Chương 35: A Desperate Gamble

Lorkal sent another ranged slash lazily toward the annoying petian, watching the tiny man dive out of the way at the very last moment for the umpteenth time. There were gouges and nicks scattered all over the place from how long he'd been toying with the Rogue, and rubble littered the stone ground from the countless pedestals that had already been cut to pieces.

It would have been child's play to dart forward and actually take care of the little pest, but he had to do something to entertain himself until the human and elf finally finished their conversations. Glancing over at the two interlopers who had dared to come ask for one of his relics, he confirmed they were still deep in prayer with the Gods. It had been over an hour now, and still they weren't done! His hand twitched, itching to send a slash their way and finish them off, but he managed to contain the urge.

It would be all the sweeter to cut them down once they'd come to the crushing realization the Gods could do nothing to help them. The blasted Gods… Lorkal growled, sending another two quick slashes at the petian, who even now was attempting to take advantage of the lull in his attacks to scale a pillar and steal one of his artifacts. He had to give the little man credit, even after an hour of dodging increasingly deadly attacks he never lost sight of what he was after.

Lorkal was a thrice prestiged Guardian of Relics. Even if most of his skills had been sealed away by the Gods when they dragged him along into this new world, the lowly Rogue had absolutely zero chance of stealing any of his treasures from him. His strength attribute alone was probably higher than all of the Rogue's attributes put together.

"How much longer do you think you'll be able to keep dodging?" Lorkal called out, easily able to make out the Rogue's panting and the sweat dripping down his brow with his high focus. Even when the Rogue ducked behind a pillar, Lorkal had no difficulty locating him via his heavy breathing. Like every other time he'd tried to engage the Rogue in conversation, the blasted petian ignored him, preferring to focus on catching his breath whenever he got the chance.

Sighing, Lorkal prepared to send another slash his way, when a few sparks drew his attention toward the center of the room. The Grand Artifact of Qiatha flickered brightly, shooting sparks of pure magic off to the side as the magical construction desperately tried to fulfill its original purpose. Lorkal waited with bated breath as the damaged artifact struggled and whined. After the Gods had left him here and stolen all of his divine artifacts, the grand artifact was the most impressive one he had left.

Finally, as it had done countless times before, it managed to send out a dense pulse of magic, and Lorkal let out a sigh of relief as he watched a large Demon Bear suddenly materialize about fifty feet away. Roaring in confusion, the ten-foot-tall bear covered in flaming black bony protrusions shattered a half dozen pedestals in a single confused swipe as it tried to figure out what was going on.

Lorkal grinned at the sudden intake of breath he could hear from the petian currently hiding behind a pillar a good ways away, no doubt shocked at the bear's sudden appearance.

"You want to take this one, or should I?" Lorkal called out, grinning wildly as the bear began sniffing around, its head turning in the direction of the tiny intruder.

"I'd finish it off, but I've been taking care of these monsters for months now. Honestly, other than that big wave about a week ago, it's gotten pretty boring!" In all the three months he'd been trapped within this bubble, the sole source of entertainment he'd had was the Grand Artifact of Qiatha.

Designed to redirect the manifestation of select monsters from the surrounding area to this very room in the hopes of relieving some pressure off those fighting on the walls, Lorkal had been slaying scores of random monsters for weeks now. Unfortunately, the artifact was so intricate it was supposed to receive regular tune ups from a team of dedicated enchanters every couple of days, and the lack of care was beginning to show.

While Lorkal loved each and every one of his artifacts and would give anything to protect them, he didn't have the magical knowledge required to fix the damage spreading across the artifact from a lack of maintenance. The longer it went without repairs, the deeper the cracks spread, and the more he worried each time it sputtered to life.

When the artifact had suddenly redirected hundreds of monsters all at once to his doorstep about a week ago without any warning, he'd feared that would be it for the jewel of his collection. But Qiatha had shown her brilliance yet again, as her grand work had managed to hang in there just a little longer. Pulling himself from his memories, Lorkal realized the petian was actually shouting at the Demon Bear now, even going so far as to throw pieces of rubble at the monster for some crazed reason.

For its part, the bear didn't even seem to realize it was being attacked. Ignoring the petian's best efforts, the monster continued sniffing the air, its nose close to the ground as it moved in search of something on the other half of the room. Lorkal watched with curiosity as the monster continued sniffing, its head tilting this way and that. What could it be looking for? He didn't have any food stashed around or anything.

Hell, after refusing to take any of the Gods' handouts, he'd been surviving off of nothing but the monsters the grand artifact had brought him for three months now. He faintly recalled being warned years ago that monsters could only be safely eaten in small, regulated quantities, but it wasn't like he had any other options. One of his artifacts had been a cornucopia capable of conjuring entire feasts, but naturally, the Gods hadn't seen fit to leave him with that one either.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. His unbridled rage flared up again at the thought of the lost artifact, and he unleashed another slash, this one far stronger than anything he'd sent toward that bumbling Rogue so far. The Demon Bear's snout was pressed to the ground as it focused on its search, but it had just enough time to look up in surprise before it was sliced completely in half, its dense muscles and thick bone doing absolutely nothing to deaden Lorkal's attack.

