Excerpt #6 From Fiefdom 17....

Excerpt #6 From Fiefdom 17... this is a continuation from the previous excerpts as previously published in the HubPages.

Beljazza, not wanting the rookie, Gratis Zero, to get all of the glory… matches his speed and catches up… whereby now they are gliding side by side in whisper mode as they come into Fiefdom 11’s air space. Fiefdom 11 streets are empty, but unlike Beljazza’s Fiefdom 17, eleven has a blighted look and the mush-room shapes homes and its massive, tall factories are dilapidated and grungy at least from the aerial view….

Beljazzza is taking a panoramic view of the Fiefdom 11 and then turning to Gratis Zero: “What Caste lives here?”

Gratis Zero: “Caste? ‘A little of this and that… the Lords doesn’t pay much attention here because it is not as lucrative as your Fiefdom 17. That’s why there’s not a substation here…”

Beljazza: “The Lor… (Beljazza catches herself when she realizes that she is emulating Gratis’ way of referring to the Dragon Lords and then continues in her own normal way of reference) ‘… The Dragon Lords have created such a sense of dread and fear that there are no outposts in some of Fiefdoms….”

Gratis Zero: “Yes, they live on that… reputation….’ ‘We should be coming up on the warehouse around the corner... it’s eerily quiet…’

Beljazza senses are in tuned… preparing for whatever…: “You don’t think that there’s something wrong.…”

Beljazza is interrupted when she sees what looks like a couple of children, attired in dirty, tattered clothing… they too have seen the gliders because Beljazza and Gratis Zero were gliding at tree top level. Beljazza places her hands to her mouth, as if to tell the children to be quiet, while Gratis has his blaster drawn…. One of the boys smiles and his smile matches his dirty tattered clothing; that same lad flings what look like a bottle in the air creating some sort of explosion, which was loud, but harmless. There is another explosion… only that this one is louder and as Gratis and Beljazza look in the direction where the warehouse supposed to be… they noticed that it was in flames, apparently blown to smithereens as to destroy evidence. In the mean time, the two kids have disappeared and there are gliders heading – not running from Beljazza and Gratis Zero and firing volleys of bullets from blasters. Beljazza and Gratis Zero take evasive maneuvers by meandering and increasing their speed and with their own blasters cocked… as the murderers give chase… murderers and apparently with help because they were now six gliders - instead of the official report from Goshen Minor that says that the killers were numbered three - in pursuit of Beljazza and Gratis Zero.…

Gratis Zero speaking into his Com: “This is strange… they know we represent the Dragon Lords, right.…?”

Beljazza smiles because Gratis has finally figured that something wasn’t kosher… and all the time since being chased, Beljazza was facing the direction whereby her back was toward her pursuers, but she suddenly turns around with her two guns blasting, which then catches the pursuers off guard. One of BelJazza’s blasts found its target of one of the lead gliders, which, causes it to momentarily spin out of control and giving Gratis Zero, who, in turn had also taken lead from Beljazza and turn around… fired his weapons and hitting one of the riders of the gliders… resulting in the pilotless glider crashing into the streets in the almost empty streets below… almost empty because those two boys were following the action as much as they could notwithstanding being on foot.

Below, the citizens of Golgotha are aware of the fight and children are running below to see the action above… Beljazza and the assist from Gratis Zero do not deter the gliders… but the latter are more circumspect by slowing their pursuit because of their fallen comrade….

Beljazza and Gratis are maneuvering the gliders and meandering the buildings and roof tops of the oval shapes homes in Golgotha… there is a marked increase in the denizens of Golgotha observing the aerial conflict. Beljazza is shouting in her com...

Beljazza: “Do these idiots know who we are… who we work for….?”

Gratis Zero does not respond to Beljazza, but has pulled ahead and with his white glider hovering and hiding between the nearby buildings… and playing possum. One of the pursuing gliders is cruising and prudently looking between the homes/buildings. Beljazza too is almost hovering between some of the dilapidated factory-like structures, but the children who are following the gliders and gazing up and betraying the locations of the gliders. Suddenly, there are multiple blasts from one or more of the pursuing gliders to an area populated below by mostly ‘rubbernecking’ children and some adults… causing screams of terror and explosions, and the collapse of buildings/homes below. Beljazza is in disbelief from seeing the carnage from her hovering perch - she then hears a voice echoing through the blighted structures and the new chaos/confusion below….

Unknown Glider… in a female voice: “Surrender… and no more children… innocents… will need to die…”

Before Beljazza could answer… there is another blast - it is from Gratis Zero blasting away at the glider who made the offer to Beljazza… only that Gratis missed and the glider rider who made the offer quickly took cover among one of the surrounding buildings… shortly afterwards, there are apparent retaliatory blasts by her or cohorts… these blasts were aimed at the citizens below and found their intended targets… resulting in more screams and the collapsing of chunk of walls from the buildings that were struck, causing a deluge of falling terror in the form of chunk of bricks, chunk of concretes and other infrastructure debris on the innocents below… well except for those two kids who warned the gliders of Beljazza and Gratis Zero’s coming.

