SDIV El Juego Chapter 21 Part1

Chapter Twenty One

Cemetary Plain
Zone III

Shan was scared, and for a monstrosity like him, that was worrying indeed. He could not shake Cornelius no matter how hard he tried, and desperation began to seep into his bones. Thumbing his communicator, he called the control centre.

“Are you there?”

“Of course,” came the reply, a sneer apparent in the Ori’s voice.

“I need a distraction,” snarled Shan.

“Don’t we all?” asked the Ori, his voice slurred by his lack of teeth.

“Enough!” snapped Shan, “this errant player has just skirted past the bottom rung on the demi-god ladder. Send me reinforcements.”

“All we have are the Ambryn,” replied the Ori, “and they are busy eating what’s left of your last game piece. We do have a few more in stasis…”

“I don´t care,” gasped Shan, jinking his fighter to one side as a ball of flames whistled past, “throw them into the fray, and I mean literally.”

“Your wish is my command…drop-pods deployed…right on your position!”

The Ori was not joking! He had fired the drop pods from the ship straight down Shan’s throat. He was not even sure the Ambryn would survive, but that was none of his concern. A quick look at his scanners saw Ngulu breaking away, desperately trying to avoid the rain of fiery missiles.

Shan gunned his engines, putting his own safety first. These Ambryn would eat their way through this zone and the next. If he managed to survive this encounter, he could torch and rebuild. Right now though, escape from the rampaging dwarf was his only thought.

*

Voices continued to intrude on Cornelius’ thoughts, this time though, they did not have the sweet insistence of Clari. Instead they hissed, snarled and hungered. Whatever was in those drop pods yearned to be free, to eat, fight, kill and consume. In his altered state, Cornelius felt no fear. Rather, he saw the problem as an inconvenience to be dealt with quickly, before he continued with his pursuit of the now rapidly receding fighter.

“Down!” he commanded Ngulu, and the demon obeyed, folding its wings and plummeted towards the ground.

Drop pods slammed to earth all around, yet none struck Cornelius and his ride. Of his companions there was no sign and Cornelius dismissed them from his mind. He felt Ngulu’s rage and battle madness and revelled in its dark majesty. Killing was an outlet for his own anger, and this promised rich fare.