"You little runt!" Qualm shouted, as he spewed flames from his hands towards William. William reacted quickly, as he shot flames out of his hands, the fire from both of them clashing together, putting them at a standstill.
"I don’t know how you managed to decipher those books boy." Qualm said, smiling, as his fire magic was beginning to overpower William's. "But it doesn't matter. I am a descendant of the ancient Magi. Magic is in my blood, and it makes me more powerful than you by default."
William could say nothing back, as he noticed he was losing this clash. Soon, qualms flames had completely overpowered his own, he could see the flames creep towards him as his fingertips were getting hotter and hotter.
"Soon, you'll be nothing more than a burning corpse." Qualm snickered.
Gjörn slowly got up. The effects of the lightning magic wearing off, and his muscles loosening up. He saw the struggle William and the mage were having. Seeing his opportunity, he picked up the great sword, and brought it down on Qualm's right shoulder. The strength of the swing cut all the way down through his ribs. The blow didn't even give the mage a chance to scream, he was dead on impact. As Gjörn pushed the body off, William quickly rushed over to him and searched frantically in his robes. Gjörn could hear the clanking of metal, as a larger number of guards were approaching.
"Boy, what are you doing?" Gjörn asked impatiently.
"He has to have one." William said, ignoring both the orc's warning, and the dozens of footsteps charging towards him.
"Boy, if we don’t get out of here now, were going to get in a tougher fight."
"I found it!" William jumped up. Holding out something in his hand, triumphantly.
Gjörn just gave him a confused look. It was a tiny, rolled up piece of paper, with a red string tied around it. "What's that?"
"Our ticket out of here orc." He shoved the paper in his pocket, and then bolted to the exit. "Follow me!"
Gjörn just rolled his eyes, and followed. As soon as he exited, a large group of guards stormed the courtyard, only to find dead men.
"Damn them!" The guard in charge of that group yelled. "They couldn't have gone far. Find them!" with his words, most of them dispersed. Save for one, which he pulled in close. "Go inform the guards at the gate. Nobody goes in or out of the city."
"Yes sir!" he yelled, and then sprinted towards his destination. He passed a few blocks before a giant green arm pulled him into an alleyway, and a small one slit his throat.
"We don’t have long before we get locked in this city." William said. "We're going to have to make a break for it."
"Are you daft?" Gjörn asked. "There's guards everywhere, and even if we do make it past them, we have to deal with the dozens of archers waiting for us at the gate. And if they close it, we're done for."
"Don’t worry about these guards, their covered head to toe in metal, we'll outrun them easy."
"And the gate archers, what of them?"
William gave him a toothy smile. "That’s what this is for." He held up the small rolled up paper."
The two checked to see if the coast was clear, and ran for the gate. The city people were all screaming as they saw Gjörn, charging through the city square. It didn’t take long before they had an army of guards on their tail. Just as William predicted, they were outrunning them. Soon h=they were approaching the gate, and the guards on their tail were screaming for it to be closed. The gatekeepers, quickly listened and shut it tight. They then trained their bows on William and Gjörn.
"Boy!" The orc said nervously. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it now!"
William just grabbed the paper, and unfastened the string. He then unrolled the paper, and started reading it aloud.
"Infernius, Gigantius, Combustio, Venti!"
The tiny piece of paper started to glow, and then it dissipated into nothing. A fiery veil started to cloak William. It protected him from arrows as the veil singed them like hair.
"Orc!" William yelled. "You might want to find cover!"
Gjörn was confused, but he listened, as he didn’t understand exactly what was going on with the boy. He jumped to the side, and covered his head with his hands. Only a handful of soldiers charged at his direction, the rest were now completely focused on William.
The archers shot at him franticly, but their arrows were useless. William hopped at the gate, as if he was trying to bash it open. Before he smacked into it, he snapped his fingers on each hand. The veil shrunk but then immediately combusted, the fiery explosion tearing the gate to pieces, and destroying everything in its path. The explosion was heard throughout the entire kingdom and it startled the King when he heard it.
"Wh-what was that? He asked. Eyes still watery from mourning his dead advisor.
The guards who went after Gjörn were knocked backwards several feet, before falling unconscious. The force of the combustion was even causing the orc to be pushed back, but he held his ground. Finally, when the dust settled, he looked up and saw a giant hole where the gate used to be. There were cracks on the walls around it. There was no sign of the archers protecting it, and the guards chasing him were nothing but piles of burning corpses. Gjorn looked around for William and found him in the middle of a giant burn mark on the ground, lying flat on his back.
"Don't tell me he killed himself." Gjörn said as he rushed over to the boy. He knelt down and was relieved to find him, still breathing. Gjörn lifted him over his shoulders and ran out of the city away from the kingdom of Hera.
Log in to comment