Belljaza shouting in her com admonishingly: “What are you doing… stop your shooting… they are killing children….”

Gratis Zero in defiance: They were killing children before… isn’t why we’re hear?

Beljazza rhetorically: “Do I need to pull rank here….”

Gratis Zero in dripping sarcasm: “You rank hasn’t done us much so far… but ok….”

Glider with the same female voice: “it’s good to know that there is such… camaraderie between you two traitors…”

Beljazza: “Since you know that we are working for the Dragon Lords… can we agree that you all can go… so that there’s no more innocent people below getting hurt….?”

Female voiced Glider: “I’m afraid that won’t do… we need you and your trigger happy partner to surrender… and were you to refuse… my buds can always add some more innocent casualties for your report to the Dragon Lords….”

Beljazza: “Who murders children….?”

Female Glider in a mocking voice: “Are you talking about the children from today… or those that happened in Goshen? ‘Do you have any idea what that family did (Cryptic)…. they all deserve to die… every last one of them… and what kind of person works for the Dragon Lords?”

Beljazza: “We’re coming out… to surrender?”

Beljazza glider appears from the cover of the tall buildings and then we see the other gliders appearing, and like their spoke person, they are all dressed in black from head to toe, even their gliders.

Glider: “By the way, just in case you are toying with us… know that there’re others, strategically placed, and waiting in case you try anything… my colleagues would like to talk to you… even though I would like to kill you summarily like how you watched while the Neros were barbecued in the sacred Tribunal Pond… I would simply do so for wearing that uniform (spitting in disdain from her glider)… or I just might hasten your demise for the shooting of my colleague (looking across at Gratis Zero).”

Beljazza, holstering her weapons and descending… looks across to Gratis Zero and stealthily nods to him not to try anything heroic….

Beljazza: Removing her helmet… “Can I at least see who am I speaking to… who my suitors are?”

Female Voice glider: “Even in surrender… you’re still investigating… doing the demons work… tell me, is it the wages… or that you were simply born traitors to John Mark?”

We hear again screams - but these screams are different from those emanated earlier from the Golgotha citizenry when the blasts caused the raining walls of concrete and debris. We know this because the female voice spoke person for gliders, along with her hooded co-hoots, is startled… giving credence to the fact that whatever caused the latest citizens’ banshee-like screams were not the results Beljazza and Gratis Zero’s capturers.

With the fortuitous distraction, Beljazza and Gratis peeled off, while simultaneously powering up their gliders and taking off. The gathering converging gliders did not react right away like Beljazza and Gratis Zero, save for their initial startled reactions when they heard the cries from the citizens and so it was that the surprising blasts of fire from the two dragons instantly incinerated the spoke person and three others… their burning charred bodies being lifeless before they hit the ground below. And as a result of the force of the initial dragon blasts, the rest of the surviving riders were thrown from their respective gliders and before they too reach the ground… fire balls from both the two dragons, in addition to their riders white hot weapons, are blasting… finishing off the gliders. The peanut gallery, who are secretly watching the melee is not cheering one way or the other for any of the combatants. Most of the citizens of Fiefdom 11, especially in Golgotha do not think that their lot will change one way or the other, no matter who is in power… it is a lot that is somewhat fatalistic….

In the interim, BelJazza and Gratis Zero were hauling ass out of Fiefdom 11… out of Golgotha… with Gratis Zero a football field in length ahead of Beljazza when she summons him on her com….

Beljazza: “I think we should go back… they might continue to take it out on the children.…”

Before Beljazza could finish and Gratis Zero could answer…. the distinct, authoritative voice of a Dragon Lord interrupts….

Anonymous Dragon Lord: “No need to hurry back Golgotha… at least to fight (sarcasm)… we have taken care of the situation… you may return to write the reports, so that you may brief your sub-station… “

The Dragon Lord is interrupted and Beljazza waits in reverence… for the rest of the instructions – but none came. Beljazza manipulates her Com and still no response… not even from Goshen Minor because apparently she was out of range.

Beljazza: “Commander… who spoke to me from Golgotha… anyone in Fiefdom 11….”

There is only static coming through the Com… Beljazza made cursory checks to her glider, her weapons, looked at Gratis, circled her glider to head back to Golgotha. Gratis, likewise, turns his glider around, and with his gravity boots engaged and tethered to his transparent glider, he flips his glider upside down… as he speeds back to Fiefdom 11.

