THE THOUSAND HERO SLAYER by Silvertide

Chapter Three: Sneering At Fate's Fury

Countless insectoid legs push forward the hideous, serpentine body covered with moaning heads. My eyes widen and my hand clenches my half-broken sword as the monstrosity lumbers toward us. Maldor and I stand firm, with our weapons aimed at its head. It stops right in front of us. My dismembered sword points nearly straight up, waiting for a good moment to strike. I almost swing my blade as it leans forward and speaks once more:

"Well?"

Maldor spits on its face, straight in the eyes. Shock fills its face, then anger. It lurches back and raises its scythe ready to strike. Maldor stands unafraid, saying:

"You may not know us, but I know what you are! Thule Silth, former priest of Rathma!. Thule Silth, killer of his own kin! Thule Silth, a traitor of humanity and a born monster masquerading as human! You are a beast better known as the butcher of a thousand heroes, but those you left behind remember your first name."

The thousand hero slayer laughs, "So my former comrades have sent a bounty hunter to kill me for my so called 'crimes'? How much did they pay you to perform this suicide mission?"

"No one is paying me anything. You were once one of us. Have you been so corrupted that you cannot recognize a former kinsmen?"

"Well it has been a long time since I have seen another necromancer- who still had his own body attached to his head!"

The monster flexes its snake-like body and turns it sideways to face us. Horrified, still breathing faces of many men stare back at us. A handful of white-haired heads stand out, staring at my companion with eyes full of fear. I look at Maldor, whose face is now distressed with rage.

"You will pay for what you have done. Your experiments with the dark arts will end now, betrayer!" Maldor waves his hand and Thule Silth is momentarily surrounded by a red aura.

The creature laughs. "Ha ha! A curse of 'Iron Maiden', if I even scratch either of you with my scythe, the curse might cut my head off. It will not save you, I have other means to add you to my collection!"

Before I could blink, Maldor tackles me to the ground. A wave of fireballs pass over our heads. Quickly spinning around, I hurl a clump of dirt into the monster's eyes. It curses and rubs its eyes furiously. My companion and I scurry away and hide behind a pile of corpses. For a moment, all is quiet. The silence breaks as rains of fire, cascades of ice and streaks of lightning fill the cavern around us. Shards of bone and rusted armor are thrown into the air around us.

"So what do your 'instincts' say we should do now, death mage?" I ask Maldor.

"Thule is using the the magics of those he has fused with his body. He will eventually run out of mana, but-"

"...but he has a thousand mages worth of mana, doesn't he? Perhaps we can find something here to use against him. Some of these corpses may hold weapons and spell tomes we could use against the monster."

"What weapon could defeat that? Had I known he had grown this big I would have brought an army! I never did bother to learn summoning necromancy, now that we need an army, now I wish I had..." says Maldor as he gingerly peeks out from behind the pile.

"An army? How will we have time to find one of those while dodging fireballs-"

Shrill cries echo in the chamber. We peek out from our hiding place. Some of the imps that came for us earlier spill out from the entry, charging at Thule Silth. They are shattered and split apart by waves of fire and ice before their blades and bludgeons can reach their mark. The behemoth closes the door and bars it shut with a slightly rusted, but sturdy halberd. A cacophony of shrieks erupts from behind the door as it shakes and shudders with hard knocks and banging sounds.

"You distract him, then I will get the door! There may be enough imps to kill Thule."

"Maldor, that sounds like a terrible plan!"

A fireball flies overhead. Then another one flies toward the opposite side of the room. Then a hail of fire peppers the room.

The thousand hero slayer stops his assault to assail us with words, "After I take your heads, I shall cleanse my catacombs of this imp infestation! You can have the pleasure of watching me, but only if I get your heads in one piece. Come to me now, little mortals!"

Maldor and shrink back to our hiding place. We grow so quiet I wonder if we remembered to breathe.

"I do not think I would survive being a distraction," I say grimly.

Thunder booms and plumes of smoke fill the top of the cavern as Thule Silth continues his bombardment. As the chamber shakes with his magic, he screams, "Come now! Come before I accidentally drop the ceiling on your heads. A crushed head cannot watch me kill the imps. The two of you do want to watch, don't you?"

A spell tome falls loose from a corpse next to Maldor.

I thumb through the fallen tome.

