Edmund dropped to his knees beside Astrid, placing a hand on her massacred skin. Sweat beaded on the captain’s face, and bluish bags hung under burning eyes that used to be cheerful.

  The wounds moved. Flowing over the skin like leaves in a stream, drawn towards Edmund’s palm. The captain groaned in pain, dark red blooming through his shirt.

  He slumped, while Astrid's color returned.

  The girl's eyes cleared, and she blinked away the rain.

  “You need to heal the captain.” Wretch shouted. “Now!”

  She turned around in confusion.

  Wretch grabbed her wrist, and pressed her hand against Edmund’s chest.

  “Do it!” He pleaded.

  Her green eyes stared into his, a crack running through her glasses, hair, clinging to her cheeks in wet strands.

  Her eyes turned to fire.

  The captain’s raspy breath became calmer by the second.

  “I got it!” she whispered, sitting up straight to hold the captain in her arms despite the blood which pulsed out of his gut.

  Wretch exhaled, a knot loosening in his chest.

  He spun around and left the bloodied pair.

  Elenya was a blur of motion. Fiery eyes and red skin moving in a whirlpool of violence. The halberd slammed and chipped at the crab-like armor. The remaining eel's head hung limply.

  Her face was blank, as if in a trance of violence.

  Wretch crossed the fifteen meter gap in quick strides. The creature didn’t notice, preoccupied with the nightmare of steel and fury before it.

  He charged the biggest leg he could see, and held the blade with both hands, putting his entire weight behind it. He smashed against the carapace of the leg, ramming the blade deep into the joint. The massive body shuddered and Wretch pulled back, yanking his blade free.

  With a tremor, the Corpse Child fell to the ground.

  It crawled, dragging itself towards Elenya. With the superior reach of her halberd, she took a step back, continuing her flurry of cuts.

  Wretch held his distance, looking behind to see Edmund and Astrid limping towards them, both covered in blood, but moving.

  “Let me kill it!” he shouted to Elenya.

  She cut down with the halberd, ripping through another twitching leg.

  “You going to grow a shell or what?” She answered.

  “Oh, come on, I want the scales. Besides, Astrid and Cap almost died back there.”

  She scoffed, finally cracking the twitching crab-claw. “ Get to it then.”

  Elenya did a sweeping strike, severing the lone claw as Wretch jumped up on the cracked shell.

  The eel’s head twitched weakly, its spine jutting through the torn flesh. Cuts and cracks littered the shell, some of them deep enough to reveal a white fleshy tissue underneath.

  Wretch clung to it, sliding the Blinking blade through one crack on its armored head. It pierced downwards, and he pushed with all his weight. He felt it cut through organs and membranes.

  The creature gave off struggling clicks, it remaining legs reaching forward. Then it grew still, a soft light appeared deep in the creature's gut.

  “We did it!” Wretch said with a grin. “We beat that thing.”

  He raised a fist to the sky, standing atop the massive corpse. Pulses of white light came from the east, followed by a piercing shriek that rattled the nearby windows.

  The storm shuddered.

  “Good job team,” Edmund called. “Kid, get yourself in order! Flame levels?”

  “Half,” Wretch answered, struggling to pull his blade out of the shell.

  “Half,” Astrid said.

  “less than a third,” Elenya said, wiping damp red hair from her eyes.

  “I have a fifth! So let’s be careful.” Edmund clipped the breastplate back on. “We’ll pull out the coal later. First, check that collapsed building, there might be survivors.”

  Wretch jumped down to the wet cobblestone as a painful and twitching heat crackled and churned in his chest. He took a deep breath as a pulse of flame flushed through his system. Whispers and growls of beasts tore at the walls of his mind, but he knew how to parry it now, focusing on the sensation of his sore muscles.

  After a moment, he breathed out.

  “I Kindled.” He said with a smile.

  “Oh. me too,” Astrid answered while nudging up her cracked glasses.

  “Me as well," Elenya added with a boastful shrug. “Not that strange.”

  She grinned at Edmund. “Maybe I deserve a raise, right captain... captain?”

  He was staring up to the sky and his eyes lit with fire despite him not using any blessing. “Even an old dog like me.” Edmund said. “It’s been two years since I last kindled.”

  Wretch picked up a scale that had stuck to his claw, then placed it on the tip of his tongue. It was salty and putrid, but he swallowed it regardless.

  That’s the fourth time I’ve kindled already, in only a few short months, it’s moving faster than expected, he thought.

