Elf world the complete s.., p.51
Elf World : The Complete Series, page 51
And she wasn’t the only one raising the body count. Her mother wasn’t exactly looking to take prisoners either. Aunrae was a one-woman wrecking crew as her three-headed snake whip buzzed through drow flesh like water. The animated weapon seemed to lengthen or shorten at her will as she consistently snapped off entire arms, legs, and even some heads with a single crack.
Bugbears and hobgoblins sporting heavy armor lowered their shoulders and used their big bodies like battering rams against the invaders. The battle had become too frenzied to organize any new defensive fronts, but the savage maneuvers still did severe damage against the much smaller drow.
I hadn’t noticed them before, but a number of mind flayers had made their way down to join in the fight. They were not warriors and went nowhere near the heart of the battle, but any wounded or unsuspecting enemies were fair game as the illithids happily pounced on them from behind. Drow bodies convulsed on the ground as face tentacles sucked their brains out like ramen noodles.
Seemed like an odd time for a snack to me. But hey, every little bit helps, right?
I spun back when Iniira Baenre came leaping through the doorway. She must have been waiting this whole time for the first wave to soften us up first. A coward’s strategy, but an undeniably effective one.
The rodent skulls in her hair rattled about as she wielded her three-headed snake whip. With a flick of her wrist came three quick snaps, followed by three headless bodies hitting the floor a split second later. She dipped her head slightly as an arrow zipped past, and the next two snaps of her whip resulted in one severed leg, and an arm for good measure.
Damn, that is one bad bitch. Someone needs to take her down or she’s going to singlehandedly turn the tide of this battle.
“Looking for me, bitch?” I taunted her as I twirled Fang above my head. That sure got her attention. She turned and hissed at me like a cat. “Think you’re going to be the one to take down the human? Come on then, champ. I’ll make you a star.”
I steadied myself and held my angry weapon up high in a defensive position. I normally wouldn’t take such a passive stance against such a powerful foe, but I really had to be careful here. One snap from that deadly whip could end my whole world in a blink.
But instead of rushing me like I expected, she just grinned and stepped away from the entrance. And that’s when a harrowing roar filled the room.
Oh, now what the fuck? Can’t anything just be easy? A towering figure came galloping in from the darkness. Oh...fuck...me!
The monstrosity had the oversized head of a bull and the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger. And despite all the fighting still going on around us, the minotaur barely needed two seconds to identify the target it was summoned to kill. Glaring at me with those deep-set yellow eyes, it snorted once and lowered its head to charge.
“Oh fuck! There is no way my luck can possibly be this b—” It closed the gap between us with superhuman speed as it slammed its head into my chest. Fang flew from my grasp as I doubled over the top of his head.
The beast bucked and spun as I held his horns as tight as I could. I wanted to get off this ride just as bad as he wanted to shake me. But the options of going airborne or getting impaled weren’t all that appealing, either, so I just hung on for dear life.
“Whoa! Whoa! Down boy,” I shouted as the beast whirled and spun like a mechanical bull, each buck causing me to rise and slam back down against his stone-hard skull. The longer I hung on, the more irritated it became, and when it decided it couldn’t shake me, it took off running instead.
“Ohhhhh shiiiiiiit!”
We went bounding up the stairs, my body walloping against his head with each wild gallop. On the way up, I saw that the whole house had basically become a battleground with fights taking place on every floor. Bugbears used their oversized hammers and clubs to send foes flying into walls while mind flayers sucked down drow brains like they were milkshakes.
“Isaac!” Through my bouncing vision I saw Lazziar blazing up the steps after us. She was fast by any measure, but still had trouble keeping up with the minotaur clearing four steps at a time with each bounding leap. “Isaac, hang on! I’m coming for you.”
When we reached the top step, the minotaur kicked it into a different gear, and with his head down we went barreling toward the wall. It wasn’t hard to guess what he was planning to do, but escape wasn’t as easy as just jumping off. My ripped-up shirt was now totally tangled up with his horns, and there was no footing to push off. There were no good options as that wall came rushing up fast.
