The End Chapter 8 Rough Draft

Days Until Genocide: 328

Armed soldiers from various nations surrounded the Fire Kingdom's borders. However, being their home kingdom, volcanic humanoids made up most of the forces. Each of the Fire Kingdom's troops were varying in combination of lava, rock, or pure flame. The queen, with the help of being pure flame, towered a hundred stories over the kingdom, keeping a long-distance watch. Everyone felt as though the enemy was simply a few seconds away from attacking. Maybe they were just mere centimeters out of the queen's sight?

Regardless of the enemy's position relative to theirs, that wouldn't solve the problem that plagued them. What was going to proceed was the first real battle against this unknown enemy. Finn was the only one who had fought Red and survived. Meanwhile, other survivors had no information to help future defenses. Finn and Jake guarded the heart of the queen's palace. Being deep into the kingdom, they had to wear an enchanted barrier to protect them from the heat. Since it colored them both dark blue, it would be easy to find each other in case if they got lost in rubble. Of course, this made them stick out like a sore thumb amongst the lava sea below and reddish-brown rock surrounding them.

Finn looked behind him, seeing the door that protected the base of the queen. "So, all we have to do is just guard this area?"

"Yup," Jake said.

Finn waited. For him and the troops, the wait was nerve-wracking. Red didn't specify what time he would come, so they had to ensemble there the night before, just to be safe. Everyone was cycling through sleeping and patrol to make sure that not all troops had sleep deprivation before the battle. Some got bored, and started to goof off. Of course, this was meet with some harsh words from the commanders. *

Hours continued to pass. Finn could hardly see it, but the autumn sun was on the verge of setting. Therefore, he believed that it was around five or six in the afternoon. To keep themselves from growing stiff, the duo occasionally did stretches. At one point, they even tried to pass the time with some "I Spy." Some of the fellow soldiers also gave some off-handed comments about their opponent, saying that Red was probably attacking other places. While Finn and Jake thought that there was some ounce of truth to that statement, they silently disagreed with another soldier who said this preparation was a waste of time.

The sun was now sitting on the horizon, with only a lone bird keeping it company. A goblin soldier who was stationed on the front lines admired the grace of the bird. Although the sun made it appear like a silhouette, he took a liking to the animal's gentle movements as it sat down by the nest it was building. The border was where the hard, lifeless rock meet with clean, nutritious soil of the grasslands; the only other trees where at least a half mile away. The fact that the tree it nested on was so full of life reminded the goblin what he was fighting for. He hoped the tree would be sparred of the chaos. In his mind, it wasn't time for such a young parent to lose their home.

Another silhouette walked up from the horizon. At the sight of this, the goblin almost dropped his lance out of fear. However, remembering his duty, he stopped with the anxious shaking and spoke up.

"Halt!" His voice cracked. "State your business!" After saying that, the shadow didn't respond. This lack of response only made the goblin shake again.

"I'll take care of this," said a soldier from the fire kingdom. "You there, are you friend or foe?" His words resonated more confidence than that of the goblin's. As a reward for his bravery, the fire elemental was given two 12 by 4-inch ice shards. One pierced his skull, while the other smashed his heart.

The goblin's weapon fell to the ground almost as fast as the corpse beside him. The amateur soldier, too panicked to follow proper procedure, ran away. He was frozen on the spot. The other soldiers zoned in to fight this hostile. The ones who didn't immediately participate in this retaliation saw what toward behind him. A storm of large needles, each roughly the size of an arrow, were flying through the sky. The volley was roughly twenty miles in length. The soldier's hearts raced when they realized they were the targets.

The closest commander shouted at the top of his lungs. "EVERYONE, SHIELDS UP!"

