The Chamber Pt. 3
The Chamber
Pt. 3
By: Silverback Christianpaw
Silverback planned to rescue Zero from King Maran's disgusting proposal but things went arye when he was discovered by Maran's soldiers. Things took an even bigger turn for the worse when Silverback found out that he had been double-crossed by his king, King Darius. Darius made an agreement with his brother Maran to unite the kingdoms if Silverback was delivered to him. Now that the royal family has reunited this leaves Silverback and Zero in their evil clutches. King Darius gave Silverback the courtesy of returning his armor to him so that he may wear it for the fight he must endure in order to get Zero. He tied his big heavy steel boots on and wrapped up his fists as he got ready. The stone walls that surrounded him had a dark tone to them. He heard all morning of many soldiers cleaning and setting up King Maran's personal coliseum, many of his subjects already started to fill the seats. His soldiers and slaves got it ready for a night of entertaining their King. But to Silverback it was going to be anything but entertainment.
Silverback growled to himself, "I can't believe that Darius would betray me like this," he said to himself as he laced up his chest armor tight. "My Lord sold me out. I mean, I knew he wanted to unite the kingdoms again, but I didn't know he go so low that he would sell his soul to do it. Well congratulations my Lord, it's good to know you're real feelings." He growled more and punched one of the gray stone walls, pieces of stone fell onto the ground with a loud thud as he growled, "For I will use this rage, control it, and use it for this fight and get Zero, my friend . . . my only friend . . . my love."
One of Maran's soldiers, a black cat, with thin armor walked up to him and stood before him, his paws were shaking very nervously, "The Kings s-s-s-sent me to g-g-g-get you, it's t-t-time for the event." Silverback simply growled under his breath as he picked up his massive sword and slid it into it's holster.
They both walked, the gray stone bricks never changed color until Silverback noticed a light. The sunlight was turning the gray bricks into a shining silver. It reminded him of the beautiful shiny fur of Zero's. The light became more clear as they both got closer and closer to the arena. The noise of the crowd grew louder with each and every heavy step the massive blue wolf took, the noise of Maran's people, full of excitement. Conversations being shared and cheers being thrown, the King's arena was full. The soldier started turning a crank on the wall and raised the gate as Silverback walked out to the sea of Maranians.
The sun burned bright as it shined down on the open floor of tan, solid stone. The space was big enough to fit a few Prash houses easily. His stoned battlefield was surrounded by walls of Maranians sitting to enjoy the night's event. But their was one seat that was more important than all the rest.
Silverback looked up at the top of one of the main castle wall. King Maran and Darius sat high above everyone else at the top of the wall and looked down at the wolf, two soldiers stood on opposite ends of them, but a third stood among them . . . Zero.
Silverback almost decided to climb the wall all the way to the top just to have his arms around Zero. He looked beautiful as he wore a purple tunic, but he did not look happy. He knew as well as the blue wolf did, that a battle was about to happen.
Maran stood up and with his paws in the air, "Alright, settle down my subjects!" his voiced echoed, "Ah Silverback, good to see you my again my friend. You appear ready to fight," he grinned.
"I am, what do I have to do to get Zero? I will leave this kingdom for your royal family to rule however you wish, all I want is Zero."
Zero blushed and looked down and started to wear his beautiful smile for Silverback. It felt like it had been forever since Silverback saw his beautiful silver wolf smile.
"What are the rules for this gauntlet?"
King Maran smiled, "Here's how it will go young warrior, there will be three of my most prized warriors for this gauntlet. When . . . well, if you kill one then the next one will enter, if you manage to take out all three of them, then Zero is yours. If you lose, then your head will become a trophy on my wall," the King gave him a sinister grin.
"Alright, give me my first opponent, now!" He growled and pounded his fists.
"Hehe, very well, bring me Cronus!"
The people started cheering as the gate raised open once again. Two soldiers came out followed by a big guy. He was a black crow, the armor around his chest and back with sparking silver armor with shards of gold sparkling around it. He was a big, muscular black crow with a mean look on his face. He eyed Silverback and pulled out his saber.
"Let the gauntlet begin!" King Maran said. The people cheered as the crow prepared himself for battle. Silverback pulled out his sword,
"Come on birdie, I dare you to hit me just once."
The crow clinched his saber tight and charged the wolf.
"Grahhhhhh!" the crow cried as he charged. Their swords met with the ringing sound of metal on metal. "Whoa! Guh!" the crow fell backwards onto his butt, losing grip of the saber. Silverback growled and swung the sword, the crow rolled out of the way as the blade hit the stone, leaving a deep crack in the fighting surface. Cronus got back to his feet.
The crowd booed and hurled curse words and insults at Silverback and tried their best to cheer their hometown warrior on.
