by Thomas Green
The easiest kill of my life! Luna shifted her fingers into vicious claws and her mouth into the nightmare of teeth. The demon pivoted, gazing at her with all of its eyes. She leapt into the air, aiming for the monster’s back. The demon spun to smash her with its tail. The impact blew the breath out of Luna’s lungs and sent her crashing into the wall.
Luna focused on regenerating her broken bones. The monster turned to her, inhaled and then spat a blob of green slime. She jumped to the side, dodging by an inch. She saw the stone melt where the green slime hit it. The demon sneered and inhaled once more. She slid sideways. The expected spit of the green slime missed her. She broke her slide to charge forward, heading toward the demon’s flank. The creature sprung its body and caught her leg into its jaw.
Luna sunk her claws into the back of its neck with her left, pulled herself closer and rammed her right hand into the monster’s throat. She tore out a handful of scales. The demon roared and shook its head to throw her off.
Luna ignored it and drove her claws into its throat again, tearing out a chunk of muscles. Searing pain shot through Luna from her leg. A quick glance confirmed the demon spat the green slime. She didn’t stop to admire how the acidic slime melted her armor, her skin, her flesh, and her bones.
Shrieking with pain, Luna ignored everything else and kept clawing at the monster’s throat. The demon roared, whirled and shook. She finally reached the arteries. Green blood sprayed out of the gaping wound, burning Luna’s arm. She let go and rolled to the side. The monster twitched, turned, and then collapsed onto the ground. She glanced at her left leg, which ended with the knee as her shin, and foot were melted away.
She swallowed the blinding pain and funneled her strength to recreate her leg as she crawled forward. Luna reached the monster’s corpse and started tearing flesh out of its body. The stench was disgusting while the taste was even worse, but the absorption of aether was so exhilarating she didn’t care. She gobbled down the monster’s flesh as fast as she could.
Wait for a second! We are in the middle of a match. I shouldn’t eat more than I need. She tore herself away from the corpse. Just a little more. She dug back into the carcass, intoxicating herself with the devoured aether.
A brutal impact to her side threw her off the carcass. Pain exploded through her body as she flew into the wall. Luna leapt back to her feet and realized she got hit by the massive ram-horned demon. The creature stood on two hoof-tipped legs, had a pair of arms, but featured a neck the thickness of a trunk, and humongous horns upon its head. The monster huffed, lowered its head and charged.
I wasn’t done eating, you stupid cow! She made sure her aether had already remade her foot, roared, and sprinted forward. When the demon was almost at her, she shifted her weight to turn her run into a sliding tackle. She rammed her feet into the creature’s ankle. The monster’s bones snapped upon the impact. Luna whirled and leapt at the falling demon. The monster turned to punch her. Its heavy fist shattered Luna’s nose, sending her flying backward.
She snarled and waited for her face to heal while the demon crawled onto its hoof. She charged.
The creature swung its fists at her head. She slid beneath them to ram herself into its chest. The demon’s leg gave out, sending them to the ground. She climbed up its body. The demon tried to tear her off, sinking huge claws into her body. She ignored the flaring pain of her flesh being torn apart, slid up its torso and sunk her teeth into its throat. The demon stopped struggling as it was released of life.
This one tastes a bit better. Luna swallowed the flesh and dove in for more.
A thunderous boom similar to an earthquake disrupted her feast. Right! The match! She leapt up from the half-eaten carcass and sprinted back into the tunnels. She soon reached an entrance to an enormous cavern covered by rubble. Waiiit for a second.
Her eyes darted around, and she realized the rubble was a collapsed ceiling. Cheers echoed from the corridors leading to the audience, filling the air with Raven’s name.
She passed through until she arrived at the center of the cavern. A colossal carcass of a frog demon lay by the side, the corpses of the enemy team lay scattered nearby while at the center was Raven and the Rapacious Reavers. Blood covered Raven from head to toe as two of the Reavers held him on his feet. Beyond them sat an open chest, by which stood Finubar, holding the stone marking the victory.
