“I don’t like this plan,” Melodiana states as she shifts her weight back and forth as we are standing in an alleyway next to an aqueduct ladder.
“And what don’t you like about it?” I ask sarcasm laced into my voice.
“The part where you go down into the aqueduct by yourself to lead the monster back to the surface,” she grips the handle of her sword again, “Especially since the group of Knights were slaughtered.”
“I told Captain Bargas that he shouldn’t send people down after it,” I sigh as I lace the ribbons up my arms cinching it down. “I suppose today will be the true test of Leyla’s skill,” I mutter while thinking about the black fabric under my clothes.
“It fits nicely,” Shiva happily restates her opinion again, “It is simple but pretty and it hugs all of the right areas.” She sighs after a moment “And then you went and hid it under clothes.”
“And now you are going to go down there,” I look up at Melodiana and concern is clearly drawn across her face.
“Don’t worry,” I try to comfort her, “I’m not going down there to fight it; I just need it to chase me.”
“I still don’t think you should go alone,” She looks off to the left and puffs up her cheeks slightly.
“You won’t fit in the tunnels well enough to be able to avoid it, and I do have a plan remember.”
“How do you even know it will come?” she turns to me with an accusing look in her eyes.
“I don’t know that it will, but I think it will.”
“With how it cursed you, I think it is likely that it holds a grudge,” Shiva says before adding quietly, “And you could tell her you are not going alone, you have me”
“Aww is someone feeling neglected?” She does not answer me.
“You’ve barely just recovered as well,” Melodiana points at me, “And what if you have to use your Magiks again.”
“I am okay now. Kagura took good care of me, and I have this as well,” I hold up a small catalyst in an attempt to reassure her.
“You will possibly get three or four casts out of that before it burns out,” Shiva estimates.
“That’s better than no cast, plus I won’t need anything as big this time.”
“But what if something happens, like you fall and break your ankle, then you won’t be able to get away.”
“If that happened I would throw myself into the aqueduct, and slip away. Now you are just stalling, so go to the ring and wait there with the others.” I make a shooing motion before i wipe a scented oil underneath my nose, it is a stronger vanilla mix than before and it causes my nose to itch.
“Only if you promise that you will make it out,” She stubbornly grinds her heel on the stone.
I smile and laugh, “Only if you promise there will be cake,” before sliding down the ladder into the aqueduct.
“How far do we have to go?”
“Four districts to the exit.”
“That’s half of the city. Are you sure that we can cover that?” Shiva sounds concerned.
“The distance isn’t the issue,” I laugh while checking my gear one final time, “At least whatever Kagura gave me for the pain seems to be working.”
I take off at a slight jog heading towards the edge of the city.
I hear a scream from behind me, and I decide that it would be a good time to pick up the pace ever so slightly.
“How far away do you think that was?” Shiva asks.
“It’s hard to say, with how sound echoes in this tunnel,” I turn left at the next junction.
“And how much farther do we have to go?”
“By my estimation we should be coming to the Market district soon.”
“So not too much farther.”
“Even though it is the last district between us and the river, it is the biggest. Though we don't have to cover all of it.”
There is another scream from behind me.
“It certainly took it long enough to find out you were here?”
“I never said it was the smartest ghoul,” I feel myself smiling and I playfully ask, “What say you that we try it irritate it hmm?”
“Why is it that you always seem to enjoy being close to death.”
“Because death is my ally, my goal, and my way of life, for I am Ranarre Cin,” I recite my old mantra, before shouting “Do you remember my cold embrace?” which results in another roar followed by a crashing noise.
“Was that really necessary?” Shiva sighs.
“I need it to follow me out to the ring, so I need it angry enough at me to give chase,” I shout again while making a sharp right turn, “Do you fear that Ranarre Cin hunts again.”
As I round the next corner the tunnel behind me explodes into a shower of stone, and I start wholeheartedly running down the tunnels.
From behind me I hear shouted in common “I fear nothing.”
“Well he certainly seems displeased with you.”
“Good, let’s keep it up,” I laugh as I channel my magik through the catalyst, and as I turn at the next corner I tap the wall and cause ice spikes to explode up the tunnel behind me.
