Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 67 No… More… Naps…

The trio slowly got the wagon moving. Once it was rolling they barely had to pull at all, its own momentum and Kahtesh were enough to at least keep it from slowing down, on a flat surface. Whenever they reached an incline or decline they would stop and rest before tackling it.

When they were about halfway back Isaac stopped them. “I’m dragging and my body is rebelling.” He told Lenna.

She walked over to him and sent healing through his body soothing his muscles and relieving the pain. Unfortunately this also made him even more tired. He had been doing the same for her but every time he did it she was energized instead.

“Thanks.” He said with a yawn. “Let me take a nap and then we can get moving again. If you untie Kahtesh he can be on watch with you.”

Lenna nodded and got to work untying the small dragon while Isaac climbed into the wagon and used a blanket as a pillow and his cloak as a blanket.

Lenna let him sleep and sat against the tunnel wall. ‘Lua, please continue to bless this path, that you have set me on, with prosperity. I’m sure the wealth we just acquired will be put to good use.’ She prayed silently and then fell into meditation.

—

Lenna let Isaac sleep until she heard a sound coming from the way they had come from. She quickly got to her feet. “Isaac!” She whispered sharply. He sat up quickly and wavered a second before shaking his head.

He looked at her and then followed her gaze down the tunnel they had come from. He heard a heavy foot fall followed by another. He could feel whatever it was coming but something was off about it. He silenced himself with shadows and jumped out of the wagon. He walked over to Kahtesh and did the same to him.

He realized as long as he wasn’t doing anything else he could comfortably keep both of them silent even as he moved away from the dragon. The thin mana tether that formed between them to maintain his connection to the shadows seemed to be more stable due to the already existing connection the two of them had.

Isaac directed Kahtesh to the right side of the tunnel, the wagon’s left, between the wagon and the wall. He himself moved to stand next to Lenna. “Something is weird about it.” He told her.

“How so?” She whispered and drew her sword.

Isaac shook his head. “I don’t know. It just feels weird.”

Lenna nodded and readied herself. Isaac did the same. A moment later something grotesque rounded the corner. The pair were both taken aback by the monstrosity before them. It stood twenty feet away and stared intently at all three of them, individually, at the same time.

One of its three heads stared at each of them. The heads were stitched together in some places and one of them was missing an eye. The three heads were all stitched onto a large torso that was a darker shade, further reinforcing the fact that it was from an entirely different type of creature.

The four arms were stitched on as well but they at least looked like they were from the same type of creature as the torso. They weren’t placed evenly however and it only aided in its disturbing appearance. The legs were from another, even bigger, creature than the torso and seemed to fit on the body poorly. Extra muscles were stitched on, connecting the limbs to the torso, with oddly shaped bulges. One of the heads opened its mouth and spoke. “Found. Wagon. Bring. Back.”

Isaac immediately was broken out of his stupor and mentally shouted at Kahtesh to fry the monstrosity. Lenna moved at the same time and covered ten feet before Kahtesh could fire his lightning bolt through the creature’s chest. ‘Stay there and just lighting bolt it whenever you can and have a clear shot without hitting Lenna or me.’ Isaac directed.

He disappeared as Lenna’s blade ignited. The lightning bolt caused the monstrosity to stagger back a step and let out a trio of howls of pain that made the duo’s skin crawl. Lenna took the opportunity to chop hard into the creature’s side where its right leg’s connection to its body was reinforced.

The flame empowered strike cut deep and severed muscle. It swung at her with one arm. She ducked under it and ran her blade along its wrist but missed seeing the second arm coming. It grabbed her across her shoulder and picked her up.

Isaac coated his blade in shadows that were as hard as steel and held a perfect edge. He stabbed into the back of the monster’s left ankle. The blade punched deep. He drove the sword in the whole way to its cross guard. The monster howled and started to squeeze Lenna. Just as it was about to take a swing at her with one of its free hands another lighting bolt lanced through it.

It turned its full attention on Kahtesh. Its right foot stepped back half a step as its body turned. Isaac turned his sword blade into a row of razor sharp teeth and ripped it out of the monster’s ankle. It yelled and threw Lenna at Kahtesh while stumbling backwards. Its tendon had been wounded but not cut.

Lenna felt herself go from weightless in the monstrosity’s grasp to weightless through the air. Isaac’s attack had caused the creature to miss her intended landing point but she really wished it hadn’t. Hitting the skeleton that couldn’t weigh more than three hundred pounds would have been better than what she actually hit.

