D&D Tag Along

Chapter 11: Battles in the Streets

A/N: Oops… I guess that I was unable to keep my promise of weekly updates being continued. Well, this is grad week, so there probably won't be another update next week. I promise that I am trying to get this done whenever I find time, but my schedule is quite full. These next couple of chapters are guaranteed to enthrall all readers.

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"Five minutes." Joey offered.

"Nah… three." Ashley countered.

Wesley was the most optimistic of my three friends. "Six." He called.

I managed a rather grim smile, even despite my close proximity to the werewolf. From the sounds of my friend's comments, they were already forming a betting pool about the length of the fight. I could only hope that they were betting for my victory. "Try one." I yelled out, just a fraction of a second before the three-eyed werewolf lady pounced.

I brought up my swords, desperately trying to either block or parry as many wild swings as possible. The werewolf attacked with a pure berserker method, focusing on nothing more than the thought of shredding me to tiny bits. Her eyes flickered with a primal rage that showed a sick sense of pleasure every time a claw managed its way through my defenses. In less than ten seconds, I felt myself leaking vital fluids from at least six different cuts. At least her claws were relatively short, not causing very deep cuts.

Boneheimer's troops were jesting about the rather pathetic, in their minds, battle that was waging before them. They laughed as their captain drew blood. They laughed as my friends, even Gabriel, covered their eyes. This was entertainment to them.

My opponent had sensed that I was too focused on her claws, taking advantage of my tunnel vision defense by sweeping my legs out from underneath me. The sudden disappearance of a solid base brought my body crashing to the ground. Shaken by the harsh impact, my long sword was knocked out of my right hand. The werewolf saw this as another opportunity to improve her odds, so she kicked the blade as far away from me as she could.

A searing pain ripped through my left shoulder as the werewolf's teeth passed through my chain mail shirt and into my shoulder. It was as if I wasn't wearing armor of any sort. The pain was nearly unbearable. Top that off with the smell of my own blood and I started feeling rather light-headed. The werewolf had also caught scent of my blood, rearing up on her haunches and letting out an ear-splitting howl into the air.

This momentary celebration provided me with the opening that I needed. I forced myself to kick out at her with every ounce of energy I could use. The welcome sound of bones breaking greeted me as the howl of triumph turned to one of agony. The werewolf lowered her face back down, glaring at me with a deep hatred. My opponent was about to take another bite at me when something caused her to jump off me.

I stumbled up to my feet as gracefully as I could muster under the circumstances. Meanwhile, the female werewolf angrily tore out the arrow that had imbedded itself into her side. "Now you did it, moron." I heard Sparks comment as Joey reached for another arrow. "Meh." Joey replied as he fired the arrow into the werewolf, not very far from where his previous one had hit.

Across the street, Boneheimer's troops howled in disgust. Their "sacred" ritual of "honorable" fighting had been compromised. With what could only have resembled the war cry of a mixed band of orcs, goblins, undead, and who knows what else, they charged.

This came as great pleasure to Gabriel who immediately pulled out her two maces and plunged herself into the advancing horde. Within seconds, the half-fiend elf emerged from the opposite side. Behind her, a path of destruction was all that remained of what had stood in her path. Arrows came flying over my shoulder as my friends fell a couple insignificant beasts. That was all that we could manage before the enemy beset upon us.

I quickly switched my katana over to my right hand. My left arm was becoming paralyzed, probably as a result of the ligament damage that I had sustained when that damn werewolf bit me. I swung wildly as the creatures pushed past me, taking a few of them down. Not that it made any difference. There was just simply too many of them.

I watched in helpless horror as the creatures practically ignored me and headed straight towards my friends. My friends were frantically firing off random arrows into the horde before fleeing. Boneheimer's troops chased after them, eager to get the kills. Suddenly, a huge line of acid breath swept across the battlefield, utterly destroying the entirety of Boneheimer's troops. "First time I've seen you do anything in battle, Sparks." I shouted out as I struck down another random goblin.

