Legacy of the Defender (The Defender Series Book 1) (19 page)

I started to laugh at the irony as my canine restraints of the daemon variety paraded me forward to the large daemon.  Even with my tremendous strength, I could not break free.  It was the first time anything had ever pinned me down.  I tried to kick them in the sides, but they held on tighter.  Somehow, the protective field around me was not working very well, and I started to feel pressure on my bones from teeth.  I tried to turn my healing back on as the pressure turned to pain, and I felt the teeth start to crush but not break the skin.  It had to be the armor holding them back from puncturing the skin, but the pressure was very painful.

In my mind, the image of being drug forward towards this creature played out.  I was embarrassed that somehow my foes had gotten the best of me.  A smile remained on my lips as I chose to be stoic in the face of this denizen.  It felt as if I were doing an iron cross like a gymnast on the rings, only no skill was involved and it was not a demonstration.  My pose was rather pathetic and beaten.  With chin up, I looked the large daemon right in the eyes and gritted my teeth with a fully clenched jaw.  The pain got worse. 

Weakness settled over me, slight at first.  My position no doubt led to a loss of circulation.  I was fading.  My training gave me a tactical advantage.  I knew that my strength alone would have been enough to break free of the hold the overgrown daemon dogs had on me.  The poison neutralized in my blood.  How was my strength still waning?  This did intrigue me, but it was not until my healing shut down on its own and my other failed completely that I knew there was something else terribly wrong.  I cannot say it was an unfair fight, but this one had the upper hand when all of my runic abilities collapsed.

Fear found its way to my heart and wrapped its icy hands around it.  The monstrous daemon chuckled as it stuffed its mouth full of whatever was left of the creature it had captured.  Not only did it belch loudly, but it also sprayed me with half eaten particles.  My eyes closed when I saw it heading towards me.  The smell nearly made me gag.  More laughter ensued.  The daemon leaned against a building, half sitting on it and dislodging tiles with every shift of its weight as it fell over from laughing.

The creature roared with deep, throaty laughter.

“You must feel proud,” I found myself saying. 

Could it even understand me?  Did my words register to this monster?  Its gaze fell upon me giving chills that crawled up from my core and wrapped themselves around my neck.  My airway tightened.  The fear was real.  This thing scared me more than a large six-legged beast that flew, a beast ten times the size of this one.

His giant head panned the clearing.  Viscous drool dripped in long cords from its maw onto its chest.  The largely formed plates there were natural and pitted, probably from such behavior before.  His demeanor was arrogant as he surveyed the carnage of the city.  There was hardly any damage to the city, but a dead populace put a damper on any hopes the inhabitants could recover.

Another chuckle rolled from its fetid mouth.  It sat there looking at me.  Anger and hatred radiated from it.  For a second, I felt sorry for it.  It only knew death and destruction.  It caused only pain and agony to other sentient beings.  That was not a life for anything to live.  I had to remind myself that it was a daemon.  Evil comprised its core.  A moment of sadness washed over me.  That changed when my eyes spotted a pile of rocks off to the side, near of the building on which it sat. 

A corpse in rags lay atop the pile.  Their colors were unrecognizable.  Blood covered the mass.  I was about to look away when something caught my eye.  The arrangement of the rocks reminded me of something.

Malnuras had been on a similar rock pile!

My control was gone.  Rage burst forth.  All the time spent training on controlling how situations affected my judgment did not prepare me for this.  My expression reflected this...for the large daemon looked straight at me and broke out into laughter.  What could only be a smile crossed its twisted face.  A spasm ran down my spine and my stomach felt like it was in my throat.  Nausea was present when my eyes fell upon the body of my teacher...then shifted to his killer.  Righteous fury returned to me as if God himself reached down and touched me.
 

Fury turned into vengeance.  I had to kill this damnation and I needed to do it now.  The sum of all my skill and determination may not be good enough, but I called everything forth.  It felt like my heart was a cauldron bubbling over onto a raging fire.  Pressure inside my head increased.  Just when the stress was nearly unbearable, the creature spoke.  My bones froze at the very sound of its voice as its spoke perfectly in a language I could understand.  Its forked tongue waggled and there was not a hint of an accent.

