Happy Blog Day Everyone!
Well, here it is, the penultimate chapter of Avalon Tales book 1! Technically it is actually the last numbered chapter (I do like me an epilogue) but there's still one installment before the credits roll.
Writing this one wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. My assumption was that I could wrap things up swiftly but the characters had other ideas. Can't talk about it up here but a major divergence occurred between my plans and what I eventually wrote, and this was because of the conflict that arose from driving the story by plot alone, and seeing what the characters would do based on their drives and where they were. For the majority of the story, those things gently coincided, till this chapter where the characters reasserted themselves. I'm definitely going to have to be careful of this when it comes to book 2's turn (sooner rather than later... Possibly a lot sooner!) Did the change make for a better chapter? I think it actually did, allowing for closure that wasn't going to be doable before (not to mention feel unsatisfying), will you agree? Scroll down to cast your judgement.
In other news, I have begun my third stint hosting #vss365, the hallowed tradition of word prompts continues in my care till November 15th. So far, I've seen tremendous works using my meager choices. The skill of the community us humbling indeed. If you're on X or Blue Sky, come and join in the fun!
Now we must turn to another troubling subject, a certain man and rat duo that have somehow, against all odds, made it to strip number 200!
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
First off, this didn't go quite as I wanted it. The fireworks were supposed to be a lot more brilliant looking, with firework Riz really standing out. In hindsight, this would have been the time to jump to digital colouring but I'd have to change the whole work flow for that in order to give myself time to do it right. Still, it's a celebration of surviving this long, like Brennan points out. As I've pointed out many times before, there had been several weeks where I was ready to hang up the pencil and call time on the endeavour. I think it's something that I'll look back on even more fondly when we hit issue 300!
Now, the strips actual birthday of course is in January, round abouts the 209 mark, I'll try to have something more substantial then. Luckily however, the next three strips write themselves, and that's before we inevitably hit December when a certain holiday comes round again...
Should be fun!
Short Diversions: Avalon Tales Chapter 18
One half of the Blood Brothers is dead, leaving Isabelle, Robyn and Cade exhausted from the fight, but things aren't over yet as Malagant is very much still alivd and kicking... With one last foe to slay, Isabelle steels herself, as the operation finally reaches it's end.
Avalon Tales Chapter Index
Chapter 18
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Chapter 18: Operation’s End
Malagant erupted into a riotous laughter that seemed to permeate the entire fight. Isabelle, nor her father, could scarcely believe it. Looking at Cade and Robyn for their thoughts, Isabelle was met with the same expression of disbelief on each of them.
“What? You expected me to be angry that the weakling died?” Malagant answered, having noticed the puzzlement on all their faces.
“So, despite calling yourself brothers, you have no pity. I should have expected no less from a demon,” Leo said, a small sigh escaping his mouth before he got himself ready to fight again.
“We demons don’t succumb to your human sentimentalities, well, the strong ones don’t. No, the strongest make the rules, the rest live by them, and Mardoc died as he should have. The stupid fool, he begged me to allow him to use my Grail prototype,” Malagant smiled as she gestured to his back, where another device was positioned, this one looking far more sturdier and reinforced than the one the other demon had used.
The statement had all but confirmed Isabelle’s theories. That Malagant had used the Holy Grail for his own ends, and if this tech got out to the rest of demon kind, it would be catastrophic. She glanced down at her sword, the neon light flickering. It had survived, somehow, the battle against Mardoc, but it would be suicide agaisnt Malagant, still, she knew what she had to do, and she took a step forward, to where her father and the powerful demon were fighting. Her intention was clear as the look on her battleworn face, but her father’s voice rang out loud.
“Do not come any closer! This is my fight and no one else’s!”
“But, he has the Holy Grail! That is what’s causing him to regenerate rapidly! You can not do this alone!” Isabelle argued, seeing in her father the attitude that she held till recently.
“You heard him brat, let men handle this…” Malagant chuckled as he went to strike out at Leo, who deftly dodged it by parrying the blow at the last second, but the demon had kept on moving to the side, moving out of the way of any reprisals.
