IMshadow7

Dragon drops are rare, period; if they were common, they'd be worth very little at all. And cockatrices don't seem like much of dragon droppers.

I think with the Ogres you're thinking of Cyclopses in the Warrior Guild; but I think they actually drop lvl 2's.

Just remember, the ring only increases your chances by 10%. That's hard to notice on drops that are rare in an of themselves. To be honest, when it comes down to it, the ring would only be noticeable over a long term. That is, if you killed a million monsters wearing the ring, there would be a noticeable difference in the amount of drops. In the short term, there IS still that increase in drops, you're just unlikely to be able to notice that difference. Anyway, I say that because people sometimes say "I killed 100 monsters and got no good drops with the ring, but then I killed 10 without the ring and got a good drop, so I'm not going to wear the ring." The problem is, that's just short term luck.

A lot of people use the water-filling spell to train. They just keep emptying a vial or something then re-filling again with the spell.

Yes, I was the one who said this, but it's not exactly private information or anything. It's just that it's not listed in the KB, so people only see it when a J-mod talks about it on the forums.

Correct, rewards have nothing to do with the monster it's from, but the monster does affect it in 3 ways: 1. Each monster has it's own clue drop rate, though most tend to be around 1 in 100. 2. If you can kill a certain monster faster, you'll get more drops from them, and thus more clues. 3. Certain monsters drop certain level clues, and different level clues of course do have different rewards.

It's a fairly small dungeon space-wise. There is a main chamber with basically all types of monsters from the dungeon in it. The dungeon has four gods in it: Saradomin, Zamorak, Bandos, Aramdyl. Each god's followers inhabit the dungeon. There is one chamber for each god (and a central chamber with all gods combined). If you wear a piece of clothing of any god, that god's followers won't be aggressive against you. If you kill 40 monsters of certain god during a trip, you will be allowed to enter the boss chamber for that god. The boss is around lvl 600-650 and has 3 guardians in that chamber that are 150-200. You don't have to fight these guys if you don't want to, though; you can just stick to the normal monsters in the dungeon. The dungeon does have a lot of new monsters, though. For more information, read about the dungeon in the Runescape Knowledge Base.

Right, you won't lose your stuff, but if ANYONE on your team dies, you'll have to restart your wave.

That's not actually true; it's just lvl/2 %, there's no rounding involved. I'm 99; I can verify that it's not actually quite 50% off.

Jellies are a very good thing to kill for clues if you can. They're very easy to kill, drop lvl 3 clues, and also drop some other good things, like rune large helms. If you can't kill them, hellhounds are common because they can be ranged, but they don't have any other drops, hit hard, and respawn slow. Dragons are sometimes a good option because on every kill they definitely will drop a hide and bones, which are worth a good bit. They have pretty high defense, though, so you may not get clue drops as often (because it takes longer to get a kill).

Given that most players can one-hit a goblin without a weapon, I think the winner is obvious and boring.

From my experience, 1k logs per hour might be a LITTLE high (considering that means about one full inventory every one and a half minutes), but that's probably on the right order of magnitude. It also depends a lot on how many people are there. The trees are easy to cut, and as a result, if a lot of people are there, they'll get cut down fast, slowing you down a lot.

I can't see whether that's a good place to train or not. However, if you plan to use it, definitely go get an Armadyl pendant from the guardians in the Temple of Ikov; it will stop the monsters from ganging up on you. You can find a list of monsters in dungeon in the manual.

It all depends on what you want to do. Each barrow set is tailored to some unique purpose. Torag: useless as a set, but has really strong armor stats and is fairly cheap for those stats. You can use torag legs and plate for good defense and then mix it with other weapons/armor. Dharok: used to be good for training since it can hit so high, but only under very limited circumstances (so limited that you would have to be training, basically). I've found that a whip with a black mask (if you're doing slayer) is stronger though, so fairly useless. Guthan: can be used to heal you. I don't like this set either; I've found that in MOST situations, you would be better off spending a couple minutes to bank for more food than to waste time healing while using a weapon that's weaker than a whip. Despite that, there are some times where the healing is essential, such as Fight Caves or Morning's End 2. Verac: this set is very good for killing high-level monsters and players (as long as you don't need a shield). It gives prayer bonuses, which is important in these situations. It pierces through defense, which is very important as it's hard to hit strong levels. Also, it can pierce through prayer, which is good against players and the KQ.

I'm a big fan of using slayer to train combat. The slayer monsters drop better drops for their combat level than other monsters; for example, Abyssal demons have a max hit of 8 but the same drop table as Black demons, with a few things added (such as a whip).

Go to the Barbarian Assault place (you can get there with a saphire necklace). There is a deposit box there, so you can deposit any logs you cut. There's a ton of willows outside, and few people there.

While they say that 10 marks is enough to get banned, it's not true. In reality, the black marks are technically meaningless; they review everyone on a case-by-case basis. You can get banned with no black marks if you do something really bad, or in your case, you might not get banned if you get a lot of marks but they're minor and a lot are from a long time ago. Basically, the black marks are an INDICATOR of how many warnings you've had, but aren't an absolute rule.

