Chapter 16 – The Party Gets Started
Remi would never forget what she saw that day.
Unable to go through the secret passage of the dungeon, they instead backtracked through Tyuin’s conference room and ran through the castle itself. There was no time to take in the sights. From what she could gather, there were plenty of bright lights, more marble floors and statues that looked strange from a distance. The last obstacle to the outside was the Throne room in which Tyuin must address the people privately. It was a grand foyer with pillars so high she wondered how they could have possibly been built.
But all of her inquiries were cast aside once they made it outside to the setting sun and the evening air.
There was a giant head above the trees.
It hadn’t noticed her, but it was spinning from left to right, scanning the land. From the tufts of red hair on the crown of its head, she figured that it had to be a Langoran. They had mentioned they could increase their mass, but this big? How was that possible?
“What are we supposed to do with that?” Kace whispered, but Remi refused to speak. There was no plan that could take down that thing. Nothing within her repertoire. But before she could even begin to collaborate with Kace on what to do, the giant head turned around and headed back toward the western wall.
“It’s leaving,” Kace commented, but Remi wasn’t convinced it had just changed its mind.
“Let’s not celebrate yet. There had to be a reason it was here.”
“There is,” Tyuin replied, coming down the steps from behind them. Several guards followed in succession. “Four giant Langorans each took a side of Allay and made a breach in their respective walls, allowing Cimmerian’s forces to come in. This is where it gets difficult.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
“I’ve already sent orders around the Kingdom. I trust that they’ll be able to handle things where they are. If they can’t…we’ll just have to deal with conflicts as they arise.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Kace asked. Tyuin sighed heavily as his eyes remained stationed on the land in front of him, trying to spot any intruders.
“Whatever you can to do,” he replied, lifting his finger to point out in the distance. “That would be a start.”
Remi stared off in the direction he was pointing, wondering what horrors were before them. Cimmerian did not disappoint. Before them walked an eight armed opponent, rippling with muscles and possessing a countenance full of confidence and bloodlust. His hair was cropped short and his body was both wide and tall, in order to accommodate the extra limbs. There were no weapons in his meaty leathery hands, but the cold glare in his eyes told them all they needed to know: he didn’t need them.
“This is serious,” one of the guards replied from behind them.
Tyuin nodded. “Yes. He is obviously one of Cimmerian’s more elite warriors. They wouldn’t send someone like him without purpose. I suspect there will be others like him dispatched throughout the Kingdom as well.”
“Orders, sir?”
“Engage,” Tyuin said, and his entire guard ran at the eight-armed man. Remi shuddered as she heard the first blow. The eight-armed man had reared back three of his arms and hit one of the guards in the head. Though flesh met steel, it was the guard that lost the exchange and he slumped to the ground in a lifeless ball, remaining where he fell.
The other guards swung their swords but to no avail. The eight armed man was like a martial artist, blocking and parrying their arms before they could even complete a full swing. Their blades didn’t hit his hide once, and one by one he knocked each guard unconscious.
When he was finished, he ensured they stayed that way.
He began stepping on their necks one at a time, crushing them under this massive weight.
Tyuin had enough.
“I’m going,” he declared, thrusting his kingly robes off of him. Unsheathing the standard sword at his belt, he rushed forward, yelling at the eight-armed man to stop what he was doing and instead face him. The enemy ignored him, and he didn’t stop his work until Tyuin was upon him.
He grabbed the King’s blade with his open hand and then closed over it tight. A trickle of blood seeped from a superficial wound, but otherwise, he was unharmed. The eight-armed man smiled as he punched Tyuin in the abdomen with three of his free hands, throwing the King onto his back. Tyuin scurried to his feet and sucked his teeth. This foe would not fall easily.
“We should help him,” Kace said as Remi squinted her eyes.
“And do what?” she asked. “Trust me, I’m trying to figure out a way. But I don’t see it.”
“I know…but we can’t let Tyuin die.”
“No,” she whispered. “We can’t.”
“I’ll go first,” he said as Remi reached out to grab him. She grasped nothing but air.
“KACE, WAIT!” she shouted, but he was already in full sprint, transforming his body as quickly as he could. Eventually he hit all fours and he began running like a wolf on the hunt. Remi grit her teeth and ran after him, knowing that whatever they did, it wouldn’t amount to much. The eight-armed man was not just strong, but his hide was tough.
“More power into the eidolon,” she muttered to herself as she unleashed it from her body. She kept it to her side as she ran, infusing it with as much energy as she could.
She didn’t have much to give. And transformation for her was basically out of the question at this point, but at least she had a chance. One chance for a single, crippling blow.
The eight-armed man swung at Tyuin and the King continued backing away, narrowly missing a fist each time. The King knew his enemy would connect soon but he needed time to think. A way to turn the tables so that he was no longer on the defensive.
An opportunity came when Kace tackled the eight armed man from the side. They crashed into the grass and immediately the eight armed man began punching Kace’s body with everything he had. Kace went limp almost instantly and the brute kicked the Quietus off with little effort.
Tyuin noticed his sword lying on the grass in the distance and so he began running toward it. The eight armed man leapt to his feet and began heading towards the King to cut him off when Remi intervened.
She ran at full speed and then slid on her knees in the grass, extending her eidolon high above her. The brute barely saw what happened, but he sure felt it. Three of his arms—every limb on his entire right side—went flying into the air. He howled and stopped his assault.
Remi’s slide came to a halt and she struggled to climb to her feet. She used her eidolon as a crutch but it suddenly vanished, having no energy left to maintain its form. She fell onto her side and bruised her shoulder. Wincing, she tried to slow her breathing and climb to her feet quickly but she had overdone it. So much energy had been put into cutting through the enemy’s hide that she had nothing left. Literally.
Remi’s eyes got heavy as she laid on her side, barely able to lift her head. She saw that Tyuin had gotten his sword, and now he was engaged in battle with the eight armed man again. They stepped in front of her view as Tyuin barely kept the brute at bay. Even with three less arms, the enemy was too much for him.
The enemy knocked the sword from Tyuin’s hands with a slap, and then he grabbed the King by the throat, squeezing with all his might as he also punched him in the stomach with his other two hands. Remi coughed and tried one more time to rise, but her body only shivered in response.
The last thing she wanted to do was sleep. But what else could she do? What else did she have to give? Now she was at the mercy of Cimmerian. Now she was—
Someone in a dark hooded robe jumped onto the brute’s shoulders and jammed their multi-colored blade through the base of his skull, a burst of light momentarily splashing away from the point of impact. Remi’s eyes widened in surprise as the mysterious stranger back-flipped off the enemy and then began hacking away at the torso, as if he was a tree that had overstayed its welcome.
The brute was cut in
two.
Tyuin fell to his knees in a coughing fit, clutching his throat as the stranger rubbed his back. She removed the hood from her head and sighed as her curly locks fell from the crown. Tyuin growled at the sight of her.
“What are you doing here?!” he spat, awkwardly climbing to his feet. The dark robed stranger remained silent. But Tyuin wasn’t done.
“You came too soon!” he screamed in her face. “Now everything’s going to fail!”