Chapter 26 #2
The orc used his knife to sweep her black hair out of the way, and sure enough, her ears were a little pointy. Not nearly as pronounced as on the elves I’d met, but more so than was natural for any human. I guess that made her a quarter-elf?
Gerzog let out a low growl. “If you speak true, then you’re too valuable to waste. We’ll keep you as insurance until the treasure is sold, then sell you to your supposed father. If it turns out you lie to me, I’ll make you beg for death.”
“Have mercy on me too,” Morton cried. “I never wanted to be an adventurer!” Then he could no longer hold back the sobs of fear and began to rant hysterically, “My family has little to pay a ransom, but you can have it all. The Smorps run the animal auction yard in the great market. Do you want an exotic pet? We offer the finest from every realm. My mother wanted me to be a zookeeper same as my father and grandfather and great grandfather before had been, unto ten generations of Smorps, but I have allergies! I tested well, so I foolishly wanted to be a wizard, but I only wanted to learn some peaceful sort of magic to get a nice job someplace civilized. I never wished for this life of danger. Please don’t kill me! ”
Gerzog the Marauder clearly wasn’t in the mood to hear Morton’s life story.
“I have reconsidered. Rather than the fat human, I’ll kill this small noisy one first.” He paused long enough to lift a pistol and dramatically cock the hammer, the sound of which caused our gnome to cringe. “One… Two… Three…”
There was still daylight coming from above, but the stairwell had suddenly gotten a lot darker. I glanced back to see that Sifuso and the lamp were gone. He must have retreated back into the flooding chamber. Dammit, Sifuso. I couldn’t give up the treasure now even if I wanted to.
Gerzog continued his count, slow and methodical, like he was weighing every single word as he gradually moved the muzzle of his gun downward toward Morton’s head. “Four… Five… Six…”
With my left hand, I swept one of the clay Obscura balls off my belt, and keeping that hand hidden behind my body, held it in such a way that Rade could see it, and hopefully understand my desperate plan.
“Seven… Eight…”
I concentrated on the clay long enough to activate the Black within, then dropped the ball. It erupted into a cloud of thick smoke. Something flew by my ear as Rade threw another Obscura up and out of the hole. It hit the sand behind Gerzog and popped.
Now everyone was blind.
Krachma released his Impervious, but I was already shoving past him, throwing a handful of Red-activated screws. I couldn’t see a thing, but tried my best to get them over and past our captive friends, to scatter among the unseen Tooth and Claw crew.
A pistol barked. Sparks were visible briefly through the smoke.
Morton yelped. Bognar let out a wail that suggested he’d been the one struck by the bullet.
Then Gerzog roared as Dathka did something mean to him.
From the little I knew about her, she’d likely bitten him or something.
My rush up the stairs was interrupted by tripping over something small and fleshy.
Morton squealed in protest as I stepped on him.
Then I was out of the hole. The big soft thing I ran into first had to be Bognar, who’d flopped over into the sand.
I went over him and scrambled, blind, trying to get away from the entrance before the Obscura smoke cleared.
I only knew Rade was right behind me because of the sound of a steel sword clearing a leather sheath.
Suddenly, I was out of the smoke, and face-to-face with a large fellow with an eye patch. I think we were both surprised. He saw me. I saw him. He raised a hatchet. I shot him through his good eye.
The mercenary’s head snapped back and he toppled into two of his comrades I’d not even known were there, but from the surprise on their faces, they’d not been expecting us to come charging out of the hole like madmen either.
They went for their weapons too late. I was already flinging some Red their way, and in my desperation, I’d grabbed a lot more than a pinch.
The Shroud of Fire ignited and fell across their faces, thick as a blanket. Clothes and hair ablaze, eyes melting, they went flailing away. I didn’t even see the other mercenary who shot me.
The bullet struck me in the hip, and even though the Frunza charm activated to stop it, the impact still felt like someone had hit me with a hammer. It spun me around, and combined with my momentum, I crashed into the sand and went rolling.
I looked up to see a dwarf with a grin and a smoking rifle.
Then Rade came out of the smoke and smoothly ran his blade straight through that dwarf’s chest. The dwarf let out a wide-eyed oof, before Rade put one boot against his belly and kicked him off the sword.
When the dwarf landed, flat and awkward on his back, a fountain of blood erupted from the hole in his heart.
The Obscura died off, leaving the two of us in plain sight of a whole bunch of armed and dangerous men, who were just now seeing two of their comrades fallen in spreading puddles of blood and two more screaming and burning.
There were more mercenaries standing around the ruins of the lighthouse, and many more farther down the beach.
Some had gotten stung by the Screws of Chaos, but most were unharmed.
Before I could pop another Obscura, barrels and wands swung our way.
The big man named Hans was about to blast me with some spell, except his arm got punctured by a Dagger of Air. The knocked aside wand fired a purple bolt that melted a circle of sand into glass.
Rade and I had taken the slow way out of the hole. Azarin must have used an Ascend, because now she was falling slowly out of the sky, wand extended, as she sent invisible knives zipping through flesh.