She slammed into the back of the wagon. She had just barely managed to shift enough in mid air that she hit it with both her shoulder and her head at the same time instead of just her head. The back of the wagon broke and her hip impacted the back end of the wagon’s floor causing her shoulder and head to impact the floor as well. The wagon rolled forward a few inches from the impact.

Isaac transitioned from yanking his sword out into a spin. His spin ended in him hacking the saw toothed blade into the back of the monster’s ankle on the other side of where he had already injured it. He ripped the sword back, shredding the flesh and more of the tendon. He jumped back just in time to miss a hammer fist that struck stone so hard both the hand and the stone cracked.

Lenna’s head was spinning horribly. Everything hurt but she couldn’t tell up from down let alone where the pain was coming from. Her training took over and like muscle memory her healing flooded her system. As her head cleared she clenched her teeth. Her hip was fractured, her shoulder was dislocated and her collarbone was broken. She probably had an awful concussion before the healing set in.

Pain lanced through her head as the sound of another lightning bolt echoed off the tunnel walls. She was surprised she was still conscious. The impact should have knocked her out. Maybe it had. She burned through almost all of her mana just healing herself enough to roll onto her back and use her one good arm to sit up.

Isaac was pushed to his limit. He could barely dodge the flailing arms even with the monster not knowing where he was. Everytime it looked like it was about to go after Kahtesh he would hack at it again. A crackle and a clap sounded as a fifth lightning bolt punched into the monstrosity. This time Isaac had told Kahtesh to try to hit one of its heads. He had.

The monster’s rightmost head exploded from the liquids vaporizing. It staggered back and Isaac drug his blade across the tendon one last time. The tendon snapped and the monster toppled backwards. It hit the ground hard. Isaac ran back towards Lenna while letting all of his shadows go so he would have more mana to work with.

Lenna had looked over just in time to watch the monstrosity fall. The tunnel shook from its impact with the solid stone. She winced. Her head was still pounding. Her shoulder was still dislocated. Her collarbone was at least back in one piece if only barely. Her teeth were clenched so hard she had to try to unclench them as hard as she could to keep from breaking them.

Isaac climbed onto the wagon and knelt next to her. He closed his eyes to focus faster. ‘Just keep shooting it from there.’ He directed Kahtesh and then poured all his incoming mana into Lenna in the form of his death flames. The power washed over her and rapidly finished healing her collarbone and clearing her head. Her headache disappeared just in time for the magic to forcefully reset her shoulder.

It caught her by surprise and she bit so hard one of her teeth cracked only for that too to be rapidly fixed. She was reeling. “You alright?” Isaac asked with worry in his voice and he glanced back over his shoulder to make sure the monstrosity hadn’t gotten back up. What he saw kept him from seeing Lenna’s shallow nod.

The monster had pushed itself up onto its knees and it was using its arms as more legs. It started crawling towards them. The heads were rocked backwards at a disturbing angle so it could still see them. Another lightning bolt punched into its shoulder and it toppled. It only took another second for it to get itself back up. It had closed almost half the distance to the wagon.

Lenna shook her head and stood up while grabbing her sword that was embedded into the wagon. She jumped down. “Focus the other two heads.” She told Isaac.

Isaac still had Kahtesh doing that but he couldn’t see while shooting so his accuracy was poor. Isaac disappeared and took a running leap off the wagon. He kited around the side of the monster while still in a dead sprint. Kahtesh launched another bolt but it shot high and cracked stone instead of a head.

Isaac ran ten feet behind the monster and slid to a stop. Lenna sliced three of the monster’s fingers off as it tried to grab her. It recoiled for a second in pain and then tried to slam the damaged hand into Lenna in a crushing hammer blow. Lenna barely got out of the way while trying to parry it. Which left a slice along the backside of its wrist.

Isaac ran toward the monster. He jumped into the air and planted his boot on the base of the monster's spine. He took one more step before falling forwards and driving his blade into and through the back of the middle head. Kahtesh didn’t fire because he would hit Isaac and Isaac had told him to only fire if he wouldn’t hit him or Lenna.

The monstrosity collapsed to the ground as its entire left side stopped working at once. Lenna took the opportunity and stepped forward. She hacked downward as hard as she could and her sword cleaved through the remaining head splitting it diagonally the whole way through.

The two mortals collapsed breathing hard. Isaac only had one thing to say between deep gasping breaths: “No… more… naps…”