Niyx Samantha Kroese (i am malala young readers edition .TXT) 📖

Niyx stiffened and bared his fangs in displeasure. “Gone? Gone how? Who let him escape?”

Onyx winced. “I did.”

Niyx snarled and moved as if to charge Onyx, but Kiril’s hand on his arm stopped him, although he gave her an annoyed look.

“The woman asked him to free her father. Your brother was being noble. Do not be blinded by vengeance,” Kiril warned as she frowned at Niyx. “Raijin is not the enemy on whom you need to focus.”

“Then who is?” Niyx began, but then the howls and screams of warning from the Night Creatures filled the halls.

“You are under attack, Dark King,” Demi said as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, his expression amused. “Go and show them your renewed power. Make this world tremble before your might.”

“Kiril, hide Nial,” Niyx roared as he swung his blade loose and stormed out of the room.

Kiril stared after Niyx, flashed Demi a displeased look, then darted across the room, scooped the toddler up, and fled the room by a different door, the wolf pup darting at her heels.

Onyx hesitated as he looked out the door through which Niyx had vanished. “Should I help him?”

“Oh, he won’t need your assistance, young one. Go and guard his woman and offspring instead.” Demi laughed as he pushed off the wall and walked toward another door.

“Where are you going?” Onyx asked, not trusting Demi.

“Why, I’m going to rally my people to help.” Demi winked at him then ducked through the door.

Onyx decided Kiril was probably the least mad path he could take, so he ran after her, drawing his daggers. Though she probably didn’t need him to protect her either. After being a feared and terrifyingly strong assassin all his life, he felt a little lost around all these people with insane amounts of magical power.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Slaughter. That was the only word for the battlefield that lay before Niyx as he stormed out of the caves and into the forest. Knights in brilliant armor gleaming with powerful light magic charged between the thick trees. Niyx watched them in confusion. He’d cowed the Templars! Then he caught sight of a banner stabbed through the corpse of one of the Night Creatures. The sigil of a slain dragon with a sword through it and the colors of blue and white were unfamiliar. Not elves? Who was attacking them now?

As a knight attacked him, Niyx roared and swung his massive sword, cutting the fool in half. The smell of the blood that arced through the air as the body parts separated was nearly covered by the foul smells of viscera. Humans? The humans were here? Before he could comprehend what that meant, a hammer made of light magic slammed into his back and knocked him face first into the dirt.

Niyx growled and rose slowly as several knights charged up to circle him. Before they could slam their light magic into him as one, he roared and summoned hoarfrost. It burst from him like a wave, and the humans surrounding him screaming in agony as they melted under its corrupted glacial power.

“Sire! We are outmatched!” Riven called as the lich tried to make his way through the battle to Niyx. He screamed as the knights surrounded him and their light magic started to disintegrate him.

“Ice! To me!” Niyx roared as he charged toward Riven. He slashed his blade through the air to send waves of hoarfrost at Riven’s attackers. Their shields of magic and their metal armor were no match for the hoarfrost and they too melted before him. Ice screamed above him, then swooped down and blasted the field before Niyx with sheets of icy breath. Niyx ran over the ice, the magic from it only fueling his own as everyone around him slipped and fell. He reached Riven just in time for what was left of the lich’s frail form to collapse into his arms.

“Sire…beware…the Dragonslayer comes,” Riven whispered just before he exploded into dust in Niyx’s arms with a horrified scream. Niyx looked around him to see his Night Creatures suffering terrifying deaths due to the brilliant light magic. “Retreat! Night Creatures to the Den!” he called, as he stormed forward to cut down as many knights as he could to free his people.

Ice screamed a warning and swooped down to scoop a screaming knight up into his gaping maw. With a loud crunch the knight’s blood rained down on Niyx. Niyx licked it off his hand. Then with a roar he grabbed the nearest knight and pulled him close to rip out his throat and drink the powerful blood. As it filled him, he became more resistant to the light magic around him. When the next knight threw a light-hammer at him, he laughed and threw up a hand to counter it with hoarfrost.

Just as the knights formed a battalion to charge as one at Niyx, the air above the forest filled with the screams of angered reptiles and darkened with the shadows of giant wings, as massive dragons dove in between trees to devour the attackers wherever they could.

Demi strolled up to Niyx, weaving through attackers, and smirked at him. “Come, take my power again. They will fall before you!”

Niyx let out an annoyed hiss. He did not want to rely on this strange man as a source of power, but his people were dying all around him. When another familiar face fell just out of his range, he grabbed Demi and buried his fangs into the man’s neck, drinking deeply. With a roar, he dropped Demi as the power of the dragon’s blood raced through his veins and enhanced his own powers. He grabbed his blade and focused all his hoarfrost into it; then slammed it into the ground.

Ice and hoarfrost raced over everything around him in a massive explosion. It left the Night Creatures untouched, but everything else froze solid and all other bodies melted when the ice touched them. “To the Den!” Niyx commanded them as silence fell