Chapter Eleven: Sacrifice
"Am I the only one that thinks leaving Starfire behind is the worst idea ever?" Beast Boy tried to convince the other two to turn and go back for Starfire. Alas, there were a large number of Balor demons on their tail and trying to go back would be suicide. Beast Boy knew this…but still couldn't let go of the fact he was leaving his friend behind.
"Normally I'd agree but she made her decision and we can't let it go to waste," Tyrael reminded Beast Boy as the trio raced down the halls. The other guards must've been told to relax since they had gone down several different corridors and the only guards they've seen were the ones in pursuit. For the most part it had been fairly straightforward which way they should go as most of the corridors were marked various labels like 'barracks' and 'storage B'. That luck wouldn't last forever as the trio came to a halt before a fork in the road…just like the last time there was no clear indication which way would be more suitable for them to travel. Both were empty but eventually turned in opposite directions.
"Decision time, which way?" Beast Boy hastily reminded them as he glanced back to see the advancing demons.
"This way!" Both Tyrael and Jacqueline shouted at the same time. Unfortunately, neither of them was aware which person Beast Boy was talking to and each one wound up running down different corridors. Beast Boy tried to stop them but the rushing demons forced him to take the path with Tyrael.
When Tyrael glanced over his shoulder to see only Beast Boy following him, he realized the grievous error that had occurred. However, before he could even turn around half of the demons continued after them and forced them to keep pushing forward, even without Jacqueline. "That damned girl!" Tyrael cursed, using his pistols to try and slow their pursuers. "Can't listen to a blasted order even if it's to save her own life!"
"What if she's going the right way?"
"This way definitely leads out. I have a good feeling about this hallway," Tyrael explained as they reached a stairwell and quickly moved to the next floor up. He noticed that there were less illumination crystals lighting the hallways, which meant that most of the light was coming from the outside – they have finally gotten out of the basement levels.
Tyrael was half-right about his original statement – he had chosen the pathway that lead to the most direct route out of the citadel. Unfortunately, it was also the most obvious route of escape and when the two heroes reached the main floor they found that the stairwell had taken them directly into the main halls of the citadel where there was around thirty demons standing between them and the main doors. Beast Boy and Tyrael just stood dumbstruck as all the guards turned to face them.
"Um…hey there, we're a little lost. Would any of you happen to know where the head is?"
"Leave this to me," Beast Boy smirked confidently, taking a few steps away from Tyrael. The Titan quickly transformed into an elephant much to the surprise of the demons. Tyrael understood Beast Boy's plan, climbed onto the beast's back, and held on tight. The demons quickly found themselves powerless to stop the stampeding elephant that plowed through their ranks as if they were blades of grass. Tyrael opened up his spell book and raised one hand into the air. His body was surrounded with a golden aura moments before he launched a bolt of energy towards the main gates. The sturdy doors withstood the blast but several prominent cracks over the doors structure showed that it had been weakened by the blast and when the several tonne animal rammed the door it shattered into pieces.
"Ha! Freedom!" Tyrael cheered, grinning brightly as the sun shone brightly upon his face. Now in the open, the pair would need to move quickly so Beast Boy promptly changed into a stallion and began racing down the front steps of the citadel. The outside guards could look on in shock as the pair zipped past them. However, they wouldn't were in the clear as of yet as a pair of Balor demons mounted their six-legged steeds and gave chase.
As the two heroes rode into the wilderness, Tyrael noticed the two demons that were quickly gaining ground on them. They were slowly coming up on both sides in an obvious attempt for a pincer attack and to control their direction – Tyrael knew he had to keep them at a distance. Drawing his pistol out, he did his best to shoot them down but was having little success. It was difficult to aim effectively at two horsemen that were approaching from the rear on horseback and the lack of a saddle meant that Tyrael had to keep one hand holding onto Beast Boy at all times.
"Veer left!" Tyrael shouted when one of the demons hurled a ball of fire at them. Beast Boy complied and banked left in time to avoid the fireball, though the explosion shook them both up a bit. Tyrael continued to instruct Beast Boy in which direction to move in order to avoid the counter-attacks while he continued taking shots at them. "Slow down a bit Beast Boy!"
"Slow down? Are you nuts?"
"They're going to catch up either way, go slower so I can handle them better," Tyrael instructed. With few other options available, he slowed his pace enough so that Tyrael could use his other hand without fear of losing his balance. As expected, with Beast Boy moving slower one of the demons quickly rode up alongside of them with sword in hand.
