“You truly are strange.” Oll mused, one of his many hands slowly tracing over the designs of the game piece on the board. “Why do you insist on torturing these people Balthasar?”
Balthasar looked like a standard old wise man. His long beard was grey with some salt and pepper in it. He was bald but hid his head with a wizard’s hat. His earlobes stretched down to his shoulders. He only spoke in a whisper so that only if you tried to listen could you hear him. The only thing that would suggest he wasn’t just a wrinkly old human was the amount of irises and pupils he had in his eyes and the fact his left arm split at the elbow into two forearms. One ended with only two fingers, an index and middle, while the other ended with his other three fingers. “That’s where we see differently Oll. I do not see it as torturing because how can you torture game pieces?” The man picked up on of the pieces in his graveyard, it was a bear with two heads and he watched it crumble into dust in his hand.
“They are humans!” Oll smashed the great table with his fist and despite his small frame and the skin and bone look of his arm, the table shook and groaned under the impact and the pieces jiggled but before they could fall, an invisible force held them in place and kept them standing. Balthasar gazed at the pieces as they righted themselves and let out a soft sigh. “How dare you call them game pieces! They will survive this petty game of yours.” Oll crossed two pairs of his arms as he sat back and he gazed at the eight pieces he had on his side of the field. They were all elegantly carved, and he could see each of them as if they were the person they represented. A man with a cowboy hat, six gems in a circle on his torso. One man leaned against a cross, a pistol in both of his hands. Then there were simpler ones, a boy with a guitar, another with a book, as well as a short alien holding a sword, and a zombie with two rods in his hands. However one was his favorite and he had kept a personal eye on this one. It was a piece with two people on it, they were waltzing, a woman in a silky lace dress and a skeleton in a suit. “I have chosen warriors who will survive your trials.”
“How confident you are! The Great Oll giving the few remaining his blessings. I would believe your bravado if it weren’t for the fact you had already lost your queen. And most of your board.” A piece floated off Oll’s graveyard and hung suspended in the air. A great dragon, coiled around with his head staring straight up into the sky. Oll snatched it out of the air and carefully put it back in the graveyard.
“I must admit… Odonx has proven to be stronger than I could imagine.” Oll stared sadly at his graveyard, at the souls who had lost their lives because they were forced to be involve in this twisted duel between two Ancients. “However how do you think he will act when he finds out that he is also just a pawn in this game?”
“Please, like you said he is just a pawn. He is nowhere as powerful as to be a threat to me. And besides, he will be dealt with soon.”
“You underestimate him, and you underestimate pawns.” Oll moved Dino’s piece forward and crossed his arms. “Your turn Balthasar.”
“I don’t underestimate anyone.” The old wizard snapped his fingers and a ring of fire formed around the six of Oll’s pieces. “Rather I overestimate everyone so that my methods will always work.”
Dino’s shots were met with a few screams and grunts of pain then silence, the torches disappearing into the night. Terrified, the remaining dog ran back into the depths of the darkness. There was an eerie silence as the group waited for something to happen, then Nocturn heard a glass shatter above him, some of the liquid splashed down and he rubbed it off his shoulder and sniffed it. “Tar…” He grunted. Meanwhile the two upstairs could see the black liquid leaking from the wall and onto the ground. A few more glasses shattered and soon the entire building reeked of the black pitch. Then they saw a burning mass hurtle towards them, bouncing about in an unpredictable fashion. It dashed towards the two, it was a dog that the savages had lit on fire. Meanwhile, small balls of fire were thrown through the air. They had wrapped rocks in cloth dipped in tar then lit them on fire.