Separated in the Phantoms

Chapter 31

The monsters charged at us. I didn’t have to use my weapons since early in my journey. I dropped my bag and took out my sword. Torin followed. We fought the monsters. The demons were strong and it took a couple of hits to kill one. Our battlecries filled the room. I plunged my sword into the ugly brute in front of me. It let out a deep, battlecry and tossed me across the room. I stood up, with some difficulty and raised my sword again. The slimy demon ran towards me. I ran towards it as well. When the monster thought he had me, I slid underneath him, between his legs and stood back up on the other side. I plunged my sword into its back and it screamed again. And this time, he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. I didn’t have to wait long until another monster charged towards me. It had large horns, and they gave me an idea. I waited until the horned monster came very close before I stepped away. He ran straight into the wall. I jumped onto a cupboard and then onto the monster's back. I sliced my sword through his neck and his body fell down, as the head was still stuck in the wall. Just like the last one, this monster disappeared in a cloud of black, ominous smoke. I managed to glance at Graves. His smug smile had turned into worry. My guess was that he saw Torin and I were winning. I wanted to continue, but I had looked at Graves for too long. A demon charged towards me and plunged its claws in my side. I screamed in pain. I looked down to my side to see thick, red blood flowing out of my wound. The monster wanted to strike again. I ignored my pain and managed to raise my sword. I chopped off a hand. I focused on my sword and my movements. I focused on my goal. I focused on my father. I swung my sword into the air and removed the handless arm. The monster cried out. I plunged my sword into its chest and it disappeared. I quickly looked over to Torin. Given the few minor cuts and bruises I could see, he was in good shape and still standing strong. I focused on my fight again. A new opponent had arrived. This one was a bit harder to defeat: his missing limbs grew back in seconds. This made me panic a little. How was I going to defeat this monster? I closed my eyes and let my blade slash the monster’s skin. I opened them and saw thick, black blood ooze out of the wound I inflicted. The monster looked at me before he disappeared as well. I felt the pain in my side grow stronger the more I moved. I expected to have more monsters come at me, but there weren’t. I looked around the throne room. There were no monsters. I looked over at Torin. He finished off the last demon and looked at me. We won… I looked over to Graves. Panic was written all over his face. I walked towards him. Graves didn’t know what to do. I crouched down so I could look him in the eyes. I stared into his pitch black eyes.
“Release my father. Now.” I said. Graves stared right back at me. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He was a trickster. He could do anything. He never left without a plan B, C and D. He always had another trick up his sleeve. Graves suddenly smirked at me. I knew he had thought of another plan to set in motion. He walked back, not saying a word. He sat back on the throne, clearly trying to show that he’s not scared.
“How about… No?” Graves said. I raised my eyebrow. What is he planning now?
Graves took out a small, black box. He started talking to it in some language I didn’t know. It sounded like he was chanting some spell or something. I took a few steps back, just in case. Graves opened the box. Black smoke emerged from the little, wooden box. It slowly crawled over the floor. The lights flickered until they went out. I could luckily still see well enough to see the smoke rise up from the ground and become some sort of giant. Glowing red eyes appeared in the thick smoke. Graves laughed maniacally.
“Meet my friend. The shadow monster.”