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Chapter 19 - Fighting the King Black Dragon

Kashan hadn’t gotten a chance to see the battle from above, and now that he did, he could see just how hopeless the situation was.

There were barely five hundred warriors left alive, in an army that had only hours before counted at least six thousand. The hordes of the Wilderness attacked them from the north, and the army of Morytania from the east. Groshek had climbed up on a building, and stood tall above the rest of the battle.

Kashan could see him pointing his staff towards one of the commanders, whom immediately levitated above the battle, clutching his neck. Then it snapped.

He repeated this, and, systematically, took out at least three commanders in Varrock’s army. He continued, though now he seemed to take more time in between of each attack, searching for the next commander in sight.

“I need to get down there. I’m no good with a bow,” Kashan said, seemingly to the air around him.

“Well, you can’t. The beasts of the Wilderness surround the entrance to the palace, and even someone like you would be outnumbered. So grab a bow, and try to do some good,” Kai replied, still with his eyes on the battle below as he placed an arrow on his bow.

Kashan didn’t respond. Suddenly they could hear his voice somewhat behind them.

“Arya, shoot it down.”

“Shoot what down? What are you…?” she asked as she turned around, and saw Kashan running towards the palace edge with immense speed. “Kashan, what are you…” she asked scared, and then yelled as he came closer. “Kashan, no!”

He ignored her. His foot met the ledge, and he was propelled upwards through the air; at least fifty feet, straight up, and the same distance forwards.

“He’s insane! He’s going to get himself killed!” Timier said harshly. His attitude didn’t get any better when he saw where Kashan had landed: on the King Black Dragon.

19-Sep-2006 23:51:04 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:53:50 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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The dragon, which was taken completely by surprise, almost crashed down, but regained its position and hovered elegantly, just under the group of dragons that had seconds before defended it from any missile attack.

“Maybe,” Arya replied as she knocked two arrows on her bow, “but he asked for my help, and by Guthix, he’s going to get it,” she said, determined as she shot at the King Black Dragon.

She immediately noc*ed two more, and saw Kai beside her do the same thing.

They let their arrows loose, and they all hit their target perfectly. What Kashan did next astonished them all, even more than the jump.

He did a front-flip to the front of the neck on the middle head, with balance that they had never seen before, and jabbed through it, revealing three red blades protruding through the jaw.

The other two heads each sent a jet of flame at him, forming an ‘X’ over the now dead middle head, but missed. Kashan had done a back flip back to the body, without ever appearing to lose any balance. Then he stood on its body, as if he were a surfer, and leaned towards the right or the left, seemingly at random, as if he was searching for something on the ground. Strangely, the dragon followed his movements.

After some flying around, he appeared to have found whatever it was he had been searching for, and let the dragon crash straight down. He then jumped to the east side of the battle, and began fighting a large werewolf.

