Ice Phoenix
Chapter 43 - Niku's sacrifice

Lorn could not see what was happening to Master Kuldor. He was just regaining consciousness and was sprawled on the ground just outside the gate to the bunker. He groaned and rolled over, grateful that the rain washed to the side of his face as he did so, and not through his nostrils, which had accumulated enough liquid to hurt his brain.

“Ahhhhh Lorn, you’re okay!” Mikin cried, his voice choked with tears. He wrapped his trunk around Lorn’s chest, helping him to sit up.

“Mikin,” Lorn said, grimacing. His body hurt all over and he suspected he had a few broken ribs. He looked at his friend and saw that his left ear had been torn almost in half and he was bleeding badly. His face was covered in scratches and burnt patches. “We need to get out of here. How are the girls?”

“Doing better than you, thank you!” said Kalindra, as she kicked away the concrete chunks that had come loose from the pavement after being struck by lightning. She had suffered some minor cuts, bruises, and a sprained elbow, but otherwise she was fine. Misa was the only one unhurt, and as she helped Kalindra to her feet, she unlatched the baton that was strapped to her hip. She shook it once, and it extended into a Kampu staff.

“Master Drummik and Terrana have gone, and the other man who was with him is still unconscious. There are two more people standing close by. I think one of them is an Imeldor,” said Misa.

Lorn glanced towards Master Kuldor, and his face paled when he recognised Meldogan. “Into the bomb shelter now!” he barked.

They hobbled as quickly as they could towards the gate, but upon reaching it, they discovered it would not let them pass through.

“Let us in!” they screamed.

“The sentries must have gone. No one’s answering!” whimpered Mikin. “They’ve deserted us.”

“How could they?” Kalindra screamed, tears running down her face. “They left us to die out here!”

“Hold onto that thought,” said Lorn tersely, still watching Master Kuldor, “because we are going to die if we don’t leave this area immediately.”

The four of them turned around just in time to see the horde of infected citizens sprinting towards them, with crazed looks on their faces.

“What’s wrong with them?” cried Misa. “Why are they running towards us?”

“I don’t know and I don’t want to replace out,” replied Lorn. ”Run!”

On his command, they dashed away and around the building, coming to a long street. It was littered with cars and air vehicles that had been abandoned in a hurry. Thunder rumbled above, and lightning lit up the obsidian rain clouds.

“What now?” groaned Kalindra, glancing back at the crazed mob. A few wrails landed heavily amidst the rabid citizens, scattering them in several directions. The wrails didn’t look worried about the students getting away — nothing could get away from them. They were larger than the average air vehicle and putrefying acid dripped from their gaping jaws.

“Watch out!” shouted Misa. Something flew directly at Kalindra, crashing into her shoulder. She was lifted off the ground and thrown back several metres. Sharp teeth buried into her flesh, and she screamed. Her right hand immediately burst into flames, and she thrust it into her attacker. It hit the ground with a thud, screeching and wailing as it died.

Several more of the same creatures flew towards them, and this time, Misa dealt with them. She threw her staff high into the air and it whirled like the blades of a helicopter, quickly bringing them down.

“Kalindra, are you all right?” Lorn ran over to her.

She was bleeding from her left shoulder, and though she was in pain, she nodded. She looked at the fallen creatures and scrunched her face in disgust. “What are they?”

“They look like heads,” answered Mikin, stepping cautiously around them. “They’re different from the ones we saw earlier and they definitely weren’t on the news. I think they are a new kind of wrail.”

They were definitely heads. Foul, rotting humanoid heads with ghastly teeth and rabid eyes. Bat-like wings sprouted from either side above tiny holes which could have been their ear cavities.

“We’ve got to keep moving. We’ll barricade ourselves in the next building we can get into!” said Lorn. No one objected. Looking around desperately, Mikin spotted a large department store with its front doors shimmering.

“There!” he pointed. Without hesitation, the four of them sprinted towards the store, leaping over cars and fallen debris. Just as they reached it another group of people came running around the corner and pushed through the door ahead of them.

"Hey wait!” Misa shouted. ”Don’t seal it yet!”

A man looked back, noticed they were children, and beckoned them to hurry. Within seconds the four of them reached the door, huffing and sweating.

“Thank you!” Mikin cried.

“Hurry up and get in!” barked the man. He was an Octpien, from the planet Octa in Sector Two, and had the characteristic eight tentacles wriggling along his jaw-line. The students shuffled in gratefully, but as Kalindra walked past, he shoved her back roughly.

“Not you,” he said, his eyes cold.

“What? Why?” cried a shocked Kalindra.

“Let her through!” barked Lorn, seething with anger.

“No!” said the man. “I can see she’s been bitten. She’s infected! If we let her in, she’ll turn on us and eat us!”

“What? No! I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong with me! Lorn!”

“Please sir, let her through. She’s not infected!” begged Mikin.

The man shook his head. Turning to face Kalindra, he said, “I’m sorry, girlie, but if you don’t step outside now, I will kill you myself.”

