Yazen (Ponith) (14 page)

The Dryads all look at each other, and we all get our arrows ready. Summer begins to sing the most fascinating song ever. I almost feel as I’m being pulled closer to her. I catch myself, however, and shake my head, snapping out of it. This is an important time to get as many of the Dark Elves off guard as we can.

Slowly, around
20 or so Dark Elves come walking out to the Dryads as though they are mesmerized. I have never shot an arrow this far so I really hope that I don’t miss. Once the Dark Elves circle the Dryads, I give the signal.

We all pull our arrows back and launch them at the Dark Elves. I pray none of the Dryads get hurt. The
Dark Elves are pelted with the arrows, most of them falling and screaming for help. A few of them get away, making it back to their castle. We all charge down to the Dryads. I stop at Summer to see an arrow through her chest, blood dripping down her arms.

“Summer, no!” I yell. She risked her life for us! A tear begins to build up in my eye.

“Go, Zac. Save the others, they need you,” she says to me. I hear a shout and I look over behind me. Korla is running full speed over toward us; she has brought a bottle of healing water and begins to pour it onto Summer’s wound. The arrow breaks in half, and her body begins to reject the arrow’s head, dropping both ends to the ground. Her wound begins to heal perfectly like nothing has ever happened.

“Thank you, Korla, for saving her life,” I say to her while giving her a big hug.

“Zac, you’re welcome, but this is only the beginning of the bloodshed that you’re about to see. I won’t be able to save everyone like this. It’s happening now, and you have to be strong and know that it’s all worth it in the end,” she tells me. She’s right; I need to pull myself together. I’m already beginning to lose it at the first sign of blood and we have just begun.

We begin to rush toward the castle wall. As we begin to approach the large pond
, however, we’re suddenly attacked by the Water Elemental. It has turned itself into a large water drake. It’s blue with a white underbelly. It has blue horns and large blue wings and a long blue tail. Its fingernails are sharp, and it has sharp razor teeth. It has multiple fins on its back as well.

How can this pond hold this creature? I would think that they could only survive in a lake or ocean. I have no idea how we’re going to beat this creature. Everyone scatters around the perimeter of the pond.

“Watch out and don’t get caught!” I yell at the top of my lungs. I grab my sword and shield as I begin to make my way over to the water drake. It’s quick for as big as it is. It rushes toward me, hitting me with its tail. I go flying back several yards. I sit for a minute to get my bearings because everything is still spinning. I slowly make my way back to the pond.

I see Drakoe shooting the drake with his arrows and I notice he’s aiming for its eyes. Ovvar runs with an axe and jumps on the drake’s neck. He
barely holds onto the drake by its fins and begins to chop at the drake’s neck.

After he hits the drake the first time, the drake shrieks at a high pitch in pain and throws Ovvar back against a tree. He looks to be unconscious. I want to go check on him, but I know that I have to keep fighting. I see Korla running over to go check on him, so that makes me feel better.

I get to the edge of the water and begin to shout at the water drake, trying to get its attention. I figure if I can get it to go after me, Drakoe may be able to get a better shot at it. The drake looks at me and turns to face me. It begins to bend down to attack me when out of nowhere a large green shield engulfs me. I see Laderic holding an emerald in his hand, and again his tattoos are glowing. I notice the green grass around him is turning brown and black, as if it’s dying off in front of our eyes.

Drakoe finally lands an arrow right and true into the beast’s eye. Is that it? Is it over? Laderic lets the green shield around me drop and I begin to walk over to him.

Before I know it, the Water Elemental has morphed into a huge human on water and it looks more powerful than before, the legs combined together into something that looks a water spout.

How do we beat this thing? It’s just made out of water, and it seems impossible. Suddenly
, however, it dawns on me.

I’m running back up the hill and I whistle loudly for Champion to come and within a few seconds he is by my side. I jump on Champion’s back and tell him to take me up to the top of the hill, pointing behind us from where we came. As he is galloping to the hill, I check my compass to see if we are close to the Yazen gem. It’s still pointing toward the Castle.

When we get up high enough I stop Champion and I begin to scream for the Air Elemental.

“Where did you go to hide
, Air Elemental? I’m not afraid of your rain and wind. I bet you’re not even strong enough to create a storm, are you?” I scream, taunting it, in the hope that it hears me.

I hear a deep voice rumble through the wind as my response. I turn my head to see the Air Elemental taking the shape of a tornado. It’s several yards wide and coming for me. I’ve never seen a tornado that big before. I know I have to bring it toward the Water Elemental. It is the only chance I have.

“Hardly any storm, pathetic,” I yell once more at it, pretending to laugh as loud as I can.

