Chapter 6

Chick Fight

 

            A trap…a dirty trap. Darq, Gello, and Ricarde lie in chains, bound and imprisoned in an unfamiliar dungeon of death. Darq awoke not being surprised, he had been in worse situations. Gello stirred about and was yelling things like:  “Lemme outta here!” and “You’ll pay dearly for this. You shall feel the wrath of my exuberant power!” Ricarde, on the other hand, was still sleeping.

            It wasn’t until 4 o’clock p.m. that our heroes saw daylight. A metal door flung open and made a loud THWANG noise against the damp brick wall. There it stood. The single-most amazing spectacle in the history of Mooshnai…An erect, three foot tall, domesticated, golden feathered, bird man. What a sight. Gello stared at the creature in disbelief. Darq’s mouth watered. Ricarde continued to snore in slumber land. “Klikeno.” Gello almost puked the words. “They must’ve known that we’d come for the treasure…don’t worry fellas, I’ll fend them off! Stand aside.” Darq looked at him in sheer shame. Gello squirmed and grunted as he struggled to break free of the chains that bound him to the wall. Ricarde woke up with a start and glared at Gello. The Klikeno guard threw a stale piece of bread and a bowl of water to the three and stormed out of the prison.

            “What’s going on Darq?” Ricarde was in shock.

            “Happy boy’s trying to break loose of these chains. We’ve been imprisoned in a bird-men penitentiary. If you can believe it.” Darq was tired.

            “Really? Well—“ Ricarde’s eyes had a sudden glow about them. His muscles rippled and grew bigger. With every breath he took,it seemed as though he got larger. Within five seconds a cracking noise was heard. Ricarde had broken free of the bindings. He reached to his side and his eyes flared up. My…axe…my axe!”

            Gello looked around and saw Ricarde. It wasn’t two seconds later that Gello attempted to reach behind his back and felt an empty scabbard. “MY RAPIER!”

            Darq laughed to himself. “Hey beast boy…How’s about getting me outta here?” Ricarde grabbed ahold of the ends of the chains that were bolted to the wall. In one show of immense strength, he pulled them free, and Darq was bound no longer. “Now for some real magic!” Darq reached behind his waist and gave a wink. He pulled his hand back into sight and relinquished his trusty mallet, Manus.

            Ricarde gazed on in astonishment. “Wow! That could prove very useful.” Darq raised his mallet high and slammed it into the dungeon wall. THWOOM! Gello’s chains popped out of the wall, and he was free to go.

            “Alright guys. Let’s scram!” Darq swung his mallet over his shoulder and dashed out the door. The others followed. The home of the Klikeno tribe was a vast clearing of forest in the shape of a circle. The paths and crossways were made up of dust. Huts, for the most part, made up the entire civilized chicken town. However, in the approximate center of the town, there lay a huge tournament ring. Darq noticed all this while trying to find his way out of the village. It was almost impossible. Eventually, Gello concluded that the exit was secret and that only the Klikeno would know of its whereabouts (this was probably just a ploy though, to distract Darq and give Gello a little more time to hunt down the so-called Klikeno treasure). “Well guys, looks like there’s only one thing to do here…We gotta go find the leader of the tribe and see if we can reason with him…” Ricarde agreed and Gello merely shrugged. They ran about like beheaded chickens (pun intended) until they found the central office. It was a golden hut with strange markings above the door. Inside they found a receptionist. Darq and Ricarde tried reasoning with the klikeno, and to their surprise, she spoke the general language of Mooshnai. The 3 ft. tall bird woman gave a whistle and had the guys seized by several guards and taken to the Klikeno chief (lucky). While inside, Darq asked of how to leave the tribal village. The chief elder spoke of only one way, to fight the Klikeno champion in a battle of strength and cunning. The three accepted the challenge. Who would emerge as the victor?

            Within a short while, the three warriors were sent to the tournament ring and Gello was called to do battle first. Gello dusted himself off and unsheathed his razor sharp steel rapier. He stepped out into the center of the ring, his head down and his cape rustling in the wind. His fiery red hair seemed to be a ferocious lion’s mane on top of a puny worm’s pathetic body. Then he came, the champion of the Klikeno tribe.

            The iron clad giant seemed to fly into the ring from his side. This was not your average Klikeno, the warrior stood 5’11 and was taller than Gello. He was pure steel from head to toe, and carried in his hand a giant broad sword. His head was encased by a giant metal helmet and he wore a massive red cloak. The battle was about to begin. They were both ready.

