Albie with the power of the moonlight from the waning gibbous flowing through his body stalked the guards. He was draining the lifeforce of the plants around him to keep his pain and cough in check. The change of life force making the bees on his waist nervous. Albie kept moving through the decaying brush to hide himself and the moon crystals on the outside of his coat. He observed the guards carefully.
There were between five and ten who lived in the guard house. He could sense their life force. He had sent some regular sized bees to get a better number. They were dressed like army solders except they wore orange coats instead of the yellow ones he was familiar with. But it was the same cut a design otherwise, only orange. Two guards slouched in a bored fashion by the open gate.
The gate was a large arch in the stone wall large enough to fit two carriages at the same time. Two empty carriages stood in the gate. As the bees had flown past them, they had detected the smell of blood. On the other side of the gate to the right was a guard house were the other guards should be sleeping. The small bees were infiltrating it now.
The life forces the guards gave off made Albie ache with his new hunger. He wanted their life force. He wanted to make more moon crystals. He wanted to get into the city quietly if possible. Whatever he did all the men guarding this part of the gate would die tonight.
The moon mage creeped ever closer to his unknowing victims. Twenty large bees flying to the top of the large stone wall and silently crawling down from above the men. As the silent mage reached the end of the brush the men noticed him. A man in a black hooded cloak decorated from top to bottom with shining silver crystals. His pail face barely visible from beneath the hood. One guard appeared confused. The other had a look of greed in his eyes as he looked at the cloak that seemed to mirror a starry night sky.
The man whose eyes were filled with greed approached the hooded figure. Ready to do more work with his bayoneted musket. He would stab this strange man in his face and take the beautiful cloak. The lord had declared the town open to looting. The guards had missed today as they had to keep watch. They had been free to kill any wagons that had approached but none had come today. He had missed it the best part of ending this city of traitors. However, taking the beautiful cloak would make up for it. The man was so hypnotized by the cloak he couldn't see the owner's pail face or red eyes. He also didn't notice five bees the size of small dogs descends on the man behind him.
The monstrous bees jumped silently off the wall stingers ready. The three-inch stingers on their abdomens pierced his cloth hat stabbing the length of the stingers into the man's skull. one bee stretched its body to spit its acid into the man's neck as its master had instructed. His skin hissed and sizzled as the skin melted a faint gasp escaped his lips as hid mind was pierced and his throat burned. His greedy companion lost in the beauty of the moon stones did not here the gasp, the sizzle or the thud the man made as he hit the ground. He only had thoughts for how to kill the man wearing his new cloak while getting as little blood on it as possible. Trickery being the best way he extended his hand in greeting.
"Hail traveler," said the greed blind guard. "Yourz is currently under martial law by order of Lord Brand. None may enter but it is late, and you must be tired. I shall let you sleep in the guard house and you can leave tomorrow."
Quickly a pail hand grabbed his in a vice like grip. He felt his hand weaken. A rough voice came from the hooded man. It was harsh as though his throat had not touched water in days.
"Your offer is most kind," said the Moon mage. "But I will be finding my lodging further into town tonight."
The guard finally saw the pail face and hungry red eyes of a moon blessed mage. His face color pallid as death his face lean from hunger. He tried to scream but another pail hand covered his mouth trapping his cries in his mouth. His attempts to resist feeble as the strength the solder had known all his life failed him. His muscle tired. His body growing cold and pail as his assailant. He lost strength in his knees and tried to look for his friend for help. With the mercy of the mage he was spun onto his but were he saw the other man covered by the monstrous bees who had melted and eaten his head and most of his lower body. The torso smoking as the acid melted his flesh and the bees drank the liquid. The guard felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. His eyes closed and the world became his fading heartbeat.
The moon mage did not stop when he heard the solders last heartbeat. He used the moonlight to pull every small fragment of life energy out of the body leaving only a shriveled husk in an orange uniform. Albie felt a great sense of fullness from absorbing the man's life. The pain in his chest was almost nonexistent though he no longer felt cats dying pain. The black sludge that squirmed in his lungs that could bring the food in his mouth to life settled. Albie looked at the husk and at a large pouch on the man's belt. It looked like a coin purse but was large and bulging in a way the village men who returned from the army described as impossible. Inside the bag were many golden rings. Some still with the blood of their rightful owners on them. Albie put the bag in one of his empty harness pockets.
A bee flew to Albie with the uneaten heart or the other man who was now gone. He accepted the heart and with well-practiced magic turned it into a moonstone. Albie looked at it as he walked into the city. It was slightly clouded as the waning power of the moon was not strong enough to make a pure moonstone. This was fine for the like of these men. Inside the gate was a tragedy. The people of Yourz lie murdered in the street. Dried blood soaked the coble stone and the flies feasted. The buildings and shops broken and burnt. Some houses still standing but clearly vandalized others ruined piles of ash and scorched stone.
The small bees reported back to him that there were seven men sleeping in the guard house. Albie took a right and walked to the building. Those men were going to suffer a dying nightmare.