Skylands Legends

18.3 An Execution

King Pen had taken the Night Squatch's full fury head on. The beast had lashed out at him with incredible speed. He barely got both his arms up in time to block the blow. Even so, the force of it sent him flying through the air to where he crashed through one of the palisades and rolled across the frost covered ground for another dozen feet before coming to a stop.

He lay on his back, staring up at the sky for a moment, everything seeming to spin above him and a ringing filled his ears. All at once, his senses came back to him and he heard hundreds of shock lances being fired at once followed by the horrified screams of men being ripped to pieces.

King Pen rolled over on his side to get up just in time to see the beast land atop a brave frost elf, slamming her into the ground. The creature proceeded to raise its fists above its head and bring them down on the poor woman with enough force the ground shook. He did it two more times before a shock lance caught him in the head. It hardly fazed him, only drew his attention away from the now very dead and extremely bloody pulp that had once been the soldier.

King Pen looked away from the sight to keep himself from sicking up. He took a breath and rose to his feet, readying his bladed gauntlets to fight. He looked to where the Night Squatch was currently rampaging and summoned arcane power within him. He then took off at a mad dash towards the beast. Ice began to coat the outside of his gauntlets as the air cooled around him. A blue light began to glow from his chest as he neared the beast. He saw him cut down another soldier, claws slashing through armor as easily as flesh, and let out his war cry.

Night Squatch turned to face him and King Pen launched himself forward with his gauntlets held out. The bladed edges buried themselves in the beast's chest and propelled them into a forward roll. They came out of it facing each other and King Pen was quick to strike first. He lunged forward, bringing his right arm up for an uppercut. Night Squatch sidestepped, swatting it away, and swung his long claws for King Pen's head. He infused his arm with arcane power, and raised the gauntlet to deflect the blow. The shock of impact reverberated through his body — without the arcane power, he was sure to have been killed by that strike — He channeled the impact's force through his body and gathered it into his right arm. He then struck the beast in the chest, releasing the gathered energy from the beast's own momentum and throwing it against him. The Night Squatch was launched into the air, soaring a good fifty feet before crashing into the ground.

Force and momentum manipulation were extremely complicated arcane abilities to master, but King Pen had been perfecting them for a couple of decades now. That and Ice magic had always been his specialty.

He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulder, feeling a soreness already coming through following the block. He had used a lot more arcane energy to block that blow than he expected. He felt the burnt out exhaustion beginning to gather in the back of his head and did his best to ignore it. He could rest when the battle was over.

"Rally to me!" He called to the battlefield. "Drop the lances and bring out the steel!"

Jory was the first one to him, pulling out a wicked battle axe on the way. About fifty other soldiers rallied behind him, dropping shock lances and pulling out axes and rapiers to fight.

"Stay behind me!" King Pen commanded. "I'll draw his attention while you surround him! We'll bring him down and chop the son of a bitch into a few hundred pieces! No retreat! No surrender!"

The soldiers let out a cheer in response, one that was swiftly interrupted by their opponent's own battle cry.

Black tendrils of mist came out of the beast's fur, stretching out around him, writhing in unnatural ways. A darkness began to gather overhead, blocking out the sun and turning the day to night. The Lord of the Night let out one final roar before the tendrils of mist retreated back within him. Everything went quiet. It was almost like all the sound had been sucked out of the world.