I start to see the sky turn black and hear the thunder begin to rumble. There is a flash and lightning hits just a bit away from me. Close but still off, just as I had predicted. I look down toward the pond and notice everyone still appears to be fighting off the Water Elemental, distracting it and deflecting all of its blows.

“Champion, I need you to run as fast as you can toward the Water Elemental. We need to get close enough to it without going in the water. I want the lightning to hit the water, electrocuting the Water Elemental. I think it is our only chance of beating it. Can you do that for me?” I whisper in Champion’s ear. He doesn’t waste any time and kicks off a full-fledged gallop.

We begin to run toward the Water Elemental, dashing around two or three more lightning bolts the Air Elemental begins to throw down at us. A few times we get very close to being hit, the Air Element
al getting more accurate, before we finally make it to the pond. The Water Elemental tries to grab us with its large hands, but we continue to dodge it at the last second.

“Everyone, back away from the pond if you can,” I scream as loud as I can. A few seconds
’ delay and everyone seems to back up from the pond, the Water Element taking this for a sign of weakness, pressing further his assault.

Finally
, as I had hoped I see the lightning about to be thrown at us and I have Champion get us out of there. We shock forward just when the lightning barely misses us and hits the edge of the pond instead. It spiders out across the surface and electrocutes the Water Elemental just as I had hoped.

Champion and I stop near Alex and Jenn, watching as the Water Elemental begins to dissipate, turning into nothing more than steam. The Air Elemental begins to throw more lightning bolts at us, when Nytril, Korla, Calina, Drakoe, and Laderic come together and all of them together make a large green dome around us. All of them have emeralds in their hands and their tattoos are glowing. I had no idea they possessed this type of power. The grass is dying underneath our feet, turning brown. It’s like they’re draining the life from the grass to use their magic.

The lightning bounces off of the shield and Laderic holds up his arm where the lightning hit the shield. Right where it hit, the shield coalesces into a large green spear that is thrown back at the Air Elemental. It lands in the middle of the tornado and a few seconds later the tornado explodes and green pieces of hail fly throughout the air. The sky slowly begins to turn blue, as if there was never a storm in sight.

I jump off of Champion and pet his nose, “Good job. Thank you so much for your help.” Everyone else is cheering and Laderic looks exhausted, sitting down. The scary thought is this is just the beginning. What’s going to happen once we get inside that castle?

I watch as Korla uses a bit of her healing water on everyone that was injured. She has to be running low on it. Once everyone is on their feet, we begin to head toward the Castle. We have to find a way in since in the meantime they’ve pulled up the drawbridge while we were distracted by the Elementals.

We begin to head toward the closed up drawbridge when out of nowhere a loud whistling sound comes at us. They’re shooting arrows at us from ballistae and one of them has hit Vondek. He falls to the ground as the arrow pierces his abdomen. He begins to instantly cough up blood, as the arrow has gone through him and is stuck in the ground, and we cannot pull it out. Ovvar takes his axe and cuts part of the arrow off.

“This i
s the last of the healing water. I hope this helps,” Korla says while pouring the healing water over his open wound. It quickly begins to work, and before we know it Vondek is back on his feet. He pulls the ballista bolt out of his side with Ovvar’s help and the skin seals up behind it. Vondek still looks deathly pale but is standing.

W
e have to be careful now that we’re out of healing water. I felt safer knowing we had it with us. Any causality or injury is real now, and I hope everyone else realizes this. It doesn’t take them long to find me and single me out.

“Watch out,” Calina yells while pushing me to the ground. Another spikey arrow is shot at us, coming close to piercing my skin. Calina saves me
just in time. We hear multiple whistling sounds as they launch multiple ballista bolts at us. We all run full speed toward the drawbridge, dodging them.

I wonder how we
’re going to get in once we get close enough. This place is built like a fortress. At least were getting out of the range of the ballistae.

We all come to a stop
just before the moat and I watch as Nytril, Korla, Calina, Drakoe, and Laderic all hold emeralds in the palm of their hands, grasping their gems tightly. They all take their other hands and press them against the ground in front of us. Five large vines travel across the moat and up the side of the Castle wall. They slowly pull the drawbridge down, eventually snapping the chains that hold it up. Practically the whole area around us is transformed to a mute brown color. I wonder how they do that. Does the grass help them somehow?

Drakoe
smiles at me, a visible look of exertion on his face. I look over and Alex looks puzzled by what just had happened. Jenn, on the other hand, looks petrified.

We begin to charge inside of the castle. It’s a wide open
area with Dark Elves everywhere. There’s a large creature there in front of us, a lion with a tail similar to a scorpion with giant, leathery bat like wings, a Manticore. Two smaller creatures, small women with feathery wings, are flying from one side of the walls to the other. I draw my sword and begin to fight against the Dark Elves. I don’t have as much practice with the sword as I do with my bow, but I do manage to use it similar to an axe.

