We walked for hours. Through cities and villages. Through forests and gardens that spanned over valleys for miles under a sky as crystal blue as the waters.
By mid-day we'd covered considerable ground. More ground than what was required to reach the Triton Mountain Prefecture. We'd circled it at least a dozen times— keeping miles of distance. Bordering it in Sensory Runes to get note of anything that came or went. All the while, Sgt Sayaad controlled the winds, stopping our scents from wafting into city limits.
Werewolves had better noses but it was better to be safe than slaughtered.
For the last few minutes I sat with the rest of my team. Rocky desert lands spread around us for miles. The shadows of the boulder standing alone beside us bathed everyone in shadow. Kept us cool and hidden. We ate sky-grilled Harpies. Whichever god sent the furian squad to smite us turned out to be charitable in the end.
"Chicken…. But better." Eden commented as she held a severed leg out to me.
I pointed at it. A flash of lightning popped off my fingers and cooked the limb in seconds.
Eden sprinkled a handful of herbs and seeds on the smoking meat and dug in.
Beside her and Sgt Sayaad, Vulture Black stood over the remaining Harpie Corpses.
Beneath them, a circle of arcane writings made in blood died the dry earth. In the shadows cast by the boulder they almost glowed. Perfectly geometrical. Straight lines, round circles, no splatter. He was an expert as much as he was a creep.
Being a Necromantic Assassin guaranteed such character traits.
He waved his Bident over the marked corpses, working his magic away from the sun. The magical eye hovering between the bladed prongs squinted and cringed, letting out a steamy hiss. The air grew cold. The scent of rot and blood rose up in my throat like bile right before vomit. Goosebumps rippled across my skin as purple flames rose from the dark circle of writings beneath the corpses.
Purple flames swallowed the feathered dead. They weren't hot. They didn't burn— in fact, they moved more like liquid. Globulous slimy currents that smothered and soaked into the corpses.
An unholy silence always followed. Like the whole living world gasped in shocked offense that someone would betray them in practicing such magics.
Then, one of the Harpies eyes turned full black. Its veins followed suit.
Eden shivered, "You can't do that somewhere else?" She said over Sgt Sayaad as he leaned with his back to the boulder.
"Quiet girl, you'll distract the newborns….." Vulture Black was focused to a point. Straight as an arrow unlike his spine. Unlike most of him usually.
I watched the first Harpy rise. Its feathers were once brilliant gold and cyan strips of starlight. As it stood, the creature shook— shivered, in its new existence. Feathers fell and others lost their luster, looking almost black in the shadows. Its tan skin went dead white. Cracks spread across its beak and leaked a black slimy substance like oil.
"AWWWcK!"
Vulture Black smacked the undead on the head, "Quiet!"
The winged monster woman silenced with a growl as the others rose.
Like the previous they were undead husks of what they were in life. Humanoid avian beasts without color or shine. Some had wings growing from their backs while others had wings for arms. Beaks Filled with a foul icky magic that worked them like a puppet on invisible string.
Vulture Black turned to Sgt Sayaad, "Piloting or Drones?"
Sgt Sayaad sat up from the rock and looked at his newly made legion of undead, "Drones. I think we'll need you on this one."
Vulture Black shrugged and mumbled, "If this was so dangerous we could've just raided a coven. I would've gladly piloted every Vampire we'd ever need."
"Ronin doesn't like when we fight fire with fire like that." Eden explained as she finished off her Harpy cooked leg.
"OOH! How could I have forgotten the rulings placed on us by our magnificent leade….. wait. He's NNNOT leader."
I looked into Vulture Blacks eyes as he sneered at me. The veins surrounding his pupil had gone purple-black at the use of his magic. The calm winds of Greece brushed through his greasy string thin black hair, covering and reexposing the bald spots on his scalp. He really was ugly as all hell.
"You want to kill me, boy?" He pressed while leaning on his staff like he was eight decades older than his actual age.
"Are you human?" I questioned.
Vulture Black shrugged, "Am I?"
"Do I?" I reflected his answer to my question with an answer to his initial question.
