Chaos god, p.11
Chaos God, page 11
The nightmarish fire demon’s laughter was immediately cut off, and he stared down at the black-haired elf with an unnerving amount of intelligence in his eyes. The demon chuckled once more, and he stepped closer to the elf as he gripped his pointy-fingered hands around the spear’s wooden handle. Then the demon broke the wooden shaft in one swift move, and he slowly pulled the long iron spear from his chest.
I could tell the black-haired elf was in shock, and the demon was poised to return the favor of a spear to the chest.
Without a single thought, I turned on the balls of my feet and darted forward toward the black-haired elf. As I raced across the short distance to the spear-wielding demon, I raised my crowbar over my shoulder, and when I was a step behind the beast, I swung it like David Ortiz in his prime. The hooked end slammed right between two of the demon’s ribs, and I pulled hard on the curved iron bar.
The demon roared, and he braced his hooved feet on the ground, which only served to assist me in ripping the beast’s rib cage right out of his chest. The black-and-red creature huffed once more before he dropped to the ground in a puddle of his own blood and tissue.
“Thank you,” the black-haired elf breathed, and his lavender-colored eyes were filled with extreme relief.
“Don’t lose your focus,” I said.
The elf looked much younger this close up, and I wondered if he’d ever been in a real battle like this before.
Until my experience yesterday with the wolf-sharks, I’d never fought against more than one opponent at a time, but I had lots of experience holding my own in a situation where bodily injury was a real threat. The way this elf had frozen when his plan of attack had gone awry told me he wasn’t exactly used to defending himself the way I was, but I couldn’t deny that I was impressed by his willingness to step up and try.
“Come on,” I said. “We’re not done yet.”
“Right.” The black-haired elf nodded, and he scooped up the broken wooden handle of his spear.
I nodded approvingly at him because a short spear with a broken handle was definitely better than no weapon, and it was clear he intended to stick in the fight until it was over.
I turned around to survey the rest of the battle, and I was a bit relieved to see that the others had worked together quite well. Most of the demons were bloody, chopped-up corpses on the ground.
One of the remaining demons looked like a nightmarish porcupine with how many arrows Ayen had plugged into its face and chest, but it kept moving toward the people huddled around the fire pit.
Elora had efficiently chopped the arms off of at least three demons, and they gnashed their teeth at the people. Ylva and the others had picked up fire pokers, walking staves, and other improvised weapons to hold the demons at bay until the warriors could put them down. The group moved together toward the unarmed demons, and then they all pounced and started to beat the beasts into the ground with their iron pokers, wooden clubs, and even a few larger rocks. Wyn held his carved walking staff like a golf club and used it to beat the demons over the head.
I dashed over, and I swung the length of iron to club the porcupine demon over the head, and his skull caved in under the forceful blow of my crowbar. The entire left hemisphere of the beast’s overly round head was severely dented in, and the demon’s left eye exploded out of the socket from the downward pressure. He turned around and stared at me with anger in his right eye, and I had to keep myself from laughing at the two dozen wooden arrow shafts that were sticking out of him.
Before the demon could make another move, I swung my crowbar again and brought it down into the top of his clavicle.
But I didn’t stop there.
I followed my swing through toward the ground, and the stomach-churning sound of the demon’s ribs cracking and tearing scraped inside my eardrums. I grimaced at the gallons of black blood that dumped on the ground at my feet, and the demon groaned in a quiet death rattle for a split second before the beast’s body collapsed like a house of cards.
“Bastard,” I huffed as I looked around, and I was ready to take out another demon.
Instead, I caught sight of Elora’s lethal final swing of her bladed staff into the last demon’s gut. I cringed slightly as the beautiful elf’s razor-sharp weapon gutted the demon from the top of his loincloth all the way up to his pointed chin. The demon’s entrails spilled out in a wet slopping sound of blood and organs, and his body quickly belly-flopped into the lumpy puddle.