They all stood in wordless shock after this acrobatic show of agility.

~~~~

“Toin, heads up!”

Toin, who had just severed the neck of a fallen hellhound, raised his head just in time to see the colossal dragon crash towards him. He jumped to the side in time, and stared in awe at the giant dragon that lay in front of him, shaking its heads in confusion.

19-Sep-2006 23:53:27 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:54:32 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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“A big foe!” he said in a low voice, as Kashan jumped with amazing power to the fighting on the east side of the square. “And I was just running out of hellhounds,” he continued to himself, his voice maudlin.

“Nobody touch him!” he then yelled to the others, and growled in a menacing voice as he readied his ax. “He’s mine.”

The men around him obeyed; they had learned to respect him as a great fighter during the battle, as he had taken down, nearly single-handedly, the majority of the hellhounds in the attacking force.

As he drew closer to the King Black Dragon, he muttered to himself in dwarven, though nobody heard him. “Tími til eð deyja, stóri strákur.” Time to die, big boy.

The dragon had recovered, and sent a giant jet of flame towards Toin, who managed to jump to the side. He was immediately forced to jump away again, for the other remaining head had sent another jet of fire towards him. He managed to get closer to the dragon in the jump, and slashed at the left head with Orodring. The gargantuan dragon flinched, and the ax fell short by a mere inch.

The enormous dragon’* left head snapped at him, but he managed to dodge, and counter attack. He slashed at the inside of its mouth, and in the same, continuous motion, he took a spin and slashed the neck of the other head. The thick scales protected it from the attack, though they were strangely bent where the ax had landed, and fiery red from the fiery enchantment on the ax, as if they had been welded together.

It roared, and sent yet another blast of flame at him. He narrowly dodged it again, though it was so close he could feel the heat through his helmet.

He got up and quickly dove to his left, as the left head swung at him, unable to close its jaw, or breathe fire. He raised his ax with surprising speed, still lying on the ground, and let it fall downwards. It met with the dragon’* neck, just under the head, where the scales were softer to allow easier movement.

19-Sep-2006 23:53:29 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:54:16 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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The head nearly fell off, but was still in tact by a few muscles and some skin. It roared and whipped its head upwards, but the air resistance laid the final blow; the head fell off. As it lay on the ground, smoke was still flowing from its nostrils, resembling thick fog; its eyes stared into something only it could see.

The right head, which now was the only head, mourning the loss of its fellows, made such a loud roar to the sky that it resembled a sonic boom. That was its last mistake. Toin grabbed the chance, and slashed downwards at the head, laying the blade squarely between its eyes.

What was left of the once most feared and ferocious dragon in Gielinor, fell to the ground, dead.

Toin smiled. He was weary, but happy; this was a big victory.

He stepped on the middle head, and ripped out the two, slightly bent, bone-white fangs. They were each as long as his hand, and as sharp as his ax. He placed them in his belt, collecting relics of this, his greatest battle to date.

He readied his ax once more and plunged himself into the fighting.

~~~

Commander Darmal was fighting at the east side of the square, attacking werewolves and vampires as best he could, though he new it was futile. All around him, his men were falling, dying from the bite of the werewolves’ strong jaws, or the slash of the vampires’ lightning fast claws.

Suddenly, someone shouted. “The King Black Dragon is falling! He’s crashing to the ground!”

Darmal parried an attack, and found the time to look up in the sky. He could barely believe what he saw.

“He did it. He actually did it! I can’t believe this!” he muttered in awe, as he stared at Kashan, surfing the King Black Dragon down to the ground. After he had ‘landed’ the dragon, he jumped to his side; with such power that Darmal thought the gods had lent him wings.

19-Sep-2006 23:53:29 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:55:11 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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“It would seem you are indeed worth it, Dragon Slayer,” he said as Kashan landed beside him, his voice colored with respect, now, rather than spite as before.

Kashan looked at him wide-eyed, giving him the look of a child that knew it had done something wrong, but pretended innocent nonetheless.

“I didn’t kill it. A dragon that size doesn’t die from a drop that low; I only took it down, someone else will do the killing. I have a feeling it is more important that I stay here,” he spoke the last words mysteriously, like a prophet, predicting someone’s future.

Darmal looked at him curiously, but didn’t ask any further.

They fought side by side for a few moments, killing several vampires and werewolves.

Then it happened.

Kashan suddenly saw a large fireball coming from the palace top, hurtling towards Groshek. It hit its target squarely in the chest, but it didn’t have any more effect than off-balance him, and he stumbled backwards. After he had recovered from the blow, which would have killed most others in a fragment of a second, he looked up at the palace, and saw his assailant; Kareel.

He raised his staff, and mumbled something. Kashan was too far away to see him well, but the figure that was Kareel, wriggled for a little while, and then limped to the ground.

Groshek then skimmed the battlefield a little, searching for his next victim. His eyes stopped on Darmal.

Darmal suddenly felt as if enormous pressure was on his neck, but when he reached to feel it, he found nothing. The pressure suddenly grew, and he couldn’t breathe. His face was turning blue. He grasped his neck, his legs started to spasm, and he found, to his great surprise, that they weren’t on the ground as normal. As his face became purple, he noticed he was rising high above the battle, and noticed the causer of his misery: Groshek.

Then he felt a sudden pain in his neck, and saw no more.

End of Chapter 19.

