Descent Into Darkness (Book 2) (29 page)

"Kill the girl," he said as casually as if he was telling his men to fetch him lunch.

"Now wait a minute," Ean said, pulling himself out of Azalea's grip and standing in front of her. "There is no need--"

"You had your chance to talk," Ulften said, cutting him off again. "Now, you get to see how serious I really am. I hope after she dies, you--"

A loud moan from behind Ean interrupted Ulften. Every eye turned to the middle tunnel behind Ean, the one that was supposed to lead towards the living quarters. Ean glanced quickly at Azalea and saw that same confused look on her face. She seemed slightly tense but not overly worried.

"What was that?" Ulften said, his voice not hiding his annoyance. "Who else is with you?"

Another moan, quickly followed by another higher-sounding one filled the junction. A third joined it, then a fourth and more and more until it sounded like a pack of creatures in pain.
Straining his eyes, Ean thought he could make out movement on the edge of the darkness down the tunnel.

"What other things have you brought into our mines?" Ulften was at Ean's side now, the man clearly not afraid of him or what he had done to his friend.

"Whatever it is, I had nothing to do with it."

Ulften seemed to consider this for a few moments and then motioned to the guards. The majority moved into the opening to the corridor leading to the living quarters with only the two guarding the hound remaining in place. Even as tall as he was, Ean had to stretch slightly to see past the line of guards. And all the while the moaning grew louder.

SOMETHING SHUFFLED OUT OF the darkness. Ean's eyes were immediately drawn to its face. The familiar face of one of the men snatched from the caravan in the middle of the night stared back at him. Ean's jaw slowly dropped. The face was the only thing that still looked even remotely human.

Attached to that human head was a body bloated and scarred with boney spikes sticking out randomly over its entire torso. Tan human shoulders extended into grey arms, two to each shoulder. Where those grey arms reached the elbow, the flesh seemed to be torn apart. From those wounds extended one singular bone claw from each elbow, twice the length of an average man's forearm, as if the bone had shot out and torn through where the hands used to be. Its legs looked like they were put on backwards, the knees bending towards its back, while stumpy feet faced forward.

The man, or what had been a man, was a nightmare, the likes of which Ean had never seen, and judging by the few steps back the guards had taken, it was a new sight for them as well.

"By the gods..." Ulften breathed, a hand going to his mouth. He made a gagging noise, which was surprising coming from a man who had casually ordered two separate deaths earlier this night.

More monstrosities started to shuffle into the light, each just as horrible to behold and groaning loudly. They were grossly distorted human beings, each unique and grotesque in its own way, with boney projections sticking out like pins in a cushion or long blades, the flesh hanging off in shreds. They shambled along on their backward legs, slowly making their way towards where Ean's group and the Living Dead were all gathered.

Though their bodies were no longer recognizable as human, the faces on each abomination remained untouched. In a way that was worse, because he was able to attach a name to each face of the men that had disappeared from the caravan. They all wore the same expression, a mixture of pain and ecstasy. That was probably what Azalea had been smelling the whole time, what these poor souls were feeling as they shuffled around.

Ean counted seven now, two less than the total that had gone missing, which meant either the other two had left the caravan like everyone thought, or they were walking around somewhere deeper in the lair. Ean couldn't pull his gaze away from these monstrosities, but thankfully Ulften was more in control of his wits.

"Men, line up," he said, his voice strained. "Those monsters must be put down. We can deal with this murderer afterwards."

He almost felt bad for the monsters that had at one time been men. Did they even realize what they had become? Or were they just mindless creatures? And most importantly, who or what had done this to them?

"Spears at the ready..." Ulften said, his eyes locked on the creatures.

They were only a dozen or so paces away now. Ean could clearly see their eyes, vacant and staring off into space.

"Aim straight for their heads." Ulften sounded more confident now. As grotesque as the creatures were, they moved slowly and would make easy targets for the men. Ean continued looking at those poor faces as they moaned away.

