The Calling of the Chosen Chpt. 3

The next day went smoothly. The sun shone brightly in the blue sky, and clouds were placed here and there across that vast space. I continued to walk; I knew I had to be close to Taikan by now. I wondered what the town would be like, and what kind of people would live there. The sage had told me that it was a farming village, but the people were very proud and self-sufficient.


As the daylight began to fade, Taikan came into view. I reached the gates of the village, and noticed something very peculiar. No one moved through the streets, no children played. Windows had the shutters drawn and the lights were out. Only one building had its light on, and that was the bar. I went up the steps of the bar, called the Blue Boar, and went inside. Tables stood empty around the floor, and no one filled the chairs. A small stage in the middle of the room, which I assumed was for entertainment, stood silent. A voice from behind the bar startled me.
“Yer not from round here are ya?” the gruff voice said.
My head turned and I saw the bartender coming out from the back room.
“No…never seen your face before, and I reckon ya wouldn’t be out here if you knew what good for ya.”
“What do you mean? Why are the streets empty what is happening here?” I asked him.
“Ya really want to know, well ya do have a sword on ya; well its like this: Two weeks ago, this monster started attacking the town. It’s killed some good people, and many children. I thought that things like this only happened in old tales, but now it’s happening here. Several people have followed the bloody path north to its cave, but they have only added themselves to the dead.”
“Hmmm…well then maybe I can be of service.” I said
“What…you,” he said with a slight laugh, “you have got to be joking; the best swordsman in town died to that thing, and you want to go fight it.”
“Listen I won’t die and I can get rid of the monster if you will give me a room for the night and a little food.”
“How do I know you just aint trickin’ me?” He asked with a small frown.
“You don’t,” I replied, “but what other choice do you have?” I knew that he could not say any different, and that I had just scored a meal, and possibly a fight that could cost me my life. I wondered to myself if it was worth it.
“Fine, but ya better not leave in the middle of the night.” He said with a wary tone in his voice.
“Don’t worry I will leave at noon tomorrow to go to the monster’s nest.” I said with a smile, “and by no later than midnight one of us will be dead.”
He didn’t look too happy about that but he looked up the stairs and said, “The room upstairs to the left is ready to use, and I have some food left from dinner. I’ll get it from the back.”


After my modest, but filling dinner, I climbed the stairs and went into my room. It was simply furnished, a single bed, a lamp sitting on a nearby table, and a small dresser was all that filled the room. I had no intention of waiting until the next night to kill the beast, or of putting the man in harm’s way, so when I was certain the man was asleep I snuck out the window and down the side of the building. I froze small bits of the air to act as steps as I went down. When I reached the ground, I set out toward the cave that the old man had spoken of. The moon shown brightly overhead, and illuminated the darkness with its silver glow. The moon was a thing of wonder in itself. It was as white as the moon on Earth, but had rings that cut it diagonally. They shown in brilliant reds and purples against the moons white light.


A short time later, I finally reached the forest clearing where the cave was. A river ran near it and bones could be seen beneath the clear water. I froze a thin layer of water under my feet and made my way across the river. To any bystander it would have appeared that I was walking on only the water itself. As I put my feet back on solid ground a pair of red eyes opened in the cave. I moved closer, my hand on Avangaurd’s hilt. Without warning a huge scythe-like claw flew out from the cave. I barely got out of the way in time. The claw struck the earth with enough force to shatter the bedrock. Small stones hit me and dirt flew high into the air. Another claw flew from the darkness, and also cracked the earth. The monster began to move out of the cave. It was a sickening blackish-green. It continued to come forth from the cave, revealing more of its true nature. It was a giant mantis, nearly twenty times my height, and maybe forty feet long. I was dwarfed by its size. Its legs were covered in rows of spines, and its jaws clacked together with smacks and snarls. It hissed at me and attacked again, rending the earth with the impact of its deadly claws. I drew Avangaurd, and watched the moonlight play on its blade. I fired a round of ice shards at it. They bounced off of its hard outer shell. It continued to attack with its claws. I formed shields of frozen air and forced them to hold off its massive claws. I yelled out and let loose the band of ice from my sword. It cut through two of the mantis’ legs. I thought it would fall, but it seemed to have a few more hidden tricks. The area around the two wounds began to pulse and boil. A massive growth appeared at the end of each stump. From these growths two new legs shot forth. I was in big trouble if it could completely regenerate.