The demon knight took a swing at Tyrael but he drew out his second pistol and used it to deflect the oncoming attack. Tyrael fired some rounds at close range but it was still difficult to aim and his opponent would use his sword to deflect the shots. The two began exchanging attacks in a close battle with numerous near hits on either side and each only just managing to hold off the opponent's attacks. With Tyrael too concerned with holding off one of the demons, the second rider started approaching from the other side. Tyrael realized he couldn't handle two at the same time…not on horseback and not with his pistols.
"Beast Boy!" he shouted for his companion to do something to fix this situation. At such a high speed chase, Beast Boy figured the easiest thing to do was just stop – so he just put all four hooves down and screeched to a halt while the knights shot past them. The two knights managed to slow down several meters ahead but this was the perfect opportunity for Tyrael as he put both demons in his crosshairs and just unleashed a fury of gunfire on both of them. The hail of gunfire caused both of the demon's steeds to rear up in protest before they and their steeds collapsed to the ground.
"We got 'em now," Tyrael stated as he dismounted and drew his hammer out. He raced over to the closet demon and without even giving the demon a chance to get back to his feet, knocked him out with a swift strike from his hammer. Beast Boy went after the other one with a precision strike in the form of a ram.
Tyrael headed over to one of the steeds and guided it back onto its feet. "You said you have some more friends in this land…I think we'd best find them and fast," Tyrael stated as he mounted the new steed.
"What about Starfire and Jacqueline?"
"There's not much we can do about them by ourselves, we need more people if we're going to go back for them," Tyrael reluctantly explained. He didn't like having to leave his companions behind but…going back would just wind up with them being captured again. Beast Boy mounted the other steed and the pair headed off into the nearby woods. Finding the others was not going to be an easy task but right now they just needed to disappear from sight for a short while as to prevent further pursuit.
"That stupid paladin! Can't follow freaking directions if his life depended on it!" Jacqueline cursed loudly as she was chased down the hall by a number of demons. So much for counting on support from her comrades – she was on her own from this point on so it was time to do the only thing she could do at this point…run like the wind. More demons were joining the pursuit though as she saw a group of demons appear from around the corner at the end of the corridor. With the path ahead blocked off, Jacqueline panicked and took the only other route available to her that happened to be an immediate turn right. That turn just took her down another corridor occupied by demons – this time a large Tauranton demon stood before her, taking up the entire width of the corridor.
She unslung her guitar and quickened her pace. At the last moment, she went down into a baseball-style slide feet-first between the legs of the demon. Rising to her knees, she took a major-league swing right at the back of the demon's knees. The beast roared in pain as it fell forward right atop of a couple of her pursuing Balor demons.
No time for celebration though as she hurried on her way with still a handful on her tail. The hallway she had chosen led her to a spiral stairwell that ascended higher into the citadel. Since doubling back was no longer an option Jacqueline reluctantly started up the stairs. Little did she realize she had gotten into one of the 'express' stairwells that went directly from the upper floors straight into the basement levels. After ascending almost a dozen floors non-stop, Jacqueline was starting to find herself a little winded…but luckily so were her pursuers.
"That's it…when I'm getting home…I'm never using the stairs again," Jacqueline panted as she just took a seat on the stairs. She was too tired at this point – it felt like she had been running for hours. It was only a matter of time before the sound of footsteps started echoing through the spiral stairwell again…except this time it was coming from above her. Jacqueline quickly rose to her feet in time to see another Balor demon approaching from behind her.
"You are trapped now little human," the demon spoke as took a step towards Jacqueline at the same time she backed up.
"Zere's not enough room in zis stairwell to swing zat big ol' sword of yours around," Jacqueline pointed out, though that meant she didn't have much room to use her guitar either. Sadly, super strength was not something that Jacqueline had at her disposal and hand-to-hand combat with an armored demon was unlikely to ever go in her favor. Slowly backing down the stairs step-by-step, Jacqueline noticed a crystal mounted on the wall – the ones that were used to provide light to the otherwise dark hallways. She grabbed the crystal and the illumination of the crystal was amplified by her powers, creating a blinding flash that she was smart enough to avert her eyes from. The demon, on the other hand, was not so lucky as the blinding flash completely disorientated him.
