Got a new chapter of Phantom Dawn for all your reading pleasures, and it'll all be over soon, though I have slightly missed the time it was supposed to end in. If I recall, my original plan called for it to have either ended now, or before the end of December. Might have been earlier come to think of it. It'll definitely have ended before the end of January...Maybe, never say never and all that!
In other news, work continues apace on my new Daemon Soul novella, hoping to have something to show you all soon regarding it. Ideally, I'd have thought this up sooner but that's the writers luck I guess.
Let's see what mischief Riz is up too this Riz-mas season...
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
Seems Riz has issued a guide for those still unsure of how to usher in a good Riz-mas. I fear though that his holiday isn't going to get much traction. Can't blame a rat for trying!
Short Diversions: Phantom Dawn Chapter 21
With two surprising new allies on her side, Rose enters the fray again, but is it enough to ensure victory? Or is she going to have to dig deeper than she even thought possible? Read on to find out!
Phantom Dawn Chapter Index
Chapter 21
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Chapter 21: Berserker
Rose stood in the middle of the T-Rex and spider-like creatures, while their enemy, the humanoid shaped one, didn’t seem phased by the numbers against it. It started advancing towards this strange team, its pace quickening till it was flat out running, and with its speed, it was in their midst before they knew it. The T-rex creature charged in, using its head to charge the opposing monster, but the humanoid creature stood its ground, and lifted its opponent off the ground, throwing it to the side, just as the spider creature attacked, its large legs falling hard on the humanoid creature's shoulders. The attack landed but it was nowhere near enough to stop it. Instead, the humanoid creature lifted the spider’s arms out of its way, before attacking it with its tail that had quickly changed shape, resembling more of an axe head than before. The area became filled with the sound of the monsters crying out in pain as each one scored a hit on the other.
Unable to do anything, Rose kept calling out to the monsters on her side, telling them where there were openings in their enemies' defence. To her surprise, they actually listened to her, moving as instructed. Still, for every attack they landed, more was inflicted in return. This kind of fighting wasn’t sustainable, and Rose could see that. Sooner, rather than later, her allies would slow, and then, they would fall. It was only the fact that it was currently two versus one that they were doing the damage. Feeling her own self-worth lessen, she gripped the handle of her sword tightly. For the first time, she felt the damage that her fighting had caused the sword, as the handle was scratched where once it was smooth, the blade itself was now chipped in a couple of places, showing how hard the enemy’s defences were. If she were to swing again, there was no telling how long it’d last before the blade snapped. The T-rex creature cried out in pain as the tail from the humanoid one struck near its neck, drawing blood.
Gritting her teeth, Rose charged in, wanting to take her chances rather than standing there. The Spider creature blocked her path, stopping her from joining the fray as it grabbed the tail that was hurting its comrade and ripped it off, allowing the T-rex to stagger to the side, blood oozing out from the wound. It was able to stand again, baring its teeth at the humanoid creature, yet the threat was no longer there.
The three creatures clashed again in combat, leaving Rose watching, her confidence plummeting. She slid to her knees, tears in her eyes. She didn’t understand what had happened to her strength, to what happened to all those incredible feats she had been able to pull off before.
“Do you really want to be able to fight like that again? Is your helplessness causing you that much pain and suffering? Isn’t this delightful!” the other voice in her head laughed.
“Shut up!” Rose screamed, she pushed herself up again as the humanoid creature knocked the two others aside, slick blood forming an arc in the air as it slashed both of them.
The humanoid creature seemed to ponder which target it was going to go for, to deliver the killing blow. It settled on the already weakened T-rex beast. Despite having no mouth or any other facial features other than an eye, its demeanour gave the impression that it was certainly relishing the carnage it was causing. The Spider creature tried to stand up, but found it hadn’t the strength.
Rose couldn’t look at the scene in front of her. The two monsters didn’t have to fight for her, and they didn’t have to die for her either. To that end, she started running at the humanoid creature, this time the other creatures couldn’t get in the way, but she was determined to get in the way of them. She struck out with the sword, but the humanoid creature was ready, and choosing its moment wisely, it knocked the sword out of Rose’s hand with a swipe of its tail before it punched Rose into the ground, making a crater that only got bigger as it kept punching her down. It then loomed over her, its tail poised to strike into her, ending the fight once and for all.
“I guess, I’ll have to step in after all, aren’t you incredibly lucky that I need you alive?” The voice in her head stated, allowing itself a sly chuckle at the end. Rose blacked out at this point, those words being the last thing she heard.
