Beware the Ills: Part 48
This combat’s getting tiring. I won’t be able to beat her with my normal method of strength and speed. She’s more disciplined in this rage. I cannot outfight her physically, she’s my equal. I’m still a little weak from Haukter’s poison. What a fantastic concoction. More clatter, clashing, and smashing. We break from the mountain edges. She follows me, and swings at my back vertically in a leaping strike. I roll aside, and let the rocks absorb the frenzy. I make a quick slash at the gloved white hands wrapped around the massive handle. Her skin splits open around her forearms in even little slits. They almost look graceful against her skin.
She’s quite a specimen.
I break away running. She matches my speed and slashes again at my shadow. It seems like it will never end. Her cleaves are so close, I can feel the cold bite of the axe on my feet and neck. It’s a lovely game we play, nearly a dance.
I cannot stop her without resorting to a little trickery. I double my sprint with my dead legs, and lead her away from the mountains, and into the field of corpses. There are hundreds of them bleaching red and glowing iron in the sun.
There are so many.
She’s after me. It’s an impressive dash. I cannot outrun her, the glowing potion flows with too much power. I must trick her. She’s behind me again. The little break didn’t last long. More swings, I leap backwards over them and finally face her without my back turned. She swings at me again wildly, and I backpedal away from each throat-seeking slash. I’m out of space. She swings horizontally at me, and I counter. The earth shakes with clouds of rocks. Corpses, armor, and weapons fly outward around her feet. We split, and our hands start to fail behind the vibrations. I must match the strength to set the illusion. I can feel the corpses brushing and crunching against my feet. A random falling of snow billows quietly against the chaos. My legs burn heavily, and my arms feel like ash.
My limit’s nearly here.
No, I can do more. I have fought more than this, and against sturdier opponents. The wind feels better against my skin; the poison must finally be gone. I pull the fire up in me. I pull the strength up in me. I’m upon her slashing. I’m on the offensive. I miss and slash empty red stones. I follow her, slashing up and down. She leaps and blocks my slashes with the flat side of the axe. She stabs at me with it and I knock it away. Our duel has brought us back in front of the encroachers. I can feel them behind me. There are hundreds of them, and a dozen machines yet, this isn’t over if I win this bout. The raging booms from our strikes echo to the mountains and back.
We break again and start running through the battlefield. I must end this soon, before I get desperate and reckless. I loop around in a wide curve on my left. It’ll eventually come back to her for a strike.
It’ll be face to face, axe against sword.
She’s a second away from carving me, the trick must work. It must work. My sword sits relaxed in my right hand. We’ve separated enough in the circle, and she’s turned around to face me. The axe comes towards me, leading her blue-blond charge. It swings slowly at me, like time was greedily holding it. I swing down at her vertically. She swings the axe horizontally to meet my ageless sword. I release my sword as the weapons collide, and my sword flies into the air in an unceremonious clang. I roll headfirst below her swing and pick up an Ill’s sword from a mangled body.
I have one moment, one moment to wound her.
I’m behind her slender body and white cloak. I can see that weird copper implant coiled along her delicate spine. It crawls up to the base of her bloody skull. Some foreign writing is etched onto it. No time to gawk, she’s already starting to turn around with the axe. I slash quickly at her spine with the black and awkward curved sword. The implant severs, and blue energy spills out in thick bursts, like a pressured liquid.
A horrible scream shocks from her bloody lips.
She throws the axe carelessly to the side. Another hiss and burst of light, I jump even further away. I don’t want the captured lightning to blind me. She wrenches around wildly, like she was pulled by hidden strings and chains. The jade light’s being pulled out of her back by some phantom force. It looks sad. I’ve never faced encroachers like this before. I breathe in deep and run to the Ills, who stand awestruck. I settle down next to the prince breathing heavily. He looks at me surprised and relaxed. I think he wants to say something to me but doesn’t know what.
The invaders flee, grabbing her and the axe. I think she can still breathe. Steam rises off her frayed form in delicate streams.
Nobody moves. We’re all captivated by the moment. It rarely happens to me. The wind howls quietly. A whirring sound fills the air. It’s a machine getting ready to fire. The peacefulness was short-lived. The melee starts again like an unshackled storm. Arrows fill the air. A machine walks directly behind us. It’s trying to take out the prince, I know it. I grab the whelp and run. Ills pour onto the glowing machine and skewer the pilot with two spears.
I need my sword. I need it.
Two of the machines rotate towards us. We need to get out of here, back towards the Diamond Town. The machines turn, following me as I pull the prince. The fire glows beneath their chests, as they discharge two scorching orbs. I duck, as the two projectiles buzz by me, and into the homes of the diamond town. Splinters and rocks shatter everywhere. Some of the debris rains on us tersely. Blood drips down my nose and left eye.
It has been a long time since I have tasted my own blood.
I don’t look back. I run into the narrow alleyways of the city with the prince over my shoulder. They’re filled with cracked rock, and halved cobblestones. I crawl up a tall building and throw him by the dark chimney on the roof. He’s completely befuddled by my actions, but he’s too scared to say anything. An orb shatters the building beneath our feet. We fall, and I leap onto the other building as the walls crumble.
His survival has become paramount.
I shield the Ill with my body. Arrows flood into the alleyways. The Ills need to storm those machines. I wish I could see what’s happening out there. If I were in the invaders position, in a hopeless battle, I would be trying to take out their leaders too. Arrows are now floating up over the rooftops and falling on us. I pull the curved sword out of his trembling hand and knock a few away that dive too close. A machine has started walking to the edge of the city. I can see its blocked shape through the tight buildings. A blue orb blossoms up from the center of the machine.
It’ll turn us to dust.
I’ll be releasing my novel Beware the Ills in segments every Friday. You can find out more about the book right here, or check out Amazon’s info. I love this book. Happy to simply share it.
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Sophia Jane Hayden, Author
ArtisAnn
Author Krishna Prasanth Guttikonda
Patrick W. Marsh
Patrick W. Marsh
John Griogair Bell
Waking Writer