Chapter 52: Ansa vs. Thyker, the Showdown for Humanity Begins "So you're still alive," said Ansa. "Impressive. Have you come to grovel for your life? Because it's too late." "Oh please," said Thyker. "Don't use your elitist talk with me. I'm not afraid of you." "Oh really?" asked Ansa. "You must have been beaten so hard last time we met that you got amnesia." "You're a little overconfident, don't you think?" Thyker started inching himself forward while Ansa was busy chatting with him. "You must be tired after charging essence for weeks." "You tried to play that 'tired' card with me last time. Look where you ended up. I may be weaker, but you're so insignificant that it doesn't matter how tired I am. You still can't even harm me." "I see," replied Thyker. "Well, why don't we test that." Thyker pulled out Excalibur. Hopefully this would all going according to plan. Thyker held Excalibur in his left and and rushed in at Ansa. As he rushed in, she pulled out a few runes. Her hand started to glow yellow. As he swung the sword down at her, she grabbed it with the glowing hand. "You would have thought you'd learned your lesson last time. Have some more gold." Ansa cast the alchemy spell on the sword, but to her surprise, nothing happened. Just as this was happening, Thyker's hand glew green. He thrust it forward and hit her near the right should, shouting, "The first mark of sealing, Jakour!" The blue circular symbol appeared out of Thyker's hand then spread to a large size, hovering slightly above Ansa's robes. The seal then attached itself to Ansa, staining her skin like a tatoo that even showed through Ahrim's robes. Before she could react, Thyker jumped back and retreated to a safer distance. The ploy had worked. Ansa was unaware of the sword Excalibur, one of the items of the world that could not be affected by alchemy. She was so distracted by the sword, which she was certain that should could stop, that she hadn't been able to react to the sealing mark. Ansa looked at the seal and then showed an expression of fear and dismay. It was strange to see her looking like that; he had never seen anything close from her. But she had good reason to be afraid. That first seal meant that Thyker knew how to use the seals, and the first one had been placed in one of the critical locations of the body. A direct hit. "No!" she shouted. "No! I will not be imprisoned like that again! Never!" Ansa huffed a few times and then regained her composure as the fear seemed to disappear. However, her eyes now showed deep anger. "It seems I've been taking you too lightly, after all. If you know how to utilize a seal, then I have to finish you now. I guarantee this seal will be the only seal you place on me!" Thyker readied himself as Ansa pulled out a few more runes. The familiar ice crystals materialized above her. Just as he had expected. Upon seeing them, Thyker began rushing in directly at her. As he rushed in, Ansa launched all of the ice crystals at him. They were on a direct collision course, just as all the other times. However, right before they collided, and without even slowing himself down, Thyker grabbed the fire cape he was wearing and covered the front of his body with it. The intense heat melted the ice crystals immediately upon contact. Well, at least the fire cape ended up having more use than getting the dragon to help him. Ansa was caught off guard by the defeat of the technique she had used successfully so many times. As Thyker got close to Ansa, his right hand started to glow green. He threw feet forward to allow him to slide close to the ground with his back facing the ground. As he slid past Ansa, he thrust his hand forward towads her left shin shouting, "The second mark of sealing, Zidane!" Right before his hand touched, Ansa began to move her leg. She didn't get it completely out of the way, however, and a yellow, circular symbol tatooed itself to her left leg as the previous one had. Thyker ran away as soon as the seal had attached itself. He figured Ansa would be looking to counter-attack. Overall, the tactic had been successful, though because she had moved her leg, the seal hadn't attached to the critical location he had been hoping for. Still, it was one more seal attached. "You were saying about having no more seals attached?" asked Thyker. Ansa looked at him with daggers in her eyes. Partially because she had been proven wrong, partially because she was that much closer to being sealed, and partially because Thyker had just countered two of her techniques: the alchemy and the ice crystals. The ice crystals were the only technique he had ever seen Ansa use as an attack. And now that she couldn't use them, she was helpless. Seeing his opportunity, Thyker rushed in again. Ha ha! No more ice crystals to worry about. Ansa pulled some runes out of her pouch. Perhaps she had come up with some clever way of using the ice crystal. But Thyker was ready. Thyker was within a few yards of Ansa. He began preparing the seal in his hand. "Shadow strike!" Ansa shouted, and Thyker saw a shadow smash him directly in the gut. The attack stopped both his momentum and his seal, knocking him backwards and onto his butt. Thyker looked and saw the source. Out of Ansa's hands strew two shadows: one for each hand. The shadows were approximately as thick as her hand and reminded him of a banner or streamer of some sort. Or maybe even a wierd vine. Currently, the two shadows fell from her hands and hung limply on the ground. Thyker couldn't tell exactly how long they were, but he was guessing a little under ten feet. As Thyker was sitting on the ground, Ansa swung one of her hands up, then down, and the shadowy banner came crashing down towards him as if it had been a whip in her hands. Thyker rolled out of the way, and luckily too, as the shadow smashed into the ground so hard that it drove through several inches of the ground. Ansa took her other hand, and whip it around in the parallel to the ground. The shadow tendril itself whipped horizontally around and smashed Thyker in the jaw. He was already on his butt, and the smash smacked him straight to his back. Thyker quickly got up and ran to put several more yard of distance between him and Ansa. He wanted to make sure he was well out of the reach of those shadows. "Come now," said Ansa. "You honestly didn't think that the ice crystals were my ONLY technique, did you? I've have a whole slew of techniques at my disposal. It would take days to show you them all." Thyker looked at Ansa. Those tendrils were dangerous. He had to admit, she seemed to find the perfect technique for this. He had to get close to place the seals, but getting close put him in range of the shadow strikes. Ansa raised one of her hands. The shadow attached to that hand retracted all the way back to her hand and formed a ball around it. "What could she be doing?" Thyker thought. Suddenly, the shot straight towards him. It looked like a sword tip if a sword were somehow capable of increasing it's length. Thyker jumped to the side to dodge it. The tip of the shadow came to a halt and slowly pulled back. Upon balling up in Ansa's hand again, it returned to it's tendril shape, limply hanging on the ground. The shadow had gotten thinner as it stretched out to attack Thyker. It seemed she was only working with a finite amount of it. Also, it was relatively slow at extending to a large length and didn't seem capable of changing directions while doing that, which made it unlikely that he would get hit. Still, despite all that, Ansa had made her point. Even if Thyker stood a long distance away, he could still be in her range. Those shadows could morph in wierd ways, and if he wasn't sharp, she'd get him eventually. And he never knew what other tricks she had up her sleeve. "No, stop thinking like that!" Thyker thought to himself. "She's playing mind games with you, just like last time. Don't let her get to you!" At that moment, Thyker remembered one of the days of training with Anthrado. As they were standing in the forest, Anthrado had asked, "Are you willing to do anything to defeat Ansa? Even sacrifice your life?" Thyker had nodded. "Yes, no question. I'd prefer not to die, but I will if I must. If I don't succeed, millions will die, myself included. I have nothing to lose at this point." Thyker shook his head and began focusing on the fight with Ansa again. He grabbed the stone of power enhancement that Anthrado had given to him. He had used it already a little in the fight, getting quick boosts in power at key moments. However, that wouldn't be enough from now on. He really have to unleash it. Thyker absorbed the stone into his hand the way Anthrado had taught him. Doing so, he could unleash the stone's power quicker than if it was outside of him. However, in time the stone would dissolve in his body, so now he was on the clock. Thyker got down to one knee and pulled out the Void Knight mace. Holding it, he began to charge energy into himself and the spiritual stone that had been given to him. He would have to charge the power at one point. In the mean time, maybe he could think about a plan to get more seals on Ansa. He did have one advantage. Unlike most fights, he was sure that Ansa would not voluntarily get close to him for fear of him placing more seals, so he could retreat at will. Thyker continued to charge up the spiritual energy, keeping a watchful eye on Ansa. She held up both of her hands. The shadow tendril from one hand balled up, and the sword-tip extended towards Thyker. He was no closer than the first time, though, and he sidestepped it just as easily as before. However, just as he was catching his balance, he saw a series of red specks shot from Ansa's other hand. The specks flew extremely quickly, and whisked by him, scraping up his body as they whisked by. He could feel every scape pulling away part of his blood as they occured. "That was a blood barrage," said Ansa. "It may be physically weak for what you're used to, but every hit will take away a part of your blood." Ansa smiled. "Over time, you'll bleed to death. So you see, it doesn't matter what you do. No matter where you go... I'll kill you. If you stay away, I'll drain your blood. If you try to come in close, I'll smash you with my shadow strike. It really is your choice." "Well," thought Thyker, "I should get a good boost in speed in strength from drawing upon that stone. Ansa won't be ready for that. The surprise might let me get on a third seal." Thyker pulled out Karil's crossbow and loaded in a bolt rack. He let loose the bolt rack at Ansa. She didn't even try to move. The bolt rack hit her and exploded, but just as Thyker had expected, a prayer barrier popped up to block it. However, Thyker was right behind the shot. As he got closer, Ansa whipped one of the tendrils up then down at him. He was right at the edge of the range of the tendril, giving him more time to dodge than had he been closer. He side-stepped the tendril as it smashed into the ground. The second tendril came smashing down where he was, but he side-stepped this one as well. The first shadow tendril came whipping in horizontally at him, but he was able to duck to dodge it. He was still a few yards from Ansa, but at this distance and with his new increase in power, he thought he could dodge these tendrils for a while. He just had to wait for the right opportunity to close the distance. Both tendrils came whipping down vertically at Thyker. He dodged one and then put everything he had into punching the other one. He couldn't use any prayers to help as that would drain the spiritual energy required for the sealing, but with the increased power from the stone, he found his punch to be quite strong. The tendril he hit went flying backwards and up into the air. Thyker saw his chance, and began to rush in. Ansa pull back both tendrils and they lay limply on the ground. She had complete control over both of them now, but she would likely only have one more chance with each to strike Thyker. All he had to do was dodge them. As Thyker rushed in, he began to ready the third seal in his right hand. His right hand began to glow. Ansa whipped out both of the tendrils. Thyker watched in anticipation, getting ready to track how to dodge them. However, the movements were not ones Thyker could predict. The tendrils moved completely randomly in a circle around Ansa, whipping every which way. Not only that, while doing this, they were moving much faster than before. Thyker felt one of the tendrils whip him in the back, then one in the side, then one in the other side. Thyker was getting tossed around by them, and they were moving so fast that he thought it might have been the same tendril that hit him all three times. The tendrils continued to flail violently around, striking Thyker several more times until Thyker was thrown outside of the range of the tendrils. From outside the range, he could see it more clearly. The tendrils were indeed moving randomly, but EXTREMELY quickly. So fast that the tendrils almost created a sphere of protection around her. "This is bad," thought Thyker. "If she activates that attack, it's almost impossible to get any closer to her than the edge of that sphere." The tendrils stopped moving and once again hung limply on the ground. "They move so fast that I can't see any way to dodge them. It's literally like she was a sphere that I can't move past without getting whacked. How am I going to place the seals if I can't get within a few yards of her?" Thyker looked at Ansa. "Still, I'm going to have to find a way. I'm not sure how, but I have to get past that defense." Chapter 53: Mirages of the Smoke "Trying to take a break already?" Ansa asked. "Where's the confident Thyker I saw a few moments ago? Myself, I'm feeling fine." Ansa held up one of her hands, and the barrage of red specks launched itself at him again. No, he wasn't going to get hit by the blood barrage this time! Thyker jumped to the side of the blood barrage as it came in. However, Ansa was already extending the sword-like shadow at Thyker. This one was coming in at a downward angle. Thyker jumped backwards to get out of the way of it as it punctured a hole in the ground. Sure, he was doing a fine job at dodging her long-range attacks now, but for how much longer could he keep it up? To makes things worse, he couldn't even use prayer barriers to protect himself. The barriers drained too much spiritual energy, and he would need absolutely as much as he could muster for the sealing spell. Speaking of which... Thyker pulled out the Void Knight mace again and started drawing in spiritual energy. Time was precious here, and he couldn't waste time that could be used for charging up his energy. He had to find some way to get close to her! At an absolute minimum, he would need 2 more seals, and in reality, he'd probably need at least 4 more. "Well, there's one more thing I can try," thought Thyker. Thyker stopped charging the spiritual energy and held the mace forward. He then unleashed the same Claws of Guthix he had used on Grunkga. The first green talon appeared close to Ansa and launched itself at her. Despite having little time to react, she had already created an appropriate anti-magic prayer barrier and deflected the talon. She didn't even make an attempt to move as the talon slammed into the barrier. A second, then a third appeared, slamming into the barrier. Grunkga had strong defenses and it had worked against him. Ansa had stronger defenses, but Thyker was utilizing the power increase from the stone. He hoped it could work here. Another talon struck at Ansa, then another, then another. Still, she just stood there behind the barrier. She said nothing to Thyker, but she had a grin on her face that basically said, "No matter what you try, I'm safe behind here." Another talon, then another talon, then another, all deflected off of the barrier. Ansa remained still. Thyker continued to pump magical energy into the spell. He wasn't going to give up yet. Another talon came in from the front and was deflected by the barrier. As the next talon was forming, Thyker heard a strange, quick crackling sound. In the front of the barrier, strangely, there appeared to be a small crack forming, just like a crack in glass. Ansa looked at the crack with an expression of surprise. Not really a fearful one, but surprise. The talon that had been forming launched at Ansa's back. It was deflected, but an even louder crackling sound was heard, and Thyker could see a few cracks move from the front to the back. Another talon came in from the side, and another crackling sound was heard. This time, the entire barrier seemed filled with cracks. Another talon formed below Ansa and came up. This time, when it hit the entire, the entire barrier shattered with a loud pop. The talon scraped up Ansa's body and smashed into her jaw. The ferocity of the attack knocked her off her feet and upward into the air. Thyker saw his chance. He didn't even bother creating another talon. He dashed in to Ansa as quickly as he could, his right hand starting to glow green along the way. When he reached Ansa, she was starting to fall back down. Thyker got behind her and thrust his hand forward shouting, "The third mark of sealing, Teterra!" Thyker's hand struck her in the back, actually holding her back from hitting the ground. As he did so, a purple, circular symbol tatooed itself to Ansa's back. A direct hit on a critical point. Thyker released Ansa and began to dash away. As he did so, he felt something smash him in the back. As he was falling forward, he turned his head around to see that one of the shadowy tendrils had struck him in the back. He landed face-down on the ground and quickly rolled over onto his back, just in time to see another tendril coming down at him. He crossed his hands in front of him in a futile attempt at protect. The tendril struck him and drove him downard hard. If Thyker hadn't been powered up by the stone, he suspected that attack might have broken his arms. However, with the power of the stone, he had taken a hard blow but now fatal damage. Thyker got to his feet before another blow could be dealt and staggered away from Ansa as quickly as he could. As he was staggering away, one of the tendrils struck him in the back, but this one sent him forward so far that it put him out of the range of the tendrils. Thyker landed on one knee, then got up and turned to face Ansa. He started charging up spiritual power into his body and the stone again. "I think that Guthix claw attack actually injured Ansa!" he thought. "I actually did damage! And if I an do damage, that means I can kill her, especially with that barrier down." Thyker shook his head. "No, remember your mission! Don't get sucked into trying to fight her, you can't win that fight." Ansa's face had the same anger as after he had placed the first seal, but this time it was even more fierce. She must have realized he was getting close to having enough seals. "Heh... I wish I could do something about it," thought Thyker, "but that was my last trick. The Claws of Guthix might work again, but I held that last one for some long that I don't think I can do another." "You seem to feel too safe at a distance," said Ansa who appeared strangely calm. "I didn't press too hard as I didn't expect you were any threat at a distance. I will not make that mistake a second time." Ansa held both of her hands forward. Smoke started billowing out of each hand. The smoke began forming into two clowns, one for each hand. After a few moments, the smoke started billowing out of her hand, and the cloud started to change shape. Each one started taking a humanoid appearance. After the humanoid appearance was complete, details started to emerge. At the end of the process, each cloud look like a living thing. The first looked like a human. It held a small shield in one hand in a sword in the other. The second looked somewhat like an ork. It held no shield, but in its hand it held a small warmhammer. Both seemed to be about nine feet tall. "These are my smoke mirages. I think you'll find them quite entertaining." "Well, I don't know much about smoke attacks," thought Thyker, "but given what they look like, I think I can guess what's coming." Thyker jumped a few more feet back just to get a little extra distance, and then started charging up spiritual power again. "Go ahead, mirages," said Ansa. "Kill him." The smoke ork took a few steps forward, and the smoke human followed. They were not running, just moving at a brisk walk. However, due to their size, they were covering ground quite quickly. As they got close, Thyker stopped charging spiritual energy and pulled out Excalibur. The smoke ork, who had started walking first, was also the first to reach Thyker. It swung at Thyker with its hammer, which Thyker dodged. Thyker swung horizontally at the smoke ork and sliced through it easily, cutting it in two. He took two more swings, each of which sliced up the smoke ork even move. After the third swing, the entire creature collapsed in a pile of smoke that fell to the ground. Thyker took a few steps forward, getting ready to fight the smoke human. "I'm a little disappointed, Ansa," said Thyker. "These are rather weak for something coming from you." Thyker grasped his sword a little tighter as the smoke human drew nearer. As the human got close, Thyker felt something sneaking up behind him. He turned around to see a cloud of smoke forming into the smoke ork. The smoke ork completed forming even before Thyker finished turning around. It swung its hammer at Thyker and struck him in the chest. Thyker went flying to the side and landed on the ground. At that moment, Thyker remembered one of the days of training with Anthrado. As they were standing in the forest, Anthrado had asked, "Are you willing to do anything to defeat Ansa? Even sacrifice your life?" Thyker had nodded. "Yes, no question. I'd prefer not to die, but I will if I must. If I don't succeed, millions will die, myself included. I have nothing to lose at this point." "Such a fighter is always the most dangerous," Anthrado had said. "A fighter who has nothing to lose has nothing to fear and can be quite hard to stop. The fight may get tough at times, but remember your resolve. Thyker, one other thing. There is one other technique I'd like to teach you for the fight. It is only to be used as a last resort, but it could win you the day." Thyker snapped back to the fight at hand. The smoke human had approached him and was swinging its sword down. Thyker rolled to the side to dodge the sword, then jumped to his feet. He slashed at the smoke human several times, and the smoke human collapsed in a pile of smoke which fell to the ground. Thyker immediately turned around to face the smoke ork he sensed coming. Before the smoke ork could swing, he slashed at it several times and it collapsed to the ground in a pile of smoke. Never give in. Thyker turned around to see that the smoke from the smoke human was reforming itself into the smoke human once again. He turned his head to see that the smoke ork was doing the same thing. Thyker moved a little so that both smoke mirages would be in front of him instead of one in front and one in back. "Poor Thyker," said Ansa, "don't you understand? The smoke mirages can't be killed. You should feel lucky that I've only made two. At my full strength, I can make many more... oh that would be interesting, wouldn't it?" "Can't be killed, huh?" said Thyker. "Well we'll see about that!" Thyker slashed at the smoke human, who had just again reformed. He then slashed at the smoke ork, who had just again reformed as well. Both smoke mirages collapsed in a pile of smoke, but then started reforming again. This was going no where fast. Thyker pulled out Karil's crossbow and loaded in a bolt rack. Maybe the mirages couldn't be killed, but with Ansa's barrier seemingly broken, then perhaps the one who made the mirages could be killed. Thyker launched the bolt rack at Ansa. As the bolt got close, the two shadow tendrils rushed forward and changed shape, creating a wall-like shield in front of Ansa. The bolt rack exploded and pushed the shadowy shield back a little, but nothing got to Ansa. Thyker looked around the battlefield. The smoke mirages had just about reformed and Ansa seemed capable of blocking any long-range attacks with those tendrils. Thyker turned around and ran away from all of them. He had to put some distance in between them. He needed time to change his tactics... some way to get past Ansa's defenses. Also, if he could get out of sight, then maybe he would stand a chance of launching a surprise attack. Thyker looked behind him to see if the smoke mirages were chasing him (he knew that Ansa wouldn't). No way! The smoke mirages had turned themselves into clouds, and the clouds were moving so fast that they were rapidly closing the distance between them and Thyker. As the clouds got close, Thyker changed directions and the clouds darted by him. However, they quickly changed directions and approached him again. One of the smoke clouds got in front of Thyker and started forming into the smoke human. However, this time hadn't been slashed by Thyker and therefore formed into the smoke human very quickly. It swung its sword at Thyker. Thyker put up his shield to block the attack. The sword hit the shield, put a dent in it and knocked Thyker back a few steps, but it more or less left him unharmed. Thyker slashed at the smoke human several times, and it collapsed into a pile of smoke which fell to the ground. The smoke ork formed to Thyker's side and swung it's hammer at Thyker. Thyker jumped sideways to dodge it and then slashed at the smoke ork. After several slashes, the smoke ork collapsed into smoke which fell to the ground. However, Thyker continued to swing Excalibur at the smoke which hovered around the ground. "Die, darn you!" he shouted angrily. "Everything has a weakness, and that means you do too! So die!" Thyker's constant swinging of his sword kept the smoke ork from reforming, but the smoke human reformed while he was doing that. The smoke human attacked Thyker with its sword, but Thyker dodged the attack and slashed at it with Excalibur several times. The smoke human collapsed into smoke. Thyker moved a little bit so that both smoke piles were in front of him. The smoke ork was halfway to reforming and the smoke human was just started to reform. "Get away!" Thyker shouted, pulling out some air runes. "Get! Away!" Thyker launched an enormous wind spell, which threw the clouds in Ansa's direction. As the clouds flew towards Ansa, the wind that Thyker had created seemed to pull the clouds apart, and the smoke disappeared. Thyker looked around for a moment. No smoke. He had killed them! "Now it's Ansa's turn to die!" thought Thyker. The running and then the fight with the smoke mirages had put Ansa far away from Thyker, well out of the range of either's attacks. He took a step forward and then noticed something. Along the path to Ansa, a small amount of smoke started to form. Thyker could see that it was really two separate clouds of smoke, and they were slowly getting larger. Smoke was coming into the clouds from all directions. "Oh no!" thought Thyker. "I didn't kill the mirages, I just blew the smoke apart so much that I couldn't see it. But now they're coming together." Thyker turned around and ran. He found some small hills on the island and hid behind them. The smoke mirages would find him eventually, but this location would give him some time to think. Thyker pulled out the Void Knight mace again and started to charge up spiritual power in his body and the stone. He then tried to think of a way to place the last three seals. At that moment, Thyker remembered one of the days of training with Anthrado. As they were standing in the forest, Anthrado had asked, "Are you willing to do anything to defeat Ansa? Even sacrifice your life?" Thyker had nodded. "Yes, no question. I'd prefer not to die, but I will if I must. If I don't succeed, millions will die, myself included. I have nothing to lose at this point." "Such a fighter is always the