Read BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan Online
Authors: J. Eric Booker
Tags: #vampires, #fantasy, #dragons, #epic battles
Without a word spoken, Baltor slowly
approached Vaspan until he was two feet away. Meanwhile, Vaspan had
just begun to sit up, though still a bit clumsily.
“Now, Vaspan, you die,” Baltor replied
without emotion.
After Vaspan had quickly lifted up his left
arm until his hand was pointing directly at Baltor, he said, “I’ve
got one more trick up my sleeve, punk!”
Specially created and installed within the
sleeve of his armor, he had a blowgun device, which, when triggered
by a specific upwards flick of the wrist, shot out a lethal dart
wherever the end of the sleeve pointed—Vaspan flicked.
Baltor fell backwards to the ground as the
dart zinged just millimeters over his head—he next performed a
reverse somersault, returned to his feet and hurled both swords at
Vaspan—one right after the other!
Both swords—one right after the other yet
side-by-side—buried themselves to the hilt through both Vaspan’s
armor and chest, causing his mortally wounded body to crash back to
the ground!
As Baltor inched forward, even though he
could see that his opponent was barely moving at all, his very keen
ears heard the man whispering Baltor’s name repeatedly.
Several seconds later, Baltor stood over his
opponent, and his wound was now fully healed—Vaspan had been
looking straight up into the night sky with a bleeding smile on his
face, until his glowing red pupils ran across Baltor!
With a light snap of Vaspan’s right index
finger and thumb, time magically stopped—everyone, except for the
two men, were now frozen in place.
Though Baltor was aware of the finger snap,
he was not aware of the time freeze, because his focus and gaze
remained completely upon his still-living opponent, of whom he
thought might be trying still another trick he had up his
sleeve.
Vaspan, now strangely bearing the voice of a
shrilly/snaky-sounding woman as well those glowing red pupils,
began to deliver this message that only Baltor could hear, “Baltor
Elysian, you do not know me, but I certainly know everything about
you… You have never seen me, but I have alwaysss watched you—oh,
you were so close to changing your uncle’sss mind, but oh so
far…
“Now watch out, for I, my minionsss, and my
mastersss shall soon utterly destroy Trendon Harrn, so that we can
once again posssesss the Rod of Ro’shain, and control the Realm of
Darknessss, asss well all the other universal planesss!”
“I have a question for you, Baltor Elysian:
Will you join the rest of your vompareus brothersss and
sistersss…or do we have to utterly destroy you, asss well your
massster?”
After only a moment’s consideration, Baltor
replied, “My answer is no—I will not join any of you. What you will
come to discover is that you are the ones who will become destroyed
by my master’s hand, and not the other way around. Justice and
order must prevail in the universes, dimensions, and realms, and so
it shall until the very end of time—that is what I firmly
believe!”
Vaspan first hissed like a snake, “Sssss…”
Still bearing the voice of that female, he said, “Beware—I am the
anti-soul you were forewarned about! What Trendon Harrn did not
forewarn you about are these five factsss—one, I am a black dragon;
two, I—like you—am a vompareusss; which makesss three, I am the
first vompareusss dragon in history!”
Obviously not done, Vaspan continued, “Four,
I am the only one of my kind who can teleport through the Realm of
Darknessss without the Rod of Ro’shain, or any other realm for that
matter at any time…
“And five, I’ve brought along me an
unstoppable gnome army, consisting of tensss of millionsss of
warriorsss and priestessesss, which army I have bred for the sole
purpose of destroying three things—you, your master, and your
world!”
Baltor said in disbelief, “Yeah right!”
“You don’t believe me yet, Baltor Elysian,
but you will soon enough…and when we meet again on the battlefield,
along with all my forcesss, I will ask you once more if you will
join ussss! If you say no then, Baltor Elysian, then it isss you
who will die in the—!”
At that moment, Baltor had grabbed the blades
still inside of Vaspan, and pushed just a bit further. Baltor said,
“I seriously doubt that, but good luck!”
Vaspan instantly died—time just as instantly
recommenced!
Baltor slowly raised his two bloodied swords
into the sky above him, which caused the blood from his opponent to
seep down his arms and make “the vompareus” in him extremely
hungry, though he forcibly kept that vampire hunger “in check.”
