Stronghold City Draft

Chapter 6

"Manticore?" squeaked the small chupacabra carrying the satchel. Anarchy looked at the corpse in front of him. The claw marks raked into its flesh were certainly large enough to have been a manticore's. He began to worry. Manticores were the most terrifying creatures in the entire desert. It was a common saying among saurians and chupacabras that if you saw a manticore, it was best just to lie on the ground and wait for it to kill you, because there's nothing anyone can do for you. Manticores came from the rocky hills of Manticore Ridge a good ways away, and were distantly related to cats. One could easily see the lion-like qualities in them. However, unlike a lion or tiger, male manticores grew to be about eighteen feet long from their head to the tip of their long tail, and sported a pair of leathery wings, like a dragon, from their forelegs that spanned to about thirty feet when their wings were spread. Manticores had jaws strong enough to bite clean through a rod of steel, as their main prey was a huge armored reptile. However, manticores were not picky. The males would fly down from Manticore Ridge and kill whatever they could find- vultures, large snakes, saurians, chupacabras- and fly back home with half of their kills to feed the wingless females and cubs. Manticores had a famously powerful sense of smell. This one had probably been attracted to the burrow by the extremely strong odor of all the chupacabras living in close quarters. "Manticore, hmm?" said the saurian. "Well, I suppose you're not going to be a chupacabra lord any longer. Judging by the shape of your friend over there, your kingdom is as good as gone." The saurian picked up the dead chupacabra by its hind paws and began to drag it inside the tent, ignoring Anarchy's snarling. The small chupacabra that had come with Anarchy started loudly whimpering like a dog. "Quit your whimpering," said Anarchy. "We're going to go back and kill the manticore." He turned around. The small chupacabra grabbed his tail. "With all due respect, Lord Anarchy, but you can't just kill a manticore like that! A manticore can bite you clean in two!" Anarchy lunged forwards and snapped at his servant, and it let go of his tail. "I killed the queen of the dragons. I can take on a manticore."

The inside of the burrow was a hellscape. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all stained with blood, and there was the occasional limb or chunk of flesh scattered about. There were many sad-looking heaps of red-tinted tan fur lying broken on the ground- the poor victims of the manticore's full wraith. As for the manticore itself, it was snapping and growling at any chupacabras within fifteen feet of it. It was black and nearly hairless, and its body and limbs were scrawny and bony, with the taut muscles visible beneath the skin. Its tail was longer than its body and tipped with a sharp spike on the tip. Its head was crowned with a bristly brown mane, two batlike ears and two black horns. Its enormous black wings were held high above its slender, catlike body. Anarchy's servant looked like it was about to faint. The manticore was currently mauling a chupacabra to death. The poor victim was on its back, kicking its legs helplessly up in the air. The manticore opened its jaws and ripped the chupacabra's belly clean open. Slimy, pale-pink coils of intestine flopped out like dead snakes. The manticore roared like a wildcat. "Oh my goodness," said Anarchy, looking at the carnage. Anarchy had not been afraid when he fought his first dragon. He had not been scared when he stood in front of Sunstone, queen of the dragons. Dragons were one thing. They were smarter, but they were not as savage and violent. However, this creature- this great black nightmare- was born to kill and rip and tear. It could snap Anarchy in half with a snap of its jaws. At first, he considered running away. The manticore had killed a great number of his subjects, and the survivors looked scared out of their skin and ready to bolt- who knew if there would even be a kingdom left for him to rule if he killed the manticore? As far as Anarchy knew, no chupacabra or saurian had ever killed a manticore. He didn't know if it had any weaknesses. He watched as the manticore pinned another chupacabra to the ground and tore it apart as it struggled to escape. The chupacabra managed to wiggle out from under the manticore's huge winged paws, but as it ran away, the manticore whipped around and sliced its belly open using the bladed tip of its tail. That blade was rumored to have venom inside like the tail of a scorpion. Anarchy shivered. He found it hard to imagine a more terrifying animal. At the back of the cavern, Anarchy saw his spear and his dragon-skin cape sitting atop his small treasure hoard. If he could get to the spear, hopefully he could stab the manticore. With any hope, the manticore's nearly hairless hide didn't offer it as much protection as a dragon's armored scales. Anarchy darted to the spear as quick as he could. Unfortunately, the manticore caught sight of him. It snorted and padded over to him. Suddenly, Anarchy was cornered. The manticore leaned its massive head over to him. It was so close he could see its pink nose ripping with every breath it took and he could see his own reflection in its blazing yellow irises. Suddenly, it snapped at him. Anarchy could see its yellow teeth embedded in its black gums. He jumped out of the way. Anarchy grabbed his cape and threw it over his back. He doubted even dragon scales could protect him from that crushing bite force, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The manticore leaned over and sniffed the dragon hide draped over Anarchy's back. More than likely, it had never smelled a dragon before. Manticores generally stayed far away from the dragon city. Anarchy's survival instincts kicked in and he slashed his sharp claws across the manticore's left eye. The manticore howled. It took several wobbly steps and lunged at Anarchy. The chupacabra leaped out of the way. Several of the chupacabras in the burrow climbed out of their hiding spots to watch. As the manticore snapped at Anarchy again, he jammed his spear into its shoulder. The manticore's eyes rolled back and Anarchy got a glimpse of its yellowed whites. The enraged creature bowled Anarchy over with a swipe of its winged paw, and the chupacabra rolled a good seven feet and ended up on his back. As Anarchy got up, he noticed the force of the blow had collapsed his bone leg into the sitting position. He grabbed it and snapped it into standing position only to see the enraged manticore looming over him. Right before it had the chance to rip Anarchy apart with its jaws, it swiftly whipped around. One of Anarchy's subjects had buried its teeth firmly near the end of its bony tail. While the manticore was distracted, Anarchy slashed his spear across the side of its neck, cutting a deep gash in the leathery black skin. Warm red blood cascaded out onto the ground, some of it landing in Anarchy's fur. The manticore let out a gasping wheeze and took two awkward steps, nearly losing its balance. Blood continued to spurt from the wound. Anarchy had sliced through the biggest artery in the manticore's neck, and now it was rapidly bleeding to death. Its eyes rolled all the way back in its head. It toppled over to the ground and began to go into spasms. After a moment, the manticore's body went deathly still. Anarchy sat down and began to lick the manticore's blood out of his fur with his forked pink tongue.