"The Captives" - Chapter 12

The Captives of the Lost City of Alhassar

Chapter 12

By Dwayne MacInnes

The blazing obstruction blocking the egress and entrance to the cavern only slightly eased my mind. This was only part of the plan, and it came about prematurely because of the incendiary arrow I used against the lich. I was, by no means, where I would have liked to be. Further, I am sure the victim above me staked helplessly between two iron poles would have loved to be anywhere else.

I hid the best I could in the tumbled-down structure as liches began to cast their evil spells, newly raised skeletons of elves and dwarves ran around menacing with rusty swords, axes, and hammers, and demons from the various Nine Hells rampaged through Alhassar.

I heard the great cacophony of battle begin. I mildly cursed myself. Battle could only be ensuing if Mogutz had foolishly tried to battle her way into the ruined city. This was not part of the plan, and it was fool hardy.

I raised my head over the edge of the gaping hole in the wall anticipating watching in horror as the evil cabal annihilated Mogutz and party. To my amazement, this is not what I saw. Instead, I noticed that the summoned minions were battling each other as well as other liches, mages, vampires, and necromancers. It was a frenzied and confusing barroom brawl!

Lightning and fireballs exploded everywhere. Bone fragments flew in the air as well as parts belonging to netherworld beings. The noise and smell of combat echoed throughout the cavern. I am sure that not even during the height of the elven-dwarven wars did Alhassar witness such a battle.

The explanation was simple once I thought it through and that was not until much later. For now, I just huddled in my ruined dwelling praying that in the ongoing battle that a passing fireball would not obliterate my sanctuary. In any account, none in the evil cabal realized that they all tended to work alone, or only with others of their own kind. Therefore, when they summoned their evil managerie from the dead and the Nine Hells the unthinking minions naturally attacked anyone who did not participate in summoning them.

For the moment, I witnessed a brutal and relentless combat. Outside my window, I watched as an army of stout dwarven skeletons attacked and overwhelmed a demon lord. The demon lord swung his mighty and unearthly blade and cleaved skull from neck and arms from shoulders. However the undead where too numerous and even their rusted weapons inflicted enough damage that the demon puffed into a ball of smoke as it returned to the netherworld.

I saw a vampire cast spell after spell into an on rushing stone demon. The rock giant only staggered slightly as the lightning spell collided with its mineral body. When it came into arms reach of the vampire, it grabbed the undead bloodsucker in a lethal embrace. Though technically undead, even a vampire that has been smashed into jelly does not pose much of a threat to anyone.

I learned later that Mogutz and her party were busy at their end as well. Not only did they have to tend the huge inferno but any creature that tried to escape that way had to be dealt with. Fortunately, they were few and after they passed through the fire they were pretty much dead already.

The entire cavern shook and dirt fell from the shaking ceiling and dust swirled in the air. Even my small hiding place threatened to topple down upon me. However, I could only watch in morbid fascination as the armies of the evil cabal fought amongst themselves.

The battle began to take on a more serious tone when a few necromancers started summoning more powerful undead to avenge the death of one of their members to a mistakenly fired lightning bolt from a lich mage. Now the battle became personal as groups were deliberately fighting amongst themselves.

There is the saying of "honor amongst thieves" which is highly inaccurate. However, I think the saying should be "honor amongst evil". Evil beings tend not to trust anyone, especially other evil beings.

The battle had hardly started to heat up when the vampires, a numerous faction itself began to run for cover. Many did not make it, as the battle was too widespread and furious. I almost felt pity for the undead as they suddenly slumped down to the ground utterly powerless with the rising sun above the earth. The mortal servants of the vampires tried to do their best to help their evil masters. But, they were only mortal without much skill in arms or magic and easily fell victim to the chaos around them.

The furious battle seemed to last for an eternity. It had been only an hour after the commencement of hostilities when the battle started to die down. Everyone had expended their magical spells and those few still itching for a fight picked up one of the numerous weapons upon the ground and started hacking at each other.

There could only be a score of combatants left in any fighting condition by now. I gave a big yell as I exited the stone ruin from which I had taken refuge. I quickly crossed swords with a dark mage. It was easy pickings for mages do not tend to study melee combat much. The remaining evil members of the dark cabal all stopped their fighting with each other and looked towards me in wonderment. They must have thought this was some avenging elven spirit from the ruins of Alhassar coming to kill them all.