Tarum et clama dimit canibus quatit
Translation: Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
Tony climbed up the ladder to the roof. It was around one-thirty in the morning. He was aware that the battle between the Chonsario and his allies, Happy, King John's knights and the Slutty Spoon customers, still raged, this time on the third floor as both sides attacked each other for finishing the fight. But he did not care. He had one single purpose, eliminate the Captain and the High Priest.
He reached the top and pulled himself up onto the roof. The sky was still dark and that damn full moon shone down on the roof. It was a flat, stone plain and had no ramparts or railings or nothing. One side of it, the side away from the ladder, overlooked the cliff and dropped right off into the sea.
This is clearly an off-limits area and not meant for visitors... Now where is the...
He saw two figures in the center of the roof, standing together, huddled over something.
Tony slowly walked towards them. This is clearly them, one is short and fat, the other, tall and lean.
He wanted to face them head on, so he did not bother to creep and his footsteps rang on the stone floor of the roof. The figures turned towards Tony. He was sufficiently close enough to see them clearly and he halted in his tracks, arrested by what he was looking at.
Dragon, Dragon... Why do they... why do they look like that?
The Dragon hissed angrily. That damn drug. It has affected your mind somehow. Concentrate Anthony, this will end one way or the other. Do not let their appearance faze you. Be on your guard.
The drug had definitely addled Tony's brain as the figures before him were not human. One was a humongous black toad, with wide, white eyes in its black face. They blinked at him myopically and the toad tilted its head at him curiously. It was wrapped in a beautiful oceanic-blue robe.
The other figure was a large black bat, pointed ears erect, pointed fangs drooling, yellow eyes glowing in the night. Tony knew this was the Captain because from the neck down, its body was that of a man, a tall, slender man wearing a black military uniform and a gold-trimmed pelisse. The bat bared its teeth menacingly at Tony and growled, "You, the Iron Knight... you are finally here."
Tony straightened himself and raised his pike in greeting. "Captain..." he nodded at the Captain, who sneeringly nodded back. "And you must be High Priest Rana? I am the Iron Knight." He bowed and the Toad nodded his head regally.
There was an object on the floor and Tony looked at it curiously. It was a circular, round disc of silver, a pattern woven on its surface.
The Toad uttered in a gravelly tone, "Finally, I get to meet the man that has aggravated Giurescu here so much." The Bat was snarling now.
The Toad continued, "Your legend precedes you, my Lord. The power you have been blessed with, is not something an ordinary man can hold. But you are too late. We have succeeded in getting what we want. All you can do is watch as we will also be blessed with an other-worldly power and will take over the Earth."
Tony chuckled. "So confident, so sure of your other-worldly power? I am curious to know, just what is going on here? How did this meeting of malicious minds take place? Because as I recall, my hairy nemesis, Giurescu, is not too well-endowed," Tony tapped his forehead lightly, "in here. I refuse to accept this is all his doing."
The Captain put one long leg forward, hand at his sword hilt but the Toad said "No" firmly and he stepped back. The Toad said, "My Lord, we need not be enemies. Let me explain. You may realize what aligning yourself with us can mean for you."
"We were simple priests, managing the Temple, spreading the word of the Goddess. But I would look at our Goddess Milene and wonder, surely we were meant for greater things? Patait is a city of wonders and its people are too, all thanks to our Goddess. But... why could not we be like Her and call something holy from the stars? If nothing else, surely we could call back her savior. The creator of this fine city... surely He would remember us as descendants of the original people of the Princess."
The Toad looked sideways at the Captain, his milky eyes gleaming in the night. "Then... one day... Giurescu... a stranger from across the Normanian Sea, came and enlightened us."
Tony could not control a derisive snort at this and the Captain snarled at him. The Toad said gently, "Scoff all you like but the Captain opened our minds to the powers of the Celestial Being that Goddess Milene called down all those decades ago. With power like that, Patait would be unstoppable."
Tony had to interrupt here. "Now how did said Captain enlighten you all? Was it his trunks full of gold and riches? Ill gotten gains from other lands?"
The Captain unsheathed his sword and raised it at Tony. "You sarcastic little eel, I will run you through with my sword and watch you bleed slowly and then..." His bat eyes flashed for a minute and he licked his fangs with his tongue but the Toad raised one webbed limb and said soothingly, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, there is no need to fight as of yet. Lord Knight, are you not in the least bit curious about the Being and how we summoned it? If yes, then please let me continue."
Tony grudgingly nodded and the Toad continue, "Noble or not, our purpose was clear, we were going to overthrow the Boy Ruler and restore Patait to her glorious self, somehow. The Captain and I worked together, trying different artifacts and relics, anything that could communicate with a Being from the Stars. Nothing worked, until one day, we learnt of an artifact that was hiding under our very noses."
He pointed a webbed limb at the silver disc. "This was sitting in Duke Rorshach's secret quarters, on the far side of the Palace. Do you know what this is, Lord Knight? This is a piece of holy rock, one of the rocks that fell from the sky when the Great One rained down moonbeams on the land."
Tony narrowed his eyes in awe. Another item from a holy rock from the sky, just like the stone in which the Dagger of Aramiah was sheathed.
