Introduction
Welcome back to Maledicturs Terra. This is a Chain Story between myself and @lex-zaiya, meaning that we each write the parts alternatively.
If you have not read Maledictus Terra Book 1: Mortis Custos yet, it starts HERE at Part 1 and ends at Part 101 HERE. At the end of the Part 101 post you will find links to all 101 Parts!
The previous part by @lex-zaiya can be found HERE.
Part 65
By now the others were joining Mortis and Adrian on the battlements. The Blazeknights looked fatigued but they were trying to be alert. The King seemed on edge. Not frightened, but seemed to be fighting some sort of instinct.
Mortis realized that Lucien was no longer next to them.
He had little time to wonder where the Lifedrinker had gone. The presence inside him ached as he looked down at the horrifying visage below.
It still looked at him with a sort of longing, but its demeanor changed when the others arrived.
Magna, Anna and Leopold in particular caught the creature's attention. It stared at them and tracked them. The Blazeknights exclaimed and offered prayers when they saw it.
Magna merely came to a stand still, one hand on her hip, the other on the pommel of her sword. She frowned at the monstrosity below and was slowly breathing in. "We are supposed to capture that? How?"
Mortis had to smile, glad that he had his helmet on to mask the reaction. She made him proud. No fear in her, she was taking in its scent and she is studying the opponent. No matter how otherworldly and horrifying the opponent.
Even Derric flinched when he saw it. "Well, I guess I won't be eating elk for a while." He said shakily. Mortis wondered why the boy was in human form again. Sometimes he forgot that the large wolf was a person and not a companion pet.
The ungodly bugle ripped forth again from the creature. The sound still carried every note of pain and anguish, yet it now contained a hateful screech to the tone. The forest around it became alive with movement.
Trees and branches shook and aberrations, so fast that they were difficult to track sped towards the castle walls. The creature did not look at Mortis now at all and stared instead at the breathing mortals that had joined them.
Some of the figures that were running towards the castle were the same creatures that they had fought in the city. Others were larger, misshapen things, corrupted things from the forest perhaps.
Mortis glanced to the side to look at Adrian. Why had the creature not reacted to the boy, but did so now when it had seen the others?
There was a clash against the steel doors of the castle as creatures threw themselves against it.
"We must secure the doors!" Leopold yelled, his voice marred with fear. These were not the normal sort of opponents that he had fought before. Not even the shambling undead could inspire such dread in the man.
He had his sword out and he was making a run for the stairwell at the side of the battlement that would lead down to the entrance. What he hoped to do down there Mortis could not guess. It was clear that the man was in a panic.
The knight Anna was not far off in her demeanor. She was breathing rapidly and looked around on the battlements as though the enemy might already be on top of them. She grabbed his free hand as he came past her. "No! You can't go! It's not safe down there!"
"We need to make the castle safe! They are tearing down the door!" Leopold yelled.
"Its too late." Magna said, cutting into their argument like a hot knife. "This castle is a wreck. There is no guarantee that it holds solid everywhere. Besides, look over there."
The Blazeknights looked in the direction that she pointed at. A massive creatue was lumbering its way from the forest, scattering lesser creatures before it. One of the Hungers from the city got in its way and was torn to pieces by spines and horns that grew out of its head, back and shoulders.
It was so large that it shook the ground under the feet of the party on the wall. It struck the steel doors of the castle with thunderous force. The metal buckled and bent but it did not collapse.
The creature retreated back on cloven hooves to make another charge but was stopped in its tracks as it was speared from above by a rain of razor-sharp spikes of ice.
Adrian was standing next to Mortis, his hands weaving and throwing more spells, some casting light at the enemies. There was a scream of anguish as an arrow made of yellow light pierced one of the creatures.
The creature burned and writhed around the arrow in its chest and other creatures faltered in their charge as the light touched their bodies. They recoiled and their bodies smoked from the contact.
"Of course." Adrian muttered. "Sunlight."
He compressed his hands together and Mortis could see intense sunlight beginning to form between the boy's fingers.
What would come next would probably engulf the grounds before the castle. Mortis could see that most of the creatures would be hit by the blast, but the elk had already retreated. Out of sight and out of the threat of the light.
Something hit into Adrian's back that made him stumble. The boy nearly fell off the battlements but Mortis caught the boy. There were shouts and screams.
Mortis looked around to see a massive Hunger, deformed and twisted with its shttered ribs poking out of its chest like spines, clashing with the party on the wall.
And that's the end of my part... right in the thick of it!
Here is an explanation of Chain Stories and here is the current Chainstory Library
Mortis Custos
Sanguifex
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