Blazing Glory Ch. 04

The young warrior whistled softly as he absorbed this all in. He remained silent as they continued walking and looking about for a few minutes. Questions burned in his mind and he had to ask them. "How do you know all this, Tyra? Why are you even here in these ruins?"

"The past guardian gargoyles filled me in as those prior to them had done as well. I'm here to protect the treasure of Nervei. Some of the gods completely wiped some cities off the face of the earth. Others were more subtle in annihilating the Natori while leaving the cities intact. Nervei is one of those cities. The treasure it holds is one of those powerful weapons. That is why I am among one of several guardians here preventing it from falling into the wrong hands. There has always been one of my kind present. A gargoyle's purpose is to always protect something."

Tyra smiled knowingly at his dazed look of astonishment with the realization of what he had stumbled into. "But don't go thinking about wanting it now, Blaze. I won't like it, but I will kill you if I have to."

He nodded that he understood clearly. He wouldn't even want to touch such a thing for fear of bringing a god's wrath down upon him. Blaze slowed down and grabbed Tyra's shoulder to stop her. She frowned and looked in him in question, but he signaled for silence. The gargoyle nodded in understanding as he listened carefully. He could faintly make out the talking of voices approaching that sounded all too familiar. Looking to his left, they watched two feminine figures in the mist before appearing as a winged succubus and dark-furred catwoman.

"Kendra! Nadine! Over here," he called out. They looked about before finding him and both smiled in relief as they ran over to him. Soon the poor young man was seized by both women and crushed in the twin hugs combined together. Even though he couldn't breathe, he hugged them back tightly as well. He drew back as they released him and looked down to his one arm and side being damp now. He looked to Nadine and saw her fur looked freshly washed and still damp from the water.

"Nadine, why are you all wet?" he asked.

The lycan looked down to the fur matting her breasts with her nipples poking out quite obviously "Oh! I ran into a beast in these ruins. It raped me and squirted its gunk all over me" she sniffed slightly but managed a small smile, "Thankfully, Kendra showed up and killed it swiftly. I was a mess and took a dip in a fountain to clean off."

"It must have been one of Nervei's guardians then. This is Tyra Rohanna," he said, indicating the gargoyle that had been standing off to the side, "She is one of the guardians as well. Tyra, these are my friends. Kendra Tansanee and Nadine Teigra."

Tyra nodded with a small smile and the others smiled in return. He was about to explain how they met when an ear-piercing wail filled the air all around them. All of them covered their ears until it faded away. Blaze's ears had a nasty ring in them still as he looked to the others. Nadine and Kendra looked to be just as confused at what happened. He looked to Tyra. The gargoyle had a look of pure shock as panic began to fill her expression.

"What's wrong Tyra?" he asked, "And what was that horrible sound about?"

'The treasure! It's a spell to signal to the guardians someone has laid hands upon it and taken it from where it lay," she growled. No sooner had she said that then the gargoyle was thundering full speed back in the direction they had come. Blaze and the others ran after her before they were left to be lost once again.

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The run was a long and weary one. Sweat dripped down his face as his legs carried him in a dead run after the gargoyle. It was hard keeping up with Tyra with those long powerful legs that attributed to her height. He stole a brief glance behind him to the others. Kendra had her wings out and beat them as she flew low right behind him. Right beside her, Nadine was using her hands and feet to lope along like a great cat of the jungle does in its burst of speed.

The buildings they were speeding past looked quite familiar. Blaze soon new where he was and what was to come. True to his thoughts, they burst out into the plaza and sped by the columns of stone gargoyles towards that temple he had seen in the distance. It was further away than he had realized as it took longer than expected to reach it. He and Tyra bounded up the steps towards the entrance, taking many of the steps three at a time. Following the gargoyle, they wound their way through inner chambers and hallways of the old building.

As soon as he began to wonder how deeply into this building they had to go, they entered a circular room with no other exits. In the middle of the large domed room stood a marble altar with two stands on each side lighting the room with their fires. The room was not clean and had ash scattered about it in some places. Standing by the alter was a figure wearing black armor with sharp spikes about the shoulders and gauntlets. Tyra stopped to study the intruder as the rest of them stumbled to a halt right beside her.

