“Since when are Agul Umokk’s agents helping Collward?” he asked as he stabbed through the other two soldiers. Yen leaped back and shot two more of the explosive balls at him. Lucas motioned with hand and the balls disappeared midair, then instantly reappeared to hit the two huge men from behind. They didn’t die but instead charged at Lucas without a word.
“He pays well; I wonder how much I will get for your corpse,” Yen purred as she started forming fire in her palms again. Lucas went on to finish the rest of the regular soldiers and faced down just Yen and the two massive demonic men. One was using a huge maul, the second one a halberd. They were fast for their size and stronger than any man. Lucas teleported behind Yen and struck at her. To his surprise, she ducked under the strike and shot the two blasts of fire into his face. He dodged by another quick teleport and stabbed one of the large men under the knee from behind, ducking under the blow of the other one instantly. This went on for a while; the large men didn’t yield to wounds although they were bleeding while Yen kept dodging his attacks and zoning him off with her fire.
“Not waiting for me to run out of steam, are you?” Yen purred.
Lucas positioned his spear for a stab, then started the motion, teleported mid-action and ran the spear through Yen’s skull from behind.
“Just measuring your reaction speed,” Lucas smirked as he whirled and threw the body at one of the huge soldiers. He tried to catch the corpse, but Lucas teleported on top of it and ran his spear through its face. The last monster charged him, but he teleported behind it, finished cutting its knee tendons with a wide swing. Lucas leaped up on its back and ran the spear into the nape of its neck. The body collapsed to the ground. Lucas looked around to check the corpses. All lay down nice and dead while the city was starting to panic from the fire.
The new spear isn’t bad… still... I miss my old spear; he evaluated as he stabbed Yen’s corpse through the chest a few times. He made sure to stab every major organ.
This should take her out for a while.
53
Luna
Luna was watching over the city. She caught the scent of Yen earlier but didn’t have time to follow it, because it was the time for her bargained assassination and she needed to get ready.
I will go see her tomorrow.
Luna stood high on the mountain above Cinderwell and was waiting for the signal. A part of the lower city caught on fire and she saw the lights coming up far below. Luna knew it was time. She stood at the edge of the cliff, turned around and leaped backward while spreading her hands. She watched the cliff disappearing into the distance as she started falling, then turned over to enjoy the fall.
Almost three hundred feet of free fall… beat that, Raven.
The swirling city was alluring as it was getting larger and larger before her eyes. The roof of the house approached and she braced herself. She pierced through the wooden roof, then through two more floors landing on the ground floor. She heard the panicked screams around her as men rushed around to see what happened. Her body regenerated easily. Luna leaped to her feet and took out her claws.
I am going to enjoy this.
Luna let out a roar that shook the whole house. She charged at whoever she saw. The men fell like frozen hay. She cut her path to her target easily. The large doors he was locked behind were not made to stop someone like her, so she just knocked them open with her shoulder, sending the men who held them flying backward. Luis Lawland was huddling behind his men at the back of the room.
“Iowen sends greetings,” Luna purred before she charged them.
She left no survivors.
54
Miranda
Miranda was having a good night. They swept through the city like a wind of death, reaping one life after another until they found themselves at the slaver army headquarters. She motioned her men and spread around to surround it and sneak in. She entered. At the large chair by the table filled with maps sat Edward Collward, his twin guardians standing by his sides.
“I was waiting for when Lucas sends his assassins,” he smiled at Miranda.
“You don’t seem to be appropriately afraid,” she evaluated.
“I hope you brought some men with you, I would feel bad if all he sent after me was one young girl,” Edward smiled sadly.
“Why so sad?” Miranda asked as she measured the room and stepped into it. The twins guarding Collward went to stand by the sides of the table.
“I hoped it could be avoided, but I do understand why we cannot live in peace. I just hoped I could get away with a bit more,” Edward mused.
“Missing your daughter?” Miranda asked.
“Yes, I am. I just hope she will have a good life because even if I win this war, she will be better off without me,” he admitted sadly.
“Don’t worry, Faye are fun; she won't get bored,” Miranda comforted him.
“I like to think that. Though I find it curious, you call them by that word instead of dream daughters… I still miss her dearly though,” Edward admitted.
“Boo hoo… poor slaver lord misses his daughter. I will tell Lucas to send flowers to your grave,” she jabbed poisonously.
“Lucas is born of a different dream... Anyway, I don’t think you came here to chat. What should I put on your gravestone once we are done, girl?” Edward sharpened his tone.
“I am not going to die here,” Miranda retorted and readied Scitalis in her hands. Scitalis was a ball and a sickle connected by a chain. The ball was stylized to be held by an open mouth of a snake while the sickle to be its tail.
“Neither shall I. I shall bury your Order and reunite my family,” Edward stated and the twins drew their blades.