A low growl was uttered from behind me. I turned just in time to bring my sword up to deflect the claws of the werewolf. She attacked nearly exactly the same as before, but this time, she seemed slightly more desperate, slightly angrier. Her attacks were losing accuracy, easily avoidable. My opponent lunged forward with one massive right handed slash, but I was no longer where she aimed. With one clean slice, I brought my katana up and through her arm, cleanly severing the limb from her body.

"Two minutes." Ashley commented from behind me. I couldn't tell if she was adjusting her earlier bet or stating the time the battle had lasted. Frankly I couldn't care more. Judging from the near silence behind me, it sounded as if my friends had cleaned up the few remaining creatures who had survived Sparks' breath attack. Surprising how something so little could hold so much power. But then again, he was actually hundreds of years old and probably still had the wisdom and power of his actual age.

The werewolf stumbled about the street, her left arm covering the end of the stump that remained from her other arm. Painful howls of agony erupted from the beast as she tried to maintain her berserker composition. If she wasn't my enemy, I would have felt sorry for her. But, under the current circumstances, the best I could do for her was put her out of her misery. I solemnly approached my opponent, keeping my eyes locked with hers. They almost looked as if they were saying that she was sorry.

I brought my sword up behind her, ready to plunge the blood-stained steel deep into her back. Suddenly, a harsh crackling came from above me. I looked up, curiosity distracting me from the kill, just in time to see jagged lightning bolts descending towards me, much too close to be avoided. I felt my heart come to a stop, only for a millisecond, as the lightning struck my still raised hands. The electricity coursed through my body, wrecking havoc on everything that it came in contact with. A second, tinier bolt erupted from the tip of my blade, jumping to the writhing werewolf. She never moved again.

The smell of my own burnt flesh, mixed with the awful smell of fur aflame, reached me, nearly causing me to throw up. I felt myself coughing up black whiffs of smoke. I, along with everyone else who witnessed the strike, was amazed that I was still walking, much less alive. "His HP must be through the roof." Wesley whistled in stunned amazement.

"Where the hell did that come from?" I demanded, looking up at the clear green sky. Surely, those poisoned clouds weren't capable of such a powerful jolt. Then where had it come from? "My turn." A voice, completely devoid of any and al emotion, stated.

I knew instantly who had just shocked me. I looked up in the direction of Boneheimer, but not at him. It was the shackled person beside him that I stared at, feeling hurt and betrayed at the sight of her smoking fingers. "Deanna…" I whispered, cringing as I watched Boneheimer unleash his possessed puppet.

Truthfully, I didn't know if I had it in me to fight her. That last battle had left me seriously drained, barely able to even stand on my own two feet. This was Deanna that we're talking about. The girl who had dragged me into this entire conflict. Not that I was blaming her for it, but it had been one memorable journey. This same beauty who I had shared so many great memories with, whether they be good or bad. I had a feeling that this was going to be our final memory that we shared together and it wasn't going to be a good one.

Deanna descended to the ground on a tiny black cloud, touching down with the same grace that she had with everything else that she did. I reached behind me, unhooking the mirror shield and bringing it before me. Even this simple action caused me to cringe as pain shot through the exposed nerves of my shoulder. That was when Deanna said something completely unexpected. "Heal yourself with my stone. It's been powered up so that it can be used twice daily."

I did as she ordered, holding the healing stone up to my shoulder. Within seconds, the pain was gone and the wound was healing. I smiled thankfully over at Deanna, but still untrusting of my possessed friend. "You didn't need to do that. You easily could have killed me when I didn't pose that much of a threat to you, but instead, you help me. Why?"

It was Deanna's turn to smile. It might have been the moon, but her eyes seemed to twinkle with a hint of her mischievous nature. "I wanted you to be at your best when I killed you. Ever since that day I recruited you to join us, I knew that one day I'd have to kill you. That day has come." With that, Deanna charged.