"This is a horadric spell tome! And I think I understand enough of the glyphs to use this!"

"You know how to read horadric mage glyphs? And here I thought you were a simple warrior," exclaimed Maldor.

"It is not uncommon for warriors of Westmarch to know at least a little. There are many old horadric spell scrolls in our local ruins, so it is practically expected to be able to use some of the more basic scrolls. In fact, looking for old scrolls and studying their secrets was an old hobby of mine."

"What does this spell tome do?"

"I think it's a spell for golem creation..."

"Well what are you waiting for? Cast it already, maybe we can send it as a distraction instead of you!"

I shoot a glare at Maldor and then set myself to deciphering the tome. Reading the first few glyphs is a struggle, but it strangely becomes easier with each deciphered glyph. Suddenly time seems to speed up and the glyphs begin to read themselves to me. The glyphs glow and then disappear from the pages as they enter my mind's comprehension. Page after page of glyphs disappear by themselves and yet I seem to understand it all just as fast as they fade from the pages.

"So there you are," booms a thunderous voice.

I look up to see the monster above me. I look to my side. Maldor is gone! I look down. The spell tome has disappeared! I look up again. Thule Silth slowly raises his scythe, chuckling maniacally. Sweat trickles down my brow. Never before in my life have I felt such dread.

Bright blue-white flashes of light explode at the corner of my eye. I turn to see Maldor firing spell generated shafts of bone straight at the beast's face. The shafts shatter on impact, making the monster lurch back. Maldor quickly runs behind a large pile of bodies as the creature retaliates with a wave of fireballs. I speed over to another pile of corpses not far from Maldor's.

"What happened, warrior? Where is that golem?"

"I don't know, the book disappeared after I finished reading it!"

"Stupid jack of all trades amateur magic user! That means you've memorized the spell! Those kind of horadric spell tomes need you to try casting the spell after reading them!"

"Oh."

I search my mind for the spell that has now engraved itself to my mind. Somehow I speak the words and make the right gestures. Out of the floor, a greyish thing shaped like a featureless man rises out of the floor. I point at the monster slowly lumbering toward us and the golem runs to fight it.

"Now when the golem begins exchanging blows we will make a run for it, warrior!"

Thule Silth swats the golem with one of its claws as if it were a fly. The golem is sent flying out of our sight.

"...well I suppose we could just run for the door on separate paths and hope one of us makes it," I suggest.

"I was going to suggest you try distracting Thule, but after seeing that I don't think that would have helped. On three?"

"...three!"

The two of us run for the door, weaving between the piles of skeletons and ducking under flying icicles and balls of fire. Rotting corpses wrapped in metal and burnt leather litter the way before us. Hundreds lie before me. All of them headless and abandoned. I wonder how many of them were captured in my sleep like I was. Escaping the small ones only to become one with that monstrosity. I nearly trip over a broken axe as I catch sight of the the door.

Then a scream echoes in the chamber.

Something heavy weighs me down as I cry out in pain. The walls yell back at me, with the same anguished pain. I am belly down on the ground. I turn my head and find the dead body Thule Silth threw at me as I ran. Hopefully Maldor made it even though I-

"I'm sorry, Sigmund..."

To my left I see Maldor similarly pinned, but with two armored corpses.

"Well, I didn't think it would work anyway," I say sadly.

Thud. Thud. Thud. The floor shudders as the monster slowly lumbers toward us. Its lengthy body is flexible, but slow to move because of its bulk. A satisfied grin wraps around its face.

"I could kill you where you both lie, but I would like to keep those heads in one piece. Maybe I will stitch your pet golem next to your heads after I finish it off," laughed Thule Silth.

Only now do I realize it. Between the sounds of the monster's massive legs are the sounds of smaller foot steps. Foot steps from the doorway. I turn my head looking to the entryway and just a few steps from the door is my golem! Its footsteps are labored and it drags one leg as it walks, but it lives!

It looks to me, as if for direction. The golem sees the monster behind me and begins to walk to me, but I point at the door and scream, "The door, get the door!"

The golem begins to attack the door. With every blow, the halberd that holds it closed bends ever so slightly. Thule Silth's smile melts away. It lumbers past us toward the door.

As countless giant legs pass us by, Maldor and I try to inch our ways from underneath the heavy corpses. Slowly but surely, we manage to break free.

