FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE (126 page)

     Dawn saw the emotional struggle in Ray. She knew a part of him pitied them. She also knew a larger part of him hated them with utmost bitterness.

     “Elementhar, you think that we’re monsters, don’t you
?
” she asked.

     “Yes,” came Ray’s cold reply.

     “Maybe you’re right. Maybe we’re monsters. Maybe we should’ve been braver, and more patient. Maybe we should’ve gone back to the farm and paid the government taxes with our blood, since we had nothing else to pay them with. But I know not the difference, for I was born after all these decisions were made,” expressed Dawn.

     “Chance _ of this, perhaps now you may get one with which you can change the direction of your life and start anew
!
” said Ray.

     “Perhaps, …perhaps not,” answered Dawn.

     Ray walked around the chamber again. He walked close to the wall of the chamber, admiring the handiwork of cut stone, for he was sure this chamber was man made. Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation throughout his body. But, no
!
It could not be
!
But it was
!
It was sorcery, Demonic Sorcery
!

     Ray stepped closer to a section of the chamber wall. He raised his right hand towards it, feeling the aura and energy disturbance with the tip of his fingers. He wondered if the Shadow Deathmerchant Clan had had any dealings with demonkind before. He turned to his left to ask Dawn a question and then suddenly, there was a clanking sound followed immediately by a screeching noise. Ray yelled out in pain, dropped his silver staff and stumbled backwards.

     Blood sprays forth as the tip of a sword, after bursting out of the chamber wall, hit Ray’s breastplate at an angle and slides off, only to find the delicate flesh of Ray’s left inner arm. The gash feels deep and painful, but Ray pays no further attention to it as he cannot afford to, for now he sees a black-clad figure emerging from the wall bearing the very same bloodied sword which injured him. The black-clad figure stumbles a little, caught off-guard by the miss of his thrust. Ray knows he should be dead with a punctured heart right now, if it was not for the fact that he turned to his left just at the right time, causing the tip of the sword to glance off his breastplate, instead of penetrating it.

     Ray backs off several steps to gain distance from his attacker. The black-clad figure takes a few steps forward and eyes Ray with cold, cruel malice. Ray backs off further.

     “Venom Collart
!
” yells Dawn, drawing out her sword.

     “Dawn Breven,” says the clanmaster, shaking his head in disappointment.

     Seizing the opportunity, Ray casts a Heat Burst spell at the clanmaster’s shoulder, hoping to injure, instead of to kill him. The clanmaster takes a step back and slices the Heat Burst right down the middle and disintegrates it in an instant.

     “Sword _ his of this, it is sorcerised
!
” exclaims Ray in surprise.

     “What
?
” says, Dawn, obviously ignorant of the aspects of Elemental Sorcery.

     “Sword _ his of this has been embedded with jewels and imbued with Elemental Sorcery to absorb energy discharges, just like my staff; and the fake  chamber wall is powered by Demonic Sorcery,” explains Ray.

     “What
?
” Dawn asks, surprised, confused and twice as curious.

     Venom gives out a sinister laugh. He finds both Ray and Dawn’s surprise and confusion to be very entertaining.

     “Demonic Sorcery, Dawn, is the manipulation of dark, evil energy which demons practise. It draws upon the negative aspects of life, unlike your Elementhar friend here, who draws upon the neutral or positive aspects,” he explains.

     “Knowledge _ how is it that you are in possession of this, and yet have not turned demonic yourself
?
” asks an extremely curious Ray, for he sees no signs of demonisation in the clanmaster.

     “Throughout my career, I’ve killed many people, Elementhar
!
My services don’t come cheap and they’re not always paid in gold coins. I have clients who have contacts with demonkind. So it wouldn’t be difficult to have my sword sorcerised. I’ll have you know, the sorcerising of this sword was part of the payment for eliminating your order. A payment I never fully received, because the mission was never fully completed. That’s a loose end I’ll tie right now
!
” answers the clanmaster.