He smiled. His teeth were seconds from rotting out of his brown gums. "It's rich you know, boy…. That you'd be so pro human and all we stand for. But you sacrificed your childhood friend to kill your master…. And then went on to slaughter an entire clan of NOBLE Samurai. That's a bit…. Monstrous— I think. Your hypocrisy only grows with your age."
"Context matters. Sgt, I'm ready to get to work. Preferably before the sun sets and they have an over on us." I said before standing up.
Context had to matter. No matter what they said.
But….. no. No.
Sgt Sayaad nodded, "If you two ladies are done bickering then yes, let's get to work."
***********
Work.
Yes. Work….
We hit the Triton Mountain Prefecture in stride. Muscles warm, senses alert, mind focused. It was barely late day. The sun still hung over the mountain, casting calm yellow rays over the groupings of homes built over the small valley. It came before the real Triton Mountain, making the walk feel like a roller coaster ride in slow motion.
It reset my land sickness. The twist of my stomach— the sharp migraine that cut into my tastebuds with a bad taste, came to me as we headed down the south end of the valley.
Beat in paths snaked between the silent homes.
Too silent. So silent there was no one. A stark contrast from the north end where locals quietly tended to their window gardens and drying clothes strung up on steel ropes.
"Hostage situation?" Eden questioned as she poked her head through open windows and down dark alleys. Her nappy bun of white hair was like a tumbleweed rolling down the desolate landscape.
"No." I replied. "If it was a hostage situation that would mean the Shifters want something from us. And to get to us sooner they would've sent out civilians or gave the north end locals a reason to panic."
"Right now it just looks like everyone vanished…. Well… they didn't do that good of a job." Sgt Sayaad ran his fingers across a wall with six inch deep claw marks.
"Big boy…." Vulture Black mumbled.
"Too big." I added as I began to rub my pointer finger and thumb together, building the static electricity slowly over time.
We reached the edge of the town in silence. The only reason we stopped before the great mountain was because of what waited for us.
A line of black fluid in the sandy ground. It was thick like molasses and sticky. Grains of sand clung to it, diluting the dark color.
But the color wasn't the focus.
We stood before the line in the sand, acting as a sort of barrier.
"Magic?" Eden questioned.
Sgt Sayaad nodded, "Just not any magic that keeps us out. It's….."
"It'ss blood." Vulture Black commented.
"And those..?" Sgt Sayaad added.
"Blood cells….. or they used to be." Vulture Black instructed one of his Harpy reanimated corpses to touch it.
The black blood was far from dark— even under the shadows of Triton Mountain.
Thousands of small glowing red orbs swirled like parasites in old meat.
The Harpy shivered and threw the black blood aside.
"Did you tell it to do that?" Sgt Sayaad raised an eyebrow and side eyed the Necromantic Assassin.
"No…. No I didn't."
"Don't you control their every m—" Before Eden could speak, Vulture Black pointed at the ground and the Harpy divebombed into the dirt beside them. Its beak shattered like glass. It didn't stop until it was dead. Again.
"I do control their every move, girl. That one was just faulty!…. Sometimes conflicting brain chemistry and hormones before death interrupts the magic. Maybe she was… pregnant." Vulture Black retorted. Failing to hide his discomfort.
"Let's stop wasting time." I stepped over the blood and we began our trek up Triton Mountain.
It was said to be a sleeping body of an Earth Dragon from a thousand years ago. A myth that fittingly explained the snaking circular trail you had to walk to get to the mountains entrance.
The only reason we didn't fly was because Sgt Sayaad's wind and sand didn't make a silent couple.
As refined of an elemental user as he was, the smallest pebble could alert Shifter ears.
So could footsteps.
Unless you were Ninja.
Triton Mountains entrance was halfway up the mountain. A twenty minute walk of grotesque imagery that only became more vivid as we got closer to the sun.
More blood.
Tossed limbs.
All human arms for some reason.
They weren't being eaten. Shape-Shifters that didn't eat their kills were never good news.
Neither was the sight of other Monsters.
