Anchored Prologue
#1 of Anchored
27th November 1914-A few hours before the start of World War I
There were heavy clouds hovering over London, covering the sky with a curtain of darkness. The smell of ozone filled the air and I watched the moon disappear above the thick canopy of the storm. The giant clock beneath my perch chimed and the heavens opened, their tears littering the earth beneath them.
I disliked rain, it always left a weird feeling on my grey scales that made me shiver as it travelled down my back in the space between my large bat-like wings. Normally, on a stormy night like this, I would be wearing a long cloak to cover myself but I had idiotically assumed that there would be no rain tonight when I left the Sanctuary. That was stupid, it _is_London after all, why wouldn't rain? Instead I wore a simple brown kilt over my lower body, bound to my waist by a leather belt.
Now drenched, cold and bothered I slowly climbed down past Big Ben's face and onto a small ledge, my long prehensile tail dangling over the side. I raised one of my wings to shield me from the remainder of falling water while I perched.
"Brother, what are you doing up here?"
I looked up to see Gabriel, another gargoyle like myself, hovering over me, wings flapping in slow strokes. Unlike me, his body was covered in grey stone-like skin instead of scales, a trait that only I possessed amongst my reptilian brethren. At least we all shared the same bat-like wings. Gabriel was wearing standard battle gear, a grey iron chest plate with steel bands on his forearm that were pointed at the elbow joint and a barbute-style helmet with a gap made on both sides for the frills that served as his ears. Gabriel was also wearing an armoured kilt over his lower body with long greaves over his legs and two enchanted bronze cutlasses on his belt.
"Admiring the rain," I replied, stretching my hand outwards to let some it on my palm.
"Liar, I know that you dislike the rain," said Gabriel, "come on, we're needed."
I stretched my wings and arms out in a lazy yawn then said, "What for?"
"Harpies are loose above the palace. Some scouts reported that there are hundreds of the things circling overhead, maybe even thousands. They want as many gargoyles over there as we can spare. None of them need live this night."
I hated it when he talked like that but he was excited for the battle, meaning that he was going to talk like we were in the medieval ages.
"Art thou prepared for battle, Gecko?" he asked, backing up a bit.
"Thanks for the bad Shakespeare," I said as I stood, "and didn't I ask you to stop calling me that?"
"Not to my knowledge."
Growling under my breath, I jumped into the air and spun towards the earth. As I fell a dim line of silver light appeared around my head to form my helmet then it travelled down my body as my battle gear appeared on my body. I did a somersault in the air then spread out my wings and shot into the sky, with my brother close behind. Gabriel and I had similar battle equipment but, unlike Gabriel, I kept two enchanted bronze short staffs on my belt, both had one side ending in a sharp point, and I had darker armour to blend in with the night sky.
I spread my wings wide and soared towards the storm clouds above the palace, catching a thermal updraft to lift me higher into the air, Gabriel close behind me. We drew our weapons and shot into the cloud, our vision was momentarily obscured. We emerged from the vapour and found ourselves in the middle of a fierce battle. The harpies and their fellow monsters from the pits of hell fought against our fellow gargoyles. Weapons clashed against each other, filling the night with sounds akin to thunder, all the while fire and lightning flashed all around us. We were outnumbered by at least fifty to one but even the least experienced gargoyle could take out forty harpies on a good day. The harpies themselves resembled old hags with wings fused to their arms, with the largest I've seen being the size of an average human.
Gabriel shot towards a cluster of the monsters like a bullet, his swords slicing cleanly through the air and causing every he killed monster to return to the ancient pits of hell, leaving nothing but ash behind.
I stabbed and bludgeoned as many of our enemies to ash as possible but their ranks seemed endless.
I spied a lone harpy dive towards my brother, who was preoccupied with a giant bat like creature and had his back turned.
I threw one my staffs at it and the weapon stuck itself into the daemon's head, sending it back to the pit in an instant. My brother sheathed a blade and caught the weapon as it fell from the cluster of ashes then used it to stab the bat in the throat. As his foe scattered into ashes Gabriel passed the rod back to me before two flying snake demons, each armed with broadswords, came charging at me.
As I caught it I brought the flat ends of my short staffs together, generating a small burst of energy to fuse them to each other. My power travelled across both ends of the combined staffs, extending them as it passed through. They now formed a single quarterstaff, both ends now tipped with iron spikes, which I used to whack both demons aside then stabbed them through one another.
"AHHH!" I yelled as a harpy came from behind and slashed my back, tearing off a few scales in the process.
The wound sent pain through my body as my wings flapped to stay aloft almost causing me to lose my grip on my weapon. Before the beast could do anything more I whipped my staff's pointed end across its throat, the enchanted weapon slicing through and killing the creature. I could feel my armour covering the wound when it mended itself, just as it was designed to do for all gargoyles during battle.
