Deepforge (25 page)

“Get them from harm, as far away as you can before the wave hits! We have only moments! Hurry!”

Deccon and the elder metallics began teleporting as many away as they could, but thirty thousand people is a lot.

“Brace for impact!” yelled Bruno.

The ocean itself came up upon the land, crashing and rolling violently. Anyone still mounted was knocked off, into the raging waters. Everyone was scattered. Grognor had Teelena taken by the metallics before him. They were too late to get him. The roaring water rolled across the landscape, tumbling horses and warriors alike. Screams of terror came from beast and humanoid. The waters hit the war machines and destroyed them, reducing them to rubble as they tumbled. The rubble became rolling missiles against anyone near.

It was total destruction. By the time the waters began to recede, the army was completely scattered. There was no telling how may had been taken. Bodies lay everywhere, covered and uncovered, both beast and humanoid. Horses whinnied and tried their best to pull themselves from the debris. Bruno and Thrúd had somehow stayed close together, but Thrúd had drowned. As the waters left the victims covered in debris, several began doing what they could to save others. Bruno woke up coughing, having suffered a solid hit on the head by one of the war machines as it broke up. He scrambled up, desperately looking out at the unbelievable destruction. He tossed a large beam off of Thrúd, and knew she was gone. He knelt down and picked up her cold, dead body.

“It’s ok, my darling. You’ll be fine.” He placed her on her side on a large plank, and sat next to her caressing her long, but now very tangled blonde hair.

Bōddy came running up with most of the elder elves and tried their best to help. The Stone Children began throwing large chunks of debris away, looking for people.

“Oh, Bruno. I’m so sorry,” Bōddy said when he saw Thrúd’s dead body.

“She’s not dead, not yet. Just give her a few moments.”

Bōddy didn’t understand; she was clearly dead. As he contemplated his new friend not willing to mourn, Thrúd began violently coughing, her color quickly returning. Bruno held her as she retched and coughed.

“It’s ok, I’ve got you,” Bruno said as she struggled to recover.

She grasped him and pulled herself to a sitting position in front of him, looked into his eyes, and began to cry. “I thought I had lost you!” She grabbed and hugged him.

“Didn’t you just say something about the afterlife a while ago? Come on, we need to help everyone else,” he said, helping her to her feet.

“Wait…” Bōddy started, “so you’re…”

“She’s immortal. Surprised?” Bruno said.

“Yea, wasn’t expecting that. Well, good!” Bōddy smiled and continued digging through the rubble. “Has anyone seen the Emperor?”

Kergnor came stumbling up, pointing at the Drakmid army. “What the hell are they doing?”

They looked at them, nearly forgetting their presence as they dealt with the wave. The Drakmid army with their dragon companions simply watched, not moving.

“This would be a perfect time to attack us, why aren’t they? The metallics are gone and we’re prone.” Kergnor said.

All at once, the Drakmid army turned to make a fast retreat.               Eric came running up with several Nords with him, many of them badly injured. “Has anyone seen Grognor? Where are the metallic dragons? How many have we lost? Does anyone know?”

“Oh…my…god!” Thrúd said, slowly backing up as she looked toward the ocean.

They all looked as well, once again not understanding what they were seeing. It was nearly as tall as a mountain. It emerged from the ocean onto the beach, and walked along dragging its massive tentacles behind, as much crawling as walking. It was an abomination. It looked like some sort of cross between a giant squid, or an octopus with some sort of sea humanoid. It was terrible, beyond the very definition of ugly. It was beyond gigantic, and it was very hungry. It looked exactly like the shape Bruno had shown the people a few weeks prior.

“Is that a…” Bruno started.

“It’s a Kraken! It’s a goddamn Kraken! Run for your lives!” Thrúd screamed.

Bruno noticed a person directly in the path of the Kraken. “Is that Grognor in front of it?”

Sure enough, Grognor had dug himself out of the rubble. Seeing the impossibly large creature bearing down on his people, he made a decision. He would battle the creature and keep it from hurting anyone.

Eric and the Nords couldn’t believe their eyes. They began to prepare for battle.

“No, retreat and prepare for battle with the Drakmids. Do not worry about the Kraken,” Eric said. He shoved his sword into the ground and said quietly, “It is not your time, Kraken. Go back from where you came and wait for your proper summoning.”

All of the survivors found themselves panicking and running for their lives, ironically toward where the Drakmid army had run.              

Thrúd grabbed Bruno. “Come on, we have to get out of here!”

Bruno pulled away. “I can’t let him do this. He’ll be killed!” He began running toward the defiant Grognor, who stood with his axe ready to battle the creature.

Suddenly, the creature roared. It was a roar that would rival any of the dragons’. The force of the roar itself knocked several people down, and burst a few eardrums with the expanding shockwave. Grognor fell several yards back. He furiously jumped back to his feet. “Come and get some, beasty!”

The Kraken stopped in its tracks, abruptly turned around, and quickly retreated into the sea. It displaced an enormous amount of water as it disappeared beneath the waves.

“…and…don’t come back!” Grognor yelled, victorious.

“How?...how the hell?” The Black Queen was flabbergasted as she watched the Kraken retreat apparently at the sight of Grognor. She looked up at the scryer and Jennifer, who also had a perplexed look on their faces. The Queen wasn’t angry so much, just very confused. In moments she finally got over her shock. “Ok, well, then…my army will attack them in their vulnerable state, before their metallic companions return! Pin them against the sea and the shield! Kill them all!”