  To his mind’s eye, the colossal form of Blavssish, Corpse Child appeared beside the kindled Ember. Its shell and claw as intact as before the battle. The eels had their head bowed towards his flame, scales glistening in the light. He'd find a use for them.

  They moved towards the broken house and Astrid stepped up close to him.

  “Thank you,” She said. “For back there.”

  “Don’t mention it!” He said. “It all worked out in the end.”

  “Just… please don’t grow a crab claw.”

  He flashed a lopsided smile. “No pincers. Maybe some of that eel-skin though. It was tough.”

  “First a rat and now scales like a snake. Are you collecting every vermin?” Elenya said and slapped him on the shoulder.

  Wretch stuck out his tongue towards her, and Astrid sighed.

  The storm was losing intensity as Wretch listened to the sounds from the east. Trying to glimpse as much as he could from the fight between the horror and the Saint herself on the far side of the Outer Wall. The sight might hurt his mind, but it was worth. They were so far above, he couldn’t even fathom how he’d reach them, if he even could.

  “Seems like the Saint won her fight as well.” Edmund said with a sigh of relief.

  Wretch opened his mouth to speak, but froze.

  Footsteps.

  Subtle under the waning rain, but certainly there.

  “We’re surrounded,” He said, turning towards the noise. “Humans.”

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  They looked at him in surprise, just as something crackled through the air. Edmund threw up his shield in front of Astrid.

  A bolt of lightning crashed against the metal, sending jolts of electricity outwards.

  The captain groaned, a hiss coming from his skin.

  Five figures emerged from alleyways and shadowy streets, each wearing soaked cloaks and masks of exaggerated emotions. Rage, joy, sorrow, disgust and surprise.

  “Tssk, thought I had her.” Rasped a man under a bone-white mask frozen in an expression of laughter.

  “After the altercation at the gates, we should be grateful they came at all. Remember, killing them is secondary. Securing the target is what’s important.” Said another one, a tall figure holding a jagged longsword with a mask of a sorrowful face.

  Edmund lowered the shield. Astrid’s healing hands touching his side.

  Wretch and Elenya whipped forward their weapons.

  “It's the bastards from the sewers!”

  “Gentleman,” Edmund called through gritted teeth. “Quite the unfortunate weather. I found one of my colleagues dead on the way here. You wouldn’t know anything about that?”

  He didn’t wait for them to respond, continuing in a low whisper.

  “We will charge towards the right, even the numbers. On my call.”

  “Let's slaughter them,” Elenya hissed and Wretch felt his heart beat faster.

  The man with the jagged sword ignored them.

  “Alyona, how much do they have?”

  “They’re all less than half,” answered a female voice from the right, clad in a large robe and with an exaggerated shy mask.

  “I will take the shield bearer,” the swordsman in the grieving said. “You deal with the rest.” His eyes lit with fire and on the other side of the battlefield, tattoos of thorns twisted along Edmund’s arms, conjured by some unknown blessing.

  “Now” the hunter-captain called.

  They all exploded into movement across the cobblestone. Edmund took up the rear with raised shield. Elenya and Wretch, leading the charge towards the woman with the shy mask.

  Chains slithered down her sleeves, moving as if possessed.

  “Don’t kill the boy!” a shout came from behind.

  Elenya swung her halberd in an arc, but the chains were faster. One wrapped around the shaft, tugging it off course, another snapped towards them like a whip.

  Wretch ducked beneath it, but Elenya couldn’t, her figure too tall. Instead she thrust the pommel of the halberd into the ground.

  The metal links cracked against her armor and coiled around her.

  The hostile Blessed pulled at the chains. But Elenya didn’t move, far too strong to be staggered by some possessed metal links.

  The masked woman didn’t falter for long, the chains retreating under her cloak.

  She'd hesitated only for a moment, but that was all Elenya needed. She grabbed one rattling chain and pulled with all her inhuman strength.

  The masked woman stumbled forward, straight into Wretch’s waiting claws.

  He dodged under a lash from her weapon and thrust his blade into her stomach, it tore the cloak and met squirming, linked steel beneath. The hidden chains wrapped around the blade.

  He released it. He had other weapons.

  His clawed fingers swiped at her throat. She moved, but he caught the side of her face instead. The ceramic mask cracked, his claws slicing through skin and flesh.

  She screamed and clutched her bleeding face.

  “Alyona!” came a furious shout from behind.

  The chains grew wild, thrashing about uncontrollably. Wretch danced through them, the Blinking blade burning back into his hand.

  Enemy. He thought, pushing away any notion that these people were anything but Blessed beasts.

