Hey guys. This is Lord-of-Rhodor (formerly King Araz 7) Listen, sorry about the unannounced hiatus, but, not to put too fine a point on it, shit has one down where I do most of my writing. First there was a windstorm that took down power across most of northwest Washington, and then my account became a bitch and locked me out. Then I lost my flash drive, and I could go on. At any rate, on with the story!
"Do you believe him?"
It had been to days since the Endeavour had limped into port.
Araz had been given emergency medical attention and had recovered well. His ship and crew, however, hadn't been so lucky. His men had been buried in accordance with Rhodorian customs. Then the Endeavour had been gutted and sunk to avoid blocking the harbor to traffic.
Now Elsa and Anna were walking to Araz's quarters to ask him some more questions. They would have done it sooner, but he had been mourning the day before and comatose the day before that.
Elsa considered her sister's question, and then shrugged.
"I don't know. He's not like any other officials that I've met. Then again, Rhodorians are kinda quirky."
She knocked on his door.
"Araz? Sir? Can we come in?"
There was no reply.
"What is that smell?" Anna said suddenly.
Elsa smelled it too.
The air reeked of ozone and burning.
She and Anna glanced at each other fearfully.
Something had gone horribly wrong.
(Earlier that morning)
Araz yawned widely and sat up in his bed.
He grunted as cracked his neck and rubbed his shoulder. For some reason it was aching.
I'm getting old, he thought wryly as he pulled on his ochre colored trousers. Of course, at just under eight hundred years old, he wasn't exactly a spring chicken, but for his extremely long-lived race, he was still young.
He hopped over to where his prosthetic left leg sat propped against the wall. He inserted it into its socket and then twisted it to lock it into place.
As he put on his weapons belt, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror above his dresser. His torso rippled with lean muscles and was crisscrossed with old scar. Both gave testament to a lifetime of intense physical training. He also sported a number of tattoos.
Then, as he was putting on his leather bandoliers, it happened.
His right arm began to burn with an intense burning agony, and he began to panic. Not here. Not in the single most dangerous place in this world to have an attack.
He gritted his teeth in a silent howl as the vine tattoos that twined their way down his arms began to glow with eerie, blue-white light.
He looked in the mirror again and saw that his eyes were glowing too. Then a bolt of lightning arced from his body and shattered the mirror.
His body spasmed and he collapsed to his knees.
As he had done for centuries, ever since the attacks had started, he placed a hand on each temple and concentrated, bending all of his formidable psychic power to the task of forcing all that unnatural, dangerous energy back down.
Finally, after a good ten minutes of struggling, the elemental energy began to reluctantly retreat. Araz rejoiced. He had done it! He'd avoided a deadly crisis, and…
There was a massive, shattering crash and Araz's concentration was destroyed.
The elemental energy surged back with a vengeance and he howled as lightning blasted from his entire body.
Elsa had only meant to break the hinges and lock of the door with ice. She hadn't meant to turn whole freaking door into ice. Then again, at least she hadn't done anything really embarrassing like fire an ice spike through the door and pin Araz to the wall.
As the door fell inward, she and Anna saw Araz kneeling on the floor, hands against the sides of his head.
Then the door shattered on the floor, and he looked up with a start.
For a split second, their eyes met, then Araz let out a truly awful howl, and lightning blasted from virtually every part of his body. Each tendril of energy struck a metal object in the room and, from there, arced from to yet more metal, until the room was spanned by a web of scintillating web of blue light.
The sisters leapt back, but the onslaught only lasted a few seconds.
Araz stood slowly, shaking, a terrified expression on his face.
Elsa took a step forward, and he scrambled back.
"S-stay away!" He shouted, stumbling, and bracing himself against the wall.
There was a flash of blue light, a tremendous thunderclap, and the entire wall, and a god chunk of the ceiling exploded outward.
Elsa heard screams, and a terrible rumbling sound as the rubble cascaded the courtyard below.
Araz glanced at her, then at the hole he had made, then leapt.
Elsa ran to the hole and looked down.
Araz had somehow managed to land without injury, but was being cornered by several guards.
Elsa had seen Rhodorian warriors in action before and knew that even with no weapon, the situation would get messy. She tried to get her men to back down, but it was too late.
With inhuman speed, Araz lashed out with his foot, and a guard crumpled. Then he flipped over a second, boxing his ears as he went, then brought his heel crashing down on the head of a third.
Both men collapsed.
The remaining two guards leveled their spears at Araz. But before they could do anything more, Araz flicked his wrists, and they were yanked toward him by an invisible force. Araz stuck out his arms and clotheslined both men.
All of this happened over the span of a few seconds.
Before Elsa could fully comprehend the fact that five of her elite Royal Guards had been taken out by one, unarmed man in under five seconds, he was running again.
She flicked her wrist, and a long slide of ice formed, leading down to the courtyard.
Together, she and Anna slid down it and set off in pursuit.
He wasn't very hard to track. All they had to do was follow the trail of unconscious, groaning, and occasionally, lightly smoking guards who were sprawled all over the place, clearly having tried and failed to stop Araz.
Eventually, panting and nursing painful stitches in their sides, the two sisters caught up to him.
Araz was on a pier, his back to the water, facing a mass of at least 16 guards. He was gripping his knife with his left hand in a reverse grip, and there was a huge, four-and-a-half foot long broadsword. It had a leaf-shaped blade with a gold double helix twining its way up the blade. Its crossguard and fist-shaped pommel were also made of gold inset with gems, and it had a razor-sharp knuckle guard.*
Araz's mouth was set in a determined line. His eyes clearly showed that he was willing to go down fighting.
The guards moved forward.
"S-stop!" Cried Elsa, "Stop!"
The guards hesitated.
Their indecision lasted only a millisecond, but it was all that Araz needed.
There was a massive flash of blue-white light, an earsplitting thunderclap, and an explosion of steam.
Elsa blinked the spots out of her eyes and pulled herself to her feet. Her ears were ringing and her elbow was bruised where she had landed on it.
The thick steam finally cleared, and she realized what had happened as she saw the end of the pier.
There were two holes in it. The nearer of the two was about an inch in diameter, and its edges were smoldering. The other was a good three feet around and cleanly cut.
Araz must have called down a bolt of lightning, stunning them, and then cut the second hole from beneath himself, dropping him into the bay.
As she reached this conclusion, she ran to the bigger hole and peered into it, looking for some sign of Araz.
There, floating in the frigid water, were a few boards from the pier, some electrocuted fish, and a fried seagull.
Araz had vanished.
Once again, sorry for the wait, and thank you for your patience.
Now I must apologize again, because I have to go on hiatus again. As it says in my profile, I always write out my chapters before transcribing them to my flashdrive, and I've fallen behind on my writing. I need to catch up before posting the next two chapters.
Don't forget that I have a dare story for all of my OCs and the Fazgang, so please check that out and leave any dares or asks that tickle your fancy in the comments of any story that I write.
This is Lord-of-Rhodor signing out for now.