PART VI
Remora opened his eyes, everything came into focus. He realised that they were now in the grassland between the first and second of the caves. Nothing dared live in the grassland because of the Undead Hunter one side, and the Flaming Golem the other side. Anything that decided to stay out here in these grasslands would be killed by one of them in a few hours. The sun shone brightly and the haze faded into the vast landscape. Mountain after mountain in the distance, Remora had never seen what lay beyond the Ashram grassland; in fact he had never been into the Ashram grassland.
He could see a kilometre or so into the distance that the second cave rested on the top of a small hill. However this cave looked a lot larger than the one before, and it also looked mighty impressive. The Undead Hunter’s cave had looked run down and small, however the Golems cave looked like something grand. The entrance itself looked at least 30 metres high.
Remora managed to get himself up, although the pains in his limbs from the previous fight had made him hobble along until his legs got used to it. Evander was in the corner quietly conjuring more arrows, although something told Remora that arrows weren’t going to sink into a Flaming Golem. Flare was levitating trying to see what was beyond the Golem cave, but he could barely see over its huge entrance.
Baron realised that a nights rest would suffice and that they were prepared as they ever would be for the Flaming Golem. Once again he recalled the times his mighty hunting party had taken it down. Although this memory was slightly blurry, this had been the only battle in which Baron had admitted defeat….
As usual Zodack had lead the assault, with the Sword master Kenshin closely following. Zodack had thrown himself at the beast glowing with passion from which the spells came. Kenshin liked to think of himself as the true leader of the Hunting Party, although he had never mentioned that to the others.
All of the hunters had begun to attack the beast but the golems eyes continued to burn with hatred and evil. After minutes of fighting it had managed to single out Baron and had pinned him against the cave wall, he crushed Barons ribs slowly as Baron yelled in both pain and anger. It was at that moment Kenshin had dived onto the Golems legs, scrambled up and slashed his sword across the golems stony face. It had moaned and released Baron, but seized Kenshin and threw him against the wall, the crunch had echoed in Barons ears ever since.
The Golem was quickly slain by Zodack’s meteors and Turon’s piercing arrows. It was then that Kenshin’s apprentice Ghidrah, ran to his masters side.
“Master Kenshin, you alright?”
Blood was dripping down his side and seeping through Kenshin’s armour, the end was approaching and Kenshin knew it.
“..i..i…is Baron alive?”
“yes nothing that he cant take care of Master”
“…I want you take my sword and wield it like you have your own Ghidrah. Y..you are no longer my apprentice, you have earned your title of a Master swordsman, and may it live with you forever”
“I..I cannot take your sword, master! And stop talking like it’s the end!”
“Restrain your emotions Ghidrah, I hope you slay that Shadow Dragon, I just wish I could be there to watch you do it. Zodack is a powerful man and accomplice; assist him against that dragon, for you are the strongest after him. I leave you.. in peace now Ghidrah.. ..
Kenshin’s head slowly fell lifeless on his neck, a tear descended down Ghidrah’s face as he took Kenshin’s Supreme Blade. He turned to Baron
“He gave his life to save yours Baron, remember that”
“Yeh I remember” baron said aloud to himself, as he suppressed any potential tears. Kenshin was the greatest warrior Baron had ever set eyes on, Zodack was powerful but he was still a sorcerer after all. Kenshin lived with honour, fought with honour, and died with honour. He had trained Ghidrah to be his equal, and had trained him to be a true swordsman. Ghidrah had left the Hunting party immediately after the Shadow Dragon hunt, he felt no reason to stay with them now that his master was gone.
“Remora, Flare, Get over here. We gots to head off now, I want to kick this Golems ass no?”
The spawn of the last Flaming Golem was certainly in the cave, Remora could hear the distant rumbles coming from within it. Flare looked slightly on edge.
“Evander you finished making them arrows? Though I got a bad feeling they ain’t going to do a thing to this son of a b..!”
“We can do only but try Baron, let’s move”
The four of them gathered their weapons and headed further north to the next cave, ‘The cave of Trauma’ Baron’s notepad labelled it. They trekked on and on for approximately a kilometre, before they approached the steep gravel that lead to the entrance. Baron looked up at the entrance, so impressive in comparison with the mild Ashram landscape. He took a deep breath, and walked in through the entrance, and continued about fifty metres into the cave.
Darkness.
“alay mor”
Light shone from Flare, the cave lit up. The Golem stood at the far end of the cave, surrounded by rusty weapons and rotting corpses. Remora gulped and drew his Tetra blade, Baron prepared himself for round two, and this time, no one was going to die for him.
The roar that came from the Golem deafened them as flames burst out of its back and it charged at the four of them. Its hands were burning and it conjured all sorts of molten rock at them. It burst everywhere as the four of them dived out of the way in opposite directions.
“Disintra meta”
Flare looked forward with his eyes focussed, he began to gain weight, then lose weight, then grow taller, then smaller. Flare then suddenly was alight, he was nothing but a ball of fire that flew round the cave faster than anything Remora had seen before. Flares eyes still shone from within the flames that surrounded him.
He burst at the Golems legs but was simple thrown aside by the Golems giant hands. Baron struck its thigh with his double axe. He merely dented its vast stone structure. The Golem brushed Baron aside and headed towards Remora who was preparing to be thrown like the others.
“E..Evander I think you better shoot those…”
But something else had distracted him.
Evander was stood staring back towards the entrance of the cave.
“…….it c..cannot be”
Published: May 15, 2004 01:53 pm