Wizard Ch. 22

It's one battle after another for John and his ladies. One a battle for their lives, the other, for their souls.

You can find Chapter 21 here, Chapter 1 here, and the story (Enchanted) that started it all here

John, Jennaca, and Artesia raced through the opening to the cavern and toward Dargoth. The gladiatrix twins and Sasha turned right from the cavern's entrance and ran at the draconian tending to the pods.

Dargoth lifted his reptilian head on his long neck and then rose higher on his legs. "What fool--"

The dragon's words turned into a deafening roar when Jennaca's first arrow slammed into his thick hide just above his eye. He lifted up even higher, drawing himself up so he could look down at them as they sprinted to the base of the stairs. Dargoth inhaled and opened his mighty jaws. John and Artesia split apart. Artesia ran to the left of the stairs and John to the right. Jennaca stopped and loosed two more arrows as the room exploded with the dragon's breath.

Dargoth's breath was more than just an inferno of flames, it had a force behind it and a foul taint that caused the fire to stick. John huddled next to the sheer rock, blinded the light and deafened by the roar. He could only hope Artesia had found the same minimal protection. The magical shield surrounding them shuddered and trembled. He strove to funnel more magic in to reinforce it and protect them from the fire.

The end of the world lasted forever. The seconds felt like hours as he was surrounded in flames that he was sure rivaled Phlegethos, the fourth level of hell. When he realized the roar in his ears was now only an echoing memory, he risked a glance and saw rocks so hot that they had a dull glow to them.

John ran, his boots smoking as they touched the blistering floor. He was up the stairs in three steps and found Artesia joining him. Her hair was singed and her leathers were smoking. Dargoth saw them as his head was swaying back and forth. He snorted, blowing smoke from his nostrils, and shifted to raise a claw.

John and Artesia split up again, John to the right and Artesia to the left. John tossed his spear ahead of him and dove, barely slipping under the swiping claw. Artesia had an easier time of running closer to Dargoth's body where Jennaca's glowing arrow lit up the vulnerable spot on the dragon's belly.

John rolled back to his feet and called his spear to his hand. He stood his ground and struck the dragon with his infernal flames. Dargoth's head snapped forward, jaws opening and trying to close on where John had been standing.

John jumped back and thrust his spear out. The magical blades pierced through scaly hide of its upper lip and went into the dragon's jaw. John fell back and lost his grip on his spear. He scrambled back and called the spear to him even as Dargoth pulled his head back.

John's flames died, leaving Dargoth free to see his attackers again. John reached up and summoned his spear. The magic caused the spear to twist and wrench itself free. Dargoth tried to snap at it in mid-air but the spear flew true to John's hand. Something else clattered to the rocky ground in front of John... one of the Dargoth's smaller teeth.

Artesia hacked at Darth's belly where his scales were missing. The hatchet sank in again and again. Blood ran and struck the ground, but she felt like she might as well have been trying to fell a tree with a kitchen knife.

A roar sounded off to her right. A roar that once had been terrifying until they'd heard Dargoth's fury. Sasha leapt onto the dragon's left flank and sank her teeth in as she climbed up its body. Dargoth twisted to snap at the tiger but Sasha climbed up behind its wing, blocking the dragon's attack.

Jennaca climbed up Dargoth's right side, using the horns along his tail and spine as foot holds. Dargoth saw her and snarled. He whipped his tail to the side, smashing the wall of the cavern and pulverizing rock. An boom echoed in the chamber. Dargoth's attack was for naught, Jennaca had already leapt up to his back and she was hacking at the horns on his back, trying o hew her way to his spine to paralyze him.

"Dargoth!" John shouted, trying to get the dragon's attention. "Your children are dead because of me! I killed them, and now I'm here to kill you."

Dargoth's head snapped around. He glared at John and shifted his entire body, slamming his hips into the wall and knocking Jennaca off her perch. She slid down his side until the cavern wall stopped her.

Artesia clenched her teeth and ran after the dragon tender's belly. Before she could reach it his right caught her in a backhanded swipe. Artesia sailed through the air half a dozen feet before she hit the ground. She slid, dazed, and wasn't aware of her danger until she looked up and saw the dragon's hind leg beside of her. He could pick up a claw and set it back down and she would be done.