            It was soon underway. The two duelers circled back and forth, looking for the opportunity to strike their opponent. Gello kept his rapier to his side and glared straight at the giant poultry foul. The Klikeno champion seemed soulless; his movements were mechanical and his technique, flawless. The opportunity then arose. Gello spread his legs and held his left hand into the air, while his right hand grasped his rapier. Dark gray clouds filled the air and thunder began to clap as though the gods were in a slap fight. Gello shook violently, and his comrades watched in amazement. Gello’s left hand was absorbing electrical energy and it passed through him, and straight on to his sword. “ELESIO RAZOR!” Gello’s sword was charged with electrical energy and was humming like a florescent light. He jumped forth at his enemy and began to swing at him violently. Perry. Lunge. Thrust. Feint. Gello hacked and slashed and with every hit began to shock and hack his enemy to bits. But it wasn’t enough, just not enough. The Klikeno warrior grabbed Gello by the neck and squeezed tight. It seemed as though his eyes were popping out of his large head. Gello ceased to breathe for a moment and forfeited the match. The warrior dropped him to the dusty ground and let him live in shame. Ricarde was in awe at Gello’s masterful technique…who would’ve thought? Gello shook his head and dusted himself off as he went back to his side of the ring to meet with his entourage. Darq gave him a pat on the back and told him that his effort would not be in vain, and that he was very proud of him. Ricarde drew his axe and volunteered for the next bout. This battle was going to be something else. It was brawn against brawn, keen instinct against a pure killing machine. Ricarde stepped out into the center of the ring, no sign of fear shown on his dark face. His brown hair hung in front of his eyes and he pulled it back to reveal his true feelings. No, fear did not show on his face, this was a face of pure courage.

            The iron-clad chicken played with his sword as he walked about the ring, as if to insult Ricarde. He was not amused. He would beat this adversary…it was his day. The battle began in an instant. Ricarde wasted no time in biding his energy and leaped forward to attack. Primal instinct took over. Ricarde plunged his axe deep into the warrior’s helmet. It began to crack. He was not satisfied. The Klikeno jumped back and began to circle around. Ricarde intensified his inner rage and knelt to the ground. It was time to use his formidable earth magic. He slammed his enormous fist into the cold hard ground and slammed the other after. The ground began to rumble and shake. Soon huge jagged rocks burst from under the earth on which the 5’11” chicken stood. They knocked him back and forth until his armor continued to crack even further. He was almost defeated. Ricarde jumped forward once more and began to unleash his fury through his large axe. One slashing attack after another, it was relentless. The armor cracked and cracked, but would not crumble. It seemed indestructible.

            Blood spilled from the champion’s helmet, he was not happy. The enraged Klikeno brandished his sword and hacked a tremendous diagonal cut right in Ricarde’s chest to his waist. Ricarde held his hands to the immense wound and gasped for air. He fell to the ground, bleeding, and was disqualified. The invincible chicken god bathed in the cheers of his people and began to chuckle mechanically.

            Darq brought Ricarde over to Gello for healing. It would take a while but it could be done, Gello had the ability. Darq was fed up and decided that the battle was over, he couldn’t lose this, or they’d all be beheaded. His relinquished his mallet and leaped into the ring. He landed like a cat and gave a slight half-smile to the Klikeno warrior. “Have fun…once I’m done roasting you with a Reptu Ki, it’s meal time chicken boy!” The Klikeno was infuriated. The battle began with no hesitation from either side. Darq began to think of a strategy. He had it! That was it, the Klikeno champion wielded no magic ability…therefore that was his weakness…magic attacks! Darq knew what to do. It was hammer time!

            The Klikeno rushed towards Darq with fury. His armor all cracked and dusty. Darq chanted his Reptu Ki spell and ignited Manus with his thought-inspired fire. The warrior stood back in awe and studied the mallet. He gave a small shrug and chuckled a bit. Uh-oh! He stood back and began to charge up. Not two seconds later, his gloved fist became engulfed in a blue light. He jumped into the air and fired a giant tidal wave of water at Darq. Darq had no defense…how could he defend himself? His only option was to hold out his mallet and hope it shielded him from water (the thing he hated most; nothing but dragons could measure up to Darq’s sheer compassionate hatred for water). He held forth his mallet in hope for a minor defense. There was a splashing noise, but it was suddenly overridden by an even stranger sponge-squeezing noise.

            The water didn’t touch Darq…not even a drop. Darq winced a bit, and then looked up to his mallet. It was glowing with a blue aura. “What in hell?” Darq swung his mallet around a bit, to see that it was okay. With every swing, water sprang forth from his mallet, splashing madly about.  The Klikeno was in hot water (or should I say he was in a pot with some butter and a few vegetables for a little seasoning). Darq smiled and ran towards the Klikeno, thrashing him into tiny pieces with his gigantic hammer. The giant battle chicken’s armor (which was already rusted) couldn’t withstand the attacks and was disintegrated. It slowly cracked and fell off like a cracked shell of an egg. What lied beneath was another story.

            From out of the armor sprang forth a 3.4 ft. tall yellow bird, wearing a large brown belt, too large for his size, and a baggy read beanie with a fuzzy white ball on top. He still carried the giant broad sword in hand. He flailed about wildly, desperately seeking to destroy Darq, but his attempts were all failures. Darq grabbed the pipsqueak by the neck and squeezed as hard as he could. “You shouldn’t be playing with grown-up toys little guy!” With a swift movement, Darq threw the Klikeno to the ground laughing as hard as was possible. Gello looked up from where he was performing a healing spell on Ricarde’s chest wound and gasped in astonishment.

            “That little creep…damnit…that’s not fair. I weakened him up for both of you, you hear me? I did it! ME!”  Gello was enraged. It was ridiculous. A 3.4 ft. bird-brain had beaten both him and Ricarde into the ground. And what was the water mallet all about? Things grew stranger by the minute. Ricarde awoke with a yawn. Darq was ready for answers.

 

 

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1