A Knight to Remember
Chapter 11
The group started to run down the bridge as they had lobs of fire launched at them.
"Drogozzik!" one of the Drogons told the dragon at the head of the formation, "They're getting away!"
"Don't let any escape!" Drogozzik responded as he fired his weapon.
"Watch out!" Makoa yelled and deflected one of the molten iron balls with his shell, protecting Skye, "Move it!" he continued running.
"I'm running as fast as I can here!" Sha Lin yelled and yelped when one explosion came too close for comfort, "Ah screw this!" he turned and aimed his bow, then picked off one of the Drogons.
"I will protect you, my lady!" Fernando grabbed Ying and raised his shield up, "Come on."
"Hmph..." Skye growled, then fake tripped, "Ah!"
Fernando heard the scream and turned to see Skye on the ground, then saw that Makoa was too busy with Sha Lin, "I'm coming!" he yelled and ran to Skye's aid.
The knight picked up the assassin, then the four started to get away again.
"Hi." Skye waved to Ying, who was under the Knight's other arm.
Ying scowled.
"Drogozzik! What do we do?" one of the Drogons asked as the four nearly cleared the first half of the molten valley and were about to enter a cave.
"Nothing now..." Drogozzik responded as they entered, "Drogoz will consume them... but if they do make it out, we'll wait for them..." he cackled and the formation flew over the cave and to the other side of the gulch.
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Sha Lin panted as the group ventured into the cave, overwhelmed by the horrific heat inside.
"Do they not pay the A/C bill in here?" he groaned and then saw a bubbling pool of lava nearby.
"I am going to dry up like a prune..." Makoa groaned as his anatomy could not withstand the intense heat, "Go... on... with-"
"You ain't dying yet." the archer grumbled and pulled out a canteen, "Here, you still owe me three gold coins."
"For what?" Ying asked, pulling out a fan to cool herself down.
"We made a bet." Makoa drank the water after he spoke, "Ah..." he gasped as his parched tongue was saved.
"What type of bet?" Fernando asked, his armor heating up to dangerous levels.
"I bet Makoa that Ying wanted a girl first instead of a boy." Sha Lin smirked, "And guess who won?" he said pridefully.
Ying blushed.
Skye grunted.
Fernando chuckled.
"Well that is what she wants." he spoke, "But I would like to have a boy. The firstborn of every Sun Spirian household must be a male." the knight beat his chest.
"Oh really?" Ying crossed her arms, "Well... I am from Elf Country and we don't have that terrible custom."
Skye had enough, "Maybe we should focus on how we are going to get out of this infernal oven instead of meager talk!" she said with a hint of jealousy.
"She's right!" Sha Lin stood to her defense, "Look at this plac- AH!" he yelped when a burst of hot steam shot out of the floor.
Fernando murmured, the heat now becoming a nuisance.
"Let's go!" he growled and the group passed an entryway.
At this point, they all stopped completely, because ahead of them was a huge mountain of gold.
Piles upon piles of gold coins, gold trinkets, gold crowns, gold scepters, golden everything!
"No way..." Ying gasped in completely bewilderment at all the amount of gold in front of her, "How much gold is in here?"
"Fernando sees as much as the grains of sand at the beach..." Fernando responded, then saw Sha Lin step forward.
"WOW!" Sha Lin screamed in glee, "HOLY MOLY!" he laughed and jumped around, "Quick, get all we can!" he ran to the edge of the horde and started to put all the he could in his pockets.
"Sha Lin, wait!" Ying called out, then saw Skye step up midway.
"Get as much as you can, Sha Lin." Skye smiled as she saw the man's diligence, "Perhaps you too can have a lot of things."
"You bet!" Sha Lin put gold inside his pockets until they overflowed, then he started to put inside his satchel until it too overflowed. The man's greed got to the point where even his quiver was not safe from intrusion.
"Hey, turtle brain! You're strong, help me get more!"
"Uh..." Makoa murmured, then turned to Ying for approval.
"No." Ying shook her head, "Sha Lin, please, we have to get going." she called out to him, "You have to stop!"
"I WILL NOT!" Sha Lin gained a fierce aura to his eyes, "Where I come from, I was poor! NO LONGER!" he gnashed his teeth and hunched over to grab more gold.
"Sha Lin-"
"BE QUIET!" the archer screeched and hissed.
The gang saw as a dark spirit arose from the gold and entered Sha Lin through his nostrils.
"What in the hell?" Skye murmured as the archer started to twitch.
"THIS GOLD IS MINE..." Sha Lin murmured and started to hug an armful of it, "MY GOLD..." he turned to the huge pile.
"That is enough, amigo!" Fernando growled, uneasy over the events that unfolded, and stepped forward, "You will come with Fernando peacefully or I will force you to!"
Suddenly, the knight stepped on a small pile of gold.
"What the?" he grumbled as he picked some of it up.
Sha Lin turned around rapidly, then glared at Fernando with glowing reptilian eyes.
"YOU..." he growled and started to twitch violently, "YOU DARE TAKE MY GOLD!?" he roared.
Ying screamed in horror as Sha Lin started to transform into a fiendish dragon humanoid.
"Oh no..." Fernando murmured, "I do not like the new look, amigo..." he saw his now draconic ally breathing fire up to the ceiling.
"I MUST DEFEND EVERYTHING I OWN!" Sha Lin screeched and turned to the group, then breathed fire on them.
"Watch out!" Makoa yelled and protected Skye with his shell, "ARGH!"
Fernando yelled and tackled the archer, "GET OUT OF HERE!" he yelled as he manhandled the fiend, "KAPPA! TAKE THEM OUT!" he avoided a breath of fire.
Makoa nodded and grabbed Skye, "Ying!" he called out to the elf.