Hearing their entrance, the figure turned around to reveal itself as a woman. She had red hair as bright as the flames that fell just past her shoulders. She was an attractive woman with bold features and a confident air about her. The most unsettling feature about the woman was her eyes. They were a bright yellow like the sun and burned brightly. But they had no pupils!

"Ahhh yes. More lambs come to the slaughter then?" the woman laughed as she finished tying a bundle about her and securely against her back.

"Who are you?" growled Tyra.

The woman's lips curled up in an evil smirk. When Kendra smirked, it held a sensual confidence to it. But this woman's smirk made his blood run cold. It was one of a heartless killer. She turned about to face them fully, and placed her hand upon her cocked hip.

"Danika Savine, mighty Koas's personal enforcer of her wishes," she said with a dangerous coolness that belied dangerous deadliness.

Tyra growled as she took a threatening step forward, "Put it back! There is no escape as other guardians are on their way as well. You're outnumbered."

Danika smiled coldly and pointed to the ashes, "Oh you mean your friends there? Yes. There was quite a few of them. But as they say, ashes to ashes."

The gargoyle's fists clenched angrily as the fiery haired woman laughed. Blaze felt something brush by him before he himself could react. Nadine moved with quick speed as she charged the enforcer of a goddess. Nadine lashed out with a kick angrily only to witness Danika block it easily. The catwoman yelped in surprise before the air whooshed right out of her. Danika's fist sunk deeply into the lycan's gut before the unnatural force finally sent Nadine flying backwards to crash into a wall.

Blaze winced at the sickening thud of the impact and again when she crashed into the floor. Nadine hissed in pain as she struggled to get up. A furious cry drew his attention to see Kendra diving from above towards the powerful enforcer. Her long soft vanilla colored hair whipped about as the air rushed by from the quick dive while her arm cocked back to unleash her ready whip. Danika simply stood there with that smirk before she opened her palm towards the succubus. Blaze and Tyra staggered backwards from the force as a fountain of flames exploded from that hand towards the demoness. Kendra had no time to react from the sudden blast.

He could only watch in horror as his lover was engulfed in the hot flames. The fire crashed into the nearby wall and sent large rocks and debris crashing down to the floor. Of Kendra he saw no sign.

"KENDRA!!!!!!!" he yelled. She was gone! This enforcer had killed her. He trembled as the fury boiled forth and turned slowly to look at her. Danika brushed her hand smoothly with no emotion as if she had merely swatted away an annoying fly. Deep down inside him, he felt the boiling anger and anguish pressing upon him. That sight of her so cool after destroying Kendra did it. Blaze snapped. Both his swords were out and in his hands in an instant as he screamed a scream of pure primal rage.

Blaze then charged forward with a roar of hatred. He was going to kill this bitch! He was going to cut that cold smirk right off her fucking face! He would tear her organs out with his bare hands! He hungered to hear her screams of anguish. He hungered for her blood! He would butcher her so much he would be bathed in her blood! His vision turned red as she turned to regard him. Danika reached to her hip and pulled out her sword. He faintly registered the broadsword she held was literally on fire. A flame sword!

He slashed at her with his right sword from across. She deflected his blade with her own easily but he was already following his move with another. Spinning about, he brought his other sword from below to swipe upwards, hungry for the sight of splitting her in two from crotch right up through her skull. Danika frowned now as she now looked to be taking him more seriously than she had the others as she deflected his left sword up and away. But he had the advantage with two lighter swords than hers as his right blade swept in again. The enforcer saw the blade sweeping in on her left just barely in time to duck her head backwards.

She moved quickly, but not enough as the tip sliced across her left cheek. Danika quickly backed away as the hot blood streamed out of the wicked cut. Her yellow eyes looked to him in plain shock that he had actually landed a small blow on her. He didn't care though as he already moved in for another attack. Too late he realized in his blind fury that another head-on attack wouldn't work. She was already prepared as she raised her fiery blade above her head. She was going to bring it down and split him in half.

