Moon by Matthew R. Davis (fantasy novels to read .TXT) 📕

was quickly replaced with a smile.
Then pen swung at her shoulder. But she managed to avoid it by deflecting it with her forearm. The stick made a smacking sound as it collided with her skin. The sound made Pen wince. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she didn’t seem to even notice the stinging sensation. “Come on Pen. You can do better than this.” Pen swung from left to right, something he hadn’t done yet. It was obvious that she didn’t expect it. It landed on her ribs. She lunged forward and punched at Pen. Her fist missed his face by a fraction of an inch. Her next punch was more precise. It landed directly on the left side of his face. Pen spun and swung his stick at her back. It landed and knocked her to the ground.
Elva jumped to her feet. “That actually hurt quite a bit.” She spun around and kicked Pen’s feet out from under him. This time though, he caught himself. He smiled and rushed her, swinging his stick at her neck. It landed with another smack and she fell limp.

When Elva opened her eyes, it was morning. Her body was sore from battling Pen without a weapon. He didn’t have any style yet but it put her at a great disadvantage to be un-armed. Next time, she would have a weapon as well. She sat up and healed her body.

******

Chapter 8:
Soul Eater

Pen gripped the long spike sticking out from Apophis’s spine in front of him. He pressed his legs together, to hold himself into the saddle they constructed earlier that morning with the skins they had purchased from Harton. The wind burned his eyes as the two of them accelerated. Apophis flapped his wings and increased his speed. Pen laughed and yelled out in excitement. He was flying on the back of a dragon. Apophis allowed himself to get into a comfortable flight pattern. The land below was a blur, and the air around them cold. Then, Pen felt something brush his mind and immediately he knew what it was. “Elva!”
“Pen, where are you?” He detected a sense of worry in her voice. He felt bad about not telling her before they left. “I’m flying with Apophis Elva! Oh i wish you could be here. Its amazing.” He allowed visions to cross over their connection. “Pen, there is something wrong.”
“What?” He asked.
“I’m not sure, but i sense something approaching our camp.” Pen relayed the message to Apophis, and they flew back to where Elva was waiting. From the air, Pen and Apophis could see that what she said was right. Along the edge of the horizon, a dark figure was speeding towards them. “I know what that is, and there is no way we can out run it. Not even on my back can the three of us escape it.” Apophis said to the both of them once they where on the ground. “It’s a soul eater. They are normal two-legs like you, but they allow themselves to become a host to the darkest magic there is. They supply the magic with souls to fuel it. And in return, the soul gives them extreme strength.” Elva gasped “The resistance talks about them a lot. They are the kings right hand men. They are always sent out on retrieval mission, or on assassin jobs. Pen, this is bad. Really bad. I don’t even think the combined efforts of all three of us can kill it.”
“Then what do we do? Can’t we fly on you?” Pen asked Apophis
“I cannot fly forever child. And it will surely catch up to us eventually.” Pen felt fear well up inside him. “Then we fight?”
“We fight.” Elva replied. “Before it gets here. You need to practice blocking your mind. If it gets into your mind, it will tear your mind free of your body and feed it to the magic. There has only ever been one person to ever kill a soul eater by fighting off the magic.”
“Who?” Pen asked
“The dark king himself. Now to block your mind you need to be able to sense the approach of a conscious. Once you feel it. Press against it as hard as you can. You mind will be in your body, so your mind will always be stronger than anyones that will try to enter yours. No matter how powerful the person. Now I’m going to try to enter your. Block me out.”
Pen shrunk his mind’s reach so that he couldn’t feel anything outside of his own head. Then he felt the familiar warmth of Elva’s mind. He hated to but he shoved against it. It wasn’t anything like he expected. It was like a hot and cold substance meeting one another. His mind was hot and hers was cool. He quickly over powered her and shoved her back to her body. “Good. Now try it against someone even stronger. Apophis, if you would please.” She said
Pen readied himself and once he felt Apophis, shoved against him. He quickly discovered that Apophis’s mind was much hotter than Elva’s, thus making it harder for him over power Apophis. The two struggled for several minutes, neither one giving way. Them Apophis’s mind cooled a significant amount and he retreated to his own body.
“I was unable to break through.”
Elva smiled. “Good again. How much time do we have Apophis.” He lifted his massive head up above them and examined the horizon. The soul eater was less than three miles away now. “We have no more than a few minutes.”