Panting and literally seeing red, Lorkal tried taking a few calming breaths, not wanting to lose his cool and risk damaging any of his few remaining relics. For some reason, he'd been having these flashes of violent rage more and more frequently since he'd been trapped in here. Naturally, the Gods must have done something to him after deciding stealing the majority of his treasures hadn't been enough. Blasted beings, the lot of them.

As though they'd been listening to his very thoughts, the Gods finally saw fit to interrupt his internal ranting at that moment. He watched as the human and elf both seemed to stir at the same time, blinking and shaking their heads as they left that eerie black void he was plenty familiar with and returned once more to the here and now.

"Vin," he heard the weird, feral looking elf whisper the moment she had her bearings. He'd never seen an elf with pointed teeth before, and he had to admit, his first attack on the elf that had claimed the boy's hand may have been partially due to his initial surprise.

"The God I spoke with… he said you had some sort of plan?"

"Not a great one, but at least it gives us a chance," the human whispered back, absentmindedly touching his new stump with his remaining hand.

"Besides, we don't have any time to waste. If what I was told is true, we need to get back to my camp now." Shooting a glance toward Lorkal, the human actually had the spine to turn his back on the man who had just taken his arm from him, choosing instead to look up at the Grand Artifact of Qiatha in all its damaged glory. Lorkal frowned, watching the human seem to prepare himself for something.

He'd expected a lot more begging and panicked crying when the duo discovered there was nothing the Gods could do to save them from his blade. The Gods had already explained to him that they were no longer able to interact with people directly. He knew they couldn't have just waved their hands and given the two endless divine power. So why were they so calm?

He didn't like the way the human was eyeing up Qiatha's artifact either; almost like he was both in awe of the magical display hovering overhead and saddened by what was about to happen. Lorkal decided right then and there that he should stop messing around and kill them before anything bad happened to his artifacts. He readied his blade for one final swing, this one wide enough to slice both of them neatly in half. But just before he struck, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

That blasted Rogue was taking advantage of his distraction to try and swipe one of his artifacts! Again! With a roar, Lorkal redirected his attack, sending a massive arcing slash sweeping across the room at the pesky petian. With his collection in danger, he finally stopped caring about collateral damage. He needed to take care of these intruders now.

His attack severed dozens of pedestals and even destroyed a few minor artifacts in the blink of an eye as it soared toward the Rogue, and he grinned as he watched the doomed Rogue finally lay his hands on one of his artifacts, oblivious to his impending death. Seeing as he was about to be cut to ribbons, he'd even forgive the petian for daring to touch one of his treasures just this once.

But in the split second between the Rogue's fingers closing around his artifact and Lorkal's attack reaching him, the tiny man was suddenly yanked backwards by some sort of cord wrapped around his waist, pulling the Rogue to safety and forcing his attack to miss by barely a hair. Lorkal watched in shock as the cord revealed itself to be the tail of a hidden rat, and the Rogue landed gracefully in a saddle strapped to the small creature, grinning in victory as he held the artifact up above his head.

Everything went red as Lorkal let out an earth rumbling scream of rage. Tensing his legs, he readied himself to dart forward and cut the Rogue and his pet rat down for daring to lay their tiny hands on one of his artifacts. But before he could strike, Lorkal realized the rumbling of the ground beneath his feet wasn't actually coming from him.

Looking back at the other two intruders, he stared in horror at the sight of the human sending some sort of concentrated beam of mana directly into the core of Qiatha's grand artifact floating overhead.

In response to the foreign mana, the already heavily damaged artifact was beginning to spin far faster than he'd ever seen it spin before, firing out erratic pulses of magical energy and causing the colosseum and everything within it to shake as the black cracks already infecting it spread at a prodigious rate across its otherwise gleaming surface.

"What are you doing!" He screamed, using his immense strength to travel the distance separating them in an instant, backhanding the human with enough force to liquify his low-level organs and send him splatting against the far wall. He was vaguely aware of the elf and petian fleeing the shaking building, but he only had eyes for the jewel of his collection. He watched in horror as one of the most powerful and priceless relics he'd ever had the privilege of guarding trembled and cracked apart above his head.

Some small part of him warned him he had to get away; that the magical backlash of such a powerful artifact exploding would almost certainly be enough to kill even someone as strong as him. But Lorkal didn't care.

"My treasure!" He screamed, throwing his sword to the side and leaping thirty feet straight up into the air. Landing on the gleaming, shaking surface of Qiatha's greatest work, he dug his fingers into the spreading cracks, securing a hold on the spinning relic as he desperately tried using every iota of his incredible strength to keep the cracks from spreading any farther.

"I won't let them take you from me!" He cried, already feeling the warbling magical energy pulse and twist erratically against his chest as the relic destabilized; the chaotic magic burning its way through his dirty robe as he continued to hold on. Letting out one final, soul rending screech of rage at the Gods for taking everything from him, Lorkal felt actual pain for the first time in years as the seemingly infinite amount of magic swirling within the jewel of his collection finally burst forth.