“Wouldn't it have been better to teach me first?” Luna bickered as she dodged repeated colossal blows from green, humanoid creature twice as large as her.
“They always say experience is the greatest teacher.” Abaddon replied coldly with a smirk.
The monstrosity attacking her was covered in an exoskeleton, much like a carapace. It had a face that was largely human but had razor-sharp teeth and a pointed tongue that hung down to the centre of its chest. Its fists were a little bit bigger around than Luna's head and its feet could crush her altogether if she got sloppy. It's like a Hollywood ogre with a bug shell.
The creature swung and jabbed at her time and time again, each attempt a blur of motion. Even with her animal side, avoiding his strikes was all she could do. There was no time to even consider countering his blows. When he tried to catch her with a hook she ducked, a jab and she sidestepped. It put its hands together and tried to crush her with an overhead smash where she rolled in between his legs. She couldn't even adopt a proper stance before he reeled around with a backhand. Luna didn't think she could dodge so she held Abaddon's blade vertically beside her in the direction the attack was coming from as an effort to block. The impact launched her tens of metres but she used the momentum to her advantage and flipped so that the first thing to hit the ground was her feet where she skidded to a halt.
She readopted a combat stance with the sword out in front of her, panting as she tried to get the air back into her lungs. The bug-ogre was knelt down on one knee, watching her without getting back up. Finally tired yourself out, you fat oaf? Luna thought to herself and watched him through the strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face. She tightened her grip on the hilt, both of her hands one over the other at the centre of its length, and charged. The creature ignored her. Don't look down on me ugly! She slashed at his extended arm that had hit her before, hoping to take his hand but her strike merely bounced off of his shell. The blade shook back and forth with a twang as Luna backed away, wincing from the recoil in her palms and the vibrations traveling up her arms.
This feels much too different from how it did when I took Andy's head. Surely I didn't accidentally have the right form then?
Before she recovered, the beast roared and its extended arm was raised into the air above Luna. It tried to slam down on top of her and she released her left hand, holding it out and open as though to catch his strike. She felt her eye pulse and burn as the strands of hair limiting her view were blown aside. The ogre attempted to squash her but his fist was grabbed out of the air. The ground around Luna shattered and formed a crater where she was standing from the immense downward force yet her form didn't yield. “I told you...” She grunted as the creature's carapace cracked under her fingers. The crimson flames coating her sword intensified and she crossed it over to her opposite hip, the edge facing away from her and the tip pointing behind her. “Don't underestimate me!” She swung the weapon horizontally to her front, slashing at the bottom face of the ogre's wrist. The shell split cleanly as the edges of the gash smoked and smouldered. The beast howled in pain and backed up several steps, holding its wound. Luna panted, It cut but it was hardly a graze. Still, it feels like my muscles actually know what to do now, and this burst of strength feels incredible! I'd be a pancake now without it. Is this one of the perks of this accursed eye?
“Are you starting to figure it out?” Abaddon yelled from behind her.
She scowled but stayed silent and took the weapon in two hands again. That 'I know something you don't' attitude pisses me off. She instinctively moved her feet about shoulder-width apart, knees bent slightly and her dominant foot about a pace in front the other. Her hands moved from the centre of the hilt and instead one positioned itself at the base of the guard whereas the other grasped it towards the bottom of the handle. The ogre roared once more and stomped towards her, his good hand pulled back by his head signaling a heavy punch. Luna didn't move from her spot. Rather she stood her ground and waited for his attack. She ducked underneath it and like with Andy, slashed at it with an upwards diagonal slice. The edge cut through his plating just behind the elbow like soft butter but the flesh and muscle behind it pinched the blade, preventing her from cutting any further or removing the sword. It pulled away, taking Luna's weapon with it.
She let out a low growl, more so in annoyance than concern and her breath turned into steam. The Ríastrad pulsed once more and the crimson flame coated her claws. The creature ignored the burning needle in his arm and charged at her. So sluggish. No, I suppose the reality is that I'm faster than when the fight started. Luna thought to herself as she examined his movements. He tried to swipe wide at her but it seemed to be moving in slow motion. She stepped towards him with her left foot and clawed at him with her right hand, putting five deep gashes in his stomach, spraying blood all over her which burned away on contact. She then put one hand on the ground for balance and lashed at his ankle with a kick. Blood, shreds of muscle and shards of its carapace littered the rocky field as her foot passed through it like it was made of thin cardboard. Its howls of pain turned into cries of agony and he dropped down in a last-ditch effort to crush Luna with his body. She effortlessly jumped out of the impact zone, hidden within the cloud of dust the body slam created. The ogre scanned the area nervously, sweat forming on his forehead. Its eyes went wide when Luna placed her palm over top of its nose. All he could see was Luna's iris and Ríastrad glowing from within the veil. “Incinerate.” She whispered and the eyes of the creature lit ablaze and quickly spread throughout his body, reducing him to a pile of ash within seconds.
