The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (85 page)

She made a mental note to bring the subject of age up with the elf sometime in the near future, as she and Elec made their way further down into the tunnels that continued along in a very linear fashion.

Elec suddenly held up his hand to her as they rounded a corner. She stopped, respecting the elf’s vision for what it was. She and Elec had wandered into a rather large chamber that shimmered with a bizarre, emerald light. Within that glare, she witnessed a number of slow, humanoid shapes moving around in the distance.

Rose yanked Elec out of the chamber entrance and pressed her body hard against the wall. Garius and the others arrived shortly after.

“What is it?” Garius whispered to Rose.

“Zombies? Undead of some sort? I didn’t get a good look! And there is a green light coming from deeper within the tunnels and that chamber,” Rose responded, swallowing hard and gesturing. She was no coward, but she did abhor confrontations with the living dead—they unnerved her more than she liked to admit.

“That should prove no problem,” Garius said, straightening up to his full height. He threw his cloak over his shoulders and began an incantation. He looked like a god to Rose at that point.

The runes upon the head and handle of
The Repentant
began to glow, as did the symbols upon his pauldrons. He maneuvered around the barbarians and Elec and strode directly into the large chamber. Rose and the others followed behind to witness the event.

A blinding luminescence burst from the Inquisitor as his words reached a crescendo, but when the light dispersed, the creatures remained.

Nothing happened.

Suddenly the creatures were moving toward them. Whatever they were, they were immune to the effects of the Inquisitor’s holy spells.

“Wha…?” exclaimed Garius as he attempted to recover. But, as the creatures neared, he realized that they were not undead after all. Instead, he recognized the two closest to him, a human and an orc, though they were changed. They appeared in every way as an animated corpse might, moving slow and unsteady, but were clearly not. No, this was something different. And these creatures also carried weapons.

Garius brought up
The Repentant
to block the creature’s predictable attack, but it hit with more force than he deemed probable and he stumbled backward, recovering in time to bring an overhand swing down upon his foe. Its head caved in under the weight of the blow with a sickening sound.

Then the Inquisitor saw the others fanning out from behind him, obviously reacting to what was happening.

Saeunn withdrew her mighty greatsword and Orngoth gripped his club in both hands as the two barbarians led the push into the room. They charged headlong into the mass of enemies with apparent delight.

Garius did not know what to make of these once humanoid things, but he certainly did not like it. He uttered a prayer to The Reaper and tapped into the necromantic powers of the degenerative plane, directing that energy toward a mutated orc, stopping it in its tracks. He continued chanting the words over and over, the power ebbing and pulsing, growing stronger around the orc-thing until it faded into nothingness.

“They are mutated humanoids from what I can gather!” Garius shouted over his shoulder. He stumbled back, dropping to one knee as the one-time-orc’s life force fell over him. He felt the power shifting, harnessing into a surplus of divine energy that pulsated around him until he controlled it, forcing it to conform to his thoughts, as he stood and headed toward another foe.

Elec felt his newest elixir combination coursing through his veins and a feeling of self-assurance washed over him. His other senses were numb to him for a dozen heartbeats as he entered the room and focused on a small pocket of the mutants. He moved straight for them,
Daegnar Giruth
in one hand,
Wyrm’s Fang
in the other.

 As he approached, a mutated elf and dwarf advanced on him aggressively. He noted that Rose appeared suddenly to his left, disrupting a few more of them that were attempting to gain his flank.

No matter
, Elec thought,
I can handle them
.

He thrust his sword at the elven mutant and recorded a solid slash across its chest, causing it to stumble backward. Elec pressed his attack, keeping the other at bay with his dagger, its blade flashing left to right. His attacks came in swiftly as he felt yet another effect of his elixirs infiltrate his bloodstream, speeding his actions threefold. He became a blur of motion. A slash here and a slice there had the elf mutant lying on the floor in front of him, bleeding from multiple wounds. 

He refocused on the dwarven assailant next as he opened up a hole in his defenses, inviting it in. The thing came at him awkwardly and Elec swiped away its assault with a sweep of
Daegnar Giruth
, throwing wide its attack and exposing its flank to him in the process. The elf followed through with a pommel strike of his dagger connecting with the creature’s forehead, its head jerking back and exposing its throat. He brought the sword back up and across its neck with speed and accuracy, severing its head clean from its body. He felt his heart thundering in his chest as the effects of the elixir was in full effect. It felt absurdly powerful. He felt like a god.

He turned to see Rose, who was fighting three of the mutants. He moved swiftly to aid her, all apprehension and fear replaced by mettle as of yet unknown to him. He moved into the fray, connecting with steel on flesh.

Rose suddenly had a trio of the mutants surrounding her. She chastised herself for putting herself in an open space that left her vulnerable to aid the elf.

Avorna
and
Zaedra
were slashing and slicing, piercing flesh and drawing blood, over and over. Rose’s arms ached at the pace with which the magic propelled them, as the weapons navigated the space to respond as quickly as she could think. Before she knew it, she’d downed two of them, but three more took their place, advancing on her. She was about to step into the realm of shadows when she saw Elec out of the corner of her eye.

“’Bout time, elf,” she quipped with a grunt, kicking out and knocking one enemy to the ground as another made it to her position.

She thrust a blade right through the creature’s neck, causing it to recoil and move back a step.  She punched straight out toward the second one that had made it back to its feet, just as Elec intercepted the third. The creatures’ origins were unclear but it did not matter to her—they were humanoid, and as such, they had vitals; they bled when cut, and she took full advantage of their fleshy exterior.

As she struck the second of the two with her left hand, the pommel of
Avorna
was tight against her knuckles, giving her some added severity when she connected with its face, breaking what was once the creature’s nose.

She continued with a kick from her left leg that placed the ball of her foot directly onto the creature’s right thigh which forced its leg backward, causing it to lose its balance. As its head dipped forward, she brought the point of
Avorna
straight up and through the jaw and into the creature’s head, killing it immediately.

Rose was clipped on her right shoulder by a strike that might have broken bones if it had connected solidly. But, fortunately, it only grazed her instead as she managed to roll with it. She immediately took advantage of the fortuitous opening that provided and came down with
Zaedra
in an overhand arc, dropping it down and into the fleshy arm of her assailant. She then used the plunged blade to pull herself forward, as well as to simultaneously jerk the mutant closer to her. She drove the tip of
Avorna
deep into the back of its neck, severing whatever nerves and muscle yet remained there.

Rose dropped the lifeless corpse to the hard floor and watched as Elec slashed both of his own magical blades in outward strokes across the neck of the last assailant, its head rolling backward and its lifeblood spilling  forth like a volcano erupting. He spun on Rose and she could see the dilation of those odd pupils once again, the entire eye glazed over white with the smallest ring of black still visible. It was unnerving and she was more than a little concerned for him, but this was not the time, nor the place.

Saeunn and Orngoth ran past the Inquisitor into the eerily green shaded room. They found many an adversary awaiting them and the two barbarians howled with excitement.