Chapter 18

Maya stood on a grassy mountainside, watching the milling forms of the soldiers amid the tents in the valley below. The fog was particularly thin this morning, and so she could see a great deal of the land beyond the camp from her vantage point. But what she saw did not make her happy. The land stretched on normally for a time, but at some point everything became gray and lifeless, as if all the color had been leeched out of it. She could not sense any kairu beyond that point. She had witnessed this phenomenon before, and knew that it was caused by the relic known as the Cataclysm Stone.

''The fortress is not so far away,'' Ky said beside her. ''Chances are we will have taken the fortress before we are too drained.''

''But we still have to face Malice,'' Maya said. ''And she is probably not affected by the stone at all.''

''I'm not too worried about her,'' Ky said. ''She may be unaffected by the stone, but we have the Redakai on our side.''

''Yeah, you're probably right.''

Maya looked down the slope to the camp, to see a figure well familiar to her walking toward them on crutches.

''Boomer, what happened to you?'' Ky cried out.

''I tripped earlier,'' Boomer replied without conviction. ''I was asked to tell you that the army is about to march.''

The three friends went down into the camp and took their places with the army, at the front of the column of the Redakai. Tents were taken down and the embers of campfires were buried, and they were mobile soon after that. They marched for about twenty minutes before coming to the edge of the desolation caused by the Cataclysm Stone. Everything was gray and lifeless, even the sky. The withered grass became dust under their feet, and what few trees and bushes could be seen were rotting in fast motion. They came upon the carcass of a deer, which was little more than brittle hide laid over bones.

The soldiers were clearly unnerved by the ghastly landscape, but their desire to pay back the gihox for the death and destruction they had wrought outweighed their fear. They marched along, driven by a longing to put an end to this war. Maya could not sense any kairu at all in this place, and she could feel herself getting slightly weaker. She could see that her fellow kairu warriors felt it as well. She hoped the coming battle would go smoothly, so she would have enough energy left to fight Malice. The thought of the dark spirit made her blood boil with outrage.

The armies entered another valley, and the black fortress came in sight, its jagged spires rising into the air, making it seem like a black crown. The wall surrounding it was truly immense, and the silhouettes of gihox could be seen on the parapets. The armies came to a halt some distance from the fortress, and riders were dispatched to order the gihox to surrender, though that was protocol more than anything else. Everyone knew the giants would not surrender. And so they were not surprised when the messengers returned, shaking their heads.

Kieran ordered for the catapults to be put into place, but they were to hold their fire until he gave the signal. His soldiers took their places on the left, with pikemen in front and the riflemen, with Cat being among their number, staying in cover behind them. The soldiers of the Redakai took their places on the right, with those wielding spears and tridents forming a line in front, while the riflemen were behind. Unlike their counterparts, they boasted no catapults, but they did not need to, for they had the Redakai and their students. Maya and her friends stood in front of the army, but the Redakai were elsewhere, preparing for their strike.

Maya could see the bustle of the gihox on the parapets, and she noticed that there were very few of them. Her grip tightened on her quarterstaff then, as she saw a slight figure appear on the balcony of one of the towers. The figure leaped from the balcony, and when it was halfway down it was enveloped by a greenish glow. Massive, leathery wings spread from that glow, and then the rest of the dragoness appeared in all its horrible beauty. The beast unleashed a thunderous roar that stirred the grass dust on the ground, and it approached the armies on its long and powerful wings.

''Wait until you see the purple of her eyes,'' Kieran instructed to the catapult crews.

Maya dropped into a fighting crouch with her quarterstaff clutched in a white knuckled grip, figuring the dark spirit would attack her first and foremost. The beast approached rapidly, clearly visible, for it was colored, whereas its surroundings were all gray. It was indeed heading straight for her. The dots of purple light that were its eyes appeared, shining through the gray gloom, and Kieran cried out to the catapult crews. The catapults let fly, purple balls of energy soaring to meet the dragoness.

