Chapter 10

The ride back to the dwarven city took about an hour, and we were shocked at how the city looked. There were battles happening all over the city, and fires too. We touched down on a clear spot but the paladin flew off to defend the front line; wherever that was. We fought our way through a few goblins and demons until we found a squad of dwarves fighting in a defensive position. Drakak yelled at them in dwarvish and they responded,

"Ok lads, there's fighting all over the place but they want us to be in front of the castle's keep to defend it. They said a few other adventurers and a group of rangers led by Eridan are over there now. Let's move!" he barked

So we shot over there as fast as we could while killing goblins left and right. When we finally got there it was chaos, it seemed that the goblins outnumbered the rangers three to one. We decided to partner up and go back to back, but because of the confusion I didn't see who I was partnered up with.

"Ok listen to me," said a strange voice that was backed up on me; the goblins surrounded us and were taunting us by moving closer and closer," They are about to attack us so I need you to be ready ok? Don't flinch or show any fear when you're striking them and it'll be like cutting through butter understand?"

"Yes, who are you?" I asked the stranger,

"You'll see soon enough. Now Morgukia, now!" he shouted, and as he did that the goblins charged.

I tuned into a tornado with my staff; knocking the goblins to and fro all around me. As we were decimating the goblins I saw fragments of the person I was fighting with. I saw black leather armor and a shortsword with frost falling off of it, but I also noticed something very strange. In the midst of the fighting I saw a tail, but I stayed focused on the task at hand. Then all of a sudden, I saw the biggest dwarf I had ever seen. He looked like a heavily armored fighter with a shield and a double sided war axe, and he also had what seemed to be a crown. He charged through goblins with such force it was like seeing a rhino charge through dead trees.

"Father!" I heard Drakak yell,

"Aye, it's me you dimwitted doofus. Now let's destroy all the goblins!" He said, and I noticed a dwarvish looking angel flying out of the keep. After that, Drakak and his father seemed to be in a competition on who was the better fighter.

I almost didn't notice but all the goblins around me and the mystery person were dead or retreating. So I decided to learn the identity of the stranger that helped me, but when I turned around I was at a loss of words. He was a Tiefling, we had the same horns and the same tail length, but he had what seemed to be a permanent devilish smile so I assumed he was a rouge.

"Now listen, I'm-"I punched him in the face, I didn't mean to but it just kinda happened. I guess it was about the apparition with the black sand, but when I noticed what happened I picked him back up.

"Sorry Drexel that wasn't entirely your fault; I'll tell you about it afterwards. Right now we need to go and help defend the rest of the kingdom as best as we can." I said, he nodded in agreement and we regrouped with everyone else.

We found the rest of the group in the courtyard of the keep, and Drakak and his dad were bonding; I think.

"I think you were a few short of my record; I killed sixty of them in that one go," Drakak's dad said, trying to prove his dominance over his son.

"Nuh uh! I killed more than you to burly mountain goat!" Drakak said, but his dad pushed his face and then they started wrestling on the ground. But, Drakak's dad won by pinning him to the ground; after that he picked up his son and hugged him. And then they did some head-butt thing dwarves do sometimes, but I never understand why.

"How are you awake dad?" Drakak asked

"I was awoken by an angel, he resembled you in a number of ways but he wasn't as dumb. He told me you were about to be endangered and I needed to aid you, so he pulled me out of my sleep and there I was. Trampling goblins and demons left and right; all by your side." He said to Drakak, they embraced again.

"Ok men, now that everyone has been reunited we need to focus on the battle. My rangers reported seeing Marfedelom and his dragon flying around somewhere, so we need to find them and take them down." Eridan said, so we were about to leave and go looking when an intense gust of wind knocked us forward.

"Well, you won't have to look very far. Time to end this once and for all!" a sinister voice said from behind us, we all shot back up only to see Marfedelom and his dragon landing right behind us. "Time for supper old boy, there's a few new flavors but I think you'll remember Mythrik's," he said with an evil smile.

We all charged the dragon; Aireon took out his halberd and sliced down its side, but it only glanced of its scales. Mythrik was a little more successful; he took his father's sword and his own and stabbed one in its face and sliced it across the jaw with the other. I ran up and attacked a few pressure points, but then again I don't know anything about dragon anatomy. So I think I managed to hurt it a little bit, and then Drakak came flying out of the air and smashed down on its head with the hammer. Marfedelom almost fell off the dragon entirely, but now he attacked.

