Lilyth

Of course, the big fuck had to find us. Push comes to shove, I’ll hold it back, while Caei extracts Aki and then try to leave myself. I didn't know what happened to the girl, but it couldn't have been good based on the Sanguine's reaction.

What emerged was a roughly draconid centaur-like figure that could be best described as “something that would be born after a threesome between a lower Sanguine, Chiron and a dragon”. The creature was about three metres long, though the upright human half made it difficult to tell exactly, and if you considered the creature’s tail it was closer to four, maybe four-and-a-half. Its smooth, glossy skin was ashy grey, though here and there I could see patches of black scales. The pseudodragon's lower four limbs were almost fully human though, though much wider with twisted spindly toes that ended with claws rather than nails. The “human” half was nearly as appealing: sickly thin with a ribcage so prominent you could use it as a xylophone. Its arms were once again almost fully human, though as with its feet, the hands were twisted and ending with claws. There was a pair of short vestigial wings on its back, but the most disconcerting was its head, however. It had a long snout and a lipless mouth with a lot of sharp rotten teeth visible, and, in the Sanguine fashion, it had no eye sockets.

‘Any idea what that thing is?’ I asked Caei.

‘Ugly,’ she let out a terrified laugh. ‘A chimaera of some sort? Maybe.’

I sighed.

‘If things will look bad for us, grab Aki and leave.’

Caei, to my shock, didn't protest.

‘Let’s hope it doesn't get to that point, then,’ she said and fired at the creature with the Storm.

Nyx

‘Hahahaha,’ the stupid bird laughed. ‘And that would be a wrap, I think.’

Nyx could barely contain her smile. He really didn’t know.

Suddenly, a magic circle formed on the ground with a sigil of a sun in the centre. There was a flash of red light and five helmeted figures in grey uniforms and black body armour appeared on the grass in front of the hospital. Two of them were holding magitek carbines, one a bow with a glowing green bowstring, one a staff and one a sword.

‘That would indeed be a wrap, birdie,’ she giggled and showed Varyag her tongue again.

‘What?!’ he exclaimed, as the demon strike team entered the hospital. ‘How would Zekuthran learn of this?!’

‘Why… Ere told him, of course’ Nyx laughed. ‘Didn’t you know they were friends?’

Of the fuckbuddy kind. But the birdman doesn't need to know this.

‘But that's against the rules!’

‘Hey!’ It was Nyx’s turn to fake indignation. ‘They were just setting up an evening together when Lilyth and her friends got trapped there.’

Or is it Aki and friends now? Poor thing. I hope Zeke will be able to set her up with a new arm.

‘You know…’ she continued, all mirth gone from her voice. ‘An unfortunate coincidence, bird.’

The last word was accented by the crack of lightning.

‘Face it, Varyag,’ a cold forceful voice said from behind them. ‘You just lost.’

Nyx turned around and saw that his marine imperiousness was standing on the branch now as well.

‘You did the one thing I told you not to do,’ he continued. ‘I was going to let it slide if it worked. As you said, you covered your bases pretty well. Your mistake was assuming Zekuthran would do the same. Did you seriously think he would stand idly by when one of us tried to murder his granddaughter even as “collateral damage”? I have barely managed to convince the Sun not to treat it as an outright declaration of war.’

‘Why would Lord S…’

‘Because you just fucking tried to murder a descendant of his top general and her two paramours, you fucking birdbrain. That's both an actual violation of the rules AND a personal insult against Zekuthran. And since I let you live the last time you tried this, that's on me as well. So now you’ve managed to completely derail my plan, and end centuries-old Abyssal neutrality because believe me - Legions of the Abyss will now be free to act in some capacity and impugn MY honour. For your actions, I sentence you to…’

The King Who Commands The Ocean never got to finish his sentence as Varyag disappeared in a puff of feathers.

‘And lo the great Guardian of the Cycle ran like a bitch,’ Nyx said with barely contained glee.

The King shrugged and sat on the branch near Nyx.

‘Not gonna chase after him?’ she asked.

‘Nah. I’ll leave that to Zekuthran. This might placate him a bit, and if not, at least distract him for a while.’

Nyx lowered her cloud to his level and conjured a bowl of popcorn. She offered it to the King, who absentmindedly took some kernels and ate them.

Nyx’s attention turned back to the struggle inside of the hospital.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The grand finale is about to begin,’ she thought while throwing the kernels of popcorn into her mouth. Hang in there, guys. Help is almost there.

Caeileera

Caei was starting to partially understand Lilyth’s attitude. She wanted to protect them. She really did.

She could do it in a healthier manner, but… it was time I started to play my part in this too. The only reason she pulled the crazy “jump over the monster” move was because I attracted its attention. I would have ended up just like Aki if that thing touched me.

I shuddered at the thought, remembering the speed Aki’s hand decomposed.

Thank you for saving me from that, you stupid jelly. It’s time I pay you back.

The Storm was much different in handling than the rifle. I briefly considered using the semi-automatic, but no. Magic would likely be more useful here.

