Chapter 12 - The New King

The explosion made Valandt fall to his feet and what he saw come out of the smoke did not go anyway of making up for it. There were to recognizable figures, that of Kaiazal and that of the wizard Schard. The third was a metallic monstrosity, built in the same shape as that of the demons which have been supposedly attacking the people of Legia. Valandt got to his feet as Kaiazal spoke “I came to see a battle, hope you don‘t mind if we add something extra to the fight” said the lizard man and with that a circle of fire began to appear around himself and Shadow. Kaiazal laughed evilly “Let the duel for the crown begin” he hissed. Valandt turned to Shadow and thought of fighting, he so desperately wanted to end the life of the masked pest that had been going around killing the innocent people of Legia, however he refused to do anything which would please the vile Kaiazal. Valandt looked once more at Shadow and lost control and went for him. Valandt swung for him once and anticipating that Shadow would block it he changed direction half way though. Shadow just as Valandt had thought gone to parry the first with ease, when Valandt changed direction Shadow jumped back toward the flames. The heat from the fire surrounding them was more intense than anything Valandt had ever experience, he wondered briefly if his sword would melt. In this lull of action Shadow made a move for Valandt, kicking his sword away and taking him down to the ground. Shadow head butted Valandt hard, the mask was made of a lot stronger material that Valandt had previously thought and Valandt groaned in pain. The sound of Kaiazal’s laughter filled the hall as Shadow drew the sword of Drakahor and aimed it over Valandt’s neck. Shadow paused momentarily, Valandt could do nothing and his fate lay in the hands of a warrior he despised. Shadow looked behind quickly and Valandt tried to struggle free at this point but couldn't. Shadow suddenly jumped back off Valandt and hurled the sword of Drakahor out of the flames. The sound of Kaiazal filled the room once more, but this time it was a Kaiazal in pain, Valandt rejoiced in the most harmonious of noises. The ring of fire surrounding them faded and disappeared. Valandt could see that the sword Shadow had tossed out of the flames had severed Kaiazal’s hand off, a green substance, most likely blood came from the wound and began to dissolve the places which it landed. Valandt looked around the room, only the shapely figure of Astral stood where Raiguarde and Imunzo had previously been. On the other side of the room only the young looking wizard stood. Valandt turned his attention to Kaiazal, hissing in extreme pain. “The sword...” he heard him say to the metallic monstrosity that was with him. Kaiazal then turned to Valandt “We have what we came for. This land is doomed, Malvagatia. finish them” A black light then engulfed Kaiazal and Schard, all that stood now was the huge figure of the metal demon like warrior, Malvagatia. Valandt could tell just by looking at it that it was not from this time, not even Schard could do such trickery. Valandt dived onto the floor and rolled, collecting his renegade sword on the way. Valandt got to his feet and was standing beside Astral, he turned and tried to keep his cool “so nice to see you, wish it could have been under better circumstances” he said amusingly. She smiled and he turned, partially angry that he did not have the time to enjoy such an attractive thing. Valandt struggled for ideas to deal with the metallic Malvagatia. Malvagatia stood perfectly still, this made Valandt uneasy. It then made its move. A tiny red light formed atop the warriors head and began to grow, soon it was a huge red ball of energy which crackled and fizzled with almost deafening intensity. Valandt ran toward Malvagatia and swung his sword through the light, the instant Valandt’s sword touched the light he was hurtled at he far wall and landed with a thud that made him cry out in intense pain. He struggled to get to his feet and looked at Astral, she had a look of horror which ruined her incredible face and he saw her mouth the words `the dream` over and over to herself. A noise made Valandt turn his attention to the other side of the room, the young wizard was conjuring something of his own. A blue ball of energy began to surround Malvagatia and it blocked the red light that began to stretch for the roof as it covered it. The wizard struggled to keep his concentration `hasn't tried anything of this grand a scale before` Valandt thought as he watched. Valandt’s pupils grew smaller as he saw black creatures begin to fly around the room, matching the description of the demons who had been terrorizing the land