Operation: Pacifica, Night Rages On


 BlackBlood and Rezon'El circled each other in the canyon bottom,
  eyes locked in a battle of wills and concentration.  The Lyran's eyes shone
  with a dull blue light from behind its horrific mask.  His voice droned
  softly in an unrecognizable tongue as he wove his spell, causing whorls of
  orange flame to writhe around his hands.


 "NYAR!" cried BlackBlood, suddenly breaking the silence and the
  impasse as he dove towards the indigo-robed sorceror, Claws[tm] fully
  extended and yearning for the taste of Lyran blood.


 "Pranbu!" spoke the Lyran as he lithely sidestepped the flying
  Maenad and struck out at his side with a glowing, open palm.  Tongues of
  orange flames leapt out towards the attacker and smashed into BlackBlood,
  altering his flight path so that he slammed into the canyon wall.


 BlackBlood grunted coarsely as his right side became intimately
  familiar with every bump and crack in that section of canyon and created a
  few more of its own.  Rather than sliding down the rock face, however, he
  hovered midair and turned to face Rezon'El, who was undoubtedly grinning
  wryly beneath his mask.


 "Fast one, you are," grinned the Feral.


 "No idea have you," mocked the Lyran, pulling some antiquated
  object from within the folds of his robes.


 BlackBlood crouched and drifted down to the canyon floor again, his
  feet settling in a muddy pool of gore and the ashen powder of the
  wastelands, his angry red eyes never leaving his fearsome foe.


 In a blur of motion, Rezon'El whipped his right arm forward, a long
  bony finger pointing a wicked curved fingernail at the crouching Maenad.
  Whatever magic words he uttered were completely drowned out by the sound of
  a crackling green magic blast fired from the artifact in the Lyran's gnarled
  hand.  Rock disintegrated into more of the fine powder so common to the
  wastelands as boulders slid down the sheer rock face, the blast passing
  uninhibited through empty space.


 "Where be you now, Mein Herr?" teased the sorceror.  "I know you be
  not vanquished..." he continued in a sing-song taunt.


 "Behind you! Duck!" ordered the mask to its wearer in a whispering
  voice.  Nonetheless, it sounded in the Lyran's mind like a tremendous clap
  of thunder and he responded on gut instinct, ducking and pulling away to his
  right as a swift breeze passed him by.  Hot pain shot across the side of his
  face and portions of the tentacles on his mask fell to the ground and
  wriggled feverishly before laying still.


 "NYAR!!!" exclaimed the Maenad as he charged past the wizard,
  Claws[tm] raking across his face, slicing neatly through the mask and its
  tentacles, allowing a patch of lavender blood to flow down its dark face.


 Rezon'El and the mask cried out their agony as one as the Claws[tm]
  left their tracks in their collective flesh.  "You shall pay for that one,
  Maenad..."


 "Shall I now?" challenged BlackBlood as he clacked his Claws[tm],
  flicking bits of flesh from their tips.  "Credit do you take?" he grinned.


 "Only for your DEATH!" screamed Rezon'El, unleashing a dual blast
  at the Feral, green from the left hand and purple from the right, knocking
  him nearly 100 feet backwards down the length of the canyon.


 BlackBlood lay still in a pool of purple muck from his earlier
  battles, his own dark blood oozing and mixing into the pool in ebbs and
  swirls.


 The Lyran stepped nearer to his fallen foe cautiously and raised
  his hands above his head.  "Die Now, Maenad!" he spoke in a low, solemn
  voice as his magical energies coalesced into a swirling ball of violet and
  crimson energy.


 BlackBlood watched through slitted eyelids as Rezon'El raised his
  hands to the sky.  He had been cautious, yet not nearly cautious enough.
  BlackBlood sat upright, rolling forward into a kneel from which he leaped at
  the mage as the weapon coalesced in his bony hands.  The Claws[tm] of
  BlackBlood's left hand reached out for the Lyran as he stumbled backwards in
  surprise, only to barely catch him across the chest and tear a series of
  neat slits in his robes.  He released magical blast at the Maenad, burning a
  massive hole through the armor of the outstretched shoulder, and both cried
  out in pain.


 Rezon'El stopped in a crouch and locked eyes with BlackBlood, who
  was likewise kneeling low to the ground and ready to spring.  "Strong, you
  are," he remarked.  "But kill you I can!" he proclaimed proudly as he
  chanted a spell, distorting the atmosphere in strange ways.  Air layers
  separated and rearranged, bending and refracting the brightest of sunlight
  from the far side of the earth to serve his own dark purposes.


 BlackBlood sensed the atmosphere rearranging itself around him.
  There comes a point in any duel where the fight is either won or lost based
  on a single action, and BlackBlood could sense that time fast approaching.
  Summoning all his strength and concentration, he prepared a surprise of his
  own.  Suddenly, bright sunlight seemed to shine from all around him, forcing
  him to squint against its harsh brilliance.  He unleashed the hold he had of
  his dark energies and rearranged the atmosphere around himself just slightly
  enough to deflect the rays of light from their intended location...