As I round the next corner I hear another scream followed by cracking ice.
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“I think it is catching up to you,”
“Good,” I laugh again and I hear Shiva sigh, “Let it think it has a chance.”
“You weren’t this reckless when Melodiana was with us.”
“It’s exhilarating though; just you, me, the target and nothing else.”
“You miss it,” Shiva murmurs in revelation, “The planning, the execution, the hunt you miss all of it. I thought you wanted to get away from that life.”
“And why shouldn’t I?” I question and laugh at my own conflicting nature, “It was the biggest part of my life, and I was good at it. This is the work in which I truly shine, when I can be Ranarre Cin I have nothing to worry about, for what does a Death’s Lily need to fear while my prey comes to me?” I pause as I recall my nightmares and I sigh “... And I don’t miss all of it; I don’t miss the killing.”
As I round the next corner another chunk of wall behind me explodes again and I duck to shield my face. As I run down the tunnel I form my magik into a perfect clear sphere of ice and I release it behind me where it floats in the air at around chest height. There is a cracking sound from my hand and I throw away the now useless catalyst at it rapidly heats up. I watch it flicker into a flame before it plunges into the water as I round the next corner.
“You didn’t,” Shiva whispers
“I did,” I respond running faster to put as much ground between me and my spell.
As I turn the next corner I can see the river exit, and after I have taken a few steps a shockwave rips through the air nearly knocking me off my feet. Immediately afterword the temperature drastically drops, and the water begins to rapidly freeze, and I hear the sound of tearing metal as the tubes along the walls begin to burst.
“How much do you think that will cost the city?” Shiva sighs and i can imagine her shaking her head.
“A small price to pay I think.”
I hear an angry shout from behind me, “Has Ranarre Cin found fear, will Ranarre Cin not fight me as she should.”
“Why should I fear a being as weak as you?” I shout back as I continue to run towards the exit.
When I am almost there I hear a shout from the other end of the tunnel.
“It appears that it broke free.”
“It appears so,” It shouts again as it catches sight of me just as I round the corner, “With all of this screaming, and the metal tearing I won’t be able to hear properly for weeks.”
“Is now really the time for jesting?” Shiva sighs again as I rapidly climb the ladder to the streets, “Especially since you no longer have the tunnels to slow it down.”
“Now I have plenty of room to properly dodge,” I laugh as I begin to run through the empty streets.
I hear another scream, and there is another crashing sound, and when I glance back I see that it has jumped and landed on one of the rooftops. I quickly duck into an alley and run down it.
As I exit and turn left I hear a whistling and I quickly throw myself to the side; rolling back to my feet I see a roof tile crash into the ground where I had been moments ago.
“I don’t recall it being a big fan of throwing objects,” Shiva observes, her voice lightening as she gets more into the swing of things.
“Do you fear me so much that you refuse to approach me?” I shout as I turn down another alley, and another tile explodes on the ground behind me, and it screams even louder than before.
As I exit the alley I see my goal in front of me, across a small flat grassy area there is a large circular stone building. Master Calburn said that this ring was the closest to any of the Aqueduct exits.
I take off running to the entrance, but as I am going through the open gates a tile slams into my shoulder sending a sharp pain down my arm, and me rolling across the ground.
I push off of the ground using the momentum of the roll, and get my feet back under me as I slide to a halt looking back though the open gate. The ghoul is now on the ground, and is heading this way. I can feel a warm liquid running down my back, and I quickly roll my shoulder and determine that it is not broken, but it is pretty severely bruised, thankfully it hit my right and not my left.
Its laughter rings across the arena as it slowly approaches. “It must think it has me cornered,” I click my tongue at it as I draw my sword, taking the moment to catch my breath.
“Perhaps it is being cautious after last time,” Shiva responds.
“It is a shame that we couldn’t get permission to perform a summoning here,” I shake my head as I move back to the center of the arena.
“Maybe if you hadn’t destroyed three buildings with a summoning during that mock raid, they might have let it slide,” she sighs, “And you have already destroyed property today.”