“You should save your strength human.  You are going to need it for what I have planned.” 

My look of shock must have been priceless for it made a pouting gesture with its face.  My response was stuck in my throat.  I stared in disbelief.  More laughter rang out across the empty courtyard.  Whisperings in the daemonic tongue echoed across the rooftops.  I tried to count the individual voices I heard but lost track at about thirty-nine when it spoke again. 

“What, nothing to say?  Your teacher did not have much to say either.  He did, however, taste delightful, and I savored every drop of his blood.  I never thought that I would get to taste God’s flesh.  It was delicious.” 

I felt myself puke slightly in my mouth.  Did I just hear this thing correctly?  Did it say God's flesh?  My thoughts raced over the last few years or what I felt to be years.  The statement did not make any sense that God would be out here when Heaven was under siege.  His power did keep Heaven safe. But was this possible? 

Logic did not govern my thoughts for the few seconds after that statement.  I was truly confused.  If this were God, why would he allow this?  How could the hordes stand up to God?  His power should be enough to wipe out anything that attacked him.  I was just about to call the declaration bullshit when I stopped in mid thought, just like a logic program screeching to a halt when it realizes it cannot calculate pi out to infinity.

It made sudden sense.  Heaven fell because this daemon had a small piece of God.  Without it, God is not whole, and the horde was able to punch a hole in the defenses of the city...the safe harbor of souls for eternity.  I realized when this thought hit me that my mouth was still full of vomit.  I was about to swallow it to speak when an idea came forth...one that I had used before.  This daemon was still flesh and blood. 

I felt myself grow weaker.  Something needed to happen right now.  Tactic after tactic played in my mind while this filth droned on about how it was going to torture me in ways a human, even one such as myself, could not tolerate for even a few moments.  Nothing in my memory came to mind except the words “uh oh” written on the wall behind me in my own blood.  Despair was about to take root when I heard a voice, plain as day, in my head.  At first, I did not believe it.  Again, it spoke.

“Call us,” a faint whisper said.

Before the sentence even finished in my mind, my weapons were in my hands and in one motion I thrust them both right into the soft pallet and into the brain of the daemon dogs that had successfully soaked my shirt with drool whilst holding me captive.  The metal bit flesh and I turned on the flames while twisting the blades, proving my point to these creatures.  A hushed sound followed by screaming emanated as I tore my blades free and fell to my feet.  I looked at the large daemon in front of me that was staring in disbelief.  There was no hesitation.  With minuscule energy left, I launched myself at its head with only the need to get close.  The contents of my mouth found their target, right in the creatures’ eyes. 

I swung hard at its head.

It rolled to the right at the last second and I felt my sword bite something that should not have given any resistance.  The daemon had a necklace on with a large medallion hanging from it.  As my blade struck true, a searing light, in slow motion escaped from the cut splitting it in two.  A minor explosion went off right under the daemon’s face.  My landing was hard as this shock wave of energy hit me before my feet touched down.  I went ass over elbows onto my face.  A rumbling sound came from behind, followed by multiple crashes and screams.  Several of the small fliers and leapers that lined the roofs died as well.

Even with the pain exploding in my brain, I had to smile as the horde
continued its chorus of pain while they died.  I managed to find my feet.  Blood flowed from my face at a scary rate as I realized a large splinter of wood poked through a cheek, nearly severing my tongue.  Blood flowed down my throat.  Instinctively, I reached up and pulled it out, almost collapsing in the process.  More splatters of blood hit the ground and the woozy feeling hit me hard and caused me to stumble.  The fear I would actually pass out was a reality for a moment, when a familiar feeling surged through me.  My healing rune had just activated. 