19-Sep-2006 23:53:30 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:55:23 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Chapter 20 - Fighting Groshek

After Kashan had jumped away, they had all stood there in shock, silently, until they heard the dying wail of the King Black Dragon; then they all seemed to snap out of it and started shooting at the battle below once again.

“He isn’t quite what you would call normal, is he?” Kai asked Arya as he shot down a chaos dwarf.

“No. It’s a long story.” She shrugged. Then she added, but to Timier, in a whisper so low only he could hear her. “That wasn’t normal, even for a Balancer, was it?”

He whispered back. “No. The self-healing wasn’t either. I’ve heard of Balancers doing some extraordinary things, but never anything even remotely similar to this. Throughout history, Balancers have been stronger, faster, more agile, and even smarter then before, but never this strong, or able to heal like this. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened before.” He sounded slightly worried, though he tried to hide it for Arya.

They looked each other in the eye for a moment, fright in their eyes. Then they heard the dying scream of a man as his neck snapped, high above the battle.

“He’s taking out the commanders one by one! We have to do something; he’s out of reach for the warriors!” Kareel shouted angrily to Kai, and prepared a fire wave. Then he let it loose.

It hit its target perfectly, and would have disintegrated most things; it did nothing more than take Groshek back a little. He recovered fast, and pointed his staff towards Kareel.

He suddenly became strange, took his hands on his head, and screamed, as if something were eating his head from the inside. Then dents came into his head with cracking sounds, and the screaming became ever louder.

19-Sep-2006 23:53:31 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:56:20 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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His head seemed to slowly crumple in on it self, as tin foil crushed in someone’s hand, and his eyes seemed to be ****** into the skull, while his cheekbones and forehead protruded ever further away, until his face seemed to have been ****** backwards, giving him a wraith like appearance.

His head was barely half as large as it was normally, and the faces of the others showed disgust and fright. The scream suddenly turned into a high-pitched wail, so loud that the others nearly fainted. His hands, which were still on his head, if it could still be called that, were crushed. The wail became ever higher, until the others felt as if their heads would explode, and then he limped down, dead.

