Kip closed his eyes as Davorin’s hand jetted toward him. Davorin’s smile grew on his face, his fangs flaring in the low light. In the brief interlude of time, Kip’s mind wandered. Had he timed it right? Was he in the right room? Did his plan work or was he about to have his head ripped off by a single finger?
A small snap went off under Kip’s foot. Davorin looked down, he saw Kip’s little foot on a stone tile now slightly depressed. Davorin’s formidable speed allowed him to process information with inhuman quickness. Davorin noticed it in Kip’s eyes. He was looking at something. Davorin stared up at the same thing. A snare trap hidden within the curtain even though the room was underground. Spiked teeth made from the jawbone of an ultramegalodon, taut by a metallic wire, begged to crash down. The stepped tile gave the jawbone its permission and crash down, it did. The teeth sunk into Davorin’s outstretched hand. His finger, a half an inch away from Kip’s eye, was now frozen in place as Davorin resisted for a brief second. Davorin yelled out as the unblockable force of the teeth pulled him down, slamming against the floor and pinning him to the ground.
Kip caught his breath. Davorin was staring up at him, his arm still pinned, “I was worried it wouldn’t reach you in time!” Kip said. He stuck his finger up and, “Thanks, Davorin. Good game.”
Kip bent over and attempted to touch but Davorin was too quick. Davorin escaped behind Kip by pulling his arm off the trap, the teeth of the ultramegalodon ripped his blue flesh and skin off with him. Davorin’s arm dangled against his torso, only holding on by a few threads of sinew. A vampire’s blood was coagulated. Drips of burgundy jelly fell off his exposed wound as he turned around.
“I’ll admit,” Davorin said, “I have a bad habit of toying with my food. Much like a wingless four-legged bat.” Davorin kicked the closed door so hard it flew across and shattered when hitting against the shark maw. Kip was nowhere to be found… Davorin went over and examined where the spring trap had been hiding. Behind a curtain, nestled inside of a wall. He reared his head in and looked up, only to see the tiny red dragonling wriggling his way in between the space of the wall, climbing up.
“Blast it.”
Davorin shot out of the lower level up to the light again. He leapt up to the top of the labyrinth wall and looked at the crowd.
Maeve circled overhead, “It seems whatever scuffle happened underground, somehow Kip managed to detach the Dark Lord’s arm! Truly amazing! Could this sneaky power be why the Dark Lord chose Kip as his successor?”
Davorin spotted a beefy goblin. Bigger than most, and a whole lot of blood. The beefy goblin whispered to his friend, “Is he lookin at me?”
The goblin next to him said, “I think you better go.”
“I paid good money for a spot this close, I’m not lea-”
The goblin felt the subtle plunge of Davorin’s two teeth into his neck, and it was lights out.
Davorin’s arm connected back with his torso. He pumped his fingers and stretched his limb. Just like new. He turned his attention to the labyrinth. Davorin closed his eyes. His heightened hearing would normally do him good if people weren’t surrounding him and cheering.
“The prince of darkness has drained a goblin dry and has rejuvenated his arm! What could this mean for the tides of battle? Will Kip just rip this arm off as well?”
“QUIET!” Davorin had cast no magic, and yet a spell fell over the entire labyrinth. Every monster who had just seen him mercilessly drain the goblin of blood knew not to speak. The monsters in the bottom row dared not even breathe. And with that, Davorin could finally hear clearly. Mostly people struggling to hold their breath, but the frothy crinkling sound of clothes as someone snuck through a tiny wall space.
“There.” Davorin said.
He leapt over the walls of the labyrinth and could hear Kip climbing up and out of the hole. His smile came back as he looked down at his prey’s hiding spot. Davorin began stepping lightly. He looked up at the banshee circling the skies and placed his blue finger on his lips. The entire lower floor audience did not disobey.
Awful quiet, Kip thought, Awful awful quiet. Kip could look out of his crawl space and while could not see any of the monsters over the walls, he noticed Maeve flying overhead, for some reason not commentating even though it was her job.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Kip opened up his scroll. Ever since his bout with the clockwork, a notification had popped up.
Level: 2
New abilities available:
* Shimmering Scales: +5 Defense (Needed for Daggerous Scales upgrade)
* Dragoneye 1: Low Light vision (Needed for Treasure-vision upgrade)
* Burst: Higher Jump (Needed for Dragon Wings upgrade)
He had held off on choosing, as he was unsure which would aid him most for this battle. But now he knew. He selected his power and crawled out of the hole.
