Strong Opposition

Aurei and Eleazar are trapped in a burning airship with the Death Knight and his minion, both of whom possess powerfully magic swords.

36.

Strong Opposition

 

 

On the Emperor’s airship, Aurei was holding her own against the other Death Knight.   Sir Alvis swiped at her head, a quick, but still jerking movement that she easily parried with her longsword.   The Ice sword generated a field of intense cold around it that conflicted with the heat from the senior Death Knight’s sword.   She fought desperately to prevent violent coughing in the heavy smoke, breathing through her nose, though her lungs screamed for air.   

 

The controlled knight swung the great sword down at her head and her two swords parried with a crossing motion.   He tried to force her down, but though his strength was great, she resisted.   Her Drow short sword, which contacted the icy sword, grew painfully cold in her grasp and the blade began glowing a pale blue hue.   

She felt the numbing cold through her gauntlets and still Alvis just tried to force her blades down.   

Suddenly he jerked his sword upward and slammed it back down against Aurei’s short sword.   To her horror, the blade shattered as if it was made of glass, and she was left tightly clutching the remainder of the hilt with a numb hand.  He brought the sword around, aiming at her face, but she parried with her longsword.    The blow sent an icy wave down her sword into her hand.   He reversed and swiped at her legs, causing her to jump back.  

 

The very tip of the ice sword grazed her leg armor, and upon contact there came a sudden booming sound.   Immediately there was a roaring, howling blizzard filling the room.   The wind threw her back, as well as Eleazar nearby, and both were tossed backwards, as if ragdolls, along with the burning crates and debris in the treasure room.   Ice pellets stung at all her exposed skin and she could not even draw in breath as the hurricane-like wind pressed them against the back wall of the room.  

 

The crates were scattered all about, but the gale force wind had also extinguished all the fires and the smoke in the room.   Aurei closed her eyes as ice began to form on her face, but as quickly as it began, the icy blast suddenly stopped, leaving every thing in front of Sir Alvis and his sword covered in a thin sheet of gravel-like ice crystals. 

 

Even Thantus had been staggered by the blast of arctic fury, his sword and armor glowing a duller shade of orange for several moments.   But soon the orange glow returned, first to the sword blade and then to all the metal parts of the Death Knight’s armor, as the heat from the blazing sword began warming up the frigid room.

 

Aurei struggled to move, breaking through the thin skin of ice covering her.   She glanced first toward Sir Eleazar, who was already moving, glancing around the chaotic room, as he rummaged in a pocket sewn inside his cloak for something.

Thantus was leisurely striding forward, confident of his victory.

“My, what a spectacular weapon Helke is!   No doubt Urwa possesses similar powers.   I hope to demonstrate soon.   Alvis!   Attend me!”

Eleazar glanced for a moment to his left, where a large row of crates had been pushed back by the icy blast, revealing a wooden door that had been hidden only moments before.

 

“Aurei, give me your hand!”   He commanded, and before she could respond, he reached over and grabbed it as Thantus raised his great sword to strike.

 

She caught a glimpse of the half-Drow knight pulling something small out of his cloak pocket and an instant later everything in the room went dark.

 

She cried out in alarm, but found Eleazar tugging at her.

“Come on, hurry!”  He whispered, and then pulled her stumbling to her feet, only to be yanked along in the pitch blackness behind him.

 

They crashed forward, falling over debris and small crates, and from nearby she could hear and feel both Death Knights swinging their swords, blindly trying to connect with them in the dark.   Then the two Elves crashed into a wall, nearly knocking them down.

“No fair, Sir Eleazar!”   Thantus said with a laugh, “It was a good delay; that is all.   I know where you are heading!”

Eleazar grabbed her arm and she heard him feeling for something along the wall.   Then she remembered the door - he was looking for the newly discovered door in the dark.

About the time she began feeling for it to assist him, she heard a click and the sound of squeaky door hinges.

 

“That won’t avail you for long, Paladins!”  Thantus shouted from across the room, “Take this pause to pray to your god for deliverance.”

Aurei was pulled inside of the room and she heard Eleazar toss something down outside the door, and then slam the door shut.   As soon as the door closed, sight returned and she was met with the red glow of Eleazar’s eyes, “Quick, we’ve got to block this door.”

