Until Dawn: Last Light

by Simas, Jennifer Nicole

  The first kill set the tone for battle.

  Somewhere in the distance, I heard a man cry out. Scott. I couldn’t help but wonder if Jade felt guilty for so carelessly predicting his brother’s death. No. She was too preoccupied to feel guilt. The real Jade’s hands shook at her sides. The duplicates were draining her energy faster than we’d thought. I hoped she could hold on a little longer. We just needed to give the illusion of larger numbers, to draw the General’s men right where we wanted them.

  Thousands of bodies barreled toward our people, swords drawn. They sounded like a stampede of raging bulls. It wasn’t easy to stand by and watch; in fact, it was damn near impossible. The warrior within me ached for battle, longing to defend our people. Baldric’s men thirsted for blood and there was no doubt in my mind that they’d get it. The massive legion headed straight for Jade, the shifts and our humans. They were falling right into our trap

  “Prepare for battle, soldiers!” Markus shouted. “Tonight, we dine with Death! No fear, no mercy!”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  A loud rumble sounded across the land. A roar like nothing I’d ever heard before. It traveled through the air, stopping Baldric’s men in their tracks. Out of the clouds, a great and mighty beast came forth. An invisible hand cupped my mouth as I started to scream. William. The enormous creature was easily two times the size of the Sythen, which now fled the skies in fear.

  The General rode into the clearing, his eyes glued to the dark sky. He sat high upon the back of a black beast that somewhat resembled a horse. It was something of nightmares. A thin layer of leathery skin covered its muscles, steam erupting from its nostrils and fire licking at its hooves. It gave a loud snort as it reared back on its powerful hind legs.

  “A dragon,” Baldric exclaimed. “Impossible!”

  The dragon opened its massive jaws, spitting a ring of fire into the land. The flames encircled our people, creating a protective wall between them and the General’s legion. Baldric’s men jumped back as the flames licked higher into the air. The men screamed with rage, gnashing their teeth and waving their weapons. The plan was working.

  “It is an illusion, you fools,” Baldric growled. “Kill them!”

  That was our cue. “Now,” I ordered.

  I weaved through the General’s men as quickly as I could, knowing that we didn’t have much time until Alec could no longer keep us all hidden. I raised my sword to make the first kill but, before I could strike, someone beat me to my target. The man’s head suddenly fell from his shoulders, his body collapsing to the ground before me. I plunged my sword through the next soldier, and the next. Before I knew it, I’d already single handedly taken out over a hundred men. Panic started to spread throughout Baldric’s army as their comrades dropped like flies around them.

  “You think you are so clever,” Baldric’s deep voice growled, “but you cannot fool me!”

  Something sailed through the air, headed straight for the castle’s tower.

  “Look out!” someone screamed, but it was too late.

  Alec groaned as the tip of the arrow pierced through his shoulder. He fell to his knees, tearing the arrow from his body with a loud grunt. One by one, our people reappeared across the land. Another arrow sailed through the air, burrowing deep into Jade’s chest. The duplicates faded with the wind, exposing our people to attack. The plan was over. The real battle would soon begin.

  “You should have joined me when you had the chance, warriors,” Baldric raged. “Now you are nothing! You shall die with the rest of your pathetic followers. No one can rise against the King and live. No one! This world is mine now! You cannot defeat me! Bring me the girl,” he ordered, “kill the rest!”

  The screams of bloodshed spread across the land as the General’s legion collided with our small army. Gunfire, explosions and the sound of metal clanking against metal filled my ears. A man came at me from the right, his weapon raised. I spun out of his path, shoving my sword through his back. I ripped my blade free and slashed through another soldier’s stomach, slicing through the thick chain metal armor. Blood oozed from his gut as he doubled over.

  Footsteps charged at me from behind. I ducked low to the ground and the man stumbled onto the bloody tip of my sword and went limp. Jade was on me in a second, heaving the soldier’s body off of my blade. She extended a hand to me, which I took. The second I was on my feet, she was gone, slicing off the head of an oncoming vamp. She was smiling. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Jade so happy.

