Skeletor's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Skeletor spread the stolen map across the war table. Every gate was marked, but one drawing stood out. A back gate near the skull's jaw had cracked hinges and thin timber. The boy's people meant to breach there. Skeletor smiled. He would turn their own plan into a trap. He posted Beast Man and Trap Jaw at the weak gate and waited for dawn to bring the attack. But the enemy did not come like scouts. They came like war. Ram Man crashed the front door first, a hammer of red armor and metal helmet. The skull's wooden mouth split under him. Behind him poured the boy's champions, and Skeletor's careful trap meant nothing. A bee-man tore through the air on humming wings. Buzz-Off dropped onto the wall and flung two monsters into the courtyard. Fisto followed, black-bearded and grinning, his iron fist smashing a guard's shield to scrap. Beside him fought a red-haired woman in white, a cobra staff spinning in her hands. Teela cracked the serpent's head across Merman's jaw and dropped him. Skeletor had planned for a raid. He faced an army. Then he saw the blond man at the center, and his blood went cold. He-Man. Skeletor had left him for dead seasons ago, buried under the old defeat. Now the barbarian stood in the broken mouth of the keep, sword glowing blue in his fist. He-Man's eyes found Skeletor across the ruin. "I came back for what you did," he said. "This ends tonight." Skeletor raised his staff and threw a bolt of fire. He-Man swung the blue sword and split the flame in two. The blast scorched the walls, not the man. Skeletor threw again and again. Each time the sword caught the fire and turned it aside. Around them his monsters fell to Fisto's fist and Teela's staff and Buzz-Off's charge. The keep was breaking from the inside. "Evilin!" Skeletor roared. She struck her staff to the stone. A wall of purple light rose between him and He-Man. The barbarian's sword bit into the barrier and sank slow, but it sank. "We cannot hold the keep," Evilin said. "Hold your life instead." Ram Man's helmet caved the inner arch. Beast Man dragged Trap Jaw toward the rear passage, both bloodied. Skeletor understood. He could die here proving his pride, or live to strike again. He backed into the dark tunnel beneath the throne he had wanted so badly. The purple wall shattered behind him. He-Man's boots pounded the stone. Skeletor ran with his lover and his two friends into the earth below the keep. The green skull fortress was lost. The boy's people flooded its halls and raised their torches high. Skeletor had built a throne room. Tonight He-Man had taken it. And now Skeletor knew the true enemy who stood between him and the dark throne of Eternia.