Karoy of the Second Sun, Chapter 4
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The cavernous central chamber of the inverted pyramid lacked a floor. The arch that Karoy and Ulirobi peered out through led immediately to an upward-sloping iron catwalk less than a foot wide without the courtesy of so much as a ledge on which to get one's bearings. Two similar ramps led from two similar arches at opposing corners of the triangular space, all converging on a hexagonal platform suspended from the ceiling by chains, atop which stood an obsidian pillar, and atop that, a skull, encrusted with ruby and onyx. The whole tableau was lit with a dim red light from the lava pool below. Karoy stuck his arm out into the chamber and winced at the hot air rushing up into it.
Ulirobi's hand touched his shoulder. "You wait here and keep watch, I will retrieve the skull."
Karoy stubbornly shook his head. "I'm too weak to hold off Scoss on my own. At least together we may make him think twice before attacking." Without waiting for a response, he gingerly stepped out onto the catwalk.
The rush of the hot air blotted out every other sound, though Karoy imagined he heard the sizzling of the hot metal against the soles of his boots. The berzerker held Wyrmsplitter out to balance himself as the catwalk bounced and swayed with each step. He blinked back the darkness that coyly traced its fingers around the edge of his vision, chasing off that seductress Death, who would cease his suffering, cast him down to the boiling pit below and leave Ulirobi to Scoss' mercy. He drove away too the thought that the priestess deserved whatever the wretched sorcerer would do to her. He may not have chosen this quest, but by the star that was his namesake he would finish it. He had to adjust his balance again as Ulirobi stepped out behind him. Together they inched up the incline, willing the chains to hold and the wind to keep steady.
The skull on the pedestal seemed to wink at Karoy, the deep pits of its eye sockets seemingly full of a malicious intelligence. As he slowly made his way forward in a hunched, sideways shuffle, he became aware of movement overhead. A large crimson centipede made its way across the ceiling, toward one of the great chains that held the platform. Karoy yelled out over the wind and pointed the creature out to Ulirobi, whose eyes shone bright with terror. They doubled their speed recklessly, trying to reach the platform before the arthropod, Ulirobi nearly fell as the balance shifted; Karoy had to grab her wrist and lean back dangerously himself, the two of them held up by nothing but each other.
Swinging Wyrmsplitter in a slow arc, Karoy drew Ulirobi in and hugged her close. She looked up at him, her eyes glowing with fear and gratitude. He looked over his shoulder to where the centipede was halfway down the chain, its size more readable, roughly a foot wide and nine long with pincers like two scimitars and covered in glistening metallic armour.
"We won't beat it, we need to head back!" Karoy shouted. Ulirobi nodded and shifted to start the treacherous descent. But they both stopped short as two more of the beasts crawled up from the underside of the catwalk, blocking their retreat.
"Well shit!" shouted Ulirobi, just loud enough for Karoy to hear.
The centipede ahead of them was making its way down the catwalk now, steady and surefooted Karoy took a step towards it, digging the magic dagger deeper into his flesh with his off hand as he raised Wyrmsplitter to strike. He swung the blade down like a ritualistic fencer, aiming for the top of the centipede's head. At the last moment, the creature reared back, the catwalk clanging as the sword bounced off of it. The centipede's throat began to swell and glow, and Ulirobi shouted something. She clambered over Karoy, landing in an unstable crouch in front of him, both hands extended towards the centipede as it belched out a cone of flame, which flared wide from where the priestess crouched protecting him.
Ulirobi nearly lost balance and clung to the catwalk. Karoy used the opportunity to step over her and deliver another swing with his blade, neatly lopping off one of the creature's antennae. It lunged towards him, mandibles snapping, he raised Wyrmsplitter to fend it off and slid backwards, bracing against Ulirobi as she deflected a burst of flame from the beasts behind them. Karoy twisted the sword, dislodging the front centipede long enough to swing over Ulirobi's head, driving back the two beasts to the rear. Too mighty a swing, it would have carried him over the edge if she hadn't caught him by his offhand elbow.
As he dangled dangerously and Ulirobi crouched close to the catwalk, driving off centipede flame breath with one hand and clinging to him with the other, Karoy glimpsed a pathetic figure crawling up another of the metal planks. Naked except for the rings on his fingers, hairless, his skin blistered and charred, Scoss clung to the catwalk despite the way the meat of his knees and palms sizzled against the hot metal. The two men locked eyes across the gap. Scoss grinned at Karoy's precarious position. With a fraction of his former dramatic flair, he raised his ringed hand, then brought it down in a fist.
