Into the Darkness

by C T Scribe

  Deb was a bit rusty fighting. She hadn’t been on a battlefield in over fifty years. She still trained a little, but nothing like she did in her younger days. Her blood weapons felt warm to the touch. They slipped on as easily as she could remember. She had one actual blood weapon, and the other replicant had been crafted by the smiths. They were identical in every way to her enemy. The smith had made her replicant from dragon ore. Deb had won the precious metal long ago during her lost days at the Dragon’s Head Gym. She could barely tell which set of knuckles was crafted herself, especially after it had been so damn long. Dragon ore, being such a unique metal, allowed her energy to flow and control the replicant as if it were a part of her. Even in strength the replicant was only slightly weaker than her own blood weapon. Her body felt stiff in her fighting stance. Shifting into phase two was easy for her. It had always been harder for her to hold back. Phase one was the challenge. She took a few practice jabs in the air. The swings pushing the air with such gale force it splintered the wall. She still felt slow, but her strength was intact. The commander in front of her didn’t mind the warm-up. She made no attempt to attack as she swung her limbs around. Even when she splintered the wall from a mere swing, the commander didn’t react. Either from training or strength Deb wasn’t sure how strong her enemy was. She knew she’d find out soon enough. The two faced off twenty feet apart. Deb started first throwing punch after punch hurling the air between them into the commander. The first attack sliced her cheek. She let out a small growl before fur crept up her face to cover the wound. She was only human from the nose up now. Deb continued to hurl air attacks one after the other. Not just punches either, she also used swirling kicks. The wind dance was quite beautiful, but deadly to those on it’s receiving end. The commander caught on quick as she tracked the movements with animalistic perception. Several small cuts marked her, but most of the air shots were dodged. The ones she couldn’t avoid were met with a giant hand of densely coated fur. The hair and her body extended and mutated into a larger extremity capable of blocking the blows. And so they were at a standstill. HQ shuttered and boomed all around. The thought of another group attacking the Infirmary stirred her. She rushed the commander. Air reinforcing each swing of her assault. The flurry of wind filled strikes were again dodged or deflected by the elite fren in her path. The commanders reflexes were good, too good. The two found themselves evenly matched in battle. Relentlessly Deb continued her assault, hoping to fatigue the commander. To her dismay the beautiful beast showed no signs of slowing. With each parry and counter attack her fur buzzed to life about her. The first blow was barely noticed. The next two blows of the densely shifting fur hit her hard. She didn’t let the impact stop her assault, but Deb’s swings had slowed slightly. Still unable to land a blow of her own Deb noticed she was the one showing signs of fatigue. The commander picked up on the weakness as well. The fur grew, encasing more of her flesh, and her tail unwrapped from her waist. In seconds the commander was pushing her back with her own set of impressive kickboxing. Her tail occasionally swinging around as a third extremity. Deb found herself a punching bag for the commander. Kitchen life had made her weak over the decades. If only Thomas could see her now she thought. She’d never hear the end of it. Thomas was unconscious just down the hall, but the elite fren made the distance seem unreachable.

  Deb hated to use this trick. It was one of Thomas’ suggestions long ago. When she was losing a fight he had a strategy uniquely suited to her skills. The best thing she could do to turn this fight around was siphon some of her mana as the strikes made contact. And so, reluctantly she began leeching mana from the fren commander with each landed punch, jab, and kick. She was literally getting her ass kicked. With each blow she sent the stolen energy to heal. She knew her abilities made her deadly on the battlefield. There was a time where she was revered throughout the organization. There was a time when her presence made everyone around nervous and anxious. That is what she most loved about Thomas. Beside him she could be normal. The commander growing stronger still didn’t notice the bits of energy she was losing. So lost in her own attacks she lost track of the damage not being as devastating or fully powered as it ought to be. The healing energy coursing through Deb’s body kept the worst of it at bay. Another stalemate. She was fine to play the long game here. She must keep the commander so busy she wouldn’t realize her strength had betrayed her until it was too late. Footsteps down the hall however changed that plan. She could feel the beast approaching. Not only the beast, but the kids it was chasing down the maze of hallways. The new recruits, she realized, were fleeing from something much too powerful for them to handle. What was that man thinking to have let them fend for themselves. Deb found herself cursing at how reckless it was to leave the kids alone. If Teach survived this she would give him the beating of his too long life. Taking a deep breath she realized her only option. Even with her love in danger she hesitated to use it. This was her trump card in battle, and exposing it here would be risky. In the bat of an eyelash she made her choice. Shifting into phase three would leave her vulnerable. She wouldn’t be able to hold the form for long. Not after being so out of practice, but it was her only option to save everyone she could. With a thought metal spread from the brass knuckles. Gracefully it flowed to encase her hands. It continued to spread into gauntlets stretching halfway up her arms. Her arms burned from the weapons encasing them. Beyond skin deep, the heat spread to her veins warming her blood. If she weren’t an immortal the pain would have knocked her out. She let out one roaring scream that startled the commander feet away. A warrior’s scream filled the hallway between them. Looking at the fully furred commander were new deadly eyes. The phase shift consuming her body, Deb was ready to kill in a way she had forgotten. Mentally she calculated this form would last for three minutes. She prayed the kids could last that long.