“Holy fuck,” I muttered, and it was only when all eyes turned to me that I realized how loud I had spoken. “Does that happen a lot?”
“No,” Elora said, and she carefully stepped around the gross puddle of demon goo. “It has been many months since the last horde of demons attacked.”
“The Demon Lord is supposed to keep the hordes in check,” Ayen said, and the frustration was clear in his voice.
“I believe this small group of demons had gone rogue from the Lord’s orders,” Ryfon suggested out of nowhere.
I narrowed my eyes at the bastard, and I couldn’t ignore the fact that I hadn’t seen him anywhere during the fight. The one-eared asshole had suddenly appeared, and I also found it strange that he’d referred to the local demonic overlord as ‘The Lord’. It gave the title a bit more familiarity and tolerance that scratched down my nerves.
I was about to voice my opinion on all of this when Wyn raised his voice.
“It matters not why they came here,” the elder elf announced sagely, and he nudged a dead demon’s leg away from the hem of his robes.
“Wyn!” Goren suddenly shouted from the other side of the fire pit. “Elora! Levi! The baskets, our supplies! They are burning!”
“No!” Elora cried, and she took off running to the far end of the camp.
I dashed after her without a second thought, and as we approached the northern side of the circle of huts, I could smell the burning baskets on the breeze. I ran around a hut, and then I caught sight of the small wooden shack in full blaze.
“Can we save it?” Goren asked between tired breaths.
“It is not worth the water.” Elora shook her head with regret.
We watched the small shack collapse in on itself, and I didn’t miss the frustration and anger that glinted in the beautiful elf’s eyes before it faded into hopeless acceptance of the situation.
“Damn,” Elora cursed under her breath, and the sound of the swear on her full lips surprised me.
“What was in there?” I asked as the fire burned the dried-out planks into ashes at a disturbingly fast rate. “And how did it catch fire?”
I took a step to the side, and far off in the distance was a single black-and-red demon running off down a beaten path between two mountain peaks. Based on the information I’d gathered from the villagers, I guessed that he was headed straight for the Demon Lord’s castle.
“This structure was used for storage,” Elora sighed heavily. “It contained all of our baskets, nets, and some other tools and supplies.”
“All of them?” I frowned at what used to be the small shack as it crumbled into a pile of embers.
“Not all of them,” Elora amended, and she turned to look at me with sadness in her amber-red eyes. “But most of them. We have the two rough sacks you and I used at the beach earlier, and whatever baskets were elsewhere at the moment.”
“I have one in our hut,” Goren said helpfully. “That big one with the handles on the sides.”
“That is a stroke of luck, my boy,” Ayen said, and I turned to find the big blond guy standing behind us. His brawny arms were crossed over his broad chest, and his face was a stoic mask as he looked down on the wreckage of the hut.
“I was gathering Father’s and my washing this morning,” Goren explained.
“I have a few smaller baskets in my hut as well,” Ayen said.
“I have another two sacks in my hut,” Elora added, and she started to tick the count on her fingers.
“Come on,” I said, and I started to walk away from the pile of embers. “There’s nothing we can do here until it burns itself out.”
“Perhaps there will be some iron tools that can be salvaged from the ashes,” Ayen said with a vaguely optimistic tone.
Elora hummed in a noncommittal way, and we trudged back to the fire pit in silence. In our absence, Wyn had started to lead the others in building up the fire into a raging inferno.
“It needs to be extremely hot to burn down the demon remains,” Wyn said, and he glanced at Elora and silently asked her about the situation on the north side of camp.
Elora shook her head, and the despair in his face was clear for a second before Wyn turned back to the task at hand. I got the feeling Wyn liked to maintain a level of productivity, and right now he was keeping the people from sinking into despair.
“Disgusting,” Ylva groaned, and she and her husband dropped dismembered demon limbs into the raging fire pit.
