Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (58 page)

That silenced both Steve and the dwarf, who stared at the dark opening.

“
All right, we attack on three. Ready? One… Two… Three!!”

****

“
They must have found the female,” Rhein reported, lying face down with his ear to the rocky floor. “That sounds like one hell of a
battle
.”

“
What do ye hear?” Pheron squatted next to his friend. Kern joined him moments later.

“
Several explosions.” Rhein was silent a moment as he sensed the faint vibrations in the rock. “The intensity is growing steadily stronger. Do ye think that the battle is in their favor?”

“
There is no way to know.” Pheron thought a moment. “Let me know the instant anything changes.”

****

“
Come on, you lily-livered, monkey-lovin’, small-brained pieces of crap! Come get me! Fresh meat!!”

The advancing guur clicked angrily as their hive-mates continued to drop around them, turning into flaming piles of goo. No matter how they attacked this wielder of fire, they kept sustaining incredible losses. The queen had
retreated
into the last grotto after narrowly avoiding being destroyed in the previous assault. A group of twenty guur had then been selected to sneak through the overhead tunnels to attempt an overhead attack. The rest were tasked with keeping the bipeds preoccupied while more reinforcements could be summoned.

Three of the most aggressive guur chose to
attack
the largest of the bipeds. As they rushed to overtake the human, a fireball slammed into two of the large insects, reducing them to deep-fried status. The third actually made it to the ungainly biped. Chittering victoriously, it leapt at its prey. It was then that it realized part of its abdomen had stayed behind, while the half with its head still attached learned what it was like to become a shish-kabob.

Breslin whistled in admiration. That human was insanely fast with his blades.

Pushing the remains of the insect off his sword, Rhenyon glanced around the cavern. Breslin was now advancing on the guur that he had been facing, hacking the bug into little pieces much like a chef would dice an onion, all the while deeply scarring the rocky floor in the process. Apparently the dwarf liked these things as much as he did. Speaking of which, what happened to the rest of the horde he had just seen? What were they up to?

“
They just left their queen unprotected,” Steve observed, also noting the strange absence of the guur horde.

“
I trust this not, sir Steve,” Rhenyon murmured. “Do not let yer guard down.”

“
I hear that.” Steve looked at the last remaining alcove. “Time to finish this once and for all.”

At that moment, however, it started raining bugs. Big ones. The rest of the guur horde had reappeared, streaming out of numerous holes scattered all across the ceiling. Some chose to scuttle down the cavern walls while others elected to simply drop down, hoping they could score a hit on the deadliest adversary they had yet to encounter.

“
Get back! Get back now!” Steve turned, grabbed Rhenyon by his right wrist, and
executing
a move that would make his old taekwondo master proud, hurled the startled soldier back amongst a group of fallen boulders, knocking Breslin down with him as well. At that
moment
, Steve’s jhorun, correctly guessing that some dire action was needed, once again took the guesswork out of his hands.

The very air in front of him detonated, generating a large, intense sphere of fire and heat that expanded rapidly outward in all directions. It caught the guur completely unaware, vaporizing soft tissue instantly, leaving nothing but empty carapaces everywhere along the ground. Dead, smoldering guur began falling from the ceiling overhead.

Echoes of the explosion continued to reverberate throughout the surrounding rock until eventually fading away, leaving a silence that was inexplicably deafening. The singed head of the captain appeared over a large boulder.

“
Wizards be
damned
, sir Steve!”

****

“
What the hell was that?”

All three soldiers had leapt to their feet.
Sarah
joined them moments later.

“
Did everyone feel that?”

All those present nodded.

“
That was no simple tremor. The very ground shook! Was that sir Steve?”

Sarah nodded again, staring numbly ahead. “In dire circumstances, he has been able to generate a blast that can incinerate everything around him.”

Curiosity had numerous dwarves poking their heads out of their houses. Windows and doors opened. Younglings appeared, chatting excitedly amongst themselves. Maelnar, along with several members of the Council, approached.

“
What was that, lass? Was that yer husband?”

Sarah could only nod. Until she knew that her husband was okay, she didn’t trust her voice.

Noting her discomfort, along with the unease exuding from the human soldiers, Maelnar sat down next to Sarah to wait with her.

****

“
Did I get them all?” Steve
fanned
the air in front of his face. That was the fourth blast he had generated and each had been more powerful than the previous one. Cool! “Anything moving besides us?”

“
Nay, lad.”

Breslin was poking several of the smoking carcasses. No signs of life anywhere. Suddenly remembering that their primary objective should be in the vicinity, the dwarf’s head jerked over to the last remaining cave. It had suffered a cave-in! Tons of rock had fallen from the ceiling, smashing everything flat!

“
Lads! Behold! The last cave has been
demolished
!”