most dangerous," Anthrado had said. "A fighter who has nothing to lose has nothing to fear and can be quite hard to stop. The fight may get tough at times, but remember your resolve. Thyker, one other thing. There is one other technique I'd like to teach you for the fight. It is only to be used as a last resort, but it could win you the day." "What would that be?" Thyker had asked. "First of all, I should mention, this is a physical technique," Anthrado had said. "That is, the technique would be aimed at killing Ansa, not sealing her. Ansa is extremely powerful and thus will be extremely difficult to kill, even with this. Thus, above all, this technique is only to be used as a last resort. Do you understand?" "Yes," Thyker had said. Thyker shook his head and found himself back at the fight scene. He had to keep his calm. Ansa's attacks were starting to freak him out. He had actually been thinking about killing Ansa, but he knew that wouldn't work. If he continued like this, he was sure to lose. He had to stay calm and devise a way of placing the last seals. Chapter 54: Do or Die, Lay It All on the Line to Win Thyker continued charing up the spiritual energy. He had to think of a way to place the final three seals. He peaked out from behind the hill. Apparently, the smoke mirages were unsure as to where he had gone, because they were separated and searching the island in the area where Thyker might likely be. Ansa hadn't moved at all, but that was what he expected. Ansa would avoid getting close to Thyker at all costs at this point. Thyker pulled his head back, not wanting the smokey warriors to see him. The two warriors were separate, which might make dealing with them easier. Of course, even then, Thyker was unsure HOW to deal with them. If what Ansa said was true, there was no way to kill them, only to stun them. They didn't seem exceptionally dangerous, but because they couldn't be stopped, it was only a matter of time before they either wore Thyker down or finally got him. Thyker continued to try to think of a plan. While doing so, he felt a twinge and stopped charging up spiritual energy. His body and the stone were now satured with the most spiritual energy they could hold. Now he just needed to get the seals in place. He peeked out of the hill again. The situation was the same as before. Pulling his head back, he continued to try to come up with a strategy. He got it! Doing this, he'd probably only be able to get one more seal on Ansa. However, four might just slightly possibly be enough. If he could get one more seal on, at least he'd stand a chance even if he didn't get any more. Thyker got onto his belly and crawled out from behind the hills. He worked his way closer and closer to Ansa, using the terrain to his advantage. He wouldn't be able to hide forever, and the closer he got, the more likely he'd be seen. But the closer he could get before being seen, the better. Thyker continued to crawl closer and closer to Ansa. As he started getting close, the smoke human turned its head to the side and seemed to have spotted Thyker. Thyker jumped to his feet. Now that he was seen, it was more important to have speed than stealth. Thyker dashed towards Ansa, who had spotted Thyker as soon as he stood up. The smoke ork was far away and likely wouldn't be able to reach Thyker in time, so he ignored it. However, the smoke human turned to a cloud and darted towards Thyker. In its cloud form, and moved quickly and soon closed the gap. However, Thyker had expected this. As the cloud started to quickly form into the human shape, Thyker unleashed a powerful volley of wind. The wind completely dissipated the cloud just as it had before. The smoke human would reform, but if the last time was any indication, Thyker now had a decent amount of time before it did so. As Thyker got closer to Ansa, he saw her wind up one of her hands in preparation of whipping him with a tendril. Thyker was already holding the runes for a fire blast however, powered it up, and blasted her. With the power of the stone enhancing his magical abilities, the spell might be able to do some damage. Thyker was just about in range of the tendrils when he unleashed the spell. Ansa shadowy tendrils quickly rushed forward to create the shadowy wall in front of her. The fire blast pushed on the wall and drove it back a little bit, but it prevented Ansa from being hit with the fire blast. After the blast had subsided, the shadowy wall drew away and once again became the tendrils hanging from her hands. However, Thyker was no longer there! Ansa looked from side to side and behind her, but saw Thyker no where. Ansa then look up to see Thyker falling from the sky only a few feet above her. Immediately after the shadowy wall had appeared and obstructed her vision, Thyker blast used a wind blast to propel himself into the air and over the wall. And now he was falling down on her with his right hand glowing green. Just as Ansa looked up, Thyker thrust his hand downward towards Ansa's left arm shouting "The fourth mark of sealing, Qualtor!" Thyker's hand reached towards Ansa, but she jumped out of the way just as the hand was about to touch her. The attempt missed by inches. Thyker landed on the ground as Ansa was moving back. He wasn't ready to give up however. He may have missed, by the seal was still ready and he was right next to Ansa. Thyker lunged his hand forward aiming for her hip, the closest critical spot on her body. As his hand went out, Ansa jumped back again and this time got a good foot or so between Thyker's hand and her body. As she jumped back, she threw her right hand up and then down, whipping the shadow tendril around. With his momentum still going forward, Thyker wasn't able to dodge the tendril and found himself smashed face down into the ground. His mind went fuzzy for a moment. At that moment, Thyker remembered one of the days of training with Anthrado. As they were standing in the forest, Anthrado had asked, "Are you willing to do anything to defeat Ansa? Even sacrifice your life?" Thyker had nodded. "Yes, no question. I'd prefer not to die, but I will if I must. If I don't succeed, millions will die, myself included. I have nothing to lose at this point." "Such a fighter is always the most dangerous," Anthrado had said. "A fighter who has nothing to lose has nothing to fear and can be quite hard to stop. The fight may get tough at times, but remember your resolve. Thyker, one other thing. There is one other technique I'd like to teach you for the fight. It is only to be used as a last resort, but it could win you the day." "What would that be?" Thyker had asked. "First of all, I should mention, this is a physical technique," Anthrado had said. "That is, the technique would be aimed at killing Ansa, not sealing her. Ansa is extremely powerful and thus will be extremely difficult to kill, even with this. Thus, above all, this technique is only to be used as a last resort. Do you understand?" "Yes," Thyker had said. "Hopefully," Anthrado had said, "in your fight with Ansa, you'll have prayed enough to charge your spiritual energy to the max you and the stone can hold. Especially because of the prayer stone, that will be an enormous amount of energy. At the same time, Ansa should be weakened at the very least from the charging of the essence and the maintenance of the barrier around the island, and possibly even from your fight with her. Should things go badly in terms of the seals, there is a way to transform this spiritual energy into a powerful blast. I guarantee, however, that it will be the last attack that you get to use on her. As a result, this must be a list-ditch effort. We wil call the tactic Plan B." Thyker's mind cleared and he found himself in the fight with Ansa again. Another tendril came smashing down onto his back, driving him further into the ground. Thyker scream a little from the attack. "No," thought Thyker. "I'm not ready to give up yet. I haven't lost yet." Thyker got up to his hands and knees. One of the tendrils came smashing down towards him. "Ok," thought Thyker, "no more time to waste. Let's unleash every drop of power that stone I absorbed inside me has. If not now, then I won't get a chance." As the tendril was about to hit him, Thyker jumped up and punched the tendril as hard as he could, sending it into the air. The second tendril came whipping towards his side. Thyker thrust his hands forward and grabbed the tendril as it came in. The tendril drove him back a foot or two but then was halted by Thyker. Thyker dashed forward at Ansa. With him drawing as much power as possible from the stone, he now moved even faster than before. Thyker's right hand glowed green as he thrust his hand forward shouting, "The fourth mark of sealing, Qualtor!" One of Ansa's tendrils rushed in front of her to create the shadowy wall. Thyker's hand smashed into the shadowy wall and continued driving forward. "There's only one and it's not that far in front of her," thought Thyker. "A little further and I can place the seal." Thyker continued pushing forward with his hand, driving the shadowy wall backwards. However, just before he could place the seal, Ansa jumped backwards a few times and put some distance between her and Thyker. "She can run, but I'll still get her!" he thought, dashing forward. A cloud of smoke appeared between Thyker and Ansa. It quickly materialized into the smoke ork. "Out of my way!" Thyker shouted, swinging Excalibur with his left hand at the smoke mirage. The force of the strike was so strong that a single slash not only collapsed the smokey warrior but scattered the smoke far apart. Thyker continued to rush forward and, getting close to Ansa, thrust his right hand forward. Both tendrils leaped forward and created a shadowy wall in front of her. Thyker struck the wall with his hand but found it harder to move than the first wall. That wasn't going to stop him, however. Upon striking the wall, Thyker jumped to the side. The wall only covered one side of her, and now he was facing one of the side that wasn't covered. Thyker lunged forward and thrust his hand at her, willing to place the seal anywhere he could, shouting "The fourth mark of sealing, Qualtor!" Ansa jumped back as he thrust his hand forward. She dodged this seal as well, but she couldn't run forever. Thyker started feeling the stone running out of power. He would have to finish things up soon. Thyker thrust his hand forward again at Ansa. By now, the wall had transformed back to the tendrils, and she whipped around one of the tendrils, striking Thyker in the face. The hit caused Thyker attack to go off course, and his hand passed by Ansa's side. Due to the power of the stone, however, Thyker didn't feel like he had taken much damage from the attack. Recovering himself, Thyker thrust his hand forward at Ansa again, shouting "The fourth mark of sealing, Qualtor!" This time, it looked like her momentum was going in such a way that she couldn't dodge it. Also, the tendrils weren't fast enough to reach him before he touched. Just as the seal was about to touch her, his hand stopped. He quickly realized that Ansa had grabbed his wrists with one of her own hands, stopping his motion. The motion had been stopped cold; she was physically stronger than Thyker would have guessed. Her other hand came forward and punched him in the face. As she struck him, she let go of the wrist and let Thyker stumble backwards. Just as that happened, Thyker felt the power of the stone completely wear off. It was over. However... Ansa didn't know that. Ansa stood a few yards away from Thyker, huffing and puffing a little. It was odd to see her having shown any exhertion. "If you wish to stay in close range," said Ansa, "then perhaps I should be a little less forgivining about it." The tendril around Ansa left hand disappeared, and he saw ice starting to grow out of her arm. The ice completely encased her forearm and hand, and extended outward. The ice appeared to be one giant [bleep]e growing out of her arm with several smaller [bleep]es jutting out of it. Thyker reached into his rune pouch in order to prepare a counter-attack. Ansa whipped her right arm around and struck Thyker with the tendril before he could move. Without the power of the stone helping him, the pain was enormous. Also, the shock made him throw his arm back, ripping the rune pouch off his body and sending it flying away. The strike sent his own body careening backwards and he smashed into a wall of some sort on the island. After hitting the wall, Thyker slumped down in exhaustion. At that moment, Thyker remembered one of the days of training with Anthrado. As they were standing in the forest, Anthrado had asked, "Are you willing to do anything to defeat Ansa? Even sacrifice your life?" Thyker had nodded. "Yes, no question. I'd prefer not to die, but I will if I must. If I don't succeed, millions will die, myself included. I have nothing to lose at this point." "Such a fighter is always the most dangerous," Anthrado had said. "A fighter who has nothing to lose has nothing to fear and can be quite hard to stop. The fight may get tough at times, but remember your resolve. Thyker, one other thing. There is one other technique I'd like to teach you for the fight. It is only to be used as a last resort, but it could win you the day." "What would that be?" Thyker had asked. "First of all, I should mention, this is a physical technique," Anthrado had said. "That is, the technique would be aimed at killing Ansa, not sealing her. Ansa is extremely powerful and thus will be extremely difficult to kill, even with this. Thus, above all, this technique is only to be used as a last resort. Do you understand?" "Yes," Thyker had said. "Hopefully," Anthrado had said, "in your fight with Ansa, you'll have prayed enough to charge your spiritual energy to the max you and the stone can hold. Especially because of the prayer stone, that will be an enormous amount of energy. At the same time, Ansa should be weakened at the very least from the charging of the essence and the maintenance of the barrier around the island, and possibly even from your fight with her. Should things go badly in terms of the seals, there is a way to transform this spiritual energy into a powerful blast. I guarantee, however, that it will be the last attack that you get to use on her. As a result, this must be a list-ditch effort. We wil call the tactic Plan B." "You say that will be my last attack," Thyker had said. "Why is that so?" In the battlefield, Thyker got back to his feet. There were no other options, it was time for Plan B. Thyker began running straight towards Ansa, the speech with Anthrado playing in his head. "Because Plan B will kill you," Anthrado had said. Thyker continued the rush towards Ansa. It was time to lay it all on the line. "Feel free to come close," said Ansa. "You can lay as many seals as you want; they're useless if you're dead." "The spiritual energy you gathered was for the seals," Anthrado had said, "but it's unused before you imprison her. It can still be transformed into another prayer and used that way." Thyker rused straight at Ansa. As he got close, she lunged the ice [bleep]e forward and impaled him. Thyker tried to breath but found the effort futile; his lungs had been punctured. He was moments away from death, but he hadn't died yet. Grabbing onto the ice, he pulled himself deeper into the [bleep]e. He had to get as close to Ansa as possible. "With that much energy," Anthrado had said, "the prayer's attack would be so ferocious that you may actually succeed in killing her. Convert all of your spiritual energy into a Retribution prayer. Within a close proximity to yourself, you will do an enormous amount of damage." Thyker pulled himself in closer. That was his last tug, however. After that pull, his eyes closed and he collapsed forward. "What a shame," said Ansa. "After all that effort, and getting so close, you die by running straight into my attack." Ansa paused for a moment. "What's that?" she asked, looking up. The skies were starting to glow with a strange light, which was odd since the skies of Moonclan Island were always dark. An enormous shot came down from the skies, similar to a lightning bolt. "Huh?" The shot struck Thyker's body and everything around it. The strike was so powerful that it actually drilled a hole through the island and went all the way to strike the ground of Moonclan Island below. Ansa herself was completely covered by the attack. Chapter 55: What Else Lay Ahead Thyker groaned, held his head, and sat halfway up. He had been laying on his back. "What!?" he said with surprise, feeling the center of his body. There was no hole there. He had been sure he had just been impaled. Had everything been a dream? Thyker got to his feet and looked around. He was on a floating pile of essence in the sky. No... there was no way that had been a dream. "What is going on?" Thyker asked. Something started to materialize in front of Thyker. Anticipating one of the shadow mirages, Thyker pulled out Excalibur. However, that thing was not one of the shadow mirages. Karil's ghost-like form appeared in front of him. "Hello Thyker," said Karil. "Seeing as you're here," said Thyker, "I think you can explain what's going on?" "I believe I can... sort of," said Karil. "See, Guthix himself agreed to look over your fight for you. Seeing what you did for everyone else, Guthix decided that you yourself deserved a second chance, just like you gave to the rest of the world. As a result, he pulled you from the verge of death. You may feel rather weak now, but you are alive." Thyker realized what Karil said was true. He felt pretty badly injured and exhausted, but it at least seemed like what he said was true. "Is Ansa dead?" Thyker asked. Karil pointed in a direction, and Thyker walked that way. As he approached the area, he saw Ahrim's robes lying on the ground. He didn't see Ansa's body inside of them, only a pile of ashes. That seemed to be the way that the undead died. Thyker looked around and didn't see the smoke mirages a sign to him that Ansa was no more. It seemed he had won. He wasn't sure what to say about it though. Then he remembered what Karil had said about Thyker and Guthix. "A second chance, huh..." Thyker said. "Yes," said Karil, "but what you do with it is your business." "What do you mean by that?" asked Thyker as Karil disappeared without giving a respsonse. Just as Karil disappeared, he felt the island lurch. The sudden disturbance sent Thyker to the ground. "Great, that Retribution attack must have destabilized the island, and without Ansa, there's nothing to keep it in flight. So that's what he meant by that whole 'my business' thing." Thyker looked up to the sky and waved his fist. "You couldn't have at least brought me back on the GROUND!?!?" After what Guthix had done, it seemed unlikely that Thyker would be getting any more help. It would be up to him. The easiest way to get off would be to teleport. Thyker reached into his rune pouch only to realize it wasn't there. "What the..." he said. Oh, right! It had been thrown away when Ansa struck him with her tendril. Looking around, Thyker spotted the pouch lying near the edge of the island with a few runes scattered around it. Thyker rushed towards the pouch. When he got near it, he heard a rumbling sound, and the piece of the island where the pouch was sitting broke away from the island and fell down. "Great... no runes I guess..." Thyker thought for a moment. It was understandable to die to Ansa... but dying like this after winning would be a shame. Aha! Thyker pulled out his com-orb. "Savant Savant Savant!" he shouted. "I need an emergency teleport! Quick! Anywhere! Just hurry!" Savant's face appeared on the orb, but rather blurry. Her voice came in crackling, but he could make out what she was saying. "There's some sort of magical interference. I can't seem to get a lock on you." "Well keep trying!" Thyker shouted. "I'll do what I can," said Savant. Better not to depend on her. Another piece of the island broke away. Thyker rushed to where he thought was the most stable part of the island. "I'd better think of another way off of here." Another piece of the island broke away. Thyker reposition himself again. Thyker looked around but couldn't think of anything. Thyker rushed to the edge of the island and looked off. No, they were definitely too far in the sky... no chance of landing on the ground safely. Thyker felt a rumbling and saw that the edge he was standing on was breaking off. As it gave way, Thyker dashed towards the solid part of the island. The edge broke away from the island and fell off. Thyker jumped at the solid part of the island and was able to grab onto the new edge by his fingertips. Thyker started to pull himself up, but he was so tired that it was hard work. Still, he did slowly pull himself upward. Thyker finally got his elbows up to the edge of the island when he felt another rumbling. The edge he was now holding onto broke away. There was nothing he could do to get to the solid part this time. Thyker started feeling himself go into a free fall. He looked around, but there was nothing he could think of. Nothing that would save him. Thyker smacked into something and had the breath knocked out of him. Catching his breath, he looked around. He was no longer falling. Instead he was sitting on the back of something. Not just something, but the dragon clone that had flown him to the island. "Oh, I'm sure glad to see you!" shouted Thyker. "So you beat that demon?" "Of course," said the dragon's center head. "No one is a match for the King Black Dragon!" The other two heads laughed at this. "What about that claw hit you took under your right wing?" Thyker asked. "Oh, that injury tore off my armor there, and it's sore a little, but rather fine. Dragons like us go through wear and tear all the time." Once again, the other two dragon heads laughed. "So... where do you want to go?" Thyker didn't even need to think to answer that. "Take me to Falador, please." ***** The dragon clone was still a fast flyer, and it wasn't long before they landed in the center of Falador. Thyker got off the dragon's back and saw mobs of people running every which way screaming, trying to get away from the center of the town. Geeze... you'd think they'd never seen a giant, black, three-headed dragon before... Thyker saw a few people rushing towards the dragon, which was an odd sight given what everyone else was doing. He recognized them quickly. "Stop!" Thyker shouted, holding his hand out to stop Janrok, who was already getting ready to throw knives. "Is this dragon with you?" asked Tiffy, another in the group. "Yeah," said Thyker. "The gliders didn't work. He helped me get to the island." "So..." said Marik. "Does that mean you won?" Thyker nodded his head. "Yeah... Ansa's dead." There was cheering for a few moments from the group. "Dead you say?" asked Tiffy. "Yeah," said Thyker. "Perhaps it would be best if I told you the story." And Thyker went on to tell the events that occured since the moment he left with the fleet of gliders from Lumbridge castle. "Good show, indeed," said Tiffy as Thyker finished the story. "Even better than we expected." "Yeah," said Bob from inside Marik's coin pouch, "I remember the first time that I saved the world..." Thyker punched the coin pouch. Just as that happened, a slip of parchment appeared in Thyker's hand. Everyone in the group looked at it curiously. Thyker held it up and read it out loud. "Congratulations! You have completed Council of Oblivion. You are awarded: 1 Quest Point. 1000 Firemaking Experience. 1000 Fishing Experience. Ability to do a modified fire driller once and then really hurt yourself." "Um," said Janrok, "what's that?" "How am I supposed to know?" asked Thyker. "I'm not psychic." "Well," said Tiffy. "We had a deal, and you held up your end. So now it's time to hold up mine." Tiffy handed Thyker a scroll. "That is all the information I've compiled on Verac's armor. It's not much, but it should be helpful to helping you obtain it." "Speaking of which..." said Thyker, turning to Janrok. "Wasn't it your goal to take this back from me?" he asked, pointing to Karil's armor. "This would be a perfect chance, with me all tired like this." Marik held up his hammer defensively. Janrok waved his hand. "I can't do that now. After all, you're tired from saving humanity. I'd be a creep if I attacked you at this point. Tell you what. I'll give you one week to rest up, recover, and go wherever you want. After that, I'm tracking you down." Thyker laughed a little. Somehow he didn't expect Janrok would really be hunting him down anytime soon. "Thanks." ***** It would take too much time to describe the adventures of this group from this point on. Glough currently sits in a jail cell in the gnome stronghold under much tighter security than before. To this day, Gloupherie has still not been caught. The Fairy Godfather still roams free, though with Ansa gone his hopes have been dashed. The demon armies immediately scattered away after Ansa's death, and the imps aren't seen as often as they used to. Thyker traveled to Moonclan Island but was never able to find Ahrim's robes which Ansa had been wearing. He didn't know who had taken them, but he was glad Ansa was no longer its owner. Malak's death was a small blow to the vampires of Canifis, but they replaced his position with a younger vampire. Their armies are weak ever since the defeat at Falador, but they are still trying to build them up again. Horacio is once again the duke of Lumbridge, but Tiffy keeps him under close control. In some ways, it was good for the Temple Knights; they now have the leader of a small city who is essentially their pawn. He didn't escape completely without punishment, however; Marik now cooks every meal that Horacio eats. Speaking of Marik, he basically stayed in position as head cook of Lumbridge, though there are rumors that he occasionally leaves to go fight monsters with his dragonite warhammer. As for Tiffy... well, not much is known about what he does. He's the secretive kind. Of course, his position is still head recruiter for the Temple Knights. Evil Dave is imprisoned under the custoday of the Temple Knights, but the affairs are so secretive that no one knows anything else. The few that have heard about it suspect that the Temple Knights are trying to get him to teach them some of his techniques that he created and learned, but whether it's true or not, the Temple Knights have not admitted to anything. Janrok has been seen in various places of the world. As far as Thyker knows, he never seriously tried to take Karil's armor from Thyker. However, rumor has it he's been trying to obtain another set of the legendary Mort'ton armor. Perhaps he thinks that Thyker would be willing to make a trade for another set. After what Thyker went through, however, he wasn't sure if he'd be willing to part with Karil's armor and thus his spirit. Janrok's also been seen in the wilderness a lot. He may not have Karil's armor anymore, but he's still well beyond the abilities of the murderers out there. And what about Thyker, you ask? He spends most of his time trying to find the owner of Verac's armor. Whoever they are, they're very secretive and move around a lot. His searches have taken him all over the world. But Thyker isn't ready to give up. It's a small world after all, and he'll certainly run into the owner of the armor someday. And Thyker enjoyed the hunt. Well, until one day, a strange servant approached him to tell him about a tournament to find Runescape's strongest warrior. Ugh... not again. For those who read the story, I appreciate it if you post in here with your opinions on it. Criticism helps me with further writings, whereas praise lets me know when I've done it well. Also, I have partially-written a sequel, but given that these do take some time to write, I would only complete it if I felt people were going to read it (i.e. there's little point in writing something if no one is going to end up reading it). Replies let me know that people are indeed reading it.