Just as Lazziar reached the top step, she dropped to one knee, looped her bow around off her back, drew, and fired all in one smooth motion. The minotaur roared as the arrow snapped into the back of its leg. Unable to push off its wounded leg, it instantly lost steam. But its built-up momentum was still enough to finish off the run as it rammed us into the wall.
If not for her well-placed shot, I would have been killed for sure, but the jarring blow was still nothing to sneeze at. All the air rushed from my lungs, and my ribs felt like I just...er...hit a wall. Every inch of my body was on fire as I hung draped over its head, limp as a noodle.
“Isaac!” Lazziar’s voice echoed in my ears from some faraway place. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, but I was able to make out the fuzzy outline of Lazziar casting her hand toward me. My mind was in a haze as my blurry vision tracked the thrown object tumbling toward me.
I caught the dagger with one hand and dropped it straight down into the minotaur’s eye. The beast reared back and howled, a sorrowful moan rife with agony. It began bucking again, but with nowhere near the power it once had. It was badly hurt, and I didn’t dare let up now. I held the dagger in place with one hand and smacked the hilt with the other. It sank deeper with each blow, much like driving a nail into wood.
As the beast crumpled to its knees, I continually twisted the handle like a screw, working it with both hands until the minotaur tipped over on its side and I was able to roll off. I lay still next to the fading beast as it moaned like a dying cow, its chest rising and falling with its final gurgling breaths.
“Isaac, are you okay?” Lazziar came rushing up and dropped to one knee beside me. “Say something!”
“I’m fine,” I lied, the words coming out in a dry rasp. Get up... Move, dammit! My body blazed in protest as I slowly sat up against the pain. I managed to push up to my feet, but almost tipped back over before Lazziar was able to steady me.
“Just sit back and take a minute,” she pleaded as she tried to ease me back to the floor.
“No,” I rasped, resisting her assistance as I struggled to my feet. “There is no time. If they assassinate your mother, then House Vurot will fall for sure. We must protect her at all costs.” I was nowhere near a hundred percent, but at least I had my legs under me now. Lazziar reluctantly agreed, and we made our way back down the steps.
There was still fighting going on everywhere we looked. But when we got back to a lower level, it was the two Matron Mothers facing off that had everyone’s attention. They slowly circled each other as drow from both sides moved swiftly to get out of their way. No one wanted to be anywhere near this clash of the titans.
“You don’t deserve a seat on the Noble Council,” Iniira growled as she circled to her left. “It should have been me, and it will be me before this day is through.”
“Arrogant as always, I see,” Aunrae said as she sidestepped the other way, her hissing snake whip writhing in her hand. “And in your arrogance you’ve somehow convinced yourself that invading House Vurot might earn you that seat?” She threw her head back and laughed. “That’s cute, really. But all you’ve done is guarantee that the Ninth House will soon be charged with treason.”
“Ah, but there is only one problem with your theory,” Iniira said as she flashed her a wicked grin. “One of you would have to survive in order to make such an accusation, and we have no intention of letting that happen.”
The Matron Mothers burst into movement, their living whips weaving in and out as their violent snaps sounded like thunder. Even the snake heads themselves bit at one another whenever they collided in midair. The way the Matron Mothers’ bodies contorted with each near miss was something right out of the Matrix.
There were bodies everywhere, and more falling with each passing moment. My tolerance for all the blood and violence had reached a saturation point, and now I just felt numb to it all. I suddenly had tunnel vision with my gaze fixed squarely on Iniira, and before I knew it my feet began moving on their own.
I had no weapon in hand as I stalked across the blood-soaked floor, but I was feeling so much hate for her that I hardly even thought about it. Someone had to end this once and for all, and that someone was going to be me...
