"End of an Era - Chapter 3"

Deikon
The members of the Shou Xing Dai stood tall and ready for the approaching man to to reach the vulgar group. Many of them readied their weapons while others eyed the man as someone that was of little threat. They lined the pathway in random areas with some sitting on rocks, others standing in the few trees that stood alongside the dirt path, and some sitting on the grassy floor, minding their own business. Bear, on the other hand, stood in the very center of the path that cut through the Shou Xing Dai post all the way towards the port city, Freeport. He too readied himself for a potential battle, his hand to his side, hovering over a small staff type weapon.

Each step the approaching man took, Bear became more eager to engage into combat, and his craving for blood became more intense. His face clearly showed the signs of a blood thirsty warrior. The vein in his forehead grew bigger as he gripped the weapon that hung at his side. His muscles became more tense as he held back the urge to charge the man and strike him down.

The man still walking down the path towards the awaiting troops remained calm. He easily anticipated the outcome of this event and knew that this was not going to be a walk in the park. By the looks of the men he got closer to, he knew that they were not of the kinder sort. Still, he approached the warriors with calm strides, a grin growing upon his face.

Before long, the man reached the vile men and stood before them. Glancing around, he spotted the men sitting on the rocks, the man sitting in the tree, the several men relaxing on the grass, the men to his sides standing at attention, and finally, the large man standing directly in front of him, clearly blocking his path.

One of the medium ranking troopers stepped in front of the man, “May I ask who you are and what your business is?”

The man simply grinned and removed his icy stare from the larger man blocking the path, “I am Deikon Astalidan. I’ve just returned from a good friends and I was hoping to return home to do some things that really aren’t any of your business.”

“Deikon Astalidan, you say?” The man seemed to have noticed that name from somewhere, soon realizing it was the name of the man Sephrin told the group to look out for, “May I ask what that symbol is on your eye patch? It seems rather...familiar.”

“It’s simply just a family symbol.” Deikon lied, “Passed down through the years. It’s been a 4000 year tradition.” The warrior stifled a small chuckle then turned towards the larger man of higher rank that blocked the path. They both acknowledged each other with a nod and immediately the sounds of weapons being removed from their fasteners filled the air.

Deikon glanced around him once again to spot the troops that had originally been sitting down and relaxing to be standing up slowly, removing their weapons ready to strike at any moment. Most of them had simple staves but some of the higher ranking officers had rather awkward weapons that Deikon had never seen before.

They seemed like a handle from a weapon with the lack of the blunt portion itself. Deikon could not see any form of violent force that could come from such a device. His thoughts of the strange weapons were cut short as several clicking sounds filled the air.

Instantly, the handles extended into full size blunt weapons that took the forms of staves. Unlike the staves that the lower class troops had, these were etched in the markings of the Shou Xing Dai. It was also made of a rare type of wood that had the weight of a twig yet the strength of a thousand steels. The magic it emitted could clearly be felt yet while in the hands of these treacherous men, the feelings of hostility and danger flowed through the air.

For what seemed like an eternity, everyone stood silent. Deikon glanced over the men once more, attempting to anticipate their next move. The thoughts of why they wanted to kill him flowed through his mind as well. He could not understand what the situation was all about, but he also knew that this was not a time to be worrying about things like that but rather worrying about staying alive.

Several seconds passed, the sounds of the air being cut could be heard as several warriors spun their weapons, attempting to intimidate Deikon. Before long, the first strike was made as one man used his staff as a javelin and threw it, attempting to impale the man of medium build to end the fight in a matter of seconds.

Deikon’s inner energy felt the troopers force before hand, giving him time to react quickly. He looked to his left and saw the flying projectile soaring right for his head and immediately bent backwards to have to staff fly straight over him. Before the weapon made it completely across his body, he grabbed the staff as it continued to travel and pushed it further with more force than the first man had thrown it at.

Giving it more momentum, the staff continued its travel passed Deikon and straight for another Shou Xing Dai warrior. The man didn’t have enough time to react and was suddenly impaled by the oncoming weapon. With the immense intensity that Deikon added to the weapon, it forced the impaled man backwards into a tree, forcing the projectile through the tree and leaving the man hanging to die slowly. This marked the beginning of a battle Deikon had anticipated long before hand.

Enraged, the man who threw the weapon in the first place began to charge at Deikon. He carelessly took several unplanned attacks against Deikon. With ease, Deikon dodged them, simply playing with the man and not reacting to any of the attacks. He continued to dodge the attacks for several seconds before leaping into the air and side swiping the warrior across the face with great force, thus spinning the man’s head violently to the side, snapping his neck.

Once Deikon returned to the ground and mockingly dusting off his tunic, he taunted the rest of the group with several gestures. The anger heightened in all of the men, especially Bear as his veins began to grow even bigger.

