As she stepped forward, a red light suddenly flickered just beyond their own light’s reach. It quickly spread to cover a circle on the floor, with five points around the edge of the circle glowing particularly strongly - and then lines started to connect those five points to form a pentagram.
“Another trap!” Latoya shouted unnecessarily as the two of them dashed forward. The five glowing points were crystals embedded in the floor, and their light revealed more runes and markings in the floor around the lines that already were glowing right before the red light spread to fill them as well.
Before either of the two could get close enough to do anything, there was a bright flash of red light. When it faded, the light had vanished from the circle, and an armored skeleton armed with a rusty longsword was standing in the center of the circle facing the two girls. It made a hissing noise as it raised its weapon. As if that wasn’t bad enough, red light started to flicker in the crystals again.
“You break the circle before it summons more, I’ll take the skeleton!” Miriel shouted. She pulled her machete, sheath and all, off of her belt, and braced the sheath with her left hand as she charged forward, trying to push the skeleton away from the circle.
The skeleton just raised its sword to block. Miriel punched forward with both arms as she approached, drawing out a loud clang as its sword met Miriel’s machete, and the skeleton’s sword arm shattered from the impact. It slowed Miriel enough, though, that she only managed to lightly bump against the skeleton’s breastplate without moving it at all. It clattered at her as she fell back a pace, and then punched out with its remaining arm; Miriel attempted to parry, but missed and was hit in the stomach. She stumbled backward into the wall of the corridor, gasping for breath.
“Stop playing around and just take its head off or something!” Latoya shouted at her as she crouched behind the skeleton. She hammered away at one of the crystals in the circle, knocking it free, but that only caused the red light spreading through the circle to flicker briefly; Latoya cursed and glanced back and forth at the other crystals. The skeleton paid her no heed, though; it walked closer to Miriel.
“Working - it!” Miriel coughed out. She dodged to the right as the skeleton punched out again; its blow missed her head and cracked one of the stones in the wall behind her. Miriel still didn’t bother with drawing her machete. She just spun to the left and used the sheathed weapon to hammer at the skeleton’s shoulder. The brittle bone shattered, and the skeleton’s other arm fell off.
The skeleton hissed again, but couldn’t do much more than that. Miriel reared back and aimed for its head this time. As the skull went bouncing away, the headless, armless corpse fell apart in a clatter of bone and metal. At almost exactly the same time, there was a loud sizzling noise as the red light competing with their lantern abruptly vanished.
Showing posts with label Creative Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creative Writing. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2018
Friday, November 2, 2018
Demon's Temple excerpt: Investigation Begins
Alex just shrugged. “None of the hotels or tour companies said much about missing people when I asked. Didn’t really surprise me, either; even if they knew, they wouldn’t want to spread rumors for fear of affecting business. I can pretty easily ask about tours in different areas and see if there are any areas around the city they recommend we avoid, but that could indicate a lot of things, including completely mundane threats.”
“Do we know where the missing people were going or where the patrols were supposed to go?” Latoya asked, looking back and forth between Sam and Miriel.
“Not really,” Sam answered. “At least not that I’ve learned yet.”
“The patrols didn’t know which direction would be best, so they were working in a spiral pattern,” Miriel answered. “Unfortunately they were counting a bit too much on the patrols getting word out even if they got ambushed, so they were a bit lax about routine check-ins. We know an approximate minimum distance from the city for our threat and that’s about it.”
“I’ll make sure not to ask about anything too close to the city then,” Alex said.
“I hate to be too suspicious,” Sam jumped in, “but that note about mundane threats does make me want to ask if we’ve ruled out some kind of non-magical threat. I vaguely recall something about terrorism in this country, for example.”
Miriel shook her head. “Most of them have disarmed now. And while I suppose it’s possible, it’s hard to imagine the mundane ambush that could have taken out a dozen soldiers without a single one of them getting any word out, particularly after the first patrol went missing.”
“True,” Sam admitted.
“We’ll keep it in mind, of course,” Miriel continued. “But I think we probably are looking at something supernatural. No idea what effect it could have been yet, though…”
“I don’t suppose they actually could have been spirited away to hell?” Latoya asked half-humorously.
“I think we’d be able to see the magic required to open or close a planar portal from here even if they were halfway into Brazil,” Miriel replied dryly. “We might not detect an active portal, but active portals to hell tend to be hard to miss what with all the demons that typically start coming out of them and wreaking havoc.”
“Don’t think they’d have needed our help figuring out what was wrong if we had one of those, no,” Latoya grinned. “They might have needed to ask for help blasting the entire area to ruins until whatever was making the portal went away, but that’s not what we do.”
All four of them chuckled a little.
“Do we know where the missing people were going or where the patrols were supposed to go?” Latoya asked, looking back and forth between Sam and Miriel.
“Not really,” Sam answered. “At least not that I’ve learned yet.”
“The patrols didn’t know which direction would be best, so they were working in a spiral pattern,” Miriel answered. “Unfortunately they were counting a bit too much on the patrols getting word out even if they got ambushed, so they were a bit lax about routine check-ins. We know an approximate minimum distance from the city for our threat and that’s about it.”
“I’ll make sure not to ask about anything too close to the city then,” Alex said.
“I hate to be too suspicious,” Sam jumped in, “but that note about mundane threats does make me want to ask if we’ve ruled out some kind of non-magical threat. I vaguely recall something about terrorism in this country, for example.”
Miriel shook her head. “Most of them have disarmed now. And while I suppose it’s possible, it’s hard to imagine the mundane ambush that could have taken out a dozen soldiers without a single one of them getting any word out, particularly after the first patrol went missing.”
“True,” Sam admitted.
“We’ll keep it in mind, of course,” Miriel continued. “But I think we probably are looking at something supernatural. No idea what effect it could have been yet, though…”
“I don’t suppose they actually could have been spirited away to hell?” Latoya asked half-humorously.
“I think we’d be able to see the magic required to open or close a planar portal from here even if they were halfway into Brazil,” Miriel replied dryly. “We might not detect an active portal, but active portals to hell tend to be hard to miss what with all the demons that typically start coming out of them and wreaking havoc.”
“Don’t think they’d have needed our help figuring out what was wrong if we had one of those, no,” Latoya grinned. “They might have needed to ask for help blasting the entire area to ruins until whatever was making the portal went away, but that’s not what we do.”
All four of them chuckled a little.
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