I
manage to damage one Dark Elf badly in the neck. I quickly turn and attack the next one. Swinging my sword like they do in movies, although they make it look easier than it actually is, I’m barely able to puncture another Dark Elf in the chest. He falls to the ground, moving slowly, and dark ichor-like blood seeps out of his wound. I pull my sword out of his chest, its dark blood dripping from the end.

I find a small stairwell
off to the side and begin to climb up. It’s difficult under the weight of my body armor but I finally make it up to the top. I scan the courtyard and pick a few targets. I pull my bow off my back, take a few arrows out of my quiver and begin shooting enemies from a distance. A few other Wood Elves and Halflings join up with me to take the high ground and do the same. I’m able to kill one of the Dark Elves that was controlling the ballista, and a few of us assault the other vacated ballista and use it to face the inside the courtyard. A Halfling helps me load it with a new bolt, and we aim it at the Manticore. Even though it’s distracted fighting Ovvar, as the arrow flies through the air, it lets out a loud roar and quickly moves out of the way.

I watch as
the Manticore pounces on two nearby Halflings, puncturing them with its tail, and they stop moving. They didn’t even have a chance. I watch as the Manticore flaps its wings and flies toward me. The closer it gets, I notice its multiple rows of razor sharp teeth and its sharp claws. It lands on the stairs a few feet away from me. It roars loudly and I feel myself wavering, wanting to run away. Its breath is hot and smells like putrid garbage, so bad it makes me nauseous.

I try to move back but I’m stuck against the ballista. It pounces at me, knocking the ballista off the edge and smashing the stairs that we are on. We all begin to fall toward the ground.

I hit the ground hard, landing on my back, knocking the wind out of me. Everything is blurry and spinning. I try to look to my left, and I see one of the Dwarves lying next to me not breathing. I suddenly feel nauseated by the guilt and the weight of his death, my responsibility. I groan as I struggle to get up and get my bearings. I’m not sure where the Manticore is.

I
do see Champion fighting one of the creatures with wings; Harpies, I suppose. It’s flying around him. They’re repulsive-looking creatures, similar to the Dark Elves but it looks like a half bird hybrid. Their torso and head look like the Dark Elves, then the rest of the body is all feathers and talons.

Champion kicks one of the
Harpies in the head, dropping it to the ground, while the other is still flying overhead. I run over and take out my sword, stabbing the fallen Harpy in the neck before it has a chance to get back up. I feel like we’re winning but in the heat of it, I can’t quite tell. I stand up and get struck by an arrow in my thigh. Luckily my armor is strong enough to keep it from piercing my skin and it deflects it off to the side. It’s a close wakeup call.

I hear a scream and I look around
to see Jenn hiding behind a few rocks. The Manticore is there as well, trying to sting her with its tail. I try running over to her when I get intercepted by the other Harpy. It has flown down and blocked me in. I hold my sword out at it to try to threaten it to get away, but instead it grabs my sword and hangs onto it. I hold on as well, trying to pull it back but it begins to lift me off of the ground. I know there is no way to get it back and it’ll just let me go as we go higher, so I let go of it and drop back to the ground.

To my surprise the
Harpy is falling back toward the ground, and it has let go of my sword. I have to jump to the side so it doesn’t fall on top of me. After it lands I pick it back up and notice an arrow in the Harpy’s back. I look around me to find Alex smiling, his bow in hand. He’s getting really good with that bow of his. I’m glad he was able to help me out.

I try to get to Jenn when I see the Manticore
attempting to break apart the rocks she’s hiding behind with its claws. It catches her left leg and picks her up, dragging her out into the open. All I can hear are her cries for help. I know I won’t make it to her in time; it’s going to kill her. I can feel my throat tightening up, trying to shout to her, thinking how her death will be on my hands.

“
Jenn! No!” I cry. A nearby Wood Elf holds on to another green gem and quickly grows a thin wall of thorn bushes between Jenn and the Manticore. It’s one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I watch as the green is pulled from the gem and the trees in the courtyard and they are used to make a large barrier. The leaves are falling off of nearby trees, dying as they turn brown.

Then
he uses the color from the grass and plasters the Manticore against the stone wall. Three of the nearby Dwarves don’t hesitate at this opportunity and run over to the Manticore, finishing it off with multiple strikes of their short hand axes.

Jenn runs over to me, grabbing a hold of me, crying and shouting at me.
“Zac, I just want to go home! Make it all stop; I just want to go home! I don’t want to die!” she yells at me, her eyes tearing up as she looks at me.

