Chapter 10: The fortress

The impact of her head butt had thrown the scientist off the harness, sending him flying into the adjacent obsidian wall, smacking face-first as he impacted the solid wall; Destiny skidded along the coarse floor as her scales scratched against the mineral, causing sparks to fly as she tried to slow down. Honeydew and Xephos had been knocked back by the sheer force and debris of the crash as obsidian brick shards flew in every direction, the purple dust cloud restricted their vision as they tried to make out the two figures beyond the cloud of obsidian dust. Xephos recognised the scene before him, the serpent, the human and the sound of the alarms as they went off, alerting the guards to deal with the intruders; endermen and zombies came pouring from the carved stairs as they rushed to overwhelm the intruders, however, there was an obvious difference between his nightmare and the scene in front of his very eyes, the serpent had coiled into a defensive position as the mobs tried to reach the other human, who was wielding an iron sword in an awkward stance, and his eyes were shielded by a most familiar-looking pair of goggles. Xephos was snapped out of his thoughts as Honeydew pulled at the dazed spaceman's arm, "Come on Xephos! Let's get the shit out of here!" as the ginger dwarf dragged his spaceman friend down the deserted corridor, away from the fray; away from their scientist friend.

Lalna screamed as a zombie swung his sword to clash with his, sending sparks to skitter across the bloodstained floor, Destiny had heard his cry and, swiftly set her partner's assailant ablaze as the undead monster reeled back in shock, just as the scientist was able to stick his sword through the zombie's body, spilling ever more blood on the scarlet floor. Destiny had then returned to grappling with the new horde of skeletal endermen, spraying water atop the creatures of the end, causing their skin to burn and fizzle and to emit a most repugnant smell of burnt endermen into the air. The mobs never seem to cease as more and more of the dreaded creatures emerged from the dark recesses of the god forsaken fortress, among the conflict were only the sounds of screeching and metal clashing as the forces of Israphel fought against the Lightbringer and The Vanquishing Blade, not a single word penetrated the air as the duo dealt with a flurry of lines and words of warning within their minds, "WATCH OUT! ENDERMAN TO YOUR LEFT!" "ZOMBIE AT THE REAR!" "OH GOD, WHY THE SHIT ARE THERE SO MANY OF THEM?!" "DESTINY! TO THE RIGHT! ELITE ZOMBIE!" the screams raced through their minds as the bloody onslaught continued, only to be interrupted by the arrival of more mobs or the screeches of pain from the duo.

"There's no point Lalna! They will not stop coming! We have to find an opening and run for it!" "But where's Honeydew and Xephos?!" "I saw them escape, but can we get the shit out of this mess before…" Destiny was worryingly cut off as and enderman sank his claws into her flaming left wing, causing white droplets of dragon blood to mix with the red of the dead zombies; her pain rebounded through their mental link as the scientist felt a jolt of pain in his left arm, causing him to flinch and for a zombie to score a hit on his side, scarlet blood seeped from the cut as the scientist reeled back in shock. Destiny had sensed her partner's pain as it rebounded though their link, she could feel a long hidden rage boiling within her, she had only felt this once before, that was when an assassin had tried to harm her past partner, only to be reduced to a smouldering black stain on the ground; the exact same feeling had returned, sending her inner inferno to blaze across her body, igniting her snake-like body, turning her into a living fire. "You. Will. Not. Touch. Him!" she had roared as she exploded, sending all of their assailants into the air, to become mere ashes on the ground as they landed; then, she could feel fear take over rage as the sound of the explosion rattled her ears, the force shook her very soul, and fear had taken over, forcing the wyvern to start screeching in panic as horrible memories flooded her mind, her strong emotions reached the scientist as Destiny tried to regain a grasp on her sanity, 'come on, don't… don't let it… for the…sake of… just… GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

The scientist could feel the distress the wyvern was experiencing as her tormenting memories visualised in his head, the serpent had begun screeching and thrashing about, sending blood-soaked ashes into the air. "Destiny! Stop it, come on! Get a hold of yourself!" his pleas went unheard as the wyvern closed off their mental link and thrashed about, her tail fan tripping the scientist as he tried to hold his terrified partner down. Lalna could hear the rattling of bones as skeleton archers advanced towards their location, Destiny was still writhing about in a corner as she tried to grapple with her fears, he was still struggling to get up on his feet when the cut on his side forced him to fall back down to his knees, gasping for air. The rattling had stopped, the memories had receded and she had clarity of thought again, she could hear a gasp of pain from her partner as he fell back down, panting; then came the sounds of rattling bones as skeletons closed in on the wounded duo, Destiny hadn't had time to regain her strength as the first arrow was fired, hitting the floor at the scientist's feet, panic overtook her mind as she wrapped her tail around the winded scientist and fled, letting her dragonsense guide her to the forbidden chamber; for that is where her jewel resides.

The leader enderman had caught a glimpse of the duo just before they fled down the dark corridors, a sinking feeling was in his gut as he hypothesised they will be heading for the chamber room, he cannot allow that to happen; if she were to obtain the light jewel, Israphel is going to have a hell of a time trying to take her down, not to mention the fact that he will be executed if the jewel were to fall into her hands as well. "Aerita! Lead your eight-legged minions down the corridor trap the accursed duo if you find them. Argos! Lead the skeletons on the extra spiders and shoot but not kill. Alastair! Lead the endermen to the jewel room to protect it at all cost!" Destiny followed her senses as it led her ever deeper into the fortress, the white light was getting brighter as she looked back to see if Lalna was able to keep up; he had insisted for her to let him run behind her so as to not be a burden. "Are you sure you can keep up?" "Yea…guess…so…wait, what's that?" the two turned to the corridor they had just emerged from, to see a mass of glowing red spider eyes staring back. "RUN!" the two had shouted almost instantly as they fled for the light. The spiders clacked their fangs at the sight of their target as the webspinners shot sticky lines of spiderweb in their direction, allowing their venomous counterparts and skeleton jockeys to advance quickly; the enderman leader had done his job well, the endermen guard were positioned in ambush at the jewel chamber corridors, spiders will chase them into the waiting jockeys and creepers, ready to surround them for the endermen to shred the dammed duo into bloody ribbons of flesh and skin, he had thought there is no chance of surviving the attack, but he had missed an important detail about the wyvern that made her so deadly; she can destroy the mobs with their minds.