“I SHALL GET MY REVENGE!!” Alxebren roared when his essence finished reassembling. However, this time, instead of pursuing the vampire and skaven, which he knew would be suicide, he decided to target them emotionally. ‘But how?’ he wondered. ‘Let’s think, I don’t want somewhere they’ll be really soon, but somewhere I know they’ll go… Like that blasted Island! They were in Cathay, but their friends were on that island, and they were obviously going to head back. ‘They’re going to arrive to their friends dead. Even better, Ardaris has a relative there, and that makes it so much more satisfying. Their deaths would please Khorne. Paint the walls with their blood, and add their skulls to the Skull Throne. There was just one problem, getting into their world, but surely he could get summoned, cults were everywhere in the Empire the last time he’d checked. It should be easy. Annemarie looked up at the demon she’d summoned, and was horrified when she realized that she had conjured a Greater Daemon of Khorne. Her surprise was visible for a few moments, but she quickly schooled herself to calmness. His summoner was a girl at the end of adolescence, a farmer no doubt, he looked around at the destroyed barn, Then back down at the girl. “You summoned me?” He asked, his voice gravelly. She almost flinched, sad. His summoner straightened to her full height, and said, “A group of bandits attacked a few hours ago” she said “they killed my family and they-” the girl broke off, unable to finish. “I want you to kill them all.” She declared adamantly. “And my payment?” he asked. She looked straight into his eyes, she had a surprising strength of character, he’d have to reevaluate her. “If the lives and skulls of the bandits are insufficient, you may use me in any matter you see fit. I have nothing left to lose anyway. Alxebren smiled inwardly at that comment, she had a lot left to lose. He’d kill the bandits, head back with the skulls, and get summoned again. Then he’d kill his enemies. Norimia walked somberly down to his room, he’d lost too many friends, Ardaris, Tzaqor, Anerhet, they’d all even started to get along well with Scetto before he’d disappeared. Although the skaven was almost guaranteed to return. Considering the number of deaths they’d had he’d even mentioned sending Raymond home when talking to Eliara, just to keep him safe. She of course pointed out that he would find a polite and knightly way to tell him where he could shove that suggestion. It was the waiting that got them, the goddamn sitting around as friends died, waiting for the hammer to fall on you. If something didn't attack the island soon everyone was going to rip the hair from their heads. He didn’t realize how soon he’d get his wish The battered ship sailed into the eastern harbour, listing visibly sideways, no lanterns, or any light source for that matter, lit. The men defending the island made sure the defences were in place, while a group of fifteen went to the shore to try signaling the crew. Alxebren made his way along the harbour floor, planning on ambushing his enemies. As a Daemon, he didn’t need to breath, which allowed for an ambush. The men on the beach didn’t realise he was there until he charged out of the water, smashing three out of the way with one of his arms. He reached out and picked one up by his hair, pulled himself up to his full thirty foot height and smashed his victim down on a pair who were readying their crossbows. The remaining nine of them turned to run, but before they could get far, he leapt over them, using his wings to increase his speed. Using his wings to spin himself, adding extra speed to his weapon, he smashed them to the side with his axe. He finished the last survivor by stomping him flat. Turning towards the centre of the Island he took flight, looking for people Ardaris and Scetto knew, he smashed a ripperdactyl and rider out of his way, as he saw his first victim. Speeding towards the doomed elf, he felt the sting of a few blow darts, but ignored the minor pain. The elf dived out of the way, timing it to the point where he couldn’t correct his course. The Bloodthirster smashed into the spot Eliara had been moments before, shattering the face of the building, the dust from the obliterated masonry making it hard to see, as she scrambled to further distance herself from the monstrosity. It loomed above her, the indistinct shadow of a thirty foot tall giant, with massive bat-like wings, the elf started to stand so she could run, but before she was halfway up, one of the Daemon’s monstrous, clawed hand grabbed her, and lifted her to it’s face. “Your pet vampire isn’t here to save you now!” It laughed, and raised it’s other hand, stroking her hair back with a claw-like fingernail, “Such a pretty face, a pity if something were to happen to it!” Eliara, leaned back, pulling a knife from her boot, and jammed the small blade between the finger and nail. The Daemon roared in pain, tossing the elf away from it, and clutching it’s injured finger. The monster gingerly plucked the dagger from underneath it’s fingernail. She watched, knowing that she couldn’t escape, as it bent the dagger to the point where the blade was nearly parallel with the hilt. It turned, it’s face a mask of primal rage, as it looked at