"You are nothing to me, man," Dargoth spat. "You will die and I will claim these lands."

John blasted Dargoth with a stroke of lightning. Magic electricity arced between his lower and upper jaws. He shook his head and swung a claw at John again.

John dropped his spear as Dargoth grabbed him up in his claw. His amulet strained to protect him from the crushing grip and sharp claws. John struggled to use his magic to protect him as well but he knew it was a losing battle. He rose higher and higher as Dargoth lifted him up toward his mouth.

Dargoth snarled and jerked his head to the side. Artesia drove her hatchet into his toe again and again, cracking a claw and trying to break the toe. Dargoth shifted, knocking a struggling Jennaca back off and forcing her to slid back down his side. Dargoth kicked out, striking Artesia on the side and sending her tumbling away with a spray of blood as one of his claws tore through the armor on her leg. She slid over the edge of the ledge and landed heavily on the cavern floor.

Roxanne and Helleen were rushing to help. Roxanne turned to run and help Artesia while Helleen sprinted for the stairs and took them three at a time. She brandished her bastard sword and ran for the dragon's still-lit belly.

Sasha climbed up between Dargoth's wings and up his back and neck while the others were fighting. Her claws sank into the scales made of thickened hide but did not damage. She tried to rip at them with her hind legs and even bit down, but could not break through to cause lasting damage.

Dargoth's head swiveled back around to stare at John. He opened his mouth, intending to tear John's head off, when Helleen thrust her sword into his exposed belly. The almost four foot long blade left a lasting impression the last of John's magical spell helped it burn its way into the dragon's innards.

Helleen ripped the sword out and sprayed dragon blood in an arc. Dargoth sidestepped again, but this time he stepped to the right. His bleeding belly slammed into her and she was knocked to the ground while he passed over.

With Dargoth distracted he wasn't squeezing John as hard. John was able to focus and cast another spell that guided some of the rocks that had been in the middle of the pods to slam into the dragon's chest and arm. Dargoth swung back around to look at him and decided once and for all to end him.

He wasn't prepared for John's spear to fly back to his hand as his mouth began to close over him. The X-shaped end pierced deep into the roof of Dargoth's mouth. John pushed his magic through it, burning the dragon with demon-fire and sucking at the dragon's energy at the same time.

Dargoth opened his mouth and shook his head while flinging John away. John heard as much as felt bones crack when he hit the ground. The brief energy he'd gained from the dragon he pushed through him, restoring the worst of his injuries while he struggled to climb to his knees and then lurch to his feet.

Jennaca was on the dragon's left side and pulling Helleen away from him. Helleen wasn't helping her. She wasn't moving at all, as near as John could tell.

Dargoth focused on John again. He opened his mouth and began to inhale and draw his head back. Sasha pounced, leaping from where she'd clung to his neck up onto his head. Dargoth looked up and twisted his head but Sasha clung to him. Dargoth shook his head again, finally dislodging the beast.

Sasha fell and contorted herself in mid-air. She flung her legs out, desperate to find purchase. She found the dragon's wing. The claws of one paw stuck and she slammed into it with all four limbs. The dragon's wing was tough, but the flesh was far more tender than the rest of its hide. Sasha worked her claws and raked with her hind legs, tearing bloody furrows.

Dargoth roared in pain and outrage instead of blasting John into an afterlife reserved for animals trapped in forest fires. He twisted and spread his wing out until it struck the wall. Sasha clung to it and found a bony spur to bite down on to insure her hold.

John staggered forward, his spear coming to his hand as he limped to the dragon's belly. He took a tight two handed grip and thrust his spear into the wound Helleen had made with her sword. His spear sank deeper and deeper as John pushed it in until he barely had a grip on the butt end of it.

Dargoth twisted around to stare at him. He rose up on his hind legs and reached for John. John ignored the imminent threat and pushed all of his might through the spear. His magic burned through the dragon, not as the black demon-fire but as raw magic that sought to corrupt and consume and feed.

Dargoth froze, his body locked for a terrible instant in time. The demonic fury raged through its belly and up and out. Dargoth struggled against it, fighting with his strength of body and all the draconic power he had mastered. It wasn't enough. Dargoth's power was taken and twisted back on itself. John's magic commandeered Dargoth's and made it his own. Dargoth was seared from the inside out until John found that spark inside of him that was the source of his will and life. John pulled on it, draining it through his spear and flooding his now empty body with power.

