Sudden violence filled the town square. Ulgrin saw the fey’s glamor break as it deflected the bolt with a knife. Suddenly he could see it plain as day. It possessed skin the color of pitch and milky-colored eyes that seemed to glow. A masculine figure draped in rags hid bulging muscles that flexed as it drew another long dagger. The creature’s eyes narrowed in fury and focused their attention on their drow companion.

Raelza twisted midair, just narrowly avoiding the thrown blade. “Woah, holy shit!” She was still falling, rapidly trying to reload her crossbow. Unfortunately that made her a predictable target and the next attack landed true. She grunted in pain as a copper-dagger punched through her left thigh in a spray of red blood. Then she landed, rolling to a stop and clutching at the wound.

Saezz at this point had begun to move faster. The crowd around them seemed to enter a pandemonium, most fleeing, others screaming and yelling. It cleared enough of a path for him to reach the fey. Ulgrin recognized them as a ‘Shadow Stealer, an umbral attuned fey whose magicks leaned towards the manipulation of shadows and light. A fact that made itself quickly known as it pointed at the lizardfolk.

A blob of darkness shot forth and struck his companion in the temple. Saezz recoiled, his face covered by a cloud of ink. He hissed and grabbed at his face, incapable of interacting with the illusion. “Go!” He urged, nose flaring as he tried to use a different sense. “Saezz will follow you!” Maya clung to his back, looking quite worried as she tried to grab the shadows.

Ulgrin cursed but continued to charge, raising Fulmination towards the Shadow Stealer. An ozone scent filled the air and a quick-and-dirty bolt of lightning was fired at the fey’s feet. He didn’t want to hit anyone in the crowd and thus had to restrain his power quite substantially.

The fey spun on a dime, changing its course away from Raelza. It shuddered as fragments of cobbled stone collided and bruised the skin, but turned towards him. Ulgrin launched more magical bolts of energy only for the dextrous creature to duck, dive, and leap away from each one. “Ready yourself, Alder!” Ulgrin called, drawing his hammer. “It’s gonna get hairy!”

He saw the boy nod, gritting his teeth and readying his shield arm. Not a moment too soon as a pair of daggers were launched their way. One clinked off the shield and the other off Ulgrin’s arm as he raised it to block his eyes. Then the enemy was upon them. Ulgrin took a step forward to take the brunt of the attacks.

Relying on plate armor was his best bet to survive. Alder’s armor was less protective. A whirling hurricane of blades met him. Ulgrin didn’t even try to block or deflect most of them. It was a probing attack, trying to determine which parts of his armor were the weakest. Each swing of the knife skidded across his steel. Hair-raising, but not painful.

Alder swung his mace, forcing the fey creature back. Together they brought a bit of time, a bit of breathing room. To think and come up with a plan of action.

Ulgrin grit his teeth and feigned weakness, exposing his flank. A stabbing copper blade went for his armpit, but Ulgrin quickly swung his staff. The fey ducked, just barely avoiding the attack. In response, Ulgrin kicked out and caught them in the chest. They somersaulted and flipped with incredible agility, utilizing the momentum to avoid Alder’s horizontal swing. “You’re awfully hard to catch!” Ulgrin said with a panting breath. This new helmet had the downside of poor ventilation. “Like a rat.”

The fey paused, long-limbed body curling in a readied stance. “You disgusting ephemerals are the rats. Breeding like flies. Look around you, at all the filth. This was inevitable.” It spoke in a low, warbling tone of voice. They spread their arms at the crowd. “You can’t even support a population half this size.”

“That’s not your decision to make!” Alyss cried, having gotten into a good vantage point to throw an alchemical bomb. Sticky webs spread outwards, a single strand managing to catch the fey. It hissed in anger, only to abruptly be cut off as Saezz came in like a wrecking ball. His wide, inaccurate swings forced the fey back, but it was caught. Claws raked across the fey’s front. Milky-white blood dripped from its chest.

“Very well, then.” The Shadow Stealer spoke. It closed its eyes for a moment. Ulgrin watched as power surged from its… shadow? Clones of the creature’s shadow rose from the ground, and suddenly the fight wasn’t so one-sided. While it was quite odd to see impossibly dark sections of space, it was obvious they were physically tangible. It was now five-to-five. Or rather, five-to-six?

Ulgrin watched as Maya let out a frustrated noise, one hand raised. He saw rainbow-colored light emerge from her balled up fist and slap into Saezz’s head. He grunted in pain, but he could see the clinging shadow being eaten away by the magic. His eyes were now visible and blinking. Then they narrowed in a grin. “Thank you, hatchling.”

