Rappelz: The Iron Scar Part 3

Rappelz: The Iron Scar - Part Three
by
N.C. Weber
Rappelz is © nFlavor

    Lily looked at the dirk with some surprise.  "Wait, I thought you were a Dark Magician."

    "All Asurans are required to become familiar with the dagger," explained Raven.  "It's kind of a traditional weapon.  Anyway, I want to save my magical power for the Iron Scar.  Something tells me I'm really going to need it."

    Lily nodded and once more led the way along the packed sand roadway.   IlludeTrikari moved surprisingly fast for a land based turtle.  Raven noticed that its flippers, though they held the general shape of that of a sea turtle, were heavily muscled and plowed through the sand effortlessly.  LuKia seemed to be enjoying himself bounding forward through the sand.  Suddenly, Raven noticed that Lily had stopped.  When she drew up along side Lily, she saw what it was that had halted the Gaian Kahuna.  Two large, aggressive looking Land Turtles were kicking up dust and snorting.

    "Uh-oh," said Lily, "I think they're gonna charge."  She glanced at Raven.  "You take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right."  Raven nodded her agreement.

    "Ready, LuKia?" asked Raven of her pet.  The Pantera roared its defiance at the Land Turtles.  Raven smiled.  "Let's do it."

    As if by hidden cue, the two Turtles and the two adventurers charged toward one another at precisely the same moment.  Raven recalled that the Turtle's primary advantage was in defense.  Its hard shell deflected most bladed attacks and dulled the effectiveness of many blunt weapons.  Her strikes would have to focus on the creature's exposed hide on its head, neck and flippers.  LuKia took a flanking position and attacked its rear.  The Turtle patently ignored the Pantera as it bore down on the target in front of it.

    Raven slashed at the Turtle's head with her dagger while at the same time dodging the creature's vicious beak.  Raven had learned one important facet of her training as a mage, she needed a staff only to focus and amplify her magic.  However, she could use her magic without her staff.  Recently, she learned that she could use her dagger as a focus, though the metal weakened her power somewhat.  Another lunge from the massive Tortus forced Raven back.  She decided to take a chance on a spell.  Fire Arrow was a quick one, but it wasn't very powerful.  However, she didn't need it for its damage effect.  With a flick of her blade, Raven pointed toward the ground in front of the Tortus.

    "FIRE ARROW!"

    A small ball of fire shot from from the extended dagger and engulfed the Tortus' head.  It growled in dismay as it shook its head to dislodge the flames that were clinging to it.  As Raven struggled with her opponent, Lily seemed to be holding her own against hers.  With wide swinging arcs, she laid blow upon powerful blow to the Tortus' shell.  The sheer force behind her swings were beginning to leave cracks in the creature's armored defense.  Realizing its danger, the giant turtle began to backpedal out of the reach of Lily's war axe.  However, Lily pressed her advantage.  Suddenly with a feint to one side and a mighty downward swing, Lily managed to decapitate the creature.  Its flippers twitched spasmodically as its life blood poured forth from the stump of its neck.  Raven was most impressed with the small woman's skill with a weapon the was as large as she.  Yet, when Lily turned toward her, Raven was taken back by the gleam of bloodlust in her eyes.

    She had no time to contemplate what she had seen.  Her monstrous opponent was making another charge.  The flames on its head had dissipated leaving ugly puckered burns, but not really slowing the creature down.

    "Raven!" shouted Lily hefting her mighty war axe.  "You're a mage! Act like one!"

    With that, Raven quickly sheathed her dagger and drew out her staff in one fluid motion.  Maintaining her distance from the Tortus, she managed to cast her most powerful spell.

    "DARKNESS ARROW!"

    Several balls of dark energy shot forth from her upraised hand and enveloped the Tortus in searing agony.  Raven quickly followed through with her strongest fire spell.

    "FLAME BURN!"

    A cone of spiraling flame consumed the Tortus, roasting it within its own shell.  With a final exhalation of breath, the massive creature heaved forward one list time before collapsing completely in the dirt, never to rise again.

    "Now that's what I'm talking about!" shouted Lily victoriously.  She began to whoop and dance about wildly.

    Raven watched her somewhat bemused.  "I had no idea you were a berserker."

    Lily stopped her capering.  "What are you going on about?"

    "You were reveling in that creature's destruction," said Raven.  "I saw that manic gleam in your eye."