The Toad said, "Used in the presence of a full moon or a crescent moon, this rock sends telepathic signals to the Being and we used it to summon his presence. Then to talk to the Great Spirit, we used a spirit writing board, made of the finest mother-of-pearl, to get his instructions. And we were right about his benevolence, once we explained our position, he was most willing to help us. In fact, he even wanted an Oracle to make communication easier between us."
"What did you do to the Duke?" asked Tony fiercely. "I refuse to accept that Duke Rorshach would go along with your evil intentions?"
The Bat-Captain began to chuckle evilly and the Toad shrugged his massive frame. The Captain sneeringly said, "Ah the Duke, such a noble, dignified man... desperate to be loyal and serve his sovereign... no vision and no cooperation. So he had to be persuaded... differently." He licked his fangs again and Tony stared at him suspiciously.
"You've possessed him...haven't you?! He's not himself. His mind is not his own!"
The Bat-Captain shrugged and said, "I wanted to finish him off but..."
The Toad snapped at them, "Enough squabbling. Lord Knight,are you going to willingly join us or not?"
Tony said incredulously, "You kidnapped innocent young people and brought them here, to be drugged and assessed by a giant lion-creature from god knows where! Most of them are so traumatized by the drugs, they do not remember what happened. And then there is the matter of the missing candidates. What have you done to them?"
The Toad looked at the Bat-Captain and croaked loudly, its massive black form jiggling with the sound.
The Bat-Captain grinned at Tony in a feral manner and leaned so close, Tony could smell warm blood on his breath. " Wouldn't you like to know? Knight of Iron..."
Tony gritted his teeth, alarmed at the smell. "I will not join your fiendish plans, I am here to smite you both down!"
The Toad tsked. "I hoped it wouldn't come to this. I hoped, Lord Knight, that you would be smart and join us. Very well," he sighed heavily, "If you will not join us willingly.. you can also be persuaded ..."
Giurescu began to circle Tony, who raised his pike warily.
The Toad said wearily, "My lord, this rabid beast will not kill you but... he is going to hurt you... you are much too valuable an asset to to be destroyed completely."
"Did you hear me, Giurescu?" He said firmly to the Bat-Captain, who was drooling with excitement and cracking his knuckles." "Hurt, subdue, do not kill. We need the knight alive."
"Bleed..." slurred the Captain, licking his fangs once again. "Bleed the knight, break the man..."
Tony blocked out the creature's fevered mutterings.
"Giurescu, you have no honor but I do. I will not fight you in my full armor. I will remove parts of my armor, so that we will be equally vulnerable."
He began to shuck off his armor, starting with his shin guards and greaves. Finally, only his gauntlets and chest plate were left. He stood there, pike raised slightly, one knee forward, one behind.
The Captain grinned at Tony maliciously and growled, "How noble of you to give me a sporting chance, puny human. I fear I will not return the favor, once I've broken you." He unsheathed his sword and screeched to the night sky.
Tony waited and sure enough, the Captain ran towards him, sword forward. Tony raised his pike with both hands and brought it down on the Captain, who raised his sword in time. Iron clashed with iron and Tony pushed with all his might but the Captain was too strong and pushed him backwards. As Tony stumbled backwards, the Captain lunged at him and his sword grazed Tony's cheek.
Tony stepped away, feeling the gash which was bleeding lightly. The Captain grinned evilly and licked the blood off his sword wickedly with his long, inhuman tongue. "Hmm, first blood to me... delicious." he leered at Tony.
Tony circled the Captain, looking for an opening. He's got a sword, Anthony, slashing and curving motions will be his preference. You have a pike, tire him out with smashes and then go for lunges. Let him swing heavily and hit him when he misses. Hissed the Dragon.
The Captain charged at Tony, who neatly sidestepped him. When the soldier came towards him, sword lowered to swipe, Tony waited for his swing, ducked and then hit him in the face with the blunt end of the poker. The Captain's head snapped back with the force of the blow. He staggered backwards, clutching his bleeding nose.
He did not give the Captain time to recover, Tony charged forward, kicking him squarely in the chest and twirling the pike, to hit him once again on the face. As the Captain fell to his knees, Tony raised the pike and stabbed it into the Bat-Man's chest with force, until it pushed through his body and out of his back.
He watched grimly as blood spurted out of the Captain's mouth and the soldier clutched at the pike. Then Tony stepped back with horror as the Captain stood up straight, pike sticking through him and slowly pulled out the pike from his torso. He seemed perfectly fine, grinning maniacally at Tony, ears perked up. He tossed the bloodied pike at Tony and Tony saw the wound on the soldier's chest, a giant hole, which had no affect on the man's health.
He whispered in shock, "What... what are you?"
The Bat answered jeeringly, "I am the best and the worst of the undead , human. I will not fall to your sword. Instead I will drink your blood with pleasure and make you my slave."
Suddenly it all came together.. The missing people, the way the Captain left the village battlefield after a mortal wound, the Duke's weird behavior.
Tony exclaimed, "You are a vampire! "
The Bat-Captain roared with laughter, throwing its ugly head back. "Finally the dumb warrior sees the light! The Duke is a slave to my blood lust... I fed him just a little of my blood and Rana's blood and now he blindly obeys our every command."
He smacked his lips appreciatively, "And once I catch you, Iron Knight... I will drink your blood and make you a slave too..."