Shocked is a hard word to use when you know something is supposed to be true but when it happens anyway, sometimes the self-doubt or the disbelief in the way things are can still catch you off guard.  Just seconds before, none of my abilities worked.  My strength had been gone along with anything else that I tried to do at that moment.  I could barely leap twenty feet up to slice at the creature, let alone spit my distaste in its face.  Yet something changed just when it needed to, allowing me to not only free myself, but also kill two major daemons, leveling the field somehow just enough. 

Turning to face the daemon, I noticed it toppled backwards into the building it had been sitting on, and just regained its feet.  Half of my strength had returned with more coming back stronger by the second.  That is when I saw it.

The amulet was on the ground.  Crackling energy rolled all over it and lit the ground up with lightning-like blue arcs.  Blue arcane energy was enchanting the item and had failed when I caught a piece of it.  It now had a bright glow about it and looked like it was failing. 

I charged to finish the job, not knowing the outcome.  I sang a battle cry I had heard several times from my lessons.  The roar of the horde was deafening as if they knew that what was about to happen was bad for their cause.  Three steps came and went so fast in those seconds.  I was before the item and swung.  Down came my blades.  Right before they connected, I noticed a human finger protruding from the medallion.  My blades connected and a vibration, as if I had hit a stone, rolled up my arms.  My teeth rattled.  The necklace survived, only moving a bit. 

Motion caught my eye as the daemon pulled itself from the building.  “No, you fool!  Do not destroy it!  Father will not be happy.”  It reached for its sword as my sword swung again.  The same effect occurred.  This time I felt fluid squirt from my eyes as the shock collided with my head.  He parried the blow.  Getting frustrated, I commanded my swords’ energy to turn on.  With a rush, the crackling arcs flowed down the blades. 

Time slowed.  I could sense the wind rushing the length of the blades as they sliced the air.  It howled as if the blades protested the friction of the air rushing past.  The daemon tried to intercept the attack again.  I changed my position with a role to the side.  The sudden motion in front of me flashed and my swords met resistance.  He stopped me again and moved to engage.  A sickening feeling came over me as the daemon stepped up.  I felt the metal of the blade in my core, and I heard a protest come from my mind. 

"UGGGGHHHH!"

The daemon swung at my head.  As it came, I looked at the swords and at the blade coming in a downward strike at my head.  I moved to side step and did so effortlessly, as if moving ever so slightly ahead of this large creature.  I glanced at the ground and shifted my feet, noticing the specks of dirt and the grain in some wood that lay near me.  My feet slid on command as the huge weapon came down to my right.  A burning sensation ignited on the skin near all of my joints as if a rune was forming in every spot.  This one hurt more than previous runes because it was everywhere and happening all at once.

Even with the pain rolling over my skin there could be no hesitation.  My blades responded and struck downward to redirect the huge blade towards the dirt.  Barrel flipping sideways to my left, I passed over his blade.  The concussive force of it striking the ground rocked the area.  The timing was perfect.  My feet found the ground on the other side.  I raised my blades to deliver another blow.  My attack was uninterrupted by my opponent’s huge weapon.  Energy gathered in the hilt and as I swung and shot toward the tips.  The air split as they raced toward my target.

A sound crackled as if my weapons broke magical and physical barriers.  It came from the metal as they raced towards my target.  Nothing could prepare me for what happened next.  My protections came up faster than ever before...without me telling them to.  My blades passed smoothly through the metal-like material surrounding the protruding finger inside the medallion. 

A magnificent flash of light followed, and a sudden rush of air exploded in every direction.  I barely had time to cover my eyes with a sword before it reached me. 

Energy raged around like the gale force wind of a tornado.  With impaired vision, sight past my hand was blurry.  I watched, as the large daemon did not fare so well in this release of energy.  It flew backwards.  The blast sundered it as if the two were connected.  The broken building in front of me disintegrated before my eyes as the blast hit it after the giant beast split the strongest wall into pieces.  The whistling sound in my ears diminished.  The creature’s location was lost in the chaos.  Earth, rock, and wood rained down over the area for several moments while the haze of war covered the area, obscuring my senses.