The creatures moved slowly, their vacant eyes seemingly devoid of all thought. But in the blink of an eye, the look changed from blank to unbridled fury. With surprising speed, they burst into action, sprinting across the mine to crash into the line of guards. Which is why he was probably the only one that saw the eyes of the creature closest to them snap forward and focus on the guards. Caught flat-footed, the majority of the guards went down, the creatures on top of them. Those sharp protruding bones stabbed and slashed at their armor, but were turned away by the red plated armor. The guards that were still on their feet tried to adjust their spears into play, but there just wasn't room with the creatures right on top of them.

Ean backed away quickly from the melee but couldn't tear his eyes away from it.

"Help them, you fools!" Ulften's voice cut through the clatter of bone on armor. He was gesturing wildly now towards the two remaining guards that were guarding the hound.

The two men took one look at the hound then moved to join in the fray. With more space, the two men began jabbing their spears into the creatures wrestling with their fellow guards. The spear tips went into the beasts easily, slicing through the skin. Each time they were pulled back out, the barbs on the blades tore the gashes wider, pulling off bits and chunks of flesh.

Rounding on the men still standing, the fleshy monsters seemed to ignore the wounds they were receiving and pushed past the spears to engage the men. Bone hooks and claws slashed and poked at the men's armor, each deflected blow evoking an annoyed moan from the recipient. Most of the men had discarded their spears now and had pulled smaller blades from belts. The daggers slid into the unprotected bodies just as easily as the spears, with the frantic stabs of the guards doing more damage than they would have if they had tried to be more precise.

While the brawl raged, neither side seemed to gain an advantage. The monsters' bone blades were unable to cause any damage to the guards' armor, while the fair amount of damage the guards were causing with their blades did not seem to slow the monsters down in the slightest. In fact, many of the wounds on their bodies stopped bleeding soon after they were created. It seemed as if the two groups would be locked in battle until one side simply ran out of energy.

But then one of the creatures was able to get its sharp bones into the small divide between a guard's chest plate and leg grieves.

The guard stiffened as the bone blade slid into the armor and pierced the poor man's stomach. A gasp of pain escaped from underneath the armored helmet he wore while a moan of triumph accompanied the limp grin that spread across the creature's face. Sensing the weakness, the creature's other three bone spikes flicked into the same space as the original one. The spikes slipped in between the armor easily directly into flesh and lifted him completely off the ground. The guard flailed for a few moments, suspended in the air, until with a sickening crunch the creature pulled its four bone protrusions apart.

Effectively ripping the guard in half.

The two pieces of the man fell to the floor, his legs still kicking while his upper half hit the floor, landing on his back with a clatter. He flailed his arms around like an overturned turtle, trying unsuccessfully to right himself. The whole thing might have been comical if the man's insides weren't starting to leak out of the bottom of the armor.

Ean had to turn away, barely able to contain the bile rising in his throat. It had been one thing to see the aftermath of the attack of these creatures outside of the mine. It was totally different to see the process in person.

A second guard had been taken down, this one missing an entire arm. The remaining guards were starting to become overwhelmed by the creatures, spending more energy keeping those blades from finding the holes in their armor than actually doing any damage against them. Ean wasn't any kind of fighter, but even he could tell the red-clad guards were fighting a losing battle.

A few of the Living Dead began pushing their way back towards the exit, while some of the women and even a couple of the men began screaming in terror as they tried to get out as quickly as possible. A few frantically pushing citizens quickly turned into dozens, and it only took a few moments before the way out was completely blocked with fallen or struggling soldiers.

Not all of the villagers went running however. More than a dozen men and women ran into the fighting instead of away from it, each one carrying some kind of makeshift weapon or small blade, and all of them not wearing a bit of protection. Most went to help the guards while a couple tried their best to pull the wounded away.

Not encumbered by any armor, most were nimble enough to dodge the attacks of the flesh and bone beasts. While unable to do any major damage, they kept the beasts from killing more of the guards. It seemed like they were going to be forced into another stalemate until one of the unarmored men got inside of one of the creature's reaches and planted a knife hilt deep right between the thing's eyes.