Back on the rooftop, Groshek seemed satisfied with his work, and turned back to the battlefield for more commanders.

~~~~

Kashan had also noticed the killer of Kareel and Darmal. Before he got any thought in as to what he should do, his legs decided for him. He jumped to the building Groshek was on, at least sixty feet away.

He landed behind him in a crouch, hard. Groshek didn’t seem to have noticed him, but started speaking without even turning around.

“You are the Balancer,” he stated, matter-of-factly, his voice was rasp and sinister. “My master informed me of you. He told me -”he continued, but Kashan interrupted him.

“He told you to be wary, but I don’t look that though to you. Am I right?” He spoke fast, never taking his eyes off the menacing foe in front of him, even though he only saw the back of his head. He was slightly annoyed at how much they knew about him, and how much they underestimated him.

Groshek stood tall, holding his staff to the ground. The white cloth that covered his left eye and the rag covering his lower face hid his scarlet hair, in part, and Kashan shuddered thinking about what required all this covering.

Kashan didn’t see it, but Groshek smiled. It was an eerie smile, and a frightening one.

19-Sep-2006 23:55:34 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:56:38 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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“Precisely. Especially when I can do this.” He didn’t turn around, but suddenly Kashan could feel immense pressure on his neck, even though he saw nothing.

The pressure grew, and Kashan had hard time breathing. He realized that this was the exactly same thing he had done to Darmal, and, just like with him, Kashan started to levitate. Contrary to Darmal, and so many other commanders before him, he was able to breathe, though he didn’t know why.

Groshek turned around, pointing the staff towards him. His face was colored with a spine-chilling smile of arrogance and confidence, but quickly turned to that of disappointment, anger, and shock as he saw Kashan.

The growing resentment could be seen in his face, as he yelled at the man hovering in front of him. “Why won’t you die!?” His voice was filled to the brim with fury and frustration.

He gestured angrily with the staff towards Kashan, almost as if he was trying to poke him, but couldn’t reach. Kashan felt the pressure growing immensely, and for a split second, he really couldn’t breathe. Then the pressure lowered again, and he was back to just hanging there, frustrated over not being able to do anything. Groshek seemed more annoyed then ever. The pressure lowered a tiny bit more, but not enough for Kashan to get loose or do anything. Then he got an idea.

He smiled. “I don’t know Grosh,” he said humorously, even though laughter was the last thing on his mind right now. “Perhaps if you were a little taller we could speak more easily, and figure it out; or I can just hang here for a while and we’ll see if I won’t die eventually.”

He was rather pleased with the result of his words, as Groshek’s face became red with anger.

“Taller?” he roared. “The problem is with you and your inability to die!” His face was disfigured with rage.

Kashan smiled, as the pressure lowered substantially. It was working!

19-Sep-2006 23:55:35 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:56:51 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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He almost lost his self-control with joy, but regained his composure. “Yes, that is a real problem, isn’t it?” he said thoughtfully, and then continued. “Perhaps you’ll be able to fix it someday; if you practice enough. Maybe you will even be able to kill something big, like a gnome,” he sounded encouraging, like a father talking to a son about fixing a chair, not a vampire about killing him.

His plan had worked. Groshek completely lost it with rage, and screamed something at him. “You insolent little…!” Nothing more could be understood, as he was so furious, that it all came out completely incomprehensible. His rage had other effects, as well. He forgot to focus on the spell that held Kashan, and he fell to the ground. He instantly sprung at Groshek, hands outstretched for the impact.

Groshek wasn’t angrier than so, that he figured it out in time and managed to sidestep Kashan’s attack. His staff wasn’t so fast. Kashan caught it in one of his claws in mid-air, and it flung from Groshek’s hand. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick in Kashan’s either.

It flew from his hand, and into the battle below. A black knight that had somehow lost his regiment, and was now in the east side of the fighting, picked it up. Completely baffled at how it had gotten there, he decided to ignore it, and dropped it again. If he had only known…

Groshek stared at the staff for a split second, and then looked on Kashan.

“He’s powerless without the staff!” Kashan thought, surprised at this insane stroke of luck.

They both stared at the staff, and jumped into the chaos below. They ran to it with unbelievable speed.

Time seemed to slow down, and Kashan caught a glimpse of Groshek running through the fighting beside him. After a few seconds, even though it seemed like hours to the two runners, they reached the staff. Kashan had fallen slightly behind, as Groshek’s vampire nature granted him supernatural speed. Groshek almost had the staff now.

19-Sep-2006 23:55:36 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:57:06 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Kashan bestirred himself, and almost caught up with him; but it was too late. Groshek was at the staff. He reached his hand for it, but jerked it back before he had reached it. A throwing knife was in his hand, going completely through.

In the short time this granted him, Kashan had leapt forwards. He tumbled past Groshek, and stood up just behind him, raising the staff towards him with a triumphant smile on his face, as he jumped back to the rooftop they had been on seconds before, almost as if to provoke him.

Groshek jumped right after him.

“Now, how does this thing work…?” Kashan mumbled to himself as he inspected the staff, waiting for Groshek to follow. He didn’t have to wait long, as he saw Groshek soaring through the air towards him, barely a second later.

He didn’t come any closer. Kashan raised the staff towards him, and he froze in mid-air, just hanging there, clutching his neck. His face continued getting bluer and bluer, as he spoke with much difficulty.

“Stupid mortal! You can not defeat my master, this is all in vain!” His voice was becoming hoarse. “He is the one touched by Lord Zamorak himself! He has powers beyond your wildest dreams!* His face was becoming purple.

Kashan would have decreased the pressure on him, to get more information out of him, but he didn’t know how to harness the powers of the staff.

“Is your master the one who raised all the zombies, and united the evil races?” Kashan asked in a hurried, and slightly scared, voice.

Groshek chuckled. A horrid sound, when you’re being strangled as he was.

“Yes, of course! Who else would have enough power to raise thousands of men, or frighten the beasts enough to set aside their differences?” He raised his hands towards his neck, even though he knew he wouldn’t find anything. “It seems he was right. I should have been more wary of you. My death means nothing, though. Varrock is falling; my task is complete.”

19-Sep-2006 23:55:36 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:57:29 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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