I lunge for the flag, my hand already curling around the handle. But just as my fingers graze the fabric, a shiver of fear slams through me. My senses screams its warning death is coming. Immediate and inevitable. I don't have time to think, only to act. My muscles coil, my body launching backward, a blur of reflex.
The moment I clear the spot where I was standing, the ground detonates. White spikes, sharp and glistening like teeth in a nightmare, erupt from the stone, shredding the floor where I had just been. The impact cracks the walls around me; dust and tiny fragments rain down. The flag I'd been about to touch tilts violently, sliding to the side as the eruption tears apart the throne room floor.
I snarl, head snapping around. The sound of my own teeth grinding fills my ears alongside the groan of splitting stone. My eyes, sharpened by the Fearmonger mark, catch movement immediately. Alexandra stands across the room. Her smile is wide and creepy and outside of the grey I can see the red color of her eyes burning with malicious anger.
"I can't fucking believe he lost," she says quietly, almost casually, but the disdain in her tone makes it clear she was pissed.
I narrow my eyes, muscles tensing. Hate and anger coiling in my chest, spiking up into my throat. My jaw locks, and I curse under my breath. The rest of the cohort all of them are useless fucking fools they failed to hold them off. My kill intent flares outwards with such weight that Lucian instinctively staggers back, cursing as he severs our mental link to shield himself from the oppressive surge of anger and bloodlust.
Alexandra only smirks wider. "Your plan was good. I'll give you that. But you took too long," she says, tilting her head. "Once we got that little annoying blood user," she plays with her hair and smiles again, "the rest fell relatively quickly."
I sneer as I listen to her talk and my hand tightens around the knife Lucian had given me earlier before we got to the castle. My fingers curl around it and without warning I throw it with as much power and violence as I can muster. The air whistles as the blade cuts through it, spinning toward Alexandra. I don't wait to see the outcome I yell and lunge for the flag, intent on snatching it before she can react. My heart hammers in my chest. However more spikes erupt in front of me. I barely twist aside in time, teeth gritting as one slices inches from my leg. Now that i see them up close as I realize the spikes aren't metal or stone. My eyes widen in horror and disbelief as I realize they're bones.
Alexandra laughs coldly and claps "Nice try," she says.
I land awkwardly on the crumbling floor and I sigh. My lungs burn. My body aches from the constant strain and the battle I just finished. But I push through it as I rack my brain for a new plan. But I can hear the bell ringing. I don't see a way to avoid her oppressive mark without full understanding it. Just as I decided to just to try and use Lucian as some type of bait
A roar shatters the air. Not a shout, not a growl. A roar.
The wall behind me explodes. Brutus. Shirtless, muscles gleaming with blood and sweat, covered in thousands of cuts. He wields a massive hammer like it's a feather. For a heartbeat, I'm just… frozen. The absurdity of his appearance and the comical size of his weapon nearly makes me laugh despite the worsening situation. What a fucking shit show this is.
Lucian's voice creeps back into my mind as he reopens the mental link cautiously. His tone is hesitant, almost fragile in contrast to the storm of my emotions. "I think we're fucked, man," he says sadly.
I sneer. About to respond then I see Ala join the other two. FUCK ME SIDEWAYS I think bitterly. This room is to crowded with enemies. I don't even know their fucking marks.
"Surrender" Ala calls to us "It's over save yourself the beating"
I'm about to agree when Lucian spits "Why? Cant finish the job?"
I roll my eyes and sigh. So much for that.
Brutus cracks his neck loudly, hammer resting against his shoulder. "Enough talking you gave them a chance. Can we kill them already?"
Alexandra sighs quietly, twirling a bone spike between her fingers like she's bored, though her eyes never leave me. "Try."
Lucian murmurs through the link, voice small, "Ayato… what do we do?"
I don't answer immediately trying to formulate some type of plan through my exhaustion.
Alexandra laughs amused. "Oh, sweetheart, you don't have time to think."
Her arm jerks and bones at my feet explode upward. I throw myself sideways as a cluster of spikes tear through where my chest had been a heartbeat before. The floor erupts again behind me causing me to lose balance as i stop on a dime to avoid being skewered.
Fuck me sideways.
Brutus charges with a roar, hammer lifted high ready to smash into me but before he can Lucian flies out of nowhere kicking him in the side of the head causing the big boy to fly across the room into a wall with a boom.
I blink in shock not comprehending how that actually worked. Unfortunately I don't have time to wonder as the boar was already back up and screaming. Lucian grins at me and shrugs "I'll take care of him you got the others"
"Oh okay yea" I mutter in disgust
Alexandra snaps her fingers and bones erupt under my feet. I leap, twisting midair as the spikes tear past my legs. I sneer as my eyes search for Ala. Where did that bitch go.
Cold sweat breaks along my spine as I spin, trying to feel her, sense her, anything. I feel a whisper of air move I jerk away instinctively and steel flashes past my neck. Ala reappears mid-strike, her arm already pulling back into another attack.
My stomach sinks.
I've seen something like this before. It's similar to my royal trainer Edith.
I watch her as she phases out of solidity once again. She's a wraith.