When we reached the entrance into the cave, a muggy coldness washed over us all. It slithered through our armor and robes like snakes— biting deep with icky fangs. Sending reminders of the glowing black blood and removed arms. Birthing questions of what waited in the shadows.
By now my rubbed fingers had built enough static charge to send a fully powered bolt of lightning directly into the dark. I could light up the whole room in a blink and flash sear whoever ate the blow directly.
Unless they wore armor or especially dense fur. Or something even I wasn't aware of.
That's why recon was vital in missions like these.
We stood with our backs to the wall, the cave entrance to our right. The trail leading back down the mountain to our left.
Sgt Sayaad made a knife hand motion towards the entrance.
Vulture Black followed the command and waved his Bident.
The squad of ten reanimated Harpies marched forward, catching flight after a single hop and diving into the cave.
The sound of their wings was like the only sound in the world in those moments. I don't even remember seeing anything. Smelling any stone. Feeling the electrical charge resting between my fingers.
Just their wings.
Wif….wif…wif
Vulture Black stood against Sgt Sayaad with his eyes shut. He wasn't with us. He rested deep within the vacant minds of the flock in the cave. All the while he tapped Sgt Sayaad's forearm. Relaying what he was seeing through Morse code. It was all he could manage and even that put him at the top percentile of performing Necromancers. He had the rare (Mind Split) Necromancy Talent.
Dark Magics aside, I was still learning the language of taps and pauses so I could only get bits and pieces.
"Dark…. Blood ….. Lions …. Alive…. Afraid…. Black blood….. everywhere …. Alpha…. Injured….."
The Shifters inside began to move. I could hear the rubble shift beneath their feet. Whispers and voices spread as the Harpies delved deeper. Tensions rose.
Why was the Alpha injured? A past battle during the village massacres? How was it not healed. Something else? Why were the Shifters not tending to their leader or taking its spot? Nothing was going as normal.
When Vulture Black began tapping again the Lions were snarling.
"Watching…. Dead…. Deformed…. Sick…. Experimenting….Backside exposed…. No defenses… Failure…. Death… death…. Death…."
Vulture Black had begun slamming his hand against Sgt Sayaad's forearms.
Then something let out a bloodcurdling roar. Both impossibly deep and laced with something high pitched and agonizing.
The grounds shook. A poof of feathers exited the cave doused in droplets of blood.
Vulture Black stood— erect, and stunned. Drooling and vegetative as he sank to the floor.
"Well damn…." Sgt Sayaad got up from the wall.
"They killed all the drones at once?" Eden asked rhetorically. "That's the only way to stun a Necromancer in the middle of piloting right?"
"Yes." I replied before unsheathing my broadsword from my back.
"Sgt Sayaad. Please sweep the grounds that spread before me." I stopped rubbing my fingers together and ran them along the length of my pure silver sword. The full charge of electricity exploded, dancing across the weapons length in white hot intensity.
"No fear in you huh, Ronin?" Sgt Sayaad casually walked to the cave entrance.
"Eden, plant your seeds afterwards. I'll cut my way out of the other side." I explained.
"Sure thing." She beamed.
Sgt Sayaad stood before the cave entrance and wasted not an ounce of time.
He threw his hands up— and as if a wall had been removed or a floodgate had been opened, a deafening crash of winds ripped its way into the cave. The blast was so powerful it widened the entrance as portions of the wall broke off.
It sounded like a freight train. It always did.
Shifters snarled and yelped as they tumbled. I could hear the crack of bone against stone. The roar of something both familiar and new.
I was moving. My blade became the light to their darkness. The means to whatever's end was inside this shadowy hellhole.
Arcs of lightning popped off my sword and lit a trail of burnt stone behind me. I took a left the moment I was inside. Better to have the wall covering one of my blindspots than another shifter.
Directly ahead of me I could barely make out what Vulture Black described. A man standing alone under dying light pushing through a hole in the ceiling. It wasn't moving. It wasn't an immediate threat. I pushed on towards the pack.
