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Chapter Sixty One

“I think he left through this large sky light,” Hani chimed in while pointing to the broken glass around his feet.

“You think?” Deacon said, as he got back to his feet.

“Deacon, I need you to do this for us. This is the reason all Sea-Elves leave the ocean’s embrace. I will charter a ship for you to take him north. Please let me help. Once I’m back on my feet I’ll assign some managers to handle our business interests. The northern sea is three weeks travel by ship from the eastern continent of the beast men, Eikerland. I have some contacts there. Bring him to the port city of Cracked Cove and we can go from there,” Mentalba pleaded with Deacon.

“Relax. I’m going to help you. No need to beg. There are things happening at Shattered Sky I need to deal with first. Right now that’s where he is, if he’s this important he’s in a very dangerous place right now. We need to go,” Deacon replied as he slowly tugged his sleeve away from Mentalba’s grasp.

“Thank you. I’ll start preparations right away. There are many dangers in the sea, and I can think of no better defender for him. I will meet you a Cracked Cove,” Mentalba explained as he stood up feeling much better.

There were voices from downstairs floating into the office they all occupied. Deacon nodded to Hani and Tantus. They all knew it was time to go. Down the staircase and passed the confused looking employees that were milling around the ransacked workshop, Deacon and his team exited out onto the main road. One of the employees started to call out to them before Mentalba appeared at the top of the stairs to get everyone’s attention.

“Keep your eyes on the skies. I don’t think Efimeo has gone far,” Deacon said as they raced through the streets and alley ways toward the cemetery.

“What’s deal with this creature?” asked Hani.

“An old foe from the invasion of this city that I let live. It appears he now has a way to cheat death since I watched him get eaten by that dragon in the capital,” Deacon summarized.

“Someone should author a book about your life. It’s crazy,” replied the man dressed as a jester complete with bells jingling on his shoes.

“Do you two hear that?” Tantus asked as they rounded a corner that revealed the wrought iron fencing of the cemetery.

Deacon could barely hear the sounds metal clashing and the flapping of wings. He used Spectral Jump to leap over the fencing and gain some altitude. From this vantage point he could see Amanda clashing with Efimeo. She was giving the winged monstrosity a hard time. He kept darting in with a sword slash that she would deflect with her shock daggers. They would then send a mild current up the blade that injured Efimeo. The two would break away from each other and clash again.

“He’s turned your life into a living hell. Admit it! We can slay him together. We’ll be heroes. High Priestess Ruby said you’d be amenable. This doesn’t look amenable to me,” Efimeo taunted as he flapped both wings creating a large gust to push back the poison mist Amanda just spit at him.

“Where is she!” screamed Amanda before throwing a needle that sunk into Efimeo’s black wing.

“Someone holding a grudge I see. I know how that is. You sure you won’t reconsider—” Efimeo was interrupted as Deacon landed a Spectral Dash amplified running knee to his back launching the winged man forward and through a mausoleum wall.

“You good? This asshole almost killed Mentalba. I’m going to rip his wings off and beat him featureless,” Deacon said as he stepped between Amanda and the downed Efimeo.

“Actually, no. I could use an invite,” Amanda said as her hand covered a wound on her right leg.

It wasn’t as bad as Mentalba’s or even his wounds from the fight in the arena. Then Deacon remembered the sword did extra damage to men. If any of the others were here besides Sophie, this fight would have been bad. Deacon sent her a party invite just as Hani and Tantus came into view. They also received invites. Then Deacon stalked over to the rubble and Efimeo combo. Amanda appeared right next to him, both daggers on display. Brining up the rear was Hani and Tantus. Hani had his hat in hand, one bell in the other ready to throw. Tantus brandished his new staff glowing with magical potency.

Efimeo stood up from the crumbling stone wall to his full seven-foot-height. The bloody cloth covering his face was askew revealing pointed teeth exposed from a grin on the left side of his face. Efimeo lifted Manslayer from the ground and paused. He looked to Amanda, then Tantus, and finally Hani who was now spinning his hat at his side. He’d taken some damage from Deacon’s strike but nothing he couldn’t handle. Now for seasoned adventurers would be trouble. Efimeo went to flap his wings to gain some altitude. He found that soaring attacks with the blade added additional momentum to his strikes, but he soon noticed his black wing would not move. He turned his head to look at it as Amanda called out.

“I saw Deacon hopping over tombs on his way to us and figured you might run away like the cowardly dog you are, so I paralyzed that wing. You’re going to get what’s coming you for what you did to our friend,” Amanda taunted.

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“Friends,” Deacon added as he launched himself at the distracted Efimeo.

Deacon’s dragon claws came out as he sped toward Efimeo. His momentum was abruptly halted as he found himself smashed into the ground from above. The sound of crunching bone came from his right humerus as a second Efimeo with opposite colored wings wielding a golden mace, swooped down from above. Hani swung his hat at the monster only to have it deflected by the mace as the doppelganger brought it back up for another crushing blow. Tantus launched a condensed ball of water from the tip of the staff lined up perfectly to hit both of the winged monstrosities. That forced them to split as the Efimeo with the numb wing danced to his left and the other launched back into the air.