The creature immediately dropped its gruesome arms and legs, creating a clatter as it struck the stone floor. The man that had killed the monster stood over it, Ean easily able to see the shock on his face.

The death of one of their fellow monsters sent the other beasts into a frenzy. With a collective moan they started lashing out in every direction. The unarmored men were forced back, those not getting out of the way quickly enough receiving deep gashes to their arms and bodies. The beasts didn't stop there, though. Where before, they had stayed in the tunnel leading towards the living quarters, now they started to push towards the wider space of the junction. With danger surging towards him, Ean had to move.

Ulften was still standing next to Ean, the man's already pale blue face turning paler by the moment. If anyone could get the people calm enough to march out of here, it was him.

"Ulften. Your people..."

The man rounded on him faster than Ean expected, a small, curved blade suddenly in his hands. His face was twisted, the mouth snarling and his eyes glaring but with a slightly vacant look.

"This is your fault! Those things are your doing, and you led us all in here to die!"

Before Ean could even respond, the man thrust the blade straight at Ean's chest. Just as quickly, Azalea was there, her hand grabbing the man's wrist before the blade even got close to Ean. But it wasn't Azalea, the tan, pretty girl with blond hair that stood next to Ean, glaring at his attacker. It was Azalea the Yulari, her blue skin amplified the light coming off Ean's tattoos while her dark purple hair seemed to absorb it. Her leathery wings were folded closely behind her body, twitching slightly as she stared down Ulften.

A small smile spread across Azalea's lips, showing off her perfect teeth and two small fangs. She sniffed a few times at Ulften and her smile widened.

"You know what I am!" she said, a mix of surprise and pleasure in her voice. "You are emanating so much fear right now it's delicious, but it's more towards me than at those ugly beasts."

"I know what you are, temptress," Ulften replied, not bothering to mask the disgust in his voice. "Just another monster. I thought we were rid of your kind forever when the previous owner of these mines died." He finished his sentence by spitting at her feet.

"Not very polite, trying to kill my friend and now spitting at me." Her face twitched, and a crunching sound came from Ulften's wrist. The blade dropped from his hand, clattering to the ground, while he quickly pulled his hand back. The hand was limp and the wrist bone looked broken to Ean's trained eye.

"Azalea, we don't have time for this..." Ean began, but Azalea spoke right over him.

"I just saved you from receiving a knife to the stomach. Don't even try to lecture me on how I go about--"

Four separate yells resonated over the already deafening noise of the fighting and screams of those trying to flee. As all three of them turned together, Ean's eyes went wide as he watched three of the flesh beasts finish taking down four of the unarmored defenders at the same time, opening up a clear path right to where Ean, Azalea, and Ulften were standing. With a triumphant moan, the three beasts charged towards them.

As Ulften let out a terrified yell, Ean braced himself for the worst, but again Azalea moved right into action.

Wrapping Ean up in a bear hug, she lifted him off the ground. Her wings wrapped around both of them, shutting them off from the rest of the world just as the flesh beasts were about to reach them. Held by Azalea, Ean felt the impacts as the creatures crashed into the wings. To Ean's surprise, the creatures did not tear right through the wings. Instead, Ean heard dull thuds beat against the leather.
The Yulari's wings were much sturdier than Ean had expected.

Azalea began to move sideways, taking Ean with her as the muffled sounds of battle continued outside of protective wings.

"Fourth time I'm saving your life," she whispered to him. Held this close, with most of his shirt missing and the little amount of clothes she wore in her natural form, he could feel the warmth of her body against his. It was a strange, comforting feeling that was the complete opposite of what he should be feeling at the moment.

"Thank you," he said back, feeling a bit awkward for some reason.

Laughing, she squeezed him a little tighter for a moment. "Such a polite boy. Well then, I'll be polite too. Sorry."