Chương 73: Chapter 72- A Storm of Shadows

If only he had his spear. Astra's brow furrowed in confusion. He wasn't going to make it. NO! Thump. A tearing sound echoed through his mind, and something in his chest tore loose as, in his moment of desperation, a lance of energy in the shape of spear blasted forth from the palm of Eli's left hand spearing into the chest of the shadow over Astra's shoulder, just as the blade it was wielding drew a thin red line leaving a single drop of blood to trickle down her neck. Thump.

Astra's eyes shot wide open as she slapped a hand to her neck over the cut, and Eli could see them dilate in slow motion as she surged to her feet. The shadow behind her was blasted off its feet, revealing a cloaked figure tumbling across the room. Thump. Astra spun and drew her blade in a single motion, a line of sizzling red plasma coated the blade.

The hurtling figure collapsed against the bar in a heap of broken furniture, and Eli dropped the steak knife and drew the dagger and swordbreaker from his waist as he stepped around the table. The few patrons in the dining room screamed and lunged for the exits as Theresa grabbed her daughter and dove through the kitchen door. Thump. Theresa kicked the kitchen door shut behind her, and as Elias swept his gaze across the room he counted at least two dozen figures at glance, maybe 30 total. Fuck. Doesn't matter.

Astra is alive and she is staying that way. Elias whirled around and stood back to back with Astra, gritting his teeth as he readied himself, the last of the diners fled the room, and the cloaked forms descended on them. As the diners fled the furniture was scattered across the floor and the resulting jumble as well as the long cloaks of their opponents was in their favor, they could only come at the pair a few at a time instead of drowning them in a sea of bodies. I can handle one or two at a time.

The first man swept in with a short sword that Eli caught with the comb of his swordbreaker, twisting the blade aside he swept the dagger in his off hand up into the man's ribs. Mira's training kicked in, and Eli remembered a piercing injury only worked in this world if you got the heart or the head, so he plunged the dagger four times in rapid succession until the figure went limp.

As the man dropped, another took his place with a pair of daggers, streaks of silver lit the air as Eli blocked strike after strike before parrying one to the side and he lashed out with a kick to his hip. The man folded and fell backwards, a surge in the drums in his chest roared and he spun to catch another figure slipping past his side to plunge a dagger into Astra's back.

Elias growled as the man fell away with a dagger in his eye socket in retaliation for ignoring Eli and striking at his partner, another crescendo of drums in his chest and a twinge of [Ranger's Resilience] caused Eli to turn back forward. A shadow with a bandolier and flicked its hands forward several times as Eli swept his swordbreaker back and forth, deflecting two blades but missing a third as it plunged into his shoulder.

Instinct and the thrum of the beat in his veins drove Eli to thrust his empty hand forward, his desperation and intent combining to launch another lance of mana forward, catching the man in the forehead, blasting a hole the width of his thumb through his skull. Eli grinned as he pulled the blade from his shoulder, the line sealed behind the blade, slowly but sealing none the less. His eyes willed his resources to flash into the corner of his vision, as the ache in his shoulder slowly eased.

Health: 180/200 Stamina: 189/250 Mana: 271/370 Well those spears aren't cheap but they are the best I got for range right now. A pair rushed forward side by side, one with a spear and the other with a mace and a shield. A mace is a bad match for daggers, but the spear is worse. Eli launched another spear of mana, punching through the chest of the spearman as the other man swept in trying to crush his skull.

He blocked the strike with one blade before ducking under an incoming jab of the shield and punishing the blow with a rising blade punching in the arm holding the small buckler from below. He spun with the blow and danced as the man tried to get around his guard. Astra bumped and grunted against his back as Eli held his ground, rooted in place to protect her blindside.

As he shifted back and forth conscious thought sank a little farther from his mind, and as he gave himself over to the blistering pace of dancing along the razor's edge from death the drums of war sang in his veins. He gave himself over to a restrained fury, blazing with adrenaline but with an iron will keeping a leash on the bloodlust that rose with song. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It was his tool, and his power, and the tune would bend to his desires, not puppet his body into the embrace of madness. Even as he struggled with the power he had never felt so alive, so free, a feral grin spread across his face as Eli gave out a wild laugh, as his opponent hesitated for just a moment at the glint of madness in his eyes. A moment is all I need.

Eli's blade darted forth, and with his enhanced speed and strength, his blade slipped behind his opponent's mace and cut a deep furrow through his throat as the man fell back choking as his own blood gushed into his open trachea. As the opponent slumped to the ground drowning as his blood flooded his lung, clutching about in panic as he died, Eli could muster no pity for the man.