Elora, Ayen, and I stepped in to help slowly deposit all of the demon bodies into the fire pit one at a time. Even Frida picked up the occasional limb, and after giving it a thorough biting and thrashing, she flopped it into the flames. It took the demon carcasses a long time to burn down, and the smell was completely horrendous. If I’d had anything to eat this morning, my stomach would have threatened to bring it back up.
“I am sorry,” Sassa said after a while as she covered her hand firmly over her nose. The unmarred half of her face turned a sickly shade of green as she dashed away from the fire pit.
“Oh,” Ayen’s midnight-blue eyes followed the pretty blonde woman as she darted out toward the beach.
I could immediately tell that the blond archer longed to follow Sassa and check on her, but he seemed to feel duty-bound to remain and assist with the dirty work of disposing of the gross bodies.
“Go.” I nudged Ayen roughly in the ribs with my elbow.
“What?” Ayen asked, and he pulled on a mask of innocence and pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“You obviously have romantic feelings for her,” I chuckled. “This is as good of an opportunity as any to show her you care.”
“I-- no--” Ayen blustered and fumbled for words as a deep blush spread under his short beard. Then he glanced nervously at me. “I just… ugh… do you think so?”
“Yes, man,” I laughed quietly, and I shooed him away with my hands. “Go, I’ll make sure this gets done.”
“You are a good friend, Levi of Midgard. Thank you.” Ayen clapped me on the shoulders, grinned stupidly at me, and then turned around and marched straight toward the beach.
“Go get her, dude,” I murmured under my breath, and I couldn’t stop the grin on my face as I watched him race after Sassa.
I turned back to the fire pit, and Elora cocked a single silvery eyebrow at me.
“What?” I shrugged.
“I have watched Ayen pine over Sassa for a long time.” Elora smirked. “I am glad to see he is finally doing something about his affection for her.”
“Ayen said she fell into a lava pool,” I murmured softly, and I gestured very vaguely at the left side of my face. “It must have been horrible.”
“It was.” Sadness filled Elora’s beautiful amber-red eyes, but it was quickly chased away by admiration. “Sassa was very ill from her injuries. I did not think she would make it, but she is a very strong woman. She is quiet and kind, but she is a survivor just as the rest of us are. She will be a fine mate for Ayen.”
“I think they’re well suited,” I agreed, and I bent down to pick up the last demon limb and dropped it into the flames. I grimaced at the hideous thing as the fire worked to break down its black-and-red skin. “Good riddance.”
Elora wandered over to Wyn, and they briefly murmured quietly to one another. I could hear the melodic lilt of the elf’s voice as she spoke, but I couldn’t make out their words over the loud snapping and crackling of the fire. I watched with idle curiosity as Wyn nodded sagely, and then he cleared his throat loudly to draw the group’s attention.
“We will need to rebuild our basket supplies and nets,” Wyn announced.
Elora wandered back over to my side as Wyn laid out a brief plan for collecting and drying reeds to weave new baskets. Goren and Quintus volunteered to collect all of the remaining baskets and nets from the villagers. Ylva and her husband Rathal volunteered to see if there was anything worth salvaging from the fire. The black-haired elf and the blonde sisters who had fought the demons with hatchets volunteered to go into the very outskirts of the swamps to collect new reeds and grass to weave the baskets.
“This is beneath me,” Ryfon grumbled haughtily a moment later. He stalked off without another word, and no one stopped him as he left.
“Good riddance,” Elora whispered to me as she leaned a bit closer.
My heart picked up its pace, and I could feel the warmth from her body. I swallowed and glanced down at the gorgeous elf. I had a perfect view into the valley between her luscious breasts, and I felt my mouth start to water.
“I was impressed with your fighting skills,” Elora told me.
“You’re an incredible fighter, too,” I said, and I dragged my eyes away from her collarbone and back to her face.
“I believe there are a few tricks I could teach you,” Elora said with a surprisingly suggestive tone.
