Well, I finally got it through. These last two chapters have been kind of short, but they just deal with one fight.
I know someone'll probably say something, so I make this disclaimer before I continue. I don't know very much about a Zmei and what it can do. I just know that they happen to be bad ass on a Biblical level. So, I used my own poetic (pathetic? One or the other) license and made it well, bad ass. I didn't have the time, money, or initiative to buy every White Wolf book, especially since Rein-Hagen basically ruined Werewolf in Third Edition (really, why would I want to play a game if you tell me that I lost before I even make my character? At least in Second Edition you thought you might have a snowball's chance in hell).
Anyway, enough of me. You guys have been waiting long enough for some closure on this deal
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"Rajah Baltazo, Master of Fires, welcome to Gaia!" Bickle shouted out, throwing himself to his knees in front of the coalescing form. The draconian head turned to the Black Spiral Dancer as he threw himself to his knees. "O Lord of Smoke and Destruction, we-"
The theurge never had the chance to finish his greeting. Rajah Baltazo's mouth opened to emit a gout of horrifying green flames, burning the Black Spiral Dancer's hair off in an instant and hurling Bickle back into the far wall. Matt and Spook both dodged out of the way as Bickle slammed into the sheet metal wall and collapsed into the wreckage of the catwalk.
"I thought that thing was on your side," Max said quietly, edging up to Xavier's side. The Black Spiral Dancer turned back to the Shadow Lord, shrugging in confusion.
"I guess he's disoriented," Xavier concluded. Then he glanced back to Spook. "Is Bickle still alive?"
"Unfortunately, yes," the corrupted ragabash answered, still awestruck by the Zmei. Rajah Baltazo's head snapped around to the majority of the combatants, and tongues of balefire started to drip from the scaly monster's mouth.
"Grab him and let's get out of here!" Xavier shouted, his voice shrill with fear. Rajah Baltazo roared in fury, and blasted a torrent of balefire at the assembled Garou.
Max took off in an instant, diving left as the wave of balefire tore through the warehouse. The ragabash felt his fur burning away across his back as he crashed through a pile of empty, burning wooden crates, but the Shadow Lord managed to come back to his feet with only minor wounds. Max jumped back to his feet, hoping to see that his companions had survived the brutal torrent of flames, but instead found himself staring into a sea of sickly green flames.
"Max!" Alexei shouted. Max whirled quickly, peering through the unnatural conflagration until he saw the philodox wildly waving the ragabash to him from a relatively protected alcove on the other side of the warehouse. Rajah Baltazo still occupied the center of the warehouse, but for the moment the Zmei's sinister golden eyes were locked on Xavier and his pack as they fled through the front door. Max raced across the warehouse, hoping that the Blur of the Milky Eye would keep him from being seen by the dragon dominating the burning building, but the Zmei was too intent on incinerating the Black Spiral Dancers to bother with him for the moment. Max dove behind a few empty crates as Rajah Baltazo launched a final gout of fire on the Black Spiral Dancers, but the ragabash could not tell if Xavier and his allies were consumed in the flames. Tanya and Jeremy were both hidden away behind Alexei, but Jeremy was on the verge of death and Tanya had nearly been torn apart. Matt stumbled back to the group a second later, his crinos form badly burned from the Zmei's initial attack.
"It's still weak," the theurge gasped out, holding his side where a particularly bad burn had seared off the skin. "There might still be time."
"We just got our asses kicked in three seconds," Max countered, turning on the theurge. Rajah Baltazo roared in fury, washing the front of the warehouse in another wave of virulent green fire. "How can it still be weak?"
"If it wasn't, we'd all be dead," Alexei said calmly. "We have to stop that thing before it gets any more powerful. Where are Gerald and Jack?"
"Didn't see them," Max replied, glancing back to the sea of green flames rapidly eating through the warehouse wall.
"Healed Gerald," Matt informed the group in an agonized voice, growing more delirious from the pain. Normal fires were one of the few things that could truly harm a Garou, but the radioactive balefire of the Wyrm was far worse, inflicting radiation wounds as well as horrible burns from its superheated flames. Matt stumbled to one knee, but nearly collapsed before he caught his balance against the wall. "Jack's okay, I think."
"We have to do something," Alexei said, taking quick stock of his mauled companions. The philodox turned back to his younger packmate, a cold, emotionless expression on his lupine features. "I'm going to distract it," the pack leader finally said. "When I do, you have to get to Brooke and kill her."
