“AHAHAHAHAHA,” Zerae laughed.
“Good night. It’s nice to see not all Faye have lost their heart,” Beatrice announced as she sat down on her desk.
“Not for the lack of trying,” Zerae whispered as she walked to the bed. Her coat fell to the ground with a heavy thud. She moved the messed-up bedsheets to not make them too wet, then crashed into the bed. She fell asleep before she managed to as much as position herself.
Aaarrrggghhhh... is that an earthquake?
Zerae slowly opened her eyes.
“Morning, sunshine,” Beatrice chuckled as she stopped shaking Zerae.
“Rrrrggghhhhh… fuck!” Zerae slowly came awake and sat up on the bed. Blood flowed from her brain so fast it almost made her faint.
I’ve never felt this destroyed after being woken up. It feels like my body was run over by one of these galleons. Everything hurts.
“Sun’s coming up,” Beatrice tossed up.
“I need to go,” Zerae concurred.
“You do. Good luck, War Leader,” Beatrice made a slight bow.
“Good luck, commander,” Zerae nodded as she dressed up and retrieved her sword.
No fear. No pain. No weakness.
Her escort was awaiting her on the deck. Massive man dressed in simple robes.
“Name’s Zakuma,” he offered Zerae a hand.
I feel like a little kid next to him. It’s not just that he’s tall, it’s the width in shoulders. He’s the size of an Urushnii without being one.
“Zerae.”
“Our ship is down here,” he gestured her. It was a small rowing boat, like a poor fisherman would use. There were even some fishing tools and dead fish packed inside. “I apologize for the lack of comfort,” he stated as they got into the ship.
“It’s alright. I need you to take me to the Tirbou Island, that’s our regroup point. My sisters will be there,” Zerae explained.
“Alright,” Zakuma nodded, “you should take a nap. Carrying one’s world on own shoulders is more tiring than it appears to be.”
“Is this one of the supposedly deep sayings you priests are supposed to tell people?” Zerae mocked.
“No… just compassion,” Zakuma smiled.
Zerae stared at him for a bit. He wasn’t disturbed and just kept rowing.
I’m dead tired and will have a long day. I need to find a way to get to the pirate war room, else I will have nothing to feed the admiral. A little sleep really cannot harm me.
Zerae lied down into the boat. She huddled herself into the fetal position and quickly fell asleep.
Uggghhh… hhhh… what’s this? Stop it, Astril, I’m too tired to fuck.
ASTRIL!
Zerae woke up to see Astril on top of her, with a tongue inside her mouth.
“Morning,” Astril purred sweetly.
Zerae’s eyes have widened, she pushed Astril off to get up. They were almost at the shore. A few dozens Faye were looking at the boat. Zakuma was calmly rowing toward them.
Why didn’t that idiot wake me up! SHIT!
Astril slid up her like a snake. “Is this how you greet me after making it back?”
No… you deserve a proper greeting.
Zerae caught Astril’s head with her hand and pushed her down for long, passionate kiss.
“Take us ashore,” she ordered Zakuma coldly. He smiled warmly.
“Happy to see you, sister,” Allicia greeted her poisonously.
“Allicia.”
“Who’s that?” Allicia shot as she pointed at Zakuma.
“My prisoner. He’s an Alnil priest who served at Palai fleet right until I captured him. He might know valuable information. He is not to be harmed,” Zerae announced coldly.
“You are not the War Leader anymore; you don’t get to decide,” Allicia objected.
“How many have we lost?”
“About two hundred,” Allicia admitted.
“Two hundred sixty-four as of this moment,” Astril added coldly.
“Sounds like you lost over half your force on your first mission, all without a single killed enemy to show up for it. I bow before your success, War Leader,” Zerae returned.
“Fuck off!” Allicia spat and left.
“A prisoner… now that brings back some memories,” Zakuma smirked.
“Tell what I tell you to whoever I tell you to and you just might survive this. This is Astril, she will keep an eye on you,” Zerae threw his way.
“Got some chocolate?” Astril asked him provocatively.
Zakuma reached into his robes and tossed Astril a chunk of chocolate.
Zerae just shook her head in disbelief. “Go fetch some chains!” she ordered Astril.
