Chapter 6 Trial and Error
The 'battle stratagy', as it turns out, is simple.
Step one... kill Minion's generals so he doesn't have an army...
Step two... kill Minion.
So, that's what they try. The Dragoon Warriors, plus Sharod, start going after the Generals... first on the list... Morning Star.
A quick warp, and they are standing outside his library. It's in the exact spot that it was all those years ago when they first approached the chaos deomon to help them defeat Joseph. No big plan here... they're just hoping that Morning Star is still week enough from being 'killed' last time to be really 'killed' this time.
They charge forward... Justin with quarterstaff drawn, Saphir with Glaive and Cards ready... Brad with axe and sword and armour... Sharod with magic dancing along his hands... and Arrowny with Sky Render readied.
They burst through the doors... and a quick scann of the room tells them that they did not get as ready as they should have.
Very little of the library itself has changed in all this time... with the exception of the large, human sized glowing orb of energy at the back. All of the Warriors guess that this is some sort of portal... and their theories are confermed as they watch about fifty Hetron and Maylor warriors pouring through the rift... Morning Star is just standing in the middle of the hostile group, smiling his little head off...
“Thought you boys would show up... going to kill you all now!”
Saphir lowers his head...
“We've got to stop running into traps...”
* * * * * *
The fight lasted only long enough for the Warriors to kill about ten of their enemies, and run out the door to Warp back home.
Brad got a cut across his forehead, and a nasty gash on his right arm... he was trying to buy enough time for the others to get out.
As they sit around the library table, they talk about what went wrong with the previous plan. The decid, after a long evening of Saphir yelling at Brad to not bleed all over the books, that the 'step one: Kill' plan was just not going to work.
They spend the rest of the evening making a detailed attack plan against he next target... the Knights of Human Purity, and their leader, Samuel. After a full night of rest, and another of preperation, they figure that the five of them are ready to take care of this particular problem.
That night, they split into two groups. Arrowny and Saphir sneak into the camp from the east, while Brad, Justin, and Sharod come from the west. As they approach the center of the camp, they see that nearly the entire army is standing, fully armed and armoured, before Samuel, who is standing beside a blazing fire.
As they sneak closer, the can hear the Knights talking...
“My Knights... this deal is a good one! It brings about the fate that we have always known would have to happen for humanity to ever truly be purified!” It sounds as though Samuel is having some trouble convincing his Knights to work for a demon. “We knew that a war against the demon races was going to happen, and it is stratigically advantagous for it to happen on our terms! Now...”
Samuel turns to the fire... and all four of the Warriors swear when they see that it is not a blazing fire at all... but rather another human sized glowing portal...
“... we will bring forth our demon comrads to aid us in destroying the Dragoon Warriors... but remember to leave Arrowny for me!”
Even as the Hetron and Maylor warriors start to pour through the portal, Saphir glances over at Arrowny.
“Why does he hate you so much?”
“I don't know! Doesn't matter... we've got to regroup and get the hell outta here.”
As they turn to head back through the woods, they hear a comotion from the gathered Maylor, Hetron, and Knights. Upon examination, the comotion is actually Brad leading Justin and Sharod in a charge through the very center of the massing army. Justin uses a force field to protect them, while Brad cuts a path through the demons and humans. Sharod uses his magic to keep anybody from sneeking up on them from behind... it's quite an effective grouping.
Arrowny taps Saphir on the shoulder, and singals him to ready his Warp spell.
When Brad's group gets near enough, they hear the axe wielding Warrior shout “This is faster than going all the way back through the woods!”
A quick Warp... and they all are gone safely.
* * * * * *
After a serious discussion on why their tactics weren't working, Saphir and Justin decide that stelth is the best option for the next try... Arrowny and Brad do not agree, and the phrase 'any plan that doesn't involve me killing things will never work' was thrown around a lot... by both of them.
Sharod just sits off in the corner by himself for most of the talk... wondering just how it was that these four ever beat back any of the evils they've had to face... they just seem to stupid and unorganized...
