Chapter 12-8

There was a door at the bottom of the stairs... which was suddenly flung open as the half-blue dragon approached. Garkhen had only enough time to begin bringing up a ward before a wall of flame roared out of it. It broke through his half-formed ward, but it took enough of the energy of the spell that the Warder was only singed rather than badly burned.

Ilusin threw a ball of fire of his own over Garkhen's head, filling the room beyond with flame, but when it cleared he saw no one in the room beyond. Quickly bringing up another ward, Garkhen charged through the door. He saw movement to his left and quickly brought up his shield in time to block an axe, but the man on his right he saw too late to do more than jerk his head aside, turning what could have been a lethal blow into a nasty gash on the side of his neck.

Garkhen was reminded that he had not put his helmet on.

Already half-facing the man on his left, Garkhen simply continued to pivot, bringing his thick tail to bear on the man on his right. Said foe stumbled as the tail struck his leg, nearly falling over from the heavy impact. At the same time Garkhen pushed forward with his shield, surprising his other foe by pushing him back. The man took a sudden step backward, trying to put the half-dragon off-balance, but Garkhen simply stopped pushing for a moment, then suddenly lunged forward with his shield, striking his target in the chest and knocking the wind out of him for a moment.

A sudden burst of acid hissed against Garkhen's ward, eating at the air inches from him, but he did not take his attention off of the man in front of him. Behind him, the other man had regained his footing, and was again raising a sword to strike, when an arrow suddenly pierced through his left arm. He shouted in pain, almost dropping his weapon, but he grimly forced himself to raise the large sword with only one arm. Almonihah's next shot hit him in the chest, and he fell to the ground, gasping out his life.

“Surrender!” Garkhen commanded the man in front of him as he stepped back slightly.

“The Chains take you!” The man screamed, hacking again at the Warder's shield with his axe. Steel rang on steel as the blow glanced off.

A blast of ice shattered on Garkhen's ward. Shards of it sprayed into the face of his foe, who fell, screaming in pain. Behind Garkhen, Illusin fired a bolt of lightning, then in quick succession a lance of pure light, and another body fell to the floor.

And suddenly, it was done. The man Garkhen had been fighting thrashed for a moment, and then was still. After a few moments, Almonihah and Illusin followed him into the room.

“Big,” Almonihah commented. It was, indeed, a massive room, partially split up into sections by tables and chairs. Unlike the rooms above, everything here was clearly used for magic—odd glass contraptions, jars of oddly-labeled powders, and the like.

“Look!” Garkhen said, noticing something around his former foe's neck.

He forced himself not to think that this had once been a man as he called on Bahamut's discernment. When he did not sense any of the taint he expected, he grasped the chain he had spotted around the man's neck, and pulled out an amulet. It looked similar to the one they pursued, but it lacked the pulsating power of the artifact they sought.

“It is not the Amulet, but like unto it,” The Warder murmured.

“Indeed. And the Amulet is not here,” Illusin stated, frowning, as he finished a spell. “But it was here...”

“Better figure out where it went,” Almonihah growled, “Don't like t' think what they're planning t' do with it.”

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You should be careful what spells you throw at people fighting your friends.