Chain Reaction

The tide of battle begins to turn in favor of Aurei's group.

24.

Chain Reaction

 

Even before Alvis, Sophia and Khord teleported to one of the Necromancer Guild’s airships, events were in motion that was helping their endeavor. 

 

Li-Chee’s Firebird had attacked the Wyverns patrolling the skies over King’s Reach with a fierce vengeance.   The magic bird could not be harmed by the Dragon-like Wyverns and the dumb beasts panicked when they could not stop it.

 

The Firebird killed eight of the reptiles and was pursuing the ninth when the chain reaction began.   The frightened Wyvern was wildly weaving in and around the airships, trying to lose the huge magic bird by aerial maneuvers.  

 

As it crested the deck of the enormous airship ‘Shroud’, it glanced frantically behind it and found the Firebird easily matching its moves.   But the large bat-winged monster failed to avoid the Shroud’s massive double control rings, where a pair of very old, very powerful Fire Elementals had been imprisoned by the Necromancer’s Guild for nearly half a century.   The Wyvern smashed into the base of both rings, breaking its neck in the terrible impact.

 

The control rings cracked and broke, dispelling the imprisoning magic around them.    The two Fire Elementals found themselves freed from their hated labor suddenly and immediately sought revenge.   Like a tidal wave of fire, they roared over the ship they had powered only moments before, setting everything flammable alight.   The undead crew that remained onboard the ship ran around in terror of the inferno that they found themselves within.

 

But the two Fire Elementals were not done; for they had spent a half century in frustrating, agonizing labor and had much to redress.  Together the pair blazed off the deck of the burning Shroud and attacked the ‘Requiem’, first setting the craft and its remaining crew on fire, before blasting the control ring of the smaller ship, which freed their fellow Fire Elemental.  

 

The three enraged Elementals then attacked the ‘Wil-O-Wisp’, setting the ship ablaze immediately and easily freeing its Fire Elemental.  

 

The four fiery beings then turned to the ‘Memento Mori’, where they were met with opposition from the ship’s master of elemental magic.   The wizard was able to dispel two of the four Fire Elementals before he was consumed in flames, along with his ship.  

Their fury abated, the Fire Elementals flew across the sky, filling the night with a meteor-like trail as they fled.

 

On the hotly burning airships, the surviving crew tried desperately to find a way to escape or to land the craft.  

 

The Shroud’s ship master of magic lowered the craft hastefully, dropping the huge craft with dizzying speed as it crumbled around him.

 

But his blind drop of the craft only sent the burning airship crashing violently against the mast and deck of the ‘Mourning’ that had been hovering below.   The ship broke apart, sending burning debris into the northeastern part of King’s Reach as both ships crashed into the ground.

The Mourning’s Fire Elemental also sought revenge against its tormentors when it was free from the enchantment binding it, and before fleeing, set the ‘Styx’ and ‘Wake’ ablaze.

The Memento Mori suddenly lost its’ levitation ability as the hull was consumed, and the remainder of the ship fell on top of The ‘Lament’ as the ship rushed to maneuver out of the way of the other burning ships.   Both ships fell into the northern section of the city, sending up a wave of flames as they slammed into the ground.  

 

Meanwhile, Captain Tarron on the Autumn Maid was leading an assault against the Guild ship ‘Twilight’, which rested nearly abandoned except for an eight man guard.  The crew fought fiercely, taking the ship with great effort and the loss of three members of the Autumn Maid Crew.  

 

Tarron had his crew reboard the Autumn Maid and they put some distance between the ships before Devin Flabbinthorp, the Halfling propulsion expert, used a dispel magic wand to disrupt the levitation enchantment on the Twilight’s hull from afar.  

The Necromancer Ship lurched suddenly then dropped like a stone into an empty field outside of town, where Tarron had steered the ship before dispelling the magic.

The Elemental set the debris of the ship ablaze as soon as the crash freed it from its imprisonment and then it vanished in the eastern sky.

 

When Alvis, Sophia and Khord appeared on the quarterdeck of the Talon, the airship was the only undamaged craft of the Necromancer’s Guild remaining.

Those guarding the large airship were watching the destruction of the other ships from the main deck and were surprised when the three materialized.

 

Khord quickly dispatched two Ghouls on the deck and then ran to the stairs to prepare for the others to move against them.   Sophia ran with him, holding her staff in front of her until she got to the edge of the stairs, then, with a snap of her wrist, firing off a fireball down the stairs into the mass of undead racing toward them.   

 

The fireball blasted through the mass of ghouls and wights, throwing them across the deck and setting the vessel on fire.  

But one being still stood after the blast and he leapt supernaturally high, landing directly in front of Khord, who struck immediately, cutting him deep in the neck.   The being suddenly turned ethereal and floated down into the hold of the burning ship as a mist.   Alvis had already thrown an arctic blast into the control rings of the airship and the two Fire Elementals flickered and swayed as they were battered by the blast.  

Sophia gave Khord a slight smile and pointed her staff over their head, toward the imprisoned Elementals.   Again she flicked her wrist and a storm of ice joined in with Alvis’ gale force blast.   The Fire Elementals only lasted a few moments then popped out of existence.

 

“That was rather easy.”  Sophia said to the two men as Alvis joined them.