Marfedelom's large red dragon spewed fire everywhere, and launched back everyone but me and Mythrik. So, we attacked together, I gave the dragon an uppercut and Mythrik gave him a good slice on the bottom of his jaw. Then I saw my brother and Eridan running towards him; Eridan slid on the ground towards the dragon and Drexel jumped of his shoulder. When Eridan came to a stop he threw down some arrows and they would shoot up off the ground periodically and kill a demon or goblin, and then he fired an arrow that magically split into eleven and hit the dragon. Drexel landed on the back of the dragon and stabbed it, but was knocked off by its tail.

I was running over to help him up when the dragon's claw knocked me off my feet. If I did not have the reflexes I have I would be eating the dirt, but I tumbled and landed on my hands and knees; so I shot back up and helped Drexel. I looked back and saw Aireon stab the front left arm of the dragon and Drakak's dad hit the other, and the dragon stood on its hind legs and blew more fire down on them. The dragon stood to be two-and-a-half stories tall, but this didn't stop Drakak from running up from behind the dragon and hitting it in the back of the leg. And just like a tall building crumbling to the ground; the dragon fell backwards, and Marfedelom fell off on the dragon's way down. Mythrik ran over to its flailing body and stuck his sword deep into its belly, and proceeded to gut the dragon from neck to tail. I ran over there and attacked the dragon's face; I was punching and smacking it around with my staff until Mythrik got to the end.

Marfedelom's pet, was no more. Mythrik, with his bloodied sword and armor, knelt down next to the evirated corpse of the murderer of his family and friends. I'm not sure if he was glad, or mortified with what he had just done; I know dragons are sometimes cruel and greedy beasts, but they have a type of beautiful freedom we will never achieve. But I did not dwell on it; there was Marfedelom to deal with now. Everyone except for Mythrik surrounded him, and we're ready to deliver him to his maker.

"It's over Marfedelom; time to end this." I said, my staff pointed directly at his chest.

"No, it's just now beginning." He hit his staff to the ground and a smaller thunderwave erupted out of it. But, we were so close it launched us all backwards; Drakak's dad, Eridan, and Drexel were knocked unconscious by it.

"Now, the final battle, LETS FINISH THIS!" he shouted, the ground shaking as he did.

Aireon knelt up and started to fire arrows at him, and he landed a few but they didn't do much. Drakak ran up to him and gut checked him with the butt of his hammer, and then I ran up to attack. I went to strike him with my staff, but his skills almost matched mine; almost. When I attacked him he blocked every attack I made; except one. He pinned my staff to the ground and mockingly chuckled at me, and then I head-butted him with my horns and he went spiraling backwards. Aireon had ran over to meet us and Drakak was on the other side of me, and then Marfedelom shot out a blast of energy that split into three separate ones. Two hit Drakak and Aireon, but the one coming at me felt different. Time slowed, and I could feel its energy; so I put my hand out to stop it out of instinct. When it met with my hand it stopped; only inches from touching and it exploded. However, it didn't even damage me; when it cleared Marfedelom was shocked and I pressed my attack.

He tried to stop me with his thunderwave staff, but it did little but flinch me.

"My turn," I said, and with most of the power I had and exploded in a fierce and awesome thunder! Sending Marfedelom flying backwards and skidding across the ground, and when he stumbled back to his feet he let out a frustrated cry.

"You can't best me! I am more powerful than you could even imagine!" he then pointed his staff at Drakak and the Crown of Madness appeared and donned its self on Drakak.

I could see him trying to fight it but it was useless, and he charged me. But when I tried to move and defend myself vines grew around my legs. However, when Drakak tried to attack me he missed, four times. So he started to run towards Mythrik,

"Mythrik look out, Drakak has the crown on him! Detain him!" I yelled over to him, he looked behind him and tackled Drakak down.

Aireon got up and shot two arrows at Marfedelom, but he missed. So he shot back with another blast of energy, but Aireon hurdled over it. I attempted to loosen the vines that were restraining me, but they just grew back.

"Break his concentration Morgukia" I heard Aikugrom say in my head, so I looked around for anything I could throw. I grabbed a dart from my pouch and threw it at him, but he deflected it with ease.

"Mythrik, tie up Drakak and help me break Marfedelom's concentration! It will release me and Drakak from his magic!" I yelled at Mythrik, he was ahead of me with the tying up Drakak part, but then he started running over to me to help.

"You got any suggestions?!" he shouted

"I don't know just throw something!" I shouted while deflecting another energy blast, all of a sudden I saw a silvered sword pass my ear like a javelin.

