destiny! I taught you! Your power comes from my own knowledge! You think you can beat me with the very magic I helped master years ago?!” His hat had been incinerated by one of Octogarn’s fire arrows revealing wispy white hair framing a wizened old face with bright blue eyes.
“Master Grendel!” Octogarn screamed as he held his left arm. Serena gasped. One of Grendel’s spells had neatly sliced off his hand. “Why are you doing this?”
Grendel smiled softly as he lowered his arms. He walked toward them and the 2 other remaining mages that cowered behind the overturned chairs and tables.
We aren’t even a threat to him. Serena realized.
“I was there in the beginning when magic was formed in Victoria. I saw the most beautiful land I had ever seen all ready to be conquered. What a wonderful time it was!” Serena ran toward Octogarn as she ripped out a power elixir from her pack. “But nothing could last forever. Even I had to stop. ME!!” the force of Grendel’s anger boomed throughout the house. “All my knowledge was useless! Everything I was and everything I accomplished was doomed to dust or at best written into a book that would be totally disregarded by future generations! I needed more!” The wizard floated over to an ancient book that lay open behind him. An expression of disappointment graced his old features as he ran his gnarled fingers over the dusty pages. “Here in my spellbook, I wrote every piece of knowledge I could find. Every experiment I ever accomplished, both successes and failures. Not a single one ever achieved my goal of mastering death. At least not until this ancient text was found in the excavation of Masteria.” A black bound scroll appeared from the hidden folds of Grendel’s white robes. “A spell to create objects of power that would enable the wearer to transcend death itself while retaining all knowledge of their past lives! In one single discovery, all my previous knowledge became obsolete!”
“The zombies…” Serena whispered. Grendel smiled at her.
“Yes. Beings who are beyond death. Things that are dead cannot die from old age after all can they? Oh, but we already knew about zombies. El Nath and the mountains near Perion still suffer from one of my failed experiments. I managed to create undead, but they were mindless and soulless. I wanted something that could live forever and still retain the intellect and power of its former life.”
“But they EAT people!” Octogarn snarled.
“Predator and prey. Nothing wrong with being the predator.”
“So you did this!” Serena managed to stop the bleeding with the power elixir, but she kept eyeing the stump on Octogarn’s left arm.
“I merely took advantage of this world’s greed. 4 black bone helms were sent out by me. Two in Victoria, one in Ossyria, and one in Ludibrium. All it took was some fool greedy enough for power to put it on and they would get the power they were looking for as well as spreading their new gift.”
“We can still stop this before everyone is killed!”
“There is no stopping it, my dear. In fact, it’s time to end it now!” Grendel grinned insanely as he lifted an onyx black crown of bone from the folds of his robes. “I made this crown once the black bone helms were thoroughly tested. It’s time for my destiny!”
Serena's scream echoed throughout the house as Grendel placed the cursed crown atop his head and began to change before her eyes