Writetober Day 23 (Ancient)

Writetober Day 23

Ancient

                Kyle wasn’t dead, to his left Michelle knelt, gripping her ring hand.  Tom was to his right, swearing as his clenched fist glowed beneath the battering of fire.

“Focus on the rings, let their magic surround you…focus…Kyle.”  His grandfathers voice wrapped around them, warmed them.

The world slowed around Kyle, he watched as Michelle gritted through the pain and emitted a shimmering shield around the three of them.  The pulverizing fireballs blasted into the shield and splintered into embers as her ring held steady.  Tom’s knuckles were white with tension as he fought the need to open his hands.  Kyle’s eyes followed the trail of energy that speared from Tom’s ring.  Beneath the three of them, the earth was shattered and destroyed, yet it held, preventing them from falling into the void beneath them.  Tom was holding the rubble together beneath them, his concentrating kept a thin layer of ground between life and death.  A fear inducing crack snapped Kyle’s attention to the thin bubble that surrounded him.  Heat began to jet through the fissure of Michelle’s shield, they were out of time.  Michelle and Tom were too focused to speak or think, they were doing what had to be done.; Kyle needed to act fast.  He closed his eyes, letting the world fall away, allowing the ring to be the forefront.

The shield broke.

The sound of the shattering barrier reinvigorated the beast of corruption flying high above the ground.  From deep within itself, it pulled more hatred to unleash hellish fury on the unlucky three below.

“Still alive…you can not hide…”  The dragon ceased its onslaught and scanned the area with its icy blue eye.

Kyle, Michelle and Tom weren’t there, they didn’t know where they were, but at least they weren’t with the dragon.

“Was that you?”  Michelle spoke first, exhaustion in her words.

“I think, I think I teleported us…”  Kyle’s head was split with pain.  “But I don’t know where.”  It was dark where they were, barely lit by rays of light sneaking through cracks in the cavernous ceilings high above.

“Is that Welton?”  Tom had his bearings faster than the other two.

He was pointing at a large stone statue, the man it depicted was young, easily decades younger than them man they knew as Welton.  The stone was old, it crumbled at points and had a thin layer of ash on it.  Through his headache, Kyle stared past the stature.  In the darkness he could see a flame, it danced and seemed to grow as he kept staring at it.

“What is that?”  The answer came sooner than Kyle expected.

The fire grew, doubling and tripling in size in moments.  A fireball took form as it rocketed toward the bewildered group.  The dragon found them.  The ball slammed into the ancient statue, chunks of stone and ash rained across the area.

“Fools!”  The dragon appeared, looming above Kyle, Michelle and Tom.  “You discovered the power of the rings, only too late.”  The corruption grinned through its scaly face.  “I am the beginning and end to all things!”  The dragon inhaled.  “I was here before worlds existed, I will be at their end!”

Black fire erupted from the corruptions mouth and swallowed Kyle.  A flash of silver light filled the ancient cave as death tore at Kyle.  His skin melted too fast for him to feel pain.  As his eyes began to boil, he watched Michelle and Tom be reduced to ash as the black enveloped them in searing pain.  The corruption stood, admiring its work.  Three charred ash piles bowed to the corruptions power, it had won.