Tazix’s Last Gurgle

[ Ny­nano(7) 16 1024]

Un­der a cloud­less sky burnt or­ange with the set­ting sun a lone fig­ure wrapped in white cloth, stood. All around, the harsh land­scape of the Scu­pi Bad­land­s. Small crea­tures be­gan to hop, crawl, and slith­er out from their day­time refuges. Would the cool of night bring out his quar­ry as well. Pulling up the gauzy cloth that shield­ed his face he yelled a vari­a­tion of what he’d been yelling for hours.

“Taz­ix! Cow­ard, mu­tan­t. Show your­self. Let’s set­tle this now, fight me! Or are you too afraid?”

Ah, dammit it’s prob­a­bly not even here he thought to him­self. The air be­hind him filled, so­lid­i­fied in­to the chimeric abom­i­na­tion that was Taz­ix the Ev­er­chang­ing. Coil­ing it’s pur­ple ten­ta­cle around his neck and pin­cer­ing his arm with a gi­ant lob­ster claw it hissed.

“Y­ou’re the last, Ikase. The oth­ers begged be­fore I slew them. Cried like the fa­ther­less whelps you left for dead. But to­day I, Taz­ix, do not seek ret­ri­bu­tion on their be­half. No, I de­mand re­venge for my­self. How dare you puny hu­man! Raid my home, steal my be­long­ings, and chal­lenge me, me! For these in­sults you will die now.”

“No, it is you who will die this day!” replies Ikase fol­lowed by chok­ing out the ar­cane words that will send bolts of ar­cane force shoot­ing in­to his as­sailan­t. But Taz­ix’s barbed tail pierces the flesh of his fore­arm in­ter­rupt­ing the so­mat­ic com­po­nent and spoil­ing Ikase’s spel­l.

Ikase has been wrestling since a child and even though break­ing free from a four ap­pendaged freak is dif­fi­cult it is no prob­lem for him. Duck­ing and rolling out of it’s grap­ple he spins sword slash­ing out in a clas­sic coun­ter-at­tack. But it is too late, Taz­ix the “ev­er dis­ap­pear­ing” has al­ready fled to the ethe­re­al and his stroke slices through noth­ing more than an af­ter im­age.

Ikase stays his taunt since four mists blow rapid­ly in­to the area. Bare­ly vis­i­ble in dusk’s twi­light. What has him on edge is the ut­ter lack of wind and his sus­pi­cions as to what they are. Sus­pi­cions born out when the mists so­lid­i­fy in­to a High Priest of Cree­gas and three ti­tan­ic Pelosian sol­dier­s, Jug­ger­naut­s.

“Kir­phis! This does not con­cern you.”

“Ikase, still de­lud­ed in­to think­ing you mat­ter. Your use­ful­ness was that of bait, no more. Now step aside and let re­al sol­diers han­dle this nui­sance.” fin­ish­ing with a few words of di­vine pow­er that sends a rip­ple across the rocky ground. Forced in­to the ma­te­ri­al realm by Cree­gas’ might Taz­ix fades in­to view. It is sur­prised to find two of the Jug­ger­nauts mov­ing to in­ter­cept his at­tempt­ed re­treat.

“Yes, Taz­ix we see you. Stand now and face pun­ish­ment for your crimes against the Pelosian Re­pub­lic. By or­der of the Scu­pi Coun­cil I am …”

“Noooo, I’m Taz­ix! I …” A Jug­ger­naut’s kick in­ter­rupts and sends it fly­ing back to­wards the mid­dle of their ring.

“Kir­phis, please, end­ing it’s reign of mur­der is some­thing I must do. Jus­tice for my slain com­rades de­mand it.

“I don’t have time for this Ikase, step aside.”

“Taz­ix is my re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, let me fin­ish my du­ty. You must un­der­stand a sol­dier’s need to fin­ish a mis­sion.”

“Fine, just stop blab­ber­ing. You have 10min.”

Giv­ing a nod of thanks he swings blind­ly at the ex­pect­ed charge from Taz­ix. In­stead it is slink­ing away to­wards a gap be­tween the Jug­ger­naut­s. Ikase gives chase, sword held high. Un­nec­es­sar­i­ly it turns out as a cir­cu­lar wall of spin­ing blades about six­ty foot in di­am­e­ter is con­jured by Kir­phis. An­oth­er boon for the fa­vored of Cree­gas.

Taz­ix, crouch­ing, trapped, turns to face its as­sailan­t. Spring­ing up and us­ing its claw as a shield to de­flect Ikase’s sword blow. It lash­es out wild­ly with suck­ered ten­ta­cle, a feint Ikase falls for. The true at­tack is a stag­ger­ing up­per cut from one of its true arm­s. Fol­lowed by strikes with it’s spiked tails that bounce in­ef­fec­tu­al­ly off Ikase’s mus­cled breat­plate.

Too de­pen­dent on tac­ti­cal re­treats to the ethe­re­al Taz­ix’s de­fense is no match for Ikase’s ag­gres­sive as­sault­s. Grasp­ing with two hands he swings and cleaves through that hat­ed ten­ta­cle. Black ichor spurts from the flail­ing stump as Taz­ix howl­s. Not so much from pain as re­al­iza­tion of the in­evitable.

Ikase drives for­ward with at­tack af­ter at­tack. Slic­ing arm­s, sev­er­ing tail­s, de­liv­er­ing a vi­cious slash deep across it’s thigh. Down on one knee Taz­ix can do lit­tle but hold it’s claw up as a shield. Ikase mer­ci­less­ly bash­es in­to it un­til chitin cracks and fleshy mus­cles pro­trude. Point­ing with sword he pro­claims

“What ar­cane trans­mu­ta­tions have wrought, Pelosian steel will sun­der.”

Taz­ix lunges, taloned hands reach­ing for Ikase’s legs. Its fi­nal bid is cut short by Ikase’s tor­so pierc­ing thrust. Pinned to the ground it glares up with rage. Blood and ichor clog­ging it’s mouth Taz­ix gur­gles out fi­nal word­s.

“I hate you most…”

Af­ter the blade bar­ri­er dis­si­pates Ikase finds him­self alone with the stars. Left to find his was back through the dark by him­self. Tieing a har­ness to drag Taz­ix ooz­ing corpse he thinks out loud.

“Kir­phis, one day …” Wa­ter­drop, bright and blue ris­es above the east­ern hill­s.