I was on the first one I found. A thin dark skinned man— like Eden. Only his hair wasn't white. It was dreaded and turning gold as he shifted.
I ran my blade through his chest. The currents of electricity running across its length made the silver hunk of metal vibrate so violently I could feel it tear the Lion Shifters organs.
I pulled my blade in an upward arc and split its skull. It flayed like a peeled banana.
[+400 EXP]
It's death was my own progress towards another Level Up in power.
The half-transformed creatures steaming corpse remained in my wake as I descended on the rest.
They were lined up like prisoners. Only moving after I cut down three more.
A trio of females charged me. Slitted eyes swallowing up the light beaming off my blade. They wore nothing but the spread of dark gold fur and claws.
I utilized my blade skill, (Crescent Sear Slash). With one heavy swing and culmination of elemental intensity, an arc of sharp lightning flew towards them.
It cut deep into the stone wall on its left side as it closed in.
One of the Shifters jumped. She went eight feet into the air effortlessly. The other two were cleaved in half by the weaponized lightning and hit the ground in portions of their whole selves.
The Lion's rage was tangible as it descended on me. Skin tearing in the midst of a near full transformation.
I ran my hand across my blade, absorbing the lightning to enhance my speed as I jumped, flipping into a human saw.
The WereLion's roars turned to flesh tearing as I spun through her and landed on the other side.
My lightning aura burned away the blood sticking to my armor.
Some of them were talking. Over the years I'd learned to drown them out.
I cut down five more. This pack was large. Ahead I could still see dozens.
[+450 EXP]
[+300 EXP]
[+250 …..275 EXP]
On the other side of the cave, Sgt Sayaad called out to me as green mist began to spew from the entrance, pouring out of a tree sprouting hideous shriveled fruits.
"Ronin! You handle the Shifters." Sgt Sayaad jumped to the center of the cave with a huge gust of wind.
The moment he left, the WereLions on the right wall spilled to the left. They descended on me like rats descend on rotting meat in a sewer. Feral and fiendish.
I focused my Aura. It ate the blows and allowed me to dish out even stronger ones.
A Lion lunged for my throat in the darkness. Its teeth cracked against the thin blue aura coating my skin. I head butted the beast and spun with my blade, cutting through the three that attempted to flank me. Immediately after, the Lion who'd lost its teeth was biting me again. Shifter regeneration was formidable to say the least….
It's jaws closed around my freehand.
I sent a pulse of lightning down my arm and its skull exploded. The searing bloody embers lit up the darkness like fireworks, landing in Shifters eyes and mouthes like acid. Their screams rattled my skull. Their claws broke my aura.
I was grabbed again by a titanous figure with hands like Sarcosuchus jaws.
It threw me. I lost my blade in the air.
Immediately my hands fastened around Muramasa at my hip.
I focused my senses and activated my Partial Blade Skill, (Precise Violence)
While in the air, upside down and flying towards the far wall, I aimed my hilt at the dense clutter of them. Golden fur and white fang visible in the dark.
At blinding speeds I partially unsheathed my blade in quick repetitions, allowing small portions of the weapons innate chaos to run free.
Explosive symphonies of sharp cuts split the crowd of Shifters like cannon fire.
Limbs and heads flew in the darkness.
[+2000 EXP]
I landed on the right side wall and flipped off, silently landing on the ground.
My eyes scanned the battlefield for the glimmer of my silver blade but I found myself gravitating to something else instead.
Sgt Sayaad approached the Alpha. Quietly. Without violence. With wonder.
Now at an angle I could see that the Alpha was deformed. Its arm wasn't right. It looked like an oversized leech with molten veins and a wild heartbeat. It hung on by a thread from the stump where the creatures real arm was removed.
A dead woman lay before the Alpha and Sgt Sayaad. She too missed an arm.
"NOOOOO!" The Alpha yelled suddenly as if it was taken out of suspended animation.
It erupted from the creatures chest as an audial blast.
I could literally see the air ripple around the creature as shockwaves pulsed. We all flew. Stalactites fell, impaling Shifters mid-air and crushing others as they rolled.
It got me too.