Chapter 13

Vage Verzak stared at this imperial army from the bow of his interstellar battleship - the Talon. Their flags fluttering dauntlessly, prepared to unleash an assault upon his paradimensional cosmic arcade, how they had found it wasn't his concern, what mattered to Vage was making them regret ever battling with him.

"Calk Xan never gets tired of fooling around with his meaningless schemes of taking me down," Vage said to Rode - his red panther lying besides him.

Rode purred, his paw covering his yawning jaws.

"I can see that you're getting bored with teaching a dumb feudal lord the same lessons over and over again. It could be annoying Rode, but it's worth being termed as a light workout."

Rode purred excitedly as he rose on all fours.

"Now let's see what card Calk Xan is going to dole out first", Vage said combing his beard with his fingers, "unlike him, I am a noble fighter and always play fair, giving my opponent the opportunity to choose his cards wisely."

Rode growled.

"Yes, I feel that way too Rode, he's really getting me bored with waiting."

Calk Xan stared from his battlecarpet watching Vage Verzak's Talon guarding that massive, blue radioactive wall shielding his cosmic arcade. He always had a thing for this cosmic pirate, a very nasty thing called hatred. These pirates, Calk frowned, one could never understand them, majority of them were willing to be used as puppets in the hands of cosmic lords to earn their right to plunder the astral seas. But few - the one percent - never even cared about plundering, but raced against intergalactic emperors in acquiring new territories, stellar minerals and advanced weaponry, and Vage belonged to that class of imposters who always stood in the way of his progress, thwarting his plans to acquire new territories. Vage was in the black book of every cosmic lord that existed and will ever exist. Now he had found his cosmic arcade, and he was going to take it from him by all means possible. Calk was on fire to see that defeated look take over Vage's fearless grin.

"Cosmic beasts", Calk yelled, "attack !"

The cages of Calk's fleet opened unveiling their blackholes, they unleashed those monstrous six legged hyenas upon Vage's ship.

"And his first move was a flaw", Vage whistled, "we don't need to strain ourselves for the first round, do we Rode ?"

Rode yawned his reply.

Vage's gaze fell upon that army of cosmic beasts, that laughter echoed in his head. Why was Calk so foolish ? He knew that this wasn't his only cosmic arcade, he had tens of them. Why would Calk never admit his position as a bargainer and come to a compromise with with Vage, he could sell it off at a generous price, even to a miserly individual like Calk - never ! And not to a tyrant like Calk Xan. That was why the feudal lord would rather take their negotiation to the battlefield, than come pleading for a discount.

Calk had left him no choice, besides, as he had said earlier, this was going to be a light workout. Vage lifted his left hand, snapping his fingers, the unexpected happened.

Those blue and colossal tentacles tore out from that cosmic wall, lashing through the distance like halos, they consumed the ranks of Calk's cosmic beasts, sending them howling to the skies. Vage could see that curious look on Calk's face, why wouldn't it be frustrating, thinking that he - Calk - had gotten him cornered, seeing that he was about losing the first round of his bullheaded assault, made him breath fire through his nostrils.

The howling intensified piercing the skies into a perforated fabric, but the tentacles didn't stop their savage lashing, cutting through tens of them with every blow sending them burning into a storm of ash.

"Cosmic beasts !" Calk yelled.

This time they came with even more fury and fire, their jaws wide open, ready to cut through whatever stood in their way. But the tentacles were ever ready cutting through their ranks with an even more destructive intensity, sending this expanse quivering under the turbulence of the collisions and flames. They were everywhere, striking down Calk's army of cosmic beasts rank after rank from all corners, tying them down to the spot. A whirlpool emerged, its cosmic waves slowly drowning Calk's entire army of cosmic beasts into its infinite depths.

Calk growled, but he wasn't done yet, he had prepared really hard for this day, and wouldn't let his work amount to nothing.

"It's high time I took you for a spin on the discus Vage." Calk grinned to himself. "Cosmic beasts !"

The cages fell open once again, unveiling those blackholes which unleashed another wave of cosmic beasts and a storm of discus like missiles trailing them from behind. They whizzed past them, taking the vanguard of the assault, they fell upon those tentacles, ramming their lightning infested and radioactive blades into their hides. Calk smiled seeing his missiles crashing into Vage's flanks of tentacles.

"I'll see how you're going to survive this Vage," Calk said to himself.

A grin stole Vage's face, snapping his fingers, he sent the entire battlefield exploding, sparing only Calk's army of cosmic beasts.

Calk smiled to the glory of his false victory, desiring to wreak more havoc upon Vage and his ship, he released another volley of his war discus. They came once again as a storm setting the battlefield on fire, taking on the vanguard, they prepared to make a destructive impact on Vage's ship.

"Spiked cannon wall !" Vage called.

A satin steel like wall enacted itself before Vage's ship, its spiked surface glistened lightning white, and its sides expanding rapidly, more than half the terrain of the battlefield. Both ends of its flat surface began to bend towards each other, concealing that storm within its core - the newly formed cylinder, better still a cannon, rotated itself into a combat ready position, taking aim at the Calk's army of attacking cosmic beasts, it sent that storm backfiring towards them, fiercer than it came.