The Moonweaver Chronicles Part 18

The castle was entirely unguarded and unenchanted for the most part. It was really just an overly large mansion made of stone in my opinion. With huge doors... and a moat... and a drawbridge. The bridge was down, almost as if inviting us in. This place was massive, I had seen stadiums that could easily be put to shame by even a quarter of this massive behemoth.

The canine was in the courtyard with a massive cannon this time, not just a gun. He was firing holes in the castle which had begun to crumble from the abuse. Suddenly, a screech and a heatwave emanated from it.

"WHO DARES ATTACK MY CASTLE. I WILL BURN YOU UNTIL YOU ARE NAUGHT BUT ASHES." The shout came from a large fire bird with black wings. She was wielding throwing glaives.

"Hello my lady." The canid bowed and greeted her, emphasising the last part as if it was an insult to annoy her. "Lovely day we're having, isn't it?"

"Angus, what is the meaning of this betrayal?" She said as she noticed him.

"Sorry, my lady, but I was never on your side from the very beginning." The one named Angus said. "I was just using your power until I found a way to obtain it for myself. If its not too much trouble, I'd be terribly appreciative if you'd die for me."

I motioned for the others to retreat temporarily as I got closer. "Don't worry, Ill be fine, neither of them have enough power to kill me before you can intervene and help." These two were the real deal, if you let your guard down for even a second around them, you could easily die.

The flames around the princess seemed to flare up at his request. "Insolent coyote, I should have killed you the moment I met you."

"Yeah, I can't deny that might have been the right call. You definitely should have, though I wouldn't go so far as to say you could have. Comeon now sweet thing, don't make me mutilate that fine body of yours." Angus told her.

"I'm afraid that I have no mercy in my heart for traitors. Furthermore, I have no intention of granting your last request."

A massive hole was ripped in the sky and my decision to tell the others to retreat was justified as rocks suddenly pelted the landscape. Most of them seemed aimed at or around Angus, however, many seemed to have completely random trajectories.

Not one to be deterred by the first volley, he fired another shot from his cannon, he didn't even appear to have to reload it somehow. The shell exploded before reaching them, it wasn't intended to penetrate, apparently, it was an explosive shot to bend the trajectories of these falling rocks.

Somehow he reached to a part of the cannon that must have been hiding a rifle, he loaded some kind of metal box that was emanating a similar signature as the object that had modified my glaive. I suddenly understood, we were never the target to begin with. He knew we had a unique metal for weapon-smithing. Does that mean he forged weapons like Vincent though?

"Is that it? I thought that being the ruler of this castle had somehow increased your power. Not to mention eating those monsters that infest this place. Maybe I was wrong though, or perhaps you've just always been weak. That'd be kind of a pain though, after all the effort I went through to steal your power. Dilemma, dilemma...." He tapped his chin in a pseudo-thoughtful way, "Ah well, I went through the trouble of getting this stuff, might as well use it." He took aim at her. He fired several shots from his overly long rifle, it was extremely loud.

He hadn't taken much time to aim, it didn't give her much time to dodge, not that it mattered. The bullets adjusted their trajectory to hit her dead on. I was surprised that the recoil wasn't harsher on him, I can only imagine that he had used some kind of magic to redirect the recoil, I wouldn't put it past someone who specialized in using firearms.

Her wings disappeared and she came plummeting to the castle courtyard. She made a small crater when she finally hit the ground, kicking up a bunch of dust in the process.

I bit my lip, curiously and eagerly watching to see if she got up or if that had killed her. Most creatures would be killed by such a fall, but these Reapers were monsters with the strength of demons.

Slowly, the dust began to clear and I saw her getting up. I had sort of hoped that she would just die. She was very much alive however. "You... how did you get your hand on that cursed metal."

"How indeed." Angus replied, "My offer still stands, princess. Hell, someone as pretty as you, I might even be willing to show you a nice time before you die. Wouldn't that be far more preferable to this violent game of coyote and bird?" He chuckled at his own joke.

"You may have stripped me of my wings but do not think for even an instant that I cannot fight, insolent dog." The glaive she was holding was engulfed in flames as she threw it straight at him. It suddenly split into at least a dozen that I could count before they got near him.

"Sorry sweetie, I'm not quite into women who bite." He said as the glaives completely veered away from their target, missing him by quite a bit.

"You're an electro-master, aren't you. Damnit, how did you hide that from me, why did you modify the railguns the way you did if you could do that this entire time? Were you just... messing with me?"

"DING DING DING! We have a winner! Show her what she's won." Angus announced loudly as he raised a far smaller gun and pointed it at her face. "If you beg, I might still be willing to send you out in grand style. Nothing makes for kinky like the knowledge that you're about to die, don't you think?"

"Fuck you." She shouted defiantly at him.

"Oh well," He said before shooting her between the eyes, her entire head exploded from the force of the impact and her body began to burn.

If she had still been alive, I'm sure that she would have screamed as the flames engulfed her. Her body was being burnt to nothing but ashes. Angus walked up to her ashes and scooped some up into what looked like a carefully constructed container for them, he only took about a quarter of them before putting the container back into his coat.

Angus had somehow constructed a larger gun again now and pointed it right at me. "Care to try your hand against me?"

I shook my head nervously, gulping, I wouldn't be able to react in time if he chose to fire at me.

"Don't worry, I'm just messing with you. There's nothing to gain by killing you right now. Tell me where your friends are and I will avoid that spot, I have no intention of fighting another battle today."

I sensed he was telling the truth and we went our separate ways. I went to rejoin the group while he went to do whatever the hell it is an Angus does when he has just defeated a really powerful monster.