Faux Honor

((Book 1 if this is your first time here: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZZBHBMF

Book 3's finished version: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CK72L912))

The staircase shook as the heavy-hoofed Minotaur steps down from the upper floors. Its horns were about as long as my arm and pointed forward and down as if they were pointing right at me as his large, brown eyes bore a hole through my very being. Golden rings adorn the tips of his horns, and a golden chain hung between them. What of his black fur showed beyond the heavy, silvery breastplate, was slick and short like a doberman's.

He carried a large pole sword; about the length of a human body, with a decorative shaft. The blade itself shone a bright silver, and the metal beyond that a dark ruby. The shaft was a deep red, with a black serpent coiling around its shaft; the wings of the serpent carving were unfurled and opened to hold the flat side of the blade to act as half of a guard, while the head rested on the very bottom of it and finished the rest. Everything glimmered as if it were made of precious stone.

I let loose the five arrows, and they fly toward the minotaur. With a single swing of his blade, the arrows turned to smoke. Shit. I take a step back, and the minotaur lunges forward; stabbing with his pole sword. Though about fifteen feet sat between me and him, the tip of the pole sword slams into my chest, and sends me skittering backward as myRepel cracks as if were made of ice.

He pulls his arm back and steps forward once more, and in the blink of an eye, his head smashes against mine. I reel, and he follows through with a haymaker that sends me flying toward the door. I bounce off the slatted wooden floor and slam against one of the earthen spikes impaling a satyr. The spike crumbles, and I untangle myself from the pierced creature.

"You that bind the all, move for me."

An invisible force of coalesced Aether punches the minotaur in the stomach. Its breastplate dents a little, but other than that it didn't even seem to notice. It lifts the pole sword above its head and swings down to cleave me in two. I roll out of the way, and the blade slices through solid stone as if it were butter, cleaves the dead satyr underneath, and embeds itself in the stone. I try to stand, but the creature lets out a long grunt, and a blast of wind sends me to the ground.

Its arm jolts forward, and grabs me by the collar; my shirt rips and tears it as he yanks me to my feet. It knocks my staff out of my hands I try to pull away, and knock its arm away from me. It sets its pole sword down gently against the side of the wall and draws a long knife out from its belt. It stabs it forward, and it bounces off the shield, he stabs forward again, and the cracks on myRepel widen. I pull myself up wrap my legs around the creature's thick arm, and plant my feet against its shoulder and face. It lifts up its arm and slams me down against the rim of the bridge. It cracks, and I feel my back near do the same. I grit my teeth, as it extends its arm over the bridge. The fall at this point is about fifty feet and onto solid stone.

"Oh you ruler of Olympus, lend thy power to my steps."

Lightning mana surges through my body and ejects itself from the bottom of my left foot. The creature's head jerks back, and I rip free of the creature's grasp and go plummeting dozens of feet toward the bottom of the gorge.

I quick cast Coalesce over and over again; sending the small orbs of water behind me to form a barrier between my body and the stony ground. I smash into it. My Repel shatters like a glass bulb thrown at a wall. Luckily, it took the brunt of the blow, and I am still alive, and able to move my extremities; wiggle my fingers, and wiggle my toes. There was a bit of pain; mostly in my leg. I figure one of the bones there was fractured. Probably just a hairline fracture. I cast Lesser Heals to temporarily ease the pain, but stay laid down to appear as if I were dead because I could still see the shadow of the minotaur leering down at me…how about I bring him down to my level? I feel the ground around me for my dagger. It was soaked in the blood of the Apostle, so perhaps it, too, could serve as a medium. Once I feel its hilt, I point the blade up toward the bridge where the minotaur was currently looking down toward me.

"Bombard my enemies o thou servants of Gob the magnomious."

While not as effective as my staff, the dagger works as intended so that the earth mana flows through my body like muddy water through a culvert instead of like stones thrown into a series of clay pipes. A large boulder rips out right by my head and sails up. It slams into the bottom of the bridge...ah shit, I didn't think this through, did I?

