Illuminating the Dark Prince

A Sense of Community

~Valarendrik~

The wounded tenverian guard's heavy black armor thudded to the dark soil with a cloud of pale ashes puffing up around him. I violently grabbed the top of his head, lengthening my claws until they pierced the putrid flesh of his scalp. A rabid snarl thundered from his gnashing jaws, while I silently gazed down into his frightened yet spiteful dead eyes with pure animosity boiling in my heart. 

"What do you want from me, your highness? I had no orders to seek you out." He sneered and thrashed, flailing his useless broken arms. I almost smiled watching the limp limbs flop around, the recent memory of twisting my shadows around the bones then snapping them like mere twigs dancing in my mind.

"Yes, but found me you have." I yanked his head back, exposing his vulnerable throat to the darkness. The trees mournfully whispered to one another as I carefully surveyed the looming disintegrative buildings, ensuring that he was indeed the only guard in the area. "Alright, he's subdued." I called into the darkness, speaking in English. 

Oliver, Jayden, and Parker all emerged from the shadows of the ruins, slipping past a few crumbling pillars and scattered stones. The swords in their hands refected the darkness and ashes kicked up around their feet as they warily walked over, eyeing the guard with uncertainty.

"You're sure you've got him?" Jayden questioned as the guard began to snarl and thrash again. 

"What the fuck kind of wretched tenverians are those!?" The guard growled in a deep guttural voice. "There's not even any rot on them and one's dark!? Your Majesty, I beseech you, allow me to exterminate them!" He began to ramble on in disgust and rage. I tuned him out with an annoyed roll of my eyes. Thankfully the others couldn't understand what insulting and discriminatory things he was spewing, nor could he understand our otherworldly English words.

"Bring his flesh back to be devoured along with the shadow stag." The crown sinisterly cooed, referring to the abyssal beast Oliver had hunted with his bow to feed the group.

"Yes, I'm sure." I replied to Jayden with a smile, ignoring the crown as well. "Now, you won't have much luck trying to stab or slash a guard in the front due to their heavy breastplates. However, stabbing up near the navel will cripple them, and going for the throat will be fatal." I used my sword to point to all the guard's weak spots, as he growled and gnashed his teeth at us. "The back of the knees is also a good spot to aim for." I gestured to the way I had sliced up his legs for the demonstration. "It won't kill them, obviously. But it will definitely give you an advantage."

Oliver curiously tilted his head with a few thin tendrils of wavy hair twisting out from the darkness of his hood. "Why won't stabbing them through the navel kill them?" He casually spun his sword in his hand while he asked.

"Because we're undead." I shrugged like it was the most apparent thing in the world. "Honestly, you could stab all the way through his torso without killing him, as long as you avoided his heart. Here, watch." I stabbed up into the guard's bony back, piercing a lung with the wet sound of slicing through rotten flesh. Pungent smelling blood gushed from his mouth, spilling onto the ashen soil as he gasped in agony, now unable to obtain the air needed to scream or speak properly. "See, still alive."

Jayden hummed in thought, shuffling on his feet as he curiously watched the guard suffer. "That's pretty neat. I'd be interested to learn all the ways we can die. Like, I know we can't suffocate, we can't drown-"

"Actually, we can drown." I interrupted while tightening my grip on the writhing guard's head, black blood now oozing down his forehead as well. "If too much water gets into our rot, we'll become waterlogged and parish."