I managed to focus on the battle at hand, trying to ignore the pain that seared across my back, and saw a gigantic harpy descend from the swarm, the armour she wore shone with the blood of all the gargoyles it had murdered. The creature was so large that she would be able to use Big Ben's hour hand as a dagger.
"Young brother," said another gargoyle named Thorne, hovering beside me with his mace covered in daemon ash, "one of the harpy's generals is here. We need to find a way to destroy her then all the others should follow."
I looked at him, seeing all the scratches, dents, and cuts across his armour and some of the blood leaking from inside it. The armour was beginning to mend itself but the process was slow going.
"You cannot take her on like you are," I said, "your armour is too damaged-"
"It has always surprised me how yours rarely is, despite the length of a battle, scaled one," he said sharply, "I watched that harpy slash your back and I saw blood on its claws but you show no sign of any other harm daemons may have inflicted upon you, save for the she-daemon. The damage you have received here is nought compared to the rest of us. Never forget, you have not yet seen enough battle to give me advice, boy."
I stayed quiet after that and followed his lead into battle, slashing through the demons that barred our path to the giant harpy. Thorne was a kind ally but his mood can change faster than the heartbeat of a mouse, it was sometimes best to leave things as they were, least he decided to turn his mace upon me.
We dove behind the general's head and struck at both her wings with our weapons but they bounced off as if they were steel. The general turned to look at us, a gruesome smile on her face.
"I am far stronger than any of you stone reptiles will _ever_know." she screamed, heaving her spear, and using one end to whack us away from her. I was able block with my staff and managed to stay upright, soon I was hovering in the air again but Thorne wasn't so quick to recover and crashed through several other gargoyles, who were all engaged in their own fights, before regaining his balance. Several harpies were trying to get through to their leader but Thorne intercepted, blocking the daemon warriors from the fight.
Unfortunately, that meant that, for now at least, I was on my own against the General. The daemon quickly slashed her claws at me but suddenly Gabriel came out of nowhere and blocked with his blades.
"I block," he said in a strained voice, "you strike. Let us give our allies a chance to gather themselves."
Gabriel's wings were flapping erratically. He was barely staying aloft from the force of the strike and his armour was slashed badly, probably damaged far beyond its self-repairing magic but he was still fighting despite the risk of serious injury. I couldn't let him fight in this state, with that much damage he was going to die.
"No," I said, using my staff to help him push back the general's weapon, "you can do more damage with your blades than I can with my staff, let me take the hits."
"Heh," he said with a grin and, thankfully, dropping the bad Shakespeare, "you always think you know best don't you?"
"That's because I often do."
He rushed in, quickly slashing at the general several times near her head before I blocked her next attack then, while Gabriel stabbed at one of her wings, I detached my weapons from each other and blocked her spear with Gabriel. Other gargoyles tried to help but harpies would engage them before hand, cutting off our reinforcements. Gabriel and I continued our assault but the general's blows were taking their toll on both of us, especially Gabriel. His speed was decreasing and so was his strength but I knew that his pride would not allow him to reveal how much pain he was in.
"Gabriel," I called out as I deflected another strike, "this is getting us nowhere. We need a new strategy. Now!"
"Then link up," he yelled back and threw one of his swords to me while I did the same with one of my truncheons. We caught each other's weapons at the same time and, moving in unison, we brought the blade and staff that we both held together using our magical power to combine them.
A bright light enveloped our weapons as they changed form, forging new weapons using aspects of our own. Now Gabriel wielded a two-handed enchanted broadsword and I now had a 3-metre-long shaft with a two-foot-long bronze curved blade, protruding upwards, at the top. I spun my enchanted curved halberd over my head and the wind around us picked up speed, giving us the advantage.
Gabriel held his blade in one hand and moved his free hand in circular motion.
The rain started to collect into a sphere above him then, with another gesture from Gabriel's hand, sharp icicles shot from the sphere and headed towards the general. Some of the smaller pieces of ice imbedded itself into her wings and she roared in pain. Gabriel then commanded the water into a frozen disc then he sliced his sword threw the air, every swipe with the blade sent a thin layer of the disc towards the daemon. While the general was distracted I struck her with my own blade, wearing her down until either me or Gabriel could finish her off.
Using the small command that I held over the storm I summoned a bolt of lightning, channelled it through my weapon and sent it at the harpy, knocking her back. As we seemed to gain the upper hand her claw came swiping through the air out of nowhere and sent me flying backwards, allowing her to focus on Gabriel.
"Die Gargoyle!"
The harpy's spear hurtled through the air towards Gabriel. He summoned a wall of ice to block the spear but, it shattered and the spear struck him in the chest. As he fell the weapon returned to its master but I was too concerned about my brother to pay it much notice.
"NO!"