The song in his veins flowed, and at the sight of his falling enemy the drums in his chest roared in approval, he called out in a derisive tone, " Is this the best you bastards can do?" He spat a wad of phlegm into the face of the next cloaked attacker as they slid into place, and he roared out with a laugh, "Pathetic." Eli heard Astra splutter out a breathless laugh of her own, as the back pressed against his own shook with amusement, " Aye, pathetic indeed."

She gasped for breath before she gave a cackle of her own, " Come now my counterpoint, let us show these poor songless bitches the true meaning of blood and flame." As she laughed, and the chorus of blood, screams, and the meaty sounds of butchery rose behind him he heard it, for the first time, he truly heard her song.

Eli had caught glimpses of it, over long duels with ringing steel in ringlight night, and in the clatter of wooden swords as they danced across grassy meadow under the sun in the bright blue sky, as their steps had synced slowly, dancing to a silent song only they could hear as the warm summer breeze swirled around them and cradled them in a gentle embrace. Even then he had only heard a note, maybe two, a soft lilting chorus at the edges of his perception.

A nearly imperceptible choir not heard by the ears, a gentle hymn of the soul that rippled through the depths of his chest, here one moment and gone the next. As they joined together, surrendering their senses to the dance, the flow and rhythm, the song the wove through the battle showed them the path, the footsteps that would keep them balanced on the tight rope over the gaping chasm below.

The rhythm guiding their feet along the invisible wire suspended over the abyss of death and misery, as the pair moved in a duet that joined their minds. Elias laughed again, long and loud, as he smiled wide. His heart sang with a joy he had always sought, even if he had never known what to look for.

He was nearly overcome with emotion as he heard a chanting hymn, an ephemeral choir that sang a vocal counterpoint to the drums in his chest, as he knew, in the depths of his soul, that the song they had beat had always been incomplete.

A lone drum circle around the campfire in the woods, the rattling tipple at the beginnings of a march, a thrumming boom of war drums sounding across a field, but never accompanied by the clarion call of the horns of war nor the rising battle cry of warriors surging across the field of battle.

His heart lurched in his chest, and with a snapping sensation that settled into a gentle warmth, he could feel a tether unfurl, a sensation he had often associated with the drums stirring and coiling, but this time he could feel a connection.

A thrumming vibration drifted through his torso as a mote of sensation settled within his mind, one strikingly similar to his connection to Tiamat, and he could feel Astra at his back, and he could hear her song in his heart as the connection twinned and wove together into a whole greater than the sum of the parts. Thump.

A beat of two hearts matched the beat of the drum and they spun together, Eli plunged his dagger into the eye of the man sweeping low with a mace to parry her sword, as Astra whirled and lopped off the head of the man that had been lunging forward to thrust a spear at Eli. As their previous opponents dropped away, they locked blades with their new opponents as they surged forward.

A pair wielding short swords attacked from either side, stumbling slightly in surprise at the change in opponents as each one shifted their attack to adjust for the unexpected change. Thump. Their hearts beat as one and, with a rising chorus, the pair spun again both blasting a spear of energy through the skull of their new opponents, Eli's a bright blue spear of raw mana and Astra's a thick bar of superheated plasma.

The pair of corpses slumped in eerie synchronicity, a trail of smoke acrid with the tang of cooked blood and flesh curling from the holes in their skulls as the bodies struck the floor with a wet smack. A new pair of assailants approached, leaping over the bodies of their fallen. Thump. Another beat and Eli lopped off an arm plunging a dagger towards Astra's back as she kneed an opponent that was ducking low to thrust a spear into Eli's side.

As the dead began to pile around them Eli was able to take a second to catch his breath and glance around the room. They had downed many of the cloaked assassins so far, but their numbers seemed endless, as he watched a few more streamed in through a broken window and from down the stairs at the back of the room. As he shifted his gaze and took in the room Eli could catch flashes of Astra's grin out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't need to.

He could feel her joy in their newfound connection radiating behind him, a gentle comforting feeling like sunshine on a warm summer day beaming down across his face. Just as he somehow knew she could also feel the joy in his soul, a reflection of the warmth he felt but as a kindled flame in her heart.

They laughed in sync, and as the dual tones echoed through the room their opponents paused to glance at each other for a moment, unease clear in the shifting of their postures despite the cloaks concealing their faces. A couple even let out an involuntary shudder as, unbeknownst to the pair, their smiles grew just a little wider at the same time, a hint of the wild ferocity of the song in their hearts.

Eli laughed at the absurdity of their ambushers' fear given the disparity in numbers and decided to take what advantage he could. He took a deep breath as if savoring the scent of blood and offal in the air, " I have to say Astra, you might be right… All I can smell is fear-" Eli smirked kicking away the hand he had just severed, the man it struck in the chest recoiling,"- and dead men walking." Astra cackled out a laugh, the battle resuming as they danced.