At once, three more Shou Xing Dai charged towards Deikon. Now was the time to speed things up. With the first man approaching, Deikon quickly squared his foot in the man’s abdomen, forcing him to crash to the grassy floor and drop his weapon.

Deikon immediately grabbed the weapon that was still on its way down towards the ground. Now armed, he had a greater chance against the two other men that continued his way.

Spinning the weapon with ease, he playfully skipped backwards a few steps and taunted the approaching men. As they got closer, Deikon planted his foot into the ground giving him much strength as he lunged towards the first man, squaring the staff in the man’s chin. The man flew through the air with much force and continuing towards the hard ground until he recovered by doing a backwards flip and landing straight up.

Deikon was impressed by how these men were trained but knew he had no time to stop and admire his enemies’ skills. He quickly spun the staff around and slammed it into the second man’s chest that was approaching from his right. The crunching sound of his ribs was followed by a painful yelp as the man fell to the ground to cough the blood the had began to fill his lungs.

Becoming distracted by his recent victim, he did not see the first man charging back at him from the front. Hesitating, he regained combat stance only to notice that his staff had broken when he hit the last warrior. He threw it to the ground and maintained unarmed combat stance only to be clobbered in the head by a blunt weapon from behind.

Deikon became stunned and fell to his knees. The outcome of this battle was not as what he had foreseen. He was prepared to meet his doom before a low growling sound was heard from behind, followed by a high pitched gurgling yelp. Looking up towards the man who stood before Deikon, he saw the man’s eyes wide open with fear and clearly focused on something that was behind Deikon. Slowly, the man dropped his weapon and crept backwards, shaking with such fear that he had troubles keeping his balance.

Still weary eyed from the recent blow to the head, Deikon slowly turned to see what had brought so much fear to his opponents. His eyes opened wide and his own fears began to weaken him as he saw a wolf that still held the man that hit Deikon over the head earlier by the throat. After several seconds and making sure that the man was dead, the wolf let go of its victim to let him slump to the ground.

The wolf walked slowly towards Deikon, yet it kept its eye on the troops that stood in front of him. Its blood stained fangs dripped with the fresh blood from its last victim. Low growls could be heard from the beast as it walked up beside Deikon, continuing to eye to troopers that watched, weapons firm in hand.

Deikon’s fears grew stronger as the large wolf stood beside him, continuing to emit its low intimidating rumble. Suddenly, Deikon’s fears began to subside as the wolf started to morph into the shape of a human. Until the transformation was complete, Deikon could not notice that it was really a elven druid that had stood beside him.

The druid turned to Deikon and smiled, “Looks like you could use some help.” Turning back to the troops, it seemed as though their fears had subsided as well. Their urge for battle returned as they readied their weapons to strike down the two that opposed them.

Deikon seemed confused at first, “You’re not going to fight them off unarmed, are you? I’ve never heard of a druid that fought with his hand.” The young looking elf replied shaking his head.

The druid extended his arm in front of him then suddenly by magic, large roots began to creep up his arm and continuing for quite a distance passed his hand. For several seconds the roots sat there, taking the shape of a large spike almost two arm lengths long. The druid then muttered a few simple words and the roots began to loosen, retracting back up the druid’s arm to reveal a scimitar in the elf’s hand.

Deikon was amazed at the incredible magic abilities the elf had, “That better?” The elf said with a grin. The two were interrupted by the grunting of a man who stepped in front of the rest of his comrades, throwing down a half eaten rodent.

“Hell with this!” The man said, “I’m gonna take you both down me self!” The warrior began to charge towards the two with great haste and power. Deikon readied himself for the approaching man only to see him stop dead in his tracks.

The druid’s eyes glowed a bright white aura as he held his hand out in the direction of the halted man. Several roots from the ground began to weave themselves around the man’s feet, rendering him motionless.

“Battles do not have to end in bloodshed, my friend.” The elf said.

“Yeah well, unfortunately that’s not the case in this situation.” Deikon replied, bolting with great speed towards the rooted man. The trooper became very afraid as he saw Deikon approach him with majestic swiftness.

Using the warrior as a launch pad, Deikon jumped up and sprung off the top of the man’s shoulders to be thrust towards several Shou Xing Dai that awaited him on the other side.

The druid recognized Deikon’s insanity in battle yet he knew this was someone he needed to aid. He rushed over to a nearby tree and sliced off several branches with his scimitar.

“Sorry my friend.” The elf said, paying his respects to the life of nature he injured. Taking the several branches, he laid them all across his palm side by side. Suddenly, his eyes began to glow a bright yellow aura as the branches began to take on a more sharper form as well as becoming more rigid and stronger than before.

