Dragon Apocalypse (The Berserker and the Pedant Book 2) (15 page)

“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…” APOCALYPSE GROWLED as he bounced on Ohm’s shoulder, pursued by Melody.
 
Melody waved around the sword she took from the pedestal as she gave chase.

“Oh, dear,” Rufus said.

“What is it, Doofus?” Arthur asked.
 
“Can’t you see I’m a little busy now?”

“It’s just that I, uh, I recognize that sword, m’lord.”

“You do?
 
From where?”

“It’s the sword I gave to our operative with instructions to give to the dwarf.”

“Not the…”

“The very one, sire.
 
The cursed dragon slaying sword.
 
I’m afraid she’ll be rather occupied for the time being.”

Melody pursued Ohm as he ran in a large circle around the room, flames spewing from Apocalypse in unsteady jets, failing to hit anything of import.
 
“Die, foul beast!” she cried, scurrying after him.

Arthur rubbed his eyebrows with both hands. “Must I do everything myself?” he asked.

“M’lord, I coul—“

“Silence!”

Arthur walked over to the side of the room, not to where Melody was, but to where she would be.
 
As Ohm ran past, Arthur waved a hand and said, “Ostium Apertum!”
 
A shimmering disc appeared in the air, and Melody ran right through it.
 
It closed behind her.

“Now,” said Arthur.
 
“Where were we before being so rudely interrupted?
 
Ah, yes!”
 
He concentrated and the Sphere of Annihilation moved towards Maximina once more.

“Can’t it move any faster?” Gurken asked.

“It’s awfully slow,” Pellonia said.
 
She had ceased struggling against the Pellonias, but they still held her down.

Arthur glowered at them and concentrated even harder, beads of sweat forming on his brow.
 
The Sphere seemed to move ever so slightly faster.

“Maximina,” Gurken shouted, “when it gets too close, just move out of the way!”

“That sounds like a good plan!” Maximina shouted back.
 
“I don’t know why I hadn’t considered it.”

“You’re welcome,” Gurken yelled back.

“Come and help,” Arthur snarled towards the mysterious man in the cloak.
 
The man walked forward and gestured. The Sphere seemed to move a bit faster — though a crawling baby could still have managed to avoid it, snails were likely to die in it’s path.

A glowing disc opened in the room next to Arthur. Melody leapt out of it.
 
She scanned the room, saw Ohm, yelled a battle cry, and charged, “Yaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!”
 
Ohm began to run around the room again.

Arthur shook his head.
 
“This won’t do,” he said.
 
“You’ve spoiled it, Maximina. This is no longer fun.
 
We’ve a world-spanning portal to build and a world to conquer.
 
Nihil Abire!”
 
The Sphere of Annihilation winked out of existence.

“Ignis! Fulgur! Lux Trabem! Glaciem!” Arthur said, pointing at Gurken, then Maximina, then Pellonia, then Apocalypse.
 
The orbs circling Arthur’s head stopped in midair, rotated towards their targets, and fired.

Fire roared, engulfing Gurken in flames.
 
He screamed and sizzled, and died.
 
Lightning crackled, striking Maximina in the chest and flinging her across the room.
 
She convulsed and died.
 
Light beamed, piercing Pellonia’s head between her eyes.
 
She slumped over.
 
Dead.
 
Ice shot, knocking Apocalypse from Ohm’s shoulder.
 
Melody stabbed the sword into the little dragon, who cried in pain and fell to the floor where Melody stepped on its neck, crushing it.
 

“No!” Ohm yelled, running to Apocalypse.
 
Melody smiled down at him as he cried, cradling the dragon in his arms.
 
Apocalypse blinked rapidly, unable to move, struggling for breath.
 
Finally, he fell silent.
 
Dead.
 
“My baby!”
 
Ohm looked at Melody, tears streaming down his face.
 
He snarled and his skin rippled, taking on a leathery tone.
 
He blinked and when his eyes opened they were reptilian and yellow.
 
He let loose a terrible roar that shook the enormous cavern.

“Wyrm, please,” Arthur said, smashing his staff into the back of Ohm’s head.
 
Ohm crumpled to the floor, his features morphing back to that of a human.
 
“Get them — before — they transform.
 
That’s the key!” Arthur said, pointing a finger up.
 
“I do rather enjoy his music though. Rufus, Pellonias!
 
Bring him along.”

Arthur conjured open a portal and stepped through.
 
Rufus and the Pellonia’s picked up Ohm and carried him through the portal.
 
Melody and the mysterious man in the silken robe followed.

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN

The Berserker and the Clem

IT WAS DARK.
 
It was also warm and very wet.
 
Gurken opened his eyes.
 
A very dim radiance lit his tight confines.
 
It was like being in a sleep sack, but filled with warm porridge.
 
Fluid filled his lungs and he panicked, thrashing about.
 
The sleep sack started to crush him, but there was no room to fight.
 
There was a great, crushing squeeze and the side of the sack ruptured and Gurken spurted out like a bar of soap from a wet hand.

Gurken looked up, and it was no sleep sack, it was an enormous pod at the top of a large plant.
 
Gurken waved his hands, shaking off warm gelatin goo.
 
“That’s disgusting,” he said, then noticed he was entirely naked.

