Gamer of the Dead

Book 2, Chapter 38:

The sky was red from the dawning second sun.

But many would argue that the sky was red because of the mist of sprayed blood from almost a quarter of a million griffins, half lion and half eagle, as they valiantly fought to reach a surrounded group of their brethren down below.

The ground itself was lorded over by the Xylerix-ankha, a creature of a half man, half spider race, and they were legions. Except for the small football-field size hill that the griffins sat upon for their last stand, every space of mud and dust and clay of this dead world was covered by the eight-legged creatures from the next realm. As far as the horizon can see, the 2 million Xylerix soldiers of the prince Tashraxa, surrounded the surviving hundred thousand of the majestic griffins.

Even if the flying horde of their brothers and sister reached them, which was highly unlikely, as the Xylerix bloated the sky with the poison dripping tip of their arrows, it was clear to the outsiders who are viewing the titanic fight that the griffin's extinction was just a matter of time.

Just a few weeks ago, the griffin champion, Ushakar of the Red Claw, a beast twice as big as the next Griffin, got himself killed by his own people. Ushakar, a level 112 Paladin, who skillfully led his people to defeat the last three invasions from other realms, became an outcast when he refused to condemn his mate for giving birth to a Parchipa, a red griffin cub. To the Griffin culture, a red griffin symbolized everything that was unholy and must be cleansed by killing the mother and cub with the purifying fire roar of a head griffin. But he refused and instead tried to escape with his family. They were cornered in the valley pass of his own stronghold. Although he fought bravely and sent many of the other griffins to the next world, not even a hero can fight an army alone. He and his entire family perished from the very same warriors he fought side by side with for years.

Now leaderless and divided from several lower head griffins vying for his throne, the majestic beasts were not ready when Prince Tashraxa, a male Xylerix-ankha with long blond hair and dark complexion in his humanoid top part, an abdomen and rear stinger and eight legs of a monstrous spider, and the size of an ancient mammoth in his lower region, invaded the Griffins with his legion. As a level 88 warrior, the prince would never have dared attack the Griffins if Ushakar was there, despite his numerical superiority, but he was intelligent and bold enough to seize his price when the opportunity came to him.

The Griffins fought back valiantly, but they were simply overwhelmed by the spider's numbers. The Xylerix-ankha swamped the Griffins twenty to one. One by one, their cities were burned and sacked. Every male, female and cub were slaughtered or sold as slaves to other species. A week ago, the last stronghold was about to fall, and the remaining commander ordered the females and cubs to escape in the mountains, while the rest of the warriors made their last stand in the crumbling fortress.

The female griffins and cubs, a million strong and protected by a few older males, ran to the same valley they lost their champion. But the Xylerix Prince understood this, and therefore, bypassed the stronghold to go after the refugees. The Griffins were already being attacked when the warriors in the stronghold learned about it. The remaining warriors in the strongholds lifted in the air in order to save what they could, but the Griffins on the ground (female griffins and the young who could not fly) were already surrounded. And so the escape became the last stand.

By the next morning, the Griffins would be no more.