Kurz and Mason watched what happened next in complete shock and horror. They too had thought it was all over as Rose fell to the ground, but what they weren’t expecting was her hand to shoot up at the last second, grabbing the head of the tail before it could do anything. She held it in place as the humanoid creature struggled to get free. Still holding on, Rose stood up. It was now that they could see her face, or the lack of it as it were. They didn’t know where the mask had come from, but there was a plain white one that completely covered her face without any visible slits for eyes or mouth. Her movements looked awkward, her head tilting erratically. Bands of crimson coloured energy started gathering at her wrists, spinning around them till they resembled barb wire at first, till threads shot out, becoming more chain-like. The ends of each chain culminated in jagged hooks and other cruel implements. Rose finally let go of the tail, and the humanoid creature hopped back a fair ways, wanting to put some space between them. It was at this point a red x formed across the mask, some of the colour dripping down like blood. With parts of her long hair sticking up in a jagged style, Rose started to move, dragging the energy chains with her. The movements of her body were unnerving to look at, as she jerked at random intervals.
The humanoid creature didn’t want to let her get too close to him, not with the weapons she’d crafted for herself. Its body shifted slightly, as though it was trying to gain an advantage over Rose, and it attacked with its tail again, this time having been lengthened so it didn’t have to go near her. She did nothing to try and evade the attack, instead, she wrapped it up with the set of chains from around her left arm, and then dragged the creature forward, straight into her own attack with the chains from around her other arm, the hooks tearing large chunks of rock away from the creature exposing more of its skin which started causing it to panic. The humanoid creature even sacrificed its tail to get away from the direct confrontation, once again escaping to where it thought Rose wouldn’t be able to attack it. This proved a fatal error as, tossing the tail aside, Rose whipped both sets of chains around with no care as to what was in their radius, and then sent them out after the humanoid creature, the chains magically growing longer when they needed to. They descended on the creature like a rain of blades, gouging and slashing with every flick of Rose’s wrist. The creature tried to escape but the hooks dug too deep within its rock-like skin and it was dragged towards Rose with barely any defence left. With the tables turned against it so decidedly, the creature tried one last defiant act, it took the last of the rock-like skin, and turned it into a spear, one that it launched at Rose point blank. A normal person would have been skewered, but not Rose, instead she caught it an inch from her face with her bare hand, it’s sharp edges cutting her hand open but she didn’t flinch from it, instead she commanded every hook to impale itself into the creature's body, each one sticking in deep. Once that was done, she cocked her head as the creature stared at her, now terrified about what was going to happen. Rose clicked her fingers and every chain was pulled away, ripping the creature into shreds. Underneath the almost magma like surface, the creature bled profusely as it lay there dying, whatever power had animated, had straight up deserted it now. Rose wasn’t finished yet though, she identified the biggest part of it, and then started attacking over and over again. There was no mercy to be had here.
Watching this horrifying scene, Kurz and Mason sat in complete silence, both turning pale at the carnage they were seeing. They watched as the humanoid creature gave its last breath as it crumbled into dust, and Rose started to head towards them, spinning both sets of chains around.
“Wait! Rose! It’s us!” Kurz shouted. “You’ve done it! You’ve won!”
“I don’t think she can hear us!” Mason said. He’d recovered enough to move slightly but, neither of them were going very far.
“ROSE! WAKE UP!” Kurz shouted once more, putting everything he had into it. Still, Rose sped up, her orderly pace breaking down into a spring, the chains bouncing along behind her.
Seeing as there was no other option, Mason joined with Kurz in shouting Rose’s name, hoping to break through whatever madness she was currently in.
“ROSE! DON’T LET YOUR ANGELIC GRACE BE CORRUPTED LIKE THIS!”
If Mason had uttered that at any other point, Kurz would have said something to him, but with their lives on the line, he merely made a note of it, a fun piece of trivia he could use against him if they were to walk away from here alive.
“ROSE! PLEASE, WE’RE YOUR FRIENDS! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP!” Kurz pleaded, as she came frightfully close to them, to the point where they could see droplets of blood falling from the mask like tears.
It was at the last possible second that the mask started to crack, and swiftly, broke apart, the fragments dissolving before they could even hit the ground. The chains similarly dissipated and Rose collapsed to the ground, her face frozen in shock, as if she herself could scarcely believe what happened.
Everything became still again, as it sunk in to Kurz and Mason that they had survived, yet that’s all they felt had happened. Kurz looked over to where their enemy had been mere minutes ago, and there was nothing. It had died swiftly and quietly in retrospect, it’s death overshadowed by the transformation that Rose underwent.
If anything, the battle had only given them more questions, but at they very least, they had another day to wake up to in order to seek answers.
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Next Chapter (not finished yet!)
That's all for this week, by all rights next weeks should be fairly brief, but I've got a feeling there may be something to look at...hopefully!
Till then...
Keep on writing.
Peter James Martin
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