Astril just leaped off the ship, her mouth full of chocolate.
“You should have woken me up before we got in sight. Now I can’t guarantee your survival,” Zerae whispered to Zakuma, making sure she isn’t overheard.
“Heavens take us wherever they will, what we do with the given course is up to us,” Zakuma stated.
“You seem to be suspiciously alright with this,” she observed.
“Am I? Or are you just being overly suspicious?” Zakuma countered with a question.
Overly suspicious my ass! He was called to admiral’s cabin, pushed me to sleep at the boat and made sure to not wake me up before we were at the shore. I don’t like getting played. Should I mind though? On one hand, this helps me by expanding my options and by getting a witness who is trustworthy for the Order. On the other hand, this is a risk. One I don’t like. Then again, I am playing with very dangerous people. It is natural things will be tricky.
This Zakuma fellow… there is no way one would have a body like this without being a warrior. He doesn’t have a shade of fear in his eyes, so he is confident he will be fine no matter how things turn out.
“Alright, Zakuma, I will take you as a help from the admiral and use you to reach my goals,” Zerae told him straight.
“I apologize for deceiving you,” he said with a slight bow.
“Don’t think acting nicely will stop me from sacrificing you the second the need arises,” Zerae cut back.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he smiled happily.
And I thought Astril was crazy.
25
Lucas
“The last three come here, here and here,” Lucas pointed and the men went to put the ballistae in there. They weren’t exactly spectacular, but Lucas didn’t expect much anyway. He went to inspect the town. Barricades, shelters, ballistae, nets. It wasn’t a fortress, but almost felt like such.
“Things you can do with money,” Zoey breathed as she stood up next to him.
“How’s the new armor?” Lucas asked and measured her with a glance. Zoey had her hair made into a single thick braid. She wore a chainmail and held a large poleaxe over her shoulders.
“The gambeson is alright, thick enough to do something but not limiting me… too much. The riveted chainmail isn’t exactly a work of art, but it seems tough. The poleaxe... well... I will need a new one soon because the wood simply isn’t tough enough. How are the defenses going?” she asked back.
“Meh at best. We’ve got a few tricks, but nothing impressive. The shelters are decent. How’s Raven doing with the lasso?” he returned a question.
“Slacking. On one hand, I am happy that my suggestion to try to target an area with his magic instead of an object caught his interest. On the other hand, he is now interested in literally nothing else,” Zoey replied.
She never ceases to impress me.
“Anything interesting?” Lucas tried.
“Well, he figured he could make ground like soft jelly, then fell into it and got caught as it solidified. Ten men spent half a day digging him out of it,” Zoey chuckled.
“That sounds batshit powerful once he gets some degree of control over it,” Lucas evaluated.
“All his skills are. Imagine trying to pick weed with a battleship without damaging the flowers aroun
d. That’s what using magic is like for him. Use a bit more power than absolutely necessary and things go horribly wrong, using a lot more than he should and he literally explodes his own body. No wonder he prefers to use a sword. It’s much safer. Anyway, how about you show me what you can do with your magic?” Zoey gave Lucas a provocative look.
“You’ve already seen most of it,” Lucas tried to evade.
“Not really. I haven’t seen any big spell… anything you can’t do in a split second,” Zoey contested.
“What makes you think I have anything like that?” Lucas played stupid.
“Nice try. I really want to fight you for real one day,” Zoey breathed.
“Why?”
“So, I can kick your ass. The spars we do with Raven are fun and a good exercise, but it’s within limits of all of us carefully hiding our main techniques,” Zoey mused.
“Says the woman who hasn’t used her real magic even once in front of us,” Lucas smirked.
“You would look me up by it. It’s too unique,” Zoey smiled.
“I can promise you I wouldn’t,” Lucas offered.
“Why don’t you write it on a paper so I can at least wipe my ass with it? We both know you would. It’s something you want with zero risk of being caught,” Zoey refused.
“My promise isn’t worth that little,” Lucas protested.
“One day, I will tell you my real name. If I see a genuine surprise at that moment, I will believe you. Till then I’m assuming everything you say is a lie until proven otherwise,” Zoey insisted.
“When have I ever lied to you?” Lucas asked sweetly.
