Fourth chapter

þetta eiga eftir að verða svo margir kaflar að ég ætla að koma upp system þar sem kaflarnir eiga alltaf að koma á föstudögum.

Enjoy!

Mizra gasped and her bare chest panted, moving frantically up and down. The dog went flying for the second time this day as she threw away the hide and ran towards the door.
Or tried to run ,would be a better description. As soon as her feet touched the floor they failed her and she fell silently on the thick hide on the floor.
Mizra tried to move but all energy seemed to have gone away from her.
Even her voice was gone. Her head, her hands and her chest throbbed painfully.
The pain was so excruciating that she almost succumbed to the pain and unconsciousness seemed a fair choice.

NO! she protested with the little amount of voice that was left in her.
She ignored the pain as hard it seemed and recited four lines of a poem that had been singing in her heads for the last four years, and had always helped her in situations like this.

When she first finished it she felt the power in her feet return.and she recited again. And again.And every time she finished the poem she felt better.
Every word made her stronger and soon she could talk with her full voice. She kept on and her feet were strong enough to walk on.
But she didn´t stop. She repeated the words until it seemed as though the words themselves lifted her up.
She stopped for a second, only utter under her breath: they´ve come.

The door went flying under what seemed an ice blast and out of the door walked mizra ,naked, in all her majesty with white glowing eyes and blonde majestic hair.
Prepare yourselves she said magic in her voice, they´re coming to get us all.
Exen´tor and Ankthar were still sitting in front of the fireplace and were as stunned over this sudden appearance and declaration as they could get.

Ankthar was the first of them to reply, quite calm and as cynical as ever: „not that i´m not panicking ove tha´possible invasion in me home mam, but shouldn´t ye be gettin dressed ´fore they„come and get us all“
Mizra only looked at him,about as furius as shocked over her sudden realization of her appearance.
She closed her eyes and an inch tick ice covered her skin as much of a part of her body as her hair.
„Happy now you snotty little dwarf?“
Ankthar rose out from his chair and increased in size as he did.
„Happy? yes i´d think so, snotty most probably, dwarf? Nahh.“ Ankthar had now reached the same height and was walking to a cabinet behind mizra.
„Aware that there are 13 ghouls and two unknown bastards approaching me home? not until now,“
he opened the cabinet and drew forth a large blunderbuss.
„Ready to smash their heads open by any means necessary? Why do ye think I live out here?“
He now held an axe as big as himself in his dwarf form over his shoulder.
„Do I think we can take ,,,,“
„Ehm sorry to interrupt“, exen ´tor interrupted, „but can your ceiling take a pound from an infernal stone dropping to earth with unrecognizable speed?“
„Ahhhrr probably not , why?“
„Ahh then i´d recommend moving about 2 meters to the left.“
„Errr why should I,,“
A green stone as big as Ankthars head suddenly smashed through the ceiling making a big hole as it went through.
It landed on the floor in front of Ankthar with a loud crack.
„Or not“ Exen´tor commented as Mesfer climbed from the green stone.
„Hiya bastard,“ mesfer irritatingly shot at Exen´tor, „what you got yourself in this time ehh? Another way for me to die an excruciatingly painful death for your skin perhaps? maybe even,,,,,, oh noes.“
It was at that moment that Mesfer noticed the ice covered, naked woman standing in front of him.
„Oh noes , oh noes not her, not her again please anything else! Hang me up on my buttocks over a fiery pit of lava while parasites eat my face and i´d rejoice, please not her!“
Mizra stared at him intently and assured him that: „after this is over I will freeze your tongue to cheeks if you go on like this.“
Mesfer peeped and ran up to Exen´tors shoulder where he hid behind his head.

„I cant believe you still haven’t got rid of him.“
„Believe me mizra I would if I could.“
„Poetic as always, Ex.“

They didn´t have much time to chat however as the door was blasted open by a sword probably wielded by one of the huge abominations.
After the smash at least a dozen ghouls charged through the broken doors.
The first was finished off quite quickly, with a shot from Ankthars blunderbuss.
The second was engulfed in green devilish flames and the third fell down as a statue of ice, breaking in pieces on the floor.
But with numbers, they got in and charged the defenders.