They approached the destroyed cave
cautiously
, waiting for the last bits of debris to clear the air. Steve sneezed. The dust kept tickling his nose.

“
Think she made it out?”

Breslin approached the ruins of the guur queen’s lair. Nudging aside some of the smaller rocks, he let out an exclamation of surprise. He pointed at an object in the pile of rocks.

“
Look there, lads. There can be no doubt. The female is no more!”

The two humans joined the dwarf by the pile of debris. There, protruding from beneath an enormous boulder, were two large smoldering
insectoid
legs.

The captain clapped Steve on the back.

“
Ye did it, sir Steve! The female guur has been destroyed!”

“
Let’s get the hell out of here. We need to let everyone know that we are alive and okay.”

“
Agreed. Master dwarf, lead the way.”

Tumultuous applause erupted as the three weary fighters emerged from within the depths of the earth. All three soldiers embraced their captain, giving him a royal welcome. Only after they had verified he was uninjured did they all let their accusations fly. Sarah pushed by the cheering dwarves and the angry soldiers to pull her husband into a tight embrace.

“
Are you alright? What happened in there? And what happened to your shirt?”

“
I’m alright. A little tired. About my shirt, though,” Steve looked down at his bare chest. Was it his imagination or did it look like he was losing some air in his spare tire? Will have to ask Sarah for an honest opinion later. “It’s a long story. Tell you all about it tonight.”

Thinking back to their quarters in the dwarven city, Sarah teleported a fresh tunic for her husband, who hastily pulled it on. He never really was comfortable without his shirt, Sarah mused. She wasn’t sure why. Watching Steve stretch his arms up to slide the tunic over his head, she couldn’t help but notice that he really should go without a shirt more often.

Properly attired once more, Steve turned to Maelnar, who was approaching with several
other
members of the Council. Pheron, temporarily finished with chewing out his superior,
followed
the captain to the impromptu meeting with the dwarven council.

“
We are relieved to see ye safe and well. I take it ye were victorious, were ye not?”

“
The female guur has been destroyed,” Steve confirmed. “Along with I don’t know how many of the drones.”

The elderly dwarf turned to Breslin. “I am
relieved
that ye are safe, my son. Have ye any idea how many of the drones were destroyed in the process?”

“
We did not keep an accurate count, father,” Breslin began, “but if I were to venture a guess, I would say we destroyed maybe three or four hundred. They kept trying to overwhelm us with sheer numbers, and fortunately sir Steve was able to incinerate anything that attacked us.”

Maelnar clapped his hands together. “Excellent! Ye have exceeded my highest expectations, all of ye.” The dwarf gestured to the large
council
chambers. “Do ye mind? We would all like to hear about yer splendid victory over the guur.”

Breslin looked at his companions. Rhenyon was yawning profusely while Steve appeared to be asleep on his feet.

“
Perhaps we could all convene
tomorrow, father
,” Breslin answered. “Speaking for myself and my companions here, I think we would all
appreciate
a night of rest and relaxation. What say ye, lads?”

“
He has my vote,” Rhenyon muttered.

“
That sounds like an awesome idea,” Steve yawned through his response. “Sorry.”

Maelnar was nodding. “No apology necessary, lad. Rest and recovery is more important. We shall convene on the morrow, then.”

Steering her husband gently away from the throngs of well-wishers, Sarah guided him towards their assigned quarters.

“
You look dead tired, honey. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“
All things considered, I’m not doing too bad. Just really tired. Wouldn’t mind grabbing a bite to eat, though. Must have something to do with expelling all that jhorun.”

“
How many of those mimets did you end up using?”

Steve patted the pouches along his chest, pulling out various crystals to see if they were hot or cold.

“
I have seven left, plus I’m missing a couple.”

“
I still have the three that Rhenyon gave me. Two hot, one cold. I used one to replenish mine after the trip to the castle. One round trip and I was wiped out.” She gave the crystals back to her husband, who had to pat himself down again to find the empty pouches they belonged in.

“
Okay, make that nine, then.”

“
So you used close to half. That must have been one huge battle.”

“
More like three or four huge battles, one right after the other. I’m surprised I didn’t deep fry Rhenyon or Breslin.” Steve laughed. “You should have seen me, babe. I was firing off blast after blast at anything that moved. It was like that whack-a-mole game. There were so many holes everywhere and these things kept popping out of them all at the same time.”

As Steve continued to relay the events that had transpired after she and the soldiers had left, several dwarven guards appeared out of nowhere and discreetly started clearing the road back to the guest quarters. With Rhenyon and Breslin both following silently behind, they navigated their way through numerous streets and alleyways, all the while being congratulated by every dwarf they encountered. Numerous well-wishers had lined the streets, all cheering loudly and clapping everyone on the back, including Sarah.