The Ten Kingdoms

The Ten Kingdoms - Chapter 25

(A random posting, sorry. I hope you enjoy this chapter, still editing it, but wanted to post it today.)

"I do." She said, fire blazing all around her. "And I think the Reaper found us before we found it." I nodded, agreeing with her, and at those words all of us went silent, Sasha and me, the soldiers behind us, we just observed as a creature stepped out of the staircase entrance.

"Ehhhhhh!" It screeched, and I didn't even know what I was looking at, it was a humanoid creature like the one Ajax fought, but its body was full of scales, bumpy scales that were black, but there was blood, or some sort of red liquid trailing out of them and onto the ground. It had these red eyes that stared at us like it was calculating something, and a bunch of red bumps on its head like a crown.

Goosebumps appeared all over my body, this, without a doubt, was the Reaper. "Prepare for battle." Sasha shouted, and the mages behind us prepared to shoot spells at this thing in front of us, but I could tell something was off. "It's completely healed."

The Reaper licked its lips, the blood around his mouth vanished, it was like he ate something prior to showing up. "This isn't good, Sasha, maybe we should tell them to retreat, if you are right, if it is completely healed, they'll get slaughtered."

Lava came out of the ground around me, forming a barricade, the air started to burn a little hotter as well. Sasha turned back to her force, then to me as the Reaper stepped our way, mana near it flowed into its body like a human. 

"We can't." Sasha told me. "We'll get slaughtered, we need their help, even if it is limited." I didn't know if that was true or not. We needed help if it was at full strength, which it seems to be, but could they do enough to truly help us. "First defense."

Sasha raised her hand and spells began to form behind me, the Reaper stopped, sensing them, and just waited. Sasha's hand came down, and then spells launched in its direction. I noticed ice, fire, lightning, and wind, there might have been one or two more, but it wasn't important.

The spells collided with the Reaper as it stood there, and as they did, debris built up and blocked my vision. I stared forward, waiting to see if this thing lived or not, I knew it did, but I needed to see if they did any damage to it.

As the debris settled, the Reaper was fine, untouched, smirking at us as he continued walking. "Sasha?" I said questioningly. "What's the game plan? Attack? Or are we going to get them out of here?"

"Attack." Sasha said, fire shot forward, burning the stone ground, leaving marks as it flew forward, colliding with a wind barrier that formed before the Reaper. "Second line!" She shouted, and another wave of spells were shot at the Reaper.

"Screw it." I sent lava shards forward, trying to pierce this barrier it had in front of it. I conjured a pitchfork and held it at my side, not knowing if it was going to attack up close or not. The spells hit the barrier, causing debris to build back up, and again, the Reaper came out untouched. "Sasha, get your men out of here, they are only going to be a distraction. Tell your Beast mage to keep this floor clear, make sure nothing else joins us while we fight this thing." 

She hesitated, thinking about it, but as she did that, a spell came out way, the Reaper launched a wind blade, and I watched as it sliced through the ground and air as it came at us. We dodged the spell, I tried to conjure a lava wall in front of the blade, but it wasn't strong enough to stop the spell. 

The wind blade sliced through the lava barrier I made, and went behind us, right at the other mages. It sliced through five or six of them, connecting with them like it was nothing, and my eyes widened. This thing was more powerful than I imagined, the mages fell to the ground, two were dead, the others were missing a part of a limb.