"I will not leave Fernand- WOAH!" the elf was suddenly grabbed by the kappa, then the three ran out of the cave.
"SHA LIN! YOU MONSTER!" Fernando yelled as he threw the dragon into the gold, "Stop your silliness, or Fernando will make you stop!" he growled, then was tackled by Sha Lin.
"RAHHH!" Sha Lin roared and bit Fernando in the shoulder, "TOXIC!" he spat out a green fluid.
Fernando groaned as his skin burned, then used this opportunity to open the Dragon's mouth and then drive his arm down the fiend's throat.
"GAH!"
The knight yelled and used all his available might to pull out the black entity that inhabited his ally, "RAHHH!" he roared and threw the darkness to the ground.
Sha Lin's dragon curse subsided, and the archer returned to his original appearance.
"Ha... Ha..." he panted and looked up, "What.. what happened-" he paused when the cave started to shake.
The black mass started to materialize into a member of the Drogon people.
"EVENTUALLY EVERYONE YIELDS TO DROGOZ'S POWER!" the dragon roared and locked eyes to the two.
"We should run..." Sha Lin murmured.
"Yep." Fernando agreed, and he picked up the archer and the two bolted.
"BEHOLD, THE DRAGON'S FURY!" Drogoz bellowed and rocketed towards them.
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Drogozzik chuckled as he and his squad held Makoa, Ying, and Skye at rocket point, "Well well... look what we have here." he cackled as he inspected his catch.
"Aren't you too far from water to keep a cool head?" he taunted Makoa.
Makoa growled, then heard yells.
The Drogons looked to the mouth of the cave and saw the glowing figure of Fernando charging towards them.
"WHAT?!"
"GET OUT THE WAY!" Sha Lin yelled as the knight pummeled through two of the Drogons, "COME ON!" he told the three stragglers.
Makoa gasped, then saw Fernando trip, "HEY!" he called out and ran to his aide, "Are you ok?" he picked up Sha Lin.
"Less talk, more run!" Fernando yelled as he pointed to a charging Drogoz coming out of the cave. The Knight instinctively ran to Ying's side and picked her up.
"Ah! Makoa- Err!" the man growled and picked up Skye as well, then bolted.
"RAHHHHH!" the dragon bellowed and struck Drogozzik, "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" he flew up and pulled out his rocket launcher.
The other Drogons recovered and joined in.
"What do we do!?" they cried out, seeing their prey was about to escape.
"Blow up the overpass!" Drogoz responded, and the air squadron started to fire upon a rocky overpass that was above the exit.
"Oh no..." Sha Lin groaned as he heard the explosions and the falling rocks, "Oh no!" he yelled when saw the overpass collapse.
"Ha!" Ying gasped and then saw Fernando pick up speed, "Fernando! Makoa won't make it!" she c
"No pile of rocks will best Fernando!" Fernando yelled and reached the end, then threw the two elves to safety.
"Go faster!" Sha Lin told the cumbersome Makoa as he saw they were now at zero hour, "Go!"
"They're not going to make it!" Skye said as she saw the overpass was now halfway down.
"Not on my watch!" Fernando yelled and ran to where the overpass was going to collapse, then saw the sun was at high noon, "My sweet Amaterasu, give me the strength to save these people!" he raised his hands, and a glorious ray of sunlight struck him.
"You will not die! Not yet, amigos!" he told his allies.
"Fernando!" Ying shrieked in horror as the overpass landed on him, causing a cloud of dust to pick up and hide him.
"RAH!" Makoa spun through the fog and landed in front of the elves, "Touchdown!" cheered and set Sha Lin down.
"Woo hoo!" Sha Lin said, "Wait..." he paused, "Makoa... at your speed... we would have never made it through..."
"Are you calling me slow?" Makoa grumbled.
"No, he's right." Skye stepped in, "There's no way you could have made it through in time-" she gasped when she saw the sight.
"I AM FERNANDO." the glowing figure of Fernando blew away the dust, revealing the knight hoisting up the entire overpass above him, "THE ONE AND ONLY."
"Fernando." Ying gasped in awe as the man raise up the huge bridge of stone.
"Impossible!" Drogoz screeched, and the Drogons retreated in pure fear at the sight.
Skye saw that the back of Fernando's armor had a glowing blossom seal, "Oh..." she whispered, "He's a Knight of Amaterasu..."
"HRAH!" Fernando yelled and hurled the overpass back into the abyss, where it made the lava splash up nearly to his height.
The Knight turned to his allies.
"Wow." Sha Lin was left speechless, "I'm never roasting you again." he shook his head.
"Hola." Fernando told Ying, "I am here to protect, I am here to save." he grinned, his teeth radiating purity.
After a few moments, the Knight's glow receded, but he still kept the large frame.
"It seems you are very connected with the sun." Makoa informed, "No wonder you chose Amaterasu as your patron."
"Sun Spire is blessed by the sun. And so is Fernando." Fernando responded, "Plus, Amaterasu is one sexy goddess." he chuckled.
"I, for one, thought that was amazing." Skye said, causing Sha Lin and Ying to become jealous.
"Thank you." Fernando nodded, then turned to Ying, "Shall we continue, my beauty?" he smiled.
Ying smiled back, and the group continued towards large, foreboding peaks.
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Inside the Valley of the Angel of Death, the body of Androxus started to gain black masses surrounding it. This black mass started to swirl and swirl and swirl until it formed a tornado.
This violent twister churned in green energy and shot out green bolts as it shook up the inside.
Finally, it dissipated.
Androxus stood firm, but now covered with armor made of dark stones.
"I will kill you... Fernando..." the demon hissed and took off.
So how's it going so far? Anything you could see worked on or just tweaked?
I'm open to any commentary.
Other than that, I really hoped you have enjoyed this work!
