Hi guys, another long time since the last post. But you know how it is with us nerds, too many things to do, so little time, so sorry about that. Hopefully this chapter's good enough for the wait, and I hope you all enjoy it.
Death swept by mere inches from my face, as I barely stepped out of the way of the black steel in the arms of the Wight. However, the undead spun with unnatural grace and swiftly delivered a kick to my unprotected abdomen, sending me flying. I struck a tree and collapsed, winded but not yet out of the fight, as I can still barely make out the silhouette of Elena engaging the monster in (formerly living) human shape in a duel of blades.
It was a fool's errand. As my vision refocused, I was just in time to see Elena keel over as she was caught by a clean right hook. A sudden bile that rose in my throat quickly retreated in the face of relief when I saw that she just managed to barely leap out of the way of the follow up sword swing that would have taken her head clean off.
It was evident that we were losing, and that was in no part due to any lack of effort on our side. The skill gap between us was just too huge, and it was clear that we were doing all we can just to avoid a killing blow.
Staggering up, I gripped my spear tightly as I lunged forward towards the melee. My attack was swift, but the undead was quicker still. For a moment, it felt as though my spear stabbed him through, but all I did was to catch a piece of its discolored robe on the blade as it spun away from my attack, putting a jump in between its movements to further its distance from any potential follow up.
"Sir Motoyasu…" Elena heaved in between breaths, "we… should… retreat."
I would if I could. Except that it was next to impossible at the current moment. See, the thing was that I never believed that warriors could sense fear, anger, determination or whatever other emotions from their enemies on the battlefield. Until now, for behind those burning orbs, I get a distinct impression of a predator who wants to sink its teeth into us, in fact, I have the crawling suspicion that it would enjoy doing so.
There was no way that we could run, not without leaving one of us behind.
A brief idea flashed into my mind, before I quickly extinguished that line of thought. Leaving Elena behind would be detrimental to my stay here, and it would give me a bad taste in the mouth permanently… probably.
Regardless, escaping was out of the question, defeating the wight would be asking for the impossible, so… I frowned even as I kept my eyes fixed on the undead who has begun circling us, Frankly speaking, it was quite tough for me to multitask at this rate, the fight was taking up so much of my attention that I barely have time to thin-
The wight suddenly vanished and I felt a slight prickle on my neck. Instinctively, I brought up my spear only for it to meet a sudden force right before I could bring it up fully. The impact shook my entire body even as I felt something cold stop at the side of my neck while burning eyes the color of sickly green stared impassionately at me. It felt as though an eternity had passed as we locked our weapons against each other's, until a flash of silver streaking towards it caused it to leap away.
"Sir Motoyasu," Elena walked up beside me, sword pointing in the direction of the wight. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks for the assist."
There was no way we could get out of this shit, can we?
Well, there was another thing I could try… It was, in every sense of the word, foolhardy, but given our current predicament, was there ever any choice involved?
There was no time to share the plan with Elena, no time to even give her the briefest of glances to assure. Without further ado, I dashed forward, eliciting a cry of surprise from Elena. As the distance between me and the undead being closed, I could see it casually taking a defensive stance, sword held upright and ready to deflect any blow I could have prepared.
Given its strength, it probably would easily parry my spear strike… in fact, I'm betting on it.
As quick as I can, I stabbed forward, only for a blur of movement that was its sword to hit it aside. At that exact moment, I released my grip and grabbed hold of its weapon by the hilt with one hand, borrowing its momentum to push it aside even as I extended the other one backward. As though beckoned by the gesture, my spear materialized in my outstretched hand. Mustering all the strength I could, I thrust it forward at the fiend.
For a moment, it felt as though as if there were a type of resistance at the tip of my spear, and my attack slowed down for a fraction of a second before it suddenly pushed through, almost akin to what one might feel when you finally poked a hole in a piece of paper with a pen.
I did it, if the spear that I had just ran through the gut of the wight was any indication, I have managed to land my first solid blow on it.
One would have thought that I would be elated by this, or at least feel some form of apprehension that I have managed to cut the enemy. I did not, in fact, all I experienced was a sense of apprehension as the wight looked slowly down at the weapon that had just been driven through its body.
Before I could pull out the spear, an armoured hand suddenly grabbed my arm, preventing me from moving the weapon. The apprehension was so thick in the air as I watched it locked its gaze with me.
It was my first time getting a good look at the features of the wight. Dirty black rags covered parts of its head, with a blackened horn sticking out from them, however what part that was visible of its face was horrifying to behold. Whatever dried skin that had not yet rotted away clung to its skull, forming a mask of sorts that was illuminated green by its glowing eyes. It still had its teeth, especially the prominent canines, that formed a grisly smile. However, what caught my attention was the flicker of red in the middle of its forehead, covered partially by the rags it adorned.
"Kh… ke...cke…"
I started as the wight began working its jaws, as though it were trying to open them. In fact, that was what it seemed to be doing, as it kept wiggling that particular bone in a way that made it seemed that it had forgotten how to use them. For all I know, that might actually be true,
"Ki...Kyu… ke...kar…"
I hope that Elena was coming over right now, I don't want to risk aggravating the undead by shouting out, assuming that it could even hear me. Do undeads even have eardrums anymore?
"Kyu..kar...karrni."
What?
"Kor..koi…"
How was it even making these sounds?
A small movement to the right brought me out of my train of thought as I saw Elena slowly creeping up on us from the corner of my eye. Hopefully, the undead haven't noticed her, otherwise I would be so screwed, considering that it had one arm free, and all my attempts at pulling myself free was not turning up any results.
"Khang!"