Seeing the bolt from the carbine leave nought but a scorch mark on the creature’s skin made me reconsider. The creature started lumbering towards me, so I dropped the carbine and jumped to the side using my wings to boost myself a bit.

Being finally able to manoeuvre here is so nice.

‘You can’t escape me, flying one,’ the monster rasped. ‘I shall feast on your supple flesh.’

‘Feast on this, you Jurassic Park reject!’ Lilyth shouted in response.

I heard the crack of a shotgun blast, making me remember the one that almost killed me… an hour ago… and saw that Lilyth picked the gun up and opened fire. The pellets had even less of an effect on the creature as it didn't even deign to notice them. So with a huff Lilyth dropped the rifle and drew her knives. Meanwhile, I landed and, still out of the monster's reach, started to retrieve my glaive. I realised it was still stained with Aki’s blood. That made tears flow to my eyes.

It’s not fair. Such a young girl should not have to go through… that.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my sleeve and gripped the glaive tightly.

The monster suddenly roared in pain.

I saw that Lilyth had sunk her knives into the chimaera’s side.

She ripped them out and ducked to avoid the monster’s backhand. Her girlfriend then jumped to the side and slashed across one of the monster's legs.

‘Aaaaargh,’ the chimaera roared in pain. ‘You’ll pay for this, shadowy one!’

‘Sorry, I left my debit card in my other pants,’ Lilyth mocked. ‘Can I offer you a knife in the back instead?’

Why does she keep taunting… Oh. She is keeping its attention on her, isn't she? And what the fuck is a debit card?

I leapt towards the back of the chimaera, now thoroughly focused on Lilyth, intending to skewer it with the blade of my glaive. The monster must have sensed me somehow as it swiped with its tail at me. I used my wings to dodge it by boosting myself over it. Unfortunately, Lilyth too focused on dodging the swipes of the monster’s clawed hands to see me, stabbed it in the side with her knives. This caused the chimaera to buck and, as a result, swing its tail upwards. It hit me on my ass and flung me straight on the chimaera’s lower half’s back. The monster started bucking like a mad animal then and threw me off. Straight into the path of its rear legs.

Fuck!

It kicked me straight in my stomach blowing the wind out of me. I was flung at the nearest wall and impacted it with two loud cracks. Agony spread through my wings, joining the intense pain now also present in my stomach. The world started going darker and…

Lilyth

‘Caei!’ I shouted involuntarily, seeing my friend flung at the wall.

No! Fuck. If only I didn't stab it then. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

‘You will soon join your Kai, shadowy one,’ the big fuck cackled. ‘And then I will find the last little morsel too.

I threw one final glance at Caei. She was unconscious. Hopefully. Blood coming out of her mouth and broken bones jutting out of her wings told me that the clock was very much fucking ticking.

I gave the monster my full attention and a sense of calm fell upon me. It would be over soon. One way or another. Now, I just had to focus.

I dashed towards the chimaera, slipped under its arms and started slashing it across the side. It strafed away from me then, causing me to lose my balance. I managed to regain it, but not before the bastard zeroed in on me. It charged me, but I managed to dodge it. Barely. As I tried to scramble away from it, I thought I heard shouts and running from somewhere above.

More of these?

That distraction gave the monster enough time to hit me with another backhand. The surprise strike combined with my unsure stance threw me face down to the ground.

Fuck.

‘Got you, shadowy one.’

I rolled away from its attempts to stomp me into a puddle and scrambled to my feet.

‘Still in the fight, horsefu-’

Apparently, the horsefuck had a different idea, as he rammed me sending me flying at the wall.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Before I could impact the wall I suddenly saw something black flicker in the corner of my eye and the next moment a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around me. And we came to an almost gentle stop as my saviour landed on his two feet.

‘Gotcha,’ a firm male voice said.

‘Who dares?’ the horsefuck roared.

I looked towards it and saw it charging towards us but then a barrage of three emerald energy arrows hit it in the side and sent it sprawling.

‘Your doom,’ my saviour replied and gently let me down on the floor.

He then started barking orders.

‘Sav! Aran! Get the Sanguine out of here! Eury! Tev! Find my granddaughter!’

Granddaughter. No. It can't be.

I looked my saviour up and down. He looked to be maybe a head taller than me. He wore a grey digital camo field uniform with a black leather flak jacket over it and a Kevlar-looking helmet. He was quite handsome and looked to be in his mid-thirties and had very familiar-looking sea-green eyes, a pair of curving black-and-red horns and I could see a few stray blue hairs coming out from under his helmet. The final proof I needed was the thin arrow-tipped tail the man had.

Aki told me about him around the campfire after we got out of the Tower of Trials… was it only two days or so ago?

I pointed to where I saw Caei come from.

‘A-Aki is somewhere there,’ I stammered out.

Eury and Tev ran over there immediately.

‘Thank you, Lilyth of Terra,’ Archpraetor Zekuthran said with a gentle smile. ‘Can you still fight?’

I looked at the horsefuck which was starting to gather itself from the floor and nodded.

‘Then let’s finish it.’