Luna’s heart sunk into her stomach. They won the match without me… She forced out an awkward smile as she approached Finubar.
“It’s good to see you are all right,” he said with relief in his voice. “We will take Raven to the healers.”
“Thanks.” Luna shook her head and headed off. She ignored the cleaning room, heading straight toward her cell.
She dove into a water barrel, tears filling her eyes.
The beast entered her mind. ‘This wasn’t so bad. You got two big demons, which counts for something.’
I was useless, absolutely fucking useless. Again. I didn’t find any key, I didn’t stop the enemy team from finding their keys, I did nothing, absolutely nothing useful. As always.
‘You are taking this too hard on yourself.’
Oh no, I’m not, just wait for the evening mission. I don’t have to be an oracle to know that it will be an absolute disaster. As everything I do is.
23
The Attack on Cinderwell
Cinderwell lay embraced by the darkness of the night. The city was quiet and peaceful, allowing Lucas to work undisturbed in the southern district. From out of his soul chamber, he withdrew a barrel full of whale oil, splashed half of its contents onto the wooden wall of the storage house. Without haste, he prowled forward to place the second barrel by the next depot. He had already put around twenty-two of the barrels but had plans for six more.
A strange group passed by the corner. They wore the uniforms of the Slaver Union, but a couple of the dozen men were too large to be human, for they were ten feet tall.
Not even Urushnii grow to such size. Lucas stretched his neck, his joints popping.
A young, black-haired woman stepped out from the front of the group. “My, my… we have a rat.”
Lucas summoned his new spear into his hand. The standard military weapon felt despite being almost identical to his usual one. “Would you like some chit-chat before I end your lives or can we get on with it?”
“I heard you Palai scum have no manners and now I see why people say that.” She stretched out her hands toward Lucas. From each palm flew out a small sphere of blue energy. He leapt forward, and the spheres exploded at his heels into massive blasts of light, freezing everything it touched.
He charged their formation. Two men stepped in to shield the woman. Lucas broke his momentum, filled his spear with his aether and stabbed. The tip pierced the men’s skulls as if they were made of paper.
Seven men closed in on him in perfect coordination while the woman leapt backward. Lucas whirled into a flurry of stabs, his spear but a blur. The seven men died before the first two hit the ground.
The giants flanked Lucas, one swung down with massive maul, while the second slashed with a great axe. Lucas soulstepped behind the giant by his right to run his spear through the giant’s knee. The giant spun without as much as a grunt, swinging at Lucas’ head. He ducked under the blow. The woman formed a spear of ice within her hand and flung it at Lucas. He flicked his wrist. The ice spear disappeared and reappeared next to the giant’s head. The spear of ice pierced the giant’s skull.
With a roar, the second giant stepped between Lucas and the woman while she turned to run. He placed an invisible mark of his aether onto her back before she vanished out of his sight.
The last giant swung down his maul. Lucas soulstepped to his right and stabbed him through the knee. He withdrew the spear, soulstepped to the giant’s left, and pierced his second knee. The giant crumbled upon the ground. Lucas soulstepped onto his back to stab the giant’s head.
A second of focus was all it took Lucas to
locate the mark he had placed onto the woman. He soulstepped to the mark, appearing straight behind her. Before she could realize, he stabbed her in the ankle. She screamed in pain as she collapsed to the ground.
Lucas stepped on her chest and sunk his spear into her shoulder. “Where’s Collward?”
“Northern… headquarters,” the woman squeezed out from among the shouts of pain.
Lucas drove his spear into her head, ending her life. He soulstepped back to the storage houses and finished placing the remaining six barrels before he set the last one ablaze. Flames soon engulfed the straw-filled roof of the depot and spread onto the other depots.
Lucas smirked and sprinted forward into the city.