Even with that, we were all about to get shot or cursed, but thankfully, Rade had been faster than me, and the smoke from his second Obscura blinded everyone once more.
They still fired anyway. I felt a bullet whiz past my head.
Then a glowing spectral hand grabbed hold of my collar, yanked me violently upright, and hurled my body against the unyielding stones of the lighthouse foundation.
Fuck, that hurt.
Apparently, Aziz’s spell didn’t require vision to be deadly, because the hand didn’t vanish.
It picked me up and slammed me down again.
I tried to grab it, but my flesh and blood hand passed through the ghost hand.
Despite being incorporeal, somehow it was strong as a Fire Elemental, and it hoisted me effortlessly once more.
There was a loud thump and Aziz bellowed in agony. Immediately the spectral hand vanished and I was dropped on my ass.
When the Obscura dissipated, Krachma was standing there with his mace, while Aziz was lying on his back, with one leg bent at a really awful angle and a jagged bone sticking out the side.
You did not want to get clubbed by a lob.
The mercenary wizard saw the bloody bone protruding through his pants and began screaming for help.
All the help he got was Rade covering him with biting spiders.
With no real cover, I threw down another smoke cloud, followed by more screws. There was a lot of noise and chaos as we fought in the dark. Gerzog shouted orders, but I couldn’t make them out over the ringing in my ears. That spectral hand had clobbered me good.
When the last of our Obscuras cleared, I realized the mercenaries were retreating, and I had no idea why, because they still had the numeric advantage.
We’d killed several of them, but those who could escape were doing so.
Bognar was lying there, and Morton was huddled at the top of the stairs.
Gerzog must have carried Dathka off with him.
“Why are they running?”
Trax’s oblivious yet enthusiastic voice appeared in my mind.
“They are fleeing from the sea monster.”
“What? What sea monster?”
Rade looked up from driving his sword into Aziz’s neck to put him out of his misery. “There’s a sea monster now?”
“Apparently!”
“I arrived and began biting these very rude people, when they suddenly became very frightened, declaring a sea monster to be present, so the green one in command ordered them to fall back to their boats.” When Trax came around the side of a brick wall, he still had a severed arm clamped between his razor-sharp teeth.
“Wait. Could they have been talking about me? Am I the sea monster?”
“You’re our sea monster, buddy.” I limped over and clapped Trax on the back, and it was a good thing I was wearing gloves, so I didn’t cut my hand on his hide. “Good job.”
“I’ll take the high ground and keep an eye on the enemy.” Azarin did a quick Ascend and landed on top of the largest rock pile.
Bognar was still on his side, pathetic and bound. “Uh, guys, I think I’ve been shot.”
Rade went over and cut Bognar’s hands free. “Indeed, you have. That looks exceedingly painful.”
“It does hurt a whole lot.”
Gerzog’s blindly fired bullet had been meant for Morton, but he’d thrown himself down the stairs in the dark, and it found poor Bognar instead.
“How bad is it?”
“The bullet’s stuck in his thigh. There’s no exit wound.
There’s not that much blood, so the artery has not been severed.
” Rade took out a silk handkerchief that was so white and clean that he surely must have stolen it from someone more respectable than us, and pushed it against the hole.
When Bognar cried out, Rade gave him some encouragement.
“You have done well, my friend. Your bravery is a credit to the Slumps. Now hold this here to keep your blood inside, and later it will leave a fine scar to accompany the story.”
Bognar gritted his teeth and kept pressure on his wound. “I’m sorry I let you down. Danny volunteered to watch that side of the island, but he didn’t say nothing until they were already right on top of us.”
I looked toward the body of our dead traitor, lying there blue-faced with his tongue sticking out and nearly bitten off, only a few feet from the wizard who’d killed him. “That wasn’t your fault, Bognar. It’s mine for being too trusting.”
Azarin was atop the rocks, lying on her belly to not provide a tempting target. “Gerzog and his men are heading for their boats. Looks like they left more men there to guard them. I think they’re going to regroup and all come back to wreck us.”
“Does he have Dathka?”
“He’s got her thrown over one shoulder. Unfortunately, she’s kicking, which means she’s still alive.”
I looked around, seeing no sign of our lizard man. “Where’s Sifuso and the lamp?”
Trax sent us a mental picture of our lizard man crawling across the ceiling of the flooding chamber and escaping through one of the newly formed holes in the roof. “The lizard told me he was going to keep the treasure away from the bad men.”
“That’s actually a good idea. Hey, everybody, Sifuso didn’t run on us. He’s hiding the lamp from Gerzog. Lacertians can swim and burrow, and they’re masters at concealment.”
Azarin called down to us, “Too bad he’s got the sense of direction of a brain-damaged griffon.”
I lifted my glove and Ascended up next to her. As soon as I landed on the rock pile, I saw what she was talking about, as there was a growing bulge in the sand as Sifuso clawed his way to freedom… Right between Gerzog and his boats.