Death By Scythe by Dee Carter (top 10 novels of all time .TXT) 📖

a day but there are also some things in there you will need. Now run."

As he struggled to secure the pouch Aaron replied defiantly. "I'm not just leaving you here."

"Two things boy, A; When you get out of the castle head east or towards the rising sun whichever you can find the fastest, B; when you reach the village at the foot of the hill covered in forest, ask the residents what the price of inter-dimensional travel is, then you can decide whether or not you should have left me here."

As Aaron finished buckling the pouch around his waist he looked up in time to be slapped, hard by the flat of the demon's right arm's scorpion blade, suddenly his face felt far to heavy to be his, hesitantly he reached one hand up and found a hard, stone cold surface, as he began to move his hand away it froze in place directly infront of his eyes and revealed exactly what was happening to him.

Crawling up his palm just reaching the fingers was a shining black wave of polished iron, it wasn't paint or anything of the sort it was his body, his own skin, he was turning into an iron statue.

He tried to close his eyes in frustration but they to had frozen into place, he was entombed in his own skin able to see, hear and smell but unable to move in any sense of the word.
Aaron heard a grunt from Azenlond as she slung him over her shoulder. With one arm holding him in place she hurried off down the corridor weaving between fallen chunks of wall, collapsed floor and smashed furniture.

Aaron's brain registered the fact that he was immobile but he was unable to fully comprehend just what had happened to him, it was as if a thick fog was clouding his thoughts.

As Azenlond jumped over a hole in the ruined floor of the castle however his mind became razor sharp and he found out exactly how big the ?whatever' was, two stories down from the hole looking straight at them as they'd flown across the gap had been a colossal beast easily occupying the space between floor and ceiling of the level it had been on, its scaly grey-on-black body had the hind quarters of a lion and the forequarters of a dog, slightly altered to include a second canine head, its dark faces were distorted by a predatory cunning that chilled him to the bone, worst of all where its eyes, reflected in the inky black depths was pure unmistakable evil.

Azenlond stumbled under the weight of Aaron's solid iron body as they landed on the other side of the gap but managed to check her balance in time to continue their desperate escape down the dank grey corridors.

From somewhere behind them an ominous thud announced the arrival of the Hell beast on their floor closely followed by a roar somewhere between a dog's bark and a lion's roar that sent shivers down Aaron's spine.

Unable to look behind himself Aaron had to rely on sound alone and as his view of the floor shot by beneath him he heard the sound of claws on stone and the continuos thud of paws as the Hell beast gave chase.

His view spun dizzyingly as he was thrown by Azenlond into a pile of grey bricks and decayed tapestries where he landed with a puff of dust and rolled down the mound of rubble until he faced the creature who had kidnapped him.

"I wish thee luck Arlin of the dragon kin, guard my daughter well." Azenlond spoke hurriedly as the Hell beast closed in behind her.

Aaron tried to warn her as she turned but to no avail his frozen lips uttered not a peep and as Azenlond turned she was rent in quarters by claws the length of Aaron's body, falling without a sound to the ground to lie still.

The Hell beast reared back on to its hind quarters in triumph and fell back to the ground shaking the foundations of the castle.

Aaron tried to close his eyes or look away but his eyes frozen in place could only stare at the remains of his kidnapper and the beast which had killed her.

The Hell beast walked forward a few steps and stopped infront of Azenlond's quartered body which lay in a heap oozing blue blood, its paw descended towards the gruesome remains, then with one claw it drew a perfect circle around the blue-grey body.

""Arhageb dell caya semderal."" Aaron's dazed mind gave a start, the Hell beast was actually talking, he couldn't see its lips moving but a whispered chant that seemed to drain the already sparse light from the corridors, was coming from it.

""ARHAGEB DELL CAYA SEMDERAL."" The Hell beast's voice grew lower, but the power of the words increased.

Aaron had no idea what was going on but he doubted the words were just a meaningless chant and it was pretty hard to mistake the Heal beast's attention to be anywhere else but on the quartered body.

Suddenly the Hell beast reared back and swiped fiercely at the air with its pitch black claws but as the claws swept through the air they slowed as though they'd snagged on some unseen obstacle.

""ARHAGEB DELL CAYA SEMDERAL."" Aaron barely heard the chant and only saw the beast's lips move slightly but the words seemed to pound at him like physical blows.

Infront of his iron eyes, Azenlond's body slid across the floor leaving a smear of blue blood across it until the body rose into the air and floated towards the Hell Beast's slow moving claws.

The Hell beast's dark black claws twitched slightly as they came in contact with the blue-grey body then slowed even more until they were at snail pace.

