21.

The moon’s light gave Santi enough illumination as he pulled the spike free of his leg. Cursing bitterly he looked at the mutated porcupine that he had just put down. Dead mutated animals littered the edge of the city, drawn in by the power of the Pillar of Civilization. No other monsters had arrived yet, but it had still been enough to push him and Chloe to the near breaking point.

A huge condor lay in broken pieces off to his left, Chloe slumped next to it breathing hard as she clutched at her shredded left arm. Her blood looked black in the dim light and Santi limped over to her, exhausted from the marathon fighting. Even his monstrous mana stores were running low, having burned through another two of the mana potions he had earned.

Chloe was in even worse shape, often having to back out of fights to recover before she could help him deal with the worst surges. The mutated mammals hadn’t been terrible, but the ants had nearly killed them. Scores of the low level Acolyte ants had nearly overran them, the two of them forced to overexert themselves to push them back.

“Hey,” Santi offered her a smile as he let his knees fold as he fell next to her. He gently grabbed at her torn up arm, turning it this way and that as he looked at the deep furrows the condor had inflicted on her.

“How you doing?” Chloe asked, exhaustion and pain robbing her voice of any of its normal joviality.

“Haven’t been consumed by an all consuming bloodlust that makes me a raging monster. Yet.”

“It’s the yet part.”

“For me, it’s the you bleeding out part. Let’s get you back to the others. Get some bandages on this. The others should be here soon enough.”

“You’ve been saying that for hours.”

“I’ll eventually be right.” Santi grabbed her under her arms and pulled her up, ignoring the grunt of pain as he leveraged her good arm over his shoulder so she could lean on him. She never set down her axe as he led her toward the repurposed store. Chloe just grunted as they continued over to the store.

Maya, Frank, and Zeke were standing there, watching them come in with concerned expressions. Or maybe they were looking at shadows, the light was weak enough and without the evolution they’d have a hard time peering through the darkness. With enough stats to their perception they’d probably be able to see the two of them.

“MEDIC!” Santi barked. Movement came behind the three leaders and a pair of people Santi hadn’t talked to yet came running out, scooping Chloe up and leading her off towards the store. She waved at him weakly with her axe still in hand and he leaned up against a wall to talk to the three leaders.

“That was the last of them. Got a few more hours to go.”

“Wish we could be of help. Everything coming this way is overleveled. Didn’t expect so many Acolyte monsters were around,” Maya said. She actually did sound disappointed that she couldn’t fight. Zeke simply shrugged, not sad at all in the fact he wasn’t out there in the fray. Frank was placid, calm in the face of the chaos, alert for any trouble that could come his way.

“These are just the survivors. I would be willing to bet that outside of the town limits is a bloodbath as all the mutated animals and monsters are fighting to get towards the pillar. When the pillar is finished calling everything towards us there will be some good harvesting to do. Hopefully Hana brings enough people to get it done right. Can’t have all this food going to waste.”

“I miss pizza,” Frank said suddenly.

“I’d murder for a pint of ice cream. Literally murder,” Maya threw in her two cents.

“You’ve murdered for less,” Zeke hissed under his breath as he looked off to the side. Everyone ignored him.

“You’re bleeding.”

“I noticed. It was a porcupine.”

“Aren’t they herbivores?” Zeke asked, looking back at them from his spot against the wall.

“Yeah, it didn’t try to eat me. Just stabbed me with its quills. Big ass quills.”

“That’s even worse. At least a carnivore is trying to eat you. That porcupine just fucked you up for no reason.”

“It didn’t fuck me up. It just stabbed me a little,” Santi defended himself as he lowered himself to the ground.

“Regardless. I’ll go and see if there’s any bandages around.” Zeke fled from the group without hesitation.

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“I don’t think he likes us,” Maya said straight-faced.

“I’m going to have to agree with that statement. Killing his friends didn’t ingratiate yourself to him.”

“Yeah, that’s probably my bad,” Maya said with a shrug.

“Probably?” Frank and Santi asked at the same time.

“Definitely my bad.” They all sank into silence as Santi strained his hearing to hear if anyone or anything else was pushing toward the store. He could hear the breathing of the survivors in the store, but nothing else. Just a warm summer night breeze blowing across the town.

Zeke came back with a bunch of boiled cloth squares that he handed to Santi. Santi rolled down his pants and wedged the squares on his blood slick thigh. They wouldn’t be of much help, but something was better than nothing.

“How’s Chloe?”

