AR Chapter 489 (Patreon)

Long one!

When I encountered this hunting cat in the form of a person the first time, she was playful, teasing, killing and reaping lives with a smile. Due to my own lack of preparedness, she slaughtered dozens, smashed just as many eggs and, in a fit of pique, she left Sybil and my unhatched eggs alive. Nobody had been able to catch her that day, because we’d been so unused to dealing with the Misti Hawar’s particular brand of magic.

The better part of two years had passed since then, and she and I had both changed.

She wasn’t bouncy, teasing, or wanting to leave my people alive as a stone to whet her people’s bloodlust on. Obviously, she regretted her carelessness back then, because pure hatred and a threat of violence emanated from her every hair from top to bottom. With four spawn behind her, she spread her arms and let out a pulse of overwhelming darkness, shadow choking out every bit of light around as her silhouette disappeared. The shadows pressed in against me, and though my magic kept me largely safe, I could see that the less magically inclined Kha behind me, specifically Brutus and Joral, were already in a less than optimal situation.

Arwa’s pack split, five each standing beside my two allies, and the spawn thundered forward, their tentacles smashing the cobbled streets underneath them.

“You need to take care of them yourselves,” I said, flexing my grip with my left hand. “I have a so-called leader to kill before she finds my children.”

Only snarls of approval answered me as I reared back with my left hand and hurled my spear into the center mass of one of the nearest spawn. With a measure of my magic still in it, the spear pinned the beast to the ground, and my twelve allies threw themselves at the beasts. I had to trust in them as I spread my awareness as far as I could to try to track down—

I snarled in rage as my magic encountered resistance. Of course, the wretched creature was trying the same thing again. I could feel a speedy trail of shadow dashing past the battlefield to enter my home. Regardless of if she knew what was there or not, she was going just where I needed her not to. If she killed my family, I’d descend into a blind rage to get back at her and would lose my ability to reason, even with Combatant’s Bloodlust. If I had to try to fight while protecting my family, I would be fighting at a huge disadvantage, so either way, something would go wrong.

“Nievtala burn the witch,” I hissed as I lunged forward. My home was only fifty or so feet behind me, but she’d gotten a head start. With only a few feet of distance, I knew she could spread her shadows more than far enough to cut my children to ribbons. I desperately spent the majority of the reserves of my magic to drive away every shadow which let me know just where she was on the wall of my home. The force of the sonic magic dispelled her shadows, but she dug a clawed hand into the wall of the building and, shooting a victorious smile back at me, vaulted into the window.

“No!”

Some small, disjointed part of me recognized that it was my own scream that tore from my throat and echoed through my city. In the very first move, I’d been outmaneuvered, and my family was going to pay the price.

So overwhelmingly loud was my terror that I almost didn’t hear the shrieks from inside. My mind filled in what was happening there, as shadow closed in and billowed from the window. I coiled my legs, about to jump in through the same window, to possibly save even a single life.

A writhing mass of scales and fur burst out of the window before I could leap.

Sybil’s incandescent rage was expressed in nothing more than howling, wordless shrieks. Fur flew around her in a storm as she tore into the Nyust’Taa. Blood splattered everywhere as our enemy’s claws and fangs found purchase, but Sybil didn’t slow herself despite any wounds she suffered.

She continued screaming as she ripped into the creature that had dared to try to come between her and her children. Sybil’s magic was not one that I typically associated with combat. It was an insidious one, one that would soothe or heighten emotions as she wished, and though she’d used it to weaken the influence of the Misti Hawar’s shadow magic through the course of this siege, she’d never used it fully offensively.

Until now.

I didn’t stop rushing to my family’s aid as hammer blows of emotion smashed into the Nyust’Taa. Where I was, only close enough to feel the very edges of the focused blast, fear and lethargy seeped into me. I could see the terrified eyes of our enemy as Sybil raked her claws into the other female’s gut and exhausted herself to beat the beast.

Shadow reinforced the Nyust’Taa’s torso to keep from being disemboweled, but she was sent sprawling and rolling across the ground as Sybil lowered herself to the ground, spread her arms, and shrieked a challenge. More feral than I’ve ever seen her, I’d never been more in love.

Despite the magic smashing into her, my enemy was far from finished, and she was more than aware of my approach as a scythe of shadow slashed at my arm. I interlocked my scales, accepted the blow on my right side, and threw myself at her.

I lacked the magic in my sonilphon to dispel the shadows that lashed me, but between myself and Sybil, we could keep her from escaping. And that was all I needed.

It wasn’t often that I remembered just how young in years I was, despite my position as the undisputed Zaaktif. For years, I’d led my people across the continent, in establishing a nation, and more. Before my reincarnation as a Keelish, I’d lived for about 20 years, so far as my fuzzy memory served. My enemy right now had far more experience than I did in battle, and despite the benefit of Combatant’s Bloodlust and a body that I was sure was stronger than hers, the Nyust’Taa stood strong against my onslaught.

The few red vulnerabilities that I saw on her body were only ever brief flashes, and when I capitalized on them, I drew blood, but never slowed her own attacks. Over the course of half a minute, two pairs of clawed hands, two sets of fanged jaws, and two types of magic flashed against each other, and I was losing the fight. If I’d had even half of my sonilphon full, I’d have been able to handily deal with my enemy, but I didn’t. Instead, I didn’t even have the luxury even to curse my wastefulness with my reserves until now, instead focusing entirely on the battle.

The tide started to turn against me as she sunk a massive hook of shadow into my left thigh. Instead of being able to dodge out of the way, I was held there as her shadow magic-enhanced claws ripped into my chest. The thick, armor-like scales there gave way before her attack, and my blood ran hot down my body.

“You damned beast! You were supposed to be my triumph! The beginning of our empire!”

For the first time, the leader of the Principality lost her cool, and a flicker of red vulnerabilities opened across her chest. Instead of immediately seizing on them, I stood tall and stepped back, ripping my foot through the solid shadow that shackled me. The muscles in my left leg quivered and screamed in protest at the agony that flashed, but I stood tall. The separation of my battle focus from the pain in my body let me stay strong as she continued to press the attack.

“My god slaughtered every one of my people to feed his beasts! He hates you more than I do, but he never loved me. He never cared for me! He ate them. He ate them to spite your goddess!”

Her claws flashed with deep cuts of shadow that ripped into my chest as I continued to retreat. Her previous façade of calm was gone, her fury at the betrayal from the Great Hunter sapping away any rationality. Then, with her face screwed up in fury, she lunged towards me, screaming for my death.

With alacrity that surprised her, I drew more heavily on Spear of the Many, knowing that my body would be suffering from it in just a few short moments. I ducked low, and rose with my left hand in a knife straight into her sternum. My claws buried deep in her chest, and I felt the rattle of her lungs on my fingers as her eyes went wide and her magic died.

Around me, shadow disappeared as one of the last survivors, and certainly their strongest representative of the Misti Hawar attacking force, was slaughtered. Her body fell, whispers in her native tongue going unheard and unlistened to by me as I raised a foot and crushed the life from her.

The wounds across my chest and leg faded as Victor’s Spoils granted me recovery. I ignored the flashing of system notifications as I threw my head back and roared my victory to the heavens.

I didn’t know how many lives we lost, but with her death, we’d certainly won this war. And now, it was time to extract the price for their failure.