What foolishness! I couldn't believe that this was the same Deanna who carefully studied all of her enemies before attacking. Never once had I even seen her physically harm someone with her own fists or weapons. Now, she was charging towards me, wildly swinging her quarterstaff at me. As soon as she swung her stick into range, I slashed out with my katana, cleanly slicing the weapon into two parts.

Still, Deanna pushed forward. I was going to raise my sword again to kill her, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That turned out to be a mistake, as Deanna tossed the chunks of her quarterstaff at me the moment she noticed that I hadn't attacked her. Her aim was impeccable. Both sticks hit me, each one choosing an eye to cruelly blind. The sudden loss of sight was only momentarily, but was enough to provide Deanna with the time she needed. I was helpless as she kicked out at my wrists, forcing me to drop my katana and shield. "I studied the martial arts, too." Deanna whispered, barely a second before she swept the legs out from under me.

For the second time in as many battles, I hit the ground with a big thud. Once again, my opponent descended on their prey. The difference between the werewolf and Deanna was that the later was much more controlled and relaxed. She brought down her knee straight into my gut as she knelt down on my chest. I could feel Deanna's cold breath rise up against my body, up my neck, stopping right next to my head. Then her hands wrapped themselves around my neck, squeezing with all of her might.

Boneheimer was enjoying the scene unfolding below him. In fact, he was laughing. Behind us, I heard the flutter of wings as Gabriel lifted herself off the ground. Deanna glared at the demon-winged elf, snarling, "Don't interfere. If you do, I'll kill him, then I'll kill you. If you do nothing… remember the Caves of Thurgis?"

The pounding of Gabriel's wings came to a stop. I tilted my head up to see what she was doing. All I saw was my friend nod in understanding. I thought back to the stories that the other adventurers had told me of their past battles. Tagorus had once told me the tale of the Cave of Thurgis. Apparently, Rurik had been tricked by the Caves' inhabitants that any creature that didn't belong in sub-terrain realms should be killed. Rurik only played along with the inhabitants, even going so far that he and Tagorus got in a fight to the death. Rurik betrayed the inhabitants so quickly that he managed to slay their evil leader before they realized what had happened. Could this be similar to what was going on now?

Deanna brought her head back down to beside mine. She was still applying a ton of pressure to my gut and neck. Another ten seconds or so and I might have passed out if Deanna didn't begin to loosen her grip. I felt an odd, yet warm glow against my chest. "Don't worry; this is for the freak up there." Deanna whispered reassurance into my ear.

The next few seconds would be forever ingrained into my memory. Deanna rolled off my chest, firing off a series of Magic Missiles up at Boneheimer. The Mindflayer Lich was caught completely off-guard. Each blast struck the decaying creature, enclosing him in a cloud of smoke and debris. Next, Gabriel wet flying up into the cloud, her maces raised, eager to smash Boneheimer's ugly face in. I expected to see Boneheimer be sent falling towards the ground, his protective jewel that made him unkillable destroyed. Instead, what fell out of the cloud was a pair of maces.

"No, Gabby!" Deanna screamed out. The others gasped in horror as they watched the clouds begin to disperse. All I could do was stare up in silence at the horrendous sight that floated above us, well out of our reach, even for the archers. Boneheimer had stopped Gabriel in mid-air, his tentacles wrapping themselves around the elven half-fiend's neck and face.

Boneheimer considered his spectators for a second, his evil aura becoming darker by the moment. He took in our shocked looks with his hollow eye sockets, enjoying the fear that he had placed in us. Then, in one mere flinch of his tentacles, he snapped Gabriel's neck. "NO!" Both Deanna and I screamed. Instead of letting the body drop to the ground, Boneheimer took it into overkill mode. The sickening sound of his tentacles forcing Gabriel's skull to snap open so he could get to the sweet treat in the middle. That sound would haunt me for the rest of my days.

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A/N: Ouch. I hated to do it, but I had planned this from the beginning. I just didn't expect that I was going to get myself so attached to Gabriel as some of you probably did as well. Sorry.