exactly. Shadow ran to the sword which had earlier dispatched Kaiazal for the time being and began to swipe at them. The demons began to surround the wizard as he attempted to close the ball of energy around Malvagatia. Shadow protected the wizard with great valour but still Valandt wouldn’t have hesitated long to extinguish the life of this human plague on his land. The ball was nearly sealed over Malvagatia and the demons began to get faster, Valandt had trouble keeping up and he almost wanted to see Shadow’s body be torn apart in the most horrid fashion possible as he watched. This shockingly honest thought prompted Valandt to try and get to his feet but there was no strength left in his body, the slam against he wall had sapped it all and there were most likely broken bones in his royal body. The demons began to decrease in number and grow in size now, Valandt had a bad feeling even for Shadow, whom he loathed, but all he could do is watch. The ball was moments away from closing when all the demons came together, Shadow was caught off guard and this great black sphere went for the wizard. Astral screamed from the other side of the room and ran toward the wizard, pushing him out of the way and letting the demons enter her body. Valandt stood up instantly and cried out, he fell down in pain a moment later. The ball then closed over Malvagatia. Shadow walked over to Valandt “Some warrior, all you do is watch” Shadow said with spite and Shadow then bent down to help Valandt to his feet. “I don't want, or need your help” said Valandt, with the same amount of malice.
“Fine” said Shadow who began to walk away, Shadow then turned and returned to where Valandt was laying and punched him in the jaw. “Royal ..” Shadow began while making his way back to Astral’s lying body.
“Enough” the young wizard called and he pointed his fist in Valandt’s direction, Valandt then found that he could walk again. Valandt quickly ran up to Astral’s body and got in the face of the young wizard “Is she dead ?” Valandt demanded.
“No” the wizard sighed. “I managed to protect her heart before the demons could get to it”
“I ought to kill you where you stand, letting the queen of Palestar to do that”. Shadow then went to punch Valandt again but the wizard calmed things. “She chose to save my life, as I have just saved the people of Legia” the wizard pointed to the motionless figure of Malvagatia, surrounded by a blue ball of energy “allowing that to continue would destroy everything”.
“My apologies” Valandt said, attempting to calm himself “but what will happen to Astral ?”.
“She will die” the wizard said attempting to break the news gently “but time is on her side, she will die a month to the day and until then she will act as one of the dead. Unless...”
“Yes?” said Valandt prompting the wizard.
“I am uneducated in such matters, I know how long the protection shield will last and not how to remove the demons from her body. However I am thinking that it would not be impossible”. Valandt turned to Shadow momentarily and his gaze was full of disgust. Shadow put up his sword and Valandt jumped back. “I believe we have a duel to finish” Shadow said, whose stare was burning directly into Valandt.
“It shall be your death” Valandt said coolly.
“Then kill away” Shadow replied. Valandt’s sword began to float across the room toward him and he snatched it from the air. Presto then stepped back as Valandt and Shadow prepared to duel for the crown of Legia.

Raiguarde’s eyes opened and he instantly felt pain. At first he thought he had gone blind as he couldn't see anything around him. Raiguarde, slightly panic stricken began to twist and turn in every direction, searching for anything that would prove that his sight remained. Suddenly a blinding flash in the distance made Raiguarde’s eyes scrunch even more, he now knew that he was not blind, but he still couldn't see anything. The light dimmed to a level easier on Raiguarde’s eye and he was able to look around and see that he was not alone. Imunzo, The beast lord Zvire and someone else, but Raiguarde was not aware of his name. “What is this place ?” Raiguarde called, everywhere around him still pitch black.
“peklo-cvicení-mletý” Imunzo said, with an ominous look on his face.
“It cant be!” exclaimed the man behind Zvire.
“You there? what is your name? You know of this place” Raiguarde demanded, trying to stamp some sort of authority down.
“I am Orscyar, and I have heard nothing but the name of this place, but it can only bring evil” “peklo-cvicení-mletý” Imunzo repeated “or, in standard Legian, Hell‘s training ground” Raiguarde stumbled back, trying to forget what he had heard. `How am I going to get out of this place?` Raiguarde thought to himself.