“
Calm down Jenn, this is close to being over. Look around, most of the Dark Elves are gone. We have to go into the castle to find the Yazen gem, Narissa, and get out.” I tell her. I look at my compass, and the arrow is pointing to what seems like the inside of the main building. “Can you be strong for me, so I can help get you back home?” I ask her while staring into her eyes. She nods her head yes and backs away from me.

The
re is a stampeding sound as a herd of horses comes piling through the drawbridge. I feel my stomach drop, not knowing what to expect when I turn around, but I’m relieved when I see who it is. Rowin, Kolin, and the rest of their kind are running in. They stayed back to make sure no other threats would attack us in the rear. They easily dispatch the remaining Dark Elves with their spears.

“
You guys sure did a number in here. Oh my, did you miss us?” Kolin says with a big smile.

“We sure did,” Nytril replies to him
, standing near the wall of the courtyard, supporting himself.

“I’m happy we made it this far. I don’t know what to expect when we go inside of this castle.
This battle’s almost over but I don’t know what our plan of attack is now. All I can say is just go in and fight. I’m just not sure how to open this door,” I tell Nytril, Kolin, and Rowin.

Remember
ing the vines on the drawbridge, I ask Nytril, “Maybe you can use your magic on it?”

“Unfortunately we can’t
; most of us are exhausted and there isn’t really enough around here to draw from. We’ve used up most of our emeralds,” he says.

I look around and
the courtyard looks like death. Not just from the bodies lying everywhere, but the trees and grass have all turned to brown.

“We’ll find a way and make it through this together. We will
win but the battle’s going to get a lot harder with the Dark Lords Caoell and Kumbricia in the picture. They’ll fight to their death. I’m actually surprised they aren’t out here yet,” Laderic announces.

“What is that?” Jenn interrupts Laderic while pointing at the sky. Where the
barrier cracked earlier, there is now something big coming down into Yazen.

“It’s the Aether Elemental,” Drakoe yells. We all stare up at it. It’s a huge
, robotic-like creature. It begins to float down to the open courtyard and lands near us. It’s a black machine humanoid with black and purple padded armor, similar to the Dark Elves’. It has skulls on its shoulder pads, boots, and belt. One arm is a large sword while the other arm is long pincers. How are we supposed to beat this thing?

“I know how we can beat it
; I’ve read about this creature before. We have to remove the purple gem from its chest plate, which is easier said than done, though. It will be able to pull down meteors on us, while purple beams of light shoot out from its shoulder pads. Everyone, we have to get that gem,” Ovvar shouts while charging toward the Aether Elemental.

I see
Alex shooting arrows at the Aether Elemental, but it does not seem to be working. The Aether Elemental reaches up and pushes a button on his arm. Small rocks start launching from its belt, shooting toward us. We dodge the rocks and try to attack the Aether Elemental with our swords, arrows, axes, and spears. Nothing seems to work on this creature.

One of the Halflings goes over and tries to grab the purple gem, but
is tossed aside by the Elemental’s pincers. It is horrifying to watch as the Halfling is thrown against the wall. Out of my anger, I charge the robot at full speed and begin to fight with it.

It’s a lot stronger than me. It
pushes me down easily with its pincers and traps me against the ground. One squeeze and my life is over. I panic as fear takes over my body. I see its other arm with the sword rise up as high as it can go and then start to come down on me at full speed. This is it; I’m going to die. I’m not going to make it back home to my grandpa. I won’t be able to help Alex and Jenn get home.

The sword is coming at me fast and
I desperately bring my arms up to protect my face. The blow, however, never comes. The Aether Elemental’s sword arm has stopped in mid-air a few inches from my face. What happened, I wonder? I look at the robot’s chest and the purple gem is gone. I look around and everyone is looking at each other in confusion. A few inches from my head, however, one of the little Gnomes is carrying the purple gem. So small, the Aether Elemental didn’t see it climbing inside of it, dismantling the gem.

“Thank you so much for saving my life,” I
tell it. Everyone’s cheering and the Gnome smiles wide. I forgot that the Gnomes had come with us up until this point. But they showed up in the nick of time. Alex and Drakoe help me up and out of the Aether Elemental’s pincer grip. I look back at it one more time, and if it just squeezed me a little harder, I would have been cut in half.

The courtyard itself echoes a scraping sound and w
e all turn around to see the castle doors open. No one is there, just what seems like an invitation inside.

“
It seems they want us to go inside. Let’s go,” Nytril announces, heading toward the castle doors. Everyone follows him to the doors. I look back and see Korla staying close to Jenn, comforting her and staying together.

We enter the building slowly
and cautiously. In front of us are two Dark Elves standing calmly with a purple barrier around them for their protection. It’s the same barrier I saw the Dark Elves use when they kidnapped Narissa.