Having watched the battle for merely a moment showed Isabelle the difference between the Blood Brothers. Mardoc had relied on his brute strength but lacked any strategy beyond ‘hitting them until they stopped moving’. Malagant, on the other hand, despite appearing stronger, weaved in between attacking and defending as the need arose. His strength was evident in the way he pushed Leo back when her father defended. She recognised that the demon was testing her father’s defences, wanting to find a weakness that could be exploited. She’d been in Leo’s shadow long enough to know that was an exceptionally hard feat. He hadn’t been elevated to Lord Commander for nothing. Through countless missions he’d proved himself to be as capable a fighter as a leader.
Dad doesn’t have any weaknesses, other than being human Isabelle thought, then she saw Malagant looking at her with a sly smile.
After blocking Leo’s strike, Malagant clicked his fingers as the chittering demons fell on Isabelle, Robyn and Cade, caring not for their tiredness. Robyn had to quickly resort to using her combat knives she always kept with her just in case, having used up everything else. Cade went to her aid, but even his moves were slower and sluggish. Isabelle tried to get to them, using her pistol but the demons made sure she was isolated, and she started to to hurt as their claws raked her skin, throwing themselves into her and knocking her about. Her determination kept her standing, kept her moving, wanting to get closer to her father, but she tripped over a body that had fallen from the upper level, another soldier of Avalon that had given their life for their country. For the briefest moment, she saw herself lying there, wondering if this was to be her fate, as the men her father had brought died around her. It was in this lapse that a demon took its chance and leapt at her, its jaw opening wide revealing a toothy maw. A bullet entered through the back of its throat, putting it down instantly. Isabelle snapped to where the shot had come from, and saw the shooter standing there with a grin on her face.
“No time for stopping now, princess!” Ramona ordered as she tossed her a new gun. “There’s still demons to kill!” Ramona was standing at the far corridor, and from behind her, emerged more soldiers who quickly started to turn the tide.Several of them wore different coloured pendants, marking them out as Kindred, magic users like Lucy. They held their arms out, directing demonic elemental forces towards the mass of demons, instantly thinning their ranks.
Malagant’s smug grin had evaporated like his demons, and he silently cursed under his breath as he began making bigger and bigger gaps between him and Leo. Isabelle saw this and knew the last remaining Blood Brother was trying to flee, with the Holy Grail still in his possession.
Not wanting to let this happen, Isabelle took advantage of the thinned out demon horde, and started running towards Malagant. Robyn saw this, and started scrounging up arrows from the ground, firing each and every one she found at the demons ahead of her beloved Izzy, clearing out more of the way. Cade forced himself up, and through heavy breathing, he ran up towards Isabele, and put down any demon that didn’t have an arrow lodged in its skull.
“Get that bastard, Izzy,” Ramona shouted over the roar of the battle, adding her own shots into the mix. Between the three of them, no demons were getting close to Isabelle whose strength returned as her friends aided her, getting faster and faster as Malagant turned to face her.
“I don’t have time for this!” the demon snarled.
“Then face your demise with dignity!” Leo snapped back, taking the fight to Malagant and taking his attention away from Isabelle. Father and daughter never said a word to each other, yet they settled into a familiar rhythm, as though they had always fought side by side. The demon’s powers weren’t much use to him here as there was never one target to focus on. No sooner than he had a hit lined up on one of them, the other got in the way, putting the focus on themselves. While Leo went in blade in hand, Isabelle went in with a gun, using her training to its fullest to dodge out of the way. Her own sword had not been forgotten, instead she wanted to save it for the last moment, when what she was trying to accomplish would be revealed.
Around these three combatants, the once mighty demonic horde had been diminished, with only a few stragglers left but they were not long for the world. For those who could now breathe a little easier, their gaze was fixed on the Lord Commander’s fight. In many ways, the winner of the fight didn’t matter, the battle had been decided, but no one could rest as long as there was still a demon lurking nearby.