“Don’t get hurt by the bad guy!” Maya said, a worried look on her face. “They’re really mean.”

“Yes, they are!” Raelza said, the sound of a bolt twanging announcing her presence as she limped in from a flank, having blended into the crowd. The Shadow Stealer let out a grunt of pain as it hit them in the shoulder. The knife was still embedded in her thigh but she was still alive. “Don’t tell me I missed all the fun. That hurt, arsehole!”

The fey sent a glance her way and sighed. Then it and the clones burst into action. Each one seemed to only possess a fraction of the creature’s strength which was likely the only reason why the party managed to stand their ground. Two of the shadows pounced on Saezz, circling him like wolves.

Led by their creator, the rest hit Ulgrin and Alder hard. Ulgrin felt dozens of strikes hit him as he frantically backpedaled. Each time the Shadow Stealer hit him upside the head it rang his mind like a bell. The lanky creature had surprising strength. It seemed to learn he was missing an eye and was now taking advantage of that.

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Alder was also on the backfoot. His less-protective armor meant knicking cuts slid past more easily. A few would be fine, but they were quickly adding up.

A glaive from the side marked Raelza joining the melee. It impaled one of the shadow-creatures, but it didn’t seem to notice. Ulgrin reached out with his staff and tapped it to the polearm. Lightning surged and he watched gleefully as the shadow popped like a zit, covering them with black blood. The stuff sizzled, quickly turning to ash.

Unfortunately, the other shadows seemed to jerk in place. Then they became quicker and stronger. “Damn,” Ulgrin growled, deflecting a blade heading for his beard. “Try to incapacitate them, killing means they’re more powerful!” He called.

“Make a choice, rat.” The Shadow Stealer said, blade kissing his neck’s gorget. “Make it quick. You’ll slip up eventually.”

Ulgrin grit his teeth, trying to think. There was scarcely a moment where a knife wasn’t trying to stab him. Alder was bleeding, Raelza was walking wounded. Alyss didn’t have a shot. He saw that the fey had strange tendrils billowing out, seeming to link it to the shadow-creatures.

Suddenly it came to him. “Light! Use light!” He raised his staff into the air and a bright, piercing yellow filled the area. The shadow-creatures recoiled away, the edges of their forms wavering. Suddenly Ulgrin was tackled, bowled over. His spell fizzled out as he raised an arm to block the needle shaped dagger heading for his eye hole.

Time seemed to stop. He turned his eye to see the blade had gone through but… Well, there wasn’t anything to stab. It punctured the eyepatch but accomplished nothing. “Haha. Eye-ronic, isn’t it?” Ulgrin laughed, thanking his lucky stars.

Alyss reached into her bag, quickly shaking a vial and then throwing it towards their brawl. Blinding white light ignited as the vial shattered. Each of the shadows let out a harsh, wailing scream. So too did the Shadow Stealer, falling off of him. He looked down to see the tendrils that connected it to the others were thinning, pieces breaking off. One broke entirely and caused its shadow to melt into ash.

Letting out a voice-cracking war cry, Alder stepped forwards and smashed his mace into the Stealer’s shoulder. A crack filled the air as whatever bones the fey had shattered with the impact. It rolled away, narrowly avoiding Raelza’s glaive stabbing into the street below.

“Haha…” It wheezed, standing up. “You fight fell, ephemerals. But you are nothing compared to the Fallen Court’s might! Now, return to the grav-”

A meaty, clawed fist wrapped around the fey’s neck, lifting it into the air. Saezz grinned down at the creature, ignoring the arms scratching at him. “What was that? Saezz cannot hear you. Let him adjust his grip.” Crunch. Its neck snapped, quickly ending the Shadow Stealer’s life. It slumped over, the shadow tendrils snapping and fading away. Maya covered her eyes, burying her face into Saezz’s neck.

Ulgrin let out a sigh, turning to his companions. “Injuries, Alyss. Get those potions ready.” She nodded, digging into her bag and drawing bright red vials. Raelza flopped down onto her back, knowing this would hurt quite a bit.

“Ready,” she said, taking the potion. Ulgrin nodded and then quickly pulled the copper blade free as steadily as possible. She hissed, slamming her fist onto the road. Then she quickly chugged, stemming the bleeding as the potion’s effects kicked in. “Blagh. Stab wounds suck.”

