Lilliad Chp 16

Lilli cut down monsters over and over again, but there seemed to be no end in sight. Every time she chanced to look up, the sky seemed just as black with them as it had when she’d started fighting.

“Are there more, somehow?” Elathor asked, sounding exhausted. They rattled off a spell, but Lilli could tell the power was waning in them.

‘Magic takes a lot.’ She noted, even as her body was aching and beginning to quiver from exhaustion.

“Unknown.” The unknown person grunted, bashing another monster with their shield. “But if we do not win or escape soon, we will all die.”

That thought did not appeal.

“We run.” Lilli said decisively. “There are more guards outside, and they can’t seem to fly over the walls. We’re better off making an escape.”

‘Even though they said they wouldn’t open the door unless it was all clear.’

She knew in her heart it was hopeless. But also, maybe the guards would change their minds.

‘It’s better to die trying to escape, at least. I’ve killed over fifty of these things myself. This is neverending.’

“When?” Igni asked, batting away another monster.

No one answered.

“We can try one last thing.” Elathor said, finally. “It will take all my energy and attention, however. I will need to be carried out, if we live.”

‘That’s the only plan we have.’

“Very well.” Elathor backed up against the wall and began to pull up their sleeves. “Don’t allow them to get to me.”

‘Why-’

Lilli turned fully back to her post, and backed up as well.

They surrendered the ground they’d recovered as a group, retreating into a tight formation. This seemed to confuse the beasts. A few drew back, and the hive mind seemed to influence others to sway with them. It reminded her of the patterns that birds make in the sky.

The ones that were already on them seemed further frenzied. Lilli barely saved her eyes from gouging claws. In her peripheral, she saw a stone fist punch one out of the sky. It flew until it hit a wall with a wet smack and slid down.

“Do not let them interfere.” Elathor stated, barely heard above the noise. “If they do, the spell may kill all of us, instead of all of them.”

‘Good to know.’

The knight was closest to Elathor, using a shield to bash away harrying ktharyis while slicing at others in the sky. The accuracy rate was about 50 percent, which she could recognize as impressive with the speed and agility they were facing.

Lilli kicked another ktharyis, and stabbed it. With the monsters in their midst being cut down, there was almost a lull. The horde seemed to draw back for a moment. It was as if the world was taking a breath.

Then Lilli felt an intense heat behind her, and the remaining ktharyis horde charged as a whole. It was too many. They had killed too many, but that was still too many. Blood was dripping into her left eye, obstructing her vision.

She saw light in her peripheral as she tensed, hands painfully tight on her weapons. They were slippery with blood and ...whatever was inside one of those beasts. Her heart went white-hot with fear that she was going to drop her daggers, that she was going to lose her grip and die.

All of the ktharyis dropped down at once, dive-bombing-

No.

There was a massive whumpf whumpf whump as hundreds of bony bodies hit the dirt, kicking up dust and sending discarded trash and weapons to scatter.

It felt like the world was holding its breath. It felt like something terrible was about to happen. Her heart was racing.

“Hmm,” said the strange knight. They ventured out to prod at a ktharyis with a booted foot. It flopped. She fought the urge to physically drag the armored stranger back into the huddled group.

“Not a very good spell,” Elathor said sadly. They wandered a few steps out, looking morosely onto what she was beginning to realize were hundreds of corpses. “I hope you don’t mind if I embellish in my memoir.”

“You’re planning your memoir?” the knight asked.

“You are not?” asked Igni. “I am. I have been narrating for hours.”

She twitched, tense beyond tolerance and out of her mind with fear. “Elathor, do we need anything else? Do you have enough information?”

“Oh, I would like to have some of these bodies,” they said. They ambled around, inadvertently  stepping on bodies that were apparently less choice. “This is nice. Ah, yes, exemplary. I want the hands off that one- and that head, that is a perfectly formed head.” They reached into a pocket, and pulled out a canvas bag. It was tied shut with an oddly nice, shiny, blue ribbon which Elathor loosened. They reached in with a claw to delicately pull out a second bag, far larger than the first bag.

She twitched again.

That bag was apparently full of glass vials and a shiny-looking paper, which Elathor used to wrap up choice cuts of demon spawn. The knight was the most useful in this, neatly severing joints at Elathor’s direction. Lilli was too tightly-wound to work quickly. When Elathor made the mistake of asking Igni, they hummed obligingly. They then proceeded to remove the requested legs by smashing the torso into bone fragments and delicately pulling the remaining flesh apart by yanking on both ends.

“Thank you,” said Elathor. “Please go stand over there, very far away from my samples.”

Igni seemed a little wounded.

“So that you can see if anyone is approaching,” the knight added. “You have a superior vantage point.”

“All my points are superior,” Igni agreed, perking up and standing guard by the entrance to the alley.

“Okay, can we go now?” Lilli realized that she was shaking. It was hard to see with the blood clotting in her eyelashes, but she didn’t have anything to wipe her face off with. There was probably ktharyis filth on all her clothes and hands. Blood was definitely dripping down the back of her neck.

“Oh yes, we should run,” Elathor said. They stretched. “I probably did not kill all of them.”

“What.” The knight’s voice came out flat.

“If I said that before, you might not have wanted to collect-”

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Lilli interrupted, pushing on Elathor’s shoulder. She broke into a run, and heard the others following. A few seconds later Igni blew past them, footsteps shaking the ground and leaving deep indents.

“You said that you could not run,” Elathor shouted, ever focused on the most important thing.

“I do not like to run,” Igni bellowed.