I push myself up and limp out of the way as waves of dust wash over my back. The minotaur, however, wasn't with the wreckage. My staff, however, was; stuck in the middle of the rubble. I pick it up, and cast Repel on myself; making it extra thick.

A shadow grows over me, and I glance up. The minotaur had leaped from the bridge and was currently hurdling down toward me. I sheathe my dagger; it would be useless in the coming fight, and limp out of the way of the impact area. He lands on top of the rubble; unfazed from the fifty-foot fall; armed with his pole sword, held diagonally across his body.

He lunged forward and the sword pole cut through the air, I retreated a couple of steps; pain washing through my leg as the fracture widened. I cast a wave of quick cast Lesser Heals to lessen the pain. The minotaur lowers his head and charges forward, and I intercept it with two Earthen Spikes; it breaks right through it; and its dark horns smash against my Repel. I grab hold of those horns to hold its head in place momentarily before slamming my knee forward into its broad nose. Once. Twice. Thrice. It pulls its head up and flings me through the air backward; I slam against the stony banks, and it turns around; blood trickles down its nose and glistens against the black mane around its throat. It grunts and stabs forward with its sword pole. With my back against the steep banks, I roll to the side, and the triangular blade breaks through the stone and embeds itself into the ground.

The minotaur's hand slides down the shaft of the spear and its massive body collapses onto me with a shoulder check, pushing me further into steep banks. As I push against its massive body to avoid being crushed I feel a rush of wind mana surging through its body, I send a wave of earth mana to counter the spell. Both manas surge violently inside of its body, and I feel something inside of it rupture, and it groans in pain and stumbles back. I pick up a stone from the slope that fits well in my hand and slam it into the side of its head. It falls backward a step, and I pursue it with Earthen Spikes battering into its flanks. Slowly, I push it away from the slope, and its weapon. I take hold of it and climb the bank with it. It takes a bit for the creature to recover from its pain, and chase after me. I can't kill it yet, I need to make it to Paul and send him on his way.

The creature's fingers dig into the banks and pull itself to me.

"Dance before me, o' daughters of the wind."

A dervish forms in front of me; howling and spinning as it picks up dust and speed before slamming into the minotaur. It stuns it for a moment.

"You that bind the all, move for me. "

The dust is kicked up by the dervish parts as the invisible force smashes against the large bullman. It pushes him back a step as its armor dents once more. It teeters for a moment, and I cast Aether's Push once more. The force shoves it back down the bank, and I spring forward and point the staff down toward it while it tries to climb.

"I welcome thee, o weary souls, into the domain of Caer Ibormeith. Let her whisk you away on billowing wings."

I pull in as much mana as I can from the open channels to wherever the mana came from to form the cold winds. It batters the minotaur, and after about a minute and a half, it finally falls back down onto its back; its eyes closed, and a heavy snore rising and falling in its chest.

"By the order of Gob, king of the spirits of the earth, I command you, on gnomes, seize my enemy."

A stone and soil-packed hand wraps around the torso of the creature and lifts it off the ground. I cast the spell again, to hold its legs in place, and then another, and another to make sure that it couldn't move. For added effect, I cast Sleep again before hobbling up to the streets, climbing the stairs, and heading toward the fort. Once up, I hear the minotaur struggling below, and I hurry my pace.

The stair to the left not only went up but also down into the dungeon, where Paul was. I hurry down there. As the light began to lessen, I cast Cat Eyes, and round the corner down past the bunks, and past what looked to be an armory; if I had played it smart and snuck here instead of stomping around in broad daylight, I would have had a chance to look through these, but for now, before the minotaur escaped, I needed to get to Paul and pull him free from his cell.

I round the corner into the dungeon. The animals, stuck in their cages, crane their necks to look at me as I make my way to the very last cell on the block. There was Paul, sitting just as I had remembered him from the vision.

"Paul?" I ask as I come to a stop in front of his cell.

He turns his head toward me. He wears a collar that I hadn't noticed before. In fact, every other animal in the dungeon wore them; collars of woven brier.

"Are you...from Earth?" He manages to sputter out.

Just from his voice alone, I could tell that he had been through some rough stuff. It sounds dry, as if he hadn't had a drink of water in ages, and his eyes contained the dullest light.

