The Notorious Misadventures of an Alchemist and a Phoenix Chapter 35

Through the mindscape, Noah chased the fleeing darkness like a child with a whacking stick. None of the darkness was spared as the once unstoppable creatures of darkness had one of two choices, run away in a realm that had no exits or fight and be turned into Noah's shadow.

Noah rarely had any physical power to force his will on others. He was the one that had to defend with the power of his intelligence but now a slight gleam of madness and revenge washed over his eyes. Black dark wolves ran for their existence like fleeing animals from a forest fire.

Noah jumped on a particular big wolf's back but just passed through it due to the beast turning into vapour and joining the others in Noah's shadow. The other dark beasts paused as they watched a laughable Noah face plant on the floor. There wasn't any pain until Noah heard the light snickering of muffled laughter coming from the mouths of creatures that didn't know how to laugh or have vocal cords.

The once fleeing and scared dark beasts openly laughed like hyenas while they were being chased by Noah. They couldn't stop them selfs from being absorbed by Noah but they could have a bitter laugh at the expense of Noah.

As the last of the black mind creatures were added to Noah's shadow, he felt empty. The course laughter cut him deep and he wanted to make them pay. He felt powerful in the mindscape but now he felt foolish and with that feeling of foolishness he wanted to pass the irritants on to someone else.

The mindscape wobbled like an unstable dream as the purpose of the realm came to an end and Noah blinked his tired eyes to be met with darkness and glowing blue weapons positioned close to his face.

The Dwarfs had caught Noah with his metaphysical pants down. Noah should have been taken over by the darkness and yet here he was alone. The only answer the Dwarfs had was that Noah was part of the darkness and needed to be excommunicated from existence using the old and reliable method of stuffing weapons into any hole they could find.

The axe that was close to Noah's face was raised in a large arch ready to slam on Noah's neck.

"Parlay" screamed Noah

Echos bounced around and Noah's parlay met with echoing parlay. A long pause filtered by the echo. A short silence was met with an even shorter answer that echoed throughout.

"TSK"

The axe lowered once again with the stubbornness of a mountain. The Dwarf pulled out a wooden pipe and packed it with Zeebaco.

"You have until I smoke my pipe" answered the Dwarf "You ugly turd"

Noah wanted to explain, he wanted to tell the Dwarfs everything but he didn't understand what was going on and the little he did understand through the absorption of the shadow creatures just sounded made up and ultimately silly. The Dwarfs wouldn't believe him. Even if they did, they would likely cut him down for the safety of the group.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Unfortunately or fortunately for Noah, a new group of dark creatures attacked. This group, unlike the one that attacked Noah, was well-established. The first attack was done with a ginormous landworm acting like a battering ram that knocked all the dwarfs away from each other.

The Landworm lay stone still separating the cave system in two. Before the Dwarfs could stand massive amounts of shadows peeled off the worm and attacked the Dwarfs. It wasn't just wolves and insects that attacked this time but fully grown bears and mountain trolls with a side order of farm animals and humans that had succumbed to the darkness.

The axe-wielding dwarf lost his weapon and was tangled up by a mass of eel-like things that went on to pull the Dwarf away into the dark cave system. The ex-axe-wielding Dwarf didn't cry out in fear, he didn't beg for mercy, the only noise he made was grunts and thuds that he made when he punched the coiling mess that surrounded him.

Noah was stuck with his ropes watching the Dwarf on his side get surrounded, while he could hear the Dwarfs on the other side of the landworm working well together judging on the noises they were making. The single Dwarf on his side was having a hard time.

Back to the wall, the lone dwarf stabbed and cut anything he could reach but he couldn't stop the wave of attacks. Noah had to do something, he had to help the Dwarfs. If he didn't then Noah would be stuck in the deep dark tied up and defenceless. If by some miracle he wasn't killed by the other things down here, then he would starve due to the ropes that stopped him.

Noah inched his way closer to the fight like a worm but that was too slow. Noah hoped that the ability to absorb the darkness into his shadow would work here and bet his life on it. Noah rolled for his life and the life of the Dwarf he was with.

The Dwarf was swinging like a whirlwind of death while taking small steps to avoid the odd strike. The Dwarf understood that he might lose, his backup was gone and fighting the deep down darkness alone was only for the most confidant or stupid fighters. His sweat covered his face and stung his eyes. He wanted to wipe it away but that meant using one of his hands when he needed both just to stay alive. And that's when the Dwarf saw Noah roll up to a creature and boop it in the shin. The confused look on the Darkness face was something the Dwarf had never seen before. The look of confusion almost instantly changed to one of anger and the dwarf could have sworn he saw the darkness's mouth mutter a curse word before exploding to motes and becoming part of Noah's shadow.

Dwarfs have been said to be slow in the mind chamber but that wasn't the case. The Dwarf shoulder-slammed a creature out of the way, slid under the reach of his enemy and deftly picked up Noah.

If Noah thought he was being saved then the actions of the Dwarf soon changed his mind. The dirty little bastard was using Noah as a meat shield and when he found that the darkness was easily defeated by just Noah's touch the midget started to use Noah as a weapon. Swing after swing caused Noah's brain to slam against his skull and the g-force made him pass out. Now and again Noah would regain his consciousness just to get a snippet of horror from being used as a spear to stab at a troll the size of a small building or a brief couple of seconds he came to and was used as a battering ram against the land worm causing a hole to appear though the creature and the alone Dwarf that used Noah as a weapon to join his other Dwarf friends.

Three dwarfs and a human was a poor battle force against the nefarious darkness but a force of three dwarfs and a human-shaped weapon that absorbed the enemy made the battle as easy as falling over.

Noah flickered through the air, each time a dwarf destroyed his enemy and was tossed to a struggling dwarf, caught and used as a weapon. It was good that Noah had lost consciousness or he might feel like a joke.

And that was the tale of Noah being used as a holy weapon against the forces of darkness by the Dwarf defenders