    Lily shrugged.  "So, I get a little carried away sometimes.  That doesn't make me a berserker.  Anyway, it was either him or me, and it certainly wasn't going to be me."  She proceeded to dance about once more before finally settling down.  "You may be okay with a dagger against undead, but that thing won't do you any good against these things, and we're going to be fighting a lot of them."

    Raven sighed.  "I fear you are right.  Very well, the staff it is."

    "What was that one spell with the black and purple balls?"

    "That was my Darkness Arrow," explained Raven.  "It takes a good chunk of energy out of an opponent before it can attack."

    "It was incredible," enthused Lily.  Raven couldn't help but laugh at Lily's excitability.  "I have a few spells myself, but they're mostly defensive."

    "That comes of being in a battle mage discipline, I expect," said Raven.  "Your attacks are primarily physical, so the defensive spells give you an advantage.  I, on the other hand, am a pure mage.  Therefore, the majority of my spells are attack spells."

    "Yeah, well I wouldn't mind having a few attacks myself," grinned Lily.  She glanced upwards.  "Let's get moving.  I don't want to be caught out here at night."

    "Agreed," nodded Raven.

    Lily, Raven and their pets continued along the sand path that ran along side the rocky cliffs.  Raven noticed the many of the cliff openings were populated with flocks of Galluses.  The Tortuses seemed to prefer the grassy hills on the opposite side of the road.  Lily had slowed down her progress until she finally came to a complete stop.  She seemed to be scanning the cliffs up ahead which had reached a point of melting into grassy hillocks and copses.

    "Is there a problem?" inquired Raven of her guide.

    "We're very near the Iron Scar's territory," said Lily.  "I'm trying to determine the best way to approach.  There are two paths into the heart of its realm.  This one," she pointed to an opening between to boulders, "is steep and rocky, but we'll run into less opposition from lesser Turtles.  The other way," she pointed to the sandy path that turned off the main road just before the grassy hillocks, "leads directly to the heart of its territory, but it's also guarded by several lesser Land Turtles."

    "What's the terrain like once we get inside?" asked Raven.

    "More of the same," said Lily with a shrug.  "Boulders, sandstone hills, lots of loose sand on the ground."  She thought for a moment.  "There is one geographical feature that we can use to our advantage.  There's a large hill in the center of the Iron Scar's territory and all of the area around that hill is mostly flat, like a large, circular racing track.  We can use that to our advantage.  I can lead it along the track, while you attack from the hill."

    "Won't it attack me once I hit it with one of my offensive spells?"

    "Nah," said Lily dismissively, "I'll be keeping him plenty busy myself."

    Raven nodded.  "Alright, let's take the back way in.  It wouldn't do us any good to wear ourselves out fighting Land Turtles all day and end up too tired to take on the Iron Scar."

     "My thoughts exactly," grinned Lily.  She led the others up the steep, rocky path that led to the rear of the Iron Scar's territory.  As was expected, very few Land Turtles bothered to climb such treacherous pathways.  Galluses, however, were another matter.  As they climbed, occasionally scattering pepples and dislodging larger rocks, Raven caught sight of a small flock of Galluses watching them closely.

    "Do you think they'll give us any trouble?" asked Raven indicating the avian sentries.

    "Not as long as you've got LuKia out and about," assured Lily.  "There's a long standing animosity between Opuds and Aves.  Aves hate Opuds and Opuds, well, they like Aves a little too much, if you know what I mean."

    Raven glanced back at her Pantera.  "I wouldn't recommend eating one of those, Lu. They look kind of gamey to me."

    After what seemed like an eternity of scrabbling over loose rock and treacherous sand, the path eventually evened out onto a hard, stone plateau.  Lily led the others to the far side of the plateau where another path, leading downward, was found.  "There's the hill I was telling you about," announced Lily.  Raven peered down into a deep valley.  Just as Lily had described, the base of the valley was punctuated by a small, but steep, hill and was surrounded by sandy earth that had been beaten flat by the passings of generations of Land Turtles.  On the far side of the valley rose a rocky bluff.  There, lying in the dirt, was the largest Land Turtle that Raven had ever laid eyes upon.  It was easily three times the size of the other Turtles in the area.

    "God of Destruction!" exclaimed Raven.  "Is that...?"  She couldn't quite finish her question.

    "Yup," nodded Lily with grim determination.  "That is the Iron Scar."

    The name was certainly apropos.  Its shell was riddled with scratches and scars from previous battles with other adventurers or other Land Turtles.  Raven shuddered to think of what became of those other adventurers.