My scream cut through the air and I attacked the daemon in fury but her power seemed to have only grown stronger during our battle. As I attacked she sent her spear at me but as I blocked it with my weapon, it too shattered upon impact. A wave of raw power tore through the air as my weapon was destroyed, the backlash turning every harpy solider around me to ash as well as sending the General and myself spinning in opposite directions. When I was able to gather my bearings, I dived towards my brother, catching him in the air then carried him as gently as I could while gliding. Our combined weight soon exhausted my wings and we had a rough landing on a rooftop, causing us to roll across the slates. I was dazed and wasn't yet able to stand but, after forcing myself to crawl, I made it to Gabriel to inspect his wound. The spear had gone in deep and I knew that there was a low chance of him being healed from this.
"Dammit," he said, his voice hoarse, "I wasn't fast enough-"
"It's okay," I said, trying to keep the tears in my eyes at bay, "I'll take you back to the Sanctuary. We can find a healer."
"I'm not stupid Gecko, I know that there's no time for this wound to be healed."
He grimaced as another wave of pain seemed to envelope him. I placed my hand over his chest tried, even though I have never done so, to heal him. My magical power flowed out from my palm and I commanded the wound too close. I could feel the organic tissue start to regrow but it was painfully slow. My remaining power dissipated within seconds and I collapsed on top of Gabriel. My energy completely drained. I wanted to scream at the heavens for trying to take him away as the realisation hit me. There was nothing I could do to save him.
Suddenly a hot, boiling broth seemed to rise within me as I watched Gabriel suffer. This anger, this burning rage, it gave me the strength to rise to my feet again. Gabriel's sword lay not too far off and it flew into my outstretched left hand, which began to pulse with a dull pain like an old wound. Red lightning started to arc across the engraved runes on the blade, transforming the broadsword into a long, one-edged dark blade, its point curved slightly inward. The handle was now solid black, outlined with a deep crimson red.
"I'll be back," I promised Gabriel then I took off into the sky heading once again towards the storm.
Lightning flashed across the sky and I saw demons of all kinds appear from the dark clouds but whenever one came near I would slice through them like paper and carry on.
I called upon the wind to carry me higher and faster through the air and so I reach the place where we had fought the general in almost no time at all but the sight I found was not as I expected.
At least eighty gargoyles surrounded the daemon but none could do more than slightly irritate her because of her now immense size. When she saw me, the daemon laughed and tried to swipe at me with her spear but I easily blocked it using my sword. The blade's handle suddenly burnt my hands and I yelled. I backed away from the spear and looked at the sword's handle, which had now cooled down, and I saw more runes engraving themselves into the blade. Similar scars had appeared on my hands.
"The blade is unstable," said Thorne as he tried to pull me backward but I pushed him off, "the weapon now carries the energies that were stored both in your staff and in Gabriel's swords. Unless you separate the remaining pieces, it will expel that same energy and we could all die!"
"Not before she does!" I roared, the sound carrying through the thunder, and I shot through the air. The sword was wreathed in flames and, as I approached the daemon, the flames glowed brighter and were burning more ferociously. The clock began to chime, with each ring my opponent seemed to radiate more power. She raised her spear and thrust it towards me, in my fury I was too slow to deflect it again and it struck me in the centre of my chest.
For a few moments, I felt numb, shocked by my own stupidity, then I felt pain and my sword slowly begin to fall from my hands. An unbearable, agonising wave of pain hit me like a horse, and for a while that was all that I could think about. I saw the witch's bright red eyes start to glow with power and she gave out a loud laugh in triumph.
The daemon's biggest mistake was thinking that she had won.
My grip on my own blade tightened and I grabbed the weapon with my left hand, forcing all my strength on the point where the bronze shaft and the metal blade were connected. I roared an unearthly sound then tightened my grip on the spear and the shaft splintered like a twig. I tore the jagged blade from my chest, dropping it into the foggy city below, and wretched the bronze shaft from the stunned daemon's grasp.
"Im-Impossible," she stammered, "you couldn't have-"
With my sword now held with my tail, I swung the broken shaft at her head, breaking it against her jaw and drawing blood. Her green blood ran from her left eye then down the side of her face and started to drip below us. I dropped the broken shaft as I drew my blade once more, the flames from my weapon now a deep maroon and the dark runes' red glow were vibrant against the blade's dark surface. As I raised the hellish sword for my final strike I screamed, "FOR MY BROTHER!!" then I swung the weapon down in a deadly arc, the flames leaving a burning trail behind it, just as I heard Thorne yell out a warning.
The last image I had of the damned she-daemon was of her shocked face as her torso was sliced through by my burning blade, a silent scream dying upon her black lips. The flames were cauterising the separated flesh as my blade rip it apart, leaving large smouldering wounds on the General's divided torso.
After the daemon was cut in two the sword suddenly exploded, its red and gold energy released into the sky, flooding it with my raw, ferocious power. The energy left streaks of fire across the sky, creating a giant sphere of destruction, just as the clock tower's chimes ended. When several shards of the weapon hit my left arm, it screamed with pain and I began to see a dark fog across my vision. As my consciousness slipped away, I felt myself hit the cold embrace of the river and I began falling into nothingness...