Bells rang throughout Liall signaling for everyone to go inside their residences or face severe ramifications for not doing so. Where once there were people all around to celebrate today’s holiday, everyone quickly hid themselves away fearful of the queen’s wrath and of those who serve her.
As for him and Lar, they worked their way towards the dilapidated parts of Liall where their faction operated within to try to regroup after this disaster.
Lar struggled to walk by all appearances. Still, she walked ahead of him. Since she had been on top of him during the initial blast that went out in the crowd, she had taken a lot of the damage. A lot of the flesh on their backside had been torn apart with blood oozing out of many spots. As they had been traveling through Liall to get away from the plaza, their back had begun to heal and appear more like a smooth pink fleshy area. He doubted it would heal back to what it was before. They’d have nasty scars running down their backside for the rest of their lives unless familiars could heal away scars differently than humans which was possible he supposed.
“Will your back ever heal entirely?” he asked as they walked carefully down a quiet street.
Lar looked over their shoulder for a moment and sighed. “Definitely not. I’m sure to have some nasty scars for the rest of my life if and when it gets fully healed.”
His companion had saved his life and taken a lot of damage and pain to do so. He thought he maybe should thank them, but then he felt bad when he thought how they had chosen him over Della. She could’ve saved her instead and he would’ve been fine with that. The queen was after him after all by his summation. The fact that others died was simply because they had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What exactly was that that you did to me back there?” Kiran asked. “I had no idea you could heal even egregious wounds such as that.”
“That’s one of the things a soul bond with a familiar can give to you, assuming there’s enough power stored within a familiar’s soul. The truth is, I’ve been leeching off of you for a while now so I had a lot of reserves to make use of allowing me to heal even critical wounds. But don’t be expecting much of me for a while because I’m as weak as it can get. I barely have the strength to even walk right now.”
Lar had saved his life. As far as he was concerned, he owed her much and more even if he would’ve liked her to have saved Della instead of him.
They turned down a quiet corner getting closer to their destination. People eyed them from their mostly closed shutters.
“Wait,” Lar said with an outstretched arm. “I believe there are guards up ahead.”
“In these parts?”
It was an unusual thing to come across. The city guard typically avoided this area of Liall. And as a result of it, it was an area that operated with its own rules—or lack thereof. For guards to be around here was not a good sign to say the least.
They ended up going down a dark alley and headed for an alternative route. As they did so, the other streets and corners had guards marching down them. They patrolled and made sure no one was getting through them. At least not without them attacking and warning all the other guards strolling around.
“Well this is quite something,” Lar muttered. “That queen’s a real nuisance and a conniving one at that. She used the holiday to get everyone to drop their guards and plan a full-on assault within her own city.” They began to click their tongue and look into his eyes. “You know, if I were her, I would’ve done the same thing. I can’t really blame her for it.”
“You’d murder a bunch of innocents? Is that what you’re admitting to me?”
“What? No, that isn’t what I am saying. I’m just saying that it makes sense for her to do something like this if this was her plan all along. It’s ruthless and downright evil, but it’s afforded her a chance to strike at those she sees as a danger to herself and her city.”
“I don’t care what her reasons are,” he said watchful of the guards from the alley that obscured their presence. “We need to get through them and try to make contact with the others.”
“Well unless you want to fight half a dozen of them all at once, let me try to distract them and you go on running through.”
Lar shifted into their cat form and began running towards the active patrol walking down the cobbled street.
They caught wind of the cat and Lar changed into a human for a brief second before switching back again to get them on their trail. They began rushing towards Lar as they escaped down another alleyway.
Kiran took to the now-emptied street and headed up it. Luckily there weren’t any more patrols as he continued along. Eventually, his companion hopped onto his shoulder with that pink flesh running down their backside even in their cat form.
This part of Liall was quite unusual as they traveled through it. Normally there were always people hanging out on the streets and some choosing to be quite foul on them. With the guards deciding to pave a wave through and assert the queen’s grasp within these parts, the folk around here had chosen to go inside and behave like the rest of Liall during a mandatory citywide lockdown.
Smoke gathered up in the sky up ahead. As they got closer to the source of the fire creating that smoke, they became aware of what building burned.
It was where their faction of the Human Familiar Coalition had resided at for a while. From top to bottom, it was encased in flames and there standing in front of it was a knight in silver armor with a green cape running down their back.
In their approach, he wondered whether they would get the opportunity to strike them, however, the knight looked a little over their shoulder and unsheathed their sword.
