julianravage.com

The Lich and the Ruby

By Julian Ravage

Roy wiped the sweat off his brow. His lungs hurt and body ached. He had been practicing all day and it was wearing him down. The sky swirled in darkness as he ranthrough his stances and strikes once more. Roy’s body moved into a thrusting stance andhis heel slipped on a loose stone. He caught himself and nearly dropped his sword.Curses poured from his mouth. Time was not being kind to him and he could feel it withevery passing day.There was a glint of light in the distance. Roy squinted and could see a lone figurerunning toward him from the distance. Red lighting flashed and lit up the sky. Elancrossed the distance in minutes. He fell to his knees when he reached Roy, trying to catchhis breath. Roy helped his friend up and tried to keep the concern from his eyes. Elanlooked like a shell of a man. His eyes were sunken in, face scarred and hair had turned aghostly white.“No goblins. No soldiers. There is nothing in the valley. Xykon is just standingright in the middle like a statue.” Elan huffed.“He is waiting for us?” Roy took out his canteen and passed it to Elan.“I don’t know.” Elan took a gulp of water. “I don’t know anything anymore.”“We will do this. We will stop this.” Roy tried to sound positive.“Does it matter? Xykon already won.”“When Durkon gets back, we will rest and strike tomorrow.”Elan pushed white hair away from his face. He wanted tears to roll down his faceonce more like a waterfall during spring time. But the rivers of love which flowedthrough him dried up a long time ago. He lay down on his sleeping bag and tried to gainsome rest for the worthless battle ahead of him.***Belkar fiddled with a ruby as the group tried to make sense of the current plan.The rest of the group huddled around a large oak table with a map pinned to it. Elan triedto pick up one of the little metal pieces but Roy smacked the back of his hand. Elan put it back down with a sad look.

“It doesn’t make sense Roy. Why would Xykon push his forces pass the HellfireVolcano? Either he is going to split his forces to attack two different cities or he is tryingto confuse us.” Haley reasoned.“Aye, the lass is right. Xykon knows we have a large enough army to push him back.” Durkon took a swig of mead.“He hasn’t moved in two days. I think he is preparing. If we attack in themorning, we might upset his plans. If we can cover both routes, we can push his goblins back into the volcano.”Elan took Haley’s hand into his and gave it a light squeeze. “Roy, do you feel it’sgoing to work?”Roy looked into Elan’s eyes and nodded.Elan smiled. “Then I’m in!”Images swirled into chaos. Darkness and red splashed onto Elan’s face as heopened his eyes into a nightmare. Haley was letting loose arrow after arrow into thehorde. Durkon’s hammer smashed goblin skull after goblin skull. Roy was a mad man in battle, his sword slicing through monsters like water. Belkar was no where to be seen.Elan ducked and dodged incoming blades and arrows. He moved like a dancer throughthe enemy. His blade taking down every creature that stood too close. Despite all their skills, the battle was going badly.Roy shouted to Haley. She nodded and reached for a red arrow from her quiver.Elan kept moving. Like a whirlwind, he drove back any creature close to Haley. The battle grew more intense as Xykon moved through his ranks. His power had grown tosuch a degree once he channeled the Snarl. Red lighting flashed with every step he took and the ground shook like the earth would fly apart at any moment.Haley aimed at Xykon. It was easy, his body crackled with red energy. Hisundead body was generating so much heat; monsters would burst into flames if theystood too close. Time seemed to slow down just for this one point.The red arrow Haley aimed was fused from fallen god blood. Should it strikeanother god, the explosion would be enough to destroy everything for a hundred miles inevery direction. They all knew going in, this would mean the end of them but it wassacrifice most of them would make.Haley’s muscles tensed. Her hand started to bleed from holding the arrow back.Roy, Elan and Durkon stood their ground with thousands of soldiers who volunteered.Their bodies acted like a wall against the horde of creatures trying to kill one woman withan arrow that slays gods.Haley let out a breath and let the arrow fly. It darted across the sky. Elan slashed agoblin and as the creature’s body fell, Elan could see a red streak across the sky as thearrow reached Xykon. He smiled as the arrow struck home and exploded. Elan’s bodyrelaxed. He stared at Haley and for a moment waited for the explosion to take their lives.The explosion never came.Elan looked and stared in horror as Xykon held the energy in a pillar of darkness.The explosion flowed like a river and shot skyward. There was a bright flash. Elanshielded his eyes. Xykon laughed and his energy started to glow and strike in all

directions. Soldiers were thrown like rag dolls. Roy stood steadfast as an energy boltstruck him. His body didn’t even shake but blood poured down his arm.Elan tried to fight through the melee to get to Haley. They had to get out of there.They had to retreat. Xykon was going to kill them all. Haley had her jaw clenched as shestarted to swing arrows out of her quiver and let them loose.“Haley!” Elan shouted.Xykon took notice and turned his glowing red eyes on Haley. His skeletal handsopened and energy began to pour. The volcano behind Xykon began to rumble and atorrent of lava shot up into the sky.“NO!” Elan screamed.The lava swirled like a living serpent in the sky. The end formed into a dragonhead and pointed its gaze at Haley. It streamed down in a blink of an eye. Xykoncontinued to laugh as the sky filled with molten lava. A large shard of lava fell from thesky toward Haley. Her eyes turned to Elan. Elan could see fear grip her. He tried to pushtoward her. A goblin hammer glanced off his head. Élan went into a spin and hit theground. A kobold jumped on the fallen Elan and started stabbing at his face and neck. Afist wrapped around the creature’s neck and broke it with a squeeze. Elan looked up andsaw Haley on the ground, with Belkar lying next to her. His body was steaming and burnt. Durkon threw the dead kobold away and helped Elan up.“I cannea` believe it! Belkar saved Haley. He knocked her out of the way beforethe lava could hit her!”Elan ran to Haley. She wrapped her arms around him as he helped her up. They both turned to Belkar as he lay on the ground smoking. When they drew close they couldsee he was missing an arm and his body was badly burned.Belkar coughed. “I made a ..…..” his eyes rolled into his head. His hand openedup and a small ruby rolled out.“Durkon! Can you bring him back?” yelled Haley.Before anyone could make a move, there was a flash and Xykon stood beforethem. Energy spilled from his body as his undead form stared at Haley.“You all do make me laugh.”Xykon reached forward and touched Haley. She never even had a chance toscream. Color drained from her body. Her eyes and hair turned white as she fell to theground lifeless.Xykon laughed and heard a crunch. Elan had stabbed his sword into the lich andwas twisting the blade. Xykon back handed Elan with such force, his body went airborne.Everything turned into images. Horrible laughter, Roy yelling, taste of blood, shards of lava falling from the sky, something glowing in his hand and a terrible voice yelling intothe darken sky.“Her soul belongs to me! You will never see it again. Not in this life or the next!”***Elan woke with a start. His hands went to his eyes but still the tears would notcome. Eleven years had passed since that battle where Xykon took Haley away. Elevenyears of searching and fighting. Eleven years of wanting to die but could not because heknew in heaven he would not be reunited with his dear Haley.