Operation Phoenix:  The Hunt For Samhain


Part 14 (The Conclusion!)


 
	Samhain staggered backwards, reeling in pain after catching a 
metal bolt the hard way--in his upper left torso.  He reached up and 
grabbed it with his right hand, and wrenched it free as a second bolt 
caught him in his right thigh, ripping through the muscle and hitting 
bone.  He grunted in pain as he dropped to the ground on his good leg.  
His vision blurred slightly as he felt the effects of an exotic toxin 
begin to make its way through his system, but he managed to look up in 
time to see a huge lizard charging towards him, leaping, and planting a 
huge, clawed foot in the middle of his forehead.  He flew backwards 
against a tree, now bleeding from his face in stripes as well as the 
places the bolts had hit.  He came to a sudden stop as his back slammed 
against a tree, and he uttered a dull *oof* and slid to the ground in a 
heap.  He was still conscious... barely.

	The lizard grinned viciously at Samhain and licked his lips as 
Samhain's blood flowed and pooled, mixing with the mud around him in a 
murky-reddish-brown muck.

	"Not quite fair to poison and then fight, is it?  Well, I never 
really was the honorable sort.  I saw what it got those who fought 
fairly... it got them killed."  He reloaded his crossbow, and aimed it 
carefully at Samhain's head.  "And you... are dead!"  He pulled the 
trigger, and the bolt whizzed through the air only to deflect at a 
strange angle off the tip of the katana being dragged with Samhain as he 
miraculously rolled out of the way just in the nick of time.

	"Still alive, are we?  Well, I guess I'd better soften you up 
some more!"  His reptilian eyes sparkled as a bolt of lightning flashed 
across the night sky.  He spun around in a fast circle, sending his tail 
flying and catching Samhain's side.  The bone extruding from the tail dug 
into him, and then he was lifted off the ground and flying through the 
air.  He landed in the mud, and he was too weak for his hand to maintain 
its grip on the sword.  He slid across the muddy ground, and eventually 
slowed to a stop.

	The lizard hurried over and clamped down on Samhain's right arm 
with his powerful jaws, his teeth ripping flesh and the strength of the 
jaw crushing bone.

	Samhain screamed in pain, and swung with his left arm more out of 
reflex than from thought.  He caught the lizard in the side of the head 
hard.  His grip with his jaw loosened as his head whipped sideways, bloodied 
from the knuckle-blades on the single gauntlet, and took chunks of Samhain's 
arm with it.  He roared in fury, and kicked Samhain in the stomach, 
sending him skidding to the edge of the clearing.

	His right arm was healing rapidly in the darkness and weather 
which was regarded as vile by most, and it instinctively reached out looking for a 
weapon of any kind to be used in defense of its master.  Its fingers, 
though cold and wet, wrapped around a fallen tree branch about 3 inches 
in diameter.  The lizard approached again, and this time brought his head 
down hoping to chomp onto a leg.  What he got was a nasty surprise as the 
partially-healed arm managed to swing a 3 foot section of wood in a fast 
arc that caught him on the other side of his head.  It wasn't as hard as 
it would have been at full strength, but it was enough to get his 
attention and get him to take a step backwards.

	Samhain struggled back to his feet slowly, taking advantage of his 
opponent's surprise.

	The X'hirjq swung his head back to face Samhain, and opened his 
mouth wide.  A stream of poison flew through the air and sprayed across 
Samhain's face.

	He reached for his crossbow again, and worked to reload it as 
Samhain struggled with his ijuries and the poisons.  He was bleeding in 
several places, coated with a layer of mud, and his vision was blurred by 
the poisons, but he was at least back in the fight.  He spun the 
branch-staff in a circle in his hand, wielding it as he'd been taught so 
long ago to use a bo.  The X'hirjq brought the crossbow up and pointed it, 
only to have it knocked away by the staff.

	Samhain held the staff at an angle at his side, one end of it 
pointing at the beast, who was currently rather unhappy with Samhain.  The X'hirjq 
pulled a huge knife and lunged, only to have Samhain sidestep and plant 
the end of the staff solidly in his eye socket.  He roared in pain, and 
whirled, grabbing the staff and ripping it from Samhain's hands, which 
were still fairly weak from the poison.  He swung it back towards its 
original wielder, and caught Samhain under the armpit and sent him flying yet 
again.  "I need to grow wings," Samhain thought darkly in the split second of 
air time before he slammed against the rocks the X'hirjq had been hiding 
in.

	"I see that special poison I made is doing it's job, Samhain..." 
grinned the X'hirjq as he approached, the knife menacing.  "Now, I'm going 
to finish this!"

	Samhain's hands again sought for a weapon... he was in no state 
to be able to stand up again, and another blow would all but finish him 
off.  This time, his left hand found something... something metal... 
pointed...

	The X'hirjq raised the knife up, his clawed hands grasping the 
hilt of the blade, one around it and one on the top... he was going to 
administer a death-blow blow... he started swinging down with the blade...

	Samhain flipped the object at the X'hirjq's head as a throwing 
blade, and used the mud to its advantage, sliding down quickly out of the 
way as much as possible.

	Samhain saw and recognized the crossbow bolt as it stuck part way 
in the X'hirjq's head, though not far enough to do any damage, and then 
caught the knife blade in his side.  He screamed again in pain, and slid 
around in a part-circle, catching the X'hirjq's legs with his own.  He 
fell to the ground next to Samhain, who, despite the pain, found the 
strength in himself to punch the bolt home with the knuckles of his 
gauntlet.  There was a crunching noise as the bolt pierced his skull, and 
he flailed wildly in an automatic reaction to his brain being pierced, 
then was still.

	Samhain breathed shallowly, and yanked the blade from his side, 
screamed, and passed out from the pain as the numerous serrations on the 
blade took large chunks of his flesh with them as they left his body...



	Samhain awoke the next morning with a hell of a headache and the sun 
shining in his eyes.  It all seemed like a nightmare, but when he looked 
around him he saw that it was not.  There was the knife, bearing his own 
blood, the katana across the clearing, the X'hirjq with the bolt in his 
head.  He looked down at himself and what once was his clothing, now 
hanging off of him in a mess of blue blood, his own blood, and just plain 
mud.  "Gawd, I'm a mess," he thought to himself as he set about 
collecting himself.  He picked up his katana and hacked off the head of 
the X'hirjq.  "Nice trophy for my office... the one from which I got 
away--barely...  Wonder how the others are doing..."

	And on that thought, he headed out of the forest.  He was a 
little worse for the wear, but still alive.  And that was what 
mattered...



Fin :  The Hunt for Samhain

				But the Beginning of... what?



"The Hunt for Samhain"
Copyright 1995, David R. Hibbs
All Rights Reserved.