After much convincing, Justin and Saphir managed to convince Brad and Arrowny that they should do the 'sneaky thing' this time.
Later that night, they use the Warp spell to approach the Maylor holy ground... basically a massive temple like cavren built into a sea cave on the coast of Nova Scotia.
Justin and Saphir make Arrowny and Brad promise not to bust in and try to simply kill all the Maylor, which they heartedly agree to. This makes Saphir and Justin nervous, so they ask Sharod to actually stop Brad and Arrowny from busting in and simply killing all the Maylor... this seems the safest plan.
Using one of Saphir's spells to become invisible, he and Justin head off toward the holy ground.
A quick forcefield trick is all they need to get past the one, single, unarmed Maylor guard at the front entrance. A short, yet silent, walk down a long hallway, and they find themselves in the main temple room of the holy ground.
Saphir is shocked by the sheer elabratness of it all, and Justin has to pull him over to a corner before some random wandering demons walked all over him.
The main temple was huge, and more closly resembled a giant Roman-Cathloc cathedral than a demon nest. There are high stained-glass windows, depicting important events in the clan's history. Even though they are just in a sea cave, there is a strange light shining through the glass, and they almost seem to be alive... moving, showing the history like a film.
The window just above them shows a man weilding a weapon that looks a lot like Saphir's own Glaive of Ceruleus, handing a small playing card over to the Maylor leader. This makes Saphir a little mad... his great-great-great-ect-grandfather made peace with the Maylor many, many years ago, just after the Poirier family came to North America from Europe. The Card was the symbol of the peace... it was the thing which the Maylor feared... the most powerful, and ironicly the only offensevive, magics which belonged to the family.
What makes Saphir even more angry is the fact that at the far end of the temple, the actual Card is sitting on a pedistal, surrounded by a protective magical barrier.
Saphir wants to run up and break through the enchantment to get at the Card... the peace pact has been broken... it is, by all rights, his to take.
He starts toward it, but Justin grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him back.
A Maylor demon, dressed in cermionial robes is standing before a large gathered crowd of the demons. It is Skree... the leader of the clan.
From their hiding place, they can't hear what Skree is talking about, but as he steps aside, they see something which makes all their plans fly out the window... another of the portals... and a full army of Hetron demons flowing through.
It only takes a few minutes for the entire temple to be filled with a mix of the two warrior breeds... and Saphir and Justin know that there is just no way they will be able to fight this fight tonight.
They quietly make their way back out, and use the same simple force field trick to get by the guard again.
When they regroup with Brad, Arrowny, and Sharod, it is with heavy hearts.
“We need new plans.”
Justin's simple comment tells the rest of them all they need to know.
* * * * * *
Saphir throws a table lamp across the room... it shatters.
“They have the Card... I want it back!”
Justin sighs. He's been trying to calm Saphir down for a good twenty minutes now. He's just a little annoyed at the fact that, instead of helping, Brad and Arrowny are sitting on the couch, holding a can of Pepsi and Coke, respectivialy, and making comments about how everybody thinks they're the immature ones.
“Saphir... there were hundreds of those guys. You'd have bumped into one of them... and they would have killed you. Plus, you don't know how to get through the magics to actually get your hands on the Card... we'll get it later.”
Saphir seems to, somewhat, calm down... even though this is about the fifteenth time that Justin has said that exact phrase to him... hopefully, this time, it actually got through the anger.
“Okay then...” Justin sighs, glad he was finally able to calm his comrade down. “We need a better plan.”
“We go after Minion.”
They all stare at Arrowny, who quickly finishes off the last of his Coke, and shrugs.
“It's the next, logical, freakin' obvious choice, isn't it? We've tried going after his generals... and that didn't work... now we go after him.”
Saphir slowly nods in agreement, though he'd rather get his Card back first.
Brad seems totally unaware of anybody speaking, and is focusing intently on his Pepsi.
Justin glances over at Sharod, who looks a little anxious. Finally, the mage speaks up.
