IN FULL COLOUR - Dark Fantasy

Axel

A black shadow passed through us, and a few feet down the hall, it turned into a feline-shaped predator, stalking down the corridor to make sure the coast was clear for their king. When I half-turned, I saw Coyne’s other two Regmus beasts prowling after us, flanking us on either side.

Their eyes burned bright with wickedness and dark shadows trailed behind them like hell itself was seeping out of them on a phantom wind.

“Your other creatures? Where are they?” I asked, grunting under the weight of the young king as we struggled down the stony steps of the guest wing.

Sweat was running down Coyne’s neck, his face, and skin so pale, the swirls of blackness underneath stark against his flushed form. “The forest. Waiting on my command,” he ground out, grinding his teeth in agony.

Underneath the grip I had on him, I could feel his muscles tensing, spasming in need of the drug it so desperately craved. The Serpent Queen’s poison.

“They should have been detected by now,” I retorted.

“Impossible, not without my command.” His eyes met mine and I could tell there was no deception hiding behind his words. “Shadows don’t have scents; they cannot be detected.” Coyne convulsed, his muscles contracting painfully in yearning, but he clenched his fists, bared down on his teeth and the convulsions subsided slightly.

I pitied him deeply but kept moving, we couldn’t stop, I needed to get him to safety.

“My creatures do not possess any natural scents and can equally mask the scent of any being it dwells in. They cannot be detected. Not unwillingly at least.” Coyne’s words came out in bursts as he spoke in between his breathless panting.

The Regmus beast in front of us roared viciously as three Dire Mountain warriors came sprinting around the corner, their eyes wide and weapons drawn. One of them stumbled back harshly as the Regmus swiped blackened angry claws towards him. It was a display of dominance I realized as soon as I saw it. If the beast truly felt threatened, the wolf warrior would have been a puddle of guts and blood.

“Take the king,” I ordered, struggling out from underneath his heavy, quivering body, “take him to the stronghold and call for Pam, she’ll know what to do.” The warrior nodded frantically as I spoke and took my place under Coyne’s arm.

“Axel,” I turned to look at the battered king one last time, “my forces will not let them leave alive.”

Coyne hadn’t spoken much since his arrival, but when he did speak, he managed to unsettle me deeply.

And yet again, his words hit home.

My mind tore back to the image of him stepping out of the forest the very first time we saw him. How the blackness had seeped out of the trees, covered every inch of the forest and disappeared instantly on his command. The sight had given me nightmares for days, not to mention the sounds that had bored through my ears and pierced my soul with its unearthliness.

He had powers and creatures under his command we could not even begin to fathom and right now, he was an ally. One I was increasingly grateful for.

I nodded in understanding, his eyes conveying an unspoken message of the violence and bloodshed that was to come.

“Protect the king at all costs, get him to the keep, now!”

I did not wait to see them haul him away or what his beasts did. I was needed elsewhere.

On the frontline, I found Beast, Dorian, Jarryd, and the rest of my men armed to the teeth and fighting fiercely. High fae, swift as vipers and dressed in the armour of dusty gold clashed blades against them. Metal scraping against metal and war screams filled the air. My men were covered in dirt, blood and a strange black substance I quickly realized was the colour of Aqrabuamelu blood as another one of those creatures broke through a building to my left.

My fists closed around two of the hunting knives I had strapped to my belt earlier, and I crouched into a fighting stance as the half man, half scorpion set its sights on me.

Fighting and training with blades had always played a fundamental part of warfare amongst us, an unspoken rule between supernatural creatures to avoid human eyes looking our way and possibly discovering our existence.

The creature had a human upper body and grinned down at me. A savage, cruel smile promising death.

I felt no fear as I lunged at it, one dagger flying for its exposed chest, while I slammed the other down on its hard, armoured exterior. The blade shattered on impact, and I was flung backwards as one of its pincers clamped down on my ankle and tossed me aside like a bag of potatoes. When I hit the ground, I heard a loud crack but had no time to inspect the damage as the creature roared, and slammed its poisonous tail down, aiming for my chest. I rolled away, escaping by mere inches as the fat black stinger pierced the foundation beside me, leaving a large hole in its wake.

My heart skipped a beat, but I was on my feet again palming my dagger. A harsh laugh tumbled out of the man’s mouth as he angled his stinger again, the tip dripping with a clear green liquid.

Shit.

More and more wolf warriors joined the fight to my right, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the Aqrabuamelu for a second.

It struck again, but this time I was ready, pivoting out of the way as the stinger smashed into the ground, sending bits of concrete and stone flying everywhere. I wasted no time jumping onto the length of the tail and flinging my legs around it, straddling it and clinging to it with all of my strength.

The creature’s face contorted in anger and he ripped his stinger out of the ground, hoisting it over his head in one swift move, me hurling along with it. When I was right above him, I twisted around and slammed my dagger down, hitting the massive blade into the top of its skull, burying it to the hilt in brain matter and gore.

I crashed to the ground as the creature’s body went limp, its stinger barely missing my head, only to be hoisted onto my feet a second later and dragged away by Jarryd.

“We need to move, now!” He yelled as I struggled to find my footing but strangely kept up with him.

Around us more warriors ran, retreating to the safety of Lighthaven. Phase two of the defence plan.

We fought as we ran, but they were too many. We needed to get out of the open and fight them on more equal grounds.