Going Feet First Ch. 05

Ignoring the Drow curses behind him, Galen fought with whatever broke into the Princess's transport, struggling to get the person's hands away from his throat. He saw what resembled a head and slammed his own head forward. Stars flashed in his eyes as the ring of his helmet hitting metal registered in his ears. Trying to regain some sense, he shoved forward with his arms to put space between himself and his foe before he jabbed for the kidneys.

"FUCK!" he snapped as his fist slammed into more plate.

In the moment he paused to gaze at his bloodied knuckles, the black knight grabbed his jacket and shoved him back to the other side of the carriage. Much to the Private's surprise however, his landing was soft and well padded. He also found the Princess beside him, her face contorted with pain as she scowled him with scarlet eyes.

Looking downward Galen could see why. Blood dripped from her fingers as she squeezed the flesh around the fist-sized piece of wooden shrapnel in her thigh. Before he could move to heal it, an angered hiss drew his attention across the carriage to his rifle impaled into the floor on the bayonet. And right beside it was the knight, breathing heavily as he, too, paused to get a mind on his setting.

When he finally focused on Galen, he drew a knife from a sheath tied to his breastplate and braced against the seat to push himself up.

In a split-second the Private pulled his pistol and fired. A red spray misted over the sides of the cabin as the man clutched at his throat and fell to his knees. Panting, Galen holstered his pistol and pulled his sword to drive it into the man's helmet right through the slit for his eyes.

"Son of a bitch," he gasped as the knight fell to the floor.

"Get a healer..." Iim'treemay ordered. "I'll commend you later."

"No need," Galen answered, his hand glowing as he started the Tree Elf chant.

"Undo the damage done," he whispered as he yanked out the shrapnel, ignoring her yelp as he pressed his palm over her wound. "Give back health to whom it was taken from."

The Princess winced and cursed as her wound closed up, the blood vaporizing from her skin. A sharp hiss passed her lips the second the after-effect struck her, though Galen just laid his head back while trying to catch his breath.

"Are you done?"

With his adrenaline still pumping, he only just realized his hand still held onto her thigh, and it was not too far from what lay between her legs.

"Oh, fuck!" Galen snapped as he pulled his hand back. "I'm sorry, my Qu'essan, I was..."

The glare she cast him them was a clear statement of "shut-up" and he immediately did so. Her nostrils flaring, she looked at Galen's hand for several tense breaths before snapping her fingers toward the door.

"Get out there, and spare no one."

Swallowing hard, the Private nodded, "Yes, my Qu'essan."

He stood and sheathed his sword before grabbing his rifle. He was about to reach for the handle to the door when she grabbed the back of his collar. Her lips touched the side of his jaw and a warm breath blew across the back of his neck.

"I like you, Commandant Dreek did not lie. But speak of that kiss and your skull will hold my wine."

She shoved him out the door into a mosh pit of the royal guards holding off a second team of those knights in black. A grin on his face and new fire burning inside, he drew his colt and unleashed his sidearm until the magazine went dry. Not even steel full-helms could stop a .45 acp round. But before he had the chance to reload, the Princess' guard culled the last of their numbers.

"NO!" a voice boomed over the crowd.

Galen had only just slid a new magazine into his pistol back and returned it to its holster when he heard that roar. Instincts kicked in and he brought his rifle to the ready. Hearing something hit the ground behind him, he spun around and brought his bayonet level with the face of a person he didn't expect.

A woman stood before him. A human woman, with crystal-white hair drawn back into a long, thin pony tail down the back of her brown cloak. Deathly black eyes glared pertly at him as she rested her hand on the skull decorating the hilt of her sword. Despite the innocence of her bewitching face, the gouges and marks in her dark, leather armor told of a warrior that was no stranger to battle.

"A human protecting a Drow Royal. For what reason on Raska is this happening?" she growled.

"You the leader of the attack?" Galen questioned, his finger tensing up on the trigger.

"More of a guide... or a mercenary... And more of your death."

She screeched words that Galen could only describe as demonic while casting her hands toward him. A shockwave tore through the space around them, rocking the carriage and sending any Drow nearby hurtling away while he was anchored in place. His rifle fired, the weapon kicking into his shoulder, though he felt something unnatural envelope the space around him. He could see his M-14's bolt and op-rod pull back from the gaseous pressure of the bullet firing. The bullet casing moved painfully slow through the air as it was ejected from the rifle, as though Galen was watching a film one frame at a time though the battle continued full-speed around him. He felt as if he was frozen in time.

