Second Skin Omnibus

by M Damon Baker

  The lords’ counterattack had been repelled, and the last of their forces retreated once we’d turned the tide against them. The streets were littered with the bodies of the fallen from both sides, and we took a few moments to rest and regroup while we tended to the wounded.

  Some of our support staff moved up once the area was safe to recover our dead. The Curates and others would attempt to resurrect most of them in the safety of our camp, but any critical personnel who had fallen would have to wait until later. I was the only one who could assure them of rebirth, and I insisted on making those first attempts, to ensure that those losses were returned to us. We’d also taken a few prisoners. So, while my soldiers recovered, I walked over to question them.

  They’d already been stripped of their weapons and armor, and had their hands bound behind them, so I loomed over them, shining the bright green light of my eyes on each of them until I found my mark.

  “What’s your name?” I asked the woman I’d chosen.

  “I serve only my lord,” she spat. “I don’t take orders from you, witch.”

  “You may want to reconsider that,” Tási sighed from just over my shoulder. “I’m getting tired of watching her break people like you.”

  “I won’t break,” she scoffed. “I’m not scared of your fancy parlor tricks.”

  “You do realize that it was her who took down your walls, right?” Tási tried one last time. “Does that rubble look like a parlor trick to you?”

  “Maybe I can convince her to talk, Tási,” I said with icy calmness as I slowly pulled off my glove.

  I stood over her and she stared right back at me, daring to glare into my glowing eyes. She might have been an idiot, but she was a damn brave one.

  “I’m going to show you something,” I whispered to her. “Then I’m going to drag you away for a chat.”

  As I spoke, I placed my bare hand on the shoulder of the man who was kneeling on the ground next to her. As soon as the last word left my mouth, I shot a black orb deep inside his body, and then simply stepped back a pace and watched as it tore him apart from the inside out, snapping his bones like dry twigs and rending his flesh until he was reduced to a mere pile of ashes.

  The woman looked on in absolute horror as his tortured screams echoed through the air and then descended into an unintelligible series of strangled gurgling as he collapsed to the ground.

  “W-what…,” she uttered in her shock and confusion, before I hauled her up and dragged her away behind the crumbled stone of a nearby building.

  “You have one chance to avoid that fate,” I glared at her. “Tell me where they are hiding and what sort of defenses they have.”

  “No.” She desperately held on to her conviction.

  “Which first, Tási?” I called over my shoulder. “If you’re going to keep watching me do this, you might as well have a say in things.”

  “I’m not here to watch what you do,” she spoke softly. “I’m here to watch over you.”

  Fair enough.

  “Start the same way you did with Insleí,” a second voice called, shocking me from my purpose.

  “You shouldn’t be here for this, Saibra,” I turned to face her. “This isn’t something you should witness.”

  “Actually, I think I should,” she replied plainly. “I need to see it from this perspective.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I am,” she answered me firmly.

  “Alright,” I sighed. “Let’s get started then.”

  Despite her professed loyalty, the woman broke down after enduring only two rounds of my special attention. Actually, not even two rounds, as she confessed everything in blue-tinted words colored by the power of See Truth rather than experience a second bout of unpleasantness.

  The lords had holed themselves up in one of the heavily fortified mansions within the city. The crowded confines of the city’s streets wouldn’t allow us to bring the full force of our Army to bear, and it would be bloody hell to attempt any assault against their position.

  But the woman also revealed that the lords’ ‘final stand’ wasn’t quite so final after all—they had made plans to retreat, should we breach their defenses, and it was through that path that we would launch our attack against them.

  We’d begun our assault with only our most heavily armed and armored troops. Our archers and Evokers might have been useful in the attack but were simply too vulnerable within the narrow confines of the breaches we needed to take. But once we’d secured them, and the surrounding areas, we called the rest of our Army forward, and organized our lines before advancing towards the lords’ stronghold.

  We met only token resistance along the way, including a few groups that attempted to bait us away from our goal, but with our archers and Evokers taking up their positions among us, those small groups of harassing troops were utterly destroyed as soon as they came within range of our attacks. Aside from obliterating those who ventured too close, we ignored what we recognized as obvious diversions and maintained our focus on our true objective.

  The mansion the lords had hidden themselves in was precisely the deathtrap we’d been told it was. Without our catapults, the thick walls protected it well, and we would never be able to take them without suffering horrendous losses. The lords knew this as well, and actually taunted us from atop the battlements of their retreat as we surrounded the outside of their redoubt. I let them believe that I’d settled in to play the waiting game with them before I left to sneak in through their own escape route.

  My group consisted of my own personal guard and my companions. I would have liked to take even greater numbers with me, but the narrow confines of the route we’d have to follow made that impractical. Besides, if our surprise attack succeeded, we wouldn’t need any more people than I’d brought, and if it failed… well, the additional troops would only be more deaths on my conscience.