Miranda motioned her men and they leaped from the shadows and charged. One of the twins moved to Edward and spun to block the attacks coming at him, the second one charged on of the shadowless. He parried her attack, but she pressed herself on him. He shrieked. The long blade struck the body of the twin and impaled through him. Miranda lunged at it, but the second twin opened her mouth and needles flew out at Miranda with shocking speed. She ducked them, but a couple hit her shoulder.
What the fuck is this?
The twin next to Edward started whirling while shooting needles out of her mouth at all the Shadowless and her. Miranda leaped to duck behind a pillar but saw two of her men get hit. The second twin pushed off the corpse of her previous target and charged another man, he tried to parry, but she started spinning and shredded his hands and face. Miranda teleported next to Edward and launched the weight of Scitalis at his face. The defending twin bent her elbow backward and caught the ball with her hand.
What the hell here these? They don’t move like humans at all.
Miranda ducked to dodge the next set of needles and leaped left as the second twin was at her. It was moving like a really fast spinning top. She teleported to the other side and cut at Edward. The defensive twin twisted and blocked the blow and attacked with a second pair of hands which were holding swords.
Four hands? Are you kidding me?
Miranda leaped back and saw how one of her men managed to stuck the spinning twin by a pillar. It stopped the spin, opened its mouth and poured a wave of flame into his face as he was moving to attack it. He shrieked as his face melted.
“RETREAT TO 32B!” Miranda ordered as she leaped back. The defensive twin kept shooting needles at her from her mouth.
Four men down, shit!
Last of her two men were hiding behind two pillars as the twin next to Edward kept shooting the needles all over the place.
I need to take that one out.
Miranda channeled her magic into her weapon, teleported to the shooting twin and ran the blade of her sickle into its neck. It got stuck. She dodged by instinct, but the swords from the third pair of hands that came out from the defensive twin still dug deep into her body. She looked around and saw the second twin shredding the next of her men. Miranda teleported out of the next barrage of needles, grabbed her last
surviving man and leaped through the window. She saw behind her the spinning twin collapse to the ground. Pain shot through her body. What looked like a woman whose hands were turned into wings dug vicious claws of its legs into her body as it dropped upon her from above. Miranda screamed in pain as the long talons ripped through her body and threw her back into the window. The defensive twin collapsed to the ground and the blade one leaped up to the window to intercept her.
I can’t teleport both of us!
A boom echoed above her and she saw the winged woman fly past her at the blade twin. The twin ducked under it and leaped forward against her. A strong hand grabbed her from behind and her world shook as violent counterforce changed the direction of her flight. Lucas used the blade twin as a stepping platform and kicked himself off it to land on a light post. Lucas was holding Miranda by her armor in his hand and her man in the second.
“Making a move in person on the first day, I thought you would be lazier. Wanna have a go at it?” Edward Collward asked Lucas as he now stood in the window, the blade twin was collapsed on the ground, the defensive twin was next to him and the harpy-like flying thing was getting up into the air.
Miranda tried to move, but her body felt incredibly weak as the adrenaline rushed out of her.
SHIT! I just lost five men and had to get saved by Lucas. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!
“Maybe next time, got a busy schedule tonight,” Lucas returned, then leaped off the pole to the roof of the building at the other side of the street.
“Next time then,” Edward turned around and disappeared in the window.
“Let me go!” Miranda sneered after regrouping her strength for a bit.
“The needles are poisoned and the more you move, the more it will spread. You are tough, but this poison is made to work on people like you. Sit tight and let me take you back to the camp,” Lucas proposed as he was making his way across the roofs while holding Miranda and the last shadowless over his shoulders.
“I can do that myself! You need to go warn the others!” Miranda protested.
“If I let you go, will you go get healed and not back to fight Collward, right?” Lucas countered.
“Sure,” Miranda cut him off.
“I am not going to let you kill yourself,” Lucas refused and didn’t let her go.
“Why would you care?”
“I always did.”
“Care to explain why?” Miranda retorted bitterly.
“No.”
“No answers… as always.”
“I am still not letting you go until you have a bunch of priests seeing to your wounds,” Lucas held firm.
“Fuck off.”
“No.”
55
Merewen
Merewen slowly advanced with her men through the sewers. It was worse than she could have imagined. The sewers were heavily fortified and the men manning the fortifications knew what they were doing. They even managed to pull the ballistae back when they were moving between different lines of fortification.
These men are as good as my top men when the hell did the slavers get someone this skilled?
Merewen didn’t have time to ask questions; she just kept advancing with her men clearing through the blockades. Their losses were piling up and they killed only a handful of the defenders in return. Merewen hated guerilla tactics, especially when the enemies knew how to do it. She punched through another set of blockades to find it already abandoned and entered a larger room with pillars. There was water in this room, although only a few centimeters of it. In the middle of a room, a man was sitting on a rock with a beam of moonlight shining on him from a grate above. He had a long black cloak weaved around him, black cape over his face matching armor underneath and his hand rested on a large single bladed war ax with a sharp barb at the side where the blade was not. Under the cape shone bright blue eyes. At the end of the room, there were men hastily reconstructing a fortification.
