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Not exactly as abandoned as we'd hoped. The place was literally crawling with Lizardmen.
Finally we met with the Chaos Lord Damsto Evilgenius the Yell of Ransacking.
He cut right to the thick of the mustard, as it were. Even minus a throat and his right eye he was menacing. In fact, the fact he was standing there confidently in spite of these injuries did not bode well.
He stepped forward towards us.
"Children of the Progeny, prepare for your deaths by my blade!" he snarled, and unsheathed his blade.
With a cry, Anticheese ran at him, bashing him impotently in the arm, before having the Chaos Lord's dark blade slice his arm off. He screamed and fell back, overwhelmed by the pain.
Ignoring any further actions from Anticheese, had there been any, the monster advanced on me. His blade arced towards me, and I blocked it with my own. The force behind the blow was massive, however, and I was knocked off my feet.
He struck at me again and again, but I parried him each time, feeling the throbbing in my muscles. Feeling something alien come over me.
"SUCCUMB!" the monster screamed at me. I used that split second to slice its left leg clean off.
I stood up, dodging the blade of the fallen monster, only to have my helmet ring like a bell as a blowdart smashed against it.
Disoriented, I took a step back, and the Chaos Lord took its frustration out on poor Anticheese, slaying him with a powerful blow.
Drakolus leapt into the fray, screaming "Die Monster!"
The Chaos Lord simply caught his blade with its free hand, and sliced off Drakolus' right leg, sending him stumbling to the floor.
The Chaos Lord laughed. "A leg for a leg, wouldn't you say?"
"Stay back" I told Melica. I didn't have any confidence in her in this battle, with her being new to this, and my experienced comrades dropping like flies. The alien feeling in my veins was growing stronger.
I stepped in, parrying the monster's blade with surprising ease, and sliced through his sword arm, sending it and his blade clattering uselessly to the ground.
As he gazed at his arm in shock, I cut the other one off to join it.
With the danger somewhat decreased, Melica began to hack away at it.
"Hold!" I said, stopping her onslaught.
Leaning over it, I demanded to know what his God was attempting to do. In response, I received a stream of profanity, and promises that one day his God would rise and purge the world of us.
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Captain Ironblood was thoughtful. "Presumably the alien power you experienced was the touch of the Blood God. Or that is what you're going to tell me."
Kodor nodded. "Very perceptive. We later discovered that the strongest members of the progeny, on returning from death, gained access to some level of the Blood God's powers. We also discovered that Melica too was part of the Progeny, to her surprise."
"Does that make us related to her then?" asked Captain Ironblood in shock. "I mean, presumably I am a member of this group as well..."
Melica nodded "You are, and we're not related. The Avatars gave the Blood God's strength to many individuals, in the early days, to combat the Goblin menace, and the demons the Chaos Lords released. The strength was diluted in time, but it seems to be getting stronger again."
"So what do you think the Chaos Lord wanted? Why did it go on a rampage?" asked Captain Ironblood.
Melica answered. "We think he was trying to draw us into a trap. We later discovered that the Chaos Lords had been actively seeking out the Progeny, and killing them before they became too strong. Death by the blade of a Chaos Lord doesn't bring any second chances. When the power of the Soulsmith ends your life, not even Armok can restore that."
"So, brother," Kodor interrupted, "Did you die too? Is that how you became so strong? You killed a Hydra with your bare hands... whilst naked. At least that's what I heard."
The Captain shrugged. "I've never died."
Kodor paled. "That's impossible! No dwarf could do those things!"
He reached across the desk and grabbed his brother's hand, exposing the wrist to reveal nothing. A similar inspection of the other wrist was equally unsatisfying.
"There's no mark..." he said weakly, sitting heavily back in his chair.
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Topic: Nist Akath - The Complete Story (Read 602774 times)