The elf looked up towards Deikon seeing that he was having trouble fending off all the Shou Xing Dai at once. The branches scattered across the elf’s palm began to glow as they hovered in the air. With a swift wave of the druid’s palm, the winds became violent for a brief moment to force the branches through the air. Each branch was aimed at a separate member of the Shou Xing Dai and they all found their targets right through their foreheads, killing four men instantly.

Only a few soldiers remained, one of them being the giant of a man, Bear. Through the whole fight he stood silently, watching his men drop like flies. Not once did he attempt to save any of them. He continued to watch as two more were dropped by the powerful blows from Deikon as he practically punched holes through the troopers stomachs simultaneously. The final man was dropped as the druid called the powers of nature to summon a bolt of lightning from the sky, frying a Shou Xing Dai and letting him die slowly.

The man who suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung had now died and the rooted man still struggled to become free. Only Bear remained and his urges for battle and taste for blood was at its peak.

Deikon and the elf stood side by side, straightened their tunics and stared up at the bulky man that stood before them. The tension between the opposite forces was so great that the air between them was the most intense of hostile grounds.

For several seconds the two sides stood still, staring down upon their enemy. With weapons readied, the time to strike came near. Suddenly, with a sudden burst of energy, Deikon and the elf dove towards the large man. Bear responded by spinning his weapon with great speeds to increase the force then smashing it into the druid with so much force it sent him flying into a nearby tree, rendering him unconscious.

Bear then quickly turned to Deikon and grabbed him around his neck with his large beast like hands. He lifted him up in the air and stared him in the eyes, his evil grin striking Deikon harshly. The large man then brought Deikon down quickly, crashing him into the ground making a large imprint of Deikon’s body into the land’s soil.

With the wind knocked out of him, Deikon couldn’t do anything to react to the sudden blow. He weakened with every blow that Bear dealt with his blunt weapon. Over and over the large man continued to slam his weapon into Deikon’s chest. Deikon couldn’t tell how much more of this he could take before his chest would collapse much like one of his past victim did.

Deikon searched deep within his inner energy to search for just an ounce of strength to fight back the beast. After a few more blows to the chest, Deikon summoned the strength to lift a leg to block the following blow. With the weapon across his shin, he grabbed the staff with both his hands to attempt to gain control of the weapon. Lifting his other leg, he placed it on Bear’s abdomen then pushed with all his might and twisted the staff simultaneously to force the large man over his head and to rip the weapon out of his hand.

Deikon recovered by jumping to his feet and maintaining proper battle stance with his new weapon. Bear laughed evilly as he stood up and wiped the fresh blood that flowed from his lip.

“That all you can do?” Bear taunted. Deikon’s eyes thinned as the burning anger grew within him. Once again he searched his inner energy for all the strength he could convene. Swinging the staff with so much speed and strength, he heated the surrounding air making the area around the weapon glow a bright red.

The weapon began its way towards the towering man and just before it hit, Bear became motionless and his skin began to turn a crispy blue. Deikon had no time to stop to see what was happening and hit the man with great force, shattering him into thousands of tiny little pieces. The air in front of him fogged as dust and steam swirled in front of him.

Once the dust had settled, he could clearly see his elf friend standing in the distance with his arm pointed out, the ice still on his fingertips, “Looked like you could’ve used some help.” The druid grinned and walked over towards Deikon.

“Thank you for all the help, friend. I do not think I could have done it without you.” Deikon said, patting the elf on the back.

“It was the best I could do.” The elf replied, “Oh, I do not believe we have been properly introduced. I am Taluvian Nite`wynd. And you are?”

“Deikon. Deikon Astalidan.” Deikon replied, a wide smile appearing on his face as he began to truly appreciate the help his new friend supplied. “How’s the head?”

“I’ll be fine.” Taluvian said, collecting the branches that had gotten stuck in the heads of some unfortunate Shou Xing Dai warriors. “It’s these guys I really worry about.” He continued by replacing the branches onto the tree he got them from, using magic to reattach them like they were never dismembered.

“Well my friend, I think I should be heading back to my quarters. Would you care to come along?” Deikon said to his new elf friend.

“No, that is all right. I must be going my own ways.” Taluvian replied. “But you never know, our paths may cross once again when you least expect it.” Taluvian nodded to Deikon as a farewell and vanished as the winds became stronger and the mists shaded his view as he teleported away.

Deikon turned around to make his way back to Arx Draconis only to trip on the roots that bound the only surviving warrior of that squad. Glancing around he saw just as he thought; the surviving Shou Xing Dai running back to his home fortress.

“We’re going to have company.” Deikon mumbled to himself as he retracted his new Shou Xing Dai weapon to it’s initial form, “And lots of it.”