Using the hardest thing she had on hand, the crystal, she smashed the demon in the head as hard as she could. The crystal shattered into pieces against the metal facemask but didn't seem to do that much – the crystal was much softer than she had hoped for. Backing up a few steps and using the difference in elevation to her advantage, she hooked one arm around the back of his leg and used her other to grab him by a piece of his body armor. With a lot of grunting and pulling, Jacqueline pulled him off balance and down onto the steps behind her. Putting both knees onto his chest, she held onto the demon with one hand and used her other to push on the steps at which point gravity took over the rest. The grunts and curses of a injured demon filled the stairwell as Jacqueline rode the spiral staircase and despite it being a bit bumpy was quite amusing for her.
As it turned out, the others were advancing up the stairs at a leisurely pace, as there was no reason to hurry with their comrades near the top to block Jacqueline's advance. While they were more than expecting to run into Jacqueline coming back down the stairs, they were certainly not expecting Jacqueline to be using their comrade as a sled. Just moments before making contact, Jacqueline jumped off of the demon and let his body collide into his comrades, toppling them all over like bowling pins.
"You'll have to try better next time," Jacqueline taunted as she hopped over the bodies and exited the stairwell at the bottom. It was a lot of work to only wind up right where she started but at least she got rid of most of her pursuers. It was time to double back and hopefully join up with her friends…unless they had already escaped or were recaptured. For all she knew she could've been going the right way but she figured it was better to find her friends and worry about who was right or wrong later.
The hallways were surprisingly free of guards on the way back to the fork in the path that had originally split the three heroes up. Where the other guards were at this point was a mystery – perhaps her friends had stirred up more trouble than she realized. It took a while but eventually she found the same main hallway that her friends had originally broken out of, though she was way behind and when she arrived the guards there were still recovering from the stampeding elephant. It brought a bit of relief that her friends had managed to escape and thankfully left only a handful of guards able to even put up a resistance against Jacqueline. Of course, it didn't take very long until the guards that were still standing noticed Jacqueline standing in the middle of the hallway.
"Bonjour!" she waved to them before she gripped her guitar in both hands on the neck. It shimmered dimly under the influence of her powers making it more than just a simple instrument but a weapon of vengeance and she had a bone to pick with these demons. It was only twelve demons and about 100 meters of hallway to sprint…no problem for this heroine. Charging forth, the first demon she had to pass was a Tauranton. It tried to crush her with its large hammer but Jacqueline quickly side-stepped out of the way, jumped onto the hammer and leapt forward before smashing it in the face with a swing from her guitar. It was KO'ed in that one hit. The second one, a Balor, came up soon after she had landed, swinging and missing several times with his sword as Jacqueline danced around his blade gracefully. Doing a quick spin around him, she landed a precise blow with her guitar against the back of his legs, knocking him over and out of the fight.
A Nkrath came charging at Jacqueline with Tauranton closing in behind the Nkrath. Jacqueline dove headlong at the demon, clearing over the Nkrath except for her guitar that was held parallel to the floor and the neck of the guitar hooked underneath the demons chin. Jacqueline used this as a point of rotation as she landed on her feet with her back pressed up against the Nkrath. Bending down and pulling hard on her guitar, the Nkrath was pulled off its feet and hurled at the Tauranton, taking them both out in one swift motion. The next three were a two Balors and another Tauranton close behind. Jacqueline quickly slung her guitar over her shoulder and rushed for the closest Balor. Leaping forward, instead of clearing over him, she did a handspring off his shoulders, turning 180 degrees in the air and landing on the shoulders of the next Balor demon. She back-flipped off the Balor once again turning 180 degrees in the air and landed right onto the face of the Tauranton, letting gravity drive him straight to the ground in agony. She had managed to pass seven of them, now there were only another five standing between her and the broken main doors.
The next three, a Nkrath and two Balors, approached her more cautiously. Jacqueline was a in a rush though and she wasn't going to wait for them to take the fight to her. Jacqueline ignored the first one, ducking under a horizontal swing. During that motion, she turned 360 degrees and gripped her guitar once again and brought it straight into the face of the second demon. Since she hadn't advanced past the first demon, Jacqueline rotated in the opposite direction immediately afterwards and clobbered that demon in the face with another blow from her guitar. Continuing with the twirling theme, she spun again in the other direction with her guitar in the lead. It intercepted the attacking Balor's sword, knocking it to the side, and was followed by a roundhouse kick to the side of the head to stun him, and still spinning her guitar made it's second trip to the demon, this time making contact with its head and knocking him out.