Faint whiffs could be heard in the air as the threat approached. Most of the soldiers did exactly what the commander ordered. Loud thuds and clanging metal were the only sounds in the area. With the soldiers distracted by the volley, the shadow launched several miniature blizzards upon crowds of soldiers. * Inches felt like miles to each of the soldiers; nobody could move more than a few inches without getting hit. It wasn't long before the cries of soldiers overran the area. * Half the soldiers on the front lines fell to the ground when the barrage had ended. *

The attacker trudged forward. The fading presence of the sun revealed a fine image of him. He was covered from head-to-toe in bulky armor, save for a sight opening for the helmet. The armor was split into two layers. One was heavy knight armor, tinted blue by flame resistant spell. Atop that, there was a three-inch layer of unmalting ice. Within the ice, various charms and jars, all having some sort of ice-related emblem on it. The only exception was a lone fire extinguisher. Just to be safe, he made sure a second layer of that blue spell was applied to him. Thus, his color had made him stand out amongst the red, green, and brown fields around him. The only thing looking natural was Red's obscured face behind the armor, but anyone who was close to him was assaulted.

Hundreds of soldiers swarmed him, which Red responded with wide blasts of ice shards. Hurtling towards was a storm of fire casted from the queen. However, after being coated with by the scorching element, only a bit of steam came from his armor. No significant damage had been made. Bodies were piling up as Red did whatever means possible to kill. Then suddenly, a loud explosion of ice occurred near home, increasing his body count. Deep within the underground bunkers, hiding the civilians, the ground was shaking from the impact. Families embraced each other, praying for the safety of the defending forces.

Finn and Jake could clearly hear the louder parts of the carnage taking place. * Unfortunately, being too deep underground, it would take too much time to even attempt an intervention. Tremors followed the heaviest attacks Red unleashed. With each one, Finn's felt his skin crawl. After several tremors, there was only one with the accompaniment of falling pebbles, some of which landed on his head. At first, Finn thought that the room's foundation was flimsy. But then, the pebbles kept falling. He stepped back to see the source of the nuisance.

There was only one point in the ceiling being affected. At first, nothing had change. Finn was just about to lower his guard when a large crack formed. Skully fell to the floor, with a large purple spike in his hand. Upon landing, he brushed the charcoal off his mask. Skully looked behind him, only half-surprised to see Finn. He let out a slight chuckle.

"I didn't expect you here," Skully said. "Well, I'm sure you know what I'm here for." He shrugged. "Unfortunately for me, Red doesn't want you injured, and I'm sure you won't want the same. If you could just calmly step aside, things don't have to get ugly."

Finn swung his blade at him, only for him to block it with the spike.

"Is this the part where we fight? I told you, I have important matters to attend to." Skully ran to the central pillar of the room, with the spike buzzing from its gyration.

Jake grabbed him and flung him off the bridge. They would've spoke too soon if they considered him dead. Skully was dangling from a rope made of the strange spikes.

Skully's eyes locked onto Jake. "While I won't kill a human, I have no qualms in putting a dog down." He unleashed a barrage at Jake.

* Taking advantage of the brief distraction, Skully rocked back and forth on the rope, and lunged towards the lower wall of the pillar, just a few feet from sea of lava below. With his free hand, Skully drilled toward his objective. It wasn't long before his drill was knocked away via arrow. He looked in the direction of the arrow's source and growled at the guilty guards. Out in the open and lacking mobility, Skully was a sitting duck for the next storm of arrows. With one shot, he was sent into the lava.

Skully emerged from the lava, kicking and screaming from the scorching heat. However, the damage dealt to him was equivalent to being dipped in boiling water. While still deadly, it didn't provide the instant annihilation the guards hoped for. Skully, despite being in a state of panic, managed to form a shoddy raft out of his spikes. After climbing to safety, he began to hyperventilate. The guards weren't sure if he was still able to fight. Since being able to capture this menace alive would be more useful than simply killing him, they didn't want to take another chance shooting.

It took Skully a second to regain his wits. With his breaths and heart rate slowed down to normal levels he stood back up. "You gentlemen must really want your comrades to see the afterlife. Let me through, and we'll leave sooner!"

Finn responded by shooting him with a bow.