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    © 2001 Andrew Dormeier Falinor had made it over half of the way down through the planet's atmosphere but was having trouble with the turbulence from the dark cloud, which covered over half of the continent below. The cloud seemed to be attacking the ship with waves of lightning and strong winds. Bringing the auxiliary engines and repulsors online, he redoubled his determination and took the Gallant Force down another through another cloud layer. Artemus, now colored with blood from the enemy and himself, made a sweeping attack upward, killing yet another demon. He followed through with a horizontal slice behind him that took off another demon's head. Immediately, four more targets presented themselves. Artemus was an excellent warrior, but he could not keep this up for much longer. The electricity tearing the sky above him apart in the form of lightning gave him an idea. Jumping up a meter he managed to hover in the air for a moment. He threw his sword straight down into the soft, blood-soaked soil. His short hair stood on end and in one fluid motion he swung his arms upwards. In a bright flash lightning shot down from the cloud cover and up from Obsidian, converging on Artemus. The lightning arced out from his torso to strike down forty to fifty demons around him. As he lowered himself to the ground slowly, residual electricity danced over him, eventually finding a home in Aruman's soil when he drew Obsidian from the ground. Suddenly the horde parted in front of him to reveal a massive demon. This one was at least thirty feet tall and ten feet wide. It was humanoid in appearance but appeared to have rough, armored skin, which looked impervious to most normal physical attacks. Each of its hands was half the size of Artemus, and it had an angry glare in its eyes. It then let forth a deep growl that shook the ground beneath Artemus' feet. "Okay," Artemus said to himself. "I can do this". He took a running leap and simultaneously did a front flip, rotating in mid-air while cutting a deep wound in the creatures left shoulder with his sword. Landing on the other side of the monster, Artemus noticed that the other demons had surrounded him and the giant and had formed a crude ring to watch the battle. They seemed almost amused, but they had not seen the deep gash in their leader's shoulder. The colossus turned around with an obvious look of anger and hatred while clutching his wound. It seemed as if he had not expected to be hurt by that attack. "That's what happens when my sword meets you demon scum," taunted Artemus. This threw the demon into a rage as expected. It lunged forward towards Artemus. He easily ducked and avoided the attack. Running between its legs, he put a gash in the monster's right thigh. While it was still stunned from his last blow, Artemus launched himself into a back flip and landed on the demon's back. He didn't hesitate to plunge Obsidian into the creature's back, straight through where its heart would be if it were human. Letting out a howl of pain, the monster dropped to its knees and then collapsed. Artemus drew his sword out of the back of the dead demon and looked up. |
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