The Lizard King

Part 20: Long Live the King

No one could take their eyes off of it, especially as it let out a ferocious roar and ruffled its scales so menacingly. The glowing amber eyes looked directly at Lomew, who himself looked unusually agitated.

"You have nerve showing your face here Beast!" He spat.

"You have nerve even daring to exist, primate!" Riptheil said, his scales shaking and rattling as he spoke.

"Your people are gone and so too will these humans you dare to protect! You will fail them as you have failed your family!"

Kayla saw Riptheil look at the platform and at her. Right into her eyes. He looked back at Lomew. "My family is right there, on that platform."

At this, Lomew raised his fingers and snapped. At this every ranger on ground level cleared their way to the edge of the crowd where Riptheil was and raised their crossbows at the immense reptile only 30 feet away. "Volley!" Lomew commanded, and an explosion of steel bolts flew towards Riptheil. The bolts bounced straight off his scales. Some even flew back and hit the rangers in the legs. The bows emptied, the rangers simply stood there in disbelief.

"Well don't just stand there!" Lomew commanded, "Bring me his head!" The rangers drew their swords and yelled out a battle cry. Riptheil roared and raised his pick axe. The two forces rushed each other with surprising speed and collided head on. Riptheil's pick carved huge portions of rangers out from the crowd. Some went flying. Others simply dropped to the ground as blood flooded from their wounds. Kayla couldn't believe he was such a formidable fighter. At least up until that point.

Lomew looked at the rest of the guards on the platform. "Take them back inside!" He spat. The guards grabbed the prisoners and dragged them down the stairs. Meanwhile, the crowd was a mess. Some were terrified, running for their lives. Others were stuck, watching the chaos of it all. Still others saw Riptheil fighting for his life and cheered him on.

The guards around the prisoners moved as fast as they could between the disheveled crowd but someone always ended up blocking their path. At some point, a woman and her child had gotten between them and the guard had had enough. He pulled out a flogging stick and raised it high above his head. Kayla watched and prepared to look away.

Suddenly, Brenner collided with the guard and half pushed, half threw him to the ground. The other guards took off to help him, but Kayla had already thought that far ahead. As one ran by, she wheeled around and kicked him in the face with all the force she could muster. She felt muscles squish. Bones break. She wasn't sure if they were hers. And she didn't care. The moment the guard was on the ground, she kicked him again for good measure.

Some of the guards went to her now, but the other prisoners went after them. Even Marlana, with her bad leg, and kicked one of the guards in the nads. Kayla hunched over him and grabbed the keys for her shackles. She fumbled a moment, but in another second her shackles fell to the ground. "Marlana!" She threw the keys at the old bat, who caught them eagerly.

"Don't do nothing stupid girlie!" She said back.

"You're saying I should hide?"

Marlana got her shackles off and tossed them at Kayla's feet in anger. "I said DON'T do nothing stupid!"

Kayla smiled for a second, and then grabbed a sword from off the guard. She charged through the mob, jumping over and ducking under. She burst through the crowd and ripped into the army of guards.

Riptheil swung his pick at one guard and slashed another with his claws. He leveled several with his tail and stomped one into the ground with his foot. That's when he realized, there weren't as many attacking him. From above the mess, he could see a sword fighter laying many rangers to rest. He could just make out the golden glint of her hair.