To everyone’s horror, he pointed a large, double-barrelled gun directly at her head. “It’s probably better this way.”

Kalindra’s eyes became large orbs in her pale, terrified face. She took a step back, her mouth trying to form words that wouldn’t leave her throat. “Don’t,” was what she wanted to say. Time slowed down to a snail’s pace as she watched his finger pull back the trigger.

There was a loud bang and the bullets whistled past her head, only just grazing her skin, and for the third time, Kalindra found herself being thrown to the ground. She could have cried with relief to see Lorn had thrown his body over her, his green eyes glittering with fury, his face monstrously dark.

“Fine,” snarled the man. “Get out of here all of you! Let her eat you!”

He began shoving Mikin and Misa through the door, but they were already running out. As the man moved to seal the doors, a wrail similar to the ones that had attacked the students in the sky, appeared out of nowhere. With a huge roar, it leapt at the man.

Horrible screams filled the air as the wrail made short work of the man and bounded into the store after the rest of his group. Five more wrails climbed down the sides of the surrounding buildings and charged towards the crowd. Lorn, Mikin, Kalindra, and Misa were surrounded and had nowhere to run. They all had the same terrible thought; their end had arrived.

“What a way to go,” muttered Lorn as he helped Kalindra to her feet.

“I don’t want to die like this, Lorn!” cried Kalindra. “I won’t, I won’t die like this!”

Lorn gritted his teeth and tried to keep calm while searching for a way out. He couldn’t see any. He knew that as soon as the wrails had finished off the people in the store and the infected group coming towards them, they would turn on him and his friends. He was so focused on trying to replace a way to escape, he did not feel the tremors until they grew stronger. He tensed as the ground shook, and he looked down the street to see what was happening.

Mikin suddenly yelped in excitement and pointed to an abandoned air-vehicle several metres away from them. “Everyone, huddle against that car now!”

Puzzled, they all scrambled up to it. Surprisingly, the wrails paid them no attention; they were more concerned with something else.

“You know what’s coming, don’t you, Mikin?” Lorn said.

“Help!” Mikin yelled, flapping his ears like a signal flag, although it must have been painful. The tremors turned into powerful pounding, and Lorn dared to peer past the car. What he saw charging down the road filled him with hope, and he could have cried with relief. In fact, he did. He jumped to his feet and screamed with every breath of air in his lungs.

“C’mon Niku!”

Niku charged down the road, tossing vehicles into the air. The hulking, enraged brudisaurius thundered his way past the students and slammed into the wrails, taking three of them down instantly. The first wrail died immediately as Niku gored it with his horns, and the brudisaurius flung it off as he turned on the other wrails. He let out a roar, which echoed down the street.

The other wrails quickly surrounded the brudisaurius, hissing and whipping their powerful tails out behind them. They charged together, their nimble yet powerful legs propelling them onto the brudisaurius.

For the first time, the others noticed someone clinging to Niku’s back. It was Bagruth, but there was something wrong with him. He was unconscious, and blood ran down his forearms. A large wound gaped from his side. How he had managed to climb onto Niku’s back and remain there was anyone’s guess.

Niku rolled onto his side, effectively crushing the two wrails that had locked onto his flanks. He then repeated the same manoeuvre on the remaining wrails, but they leapt free and circled the brudisaurius warily. A vile steam clouded the air above Niku’s back from where the acid had come into contact with his body, but his thick scales had managed to ward off most of the burns.

The brudisaurius caught sight of his master’s friends huddled against the car and suddenly reversed into them. As they scrambled out of his way, Niku lowered himself to his knees and wailed mournfully. It was only then they realised that Niku had been holding onto Bagruth by wedging him between his back muscles. Even as they watched, their unconscious friend began to slide off the brudisaurius.

“Mikin!” cried Lorn.

He and Mikin ran forwards to catch Bagruth before he hit the ground. It wasn’t an easy task because he weighed more than the both of them combined.

“Good boy, Niku,” Lorn said, stroking the brudisaurius’s neck despite his legs quivering under their added burden. He and the others had been so shocked and glad to see Niku and Bagruth, they had not even wondered how the pair managed to be in the city. Now, looking at the state of Bagruth’s body, he realised his friend had severe burns, which could mean only one thing; the carriage Niku and Bagruth had been travelling in had crashed. Lorn’s questions about how they managed to survive and replace their way to the city would have to wait. Right now, he had to concentrate on carrying his friend to safety. He looked over at Mikin, who was trying to get his attention.

“Lorn, he’s cleared the way for us. We can take shelter in the next building until help arrives,” huffed Mikin. He had practically disappeared under Bagruth.

A strange thing happened then. Niku released another wail and gently swept Bagruth and the others aside with his tail. He turned his head slightly so that he was looking at them, and wailed again.

“I think he wants us to go. He —” Mikin retched involuntarily. He wasn’t the only one; the others also discharged the contents of their stomachs. The stink of a thousand rotting corpses saturated the air, and even the wrails hissed and slunk into the dark allies of the nearby buildings, much to everyone’s relief. Except for the rain beating down on them, the street had turned strangely silent.