"We can't kill her!" Matt wheezed, hearing the plan and regaining some coherence. Rajah Baltazo roared in the center of the room, its black and gray body quickly beginning to solidify as more and more energy poured out of Brooke's mouth. The dragon was already almost twenty feet long, its monstrous body supported by six massive legs that ended in taloned feet, and with each passing second the thing seemed to grow even larger. "She didn't do anything!"
"We don't have time to argue about this," Max warned, his eyes on the Zmei as it continued to draw strength from the girl.
"You have a better plan, I'm open to it," Alexei said. Matt opened his mouth to speak, but had no other ideas. "She's the conduit to the spirit world," the philodox surmised. "If we kill her, we cut off the Zmei from its power. Right?"
"Right," Matt admitted, looking away.
"All right," Alexei said. He nodded to Max. "You won't have much time, so be ready to run."
Alexei measured the distance to the Zmei for another second, then rushed forward with his klaive in hand. Rajah Baltazo turned just as the philodox reached him, opening its mouth to breathe out another torrent of balefire on the defiant Garou. Alexei dropped and rolled left as the dragon launched its assault, managing to avoid the large majority of the balefire. Still Rajah Baltazo continued to unleash a wave of flame, chasing the Shadow Lord across half of the warehouse as it tried to destroy the Garou. Alexei's fur began to burst into flame as the dragon closed the distance, but the Zmei could not catch up to the sprinting lupine. As soon as the Zmei's head was turned away from him, Max rushed forward to carry out his order.
Brooke was still writhing on the altar as Max reached her, straining against her silver shackles as she desperately tried to scream in pain through the roaring spiritual energy rushing through her body. Max reached her unseen; Alexei was still sprinting across the warehouse, counting on his gift of Luna's Armor to save him from any fire that managed to burn him. Max leaned down quickly over the helpless teenager, reaching out to tear out her throat before she could unleash any more of the creature's malevolent spirit into the warehouse.
Brooke's eyes shot open as she saw the ragabash leaning over her, apparently recognizing him for who he was. The girl's eyes conveyed her pleas for help even as she tried to form words through the torrent of energy in her mouth. Max hesitated for a second, then closed his eyes.
"There's no other way," he said quietly. The ragabash tore through her throat, ripping her arteries open and shearing through her windpipe. Within a few seconds, Brooke was dead, and the energy pouring out of her trickled away to nothing.
"Max, move it!" Tanya suddenly shouted. The ragabash looked up in time to see Rajah Baltazo's furious eyes turning on him, balefire licking up along the oily black scales of its face. Max glanced around him for a split second, trying to find cover, then thought better of the idea and rushed straight forward. He had no chance of escaping the dragon's fiery breath if he ran, but the Zmei might not be fast enough to hit him before he took cover beneath the monster's chest. The ragabash hurled himself beneath the Zmei with every bit of speed he could muster, but Rajah Baltazo still managed to severely burn the crinos from the waist down. Howling in pain as he hit the floor, Max could not even stand on his seared legs to escape another attack. Rajah Baltazo took a single step back on its huge, powerful legs, ready to immolate the crippled Shadow Lord, and Max could swear that the Zmei was smiling cruelly down at him as it prepared a final gout of balefire.
The killing flames, however, never came.
Alexei slammed into the beast first, throwing one arm around the Zmei's neck as he stabbed away with his klaive. Jack and Gerald both rushed forward from the wreckage of the catwalk where they had taken cover from Rajah Baltazo's first attack, slamming into the dragon even as it swiped at Alexei with its forelegs. Even Tanya, only partially healed by Matt's gifts, threw herself headlong into the bull rush, clawing away at the monster's flank as it tried to deal with Alexei.
Rajah Baltazo screamed in fury at its enemies, bucking wildly and throwing Alexei clear with a violent shake. The philodox had not even crashed into the burning wall when the Zmei snapped viciously at Gerald, coming close to tearing off the younger ahroun's arm in its fiery mouth. Gerald fell back, trying to keep his arm attached to his body, but the Zmei was already turning to Jack as the Shadow Lord ahroun drew his arm back for another strike with his ebon mace. At the same instant the beast lashed out with its powerful tail, slamming Tanya through the wall behind it. Jack snarled in rage as he hurled himself straight at the Zmei, ignoring the imminent rush of fire from the dragon's mouth.
Rajah Baltazo unleashed its torrent of fire even as Jack struck. Thunder blasted through the roar of the flames as the Shadow Lord's mace crashed through the side of the Zmei's mouth, smashing its jaw and shattering its huge, jagged teeth. The Zmei threw its head up in pain as Jack fell to the ground, desperately trying to put out the flames covering his body before the flames could kill him. With singleminded fury the Zmei turned back to the charred ahroun and slammed a massive, clawed foot down on him, nearly driving him through the concrete floor.
