As they drifted down for a landing, Lord Kathro charged up to the roof. For a second Killum thought they'd be shot out of the air by his foe's powerful bolts, but Asha came up behind him a second later, slashing alternately at his legs and face. When Rand reached the roof and joined the fight, the Dark Lord was hard pressed to defend himself.
"Ha! He's a distance fighter," Killum shouted. "We can take him in a close quarters fight."
He guided Gye in behind his friends, and yelled, "DUCK!"
Asha and Rand fell to their bellies. Gye sent a torrent of dragonfire at Lord Kathro. To Killum's surprise, the Dark Lord held out a hand like Darth Vader and split the flames in two. He remained unscathed, which really ticked off Gye.
"I'll eat him alive and – " Lord Kathro cut his tirade off with a bolt into his chest. The dragon shook it off, but had to veer away with a groan.
"And shit him down a volcano," Killum finished.
The battle-mage twisted around in the saddle and shot off a pair of bolts at his foe. Asha and Rand were attacking again. The problem was the Dark Lord was using magic none of them had seen before. Killum wasn't even sure what the spells were, but he just had to wave his hand and his friends would be buffeted to one side or the other, or blasted straight back into the stone battlements.
"Swoop down and let me jump down there," Killum said. "This fight is going to be settled up close and personal."
"Anything you say, boss."
Gye went into a tight loop, and power dived toward the keep. They were almost there when Rand was hit by a blast and flew over the side. Killum just thought, "SAVE HIM" and Gye veered over and under the falling dwarf warrior.
Rand landed in Killum's lap.
The dwarf looked at his friend, then at the dragon, and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare kiss me!"
"You're too ugly to kiss," he said. "Gye, drop us off atop the keep."
The dragon circled the keep as he flew up, up, up, while staying close. Both Rand and Killum leapt off as soon as he topped the battlements. Killum hit the rooftop and rolled. Back on his feet, he located Lord Kathro and Asha exchanging sword blows.
"Your day is done, you goat licking bastard," Killum shouted.
Lord Kathro paused to glance at him. Asha darted in and bloodied the tip of one sword. Then she sliced open his thigh with the other sword. He roared in outrage and pain, and pounded a fist into her chest. The sorceress was smashed across the roof to crash into the unyielding stone battlements.
Gye swooped down and flamed the Dark Lord, but again their foe remained untouched by the fire. Killum followed that with a pair of energy bolts to the chest. That knocked the evil necromancer to his butt. Lord Kathro scowled at them.
"You realize that even if you defeat me, I'm an Immortal and will respawn," he said. He grinned at them. "And I'll be back for vengeance."
"Oh man, shut up," Rand said. "You scare me so much I pee-pee my pants. Not."
Killum started walking toward him, hammering Lord Kathro with shot after shot from his Dragon Knight bracer. The necromancer deflected them, but each one got a little closer.
"Is he shooting a Roman Candle?" Rand asked.
"He is a living Roman Candle on steroids," Asha said. "Supercharged."
"He is," Lord Kathro shouted, jumping to his feet. "Nothing!"
The Dark Lord clapped his hands together and they were all blasted backwards.
Chapter 47
The tapping, scraping sound of the scorpions' feet on the stone floor was worse than nails down a blackboard. Maybe it was the deadly stinger dripping with a viscous yellow poison that upped the creep factor. The fact the monsters were so fast didn't help.
Tiana gasped, glancing up. "Dammit! The runt won!"
The scorpions rushed towards them. Tiana turned towards the ranger to run, so he took off.
Fergus raced toward the stairs. He cursed as he ran. Tiana's turn was a feign, and she went the other direction. So just as he hooked up with her, they were torn apart.
"Go up the stairs!" she called.
That was fine by Fergus. He'd seen all of the castle's dungeon that he wanted to see. Far too much, in fact. The scorpion must've understood because it scrambled past him, and blocked the stairs up. The ranger didn't slow or hesitate. He turned down the stairs to descend deeper into bowels of that evil place.
I'll cross over and follow Tiana up on the other side.
The sound of pursuit reached his sensitive ears. He wanted to stop and fight, but was afraid the scorpion would be on him too fast, and that foot long stinger would end him. Fergus was pretty sure it wouldn't be a quick death, either. The bug-ugly bastard would probably start eating him before he was dead.
Fergus found additional speed.
He hit the next level down. It proved to be the very bottom, with no more stairs down. And it was darker than a necromancer's soul. Fergus cut sharply and took off running for all he was worth, looking back at the closing scorpion.
"That thing is too – Ooff!"
Fergus knew he ran into someone smaller. At first he thought it a hobgoblin, but then he heard a familiar voice cursing furiously.
"Tiana?"
"You were supposed to go up."
"So were you," he said, leaping to his feet and turning to face the scorpion. "But my way got blocked."
Tiana backed up to him, and they faced the threat back-to-back. He'd fought with her like that a thousand times. This had to be the scariest of all their fights. It was dark, with monsters out of nightmares, and it was just the two of them. No help was coming from either of their spellcasters or that fearless runt.
"Mine, too. The stupid bugs understand what we say."
The scorpions lowered her "heads" close to the ground, with their massive pinchers spread wide. They lifted her rears high, and the ranger couldn't tear his eyes off that twitching tail. The bulbous stinger looked as big as his head.
The monster-bugs attacked. It was all he could do to block its pinchers with his sword and kicks, while also fending off the jabbing stinger. The scorpion only backed away when he lucked out and landed a pair of hits on its face. Or at least he thought it was the scorpion's face.
"How do you kill a scorpion?" Fergus asked. "Their bodies are armored."
The scorpion's stinger darted at him. He swung to parry, but it was yanked back before contact. It was too dark to see the critters' eyes, but he couldn't help but notice those two giant pinchers. The scorpion darted at him, claws opened wide and tail twitching.
"Watch out!" Tiana cried.
He ducked and slanted a look over his shoulder. Her scorpion was trying to sting him in the back. How smart were they? The ranger tossed his sword into his left hand, and swung with all of his might. His parry snapped off the stinger, and his backstroke burst the venom bulb behind it.
The scorpion actually made a screaming noise and both of them fell back. He told Tiana to use her Ring of Speed to escape.