The hilt of the sword hit Marfedelom square in the eyes, and he fell to the ground in pain. When he got up his eyes went from a dark green to boiling red with anger and he had an are-you-serious-right-now expression. The vines around me died and I easily walked through them and then charged at Marfedelom. He stood there waiting for me, and then he struck the ground with his staff. But it wasn't an empowering strike like he did with thunderwave, it was a soft tap. And then as I was getting within ten feet of him the area around me vanished; vanished into a cold and quiet darkness.

He had used a darkness spell to cover him, so I couldn't see two feet in front of me. I put my staff to the ground like a blind man's cane and started to shuffle my way in the darkness. All of a sudden I felt an arrow whistle past my ear, and so I instinctively crouched down to avoid getting my head taken off by an arrow.

"Morgukia? Are you there?" I heard what appeared to be Aireon's voice calling from somewhere behind me.

Before I could say anything my staff hit something, and when I reached out for it I felt a skull. I knew what it was, so right when I tried to attack Marfedelom he used thunderwave again. However, I was not prepared for it this time. I launched back out of the darkness and hit what I think was Drakak, and saw Aireon flying backwards too.

"Holy hell lad, be careful next time! Is he in there or what?" Drakak shouted while pushing me off of him.

"Yeah, he's in there all right. Where's Aireon he was in there too?" I asked, dusting myself off

"Over here, I'm just gonna lie down a bit." Aireon said, he raised his hand and waved it for a second.

Then Marfedelom's darkness faded and we saw the wounded warlock, he was starting to ware down; but so were we. We all decided to give him one last charge, one final run at him, the decisive moment in this battle to determine the end of the conflict. Right when we were all about to come down on him, like a hammer to an anvil, an eruption of fire exploded between us and Marfedelom. It launched all of us back and disarmed me from my staff, and when I looked up I could not believe my eyes. I saw the two-headed demon prince, Demogorgon.

"You have failed me for the last time Marfedelom. This was a simple and menial task, one my lesser minions could have accomplished this task. You have failed me, any last words?" He said, gripping Marfedelom by the throat,

"No master, it is you who have failed me. Your new demon prince!" Marfedelom shouted, and then black tendrils came out of his back and entered Demogorgon. The demon prince started to shout and scream in agony as he seemed to have his entire being drained, until he became a pool of black sludge.

A circle of fire appeared around Marfedelom, and he looked renewed and more powerful than before.

"Well, I would destroy you now but I have a new kingdom of hell to rule. We'll meet again, when I destroy the world you call home. Good day gentlemen, I'll see you in hell!" and he vanished into a column of fire, and I blacked out.

…..

"Hey, wake up little brother," I awoke in my room at the monastery; my brother and the Grand Master were sitting next to me.

"What happened? Did we win?" I asked

"Yes, and more; we totally annihilated Marfedelom's army even though a few scattered into the wilderness. No one has seen any sign of Marfedelom ever since that day, and your friends are doing good too. Drakak is now a commander of his father's royal army and a prince again. Mythrik took a group of workers to his home town and started to rebuild it, and they are making excellent time; and when he left the keep he found an egg that hatched into a dragon. The thing acts like a puppy around him and treats him as his owner, but you know how he is with dragons. Bodo and Bhar were reunited and now they are pretty famous with the rouge underground, but they act kinda like a pair of robin hoods so they're alright. Aireon decided to search for the people who murdered his father, but I haven't heard anything about it for a while. And I've decided to spend more time with my son; which is why I need to leave now. We will see each other again brother, just give me some time." Drexel said, he hugged me and then left; but I didn't want him too.

"I also have news for you Morgukia; I want you to be recognized as Master Morgukia. Where you lack the necessary skill to be called "Master" you exceed in heart and determination, and I want you to teach the students this. Will you do it?" he asked me,

And then, I decided to make a choice that would change my life forever; for good, and bad. "Yes, master," I said.

He left me in my chamber while I recovered from my battle, but I sensed something in the room with me. When I looked around I saw nothing, but when I looked in the mirror I saw something unbelievable.

"Congratulations "Master Morgukia", what a pleasure it is to see you again," said Marfedelom, in the mirror he was standing right where the grand master was before he left, but when I looked there was nothing there. "I just want you to know I wish for you to be happy, so happy that when I pry all this from your burning corpse your very soul will shatter! So enjoy it while it lasts, because I will come back; and I will set it all ablaze!" and with that last word the mirror shattered, and the presence disappeared.

I wasn't sure about a lot of things that happened then, but I knew one thing for sure; Marfedelom will return. My only question is: Will we be ready?