“Tough as hell. Wasn’t making a sound as they cleaned her up.”

“That’s Chloe. She’s going to be something special.”

“When are your other friends coming?” Zeke asked.

“Should have been here by now. Any minute.”

“You have a lot of faith in them,” Frank commented.

“I trained them. It’s going to be rough out there. I doubt that they’ll be able to get to us without a hell of a fight.”

“Think there’s really that many monsters and animals out there?”

Santi could feel it. The blood splashed on the thirsty ground. Torn flesh and dying hearts. The curse surged in his veins, pushing, wanting to go out there into the night and revel in the violence of it all.

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.” Santi looked about, feeling a stir in the shadows. Either Duncan or Daniel. Daniel would try to sneak up on him and scare him through. Not alert him of his presence by being clumsy just in range of his spell forms, but not in range of his morph weapon.

“You all go in the store. There’s someone very dangerous here,” Santi told them as he got to his feet.

“No need for that Santiago. I’m not their enemy.” Duncan walked out of the dark like it was a pre-integration summer night and that the town wasn’t surrounded by hordes of fighting and dying monsters.

“You’re all of humanity's enemy, traitor.”

“Harsh words from a dictator. My actions aren’t for personal gain, but in service of something more.”

“All of you, get inside of the store. Now, please.” Santi felt the others walk back into the guts of the store, Zeke looking interested in staying while Frank just tugged Maya along.

“I think you have either the greatest eye for talent in the world or the most luck I’ve ever seen. The woman and boy will both be monsters if you can keep them alive and growing.”

“What are you doing here, Duncan? Miss me already?”

“I’m going to enjoy killing you when this is over. But, to honor the spirit of our tentative agreement, Mercy’s people are fighting yours a few miles outside of the town.”

“Casualties?”

“Many. Most of them the cursed. You have trained your people decently and the dwarves are a massive boon. Their weapons and armor and golems are decimating their ranks. The problem is several of their strongest have broken free and are racing here.”

“Acolytes?”

“Yes. All of them forties plus. And fueled by a curse. They’re carving their way through the wall of flesh that’s outside of the town. I can’t have you dying yet. Need you alive to help me kill Mercy.”

“You’re here to help me?”

“You’re a bit slow. Yes. I am here to help you. My people will fall on the horde of the cursed that are occupying your people. I only have a few scouting teams around, but they’re good. It should be enough to clean them out of the area. Once the cursed are killed, they have orders to retreat back to our staging area. You and I will kill the Acolytes on their way here.”

“And you won’t ram a dagger in my back because you need me to help kill the curse holder.”

“Yes. I won’t stab you in the back again because I need you. Once she’s dead and the curse is broken, we can go back to killing each other.”

“How many are coming?”

“Five at minimum. Maybe seven. It’s very chaotic right now. That pillar is like a beacon to anything and everything out there right now. It was a struggle for me to make it into the town. Your little scout tried but was rebuffed. Repeatedly.” There was an edge of smugness to his voice.

“You have a decade of experience on him. Why are you proud of doing what he can’t. It’s like taking candy from a baby.”

“Spoilsport.”

“What direction are they coming from?” Duncan simply waved in the same direction that Santi, Hana, and Chloe had come from.

“I stand in front and draw all the attention and you stab them in the back?” Santi asked. It was a simple and easy plan that could work out decently.

“Works for me. Your girl going to be ok back there? Her arm didn’t look good when you came in.”

“How long have you been watching us?” Santi asked, suddenly suspicious of the assassin. How soon was it till the wave of cursed Acolytes got here if Duncan could snoop around and spy for the better part of a quarter hour.

“Get better at sensing me. Basically had to wave a flag for you to notice me. Nice crown by the way, really helps with the dictator image you have going.”

“How has nobody killed you yet? You’re annoying as fuck.”

“Plenty have tried. Now, are you in condition to do this? You're looking a little tired.”

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle my end. They can be here any minute you said. I don’t want this fight happening where there can be collateral damage.”

“After you,” Duncan said with a thin smile, waving his one arm into the darkness.

“Yeah, that’s not happening. You can go first and I’ll follow behind.”

“How can I trust you? You’re just as likely to stab me in the back as I am you?

“I don’t need to stab you in the back to kick your ass.”

Duncan fell silent for a moment and then glanced down at his missing arm. His faint smile faded and an ice cold certainty filled his face.

“No, you didn’t, did you. I’ll get my pound of flesh for that, don’t think you’ll get away with taking my arm. After.”

“After.” Santi agreed.