literature

The Fall of Leo

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Leo worked his way slowly down the spiraling stone staircase. There were no lights to guide him down, but he seemed to have no trouble keeping his footing, able to see the stairs just fine without aid. A few things were off this time around, the first being that the people in town were actually helpful. In his experience people were more likely to tell him to go fuck off before they'd give him the time of day, and forget about actually giving him useful information. But everyone in town had almost the same answer... a rehearsed answer. His prey wanted to be found. He had the town under his power, he could easily have attempted to throw Leo off the trail. It wouldn't have worked of course; he could smell the taint before he got to the town. But the fact that whoever it was didn't even try was interesting. Leo didn't particularly care one way or another, at least this way he knew he was walking into a trap before hand.

The staircase straightened out and led down into a hallway. He glanced down the passage, too long to see the other end, and continued walking, slowing his pace a little. If his prey was so eager to meet him, then Leo would make him wait a bit longer. Just for fun.

The passage was easily a half-mile long. Leo was certain he wasn't even under the town by the time he reached a solid steel door, a heavy bar locking it down on this side. Leo sighed, shaking his head and lifting the bar up, pulling the door open and stepping into the next area.

He emerged into a pitch black cave, nothing but stone surrounding him. He couldn't see too far out, but the stench of decay was all he needed to know there were plenty of things in there with him. As he expected, the door slammed shut behind him, the bar falling back into place with a heavy thud. "Oh no. My escape route." He said with a bored tone. A deep laugh resonated through the chamber. Leo rolled his eyes and started walking for his best guess at what was the center of the cavern.

After a moment, the laugh ceased reverberating around the cavern, and the source began to speak, "Look my pets... we seem to have caught ourselves a new playmate." Leo continued forward undaunted. The voice was human in quality, speaking in the native tongue of these lands, which meant he was dealing with a fairly minor power here. Of course he could have been possessed, or had a demon bound to his will. Maybe even both. Time would tell. And as Leo figured, this guy had maybe five minutes.

Leo walked on for a couple more yards before he began to see some humanoid shapes at the edge of his vision. A few more steps revealed what they were. At one time they may have been human, but now they were thin, gaunt creatures. Their pitch black eyes and pale white skin a good indication that humanity had left them long ago. As Leo drew closer he discovered that, from this point on, the cave was a sea of these things. The tops of their heads were all he could see for the next hundred feet or so. He neared the first group of them and they appeared to give him no notice. Leo raised an eyebrow and waved his hand around in front of one of the creature's faces. No reaction. He then held out a single finger and lightly pushed it on the forehead. The creature rocked back gently, but remained upright.

"Some impressive statues you got here." Leo called out into the darkness. He began forward at once, knocking over the small group in front of him, stepping over their still forms and into the mass behind them.

"So eager to die this one..." The voice chuckled slightly. "Very well, have it your way. Attack."

The effect of the man's command was instantaneous. Some hundred pairs of hollow eyes focused on Leo, and, as a group, they lunged forward, a dozen or more of them landing in a pile on top of him. The ghouls thrashed about, eager to get at the flesh that lay below them. The whole pile then lurched forward a bit. Suddenly five or six of the creatures were flung out into the darkness, Leo lunging through the hole that was left behind. The creatures wasted no time in attempting to establish a hold on him once more, but Leo was ready this time. He grabbed the first one to lunge at him, swinging it around in an arc in front of him, throwing the ghouls ahead of him out of his way. He released the ghoul at the end of the arc, hurling it into a large gang that had been coming up on his right. He kept walking briskly forward all the while, never taking his eyes off of his destination, which was basically just a black spot in a black abyss. A few of the ghouls managed to keep up with him and grabbed hold, but Leo just dragged them along for the ride. Meanwhile, he continued to punch his way through the mob, sending three or four of the creatures flying with each swing. The entire exchange was almost silent. The ghouls made no noise other than that of their footfalls on the stone below them. Leo was no different.

"Persistent pest. Playtime is over. Twins, get him."

The ground shook as a massive form landed behind him, a sickening sound as the remains of a few ghouls came flying in his direction. Leo jumped forward, diving and rolling just as another one fell directly where he had been standing. He tumbled back up on to his feet in a standing position, facing backward to get a look at the twins.

Leo wasn't sure these things had ever been human or not. They resembled gorillas in their shape and posture, but most gorillas aren't 15 feet tall. The one that had nearly fell on top of him turned around to face him. Its head almost could have been human, if it weren't bloated and disfigured like the rest of its body. It gathered up speed quickly for something of that size and rushed at Leo, swinging a giant fist overhead to crush him underneath. Leo reached a single hand up and met the monsters hand with his own, stopping it dead in the air. He rushed forward to meet the behemoth, getting a grip on one of its legs and hurling the creature back at its counterpart. The two collided and were sent sprawling backward, crashing into some more of the ghouls along the way.

