Scattered Fragments

Chapter 11- The End of Light (Part One)

            For the first time in years, Fay's daggers were coated in blood other than the ones of rabbits and wolves. It all happened so quickly. One minute she was with a group of soldiers at a table, drinks and friendly wagers being passed around on who could beat her at arm wrestling. She was doing damn good too! Then the lights went out, the music stopped, and those things rose from the darkness and started attacking everyone. Fay had flipped the table and smashed it into the face of one of the beasts before it got too close; the group of Mioran soldiers gawked at her in surprise when it had happened.

            The blood of these beasts was not the normal color she was used to seeing, this blood was a liquidy black that released dark streams of smoke. She cleaned most of it off her daggers, the sight of the silver steel beneath the black blood a relieving sight. Right now she was on a rooftop, catching her breath and looking down at the streets. Most of the people who had rushed to get off the streets were gone, there were some stragglers here and there, but what really stood out was the bodies of the dead who weren't so fortunate. She sucked her teeth.

            They didn't deserve to meet an end like that. These people came to pray to a goddess and enjoy their festival. Now they lay dead on the streets, devoured by beasts the likes she's never seen before. Every shadow down in the dark streets seemed to move. She looked up, toward the city square. It was if a wall of darkness blocked it off from the rest of the city. Please be safe Alice...

            Fay shook off her jacket, and approached the edge of the roof. A group of those monsters feasted on the body of a man, while another pack ran after a woman carrying a small child. Fay steeled herself, willing her Essence into her limbs, toughening her legs through Corpus, and leaped off the roof.

            The world spun around as she flipped in the air with the grace of a dancer and drove her blades into the skull of one of the beasts with the execution of an assassin. The rest of the pack skidded to a halt as they turned to her, letting the woman and her child get away. She smirked, That's right boys, I'm the one you gotta worry about. She pulled the steel daggers out of the creature's massive skull and hopped off of its back.

                "Now, which one of you want to die first?" She asked them.

She didn't expect them to understand her, but the hesitance in their footing told her that they damn well understood her body language.

                In the darkness she could just make out their basic features. Long canines peeking from their mouths, strong builds, no eyes or noses. Fay didn't know if the smell of their blood was worse than the reek of their bodies. One thing was damn for sure, they weren't from any continent on Etra. Could these things be from Kardia? She wondered, as she observed the small pack. Alice had told her about the cultures and different animals from her land, but never did one of these things pop up in her stories.

             After a minute of silent and snarling debate between them, one of the creatures decided to lunge for Fay. It was a blind attack- a passionate attack- one that she easily side stepped, letting the creature slice open its own neck as its momentum carried it into her blade. Its gods awful black blood was now spilling everywhere on the street, before landing into a heap just yards away from her. No matter what you are, if you bleed, you die just like the rest of us. She spun the blades in her hands quickly and pumped the Essence into her legs.

                Fay was a blur as she ran through the remaining three shadow beasts in a matter of heart beats. She stood just past them, waiting for the pools of blood to flow, and the sounds of bodies crumbling to the ground...and so they did. She swiped the daggers in the air, forcing the blood and guts off their blades. Fay's knees buckled for a second. She caught herself before she would fall. Corpus Essentia was like a double edged sword. On one side, you have the speed, strength and defence that comes with mastering and using its ability; and on the other was the fatigue and dehydration that affected the caster after prolonged use.