“Is that so?” I replied, and I let a touch of teasing color my voice. I turned my hips toward her, and I couldn’t stop myself from leaning a bit too close to be considered polite.
“Mmhmm,” Elora hummed in a slightly breathy way, but she didn’t back away from me. “There are techniques I learned as a fledgling Valkyrie, I would like to show them to you.”
“I’d like that,” I said, and the teasing in my voice had turned into genuine enjoyment at the prospect of spending some time near the beauty in front of me.
“Shall we procure something to eat and then go down to the beach?” Elora suggested.
“That sounds good.” I smiled.
Elora crossed her arms over her chest and tapped a finger thoughtfully against the base of her throat for a second. “Wait here a moment.”
All I could do was nod dumbly at the ethereal seductress and watch her dash off and disappear inside her hut.
While I waited, I caught sight of Ayen and Sassa returning from the beach with puppy dog smiles on their faces. Ayen glanced inconspicuously at me and offered me a huge grin, and I gave him a sly thumbs-up in return. His blond eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment before he chuckled and returned the gesture.
A moment later, Wyn walked around the fire pit and came to stand beside me. I nodded at him in greeting, and he smiled in a way that made his mustache twitch at the corners.
“Levi, I must once again thank you for your assistance,” Wyn said. “You fought valiantly and bravely, and if there were any lingering doubts about your intentions, I believe they have been quashed most completely.”
“I’m glad I was here to help,” I said.
“Perhaps we shall need to fit you with a proper sword,” Wyn said thoughtfully.
“Levi did quite well with his strange iron bar,” Ayen said loudly, and there was a small chorus of agreement and thanks from the small group around the fire.
“Thanks.” I smirked.
“It is the strangest weapon I have ever seen,” Sassa remarked, and she nervously tucked her long blonde hair behind her ears as her eyes darted to Ayen’s face.
“Highly effective, however.” Ayen smiled gently at the pretty blonde beside him. “This curved end is very useful. Good for wrenching heads off, I think.”
“It’s actually a tool,” I chuckled, and I was pleased to see the gentle exchange between the two blonds. “It’s not intended for killing demons.”
“Regardless,” Elora said as she returned to the conversation with a small sack tied to her belt, “you are a fierce warrior.”
“I’ve been in a few fights before.” I shrugged, and I thought it best to keep the lack of lethality of my previous fighting career to myself for the time being. I didn’t want to give the people any reason to doubt me, and I felt the trust of a few of them was still a bit tenuous.
“Shall we?” Elora asked, and she gestured toward the beach.
“Yeah,” I said, and I whistled for Frida to come over from where she was receiving a thorough petting from Goren.
My adorable apex predator pup bounded right over with her shark tail wagging happily from side to side.
“Where are you two off to?” Ayen asked with a mischievous glint in his dark blue eyes.
“Elora’s going to show me some fighting moves,” I said, and I only just managed to contain the smirk that threatened to fill my entire face.
“Ah, excellent.” Ayen nodded, and he grinned at me. “Enjoy your lessons.”
“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes at the big blond guy, and then I turned around and jogged to catch up with Elora who was already several yards in front of me.
The beautiful elf moved gracefully over the loose sands, and I was breathing a little heavier than normal by the time I caught up with her. Once I reached Elora’s side, I slowed down to match her pace, and she smiled up at me. Then we walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the beach.
When we reached the smooth plains of sand between the rolling dunes and the ocean, Frida looked up at me with pleading black eyes.
“Go ahead,” I said to my wolf-shark pup. “But stay close.”
Frida’s big tongue lolled happily out of her fanged mouth, and then she stuck her butt up in the air and waggled it excitedly for a moment before she dashed off to splash in the shallows.
“Here, try this.” Elora held out a strip of light-brown jerky to me. “I think you will enjoy it, and you need the meat.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I took the tender meat from her and sniffed it curiously. It smelled delicious, tangy and salty, and unlike anything I’d ever had before. “This smells amazing, what is it?”
