Tipping the Scales

31

Leo held his breath. He watched The Leech from the shadows, whose hairless face was lit up by his own firelight. The magic cast malevolent shadows across pale features, somehow making him appear creepier than before. The little boy whimpered beside him, just as he had done to give his position away before. Leo winced as The Leech flicked his gaze in their direction. He stared directly at Leo but the shadows concealed his presence and The Leech shrugged it off, moving further along up the street.

"He's gone," Leo whispered once the light faded away again, blowing out a sigh of relief.

"Is he a bad man?" The girl said.

Leo nodded. "He's a horrible man. You don't want to be found by him."

"That's not a very nice thing to say about me."

The room lit up around them, revealing the Leech hunched over in the doorway.

"What are you doing hiding in here? That's not very 'Winthrope' of you," The Leech hissed, stepping into the room with them.

The little boy screamed and the girl started crying again.

"They're just young ones, we can leave them alone," Leo stood up, putting himself between The Leech and the children.

"They're evil creatures, Leopold. Non-humans," The Leech spat a globule of phlegm on the floor. "Children or not, they will grow up to be enemies of Ferlandia."

"Children are innocents in war, you cannot harm them for something they haven't done," Leo clenched his fists.

"If you cannot stomach it then step out, I will take care of it," he took a step closer, staring past Leo at the children.

"Don't let him take us mister," the girl looked up at Leo, the fear having returned to her eyes.

"Close your mouth, swine," The Leech growled as he stepped past Leo and grabbed the children by the scruffs of their necks.

Leo automatically went into attack mode, channelling mana down his arms and squaring off with the aggressor.

"Oh really," The Leech smiled as the children struggled against his grip. He activated his mana cloak, which enveloped him slowly. It formed around his body in a closely cropped robe and over his head in a hood, with the tell-tale crown of a Chosen cresting his forehead. It was much less extravagant than Apollo's, but it sent the same message: 'do not even try and fight me'. "I can snuff out their lives in an instant." He held them off the ground either side of him as mana began to pulse down his arms. Their bodies were covered in a thin sheen of yellow mana – the magic of the non-humans. The cries of the children grew weaker and their struggling waned as the mana surrounding them began to fade.

Leo stood helplessly as The Leech stared at him, daring him to try anything. All Leo could do was watch – he knew The Leech was far stronger and something about his Chosen ability chilled Leo to the bone. A fight could only go one way and the children would end up dead no matter how hard he tried.

"Watch and learn, this is how we cleanse non-humans from the world," The Leech let out a laugh as the boy became slack in one hand and the girl's cries ceased in the other.

Just as their lights were about to fade completely, a cry rang out from the door. A figure burst into the room and slammed a ball of black magic into The Leech's chest, hard enough to knock him through the back wall, smashing through the rock and out onto the street behind.

"Lukas?" Leo blinked in amazement. The plucky commoner was breathing heavily from exertion as he wiped sweat from his brow.

"He had it coming," Lukas wheezed. He bent down next to the children lying unconscious at his feet. "The monster drained their mana."