Blaze quickly brought his blades up above him and crossed them just in time. Her sword same crashing down into that notch of his swords with such force that he drove him down to his knees. His arms trembled as he struggled to keep that sword caught between his swords from coming down to split his skull.

"Impressive, little man," she said with a cold sneer, "No one has ever wounded me before in a fight. Strange about your blades though. That blow would have shattered most swords. You should give my compliments to your blacksmith. If you ever live to see him again, that is!"

Danika then slid her flame engulfed blade down against his own, sending a shower of hot sparks raining down upon him. He cried out in pain and staggered backwards with his arm over his face to protect him from the hot embers. He dropped his arm to see the enforcer moving her sword in for the kill. A blur shot out of his left. Tyra barreled her shoulder into Danika with such force that it sent the powerful enemy flying herself for a pleasant change.

Danika slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground. When she looked up, she saw the intimidating gargoyle standing where she had been previously. Only now the gargoyle held a large mace with a huge morning star on the end. The sight was enough to even shake her ever present confidence. Her mission was complete as she had what she needed. Time to get the hell out of here.

Both Blaze and Tyra watched as Danika stood and held her palm out, facing upwards. A flame appeared above the palm before it grew intensely hot in a blinding white flash. They shut their eyes quickly from the light and heard the thief run out the door. Try as he might, Blaze couldn't open his eyes. It hurt so much! When he finally could open them a bit, his vision was too blurred. After a few silent minutes, both of them were finally able to see well enough again.

Nadine limped over to them and sighed softly, "I'm sorry guys. I tried but I didn't know she was that strong."

Blaze only smiled reassuringly to her and gave her a tight hug. "You did what you knew to be the right thing. She had to be stopped." The grief was welling up inside him though. That was until he heard some nasty words being muttered underneath the rubble nearby. They all looked there in surprise as the succubus kicked out of the rubble and stood up. Kendra dusted herself off with an angry grumble.

Nadine yelped in surprise, "You're not dead, Kendra? But how? We all saw you engulfed in the flames."

"Well that fire demon didn't know I was a demon," Kendra said and spat on the ground as if some of the dust had gotten into her mouth, "Hellfire won't affect us creatures of the Abyss."

She walked over to them with her usual sensual sway, looking perfectly fine if not a bit dusty. Kendra gasped when Blaze seized her and hugged her tightly to where she couldn't even breathe. Her eyes blinked wide before a blush grew across her cheeks. Her arms wrapped about him as she returned the loving embrace.

Tyra sighed sadly, "I've failed. The weapon is gone and now there is nothing left to protect."

Blaze and Kendra then looked to the defeated looking gargoyle. "Let's go after her, Tyra. We can't let them have such a weapon. We'll get it back. You're welcome to come with us."

Both Kendra and Nadine nodded that they agreed. Tyra smiled thankfully, "Fine then. No sense in me hanging around here anymore. While we do that, I will take up the responsibility of protecting my new lover. That okay, Blaze?"

All color drained from his face at Tyra's words as what he feared happened as sure as the sun rises and sets every day.

"LOVER!?" Kendra and Nadine yelled.

They both turned to look angrily at him. He held his hands up quickly, "Wait! I can explain!... Oooooh SHIT!" He turned and ran for the exit.

"Get back here!" screamed the succubus as she gave chase with the hissing catwoman right behind her. Tyra simply smiled and shook her head as she ran after the terrified man and furious women.

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Koas sat in her dark throne room as usual. There was no doubt as to where she was as her red eyes glowed angrily. She was livid in anger. Yet again those fools had meddled into her plans! They didn't spoil this plan fortunately, but came close enough to be sure.

Enough was enough! They had interfered for the last time. She knew now what she had to do. She knew what held them together as she summoned one of her servants. She would send the message that would travel quickly to who she had in mind. It was time she put a contract out for hire.

She wanted this 'Blaze' dead!