***
Luna stood high on the mountain of Cinderwell, or well, the stump that was left. She eyed the spike at the summit, remembering the legend of how the Dreadwolf once impaled a dragon upon its tip, winning the siege in which the Forsaken Prince conquered the region. As she stared at the sharp rock blackened by the touch of fire, the legend became eerily real.
She turned, peering down at the town and saw the flame in the southern district was already blazing, turning the night into day. Luna walked to the edge of the cliff, spun around, grabbed the heavy rock she prepared and leapt backward, clinging onto the stone. She watched the peak disappear into the distance as her fall started and then flipped to enjoy the sharp wind accompanying her descent.
The swirling city was an alluring sea of darkness filled with orange spots of flames, getting larger before her eyes. The tiled roof of the house beneath approached, and she braced herself, spinning, so the rock would hit first. She crashed through the tiles and then through two floors worth of wooden steps before the ground level stopped her fall. Pain exploded through her, but she gritted her teeth not to shout.
Screaming echoed through the building. Guards swarmed around to see what happened. Meanwhile, Luna’s body had regenerated, repairing the crushed bones, reattaching torn muscles, weaving together her broken skin. She leapt to her feet while turning her fingertips into vicious claws.
Luna took a deep breath and roared. Her voice shattered the window’s glass, destroyed eardrums and sent the guardsmen into a panic. She dashed through the decorated house, ending every life she encountered. The guards never regrouped.
She soon stood before a tall, reinforced door, her feet grinding on the broken glass covering the stone floor. The door was wooden at the base but had sheets of steel nailed into the wings. She scanned the surroundings, finding the wall was made of marble and that the hinges were all covered by an extra layer of metal.
Luna focused on her aether, filling her body and mind with power. She stepped in to launch a straight strike. Her claws sunk into the wood, piercing through. She clenched her fist around the locking mechanism and pulled. The wood gave in, letting her tear the lock out of the door.
She kicked the door open. The room beyond was windowless, undecorated and featured a makeshift barricade made of tables and chairs. At the fortification stood four men, beyond whom cowered Luis Lawland and his family of a wife and two children. Screams filled the air as Luna’s mouth stretched from ear to ear, revealing the nightmare of teeth within.
The men at the barricade lifted crossbows and shot at Luna. The bolts dug into her chest, piercing through her brigandine, but not her strengthened skin. She charged forward to ram her shoulder into the barricade. It shattered beneath the impact, sending half of the armed men crashing into the walls.
Two blades descended upon her. One cut into her shoulder, the other slashed her arm, yet they could not slash the wires of her aether-filled muscles, leaving her with superficial wounds. She ignored the pain and sank her claws into the first man’s throat. The other man slid to the side and stabbed at her chest. Luna whirled, parried the blade and skewered him.
Luis Lawland stood before her, sword in his hand and terror in his eyes. She stepped in to drive her claws into his torso, piercing his heart. The screaming of the woman and children behind him turned even more desperate.
Okay… now what? The thought ran through Luna’s mind a split second before a sword pierced her chest. I forgot about the two men I knocked aside! She whirled, slammed her shoulder into the man creeping up by her rear and punched the one who stabbed her. He ducked under the punch. She stepped in, caught his head and slammed her knee into his face, crushing it like an old melon.
She cursed and pulled the sword out of her chest. The wound healed, but her strength was fading. Ahead of her sat a middle-aged woman with two children while behind Luna lay a man with his helmet knocked off.
“You don’t… you don’t have to kill us… we won’t tell… anyone,” the woman, Mrs. Lawland, whimpered.
Luna measured them with a cold look.
“She’s right. You’ve killed your target, so nobody else has to die tonight,” the man added.
She knew this man. He was the chief of the mines, the one from whom she stole the map. And she believed him. Luna sighed. Her eyes met those of Mrs. Lawland. Hatred oozed out of her gaze. She was lying. She would report on Luna the first chance she would get. But can I really kill two children?