There had to be some way to defeat it. I wondered if there was a way to freeze it completely. Before I had a chance to concentrate, it opened its maw wide and spat out a swarm of insects. They flew towards me. They were nearly a foot long, and were armed with sharp stingers. The insects did not have the stingers just for show. They began to fire them at me. As one stinger was fired another pushed out to replace it. I quickly formed an ice shield around myself to block the barrage of stingers. Most bounced off, but several lodged themselves farther in the shield than I would have liked. To fight back I loosed an assault of ice shards. When struck by the shards, the bugs exploded into thick white-green goo. There were too many insects to defeat with shards alone though. As soon as I would dispose of one batch, more would take their place. The insects flew up in the air and turned to dive bomb me. I froze a wall of ice above me, and strained to hold it as the flying insects crashed into it. Avangaurd's power was pulsing through me. It was stronger than ever before. Their bodies popped and oozed on the ice, but I held it steady. As the last ones died, I began to fold the ice. I wrapped its corners in my mind, turning the wall into a sphere. It was full of the exploded bugs. I held it up with my mind and threw it at the mantis. It cracked the sphere with one of its claws causing the ooze to break free. I was ready for this instant. I froze the ooze and it fell in large chunks at the mantis. The falling ice cracked its exoskeleton in several places. This was my chance to finish it off. I leapt at it with my sword drawn and smashed it down into a crack in the protective plate on its head. I bore down hard and Avangaurd pierced through. The mantis convulsed and flung me off. I hit the ground hard, but forced myself to stand. I watched as its movements became jerky and wild. It fell to the ground, and I walked up to it and cut it through at the neck. Its giant eyes reflected my image as the head rolled from the body. My breathing was heavy and I felt light headed. I went to one knee and tried to calm myself. My body was exhausted, and my heart was pounding dangerously loud in my chest.


As I began to breathe normally again I heard someone laughing and applauding from behind me. I turned and saw a boy my age floating in the sky, with a smirk on his face, and a sword sheathed at his side. He was standing on a concentrated ball of dark energy, and as he came down he began to speak.
“That was quite impressive Ki, but I must say that I am quite unhappy about you killing my pet.” He reached the ground and stepped off the dark ball.
“Who are you, and why did you let this creature attack Taikan?” I asked him.
“Well I guess you have a right to know. I am Falgara…. the Dark Chosen.”
“So that means you’re a disciple of …no it can’t be…the seals could not have all been broken.” I was in a state of utter shock. How could this be possible?
“Yes, I am a servant of Letheon. You could call me his right hand man. But we have talked enough, you have something I want, and I intend to have it one way or another.” He pointed to my sword.
“I will not let you take Avangaurd. It is mine.” I glared at him.
“Fine, I was going to let you live, but I guess I can kill you now.”
“Not if I send you to hell first.” I yelled at him.
With that the fight started. I launched a wide spread of shards. Falgara dodged them with ease. He drew his sword. It had a slightly curved red blade that emitted an evil aura.
“This sword is called Nageron, the taker of men.”


He swung his sword and a rift appeared in the earth. I looked down into the dark abyss that it created, and was suddenly very worried. Only one swing had rent the earth, and his blade had not even touched the ground. Falgara laughed. The sound chilled me to the bone.
“Still think you can take me Ki?” He asked in a condescending voice.
“Bring it on.” I replied. Trying to keep my cool.