Leo wasted no time and turned back around, continuing after his goal, throwing some more of the smaller creatures out of his way as he ran. He didn't make it much further before he heard the thundering charge of the two giants behind him. He stopped and turned on the spot, preparing himself for the charge. The one he had thrown was in front, heading straight for him, the other not far behind. Leo sprinted at the first one, jumping into the air when he was just a few yards away. He delivered a solid kick into the chest of the first one, sending it staggering backward before it got knocked over by its ally. Leo had clambered onto the things shoulders after the kick, and quickly hopped onto the shoulders of twin two as it connected with twin one. Leo reached his arms down around the neck of the creature he was standing upon and wrenched his arms up violently, ripping the creatures head clean off. This didn't appear to bother it too much, but it couldn't seem to find Leo without its eyes. He chucked the creatures head off into the darkness, hopefully wherever the jackass that made these things was standing. Then he hopped down in front of the giant that had fallen on its face. Leo dragged it along behind him with one arm, using the other to fend off any more ghouls that came his way as he continued further into the darkness.

He made it quite some way like this in silence, the heavy stomping of the headless creature and the sound of its flailing dying off as he approached what was the center of the room. It was here that he found his target. A slightly raised pedestal of rock was here, a circle inscribed all the way around, a pentagram within that. The man sat at an odd workstation, a plain wooden chair and writing desk with quills, ink, paper scribbled with arcane writing, and all sorts of arcane baubles. He was fairly unremarkable. Short, pitch black hair, plain brown eyes, just under six feet tall. He wore a simple outfit, nothing one would imagine the great big evil overlord to be wearing. Leo pulled the creature up beside him and grasped its other arm so that it couldn't hit him with it anymore. The man watched all the while, silently, no trace of emotion on his face. Leo looked him over for a second before asking, "If you've got a reason why I shouldn't rip off this things arm and beat you to death with it before I rip this things arm off and beat you to death with it, now's the time to speak up."

The man grinned at Leo and stated simply, "Because you can't."

It was Leo's turn to grin. "I sure as hell can, want to see?"

The man continued to grin at him, "Judging by how you took the twins out I'm sure you would normally be perfectly capable of accomplishing such a task. However, my circle of protection prevents any and all beings from traversing through it."

Leo looked down at the circle the man was sitting within and then back up at him, "That's not a circle of protection."

The man snorted, "HA! Then what do you propose it actually is."

Leo shook his head. "Well I have no idea what the hell it is, but that's not a circle of protection. And even if it was, it wouldn't work. You don't last long in my profession without knowing how to get through a few impenetrable barriers."

The man hesitated a moment before narrowing his eyes at Leo. "You're trying to trick me. If you were telling the tru-" Leo tossed the giant back a few feet and stepped over the circle without hesitation. The man stood up rapidly, stumbled backward, and tripped over his chair, falling flat on his back. Leo walked up and looked down at him a moment before reaching down and picking him up by his neck. The man stuttered and stammered all the while, not able to find any words. Leo tightened his hold on the mans neck, choking his stutter off.

"If you've got something to say, say it. I'm on a schedule here and every second I spend here is a second wasted." Leo loosened his grip ever so slightly.

"Sh- sh... she LIED to me!" he screamed. Leo sighed and slammed the mans head down into the rocky surface below. It wasn't a pretty sight, but the man was dead almost instantly. Leo stood up and used a sheet of paper with something important looking written upon it to wipe most of the blood off one of his gloves. He turned to leave and slammed straight into nothing, just at the edge of the circle. A little disoriented, he stumbled back and shook his head, eyeing the circle he was in. There were new designs forming in the stone, a deep crimson color lying within each one. The blood from the man he had slain was rapidly seeping into the floor, as if the rock below was thirsty for it.
He knew a few of those symbols, and this was now most definitely not a circle of protection. It was a teleportation circle, and he was on the receiving end. Anything could be coming through it at any moment. Leo wasn't going to stick around inside the circle because it really could be anything, an ocean, an active volcano, a piece of a star maybe. He gathered energy within him to jump across the planes so that he may end up on the other side of the invisible wall, but he found the energy quickly drained from him, apparently feeding the circle he was standing in.

Leo stood there a moment, racking his brain for ideas when a figure cloaked in shadow approached the outer edge of the circle. It was feminine in form, as was its voice, which echoed around inside Leo's head. "So falls the great hero. The world is rid of one more Champion." There was a hint of glee in its voice. Leo glared at it and opened his mouth to speak, but his words were lost as the circle erupted with otherworldly fire. The inferno shot up to the ceiling in a single bright column, illuminating the entire cavern. This went on for ten seconds before the flames vanished all together. Left behind in the circle was nothing. No chair, no desk, no bodies. If there were ashes, they were too small to see.

What might have been a smile flickered across the shadowy figures face as it evaporated into the darkness.
I wrote this a few months ago and finally got around to doing a quick, once-over edit. Fixed a few things, made a few lines better. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, hope the few people who watch me enjoy it!

As for the story...

Don't worry, I don't think this is the last we've seen of Leo, whether you wanted it to be or not =P.

For those of you not familiar with Leo, the yuan-ti tainted one werewolf angel fighter thing from a D&D 3.5 campaign, you can find his first story here: [link]
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