  “Archers,” Markus bellowed, “bring the rain!”

  When nothing happened, I started to worry. Something was wrong.

  There was a rustle deep within the trees and someone screamed. The large creature stomped out into the open, one of the forest nymphs in its massive hands. The giant lifted the flailing creature up to its mouth and bit her in half. Blood stained its crooked teeth, spilling over its lips as it crunched down on flesh and bone. It stormed toward us, each footstep shaking the Earth.

  “Fire!”

  Machine guns sounded. The giant howled, tumbling to the ground with a loud thump. It didn’t get back up.

  One of Baldric’s men rode toward me on horseback, swinging a mace over his head. I pulled a dagger from my ankle and sent it sailing toward him. It lodged into his throat. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slipped down to the ground, trampled on by his own horse.

  I made my way to the vampire, who was still squirming in pain. I raised my sword and chopped off his head. “Thanks,” I mumbled, grabbing the reins and mounting the horse. It snorted as I patted its muscular chest.

  The sky grew darker as reinforcements came to replace the beasts that Ryuu had blown out of the sky, quite literally. They hovered over us like venomous, winged serpents, each of them lusting to satisfy their craving for blood.

  “Keep an eye on the sky!” one of our vampires bellowed, dodging the incoming dive of one of the Sythen. He slammed into a human woman, pushing her out of harm’s way.

  “Josh, behind you!” I yelled, digging my heels into the horse’s side and racing toward him at full speed.

  He spun on his heels just in time to come face to face with one of the smaller serpent beasts. It roared, gaping jaws lunging for his face. The creature didn’t speak. It was far too hungry for small talk. The Sythen breathed smoke into Josh’s face like a predator lusting after the taste of its prey. Josh scrambled back, tripping over a dead body and falling to the ground.

  I sliced at the beast’s face and it retreated away from him, turning its attention to me. I stabbed at it again, my sword piercing through the side of its face. It howled in pain, staggering back and forth, giving Josh the time he needed to escape. With one swift movement of my sword, its head fell from its body and death took the giant beast. I hoped it burned in Hell. I’d probably see it there soon.

  I pulled my horse alongside of Josh and hopped down from it. The nervous animal took off into the forest. I didn’t blame it – a lot of us would have liked to flee. I’d be faster on my feet anyway. I gave Josh a once over to make sure that he wasn’t injured. As I opened my mouth to speak, he shook his head.

  “I’m fine,” he assured me. With that, he ran off into battle, using the King’s sword to slice through one of the General’s men.

  The creatures of the night opened their mighty jaws and spread their venomous fire into the land. It burned anything and everything that stood in its way, friend and foe alike.

  Alec and Jade had progressed further into Baldric’s legion, destroying anything in their paths. Arrows soared over our heads in both directions. Soldiers collapsed at my feet before I could drive my blade through their hearts, arrows protruding from their backs. The forest nymphs’ skill with a bow gave us a noticeable advantage with our long-range attacks, but we needed more than an advantage to win. We needed a damn miracle.

  My attacks were swift. My body moved without thought, without hesitation. I worked on an ancient drive that told me exactly what to do
and when to do it. The attacks were lightning fast but the deaths, the deaths I saw in slow motion. I saw each of their faces, burned into my brain for all of eternity. I ripped my blade from their lifeless bodies and continued on without a second thought. It wasn’t the time to grieve. It wasn’t time to think. It was only time to kill – kill or be killed.

  “You know the orders!” a raspy voice echoed from high above us. “Leave no one alive!” My Sythen was leading its own set of troops. The large beasts circled in the sky like vultures, impatiently waiting to attack.

  Baldric’s troops were on the move. They continued pouring into the land like a deadly plague. I shifted my body and backtracked toward the center of kingdom, facing the remainder of our soldiers as they waited for their turn to gamble with death. I could hear their knees knocking, their teeth clattering. The smell of fear was in the air, along with the smell of rotting carcasses and burning flesh.