"...can you walk? I think I was only bruised from that," Asks Maldor.

"Yes, but I think we should find a good hiding place and quickly, before-"

Hundreds of imps pour out from the door as the halberd holding the door shatters. My poor golem is ripped apart as the imps throw themselves at Thule Silth. The massive monster hurls waves of ice, fire and lightning as the unending sea of small creatures thrashes him. His scythe cuts down a great many of the small ones as their shaman leaders summon enchanted fireballs at the thing with many heads.

Maldor pulls out his dagger.

"You still have your mission."

"Yes," replies Maldor without turning around. "My curse of iron maiden weakens Thule with every imp he cuts down with his scythe, but the imps will not be strong enough to finish him. If they were, they would have killed him long ago. An unholy balance of power in these caves has allowed Thule and the imps to live here without completely destroying the other."

"...and now you hope to tilt that balance against Thule's favor."

"Yes, but I do not expect to survive what remains of the imps later. You should try to find a way out while you can."

"The only way out is through that door," I say as I pull my broken blade out from under the corpse that fell on me. "Let us go. To death or freedom. We have no other way."

"Very well."

Maldor peppers Thule Silth with a rain bone shards as I climb up a towering corpse pile near him. Imps of many colors break away from their assault on the monster to pierce Maldor with their spears, but he knocks them aside with his blade. Several of the large imps with staffs fling fire at me, but Thule's storm of ice and lightning flattens them. The giant beast has all of its attention on the army of imps around it, he does not see me making ready for my strike. At the top of the bony tower, I make my leap.

My edge of my blade, broken as it is, cleanly connects with Thule Silth. Blood gushes from his throat. It gargles some horrible sound before glaring at me. I run and look back behind me. Its glare at me breaks as it looks to Maldor's way with horror.

Maldor fires a well aimed bone spear at his head, knocking it off. It soundlessly rolls away from the imp army. Without its mastermind, the monstrous body's limps being to flail out of control. The many heads on its back cease moaning and begin screaming blood curdling cries. Its legs pull its body to move in more than one direction as its stinger and claws continue to kill imps without pause. The imps continue to attack the now headless monster of war.

I pick up Silth's head and hand it to Maldor, which he quietly slips into a sack.

"So any idea how we can get past that? I want to show my brothers that justice was done this day."

"Maybe if we tip toe very carefully?" I jokingly suggest as I lean on a pile of skeletons. A book falls out from the pile.

"...this is a spell tome for a town portal spell!" I exclaim as I thumb through the book.

"Well that is convenient!"

"Maybe, Maldor. Maybe not. I do not know which town is closest to this cave. What if it is one overrun with bandits or some other dangerous-"

We both look at the unending battle at the doorway. Maldor looks straight at me and nods. I nod back and begin to learn the spell.

A blue shimmering oval opens before me. It is a tear in time and space, yet it's edges are so clean and smooth. I hesitant before entering. What lies before me? What dangers could be behind this enchanted doorway? What if it is something worse than-

"What are you waiting for? Go! Go! Go! Screams Maldor as he shoves me into the town portal.

Mere moments later the taste of grass and mud fills my mouth. I get up and find myself standing in a grass field encircled by the hollow remains of old stony buildings. A clear night sky full of stars hangs above me. A forest in the distance lies behind us while a graveyard full of dilapidated tombstones is ahead of us.

"So. Where are we?" asks Maldor.

" I have never been here before, but I will ask directions when I get the chance."

A moan fills the air.

"That was not you, was it?" I ask.

"No."

From within the ruins, walking corpses stagger out. In the distance more figures shaped like men stagger toward us. All of them coming from the graveyard.

"You're a necromancer, right? How about you ask these fine undead for directions..."

"I think we should head to that forest. And fast."

"So they are saying we should go to the forest."

"No, I think they are hungry," says Maldor as he turns and runs to the forest.

I follow closely behind him.

At the edge of the woods, we hesitate. We catch our breaths silently as the undead march at us, without losing speed.

"What do your instincts tell us about these woods?"

"Nothing. But my nose tells me that it does not smell as bad as the corpse-filled room we went into earlier."

"My nose is saying the same, which is good enough for me," I say as I step into the woods. The necromancer follows behind me. He turns around to see if the undead are still following us. I do the same, and then I keeping going forward, with one hand lightly clutching the sword in my hilt.

THE END