Cracking Sanity
Anak and Shora re-affixed their attention each to the other, as strokes of purple and green lightning sliced open the skies with an ear-rending echo, striking the place from where Rygald's screams had emanated.
"It is finished, boy. Don't cling to delusive contentment, surrender and submit. If you do, I will force the king to retract his declaration that marks you a traitor." Shora attempted to persuade the powerful demi-star; he was a mortal being with a finite lifespan, yet he had her on the ropes time and time again. She was only saved by the masses of soldiers that could serve as interruptions for vital moments, allowing time for her powerful leaps to grant distance, though the troops were too powerless to do much else. Fortunately, it seemed Osk had used his most devious magic at just the right time. With his ally amongst the gods defeated, this mortal should see reason.
Anak shook his head with a firm glare. "Whatever that king calls me, he won't find matters so easily settled. I already told you, I am not alone." He was assured that Triac wouldn't leave the most important role in this fight to someone who couldn't finish it. The tower would fall; he just needed to keep the king's soldiers and this goddess out. With a wave of his staff, the wind bellowed and whistled sharply, carrying with it an arctic winter chill. The green grass beside the roads withered with frost, and the soldiers that remained rattled their armor as they were overcome by the biting storm.
Shora stolidly stood in the midst of the gale, white dress clinging to her froggy form as it waved like a flag of peace. For once, she was grateful for the interior frostiness accompanied by the Demon King's 'blessing.' Anak's wind felt like warm water in comparison. "You resist reason for the madness of hope." Shora teased as she stood tall against his will.
Anak flew her way on wings of wind, the heavy breeze carrying him in its drafts. His robes fluttered in the air, and his staff was held aloft. He resembled a god himself; one of battle, one of the elements. "Hope is the only reason for living." He shot back. Shora whipped her tongue out at the approaching terror in the storm, the man called Anak, lashing it this way and that as she attempted to swat Anak away from his attacking trajectory.
Anak used the wind currents carrying him to flow up, around, sideways; all the tongue strikes of the goddess of sanity, sophistry, and wealth nearly made their mark, but constantly missed by a hair's breadth.
"Dammit!" Shora cursed and turned her head to her supporting forces. "He's coming straight for me! Make flanking maneuvers!" She gave her order right as Anak bore down on her location. "Hurr-eigh!" She tried to shout out one last time, before Anak snatched her throat in his palm, lifting her massive, froggy self the full length of his arm upwards.
Anak showed no strain as he growled, "Order your retreat." The soldiers surrounded the pair in in a tight formation, spears aimed at Anak. They held their ground in the face of the oppressive presence of Anak, albeit shakily.
Shora struggled to no avail in the clutches of her foe, swatting the air with her webbed appendages. "I won't-ggh!" She choked on her refusal as Anak squeezed her throat with a swift and brutal grasp.
"Consider your answer carefully, toad. I wouldn't mind roasting your legs and eating them." Anak lowered his arm to glare into Shora's dead, stony eyes as he sought to intimidate the goddess. Shora's floppy toad cheeks stretched into a grin, then she began to shrink. Even with her throat in Anak's clutches, she gradually shifted into her girlish form. Now, what Anak appeared to be choking the life out of wasn't a toad monster, but an innocent little girl.
"Do you still want to roast my legs and eat them?" Shora teased raspily through Anak's hold.
Anak scowled at the underhanded trick, and the soldiers around him started displaying faces full of fury. "Release the young goddess you fiend!" One soldier finally shouted, his anger overwhelming his fear.
Anak glared at the young solider who spoke up. "Stay out of this. You're being deceived."
The young soldier, dissatisfied, held his spear butt aloft, preparing to thrust the point towards Anak's neck. Anak pointed at the spear, and it shattered to splinters, the heavy head landing with a sharp crack on the stone street. "I told you to stay out of this." While the frightened soldiers began to back away, loosening their formation, Anak squeezed the goddess' throat until it started to splinter. "It seems I don't need your order after all. I'll just rid this world of you, then."
Suddenly, the resounding drumming of countless footsteps echoed from all sides, accompanied by the roars of mounted beasts. The armies of King Gel-ad broke into the street from every corner, reinforcing the tattered surrounding regiment. At their head, mounted on a furry beast, a tall figure in a blue-plumed helm held his sword aloft, though slightly cocked, and shouted in a melancholy voice, "Let go of the goddess and surrender! Do that, and I can guarantee your life, as a general of the King's army." He gazed down from the furry mass of claws and fangs that was his mount at the central figure of the conflict. "Anak?" The question rose suddenly with familiarity, warmth, and shock. Anak was the one threatening their goddess? How much stronger had he gotten?