He walked as a lamb to the slaughter, letting Davorin think he got the best of him then uttered his first ever combat ability, “Burst.”
Kip leapt into the air, higher than he had ever jumped. His arms flailed as he was not used to this great height. As his body flipped he could see Davorin’s arm where his body used to be. Kip had successfully escaped the vampire’s lurch. Kip took off a clay sphere from his belt and coughed a single spark on it. The fuse lit and Kip threw it at Davorin.
“Aw, hell yeah,” Said Zeke, watching excitedly from the crowd. He turned to the giant boa constrictor next to him and said, “That was my idea.”
The grenade came down on Davorin who caught it. He looked up and went, “A pathetic little incendiary devi-”
The device exploded, aerosolizing the water soaked in garlic all over Davorin.
Kip fell back down. Kip approached Davorin cautiously, as the vampire grappled with the garlic. Bent over and covering his face.
Davorin was doubled over as he said, “My eyes, my nose… I… HATE garlic! It’s my least favorite root!”
“It’s actually a bulb,” Kip said.
“I think I know the classification of my least favorite root is.” Davorin said as he looked up at Kip, not a foot away. Kip jabbed with his finger. Davorin was gone. He had been replaced by a series of bats, flying around Kip, then rejoining into Davorin’s corporeal form behind Kip.
Davorin said, “I think playtime has long been over, don’t you?” Davorin flicked Kip with his foot, Kip was thrown backward and collapsed against the wall with a portrait of the dark lord mounted. He fell down and the picture toppled onto him. Davorin picked up the picture and slammed it over Kip’s head. The fabric tore around poor Kip, pinning him in place.
“You can at least admit I put up a good fight!” Said Kip.
“No. No, I don’t think I will.” Davorin smacked Kip, who spit out blood from the force of the blow. It toppled him and the canvas ripped as Kip fell further down the painting.
Davorin dropped his knee down on Kip’s neck. Kip gasped for air and unlocked another garlic grenade from his pouch, with the give from the canvas, he held the grenade up to his mouth and coughed on it. Davorin kicked it and it flew so high it flew up into the air, exploding as Maeve wafted through it.
“We will not be using that again.” Davorin said.
Kip looked around, there was slow ooze in the next room over. There was magma two rooms down the left. There was a trap door that led to spikes just five feet away, but it wouldn’t help. It would only delay. This was Davorin, the unquenchable. Davorin who held off the Ducervi. Kip rustled into his pocket.
“And to think, you could have quit. Or abdicated. But know, a little worm like you didn’t know his place.”
Kip squealed and gagged and it almost sounded like words.
“What’s he trying to say?!” Maeve yelled to the crowd, “What are Kip’s final words?! If you’re going to kill him, at least let us hear his final words! Maybe an apology? And if so, to whom?!”
The whole crowd started to rile up again, begging Davorin to show him an ounce of mercy. Davorin sighed and let off just enough pressure for Kip to speak.
“What is it?”
“I said… I could have given up like you, right?”
“What are you on about?” Davorin snarled.
“After the battle with the Ducervi… you hid. For fifteen years. This is the first time you’ve even been topside. I’m proud of you, even if it took you this long.” Kip grabbed the ring from his pocket.
Davorin’s breathing grew deeper and unrestrained, “I’m going to twist your neck. I’m going to keep you alive too. You’ll be an invalid. Unable to use your hands and legs. I don’t just want you dead anymore. You’ll be broken for talking back to your new Dark Lord.”
Kip dug the other ring out too. He flicked the other ring as far as he could just as Davorin stuck his finger out and lifted it up. Davorin’s finger began to glow red with power imbued in it.
The other ring twirled and skipped along the ground a mere two feet away, having gotten too much of an upward arc to keep going. But… as if by some magic. Some divine force… some nudge of a bog witch’s wand… the ring got up and rolled a few extra feet away. Kip put the first ring on.
Davorin slapped against the ground so hard, it caused a divot that punctured the earth and the surrounding tiles crackled into a spiderweb of destruction. Davorin looked at his hand, there was no tiny kobold squashed under there. Instead, he lifted his nail and felt the cool metal of a flattened ring left behind. He looked at it, and felt Kip’s touch on his back.
The vampire had lost.