Dust in the Wind - (Ch. 7)

Battle Music! -- Joe Satriani - Crushing Day

Thankfully, that wasn't all, and I prayed fervently as my mind began to think of the best way to remedy the situation. Murmuring softly, the darkness heeded my call as sleep overcame the group of warriors, except for their leader. "Now THAT'S more like it, the odds go back to my favor now pal," I laughed, slipping Genbu's Shield onto my arm as I surrounded myself with shadowy clones from the shihei.

However, the creature merely transformed in front of my eyes, his golden eyes glowing as he assumed a much more serpent-like appearance. "Then I guess it'sssss time to reveal myself, messssssenger..for what messenger daresssss to seek out the god of darknesssssss and the desssssert?" His forked tongue flicked incessantly as he hissed out all the S sounds in each word, a habit that I found quite annoying...I already dislike snakes enough on their own before their combination with gods, dark magic, or any of that!

The battle begun, as he cast out a hand, and warped his followers...somewhere. I didn't have much time to ponder their destination, however, as his movement speed in the sand was ridiculously fast in serpent form, and it was all I could do to parry the first of his blows, and the second shredded one of my clones. Although my landing the Gravity spell helped slightly, his quickness was still superior to my own, as he dodged my crescent kick with a backhand swipe of my blade with a laugh, "Time for some of your own medicine, Aspir!" The darkness felt like a boiling acid ripping through my soul, as I felt my mana slipping away, and quickly...perhaps this truly was a god of Darkness.

But...darkness can't help you with THIS, I thought as I focused upon the winds to silence the creature. To my dismay, a forceful whip of a tail crashed into my chest, sending my flying over the sand and into a rock wall! I bounced off it, but as I went to stand, a medium boulder landed on my back, half-burying me into the desert itself. "Oh, that was SO un-graceful," I muttered, hating to waste my little precious mana on it, but inciting a thunderbolt to shatter the rock so that I could rise again.

Looking up, it had paused to begin to drain the remaining mana out of me, and with my health as low as it was, I decided I didn't have time to think, acting on pure instinct, my aura lighting up as time itself bent to my will, Cure IV remedying my injuries as Silence and Bind followed in near simultaneous succession before the serpent could react and approach. "Enough of this..." I closed my eyes but for a moment, feeling my mana replenish and my body grow weary, and marking a divine seal quickly on the ground, felt my body fully recover as I cast another Cure IV upon myself.

"Cheap parlor tricks are not the mark..." it laughed as it broke the hold of the silence, but that was all it managed before a powerful Flood washed it back into the tunnel. I spun around to see Eckardt and Val standing behind me. Eck tipped his Turban as I threw a refresh on him as well, and followed with a Thunder spell to the Creature, sparks cracking part of the wall down on him as well.

Val was the first to speak, "Titan told us what was going on, and of course we got here soon as we could...Could tell something was wrong just by the massive amounts of Antica stationed outside. Malu and some others from another realm are holding their own, but the ants don't seem to run out of reinforcements."

Eckardt added, "Of course, I also dropped that note to Doc, and he's 'rallying the troops' again, so I suspect there will be a genocide of Antica happening shortly, but for now, uhhh...that thing doesn't look to happy, and it just picked up that huge boulder that fell on it. What are we fighting, anyway?"

I could only smile at my old friends, "The god of desert and darkness, apparantly. Sutekh, the one from the South. I hope the others get here soon. Val, watch those blades of his, they have some hellacious effects on them," I chided, giving her the blessing of Protect and Shell, while my Phalanx II wrapped her in its holy protection. "Just like old times," I said softly, time returning to its own flow around me after hasting the entire group and quaffing a Hi-Ether.