Niku let out a low growl and lowered his head, readying his horns for attack. He stared down the street, and it didn’t take long for Lorn, Mikin, and the girls to see what he had sensed, and what was responsible for the stench.

It glided around the corner, twice as large as Niku, the most fearsome wrail to land on the planet. The monster wrail spotted them and abruptly skidded to the ground, stopping about fifty metres away, and roared.

The terrified students could only look on in disbelief at this giant wrail as it unleashed an exploding furnace of liquid flames that melted the sides of the nearby buildings. The wrail proceeded to tuck its wings back, revealing protruding joints that became additional limbs. With a dragon-like head covered in a multitude of short horns, scaled hide, and a powerful tail that crushed cars like cookies, it eyed the students and Niku greedily.

“Lorn, I can’t move,” Mikin whimpered. Next to him, Kalindra had slumped to the ground, and before they all knew it, they were lying next to her.

“It absorbed our qi,” Lorn said, feeling sick with apprehension.

The wrail advanced on them. Niku took one step forwards, and then another. The brudisaurius sensed he was heading towards his death, but that did not matter to him as long as he could protect his master. He snorted and pawed the ground in a display of defiance, and then he charged.

With his head lowered, he collided into the wrail’s chest and continued to run his horns down the underside of its body. They failed to penetrate the fire and acid-resistant scales, and Niku only tickled the wrail rather than hurt it.

But Niku was not done yet. Every instinct he possessed told him there was a vulnerable spot on the wrail, and he was determined to replace it. As he extricated himself from under the wrail’s body, his horns found a tender area beneath its heavy tail, and the wrail roared in pain.

It whipped around immediately, catching Niku on the side and sending the brudisaurius crashing into several vehicles. However, Niku found his feet quickly and galloped away from the wrail, just in time to avoid a searing blast of liquid flames. He vanished around the corner of the street, and the wrail followed. It reached the corner when it changed its mind and turned back to the helpless students instead.

With a terrible shriek, it raced towards them, eager to rip into their flesh. It snatched Lorn and an unconscious Bagruth in its teeth and tossed them into the air. Then it lowered its head, ready to bite their heads off. The girls screamed and clung to Mikin as they looked on in horror.

There was a thunderous, blood curdling shriek as Niku came charging back around the corner and hurled himself straight into the wrail’s face. He slammed into its left eye, rendering it blind, and the wrail dropped the boys and stumbled sideways. It opened its mouth and flames gushed out, but they missed the students completely. As it stomped about in a furious rage, Niku used his mouth to drag Bagruth towards a nearby building. Lorn and the others suddenly found they could move, and they followed the brudisaurius.

“The door’s open! Get inside!” shouted Mikin.

The wrail charged once more. As the students rushed into the building, dragging Bagruth with them, their friend opened his eyes. When Niku saw this, he released a happy whimper.

“Run, Niku,” Bagruth said, his voice weak. “You can’t fight him, boy. Run.”

The wrail loomed behind Niku, an image of doom. It raised its tail like a scorpion, and a large blade appeared at the end. It disappeared into Niku like a skewer through soft butter. The brave brudisaurius screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, his big gentle eyes focused on his beloved Bagruth as the wrail dragged him away.

"Niku!" screamed Bagruth, struggling against Lorn and Misa. He was too weak to fight them as they pulled him into the building and away from his beloved pet.

“I’m sorry, Bagruth,” sobbed Misa, “but we can’t save him.”

There came a heart-wrenching cry as the wrail breathed fire on Niku. When the wrail finally stopped, the brudisaurius lay in a smouldering heap. Unable to watch any more of Niku’s suffering, the students dragged a screaming Bagruth into the depths of the building, sealing the doors behind them as they sought refuge.

Outside, the wrail continued its attack on Niku, nearly severing his hind leg while dripping liquid fire onto his face. The brudisaurius shrieked as his face burned, but he could no longer move.

Niku was scared. He was blind, and he couldn’t sense his beloved Bagruth anywhere nearby. He didn’t like being alone either, and as the rain washed the blood off him, a deep sense of abandonment filled him, confusing him and making him feel heart-achingly forgotten. His heart and spirit broke.

Lying on the road in his own puddle of blood, unable to cry out as the wrail chewed into him, Niku surrendered to the darkness.

I did not forget you, stupid!

A familiar rough tongue licked him gently on the head, and though he couldn’t see, overwhelming joy coursed through Niku. It crushed the darkness, forcing tears through his eyes. Niku was a big, simple-minded animal; the mere presence of a friend by his side was enough for him to know he was loved. He could now sleep happily.

Kazu’s stare was the equivalent of a thousand hot needles piercing a person’s soul. The wrail felt a moment of fear and stepped back as it tried to make sense of the angry kitten staring up at it.

The silver-striped ball of fury hissed, and it didn’t seem so small anymore.

Kazu is going to kill you.

Kazu grew before the wrail’s eyes, his coat transforming into velassium.

The wrail would not have believed that, ten minutes earlier, this threatening creature had been mewing pitifully and feeling sorry for himself.