“He will be in the Temple of the Hetron... they built it to be the center of the Kingdom of the Four. Saphir and my magics together will be strong enough to teleport us directly there, and avoid any kind of Hetron resistance.”
Arrowny glances at Justin, and the technomage shrugs.
“It could work.”
Arrowny claps his hands... Brad spills his Pepsi...
“Okay then, that's what we'll do.”
Brad looks down at the little droplets of soda, which are quickly being absorbed by his shirt. A small tear comes to his eye.
“Whatever we're doing, it better be worth the great loss I have suffered here today.”
As the others head off to get ready, Brad starts sucking the Pepsi from his shirt...
A few minutes later, after a somewhat more flashy teleportation than usual, they are standing in the very center of the Roman style temple, complete with marble pillers, which houses the demon called Minion.
Who is, of course, standing right in front of them.
They are, however, insanely happy to see that there is not an entire army of Hetron and Maylor demons, and there doesn't appear to be a single portal in sight.
Minion laughs a little bit, and steps toward them, sizing each of the Warriors up in slow glances.
“You have been trying to kill my Generals... that is not very nice of you.”
Brad isn't in the mood for talking.
He lunges forward, stabbing out with his broadsword, and bringing his axe down at the same time. Minion uses the flat of his hand to bat the sword off to the side, and easily sidesteps the axe. Before Brad has another chance to attack, Minion uses one hand to toss the Warrior all the way across the temple, into one of the tall marbel pilliars.
Saphir sens a force wave at Minion from the blade of the Glaive, but the rippling air seems to just pass around the demon lord, not even slowing him down.
Justin dives at Minion, but even the technomages electricly charged quarterstaff is apparently totally ineffective. Justin ends up being thrown like a rag doll right at Saphir. They both fall to the ground with a thud.
Arrowny takes a different approach, using his elemental magical. Fireballs and lightning bolts flash through the air from one hand, and a hail of ice shards rip from the other.
But it doesn't even look like the magics are touching Minion.
The demon lord laughs...
“I'm going to kill you all now.”
“NO!”
Sharod jumps foward in a very non-selfish way. The red robed mage pushes Arrowny off to the side, and lets the magics fly.
Saphir, Brad, and Arrowny watch the show of power with awe... Justin watches with the slightly raised eyebrow that usually means he's thinking of something that might be important...
The magics that Sharod call upon are flashy, and powerful looking. Bolts of energy blast from his body and twist through the air before viscously attacking Minion. A scream of pain echos from the demon through the temple, and the Warriors take the time to regroup.
As suddenly as the attack started, it stops. Sharod turns to the group, a tired look on his face.
“I can't pull that trick off again for a while. We should get out of here.”
Even as Minion climbs to his feet, they are running to a safe enough spot to cast the Warp spell.
They end up back in the living room of the Dragoon Warriors home... each looking slightly more dissapointed than the last... angry that they could not kill Minion... and quite tired.
They each head off to do some relaxing... Brad goes to the kitchen to grab a case of Pepsi, a bag of sugar, a spoon, and has plans of playing some Gamecube. Saphir heads to the library, hoping to find some more info on Minion. Sharod goes upstairs to the spare bedroom, saying he's going to meditate to regain some of his strength. Justin calls Arrowny into the computer lab to discuss some urgant matters.
As soon as Sharod closes the door to his room, he casts a magical, sound proof bubble around himself, and concentrates.
An image of Minion appears before the mage... and the demon lord looks very, very happy.
“Sharod... you did very well. The information you supplied us was flawless... the Dragoon Warriors are fooled.”
“Yes Master. They believed me. Sending the Knights, and the Maylor, and the Hetron after me was a brilliant plan. They are pawns... and we will kill them for their stupidity.”
“Of course we will, Sharod... of course we will.”
“But, if I may ask... what do I tell them, if they question me as to your plans... how much information do I give them?”
“You tell them everything, Sharod... all my plans... you let them know exactly when, and how, I am going to do whatever it is they want to know about. I will hide nothing from the Dragoon Warriors...”
“As you wish, my Master.”