Re: Disturbing News
Battles Part 39
(….He took a deep breath and with his best prolonged battlefield bellow called out the warning,
“LICH!!!!!”) Battles Part 38
In Transit to Plague Bearer's Secret Sealed Lair Part 4
Conflict Part 12
The stone wall had begun to develop fractures that were spreading rapidly where the tunnel exit had been. Through the cracks a dark thick liquid-like stone began flowing to the floor in front of Az. The seemingly liquid stone appeared to be hot due to the sizzles and little wisps of smoke as it flowed. The floor with its mosaics slowly cracked and snapped, as if freezing in front of the spreading thick now black fluid. The further the arc of thick stone spread out from the wall the more deeper black, more shiny and thinner it became. As the liquid stone spread out further, the faster it went.
Az was hovering about one meter above the junction floor. He suddenly understood. Watching a little finger of shiny inky blackness try to reach and grab him in the air as well as his hovering Wardogs. The unnatural fluid rolled over rails and crates while absorbing everything in its path. Individuals caught by the frightening stone-like liquid could only scream as they were being absorbed. The remaining lumps of individuals changed shape as they fought for their lives. The lumps flowed through the substance as they headed quickly to the North inside the huge junction. They then went over an apparent ridge and disappeared. Every once in a while an arm, part of a face trying to catch a breath of air or weapons would appear before being pulled under once again. As more were absorbed a chilling sense of gathering strength radiated from the shiny black expanse.
Az bellowed to all of the personnel that had survived the coming of the Great Calamity throughout the junction. His bellow echoed to those further from the expanding deadly semi-circle of shiny death, “Evacuate the junction! The realms are merging herein and the Lich is summoning her Gods as she comes to us!”
Az partially turned in the air then addressed the Sergeant Major speaking swiftly, as he tossed his backpack to him, “You know what must be done. I will be there or another will join you. The black stone below your taloned paws is the Summoned Consuming Ice of the Abyss. It will absorb whatever it touches.” Lifting his head he addressed the Pack, “Pick up our compatriots. Today will be a good day to die in glory, but Not here Not now!”
To the rest of the personnel in the Hub he shouted, “Run fools Run!!”
Slowly a perfect column of water three meters in diameter and five meters high that floated at one third of a meter above the shiny black stone coming out in front of the rapidly melting wall.
Flames rolled around the figure throughout the column as spontaneous rising rows of bubbles appeared within the crystal clear water. Once free of the wall the column began to head Northward picking up speed, as it got closer to the center of the junction/hub.
A three meter tall creature was appearing as it regenerated in its five meter column of crystal clear water. All could see that this was the same creature who had attacked the duo in the tunnel. With a hand and part of a forearm now visible growing out of its left shoulder, the scene became even more shocking and macabre than the description found of a monster in a Copper Dreadful Novel. In the distance there were cut off screams in the background, echoing in the hub. Quickly the three meter shape formed. Once again a bony structure was followed by muscles and skin/ scales. Flickering red flames flowing up and down with black strands in an unknown symmetrical pattern within which the regeneration followed.
Az began chasing the dreadful creature closing the distance betwixt them. His sword was out and engulfed in black flowing flames of power crisscrossing over him.
The ancient crone, known as the Great Calamity, had come out of a far wall through another tunnel had slowly been meandering along in the Hub. She abruptly came to a stop. She sniffed in several directions then suddenly turned and ran towards the last individual in the group fleeing the way she had come from in the South side of the Hub.
The ancient crone turned and paced under FiFi craning her neck and squinting with her cataract covered eyes, at the Sergeant Major growling, “**$!##&!FLIM??!! )%^@@$#!@@ FLAM??! }]^[,$$*!! SHOOTER??!”
The Sergeant Major did not answer and kept flying to the exit along with the others. Less than heart beat later the Calamity swung her walking cane in the air where FiFi had been. She cursed and muttered believing she had been ignored. The crone sniffed again since there had been no answer. The realization that she was smelling herself and that she stank immediately motivated her to act quickly. She had the feeling she had been followed or tracked for centuries by creatures unknown. If she had ever backtracked there was never any evidence of scent or print in the soil. Her fury increased with the idea of someone interfering with her. The unknown creatures would pay with their lives. The lightning storm cloud behind her increased dramatically in size with the lightning strikes becoming far more powerful and wide spread.
Slowly she turned around seeking as she shook her cane in vexation. She blinked rapidly believing that a moving waterfall was in her immediate vicinity. Muttering she turned scampering then running due North in the huge hub. Her run became a sprint as she obliterated anything in her path. Screams and shouts were snuffed out instantly as she passed. Any Gnomes or Dwarves in her way became part of the horrific bloodstain with bits of flesh and bone showing her path through the junction if not smart enough to have left earlier. Circles of flame surrounded her feet with the sprint towards her goal.
The black flowing ice on the floor had already been spreading up the grand walls into the ceiling above. It absorbed all light and murals even as it had consumed the railway tracks, trolleys and equipment of all types.
The spreading Ice of the Abyss however was treated no differently by the power of the Calamity. The black ice kept falling away from her as if it was somehow in pain. If it was not quick enough, the circle of flames surrounding her feet burned perfect circles around her with a horrid stench of black smoke wafting in the air of her sprinted path.
There was nothing Nothing in the world that was going to stop her from getting a good wash in that moving five meter high underground waterfall. Then she would obliterate those creatures tracking her!..........
The Beginning of the End continues
