Chapter 12: I Find Stuff

Chapter 11

There are not enough words in the English, Greek, or Roman languages to describe what the inside of the vault looks like. Think of the coolest place you have ever seen. Now multiply the coolness by 1000. That will give you only a small portion of how cool it was.

We entered on a pathway covered in writing that changed as you looked at. The words floated off the tiles and transformed into whatever it happened to be describing so that little magical representations of elements, animals, objects in both the modern and ancient worlds were flying through the air all over. Alex walked through a miniature battle into a red tinged storm cloud, followed by a tiny herd of elephants. Steve walked over fires and through castles. In front of me birds and dinosaurs roamed the tiles.

Then we looked up.

The top of the caverns was not there. Instead, we saw the sky, clouds, even birds flying up there. Standing around us were crates and cages and buildings all stacked haphazardly as far as we could see. Pathways were blocked by debris of destroyed buildings and broken cages lying around. Stands holding crazy costumes from almost every culture and era blocked pathways. The cage that held Kerberos must have been the one in the center who’s gate was still swinging from being busted open. A little past that was Caligula, running through hallways knocking over clothing stands and cages.

“After him!” Alex cried out, breaking our shock, and we started to chase after the crazy Emperor.

He looked back at us as Alex yelled and swung his hand in a wide arc, breaking apart cages and sending them flying at us. Items from the insides of the cages screamed to life - swords, statues, armors, and everything else. Steve responded with a wave of his hand and one word in Greek threw a wave of purple and red force that collided with the incoming objects and sent them flying off into the vaults to the sound of metal clanging, dogs yowling, and cats complaining.

Caligula skipped the existing projectiles this time and sent magical attacks against us. We dodged the first few, and those we could not dodge Steve intercepted with attacks of his own. We moved like this across the halls of the Vault when Caligula slashed at the locks on a set of cages and retreated into a building standing near them.

He had opened four cages, and from those cages came deep, canine growls. I saw four pairs of eyes staring out of the darkness. Then the shadows moved. To the left of where we were, next to Kerberos’s cage, a giant cat burst from a small patch of shadow and raced towards us. From the sky burst a pair of flying creatures, and from the last cage a bear burst out and charged at us.

“I got the cat,” said Alex as she charged at it. She slid her bat out of its holder and, still in bat form, smacked the cat in the face. At the end of the arc the bat formed a sword, which sliced through the cat in the back swing. When the parts landed, there were two cats spinning around to attack her.

“Birds are mine,” Steve said, stopping his charge and his hands burst to their purple flames. The daggers in the strap of his backpack glowed with purple flames and flipped out of their sheaths, floating in the air next to him. The first bird dive bombed towards me, but he hit it full on in the chest with a burst of purple flame. As the first bird crashed into some other part of the vault the second crashed into Steve. Or at least where Steve was. Right next to me he materialized and spun around, facing his opponent.

I guess the bear is mine, I thought, activating Glacius’s shield and Ignus’s gladius. I charged the beast as it charged me, we met in a clash of Imperial Gold, claws, and fur. I ducked under its first swing, slashing my shield across its stomach. The blade sparked against the fur but no damage was visible. It spun around, faster than its size implied and lunged at me, claws going for my throat. I jumped back and slashed at its at its mouth, slicing through one of its teeth which clattered to the ground. So, its fur was impenetrable, but the mouth was not.

The Bear charged in again, slashing at me with one claw, then another, leaving no opening for me to try and attack it. My back hit the side of a building and the bear began to lunge, but was hit by a flying cat. As the two animals rolled off to the side I took a look to see how the others were doing.

Alex was surrounded by four dead Panthers and five live ones jumping around her. Her two hander was back in its bat form and was being swung around with one hand, while in the other was a pick like weapon. A Panther pounced at her, and she ducked under the beast stabbing upward with her hook weapon. It slid easily through the fur, going straight into the chest and out the back, then out again as she completed her move, the Panther dropping dead as it crashed into the ground.

Steve was under attack by both birds again, but keeping them at bay with his daggers, which had now multiplied to ten, flying around and hitting the birds. They, meanwhile, breathed green flames at him and tried to grab the daggers before they landed. The birds were bleeding from multiple wounds, but the flames that missed and landed on the other bird caused that birds wounds to heal. Steve was tiring, kneeling down while controlling the daggers and shield.

The Bear roared to my left and tried to attack again. I put away my Gladius and drew one of my surprise daggers from its holding place. The Bear roared, and I threw the dagger as hard as I could. The liquid in the handle sloshed as the dagger flew end over end. The cat that had interrupted my fight moments before tackled me just as the bear swallowed the knife. One problem, down.

The Panther and I slammed into a pile of boxes, some of which cracked and shattered. I had been able to bring my shield up in time to block the claws and jaw of the cat so I was not torn to shreds. A claw slid off the curve of my shield and sliced through my jacket and shirt, hitting my shoulder. The pain was excruciating, I nearly blacked out. One of the boxes fell from the top of the stack and landed on the Panthers head. It staggered back, shaking its head. It stopped shaking its head and stalked towards me, sensing that the fight was almost over.

Then the bear exploded, knocking the cat aside. My head was beginning to hurt, my vision started to blur. Alex rushed in with her pick weapon thing and stabbed into the chest, killing the panther. The bears pelt floated down and landed over my chest. She looked over at me and must have missed the wound in my shoulder because it looked like she nodded and rushed off in another direction.

The sounds of battle dulled in my ears. I could hear the blood rushing through my body. My heartbeat was slowing. I felt like I was dieing. Growlz crawled out of my jacket and fed me something, and energy surged into me. Soon after it started to fade again. Something fell into my hand, and I blacked out.

Chapter 13