The soul of a dragon, John soon discovered, is unlike anything else. As he drank from Dargoth's essence he became glutted and still he drank. He could not surrender it. A treasure like this was something Beytrixxa would want, even if it burned him beyond recognition.

John's body began to glow. His eyes first and then the light began to leak from his nose, ears, and mouth. All he could see was the blinding whiteness of Dargoth's soul. The dragon's body was beyond repair but the soul... the soul remained.

John didn't feel Zynga grab his hand, but he knew she was there. She took some of Dargoth's energy into her, sharing the burden as John continued to absorb it all. He was full and could take no more and then Zynga was full and could take no more. Yet there was more to take and John knew he must take it. He must take the entirety. He had no choice, his Mistress demanded it.

There was nothing but blinding light and agony to him. The cave was gone. Jennaca, Artesia, Helleen, Roxanne, Arika... they were ashes blown in the wind. They didn't exist. Only the raw burning power of magic. John experienced it and nothing else. He lived it, even as he wished he would die to spare him the torment.

"Now give it to me."

John didn't know if he could gasp. He didn't know if he still had a body. He didn't know if he existed or if there was nothing but pain that held a memory of him. Beytrixxa's voice cut through it all though. She had commanded him. He had to obey... and so he did.

John willed the soul of Dargoth much as he'd done with other, lesser creatures. He controlled it, he realized, even as Dargoth was a far more powerful being. He had defeated the dragon and that made him Dargoth's master. Even if being his master would destroy him.

John guided the soul from inside of him to the special dark demesne that Beytrixxa had invited him to. He pushed it there and found Beytrixxa waiting on her thorn of writhing tentacles and spears.

"Hello, John," Beytrixxa greeted him while looking down at him.

John fell to his knees. He held the glowing sphere in his hands that was rocked from inside as though it contained a thunderstorm. "Mistress, I brought you the soul of Dargoth... a dragon."

She rose from her throne, an elaborate sapphire and black dress falling about her prefect body. The dress showed her off as much as it concealed her, leaving no doubt as to the heft of her breasts or the curve of her hips, yet the particulars were hidden. Particulars she had blessed John with before, yet that blessing was torture as much as it was a reward.

Beytrixxa stepped over to John and reached down to take the dragon's soul in her hand. She lifted it, her long black fingertips holding it up so it did not touch her skin. She brought it to her lips and kissed it. The light washed out her sapphire painted lips. Her tongue slipped out and stroked the globe, tasting and caressing it. She moaned.

Beytrixxa sucked on the soul and drank from it a moment before she pulled it away and held it out and away from her. "John, you have outdone yourself again. I doubted your means and your motives, but these ends... oh these ends. John, you have convinced me."

"Convinced you, Mistress?" John asked. He could breathe again now that the soul wasn't inside of him, but he still felt charred and blackened inside from having possessed it briefly.

"Yes. Arise, John, my champion. You are truly the greatest among ranks. You alone have given me such gifts. You are my lieutenant."

"Mistress," John beamed. "You honor me!"

"I do," she agreed and took another drink from Dargoth's soul. "Rise, John the Champion. Arise and claim your reward."

John found himself standing. "What more reward is there, Mistress?"

"This," she said and wrapped her hand with its talon-like fingertips around the back of his neck. She pulled him to her sapphire lips and kissed him.

The taste and feel of Beytrixxa's kiss overwhelmed him and, in an instant, it was forgotten. Her tongue slipped into his mouth and deeper, burrowing inside of him and then filling him with power. Her power, but he tasted Dargoth in it as well.

The power burned, of course. It burned through him, making him ache all over again. The burning restored him though. It filled his body where he'd felt hollowed out and ruined. It fixed the aches and breaks the fight with Dargoth had given him. It restored him as it punished him. The power leapt out from him, streaking through his connections to Helleen, Jennaca, and Zynga. He could feel them being burned by it too.

John blinked his eyes open and found himself lying on the ground. Rocks lie overhead. The roof of a cavern. He groaned and sat up, expecting fresh agony. He felt nothing. No, that's not right, he felt good. Better than good. He felt unstoppable!