Gerald and Alexei both rushed back in on the assault, coming to Jack's rescue before the Zmei could grind the life out of him. Still horribly injured, Gerald nonetheless threw himself straight at the Zmei's throat in a desperate attempt to rip out the Zmei's windpipe, while the badly burned Alexei ducked beneath Rajah Baltazo's belly and drove his klaive straight up into the dragon's stomach. The Zmei slammed its belly into the ground, hoping to crush the Shadow Lord, but it succeeded only in driving Gerald's claws even deeper into its throat. Black ichor sprayed out over the two combatants as Alexei and Gerald continued to tear away at the dragon's sides. Even Max tried to hobble back to his feet, slashing feebly at the leg that still pinned Jack to the ground.
Rajah Baltazo shrieked in pain and fury, finally throwing all of its combatants away in a desperate, whirling attack. Jack and Max slammed side by side into one wall, crashing through the badly weakened barrier and skidding out into the parking lot. Alexei was hurled almost straight into the air, crashing through the ceiling and landing on a roof in serious danger of collapsing. Gerald slammed back into the wreckage of the catwalk, only inches away from impaling himself on a broken metal pipe. With its attackers down and quite possibly dead, Rajah Baltazo screamed a call of triumph into the air.
"Rajah Baltazo!" Matt suddenly shouted. The Zmei turned back on the newest threat, its golden eyes narrowing as it regarded the Garou standing before it. By the looks of his injuries, Matt should not have even been able to stand, but the theurge stalked forward as he locked gazes with the dragon. "You have killed me!" the Glass Walker screamed, pointing up to the far larger Zmei. "I am burning to death because of you! And for that, I kill you!"
Rajah Baltazo began to strike, wanting to rend the Glass Walker in its teeth, but it never got the chance as the entire warehouse imploded on it.
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"Holy shit."
"Holy shit is right," Callow said, watching the warehouse collapse in on itself. The Black Spiral Dancers had wanted to watch the Zmei tear through the South Bronx, spreading death and destruction in its wake, but they had also decided to watch from the roof of a tenement almost six blocks away from the dangerous Wyrm spirit. Within a few seconds, the entire building had simply imploded in a shower of metal, wood and balefire. A thick plume of noxious, oily black smoke rose from the devastation, but Callow could see no indication that any of the combatants had survived the violent collapse. Standing next to the fat ahroun, Xavier shook his head in disbelief. "How did they do that?"
"What are we gonna do with this fucker?" Spook asked from behind the pair. Xavier turned back to the ragabash and the scorched Bickle, saying nothing for a long moment.
"I thought Rajah Baltazo knew who his followers were, Bickle," the pack leader said, folding his arms across his chest. Bickle looked up from the roof shrugged, tears in his eyes. "I thought he wouldn't attack any followers of Beast of War."
"I don't know what happened," the theurge whimpered, wiping his eyes with one burned hand. "I he why?"
"Fuckin' dick," Spook growled, standing up and looking out over the Bronx. "Fucker said we'd be he Rajah's right hand here."
"Maybe he thought we killed Nigel," Bickle sniveled, trying to hold back his tears. Then the theurge collapsed into a gibbering wreck, sobbing openly over the Zmei's less than enthusiastic reaction to his followers.
"Did they actually kill it?" Callow suddenly asked, still watching the warehouse ruins. Sirens were approaching in the distance as the police and fire departments responded to the disaster, but Rajah Baltazo had either been killed or banished back to its own realm. For a long moment Xavier, Callow, and Spook all watched the smoking remains, waiting for any signs of life from the Zmei or the Gaian Garou.
"They couldn't have," Xavier finally decided. "I mean, there were only six of them, and one kinfolk. Rajah Baltazo could take twice that many."
"Then where the fuck is he?" Spook demanded, turning on his pack leader. Xavier turned to Callow, but the ahroun simply shrugged his shoulders. For a long moment the three Black Spiral Dancers watched the ruins in silence, while Bickle continued to weep behind them.
"Pick him up," Xavier finally ordered, turning and gesturing to the theurge. "We're getting out of here."
"Should we see if Karamov or any of his lackeys are still alive?" Callow inquired, taking one last look at the wreckage before he started after his pack leader. Xavier turned back to the ahroun, an obvious note of anger on his face.
"Do you really think they could have survived that?"