“We all determined that it wasn't my fault, so even if it was it was not.”
The ghoul continues to approach, and as it passes through the gate it asks while laughing, “Why hasn’t Ranarre Cin cast more of her Magiks? Is Ranarre Cin nothing but a weak child?”
“I do not need Magiks to fight you,” I bluff as it steps farther in.
It smiles again as it quickly throws the last tile in its hand directly at me. Instead of sidestepping I strike downward with the flat of my blade with all my might and knock the missile to the ground.
As it steps closer to me I can feel the magik permeate the air as the barrier sigils are activated. All around the arena a translucent dome quickly begins to form, and there are cracks of lightning striking the metal post around the buildings.
“That’s a bit unexpected,” I say as I begin to circle around the ghoul.
“Heavy Magiks can create storm fronts,” Shiva explains, “It is the reason why the Rift storms came into existence.”
“I meant the fact that we had enough casters to do so.”
“You believe that this will hold me,” It shouts, “This barrier is nothing to me.”
“Don’t worry it isn’t to keep you in,” I smile at it, “Besides if I wanted to trap you I would have collapsed the tunnels on you and kept you there till you starved to death. Tell me, can you feel the pain of hunger?”
It screams again, and it lunges at me. I move to the side enough that it misses, and then I quickly pivot on my heel and throw my weight behind my blade as I try to drive it into the ghouls elbow. The blade barely penetrates the skin before I am forced to jump back out of the way, as it swings its arm backwards in a wide arc.
As I step backwards a bolt of light slams into the ghouls shoulder staggering it slightly, though it didn’t do much damage. I see another person stand up directly behind the ghoul, and he begins to draw a sigil in the air, when he completes the line a fireball erupts from the center and strikes the ghoul in his back. It turns and roars at the man in a language I don’t recognize. Out of the corner of my eye I see another burst of fire and a lance catches the ghoul in the hip.
“These are not powerful enough Magiks,” I bite my lip as the ghoul stares around the arena.
“Remember these people are not you,” Shiva laughs, “They need proper time to cast powerful Magiks.”
“You think these puny beings will be enough to bring me to my knee,” The ghoul roars again, sounding even more furious. It then starts to run at the man who cast the fireball and he then jumps at the wall. The man is drawing another sigil but he won’t complete it in time, and the ghoul is on him before he can even scream, and an arm goes flying through the air leaving a trail of red drawn through the air.
“That’s one,” I sigh as I begin to form magik into my hand.
“And now you immediately return to casting without a catalyst,” Shiva sighs.
“It’s just a small spell, and these people still aren’t being very useful,” I complain as I release the magik down my blade and I form a spear of ice around it, “It is a given that some of them will have frozen up after that.”
The ghoul steps jumps back down onto the ground and begins to take off running again, but as it approaches one of the side doors a flaming axe swings out and crashes into its chest knocking it backwards.
A Dargoth man steps out of the entrance and begins to walk towards it. “Stay back you idiot,” I shout as I run across the arena, but he ignores me. As the ghoul stands back up there is a small cut across its chest.
The man hefts his axe in preparation to swing it again, but the ghoul quickly lashes out and catches the man throwing him into the wall behind him, where with the sound of metal on stone the wall collapses around him.
Another bolt of light strikes the ghoul again, and it rips a chunk of stone from the wall that it throws. I don’t look to see if it hit or not, as I run up to the ghoul where using my momentum and weight I drive my sword into its shoulder before jumping away from it. As it swings wide again, I jump back in range and slash at its knee, and roll off the side as it brings its other arm down.
Another bolt of light slams into its knee, so I guess it didn’t get her, and almost immediately a fire lance strikes its shoulder. This time another, much larger bolt of lightning strikes the ghoul from above, and I can feel the fur on my tails stand on end.
The ghoul roars again in anger as it flings itself at the seating area behind it. There is a slight scream followed by a sickening crunching noise, a spray of blood erupts into the air, and when the ghoul looks back up there is a large amount of blood on its face, before it crashes through the floor underneath it. All of the ground warriors, having finally finished their castings, enter the arena wielding an array of weaponry.