Isabelle knew this, but for her, letting Malagant escape with his prize would have meant that the entire operation was a failure, and she was not going to accept that. She watched carefully, as the demon once again evaded her father’s moves while also trying to reposition himself. She presumed he’d realised that if he went to simply run for it, the hail of bullets that would fall upon him would slow him down, even with his regeneration skills in play. No, she figured he’d had a different escape attempt at the ready, one that wouldn’t allow for any interference. It was then that she noticed something in the palm of his right hand as he pushed away her father’s blade. In appearance, it looked similar to the device Malagant had fashioned around the Holy Grail but a lot smaller. It seemed likely to her that whatever the device was, it played a part in Malagant’s escape plans. That was when she had an idea, the perfect opportunity to get the demon to stand still long enough for her to carry out her own plan. Malagant was getting comfortable in their rhythm, knowing when they were going to attack, so he was getting good at keeping his back away from either combatant. Isabelle could not allow this.
“Dad! Stop!” She shouted suddenly and sharply, putting enough authority into it to make her father stop mid swing, which gave Malagant the breathing room he was after.
“Kids eh? They’re always a disappointment aren’t they?” Malagant sneered as he lifted his right hand, and went to crush the device he’d buried within his palm. This is exactly what Isabelle thought would happen. Time seemed to slow for everyone watching, as they thought that Isabelle’s strange comment had cost her father the kill, but just as the demon went to turn to her, did they realise the ploy.
Malagant had intended to gloat at the young woman, but found no one in her place. Realising that she had already been moving when she shouted, the demon looked over his shoulder, just as she struck him in the back.
“Run if you want, demon, but this stays with us!” Isabelle said defiantly as her sword slashed through the device, the blade shattering with its last act, and the vial containing the Holy Grail flying freely into her waiting hand. “The Holy Grail is ours.”
Malagant couldn’t let out any words in his anger, but the sound of Leo’s blade moving through the air caught his attention as the Lord Commander bisected the demon’s entire right arm rendering the limb as useless as the now destroyed device hidden in it.
Isabelle switched back to her gun, and aimed it squarely at the back of Malagant’s head.
“Demon, for crimes against our nation, nay, for crimes against all of humankind, I sentence you to death. For Queen and Country!” She pulled the trigger, but a the last possible second, Malagant pulled his head to the side, allowing the bullet to go through the side of his face instead, exposing facial muscle and part of his jaw bone.
“This is not over!” He shouted.
“I’ve heard that already tonight, and it still isn’t true!” Leo swung his sword in a wide arc, and before the demon could say anything else, the blade took his head.
With that, the last demon fell, and all the surviving Avalon soldiers gave cheer, buoyed by this, Isabelle held up the Holy Grail, for all to see. This object had been the source of the night’s conflict, but her mind flashed back to the Fisher King, the strange individual she had met earlier.
If this could be modified to even heal demons, why would’t it work on him? Who was he really? It was yet another question that she didn’t have an answer to. Amidst all the cheering, Leo came up to her, putting his hand on her shoulder, the first physical contact between the pair in a long time.
“Isabelle, you did good tonight,” He whispered, as though he didn’t want anyone else to hear. “The mission is not yet done though,”
“You said before that the Blood Brothers didn’t have anything to do with what happened to mum, were you lying then?” Isabelle asked, surprising herself with how bold she was.
“The demons themselves, no, the accident had already happened by the time we got the intel on them…but…” Leo trailed off again, clearly he wanted to say more, but his gaze swept around the room. “Now is not the time for that discussion.”
“When will the time come for that discussion?” Isabelle’s frustration was visible as all the night’s events bore down on her.
“When you’re ready for it. There is still ways to go,” Her father went to walk away but stopped after only a few feet. He breathed out heavily, as though clearing something away from himself. “Embrace this moment. You’re alive, and the people you care about are alive. This is a victory that you made possible. They don’t always turn out like this. The past will always be behind us, we must make sure to protect the future.” Once he’d said his piece, Leo walked away, leaving his daughter more confused than ever regarding what happened all those years ago, but he was right. This was a victory.
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Epilogue (not live yet!)
Well, that's your lot for this week! In two weeks, I'll drop the final installment and book 1 of Avalon Tales will be complete...Leaving me with book 2 to be getting on with! Will this be going live before the years out, will I be stupid enough to jump right into the next novella in sequence? I think you all know the answer to that.
Till next time,
Keep on writing!
Peter James Martin
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