Malice veered at the last moment, all the energy balls but one flying harmlessly past, and with the one who hit only grazing a leg. The dragoness arched her back and banked a hard turn back toward Maya, purple eyes gleaming with hate. She opened her fanged maw and a beam of purple energy shot forth. Maya threw up a protective barrier, absorbing the attack, but the beam continued on toward the ranks of soldiers behind her. But the soldiers surprised the dragoness. As one they moved, raising their forearms as if they had a shield, and shields of energy appeared from their gauntlets, and the beam was absorbed.

Malice bellowed with anger and snapped her fiery gaze over the other army, figuring the soldiers in brown and blue to be easier prey. The dragoness opened her maw and purple light blossomed within, as she charged her breath weapon. But she was not the only one who was charging an attack. The Redakai stood in a circle, holding hands, and a ball of their collective inner kairu was growing in the middle. As the dragoness was about to unleash her devastating attack, they unleashed theirs, and a bluish white beam of energy, as thick around as a bus, shot forth.

Malice did not manage to completely evade the attack, and it slammed into her leathery wing. She roared in pain as the sheer force of the blow twisted the wing further back than it should be able to go, and she plummeted toward the ground. One wing was folded tightly against her side, but the other one was extended to the side in a limp fashion. The injured wing caught the wind as she fell, making her spin. The soldiers beneath made way, and then she hit the ground with a tremendous crash. There was silence for a time, but then the soldiers roared their battle cry and attacked the dragoness.

Malice barely felt their puny weapons as they struck her scaly armor, and she got back to her feet. Excruciating pain flared in her damaged wing, and she realized that she could not move it properly. She was sure the bone was thoroughly shattered, and the knowledge that the Redakai had managed to injure her so enraged her. She lashed out at the puny soldiers, a whirlwind of slashing claws, clubbing tail and snapping jaws. She thrust her head forward, skewering a man through the chest with her horns, and she grabbed a woman in one huge foreleg, and crushed the life from her.

One soldier after the other fell before her, and her claws and jaws were red with the blood of her weak and puny enemies. Malice noticed that the Redakai were preparing to unleash another attack her way, and she wisely decided to cut her losses and make a strategic retreat. Her great legs twitched, launching her into the air toward a cluster of soldiers, but then there came a flash of green light and it was a petite woman and not a dragon that landed among them. Grinning around a mouthful of blood, the dark spirit lashed out at the nearest soldier, her serrated knife slashing his throat open to the bone. Then she vanished in a flash of kairu.

The Redakai still unleashed their attack, but this time their target was the immense wall surrounding the black fortress. This beam was smaller than the first, but it was still powerful enough to reduce a great section of wall to rubble. Many gihox were hurled into the air by the sheer force of the blast. Kieran raised his sword into the air, and he and his army let loose a terrifying battle cry, and broke into a charge. Maya and her friends thundered their own battle cry, and took up a charge as well. They ran across the gray landscape, and poured into the courtyard through the hole in the wall, where the gihox met them.

Maya deflected a sword strike from a gihox with her quarterstaff, then reversed her strength and smote it heavily across the jaw. There came the sound of bone cracking, and a few teeth flew from its mouth, but the giant roared and came ahead. It chopped down with its massive sword. The young woman spun to the side, evading the falling blade, and then she grabbed her staff in both hands and swung mightily. Her staff struck the gihox on the temple, and this time it toppled into unconsciousness.

Maya looked across the courtyard to the massive gate of the fortress, and she wondered how she might get in. She had to stop and fight another gihox then, but as soon as she was done with it, her attention turned back toward the gate. Suddenly a thick beam of energy shot past her and struck the gate, and it became a pile of rubble. She looked back to see the Redakai standing in the gap of the wall, and she gave them a smile. Then she hefted her quarterstaff and ran into the fortress.

xxxxx

Ky noticed the gate blow apart into rubble from the corner of his eye, and the gihox he was fighting stole a glance toward the gate. That momentary distraction was all the kairu champion needed, and he was quick to capitalize on the advantage. Even as he laid the behemoth low with a well placed kicked, he saw Maya run into the fortress. He wanted to go with her, so he could be with her when she fought Malice, but another gihox confronted him. He noticed to his relief that Boomer and Cat rushed into the fortress.