With that we started again. Our sword clashed, sparks flew from the two swords. Falgara did a back step, and cried (Darkness Sphere). Dark globes flew from his hand and zeroed in on me. I fired shards at them, and to some effect they worked. I couldn’t stop all of them and several hit me in the chest and back. A horrible pain flooded through my body. I could feel it affect every synapse, deep down to my atoms. As the pain washed away, I stood to my feet. I held out my sword and tried to shake away the lingering pain. Falgara staid where he was, but this time he called out (Dark Circle). The earth pulsed out a dark light around me and erupted with a flow of dark miasma. The pain was far worse than the spheres. It exhausted my power and caused me to fall to my knees. He attacked again, and with a single swing knocked Avangaurd high in the air. He pointed his hand at me and a dark ball of energy began to glow there. He was laughing as he did so. With my last remaining strength I fired a shard at his hand. It hit his mark, causing him to fire the dark ball into the air. Some outside force must have controlled the ball for it struck Avangaurd as it fell. The sword froze in the air. The black energy soaked into the sword, and the clear blade turned black. It throbbed with dark energy. The pure sword became completely corrupted. It was a stress that it wasn’t meant to take. Cracks appeared in the blade. I watched in helplessness as the cracks widened. In one burst of light the blade shattered, and the pieces flew across the sky. One piece fell back to Falgara, who was smiling at his victory. I fell back to my knees; my eyes glued to the ground. How was I supposed to save this world and myself without that sword? So much depended on that sword and I had let it be destroyed.


“Hahahahahahahaha…oh look at you. You are such a pathetic excuse for a Chosen. I wasn’t even using half of my power and I not only beat you, but destroyed your sword as well. How does it feel to be immersed in despair, Ki? I told you that you could not beat me.”


I kept my eyes on the ground. I heard every word that he said but I wasn’t recognizing it. Something churned in my heart. Rage boiled through me; I had never felt this kind of fury about anything before. Power rushed through me and I began to laugh, softly at first but then louder. It was a maniacal laugh. It scared me as well.
“What are you laughing at Ki? Can’t you understand that you have been beaten?” He asked.


I stood up, still laughing. The power I had now was like nothing I had ever felt, except for maybe the hatred that also pulsed through my veins. I froze over my hands until long spikes extended from them. Falgara looked surprised. I flung myself at him. He dodged the blows, but was having trouble keeping up. I jumped back, and shards flew from the spikes, which I kept replenishing. He put up a dark aura in front of him to act as a shield. I shattered it with a punch from the spike on my left arm. He blocked my next series of attacks but I got one cut on his cheek. A single drop of crimson blood slid down his face. He put his hand up and felt the wound. Falgara had not even realized that he had been hit. He unleashed more of his dark globes. I countered with a storm of ice shards. They shattered the globes and flew at Falgara. They did not strike a fatal blow, but several cut his arms and legs. I dispersed the ice spikes, and flung two beams of ice that cut though the earth. Falgara barley leapt away in time. He countered with bands of dark energy that he flung toward me. I shattered them with beams of my own. I continued to attack with this righteous fury. I summoned a barrage of hail like stones around me. I unleashed this icy tornado at Falgara, who was unable to dodge its powerful pull. It sucked him in and bashed him continuously. The power in me began to weaken, and the tornado began to slow. He landed on his feet, but his legs almost gave out on him. He was bloodied, but still had the smirk on his face.
“You are stronger than I gave you credit for Ki.” A drop of blood ran down his chin as he spoke. “But I still destroyed your sword, and mine is still intact. Be warned, next time we meet I will use my full power; I will not hold anything back.”


Falgara threw down a small black ball and disappeared into the dark miasma.
It was over. I fell to the ground as darkness overwhelmed me. Even though my body had collapsed, I still had control of my conscience. In the darkness I wondered where the power came from. I wondered if I had the power in me and all Avangaurd did was channel it, or maybe it was just a special sword. I didn’t know why I was able to do those things without the spell names, maybe I did not need them, and maybe I could control any attack that consisted of ice. I would worry about that when I awoke, the darkness was now seeping into my conscience and I gladly welcomed it.