“When haven’t you? Your name’s as fake as mine, your participation in the Palai Order is omitting some key details, the plan you said we are following also has at least one big piece missing,” Zoey laid out.
“What would make you think that?” Lucas inquired.
“There is a huge Palai army going crazy in the east, there is a massive Palai fleet going genocidal in the south, we are in the west. This is not unconnected, Lucas, everyone with half a brain can figure that out. Yet you keep saying it’s a coincidence,” Zoey pushed.
“Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not. I would be a really bad agent if there was something and I slipped it, wouldn’t I?”
“Agent my ass. That’s not your rank and we all know it. Anyway. When do we expect the attack?” Zoey pivoted, exasperated.
“Tonight or tomorrow night.”
“Can’t see shit,” Lucas evaluated.
“Hear anything?” Zoey turned to Raven.
“Wings. Lots of smaller ones, about a dozen larger ones and a few pairs of seriously huge ones,” Raven revealed. They sat ducked down in a shelter on a roof of the town hall.
“Well, time to set up the bait,” Lucas announced and took out a pouch.
“That’s not necessary,” Raven protested. Before he managed to dodge, Lucas sprinkled the contents of the pouch over him.
“All done, let’s move,” Lucas ordered. Raven sighed and stepped out of the shelter.
“What was in the pouch?” Zoey asked quickly.
“Coriander,” Lucas smirked and disappeared. Zoey sighed and started crawling to her position.
“I HEARD THAT!” Raven shouted from the outside and walked forward. The roof was square and flat. The moon was clouded, the night was as dark as if they were in a dungeon. All around him echoed the sound of beating wings.
“Walking forward alone… have you lost your mind?” a strong female voice shouted from the sky.
“Listen, Dogfood. Mind if I call you Dogfood? I’ve had this conversation a lot of times with your sisters or children or whatever the other harpies are to you. I don’t really care. Can we just skip to the part where you attack me and I feed the village dog with you?“ Raven answered coldly.
“HHh…hhhh.. hehehe…. HEHEHEHEHEHEHE,” Lucas started laughing out loud on the nearby roof.
“The fuck?” Raven turned.
“Nothing… just… nothing,” Lucas laughed and a massive explosion of light turned the night into day. In the second, they could see all that was flying above the city. A massive army of bird demons of all sizes, harpies, few of whom were massive and a stunning woman in blue robes flying on a gargantuan white griffin.
Lucas teleported to the nearest ballista and shot an arrow at one of the bird demons. The arrow went straight through it. Zoey did the same.
Two down, two thousand more to go. Who am I kidding? Time to fucking run!
“KILL THEM!” thundered from above and the swarm descended upon the town. Zoey spun with her poleaxe and downed two of the attackers before leaping away from the others.
“Plan F, exit three,” Lucas told her as he appeared next to her. He killed a demon with his spear and disappeared straight afterward. Zoey cursed and leaped down from the roof, splitting a harpy in half with a massive overhead swing as she was falling.
*BOOOOM!* echoed through the air. Zoey stared in amazement as Raven flew through the house next to her before he crashed to the ground. Raven rolled and narrowly avoided the claws of a massive harpy which sunk themselves into the ground where he stood a split second ago. The harpy waved it’s wing and feathers shot out of it like arrows. Lucas caught a nearby ballista and shot the harpy with it. Zoey stepped to her and swung her poleaxe. She hit the harpy in the leg. The blade cut into it but didn’t slice it off. The harpy screeched. Shockwave of the screech threw Zoey backward. She ducked under an attack of the bird demon, but got hit in the side.
Lucas teleported to Zoey and cleared off the demons around her.
OUCH! Some of the feathers from the massive harpy hit him. They pierced his tunic and dug into his flesh. “MOVE!” he shouted at Zoey and teleported off. He hit a bird demon as it was about to catch Raven from behind.
“Plan F, exit three,” he told Raven before teleporting to kick the massive harpy down to the ground as it was trying to get up to the air.
URRGGHH! FUCK!
Claws dug into his back and threw him into a house. Lucas teleported midair to slam into a harpy, crushing her beneath him as they smashed onto the wall. Lucas ducked and two large feathers hit the wall. Zoey pierced a harpy with the top of the poleaxe and threw it into the other one. She was by the escape door in the wall. Raven and Lucas were nowhere to be seen. She planted her feet on the ground and got ready to kill anything that approaches.