Anak looked up at the general in blue plumage with surprise. "Aru? Is that you?" He thought he recognized that voice, and now it seemed certain.
Aru laughed and took off his helm, revealing a smiling face. "It's good to see you. Too bad about you being declared a traitor. Though, I suppose you did kill the king's son."
Anak's pupils dilated in shock, "I killed the king's son?"
Aru froze briefly, then suppressed laughter as he spoke. "You really didn't know? So ol' Sig-" he let out a stuttering chuckle before reigning himself in, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't disrespect the deceased prince. In short, he died during the incident before you left." His explanation left Anak with mixed feelings of embarrassment and delight. Sig was a loathsome individual while alive, even if killing him had been completely accidental.
Shora wiggled fiercely under Anak's grasp, shouting, "Who cares about some stupid prince! Save me, you useless general!" Anak squeezed her throat with all his strength, perhaps a bit carelessly in his attempt to silence her. A sharp crack echoed from her neck, and even her solid, marble-like eyes became riddled with cracks from the internal pressure built up inside her skull. "Saaave meeee!" She shrieked once more in agony, pink, yellow, and turquoise light spilling out from the cracks in her eyes as she raised her head to the heavens.
"Anak, stop!" Aru shouted in panic as he saw the tormented goddess who had helped patron his city for some time now, to the citizens' great advantage. "Whatever this is, she needn't die!"
Before he even finished, shouts rang out from all around them, indistinguishable by either age or gender. High voices, low voices, and all manner of pitches in between collected to form this incoherent battle cry. From the side-streets, slaves of all kinds poured out brandishing sharp farming utensils, picks from mining, and other potentially lethal tools of labor being wielded as weapons.
In their midst, the child Anak had sent running home sprinted shouting. "Save Anak! For our hero!" While the other slaves rushed ahead of him to surround the soldiers that surrounded Anak. The rear of the solders' formation turned to face the new threat, ready to spill blood. The slaves were grossly outnumbered.
"What are you doing? They'll slaughter you! Get out!" Anak screamed at the slaves there, distraught that they would now be targeted by the soldiers he could easily wipe the floor with, were he not otherwise occupied. 'I don't have time to waste.' He thought to himself. Turning his intense eyes back to the goddess, Shora, he snarled. "Let's get this over with." Holding her skywards by the throat once more, he reared back his free hand and slashed down with the side of his palm towards her broken eyes.
"Noooo!" Shora screamed in terror as the strike drew near, and Aru kicked his mount into a gallop trying to stop Anak. The furry beast lunged forward, claws extended as the palm strike hit home. Anak's blow shattered the cracked and shining eyes of the goddess of sanity, sophistry, and wealth. The stony pieces of her eyes scattered like shrapnel, yellow, pink, and turquoise lights shooting out in beams from her eye-sockets for a moment before the goddess went limp. The blast of stone and light blew away Aru's mount, the beast sliding on its claws along the stone street, digging out rows of trenches as the inertia propelled it away from where Anak stood proudly. Anak tossed Shora to the ground, aiming his attention elsewhere. It was unknown whether she still lived.
Anak slammed his staff into the ground once more, this time causing vines to rise up from the earth and envelope the soldiers on the front line against the rows of slaves. "Aru! Retreat! I'm only giving you one chance. Blood on both sides will be spilled that would better be kept."
Aru looked nervously at the collapsed goddess, the slaves eager to fight, and the man at the center of it all, Anak. Once the hero of the city, now a traitor to the king, and as always ahead of the curve in power, Anak was a living legend. He would be hard-pressed to defeat him even with all his soldiers were he alone. However, there was a way to win. If he used the slaves as bait, forcing Anak to tire himself in their defense, he could eventually use his numbers to overwhelm an exhausted Anak, even with his newfound apparent magical prowess. He looked at the determined faces of the slaves, eager to once more greet the only free man who ever stood up for them.
"The goddess?" Aru directed his question at Anak, who had Shora limp at his feet.
"You may take her." Anak capitulated the one point, assured that he had handily vanquished the toad-girl thing.
Aru shook his head defeated, "Retreat." He said in his usual melancholy tone, making the soldiers murmur in confusion.
"General, I don't-" A lieutenant spoke up, trying to advise against it, but got interrupted.
Aru glared at the man, and addressed his forces commandingly."I will not head a massacre. Move out!" The grumbling soldiers lowered their weapons, the slaves doing likewise with a nod from Anak, and began shuffling back towards the barracks, some picking up the immobile Shora.
A raspy, furious female voice suddenly reverberated to where they stood, screeching a curse to the heavens and making all that heard it shudder. "Son of a bitch!"