"I've got you wolf!" Cronus yelled as he threw a big muscular punch, but Silverback caught it with his bigger paw. He put his sword back in the holster and wrenched the arm behind his back and wrapped his other arm around the Cronus' smaller neck.
"Hehe looks more like I've got you," Silverback grinned as he started to squeeze.
"Ahh! No!" Silverback let him go and Cronus backpedaled away from him with fear in his face on his breath, "Ah! My king! My king! There's no way I can defeat somebody this strong! Sorry my king!" Before Silverback knew it Cronus started flapping his wings and flew away as fast as he could.
Darius patted his brother on the shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Silverback is strong my dear brother, it will take more than him to defeat him . . . a lot more."
"I know what I am doing, the plan is going perfectly, just trust me," Maran whispered back. He stood up once again,
"Silverback, good job, hopefully you will get a little bit more challenge out of this next one."
"Bring it on Maran!" he said as he returned his sword to his holster.
"I will. Soldiers, release Canabron!"
The gate opened once again and the crowd's cheers grew with each second as a brown figure walked out onto the battlefield. He was a minotaur creature with horns that were white with spatters o blood on them. His armor was bronze and he won a leather fighting skirt like Silverback, but Canabron's was bronze colored like his armor and he didn't carry a sword, instead he held a big double-sided axe.
The big, bull-like creature walked up to the blue wolf. Silverback still had a height advantage and appeared to out-muscle him but he didn't want to take him too lightly.
"Ready, begin!" King Maran said.
"Hyah!" Canabron grabbed his axe from his belt and swung it so fast that even Silverback couldn't see it. The axe just missed, mere inches away from his armor. Silverback positioned himself in his fighting stance and dealt his sword out again. He kept it in front of him to block as Canabron started to step forward.
"Grah!" he swung again, this time Silverback was able to keep his eye on it and block it with his sword, but Canabron didn't waste time to unleash his next attack. He swung again and again and again. Silverback blocked each and every swing, each one came faster and faster. Canabron spun his entire body and the blue wolf blocked again, but then got hit with a hard kick to the gut with his big hoof. The armor protects him but still makes him take a few steps back. Canabron raised the massive axe over his head and swung down, Silverback kneeled down with his sword hoisted above himself to block it. The two weapons collide with strong force before Silverback gets met again with a hard hoof right to the side of his head.
"Gah!" Silverback reached up to hold his cheek but the minotaur geared up as he swung the axe yet again. The metal hits the armor plating on Silverback's chest, a fiery spark shoots out of the armor as it gets cut.
He stayed on his feet but backs up into the wall. He looked behind him to see a couple of Maranian tigers snarling at him. He focused back to see Canabron charging at him yet again. He knew he couldn't take another serious hit like that and had to think fast.
The bull-creature charged swinging the ave over his head again, ready to slice his opponent in half. He swung, Silverback deflected the blow with his sword again, Canabron swung over again and again, each time the blue warrior tried to block.
"Roooo!!!" Canavron's eyes grew red with anger. He used his axe to knock Silverback's sword momentarily out of his range and met Silverback's face with a hard bone-crushing elbow. Silverback tried to get his sword up to protect himself but the fast bull knocked it out of his paw with the axe.
"Rooooo!!!" he cried again as he twisted his body to go for the spinning attack again, and this time going for the kill. The axe swung furiously but Silverback moved out of the way in the nick of time as the axe smashed into the stone wall next to the two tigers. The wall cracked around the axe.
Canabron looked at it and tried to pull it out but it remained stuck in place. He yanked harder and harder but the axe didn't budge.
Meanwhile, Silverback snuck around him and pounced on top of him. He wrapped his big arms around the Canabron's neck but the strong bull out-powered the wolf and tossed him over his shoulder. The wolf swiftly landed on his feet with a heavy thud and connected a hard punch with his cast-iron fist to the bull's face.
Canabron took a step back holding his face. Silverback tried to keep his momentum going; he punched Canabron in the face again, and again, an uppercut to his jaw. The big bull stepped back in retreat holding his ruffled, bleeding face.
"Ha!" Silverback grabbed the axe from the wall and pulled it out with one paw. He swung the axe over his head and before he could even get another breath into his lungs he drove it down on the bull's armor. The armor sparked as it split right down the middle and fell into two heavy pieces on the ground.
"Hyah! Ha!" Silverback held the axe over his head with both paws and broke the handle in half. He dropped the two pieces that was the powerful axe. He panted heavily as he stared down Canabron for the next round.
"Roo! Roo! Roo!" The minotaur backed away waving his hands in the air and running away. The crowds booed thunderously as Canabron ran as fast as he could to the gate entrance and out of sight. The boos continued as groaned loud and wiped the sweat from his brow and catched his breath.
King Darius whispered to his brother again, "One more warrior brother and he will win the gauntlet." Zero tried to listen in but all the excitement from the crowd was deafening.