At the bottom of the plant was a skeleton; next to the skeleton in a neat pile were Gurken’s armor and clothing, his belongings, and even his axe.
 
The plant’s roots had grown into the body and apparently eaten its flesh.
 
Gurken curled his lip.
 
“What kind of foul sorcery is this?” he asked no one in particular.

He heard a sound like a cat regurgitating a meal, looked to his side, and saw several more plants, one of which was splitting open.
 
Out slid Pellonia, striking the ground with a splat.
 
“That’s not right,” she said, wiping goo from her eyes.
 
She covered herself, and her cheeks flushed.

“Whaaaaaa-aa-aaa-aaahk,” came from another plant as Maximina burst out.
 
She looked at her hands and shook like a dog, splattering goo everywhere, and yet was not entirely successful in reducing the amount clinging to her.
 
She spotted one of the plant’s seeds and picked it up, examining it.

“Whua-hua-hua-uahk.” Apocalypse squirted out of another plant.
 
He slid along the ground on a thick coating of slime, spinning in a circle.
 
When he finally stopped, he sat up and began to lick himself clean.

They looked around and saw they were in the midst of strange and unfamiliar surroundings.
 
It had the feel of the outdoors, with plants, the sound of a nearby stream, and a brightness not unlike that of the sun during the day, and yet high above them they could see a ceiling.
 
The ceiling curved ever so slightly, giving the appearance of disappearing into the horizon.

“It’s my kind of foul sorcery,” said an eerily familiar yet not entirely recognizable woman’s voice. They turned and saw a woman with pointed ears and long flowing auburn hair, tied into two oversized pigtails and entwined with twigs.
 
She wore a simple tunic spun from cotton and tight blue trousers.
 
She was beautiful.
 
“You seem to have had some sort of mishap, so I used my plants to clone…that is, I mean to say, to resurrect you.”

Pellonia cocked her head and looked at the elf, confused.
 
Maximina looked at the elf, then at Pellonia.
 
Gurken looked at the elf and said, “Pellonia?”

The elf smiled.
 
“Yes, it’s me.”

“Wow, you’ve changed.
 
The Awakening’s been good to you.”
 
He nodded appreciatively.

She very nearly blushed.
 
“Yes, well… thanks.”

“Where are we?” asked Pellonia.
 

“You’re on board the elven ship.
 
A bathing pond is just over there to wash the goo off.
 
Your things are next to the plants. I’ve missed you quite madly, my fierce dwarfen friend.”
 
Her face went from smile to frown.
 
“And Arthur, I miss him as well.”

Maximina’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.
 
“You miss Arthur?
 
He’s the one that killed us!
 
And you!” She looked at the elder Pellonia while pointing at the younger.

The elder Pellonia sighed.
 
“Yes, I thought that might have been the case.
 
But that’s not Arthur. Not completely.
 
That’s the Phage controlling him. Mostly.
 
They’re a rather fascinating creature; in their native form they’re a hive mind but when one of them melds with another being it incorporates some of that creatures characteristics and its connection to the hive is drastically reduced.
 
I guess what I’m saying is that though it might seem like Arthur, it’s not.”

“Fascinating?” Gurken asked.
 
“It seems vile to me!”

“They’re that as well,” Pellonia agreed.
 
“Now, get dressed.
 
I need your help. Oh, and welcome to the Awakening.”

Several hours later, a portal appeared in the cavern under Arendal where Arthur had left.
 
Gurken, a fierce grin upon his visage, strode through. Tiwaz, the Dwarfen rune of victory and success, blazed upon its head.
 
As Gurken walked into the room, there was a poof sound as the rune snuffed out.

“Awwww,” Gurken said, frowning.
 
He shook the axe vigorously, but the rune did not reignite.

Pellonia, that is, the young Pellonia, stepped through the portal next.
 
“That was amazing,” she said.
 
“The All-Mother was certainly not what I expected.”

Maximina flew through the portal. She wore a skintight shimmering metallic bodysuit, a leather belt with two holsters holding two L-shaped magic wands, boots with cylinders on the sides emitting fire underneath, and a platinum tiara with a green jewel set into it.
 
As she flew into the room, the flames coming from the boots sputtered and stopped.
 
She fell to the floor with a crash.

Apocalypse flew through the portal next, no longer small enough to fit on a shoulder. He was now the size of a large dog with scales the color of elven steel.

The elder Pellonia stepped through the portal.
 
“I’m sorry that I can’t stay and help you with Arthur. We may have gotten the ship turned around and pointed back here, but there is no guarantee it will remain that way, and every minute I spend here is a day there. I’ll be back with the elves as soon as I can.”
 
The elder Pellonia hugged them farewell and stepped back through the portal.
 
It closed behind her.

“My rocket boots aren’t working anymore,” Maximina said after elder Pellonia was gone.

“Boots of Levitation,” Pellonia corrected.

“You full-blood elves have your rules on what to call things down here. I think it’s stupid.
 
They’re rocket boots.
 
That’s a much better name,” said Maximina.
 
She pointed a wand at the ceiling, making the mystical gesture to release the beam of light.
 
Then she tapped the gem in her tiara.
 
“My force field and laser guns don’t seem to be working either.”