“You again,” they said. “This time, I’m not letting you get away.” The knight who he had come across several times in his recent life, turned to face him and the blade of her sword she grasped with one hand burst aflame. The flames reflected off of her silver plate armor which was similar to the queen that she served.
The last time he came across her, she was a ferocious fighter far above his fighting caliber. If he had decided to fight her back then when he hadn’t yet joined the coalition, he didn’t see it going in his favor. Not all that much time had passed since then. But he trained hard since then and bolstered his natural fighting instincts thinking it suitable enough to confront her head-on confidently.
He summoned his sword once more and felt the weight of it in his hand. He grasped onto it more tightly and prepared for the attack.
“I, Silvy Ghaladell, shall strike you down!”
She chose to make the first attack. She swung her sword causing all the snow mid-flight and snow on the ground to melt all around her. His own newly summoned sword blocked one strike and blocked another as she kept striking fast and hard. Water droplets landed on his head as the snow above kept melting around them.
Due to Lar’s weakened state of being, he had no choice but to defeat her on his own. He blocked another one of her attacks feeling the heat exuding off of her sword. Silvy then grasped onto the hilt of her sword with both hands and then prepared to thrust it into the ground. Just as the tip entered, he instinctually motioned his other free hand to begin casting a barrier ahead of himself.
Flames roared harshly up against the barrier. Bits of flames spilled out over on top causing immense heat to flood above him. He avoided the flames directly but the heat caused sweat to form on his brow and the warm clothes he wore became unbearable as the flames kept rushing towards him. All of the snow beneath their feet turned to water and steam.
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The moment the flames stopped gushing forward, her body came at an upward arc over him. It landed behind him and he just barely lifted up his sword in time to avoid a devastating strike that nearly drove its way through his back.
He grunted as his body began to tire. She slammed her blade up against his forcing him to lower himself before her. His knees were beginning to buckle and just as he thought he might lose his ability to stand, Lar came with a sweeping attack forcing the knight to relinquish their assault towards him and end up forced to defend against Lar as well who likely shouldn’t be involved in this skirmish whatsoever.
Even in their weakened state, his companion had chosen to join the fight.
This knight was an unrelenting force. And if he and Lar were to win, they needed to be bold in their approach. So he chose to do just that. While Lar kept them busy, he took up to their rear striking them as fast as possible.
As he did so, the knight began to struggle just enough to give him an opening. He struck the back part of their knee which was not as well-protected as the rest of their body.
The knight let out a pained scream and Lar flipped around them yanking their helmet off of their head exposing their face.
Their frightened gaze looked towards him just as Lar sent their fauchard towards their exposed head.
“Stop,” he said quickly.
The edge of Lar’s weapon did manage to stop but not without the edge of it touching the knight’s right cheek causing a sliver of blood to run down it. “What do you think you’re doing requesting me to not finish her? We should kill her while we still can!”
“I will not have her blood on my hands.”
The knight dropped the sword and fell to their knees. The flames as they melted away the snow on the ground faded away and her eyes lowered from his for a moment. “Why?” they simply said. “Why won’t you kill me? You have won after all. Or do you intend to torture me? Yes, that must be what your intentions are you foul human who has chosen to side with the familiars!”
“What? No, I have no intentions of torturing you.”
“Then for what purpose who you humiliate me in this manner? Just kill me and be done with it.”
“See?” Lar began to say. “Even she wants to die so why not let me kill her?”
“I’ve seen enough death for one day and she’s no longer a threat to us.” He took the sword she once carried and tossed it out of their reach.
“Stand up,” he said towards the knight. “Stand up!” She ignored him at first but chose to respond after he made his second request. She had fierce eyes and a desire to drag her once flaming sword through his heart the same way the queen had done earlier.
Lar kept their weapon right against their head as she stood behind her.
“Are you the one who burned this place to the ground?”
“You think just because I carry a sword that channels the flame that I was the one who burned this pathetic place down? It’s reasonable to presume such a thing but no, I just arrived here and found it as it currently is.”
The building continued to burn, just not necessarily as intensely as it did once before. She suggested that she wasn’t the one who had done this. Perhaps she was right. He had no way of knowing at this point. He just hoped there was no one inside when it became ensnared in flame. He imagined, however, that the queen had sent her people here to do a surprise attack the same way she had done it to him. It did not make him think that everyone came out unscathed if any survived the assault.
“Kiran. Lar.” The voice came from behind. When he looked back, he saw a battered Laphy, Aini, and even Juna standing there. Laphy in particular had a angry look on his face. “Is that one of the queen’s knights that you have there? Why haven’t you eliminated them?”