“Prepare for battle!” Eric commanded the Nords. Before anyone realized what was happening, the Drakmids stormed toward them. Everyone scrambled to find a weapon, while still digging people out of the wreckage.

Grognor was quite pleased that his very presence was enough to scare away the unfathomable beast. Bolstered, he turned around to boast. Instead, he saw more horror. Dead bodies lay intermingled with the debris, people he had been friends with, family. When he saw the familiar face of his brother Mergnor, he gasped. He was very obviously dead. “Noooooo!” he screamed and ran the grey body. He lifted up his brother’s head and gazed into the lifeless eyes. His body had been torn nearly in half by a large timber from one of the war machines. Tears poured down his face as he cried and mourned his brother. As he did so, a horrible thought passed through his mind. “Teelena!” he screamed her name, already crying and horrified by the possibility of her being dead. “Teeeeeelena!” he screamed over and over. He desperately searched for her until he heard the battle cry and the sounds of battle beginning. He looked up to see the massive Drakmid army quickly bearing down on them, and no sign of the metallics anywhere. He then remembered Teelena had been taken by the metallics just seconds before the wave hit, and that seemed to give him a bit of comfort. Not having her near still worried him. Looking around at the destruction and the battle beginning, he grasped his axe and ran toward the Drakmids.

Everyone ran toward the Drakmids and their chromatic dragons, determined to defeat them. The Stone Children began throwing all manner of debris at the dragons, knocking them out of the sky as they came. The elves met with the Drakmids first, slicing and shooting arrows as fast as they could. The clash of metal grew louder and louder as more Deepforge Empire warriors met with Drakmids. The Nords hit them next, clashing with massive weapons of all types. The dwarves along with everyone else hit next, until a massive clash of warrior on warrior raged.

There was no order to this battle. It was a chaotic mix of passionate warriors trying their best to kill each other. The Drakmids may have outnumbered the Deepforge army, but they were no longer superior in their weapons and armor. Any outside observer would have a difficult time difficult time discerning who was who. Deepforge warriors of all kingdoms wore the same type of armor as the Drakmids, but shiny and with the Deepforge logo clearly painted on. They also used stolen weapons, so that sparks flew from the metals clashing. Of course, now there was a new variable. The Deepforge army had done the final stage to the mithril, so they were even tougher and shinier than the Drakmids. Now the swords and other bladed weapons of the Deepforge army cut through the unfinished mithril of the Drakmids. The numbers were deceptive. The Deepforge army was outnumbered two to one in this battle, but more Drakmids fell. It wasn’t one sided, however. Many Deepforge warriors fell as well.

As the battle raged on the ground, the chromatic dragons became distracted by the incessant attacks by the Stone Children. They tried to spew acid, blast fire, electrocute, freeze and all manner of attack at the Deepforge warriors engaged in battle with the Drakmids, but there were two major problems. One, being the fact that the armies were too intermingled to only hit their enemies. The other, was the fact that the Stone Children continued to throw massive missiles at them. Ballista missiles, broken arrows, large timbers, even dead Drakmids were thrown at the dragons. Each hit by the Stone Children caused either instant death or severe damage to a dragon. If a still living dragon lost his flight by an attack and crashed to the ground, it was quickly torn apart. It wasn’t only the Stone Children attacking the dragons, though. The Naw-nee and others good with missiles shot massive amounts of arrows up at them. Eugene and his warriors stood in a line near the ground battle, a few dozen yards away from the Stone Children. Many of the elves joined them.

Alva calmly aimed his bow at the dragons as everyone else rapid fire. “Come on, just turn that way. Just a little more.”

“What exactly are you aiming at?” Eugene asked as he rapid fire arrows into dragons, only hitting about every sixth.

“If you look at their necks, you can just barely see a little smudge near the top. See it?” Alva pointed.

Eugene stopped firing and looked at where Alva pointed. “Yea, I see it, what is it?”

It’s their secondary aspiration spot. It has something to do with keeping their spine cool, or something. If you can hit that spot, it’s a kill…if you can get the arrow in deep enough.” He slowed his breathing and let his arrow fly. It soared through the air and hit the smudge, sinking all the way into the dragon’s neck. The dragon screamed and went limp, crashing into the ground battle. Several people were crushed.

“Nice shot!” Eugene exclaimed. “Bet you can’t do that again.”

Alva smiled and took aim as a red dragon bear down on them, inhaling and preparing to expel a blast of fire. Eugene aimed at the smudge just as Alva let his arrow fly. It pierced the secondary aspiration spot, instantly killing the beast. They had to run to get out of the way as the dead dragon hit the ground, plowing up the earth.

“Wow! That’s even better than an eye shot!” Eugene said.

“Yea, a good solid hit in the secondary aspiration spot is always an instant kill.”

Suddenly the sky filled with metallic dragons. Upon them rode several warriors, ready for battle. The dragons didn’t waste time dropping off their passengers; they attacked the chromatics, now out numbering them. The aerial battle raged as did the ground war for hours as the armies tried their best to destroy each other. At long last, the Deepforge army began to get more of an edge.