“Azazel, shoot the hand of the monster that’s holding me. That should loosen its grip.”
The Falkaru continued to pull at the ethereal chain that kept it in place. The muscles of the beast flexed with each pull and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before it was free.
“I don’t want to hit you Hannah, I’m not a perfect shot!”
“Just do it! I trust you.”
Azazel was reluctant to shoot any arrows in my direction. I had given him an order as his Potentate, so he was forced to follow it.
He flexed his strange feathered leather wings and took to the sky. Up until that point I hadn’t seen him fly. His flight wasn’t graceful, it reminded me of a bat as he flapped around. He flew and encircled the Falkaru preparing to take a shot. The monster swiped its claw towards Azazel but missed.
The storm gave Azazel an advantage over the trapped monster. He was still glowing , but the rain and wind gave him a certain amount of camouflage.
Azazel stopped midpoint in the air and fired an arrow.
The monster moved and the projectile flew only inches past my head.
I looked at Azazel.
He looked back at me with a troubled expression.
“Come on man. Watch what you’re doing!” yelled Captain Douglas from below.
Azazel hissed at the Alsatian. His expression towards the dog was more devilish than angel.
The Falkaru yanked on the ethereal chain several more times. Sparks of energy erupted with each pull. I could sense that the chain wouldn’t take much more.
The Acolyte shot a quick series of arrows. One connected into the meat of the monster’s claw and another punctured its wrist. The arrows didn’t hurt the Falkaru necessarily, it was more so the sting of the ethereal energy that weakened it.
The monster howled in pain and released its grip on me.
I managed to free an arm. So I reached down and pulled the tome from my jacket.
The book opened by itself to a blank page. I knew it was the tome itself that was trying to help me, but I had no idea what to do next.
In response to Azazel’s attack the Falkaru grabbed a huge chunk of the cement base of the building and tossed it at him. The Acolyte took the full brunt of the attack. The concrete blocks pummeled into him and he crashed down to the ground. The pile of building material crumpled down on top of him and he disappeared into the rubble.
Azazel laid motionless in the debris. For a second I thought he might have been badly injured, but he stood up and shook off the dust from his wings.
Seeing what had happened, Captain Douglas leapt again to attack the monster's heels. The Falkaru ignored the canine and started pulling on the ethereal chain again.
Through the driving wind and rain I secured the tome with one hand. Staring at the blank page led me to believe that I was missing something simple. I concentrated on the page attempting to see something that was invisible to me.
“What do I need to do Uriel?” I said to myself.
I reached deep within myself and found some clarity of thought. It was then that I realized that the incantations in the book weren’t written in any language. They were more like energy stored within the fibers of the pages. Like a hidden painting that no one could see.
Knowing this I reached out with my mind and felt the energy of the incantation. The energy jumped off the page and I knew I could use it against the monster that held me. I directed the incantation like a conduit into my body. It swirled in my hand and floated like an invisible ball of lightning.
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I wasn’t sure what to do next.
The Falkaru stopped pulling on the chain and noticed the energy that I held. It bellowed with rage and started squeezing me harder as it tried to crush me into submission. The pain from being crushed vaulted me into action.
I touched the monster and released the energy into its hand. A blast of lightning shot down from the heavens and collided with the beast. The Falkaru sizzled with the force of the lightning blast, but somehow I was immune to the effect.
A loud thunderclap followed seconds later.
The beast's hand opened up and I fell to the ground beside Captain Douglas.
I wasn’t quite sure what had happened, or what I did, but when I looked up I could see the Falkaru glowing with ethereal energy. Its claw was smoking and it roared in pain.
“Blimey Hannah, how did you get… nevermind!” Captain Douglas said.
Quickly, I crawled away with the Alsatian through the soaked wreckage. We got out of reach of the monster and headed for the car. Azazel extricated himself from the concrete debris and followed in our footsteps.
We all plowed into my car and I started the engine.
The Falkaru roared as it saw us getting away. It proceeded to yank on the ethereal chain with all its might and the link snapped. I could hear a loud popping sound as the chain broke. Azazel grimaced in the front seat of the Plymouth. He seemingly still had a connection to the energy.
“Are you ok?” I asked Azazel.
“Don’t worry about me Hannah. Let’s get out of here!”
I turned on the front headlights and hit the gas. We fishtailed out of the water logged parking lot and onto the desert highway. The storm started to lift and a full moon appeared through the parting clouds. It was still drizzling rain, but the celestial body in the sky allowed me to see the road more clearly.
The Falkaru rose from the destruction of the restaurant. Now that it was free it took to pursuing us. The malevolent beast strode on all four limbs like a lion after its prey. It was much clumsier with its extra long front limbs, but it was still faster than any animal I’d ever seen. The giant monster was twice the size of a huge truck; its twenty-five foot length was keenly evident in the rearview mirror.
“Better speed up Hannah!” Captain Douglas said.
“I know, I know dammit!”
The monster came up on us fast and caught the back bumper of the car with one of its claws. It would have captured us if not for Azazel who popped out the side window and shot an arrow into the beast’s hand. The monster released the back bumper of the Plymouth and I sped up the car even more.
“Keep driving fast and drifting in Limbo. I’ll see if I can distract the Falkaru so we can get away.”
With that Azazel leapt from the passenger window and took to the sky again. He flew in circles around the monster as he tried to distract it. His tactics worked as the beast slowed down. It became preoccupied with both pursuing the car and defending itself from the acolyte.
The Falkaru tried swatting at Azazel like a fly, but missed several times.
As Azazel suggested I took advantage of the situation and started drifting in Limbo. I reached out with my mind and guided the car towards the Tree of Life. I was done being waylaid by errand creatures and decided that it was time to get questing.
The book was open on the front seat beside me, so I quickly glanced at the Falkaru stats.
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[Monster]
Name: Falkaru
Total Points: 275
Current Points: 159
Power: 7
Type: Fiend
Location: Limbo
Weakness: Angel Fire, Ethereal Energy
Abilities: Hunter Seeker
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When I started drifting the scenery around us changed. The desert slowly gave way to foothills with a more rocky type of strata. The highway changed from a paved road to gravel. I noticed that we passed over several sets of railroad tracks in quick succession. Too many to make any sense. I saw several bright stars in the night sky that seemed way too big to be real. Then I realized that they weren’t stars, but giant creatures flying high up in the atmosphere.
Drifting was becoming easier each time I did it. This time it was as easy as opening and closing doors. I knew where I wanted to go so it was just a matter of passing through the shadows to reach my destination. I realized that this place wasn’t like a normal geographic landscape. Roads didn’t necessarily lead to anywhere in particular as Limbo was a place of insubstantiality. In order to travel in the afterlife one needed to simply envision a destination.
Drifting was similar to looking in the index of a book and fast forwarding to the desired destination. At least that was how I thought of it at that time.
I looked out the back window and could see that the Falkaru was still angrily on our tail.
I didn’t know who had sent this beast after me, but I had a clue from when Azazel tried to connect to my mind. Before I woke in the clutches of the Falkaru I had had a vision. It was a female’s voice that I had heard in my reverie. It told me that I would never be Potentate again, so whoever she was, she was interested in stopping me from obtaining my token.
I knew that this entity was the one who had been after me since my arrival in Limbo.