The last of the monsters falls beneath me, silence filling the air so soon after. Heavy breaths blow out the immediate space around me, and they simmer down. My eyes shift one way, and then another. Twitching even as they stop proper.
I turn around, looking over the army as they calm themselves down. The bloodlust that took them over going out into the steamy winds. Winds that stink so utterly of lost life and brutal war. But it doesn't matter now, all that matters is one thing.
We won...
"VICTORY!" I roar with all I have, heaving my greatsword into the air. The army echoes my words, screaming with all they have. From the highest-born knight to the lowest-born farmhand. Boys, men, it matters not. They all do what I did, do what I do.
Scream for Victory and her beautiful grace!
Not just victory over an enemy, but over monsters themselves. Not monstrous men, not awful people. Monsters as literal as monsters can be. Chittering creatures of freakish history and murderous intent. Body-snatchers and child eaters.
Everywhere I turn they are cheering, everywhere. Yet, the more I look around, the more my untouched sense calls to me. Magic is in the air. Not magic from me, magic from something else.
"The earth shaman...!" I realise, knowing full well we have faced no bug with the ability to cast magic. It's there, there near the Crack in the Sky proper. We've barely fought in the fortress, they all suddenly rushed out to fight us.
I march ahead, crunching my way through the field of bug corpses and more. Bloodied mud squelches and steel rattles. The view ahead changes, going with the motions. So much becomes clearer, especially the one thing I could never want to be clearer.
A lone osibindah, dressed in a heavy coat of crushed helms and threaded, rusty steel. It... He is laughing, laughing with sick joy that hoists his free arm in the air. His other one largely remaining grounded as a worrisome aura of brown coats his staff. The rocks jiggle, eagerly enslaved to the unknown power of the osibindah leader.
"To see you with my eyes, and not one of theirs. Heh, how curious," the bug tells me, his mood surprisingly light and joyous for what has just happened. He keeps his distance, but, somehow, I am seeing him act as if he... As if he wants to hug. Not a sinister one, just a hug as a whole. A thankful one.
"You can speak?" I ask rather pointlessly, the answer already there.
"That I can, that I can," the bug chuckles, "I also bear the gift of a name, which I give you regardless of your gratitude. Alxxcron."
"You are a monster, that is all I need to know," I say, raising my sword, "Now, if you are so gifted with thoughts, leave my home."
"No," he quickly answers, chittering away with such blatant severity. My eyes narrow, and I look around just to make sure I understand this all correctly.
"Your army is gone, slaughtered to the last bug. You are alone. No help. No reinforcements. No victory to be found. You will die if you stay." I clarify for him, condescending as much as I am contemptuous about it.
"No, no I will not go. And the loss of the hive remnant is nothing to concern yourself over. After all, all you did was free me. Free me to follow my own path, my own life. And my calling lies beyond you. I'm not after your life or any of your people's. I am, however, after a lone life that you harbour." he chitters away, stepping closer even as my magic throbs dangerously. It edges my steel, demanding his flesh for its sake.
Yet... Somehow, I know the answer to that riddle of a motive. He's after someone I harbour and there's only one person who sticks out. Nin.
Nin knows much about the osibindah, but for him to know all of this because he's being hunted by them... I'm confused. Was he fleeing the monsters? Is that why he lacked power? Too much fighting?
If I just let this monster past, give up Nin. I could save my kingdom any more pain. No. No I won't save my kingdom from the pain and fury of this beast. If he was attacking Nin, he would've avoided calling the army. He wouldn't be kidnapping my people and butchering them to his heart's content. This siege would not have happened.
I've seen enough to know what this Alxxcron is, who he is and what he thinks and feels. If he has come for Nin, then he's in the wrong place. If he's here for Nin, he's made the wrong choices. And I will punish him for all of them.
If Nin is a criminal to these monsters, at the very least, a criminal to one's like Alxxcron. Then I would've heard his plea. I would've held a court of law as is right by my position as king. But this bug has slaughtered my people, gorged himself on children and has laid waste to a tract of my kingdom.
"You will leave. Or you will die." I repeat to the bug, stepping closer and circling as he seems eager to pass by me as if nothing happened.
"If you will not stand aside, it is you who will die by my power. And, I'd rather not fight at all when I need to ensure victory against my certain someone." Alxxcron chitters, his face settling into a right foul state. His armour rattles, the earth rattles. Everything's rattling.
I step forward, flushing the magic into my step. The mud erupts outwards, an explosive to each stride. I appear before the bug, and his features twitch, a spike of rock knocking my sword aside. My body flies, rolling across the ground, and I force my way up.
"Stand aside." Alxxcron warns for the first and only time. I ignore him, striking ahead with renewed force as all one-hundred and fifty of my blades come out. Each of them rushing for him. He looks about, idly glancing at too many of them. A shrug lifts his staff, and an equal number of pebbles shoots up, knocking them about.