My eyes snapped back towards the direction of the wight. It seemed much more agitated and… alive? Its eyes were burning brighter now, and I swear I could see small streaks of red arcing across those green orbs. Screw it, this has 'bad news' written all over it.
"Elena! Now!"
It all happened so fast and so slow. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Elena break into a run, sword flashing up for an overhead swing that was most probably meant to decapitate the undead
In front of me, the wight's eyes merely burned brighter, and began flaring out of its sockets towards me. The flames were close enough that I could just feel the heat, heat that was too close for comfort.
The sword swung down.
The flames burst forth.
And I felt myself falling backwards…
A robed figure walked slowly in the darkness of the cave, his strides noiseless and confident as he ventured deeper into the shadows, accompanied by nothing but the silence that the void brings with it.
Silence that was broken as the figure stepped into a group of stalagmites conveniently arranged in the shape of a six sided star. As the air bagan to twist, as the walls of the cave bend in on itself, a voice spoke.
"kilLeR, hoW nICe tO sEE YOu aGAiN."
The voice sounds as though somebody had a cold, decided to take a gasmask and a loudspeaker, and speak with them in an an enclosed room with two additional recordings playing at once. However, if the figure had felt any discomfort from the distorted voice, he did not let it show in his reply.
"It has been a while," He sighed, "Though I never thought I would want to meet you ever again."
"haHAHaHahA, sPArE ME The spIte AnD gET To tHe pOiNT."
"You know what I have in store for her, do you not?"
"Her? AaAhhH, yOU mEan ThAT fOOliSh cHILd?"
"Yes. Her. So I want to know one thing, why?"
"WHy wHAt?"
"You know what I speak of. I know that you are too smart to even not know that I am asking why you interfere."
The voice fell silent at the accusation, when it spoke again, the room grew colder, the shadows so much darker that all that remained was the figure alone.
"yOU mADe US tO dO whaT YoUr PAwn iS noW mEAnt to Do. YoU tHReW us AWAy bEcAuSE wE beCaMe MoRTAl."
"Yes, I need an immortal so-"
"SO tHAt yOU cAN KiLL tHEM iF thEy Go OUt oF hAnd."
"And YeT yOU aSk wHy wE reBEL? WhY wE InteRFeRE? We ArE jEalOUS, KiLLer. So We wILL dO AS yOu wIsHED fOR uS."
"I-"
"WilL siT STiLL aND wATch aS wE fuLFILL WHaT YOu dESireD oF US. AnD kNOw ThAT yOu cOULd NoT KiLL US.
"YoUR pAWn iS moRtaL. So ToO is OUrS. AnD So aRE wE."
The shadows began to writhe as though the ground was now made up of millions of moving tendrils, each moving as though they want to entangle the figure between them, yet coming short as they were turned away just as they reached the being.
"We ALL cANnot bE KilLed by YoU. AnD WE wILL dO As yoU wISheD."
"SO wAIT fOR uS to BE frEE, aNd wAtcH aNotHEr goD fALL, aND aLL tHe OthErs, unTIL YoU aRE the ONLy OnE ReMAiNIng, DeAR faTHeR. YoUr PawN, OuR cHILd, aNd US, We WiLL maKe YoUR dReAM cOmE tRUe."
Elena did not understand what was going on. One moment, she saw Motoyasu being engulfed in green flames that spilled forth from the eyes of the wight. As soon as that happened, she leapt forward with her sword raised, the blade aimed at the undead's neck where it would easily take its head off. However, before the blow connected, she felt something push her aside, causing her to fall unceremoniously to the ground.
When she looked up, there was no way she could contain her surprise when she saw the Spear Hero leaning over her, one hand outstretched to help her up. She didn't grab it, especially when she was too preoccupied looking at the Wight gazing over his shoulder.
"Elena," His voice shook her out of her state of mental shock. "Come on, you should get up."
"Sir Motoyasu!:" Elena blurted out. "The Wight!"
"Hmmm?" Motoyasu looked behind as though he just noticed the undead for the first time. "Oh, don't worry, we worked something out." He shrugged nonchalantly, "or at least we will be working something out."
"Pardon?"
"Listen, how about you get up first, and I explain everything to you?"
"Ah, my apologies."
Elena's mind was an extremely confused mess now, especially that the wight seemed to be completely unaggressive now. As she accepted Motoyasu's proffered arm, she stole a glance at the almost-offending undead. It was now standing completely still, its gaze locked upon the both of them. However, the gaze now was more akin to casual look of curiosity, not that hostile stare from before.
Above all the questions in her head, the foremost one was an extremely simple one, one that she directed at her Hero. "Motoyasu, what's going on?"
Motoyasu rubbed his head as he wore an awkward expression upon his face. "That would be a very difficult question to answer… but the gist would be that I worked something out with our… acquaintance here."
He gestured to the wight as he spoke, the undead being ignoring the pointing in favor of studying Elena.
"Soooo?"
"Well, she said that-"
"Wait. I mean, sorry. I mean… She?"
"Ah, I spoke to her." Motoyasu pointed at the wight.
"What?!"
"And… she's agreed to help us."
"Wait," Elena shook her head. This was too much information for her to handle as of now. Not to mention… Her eyes caught sight of a small sigil on the back of the hand of her hero's hand. It was shaped like an eye, an eye set in the middle of a five petaled flower, with a skull in the middle of it.
"What is that?" She asked, pointing at the symbol in question.
"Ah," Motoyasu looked at the Sigil,smiling sheepishly as he rubbed it with his other hand. "I was getting to it…"
"The gist of it is, I made a deal."
Was playing around with conversations more in this one. Reviews are optional but will be appreciated.
Thanks for reading!