Zoey’s alright, where the hell is Raven?
Lucas went through the chaos by series of short teleports, slaying a demon here and there.
“DODGE!” he shouted.
Too late. The griffin was coming down with deadly speed. Raven saw it but could not evade. He planted the shield to block. Kayleanne’s lance slid on the shield. It pierced him through the shoulder. The impact lifted Raven up into the air. He shouted out in pain. Lucas teleported to the side and stabbed at her hand. She let go of her lance.
“Pesky little mosquito, aren’t you?” she drew her blade and slashed at Lucas. He barely dodged the blurred swing, teleported to Raven and pulled the lance out of him.
“Plan F, exit three,” Lucas repeated. Raven nodded, his face twisted with pain. The griffin was already making a turn to come charging again. Raven stopped bothering with demons that weren’t straight in front of him. He was running in a beeline to the exit. Lucas went to the roof by the side of it. He grabbed a ring attached to a chain and threw it mid-air. The griffin was coming down in a lethal charge. Lucas teleported up, caught the chain and attached it to its back leg. The chain stretched. The monster roared as it got stopped midair. The break threw Kayleanne from her saddle. She stabilized herself midair and landed on her feet. She smirked and charged at Raven. Raven took a stance and readied himself. As she approached, he made a straight cut. The sword wheezed as it cut the air. Kayleanne ducked under it and rammed herself into Raven. Raven’s lungs almost exploded as the impact threw him backward. He managed to stay on his feet. Kayleanne was already charging him with a smirk.
<
br /> “CAAAWWWWWW!” the griffin shrieked as Lucas stabbed it with the spear. He didn’t aim to kill; he aimed to hurt. Raven cut down at Kayleanne. She parried the blow like it was nothing, then whirled and hit Raven with a spinning kick. Her heel bent in his armor as it sent Raven flying. He crashed on the wall next to Zoey. Kayleanne turned to dash back to save the griffin. Lucas teleported to Zoey and Raven when she got to him.
“Let’s move,” he ordered and led the way. Zoey helped Raven stay on his feet and follow.
“There is a river half a mile east, we fight our way to it,” Lucas announced.
“Fight?” Zoey stopped mid-sentence as she realized they are surrounded. A small army of snake demons was all around the village in a circular formation. Raven coughed out blood as he tried to say something. He got out of Zoey’s hold to stand on his own. He was wobbly and needed to support himself by his sword. They heard the beating wings of the griffin and knew they had to move.
“Let’s roll,” Lucas said and teleported to the snakes. He stabbed the first one through the skull, ducked an attack and stabbed another one. Zoey caught up. She instantly beheaded a snake. Raven was limping behind them. They made a formation where he and Zoey were covering Raven from sides. The bird demons caught up. Their world turned into chaos. Beaks, claws, fangs, scales, blood and pain. Lots of pain. They cut and stabbed and cut. It was just seconds. It felt like an eternity. They finally got to the edge of the ravine. Raven looked down the ravine and just fell into it. Zoey shook her head and leaped into it. Lucas followed them after ending the life of one more snake demon. The snake demons leaped after them.
“By the way… can’t the snakes swim?” Zoey shouted as they were falling.
“They can,” Lucas confirmed.
“THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE WE JUMPING INTO A RIVER?”
They landed before he could answer. The water was cold, very cold. Its current swept them like they weighed nothing.
“Get Raven,” Lucas shouted at Zoey and drew his sword from the Dream World. Well, sword was an overstatement. Hilt with a small piece of a broken blade, that’s what it was. Lucas focused and a blade of pure energy formed from the hilt. He dove to face the snake demons following them. They were right at home in the water. The blade of energy cut through the water like it wasn’t there. Lucas put the sword hand in front of him and just pivoted the wrist to slash. The sword needed no force to cut through the snake demons. Lucas kept teleporting in through the river to fend off the attackers He glanced over his shoulder in a spare second. Zoey was holding Raven’s unconscious body and maneuvered between the rocks in the river. Lucas teleported to her.
Legacy of Death_Revenge Page 23
