The Sharded Blade | Part 1 (A Dark Fantasy Novella)

Part 20

With extra gusto, I slammed my cursed weapon through the heart of the head-shaven, pale-skinned Si Cultist pinned beneath me on the stone floor of the small antechamber.  Was I probably taking far too much pleasure in killing these scum?  Perhaps.  But if anyone tried to blame me, they'd get a swift introduction to the business end of my fist.

I wasn't as concerned about being overheard and discovered at this point.  My party of murderous rampage had progressed up to the temple's third level.  There were certainly fewer people hanging around up here than on the two floors below.

Gertrude whispered in my ear that these were the private quarters of the Sisters of Si, so access was apparently much more limited and only granted to those they deemed worthy.  In fact, while I was taking care of business out here, in the adjoining room there was quite a bit of what sounded like rambunctious determining of 'worthiness' going on.  But I'd get on to those partaking in that soon enough.  Based on what information Gertrude was feeding me, the final two victims of my rage were the ones engaged in the sexual free for all occurring next door.  Convenient, to say the least.

The end of this quest was in sight, and I was giddy all over at the mere thought of finishing my revenge on behalf of my daughter.  The fire in my belly fueled me with a passion I never knew I could possess.

Rising up from my latest kill, his body still and one less shard in my blade, I didn't even bother to clean the blood from its edge.  Into the next room I proceeded, coming upon the scene that accompanied the ecstatic noises.

Both participants were naked and eagerly going at it on the wool mattress that seemed to have just been thrown on the floor.  The woman's legs were fully into the air and split wide by a dark-skinned adonis of a man on his knees who slammed into her again and again like a farmer plowing his field.  His back to me, he went about his chosen task with as much vigor as though he were ten normal men.  All while I prepared to kill them both.

In fact, I was so focused on the rhythmic pounding and slapping of their writhing bodies that I failed to notice the burning brazier of incense just inside the door.  I was completely oblivious to its presence until it was falling over and clattering to the ground due to my distraction and the sheer clumsiness that it bore.

Never had I seen a man so intent on a pleasurable task cease it as fast as the man with half an ear missing did.  As he spun and leveled his eyes down on me in my stolen green, and now bloodstained robes, to say he was unhappy would have been an understatement. I, on the other hand, couldn't help but focus at least some of my attention on the impressive, still erect trunk glistening wet and wavering between his legs like a club preparing to bludgeon me.

"Who are you?  What have you done to Lorn?" the man demanded with a roar while ripping a broad, flat sword from a sheath at his feet. He could obviously tell by the stains on my uniform that Lorn was no longer of this world, and I could tell that our coming battle would be clothing optional.

Generally, I made it a habit of not bantering with my quarry.  Usually they were dead before knowing what killed them.  It was easier that way, so there was no need to come up with witty retorts and scintillating repartee.  But in this instance, I made an exception, minus the wit and the scintillation.

"The same thing I'm about to do to you, you murderous bastard," I said.

The fact that he had a sword didn't bother me. I'd fought many an opponent with one.  Lunging forward to engage him, Gertrude shot out from her hiding place and assailed the Sister of Si who had previously been enjoying getting her bell rung and was equally naked while fumbling for a long, thin dagger.  The rat sunk her teeth into the tender flesh of her thigh, drawing a scream.

My attention solely on the bull of a man with his sword, I ducked the first swing my opponent brought to bear upon me.  He barely missed cleaving me in half, while his other weapon didn't miss slapping me in the side of the face by much either.  Trying to gut him with an upward stroke, my naked partner in this dance sidestepped what would have been a fatal attack.  That miss forced me to roll out from under a downward blow that rang off the stone floor.

Kicking the flat of the blade with my foot, he was soon disarmed, but not defenseless.  As I quickly learned.

Springing to plunge my broken knife home, he caught my hands in his own grubby meat hooks.  The headbutt that followed was enough to stagger me, and bloody my nose, while he proceeded to bulldoze me into the wall and crush the wind out of me.  Pinned there, the honestly most disturbing part of it all was the rod from his groin jamming me in the stomach.  If I hadn't known better, I'd say he was getting more erect and aroused by beating the tar out of me.

Taking advantage of his exposure, my knee found his prominent baby makers.  That forced his retreat and my release.  As he doubled over, grabbing himself, I brought my fist across his chin.  It's true that I probably did more damage to my knuckles than his jaw, but it was enough to allow me to plant cursed steel into the base of his skull and sever his spine.

The job now almost finished, I wholly intended to give my full attention to the naked woman who had been his companion, hoping that she hadn't been able to flee and bring back help.  To my pleasant surprise, I found her sprawled out on the floor, crawling limply along towards the door, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.  The woman's back had the appearance of being mauled by a tiger, rather than a rat, even as Gertrude clung to her bite and claw mark riddled body with teeth sunk in and inflicting much more modest damage.

My companion regarded me as I approached, chittering then squeaking while the woman groaned and sobbed in the most pathetic way.

"I wasn't playing around," I replied to her.  "Sort of had my hands full, in case you didn't notice."

A hiss.

"Yeah, sure.  I think I left you the easier one.  Would love to know how you managed all this though." I motioned to the vast damaged that seemed impossible for a rat, demon or not.  "Do I get to do the honors?"

Gertrude leaped off her back, leaving me a clean shot for the kill.  Which I gladly took.

My blade several shards lighter than before, I wiped the blood on a set of robes neither of my latest victims would need at this point.