Chapter 48: An Unfortunate Problem Thyker stepped onto the front lawn of Lumbridge castle. All three of the glider pilots, as well as their gliders, were still there. Thyker had convinced them to stay for the week. It hadn't been hard; they were still eager to show their appreciation for defeating Glough and Gloupherie... well, sort of. Thyker moved his left arm around a little. The arm had healed somewhat, but the injury still caused Thyker to keep it wrapped. Thyker fingered his new sword with his right hand: Excalibur. He had long ago gotten the sword, but had rarely used it because it was significantly weaker than his old sword. Still, with that sword gone, he was now able to use Excalibur. Luckily, the sword had a few special perks of its own. Thyker saw that Anthrado and Tiffy were waiting on the front lawn of the castle near the gliders. They were the only living things on the lawn other than the pilots and Thyker. It wasn't odd to see an imp on the lawn every now and then, but Thyker hadn't seen a single imp near the castle since his fight with Ansa. Knowing Tiffy, he had probably taken strong precautions to kill or capture all imps they found. Still, the things were sneaky, and you never knew if one could be hiding somewhere. "So, Thyker, are you ready?" asked Tiffy. "I think so," said Thyker. "I taught him everything that I could," said Anthrado. "Now it's up to his abilities." "Janrok and Marik are upstairs," said Tiffy. "They're resting, but conscious. Do you want me to get them." "No," said Thyker. "Where I'm going, they can't follow. I'm going to have to do this one alone." "I understand," said Tiffy. "Remember your mission. You're goal is to imprison Ansa. I know you'll want to kill her, but don't let your ego get in your way. This is about stopping her, not about getting revenge." "Right," said Thyker. He paused for a moment. "I understand." "And remember, if all else fails, you always have Plan B," said Anthrado. "Plan B?" asked Tiffy. "It's just a little thing me and him came up with," said Anthrado. "No need to worry yourself about it." "Don't worry... I remember," said Thyker. "One other thing," said Tiffy. "Falador has almost been repaired. The Temple Knights are going to be moving back to Falador. I'm going to be rather busy during that time. So, I'm giving you this." Tiffy handed Thyker an orb. "I think you'll recognize this as the Temple Knight com-orb. I'm personally dedicating Savant to your case. You remember her?" "Of course," said Thyker. "We've worked together a few times." "Splendid," replied Tiffy. "You can contact me if you need me, but you might waste a lot of time tracking me down due to the move. As a result, it will be a lot faster if you communicate with Savant. I've given her all the information on this case, so she should be up to date on what's happening. She's quite good, and I'm sure she can handle any problems you have." "Right!" said Thyker, nodding enthusiastically. He wasn't sure why, but that last part of the speech had energized him. He jumped onto the same glider he had been on before. The pilot of the glider shouted to the other gnomes. "Ok boys! We're going to be flying to Mooclan Island! I want you to stay in a tight Cantura formation for the trip. We're not expecting any enemies, but keep your eyes open. Let's move out!" And with that, Thyker's glider took off from the ground and soared into the skies. The two other gliders followed behind him. Thyker watched as the terrain shot past them. The gliders were fast. Within only a few hours, they were already approaching the coast of Moonclan Island. Thyker scanned the horizon. In the distance, he could see the floating essence island. A strange glow seem to encompass the island. It must have been Ansa charging the essence into a law rune. "Hey," said Thyker to the gnome. He realized then that he didn't even know the gnome's name. "There's the island. Try to come in low so she doesn't see us coming." "Will do!" shouted the gnome back. The gnome decreased the altitude of the glider. The other two gliders followed the lead. If Ansa were to look now, the gliders would probably be too small for her to see. And by the time they were close enough, they'd be too far underneath the island. The element of surprise seemed to be on his side. The glider got closer and closer to the island. It was becoming larger and larger in his sight. They were close now, but Thyker could not see Ansa due to how low they were flying. That was good, because that meant Ansa couldn't see them either. "Good job," Thyker told the pilot. "I want you to get underneath the island and then try to bring the glider up. Straddle the island's surface as low as you can and I..." and before Thyker could say anything more, he heard a bang and was thrown off of the glider. Thyker looked back to see that a piece of the glider appeared to have been blown off. Thyker could see one other thing: the magical barrier had sprung up. "You've got to be kidding me!" Thyker shouted as he fell to the ground. "After all that, the gliders can't get past the barrier!" Thyker fell for a few seconds before his momentum stopped. He quickly realized that one of the gliders had picked him out of the sky. He was glad all three of them had come! "Nice catch," said Thyker. "Don't worry about it!" shouted the gnome. "Cardinal Two caught Cardinal Leader! Looks like that glider was damaged pretty badly, though!" "Glad to hear it. Can you take me down to the ground?" "Sure thing!" The gnome swung his glider around until he was side-by-side with the other flying glider. The gnome motioned with his hand in a strange way. Thyker assumed it was a landing signal, because Cardinal Two immediately started flying towards the ground. Thyker's glider landed on the ground shortly after Cardinal Two landed. "Sorry about that," said Thyker as the gnomes disembarked from the glider. "I guess the barrier won't let your gliders through." "Awe, don't worry about it," said Thyker's original pilot. "We owed you, and everything turned out ok. Well, except for my glider, but we might be able to fix it. Anyway, what do you want us to do now?" "Hold on a minute," said Thyker, as he walked away from the group. Luckily, he had a quick source of advice. Thyker pulled out the com-orb Tiffy had recently given him. "Savant, are you there?" "Yes, I'm here," said Savant as her face appeared in the orb. "Is there a problem?" "Yes, no surprise, another problem. It seems that gnome gliders can't get past Ansa's anti-magical barrier. Is there any way we can alter them?" "One moment," said Savant. Savant's face went fuzzy in the com-orb for a few minutes, then it re-appeared again. "From the information I have, there's no way to alter the gliders to penetrate the type of barrier Ansa is using." "Gah!" shouted Thyker. "That's a pretty big problem." "Yes," Savant said, "but there may be a way around it. The barrier allows strong magical beings to penetrate the barrier. Apparently, the barrier extends to non-magical machines as well. All we need is a flying object with strong magical powers. I've tracked one down. I'm sending you the information now." A series of information appeared on Thyker's com-orb. He recognized the subject immediately. "Ok, Savant, you can stop now. I know what you're talking about and where to go. But are you crazy!? How am I going to control that?" "I don't know," said Savant. "You'll have to figure that out. However, I believe it would be strong enough to penetrate the barrier." "No kidding..." said Thyker. "Plenty strong enough. Well, I guess I'll get the gnomes to fly me there." "No need," said Savant. "If you stay in the air too long, it might attract to much attention. I can teleport you pretty close to there. It will be faster and safer." "Ok, thanks Savant," said Thyker. "Do you want me to teleport you now?" "No," Thyker replied. "I have to go talk to the gnomes real quick. Give me a few minutes." Thyker put the com-orb away and walked over to the gnomes. "Well?" asked the leader of the squad. "Thanks for your help," said Thyker. "I appreciate it. However, it doesn't appear possible for your gliders to penetrate the barrier. I'm onto a new lead though, and I think it'll work. However, I'm afraid to fly with you guys too much as eventually a demon is sure to spot us. Thus, I'm going to ask you to go home." "I'm sorry we couldn't have been more help, but we'll appreciate your wishes. We'll back taking our broken glider back for repairs. Good luck with your mission. Feel free to stop by if there's anything else we can do to help." ***** Thyker finally reached the entrance to the area where he was going. Savant had been able to teleport him close, but it had still been a good twenty minute walk to finished his journey. Thyker didn't like trecking through the wilderness. Not that many people were much of a threat to him, but everytime you came here, there was always that risk. Ahead was a caged area where a bunch of lesser demons normally hung around. There were none here now, however. Most likely in Ansa's army. With them gone, the entrance was unguarded. The entrace to the lair of the King Black Dragon. Thyker climbed down the ladder and ran past a group of poisonous spiders before one could bite him. He hadn't brought any poison cure with him, and being bitten could have been a problem. Reaching a lever on the far side of the room, he quickly yanked it and found himself standing in the lair of the King Black Dragon. Thyker immediately pulled out his anti-dragonfire shield. The King Black Dragon was rather aggressive, and his flames were also rather hot. However, he felt no flames. Looking around, he saw that the King Black Dragon was occupied with fighting some warriors. "Excuse me," said Thyker. "Could you stop fighting him for a moment please? I need to speak to this dragon." "Go away, newb!" shouted a person wearing adamantine armor. "We're hoping for a head drop!" One of the warriors landed a finishing blow to three-headed dragon, and it rolled over and died. "Did you get it?" asked one of the warriors. "No," said another. "No head. Just some coins." "I don't get it. It HAD a head. How could you kill it and not get a head?" the first asked. "I don't know," said the other. "I just didn't. Well, let's just kill another." "Seriously," said Thyker. "I just need to talk to him. Could you please stop killing him? It's a matter of saving the world." "I said go away newb!" shouted the one in adamantine. Another King Black Dragon appeared. "Excuse me, Mr. Dragon..." said Thyker, but the King Black Dragon was distracted by the warriors. They fought and fought until the King Black Dragon died again. "Still no head," said one of them. "Honestly," said Thyker. "You can fight him all day. I just need to talk to him for a few minutes." "I said go away newb!" shouted the one in adamantine. "Don't make me report you!" "Report me to who?" asked Thyker. But before any reply was given, another King Black Dragon appeared, and the warriors began fighting it. They once again killed it. "I got it! I got a head!" shouted one of them. "Good," said Thyker. "Now you can leave?" "No," said one of them. "The other two of us need one." "Fine," said Thyker. He ran over and grabbed their anti-dragonfire shields before they could react. They tried to grab him, but his armor was a lot lighter and he got far away from them. Pulling out some runes, Thyker launched a water spell at the shields that melted all three of them. "There, enjoy." "What did you do that for, newb!?" shouted the one in adamantine. "Now I'm going to report you." As soon as he said that, another King Black Dragon appeared. They turned around just as the dragon blew fire at them, and the three of them were burned to a crisp. "Ok, now that I have your attention," said Thyker. "I need to discuss something with you, see..." But as he said that, the dragon blew fire at him. Luckily, Thyker had his shield out and he deflected most of the fire. "I'm not here to fight you." More fire. "I just need to talk to you! It's important!" The fire from the dragon stopped. The King Black Dragon then nudged one of its three heads towards a wall near the back. Thyker followed the implication and walked towards that wall. The dragon did not even attempt to attack as he did it, so Thyker must have gotten through to him. Thyker reached the wall and pushed on it. He found that the wall caved in as he did so. Walking through the wall, Thyker found a large creature on the other side. It was.. a King Black Dragon! Thyker looked back and saw that the King Black Dragon was still outside, as well. Two King Black Dragons? "Who are you?" asked Thyker. "Why, I am the King Black Dragon, young one," said the center head in a booming voice. "But wait... who is that out there then?" asked Thyker. "That's one of my clones of course!" "One of your clones?" "Of course! You've never noticed. Whenever you kill a King Black Dragon, another one appears only a minute or two later. King Black Dragons don't just appear that quickly! That doesn't even make sense. See, warriors want to kill the strongest monsters in Runescape. Now, I could easily kill these adventurers, but that gets annoying after a while. Instead, I just make a weaker clone of myself to give them a good fight, and I drop some loot if they win. They think they're tough, and I don't get bothered. Everybody wins! All of the strong monsters in Runescape do that. Now, let me ask you... why are you here, and why do you want to speak to me?" Thyker explained the situation to the King Black Dragon. "I see," said the King Black Dragon. "Indeed, you are right. I'm certain my magical powers would be strong enough to penetrate a barrier that you could get through. But my question is, what makes you think you can handle me?" "Because I am a strong, brave warrior on a quest endorsed by Guthix himself!" "No no no," said the King Black Dragon. "Physically, you might be able to ride my back. But the King Black Dragons are born of fire. Can you control fire? Can you wield fire?" "Of course!" shouted Thyker. Thyker was lucking out here. Fire spells were his specialty. He pulled out the runes for a fire blast, powered it up, and launched the spell to the ceiling. "See! I control fire." "Bah!" shouted the dragon. "Don't insult me with your parlor tricks. That may be a strong spell for a human, but it's pathetic compared to the dragon's fire. Do you have any other demonstration for me?" "How about this," said Thyker. "If I can beat you in a fight, you let me ride you?" All three of the dragon's heads burst into laughter. "Oh, silly human! You wouldn't stand a chance against me. But, I'll admit, I admire your bravery and your mission, so I will make you a deal. Take this." The dragon threw Thyker a strange token with the emblem of a dragon on it. "When you learn to wield fire, activate that token. I'll send one of my clones to help you. But be warned. That token can only be used once, and my clone will not help you if you haven't learned to wield fire. So be confident that you can convince him when you summon him. Now, begone from my sight." The dragon's eyes glowed, and Thyker felt himself being teleported. A few seconds later, he found himself in Edgeville. Chapter 49: To Wield Fire "Savant, we have a problem," said Thyker, pulling out the com-orb. "Don't worry, I know what happened," said Savant. Thyker paused for a moment. "How do you know what happened? Do you have spies around me or something?" "No!" replied Savant. "You left the com-orb on. I heard the whole thing. That's not a problem as long as you don't have minding privacy, by the way." "Ok, let's get back on subject," said Thyker. "I need to prove to the King Black Dragon that I can control fire. A fire blast wasn't enough. You know a lot more than me... any ideas?" "Actually," replied Savant, "he said you need to wield fire. Which gives me a hint as to what we can do. There's a race of rock-people known as the TzHaar on the island of Karamja. They live underneath that big volcano." "Yeah, I've been there a few times," said Thyker. "What about them?" "Well, they have an item known as a fire cape. It's a sign of great power, and it's literally fire you can wear. If that's not wielding fire, I don't know what is." "There's only one problem," said Thyker. "They have this huge cave you have to fight through to get it. I've tried a few times and was defeated. It could take me months to get one." "Do you have any better ideas?" asked Savant. "Because if you do, you're welcome to try them, but that's the only thing I can think of." "I guess you're right," said Thyker. "Better a slim chance than no chance. Can you teleport me to Karamja?" "Sorry, I cannot," said Savant. "That deep wild teleport used up a lot of power, it'll take me a while to recharge the teleportation matrix. If I used up any more power, I wouldn't have anything left over for an emergency teleport." "Ok then," said Thyker. "It looks like I'm walking to Karamja!" ***** Several days after the incident with the King Black Dragon, Thyker entered the cave of the TzHaars. Normally he would have made the trip in half the time, but having to avoid demons along the way made things difficult. Thyker looked around the city briefly to get his bearings. He had been here before, but it had been a while. After a few minutes of thought, Thyker remembered where the place he needed to go was. The area where the trials took place was known as the "fight cave". In this cave, he would fight wave after wave of monsters, becoming increasingly strong with the waves. If he could defeat all of the waves, he would earn the fire cape. The TzHaars enjoyed fighting, so they considered the cave entertainment to them, which was why they were willing to set-up such an area. They weren't merciless, though; they would keep an eye on the cave and save anyone who was on the verge of death. Thyker had failed at the fight cave a few times, but he had become stronger since. He might stand a chance this time. Thyker found his way to the fight cave. A single TzHaar stood in front of the cave. "Hi," Thyker said to him... or it. The TzHaar nodded and Thyker walked into the fight cave. However, before he could actually enter, the TzHaar stopped him. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked. "I'm going to try to beat the cave, of course," said Thyker. "I'm afraid I can't let you in," he replied. "There's currently someone in there right now. We can't have TWO people in the cave at the same time!" "I guess that's true," Thyker replied. "Don't worry, though," replied the TzHaar guard. "I think he's almost done, and you're the only one who's waiting to go in." Just as he said that, Thyker heard a loud bang inside the cave, and then a lot of cheering. The fighter walked out of the cave. "Congratulations!" shouted the TzHaar guard. "You've defeated Tok! I bestow upon you the fire cape, a symbol of great power." The TzHaar gave the warrior the cape, who instantly put it on his back. The cape looked like a stream of flowing lava. Impresive indeed. "Wait a minute..." thought Thyker. "I know that guy... That's Shadow VII, that incompetent ruler from Soviet Shadowville. Wow, if he can make it through there, this should be a piece of cake for me." "Thanks," said Shadow VII to the TzHaar guard. He then walked off. "Well, looks like it's my turn," said Thyker, walking into the cave. The TzHaar guard stopped him. "Where do you think you're going?" "I'm going into the cave. You said it's empty," replied Thyker. "It is empty," said the TzHaar guard. "But didn't you hear? Tok was beaten. He'll need a few weeks to recover. No more challenges until then." "What!?" shouted Thyker. "I can't wait that long! Look, I need that cape... now!" The TzHaar shrugged... or at least Thyker thought he shrugged. It was kind of hard to tell was a talking rock. "Ok, fine..." said Thyker. Thyker walked off. He had seen Shadow VII... go this way. A few minutes later, Shadow VII was unconscious on the ground, and Thyker's fist was a little sore from punching him in the back of the head. Thyker reached down to grab his fire cape. However, about an inch away from the cape, he found himself unable to move his hand any farther. He moved his hand around in all different ways and directions, but he couldn't get closer than an inch to the fire cape. "Silly human," said a TzHaar. One of the rock-men was standing behind Thyker. For all Thyker knew, it might have been the same one as before. They all looked and sounded the same. "Don't you know that fire capes are untradeable?" "I'm not trading it..." said Thyker. "I'm stealing it." "Either way," said the TzHaar. "You won't be able to touch a cape that wasn't given to you directly by us." "See, the problem is, I need one of those capes. Now! I'd be willing to do the fight cave, but it's shut down for a few weeks. So I need to find some way to get a cape." "Why don't you take the alternate challenge?" "Alternate challenge?" asked Thyker. "Ha. Sure, why not? I'll take your 'alternate challenge'? How much harder than the fight cave could it be?" "Really?" said the TzHaar. It seemed to smile... but once again, the whole trying to interpret the emotions of a rock thing... "That's great! We haven't had someone take the alternate challenge in years!" The TzHaar turned around partway and shouted, "HEY! A HUMAN WANTS TO TAKE THE ALTERNATE CHALLENGE!" As soon as that was said, a hoard of rock-men rushed in a circle around Thyker. He kept hearing TzHaars mumble about the alternate challenge. One rock-man stepped forward. Unlike most TzHaars, this one actually did look a little different. His rocks looked a little more... worn and older, Thyker would say. Probably one of their leaders. "So, young one," said the leader in a soft voice for a TzHaar. "Is it true that you wish to take the alternate challenge?" "Will I get a fire cape if I succeed?" asked Thyker. "Yes you will," said the old TzHaar. "And what does the challenge involve?" asked Thyker. "I can't let out the exact details until you're in the ring," said the old TzHaar. "But it's a fight-based challenged. You'll be going one-on-one against one of our champions." "A one-on-one fight?" asked Thyker. "Wow, that sounds a lot simpler than the fight cave." "You'd think so," said the old TzHaar, seeming to smile (but once again... the rock thing). "If you choose to accept, the fight will take place early tomorrow. We'll place you in one of our rooms to rest up over night. You'll want to be at your peak physical condition for this. So, do you accept?" Thyker didn't realize that the TzHaars had rooms. Probably a rock carved out of a rock with rocks in it. But still, this seemed like his only chance. "Yes, I accept," said Thyker. ***** Thyker lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling. It had been the day before that he had accepted the alternate challenge, and he was now waiting for him to be summoned. He was starting to wonder who his opponent would be, though he couldn't see how it could be any worse than fighting Tok (well, except for Ansa, of course, but somehow Thyker found that to be unlikely). Still, the TzHaars had surprised him. His room was indeed carved inside a rock, but it was filled with standard, comfortable human furniture. Thyker wasn't sure when they'd ever had human visitors who would stay overnight, but he was pleased. In preparation, he had gathered all of the armor and weapons he thought he would need. Unfortunately, he was still stuck with Excalibur for his sword, but he was hoping that combined with Karil's equipment and his magic would be plenty. A TzHaar who looked like all the others walked in without even knocking. "It is time," he said. "Ok," said Thyker, who stood up and followed him out. The TzHaar led him through the caverns of the city and into the fight cave. As he entered the cave, he was surprised to see that there were stands high above the cave, but outside of the battle arena. They were completely filled. Every TzHaar in the city must be there. This must have been a big event for them. "Go ever there," said the TzHaar who led Thyker in. He pointed to the center where Thyker saw two TzHaars standing. After saying that, the TzHaar ran off and out of the cave, closing the entrance behind him. Thyker walked towards the center. He soon recognized one of the TzHaars as being the old rock-man from the day before. Beside him stood another TzHaar that Thyker had never seen before. However, the TzHaar was rather disinct in that it was certainly the largest TzHaar Thyker had ever seen. Sure, the TzHaars were big in general, but Thyker had never really seen one that was any larger than another, yet this one was. Not only that, but the TzHaar had another dinstinctive feature. It was wearing human armor. That was quite uncommon as TzHaars almost never used any armor other than their own. Furthermore, this armor wasn't common human armor. Not even close. For the large TzHaar, who Thyker assumed was to be his opponent, was wearing the armor of Dharok, one of the legendary Mort'ton brothers. Chapter 50: Piercing Stone "Greetings human," said the old TzHaar. "I believe your name was Thyker, yes?" "Correct," Thyker replied, walking the remainder of the way to the center. "Ok then, Thyker," said the old TzHaar. "As promised, I will now describe the details of the challenge. This is Grunkga, champion of the TzHaar. He will be your opponent in this match." "So, what? I just have to beat him in a fight?" Thyker asked. As soon as he said that, the entire crowd of TzHaar burst into laughter. Their voices were so loud that Thyker could feel some of the laughter. Even the old TzHaar seemed to be laughing a little, though he was much more controlled. "Oh, no," said the old TzHaar. "We wouldn't be that unfair. No no, we have a much more reasonable challenge that a human could at least stand a chance