The bullet still left the muzzle of his weapon though, the full-metal jacket round tearing through the air toward the woman's face. Her eyes widened, and faster than Galen ever seen a person move, she twirled left and shrieked, a hand slapping to her face.

"What the fucking Nether?!" she swore. "Damn it!"

She stood hunched over a moment clutching her face. Now completely stuck in his place, unable to move any part of his body, Galen could only watch as the woman began to chuckle.

It started with a huff, then a giggle. Then a chortle before she stood up straight and laughed to the ceiling.

"Magic that tosses copper so fast even I can't stop it," she stopped to laugh even more before calming down. "I must admit, warrior, you amaze me."

She slowly pulled her sword from its sheath, listening to the smooth shing as the steel left its home. Blood pounded in the Private's skull as he spotted the merciless barb it had on the end of the enlarged head of the blade. It still dripped with the blood of its previous victim.

"No, more than that. You impress me," the woman added. "Killing those Understorm commandoes. Winning the Val'sharess's daughter's attention. Commanding Drow respect even with them being the sticks in the mud they are."

She sighed and turned to Galen with a narrow glare.

There was a cut across her cheek, no worse than what letter opener could do and a polite smile on her face that iced Galen's veins.

Where is everyone else?! Why can't I move?!

"I hate to kill you, with you having the achievements you do. But you saved the head whores of the Drow forces. And killed my men. Or, well, Redding's men. My charges."

She paused in front of him, her smile turning sour.

"I also find displeasure in having to do the hard work by myself. But Fretheim wants a Princess and Xerivan hates the light."

FRETHEIM?! Galen wanted to roar at her, but he still couldn't move his fucking mouth!

She brought her sword to Galen's throat, the Private bracing as he felt the fine edge already draw blood from his skin.

"Stop," a voice growled as a dull blue light lit in Galen's peripheral.

The woman turned to face it, her blade holding at Galen's throat though it quickly pulled away once she saw the source. Her eyebrows were raised, and confusion quickly ran rampant across her face. At that moment, Galen expected a question in the ball park of "who or what are you," or for her to get blasted by one of Necela's spells. Only the woman to frowned and flourished her kopis.

"What are you doing down here?" she asked.

Necela stepped into Galen's vision then and he was ready to cry at the sight of her. He would have, only he was still frozen in space.

"There is more at stake here than your game. A lot rides on this man and you will not touch him or his allies. So leave. Now."

"He is one human. What could-"

"Haru!" Necela snapped. "He is my instrument after Pretayus!"

The woman tilted her head to the side. "Is he the one that-?"

She looked to him, taking a moment to focus on his face. "Oooohhh, he is! This explains EVERYthing. To think I almost killed him."

As Necela was about to say something, the woman screamed and slashed with her sword, slicing Necela open from her kidneys to her jugular. The goddess blinked, stumbling back a step before bursting into blue flame. The immolating puppet fell to its knees, gazing upon her soldier one last time before collapsing into dust.

Galen's heart stopped then. No spirit stepped out to vanish. Her dust didn't gather up and carry off. She burned and she dropped in an instant. The witch just slew the puppet of a goddess.

"You ruin my fun!" Haru hissed before turning to Galen. "But you will make up for that."

She grabbed onto his throat, her gloved hand digging in. Both her eyes flared a glowing silver color while black flames rose off of her hair. In her core Galen could feel his mana shift in a way comparable to his organs being scrambled within before getting weighted down with stone.

"You have magic that is not yours," she growled. "Magic that makes the game unfair. When Pretayus dies, you find me and earn your magic back."

Something pulsed within him. Then he screamed as he felt his organs scorch within his chest, his spine turning to molten metal. White wisps poured from his mouth and wound in front of his face into a crystal. When the jewel grew to the size of his fist, the pain stopped, his scream with it.

Haru released his neck and grabbed that crystal as he collapsed on the ground. The flare lighting the cavern went out, along with the shrill scream that deafened the Drow. When his Darkvision restored his sight, he saw Haru lifting the sides of her cloak. From under her cover emerged a dark cloud that spread out and twisted in unnatural ways at her back. It kept growing until it came to the size of an elephant, then it began to shift.

From the fog a scaled body with four legs and a horned head emerged. A tail stretched out behind it, and out from the center of its back between its shoulder blades sprouted a pair of wings broad enough to touch either side of the tunnel when they were fully spread.

Every possible word or title for the beast that ran through Galen's mind all came back to one word. Dragon.

