The Tomb of the Maharal Part 7

Description: The Templars have been hired to track down a pair of grave robbers before they meet their end. A simple job, more than likely not, nothing is ever simple for the Templars.

Nova tore a sleeve of Richard’s shirt to check the wound and to stop the bleeding. She dug into the hole, and with him winced in pain. She tried to see how deep the bullet had gone and before he could jerk away from her finger, she pulled it out, tossing the iron to the floor. “It wasn’t that deep,” she said.

            “Still hurts like hell,” Richard grunted, trying to roll his shoulder, but the soreness kept him at bay.

            “I’m sure it is g---“Nova stopped; they both looked behind trying to find the stone man. The monster’s footsteps had stopped moving, and he was nowhere in sight. “I don’t like that,” Nova said.

            “Me either,” he agreed, checking the bullets in one of his pistols. He had four shots left before he had to reload, but his good arm was out for the count, reloading was going to be a problem and a big one.

            “What do we do?” Nova asked, looking back him.

            “Keep moving until Charlotte finds a way to stop him,” Richard told her.

            “You sure do put a lot of faith in her,” Nova hissed, checking her own ammo. She still had six shots; she never got one bullet off when they went rushing into the library.

            “She saved my life more than once,” Richard said, and before Nova could utter another word, they heard several loud bangs in the halls. They glanced at each other unsure what the bangs were, they weren’t the stone man walking, they knew what that sounded like, but it sounded as if he was punching the walls. Richard’s pistol shot up, pointing into the darkness waiting for anything to move. Nova kept her hand on the hilt of her gun studying tunnel as well.

            “This is the last time I’m saving you,” Richard muttered to her, “you always get me into trouble.”

            “Oh please,” she said with a wink,” you like it, and maybe if we live through this, you’ll get another kiss.”

            “I’m not sure we are going to live through this one,” Richard said as the banging grew louder. No, it wasn’t growing louder but coming from all around them. The bricks which were a different hue than the walls and the floor started to shake. The dust layer on them filled the tunnel, and something pushed their way out from the other side.

            Richard stepped back from the wall as a fist from a smaller stone man came crashing out of the wall. “Woah,” he snapped, backing into Nova, pointing his gun right at the fist trying to break free from its tomb.

            “Looks like the Maharal didn’t make the army,” Nova said, seeing more hands break down the walls.

            “Run, run,” Richard ordered her almost pushing her to do so. Nova moved with less speed than she wanted to, but her head was still killing her, and Richard stayed on her heels. He wanted her to go faster, needed her to go faster, but the wound in his shoulder was slowing him down as well. All along the walls, the army of golems was breaking themselves free from their cages. No longer would they sleep in their tombs waiting for a master to come for them. They were free in the tunnels with murder in their glowing eyes. Richard and Nova ducked and dodged, rolled and spun to avoid the stone men. Luckily for them, these living statues were slow from the weight of their stone bodies, and yet, with each step, they took they were slowly starting to gain speed.

            Richard pushed Nova to go right or left in the dark tunnels. He had a long time ago found he had a great sense of direction which rarely allowed him to get lost. The only place which he seemed to be unable to gain his bearings was out at sea. The endless blue of the ocean all looked the same in his eyes, and he could finger out where in the world they were, but down in the dark of the tunnels, he knew how to get back to the library.

            They busted back into the library, turning on their heels to face the door. “Charlotte, you are out of time,” Richard shouted. Augustine and Dyson raced to the railings, looking down at the two sixteen-year-olds with their guns at the ready.

            “Dad,” Nova yelled.

            “Up here,” he waved back to them.

            “We got a problem,” she shouted, looking up at him and then back to the door where several golems were walking into the room with the main one right behind them. The smaller golems were only about six feet tall had the same runes on their heads, but the runes didn’t seem to be complete like the nine-foot monster.

            “Aim for the glowing letter,” Richard said, “and don’t get dead.” Richard’s pistol roared to fire with the four bullets tagging the monsters in the forehead. Each one of them stopped dead in their footsteps, grabbing their heads and crying silence screams of agony. He dashed to the right while Nova dashed to the left. She had only five of her targets, her skull was still throbbing from being almost crushed, and the pain was throwing her shots. Both of them raced to hide between the bookshelves and reload. The golems, the ones not locked in a freezing pain, went hunting for the two humans with guns. Richard reloaded as quickly as his wounded arm would allow and tried his best not to be smashed by the golems coming through the bookshelves after him. He shot, reloaded, dashed between the monsters, all while trying to stay alive. They were slow, but he was running out of ammo and most of all luck.

            “Charlotte,” he yelled and grabbed a stone with his fist and tossed out into the center of the room. He landed against the stone floor hard and against his wounded shoulder. He grunted in pain, trying to bite back a whelp like a wounded puppy. Tears flooded his eyes only for a moment before the large stone feet stopped in front of him. He glanced up to see the nine-foot-tall man looking back down at him.

            Richard's eyes went wide with the hand of the monster launching out to engulf his head. The mere speed of the hand hitting his face almost knocked him out cold. He saw stars as he was being lifted off above the monster’s head, slowly feeling the fingers closing around his spiky blonde hair.

            Words unknown to Richard or anyone in the library was shouted down from above. Charlotte had found the spell and spoke with all the manna she could gather through her. The golem dropped Richard with wide eyes and fear beaming from its glowing eyes. He stared up at Charlotte who was using what was left of her energy to stay standing.

            “Shoot the rune,” Charlotte ordered before she crumbed back into a bookshelf.

            Richard, not one to be asked twice to shoot something, tried to pull his pistol out and up to the rune, but the monster seeing his slow action, knocked the gun from his hands. The stone fist sent the gun flying and caused Richard to fall over. He glanced up to see the foot of the monster about to come down on his head �"

            Bang!

            The bullet punched a hole through the rune, making the golem stumble backward with each step of the monster crumbling to dust. Richard climbed back to his knees, looking back to see Nova holding the smoking gun, and he smiled. Nova strolled over to him and held out her hand to help him back to his feet.

            “You okay?” She asked.

            “I will after that kiss,” he said with a smirk going in to touch her lips, but she put the barrel of the gun between them.

            “Not today, boy,” Nova said with a wink.