"Yes. Do you know the way they brought you in here?"

The teenager nods.

"Okay, once you're out, I'm going to need you to run straight there, as quickly as you can, okay?"

The order doesn't seem to register with him. I try the door. It's rusty, but it's sturdy, that won't stop me, however. I cast Earthen Spike and sent the mana inside of the cell at an angle toward me. The rusted metal squeals as the spike pushes through the gap between two of the bars, and pries the door open.

This cacophonous noise was what finally jolted him back awake.

"I'm going home?"

"Yes."

Light returns to his eyes, as he steps over the large heifer and squeezes through the narrow opening, he takes a few long steps down toward the stairs and stops.

"Wait." He says, pivoting on his heel, "Free it, too."

He points to the cell next to his. Behind it; sitting with its head slumped into its knee among a variety of goats and sheep, was a fox person with long flowing robes. Its triangular ears perk when I peer into the cell.

I clutch my staff.

"Are you one of Roki's?" I ask.

The creature perks up its head; the red fur along its face bristled.

"No." It whispers in a low growl.

I pry open the cell door, and the fox creature squeezes out.

"I'll lead the way up, but then follow him after the bridge, okay?" I point towards Paul, "He'll lead you to safety."

The fox thing nods.

I take the lead, spring up the stairs, and round up the stairs; hissing all the while; the pain of the fracture in my leg was overwhelming, but I had to press on. Perhaps it was the drunken bravery, or perhaps it was that damned hero complex, but I had to rescue these two. There's a screaming voice in my head to make sure that they got out alive. It was the most important thing that I have ever done in my life up to that point, and as if something outside of me was animating me, I sprint to the front of the fort, while the other two were still climbing up through the armory.

The Commander was standing at the end of the bridge; he had his long dagger held out in front of him in a reverse grip. His dark eyes glared at me like a pair of smoldering coal. He bends down and picks up a spear from the ground that lay at the feet of a dead Satyr, and throws it at me like a javelin. It slams into my chest but is deflected by my Repel, though the shield shatters.

The minotaur rushes forward. I position myself behind the hole I had blown in the bridge, and just as Paul and the fox Efran come out the minotaur makes it to the edge of the hole on the other side. It leaps across the small opening, and Paul skids to a stop; fear evident in his eyes.

"Go! For the love of god, go!" I shout as I leap and intercept the commander.

It slams the knife into the side of my thigh; I feel the silvery blade scrape against my thigh bone, and I nearly yelp in pain. I lock its arm in place with my elbow and force it into a tumble down through the hole and into the gorge.

"Go!"

The minotaur and I wrestle mid-air; the staff and sword pole tumble alongside us. I pull my dagger from my belt and slam it into the creature's throat, and it lands a solid blow on my face right below my left, blind eye. It rams its head forward and scrapes its horns against the scale coat beneath my hoodie. Ah, what a good purchase this was.

Its head jolts forward as we slam into the ground, and the horn rips through my clothes and armor. Its horns tear long, bloody lines on my sides as it tears through the black-scale armor. Fuck...aside from the pain...all that money.

I pull my head away from it as it slams its heavy fist into my face again and again. I clamp down on its wrist with my teeth and tear off a chunk of its flesh. As it bellows in pain, it finally pulls its other arm free from my clamped elbow, pulls its knife free, and with another hard shove, sends me skittering away.

My blood stains the stone and runs down my leg and sides. It bends down and picks up its pole sword with its uninjured arm, and eyes my staff. As if saying it didn't want to strike down an unarmed foe, it kicks my staff toward me. I keep my eye on the minotaur as I bend down to pick up my weapon.

As soon as my fingers brush against the staff it brings its pole sword up over its head to chop me in two. Too bad your honor got the better of you. Two large, parallel Earthen Spikes jut out from the ground and stab through its extended elbows. It howls in pain, and the pole sword falls from its grasp. I step out of the way of the falling weapon, and pick it up, setting aside my staff.

It bows its head as I step around toward its side, and take off its head with a heavy blow to its thick neck.