John stepped over to Dargoth's corpse and reached down to grab the haft of his spear. He pulled it out and gasped when the dragon's skin broke and crumbled. It spread rapidly, the dragon's viscera having been flash burned. The hide and scales collapsed, falling on the dragon's bones and what little cushion the ash inside provided.

A groan made John turn. Jennaca and sat up and Helleen did the same beside her. They looked at themselves and then at each other before turning to John. The rose, grinning, and hurried toward him.

"Artesia? Roxanne?" John asked.

"What about me?" Zynga demanded.

John turned and found Zynga standing behind him. He looked at her and smiled. "Yes, you. Thank you, Zynga. You helped me bear that burden. I don't know if I could have done it without you."

"You'd have been burned to a crisp," she confirmed. "But now... well, the next dragon won't be so hard?"

John's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

Zynga winked at him. "You tell me, Champion."

John frowned. He was about to start searching himself when he heard Helleen gasp. He turned and saw the woman was on the stairs and staring beside them, where Artesia had fallen.

John hurried over and found Roxanne holding the woman's leg. She looked up and shook her head at John. "This is bad," she said. "She passed out and I can't wake her. There's too much blood..."

"Sadie!" John snapped. He turned and looked around until his eyes fell on Jennaca. "We need her! I told Artesia she wasn't ready for this... Jennaca, go! Fetch Sadie."

Jennaca didn't speak, she ran. She sprinted across the cavern and up the ramp and then she ran like Dargoth was still chasing her up the tunnel. Sasha raced after her and ran at her side.

"Let's take her, we can meet Sadie on the way," John said.

"I don't know if we should move her," Roxanne said.

"Master," Zynga said.

"What?" John asked.

"She will die."

"No!" John argued.

"You can help her."

"Help her? Help her what, die? I won't let her!"

"No, help her live... but you must shelter her until she is healed."

"What?"

"Protect her soul, Master," Zynga said. "You can do it now. Trust me, you will know how if you just try. Her body will be still then, until it is better. A false life, if you will."

"This sounds like necromancy," John growled.

"Well, duh, it is," Zynga said. She pointed at herself and said, "Hello, demon."

"But..."

"You're part demon-too. A lot more now, in fact."

John scowled. "I don't want any part of necromancy."

"Do you want her to die?"

John ground his teeth together. "No... fine. How do I do it?"

"You just do it," Zynga said. "I could show you a spell form that looks like a swoosh, but it's not necessary."

John stared at her. "What?"

"Never mind... reach out to her soul and extend your protection around it. You have the power... you have a lot of that now."

John frowned and turned to Artesia. He knelt next to her and reached out, placing a hand on her chest. John stared at her face for a moment, her expression was one of pain, not peace. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reached inside of her with his magic.

He felt her life force. It was weak. Her soul was there and burning strong, but without a body to sustain it, it would not last. John studied her and almost opened his eyes. Zynga was right, he did know what to do. It was simple, really, he just had to reach out and calm her body. Slow it down. Suppress her life, as it were, without stopping it. Her soul was there for the taking. All he had to do was stop her body and her soul could be his. He could protect it forever then. Right along with Little Red's. He'd never talk to her and or see her or argue with her again, but she'd be safe forever, so long as he lived.

No!

He wasn't collecting the souls of those he cared for. He was here to save her, not turn her into a trophy. Little Red couldn't be helped, he hadn't known how to save her. Artesia didn't have to die.

John didn't touch her soul. Instead he used his magic to blanket it. He fed it energy, much as her body should have done had it been fully alive. This would sustain her. He would keep her well until she could do it on her own.

John opened his eyes and found he was still nodding.

"See? I told you so."

John looked at Zynga and chuckled. "Sometimes I don't know if I don't like you or if I treasure you."

Zynga grinned. "Would you have it any other way?"

"Yes, I definitely would!"

She cackled. "I wouldn't!"

John rolled his eyes and stood up. He turned to Roxanne and Helleen. "You can pick her up now."

"But John," Roxanne said. "She's dead."

"No she's not," John said. "Trust me."

Roxanne looked at Artesia's leg. She didn't see blood flowing from it. Her breasts didn't rise and fall.