“There is only one way out” came the evil voice of Kaiazal “survive”. Zvire reached around to pull out his axe, but it wasn't there, it had been left back at the castle. “I need weapon” he said to Orscyar. Orscyar patted down his clothes searching it for any kind of weapon but he too, was weapon less. Raiguarde looked down to his sword belt, the Zialisilyk was there and he quickly unsheathed it. Imunzo drew his curved sword and handed it to Zvire “What do you think you‘re doing ?” Raiguarde asked of him.
“If we are to live through this, we must work together, regardless of differences on Legia, this is different. I have no need for such weaponry, I am a weapon”. Raiguarde reluctantly accepted Imunzo’s decision, he didn't totally trust any of the men with him, but he would have to stick with them to survive. “Well, what happens now?” Raiguarde wondered aloud, and then had his question answered before his eyes. Demons began to circle them, the four warriors were outnumbered four to one. Raiguarde could not see their form, but their devil red eyes shone like big red stars in the night sky. Imunzo quickly handed over a sharp dagger to Orscyar, so that he was not completely defenceless, Raiguarde would be surprised if Orscyar could survive this. There was a strange fire burning deep in Orscyar’s eyes and Raiguarde sensed that these demons were a source of great pain to him, Orscyar’s movements being a combination of fear and anger. The demons then lunged in at the four warriors, Raiguarde slashed through two instantly with lightning speed. Imunzo moved with unstoppable speed, the demons were ripped apart as he moved past them, it was only when Imunzo briefly stopped that Raiguarde noticed the metallic star that he was using to rip the demons open. Zvire lunged Imunzo’s blade deep into the demons that came close, with no real skill but incredible power. Orscyar was slow to react at first but now he began to plunge the dagger deep into the chests of the demons that came close, pulling the dagger up their evil bodies and tearing them into two. Soon there were no more, and Raiguarde breathed a momentarily sigh of relief but stayed on high alert, there was no way that it was going to be as easy as that. “You have been granted Derbojovat” came a voice, but not that of Kaiazal’s, a voice Raiguarde had not heard before, it made him shiver with fear. He turned to Imunzo momentarily to ask him what Derbojovat was but Imunzo pre-empted this question and gave an answer. “One of us will be picked to fight Diabolus, the king of all the demons and one of Goreoth‘s generals, if whoever they chose wins, we will have to be freed”
“Why free us if they want to conquer land” Zvire chipped in
“Goreoth doesn't want the land, he wants to bring terror to all that lives and he would prefer it if the good warriors are alive when he arrives” Orscyar started, a glum look on his face as he spoke.
“He wants to hunt out the best warriors....” Raiguarde began the sentence thinking aloud.
“... for fun” and Zvire finished it. “But, what if we lose?” Zvire then added in.
“We will stay here forever” Imunzo said directly. There was a sombre silence as the four men contemplated the possible future for the land in which they called home, then the evil voice of Diabolus shattered the silence. “One has been chosen” came the voice, and the four warriors recoiled, pondering who would be chosen to decide their fate. “Zvire” came the voice sharply, knifing into the soul of the beast lord. Raiguarde turned to the man that would decide his fate and swallowed his pride “I will watch your back” Raiguarde said sincerely and Zvire nodded to say that he was grateful. The darkness around them morphed into an arena. Zvire clutched at Imunzo’s curved blade with fierce intensity, it would take an inhuman amount of strength of prise the weapon from Zvire’s grasp. Zvire moved toward the middle of the circle in the newly formed arena, Raiguarde went to follow him, but he could not move, he was frozen still. No matter what was going to happen, he would only have to watch as his fate was decided. An ear-splitting thud filled the arena, Diabolus was making his entrance. Raiguarde watched as the huge demon king stepped into the battle circle. He looked like all the other demons only they paled in comparison to the monolith-like Diabolus. Huge, pointy black horns stuck out at either side of Diabolus’ face and his eyes were like red hot coals implanted into Diabolus’ head. Zvire was no small man, but he was half the size of the behemoth that was