The Legends Of Chima: Journey to the Lands Below

Chapter 26- Leonidas

The door slammed shut when I passed through, trapping us all inside. I had hoped we were alone in there but I was proven wrong when a massive brown bird with a black beak poked its head out from behind some shelves. It's wingspan was long enough to form a sort of barricade and it was nearly the size of Lennox, needless to say it was terrifying. Among that bird from hell was other equally terrifying people, I hesitate to call them that. One that stood out especially was a white lion that eclipsed me in height and who fancied decorating himself in intrails. He spoke one word quietly but it got its point across.

"Sacrifice!"

We all dove for what little cover was in the large room as the firing began, three of them had guns but they were the least of our concerns. What really terrified me were the ones without guns, in place of them were all massive beings with cruel weapons crafted from stone, wood, and metal. The bird I had seen first locked it's piercing dark eyes on me and charged with a wooden spear in hand.

I drew my sword and pushed the spear to the side, bringing it back up to slash at its face. The bird leaned out of the way and avoided contact. In response it spread its wings and took off, blowing me back with a gust of wind. It started jabbing down at me from above, I could hardly party the strikes with how fast they were and it's wings blowing my sword away, making me constantly correct so I didn't get stabbed. Eventually I grabbed a hold of the spear and vaulted myself up it's length, traveling above the bird's head with a slash across its body. While up there it tried stabbing me but I batted the stick away with the back of my sword and slashed at its head, most likely killing it. For good measure, on the way down I did another slash to its body, slicing it open.

I got a good look at its spear and it looked far different than other wooden ones. Instead of it being a crude sharpened stick, it was strangely ornamental, and looked to still be alive, like it was a branch just plucked from the tree.

I didn't have much time to admire it however because another of the savages was already upon me, this one looked like one of the hyenas that burnt down the camp the yesterday, except much larger and with darker fur. Instead of a serrated saw-like sword it more resembled a massive meat cleaver, still stained with blood. The hyena wildly swung its cleaver at me, the swings were easy enough to dodge but I was running out of room behind me. I parried what strikes I could but this proved tiring quickly and especially taxing on my blade. Cracks began to form and I began to fear for the worst until the swings suddenly stopped. The hyena stood still with a furious and pained expression on its bloody face and fell to the ground like a freshly chopped tree, I had to bite me tongue to keep from yelling timber.

A small feline strutted out from behind the beast and pulled a sword out from his back. She looked nothing like the other men in this squad, instead of matching armor like the rest of us, she wore light leather armor dyed blue with yellow trim, the sword she was cleaning off looked fast and sharp, valuable qualities that I too sought after but hers was more ornamental. Attached to her gauntlets were sharp, metal claws.

"Who  are you?" I asked.

"A thanks would be nice, I'm Asuri, and you are?"

"Leonidas... how did you get here? You can't be with these savages since you just killed one of 'em."

"I've been here since you all stepped foot in that city down there, just ask Cragger up there." She said while pointing her sword up at the crocodile on the loft fighting a losing battle with the lion. Sure enough, it was Cragger.

When I turned my eyes away from him I saw the door we entered from open and a flood of those savages came pouring in. Same primitive weapons but still a threat, enough of a threat for Cragger to order a retreat. The few ten or so of us left trailed after him but Asuri and I were not among them, we had an entire other squadron of reinforcements between us so we had to go another way. There was a small door behind us that led down, not where we wanted to go but anywhere was better than here.