Only my greatsword maintains its heading, and he steps aside. The rock under my feet throwing me right into the air. I scream and yelp, flying with all the disorienting terror it brings. However, my horror is just as much a call for help as it is anything else.
The army stops, watching me rise and fall. I hit the ground, the sounds of battle renewed filling my ears. Complete terror fills out my veins. A clear grasp of what will happen to the men of my kingdom.
"RUN! DO NOT FIGHT! RUUUUUUN!" I scream with all I have, calling my blades back to me as I rush back into the fight. A wall suddenly rises, slamming against me as I run. The surface cracks and fractures, but the rock holds firm. The other side rings out, dozens of edges scraping against and pinging away as my concentration breaks.
I twist about, rushing for the nearest opening. A break in the fortress walls. My weight buckles the immediate remains, and I heave my way up and about. Coming out into the open, right as...
Right as serpents of solid rock coil and weave their way through the army. The lucky ones only go flying, but the bull-rushing rock splatters hundreds more. Many more getting their mangled corpses driven into the ground. A shield as much as it is a weapon.
Anger burns across my face, tightening my weapon grip, and I send them all against the earth shaman. Some reach him, slicing through that rusty steel of his, baring his full monstrous form for me to see. He turns and watches me, the serpents collapsing into dust and powder. A fog that travels on the screams of a single message.
"RETREAT!"
"YOU KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME!" I demand of Alxxcron, leaping for him against with the weight of a third of my blades at my back. The other hundred going around to attack him from all sides. Bit by bit at every opportunity. Some make it, others don't.
The cuts grow by the moment, drawing more and more of his sickly yellow blood. But not enough, nowhere near enough. Only thin lines. Thin, petty lines of nothing.
One wave of his vile claws and I'm flying again. Barely getting myself out of the way as a serpent forms to crush me. I call my blades back and swing ahead, many of them shattering as the earth shaman's magic reinforces the rock. Tearing apart the outreach of the Ancient Jhermonikra machine.
I pull out of my swing, spinning aside as too many handles and bits of silver rain fall. My legs fail me, and I trip and collapse, staggering about as I do my best to fight off what attacks he sends my way. I meet as many as I can, with too many making it through either way. My clothes tear apart, going as far as my blood without even paying the armour any mind.
Chunks of steel plate fly away, forcing me to tear off some as it is simply too loose. The lost weight barely saves me from new wounds, and each cut only slows me down more. One bit of rock gouges out my leg, another striking my sword grip free of its burden. I scream through the pain and snatch the blade right back up.
I smash aside but a tendril and keep backing up, taking more and more blows. Death is coming closer, I know it is, and no one is here for me. Not Daddy, not Nin. I am here alone, all that stands between my kingdom and this monster. I need to keep on moving, moving back with my sword raised.
All of my blades come, even what remains of those that have shattered. I spread my magic out into my fallen armour, treating it much the same as I stagger back. The earth shaman's magic lashes against me, knocking me around. Toying with me.
My foot comes crashing down, and my lungs bellow with all their fury and might. I swat aside one tentacle and take a blow from another one. I slice into the latest and the newest spears right through my side. My jaw keeps tight, even as blood lubricates it in its near entirety.
I spit a glob right out and meet the next blow, digging my feet into the ground as it pushes against me. Not with lethal force, just obnoxious weight. I can give in to the movement, but I don't. I stay up in my futile gesture, keeping to it as all these tendrils go around me.
The rock opens up, revealing the earth shaman in his full terror. Easing up on my efforts, I spit as the stone retreats, leaving me a bloodied mess. Taking what rest I can, I fall to my knees, ready to spring up at the first moment. What magic I have gathers, waiting for the first moment.
"Stand aside and keep your life." Alxxcron insists, the moment drawing a hearty laugh from him. He taps away at his head, something about it drawing much delight out of him.
"My life... My life...?" I go, initially wanting to spit at the offer. Yet, as it repeats on me, a certain terror comes to mind. A want to beg, a want to crawl and bow. Anything to get my life-
No!
"NO! MY LIFE FOR MY KINGDOM!" I scream up at him, flinging all the blood and spit I can. The earth shaman lingers, stirring about in his thoughts as he chitters ponderously. A serpent comes up, sharpening to a drill bit's point.
It puffs up in literal smoke.
"Hm. Freedom to even break my word. Hehehe..." the bug snickers, letting the stone all fall apart. The cloud of dust grows and grows, going out into the kingdom with fiery presence. He walks amongst it, not paying me any mind as my magic gathers and hones my sword's edge.
Everything else falls, all of it going into my main weapon.
My legs thrust me up, sending me into the air of my own will this time. I can't help but scream, the pain far too great as I wheel the blade up. I throw it down, slashing for the earth shaman's exposed back. He spins to meet me, a backhand his answer.