She nodded and they found the room to be full of more long crates, “How did you bring down that darkness upon us?”

“It’s an old Drow tactic, like the silence stone we used in Duttontun - this one has a darkness spell cast on it.”

 

They pushed a heavy crate full of assorted pieces of armor, across the doorway, and hurriedly followed with a lighter chest filled with daggers.

Already they heard the approach of the Death Knights.

 

“It won’t keep them out long.”  He said to her, pulling her to the back of the room.

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?”

“Yep.   Those two swords must really be relics - I’ve never seen swords like them.”

“He called them ‘Swords of the Opposites”.   One is a fire sword; its opposite is an ice sword.   There were two more on the stand; I wonder what they might be?”

 

As Eleazar started to reply, they heard the door rattled and hammered from the other side.   A moment later, flames began to trickle from burning wood.

“They’ve found us.” Eleazar said with a very concerned look, “Aurei, you might have something - if the other two swords are as powerful as these two, maybe we could stop them.”

“How can we get to them?   They’ll certainly not let us.”

 

Eleazar nodded and suddenly began throwing off lids of nearby crates while the door was engulfed in flames.

“What are you doing?”

“This is the Emperor’s treasury " much of this stuff probably is enchanted " try to find cloaks in these boxes… quickly!”

“Cloaks?  Why?”  She looked anxiously back to the burning door.   Any second the Death Knights would break through, push the crates aside, and they’d be trapped.

“Elven cloaks!  Trust me!”  He said, franticly.

The wooden door began to crumble to ash and Aurei saw the glowing orange blade of Thantus’ sword smashing at the rest of the wood.

Suddenly there was a cloak thrown into her face, startling her for an instant.

“I found one!” Eleazar said, “At least I hope it is - it looks like one of the Elven cloaks.   Quickly, put it on.   I want you to go up by the doorway, to the side.   Wrap the cloak around you and stay still.   I’ll draw them in; once they are past the doorway, run out and find that sword stand then grab a sword.”

“Are you insane?   They’ll kill you!”

“We don’t have time to argue, Aurei, it might work.”

“We don’t even know what the other two swords actually do!”

“Well, if nothing else, they should be enchanted and maybe we can bluff them or something.”

“But you can’t fight both of them!   I’m not going to leave you here alone!”

“If you don’t, we won’t have any chance.   Now go, girl, for Yesh’s sake, hurry, he’ll be through it soon.”

 

Her mind spun, and she absolutely hated the idea.  Yet with an anguished look at the Elf, she did what he asked, racing forward as she wrapped the cloak around her while keeping low so the rows of stacked crates would keep her movement concealed from the Death Knight.

Thantus’ arms could be seen now through the collapsing wood but she prayed that he’d not seen her rush forward.  She pressed herself as flat as she could against the wall, wrapping the Elven cloak around her and feeling extremely exposed, just feet away from the doorway.   With a loud crash, the remainder of the door fell away in a shower of sparks and Thantus pushed aside the chests blocking the door as if they were made of paper.   

She held her breath as he came into the room, with Sir Alvis behind him, but both seemed not to notice her as they focused on Eleazar, who stood at the back of the room, against the wall.  

Thantus started to speak, probably another taunt before they re-engaged the Paladin, but Eleazar surprised him by scooping up a glass bottle out of one of the open chests in front of him and throwing it at the Death Knights.  

 

Thantus batted the bottle away with his sword and it shattered, but seemed to have no other effect.   Yet the Elf was not done - two more bottles came out of the chest - probably magical potions of the Emperor’s collection- and these he sent airborne at the undead knight.

 

Again Thantus knocked a potion aside with his glowing orange sword, but still without effect.    The second potion got past his sword, though, and shattered against his breast plate.   As soon as the liquid contacted the red hot metal of the armor there was a flash and green smoke filled the room.   But Thantus seemed only momentarily distracted.   He waved his sword in the air once and pointed it at Eleazar.   Fire shot forth immediately from the tip of the sword in a wave that crossed the room in seconds, slamming against the far wall with a roar.  

 

But the half-Drow knight had ducked under one of the chests and sprang up with his great sword drawn.   As the back wall of the room began to burn, he charged forward, drawing a similar reaction from the Death Knight who raced to meet him, with Alvis tagging behind in a staggering walk.