at. Take this crossbow bolt," said the old TzHaar, handing Thyker a crossbow bolt. "It's tipped with an onyx gem. Non-enchanted, by the way, so it should function just like any other bolt, except very sharp. Your challenge is to pierce Grunkga's skin with this bolt. Here's a crossbow for you to shoot it with," he said as he handed Thyker a crossbow. "No no," said Thyker waving off his hand, "I have my own." "Very well then," said the TzHaar. "I look forward to meeting you in combat," said Grunkga in a loud voice. "You sound like a brave warrior. You must be if you're willing to try this." "So, let me ask something... if I were to kill Grunkga or not him unconscoius or something..." said Thyker, "could I pierce him with the bolt afterward and win." Grunkga laughed. "Oh, silly human. But yes, if you were to somehow do that, you would win." "Understand that this is a fight to the death for you," said the old TzHaar. "If you do not win, then you could die. Grunkga may choose to spare you if he wishes. Knowing him, if you give him a good fight, he'll let you live. Still knowing this do you accept the challenge?" "Of course," said Thyker. "... If I fail here, I die anyway." "Oh, splendid!" shouted Grunkga. "I believe you will give us a fine fight indeed! The last human who tried it died a little too fast." "The challenge has been accepted!" shouted the old TzHaar. "Now, the two fighters will separate." Thyker and Grunkga each walked back about twelve steps as the old TzHaar walked to the edge of the rink. "You will wait for my signal to begin." The old TzHaar put his hand up in the air. Thyker eyed Grunkga closely. He didn't seem to be preparing anything. Still, from what Thyker knew, he should be careful. TzHaars were strong in general, and this one seemed even stronger. Furthermore, if Thyker recalled correctly, Dharok's armor was capable of increasing its wearer's physical strength significantly. And it's weapon was an enormous axe. Bottom line: Thyker better not let Grunkga get close. His best option was to end it quickly and from a distance. The old TzHaar flung his hand downwards. "Begin!" Thyker reached to his back and pulled out Karil's crossbow. Loading in the onyx-tipped bolt, he aimed at Grunkga using Karil's accuracy. "Ok, let's end this," he said softly, unleashing the bolt. Grunkga either couldn't or didn't move. A direct hit! It only took a second for Thyker to realize the problem; the bolt harmlessly bounced off of Grunkga's strong armor. No skin was pierced. Just as this happened Grungka began to charge forward. The TzHaars were rather slow by nature, but Grunkga's size gave him long strides, and he soon closed the distance. Upon getting within a few steps of Thyker, he swung his mighty great axe down to split Thyker in half. Thyker quickly jumped a few steps to the side... he knew he definitely didn't want to get hit by that thing. The axe smashed into the ground a safe distance from Thyker. He had dodged this attack, at least. However, Thyker realized soon after that the force of the blow had actually smashed the axe over a foot into the ground, and the ground around it was responding. The ground cracked and shaked underneath Thyker, causing him to lose his balance as he was belt by large rocks unleashed by the blow. Thyker stumbled back a few steps, covering his face with his arms. When he regained his balance, he looked to see that the axe's blow had smashed a whole half the size of Thyker's body in the ground, as well as cracks and small holes that propagated outward from it. And that was through solid rock! "Yeah... definitely don't want to get hit by that..." thought Thyker. "Well, it looks like the bolt can't penetrate his armor. I'll just have to beat him in a fight and then pierce him afterwards." Thyker pulled out one of the explosive bolt racks and loaded it into Karil's crossbow. He unleashed the bolt just as Grunkga began pulling his axe up. The bolt struck his left side and exploded. It was a direct hit, but Thyker immediately realized the problem. The explosion ripped a small piece of Grunkga's armor out, but because of Grunkga's strength and size, as well as the strength of the armor, the explosion didn't even move him one bit. Sure, Thyker had seen the same thing happen to Glough, but with Glough, it was a strong, magical armor that was absorbing the attack. In this case, it was a living being that was strong enough to withstand him. It could be hard to take down this stone. Grunkga started charing towards Thyker again. Thyker immediately turned around and starting dashing away. "Have to stay away, have to stay away..." Thyker thought to himself as he ran. In the mean time, it gave him time to try to think of a plan. As he ran, some of the TzHaars in the audience started to boo. Apparently they didn't consider running to be much of a fight. However, Grunkga himself said nothing, and merely continued to chase him. Grungka was starting to catch up to Thyker, and Thyker had to do something. He reached into his rune pouch while he was running, then quickly stopped, turned around, and let out a hurricane-like blast. The strong forces of the wind and water stopped Grunkga in his tracks for a moment, and even started making his momentum go backward. Maybe he wasn't so unmoveable after all. Thyker dashed right into Grunkga before he could react, and using all of the momentum he picked up while running, jumped forward and kicked Grunkga in the chest. Thyker might as well have kicked a wall. The kick didn't seem to move Grunkga an inch, and Thyker actually flew backwards. However, he maintained control and was able to land on his feet. By the time Thyker had landed, Grunkga was already charging again. Thyker jumped back as fast as he could, but the axe was already swining down. It missed Thyker, but he was even closer to the strike than he was the first time, and he was pelted severely with a showever of rocks. Thyker flew backwards and landed face down on the hard ground. While laying there, he started hearing the crowd chanting, "Unk! Unk! Unk! Unk!" He didn't know if that was some TzHaar cheer or if it was a reference to Grunkga's name, but either way, it annoyed Thyker. Thyker got to one knee and, breathing deeply, turned around to see Grunkga standing there. "They may not like your running action," said Grunkga, "but they are not as skilled a warrior as I. They do not understand the strategy that a physically weaker being must undergo as a fight. I see your actions not as cowardish and ignorance, but as bravery and foresight. You've impressed me, and thus I will give you one chance, and one chance only. You may surrender now and I will end this fight. You can walk away alive." Thyker got back to his feet. "No can do. If I lose this fight, I die in a few weeks anyway. So I have nothing to lose." Grunkga nodded... or at least Thyker thought he did. "I understand, and I respect your decision. However, I must now do my duty and finish you, then." "You might find that I'm full of surprises," said Thyker. He pulled out Karil's crossbow and launched a normal bolt at Grunkga. The bolt harmlessly bounced off of his armor with a ping. Thyker repeated it a second, then a third time. They both bounced off harmlesly. Just as Thyker expected. But that wasn't the point. Grunkga took a step forward than held his head. "Huh... I feel a little dizzy." Thyker took the opportunity to pull out some runes and cast a telekentic grab spell on the onyx-tipped bolt. He would need it if he were to win the fight. "Oh well, just a minor thing," Grunkga continued, and then started to charged towards Thyker. "You've got to be kidding me!" Thyker thought. "Three bolts, and that's all. He must be so big and thick-skinned that the effect dissipates." Grunkga reached Thyker and swung his axe downward. Thyker quickly darted backwards and was able to get out of the range of the attack for the most part. He still got hit by a few stones that flung by him, but it was minor compared to the last two times. "Time for the big guns," Thyker thought. "This drains more power than a fire blast, but it might be strong enough to work." Thyker pulled out the Guthix staff that Anthrado had given him. Grunkga seemed to look at the staff curiously as he pulled the axe out of the ground. Thyker thought back to what Anthrado had taught him about using the spell. A complicated spell, but he had learned it fairly well and fairly quickly. "Here's the Claws of Guthix!" Thyker shouted at the rock-man. As soon as that was said, a green talon-like object materialized close to the ground underneath Grunkga. Before he could react, the object flung itself past Grunkga, hitting into his armor along the way. The object didn't penetrate the armor, but left a large dent where it struck. The force of the attack knocked Grunkga off balance and sent him back a step. As soon as this hit, a second talon appeared to Grunkga's right in midair and streaked across his back with the same effect as before. A third, then a fourth, then a fifth talon did the same thing. Objects kept materializing around Grunkga and striking him before he could react. He lost control of what was happening. A few of the talons even poked small holes into Grunkga's armor. Still nothing that would win Thyker the match. Then, suddenly, Thyker saw a break just about as good as he could have hoped for. One of the talons slashed across Grunkga's arm, and he dropped the axe. As it was falling towards the ground, Thyker let one more talon slash at Grunkga to keep him off balance, then released the spell and rushed forward, pulling out the appropriate runes. Grunkga flung one of his arms out in an attempt to grab the axe, but before he could, Thyker had gotten close and unleashed a hurricane-like spell. The axe was heavy compared to most weapons but certainly lighter than most people, and the blast sent the axe a good ten yards away; well out of Grunkga's reach. Without the axe, Grunkga was less of a threat to Thyker. Thyker backed up a few steps in fear of a counter-attack, but none materialized. He examined Grunkga and tried to find some opening he could take advantage of. However, Grunkga simply turned around and started walking towards his axe. "Can't let him get it again!" thought Thyker. "Not after all that..." With his back turned, Grunkga couldn't defend himself. Thyker grabbed the runes for a fire blast and loose the spell. The spell hit Grunkga, but aside from burning his armor a little, didn't seem to do much. Of course... those things did live with lava. "Well, he's a bit over-confident." Thyker rushed towards Grunkga, who was still walking away with his back turned. "Now's my chance." As Thyker got close, he cast a spell to shift the ground around Grunkga's feet. The spell tripped him up and he started to stumble forward. As he did, Thyker thrust of all of the spiritual power he could muster into a strength-boosting prayer. He swept-kicked out Grunkga's legs, causing them to separate from the ground. In the process, Thyker banged up his leg fairly badly, but there was no time for that now. Grabbing Grunkga's legs, one with each hand, he took advantage of the forward moment to swing him around in a circle a few times. When he had built up enough speed, he released Grunkga, who flew through the air and landed on the ground. Upon landing, he broke through at least a foot of the ground and continued to slide forward, leaving a trench in the ground behind where he had slid. Thyker realized the crowd had gone silent in anticipation. Thyker felt exhausted; Grunkga was as heavy as you'd expect a rock to be, and throwing him had taken a lot of energy. Still, Thyker had to finish things. Thyker rushed forward and loaded the onyx-tipped bolt into his crossbow. The only opening he could think of was his face, which was open on the front side of his helmet. Thyker planned to shoot him in the face, but wanted to try to avoid a critical strike with it... Grunkga HAD been rather sportsmanlike. Still, if push came to shove, he'd kill Grunkga if he had too; they were all dead, anyway, if Thyker didn't win this fight. Thyker ran even closer to Grunkga who was still on the ground. Grunkga's feet were the closest thing to Thyker, and as a result, he still couldn't see Grunkga's face. Only one good option. Upon getting close to Grunkga, Thyker jumped in the air so that he was hovering slightly over Grunkga's body. From there, he could see Grunkga's face. The shot was open! Thyker aimed the crossbow using Karil's abilities and suddenly felt a crushing blow in his chest. He looked down to see that Grunkga, still lying on the floor, had kicked him with one of his massive legs. The blow sent Thyker careening through the air and smashing into the unmoving ground. Thyker struggled to recover his breath. Thyker got back up to one knee but found himself unable to get up anymore. Grunkga had recovered his axe and was walking back towards Thyker, just like an executioner. Thyker pulled the onyx-tipped bolt into the crossbow. It was still intact. He still had a chance. As Grunkga walked closer, Thyker showed Grunkga the onyx-tipped bolt from a distance. "See, I still have it. There's still a chance." "Yes, there is," said Grunkga calmly. "And I wish you all the luck that you will succeed with it, but I will not sit idly be and let it hit." Thyker loaded the bolt in his hand into the crossbow. Using Karil's accuracy, he aimed at the small hole in the left side of Grunkga's armor. It was the hole that had been created early on by the bolt rack. It exposed rocky flesh to Thyker's sight. He let loose the bolt with perfect accuracy, but Grunkga moved his body so that the bolt instead hit the armor surrounding the hole. In other words... a miss. Thyker panted on one knee as Grunkga finished walking up to him. "A good fight indeed." Grunkga raised his axe into the air... like an executioner. Thyker lunged forward the little he could and pounded Grunkga's armor with his left hand. A futile move of course. Grunkga moved the axe down a little just as the old TzHaar shouted, "Grunkga, stop! The fight is over." Chapter 51: A Titanic Clash Grunkga nodded. "Yes. It appears that it is over." The old TzHaar walked towards where Thyker and Grunkga remained motionless. After getting within a few steps of them, he shouted, "And the winner is Thyker!" The crowd erupted into applause. Their representative lost, but that didn't matter because the TzHaars loved a fight. The crowd was now beginning to see what had happened. The onyx bolt was pierced into Grunkga's left side, where the hole had been blasted open from the bolt rack. Thyker's right hand was holding it in place. "Very good," said Grunkga, looking down at him. "An interesting twist on the rules. The rules never stated that the bolt had to be launched from the crossbow, only that it had to pierce my skin. So you hit me with your left hand to make an excuse for getting in close, meanwhile piercing the bolt into my side with your right hand. I have one question for you, though. I saw you launch the bolt at me only moments earlier. How did you get it back?" Thyker huffed a few times, catching his breath. "Look over there," he said, nodding with his head. "I think you'll understand." Grunkga walked over to where Thyker had nodded. It was where Grunkga had been standing when Thyker had launched the bolt from his crossbow only moments before piercing him with it. On the ground lay the bolt. Only it wasn't an onyx bolt... it was just a normal crossbow bolt. "I see," said Grunkga. "So you never really fired the onyx bolt... you just made it look that way. You're a credit to your race." Thyker had recovered a little bit and finally stood up. He walked over to where Grunkga was standing. The old TzHaar followed him, a fire cape in his hands. "Thyker, for your exploits, I bequeath to you a fire cape." Grunkga handed Thyker the fire cape. This time his hand wasn't prevented from touching it. He threw it on his back. To wield fire. "That was a most impressive battle!" shouted Grunkga. "I hope to fight you again sometime. Perhaps give you a slightly more difficult challenge." Thyker groaned. He hoped he'd ever have to deal with a tougher challenge against Grunkga. He wouldn't be fooled by such a trick next time, Thyker suspected. "And I must say, you look most impressive in that cape!" he shouted, slapping Thyker on the back in a congratulatory fashion. Unfortunately, Grunkga didn't put any control into it, and the slap knocked Thyker flat on his face. Thyker groaned. Grunkga was dangerous even when they weren't fighting. ***** Thyker looked out from the shores of the Fremenik Village. Across the sea, but out of sight, was his target. Moonclan Island. And the floating essence. And Ansa. He had rested up for a few days in the TzHaar village; it was important to rest before a fight of this magnitude. He then walked for a few days to the Fremenik village. He wanted to work with the King Black Dragon's clone for as little time as possible; it was unpredictable how that monster would handle him. Fremenik was about as far as he could go. Any farther and he might risk Ansa seeing him. Thyker palmed the dragon-engraved token in his hand. He wasn't sure if the fire cape would be enough to bring the dragon under his control, but it was the best shot he had. This would be his only chance to try it, according to the real King Black Dragon. Still... he had wasted enough time. Within a week, Ansa could be completing the charging of the rune. He had run out of time. Thyker focused for a moment. He couldn't let himself get worked up. He had to remember his mission. He wasn't here to kill Ansa, just to stop her. His mission was to place the seals and imprison her. She would likely try to throw him off. He couldn't let that happened. His mission was the SEALS. Should that not work, there was always Plan B. But Plan B was a long shot, and he would only have one try. He would rather avoid Plan B. Thyker pulled the com-orb out of his pocket. "Savant, I'm going to leave the com-orb on during the fight. Incase I need some emergency information." "Not a problem," said Savant from the orb. "I'll keep an eye during the fight. Good luck." "Thanks..." Thyker said. He crushed the token in his hand. It was the only way he could think of activating it. For ten minutes, he scanned the horizon and saw nothing. Had he activated the token the wrong way? He continued to search. There was no telling how long it would take a dragon's clone to get here, so it's better just to remain patient. Thyker's patience paid off. Minutes later, he saw a three-headed dragon flying from the east. That was even faster than he had expected. The dragon landed on the shoreline near Thyker. "You have summoned me," said the central head. "You have been told that to control me, you must prove that you control fire. Do you have the proof that you control fire?" "I do," said Thyker confidently. Well, outwardly confident. The fire cape was hanging on his back, and he pulled part of it to the front to show it to the dragon clone. Thyker had long since realized that the cape was actually quite hot but it didn't affect him, allowing him to touch it. "Do you see? I wield fire. I control fire." The dragon clone stared at the cape for several seconds. The three heads moved in different directions, seeming to get different views of it. "Indeed, you control fire. Your proof is acceptable. I will assist you." "Good," said Thyker, jumping onto the dragon's back. He started to explain the situation, but the dragon said, "I am well aware of the situation. Being a clone of the true King Black Dragon, I have all of his memories up to the point of my creation. Thus, there is no reason to explain anything to me." "Ok, then," said Thyker. "To the island!" The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the dragon clone kicked off into the air. The sudden jerk almost threw him off the dragon, but he managed to keep hold. The dragon was fast, even faster than the gliders had been. Moonclan Island started to come into view, though he couldn't see the floating island yet. "Mr. King Black Dragon," said Thyker, "when you reach the island, will you assist in the fight?" "I will if you wish me to," said the dragon clone. "As a clone, my entire purpose is to fight, and any excuse is satisfactory." Thyker nodded, though he knew the dragon couldn't see him. That was good news. Ansa was more powerful than the dragon, but the dragon was still quite powerful and would be a great distraction to allow Thyker to place the seals and charge up the necessary spiritual power. It wasn't much longer before they reached the island. In the case of the gliders, Thyker had wanted to sneak in below, but it was clear that the dragon clone was much too large for such a tactic. "Fly in from high above the island! That will allow us to see what Ansa is doing!" "Can do," said the dragon clone, soaring high into the sky. The dragon flew above the island. It was rather far below. Ansa was small, but she was the only person on the island, and thus not too hard to make it. "I'm going in, hold on tight," said the dragon, suddenly plunging downward. Thyker grabbed the dragon's neck tightly and held on for dear life. While he didn't like the sudden free fall, the speed he was coming in at would sure make it difficult for Ansa to react. As they were going down, Thyker suddenly saw some objects flying upwards at them. Thyker immediately recognized them from the previous fight. "Those ice crystals are dangerous, watch out!" he shouted. The dragon clone veered to the side and dodged the crystals, but the dodge made him miss landing on the island. The dragon clone plunged downward past the side of the island and ended up below it. "Don't worry," said the dragon clone. "I'll come in for another pass. This time I'll be ready for it." The dragon clone swooped back upwards above the surface of the island. There strange, circular glow around Ansa. They had only seen it for a second when a large, black demon appeared. "Oh great," said Thyker. "She must have taken the chance to summon a black demon." Black demons were the largest and most vicious of the demons in this world (Thyker was unsure as to what other demons might exist in the demon dimension). While comparable in size to the King Black Dragon, a black demon was a good deal weaker than something of the strength of the King Black Dragon, so Thyker wasn't too concerned. The event was more of a nuisance than a problem. "It's kind of strange though," said Thyker. "Ansa has to know that a black demons is no much for a dragon of your power. It's not like her to do something like that." The dragon clone's left head seem to nod up and down at the agreement of Thyker's inadvertent compliment. By this point, the dragon clone was flying towards the island from the side this time, getting ready to land. They were close enough to see Ansa's movement. She touched her hands together for a moment, then touched the black demon. He could faintly hear, "Berserker unleashed!", though in reality she must have said it rather loud if Thyker heard it from where he was. With that, the black demon began to glow with magical energy, its eyes turned red, and its expression became even fiercer than before. "I'm not liking the look of that," said Thyker. As soon as he finished saying that, the demon charged directly at the dragon clone. One of the heads of the dragon unleashed a stream of fire, but the demon ran right through it and tackled the the dragon clone. The two went falling downwards off the side of the island, Thyker still on the dragon's back. The demon and dragon were clutching each either, but both opened their wings and caught flight. The demon was clawing at the dragon, and the dragon was biting the demons with its three heads. Thyker ran up onto the right head of the dragon and begin slashing the demon with Excalibur, but it seemed to do little. The demon threw the dragon a little, and Thyker lost his balance and fell off of the dragon. As Thyker was falling, the dragon launched its ice, poison, and fire blasts at the demon at the same time (one from each head). The attack pushed the demon back and made it let go. The dragon clone darted down through the air and picked Thyker up while he was falling. Thyker clammered back onto the dragon's back. "Thyker," said the dragon, "it will be easier for me to fight without you. I'll try to drop you off on the island. It will be up to you." "Thank you," said Thyker. "That will be plenty." The dragon clone started flying back up towards the island. As he flew up, the demon came swarming down at him. Thyker could see its left claw glowing with a strange color. "Look out!" Thyker shouted, but it was too late. The demon rammed into the dragon clone and drove its left claw deep into the area underneath the dragon's right wing. "Don't worry," said the dragon clone. "I'm fine. It's just a scratch." The dragon once again hit the demon with a barrage of poison, ice, and fire, which sent it careening backwards and into the side of the island. The dragon flew upwards at blinding speed and landed ontop of the island very close to the edge. "Quick, get off!" the dragon shouted. Thyker ran off the back and down the head, stepping foot on the island. Just as soon as he got off, he saw the demon tackle into the dragon, and they both fell below the island again. Thyker ran to the edge of the island and looked down, but wasn't able to see them. "No," Thyker thought. "Can't worry about him. He's doing his part, you have to do yours." Thyker turned around and saw the devourer, still in her human appearance, wearing Ansa's robes, standing near the center of the island. Thyker started walking in her direction, but stopped about twenty feet away from her. He didn't want to get too close to her. Not until he was ready, at least. "Ansa," he said.