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  Chapter 53

  Teach had seen an invasion before. This war game was as immortal as they were. There was a time when they didn’t hide. When their base was known and fortified. Attacks happened constantly as the war waged on multiple fronts. Teach remembered each student he lost to such wars. More than students, he lost many friends during those bloody years. As the humans grew in numbers over the centuries the immortals grew increasingly covert. The bloody battles turned into covert rescues. There was still a battlefield in the forgotten place. Teach had been there just once to witness the carnage. People like the tall man became death on those fields. Teach was more a protector than a front line fighter, but in his real body he was formidable. He allowed his arms to return to their natural state as a Lagonian. Scales covering his arms and shoulders completely with webbing between each finger. Returning to his adult body had been harder than he imagined. He had lost track of how many decades he assumed the infantile state. It was an old trick to harness power. When the alarm sounded he instantly realized it was finally time to unleash his stores of accumulated mana. By the time he made it to the breach the immortals had been overrun by a legion of fren. The smell of blood and urine reached his nose before he took in the sight. The stench so strong he felt like vomiting at first, but he resisted the urge. The pacifier was a unique magic tool made to extract and amplify power over time. His baby form was the only form he could maintain for long while the pacifier leached away his energy over the years. The power was intense. Even the tall man wouldn’t survive a direct blast. He let the tool fill him with its power. His muscles surging with strength he had never known. Beautiful colors swirling around his body as he unlocked the harnessed energy. In each ripple of color and brightness loomed such destructive force. The air warping around him sizzled. The color draining from the air nearest him, as if stolen from his energy display. With a hand outstretched the beam of energy couldn’t wait to escape him. In an instant 100 beast near the breach were gone. They left no corpse nor ash. The beam completely erased their existence. Teach found himself hunched over. The weight of such an attack was more than his mind and body was rea
dy to handle. The instant deaths weighing on him. How long had it been since he had to kill for the cause? He had forgot the bittersweet lull of death. The victory in the kill, and the remorse which too often accompanied it. Panting on all fours he tried to stop the convulsing and stand upright. The tremors controlling his muscles could not be stopped. He allowed himself to vomit this time. Blood mixed in with the bile. He felt the sweat flooding from his pores. The power was too much. It was burning him alive. He stayed on the ground in his vomit. The fight to regain his composure raging in each mana soaked cell of his body. He had no concept of time while he lay panting there. He might have passed out if he hadn’t realized the ground was shaking harder than him. It took too much effort to strain his neck towards the source of the vibrations. Looking up he saw them in all their gargantuan presence. Giants emerged from the breach. Giants! Teach had never known them to be away from the front lines. With no time for his internal struggle he was to his feet. The fear before his eyes provided the push his strained body needed. Giants were attacking HQ. Fucking giants, were killing his friends with each step. Teach saw the carnage nearest the breach. He saw the fallen friends and students littering the ground nearest the opening. His energy burst pushed the enemy back for a short while, but more and more fren flooded into HQ. Now giants were in HQ. So many of his students had already died the final death protecting the breach. This changed everything. This was no longer a fight to protect their home. This was a fight for their lives. The enemy came here reinforced to exterminate this branch. Teach knew he had to fight through the shock his body felt from using the immense power he had stored up over the years. He didn’t know how much power he had left, but he would defend the breach alone. He would allow his students to flee. He had taught them all the evacuation procedures. Damn. Teach realized in that moment he had never taught them to the newest recruits. They showed such promise, but he was certain their deaths had already come. How long had it been since he felt tears streaming down his face? Running towards the scariest thing he’d ever seen in his long immortal life he let the tears flow. He let the energy sizzle around his true body. The others stepped aside as he approached. He had no doubts none of them had seen the ripple of color and power he was emitting. He wondered how many of them would recognize his aura in his adult form. One by one they parted and rallied behind him. He couldn’t speak. He had no words, only rage. He waved them back. They wouldn’t retreat. His fear of the enormous monsters in front of him was only eclipsed by his pride in his students. He was as close as he dared to stand to the the giants. He heard his students rallying behind him. Each one adding a harmony to the power frequency. His body couldn’t handle any more energy flowing through it, but the familiar lull of the power frequency steeled his nerves. He looked back at everyone. He looked back to see what he had to protect. He dared to look back for only a second. The shadow hit his senses first. As he turned, too slowly, he felt the impact before completing the motion. The giants first smashed him into the ground. The crater where he stood sent a shock wave through the grounds surrounding him. His students were too close to avoid the tornado-like winds that sent everyone flying back.