Ky grumbled under his breath as he ducked under a sidelong slash of a huge sword, then he leaped in at the gihox. He lay straight out in the air, connecting with his heels on its face, smashing its eyes. The behemoth roared in pain and dropped its sword, and the kairu champion surged ahead, finishing it off with a heavy punch. Even as the gihox toppled over, he was turning toward the gate. He rushed for it, but a figure with an eye-patch stepped out of the melee to bar his way.

''Zane,'' Ky growled.

''We have some unfinished business,'' Zane exclaimed, reaching up in an unconscious movement to touch the eye-patch covering his damaged eye. ''And this will be different from our fight back at the tournament, for this time there will be a winner.''

''Get out of my way,'' Ky roared.

''Make me,'' Zane sneered, pressing his knuckles together and dipping the customary bow. ''Kairu challenge.''

''Challenge not accepted,'' Ky snapped back.

Zane issued a low growl from his throat, and then he sprang ahead, a shadow sword forming in his hand. Ky dove to the side as the green blade came down, and then he pivoted, swinging a plasma sword at the leg of his opponent. The one eyed general jumped back out of range, then came right back in with a thrust. And so they fought, with each gaining the advantage only long enough for the other to steal it with a clever twist or parry. Soldiers and gihox fought and died around them, the clamor of hundreds of weapons almost drowning out the clatter of their private battle.

xxxxx

Maya charged through the fortress, muscles tensed and ready to propel her backward, in case the dark spirit was waiting in ambush around a corner. Boomer and Cat had caught up to her earlier, and now they sped through broad corridors and grand chambers together, until they came into the corridor where she and her team mates had battled Malice those months ago, just before she had been stabbed. The walls and floor had been repaired, but this was unmistakably the place. She had a feeling that the throne room was near, and she was confident she would find Malice there.

Maya rounded a corner to see rows of obsidian statues lining each wall, statues depicting various kairu monsters. The craftsmanship was incredible, and they had been polished so they seemed to exude a black glow. At the end of this corridor was a great door, standing open as if in invitation to them, and beyond it there was the throne room. At the far end of it was a dais, topped by a huge throne, and seated upon it was Malice. Even from this distance the wicked smile the dark spirit wore could be seen. Her enemy in sight, Maya gritted her teeth and picked up the pace.

One of the statues ahead of them moved suddenly, taking a step out to effectively block their path. Maya ran smack into its leg, and she stumbled dazedly around the appendage and fell to one knee behind the obsidian monster. The statue was huge, well over twenty feet in height, and it was carved to resemble a hydrax. She had to jump out of the way as its stony tail smashed down, and cracks spider-webbed out from where it landed. The monster advanced on her friends, taking slow, thunderous steps. Several more statues were twitching to life and taking their first steps, their eyes glowing purple.

''Froztok!'' Boomer shouted, transforming into his signature monster, and grabbing the hydrax by the wrists, before starting to wrestle with it. ''Go!'' he shouted at Maya, and he twisted and heaved, slamming the monster into a smaller animated statue. That one crumbled into rubble, but the hydrax seemed little the worse for wear, with only a few scratches along its surface to mark the abuse. ''We will keep these things busy..''

Maya hesitated.

''Go defeat your dark half,'' Cat shouted to her, then she opened fire on a statue shaped like a silverbax.

Maya turned and charged toward the throne room.

It was time to end this.

To be continued...

Here is another song for a character :)

Kieran McCann = Feuer Frei, by Rammstein