Chapter 44: Unmasked, Unveiled, and Unleashed "But why?" asked Thyker to the gnome in the armor. "I don't get it." "Come now," said General Hardigan. "You didn't honestly think I would accept the fate you had laid out for me. Oh no. I've escaped your little trapped and decided it's time to seek my revenge." "What are you talking about?" asked Thyker. "Ah, I see. You don't recognize me. Perhaps if I released the illusion, you would understand better." Hardigan's shape shimmered and transformed until he took the shape of another gnome. Thyker's eyes went wide. "Glough. How did you ever get out of your cell?" "As luck would have it, a met a couple useful allies. I think you know one of them, and I know that you know the other. One was kind enough to trick a gnome into thinking that he was me. We put him in the cell in my place. The one who did that was Malak; I know that you know him. The other placed an illusion on me to change my appearance. He's the one that I only think you know of." Thyker thought for a moment but drew a blank. "Who?" he asked. Inside Brimstail's cave, a similar conversation was occuring. "My real name," said Brimstail, "is Gloupherie. Since you can see threw the illusion, I see no reason to keep it going." Brimstail's shape changed until it became the shape of another gnome wizard. "So, you're that old wizard I've read about?" asked Janrok. Marik stood there with a confused look; no time to explain to him what Janrok knew. He would just have to keep up on his own. "Correct," said Gloupherie. "And now I have a question for you," he said as he turned to the wierd machine there. "I see that the illusion dispelling machine is off, so how is it that you are able to see through my illusion?" "With this," said Janrok as he pointed to one of his eyes. "With this, I can see through techniques and to what they do. As a result, tricks of the eye, such of illusions, are useless against me. I know your magic is all about illusions, so I suggest you give up now. Your main strength is neutralized. There is something I am curious about, though. I see some strange... thing... affecting the gnomes. I'm sure you have something to do with it. What is it?" A similar conversation continued outside between Thyker and Glough, who was more than happy to show off his triumph to Thyker. "The gnomes you see around you... they're all controlled by one of Gloupherie's spells. The spell alters their thoughts to change how they think. It's not really mind control. Instead, it makes them think in a different way. In particular, they've all been made to think that Gloupherie's commands are absolute." "Ok," said Thyker. "Then where are all the gnomes? Have you ordered them away?" "Ah, patience Thyker. The spell takes a long time to cast. We can only handle so many gnomes in a certain period of time. The gnomes have all been rounded up. One-by-one, Gloupherie is altering their minds. Of course, we're starting with the most important ones." "Like King Narode..." said Thyker. "Exactly!" shouted Glough. "That pest is now under our control. There's no need to seize power from him. He can keep his power; we simply control him. Thus, any power that is his is also ours." "Then what about Brimstail?" asked Thyker. "Gnomes don't have many mages... I'm surprised to hear that Gloupherie illusioned himself to look like him instead of of controlling him." Inside the cave, the same conversation went on. "You see," said Gloupherie, "Brimstail himself seems rather resistant to the spell. I can alter him, but like some of the other gnomes, it will take time. We need gnomes to control the magical weaponry, however. So I'd rather have ten weak gnomes than one powerful one like Brimstail." "Magical weaponry?" asked Janrok. "Indeed," replied Gloupherie. "Without it, we couldn't have succeeded in our little coup. The weapons were so powerful that it allowed us to take the majority of the gnomes and capture them. Once captured, they couldn't stop us, and we could begin the slow process of cast the mind-altering spell." "But where did you get such powerful magical weapons from?" asked Janrok. "It's all thanks to you," said Glough on the outside. "It was you who figured out how to transport the weapons from the fairies to us without King Narode finding out. Oh! The irony when I found out it would be you, of ALL people, who would be helping us. You're seeing one of the weapons now. An incredibly powerful magical armor. But I don't need to tell you that; you've experienced it first hand." "What do you need these little toys for?" asked Thyker. "For the invasion of course! You're going to die soon, so I see no harm in telling you. A secret council has been formed which will soon overthrow the current rulers of the world. And I shall become one of the new rulers, thanks to these magical weapons!" "You idiot!" shouted Thyker. "The council is shattered. Ansa is going to destroy the earth. This isn't the time for this." "Come now," said Glough. "Don't take me for a fool. I haven't heard anything about the council breaking apart. Ansa is strange, no doubt, but she isn't powerful enough to destroy the world. You're just trying to bluff me. Well, it won't work." "I don't have time for this..." grumbled Thyker. He pulled out his dragonite dagger and ran towards Glough. He'd have to settle this the hard and fast way. He swung the dagger directly at Glough before Glough could move his armor. The dagger hit the armor and bounced off harmlessly. Harmlessly was an understatement! There wasn't even a scratch on the armor. Glough chuckled, and Thyker saw one of the armor's hands swing round towards him. Thyker pulled out his shield to block the attack. The hand struck the shield and Thyker went flying. He soared a few feet above the ground until he slammed into a tree, and slumped to the ground. Thyker got back to his feet. That suit of armor was powerful. He couldn't hurt it, and his shield was almost useless against it. Obviously, his standard tactics weren't going to work. This pathetic gnome might put up a harder fight than Thyker would have expected after all... "So," said Janrok, "release the gnomes and I think you can avoid getting hurt." Gloupherie shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't comply." "Come on," replied Janrok. "Your illusions are useless against me. You can't possibly think that you stand a chance." Gloupherie shrugged. He stood there for a moment until several Gloupheries jumped out of his body and started moving around the room. Janrok counted a total of eight Gloupheries. Of course, seven of them were merely illusions, and Janrok could see that. "Why is he doing this?" thought Janrok. "He knows very well I can see right through them." Janrok heard something swng through the air. He turned to see Marik swinging his hammer at one of the illusions. The illusionary Gloupherie shimmered and distorted as the hammer swung through, then returned to normal. "Calm down, Marik," Janrok told him. "Most of them are illusions." Janrok scanned the room and found the real Gloupherie. "The real one is over there," he said as he pointed to the real mage. As soon as he said that, the Gloupheries quickly moved around the room. The moved so quickly and randomly that Marik couldn't keep track of which one was which. "Clever," Janrok thought. "With those illusions, it will be me versus Gloupherie; Marik won't be able to help." "Special attack!" Marik shouted, striking the ground with his hammer. The tidal wave of earth swung forward in front of him. Both the real and illusionary Gloupheries jumped out of the way. "Marik, be careful! You can just use that special attack randomly. You can only use it a few times." "Oh," said Marik, looking around the room in a confused manner. The situation had to be tough on him. Janrok could see what ws really going on, but Marik was seeing eight enemies. "Marik, just relax. I can see through Gloupherie's spell, but you can't. Stay out of the way, I can handle this." Marik grudingly ran to the corner of the room. Janrok looked around the room and spotted the real Gloupherie again. A fireball appeared in the real mage's hand, and the fireball shot towards Janrok. He jumped out of the way of the attack and threw a knife back in response. However, the real Gloupherie got out of the way before the knife could hit him. Janrok saw an illusion to his side creating a similar fireball. "I get it," though Janrok. "He's trying to distract me with the illusions. But I know I'm safe as long as I keep an eye on the real Gloupherie." The illusionary fireball flew threw the air and struck Janrok. As it touch him, it shimmered and distorted as it flew threw him. When it had passed him, it returned to its normal appearance. As Janrok suspected, the illusionary fireball had done nothing. A second illusion tried to do the same trick. It powered up a fireball and launched it at Janrok. "He'll likely try to sneak up behind me," thought Janrok. Janrok turned his back to the fireball and searched for the real Gloupherie. As he suspected, the real Gloupherie was behind him, powering up another fireball. Janrok grabbed a knife and wound up, only to feel a searing pain in his back. He turned his head quickly to see the source; the fireball he had turned his back to. "That's impossible!" Janrok thought. "That was only an illusion." The impact sent him stumbling forward. As this happened, the real Gloupherie shot his fireball, and Janrok stumbled right into it. The impact knocked him flat onto his back. Janrok groaned. "What was that all about?" he thought. A fireball shot by an illusion can't do anything. Perhaps... perhaps the real Gloupherie could hide which one was really the illusion! Janrok stood up again and pulled out an iron knife. As he scanned the room, he saw one of the illusions powering up a fireball. He waited for the right moment where Gloupherie wouldn't be able to dodge. Just as the illusion was launching the fireball, Janrok threw his knife at that illusion. The knife and the fireball flew past each other. The knife struck the illusion, and Gloupherie shimmered and distorted as the knife went through him, returning to normal afterward. "So it was just an illusion..." Janrok thought. Janrok forgot about the fireball which had been launched at him for a moment, and that was enough. The fireball hit him, and he stumbled a few steps backwards. "The fireball was real!" Janrok thought. "But how can an illusion throw a real fireball!" Janrok felt another fireball hit him from the side, which sent him into another fireball. "This isn't posssible!" Thyker swung his dagger at the suit of armor. It harmlessly bounced off. A hand of the armor came down at him. Thyker jumped back as it smashed a hole into the ground, then ran up the arm and jumped to the other side. He landed on the ground, and as he turned, he activated an ultimate strenght prayer. He used the increase power to unleash a smashing, double-strike special attack into the armor. However, both strikes bounced off of the armor harmlessly. The armor began removing its hand from the ground, and Thyker dashed several jumped away from the armor. Once he reached that distance, he powered up a fire spell engulfed the armor in flames. The flames soon cleared, and the armor was left unscathed, now facing Thyker. "Oh, Thyker," said Glough from inside. "How I've waited for this for a long time. Seeing you, powerless, as I felt in that cell. I think I'll play with you for a little bit." "I hate to admit it," thought Thyker, "but he does seem to have the upper hand. But I've been outclassed against much better fighters than him. I'll pull through it. Every armor has a weakness; I just need to find where this one's is." Thyker powered up another fire spell and let it loose at the armor. Given that the first attack hadn't worked, he knew this one wouldn't work either, but he was hoping enough attacks would reveal some weakness. As the fireball traveled towards the armor a strange, small sphere of energy appeared in front of the armor and was thrown forward. The energy disintegrated the fireball and kept traveling until it hit Thyker. When it hit Thyker, it exploded and knocked him to his back. "Ugh," said Thyker as he stood back up. "I never expected him to counter-attack like that." As Thyker straightened up, he realized that Glough was right in front of him. The armor punched him before he could react, and he went flying until he hit into the trunk of a tree. The impact into the tree knocked the breath out of him. When Thyker caught his breath, he realized Glough was dashing straight towards him. "I guess this is as good a time as ever to try the big one," thought Thyker as he pulled out Karil's crossbow. He loaded in an explosive bolt rack and launched it at Glough. Either Glough didn't have time to react or he didn't care, because the bolt rack hit the armor dead on and exploded. The armor didn't even slow down, and it let out a punch which Thyker didn't even have time to dodge. The force of the punch broke the tree trunch and sent Thyker through it. Thyker landed hard on the ground several leaps away. Chapter 45: A [racist term] In The Armor Janrok stood up. Again. All of his attempts had been futile. He hadn't gotten any hits in on Gloupherie as far as he could tell. Nor could he determine how it was that illusions were lobbing spells at him. Sometimes the spells were simply illusions, but often they were real. And all the while, as he tried to figure it out, Janrok continued to be struck over and over. Janrok threw another knife at an illusionary Gloupherie, and it passed through it like normal. As Janrok did this, the illusion powered up a fireball and launched it at Janrok. The fireball struck and and sent him back to the ground. Janrok lay on his back looking at the ceiling. "His illusions are useless against my Gaze of Saradomin. There must be some way to stop him." Janrok saw something dart by out of the corner of his eye. He rolled over and got to one knee to see that it was Marik. "Marik, get back! I told you, you can't see through his illusion!" Marik swung his hammer at one of the Gloupheries. That Gloupherie did not shimmer; instead, the tiny mage was sent into the air and landed on the ground on the other side of the cave. All of the illusions stopped. "But... how did you know that was him?" asked Janrok. Janrok's eyes had been able to detect that was indeed the real Gloupherie... but Marik shouldn't have been able to. "I've been watching the fight," said Marik. "I noticed that he was the only Gloupherie that was acting almost everytime a fireball was launched. Almost every time another Gloupherie would launch a fireball, his hands would be thrown in that direction for a short amount of time. I'm not sure what it means, but he was the only one who was doing it, so I figured there must be a reason." Janrok stood up and looked around the room for a moment. The real Gloupherie was starting to stand up as well. "I get it now," said Janrok. He chuckled a little. "Here, I thought I was the one seeing clearly, but you've been taking advantage of that all along. You would power up your own fireballs right in front of the illusions, making it look like they were casting the spell. Of course, illusions can't cast spells. Since I could see which ones were illusions, I would of course assume the fireballs were real and dodge them. And to confuse me even more, you were throwing a few illusionary ones in here and there. Of course, both the illusionary fireballs and the real fireballs were spells, so they wouldn't look much different to my Gaze, and I was so focused on the illusions of yourself that I couldn't notice the difference. A normal person would have tried to dodge those blasts and had little problem, but you were using my Gaze against me. Making me choose NOT to try to dodge the attacks." Janrok pointed one of his knives at the real Gloupherie. "But not any more!" shouted Janrok. "I see through your trick." "Very good," replied Gloupherie. "There's more to an illusion than simply altering something's appearance. Let's see if you can keep up." The eight Gloupheries started moving around again. One of them launched a fireball. Janrok couldn't tell if it was real or fake, so he jumped out of the way. As he landed, a second fireball came in, and Janrok dodged it. Suddenly, Janrok noticed that almost every Gloupherie was powering up a fireball. The all released at the same time, spraying an area around him. Janrok felt one of them strike him, and he was knocked a step to the side. "He's not going to fool me this time," thought Janrok. "I know his game. He probably can't launch more than one spell at a time. That's why I only felt one hit. So I just have to make sure I dodge the real one." Most of the Gloupheries powered up fireballs again and launched them at Janrok. Janrok ran forward, jumped, and rolled to completely get out of the way of the attacks, unable to determine which one was real. As he stood up, another wave of fireballs came in. He felt one strike him, and he was knocked forward a step. "Relax, Janrok," he thought. Janrok could see Marik swinging at the Gloupheries. His attacks were in vain. He was basically just attacking illusions, and even when he wasn't, the real Gloupherie simply dodged the attack and shuffled around until Marik was clueless as to where he had gone. Still, Marik seemed to be distracting the real one at the moment, which gave Janrok a short reprieve. Janrok found the real Gloupherie. This is where his clue would be. He looked for the motions that Marik had talked about. And... there! The real Gloupherie threw his hands to the side a little. Janrok could see the essence of the attack, almost as if little strings were controlling it. They were attached to the fireball powering up near one of the illusions to his left. The fireballs launched, and Janrok dodged only the attack that one illusion had launched. The other fireballs hit him and simply shimmered and distorted as they passed through him. Janrok had Gloupherie's number now. And by the expression on the mage's face, he knew it too. No longer afraid of Gloupherie's attacks, Janrok unleashed a salvo of knives at Gloupherie. Gloupherie dodged the first bunched, but a second bunch drew blood as they whisked by him. Gloupherie had a look of shock on his face, and the illusions started to swirl around extremely quickly. Yet, none of them launched any attacks, not even fake ones. Then, as sudden as they had started moving, the vanished. "Well, it looks like he's finally giving up... thought Janrok." Just as he thought that, Janrok had a feeling that his ribs were being crushed. He stumbled forward with his breath knocked out of him. Janrok turned his head to see where the attack had come from. "Marik, what are you doing!?" Janrok shouted at his assailant! ***** Thyker picked himself up from the ground. It looked like he had beaten, but it wasn't a complete loss. When Glough had hit him, Thyker noticed a little damage in the armor near where the bolt rack had exploded. It was small, but it proved two things to Thyker: that the armor COULD be damaged, and that Thyker had weaponry capable of doing it. Thyker loaded another bolt rack into the crossbow as Glough's armor started charging towards Thyker. Thyker drew from Karil's experience to aim the bolt well. It would take an awefully good shot for this to work. Thyker unleashed the bolt, which hit the armor and exploded. As before, the armor just kept coming, but Thyker was ready this time. The armor reached him, and Thyker rolled out of the way. One of the arms came smashing down towards Thyker, but he jumped out of the way of that. The armor might move a large distance fast, but in close range, it wasn't very agile. Thyker examined the army quickly and sighed. The bolt rack had hit a few inches to the side of the few explosion. This one did damage as well, but no more than the first one had. Thyker's only chance of penetrating the armor like this would be to land a few shots in the same place. The problem was that, no matter how accurate Karil was as a ranger, he couldn't control the movements of the armor, and getting several shots in the exact same spot on a moving target would be tough. "I have to stop them now," thought Thyker. "These magical armors are incredible. I'm not sure how many Glough has, but a few could easily take out a considerable army if the army was unprepared for it." Glough picked up the arm of the armor, and Thyker jumped back a few steps in order to prevent Glough from quickly striking again. "Well, I guess I better try the strongest thing I can." Thyker pulled out the runes required to cast a fire blast. If this spell didn't have enough power to break through the armor, chances are no other spell would. Thyker began drawing magical power through the runes and aiming the spell that took several seconds to cast. "Alright, here it goes," thought Thyker. And then Thyker stopped drawing power. "No, that won't work. The spell may be strong, but it spreads out too much. I need something more concentrated." If only Thyker had his old short sword! He might be able to do some damage with that. But his little dagger was too weak. The armor charged towards Thyker again, and Thyker jumped to the side. One of the arms swung around horizontal to the ground. Thyker jumped over it as it came close. The other hand came smashing down, and Thyker jumped forwards towards the armor, ending up undearneath the arm that was swinging down. However, when the hand hit the ground, the remainder of the arm couldn't get low enough to touch Thyker, and he was safe from that attack. The armor stepped forward, and one of the foots tried to stomp on Thyker. He rolled out of the way to dodge it. "It feels like I'm fighting Dave and Minoxo all over again," Thyker thought. "Dave and Minoxo..." And then Thyker remembered something from that fight that might give him what he needed. Thyker ran a little behind the armor so that it would take longer to counter-attack. Most of its appendages were currently tied up from the last around of attacks, so Thyker thought he would have enough time. After getting behind the armor, Thyker faced it and pulled out the runes he had previously used. Holding his dagger in his right hand, Thyker began powering up the fire blast again. The armor began turning around. The spell completed charging, and Thyker unleashed it. However, he did not unleash it in a blast like usual. Instead, he wrapped the flames around his left arm, creating a vortex around that arm that reached its tip at Thyker's left hand. A modified version of Evil Dave's fire driller. Thyker jumped towards the armor as it finished turning around. He punched the armor with his left fist and unleashed the flames. After a split second of the flames being released, Thyker landed on the ground to find one of the arms of the armor trying to smash him again. He jumped out of the way of it and then retreated to a save distance from the armor. He scanned the armor. Right at the point of contact of the modified fire driller, he saw it: a hole in the armor a little bigger than the size of Thyker's fist. Concentrating the fire blast into such a small area had given it the power necessary to punch a hole right through the armor. Thyker had his method to win. He grabbed another set of fire blast runes out of his pouch and powered up the attack. However, the second that he began to swirl the flames around his left arm, the attack stopped and his left arm erupted in searing pain. He looked down at his left arm and saw the problem. His left arm was severely burned. It must have happened during the modified fire driller he tried. He may have been able to create a version of the fire driller, but he was far from capable of controlling it properly. The attacked had seared his arm badly, and he simply hadn't noticed because of what was happening at the time. Thyker moved his left arm a little. He maintained some control over it, but it hurt badly. It likely wouldn't be seeing much more action during this fight; and he certainly wouldn't be doing another modified fire driller on it. "Well, I have a little progress," Thyker thought. "I just have to figure out what to do with it." The way Thyker saw it, he had two options: find another way of finishing off the armor, or taking it out with the one remaining fire driller he had... his right arm. ***** Janrok jumped back as Marik swung the hammer at him. "Marik, what are you doing?" asked Janrok. Marik didn't respond and simply swung at Janrok again. Luckily, Marik was so slow that as long as Janrok watched him, he'd be in little danger. However, as long as this went on, he couldn't finish off Gloupherie. Janrok look over to Gloupherie then realized the problem. Gloupherie was weaving an illusion around Janrok's body, making Janrok look like Gloupherie. At the same time, Gloupherie placed an illusion around himself to make him look like Janrok. Janrok could see through this easily because of the Gaze, but Marik didn't have such a luxury. When the illusions spun around the room the final time, Marik must have lost track where Gloupherie and Janrok were, and thus never noticed when the two's appearances were switched. "Marik, I know what it looks like," said Janrok. Janrok noticed his voice sounded like Gloupherie. "But I'm Janrok. This is an illusion created by Gloupherie." "Don't listen to him," said Gloupherie from across the room in Janrok's voice. "He's really Gloupherie. He knew you'd think it was an illusion but really he hasn't cast any. Remember, I know... I can see," said Gloupherie, pointing to his eyes, which also appeared to have the Gaze of Saradomin. Even that was an illusion, of course. Marik looked back and forth between the two. He seemed unsure as to who was who. At least he seemed to believe it was possible that another illusion was in play, but he didn't seem capable of seeing through it. "Look, Marik," said Janrok, "why don't I tell you about some stuff that happened in the past? Stuff that Gloupherie couldn't know." "Don't listen to him, Marik!" shouted Gloupherie. "He's read my mind and knows everything that happened in the past." "Well, why don't you tell him something that happened then?" said Janrok. "I can't!" said Gloupherie, almost pleading with Marik. "If I say stuff out loud, he'll just know even more to use against us. It's all a trick." Marik looked back and forth between the two and took a few steps back. He seemed completely accused by the situation. Janrok grabbed a few knives. "I could try making a dash at Gloupherie," thought Janrok. "I don't need Marik's help anymore to finish him off, but if he interferes, Gloupherie would have the upper hand." "There's only one option," said Gloupherie. "You'll have to kill us both!" "What?" said Janrok, looking over at Gloupherie. Marik swung at Janrok, as Janrok jumped back. "Someone like Gloupherie could never say something like that," said Marik. "You must be the real Gloupherie." "He's TRICKING you!" shouted Janrok, staying a few steps away from Marik's hammer. "There's no reason to kill us both, I can finish him off on my own. And besides, he'd probably beat you one on one, anyway... he can cast illusions." Marik didn't respond, instead he swung at Janrok again. As before, he wasn't a threat, but he was annoying. "Wait a minute..." said Janrok. "Hey, Bob! What