17

Kasana-Kai

The ancient being smiled unpleasantly. "You have done well," he said, and then seeing and smug smirk of his tall-bodied guest, he added, "For once."

Psychren scowled, but for once said nothing. He would have pounded anyone else who said such a thing to him, but he knew this was the one person who could smear him across the wall. One did not attempt a pounding on someone like that. "Right," he grumbled. He dwarfed the denizen of the deep black pyramid, but in this case, he knew that size meant nothing.

"You are dismissed, Lunattack."

Grumbling things that he would not dare let the ancient priest hear, Psychren left. He decided he would capture someone from the villages and take out his anger on them. He could use a few days of frustration release.

"Insolent fool," he mumbled, as the Lunattack left. Although he had to admit, that none other on the planet would be able to do as he wanted. None were as intelligent, strong, or advanced as they. Mumm-Ra thought back on the many underlings he had worked with: Phumekten, and the powerful female wizard Nefrathi, Adolph Hitler, the human dictator, and Charles Manson from the first Earth; the Bolkin hoodlum team Hetchin and Grefkee, and the human Visin from Second Earth; the Mutants and these Lunattacks' ancestors of Third Earth.

Now none were left but the Lunattacks. The Mutants, who had killed their circus captor, ripping him in four parts with their four winds device once they got him back to Third Earth, were now gone. Mumm-Ra laughed as he remembered watching them that day. The overweight fool had begged for his life in the long hour before they actually began releasing the device. Then he had screamed until he went into shock. And it was roast crow that night for dinner.

Now he had the Lunattacks. Although he had to admit, some were as clumsy as any he had ever known, the most of them were far more competent then their pioneer ancestors here on the earth. Moreover, they were lords of the planet. Any villages of the entire lands defied them they paid dearly for it. It was a good deal all around.

Of course, they had had little resistance. In this generation, there had been none that you could count. There had been a few pitiful resistances organized against him, but they were easily cut down. The last worthy one had been Kasana-Kai, from the vast savannas of the south. She had been a dark skinned woman that lived in the area of what had once been called the Dark Continent in days past. Her long black hair, woven into dozens of little braids, reached to her waist, and she dressed in simple browns and greens, as many humans did. Her people still called themselves humans, although they had undergone the same changes of evolution that Saber's folk had. Their skin was brown, not beige, their eyes dark and deep. She had been a worthy adversary.

Kasana-Kai rallied hundreds of her people across her whole land to fight with her. They gathered riding beasts, weapons, carts, even primitive explosives, and they had traveled to the ancient priest's domain to fight him, and eradicate his evil from the planet. It was the greatest uprising in a few hundred years. Mumm-Ra had gathered his own soldiers together then, the Lunattacks among them, and demons and monsters that had been summoned by his masters. He had even brought forth creatures from the past, that still lived. Driller, Demon of the Sands, and his great mechanical plagues, had been present to fight for him.

Even with these awesome beasts, and with the power of magic on his side, it had been a long, hard battle. While Kasana's army fought his summoned warriors, the courageous woman had confronted him herself.

He still remembered, now after all these years, her defiant tone, her proud expression. He recognized it from a thousand battlefields before: will. It was will, and a strong one. It was the face of a person that had been repressed too long, a person with pride for her people, a person fighting for freedom.

He remembered what she had said to him before leaping, sword drawn, ready for blood, although she could not possibly know he had none to spill. She had said, "You have reigned with tyranny for too long, Evil One! And on this day, it will end, with your blood coloring the sand!"

He head leapt back, in his hand the snakehead hilt of the double-bladed Sword of Plundaar already forming in his hand. He hovered several feet up glaring down at the blades grew from the golden hilt.

Kasana, as well as many of her fighters, had stared. They had never seen him before, only his henchmen. They had only felt his wrath and rule. Now they faced him, never before meeting one that could fly like that.

Kasana's face showed minimal fear on that day. She looked mostly indignant and surprised. Then she scowled. "Face me like a warrior!" she snarled. "Not like a butterfly!"

Mumm-Ra's hateful, blazing eyes widened at this insult, then narrowed. He landed on the ground, approaching the tall, strong woman. "You wish to fight me," he rumbled. "I admire your courage. And you are right. It will end today." He glanced once at the battle raging all around him. A few Lunattacks were down, and fifty of the humans had attacked one of the great mechanical insects and downed it. But the humans were taking more wounded than Mumm-Ra's fighters were.

The demon priest turned back to his lone opponent. "But it will not end with my death!" This time it was his turn to lunge.

The two warriors battled. They fought with solely swordplay, as this was a battle of honor, a test of skill, and strength.

Hour after hour, they fought. Both were tiring, even as the battle around them began to die down. Kasana saw that her people had been defeated, beaten, but she herself did not back down. She would destroy the foul beast that spread his terror over the planet, or she would die here on this battlefield.

Mumm-Ra, too, was weakening. Time after time, he underestimated the various mortal species of the world, and each time he witnessed their strength and determination, he was impressed. They were inferior being to be beaten down, repressed, but that did not mean the tyrant could not admire their strength, or respect their skill.

And this strong, beautiful woman had plenty of skill.

But still, it was Mumm-Ra who dealt the fatal blow. Kasana-Kai, bleeding from half a dozen blade wounds, had been too slow leaping back from a viscous lunge with the barbed bade of Mumm-Ra's sword, and she gagged as it buried itself in her midsection. Her body convulsed, even as she tried to jerk back, and she fell to her knees. She was already dying when she collapsed to the ground. Her last expression, while partly of agony, was mostly of rage. Had she been able, she would have spit in his face before dying. As it was, she could not even speak. As the last of her life seeped onto the ground, she died quietly, like a warrior, still clutching her sword.

And now, as he thoguht of her, Mumm-Ra gazed into his cauldron at the boy sleeping by the stream. Could he be the next? Surely not, he was only a child. In all the uprisings against him throughout his long, long rule, none but one had been a child leading it, and even he had been almost a man, with an army of followers 300 strong. How could this one boy be a threat?

Still, he had thought that before. And so he vowed to keep an eye on the situation. But for now, he had been from his sarcophagus too long, and needed rest. Thinking again of the human woman and her nearly successful attempt to overthrow him, he rested once more.

Part 18: A Time to Heal

Table of Contents
ThunderCat Stories Page
Main Page