Chapter 18: The Lord of Skulls Pt II
A brief, but tense moment of quiet came upon the main road, and a strange stillness settled in, though it was not prolonged, and it did not linger. But it was something unmistakable, and uncertainty, along with uneasiness, filled each and every moment of it.
For nearly twenty seconds, the only real sound to be heard was a sort of clanking from the armor of the Lord of Skulls as it took very slow, very calibrated steps towards the demon across from it. During this time, not even the guards said anything. It was as though all were transfixed—caught in this moment. The demon remained perfectly still as it regarded the Lord of Skulls with its goat-like eyes.
And then there was a flurry of movement, and everything sort of happened all at once.
The Lord of Skulls sprang into attack.
In what came as a surprise to Dal and, likely, the demon, too, the Lord of Skulls turned out to be tremendously faster and more agile than common sense would dictate it would be. The summoned minion, which was clad in iron armor and seemingly made of a mixture of bone and rotten flesh, could not only move quickly but, from first impressions alone, might well have been even faster than the demon.
In one fluid motion, it kicked off its back leg and raised its axe while flinging itself forward. The demon reacted immediately, its arm rising to bring its sword up to guard—but it was almost too slow. The Lord of Skulls' axe crashed down onto the demon's sword, a few bright sparks jumped off both weapons where they met, and then the two creatures entered into a struggle of strength.
And Dal smiled, for the demon was clearly losing.
It was obvious from the way its knees were buckling as though it was struggling not to let them bend. Yet as the Lord of Skulls seemingly pressed down harder and harder, the demon's legs began to quiver with increasing intensity, and eventually, it was forced onto its knees, its arm still raised as it struggled against the expressionless minion that Dal had summoned.
"This is the wildest thing I've ever seen in my life," Rethi said.
Lord Ashmere frowned. "I agree. And that's not a good thing."
The two creatures continued to struggle, with the Lord of Skulls' axe putting more and more pressure on the demon's thin, but very long blade. And then, finally, the Lord of Skulls pulled back, retreated one full step, and then blasted forward again and whipped its arm around eight times in less than a second, its axe whirling around in nearly all directions.
The demon, releasing a screech, whipped its own arm around, and now a constant series of sparks filled the air along with a clang, cling, clang, clang as it defended itself from an explosive chain of attacks, one that ended with the demon's blade knocking free of its grip. This caused an immediate roaring and cheering from the guards—at least those who were not busy picking up the remains of their dead comrades.
Now the demon knows what that feels like, Dal thought with a grin as he watched the weapon fly off somewhere out of sight.
"Kill the demon!" he shouted to his minion. "Hurry!"
The Lord of Skulls obliged. It crashed its axe into the side of the demon's face, causing five of its fang-like teeth from its third row to go skittering along the concrete in addition to a spray of blood. But the demon did not fall; no, it somehow managed to straighten its posture, and then it took a swipe at the Lord of Skulls with its clawed hand. But Dal's minion was prepared: it raised its shield and guarded, and the demon struck only the metal of its shield.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" the demon screeched as the claws on its opposite hand began to grow. Now, it lashed out with both of its clawed hands, throwing out one-two combinations at the Lord of Skulls. But the Lord of Skulls was undeterred, and it deftly maneuvered its shield to block each and every strike, creating a constant chain of thunk-thunk sounds to emanate from the middle of the street.
"It's winning," the prince said, glee in his voice. "God above, it's actually winning. It's going to slay the demon!"
"Of course it is," Ravenia said. "The Lord of Skulls cannot lose to a peasant demon."
Dal smiled. It pleased him to see his minion's excellent performance, especially as the demon became frenzied and began lashing out over and over at faster and faster speeds. Yet nothing was connecting. The Lord of Skulls was simply too adept at blocking, and it was far faster than the demon. Eventually, during a brief pause in its assault, the Lord of Skulls found an opening to return an attack, and it swung its axe across the air from right to left.
To its credit, the demon did manage to bend its knees and duck just in time. But rather than pull the weapon back, the Lord of Skulls waited for the demon to stand back up, and then it whipped the axe from left to right, striking it cleanly and with devastating force on the opposite side of its face. Another six teeth were immediately knocked out of the demon's jaw, and the demon itself was thrown off to the right, where it fell over and landed onto its side.
The Lord of Skulls pursued.
Now, the guards, the prince, Denin, Rethi, Lord Ashmere, and even Ravenia—all were watching with excitement. The entire atmosphere seemed to change, turning from one of gloom to optimism. Even the usually bitter Lord Ashmere was grinning. And though Dal was also pleased, he wasn't quite as enthusiastic as the rest of them were, because by winning this battle, he would stop the demon from ending around thirty thousand lives.
That was a lot of beautiful death he'd be preventing.
Nevertheless, he'd already committed to slaying this cursed creature, and that was what he intended to do. So, with that thought in mind, he ordered his minion to finish it off, as time was beginning to become an issue.
