A Moment

”Just a moment. That was all I had.” ~Venry Stepholm

At the beaches of Cape Talon, near the Eastrise City…

Venry had never fought a merman Nightmare before. His blade Meiyal Art found its way towards a shelled torso, bouncing off horribly. It sent vibrations up to his arm as he rolled away from the giant claw that struck from the merman’s back.

What am I looking at?

The merman Nightmare was bipedal, but it had limbs in the wrong places. Its head was in the middle of its chest, as if something had smashed it in. Its neck extended outwards, not upwards, resulting in an eerie structure. An oblong head made it look too alien for Venry’s liking.

Mermen were not supposed to look like this. As far as the Guard Knight’s memory served, the main differences were their scaled skin and the little parts that represented the sea. They were still humanoid in form, with a structure no different to a human or a felintine, or whatever. Sometimes, coral would replace part of their hair, or they might possess a fish tail, or they might even have extra limbs as well, but in the right places.

Nothing like… this abomination. Much like other Nightmares, Venry couldn’t even consider it alive. He couldn’t consider them as undead, however.

A massive turtle shell weighed it down to a sluggish pace, and it had lobster talons craning from its waist, almost like a pair of tails. It had an unreasonable amount of tentacles all over its back, which were all lifeless, just adding to its burden. It tried to chase Venry, stretching out human arms as it growled incoherent noises.

The Guard Knight searched for his companions. Dystro was struggling with his own group of merman Nightmares, fending off three at a time.

Hal and Ral were in synchronicity, spearheading an assault force that was headed towards the sea. They were doing more damage compared to the Iristan local knights.

Venry abandoned his enemy and went to help Dystro. The three mermen were better equipped, but still too random for him to properly identify. Fortunately, nothing deflected his meiyal blade as he sliced through one of them cleanly this time.

“We should get back to the twins!” the Guard Knight suggested. “They’re attacking the main force. We can drive them back!”

“I’ll go!” Dystro pointed behind a pair of rock formations that were infested by shelled sea creatures. Behind were a pair of young girls trying to hide. “Get them out of here!”

Venry didn’t argue. It was his duty to save the people in the first place. He hastened towards the rocks, while the Vyndivalian rendezvoused with his comrades.

The ground beside him crumbled as two mermen Nightmares emerged, screaming as they struck with sharp, sword-looking claws.

“Kaimera!” Venry yelled, Drawing the Art while manifesting a second blade in his free hand. Weapons clashed, and he found himself pincered in place by both Nightmares while a third emerged.

It wasn’t aiming for him, however.

Venry pushed with all his might, emphasizing his Siffera. When the Nightmares didn’t budge, he let go of his weapons and slipped through instead. He chased the third Nightmare, grabbing its flailing fishtail. It reacted quickly, spinning backwards with the blunt of a giant crab claw prepped to smash his head.

The Guard Knight duck-rolled, avoiding the abomination’s weapon, while keeping his grip on the tail. It was slimy, but he dug his fingers through.

As he recovered, Venry took his turn to spin, lifting the entire Nightmare and using it as an improvised club against the two that gave chase behind him.

The three of them collapsed over each other. He stretched out both hands.

“Ferenfra!” Venry exclaimed, investing a significant amount of his meiyal reserves to engulf the Nightmares in a cone of flame. They quickly burned to ashes, dispersing into motes of meiyal residue. With a breath of relief, he made his way behind the rock formations.

“Help, please!” said one of the girls. She was the older one, desperately clinging on him for safety while pointing to the other girl. “My sister’s not breathing!”

Venry focused on the much smaller girl. She was just a kid, barely ten, probably. Her face was riddled with sand, and she was pale as a ghost. He pressed his ear on her chest, searching for a heartbeat. A wave crashed on them, as if to tell him there was no hope.

He felt a beat.

Venry wasn’t anywhere near as proficient as Frill, or even Princess Kristel, when it came to Drawing Samesia. In fact, with his current reserves, a single use of the Art on someone else would push him into Art fatigue instantly. He would inevitably become a burden and ultimately bring more harm to the girls.

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“We need to get out of here first,” Venry said, pulling the conscious girl. “Can you stand? Can you use your arms and legs?”

“Yes, but—”

“If we stay here, those Nightmares might get us, and we’ll all die. Your sister might not be breathing, but she has a heartbeat. If we’re quick, we can still save her, alright?”

Venry positioned his back towards the big sister. “Hop on, and make sure you don’t let go. You know how to use Siffera, right?”

She nodded silently as soon as she understood that Venry had no intention to leave behind her sister. She reached over, wrapping arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

He started jogging to test her grip. “Good. Alright… now, whatever happens, don’t let go, okay? I’ll have my hands full carrying your sister, and I won’t be able to save you if you let go. I wouldn’t want to tell her that I could’ve saved you instead. Alright?”

The girl doubled her efforts on her Siffera. She clung to him desperately, enough that a normal man would’ve choked to death. “Thank you, mister.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Venry picked up speed. They had precious seconds to get out of the coastline. They zipped through lines of stray Nightmares and projectiles coming from everywhere; some friendly, some not.

An explosion erupted near them, pushing him off balance. He had an instant to recover, but a second one hit, breaking any hope of even regaining his footing. The girl behind him screamed, disorienting him further.