  I started to worry. I hadn’t seen Josh’s face in a while. Right on cue, he rode past me on the back of a tall stallion. A small group of people followed after him on horseback. They trampled over oncoming soldiers, showing no mercy. Some fired arrows; some shot the last remaining bullets; others wielded long swords or axes. I did a double take at the small woman bringing up the rear. It was Joy. She positioned the bazooka over her shoulder, straining under its weight. She cried out as she pulled the trigger, the fire singeing her fingers. The explosion sent a large number of our enemies sailing through the air, or what was left of them. An arm landed at my feet.

  “To the left!” Josh shouted and Joy reloaded the deadly weapon without hesitation, ready for round two. I wished I could’ve seen the look on the General’s face in that moment. It served him right, thinking the human weaponry to be so weak and frail. Another explosion rang out and dirt and body parts rained down around me.

  I was a fool to think we’d even come close to evening the playing field.

  They were surrounding us, coming at us from all sides just as I’d suspected. There were easily a thousand – two thousand – for every hundred we had. I moved as quickly as I could, my blade slicing through soldier after soldier. I longed to be in five places at once like Jade, but I’d have to settle for my one body.

  I ducked and dove out of the way of oncoming maces, blades, and soaring arrows that scattered across the castle grounds, determined to survive long enough to do damage to their numbers. Another fell from Baldric’s legion, and then another. A shift beside me took new form. The enormous grizzly roared and tackled a female vampire to the ground, ripping out her throat with one bite.

  I plowed through two of Baldric’s men as they came at Alec from the rear, slicing through their weak flesh and pushing them into the soil where they’d remain. Humans were so much easier to kill. I stood on tiptoes, scanning the kingdom to see where everyone was. Markus was running away, disappearing through the castle gates.

  “Coward,” I hissed.

  Alec shoved me out of the path of another giant as it tumbled out from the trees and crashed into the ground. One of the forest nymphs leapt up onto its enormous belly, shooting two more arrows into its head at pointblank. Alec’s hand lingered on my shoulder before he rose to his feet and took off back into battle. I was on my feet, slicing my blade through another soldier as she barreled toward me, her fangs extended. With a quick flip of my wrist, her head was gone.

  A familiar face appeared in the chaos once more. Markus. He was back. He marched toward the General like a man on a mission, dodging oncoming attacks with ease.

  “Markus, you worthless excuse for a shift, is that you? Oh, how it hurt me when you left. Your betrayal cut deep. You had great potential, you know.”

  “Burn in hell, mother fu–” His words were garbled by the cocking of the large machine gun that he cradled in his arms. There was a fire in his eyes, an inferno that consumed his soul. He wanted vengeance – hungered for it.

  Markus ran passed me, letting loose a rain of bullets into the large army. Hundreds of bodies collapsed to the ground, unable to escape his rampage. Eventually, the bullets that coiled around his chest would run dry. When that time finally came, Markus tossed the useless hunk of metal aside and pulled out a small round device. He fondled it in his hand with great care.

  “Kill the traitor!” Baldric roared. “Rip him to pieces!”

  The army snarled like savage animals. They trampled over fallen comrades, barreling toward Markus. Surprising even me, Markus ran toward them, maneuvering into the center of the madness. He held up the small device with a snarl, his finger holding firm to the red button on its top. Something was wrapped around his chest.

  “Oh my God,” I breathed. I turned and ran in the opposite direction as fast I as could, trying to get as far away from him as humanly possible. I could laugh about that little saying later – if I survived.

  “Burn in Hell, Baldric!” Markus roared.

  Hundreds of swords slashed through his body and he released the detonator. It went unnoticed by all those around him. All those except me, that is. The vampires were too preoccupied with the rich taste of his shift blood and, the humans, with pleasing their precious “King.” I dove to the ground as the explosion erupted behind me, ripping through the Earth like tissue paper.