 

“Yes, praise Yesh.”  Alvis glanced up in the night sky, amazed to see the red and yellow glow of four burning airships, along with several wrecks of other ships burning along with buildings and fields, on the ground.   He quickly counted the burning ships.

 

“Four are still burning, not counting this one, and it looks like five more are already destroyed.   This one is the last airship; something amazing has taken out the other nine.   It looks like this one will be consumed as well soon; that means that the Vampires will not have any place to retreat to upon the rising of the sun.   I think the tide has turned in our favor!   Let us return to our friends.”

Sophia, encouraged by Alvis’ optimism, again chanted the teleportation spell to return them to the battle below.

 

***

 

In the large cave that graced the shore of the Royal Lake, Luke paced back and forth at the entrance, staring at the flashes of fire in the sky.   He held the enchanted sword that the King had given to him, and though he was scared out of his mind, he felt somewhat ashamed that he was cowering here with the women and children instead of doing something to help.  

But he was only nine years old and they said, of course, that he was too young to help them, though he and Leah had battled animated Snow Golems last winter.  

 

But now he just walked around, unable to sit down because he didn’t know what was going on with the people that he now considered his family since his mom and dad died.

 

Even Rori, who was his guardian, but who had also been partly to blame for both of his parents’ deaths was family to him.   He found that so hard to believe now, because she was so nice to him and treated him like her younger brother.   He’d never had any siblings, so he liked that, and he liked her too.  

As he paced, he kept glancing back to Leah, who stood against a wall nearby, tightly clutching the crystal necklace Queen Eioldth had given her.   Her eyes were red from crying and she was paler than usual as she stood there trembling.  

He kept smiling at her, hoping that would help her to relax, but she was terrified and he didn’t blame her. 

 

He knew he should probably go over to her and put his arm around her and tell her everything was going to be okay, but he just couldn’t do that to a girl.

Everyone would see him and he’d really feel embarrassed. 

 

So instead he just paced back and forth, clutching the lightweight long sword and watching the battle from a distance.

He was turning around to complete another round of his pacing when something came out of nowhere, running into the cave.   It was gray, naked and clearly not human, which caused all the women to scream at the same moment as everyone ran as far back into the shallow cave as they could.  

Luke had heard enough about them to know that he was face to face with a ghoul.   He backed up a step, glancing behind him to find all the women and children pressed against the back wall.   That is, all of them except Leah Flydros.   The girl was frozen in fear, probably reliving the attack on her parent’s farm that had killed them, the year before.

It was an attack that had included ghouls.

The sight of Leah frozen in fear filled Luke with fury.  

The ghoul was lunging at him already with filthy claws and yellow teeth eager to claw and bite.   Before he realized what he was doing, he found himself swinging at the creature as he yelled out angrily to it to leave them alone.  

He aimed for the creature’s head, just like his father had taught him (which Sir Eleazar had reinforced in the past few months of training him to use a sword).   The magic sword caught the ghoul just under the ear and sliced deep into his jaw.  

It gave a short, but piercing screech and fell dead at his feet, spilling blood and goop on the rock of the cave floor like a smashed pumpkin.

Luke found himself vomiting at the horrid sight.   For a few moments his stomach heaved, and then, red-faced, he backed away from the creature, wiping his mouth in his shame.  

 

From the back of the cave, where they had been working to keep calm a couple of small children who had lost their mother, Krys and Brandi came forward and threw their cloaks over the creature. 

They glanced around, to make sure no more of the things were lurking around, then, together and without a word, pulled the ghoul by his legs out of the cave, and down the slight embankment until the creature’s body was hidden from sight by some small scrubs growing along the shore of the King’s lake.

 

Luke turned around, timidly checking the reactions of the adult women at the back of the cave.   They all were giving him somewhat stunned glances, but the looks were mixed with something he’d never seen directed at him before; admiration.

“Good job, young man; you are mighty with that sword!” An old lady praised him and all the women agreed verbally.

Flushed with embarrassment, he turned awkwardly away and hurried over to Leah.

“Um… are you okay, Leah?” He asked her.   Her blue eyes were as big as plates, but she had stopped trembling.   She didn’t answer but only nodded in reply.

“It will be okay.” He tried to reassure her, but he knew it probably sounded so silly coming from a boy her own age.

 

To his surprise, she smiled; probably the sweetest smile he’d ever seen a girl smile.   She touched his arm, “I’m not afraid with you here.”  

Luke just swallowed hard, went a brighter red and quickly turned back to his very nervous pacing; not at all sure he liked being a hero. 

Reviews

[Elina]

"Even before Alis, Sophia and Khord..." I believe you were wanting "Alvis" here.
"...and he leaped supernaturally high..." leaped should be lept?
"The being suddenly turned ethereal and as a mist floated down into the hold of the burning ship." Perhaps, "...floated down into the hold of the burning ship as a mist." ?
"...but though he was scared out of his mind..." Maybe "and" rather than "but."
"...and they of course said he was too young..." Perhaps "...of course, they said..." instead.
"...clutching tightly the crystal necklace..." May sound better as "...tightly clutching..."
"Luke found himself throwing up violently at the sight, on top of the dead ghoul." You may want to reword this bit. ?

Hmm...looks like there's more in store for Luke! Can't wait...

[Eddie Davis]

Thank you Elina!