10: New Challenges

34 1 0
                                    

Baron Vengeous wasn't a happy man. He was vengeful, angry, sadistic... The list could go on and on and on. He passionately hated Skulduggery Pleasant. He smiled when he found out that Nefarian Serpine had killed his family and then him. He had savoured the view of the Skeleton Detective's body burning on a pike for all to see, and what a wonderful sight it was. Even Mevolent was grinning as it happened. And then he came back. He simply came back to life, but as a skeleton. Abomination. Vengeous hated whoever or whatever had brought Skulduggery Pleasant from the dead, where he belonged.

October Pleasant would prove a worthy opponent. She is a powerful mage that clearly knows what she's doing. Her red energy beams were like none that had ever been used against him before. They couldn't keep him down, and he'd be able to use his magic straight away afterwards, but with October's magic, he would have to gain his strength back to be able to rupture anything just by looking at them. He despised October. She was a powerful mage.

She would prove a challenge. And the Baron didn't want a challenge. Not one that sided with the abomination, the Skeleton Detective himself. He didn't want a challenge if it meant killing what the Skeleton Detective loved most: his daughter. He didn't want to anger the Skeleton Detective that much, but he did want to anger him. To annoy him. To toy with the abomination's sanity. Baron Vengeous had been locked up for 80 years. He wasn't in the mood to deal with the Skeleton Detective's angry rage. Maybe the Baron would just torture October Pleasant a little.

Mess with her sanity. But she had watched her mother die and also her father, even though he sadly came back to life. And she is the daughter of Skulduggery Pleasant. His anger is truly unpleasant. Maybe hers is just as bad... or maybe worse.

Baron Vengeous cleared underneath his nails of any dirt with his cutlass. The sharp blade was scraping the gunk from under his short nails. He was bored. He wanted Dusk to return with a pack of Infected Soon-To-Be vampires. He knew where Lord Vile's armour was, and in order to retrieve it quicker, he would need more help. As soon as he has Lord Vile's armour, he'd be able to get the Grotesquery, a being made from multiple monstrosities, with the torso of a Faceless One.

"Uh, Dusk's 'ere" Said the annoying Texan with no eyes.

"Send him in." The Baron replied authoritatively.

The Texan walked out of the room. 'If I had eyes,' the Texan thought, 'I would have rolled them.'

The Texan approached Dusk, the vampire with the deep, ugly scar on his face, courtesy of Valkyrie Cain. "Boss-Man wants you."

"I know. Shut up." Dusk replies with two Infected trailing behind every step he takes.

"How 'bout no. You ain't payin' me an' you ain't my boss." The Texan replies.

"I'm a vampire. I could rip open your throat in less than a second."

"An' I can do this." The Texan says and lets the ground swallow him whole. He rises behind Dusk and punches him behind the knee and Dusk falls, twisting and hitting Billy-Ray Sanguine hard on his cheek. They roll around on the floor trying to hurt each other. Sanguine had hate in his head, and Dusk had murder on his. Dusk would willingly, given the chance, kill everything that moved. Sanguine, on the other hand, would kill if only he were paid a decent price. Or if he had a good enough reason. Like Valkyrie Cain, for example. Billy-Ray Sanguine would kill her any day and anyway. She had stolen his prised possession: his straight razor, one that if you were cut with, the scar would never heal or fade. Just like the one on Dusk's face.

Sanguine clawed at Dusk's cheeks and tried throwing punches and elbows at Dusk but he was simply too slow and clumsy for Dusk's speed, agility and grace. Dusk threw Sanguine off of him and watched the Adept groan and moan in pain for a few seconds. Dusk lead the pack of Infected to Baron Vengeous.

"There you are." Said Vengeous.

Dusk wanted to rip his throat out at Vengeous' flowing self-righteousness, self-satisfaction and superiority. "Here are the Infected you wanted."

"Good. They should make finding Lord Vile's armour an easier job."

October Where stories live. Discover now