  With a backhand grip, he slammed his weapon into the back of her skull. Her body and the chains jolted into a shudder. Then slumped to the ground.

  Wretch turned around as Elenya freed herself from the limp chains, raising her halberd.

  “Next.” She said in a flat tone.

  The other masked ambushers were dashing across the plaza, one of them levitating cobblestones by his side, flinging them towards Edmund in a deadly barrage. Elenya and Wretch passed Astrid and took positions beside him.

  “Give them hell.” Edmund said, his pupils turning to fire as Elenya raised her halberd and Wretch licked his lips.

  They braced a second before the two sides collided, steel against steel and the thunderous explosions of Blessed power. It was chaotic, strikes and shouts splitting the air.

  Edmund raised the shield against a storm of shooting cobblestones, while fending off the masked swordsman. Each strike was savage and Edmund was forced backwards, blow by blow.

  Elenya threw her halberd, whipping forward twin short-swords from her armor.

  She fought two attackers, one wielding a lightning-charged rapier, the other one held two knives and could turn into a blur, obscuring his movement and strikes.

  Wretch threw himself into the fray against the rapier wielder, his face obscured by a laughing mask.

  He was inhumanly fast. Keeping his distance, then darting forward in sudden lunges and striking at his limbs. Wretch dodged under a flying stone as the man accelerated from a standstill, twisting to dodge the strike and slash at the wrist with his blade. The man had already disengaged.

  A heavy thud to his right. Wretch turned, Edmund staggered backwards, blood trickling down his neck, despite his intact armor.

  The man with the grieving mask and the greatsword swung again. Edmund blocked, but still a cut formed on his face.

  To his left, Elenya was holding her own against the blur, a whirlwind of blades with red skin and fiery eyes, but even she showed fatigue.

  The earlier battle had cost them too much.

  In the back, Astrid struggled to shield herself from crashing rocks, Edmund unable to cover her.

  If they get her, it’s over, Wretch thought. Ducking under another rapier strike.

  We’re too outnumbered. Our flame too low. It’s only a matter of time.

  He stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding a thrust. Aimed not at his heart, or head. But towards his knee.

  He’s not trying to kill me…

  The realization snapped into place. They had spoke of a target, one they needed alive, his inhuman ears had heard it clearly.

  They want me, they were talking about me.

  His mind raced and after a halfhearted attack, he pivoted. Bursting into a sprint towards the edge of the square, away from the fight.

  He threw a last look at the Richter’s fighting in the rain. Outnumbered and desperate.

  He kept up his speed, rushing forward with everything he had.

  They’ll follow…

  The clamor continued, had he been wrong?

  Please.

  “Gregory! You'll deal with the hunters. The rest after him!” A shout came from behind.

  Yes! He thought without looking back, satisfied with the sound of following footsteps and crashing cobblestones around him.

  He slid into an alleyway, picking up the pace.

  “Wretchy!” Astrid’s voice called behind him, but he didn’t stop.

  He heard feet sliding on wet stones, followed by a whistling sound as he zigzagged forward. With a crack, a stone struck his shoulder. Pain erupted, his black bones held but the tendons tore. He gritted his teeth and regenerated it, biting through the pain.

  Taking a right, he came into another alley, filled with trash and pipes clinging to the walls.

  He threw the Blinking Blade into a pile of waste, climbing the pipes with practiced movement and both hands. Heaving himself up to the one story roof, he paused long enough for his pursuers to see him. Then bolted away, boots slapping against the wet roofs.

  Through the calming rain, he saw the towering spires like jagged teeth beyond the Inner Gate. If he could just get to them and begin climbing, he was sure no one could catch him.

  He jumped over an alleyway, taking a quick look behind while soaring through the air. A masked figure landed on the roof, they were fast.

  He rolled to his feet as stones crashed around him. Something slammed against his leg with an audible crack. It suddenly didn't bear any weight, and he tumbled back to the ground as his foot refused to listen.

  He looked down. A cobblestone had crashed into his calf, leaving a fist sized crush wound. He rolled towards the edge of the roof and slid down along a drainage pipe.

  His pursuers came to the same roof only moments later to see Wretch sprinting up the road.

  “Get down, now!” The Sorrowful mask shouted.

  “The boy really can heal.” Another wheezed.

  Wretch ran towards the spires above. His lungs burned and his legs screamed but he didn’t stop.

  The Inner Wall was close. He was almost there.

  He’d saved the team, they’d survived the night and the twins were waiting back home. Just a few more yards. Almost there.

  Almost.

  Something heavy slammed into the back of his head.

  Everything blinked into darkness.

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