As for the troops on both sides, they had
already begun to chant, each time getting progressively louder,
“Hail to the Sultan!”
Surprisingly enough, just about everybody
began chanting out, “Hail to the Sultan,” too include most of
Vaspan’s sons! Minutes ago, Glacius, had already disappeared into
the night.
Only the eldest of Vaspan’s sons, Jumblee,
was not chanting, yet instead bore a terribly-upset-look on his
face … after all, not only was he not going to rule the Sharia
Empire as his father had promised, but he was no longer going to
get to inherit the Vaspan Empire either! Even his brothers, Jumblee
realized, had turned on he and his father.
Once Baltor had crossed his swords high over
his head, he somehow managed to shout above the din of the hundreds
of thousands still chanting, “Hail to the Sharia Empire!”
Now frenzied, the soldiers shouted back,
“Hail to the Sharia Empire! Hail to the Sharia Empire!”
While continuing to shout this in place, they
then began to stomp their boots into the ground in unison, which
caused the earth to shake for miles around, while concurrently
beating their armored gloves into their armored chests every time
their left foot hit the ground!
Baltor felt the blissful energy from all his
soldiers as he slowly turned to look at all of his men and women,
which was equally blissful for the lot of them!
The only people worried at all was everyone
back in Pavelus, who still did not know the victor of the duel, or
what was going on to cause such loud noises—though nearly all there
hoped and prayed that Baltor had won.
As for Brishava, she threw a sidelong glance
over at Humonus and Chelsea on the platform, noting that they too
were clapping and chanting with tears of joy pouring from all
eyes.
It was in the next moment that Baltor faced
toward Chelsea, and as soon as his gaze locked onto her, a warm
smile suddenly crossed his face—Chelsea couldn’t help but continue
smiling back, though she did bow her head very respectfully before
her Sultan.
In the next moment, Baltor’s gaze fell onto
Humonus, and that smile widened further still—Humonus closed his
eyes while slowly bowing his head before his Sultan.
It was then that Brishava’s gaze fell back to
her husband—her mind thought, ‘I can’t believe how lucky I am to
have the man I do—the incredible power he holds over his army, over
me, over us all, is absolutely unquestionable!’
It was just as Brishava had finished her
thought that Baltor stopped looking at Humonus—Baltor’s gaze, at
that moment, locked onto hers!
While their gazes remained locked, Brishava
thought she heard Baltor’s voice say in her head,
The world is
ours, my love, the world is ours
…
She tried to say forcibly back in her own
mind, hoping that Baltor could hear it,
Yes it is—I love you, my
husband!
In the next moment, Baltor’s gaze stopped
looking at his wife—those eyes gazed back again at his soldiers as
he declared, “Tonight, my Forces, I will need to see a medic and
get my rest…but tomorrow night—we celebrate!”
“
HOORAY!!
” was the most common word
used by everyone.
The only person who didn’t say a word was
Jumblee. Because he could no longer hold back his “unadulterated
rages,” he drew a boot knife, and chucked it straight and true for
Baltor’s right jugular vein on his neck!
Without even a second thought, Baltor’s right
sword had automatically deflected the incoming knife, even though
it came from behind his standing position—in the end, the blade of
the knife harmlessly stuck itself into the ground, while the armies
on both sides instantly killed the would-be assassin of their
Sultan.
Once everyone sensed that everything was
okay, the crowds began to chant out excitedly and repeatedly,
“Sultan Elysian! Sultan Elysian! Sultan Elysian!”
Baltor awoke the following evening after
sunset, and without so much as an ounce of pain anywhere. Even
before he had opened his eyes, he could feel the bandages and gauze
tape that the medics had tightly wrapped around his chest, back and
shoulder following the battle—although there had been no wound nor
scar even then. He had ordered the medics to remain forever silent
to this fact, even to their Sultaness and ruling-general.
Upon opening his eyes a second later, he
observed that Brishava was sitting on the bed nearby, and that she
was gazing and smiling at him. Currently she was dressed in one of
her sexy nighties. He couldn’t help but smile back!
Nearly a minute passed as the two
continuously stared at each other without a word spoken yet so much
being communicated between the two. Baltor was the first one to
break the silence by yawning and then saying, “Good evening,
Hun.”