 Rezon'El once again prepared a massive blast and advanced on the
  hapless Maenad.  His spell had been a success; BlackBlood was immersed in an
  aura of dazzlingly white light.  Now was his chance...


 BlackBlood shifted the layers of air just beyond the debilitating
  field of natural light, deflecting the blindingly bright rays forward and
  away from himself.  Rezon'El suddenly found himself like a deer frozen in
  the headlights of a speeding auto as he advanced towards the seemingly
  defenseless Maenad. He staggered backwards as his eyes burned in the sudden
  change from darkest dark to brightest bright, and his spells collapsed
  around him.


 BlackBlood struck at once at the wavering Lyran, lancing out with a
  column of solid black and slamming the sorceror against a tremendous
  boulder, causing him to wheeze as the air was forced from his lungs by the
  blow.


 BlackBlood pushed his advantage at once, racing towards the Lyran
  and smashing him against the boulder with his right shoulder while shoving
  the Claws[tm] of his left hand through Rezon'El's solar plexus.


 The Lyran, now pinned firmly to the rock behind him, tried to cry
  out but found no air in his lungs for the sound.  His lifeblood flowed
  freely from around the Maenad's Big-Ass Claws[tm].  He slumped towards the
  ground, his hands attempting to hold his innards inside his body as
  BlackBlood backed away from him and yanked his Claws[tm] free of the rock
  they'd embedded themselves in.


 "So cocky are you now?" grinned BlackBlood ferally.  He whirled and
  planted his foot firmly upside Rezon'El's head, laying him flat in the dust
  of the canyon bottom with a firm *thump*.


 "Methinks not."  BlackBlood summoned a solid barrier of blackness
  and placed it around the Lyran, completely immobilizing his body while
  leaving his head and face exposed and allowing blood to flow freely from his
  wounds.  He wandered over to the wizard and stepped onto his fallen foe,
  then sat down on his chest, smiling wickedly as he did so.  "See what you
  look like under that mask, I will," he cackled.


 The Lyran's eyes went wide with horror despite the pain wracking
  his body as the Maenad's Claws[tm] reached for the edge of his mask.
  "Nooooooooo!" he groaned as the remaining tentacles of his mask latched on
  with tremendous strength.


 "Speak yet, you do?" boggled the Feral.  "Well, answer still yes
  is," he spoke calmly, his Claws[tm] punctuating his words as they first
  sliced through the gripping tendrils then pulled the mask free of Rezon'El's
  face with a wet ripping sound.  Blood flowed from fresh gashes where
  BlackBlood's Claws[tm] had taken a bit more than just mask as the sorceror
  cried out anew.  BlackBlood stared down into the ashen gray (and stained
  with blood) face of Rezon'El.  "So this be what you look like," he murmured.


 "How..." stammered the Lyran.


 "How?  How your spell did I break?"


 Rezon'El nodded meekly, his will completely broken now that his
  mask was removed.


 "Forget, you do, that Lard B'harnii increased my strength with his
  attempt to cheat[1]...  Now, ready are you to die?"


 "Crush... me..."


 "Crush you?  No, I think not!  KILL you with Claws[tm], will I!"
  cackled BlackBlood.  He rose to his feet and stepped off the mage's chest,
  his Claws[tm] held high above his head.  Moonlight, just beginning to filter
  through the clouds once more, reflected and sparkled on the outstretched
  Claws[tm] as they swung in a blur towards Rezon'El's midsection.  The
  shadowy barrier around his body disappeared in a flash as they ripped
  through him messily.  Skin, blood, and pieces of internal organs flew
  through the air as though they had wings.  The body of Rezon'El convulsed
  wildly as its life flowed freely from it and vanished into the ether.


 BlackBlood threw back his head and cried to the high, dark heavens
  as the Lyran died, the Maenad War Cry escaping from his throat and echoing
  through the canyon.


 Lowering his head to look at the mask still clasped in his left
  Claws[tm], he watched as it shriveled and shrunk into a gooey mass, then
  flowed around his Claws[tm] and fell to the ground, where it bubbled and
  boiled away into thin air.



...


 BlackBlood arrived at the top of the canyon, dragging behind him
  the corpse of Rezon'El.  "A present for Charn'El, are you," he said to the
  body.  "No more canyons will YOU build..." he continued, then stalked off
  into the desert, Lyran cadaver in tow.



...




 Charn'El, he who wears black, was alone in his chambers meditating
  when his eyes snapped open wide in surprise and terror.  A tremor ran
  through his body as he felt one of his brethren leave the realm of the
  living.


 Charn'El felt pain in his own body as if it was his own flesh being
  torn asunder.  Rezon'El, one of his apprentices, had been torn to the barest
  pieces of bloody meat by the Claws[tm] of a Maenad; in his meditation he had
  felt it.  Undoubtedly, the Maenads were coming for him as prophesied.



---



[1] See the end of Operation: Phoenix and specifically "Sam I Am"


"Night Rages On"
Copyright 1997
David R. Hibbs