     “Not unless I settle you first
!
” yells Dawn as she rushes at Venom.

     Bringing her sword down and back to her lower right corner and then slashing diagonally forward and upwards, Dawn hopes to cut at Venom’s torso from an unexpected angle. Venom steps back and narrowly avoids the cut. Ray seizes the opportunity and dives for his silver staff. But when he regains his footing, Venom is nowhere to be seen.

     Ray sees Dawn staring at a section of the chamber wall. The tip of her sword points straight at it.

     “Go _  did he do of this into the wall
?
” asks Ray.

     “Yes
!
” answers Dawn.

     “Wall _ do not go into of it, for you will be poisoned by its demonic energy
!
” warns Ray.

     “What do we do
?
” asks Dawn.

     “Help _ we will call of this, and wait for the energy of this demonic enchantment to dissipate; then his true position will be exposed and we can then try to arrest him,” answers Ray.

     The enchanted chamber walls begin to spread and surround Ray and Dawn. The chamber entrance and the wooden chest disappear. It feels as though the chamber is shrinking.

     “What’s going on
?
” asked a confused Dawn.

     “Enchantment _ he is extending of this, hoping to disorientate and confuse us,” explains Ray as he stands behind Dawn but facing away from her.

     Suddenly, an Airblade flies out of the wall towards Dawn. She parries it off with her sword just in time. Ray sends a Heat Burst in the direction from where the Airblade had originated. The flaming sphere goes through the wall and explodes behind it. Chunks of rock and debris emerge from it, but the wall itself seems undamaged. Ray begins to understand the nature of the enchantment. The enchantment is entirely an optical illusion. The wall which they are seeing right now is merely a projected image. It is a low level enchantment and because it is low in intensity, it also uses very little energy to maintain. Venom could leave the chamber and be out any of The Lair’s escape exits long before the enchantment dies down.

     Venom bursts out of the wall and slashes at Dawn’s arm. Dawn let’s out a short scream and turns towards his direction. But he disappears into another section of the wall before either Dawn or Ray can properly react. Drips of crimson liquid flow freely from both Ray and Dawn’s injured arms. Ray knows the game Venom is trying to play. So does Dawn. Venom is trying to bleed them. He knows that trying to fight two opponents at the same time is extremely difficult. So if he weakens Ray and Dawn by attacking them one at a time and bleeds them with cuts and gashes, then soon they will both be weak enough for him to finish off. Just then Ray feels something cold slide across his calf and a wet, stinging sensation follows. Ray let’s out a small groan as he absorbs the pain of the cut. He just manages to catch a glimpse of the clanmaster’s blade disappearing into the chamber wall.

     “How do we stop him
?
He’ll bleed us to death if we don’t stop him soon,” says Dawn.

     “Thinking _ I am of this,” responds a very troubled Ray.

     Another Airblade burst out from the wall. Ray manages to parry it off in time, but fails to see the spinning pickaxe that comes just a split second after it. The pickaxe pierces his left thigh guard and embeds itself in Ray’s left quadriceps. Ray let’s out a loud scream as he collapses to one knee.

     Dawn looks around frantically for the next attack. Then a small cloud of sand and dirt comes spraying out of the wall at Dawn. She turns her head away momentarily to protect her eyes, and this is good enough for Venom to step forward and do a quick cut at her left thigh. Unlike Ray, who wears thigh guards as well as greaves, Dawn wears no guards at all. She screams from the pain of the cut and drops to one knee too. By the time she regains her focus, Venom has disappeared back into the wall.

     “Elementhar, we must do something
!
” stresses Dawn.

     “Source _ there must be an energy of this somewhere that sustains this illusion, this spell; and we must find and destroy it, for as long as it is not destroyed, the spell remains,” responds Ray, his face grimacing in pain.

     “What does it look like, this energy source
?
” asks Dawn.

