Temple Hill - Drew Karpyshyn [116]
This time Corin was unafraid.
The eternal moment was over, and Graal's blade came down upon Corin's arm. The forged metal of the enchanted blade struck the metal alloy of the prosthetic- and Graal's blade erupted! Corin was blinded by an explosion of darkness, disintegrating into a shadowy cloud of dust that covered both men like a venomous mist. Each jet black piece of Graal's evil sword now oozed swirling magical vapors. The smoky tendrils swam toward each other in a gathering tornado of power that had been unleashed from the broken blade. The tornado whirled in a frenzy until Corin could no longer follow the motion with his eyes. Then nothing.
The following explosion hurled Corin back, slamming his body hard against the floor. The spot where Graal had delivered what should have been a death blow was now a smoking crater. Huge chunks of irregular stone littered the corridor, torn loose from the walls and floor by the concussive force.
Corin struggled slowly to his feet, only partially aware that his prosthetic was undamaged by the blow. The dark cloud of dust from Graal's blade made it difficult for Corin to see and almost impossible to breathe. His ears still rang with the echo of the catastrophic explosion reverberating throughout the labyrinth.
Graal lay on the floor near the epicenter of the blast, his body jammed up against the stones of the crusher trap. A crack in the rock and a bloody smear marked the spot where the orog's massive form had been slammed against the granite blocks. Graal lay motionless, the hilt of his now vaporized blade still clutched in one mighty paw, blood trickling from his Up like drool.
A sprinkle of dust and pebbles from the ceiling above wafted down on the orog's unconscious form, drawing Corin's attention upward. The explosion had ripped the tunnel roof apart above the sight of the blast. Huge cracks snaked their way along the ceiling, spreading outward like a spider web woven into the rock.
Too injured and weak to stand, Corin began to crawl back down the tunnel, away from the unstable ceiling. Small bits of debris rained down on the back of his head, and when he glanced up he noticed the entire structure quivering as if it would collapse at any moment. As he inched ever closer toward safety, Corin couldn't help casting continual glances back over his shoulder at Graal.
The orog still lay on the ground, though his body was twitching slightly now.
From head to toe, Corin was coated in the noxious cloud of black dust expelled when Graal's blade had exploded. He breathed it in through his lungs, it seeped in through his pores. He felt it congealing in his blood, and leeching into his bones. Poison, disease, death-the taint of pure evil-swallowing him whole.
He tried to will himself forward, but his body refused to answer. With his last ounce of strength, he rolled onto his side to look back down the tunnel at Graal once more.
The orog struggled to his knees. The beast shook his mighty head and dropped the now useless hilt of his once-fearsome blade to the floor. Graal's head moved slowly from side to side as he scanned the rubble until his gaze came to rest on Corin's prone form lying nearly fifty feet away.
The orog let out a roar that Corin's still deafened ears couldn't hear and took a single step toward his helpless foe.
Corin watched an avalanche of rock and earth bury Graal as the tunnel caved in above his head. Corin's ears popped as the air around the two was driven down the narrow corridor, instantly displaced by tons of stone. A cloud of dust and dirt billowed up from the spot of the cave-in. It crawled across the floor, enveloping Corin.
Corin knew no more.
Lhasha and Fendel found him later, spread unconscious not twenty feet from where the ceiling had inexplicably collapsed, covered in a sticky mess of dirt, dust, and blood.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Fendel resisted the urge to glance back as the door to the bedroom built onto the back of his workshop closed behind him. He knew the scene well enough already.
Corin rested fitfully