“My underlings are a bit behind schedule, I am afraid you will need to have a dance with me in the meantime,” he greeted without rising. Merewen had her men spread out at the start of the room and stepped in.
“You are too good to be slavers, who are you?” Merewen shouted.
“Just honest men earning their living the hard way.”
“And you, I suppose, are their leader,” Merewen evaluated.
“You can call me that if you like,” he snickered.
“I don’t care. Take him out,” Merewens men advanced with the shield wall formation they had formed.
“And here I thought you would appreciate a little chat before I send you and your men to the afterlife. So much for trying to be nice,” the man rose. He stepped forward in a move so fast he looked like a blur. Merewen stared as her men flew up in the air like they were made of paper.
What?
“Diamond formation behind me,” Merewen picked up her maul and advanced to meet him.
Merewen let her men regroup behind her; she knew she has to let them get away. She roared a battle cry and charged at him. He met her head on, parrying her attack while spinning into a cut. Merewen deflected it with her armor and rammed into him with a shoulder. He flew a few feet back but didn’t lose balance.
“Not bad,” he evaluated.
“Shut up and die!” Merewen went on to charge again. He weaved left to dodge and struck with the axe. Merewen parried the strike, switched her grip and swung upwards. He dodged, but Merewen stepped in and whirled. Her maul hit him in the chest and sent him flying into the wall with a loud crash.
“Advance,” she ordered her men.
A deafening roar echoed through the sewers. Merewen whirled just in time to see the man charging at her. She blocked the downward strike of his axe, but he spun and hit her with a kick to the chest. The kick bent in her armor and made Merewen crash into the opposite wall of the room so hard it almost knocked her out. The man leaped at her soldiers and starting taking them out like a gardener takes out the weed. Merewen grit her teeth.
“RETREAT!” she shouted as she got up back to her feet and charged at him once more. This time he didn’t dodge. She hit him on the side with her maul while he hit her on the side with the barb of the axe. It pierced through the armor and dug into her ribs before they both flew from each other into the opposite walls. Red haze got before Merewens eyes. With a painful groan, she got up on her feet. The man was already standing and approaching her.
“You aren’t bad, lass, but you are way out of your place here,” he sneered as he charged her.
Merewen deflected the blow and dodged the follow-up kick. He spun after her and hit her with the left hand in the stomach. Merewen flicked her and a blast of fire hit him straight in the face. His hand bent her armor in and sent her flying into her men. The fire around his face died off. He was unharmed.
“Second eastern tunnel is losing, boss,” someone shouted from behind.
“Roger,” the man shouted.
“Till next time,” he smirked at Merewen and dashed into the eastern heading corridor. As he did, arrows from ballistae flew out from the fortification his men built in the meantime, impaling many of Merewen’s men.
“Tell all men to retreat, we won’t win here,” Merewen ordered her men as she got up on her feet. It didn’t feel good to retreat, but she saw no other way. The men from the eastern tunnels did not return.
56
Elias
“ALL MEN FALL BACK!” Elias shouted, amplifying the voice with his magic. His men followed without question. A massive stone and metal golem were throwing his men around like toys. Ballistae didn’t work on it and he didn’t have any heavier weaponry, only himself.
“TAKE COVER, I WILL TRY SOMETHING,” Elias commanded as his men got back to the entrance of the cavern. There was no path around this cavern, so it was do or run back. Elias lifted himself up with the wind. He focused and started decreasing temperature in the cavern with a whirlwind.
If that thing runs on heat, this will stop it.
Out of nowhere, a sharp pain erupted from his back. He looked back and there was what looked like a beautiful woman with hands merged into wings and sharp talons at the end of its feet. Elias refocused his magic and blasted the thing away into the wall of the cavern. He kept himself up in the air.
Shit!
Elias quickly flew down as the golem threw a large rock at him, evading it by mere centimeters. The flying woman was already getting off the wall and up into the air. Elias motioned with his hand and pushed the air from around it. It started falling as the wings were suddenly useless.
Not breathing... this thing isn’t alive. It doesn’t move naturally, so it isn’t a non-living creature at all. The big guy might be a construct, but this winged woman is simply too small to have anyone inside controlling. It is also not an animated non-living object because it is made of many smaller pieces. The last thing that it can be is a puppet, Elias concluded, dodged another thrown rock and turned the air into a light magical fog. The fog revealed a set of thin lines leading from the flying woman toward the other entrance of the tunnel. Elias didn’t hesitate for a second and flung himself through the air where the magical threads led.
This man seems familiar… is that Edward Collward?
Elias didn’t have much time to doubt, so he made the decision. Before the puppets could react to his flight, he gathered the air around him into a ball and threw it at Edward. It exploded around him with a large shockwave, isolating him. Elias flew closer, summoned two large spears of ice and launched them at him. From the ground leaped up a woman, she extended four extra arms with swords from herself and deflected the spears.
“Wind and ice… I believe you would me the admiral La Grace,” Edward Collward greeted Elias.
Legacy of Dreams: Freedom Page 32