Abaddon slowly clapped behind her. “Looks like you somewhat figured it out, though you probably don't have much of an idea of what you just did.” Luna stared at him blankly, waiting for him to get to his point. “Well, let's start with this.” He retrieved the fiery sword and adopted the same stance Luna had towards the end of the fight. “That first stance you used was awkward and had no sense of balance. You may as well have just been swinging around a pipe you found on the side of the road. The second was much better. It capitalized on the torque of your slashes without losing control and gave you the most stable platform relative to the size of your body. Your swings weren't much better at the start. When swinging a sword you need all the force to be in line with the edge. If there's any side force at all you risk breaking it. So why do you think that you instinctively figured that out without being told?”
“My body knew what to do after my eye pulsed.” Luna explained and crossed her arms, shifting all her weight onto one foot.
“Then what told your body what was right? You felt it didn't you? That first stance was wrong on every level.” Abaddon placed his left hand on his cheekbone. “Think of the Ríastrad as, among other things, a network that connects its current and past users. You didn't know how to properly fight with a sword, but your father did.”
Luna furrowed her brows and opened her mouth slightly. “Huh?”
“You've already learned that your curse can explore memories rooted with hatred and malice but on top of all that it can utilize those memories to temporarily allow you to use an other's strengths. Try this, ignite your claws again.” She lowered her eyebrows at him but did as he commanded. Her claws started to smoke and caught fire once more. “Now close your left eye and try that again.” The flames died down as soon her eyelids shut. She flexed every muscle in her arm until veins started to bulge along her temples. “Can't do it anymore, can you? You haven't learned how to use magic yet but the Ríastrad remembers how the others before you did it. It then forces your body to use these techniques while it's active.”
Luna stared down at her hand, annoyed, but remained quiet. “Now, next lesson. Even with proper form, do you think you should have been able to cut through that creature's shell as easily as you did?” As Abaddon spoke, Lilith ran up beside him and smiled at Luna like she was proud of her. “His defenses were nigh impenetrable yet you not only cut through it with a one-handed swing but also with your dinky claws and tore through it with your heel.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Luna glared daggers at Abaddon. “My claws are not dinky. Regardless, I get the impression you're not actually implying that I'm just that powerful.”
“Correct. Lilith and I designed that familiar to only be able to be defeated by the bearer of Wrath. In other words, without its abilities, you would have been squashed. One of the reasons the Ríastrad is as powerful as it is, or rather as feared as it was, is because any defenses are useless against it. Attempts to block it and armour of any type are nothing more than extra layers of flesh to cut through. Even defense based and utility type magics within your sight is dispelled as long as your eye remains open.”
“Yet the sword still got stuck before I finished cutting through him.”
“Defences are useless, sure but not counters. Anything done with intent to cause damage still function normally. Offensive magic, for example, can't be dispelled nor can you cut through a parry. That ogre intentionally flexed when he felt the penetration to squeeze his muscles around the blade, holding it in place, kind of like clapping it in between two hands. You could have prevented him from having that chance though.”
“Is that so?” Luna sighed and looked as though she was about to fall asleep. “Do we really need this theatrical explanation?”
“Giving too much information is better than not enough. Moving on, do you remember or realize what you did when you were about to get crushed? Your eye's most basic function is to improve your combat prowess. Strength, speed, reflexes, so on so forth. You enhanced your body to be able to not only take his attack but stop it before it reached your core and hold it there while you got your attack in. Plus it changed your struggle to keep up with him at the start into him being a sloth in comparison. A word of warning though, here you don't have to worry about consequences but once you get back, those flames will burn your own body away. The more power you draw out the hotter those flames will burn and the quicker you yourself will disintegrate, much like how your ability to view memories puts critical strain on your psyche.”
Lilith turned her head away from Abaddon's explanation and gazed down the length of the creek. “Coming.” She muttered and pointed downstream.
Luna and Abaddon both followed her finger to see a cluster of red spectres approaching. “We're almost out of time.” He stated.
“Are we? Those animals all seemed to be indifferent to me before. Are they getting tired of sharing this space?”
“Those aren't the animals. Those are humans. All the inhabitants here are red and ghostly but there are differences. Those animals were just red, correct? Think of them as commoners who may come to you for help but otherwise have no affiliation. These humans coming now have black eyes, meaning that they're vengeful spirits who were killed by your predecessors. Nothing good will come of it if they come into contact with you. Those with yellow eyes are kind of like your servants and will do whatever you tell them too. They're completely loyal to Wrath.”
The trio continued to ignore the slowly advancing threat and continued their conversation. “What about you two then? And Fenrir? None of you are ghostly and only Lilith is actually red.”
Abaddon thought for a moment. “Fenrir is a bit of an exception. It's a long story but he was tasked with finding potential wielders so he's just as much a user as you are. That being said, he's more or less a familiar and can only walk the real world if another user calls him or if no bearer currently exists. In that case, he'd travel to the real world to find one. As for us...” He fell into a deep trance. “They're coming.”
“Aren't you going to answer my question?”