  The house that the escape route supposedly led to was several blocks away from the mansion. It seemed perfectly suited for the purpose, as the intervening structures completely obscured the stronghold, and my troops that surrounded it, from sight. From this point, the lords would be able to make good on their escape, if need be, or even launch an unseen counter-attack on us from behind. These were no mere amateurs, I was reminded yet again. My foes were accomplished fighters, and it was only the combination of overwhelming numbers, Líann’s successful propaganda campaign, and my own unique abilities, that allowed us to drive them this far.

  We surrounded the house, but before we entered, I sent a message to Bane who was circling above the city, telling him of the kills I’d made. He’d reminded me of his intense desire to feast on the flesh of someone who’s life I’d taken myself. Repeatedly. So, I let him know exactly where he could find them and invited him to take his pick from among their corpses. He didn’t respond to me, at least not directly, but I felt his burning hunger as I broke the connection with him.

  The tunnel leading to the mansion originated in the cramped basement of the house. The woman told us it would likely be guarded, so I entered with only a small group at first—just myself and my companions, along with Saibra and Ella. We were the best among us at sneaking around and dispatching our enemies quietly, and once we found the staircase leading below, we climbed down the steps as carefully and cautiously as we could.

  Our precautions were unwarranted, however, as the basement itself was completely empty. No passage was obvious when we made a quick look around, and the woman had only been able to tell us that she knew the exit led here. So, we were left to attempt to discover it on our own.

  Khorim found it for us, hidden behind a rack of shelving, and we moved it aside carefully so as to not alert anyone who might be on guard in the passage behind it. Once more, our caution was unnecessary, as the passage that was revealed when we pried open the door was a long and empty corridor.

  Ella ran back upstairs and brought everyone else down to join us, but they would have to wait in the cramped basement until we
cleared the passageway completely. No matter how hard they tried, the sounds of so much metal armor clinking and scraping against itself would echo through the narrow passageway and give away our approach to whoever might be waiting for us on the other side. So, once again, it was just the small group that had accompanied me into the home that came with me as we explored the corridor.

  The feeling I had as we walked down that passage was almost like one of my dungeon crawls. Whether it was my solo trek through the kobold mine or the assault on the undead lair with Venna and my companions, sneaking down an unknown corridor in search of hidden enemies again sent a thrill of excitement through me—until Khorim reined me in just a bit.

  “You may want to dim the lights, so to speak,” he whispered to me as we started on our way. “Unless your intention is to give us away.”

  I had become so used to the green-tinted world I’d been viewing since I’d let the flaring light of my eyes shine back at the catapults, that I’d forgotten about it completely. But with Khorim’s not-so-subtle reminder, I shut my eyes and reined in my rage just enough to dim their glow. When I opened my eyelids again, the world resolved into its normal hues once more, and we began our slow march forward in the near darkness of the corridor.

  The passage traveled in a fairly straight line, directly towards the mansion where the lords had sought their refuge. Only at the end did it turn sharply, where we found an abrupt corner that we were certain led directly into the mansion’s lower level.

  Khorim, ever the sneakiest among us, peered around the sharp bend to see what awaited us beyond. His quick look revealed what we expected; a thick wooden door guarded by two heavily armed and armored soldiers.

  We needed to take them both silently or we’d risk discovery. Although I could eliminate one easily enough in that way, the other would very likely have time to cry for help before I could follow up with a second shot. We whispered amongst ourselves for a few moments, trying to come up with a way to neutralize the two of them simultaneously, but the distance between the sharp bend and their position guarding the doorway was simply too far for most of our talents to be of use.

  “I think I can do it,” Tási finally seemed to come up with an idea.

  Most of her Spells involve burning things and reducing them to ashes. A rather noisy and painful process, not typically conducive to covert actions, so I was intrigued to hear what she had in mind.

  “Just fire your ice arrows into each of them,” she smirked at me, refusing to let me in on her scheme. “Hit the one on the left, and I’ll keep the one on the right quiet long enough for you to take him out.”

  Okaaayyy. I guess I just had to work with that.

  She asked for just a moment to prepare herself and then nodded to me when she was ready, while everyone else steeled themselves to rush forward if our plan went awry.

  The second Tási let me know she was set, I pivoted around the bend in the corridor and loosed an ice arrow at the sentry on the left. His head froze into a solid block as my arrow pierced through his visor, and I drew back on my second shaft as I shifted towards the other guard.

  The shot was somewhat more difficult, as he was sputtering and choking on the gush of water Tási had let loose inside his helmet. She’d cast the same water magic Spell she’d used to douse the curtains Bane’s first gout of flames had lit ablaze. In the confines of the man’s helmet, the sudden rush of water had practically suffocated him, and rendered him defenseless for the length of time it took me to fire on him and end his suffering.

  With the two sentries eliminated, Ella ran back once more to bring the rest of our people forward. From here on, the element of surprise was secondary. Once beyond the door in front of us, we intended to turn the lords’ tactics against them by launching a lightning strike deep into the core of their stronghold.

