Lilliad Chp 15

Something told her “MOVE!!!”

Lilli dodged and rolled, just before hearing a screech and a sickening crunch on the wall behind her.

She was surprised she wasn’t shaking. That her knees weren’t buckling under her, and surrendering. But something about this level of fear made her hands and fingers steady as they swiftly pulled out her daggers, without her even seeming to will it.

Igni roared off to her right- and there was a loud crash and a squelch.

The air startled to feel electric, buzzing on her pale lilac skin.

‘That would be Elathor’s magic, if I had to guess.’

Whatever was keeping her steady told her it was a bad idea to look around at the moment. Bearing down in front of her were several ktharyis, ugly fangs bared.

‘Well. Here goes.’ She gulped down dry breath and put her daggers into a defensive position. ‘Hope I live.’

They came in a swarm.

Lilli swung up with her left arm, tearing a satisfying hole into one ktharyis’ wing. Teeth near her face demanded her attention, so she dropped down into a crouch, barely avoiding the diving enemy. It screamed in irritation, and it felt like the noise made her brain vibrate. She shook her head to shake it off, because the downed ktharyis was crawling towards her on the ground.

There was a great booming sound, followed by crackling, in the direction of her friends. Lilli thought maybe she could hear screaming but-

The creature launched at her, and swiped their claws near her knees. Lilli kicked it away reflexively, then stabbed into it. The responding screech made her feel a little better.

There was something sharp in the back of her leg, and it made her nearly fall to the ground. As she turned, she felt something crack. A ktharyis swooping away with her blood dripping from its claws answered any questions she might have had about the pain radiating up her leg.

‘I was careless, I forgot how many there were.’ she realized. ‘They can cooperate.’

But if they could cooperate, so could she. She stomped on the wounded ktharyis with her injured leg, ignoring the pain, and was gratified to feel it dying under her rapidly numbing foot.

Then she ran back in the direction of her friends, into the cloud of dust and viscera. Igni was punching the ktharyis horde back into the air, and Lilli had to dodge the fallout. She looked up, and Elathor was moving their mouth, and raising a talon into a motion.

Fire erupted from the ground, belching up into the sky. It leapt up and grabbed both prone and active ktharyis, dragging them into the blue-hot center of the flames and back below the earth.

Lilli stabbed another monster, whirling around on her one uninjured leg. Igni seemed to see her, and punched two massive fists into the ground, causing it to crack and release more flames up, creating a clear path for Lilli to follow.

Lilli didn’t take the time to think about it, and dove to the relative safety. She wasn’t built to take big hits, no matter how fast and sharp her daggers were.

Her vision went black, and she fell to the ground. She felt her body collide into the earth without bracing, because her hands were gripped too tight around her daggers.

‘Can’t let go. Won’t let go.’

It was like she was trapped in her own mind. She could feel a resounding numbness regarding her body- she knew it was there. But she couldn’t move it. Couldn’t make her eyes see.

“That’s right, lie down.” A voice seemed to whisper into her ear. “Just let go.”

‘No. Can’t let go.’ She thought rebelliously. ‘Fucking monster.’

“Let go of the daggers and we can help you.” The voice suggested. “You don’t need to be scared. We’re friendly. We’re just defending ourselves. If you put the weapons down…”

Lilli tried to scream. The darkness around her didn’t seem to move. She couldn’t let go of her daggers if she wanted to, but she wouldn’t have done it anyway.

‘Let me fight back, you fuckers.’

“Why would you want to-” the voice cut off. There was a blinding light, and it gradually set the world into fuzzy shapes. Lilli blinked, noticing that feelings  were returning from the head down.

She closed and opened her eyes.

Something slammed down in front of her, and some pressure on her body informed her that someone or something was basically on top of her.

The sounds returned and almost instantly became deafening, a roar of clanging and splattering, wet thuds, screaming.

Lilli found a face in front of hers, and it wasn’t even dead.

“Hi.” Said the stranger. “It is a pleasure to make- HURGH” as they stabbed something above her head, “your acquaintance.” Their features were a bit blurry, even if they weren’t covered in blood and grime.

‘Bizarre.’

Lilli then realized the pressure on the back of her head was hard.  Hard like a metal shield.

Oh.

“Hi.”

‘What a nice place to make a friend.’

She sat up and crawled out of her temporary refuge, shoving a dagger up in the air just in case. It hit flesh, dragging along the belly, and the ktharyis flew into the wall of flames behind them.

“Thanks.” The bloody person said. “We should get back to your friends, I had to leave the magician without a right flank.”

Lilli peeked out, seeing that Igni was indeed blocking Elathor with her entire body.

‘I’m sure that’s not best practice exactly, but I also feel like Igni could count as two flanks.’

Still, Lilli obliged, taking the stranger’s hand and standing. The back of her head was very very wet.

‘I absolutely do not want to know right now.’

She sprinted back towards Igni, slicing haphazardly in front of her. Her daggers hit true no matter how erratic her swing, cutting monsters out of the air like they were nothing.

Lilli dove behind Igni, choosing to put a moving wall between herself and the majority of the ktharyis. She popped back up near the wall, between her friends.

“Nice to see you’re alive.” Elathor said conversationally. “After you tried to go it alone out there. How are the flesh wounds this time?”

Lilli had the sinking feeling that the ktharyis were less judgemental company. She didn’t respond.