SDIV El Juego Chapter 27 Pt 3

The smell was almost bearable, almost. Lllorente gave in and vomited what little he had in his stomach over the nearest pile of corpses still awaiting burial. Sir Frederic’s insistence on doing the right thing carried its own burdens, and a little extra would make no distance. Trying not to take too deep a breath, he continued to dig.

“Hold, knave!”

The voice sounded like Sir Frederic’s. but the Knight was over the far side of the village carrying out his own burial detail.

“I said hold!”

Llorente turned and the familiar sight of mounted warriors met his eyes. This was in some way déjà vu with respect to his last visit to the area. At least he did not look like a magician as his rifle was out of sight, but obviously once again these people had jumped to conclusions. Enough was enough!

“Who the fuck are you calling knave?” he spat, straightening up and gripping the spade in his hands more tightly.

“You,” sneered the horseman, drawing his sword, “and I intend to teach you a lesson…”

“What would that be,” asked Llorente with a smirk, having noticed Burns rifle poking from the nearest cabin, “how to behave as an educated gentleman?”

“Why you…” the horseman rose up in his stirrups, fully intending to strike the obnoxious Llorente down where he stood.

“Hold!” a louder voice roared and Sir Frederic appeared, trailed by a number of other mounted and lightly armoured men and boys.

“Who are you to tell me…” began the irascible horseman. He never finished his sentence as the spade slammed into him at full swing, knocking him from his mount to sprawl amidst the pile of bodies.

“Llorente!” roared Sir Frederic.

“Sorry,” mumbled Llorente, trying ineffectually to hide his pleased grin, “but the prick was being disrespectful.”

Sir Frederic also tried manfully to retain his dignity, but a rueful chuckle escaped before he could control it.

“My cousin has always been a bit of a prick,” he agreed quietly with Llorente, before turning to face the new arrivals he had brought with him.

“You want me to hit him again?” asked Llorente, eying the moaning cousin where he lay.

“Only if he deserves it…” began Sir Frederic, and then as Llorente eagerly raised the spade he finished, “…again.”

The solid thud of the spade against armour gave him his reply.

SDIV El Juego Chapter 22 Part 1

Chapter Twenty-Two

Emerald Forest
Zone I

Mammon dragged Llorente mercilessly through the thin woodland, the soldier had long since lost the will to struggle, his absolute terror unmanning him.

Mammon said nothing; his blood smeared face resolutely pointed forward towards the nearest portal. His hand flexed around the transmitter in his pocket; the sooner he got away from this godforsaken zone the better. Pulling the mechanism out, he saw that the light was now shining a steady blue. Dragging Llorente to his feet, he pushed the activation button once and smiled thinly as the portal opened.

As it shimmered to life, Mammon began again to drag a now screaming Llorente through; the soldier having recently recovered his voice.

The sudden arrival of Ngulu the Broken changed everything. Limbs smashed Mammon to the ground, stomping and tearing in the Demon’s haste to save his new Master. Cornelius for his own part was unconcerned, and showed it as he casually turned and threw bolts of power into the mass of creatures behind him. Someone was repeating themselves and he did not like it.

The Ambryn were a threat, but he saw them now more as a nuisance. They were in his way. He wanted the creature from the fighter. Somehow Cornelius knew that he was to blame for this, and above all Clari’s death. He had long ago forgotten about his sacred quest, the mystical Blade and the Taartun prophecy. Butt wanted blood, death and revenge. Not necessarily in that order.

*

Llorente opened his eyes and tried to understand why he could see stars, or rather a star. Its incessant blue blinking helped to clear his vision and it all came rushing back. He could see Mammon crawling towards him, dragging his useless limbs behind. The sound of weapons fire, and lots of it, forced his attention away momentarily, and he felt an enormous relief at the sight Burns, although the rampaging demon did make him wonder about his companion’s choice of allies.

Then he swore, as even viler creatures pushed their way through the portal, and grabbed at the transmitter, scrabbling at the ground nearby where it had fallen. Frantically he stabbed his finger against the buttons on its surface; one of them had to do something!