do you think?" "You really want my opinion?" shouted Bob from inside Marik's coin purse. "Who said that?" said Gloupherie reflexively. "Oh..." said Gloupherie, realizing the mistake he had made. Marik face Gloupherie and started walking towards him. Janrok smiled. Gotchya. Janrok also began walking towards Gloupherie. Realizing it was over, Gloupherie dispelled the illusion. "I still have one trick up my sleeve," said Gloupherie. Gloupherie's body began to glow as he powered up a strange spell. The spell seemed to be consuming his whole body. To the naked eye, it wouldn't appear to be much more than a glowing trick, but Janrok's eyes were capable of seeing details of the technique. "Gloupherie, stop! That spell... it's completely unstable. You might do as much damage to yourself as you do to anyone in this room." "Perhaps. But it's a trade," said Gloupherie. "My body for yours. Better than just losing mine." Janrok turned around and started to dash out of the gave. "Marik, run!" But it was too late. Janrok only got in a few steps before Gloupherie unleashed the spell, encompassing them all in a flash of blue energy. Chapter 46: Victory March of the Resistance Thyker dodged a hand from Glough's armor striking down at him. Immediately after doding it, he lunged forward and drove his dagger into the hole he had created. The dagger drove halfway in before being restricted by the limited size the opening offered. He pulled the dagger back out. As with all of his other attempts, the dagger hadn't been able to hit anything critical. Thyker jumped out of the way of one of the armor's feet trying to kick him then retreated to a safe distance again. It didn't seem like the dagger would be able to take advantage of the opening in the armor he had created. Thyker had the hole he needed but wasn't sure how to take advantage of it. He had tried shooting fire spells at it, but the same problem with the fire spells applied here; they spread out too much and thus he couldn't get a lot of damage through the hole. Thyker pulled out some fire blast runes and held them in his hand. He was considering trying a modified fire driller with his right arm. However, if he did that, it would be his last shot. After that, both of his arms would be injured and he would be rather incapable of fighting. Thyker put the runes away again. Thyker wasn't doing much damage to Glough, but Glough wasn't doing much damage to Thyker, either. The way Thyker saw it, he still had ample time to come up with a plan. He could always try the fire driller as a last resort. Glough's armor took a few steps towards Thyker. "Why do you still fight?" asked Glough. "Can't you see, your attacks aren't powerful enough to damage this armor. It's only a matter of time before you exhaust and I tear you limb from limb." Glough was partially right. Other than the fire driller, none of his attacks had done any damage to the outer layer of the armor. Unless... that gave Thyker an idea. Thyker began running towards the armor. He pulled out Karil's crossbow and loaded in a bolt rack. Sure, his armor was strong from the outside, but what about the inside. The way he saw it, if it was weak from the inside, he could destroy it. And if it was strong from the inside, he would destroy Glough. Either way, it was a win-win situation. As Thyker approached the armor, one of its hands smashed towards the ground. Thyker jumped to the side to avoid the attack then jumped on top of the hand to get a clear shot. He could see it. The hole in the armor. Thyker drew from Karil's accuracy and launched the bolt rack into the hole. "Let's see how tough that armor is now," he told Glough. As the bolt rack entered the hole, Thyker jumped off of the hand and retreated a few steps. Thyker heard the explosion, but saw very little in terms of damage. All he could see was a small amount of smoke leaving the hole and a few other areas of the armor. However, Glough said nothing, and the armor didn't move. "One more time," thought Thyker. Thyker began loading the bolt rack when he heard a crack. He looked back up at the armor and saw that a crack had formed near the top-right of the armor. A second crack formed in one of the legs, and then more and more cracks started to form. The cracks began spreading as this happened as well, until the entire armor was covered in cracks. Then, suddenly, the armor was engulfed in an explosion from the inside. Thyker dropped to the ground as pieces of the strange material went flying in all direction. One of them caught him in the back and he felt a large cut being added to his other injuries. After the explosion had finished, Thyker looked back up. He could see debris from the armor around the area, but other than that, no armor. Thyker walked around the area until he found Glough. The gnomish ex-general was laying on the ground, unconscious and covered in burns. Thyker gave him a hard kick to see if he was really unconscious or just faking it. The gnome didn't move. Thyker gave him a second kick just because he didn't like him, then ran off to Brimstail's cave. That had been where Marik and Janrok were going, and from what Glough had told him, they might need some help. It took Thyker a few minutes to reach Brimstail's cave. He ran in and found three figures. Two of them were on the ground. He recognized one was Marik, lying unconcious halfway to the center of the room. Closer to the entrance, he saw a gnome mage on the ground. From the little he knew about the situation, he assumed it was Gloupherie. That gnome was also unconscious. Finally, he saw Janrok closer to the center of the room. He was on one knee, breathing heavily, but alert. "Hello Thyker," said Janrok, facing him. "Is that...?" started Thyker. "Yeah. It's Gloupherie," said Janrok, cutting him off. "It was a close fight. He tried to finish us off with some spell, but he did too much damage to himself." "Let me help you up," said Thyker, walking over. "Don't bother," said Janrok, standing up slowly. "I was just trying to rest up a little. But I can move if we need to." "No rush," said Thyker. "The thing that attacked me was Glough, but I took care of it. By the way," said Thyker, noticing Janrok's eyes, "you should turn off the Gaze of Saradomin. With Gloupherie down, he shouldn't be able to maintain any more illusions, and that Gaze will just tire you out." "Yeah... you're right..." said Janrok. He closed his eyes for a second, then opened them back up, with the Gaze off. Thyker started walking towards Janrok. "So, tell me what happened." "Oh, it was a pretty tough struggle," said Janrok. "He started off with..." Janrok only got that far because Thyker punched him in the face. Janrok fell to the ground a few steps back. "What are you doing, you freak!" shouted Janrok. "Ok, you can end the illusion," said Thyker. Janrok got back up to his feet and glared at him. "I said turn it off, you're not fooling anyone." Janrok nodded. His body shimmered and transformed into the body of the gnome mage that was on the ground. Thyker looked back to see that the gnome body was transforming into Janrok. "I take it you're Gloupherie?" Gloupherie nodded. "How could you tell?" he asked. "The illusion was flawless." "Flawless as far as you knew," said Thyker. "But Janrok's eyes are black, not brown. Of course, he probably used his Gaze the whole time on you, so you never saw his normal eyes. That's why your eyes still looked like the Gaze when I came in." "Sharp eyes you have," said Gloupherie. "So you beat Glough?" Thyker nodded. Gloupherie sneered. "Ironic. He looked forward to nothing more than the day he got to fight you, and he hated nothing more than his cell. Ironic that his attempt to fight you will send him back there." The wall behind Gloupherie shimmered and transformed into a cave entrance, the same entrance he had seen before when he went to get General Hardigan. "So, that was another illusion of yours, I guess?" asked Thyker. Gloupherie nodded. "I suggest you just give up. You may have technically won your fight, but you're exhausted nearly to the point of death." Thyker heard some rumbling behind him, and a swarm of gnomes ran into the cave. Thyker looked around. "What's going on?" Gloupherie sneered. "You." One of the gnomes ran ahead of the group. Thyker recognized the gnome as Daero, leader of the gnomish special forces. "You remember me, right Thyker?" asked Daero. "Of course," said Thyker. "I'm head of the gnomish resistance forces. Glough and Gloupherie rounded up and brainwashed a lot of the gnomes, but some of us escaped to try to fight him. Unfortunately, Glough's armor and Gloupherie's powers were too much for us to overcome. But thanks to you, the nightmare's over. We can handle things from here." "Wait a minute," said Thyker. "There's something I want to do." Thyker walked over to the machine at the corner of the cave and activated it. The machine was capable of dispelling illusions. When activated, nothing in the room changed. "Good, so you're real." "Good thinking," said Daero. "Not easily tricked by Gloupherie's attempts at illusions. I guess that's why you were able to beat him and we weren't. But as you can see, we are real." "I guess you're the one who hit me on the head with the stone?" asked Thyker. "Yeah, that was me..." said Daero sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I only meant to throw it near you. But I had to find some way to alert you without exposing myself in the open. The brainwashed gnomes were ordered to report immediately if they saw me." Thyker shrugged. "It's fine, I'll live." Daero walked forwards toward Gloupherie. "Ok, Gloupherie, you're coming with us." Gloupherie snickered. "Not so fast." With that, Gloupherie pulled out a few grayish balls and threw them to the ground. Smoke filled the air, and when it cleared, Gloupherie was gone. "He's gone!" Daero shouted. "He didn't come by this way," said one of the gnomes near the entrance to the cave. "He must be in the military base!" shouted Daero. "Quick, find him! He's too weakened to put up a fight." And with that, most of the gnomes fanned into the military base in search of Gloupherie. "Now, Thyker," said Daero, who was still outside, "I hear you need to use a few of our gliders. Of course, after what you've done, you're welcome to as many as you need." "Three will be fine," said Thyker. "Oh yeah, by the way, Glough is unconscious outside. You might want to grab him." "Already taken care of," said Daero. "Don't worry, he'll be under a closer eye this time in his cell." "Good," said Thyker. "Do you have a few moments to spare?" asked Daero. "I know you're in a hurry to save the world and all, but I'm sure that some of the gnomes would like to thank you personally, including King Narode." "Yeah, I need to rest up anyway before heading out," said Thyker. "I can spare a few moments." Thyker and Daero walked into the cave. Thyker was walking slower than normal thanks to his injuries, but Daero's short steps could barely keep up with him, anyway. Thyker and Daero reached a large cell in the cave filled with gnomes. Outside of it, some of the resistance gnomes were holding a strange, glowing sphere. "Is that it?" asked Daero. "We think so, sir," replied one of the resistance gnomes. "Ok, smash it," said Daero. He looked over to Thyker. "We heard that an object similar to that was used to manage the brainwashing. With it destroyed, they should all return to normal." "Ah," said Thyker, nodding his head. The gnomes followed Daero's orders and smashed the sphere. A few gnomes in the facilility stopped what they were doing and looked around a little confused. Most likely, they were gnomes who had been brainwashed and the effects were ending. "Sir, sir!" shouted one of the resistance gnomes, running up to Daero. "We found him." Two gnomes, each holding one arm of the captive, walked Gloupherie over to Daero. The gnome was unconscious, which was no surprise given the state Gloupherie had been in. "Once again, Thyker, I have to thank you," said Daero. "We'll start preparing the gliders right away so that you can leave whenever you're ready." "Not a problem," said Thyker tiredly. He could sure use a rest. "Oh yeah, can we go pick up my friends? They're going to need medical attention, I suspect." "Certainly," said Daero. The group of gnomes walked out of the military facility and into the cave again. Thyker heard one of the gnomes escorting Gloupherie scream. Thyker turned around to see the shape of the captive gnome shimmering and distorting, until it transformed into the shape of another gnome, not Gloupherie. Thyker looked around the room. Then he remembered. The machine he had turned on. "It was an illusion..." said Thyker. "Another illusion!" Had it not been for the machine being in that cave, it might have been a very long time before they noticed. "Oh no!" shouted Daero. "He could be anywhere by now!" Daero turned to Thyker. "Don't worry though. Gloupherie is injured, and his plans foiled. He may try something again, but not likely for a long time. We'll just have to keep a closer eye out for him. Oh yeah, and we'll be sure to call you for help should he ever show up again." Thyker groaned. Chapter 47: Learning of the Seals Thyker looked down from the side of the glider. One of the gnomes from the resistance was piloting it, which left him able to look around freely (and was also good since he had no clue how to fly one). He could see it. Lumbridge castle. He was back. Behind Thyker's glider flew two other gliders. One carried Janrok, and the other carried Marik. Thyker had gotten to speak to King Narode just as Daero had requested. Narode had apologized for the whole situation and wanted Thyker to stay so he could make it up to him, but he was short on time. Maybe someday he could return to the stronghold and let Narode make it up... if the world wasn't plunged into darkness, that was. Thyker's glider landed on the lawn of the castle. It was shortly followed by the second glider, and then the third. By the time Thyker had actually gotten off of the glider, Tiffy was walking out of the castle door to meet him, several Temple Knight officials following him. Tiffy walked up to Thyker. "So, I see you got the gliders... why are you so banged up? Did you meet some demons along the way?" "Ah, no... we had a little scuffle at the stronghold. It's nothing. I'll fill you in on the details later," replied Thyker. "Oh," said Tiffy. He looked around a little. "Where's Janrok and Marik." "They're in the gliders behind me," said Thyker. "They took a little bit of a beating. They're unconscious, but the gnome doctors said they'd be fine. They just need a few days rest. However, it would be really helpful if you could send a few Temple Knights to bring them inside. I don't think those little gnomes are capable of carrying them." "Right right," said Tiffy. Tiffy turned and said a few words to one of the Temple Knights following him. The Temple Knight nodded and ran off into the castle. "Now, as for you Thyker, I have some information regarding Ansa." "Perfect," said Thyker. "So, is there a way to kill her?" "I'd rather not speak about it out here," said Tiffy. "It really is quite sensitive information. I've left your same room as before in order, if you'll head up there now you can relax. I'll be up a little later. I just need to tie up a few loose ends first." Thyker walked into the castle and to the room he had been in less than a week earlier. It looked the same as before. It was possible that no one had been in here since he left. Thyker found some bandages, a needle, and some thread. He sat down on the bed and looked at his left arm. It was still fairly badly injured from the burns it had recieved. Thyker meticulously began to wrap his left arm in bandages. He wrapped the bandages in such a way that the motion of the arm wouldn't be restricted. They weren't meant to prevent motion. They were meant to keep his left arm away from the environment and to prevent people from seeing it. He wasn't sure how fast it would heal, but there wasn't much else he could do about it. He might as well reduce the impact caused by it. After wrapping his arm, he took off Karil's top. It had been damaged in the fight with Glough. Though not nearly as bad as after the fight with Dave and Minoxo, it could still use some repairs. Using the needle and thread he had found, he began to stitch up the holes. Most were small, but it took him a while to fix the big tear on the back that had occured when Glough's armor exploded. After finishing stitching, Thyker held the top up. Good as new. Literally. It seemed that the stitches had disappeared and the holes had mended after the work he had done on it. Quite peculiar. But then again, with the wear and tear such armor must recieve, the armor would likely have been destroyed by now if it didn't have some kind of magial restorative property. While holding the top up to the light, Thyker heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" he shouted. Two people walked into the room. One was Tiffy; this was not a surprise as Thyker had been expecting him. However, the other was a man Thyker had never seen before. The man was dressed in a strange set of black robes. This man was a surprise. "Who is this?" Thyker asked, pointing to the strange man. "This is Anthrado, a high-ranking officer in the Void Knights," said Tiffy. "Are you familiar with them?" "Of course," said Thyker, putting the top back on. "They're major followers of Guthix, almost like what the Temple Knights are to Saradomin, though much smaller in number, of course. I have to know about them. But why is he here?" "I'll let Anthrado explain that in a minute. You'll understand it better when I've explained what I've discovered about Ansa." "Oh?" said Thyker. "So, did you find a way to kill Ansa?" "No," said Tiffy, shaking his head. "As far as I can tell, there's no simple way to kill Ansa. Killing her would be like killing any other being. And while she will be a good bit tired after charging all of that essence, she's still well beyond your capabilities. Thus, we've devised an alternate method to stopping Ansa." "Oh really?" asked Thyker. "What did you have in mind? Have you found some way of getting more people onto the floating island." "No, I'm afraid you'll be quite alone in that regard. But, recall Ansa's history. The Temple Knights found themselves unable to kill her either, but instead they were able to seal her away. It worked once, so we're hoping it will work a second time." "But wait," said Thyker. "The sealing worked, but then Ansa broke out of it." "Yes and no," replied Tiffy. "While Ansa did escape, according to what you told us, it's because Zaros freed her. As long as her teleportation doesn't succeed, his influence in this world is still rather limited. If you seal her away we should have at least several days before Zaros is able to free her. In that time, the Temple Knights can hide her prison away where Zaros won't be able to find it. I admit, there will always be that risk of her escaping again, but better to risk her wrath again someday than to surely face it now." "Yeah, I guess that's right," said Thyker. "But that leaves a problem. I don't know how to cast the seals." "Luckily, I've found information on the seal in the old documents. The very seals that the Temple Knights used to seal her away." "That's all good and well, but the Temple Knights are Saradominists. I couldn't adapt to a Saradomin spell of that magnitude in only a few weeks." "Ah," replied Tiffy. "That's why Anthrado is here. Would you care to explain Anthrado." "Certainly," said Anthrado in a booming voice. "Tiffy has given me the information on the seals. With that information, we've adapated a Guthix equivalent to them. The spells are partially magical and partially prayer-oriented, and from what Tiffy told me, I think you should be able to handle them. The Void Knights have contacted Guthix, and we've been told that Guthix has agreed to lend his power to perform the sealing. We've also brought you these," he said as he pulled out two objects: one a staff, one a mace. "What are these?" asked Thyker. "This is a Guthix staff," said Anthrado, handing Thyker the staff. "This staff aids tremendously in casting Guthix-oriented spells. The second one is the Void Knight mace," he said as he handed Thyker the mace. "This item is similar to the staff but on the prayer side of things. Combined, they should be very useful in casting the seals." "But how do I use them?" asked Thyker. Anthrado smiled. "Don't worry. For the next week, I'm going to be personally coaching you on how to use those items and how to cast the seals. It's a rather short amount of time, but given your prior experiences, I think it will be enough." "Wouldn't it be easier just to kill her?" asked Thyker. "I mean, it sounds like a lot of preparation to count only on the seal. What if it fails?" "If it fails, we die," said Tiffy rather matter-of-factly. Of course, he probably went through a lot world-threatening situations Thyker wasn't aware of. "If you fail to stop Ansa, I don't know of anyone else who can stop her. There probably are people out there who can penetrate the barrier, but I've failed to find them. By the time I did find any, it would be too late. As you ask about killing Ansa? Do you remember what happened last time you tried that." Thyker put his head down. He remembered how that ended up. "As you see, a conventional fight against her is futile. Thyker, I want you to concentrate solely on the sealing spell. It has to work. Now, you look rather tired, so I'll let you rest for the remainder of the day. But tomorrow, Anthrado will start your training with the spells." ***** The next day, Thyker and Anthrado hiked out to the woods southwest of Lumbridge to stay out of sight of others. "Let me describe what I plan to teach you," said Anthrado. "I think it will help you keep things in context. The first thing you will need to learn are the marks of sealing. They look like this." Anthrado took a few steps away from Thyker and then walked over to a nearby tree. He held one of his hands up and pull it back. His hand started to glow with a green glow. After a few seconds, he thrust it forwards, shouting, "The first mark of sealing, Jakour!" Upon striking the tree, a strange circular symbol show on the tree. It started at the size of a coin but then expanded to a size about three times wider than Anthrado's hand. The symbol was blue and was filled with strange symbols that Thyker could not interpret. "This is the first mark of sealing," said Anthrado, turning to Thyker. "It is called Jakour." "I kind of guessed that," replied Thyker. Anthrado's eyes narrowed. "This really isn't the time for humor," said Anthrado. "Sorry..." "Anyway, there are ten marks of sealing. You probably won't need to use all of them, but it's better to error on the side of caution. These seals are specially designed for an undead of Ansa's type, and therefore, will not work on many other beings. The seals require a synchronization of spiritual and magical energy, as well as the quick chant you heard me say as I placed the seal. Despite all this, the seals are not hard to learn. I suspect you should learn all ten in a day or two." "Ok then," said Thyker, "why are we taking a week to train then?" "Well," said Anthrado, "the seals themself may be simple, but there are a few other things I wish to teach you. You're only going to have one try at this. Leaving any sooner won't help, so I might as well teach you as much as I can. Knowing the seals isn't enough. You must learn how to activate them. Given the magical and spiritual power I've seen in you, at a bare minimum I'd guess you'd need at least four seals placed correctly on Ansa to succeed. That's a bare minimum to have any chance at all. I would guess realistically you'd need at least six correctly-placed seals in order to to stand a good chance. "Wait, why do you mean by 'correctly-placed'?" asked Thyker. "Part of your training will involve learning exactly what that means. Each seal has a certain ability to channel magical and spiritual power into Ansa. There are certain locations on the body that will utilize this power more effectively. Furthermore, the more you spread the seals across her body, the more effective that power will be used. Ansa's power will allow her to create immense resistance to the sealing procedure, so it's important you learn these attributes well. During the fight with Ansa, you'll need to charge up spiritual energy into your body rom Guthix. Your magical energies are already contained within your body. Once charged, you'll transmit the energies through the seals which you've placed in order to seal her away." "So you're telling me that I'll have to be fighting Ansa during this?" "Yes," replied Anthrado. "You can charge up the spiritual energy and place the seals in any time and in any order, but the seals must be placed by the time you actually wish to imprison Ansa. Needless to say, this will require some time, and Ansa likely won't sit idly by as you try to do this. As a result, I've brought some items to help you." Ansa reached into a pouch and pulled out two strange-looking, oddly-shaped stones. "Stones?" asked Thyker. "Of sorts," replid Anthrado. "These are power stones. It is why the Void Knights fight where we fight. The islands are filled with these ancient objects, and we try to uncover them. The stones grant various powers, rather similar to potions. The advantage of the stones over potions is that they have a finite amount of power that can be drawn upon at any rate you choose. Therefore, you could increase your powers greatly for a short duration of time or mildly for a long duration of time, or any shade in between. I've found two stones that should help you. The one over here is a prayer stone. It will allow you to build up your spiritual energy faster and will also allow you to store a great deal more spiritual energy than you would otherwise be able to. As a result, you should be able to succeed in the sealing procedure with less seals placed on Ansa." "Less than six?" asked Thyker. "That's good news." "Oh, I'm sorry," said Anthrado. "I forgot to mention, when I said six, I was already factoring in that you would be using the stone." "Great," said Thyker. "What's the other one do?" "This one," said Anthrado, "will enhance your fighting abilities greatly. I must remind you though, your mission is NOT to fight Ansa, it is to seal her. The stone is only there so that you can defend yourself against her attacks for longer. The two stones I have here are the strongest ones I can find and should give you a great edge. With them, you should be able to avoid taking such a great thrashing as I heard you took last time, but be warned, Ansa will still be a great deal more powerful than you. As a result, your mission is to SEAL Ansa, not to KILL her. However, I will not be training you with these stones, as that would diminish the power they have left. Instead, I've brought several weaker stones of these kinds. We can use them for training purposes so that when it comes time to use them, you'll know how. Do you understand what you'll be training for." "Yes," said Thyker confidently. Tiffy and Anthrado had planned things out well, now it was up to him to pull it off. "Good," said Anthrado. "Then let's begin."