Three ran straight to Exen´tor ,quite literally jumping on his head ,maws open and ready to bite.
Experienced beyond measures in the tactics of the undead Mesfer and Exen´tor knew how to avoid the impending doom.
Exen´tor ducked down low , and shot with his right hand a dark energy of such power that nothing remained but the charred remains, and out of his right came yellow sand that engulfed the ghoul and instantaneously left nothing but a fine white dust.
Mesfer however was in heavens as he commenced his most favorite technique, ghouling.
Ghouling meant that Mesfer turned himself on fire and jumped into the ghouls gaping mouth. The fire that engulfed him was so hot that it burned the ghoul as he „swam“ through its body.
Mesfer was without a doubt the only one that thought this technique was stylish beyond comparison, but it worked and that was all that exen´tor cared about when fighting the undead.

Ankthar threw away his gun and jumped at three ghouls,the axe swinging at a near impossible speed. In his original charge he cleaved one in half.
The remaining two faltered for a second at the sight of the peculiar creature that had changed from an elf to an axe wielding dwarf before their, well eyes or whatever counted for eyes in their physiology.
Ankthar used that falter and continued the cleave and smashed on of the ghouls head . The last ghoul charged at him with the sharp cutting nails on its hands. Ankthar jumped right at him with his bulky body and drove him to the floor.
„Bleeding ghouls“ he spat and ripped the head from the ghouls body.

Mizra had slightly more difficulties as she fought two ghouls. She had covered her hands with with ice as hard as steel turning them into frozen swords that sliced through her enemies with deadly accuracy. But her hands felt weak and her spirit was uncertain. why was she fighting them? Was she not one of them.why was she doing this?
her eyelids felt heavy and she fell for but a split second out beyond time and space.
She was falling in the darkness and felt voices in her head ,shrieking,cutting,echoing endlessly one command to her: „kill the dwarf! Get the elves and don´t harm them.“
How easy it felt and obvious to simply let go, to just do what the voice told her to do. And she almost did.
What saved her was the poem that always sang in her head: five symbols ,,
Five symbols,,,five symbols,,,,and the meaning,,,,
And Mizra snapped out of it ,suddenly standing in front of the ghouls,no longer unsure as of what to do nearly singing out the poem and cutting her enemies with every syllable:
Five symbols of power
Five symbols of fall
Five symbols of magic
And the meaning of it all

In the end of the poem the ghouls were torn to pieces and Mizra herself was shining with blue flames coming from beneath her skin. Her eyes, even whiter than before shone of pure rage and ultimate fury.
Three ghouls tried to get in but turned to ice so fast that they imploded by pure cold leaving nothing behind but little ice cubes scattered on the floor.

The sudden change of their comrade left Ankthar and Exen´tor mesmerized.
Exen´tor began to approach Mizra carefully, when a creature walked through the blasted remains of the door. A creature it could only be called, for it resembled nothing exen´tor nor the others had seen. A human in many ways, for it walked on two legs had two hands and one head.
But that’s where the resemblance ended . the creature seemed to be made of multiple bodies, not sowed together but rather unified together by some power.
Fat snow white arms ,that seemed in no way connected to the bearlike torso, moved unceasingly around its misshapen head.
By the creeatures side lay two greatswords ready.

The human-like creature was only dressed up in a bear hide jacket that he dragged after him. On its many coloured face it wore a sleazy grin.
Its mere presence seemed to overpower both Exen´tor and Mizra as they collapsed to the floor, Mizras flames dying out and they barely had power in their arms to keep their faces off the floor.

The creature walked in, looked for a moment on Exen´tor and said with innocent sarcasm: „why hello again“. It then sat down on a chair by the door that seemed not have been affected by the battle.