Something was spurring me on, something animalistic and primal. I knew I was no match for her, but I had to keep Aunrae alive no matter the cost. I stepped over bodies until I noticed one with a yellow band on its arm. Without giving it much thought, I reached down and grabbed a handful of his hair, and then began ripping upward with everything I had.
The head stretched up in unnatural angles as it bobbed about, the neck bones popping and cracking with every pull. I stomped down on the back of his neck for added leverage as the hair gave way with a Velcro-like ripping sound.
“House Vurot has done nothing to earn its privileged status,” Iniira shouted as she rolled her whip. Aunrae’s body bent straight backward as the snake heads flowed right over the top of her, and with a hammering snap they crunched deep into the wall behind her. With a light flick of her wrist, Iniira loosened the whip and rolled it right back to her as if commanded to do so. “The status fell onto your lap due to another house’s ambition and effort. House Vurot didn’t lift a finger to make this happen!”
“What you say is true,” Aunrae admitted as she rolled her wrist, sending her whip streaking out like a laser. Iniira ducked beneath the flowing strike as the heads snapped into the wall near the side of her head. But with a subtle twist of the handle, the snake heads released and came flowing right back to her. “House Vurot has never attacked another House to gain power. We have risen up through the ranks by natural means, by accident, if you will.”
“The fact that you do not desire power makes you weak by your very nature,” Iniira snarled as her next whip strike was met in midair by a counter strike, their weapons colliding like thunder. “Pathetic! Your complacency shall be your undoing.”
“And your mad aggression will be yours!” Aunrae shouted as the snake heads smashed against each other again and again.
But when Iniira reared back to strike again, something white looped down in front of her vision. She dropped her whip as her airway cutoff, and she began desperately clawing at her neck to relieve the pressure. I pulled with all my strength as I walked her back, strangling her with the long hair I had ripped from the head of one of her men.
With a backward hip thrust, she managed to create a little separation while stealing a badly needed breath. And then with an explosive surge, she drove us both backward until my back hit the wall.
The heavy blow loosened my hold for a second, forcing me to regrip my gruesome tool and begin again. Bloody meat still hung from one side as I rotated both wrists to loop the hair around the top of my wrists, and then arched my back as I pulled.
I twitched the muscles in my back to climb the wall as she pressed into me, and then looped my legs around her front, locking my ankles near her waist. She surged backward over and over, ramming my back into the wall to try and loosen my hold.
The jarring blows were taking their toll as my burning arms tingled with mounting fatigue. My strength was fading, but so was hers, and the war of attrition wore on.
A rush of searing pain exploded through my thigh, and I didn’t need to look to know what caused it. With all three heads of her whip biting deep and pumping venom, I knew I’d probably be dead within a minute or two.
But I couldn’t die...yet. I needed to finish what I started first. Only then would I be ready to face my death like a man.
I screamed, a primal howl that came from somewhere deep inside as I shifted my weight, sending us both down to the bloody floor. With my legs still wrapped around her front, I thrust my hips and pulled like my life depended on it as she gurgled and clawed at the hair biting into her throat.
Blood from both her neck, as well as my palms, began to flow as the barbaric move caused us both to pay a price in skin. But I kept on pulling in fits and jerks, determined to take her head clean off if that’s what it took. And the deeper the hair sank into her neck, the more possible that seemed.
Her white eyes went bloodshot and her tongue hung from the side of her mouth as her gurgling gasps began to slow. Then she finally let out one last long hiss of air before going limp in my arms. I rolled her corpse off my chest with a disgusted grunt and tossed it aside.
My body was on fire as the toxins pumped through my veins. I was fading fast, but there wasn’t shit I could do about it. I faintly noticed as Aunrae walked up close to me and dropped a blade down right near my side. And when she rose back up, she was clutching Iniira’s severed head by its hair, showing it off for all to see.
It should have been a chilling sight, but it made me smile. I did it... I fucking killed the bitch...