Cradling his right arm, Deacon wailed in agony. He tried getting up but every motion that even slightly jostled his arm brought with it white hot lances of pain. Back in his old world he’d never broken a bone or ever sustained any serious injury. Even getting run through with Manslayer wasn’t as bad as this. It must be a special property of that weapon. His friends were fighting hard around him, and he had to do something. It was hard to even concentrate through the pain he was feeling.

Deacon had some Infernal healing potions left but he also theorized he needed to be channeling the Infernal plane for full effectiveness or suffer some unknown side effect like Daskus. He just couldn’t focus enough to switch power source right now. The damage was internal, and he could see that his health bar was down to seventy five percent out of one fifty. Half of his health was gone with one blow.

“Keep them off of Deacon until he gets to his feet,” command Tantus stepping into a leadership role as he protected Deacon with his shield ring.

Amanda was in a fierce melee with the sword wielding Efimeo and Hani was swiping at the mace wielding one with his hat on full spin. The one with the mace kept taking to the sky and swooping down at Hani who was putting on quite the show of whipping his hat around his waist and sending it out at Efimeo from odd angles. Once he even stepped on the barely visible cord shortening the length of the attack to swipe at the monster from the side. His dance was almost mesmerizing.

Deacon needed to help as these monsters were clearly designed to take him down. He focused enough through the pain to hit the sword wielding Efimeo with an Inspect hoping the information would help his team.

Efimeo Cullep, Fates Chosen- Efimeo Cullep was selected by the Fates at the end of the invasion of Iron Mountain Plateau. This event kicked off a war between kingdoms and the Fates used some of that history making energy to change Efimeo into their personal warrior. Each of them were blessed with a unique weapon and an imperative to learn Deacon, Champion of Chimera’s full name for their nefarious plans. Level 22/ Split Souled Homunculus.

Deacon was shocked at the depth of information found in the description. He asked himself why the fates didn’t hide more of that detail or if it had something to do with his involvement in it. That’s when another spike of pain brought his attention back to the here and now.

“Deacon, you have to get up. I can’t heal you with my magic and I can’t help them while I’m protecting you. You have to do something,” Tantus pleaded.

‘I can change it for you. I just need your permission,’ came the voice of Sun Wu.

“Do it!” Deacon yelled.

Deacon’s eyes burned with the fires of perdition. His Infernal Regen potion floated out of his bag, and he snatched it up with his left hand. Once he downed the potion, he could feel the coarse fiery energy focusing on his arm. Fragments of bone were being reset in their initial positions before being fused back together. The searing pain in his arm caused Deacon to curl up into a ball beneath Tantus.

Then Tantus flew back as the mace wielding Efimeo switched targets and slammed the spiked golden weapon into Tantus’s shield lifting him off his feet. He tumbled to a stop a few yards from his starting position. It seemed the shield had taken the brunt of the blow and popped just after Tantus left the ground.

Amanda took a vicious slice to her left arm leaving it dangling at her side. The tall, winged creature before her loomed and slowly brought his sword up to finish her off. As he was about to strike her down his black wing fluttered. He’d gained the use of his wing back much to Amanda’s dismay. Efimeo gained some lift feeling superior once again and looked down at her, that was when the mace wielding Efimeo flopped in a corkscrew motion to the ground at his feet. The sword wielder looked back to see Deacon standing up with two blazing red pupils surrounded by twelve small spinning crimson sickles. The sword wielder landed and helped his opposite up. They exchanged some quick words before both took to the air.

Deacon hadn’t been this furious since Armand died. He was actually seeing red. The two Efimeo’s wanted to swoop in at him to attack him from both sides. That was just fine in Deacon’s opinion. Hani was yelling something about dodging and Amanda was slumped against a gravestone letting the regeneration from Triage fix her wounded arm. Deacon’s right arm was about sixty percent healed. He probably needed another potion but there was no time for that, they were coming. He hoped his plan would work.

As the two Efimeo’s swooped in to strike at Deacon with their enchanted weapons Deacon threw his Infernal Sickles wide. He jumped into the air before both Efimeo’s and tapped his belt buckle twice. A ten by ten foot wave of sticky tar splashed into both winged monsters bringing them to the ground in a lump. The one with the mace lashed out at his surroundings blinded by the tar. He smashed into his brother’s rib cage who began to keen in pain before slicing out with his sword. Manslayer managed to slice down through the mace wielders right wing and into his shoulder. That made the other start to scream. Then it was Deacon’s turn. All twelve fiery sickles slammed into them. Six each. The fumes from the tar ignited a blaze that consumed both of them.

Deacon took a chair out of his bag and sat down to drink another potion. He watched the two of them burn in the tar pit while his group gathered up and Tantus used his healing spell. Once the two winged monstrosities stopped moving, Deacon switched his source of power back to the Nether and activated Grave Walker. The tar began to swirl around into a circle about twenty feet in diameter. Within the circle were two blacked skeletons complete with skeletal wings. No weapons could be found anywhere. The arms of the skeletons reached up to hold the ring of tar in mid air and at the center of the ring ghostly hands sprouted pulling reality apart and revealing the cemetery just outside of Crok’s Landing. Deacon’s team all stepped through the portal to the other side. As they passed through they all said thank you to the kind attendants holding up the gateway.