The beast scoffed. ‘It’s not like you hadn’t done that before.’
Yet that was always in a frenzy, when she hungered, when the aether starvation forced her to. This was different. She didn’t have to do it now. To spare them would mark her as a wanted criminal and earn her bounty posters across the regions, but she would live since her mission for Lucas was technically over. Luna closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. But she needed the Order to redo her bindings. For that, she had to do more than the bare minimum as Lucas was clear about her connection to them having to stay secret. He might have been stringing her along with the promise of the ritual, but perhaps, if she did her missions perfectly, he would deliver on his words. And leaving behind witnesses putting bounties on her head was not perfection.
Luna leapt forward, swinging wide with her claws. Tears ran down her cheeks as she sliced through flesh and bone. When she reopened her eyes, the only living people within the room were she and the chief of the mines. He lay collapsed upon the ground, pale and breathless.
Luna walked past him. “Just… keep being a good father to Miriam.”
She disappeared into the shadows of the house and scratched the symbol of the sun on the wooden floor. May you find peace. Afterward, she went to eat a few of the dying guards to sate the hunger boiling inside her. She remembered James telling her the only thing he could teach her was to become him. He was right.
***
Miranda leapt onto a roof. Below stood half a dozen soldiers of the Slaver Union, manning the barricade, huddled around two torches. The man at their midst bore golden insignia that signified a higher rank. She drew her weapon, a steel sphere at a chain connected to a sickle, all of which were fashioned to look like a snake eating the world. Letters etched into the hilt read Scitalis.
She swung the steel sphere into the air and soulstepped behind the men. She crushed the officer’s head, caving in his helmet. The other soldiers didn’t manage to turn before she soulstepped away.
Miranda dashed forward, hunting for more. The mission went well as she had slain dozens of the officers of the Slaver Union before she reunited with her men atop the roof of the city hall. Her soldiers, the Shadowless, were all dressed like her, wearing black armor and cloaks with hoods. Over their faces, they all had a featureless white mask. All six of them were unrecognizable from each other, and unharmed.
Miranda couldn’t help herself but smirk with satisfaction. “Have you found their headquarters? Hmm?”
“It’s in the Northern district in a large marble house with their symbol at its head. They aren’t trying to be stealthy about this,” one of her men said.
She bolted forward while she motioned them to follow. Without questions, they did.
The mansion marked by the sigil of the Slaver Union, the symbol of a dove with spread wings, stood
before them. There was no movement within the surrounding streets. The entire area lay embraced in darkness pierced only by the moon’s grace.
Her subordinate who had scouted the building led the way to a spacious office on the top floor. Miranda peaked in. In the moonlight from the outside, she saw a man sit upon a throne by a large table filled with maps. By his sides stood two, identical women in armor.
She motioned her men to sneak into the room through the shadows while she took off her mask, threw off her hood and entered straight through the middle of the door. “Edward Collward, I suppose.”
He smiled. “I was waiting for when Lucas sends his assassins.”
“You don’t seem to be appropriately afraid.”
“I hope you brought some men with you, for I would be disappointed if all he sent after me was one girl.”
“Why so sad?” Miranda measured the room. Everything inside the office was made of wood. There was the throne by a large table, two wardrobes by her left, another table with chairs by her right, and a bottle-filled cabinet by the far corner. Her men were using the distraction she had created to slide to the sides, hiding within the shadows, encircling Collward.
If he had noticed them, he paid them no heed. “We all have our regrets.”
Miranda raised an eyebrow. “Missing your daughter? Hmm?”
“Yes, I am. Yet all I can do is pray your kin is kind to her.”
“What gave me away?”
Collward shook his head. “You look too young for the position you possess and, as far as I am aware, there is only one non-demonic race that doesn’t age, only the Daughters of Dreams.”
“The Sil Haen are fun, so she will not get bored even if she might not live for long.”