Diabolus. Raiguarde swallowed hard and forced himself to watch what could be the last battle of his freedom, and there was nothing he could do. “Let the battle begin” came the evil voice of Diabolus, but his mouth stayed stationary. Zvire began to circle the arch demon, doing his best to come up with some sort of strategy. The gigantic hand of Diabolus was first to strike, he slammed his hand down hard but Zvire was quick to avoid it. Zvire then went to thrust Imunzo’s sword into the hand of Diabolus, the sword however, rebounded off the hard skin of Diabolus. The demons themselves had been almost liquid and Zvire jumped back as the sword clashed against the impenetrable exterior of Diabolus. Raiguarde briefly looked at Imunzo as he watched his fate unfold before him, who was stood perfectly still and had his eyes firmly shut. Raiguarde then shifted his gaze back to Zvire. Diabolus had grown angry at Zvire’s attempt to cut him open and was unleashing a tirade of fury upon him. Flames sprouted from Diabolus’ mouth and Zvire dived and rolled on the floor to escape them, as he came up he turned to find spears, swords and axes being thrown in his direction. Zvire dodged most of the weapons with the agility of a warrior half his age, but the axe caught him on the right forearm and he instantly dropped to his knees in intense pain. Zvire refused to make any sound but the pain was clear in his eyes, Raiguarde instantly found respect for him at that moment. Diabolus began to summon demons now and Zvire frantically looked around for Imunzo’s blade which he had dropped as he fell to the floor. He spotted it but there was no way he could reach it in time, Zvire was forced to run from the demons. Zvire clutched at his open wound on his forearm and ran with all his might to outrun the demons. Suddenly Imunzo opened his eyes and began to struggle against the force which held him down. As he did Zvire, as a last resort jumped backward over the oncoming demons and ran toward Imunzo’s sword. Some demons were heading in the same direction as him and Zvire moved fast as to get to the sword before there were demons around it. Zvire with no alternative dived and rolled once more, picking the sword up as he went and plunging the sword deep into the demon nearest as he came up. Zvire then span around a full circle and landed in agony on the floor, his shoulder giving him pain like no other. Imunzo’s struggling was starting to pay off, his right arm broke free of whatever was holding them and he snatched Raiguarde’s sword. “The mouth” Imunzo called to Zvire, who looked up at Diabolus. Zvire launched himself as high into the air as he could, and threw Imunzo’s sword down into Diabolus’ throat. Imunzo then threw the Zialisilyk at Zvire, who spun around mid air, caught the sword and continued to spin, he then propelled the sword into Diabolus’ stomach, the sword this time dug in. Diabolus roared with pain and more demons were arriving in the distance, Zvire pushed the Zialisilyk deep into Diabolus’ chest, making it so that he could not remove it. A tear appeared in the darkness around the arena, and from it blinding light. “That's the way out” called Raiguarde as he felt able to move once more. Demons began to surround Zvire, Orscyar pulled out the dagger and went to throw it at one, but he stumbled and dropped it. Imunzo and Orscyar headed toward the tear as Raiguarde headed for Zvire. Diabolus toppled over and Raiguarde pulled the Zialisilyk clear, and began to slice away the demons from around him and tried to head for Zvire. Zvire looked up at Raiguarde “leave me” Zvire said “my fate is chosen, this shall be my final resting place”. Zvire could not be seen now, it was all black as a hoard of demons surrounded where he lay, some began to fight each other, Raiguarde was now becoming surrounded by them too. Raiguarde slashed at the oncoming demons, not knowing what way to go, he could see part of the tear in the distance and suddenly he felt a hand on his arm as someone grabbed his arm and pulled him close. Imunzo stood over Raiguarde and Orscyar close by “let us get out of here” Imunzo said.
“What about Zvire? where is he?” Orscyar demanded.
“There was nothing I could do” Raiguarde stated.
“No” Orscyar said defiantly “I'm not leaving until I see a body”. Orscyar then began to head away from the tear, which was slowly getting smaller now “There‘s no body” Raiguarde said as he grabbed Orscyar by the collar, Imunzo headed into the tear and Raiguarde began to follow, pulling Orscyar with him, the tear then closed.