     “Jewel _ it is of it, one or maybe more
!
” answers Ray.

     Dawn looks around. Besides the rocky ceiling and floor, the only other thing she can see is the false, enchanted wall. She concludes that the energy source can only be behind the enchanted wall. But where exactly
?
And even if she knows, how is she going to get to it and destroy it
?
Then Dawn decides to take a gamble. She reasons that the spell can only be spread outwards from the energy source, not deflected or redirected from it, therefore the energy source should be located where Venom first tried to stab Ray. She dares not confirm her theory with Ray, for she knows he will try to stop her from doing what she has in mind.

     “How do I destroy it
?
” she asks.

     “Smash _ do of this to it, or at least crack it, this should be enough to disrupt the energy flow,” explains Ray.

     Suddenly, Dawn gets up and runs, with a significant limp, straight into the enchanted wall where Venom had tried to stab Ray. Ray shouts for her to stop. Dawn ignores him. She passes through the wall. Immediately, everything looks extremely dim. The hair on her skin stands. She feels cold, very cold. Her hands begin to shiver. Her heart beats erratically. She feels energy ebbing from the core of her being, from her very soul itself. She realises that she has but heartbeats of time before she loses consciousness. Her eyes frantically search for the elusive energy source. And then she sees it. A big purple jewel propped up on an elegant looking stand. She summons all her remaining strength and lifts her sword up high. Darkness begins to consume her. Her world begins to spin. But she will not let go. With a tremendous battle cry, she swings her sword downwards and chips the purple diamond. The stand cracks in two from the force of the cut. Her knees give way. She closes her eyes. She feels so sleepy. So tired. It is time for her to let go now…

     The enchanted wall disappears. Wasting no time, Ray lunges at Venom, who is disorientated and confused by the sudden disappearance of his enchanted wall. The end of Ray’s silver staff smashes into Venom’s chest, sending him stumbling backwards. Bringing his staff in an arc back over his head, Ray follows up with a Right Horizontal Strike to Venom’s jaw. But the strike misses as Venom manages to dive down and roll out to his left. Venom recovers in a kneeling posture to Ray’s diagonal right and rear and counter-attacks with a cut to Ray’s right calf. Ray tries to pull his right leg away, but fails to do so cleanly. He screams out in pain as his right calf gets lightly cut, and while collapsing to one knee, spins towards his back and thrusts the other end of his staff straight into Venom’s left cheekbone. Venom lets out a painful scream and falls backwards.

     Limping towards Venom, Ray kicks Venom’s sword hand, sending the assassin’s blade flying off to the side. But Venom pulls out a dagger with his left hand and stabs Ray’s right hamstring just as Ray was recovering his leg after the kick. Venom pushes the dagger deeper into Ray’s flesh, upsetting his balance and bringing him down to the ground. Ray lands on his back. He sees Venom getting up and stepping closer with the dagger in hand. Ray executes a Heat Burst at Venom’s left shoulder and sends him falling backwards. Ray struggles to get up. He sees Venom still conscious on the ground, but winded. Venom’s eyes are as fierce as ever but his body is limp. Blood oozes out from the burnt flesh of his left shoulder. Ray pays no further attention to Venom. Venom is defeated. There is a more urgent matter for Ray to attend to.

     Ray limped towards Dawn. She was unconscious but still alive. Her faced was a portrait of pure pain and misery. Her body was trembling. She was ranting as if she was experiencing a horrible nightmare. Ray knelt beside her. Stupid
!
Why could she not have waited
!?
The solution was almost at hand. Ray had planned to execute a series of Heat Bursts at random points on the chamber wall, hoping to destroy, or at least damage Venom’s energy source. But she
had
to do something so impulsive and suicidal
!
Ray looked at her and shook his head. He was unsure if he could do what he was about to try. He had only seen it being done once before and he had never done it himself. But he had to try. There was no one else who could help her in this situation.