Alder meanwhile began to sway, blood loss getting to the young boy as he watched. Hissing in frustration, Alyss practically force-fed him, barking a quick order to sit down as well. “Just because you’re finally blooded doesn’t mean you need to play it macho. Take the potion immediately!”

“Yes’m.” The boy replied, shakily nodding. “Sorry. I was just… Blanking out. This was a lot.”

“Battle tends to be that way,” Saezz replied, sitting down next to him. Maya quickly scrambled down, concerned face staring up at them all. “Don’t you worry either, miss Maya. The battle is over and we are all whole. That is a victory. Apologies for acting so violent.”

“It’s okay. Wind has to fight sometimes, too. He told me not to watch but… I watched.”

“Your guardian’s a good man.” Ulgrin said. “I hope he won’t be too angry that we brought you into a situation like that, but there wasn’t time to find you a place to wait.” He scratched at his beard. “Augh, he’s going to be so mad. Maybe we can bribe him with a gift for you? How would you like a new dress?”

“I’d love that!” Maya said happily. “I’ve only gotten a few of those!”

“As supportive as I am of gifts for the kid,” Raelza said with a drawl. “We’ve got company. Local guards have arrived onto the scene.” They all turned their heads and watched as men and women made for them. By this point the crowd had calmed down somewhat, deciding to watch from a safe distance.

Leading the guards was a man in silver armor, his helmet shaped in an angular way that evoked a bird of prey. Once he was in shouting distance they heard a call. “This is the Constabulary of Andire! Set down your weapons and come peacefully or be met with force of arms!” He took in a breath. “As an honored Knight, I, Alco Romaine, order you all.”

Ulgrin sent a glance to his companions before sighing. Weary as they were, he didn’t trust his chances against thirty-odd soldiers. He gently set his weapons to the side and nodded at Saezz. “Why don’t you set the body in front of us? We’ll back up a bit, give them a chance to look.”

Saezz did so, casually hefting the corpse and placing it in plain sight. The tense constables seemed to loosen in shock as they grew closer, seeing the fey creature. While their halberds and spears were lowered, it still remained a stand-off of sorts.

“There was an attempt to cause a riot,” Ulgrin said, raising his voice to be heard. “We intervened and battled the creature. It is a ‘Shadow Stealer’, a fey being sent to wreak havoc.” Already the corpse was beginning to wilt. Fey creatures were more intrinsically made of magic than humanoids, and thus had the tendency to break down after death and return to the cycle.

They were technically immortal in a way. While some knowledge was lost as their essence partially broken down during reincarnation, it was largely left intact as the primal forces of fey kept them together. Compared to humanoids, whose souls were stripped down to their cores, it was practically living forever on top of their long lives.

Alco gathered up his courage to approach, examining the body more closely. “I see. We received word that a group of foreigners was causing a riot, but it seems we were mistaken. You’re adventurers.” Ulgrin could see a lithe elven figure below the almost ornamental plate armor. “This complicates things.”

Alyss gave him a glance and stepped forwards. She withdrew a signet ring. “Apologies, but I should speak up. Alco, it’s Alyss. I’ve returned home on business.”

The knight’s eyes widened below his visor. “Alyss? Ah, it is you. Unless this is some kind of complicated illusion. Let me see the ring?” She held it out. Alco closed his eyes and examined the ring magically. “It would be very difficult to fake that. Very well, it’s good to see you again. It’s been some time. You’re… taller.” He said in a bright and cheerful tone that quickly turned awkward.

“Don’t need to compliment me, Alco.” She sighed. “I’m here on an expedition, we’ve made a stop here.”

“You know this man, Alyss?” Saezz asked, tail flicking.

“I was betrothed to him until my parents found a better partner.” Alyss cringed. “Listen, can we not talk about it? We just fought a fey-asshole trying to cause a bloodbath. There’s business at hand.”

Alco coughed into his gauntlet. “Yes, yes. If you wouldn’t mind coming with me? This will need to be discussed, preferably at the constabulary.”

“And the body?” Saezz asked.

“Right. Two of you, drag it. That thing’s coming with us.” Alco ordered, his men springing into action. Soon their weapons were taken and the party found themselves being guided down the streets. Did this count as committing a crime? This would be his first time being arrested.

He hoped his parents never found out about this. They would never stop teasing him.

Took a few days break for meeting the halfway point in the Writathon, but now I'm back to my regular schedule. Thanks for reading! See you all next chapter.