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  Chapter 54

  It had been ages since she used phase 3, but it only took seconds to remember why. The muscle melting heat from the raw energy flowing through her weapons was excruciatingly painful. The commander, even with having her mana siphoned, was still plenty strong as she attacked with her ever growing limbs. Deb followed the lethal movements to their conclusion over and over as the strikes came. With countering steps she was able to dodge the worst of the attacks. The commanders movements were slower than before. She realized that slower wasn’t quite the truth. Her movements were most likely the same speed. Actually after being denied a killing blow over and over the commander had sped up. Unfortunately for her she didn’t understand Debs new found power. As she neared for another flurry of strikes, Deb pushed off one leg hard. The speed was hard to follow. Even for her the sensation of arriving at her desired location before her mind could catch up was breathtaking. Behind the commander quicker than the fren could fathom, Deb landed a series of punches directly to her spine. The fur covering her body offered some resistance to the first punch. By the 15th punch however, Deb was nearly grinding her spine into powder inside her body. Such raw power. As the commander fell the kids entered the hallway. As in greeting Deb ripped the head from the fallen commander and raised it above her head. If the kids were freaked out they showed no sign as they continued to run for their lives. Closer and closer they ran until she could see the three beast chasing them. One beast was massive. Its body breaking the walls the closer it came. In front of it were two gangly looking beast with impressive speed. With that thought Deb fought back a smirk, and decided to show the beast what impressive speed truly was. This time as she pushed off her legs sparks appeared. She opted to run along the wall to dodge the kids, and with two open palm slaps she felt the gangly beast skulls sink into themselves. The larger beast welcomed her. It was able to track her movements it seemed. Not realizing she was more than speed would be its downfall. With incomprehensible strength she grabbed its giant mouth and began to twist. Claws raked across her body defensively, but the attacks were far weaker than they should have been. The neck would not tear easily. She twisted harder and harder until she felt the connective tissue tear a little. Feeling its muscles rip filled her with a joy she had long since forgotten. She continued to tear and twist until the head lay in front of the beast body rolling in the crimson waterfall originating from its neck. And with that, Deb was on her knees just outside the forming pool of blood. Her weapon retracted back into brass knuckles. She would have the kids come with her to protect Thomas. Motioning to the new recruits to follow she turned and headed to the infirmary.

  Boom. The ripple that went through HQ wreaked havoc on her senses. The short ripple was instantly converted into a giant disorienting shock wave that sent her right back off her feet. The students had all stumbled as well, but those special two boys remained upright. Regaining her footing she went to them. With a simple touch to the face the two boys from the proving grounds were healed. She poured a special kind of energy into them as she said, “focus on this feeling when you fight. This will give you some help activating your phase two.” The boys looked thankful. She could see it in their eyes, the readiness. Talking to the whole class, but staring at the boys she continued, “they’re after the tall man so protect him okay. As a group, together. The moment anything that’s not us enters the infirmary kill the son of a bitch. I gotta go find whatever the hell caused all that, but I’ll be back for you.” And with those brief instructions she was off taking a staircase towards the commotion, and leaving her love to those kids. What in the underworld was she thinking.