Valandt ducked a swipe from Shadow’s sword. The battle for the crown had at last begun. As Valandt ducked the casual blade, he punched Shadow hard in the stomach, hitting the metallic chest place hard. Valandt instantly dropped his sword and groaned at his possible broken hand but then with a swift movement of his left leg kicked Shadow to the floor. Valandt looked into the black mask and jumped onto Shadow’s body and began to remove it, Shadow blocked it with great strength, pulling away at Valandt and then head butting him viciously. Valandt fell off Shadow’s body, holding his nose and checking that it wasn't bleeding. Shadow gradually began to stand and managed to get up before Valandt had the chance. Shadow then grabbed Valandt by the throat and began to choke him. Shadow began to look deep into Valandt’s eyes and found instant fury Shadow then turned around and threw Valandt high into the air as if he were weightless. Valandt crashed through a table, he then stood up, looking very dishevelled. Shadow produced the sword of Drakahor and held it in the air, the end of it pointing directly at Valandt, who backed away slightly. Valandt in the corner of his eye spotted Zvire’s axe that had been discarded during the earlier battle with him and he dived for it. The axe once belonged to his father and Valandt always felt a immense want for it, now it was his. Valandt charged at Shadow and Shadow likewise charged for Valandt. Shadow’s sword clashed against the blade of the axe, the sound rung out throughout the castle. Shadow swung the sword of Drakahor vigorously into the air, the prize of being ruler of Legia was in sight. Shadow began to get the upper hand, the weight of the axe made it difficult for Valandt to keep up with the pace of Shadow. Sword clashed against axe once more, only this time they jammed together. Valandt smiled and raised his right leg and pushed Shadow away. Shadow fell back and the sword of Drakahor fell to the floor, Valandt put his foot on it and slid it behind him. Valandt advanced on Shadow, who began to back away. Shadow kept backing away until there was no room left to move, Shadow had backed into a wall. Valandt smiled once again and closed the gap on Shadow. Valandt raised the axe high, and Shadow, sensing a last opportunity, kicked Valandt in the stomach. Valandt coughed and spluttered and Shadow jumped onto Valandt, taking him to the floor. Shadow began to punch Valandt hard in the face but then Valandt blocked the fourth and returned the head butt that Shadow had given him earlier. Valandt then switched things around and was now on top of Shadow. Valandt then went to hit Shadow hard in the face, he stopped and was then going to pull the mask off once again, but in the split second of indecision Shadow managed to hurl Valandt off. Both warriors got back to their feet slowly and began to catch their breath, both of them searching for a way to rid themselves of the other. “You‘ll never beat me” Valandt called to Shadow.
“Maybe not, but I'll live to see you die, that shall be enough for me”. Valandt was outraged at this carefree remark and advanced once more toward Shadow. Valandt grabbed the sturdy body of Shadow and threw it into the wall, as a dazed Shadow came back off the wall, Valandt hit Shadow hard with his forearm, causing Shadow to fall to the ground once more. Valandt picked up the axe and hovered over Shadow’s body. “You lose” Valandt said frostily and with that Valandt began to lower the axe toward Shadow’s face. A moment before the axe was to tear open Shadow’s mask and then into Shadow’s face itself Valandt felt a boot in his face which caused him to fall down. Valandt looked at the man, it was the same man that had rescued Zvire. This apparent thorn in Valandt’s side punched Valandt in the face hard twice and Valandt’s nose began to bleed. The strange man then helped Shadow back up and Shadow looked at Valandt “I will be a witness to your death Valandt” Shadow called and then the two began to run away. Valandt got to his feet and looked at the young wizard, whom he had completely forgot was even in the room. Raiguarde and Imunzo then entered the doorway, running through it. “Are you all right prince Valandt?” Raiguarde asked, to which Valandt smiled wide.
“no, no Raiguarde” Valandt began to correct Raiguarde “Are you all right King Valandt”