Chapter 293 Smoke, Screams, Singed Flesh
Zavian's soldiers charged at them, and that pushed the creatures to totter even faster, their arms stretched out, and they didn't have any weapons in them.
When the sword of the first soldier lashed at them, one of the creatures gripped it by the sharp edge of the blade and pulled the soldier into their circle. Like vultures drawn to dying flesh, they all clamoured around the soldier, tearing him apart with their hands while his helpless screams died with him.
Freya fell by Zavian's side. "They can detect our moves before we make them. Watch them."
And so, Zavian's soldiers gathered around the creatures, and the creatures' scrawny hands gripped every slashing sword and all his soldiers were all met with the same horrible fate of death.
Zavian charged at the ones that reached them, and their hands met with the blades of his sword, predicting every strike before he landed. He stuck his back to Azriel, and they were surrounded, and Freya wasn't seen.
Panic settled in Zavian, and he was fast enough to gut two of the creatures before they tore at his body. As he watched their lives wither out of their bodies, their glazed eyes softened into human relief, and they slumped their bodies against him.
They were humans, all of them, shaped by something else that overtook their bodies. And they had both he and Azriel surrounded at all sides.
They kept circling them, hounds after prey, and Azriel poked Zavian in the back with his elbow, a signal to start slaughtering. But Zavian did not want to. As he slashed through them, he saw the glow of the immense relief in their eyes, the sigh of exhaustion rather than pain that escaped their mouths – it all made Zavian bent on convincing himself that killing them was the only way to free them.
A hand clawed at the King's back, hitting his armor, and Azriel's sword reached behind Zavian, and the clawing died.
But they kept coming as if they were never killed. Whatever Aloysius had done with his blood, Zavian knew it must be to keep these creatures' only intent to kill him.
"We are outnumbered," Azriel said, a gash on his face brimming with blood. He looked at Zavian, and the King had no idea how to get through them.
Hooves echoed amidst their fickle situation, and creatures scurried away as Freya trampled on them with her beast of a horse. The horse leaped forward, and Azriel backed away as it landed swiftly in the centre.
"Quickly!" She yelled.
Both male demons clamoured on the horse, and she rode away, bones crunching beneath the hooves, guttural screams covering them from all around. The fire had spread, and soldiers and the creatures ran amok, their bodies burning and scorched.
"Where is Aloysius?" Freya asked.
"We don't know, did you find where Uriel ran off to?" Zavian asked, watching the flood of monsters chasing after their horse.
"That coward was losing the fight and ran like a scared puppy," Freya spat out. She pulled the reins to a stop, and Zavian leaped off the horse, eyes turning magma red and fangs protruding.
This had to end.
Behind him, Azriel gave a loud whistle, and the horses stood guard to any of Zavian's soldiers they could find. Zavian stared at the fire, the cauldron-black sky pregnant with soot and smoke, and the creatures Aloysius had unleashed that drew closer.
With a raised hand, Zavian yelled, "Fire!"
And his horses all bellowed flames from their mouths, burning the creatures to the ground, and he tried to hold himself from covering his ears as their screams as they burnt to death.
….
Smoke.
Screams.
Singed flesh.
Everything all at once hit Neera as she climbed her way up the castle, her nose tucked into the crook of her elbow, her throat heavy with coughs.
It had been easy to run past the guards, easier to slip into hiding spots till they were forced to return. She was one person, there were many that still needed protection.
She stopped when she reached the doors to the tallest chamber, and the entire castle was empty, and it looked haunted with all curtains drawn. She shook as something exploded far off, and hurried off to the corridor of a chamber to get a good view of the war.
She gasped.
It was far, but she could see the bodies of men fallen on the ground, littered like trash, fire all around, and black smoke darkening the sky, like a blacksmith's accident. Swords clanging against each other made a sick sound to her ears, and she could not find Zavian. It wasn't possible, she needed to get closer.
She scanned the vast space of land ahead, looking for where she could hide away from their eyes. The only refuge she could see were trees, and she would be lucky to get to climb their branches before she would be spotted by the enemy.
But Zavian, he was out there, and the battle did not look like it would end anytime soon.
As Neera squinted her eyes at some movement at the far-off horizon, she hoped the march of the new batch of the army toward the battlefield was on Zavian's side.
….
Freya's sword drove through the creature's stomach, and the squelch of his flesh came first before the blood that wet Freya's hand. She could almost swear that they both sagged against each other in shared relief, and the man, with his glass eyes changing back into humanlike features, shed a tear. Freya pulled out her sword, and he thumped to the ground.
Zavian had beheaded two of them to her left, and she watched the heads fall, one landing on the belly of one of Zavian's dead soldiers. They had lost quite a good number of their army, and if Zavian had beheaded two of them to her left, and she watched the heads fall, one landing on the belly of one of Zavian's dead soldiers. They had lost quite a good number of their army, and if Aloysius wanted to continue hiding away instead of fighting, he must have exhausted all his stupid ploys.
But she was so wrong.