Time Remaining: 2 minutes, 9 seconds
The Lord of Skulls approached the downed demon, which was still lying on its side. Upon reaching it, the iron-armor-wearing creature raised its axe and then slammed it down on top of the demon, who in response, rolled itself onto its back and then crossed its arms so that they formed an X-shape. Using the claws on its hands, the demon succeeded in guarding against the attack, yet it came at a heavy cost; upon impact, the demon hissed in pain, and two of its claws broke off completely, causing a surprising amount of blood to ooze out of its fingers.
With that, the Lord of Skulls slammed its axe down a second time, but the demon, tucking its legs into its chest, kicked out with both its feet, slamming each of them at the same time into the armor around the Lord of Skulls' chest. Though this failed to inflict any kind of damage, it did succeed in sending the demon sliding backwards along the concrete and away from the Lord of Skulls just as its axe crashed down into the pavement.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" it screeched, and there was no mistaking the note of panic in the sound of it.
The demon hurried up to its feet, and now, frantically, it began flapping its wings, bringing itself airborne; this, it did with a level of desperation that could be visibly seen. The Lord of Skulls lifted its head and stared up at the demon, watching it through its milky-white eyes as it rose higher and higher until stopping.
Having gained some altitude, the demon's weapon began glowing purple, and as it had done before, it unleashed three consecutive, laser-like streaks of energy at the Lord of Skulls. Dal watched as each of them ripped through the air and headed straight down towards his minion. Yet, unlike the humans who'd been killed by the attack earlier, these purplish streaks did not manage to slice Dal's minion apart. Actually, they did no damage at all. The Lord of Skulls simply extended its shield in front of itself and guarded against each one, an audible thunk resounding with each impact.
"The demon can't win!" Denin exclaimed. "It's going to die!"
"Yup," Rethi agreed, nodding happily.
The demon, floating midair a moment, raised its sword yet again, and like before, the entire blade turned purple. It seemed it wanted to try this attack once more. As such, it moved its arms as if to strike—but then, it simply…didn't.
For some reason, it paused. It had even begun the arc of its slash, too, only to come to an abrupt halt. Now, it once more hovered stationary in the air, and Dal became confused. What was the demon doing?
He had his answer a few seconds later as the Demon began to turn itself around, and this prompted an immediate gasp from the prince as he then cried, "It's running away! Dal, don't let it escape!"
Ravenia squawked. "Master, order the Lord of Skulls to stop it!"
"Very well."
Dal both mentally and vocally ordered his Lord of Skulls not to allow the demon to escape, and the Lord of Skulls responded by leaning backwards somewhat and then snapping its body such that it bent forward in a whip-like way in the opposite direction while simultaneously throwing out its arm and releasing its grip on its axe. Now, the weapon hurtled up and into the air, and it moved so fast that it made a distinct whoosh-whoosh as it sailed into the morning sky, briefly becoming obscured by the sun.
Another very brief pause followed: another moment of quiet.
And then there was another hiss—the most pained one so far. Following this, people began pointing upwards towards the sky: first the prince, then Denin, and now dozens of guards, too. Dal looked upwards to see what they were indicating, and he chuckled as he noticed that there were two "things" falling down to Bradford: the demon, and a big chunk of its right, severed wing.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" it cried. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
With a thump, it crashed down onto a carriage in the middle of the street whose riders had thankfully already fled. There was a disturbing snap as it went right through the roof of the carriage; following this, the force of the collision caused the entire thing to shake and fall over onto its side as the demon crawled out of it, bleeding heavily.
Dal licked his lips. The demon was very, very near death: beautiful, beautiful death. "Finish it!" he shouted to his minion. "Finish this vile, peasant demon!" He realized his minion no longer had its axe, so he added, "Rip its head off its shoulders with your bare hands. Go! Tear its head off and present it to me as a trophy!"
His request caused Denin, Rethi, the prince, and Sir Ashmere to frown at him, but they said nothing that would explain such disturbed looks. They also were quick to divert their attention back on the demon, whose eyes were widening as the Lord of Skulls moved towards it. And now, in what was so shocking it actually broke through some of Dal's Class-Draw, the creature began shaking its head no. It even held up its clawed hand as if to signal its desire for mercy.
It would have none.
"Kill it, my pet," Dal said, feeding off the power he now commanded as a Necromancer.
The Lord of Skulls continued to obey. It approached the demon, squatted down, and extended both its arms. Then, it placed its left hand on the right side of the demon's head and its right hand on the left. With that, it began to squeeze, and the demon, in turn, shrieked in pain and terror.
This was it. This was the moment the demon would meet its end. The nightmare of its summoning would now be over, for his minion, his Lord of Skulls, was going to rip the creature's entire head right off the top of its—
CLASS SHIFT! NEW CLASS ASSIGNED!
"Uh oh," Dal said as the hands of the Lord of Skulls vanished into thin air as it continued to crush the demon's head. Due to nothing more than coincidental timing, it almost looked like the demon's head was a portal that swallowed his minion's fingers. But this illusion was soon shattered as the Lord of Skulls itself vanished right after, first becoming transparent, then ghostly, and finally disappearing altogether.
"What…what just happened?" Prince Alain shouted, his face becoming pale. "Where did it go? Why is the demon still alive?"
Dal sighed. "I'm out of time."