Meanwhile, had Beljazza been present in Golgotha, she would have seen what caused the interruption between her and the anonymous Dragon Lord. Let us go back…. When the anonymous Dragon Lord was commanding Beljazza what to do… he was hovering among the factory building surveying the beat-down they had just handed the gliders that forced the brief surrender of Beljazza and Gratis Zero. And just how the Dragon Lords’ fire ball had caught the gliders by surprise… so too was the shot gun blast that shattered the head of the anonymous Dragon Lord that was talking to Beljazza. The citizens, mostly spying from their homes, in Golgotha of Fiefdom 11, saw or heard the Uba Petra shot-gun blast of the anonymous Dragon Lord, leaving him headless, atop his flailing, cumbersome Dragon. The other three Dragon Lords try to take cover but because of the girth of their dragons and the space… it was hard for them to maneuver… again like the gliders. With the fleeing Dragon Lords, Uba Petra came up behind the Dragon and its headless Dragon Lord and jumped from his glider onto the Dragon, as it elevate above the factories… as the spectators look up … they soon were running for cover from seeing the falling, headless body of the Dragon Lord, which then hit the dirty concrete streets below and splashing into shell and gelatin.

Uba Petra is soaring with the dragon and the dragon is doing all it can to throw him from its reins. Almost like Linda Blair in the Exorcist movie, the Dragon is turning its head and spewing firery balls without success of hitting its unwanted rider and master’s killer, Uba Petra… and when the dragon turns its head one too many times, Uba Petra unsheathes his Obsidian sword from his shoulder area and uses it to lopped off its head, which caused even more threshing and its rapid descent. Uba Petra jumps from the falling dragon and, as he is descending… he engages his gravity boots, as his glider meets him. One of the surviving dragons is stuck between the factory buildings and when it tries to elevate out… there are gun fire blasts coming from above from Uba Petra’s men/women… some of these bullets are painfully tearing into the dragon and taking chunks of dragon flesh. The dragon Lord, not wanting to be shot, is doing his best to prevent his dragon from ascending into a volley of bullets because he is afraid of being shot too… so he is riding the dragon between the narrow passages of the factory buildings, which also leave dragon and rider vulnerable to Uba Petra’s gliders - but less so... at least to the calculation of this Dragon Lord.

The dragon’s firery blasts and its massive prehensile tail is violently smashing windows of the old factories and sending showers of debris below… to compound matters for this Dragon Lord, he is unable to aim his weapons at the gliders that are speedily attacking and retreating. With Uba Petra unoccupied, he joins the fray. The Dragon Lord must have reassessed the situation because he dismounts his beast… leaving the dragon and taking cover among the abandoned factory buildings. Uba Petra saw the abandoned dragon and conveyed some intelligence on the Dragon Lord and engages his com:

Uba Petra: “He will not call for help… because he is bred in arrogance that he should be victorious against all and any of us - help may come, but it will not be by his doing. It is in their arrogance why we will win. Leave me alone to hunt him and keep jamming the Dragon Lord’s frequency… make sure the dragon is dead… it is dying now and salvage what you can, especially its scales if you have the time… above all keep a lookout for those traitorous gliders that were here earlier….”

Belljazza and Gratis Zero are back in Golgotha… they follow the chaos and the rubberneckers… but Uba Petra’s gliders are alerted and make themselves visible… powering up their gliders and take off in multiple directions… and to further sell the misdirection… shots are fired on or near the direction of Beljazza and Gratis Zero….

Beljazza was gliding side by side with Gratis when the gliders appeared and when the shots were fired. Beljazza and Gratis Zero take evasive action and once again Beljazza tries to use the com to ask the Dragon Lords for guidance - but to no avail…

Gratis Zero is anxious and itching for a fight… “You’re the chief for now… so what?”

Beljazza: “No isolation…. No splitting up… there is strength in unity… Let’s pursue those two who are heading toward Goshen… we should have an advantage because it is my stomping ground and there are much Dragon Lords, on account of what you said earlier…. Fiefdom 17 is the prize of The Dragon Lords’ kingdom….”

Gratis zero does not respond for his response is turning his glider in the direction of those heading to Goshen Minor… and taking the point as Beljazza follows.

Uba Petra is searching the mostly darkened industrial, abandoned factories in Golgotha. Most of these factory buildings are dank and have that rusted iron/copper smell… Uba Petra is searching for the light that emanates from the Dragon Lords’ weapon that is tethered to their hands - but of course there is no such light because the Dragon Lord is not going to make it that easy. There are blood drop… thick blueish fluid that is the tell tale mark of the Dragon Lords’ blood - that raw fish smell of the blood is pungent… it is smeared as if to disguise it.

Uba Petra taunting and engaging in psychological warfare: “Are you hiding Lord long enough so you can get help to defeat me… I, who is merely flesh and blood….”