“They’re disarmed and not a threat any longer,” Kiran said.
“Not a threat? Unless they’re dead they’ll always be a threat. Best to kill her now and be done with it.”
“I’d rather we bind her hands for now so that we can question her later.”
Laphy stood just a few meters away from him. He carried a sword in his hand with blood dripping down onto the snow that sat on the cobbled street. He likely had killed one or more of the city guards patrolling just south of their position considering how fresh it appeared.
“What is your problem? The queen just killed dozens of people, including that woman you appeared enamored with much like how I am towards Aini. And yet now that you have one of her most devoted knights and servants, you’re not willing to simply kill her? If you’re unable to do it yourself, I’ll do it for you.”
As he began to approach once more, Kiran raised a hand signaling for them to stop.
“Stand out of the way Kiran. You’re not in charge of anything and I’m not interested in sparing someone such as her. She deserves to die just like the rest of them.”
“Deserve is a rather strong word. Regardless, I won’t let you kill her. She is in our custody now and I have an interest in what she might know.”
“Everyone, please,” Aini grabbed Laphy’s wrist only for him to harshly pull it away. “Please don’t fight over this. Can’t we figure this out later once we’ve hopefully found Hoghdar or other members in the coalition?”
“Stay out of this Aini,” Laphy stated firmly and returned his gaze towards Kiran. “You can stand in between her and I all you like. But I will be killing her.”
Laphy was uninterested in further discussion. He was a familiar that had their own sense of justice and ways of doing things.
He wanted to bring the queen to justice. There was no doubt about that. But this was just one person who served the queen. He was not fully knowledgeable on whether she deserved a similar sentence as the one they served. Not knowing that made him wary of simply killing her, especially when they had her under their control.
Unfortunately, he and Laphy could not see eye to eye. As the familiar approached him, they swung their sword towards the unarmed knight and he blocked their attack causing them to go into a full-on rage.
“Stop!” No matter how many times Aini would cry out towards them, fighting ensued between allies.
Their swords slammed up against each other while he defended the knight once more from a ferocious fighter.
Laphy wasn’t striking him in the same way people fought under training circumstances. He fought to kill and destroy sending every blow as intensely as they could at him.
Kiran focused entirely on the defense hoping to tire them out. However, they didn’t seem to tire. Instead, they only became stronger as they kept striking at him.
While Kiran had been given a so-called boost earlier to confront the queen, that same power did not fill him any longer. As a result, he struggled to defend against Laphy while at the same time protecting Silvy.
“Laphy!” Juna called out trying to sway Laphy herself.
“Stay out of this Juna!” Laphy sent their sword so hard against his, his own summoned blade shattered and his sword landed into his shoulder.
Kiran screamed as Laphy stumbled backward a bit shocked that he had spilled his blood and even managed to wound him. Despite that, he quickly returned to his senses still desiring to kill the knight.
Though they tried to walk past while the others wanted to rush to assist him, Kiran grabbed their ankle tripping them. He then crawled on top and tried to keep them pinned down. However, as the blood poured out of the wound from his shoulder, Laphy sent his elbow straight into his face multiple times.
His nose became inflamed and broken after consecutive hit after hit. His cheek broke open and his right eye closed shut. He dug his hands into their shoulder trying to keep them pinned as much as possible but his grasp failed as they used their entire body to send him hurdling backward onto the snowy ground.
Laphy chose to aim their sword directly at him this time. He was done with Kiran. Now he wanted his blood after the trouble he had put him through.
“Had enough?” Kiran attempted to get up but only found their foot diving harshly against his chest. Then they pointed their sword towards him and prepared to send it into his gut.
The edge of his companion’s fauchard rests right up against their neck. “If you even dare to lay another finger on him, I will severe that head of yours.”
Even with a threat, he was not entirely sold on whether they ought to back off. They thought for a moment about whether to proceed.
Unfortunately for Kiran, his blood loss was causing him to fade in and out of consciousness. He tried to maintain it and focus. However, the edges of his vision began to pulsate in and out.
Juna’s voice cried out for him. Aini’s too. But he couldn’t fully make it out. He had survived the queen’s attacks. Can I survive this? Perhaps it’s best I don’t. Maybe I can find Della in the afterlife and join her. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? But at the same time, I don’t want to leave Lar or necessarily the others behind. There is still so much to be done and to learn.
Regardless of his fate, all he could do was lay there as his consciousness faded. He stared up towards the cloudy sky with snow falling on him joined by the several figures standing over him including Juna and Aini while Lar kept their fauchard right next to Laphy’s neck.