“One day but not today. I still have at least one more thing to show you before you go. I would have preferred to have you do it instead for the experience, but we don't have that kind of time.” Abaddon marched towards the coming horde as he spoke. The sky quickly turned blood red and a mass of crimson spheres appeared to flow through it. Each one produced bloodcurdling screams, crying, threats, and begging. “The Ríastrad remembers all the lives it's taken and their hatred.” A small cluster of blue orbs began to float around Abaddon. “It remembers all the loved ones that were lost and their pain.” One purple orb arose from the ground directly in front of him. “Finally, it remembers more than anything, the loved ones who stabbed us in the back.” At that moment, each sphere, regardless of colour, flew into Abaddon, being absorbed into his skin.
Luna felt something tug at her dress and looked over her shoulder to see Lilith half hiding behind her. That technique is giving me goosebumps, I admit, but is it really that terrifying? She turned her gaze to the spectres who tried to scream in terror and run away but ended up tripping over each other. Her view was then blocked by something large and leathery.
Abaddon stared at the backs of the runners without blinking, his face expressionless. “Disappear.” He mumbled. Though blocked, Luna still felt a massive force erupt from the other side of whatever obstacle was in front of her. An immense heat leaked in from above her and she thought she could feel herself sink into the ground slightly.
After several seconds, pressure died down though the heat remained. “This is the price of bearing the world's hatred.” Abaddon claimed. Luna finally managed to see again as the leathery objects were pushed aside on their own. Beyond them, she was greeted by a sea of scarlet fire. The rocky field was reduced to molten lava, the water of the creek evaporated and all the spectres had vanished.
“What happened?” Luna asked, noting that everything in sight but the three of them had been melted down or reduced to nothing. When Abaddon didn't answer she turned to Lilith but was immediately distracted. “What are those?” Lilith's dress had split in the back though despite not actually sitting on her shoulders anymore, it was still being held up. Luna saw green, demonic runes traveling up Lilith's right arm and small black runes within her irises, circling her pupils. Two black, bat-like wings sprouted from her back, wider than she was tall. A thin, scaly tail with a tip like an arrowhead danced along the ground just behind her feet. “You have a tail as well?” Luna inquired.
Abaddon turned to look at her and only said, “It's time.”
Luna quickly turned back around to him and shouted, “Wait! You still haven't taught me how to actually use Reprisal's Curse!” She reached out towards him but everything went black before she could even fully extend her arm.
“She's moving now.” A woman commented in the darkness. Luna blinked and all of a sudden she was starring at a blurry sight of a woman with short, black hair. “Are you awake now?”
Luna reached up to her face with one hand and wiped one eye, clearing up her view somewhat. “Stella?” She responded and looked up at her guardian, slightly confused. She quickly figured out that she had been sleeping with her head on Stella's lap. She scanned the room and noted that they were in their living room. The only light present was what was leaking in from the kitchen.
“Didn't want to blind you when you woke up,” Stella explained. “The sun is rising now.”
Luna slowly sat up, her eyes low. Her thoughts jumbled and overlapped in her head, struggling to fully process everything she had learned. Being back in the real world, she no longer had her complete resistance to the Ríastrad. As such, her emotions became a roller coaster. “Have I... Have I ever talked about someone named Elizabeth?”
Aileen, who had stepped into the room holding an aluminum tray, stopped in place and Stella sporting a gloomy expression, began to rub Luna's back. “You remember then?”
“Only bits and pieces. How did I forget something like that?”
“You're half-succubus. Illusion magic comes naturally to them, including the ability to seal memories. Your experiments with the Ríastrad likely started to erode the lock, letting some memories leak out.”
A shadow was cast over Luna's eyes and the room was drowned in silence. Aileen set the tray down in front of Luna, where two plates of pork, corn, and carrots waited for her. In one corner was a mug of freshly steeped tea and opposite it was two wrapped Popsicles. “You must be hungry. We waited for you so that we could eat as a family.” Aileen explained with a cheery smile.
Luna then heard a whimpering and noticed three grey wolves waiting by the kitchen, all sitting patiently in front of plates with raw steaks on them. None of them were eyeing their food though. They all watched Luna with concern. “They're worried about you.” Stella stated. “They scratched at the door once we got back and wouldn't leave your side until you woke up.”
Luna looked away shyly. “It's not like I was injured.” Bark! She looked down at her feet to see a red spectre of a puppy licking her left foot and her vision began to blur.
Stella put her hand on Luna's shoulder and said, “There's nothing wrong with letting it all out from time to time. We'll be right here with you.” Luna bit her bottom lip and squinted as tears started to well up. She shut her eyelids tight in a last-ditch effort to stop her waterworks but couldn't fight it any longer.
She buried her face into Stella's chest... and cried.
The puppy jumped and curled on her lap. It's warm. She thought to herself. The wolves crowded around her as best they could, making sure some part of them was in contact with some part of her. Stella embraced her and Aileen stroked her hair.
As Luna cried, Stella stared uneasily at a small roll of paper on the half-wall. Soon.