"Xerivan," Haru called, drawing the beast's attention to her, then to the direction she pointed her finger. "Fetch what we came for."

The thing blinked, then looked to the carriage. In one strike it drove a claw through the side and pulled a swearing Drow out from within. Iim'treemay stabbed at its hand with her knife, but that proved useless as it roared and pulled her to its chest. Xerivan's skin opened up there, the black flesh peeling back and forming a hole in his body into which he tossed the Princess before his ribs closed in around her into a black, bone cage.

"I will see you again, warrior," Haru declared as her pet scooped her up next, placing her upon his back. "Maybe I'll catch your name!"

"Stop there, you bitch!" Galen cursed as he forced himself to his feet by using his rifle as a brace.

He took aim at the beast's head and started firing as fast as he could, avoiding full auto as he didn't want a chance of losing control and striking the Princess. Every bullet sent a puff of smoke exploding off the beast's skin and made it turn its head to the side. As more thirty caliber rounds struck its face it stumbled back onto its hind legs, even raising its arms to cover the Princess in his chest and the witch on his back. On the last shot of the magazine, the rifle's bolt locked back Galen made the mad dash for a fresh one.

"Not going to lose another..." he cursed as he yanked a new magazine free of his webbing.

When he looked up from his pouches, the back of a shadowy claw batted him off. The Private was sent the length of a tennis court before his back slammed into a glowing wall and he belly flopped onto the ground. Blinking in confusion with a body screaming in pain, he looked up at what he crashed into. The Drow forces were right there, pressed against a transparent barrier and desperately pounding on it with whatever weapons they had while others hit it with every spell in their arsenal. But not one of them had any effect.

Magic... a magic fucking wall to keep them out...

Even with every muscle and nerve in his body aching and the icy tension constricting his chest, Galen hauled himself back to his feet. As he stumbled trying to balance on his own he saw his rifle, and the magazine he had attempt to load into it, lying on the ground where the dragon had swatted him across the tunnel. He made a step toward the weapon, but the beast dropped onto all fours between them. And from her spot on its back, Haru laughed hysterically.

"Your determination doesn't die!" she cackled, wiping a tear from her cheek. "The way you flew, your thingy just dropping in place... it was priceless! Haha, but, alas, I've had my fun. Come, Xerivan, we have a princess to deliver, and rewards to reap."

The dragon burst into a cloud of smoke and rose above the ground on her word, the cloudy mass taking off down the tunnel in the direction opposite of the city. Screaming bloody murder Galen drew his pistol began firing into the monster, even limped after it before he fell to his hand and knees, the slide of his pistol locked back on an empty magazine.

His chest heaved, tears running rampant down his face as he began to sob. In a fit of rage he threw his pistol in the witch's direction, screaming, "Bring her back, you bitch!"

"Galen!" he heard Dreek.

In seconds the Commandant was at his side, along with Jrastra and several other Drow as well. Already he could feel the Empathy of the first Commandant enter his skull, but at the moment he couldn't care. He could only cry as he pounded a fist into the stone floor.

"I had one job... and I failed her... I failed them both..."

One Drow, a Red Sister, stepped forth with a look of pissed-off in her eye that could destroy worlds. Before she reached the surfacer, however, Dreek stepped between them and stopped the Sister with only a single shake of her head.

"You were outmatched, Galen," the third Commandant started, turning back to him. "Zer'tath was slain, the witch commanded a Shadow Shifter: a damned Demon! And I couldn't break her barrier even with the whole of the Faerdron assisting!"

She took a moment to cycle her lungs and try to calm that inferno raging within, "You did what I asked of you the best you could."

"I could've done better... I hesitated when I should've shot her in the fucking face straight off..."

"That doesn't matter now. What does matter is whether or not you are going to rise up to this, or give up and fail everyone you fought for. Celia, Iim'treemay, me."

Galen turned to the Commandant, holding the gaze of her violet eyes. Was he going to give up? He knew where the Princess was being taken. He knew where to find the witch, along with Pretayus and Celia. It was all in one place, wasn't it? Every egg he sought falling into one basket.

He needed only to gather his strength, and reach it.

Rising to his feet, the soldier drew a deep breath and wiped his eyes. With real clarity in his mind he gritted his teeth and looked down the tunnel to where the witch had disappeared.

"I made the promise to do everything I could to protect Celia. I swore to protect your Qu'essan. I swore I would never give up until the day I died." He swallowed the lump in his throat and tilted his helmet forward to sit properly on his head. "And I am a man of my word."