Of all the foes I have encountered, the Mordicant of the sixth gate was the first to ever nearly take my soul. Early in my journey, shortly after I left Lord Vincent Kancara's court, I was approched by a certain old man. He was from a small, and little known village on the outskirts of a large mire.
"Sir," he began, "You appear to be a powerful young magi. Please help. My village is being terrorized by a strange, and awful beast. We have done all we can to stop the creature, sending forth our strongest young men, and none have returned from the mire where it dwells. We will pay you handsomely if you will slay the beast. Please sir..."
I mulled over his request carefully before answering, "I suppose that you can enlist anyone's help in anything for the right price. I will help you slay your beast, but it will come at great expense. Ninety thousand thousand gold peices, and I will bring you the creature's head."
He brought me to the edge of the mire, surely hoping against hope that I would be victorious. I began into the mire, using my sense for the dead to guide me. I walked a long time, even into the night when I had to summon up a small spirit to guide me by lantern. Eventually I came to a place where there were many bones lying about. Some were larger, likely that of the young men the old man spoke of, but most were small. Children's bones. The beast, as a being of death, would not have any need to eat flesh. He took victims for their souls, and the life therein. Children having the strongest life force would be the ideal prey. I searched about for the creature, but it found me first. I heard a sound behind me and turned about just in time to see a hulking six legged creature with eyes like hot coals, and a ridiculously wide mouth full of what seemed like thousands of crooked, cracked teeth. He barreled toward me, smashing through my lantern spirit and swiping at me with a massive claw. He caught me square in the face, and the flesh withered at his touch. My vision was gone. Not being able to rely on sight, I faded into death where I could see the creature with my soul, rather than my eyes. He pursued me, and let out an awful hiss of words intelligable only while beyond life.
"Foolish necromancer," He said, "I am the Mordicant. I have crawled from the depths of death, from beyond the sixth gate. I will have your soul."
"Foolish Mordicant," I replied, "I'm the scorcerer who will end you."
As he charged me again I drew my sword, and the runes engraved on it's surface danced with a wild light as I dropped my sword to meet him. It caught his front right shoulder and sliced cleanly through the spirit matter, severing the limb completely off. The mordicant hissed and retreated slightly before bowling me over. His touch made my withered face burn. I brought my sword up again, but he saw it coming and pinned down my arm with a immense talon. In panic I did the one thing I could think of. I began to mutter an arcane spell, and then I burst into blue-white flames that burned the beast and made him fall backwards from on top of me. After the flames died I arose and almost fell again from fatigue. The spell had drained me, and the Mordicant was still alive. We came at eachother, both in sad condition to fight. He let out an awful howl at opened his mouth wide trying to bite at my face. Down his throat I could see the fire of hell. With a scream of rage I thrust my sword up through the roof of the beasts mouth and through his head. He stood still, stunned, then collapsed. I withdrew my sword shakily and sheathed it.
Still blind I continued to use my spirit senses to see. I made my way into the town where I was met with stares of utter horror, and whispers of fear. Not wanting such attention drawn to my... disfiguration... I fasioned myself a mask fused with magic to give me superior temporal vision, and more focused spirit vision. I collected my reward and left the town shortly after, vanishing with no trace to continue on my adventures.
Kancara the Reaper Community Member 
|
|