Brishava replied with a very chipper tone of
voice, “Good evening to you, my Love! How ya feeling?”
“Not bad. You?”
“Good!”
As Baltor felt the urge to yawn yet again, he
slowly breathed in while just as slowly stretching his arms out
over his head, and then he sucked in a deep breath of air into his
lungs. As he released that very deep yawn, he lowered his arms back
to his sides. Once so, he next extended out his right hand so that
he could clasp Brishava’s left hand.
The very second their hands made contact—a
light flickered in her eyes, just before she asked excitedly,
“Guess what?”
Already curious by the excitement that was
evident, Baltor asked, “What?”
Brishava shifted her free hand so that it
could hold Baltor’s free hand. Once this was so, she revealed,
“Tonight, at nine, we have our victory celebration! It will be held
at the coliseum, so that we can have plenty of room to celebrate
with absolutely everybody!”
After raising just his left eyebrow while
slightly pursing his lips, Baltor asked, “You’re really, really
good at getting things done quickly and thoroughly, aren’t
you?”
“Of course,” Brishava said with a flattered
smile. The look on her face unexpectedly turned to concern as she
asked, “So, how is your shoulder?”
“It still hurts in so many ways that he
stabbed me in the back,” Baltor answered truthfully, “but I’ll be
all right! Just to let you know, I didn’t want to kill your uncle,
but I had no—”
At this point, Brishava had physically
silenced him by cupping her right hand gently over his mouth, and
saying, “
Shh
….it wasn’t your fault!”
Through her cupped hand, Baltor asked with a
muffled voice, “Are you sure?”
Once Brishava’s hand was once again clasping
her husband’s hand, a second later, she said, “Yes, I’m sure. Like
you predicted, the duel not only saved the lives of tens of
thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, yet you’ve more than
tripled the size of our troops! We now have two hundred and
twenty-eight thousand strong men and women enlisted in the Sharia
Empire’s armed forces, too include my uncle’s top general!
“Regarding this particular man, Thorn has
already solemnly sworn his allegiance to us, and we, via me, have
graciously promised that we will give him plenty of chances to
prove his oaths, as he shall be placed directly under your command
as a one-star general. If he fails once, he will immediately die by
your hand, and he knows this to be true…”
During the course of Brishava’s last
sentence, a confused look had begun to draw on her husband’s
face.
Once he was one hundred percent sure she was
done saying what she had to say, Baltor asked his question a few
moments later, “Has there been any sighting of General
Glacius?”
After sighing disappointedly, Brishava
answered, “No, he has managed to escape, yet again. Don’t worry—he
won’t get far.”
Though he spoke no words, Baltor nodded his
head in agreement.
After releasing a wistful sigh, Brishava’s
eyes glimmered as she exclaimed, “By the way, that was by far, the
most incredible battle I’ve ever witnessed in my life—trust me, you
made no mistakes! And what it all really boils down to is this… you
gave my uncle so many chances to join us and our family that it
wasn’t even funny—but like I said before, my uncle was just as
tyrannical and devious as my father.”
It was then that Baltor’s face visibly
relaxed, before he replied with a slight growl, “Good….so, do we
have any time for some hanky—”
Just then, there was a repetitious knocking
upon the double doors interrupting Baltor in his words.
Brishava, with a knowing smile directed at
Baltor, quickly threw her black silky robe on before replying
authoritatively, “Enter.”
The guards opened the double doors from the
other side, and in walked Humonus, who clearly looked angry.
Baltor immediately realized that
something
wasn’t right
, and so he sat up in bed before asked very
somberly, “What’s going on, Ruling General?”
“My Sultan, word has just reached us from
Lasparus—instead of me relaying that message to you, I will let the
captain who barely escaped with his life relay it,” Humonus said,
snapping his fingers twice.
Only a moment later, two guards carried the
mortally wounded captain on a stretcher into the room. Not only was
his uniform tattered to shreds, yet half of his unshaven face and
three-quarters of his body were completely bandaged up! Though the
medics had obviously done their best to keep the captain alive as
long as possible, they felt convinced that he wasn’t going to make
it for much longer.