her. “I was planning on just killing you, but now you can expect much worse!” She didn’t doubt it’s words. When it started to turn away, and she knew that it was going to kill her friends. She had to do something. After it had moved away, she ran into her room, and started looking for her bow and quiver, and knew exactly where it was when she couldn’t find it. She moved to the chest where she kept her other weapons. She grabbed two more daggers, and a sword. Boqtlan ran out of the room where he rested, leapt onto his cold one, and spurred his mount towards the barracks where the Daemon was attacking, but not before he saw Eliara, daggers in hand, did a running jump, onto the monster’s upper thigh, using the weapons to hold on. The Bloodthirster span, towards its attacker, nearly throwing the elf off. As he got closer, he could see more detail, things like the desperation on her face, as she used the small blades to climb higher on the Daemon’s back This bloody elf didn’t know when to quit! After a few attempts to throw her off, he grinned evilly, and threw himself into the air, gaining altitude rapidly he felt his attacker climbing higher. She knew what he was planning to do. After he reached around seven hundred meters in the air, he pulled his wings in, and started to dive. He felt the elf coming loose, starting to slip as he travelled faster and faster towards the ground. Boqtlan could only watch as the elf sheathed her daggers and jumped off of the plummeting Daemon, landing heavily, and sprawling away. He’d been waiting within charge range of the building waiting for the Bloodthirster to land, and while he wanted to help the elf, he had to try to get the Daemon before it killed everyone. Norimia ran out of his room in time to see Eliara jump off the back of a plummeting daemon. He stopped suddenly in shock, long enough to watch an eight hundred pound saurus on cold one slammed into the Daemon, spearhead first. He knew that Boqtlan could handle himself, so he ran to Eliara, hoping that she wasn’t dead. “Stupid LIZARD!!” Alxebren screamed, swinging his arm with all his strength at the saurus, he clipped the cold one’s side, leaving a long gash on its left flank. He fought to his feet, attacking back with a vengeance, managing to unseat the oldblood, but the fight was far from over, evidenced by the fact that he wasn’t actually injured. The saurus stood, weapons at the ready, waiting for him to attack. He looked around for something to use to do away with his scaled antagonist. It was then he saw the human making sure the elf was alive. He snarled at the lizard, and leapt towards the pair. The human turned to see what was happening, just in time to see the oldblood interpose himself between the Daemon and them. Alxebren smashed the reptilian warrior out of his way, then swerved to finish him. Norimia couldn’t watch as the Daemon drove a spear through the sauri’s rib cage. He stood up, sword in hand, as the monster sauntered up in front of him. “Well, looks like you should make your peace with your gods, mongrel.” It laughed hideously, and Norimia didn’t miss the reference to his elven blood. He plastered a grin onto his face, although it probably came out as more of a grimace. “I would, but who would I make peace with?” The creature bared it’s teeth in what looked like a grin. “Maybe you should ask your ancestors.” Norimia was honestly surprised that his attempt to stall the Daemon was working “I would, but unfortunately they seem to have a bad case of mortality.” The Bloodletter chuckled at the comment, and he continued “You were around back then I’m sure, maybe you could tell me.” his opponent laughed loudly, and looked down at him. “I might, but I could just take you to one of your ancestors, your people have an annoying tenacity when it comes to dying. Hopefully it’s a problem that is less present now.” the way he leered down at him told Norimia that he was running out of time. “But last time I checked my ancestors had a habit of dying of old age. And unfortunately it’s an incredibly hard habit to break.” He smirked “And the only way I know of that you can talk to someone who’s had that habit for too long is necromancy.” The Daemon sneered at the mention of necromancy, but he continued, “And the extent of my knowledge in that field is ‘stab them before they do it’!“ The Bloodthirster laughed at that comment. He might actually have a chance! Alxebren sobered, he needed to get this conversation over with, although it was entertaining. Time to start getting to the point, “Ahh, but vampires are fairly good at breaking that habit, they are often… Long lived.” He saw the look of confusion on the human’s face. Still, he kept trying to stall his death, “I didn’t realize I had any relatives of that kind, maybe you should introduce us.” Alxebren laughed at his comment, he couldn’t resist, he roared with laughter for nearly half a minute, and when he stopped he grinned in absolute glee. “I don’t need to, you’ve already met her!” The dawning look of realisation on the fool’s face was priceless, but it had gone on for long enough. He reached towards the human. He suddenly felt a dozen lances stab into his back, and couldn’t keep from screeching from the pain. Raymond’s lance shattered from the impact, and