“Here is your Matron Mother,” she called out, rotating the bloody trophy from side to side. “Against my better judgment, I will give you the choice that not a single of you traitors has earned. Flee now and you will live, at least for a little longer, anyway. Stay, and your fate will be the same as hers!”
I faintly remembered seeing drow soldiers jumping out of windows and scampering back through the entrance.
I was content and ready to go. It was a most satisfying last image before the darkness took me.
Chapter 18
The world slowly came back into focus as the surrounding shadows began to dissipate. My eyes had just started fluttering when a figure came rushing to my side. “Whoa, whoa, easy,” Lazziar said when I tried to sit up. “No, no, don’t do that yet. Just lie still for a little while.” She tried to ease me back down, but I still sat up, anyway.
“But the poison...” I grumbled through my disorientation. It was a struggle to push through the head fog while trying to rationalize how I could possibly still be alive. I reached for my bandaged leg, but she stayed my hand. With the way my head was spinning, this time I allowed her to lower me back down.
“Oh, don’t worry about the poison.” She laughed. “Did you really think a drow house wouldn’t have an antidote for drow poison?” I let out a light chuckle, but mostly out of relief. I was prepared to die, but I sure the hell wasn’t about to complain about the way things turned out. “What you did today was incredibly brave. Killing Iniira Baenre turned the whole battle. You are literally the only reason House Vurot still stands. We owe you everything.”
“You don’t owe me shit,” I said as I closed my eyes. Part of me wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, no doubt a lingering effect from being chewed on by three snakes. But then an urgent thought hit me and I sat back up again. “How did we fare?” I asked. “The casualties, I mean. How bad was...” Movement caught my eye, and I watched as two bugbears dragged bodies on a makeshift sled right past the doorway.
Lazziar watched them too. “Not good,” she said softly as she shook her head. “But not just us. Both houses suffered tremendous casualties. Perhaps this will sound callous to you, but the concern is that House Vurot has lost much of its defense and labor force. You know, due to a substantial loss of able bodies.”
Yes, it did sound callous to weigh all this death in measurements of lost manpower, but that was the way things were here. I had already come to terms with it.
“Should we be concerned?” I asked. “If I were a drow house looking to move up a slot, I imagine there would never be a more perfect time to strike.”
Lazziar shook her head. “I see what you’re saying, but believe it or not, we do have laws in place that explicitly forbid such actions. House Vurot cannot be touched by any other house for one full year.”
“You mean you have laws in place to help balance out actions that were illegal in the first place?” I laughed at the utter absurdity of it.
“Think of it as chaos control.” She winked. “As you already know, had they been able to purge House Vurot, the Noble Council would have simply turned a blind eye to the heinous act. In fact, such a bold move is often viewed as bold and ambitious. But since the attack failed, the Noble Council will have no other option but to act.”
“Act?” I said, already having a pretty good idea what that meant around here. “You mean mass executions meant to make an example of their failure, I assume.”
“You assume correctly,” she confirmed. “At least, that would be the fate of the higher-ranking house members, anyway, the highest of which you already killed.” I blew on my knuckles and rubbed them on my shirt. Hey, if killing a Matron Mother didn’t come with some automatic bragging rights... “But some of the lower-ranking soldiers might only be condemned to slavery. The reasoning being that they were only following orders.”
“How considerate of them...”
“Depends who you ask.” I got the feeling my sarcasm went right over her head, but I didn’t interrupt just to explain it. “After a few years of slavery, many often kill themselves, anyway. Either way, their fates are all but sealed, and we have you to thank for it.” She snuggled up next me, and we shared the bed for a while until Aunrae walked in.
“I would like a word with the human,” she said, getting right to the point as her still-snuggling daughter made no attempt to move.
“The human,” I repeated as I finally leaned away from Lazziar’s embrace. “Why does it always feel like a major drop down the evolutionary ladder whenever someone refers to me that way? Makes me think I’m nestled somewhere between germs and fungus.” But Aunrae either didn’t catch my humor, or just didn’t care, because the look on her face was all business.