Astonished Aaron watched as the Hell beast's claws slowly began to mend the broken body, flesh slowly folded back together, splintered bone mended back into place, muscles and sinew grew slowly back together, then one last time the Hell Beast chanted. ""ARHAGEB DELL CAYA SEMDERAL."" And an awful stench he was sure sulphur must stink like rolled over him.

An ear splitting, unearthly scream of pain, torment and pure agony ripped through the air then suddenly the Hell beast's claws returned to there unearthly speed finishing their descent and returning to the ground with a dull thud.

Another high pitched scream echoed through the dilapidated corridors before the blue-grey body of Azenlond fell back to the ground in a heap, no longer in quarters, no longer lifeless.
Aaron stared in disbelief as Azenlond picked herself up and faced the Hell beast and was promptly swatted to the ground with one paw as though she were nothing more than a fly, she was however was no weakling and raised herself back to her feet almost instantly.

"YOU KILLED MY SIAD" Azenlond's voice rang through the grey corridor tauntingly restored to its former fury.

The hell beast laughed mockingly in its strange voice without moving its lips then took another swipe at Azenlond. She caught the paw, that was easily four times her size, two handed and slid back mere inches from the blow then began carving into the Hell beast's paw with her scorpion tale arms like a crazed butcher covering the paw in inky black splotches and streaks.

Aaron suddenly realised that the Hell beast's paw wasn't turning any blacker, it seemed the Hell beast had an immunity to whatever it was that had happened to himself and it wouldn't be turning into a statue any time soon.

As he watched he noticed something else strange, the Hell beast sat idle observing Azenlond carve into its hand as though it were curious, but as he watched he changed his first opinion it wasn't curiosity but play.

Aaron tried to move his frozen lips to warn Azenlond as he saw one giant paw rise into the air, with all his might he tried, but to no end, his lips stayed frozen in place as the Hell beast's paw reached the pinnacle of its arc, then in a blur the paw came down to meet the other and burst Azenlond's body like a water balloon sending waves of blue ooze across the walls and over Aaron's cold black body.

Something inside Aaron stirred then burst into life, the hand frozen infront of his face gradually became pink again then slowly spread up his arm, the Hell beast's eyes locked onto him then it took a step forwards.

"NO ARLIN." A sad voice brought him back to his senses and the iron coat changed direction once more slowly crawling back up his arm, the Hell beast's eyes stayed on him for a moment longer then returned to the body at its feet.

As Aaron watched, frozen in place he was suddenly overcome with drowsiness and he was sure that if he hadn't been an iron statue his arms would have fallen limp to his sides just like they had when he'd been hit by Azenlonde the first time, infact the feeling was identical to when he'd been hit by Azenlonde the first time, realising that he was losing consciousness he struggled back to the surface just long enough to here; ""ARHAGEB."" Then he was gone.


"Wake up." The same sad voice Aaron heard earlier tore him from his nightmares and hurled him into a dark corridor filled with the awful stench of sulphur and the sound of claws on stone drawing closer to him. No he wasn't here, he couldn't be, it had all been a nightmare, this wasn't real.

Out of the darkness appeared two monstrous faces drooling blue blood, intelligent eyes distorted by animal hunger focused on Aaron who didn't need to try, just to be as still as a statue or to stop from screaming.

A wet nose poked into his chest and sniffed at his iron body, then without warning the Hell beast leaned forward and picked him up in one of its mouth trying to chew on him.

Inside its mouth Aaron could barely see, but it wasn't hard to tell that the sticky fluid that splashed onto him several times wasn't only the creature's saliva, it was the blood of its previous victim.

Aaron felt something break accompanied by a loud yelp from the Hell beast then he dropped to the floor with a loud metallic clang.

""ASHOT."" The Hell beast swore in its loud unearthly voice then picked Aaron up in its mouth and carried him to the end of the passage, drew back one immense paw and knocked a hole in the solid stone wall.

Aaron suddenly got an extremely accurate estimate of just how big the castle really was, in his view were eight large turrets sprouting from a wall easily fifty stories high, each turret unique in its own shape and proportions and even further below them he could make out a large stone wall surrounding the castle.

Behind him he heard a clang and he found himself hanging in mid air, then his body tipped and he caught a brief glimpse of the ground far below him before his body spun wildly into a pin drop and his range of sight was locked onto the blur of grey bricks as they sped away.

In a way it was worse than just falling, his eyes frozen in place, were unable to look beneath him at the approaching ground and when he finally did hit, he'd given up bracing for the impact and