Uba Petra, knowing that the Dragon Lord has a heightened sense of hearing among others figured that he must have heard the taunting… so Uba Petra is more careful in his tracking and searching…. The first blast comes which look like a lightning fireball from about thirty yards ahead… the blast illuminated the semi dark run down factory area and hits overhead… bringing down a few columns. Uba scampers for cover, while moving toward the blast. Uba sees a brighter light, probably emanating from the Dragon Lord’s weapon. The light was from the Dragon Lord’s weapon and he smashed it against one of the columns - in fact, the Dragon Lord had severed the weapon from the appendage that connects it to his hand… maybe so that it does not fall into his the enemy’s hand. The Dragon Lord seems reinvigorated with new energy and is briskly walking toward Uba Petra.…

Dragon Lord: Terranovian, show yourself…!

Uba Petra, placing his guns back into his holsters… draws his white Obsidian Sword from the small of his back… Uba Petra manipulates a wrist band with what look like buttons… soon his glider is maneuvering overhead through the factory’s pillars and columns and giving light to the dank dead areas. The glider’s light and shows the lumbering Dragon Lord who is a few feet ahead - He pauses for he is apparently curious as to the glider’s intent… his long sword is drawn as he awaits Uba Petra.

Uba Petra: “You give me too much credit.”

Dragon Lord: “what for?”

Uba Petra: “You expect me to defeat you…”

Dragon Lord: “What...Why….”

The Dragon Lord is interrupted by Uba Petra before he could finish his thoughts….

Uba Petra: “You expect to lose… that’s why you destroy your weapon that is usually tethered to your arm - but I know all I need to know about your murderous kind… and I will finish the work of John Mark!

Dragon Lord: “You and what army….?

Uba Petra: “My Dragon Lord… there is merit in Guerilla Warfare… when facing great odds. and if you read your report from your broken Dame Nera…

Uba Petra’s mentioned of Dame Nera touched the Dragon Lord’s nerves… so much so that in few strides, the Dragon Lord sword is swooshing across the torso of Uba Petra, who, although got out of harm’s way, was surprised. Uba Petra made a mental note not to be so cavalier in a sword fight against the Dragon Lord to remember how quick the Dragon Lord was and he also noticed how tall this one was - six feet, six inches, and a massive, glistening sword. Even the wake of the Dragon Lord sword‘s swoosh’ scattered some trash on the ground. Uba Petra is easily moving out of the wild swings and he does not know if it is so because the Dragon Lord must have been injured in the fall from his dragon or the fact that the Dragon Lords have not fought since the conflict with John Mark and that they were rusty in using weapons of any kind, including swords. Uba Petra is careful not to let the Lord grab him and is parrying his sword like a boxer… In between the sword parrying… Uba Petra and the Dragon Lord continued the verbal sparring.

Dragon Lord: “who are you…? ‘take off your mask…”

Uba Petra: “You rightly said… when you called me Terranovian - even though you meant it as an insult… but if you read the report from your mangled Dame Nera… you would know who I am….”

Uba Petra moves in for the kill… realizing that he had other commitments… Uba increases his speed and thrusts… there is the increase clanging of the swords and the attendant sparks… Uba Petra suddenly kicks with his right foot and pulling it back as fast as he kicked, which, incidentally, found its mark into the Dragon Lord’s stomach, causing him to stumble and crashing into the pillars. The Dragon Lord’s back is now turn away from Uba, but Uba Petra does not relent or let the Dragon Lord turn around… but goes around to the Lord’s face and violently jabbing his sword… knocking the sword out of the Lord’s hand. The Dragon Lord then resorted to throwing punches as Uba Petra, with his sword hanging down by his side, moves out of the desperate, wild punches way. There is a flick of Uba Petra’s wrist and his sword pierces the Dragon Lord’s stomach… Uba then quickly pushes more of his sword into the Dragon Lord’s stomach… twisting the sword and pulling it out… the Dragon Lord drops to his knees and we hear a gurgling sound and see blueish fluid pouring out of him. Uba Petra backs away from the kneeling Lord… who still refuses to fall flat. Uba Petra then uses his unoccupied hand and touches some button on his arm… summoning his hovering glider to come to him… it comes in whisper mode and as Uba Petra boards the glider… it powers up and circles around where the Dragon Lord is still kneeling. Uba Petra, with his Obsidian sword still in his hand, reaches out and cuts the Dragon Lord’s head off … whose dying eyes were still wide open - the head drops at the back of the still kneeling torso of the Dragon Lord, as Uba Petra and glider speeds out of the dead industrial area of Golgotha in Fiefdom 11.

Stay Tuned For the Introduction of Anak Nye in “The Convocation” From Excerpt #7 From Fiefdom 17.