  The blast was loud. No, loud didn’t come close to describing it. It was deafening. It left a ringing sound in my eardrums and a throbbing in my head. I was breathing in the muddy rainwater, the force of the C4 explosives pressing my body into the Earth. The ground smelt of rotting flesh. I choked back the vomit and crawled out of the mud. I rocked to and fro as I rose to my feet, disoriented by the blast.

  I made it a point right then and there to remember Markus’s sacrifice, every mundane detail of it. He’d single handedly wiped out easily five hundred of the General’s men. Their body parts were strewn about the land, their blood raining down from the sky. I prayed that Markus was with his little girl, now. Lord knew he deserved it after that.

  I stumbled a few feet before regaining my balance, searching desperately for the sword that no longer rested in my hand. I rolled bodies away from more bodies and felt around for the cold steel, endless rainfall clouding my vision. It couldn’t have gone far.

  An earsplitting roar sounded behind me and a chill ran down my spine. My Sythen was close. I could feel it. It swooped low and touched down in the middle of battlefield. It lifted its head to the sky and sniffed the air. It was looking for something, someone. Blood-red eyes locked onto their target and the beast charged at me.

  I spun on my heels, defenseless against the Sythen. It was covered from head to tail in black body armor. Baldric was protecting the creature because its blood pulsed through my veins. I knew it. The beast let out a hearty laugh. It thrust its tail into my spine, the force knocking me back to the ground. Blood dripped from the tips of long yellowed teeth as its snout sniffed at my face, breathing in my scent.

  “Ah, it’s you. I know you, warrior. You and I, we are one. Your mind is quite comfortable. I think I’ll stay a while,” it sneered, pressing down on my leg until the bone snapped. I howled in pain and tried to roll away. It caught me with its tail once again, leaving a welt across the small of my back. The beast’s elongated neck twisted down, blood-red eyes piercing my soul.

  “Your blood will be mine, warrior!” it raged.

  “Never,” I snarled, though part of me believed it.

  Before it could sink its teeth into my flesh, Tony sailed through the air, wrapping his powerful body around the Sythen’s neck and dragging it to the ground. The lion swatted razor-sharp claws at the beast’s thick body armor, shredding it to pieces. The Sythen stumbled away from me, hissing, trying to shake the lion off.

  “Tony, no!”

  I ran as fast as my legs could possibly move me. It wasn’t fast enough.

  The tables quickly turned, the massive beast twisted its neck around and sank its long teeth into the lion’s body, shaking it like a rag doll and tossing it aside. The lion whimpered
on the ground, struggling to get back onto his feet. The Sythen hovered over him, saliva oozing from its mouth. Rainwater showered over its dark scales, washing away Tony’s blood from its jagged teeth. It inched toward him.

  Fur faded into flesh as Tony curled into a ball on the ground, howling in pain. The Sythen’s forked tongue extended, stroking his bleeding ribcage, tasting its meal before taking the final bite. I pulled out my last dagger and let it loose into the air. With one quick slice, the Sythen’s tongue fell to the ground.

  The beast reared back its head and howled, withering back into the darkness of the trees. Its screams never traveled too far. It would be back.

  I rushed to Tony’s side, linking my arms under his. I pulled him away as quickly as I could. He thrashed back and forth in my arms, his eyes wide with pain and fear. Ryuu was at my side in an instant, taking him from me and carrying him toward the castle. I hoped Annie and the nurse, Marissa, could save him.

  When I turned back, the Sythen had returned. It glowered at me, locking onto a new target. Its upper lip curled back as it snarled, black blood leaching from its teeth.

  My arms instinctively reached for my sword and I gasped. How could I’ve forgotten? Panic over took me. I darted away from the beast, frantically searching for my blade, for anything. I would have settle for a rock and a slingshot at that point.

  Something glistened under a lifeless body near the trees. I made a break for it. It was mine. I could feel it calling out to me. I reached my arms out as far as they could go, desperate to feel the weight of the blade in my hands.

  Laughter erupted behind me and I fell face down on the flooded ground. I rolled onto my back to see the Sythen looming over me. This time it was real, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was real. I stretched my arm toward the steel blade. It was just out of reach.