"Ooo…need to lay back on the spinning next time," Jacqueline groaned, having to take a moment to regain her balance after a total of four complete spins in a few seconds.
Only two guards were left ahead of her now but unfortunately two of the guards that she had merely bypassed were coming from the rear. Taking them all out at the same time would be a little tricky considering they were coming from four different directions. Flipping her guitar around, Jacqueline quickly struck the lowest chords on her guitar, creating a rippling shockwave in all directions that toppled over all the guards around her leaving her path clear.
"That was fun but now I must be off," Jacqueline gave a curt wave to the semi-conscious guards behind her and headed out the door and to freedom. It was a shame she had little idea where her friends had gone off to – there was no sign of them outside so they've must bolted pretty quickly. Jacqueline just sighed lightly as she realized she was going to have to hike it on foot from here. She didn't care where she was going so long as it wasn't the citadel. Unfortunately for her, she had started off in a much different direction than the one her friends had taken.
"I must admit young one, I am thoroughly impressed by your resilience. I can understand why Lord Kronos is so concerned about your power," Napharak complimented his opponent, even though she was leaning up against the wall trying hard to catch her breath. One arm was wrapped around her stomach as she panted softly and rapidly. There was a small cut above her left eyebrow and a small trail of blood had trickled down her face a while ago.
"Why do you serve Kronos?" Starfire demanded as she slowly straightened herself.
"Mostly because he put me into power – the former rulers of this land were fools that could only understand strength. Fifteen years ago this land was in civil war…constant fighting and battles raging across the landscape as the two major clans tried to gain supremacy over the lands. They did not understand that it took a truly brilliant mind to rule the land but without that strength I could never get them to listen. Kronos loaned me his strength in order to make them…to make everyone see that I should rule!"
"So…you are nothing more than a usurper."
"Lies! If it were not for me this land would've been ground into dust by Trigon ages ago. I am the hero of this land…and I was its savior! I should have ruled but instead they turned their backs upon me and decided to betray me after everything I had done for them. This is not just claiming power, this is claiming what belonged to me!"
"You do not deserve to be ruler!"
"Your friend Raven does not think so."
"What lies have you been telling her?"
"Nothing but the truth I'm afraid. Unlike you and your friends she's known about these lands since she was a child. She knows of the mayhem and the carnage that used to be commonplace in these lands and she knows of the peace and unity that I have brought to it."
"But you are serving a bad man!"
"If you really knew who Kronos was…you might change that attitude of yours. Once I have dealt with you and your friends and Kronos has done his business on your precious Earth…I will be left to rule Daluram in peace, perhaps even with your friend Raven as my queen one day."
"I won't allow that!" Starfire shouted as she charged at the demon lord, taking several swings at him without success. Starfire had already been injured and was tired from the constant fighting but Napharak was showing no sign of fatigue yet. Blocking her last strike, Napharak drove his fist straight into her stomach and then sent her staggering backwards with a palm strike to her face. Despite her earlier impressions of Napharak being a magic user, he had quickly proven his prowess in hand-to-hand combat. Starfire was still dazed from the attack when she tried to stop Napharak's advance with a quick jab, only to be met with a pair of punches to her face that only worsened her dizziness. Napharak grabbed her by the shoulders and brought her straight towards his rising knee that crushed yet another rib of hers. Starfire collapsed to her hands and knees, coughing up several droplets of blood as a result of the powerful blow.
"You can save yourself a great deal of trouble if you just gave up right now."
"N…never…"
"Do not forget the position you are in," Napharak stated, referring to the literal sense that his leg was only a foot away from her head. That gap quickly disappeared as he kicked onto her back. "Like to reconsider?"
"I…won't give up…" Starfire groaned, amazingly getting back to her feet despite another wound opening on her head. In one last desperate attempt, Starfire attacked – landing a powerful right hook that made her opponent stumble backwards. As she followed up with another swing, Napharak regained his sense and pulled his upper body back and used his superior reach to counter-attack with a quick jab to the head. Starfire wasn't going to let that stop her as she continued as if nothing had happened with another punch…only to wind up with the exact same result as the previous. Her third and final punch flew but the young Tamaranean just didn't have the strength left in her anymore and she passed out right into Napaharak's awaiting arms.
"That's a good girl…" he commented as he caught her. "Your fight's over warrior…now rest." He considered it dishonorable to kill an opponent that was unconscious, so he picked the Titan up and carried her back to her cell. "Want something done right you have to do it yourself…"