Unfortunately, the knights appeared to be too small and fast to be easily targeted by the gravity cannons, at least not without hitting their own people; however, in a few instances, they had been able to zap knights with the BFGs; and the blaster rifles seemed to work quite well. There were two D’Orcs with odder-looking rifles who were having luck vaporizing various knight body parts and limbs with some sort of Star Trek “phaser”-like effect; unfortunately, like demons, the knights were able to regrow those limbs. It would probably require a full body hit to take a knight down with the “phaser” rifles or whatever they were, and the knights were just too nimble for that so far.
Talarius was losing track of time. This was a battle of endurance in the truest sense. He spun, parrying the knight’s blade with Ruiden and smashing his Rod of Smiting into the dagger still wedged in the back of the knight’s knee; the knight stumbled. Talarius quickly swapped out the Rod of Smiting for the Rod of Holy Lightning and jabbed the lightning rod into the small crack in the armor plates near kidney level. He released the lightning, causing the knight to go rigid for a few moments.
Talarius was not sure how many charges he had left in the Rod of Holy Lightning. It was effective in stalling the knight long enough for him to fly up and try to wedge the small hole he had managed to open in the crack of the knight’s neck armor a bit wider. He had no idea of the number of rounds he’d taken trying to accomplish this. He’d taken every opportunity, when flipping overhead and to the back of the knight, to try and wedge the tight crack wider. Talarius knew from long experience that either the neck or the underarm was the best place to try to pierce the plate mail for a killing strike. Normally the neck would be the harder spot of the two, but given the size difference and the fact that he could fly, the neck was easier than dealing with the knight’s sword or shield.
He felt bad for flying when the Knight of Chaos was grounded, but he was seriously overmatched and as he had noted to Boggy and Reggie, Knights of Chaos were truly the most evil creatures known to the Rod. Although probably a small distinction when compared, say, to Lilith. Demons at least had some rules and laws. Knights of Chaos were agents of pure anarchy and annihilation. While demons did want to control the multiverse and make everyone in it miserable, Knights of Chaos simply wanted everyone and thing dead and miserable.
There! His final wedging may have given him a large enough point in which to plunge Ruiden on his next pass. It was going to require a rather tricky setup. He began a series of parries and stabs at the knight to distract the knight from his true intention. He wanted the knight to focus on other areas, as well as luring it into deeper attacks against himself.
In order to lure the Knight of Chaos, Talarius allowed himself to start slowing down, as if winded and worn. Which admittedly, he was, but nowhere near enough to actually show in his fighting. He needed to simulate weariness to trick the Knight of Chaos into being more aggressive, less defensive, to draw the knight out.
It took several more minutes but at last, Talarius saw his opportunity. The Knight of Chaos lunged for him, and Talarius fell back in disarray, as if falling over backwards. Instead, he did a backflip while storing his Rod; on coming up, he launched himself into the air using the sash even as he took Ruiden in both hands and came down feet first onto the knight’s shoulder, Ruiden aimed down between his legs.
The sword twisted in his grip, positioning itself for maximum effect, and then down they came. It really was an awkward angle; if not for his extensive training with the sash and Ruiden’s self-direction, it would have been impossible. He willed the sash to accelerate at maximum downward speed onto the Knight of Chaos.
Down! In! Ruiden entered the narrow slit, splitting it open wider and wider. Success! The sword plunged deeply into the knight’s chest cavity, right where the heart should be.
VOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!! There was a tremendous explosion.
Pain! Screaming pain! Horrendous pain!
Talarius was not sure whether that was him or Ruiden. When the sword had plunged into the knight, something, a vast gusher of raw energy, had come blasting out of it, reaching upward and scorching him and Ruiden. His armor was glowing as bright as Sekhmekt’s shield as its protective rituals kicked into full gear. He could feel the mana pool on the chain around his neck heat up as mana was funneled to his armor.
This really, really hurts! Ruiden shouted in his head.
I know! But I take the pain as a sign of great gain! Talarius shouted back to Ruiden. Suddenly the pain stopped as the giant blast of energy that had shot up from the knight ended. Talarius fell to the ground, exhausted, his armor still glowing brightly in the aftermath of the Knight of Chaos exploding.
“Whoo hoo! Great job, Talarius!”
Talarius looked up to see Tom shouting at him and giving him a huge thumbs-up. The Knight of Chaos behind Tom suddenly cleaved the demon in two with his sword. Before the demon’s two halves could fall, the Lord of Mount Doom flashed to flame and turned to continue battling his own Knight of Chaos.
VOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
Talarius looked over to where the creepy-looking D’Orc commander with the sword of blood-red light had just exploded his own Knight of Chaos. This blast was coming from the center of the knight’s chest. The knights all had giant emblems of eight pointed stars on their chests; the D’Orc had somehow pierced the knight’s breastplate right in the center of the symbol. The D’Orc commander was grimacing and holding his sword before him, trying to deflect the insane blast of energy coming from the hole in the Knight of Chaos, even as Talarius often used Ruiden to split fire.
Talarius was impressed. Having felt the blast of a dying Knight of Chaos, he doubted he could have done a split shielding on that energy blast.
CRUNCH! FFFOOOOOMMSSHHHHHH!!!! came a sound from his right, and then a loud, catlike yowl of pain that actually hurt his eardrums. He looked to see one of the sphinxes lifting its paw off an exploded Knight of Chaos. The sphinx’s paw was completely blackened and looked rather crumbly.
THUD! VOOOoommmmpph!! Everything went pitch-black for a moment.
As the light came back, Talarius looked over to where that very weird sound had come from. Cheers rose from the D’Orc regiment. There was a crater where one of the knights had been; apparently, the rifle D’Orcs had managed to pin a knight down with crossfire so that the gravity cannon D’Orcs had managed to get a lock. The Knight of Chaos had tried to explode, but the gravity blast had swallowed the blast, or damped it. The air around the crater was glowing in a color similar to the knight explosions, but very subdued.
Talarius climbed back to his feet. He needed to pick a new knight, but hell and damnation, was he worn! He took a moment to drink some cooling water from his flask before trudging off after his next Knight of Chaos.
Tom shook his head. This was going to take forever. Fortunately, his allies were having some success. Talarius had gotten the first kill, and then Morok, then one of the sphinxes, and surprisingly, the D’Orcs had gotten one. That kill was a true testament to teamwork and coordination; he was so proud of his D’Orcs.
VOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
Tom glanced over to see a now headless Knight of Chaos with a giant jet of black energy shooting up into the sky where its head had been. Sekhmekt had killed one of her two knights. Tom grimaced; they were all here defending his new house, and everyone else was finishing off their knights faster than he was. He was just not having any luck. He had tried pretty much every trick he had used against Talarius, but the Knight of Chaos was much larger, almost his own size, and even more invulnerable. Bashing it with the Rod of Tommus seemed to work the best, but he was not making any dents in the armor.