Ankthar who had been reloading all this time, aimed briefly at the creature and fired, hitting it in the left side of the head blowing a big portion of the it away.
But the creature only grinned and said with certain cynicism in its voice:„ you can spare your bullets ,dwelf, they don’t hurt a man who cannot die.“

Ankthar was most certainly not going to relent his attacks and wasn´t going to listen to yet another undead claiming invincibility
But then he froze , uncapable of moving a muscle.
“I told you to spare your bullets and you should listen to superior creatures, you mongrel„ the creature commented.
Ankthar fell down an his knees unnaturally stiff and hardened.

„Now its good to see you two again, especially you mizra, I can´t say i´ve missed you but I´ve definitely not liked your absence. Kelthuzaad can be cruel when his plans fail.“
„I´ve ,,never ,,,,seen you,,,,,, before“, Exen´tor gasped barely able to breathe.
„Ohh maybe not , but your pesky little imp most surely has. I´m one of the fellows you burned to the core in the mountains not more than a day before the last.
What you see before you is the remains of those fellows, held together by sheer force.“
„What ,,are,, you? Exen´tor demanded weakly.“
The grin kept on, as if taunting them.
„I´m a more perfect version of you, more „corrupted“ if you will. I actuallt went through the entire defilement , but didn´t chicken off and away, like some people here.“
Mizra fell to the floor , her strength gone and done with.
„My soul is broken but held together by the lich kings´ will, therefore as long as he holds his bonds over me I cannot die.“
he stopped here for a second as if contemplating what he had just said and whether it had been a little too much.
„But I prefer the question, who I am, I like it much more. Back in the days when I had an identity they used to call me a devil. Heh they should look at me now.
The devil of swords, was my nickname, Sworddevil for short.“

He meant to continue but was rudely interrupted by mesfer who landed in his head and started tapdancing on what was left of it, while squeaking sarcastically:
„Sworddevil? Hah devil of swords? Couldn´t you find something more cliché? Like the ultimate svordsman, or deaths advocate, or even the super ultimate super swordsman! Or even gahhh,,,,.“
Mesfer was himself rudely interrupted when thrown at Exen´tors head by the „sworddevil“.
„As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I am more corrupted version of you, which is why you lose your power by the mere sight of me. Control3ing Corruption oozes from me and takes hold of your petty corrupted bodies. Now enough about you. Let me tell you about ME.
I used to be a human with powers beyond,,,,,,“
„Hey Ex“ Mesfer squeaked in Exen´tors ear,„ hey you listening stupid?“
„What!?“ ,Exen´tor whispered back ,angry and irritated.
„You know what we have to do. You know the gargolyles are coming, We have to act,“
„No! I will not do it! We will find another way“
„But it’s the only way and You know it. The only way to win a great corruption like this is with a great purity or greater corruption , and lets face it, you can find a child murdering acocalyte of the death cult with greater ethics than you.
You know what we have to do.“

Sworddevil kept on chatting, now talking about his childhood in some monastery or the other. Exen´tor wasn´t sure whether he didn´t realize that no one was listening to him or if he simply didn´t care.

„All right“ exentor spat, anything but listen to that conceited sleazebag until the gargolyles arrive.
„Huh? What did you say? I was simply mesmerized in his beautiful story of how he killed his first raccoon.“
„All right , we´ll do it but don´t let her see it and it must only be my left arm, understand?“
„yes yes fine okay lets do it before his jaws fall to the floor from overuse.“

„And that’s when I became a knight of the silver hand, what glorious deprivation of logic and life that was. When I was 17 I,,“ Sworddevil kept on talking nonstop it seemed, so conceited in his self proclaimed perfection that he didn´t even notice the change in Exen´tor.
„Hey!“ Exen´tor interrupted with a dark green flame in his eyes and a dry rowdy voice, „shut up for one second will ya, that’s about as long as it will take to knock even more senseless than you are right now“.
„What could you“,, Sworddevil began but was then crushed by Exen´tors hand which had suddenly turned to shadowy green, as big as tree.

„I told you to shut up “ Exen´tor proclaimed as he crushed his body.