Free Torment and Terror by Craig Halloran Page B

score of fighters were scattering away. The balfrog landed on almost all of them. Blood and guts squirted everywhere.
    Squish!

 
     
    CHAPTER 19
     
     
    Melegal lay stiff as a stone. Pale. Bloody. Venir had never seen his friend like that before. Grim as Melegal could be, there was always a deep spring of life inside him. Now that well of life was fading.
    “Breathe, Melegal! Breathe!” Jasper was at the rogue’s side. Her ear was on his heart.
    Kam and Joline stood close by with tears in their eyes. “Breathe!”
    The boundless energy Venir had felt moments earlier started to sink with his heart. The peril was gone but at what cost? His eyes slid over to the woman Trinos.
    Half of her platinum hair was seared from her head. Her beautiful figure was burned and blistered. Charred and scarred. The woman, or whatever she was, had put up a fight. She’d risked it all and distracted Scorch long enough for him to find an opening.
    So had Melegal. He’d died.
    She hadn’t.
    “I’m sorry,” Trinos said. She pushed what was left of her smoldering hair from her eyes. “I tried.”
    Venir ripped Helm off of his head and slung it across the room. He drove his fist through a wall, ripped it out, stormed across the room and punched another.
    “Venir, please!” Kam said. She scrambled up and rushed to his side. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She choked out a sob. “But it happens.”
    Melegal was his oldest friend and ally. Even though they may have wanted to kill each other half of the time, life wouldn’t be the same without him. He pushed away from Kam, grabbed a bar stool, and smashed it into the bar.
    All eyes were glued on him.
    He paid them no mind. He busted one bar stool right after the other.
    “He’s such a baby,” said a weak voice. “ Cough-cough. Such a temperamental lout. Cough. Always embarrassing me in front of the ladies.”
    The room fell silent.
    Venir stopped in mid-swing.
    “Melegal!” Joline cried out. “You live!”
    Everyone crowded around the thief.
    The skinny man was paler than ever but breathing. “I feel like slat.” Melegal cast a grey eye on Venir. “But at least I don’t look like it.” His eyes drifted closed. “Is that pompous otherworlder gone?”
    Taking a deep draw of air through his nostrils, Venir nodded.
    Melegal didn’t see him, however. His eyes were closed, and he was in a deep slumber.
    As the women tended to his friend’s needs, Venir turned his attention back to Trinos. There were tears in her eyes. Those ugly wounds had started to heal up a little. He pulled up a chair to her and sat down. “I’m grateful.”
    “As am I.” She let out a sigh.
    Venir cast a look at Scorch’s skull. “Is he—or it —gone?”
    She shrugged and replied, “I’d like to think so. I don’t sense him anymore.”
    “I didn’t either. Not with Helm on anyway.” Venir looked right into her eyes and said, “That was some strange talk you and Scorch were exchanging. Care to explain?”
    Trinos shook her head no. “I think it’s best I don’t.”
    Hand on his knee, Venir leaned forward and said, “Whoever you are, you put up quite a fight for Bish.”
    “Wouldn’t you?”
    “No! This place is a disaster.”

 
     
    CHAPTER 20
     
     
    The ogre, Gondoon Stoneskin, had just made it back inside his tent when the commotion started. Pushing aside the tent flap, he stepped out again.
    “What’s this?”
    Staring out from beneath his heavy brows, he gazed at the oncoming carnage. A huge wild man was gutting his ranks. A wild blue-eyed berserker the likes of which he’d never seen.
    Gondoon’s battle-bred blood ignited. He didn’t need weapons to kill a man. He was a crusher. An invincible juggernaut. He’d never lost a fight in his life and didn’t plan on losing one today. If ogres could smile, then that was what the gruesome look on his face was.
    “Finally, a challenge.”
    On swift feet that belied his formidable girth, Gondoon charged over the barren brown land.