  While we waited, we used the time to clear away the slowly melting shards of ice that remained after the sentries’ frozen heads had struck the solid stone floors, clearing the potential hazard from our path to the doorway. Khorim dared to pry open the portal and peer into the mansion beyond, and we discovered that the way forward was clear. When Ella returned with the rest of our forces, we went inside and began our hunt for the lords in the sanctity of their own refuge.

  Somewhat unsurprisingly, the lower level was completely deserted. With our own Army arrayed outside and confident in the secrecy of their escape route, the lords had focused their attention on the threat outside their walls—an error I intended to make them pay dearly for.

  The slaughter began almost the moment we stepped foot on the mansion’s first floor. As soon as we climbed up the stairway, we stumbled upon a group of 20 armored knights. Unfortunately for them, the room we emerged in allowed us to bring our superior numbers to bear, and we ripped through them almost before they had time to react to our presence. The Short Sword of Sharpness made combat practically unfair, as it parted through the metal protection that the knights relied on with ease. When one of them managed to raise his shield in an attempt to block my strike, the blade simply cut through the barrier, severing the arm that was holding it as well. The knight only had enough time to stare at his bloody limb lying on the ground still clutching his shield before I sliced through his breastplate and ended him.

  I expected our enemies to respond to the sounds of battle in their midst, and we formed up in anticipation of their counter-strike. After a while, none came, and we cautiously advanced even further into the mansion.

  The reason for the lack of any reaction to our incursion became obvious as we moved on—the entire mansion was filled with the shouts of the lords and their loyalists taunting our forces beyond their walls, mixed with the occasional cries of pain as one of the arrows our archers arced over their high walls found a target. The cacophony hid our actions and allowed us to continue undiscovered as we penetrated even further into the lords’ sanctuary.

  The next group we encountered were resting in some sort of barracks they’d cobbled together, and we were able to rush in and slay them nearly without a struggle. We’d been lucky and had managed to reduce the lords’ forces quite a bit without suffering any casualties beyond the power of our healing crystals. While I knew that luck was something of a hallmark of mine, I was also aware of the fact that it wouldn’t last forever, so we proceeded cautiously, hunting for more of the vulnerable spots in the soft belly of the lords’ refuge.

  Time after time, we stumbled upon small pockets of soldiers as we made our way through the mansion with impunity. So much of our enemy’s attention had been diverted outside their walls that we were able to clear the entire first floor without provoking any response. When I peered outside the few windows we came across, it was obvious why things had been so easy for us—the vast majority of the forces that the lords had brought with them were outside, still focused on the threat they perceived beyond their battlements, which left us quite free to roam about inside and slaughter at will.

  The second floor fell to us as easily as the first. Considering the scope of the battle, our relatively small force still overwhelmed the even smaller groups we came across. Even when the numbers were more even, our encounters ended quickly as my orbs disintegrated any opposition that truly threatened us. When that floor was cleared as well, and the last of our injured had been restored to full health, we climbed the stairs to the mansion’s third and final level.

  Surprisingly, that floor seemed to be completely deserted as first. It was only after we’d explored it cautiously for a while that we detected sounds coming from a room at the end of a long hallway. The large double doors were closed shut, but we were able to approach and listen outside for a time.

  The voices inside resolved into the sounds of mocking laughter and callous jests about the lives being wastefully spent below. We’d found the lords, and despite the lessons I’d given them, they were still just as despicable as ever.

  After all that had happened, after they’d been shown so clearly the folly of treating people
like objects worthy of scorn, they continued their spiteful, arrogant ways, even towards those who’d shown them such loyalty. The thought of it brought my rage back in a hate-filled rush of black emotion. The door in front of me surged into focus in a deep viridian light, and I rose from where I’d been kneeling as we’d listened in on the lords’ disgusting antics.

  “I only need a few left alive for questioning. Slaughter the rest.”

  The entire group behind me seemed to take a collective step away as the fury shone once more in my eyes, but people like these lords and those who would follow their example needed to be wiped from the face of this world, and I cared nothing for how I might be perceived as I did so; only that I eliminated every last one of them.

  I didn’t even bother drawing my weapons for this fight—the relatively quick end that my blades would offer them was more mercy than I was willing to provide the vile nobles. Instead, I kicked open the doors, shattering them and ripping them from their hinges as I made my entrance.

  My blood boiled when I realized that my actions had interrupted the fucking bastards in the middle of a damn party. They were celebrating while the people below were giving their lives for them. The room flared with light and one of the pieces of shit illuminated more brightly than the others, so I sent my first orb into his chest.

  I ignored the inevitable screams of agony that followed when the black sphere tore him apart, and focused only on finding my next victim. Lord after lord fell to my orbs, while the rest of them were cut down by the blades of my guards and companions. Ella’s spear flashed next to me, taking one of the lord’s in the throat, while Saibra’s blades whirled and flowed in intricate patterns as she cut through their ranks with ease. The lords had left themselves nearly unprotected in their revelries, and our slaughter of them was over in only a few moments’ time.