Venry suffered a moment of despair, his quick thinking making him understand that he had to let go of someone. But before he could even make a choice, something grabbed them out of their turmoil.

“Steady now, soldier.” Mother Selfiya’s voice echoed as she brought them to safety. Her Soul’s Walk was made of sand and dried leaves. She was controlling the meiyal in the air as if they belonged to her. Meiyal Weaving. “This should be safe enough. Be quick about it, Venry.”

After verifying that the smaller girl had indeed drowned, the Guard Knight began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. After a few cycles, she was still not responding.

“Is she going to be alright?” said the big sister.

“Don’t distract him, girl,” Selfiya said, but she did not approach. Her form was too fragile to make physical contact.

Venry ignored them both and focused on his task. After one more cycle, the girl finally coughed up seawater and gasped for air.

“Good, let’s bring you to the tents,” he said.

“We can’t afford that, Venry,” Selfiya said. Despite her lack of facial expressions, her tone alone was enough of a tell that she didn’t like it either. “You need to help them break the Nightmare Sign.”

“We already tried, Mother Selfiya,” Venry said, not letting go of the girls. “It won’t budge.”

“Then this entire effort is futile.” She started walking. “Go. Bring them to the tents.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll issue a full-on retreat. We’ll take them on the mountains instead. This place will be completely overrun by tonight.”

Venry bit his lip, regret fully washing over him. But he couldn’t deny the truth. Irista Nation’s territory had once again suffered a major loss. Cape Talon was lost. And the rest of Eastrise Region would be next.

They didn’t take long to reach the tents. After drying himself, Venry checked on the sisters. A few volunteers from Eastrise City were already taking care of them.

“Where are your parents?” he asked, not exactly hopeful. But the quicker they went over it, the better it would be for them.

The older sister shook her head.

“Any reason for you two to be at the edge of Cape Talon? Surely, you’ve heard of the constant Nightmare presence over there, right?”

“Please, sir Guard Knight,” said one of the volunteers, interrupting his interrogation. She was an older lady, not exactly gray in the hair yet, but her age was made apparent from the stressful environment. “They’re just kids. They don’t know any better. I’ll talk to them.”

Venry considered it. “Alright. I’m sorry. Please take care of them, ma’am.”

He turned to leave, but the older sister grabbed the end of his shirt. Her face was close to tears, but she forced a smile.

“We didn’t know,” she began. “We were just out there playing and collecting seashells. Thank you for risking your life for us, umm… Sir Guard Knight.”

“It’s Venry,” he said, his heart aching. He placed a hand on the girl’s head and her younger sister. “You guys take care of each other, alright?”

As soon as he left, signs of the retreating force appeared not far from the camp. Patrolling knights noticed and people quickly gathered. He pushed himself to meet them halfway.

The first he saw was Dystro. When the Vyndivalian reached him, he raised a fist. Venry tapped it with his own.

“You alright?” the Guard Knight asked.

“Yeah.”

“Selfiya issued a full retreat,” Hal said, showing just behind Dystro.

“We couldn’t budge the Sign at all,” Ral followed up, marching closely beside them.

“What is it anyway?” Venry asked as he marched back with them to the camp.

“Nightmare Signs randomly appear within the Nightmare Lands,” Mother Selfiya said, gliding along in her sandy form. “It’s a solid indicator, for us, that we’ve been conquered. It creates a desecrated territory for the Nightmares to exist, increasing their activity and the chance that a Deep Nightmare might spawn.

“For it to appear so near Irista Nation was just another consequence from when the Wester Sanctum fell. It’ll only get worse. We should inform Eastrise right away so they can send someone to Central for help.”

“Our M.O.B.I.L.E.s aren’t working,” said one of the knights marching alongside them. They were almost to the camp now.

“The Nightmare rots and destroys any technology that does not possess any materials gathered from its lands. Send for a messenger instead. Once they reach Eastrise, they should be able to use their M.O.B.I.L.E.”

Before anyone could agree or disagree, Mother Selfiya’s visage violently shook.

The entire march stopped.

“You filthy, worthless, pieces of shit!” echoed from Selfiya’s form. The voice was different, muffled and distorted. “I told you to make sure she’s meiyal starved, you idiot!”

“Mother Selfiya?” Venry whispered. Someone was stomping over.

“Are you stupid? Can’t you see, she’s frozen?” the voice echoed much closer now. A man’s voice. “Fair enough. You’ve outsmarted us, Void Mother. But guess what, it’s not just you we’re having problems with. That fucking Death’s Wish guy keeps avoiding us.

“Nightmare Incursion within two weeks, blah, blah, blah,” said the voice, increasingly higher pitched and laced with all the mocking he could muster. His laughter was maniacal and sinister, before pausing just as suddenly. “Well guess what? Why don’t we start now?”

Mother Selfiya’s Soul’s Walk vanished.

Then the green rays of the sun completely became black.

Venry managed to turn towards the camp before five colossal Jaws Lurking In The Forest flattened the entirety of it. He could hear the two sisters screaming, and he tried to run to their rescue. But Dystro, Hal, and Ral grabbed him and pulled him away.

The screams lasted for just a moment.

He could no longer hear them.

So he screamed for them instead.