Apophis was right. It was a mere seven minutes when the soul eater was standing before them. Its skin was dark gray and his eyes where completely black. For a few minutes it just stood there. Looking them over. Then, in a snake like voice said “Which on of you isss Pen?” I cocked its head and walked towards Elva. She tightened her grip on the falchion. Pen did the same and was ready to swing Lethian with all the force in his being. Apophis, his eyes narrowing, let a small spur of flame shoot from his nostrils.
“Fine. You do not want to tell meee? Then i ssupposse I’ll bring you all back to Methiasss.” Pen yelled out and swung Lethian at the demented man. The blade sunk itself deep into his shoulder. The soul eater turned and pick Pen up by the throat. His wind pipe collapsed making it impossible for air to flow through it. “You insssect.” it hissed. It pulled Lethian free of its shoulder and flipped it around, grasping its hilt. “You dare to injure ME?” Pen watched as the open wound sealed itself up, leaving no trace of the deep cut that had been there. The soul eater drove Lethian through Pen’s stomach. Elva screamed and threw herself at the soul eater. She tackled it and yelled “heilia!” The blood rushing from Pen’s stomach stopped. He got to his feet and rushed to where Elva had landed. Apophis kept the soul eater busy while Pen attended to her.
Horror flooded him as he came upon her. Lethian had sliced its way into her lungs when she fell. Tears collected at the corner of his eyes.
“D-don’t leave me, Pen. Y-y-you need to he-heal me.” Pen grabbed her hand. Her fingers were cold. She was loosing a lot of blood. Apophis roared as the soul eater shoved Lethian into his side. Using his tail, he hit the man, sending him flying several yards. Apophis let out a giant ball of fire escape his mouth. It engulfed the soul eater, burning most of the skin off of his body. The dark magic wielded the man to live on and attack the dragon.
Pen was struggling to keep the magic healing Elva flowing. He dared not to open his mind to sap from another being. If he did, the soul eater would surely defeat him. But his own strength was failing him. He could feel his heart slowing. Elva reached up and touched his face. “ I need to help you.” she whispered. She expanded her mind and found a tree less than twenty feet away. She focused its energy into Pen, refueling him and allowing the spell to finish. The soul eater sensed that Elva had left her mind vulnerable and attacked her.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as her soul was ripped from her body. Pen grabbed her with his mind. Then looked at the soul eaters conscious. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was dark and distorted. It swirled around Elva. It was devouring her. Pen pushed against the soul eater. But it payed no mind. It was going to finish with her first. Helplessness filled Pen. He had to save her. She couldn’t die here today. He wouldn’t allow it.
Pen expanded his mind and tried to cover the dark mass surrounding Elva. He was unsuccessful. He shaped his conscious in the shape of a spear and hurled himself at the soul eater. Again he was unable to break through. The soul eater was in its body. There was nothing he could do to get in.
Apophis smashed the soul eaters skull beneath his large foot. Even so the man got to his feet and shoved Lethian into him again. There wasn’t anything left of the man. Apophis had taken his right arm, smashed his skull, and stripped him of his skin. And still the man lived. A gargling noise filled the man’s throat as blood filled in and air escaped in bubbles. The soul eater swung Lethian at Apophis again, slashing a six inch cut across the dragon’s chest. The Apophis tore the man’s body from his legs. The legs fell limp. But his torso crawled toward Apophis, still trying to kill him. Blood pooled around him as he inched his was toward the dragon, Lethian in hand. “Enough!” Apophis jabbed his talons into the soul eater and tore his body in half vertically. The bones that made up his spine cracked and broke and his sternum split in two.
The body lied motionless on the ground. Pen watched as the dark magic dissipated into nothingness, releasing Elva to her body. Then Pen returned to his own. Pen opened his eyes. The scent of blood was heavy in the air. The scene he was beholding made his stomach churn. “The bastard would not die. Not even after i crushed its tiny skull with my foot.” Pen was breathing heavy, from the exertion of effort. He had never seen anything a vile as the soul eater. He looked over to where Elva was laying. “She is unconscious. The soul eater absorbed mush of her being. She will need to repair the damages herself.” Apophis said. “I will carry her on my back, but this is going to slow us down. You will have to walk until she is able to hold herself in the saddle.”
Pen wasn’t sure how she would be able to fix her mind, but there were more important issues to solve at the moment. The only thing that mattered was that she was safe. “We need to move. When people find this. They are going to be terrified and come searching for whatever did this. And i think it best if we keep a low profile for right now.” Pen walked over to the mangled body of the soul eater and retrieved Lethian from its hand.
Apophis hummed and laid down, allowing Pen to put Elva on his back. Then using rope he found in her pack, strapped her fast to it. Once he was satisfied that she wouldn’t fall out he motioned to Apophis,