Karoy yelled out as the dagger in his shoulder drove deep and hard, pulling him from Ulirobi's grip. He fell for a moment, then stopped. Hot blood splattered across his face as the preistess struggled to grip Wyrmsplitter's blade, despite its edge slicing her palms. Tears welled in her eyes and she babbled something he couldn't hear over the wind. The lead centipede had ducked under the catwalk to follow him, but the other two were advancing on her. She couldn't keep this up much longer.
Karoy let go of his longsword. Ulirobi's eyes widened in panic and anguish. Karoy felt another impact in his shoulder as the dagger shoved him down again. He closed his eyes and let the hot air rush past him.
His moment of serene acceptance of death was interrupted by a sharp stinging in his sword arm. The lead centipede had lunged at him, and now it clung to his forearm with the tenacity of a governor's mastiff on a would-be assassin, about half of its legs holding it to the underside of the catwalk. Ulirobi had her back to Karoy and was screaming incoherently as she hacked inexpertly at the other centipedes. He pulled the dagger free from his shoulder and leaned forward, digging the blade into one of the centipede's shoulders and holding on tight, Scoss sent another wave of force through the blade, and the centipede lost grip with a few more of it's legs, now shaking wildly to try and dislodge Karoy. The berzerker twisted his body in the air to build momentum, forcing the creature's movements to widen their arc, swinging him closer and closer to the catwalk that Scoss had nearly ascended. At the top of a swing that left him in arm's reach of that path, he twisted again, twisting off the head of the centipede and landing hard with his chest against the metal.
Scoss howled in indignation. Karoy struggled to his feet and rushed him, watching the sorcerer's hands to counter the pulls and pushes of the dagger. He brought the small blade down on the wretched man, leaving a gash on his arm as he tumbled away. Ulirobi looked up to see the conflict, saw that her path to the platform had been cleared, and started quickly sidestepping towards the skull.
Scoss twisted the gem of one of his rings and the dagger's handle became suddenly covered in spikes. Startled, Karoy dropped the blade. It immediately darted towards Ulirobi. She heard him shouting in time to deflect the initial strike with Wyrmsplitter, but struggled to remain upright as it circled to hit again and the centipedes kept closing in. Karoy lunged towards Scoss, grabbing the man's face with both hands and clinging to the hot catwalk with his thighs, roaring through the pain as he slammed the sorcerer's face against the metal. Scoss retaliated by coiling and kicking forward like a spring, wrapping his arms around Karoy's torso and shoving him with more strength than seemed possible. Karoy tumbled over the side of the catwalk, wrestling with the sorcerer to determine which of them would fall.
"Is this really how Karoy of the Second Sun dies?" cackled Scoss. Karoy reached to grab the other man's neck, but with a gesture of his hand, Scoss called the golden dagger back, stabbing Karoy through the wrist. With a flick of his wrist, the blade pulled Karoy back, free from the catwalk, then shook him loose to plummet to the lava below.
Karoy felt suddenly drunk and disoriented as he collided with a sturdy metal surface. He looked up to see Ulirobi standing over him, Wyrmsplitter in one hand and the jeweled skull in the other. He saw two giant centipedes, hacked to pieces, still twitching. He saw three great chains stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The howling winds were silent here in the middle of the chamber.
"Thank you for your service Karoy of the Second Sun. I can handle things from here."
Karoy searched for where he had been a moment ago, saw the sorcerer searching for where he had gone. There was another moment of them locking eyes, then Scoss screamed something he couldn't hear and pointed with his ringed hand, sending the dagger streaking towards them. Ulirobi held up the skull, incanting a prayer in a deep bass growl. The skull's eyes lit up and a shimmering circle opened in the air before them, through which they Karoy could see Scoss' back.
It happened too fast for Scoss to correct, and the dagger was suddenly stabbed through his own hand. He shrieked, his voice audible through the portal. He spun to try to grab at Ulirobi through the portal. She pulled back the skull and the circle closed around his hand, severing it just below where the dagger was stabbed through. It fell to the platform with a dull thunk. Karoy and Ulirobi watched in silence as the sorcerer raved and sobbed, struggling to stem the flow of blood from his the stump of his arm until he became too weak to remain upright and tumbled down, out of the temple.
Ulirobi knelt, dipped her finger in the puddle of blood that oozed from the severed hand, and drew a sigil on the iron platform. "Scoss Under Scorched Skies, may your spirit wander forever and never find your ancestors." She carefully wrapped the hand and knife in a strip of waxed canvas, then turned her attention to Karoy, checking his pulse and tracing the spidery black lines that radiated from his wounds.
"Death has not yet claimed you Berserker. Let us get somewhere more comfortable, and I will cleanse your body of its poisons."