Into the corridor under the towering canyon wall they went, Burel pulling his mount, a second camel in tow, Aiko coming after, the Ryodoan leading two camels as well, then Alos with two, and then Ferret with one followed by Delon with two, and Egil drawing two behind him, Arin trailing with her animal last.
Into the narrow way they went, the camels hronging in dismay at the tight confines, being drawn through an eye of a needle, or so Ferret had said. In the lead, Burel came to the sharp turn leftward, and then the rightward turn,
Aiko coming slowly after, following his ill-tempered beasts, dragging her own surly animals behind.
And as Burel stepped out into the canyon beyond, Aiko shouted, "Ware!" for the unremitting peril her tiger had sensed since reaching the maze suddenly exploded.
And a stride or two past where stood Burel, the demon stepped out from the face of solid crimson stone and hissed at the man, "At last. By the blood of your father, I knew you would come forth some day." And as if flexing long dormant muscles, with a ripping upward slash of its great, jagged, obsidian sword, the demon clove through the camel's neck, the sundered head flying up and away as the corpse of the beast collapsed in the entry, blood gushing from the cloven stump.
In the tunnel, camels bellowed in fear, their cries of panic blaring as they wrenched and jerked back and away from the reek of blood and the stench of the demon, their feet drumming in terror as they lashed and thudded side to side and tried to turn and flee in the restricted confines of the narrow passage, heedless of the people trapped within.
And outside, Burel hefted his great sword and faced the monstrous foe, the angular creature some eight feet tall and shiny black, its entire being covered with a hard bony layer-smooth, chitinous panes. It was cloven hoofed, and where a knee should be was a joint bending backwards at an angle, and somewhat above that one bent another, this joint flexing forward. Narrow shoulders topped a plated torso, and its head was elongated with fang-filled jaws protruding forward, and its eyes were glaring and wide-set. Angular arms dangled down, ending in long bony grasping fingers, and it clutched a great, jagged, ebon sword half again as long as the one in Burel's hands.
Oblivious of the pandemonium in the tunnel behind- camels bellowing in a frenzy of fear and kicking out, thrashing hindwards, trying to escape-Burel sprang toward the black apparition and cried, "Ilsitt, aid me!" and lashed out with his father's steel, only to have the creature's obsidian blade fling him backward with stunning force, the man stumbling on the crimson stone.
As the demon stalked forward on its ill-jointed legs, Burel recovered his footing, and planting himself squarely he swung his two-handed sword in a mighty, sweeping blow. With a loud chank!-like steel crashing on stone- it slammed into the jagged blade to be stopped cold.
Again Burel swung and again the demon blocked the blow. And again and again.
Then with shocking power, the demon lashed out with its black blade to send Burel's sword flying from his hands. And ere the man could move, the creature smashed him hindwards with a backhanded blow, knocking him into the crimson wall, and Burel fell sprawling and senseless to the stone.
In the tunnel, Aiko was battered backwards by Burel's pack animal, the camel lunging against the rope fastened to the ring in its nose and tethering it to the slain beast lying in the exit ahead, an exit beyond which some creature of horror stood. All the other companions, too, were hammered against the walls by the bellowing beasts, and they lost control of the animals, and could only throw their arms over their heads for protection and try to keep their feet so as not to be trampled. Alos shrieked in fear, Ferret screaming as well, their cries lost in the uproar. And none knew the cause of this pandemonium, only that the beasts were frenzied and trying to escape something somewhere. And even though Aiko cried out "Burel, Burel, deadly peril!" her voice was heard by none.
Yet Aiko, as quick as she was, abandoned her camels and dodged this way and that, and ducked down to scramble under and past the panicked pack animal ahead.
Springing forward, her swords now in hand, she scrambled over the slain creature blocking the exit.
Above Burel, the demon laughed and raised its sword to deliver the final blow, the one that would at last set the summoned fiend free from the Wizard's binding command. Yet the creature waited and waited, waited until Burel opened his eyes, the man yet dazed but looking up at the apparition. Then, down flashed the obsidian blade… only to meet Ryodoan steel.
Aiko had come at last.
Arin managed to drive her bellowing camel backwards under the portcullis and into the sanctuary. Abandoning the fleeing beast and calling to the gathered priestesses for help, she dashed into the uproar of the narrow tunnel once more, several of the women on her heels. With Egil shoving his panicked lead camel hindwards, and Arin and the women hauling at the frightened, thrashing rear beast from behind, they managed to back two more of the terrified animals out from the passageway, the creatures bolting across the ruddy stone as soon as they were free.
Now Egil and Arin and two of the women ran again into the tunnel to aid Delon in backing his flailing camels out.
Shang! Aiko could not stop the powerful demon's downward blow, could only deflect it instead, the obsidian blade shocking into her steel with numbing force and sliding along her sword to Chank! into crimson stone next to Burel's head. Even as the black edge shattered red rock, with a backhanded sweep Aiko lashed her second sword up and at the creature's neck. But, lo! the demon smashed her cut out and away with an upward bash of its angular arm, her blade sliding along the bony chitin like steel sliding along armor.
Yet Aiko lashed her right-hand weapon up in a slashing cut, only to find the demon's black blade blocking the way.
Aiko sprang leftward, along the demon's flank, but stunningly quick the creature whipped about, its sword seeking her. She managed to deflect the blow even as she dodged back.
In a blur of steel, Aiko attacked, yet the creature fended the blows of both of her blades with its single dark sword. Again Aiko sprang back, her breath now coming in harsh gasps.
Momentarily they paused, and as if considering which of these humans to slay first, the creature glanced at Burel, the man yet stunned and ineffectually scrabbling at the ground in an attempt to rise but falling back, unable to gain his feet. Then the demon turned its elongated head toward Aiko, its fangs dripping with a viscous saliva, its wide-set eyes glaring.
"Bakamono!" it hissed in Aiko's native tongue, and then the eight-foot-tall angular monster wrenched its great, jagged, ebon sword up and stalked toward her on its backward-bending, cloven-hoofed legs.
Delon's bellowing camels had been set free of the tunnel, and now he and Egil and Arin went after Ferret's, but as they entered the narrow way, her terrified beast came backing toward them, Ferai's training in the cirque enough for her to manage the beast. Even as this animal was loosed to flee across the scarlet basin, Ferret turned and ran back toward the tunnel, crying, "Alos may be down and like to get trampled to death."
Shing-shang, ding-clang, chang-shang… The steel of Aiko's blades skirled and rang against the demon's sword, as she attacked and retreated, parried and riposted, blocked and counterstruck, but the demon's power and quickness drove her back and back, and it was all she could do to fend the creature off. Never had she faced such a foe, for it was strong beyond measure and blurringly fast, its blows stunning, its guard impenetrable. And it beat aside her own two blades as if they were chaff, trivial, worthless. Her shiruken were gone, lying somewhere on the blood-red stone, batted from the air by the dark sword. And now-ching-shang-clang-ching- the monster drove her against the towering crimson wall of the narrow canyon.