A clawed hand stabbed into his thigh and Llorente mewled in pain and exasperation. He bunched his fist and hit down, mashing a series of buttons randomly in his haste. Various scenes flickered before his eyes; demons, screaming soldiers, knights in shining armour and even a fair-skinned blue-eyed angel, before the portal began to shrink. Burns’ hand grabbed his collar and the hot gases from his rifle curled past Lllorente’s head as he was pulled away from the oncoming monsters.

Mammon saw the portal shrinking and also tried to crawl to safety. A clawed hand snagged into his flesh and he was inexorably pulled into the diminishing dimensional doorway.

“Help me!” he screamed, his eyes pleading.

Llorente pulled away from Burns and scrambled to his feet, running towards the struggling Mammon.

“What are you doing, idiot,” shouted Burns, stalking forward, his rifle snarling death.

“I can’t leave him like this…” said Lllorente, swinging his foot forward and stamping down on Mammon’s hand which scrabbled in the nearby soil, “I need to give him all the help he deserves.”

Burns shook his head, as Lllorente laughed in manic glee. Two more clawed hands snatched a wailing Mammon away and the portal closed with a final snap of air.

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.

SDIV Chapter 11 Pt2

Clari had waited her turn, circling the enraged Tauran’s head whilst her Master appeared in no danger. However, when Grishak rose to his full height, towering over Cornelius, she struck. Corrosive liquid arced out, impacting on the Tauran’s face and arms, and allowing Butt to strike again. Satisfied she moved away, looking for the opportunity she was sure to come.

Blood loss weakening him, Grishak knew he only had one chance. He swung his axe experimentally, trying to work out how to compensate for the unbalancing effect of Burton’s corpse, and at last he grunted, in some small part satisfied that he was ready. He shuffled back, positioning himself, and waited.

Cornelius ignored the ineffectual swinging of the beast’s axe. He was, by now, angry not only at this enemy but at the general injustice of the Universe. A little violence would cure him of his ire. With a cry he leapt forwards, ducking under the axe’s swing and slicing his knives forward.

Using the weight of the attached human, Grishak swung and in a half-fall, sliced the axe through the wooden supports to one side. With a groan, the already half-destroyed wall, collapsed entirely, burying Cornelius in a cascade of rubble.

Grishak grunted, the end of the lance still sticking out from his back, and slowly made his way over to the opposite wall. He pushed the end of the wood against the hard surface and placed both of his hands against the ex-Inspector’s rapidly cooling chest.

With a slow and inexorable pressure, digging his hooves into the floor, he pushed. His muscles bunched and strained as gradually the body moved; little by little the wooden shaft slid gratingly through him. Sweat streamed from his forehead, mixing with both his blood and that of the defunct Burton.

When there was enough of a gap, he reached for his axe, nearly falling as the change in the weight distribution dragged him down. He heaved himself back upright, roaring in rage as the wood inside him grated and tore. Taking hold of the axe’s head in both of his hands, he smashed it down repeatedly until the combined assault snapped the shaft. Free of the weight, he raised his arms to the sky and screamed, before he slowly and methodically moved towards the fallen Cornelius.


Flagship
Unknown Location

“This is fun,” commented Shan, as he watched the scene unfold, “I now see why my erstwhile Masters enjoyed the death and destruction so much.”

There was no reply and Shan sighed in mock resignation.

“Everyone is a critic,” he said, nodding to his men. There was a double crack, and the remaining players slid to the floor. Not dead, merely subdued, for the moment.

“Now,” said Shan, speaking aloud, “we really need to see what this machine is capable of. Time for a little escalation I think.”

Tapping various characters on the holo-screen, he ran through the available inventory, chuckling as he found one particular entry. With more determination, he moved the now active piece to the in-play board and zoomed local camera links in to watch more closely.

“Oh my, yes indeed,” he breathed excitedly, “this is about to become very interesting.”

El Wildwose

The Wildwose has finally been translated by me. It is now in the final stage of editing and I hope to have it available on Smashwords and Amazon by the end of the month.

Watch this space!

Cheers

Rayo

El Wildwose finalmente ha sido traducido por mí. Ahora se encuentra en la etapa final de edición y espero tener la versión final disponible en Smashwords y Amazon a finales del mes.

¡Mire este espacio!

Un Saludo

Rayo