War of Kings and Monsters by Christopher Keene

Author:Christopher Keene [Keene, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15: The King’s Folly

Nathan now knew why King Kissick was called the Snake King. His serpent Melkai was large enough to make that clear, taking up nearly a quarter of the hall.

Nathan watched in horror as the thing continued to grow in size, its head rising toward the high ceiling, its forked tongue hissing out of its mouth. Nathan shook his head, trying to control his fear. It made sense to him that Kissick would have the blood of the Kairens in him, but he had never seen or even heard of a Melkai being this big in his entire life.

However, after studying its shape, Nathan nearly rolled his eyes at it. Despite being extremely large and horrible, Serraba wasn’t impressive at all, at least by Nathan’s standards. He had run into bears with ram’s horns, aquatic bulls, and a giant, cloak-like bat with talons the size of swords, yet Kissick’s second-circle Melkai was just a snake. Terrifying as it may be, it was so boring in comparison to a dragon, and strangely, this thought alone conquered his fear of it.

Aisic ground his teeth, raised his wings and flapped them down twice, lifting himself into the air. Thanks to the absurdly high ceiling of the wide throne room, he flew about the massive hall with ease.

The king smiled and raised an arm to one side. The snake, Serraba, drew back and struck toward the dragon, easily able to cover the distance in one strike. Aisic swooped to the side, evading the strike, and released his flame upon the mighty beast. His fire streaked the scales black, however, without warning, he was struck by the snake’s thick tail and flew back.

As his protector fought the giant Melkai, Nathan advanced on Kissick, digging around in his rucksack for his knife, the same one he used to stab the first Melkai. He bit the inside of his cheek, hard and tasted blood, determined not to freeze again. While Kissick and Serraba were focusing on Aisic, Taiba crawled out from under his hood. His lizard friend flashed onto his forearm, and Nathan brought him around to face him.

“You want to fight, too?” Nathan asked.

The lizard, dog-like, let his tongue fall from his mouth with a tiny sound. Nathan set the fast little Melkai on the floor, and Taiba crawled from him and up one of the walls, making his way to the ceiling. Nathan then pulled free his blade from its sheath and ran at the king.

A loud thump his only warning, one of Aisic’s massive claws snatched him up and threw him to the side as Serraba’s giant head launched itself, jaws wide, past where he had just been. Nathan landed on his side but quickly rolled onto his feet. Aisic flew overhead, spreading flame over the massive thing’s scaly skin. It was no more than a light scorching to the viper.

Nathan dodged to the side with another dive roll as the snake’s tail struck at him. The king laughed from above them while he watched the fight.

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