Chapter 39: AnsaÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s Ancient Past, Part 2 ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅWhen what happened?ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

As an opening note, that is the SECOND part of Council of Oblivion. If you are trying to read the story and have not read the first 33 chapters, you can find them here: http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?t=695628 For the mods, the original topic had a strange glitch; after the first 5 posts, I could not make any more posts; and the character count of the chapters prevents me from posting the entire story in those posts. Please do not delete this topic. If anyone can determine what the problem is and allow me to make further posts in the original topic, then at that point this could be deleted or merged into that post. However, without being able to post in the original topic, I am unable to post the end of the story, so the only option I could determine was to post the rest in a second topic (the two topics link to each other). I apologize for the inconvenience, if any. ------------------------------ Chapter 34: Two-On-Two Rumble: New Attacks Revealed! Thyker stood up a few moments after hitting the ground. He felt sore, but he wasnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t dead. Thyker looked down at the ground. It had been turned to mud, cushioning his fall greatly. So, Janrok hadnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t missed with that bolt after all. He must have launched a water bolt to soften the ground. ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅGood job, Janrok. Now IÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢m covered head-to-toe in mud.ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

When you wear the ring of stone, people see your name when they put their mouse over you, so I don't think that will be a problem.

Chapter 29: Going on the Offensive Tiffy, Marik, and Janrok waited around the Lumbridge kitchen. They had to plan their next move, and they had to plan fast. However, Thyker had gone into the caverns below Lumbridge to find MalakÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s body. They didnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t want to start planning without Thyker. And thus, they waited for him to return. The three wandered around somewhat aimlessly. Finally, Thyker emerged from the basement. At the time, Tiffy was in the kitchen, but the other two had wander into the dining room. Thyker had wanted to ask something of Tiffy in private; now was his chance. ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅDid you find the body?ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

Chapter 23: The Final Ingredient Thyker and Marik entered the gates of Yanille. Thyker was starting to feel excited. It had been a long trip, but he had finally gathered almost all the ingredients. ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅSo, why are we here?ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