The Tower Chapter 2

The Tower

Chapter 2

The entrance chamber was chaos, dust filled the air, and pieces of rubble littered the ground from the small battle that had occurred when Kraut had “knocked” on the giant entrance doors into the Tower of Midnight. Waving away a dust mote that almost entered his mouth, Thomas grinned wickedly, the gatekeepers had not wanted to let the rescue party enter, but Kraut’s hammer had given a convincing argument. Guards in gray colored armor were scattered everywhere in the giant room, some moaned from injuries while others were perfectly still. Demons, not humans Thomas reminded himself as he watched the still bodies slowly disintegrate into black floating ashes that disappeared like smoke in the air.

“Bah, I hoped to take all of them out with that strike”, Kraut grumbled hefting his massive hammer over his shoulder. Standing over six feet tall with muscle adding to his size, it was easy to see why the bearded man could swing that weapon with simple ease. A single mail shirt covered with hides and furs made up his armor. “This better not be all they have, I want a challenge!”

Thomas rolled his eyes with a smile, Kraut was not very complicated, fighting and yelling were his two favorite pastimes and anything else was unimportant.

“I’m sure you’ll get your fill you maniac”, Thomas joked to the giant man, “It’s not like they call this place the Tower of Midnight because it’s a romantic getaway”. Pulling a short spear from the gut of a down enemy and trying not to gag from the floating ash, the young man checked the blade for any chips and saw a reflection of gray eyes from a face with freckles, unruly blond hair tied back at the forehead with a red bandana. Another face peered over his shoulder from the spearhead’s reflection, almost a mirrored image of Thomas’s, but slightly older and a scar across the left cheek.

“Admiring the family looks brother? I doubt you’ll impressive any women here,” Raymond paused gazing out over the wreckage around them, “Although I don’t think you would want to meet any female that calls this place home”

Thomas sheathed the short spear in its holder on his back, Raymond always overthought too much, but older brothers typically did that apparently. A sword at the sibling’s hip and a round unadorned shied on the back were the only weapons of his attire, otherwise Raymond looked a simple farmer, a deadly assumption as the demons quickly discovered. Thomas did not look much more impressive, shorter than Raymond, the younger brother only had short spears, and a metal-rimmed buckler strapped to his left wrist, the hand gripping a horned curved bow with an arrow in place ready to draw again. Any monster looking at the pair of them would think for a moment that they wandered from the backwoods of some farm and were lost.

A small crash sounded from across the chamber as a piece of the door lifted up and was tossed aside by a large man wearing the armor of the other guards, the demon was a big as Kraut! Seven more soldiers climbed out from behind the first, a little dazed, but all staring with deep hatred with those red eyes at the three humans. Raising weapons and raising inhuman shrieks the demons bellowed a challenge.

“Finally!!! More action!”, Kraut boomed raising his hammer with both hands and planting himself in the path of the enemies. “Come on ye beasts! I’ll send ya back to the Pit where you belong!”

“Oh boy, I think the big man is picking off more than he can chew again”, Thomas said watching the large demon soldier pick up a double-headed axe with equal ease to his size.

“Well, we wanted an adventure full of excitement”, Raymond muttered pulling his straight sword from its sheath, “What better way than constantly putting our lives in danger”

Before Thomas could joke over his brother’s morbid outlook a flash streaked into the air, hurdling towards the demons. With only a moment to cry out guards were thrown aside with a crash as a lightning bolt struck among them, making even the largest one to fall aside. A flash came again from the crater it made and landed in front of Kraut, with a quick blinding light that made the humans squint. A man with light armor stood, bronze greaves on his legs, a cuirass covered his torso that left his arms bare except for the vambraces on both forearms, and simple hide shoes. Leather gloves that left the fingers bare seemed to have shocks of electricity sparking from them and occasionally sizzling in the air around him, he looked like some god out of the stories. No helmet covered his dark brown hair, only tinted glasses that went around his head in a solid ring, which he pulled above his face slightly. Dark eyes glanced over his left shoulder at the trio, usually there was a ready smile, and laugh from Kevach, but at the moment annoyance tinged his voice.

“Kraut, you were supposed to wait to open the gates, and you were definitely not supposed to charge in without the rest of us,” The armored man looked around the entrance hall, “At least it was only soldier demons guarding here, but one of these days you’re going to go too far with all your charging in without thought”

“Ah quit being such a worrywart Kevach, me and the boys had this handled”, Kraut said walking up beside the other man. The demons were picking themselves up, two becoming floating ash while the rest gathered behind the largest one. They looked worried as they gazed at the newcomer, all anger and the challenge of battle gone. Grunting Kraut continued, “Besides I figured the great Lightening Fists could handle that little monster outside no problem”

Electric shocks flared briefly from Kevach’s fists as he clenched them, “ That “little monster” turned out to be an Abyssal Dragon, not something even I can take on alone without some trouble”

Thomas and Raymond glanced at each other and stepped away from the other pair. Kevach would not hurt them intentionally, but sometimes he got a bit carried away.

Kraut being Kraut didn’t seem to notice anything, only to sound disappointed “A dragon? Now that would have been exciting, much better than coming in here. Well I apologize for my rashness, but you’re here now and the beast is dead at least.”, He grinned suddenly, “Now we can really have some fun with you here!” Yep, Kraut was definitely not very complicated.

Raymond suddenly began looking back at the entrance, a gaping hole on one side of the entrance room with the thick mist from the outside obscuring any view, just as Thomas had the same thought, “Wait, where’s the princess?!”, That wiped the smile from Kraut’s face and led to open worry.

Kevach was stepping into a fighting stance, left fist pointing towards the remaining demons that made them flinch back as if expecting more bolts of lightning. “Her royal highness is still outside fighting the monster”, he said casually, irritation apparently gone. Looking back at three sets of shocked faces the warrior shrugged, “She became rather….agitated so I thought it best to come inside to provide everyone with moral support”, he said simply.

A great roar came from a fair distance from the entrance, fire lighting up the mist wall. Just as everyone except Kevach was about to charge back out, golden lights appeared in the mist and began striking out towards the end to the fire stream and creating hollowed booms as they made contact. The next roar sounded with pain and a little distress Thomas could hear. The golden streaks continued on through the mist becoming fainter as their target moved farther away.

“Besides”, Kevach continued, “I’m fast, but not fast enough to dodge all of that without getting in her way. Anyone who wants to jump into that, be my guest”

Checking the end of his hammer Kraut said aloud, “Hmm I think in here is exciting enough after all” The brothers grinned at one another, only Alex could ever make the big man act cautious. Kevach chuckled quietly as he pulled his glasses back over his eyes, but Kraut gave him no mind while he loudly proclaimed that the tower would quickly fall between the two of them.

Licking their lips the demons watched nervously from across the room, humans were so strange.

More panicked roars sounded from outside the tower.