he pulled his sword, and went to start slashing the thing, but it jumped away, although he still managed to slash the Daemon’s left wing, preventing it from simply flying off. It leapt over Norimia, and grabbed Eliara by the arm, lifting her in front of them “Break off or the Elf dies!” it growled, and smiled when they stopped. The Bloodletter started to walk away, chuckling, but Raymond was laughing too. Eliara had winked, and she would find a way to get free. Conquakhe waited with the rest of the mustered skinks and Kroxigor for the Daemon to round the corner, him and his spawn mates waiting at the front. They all stood around a foot taller than the skinks around them. Except for Alyrhex, the only kroxigor in their spawning, who stood somewhere around five feet taller than his kin, they were all fairly conspicuous, due to size, and their steel grey scales made them even more noticeable. The Bloodthirster stalked around the corner, and would have been showered in javelins, but they all realised that he was holding Eliara, who they all knew of, if they didn’t know her in person. It brandished her in front of them shouting, “Let me past or I kill her!” They started out of the monster’s way, when she pulled a knife from its sheath, and jammed it between his finger and his claw. Screaming, it flinged her into the side, smashing her into the side of the building “Not again!” the Daemon wailed, as it clutched the finger, knife still in it. Conquakhe looked around, and realised that it no longer had it’s hostage, so they could pincushion it. “Throw javelins!” He shouted, and the creature roared under the hail of javelins, and started to smash skinks out of the way. Alyrhex roared in outrage at the attack upon the little ones, leaping over the heads of the skinks, swinging his maul, he caught the Daemon squarely in the chest, flinging it backwards, taking it off it’s feet, the other kroxigors starting forward, as he pummeled the murderous creature into the ground, shattering it’s ribcage, and grinding the monster into the ground as he constantly smashed the creature with his maul. It gave one last effort to save itself, interposing it’s arm to stop the mace, but the scales of a thunder lizard wouldn’t have stopped the grey kroxigor from crushing the life out of his victim. Important Characters Conquakhe- Leader of Cuaqtla’s building caste, he also leads the kroxigor in battle and is larger than the average skink, spawn brother of Alyrhex. Has an unknown blessing with steel-like grey scales Alyrhex- Largest and oldest kroxigor in Cuaqtla, spawn brother of Conquakhe. Has an unknown blessing with steel-like grey scales Norimia- An experienced warrior, member of The Legion of the Ulv, previously in the service of Vasdbo descended from Ardaris Baron Raymond- A Bretonnian Lord and Grail Knight, Renowned for service to the Lady and the King, He has even ridden beside the Fay Enchantress! Lady Kathleen- A gifted Prophetess of the Lady, She rides with the Army of Duke Raymond Annemarie- An imperial ex-farmer turned cultist. Currently a slave to Alxebren Alxebren The Cursed- A powerful Greater Daemon, blessed by Khorne, responsible for many tragedies that have struck the the World, and most recently killed hundreds of people in The City of The Damned Eliara- Norimia’s second in command, this Ex-Wood Elf is one of the finest archers in The Empire, badly injured by Alxebren, survival uncertain Important Locations Realm of Chaos- Warhammer equivalent of hell. 'Nuff said Cuaqtla- Located on the island of Kaixilixapati this Kahoun was created as a place to store knowledge and as a focal point for the geomantic web Deceased Characters Boqtlan- The lead Oldblood of Cuaqtla, had the blessings of Itzl, Quetzl and Tepok and was revered by the inhabitants of Cuaqtla as a great leader, when it came to war Goqtli himself listened to him, rode a Cold One Killed by Alxebren while trying to save Norimia
Quite funny this time! The one thing that I wasn't expecting was the build up to Alxebren's revenge only to have him show boat for a human. But I suppose that's chaos for you! And was hoping to read the bit about him tormenting and tearing apart bandits. Really build up his fighting prowess and show off the confidence that lead to his downfall on the island.
To be fair, "Slaves to the Sky" was brilliant! Hard to top that one! Great mix of humour and action. This one had the humour, had great action, but this one doesn't have anyone telling you to number your chapters. So maybe we should be more critical that you didn't number this one! Haha! Also... Noooooo! Not Boqtlan! We need more saurus action!
I'm not sure if anyone other than you and bob read 'Anguish' it's my second longest (I think) piece, the longest being Strange Alliances
Copy the links and put them in order in one place, in order, then you kill two birds with one stone. Covers the chronological issue and invites more readers to an easy start!
I did, it's in my index, And actually Anguish is the third longest, it's in the order they are supposed to be read, from New Friends, down to Rage and Revenge (And other than the Origins also in Chronological Order)
This is getting better and better with every installment I loved the "evil villain's speech" bit, especially!