Chapter fifty nine
"Your Majesty, I suggest we let him find Martin," Razia finally gave in. "Whether or not he joins us is not important. Yes, he's spiteful but I think we all know what's more needed from him than his manners."
"I agree if you ask me," Ramon simply shrugged.
The King shut his eyes. If only ego never existed! A part of him urged him to give up on humanity and go compromise with Ozii; the djinn in him wanted that badly. However, as long as he was his mother's son and had an atom of human in him, he'd never turn down.
And partly because of his ego though.
He spared Jeremy a glance for what looked like permission. When his older brother did nothing but look away, he groaned. "Fine! What do we pay you?"
And Vizal smirked.
***
Nicholas had slaughtered a henchman or two with his sword. But when that wasn't bloody enough to his taste, he'd resulted to the tome book in his hand.
Some mocked he was about to read them a bedtime story that'd bore them to death. While others wondered if it could be some witch's spell book.
Not in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that creatures made of smoke in several forms could be summoned from a book.
Neither did they imagine it was possible to be eaten by something you couldn't fight back mainly because it was nothing more than just a shadow.
Some even preferred to handle you from the inside by seeping in through your nostrils. Either way, it gave Nicholas the satisfaction of the bloody scene he wanted.
The Prince, on the other hand, had his eyes wide as saucers, unsuccessfully trying to remind himself that he should not be surprised.
However, he totally snapped out of it when a few more men were approaching from around the arid clearing. Immediately, Nicholas dug an aiding hand under his shoulder and blew a whistle to his horse.
With the demon's aid, Martin ascended the filly with his good foot, groaning a good number of times while doing so.
He was confident humans were not his problem to handle. But what brought the slight trace of fear in him then was the appearance of a new trace of smoke that was not his.
It gathered about the now confused henchmen in form of many vague wolves. It was the tiny sparks of red within it that made him realize what they were.
"Lucian's wolves," Nicholas whispered just before he swallowed deeply and uncomfortably. Certainly, this was not what he needed now.
By now, each had become a distinct, smoky red-eyed animal from the fog of smoke. And while they unusually did nothing to Isaac's men, they seemingly teamed up side by side with the humans to face the other two men.
One surged suddenly to Nicholas in that speed he certainly wouldn't have avoided no matter how enhanced his reflexes were.
However, while it was only meters away from landing upon him, he saw a sword dash from the side and pierce the wolf through the ribs and out the other side. But one thing he did not see coming was the animal turning into a solid mass of ice before shattering upon the ground.
And neither did Martin. The Prince faced the side the weapon had surged from…and he almost broke into joyful tears. "Razia!"
The water demon gave a tiny curtsy, stalking to him afterwards. He'd practically jumped down the horse and wrapped his arms about her, crying a load of tears against her hair.
"I'll only spare you for reasons best known to me," said a voice he recognized belonged to the King.
Now, Martins and Nicholas looked around them. And there they were, all nine of them. Especially his brothers.
Jeremy seemed to be having a hard time fighting the urge to pull him into a hug and squeeze the life out of him. But with the foes around, that could wait.
While Abraham, he had a small, accomplished smile on his face and the obvious feeling of relief showing in his eyes while he stared back at him. There was the Priest! And his darling Ashilar…his cousin, his aunt, everyone!
They were spread about them in a wide circle, just about the perfect team they needed for such a war.
Anyways, the wolves and the henchmen looked through the opposing team, a little reluctance evident in their moods. Still, just like any other arrogant, pissed and stiff-necked set of villains, they charged.
While the animals focused on the others, the humans were hellbound on killing Martin Tonnel.
And with the protection around him now, it was going to be a tad more difficult than they wanted.
Vizal, who'd led them to the exact spot believed his work here was done. On second thoughts, he pulled out his half scorched cheroot, stood aside and watched earnestly for whatever would happen.
Nicholas now comfortably resumed with his sword and book type of bloodshed. But now, his victims were mainly the wolves than those pesky humans.
He'd saved them entirely for the kid. The one who never smiled and could control the Earth and pieces he'd cut from it.
At that age, he was one impressive killing machine. Large fragments of stone pierced through his foes now and then by just stamping his foot and whirling his hands.
Martin finally had a chance to watch them all in god mode and it was nothing short or glorious.
Zora, the beautiful, dark skinned demon, never really moved a muscle, quite literally. All she did was stand, look her opponents right in the eye with that stone glare of hers. Seconds later, the foes would face each other in combat instead.
Ashilar, the one he still secretly wished to court, was presently yanking against the jaws of a wolf to tear them apart. While he was reminded of Samson, he watched her groan due to the scorching heat from the animal's body. But eventually, she disjointed the jaws with one final yank before settling for her numbing fists for the next attacks.
Compared to her and the other immortals who could resist their heat, Jeremy was at a disadvantage. Being mortal, any uncalculated contact with the wolves of Azarath could set him ablaze and dead.
Consequently, he stood side by side with Razia who was swirling water about herself from God knows where. While she backed him up, he gave efficient stabs to their spines.
Not so far away, Paul Herman was sure he did not need water. He had his crucifix and that dexterity at swordsmanship no one else in the team could beat. And speed of course; except, he used daggers.
The witch seemed to be trying out her new spells on the unfortunate wolves she'd picked.
Ramon simply performed burial duties. Having shifted to a cougar, his jaws were perfect enough to haul up the dead beasts and stack them up in gullies.
And finally…Abraham.