Maran started to growl, "I know brother! I will handle this. I still have one more and he is my best warrior, not even one as strong as Silverback will be able to defeat him!"
"But that's not the plan we talked about,"
Maran stood out of his seat to address the crowd,
"Everyone settle down! . . . I said settle down dammit!" He snarled at Silverback and then focused his attention on Zero who was smiling, "Zero, you better wipe that smirk off your face and better get ready-"
"Ready for Silverback to win your stupid gauntlet!"
Maran growled and looked down at the silver wolf, "Once this is over and your hero dies, I will fuck the living daylights out of you and you will remain as my property!"
Zero growled at him and started to show his teeth.
Maran threw his paws up, "Silverback! Good work! But you will never be able to defeat all three of my warriors, for I have saved the best for last!" Silverback panted heavily as he picked up his sword and swung it a few times to get himself ready for the third and final battle. "Guards! Release . . . Dracore!"
The thousands of Maranians all gasped. King Darius stood up and grabbed Maran by the arm, "My brother, you can't!"
"Keep quiet!" Maran scowled, "Silverback doesn't stand a chance."
The gate opened up once again and the thousands of King Maran's subjects started cheering as Dracore made his way out. Silverback heard thunderous footsteps, fear simmered as he took a few steps back,
"Oh no, I don't have a good feeling about this," he said to himself.
The thunderous footsteps got louder and louder before a gargantuan dragon warrior walked out from the gateway.
"Oh my God! He's huge!" Silverback shrieked. He could feel the stone shake under him with each and every looming step. The dragon crouched in a fighting stance as he walked, carrying a big staff on his back. He was dark blue with thick silver armor around his torso. His feet were covered with stick cast iron boots like Silverback's but his hands were uncovered, instead they revealed sharp, black claws. Normally Silverback always defeated his enemies in the muscle game, but the dragon looked so thick and strong, even under all the armor. This guy was muscled in places Silverback didn't even have places.
Dracore stood over Silverback unbothered and a dominating presence. He stood a good two feet taller than Silverback and prepared to fight.
King Maran shouted, "Ready, begin!"
The Maranians cheered as Silverback got ready for this battle that would decide the fate of Zero, as well as himself.
Darius said, "Brother, I can't let this go on, Dracore is way too powerful. Silverback is strong but not strong enough to beat him. You have to call him off!"
Maran snarled, "Never! Grrr, I need a moment. Out of my way!" He shoved Darius as he went inside the castle. He quickly walked down a a few flights of stairs, he walked past his favorite meeting room and into his bedroom. All of the guards that would normally be guarding his personal rooms were outside enjoying the show. The castle was as empty as it possibly could be.
He started to fumble through his dressers, looking for something that he might need. He slammed a drawer so hard it almost knocked over some of the glass decorations on the top of the dresser.
"Grr, where is it?" he said to himself. He searched his cabinets and reached for the top shelf of the one on the far left and found what he was looking for. A capsule of black liquid that was just a little smaller than his thumb.
"Brother!" Darius pleaded as he stormed into the room, "This is crazy! There is no way Silverback can defeat somebody of that size, just call him off and give him the slave, we have many more slaves. Besides, you didn't tell me we were going to kill him. You said we would humble him and have him command our combined armies."
Maran quickly put the capsule in the pocket of his tunic he wore underneath his robe,
"A little white lie, brother," he said sounding much calmer than, "Don't worry yourself about it, if you don't want to watch him die maybe you can go eat some finger sandwiches in the main corridor instead."
"But he is my best warrior! He could be a major asset to us. Listen brother, I know he's mad, but he is like a son to me, I know we can solve this without bloodshed, please call the dragon off."
Maran smiled and pulled him into an unexpected big hug. Darius gasped at the warm feeling his family hug felt, "I will respect your wishes brother, after all this kingdom is now half yours and is half mine," he rubbed his brother's back.
Darius smiled and hugged him back tight, "and half of mine is now yours as well. Just like our father wanted, to rule his kingdom, united and with honor."
"Yes, and I must say it will be nice to have control over the entire kingdom and it's people."
"Yes, we will reign together, the royal family reign together, at last."
Maran let go of the hug and grinned, "Yes, we will," he smirked as he pulled a blade out of his dark red robe and stabbed it right in Darius' stomach.
"Ahh! What the--" Darius clutched at his stomach and fell to the floor in pain. Maran looked down and smiled at his brother, "Or I could just rule both kingdoms and take everything you've got," he grinned an evil grin.
"No-" Darius coughed and tried to get enough air to speak but couldn't as his blood spilled on the King's carpet, it didn't take long for Darius in his advanced age as he faded away.
Maran closed up his robe again as he looked down at the body that was his own flesh and blood,
"Oh brother, you always were so naive. Thanks for keeping my other half of the kingdom warm for me, hehe, I'll be taking it back now."
TO BE CONTINUED . . .