Dark Fall (3rd Book)

Chapter 9: Madness Takes Its Toll

They charged at once, roars and shouts to end this once and for all, and he just stood there, smiling at them, the blade of deathly ice held on his right hand, his grip tightening with each step they took. He laughed as he jumped back and then shot a bolt of thunder.

It reduced a man to a smoking pile of ash within seconds as it travelled to two more, killing them with the power of his electricity, a power he wielded with pride.

"Come at me!" He shouted as he twirled around and stabbed an elf in the gut, laughing all the way. "Nemyctor awaits!"

"Kill the demon!" Fendrel shouted as he began to do a dance of death against Nemyctor, showing skills that not all could hope to reproduce. He drew blood, and Nemyctor drew more as he slaughtered human upon elf upon dwarf, with their mingling essence pooling on the dead earth.

"Be banished, demon!"

"Shut up, elf," He exclaimed, and then jumped back again, twisting in the air as he fired a green blob to the elven man's head, his raven hair stained with the potent green of poison. "Swim in it, elf! Swim within the green that is your death!"

His voice was oddly authoritative, but such a tone like that, filled with utmost happiness, could only belong to a madman, a jester? Or a joker. Mayhap a trickster? Pehaps a riddler?

The elf howled in agony, clutching his own head as rashes and blood stated to ooze out the torn skin, and as he fell, Nemyctor slapped the elf on the cheek, talons cutting into the skin. Looking at his own handiwork, he turned back to the shocked crowd, then to his talons, then burst out laughing. "Any more?"

A dwarf dared a giant bludgeon, and he could have hit Nemyctor.

It was but a sliver away, and if it hit home, his head would have been messy bits by now.

Nemyctor slipped away in bursts of black and red and purple and deep blues, but against all odds that defied everything, he flashed them with his white fanged teeth in the form of a grin as he used his insane magic. He turned back to a normal demon a few feet away, slowly approaching the standing dwarf with short steps.

"A commendable effort, little man," He said now, serious but with the unneving grin still in place. "Futile, but still admirable."

Nemyctor lopped off his head with one swoop, a speed that none could even match, none but the demon lord himself. "Oh, but of course, what price is better than a haircut!"

He jumped and laughed again, shaking his head as he wiped fake tears from his eyes. "I'd recommend you all attack, it'd be more riveting!"

The grin seemed stuck in its own place, never moving, fanged teeth still shown as if an omen to an approaching death by means of just that, a future filled with agony and the cold whispers of both demon and death.

They charged again, and in his mind, Nemyctor thought of colorful ways to torture them, but it is too early to think of such fun!

His grin now gone, he ducked as a human went for a stab to his throat. Forcing the blade from the human's hands, waggling a single ebony finger to her frightened face before stabbing in the gut with the Lich Blade, and with one turn, bashed his sword's end on the face of another human, drawing blood.

As he stumbled away, salty drops mixing in with the deep red, he pushed his arm forward and stabbed him on the chest, laughing maniacally as the man's screams and pushed died to a lifeless state of lethargy, a state so inescapable, it is vain to do so even under eternity's immortal watch.

He ducked to evade three arrows passing by in an unwanted fashion, then jumped back to evade a spear from lodging itself in his throat, then twisted to the side to not get hit with three different blades all at once, all sharp and deadly.