Fever Blood

Chapter 114: The Warriors of Red Claw

They stepped out of the alleyway and entered another square. A massive tree, bark black as pitch, dominated the square, its twisted branches a gnarled hand trying to seize a handful of blue-grey sky. And there, in the tree's leafless shade, stood the Kai'Draeni warriors.

Most of them, like Karik'ar, had crimson skin, but one all-too-familiar face stared back at them, his face green, with tusks jutting from his jaw. Angror.

The second they saw them, the two Kai'Draen warriors closest to them charged forth, blades brandished, a loud war cry at their lips. The dance of death began. "Slow down!" Skariw commanded. A strange feeling spread through her limbs as she and Karik'ar suffered the opposite effect. The air seemed easier to slip through, and their opponents suddenly seemed as if they were trudging through syrup. They were her prey now, as the hunters found themselves facing a deadlier predator.

Her blades sang as they thrust through the air. One slammed into the first Kai'Draen's neck, and she felt it slip through the gap in his neck vertebrae. He spasmed, then collapsed as Skaria sidestepped, drawing her viper blade free as the Kai'Draen fell and dragged it down with his weight, raking the Sidhe-make blade at the other warrior.

It cut through part of the warrior's shirt as it scraped through his chest, and a flap of fabric fell open, exposing the wound as the warrior howled. Her wound blackened as if he suffered extreme frostbite, ice crystals spreading, looking almost like grains of salt on the once red, now blackened, skin. It spread up his neck, and strangled his screams until he collapsed, crackling as he fell.

I offer only curses, but my curses are most potent. For a moment, a powerful urge seized Skaria, an urge to take that blade and throw it as far away as possible. She could almost feel how evil the sword was, and it made her skin crawl. Instead, she tightened her grip on it. Foul as it may be, the sword offered her a distinct advantage over their superior strength.

More Kai'Draen charged, but Karik'ar's sword dispatched them. They were big, but Karik'ar's training gave him the advantage. Skaria saw him duck a wild -and wildly powerful- horizontal swing, before Karik'ar struck, his sword running the warrior through. The other Kai'Draen, who looked so similar to Karik'ar it seemed as if her partner had just stabbed his reflection, collapsed.

"You've given me no end of trouble, you two," Angror snarled. He pulled out a small hand-axe, and began to advance. "I've chased you across nations, and now you slaughter your own kin? You sicken me." He charged at Karik'ar, ignoring Skaria. And that would be his last mistake.

Like a serpent darting for its prey, Skaria thrust with her viper blade. The other sword was stronger, but its curses scared her. Angror, despite his massive bulk, pivoted, and the blade passed through the air behind him. He snarled something in a gutteral language, which Skaria guessed meant something along the lines of "Deal with her!" as the Kai'Draeni warriors leaped into action, charging for her.

In any direct combat, they would win. She could never dream of overpowering a human male, much less a Kai'Draen warrior. She was smaller, and she had to use that to her advantage. They were used to cutting and slashing targets their size, and before they could adjust to her height, she had darted behind them, with more than a few close calls, where a heavy blade cut the air next to her head. Fortunately, they wore no armor, due to a pigheadedness, calling defensive apparel an act of cowardice, according to Karik'ar. She stabbed one in the back with her viper blade, before he could turn around, collapsing his legs after severing his spine. Her strength couldn't decapitate or dismember, but stabbing worked just as well.

She saw other Kai'Draen, standing a distance off, leaning on gnarled wooden staffs. Magicians, no doubt. They weren't interfering, which was odd, but it looked like they didn't need to.