Chapter 68: The Long Night (2)

Chapter 68: The Long Night (2)

Xerxes looked in that direction, but didnt have a good angle of view.

Here they come, someone said a few cubits away.

One of the spider-like Abhorrent, the lower-level kind without the maroon face, managed to get past the wooden stakes. A soldier impaled it with a spear.

Another came over, to be sliced in half with a sword. A putrid odor rose up.

Far in the distance, something caught Xerxes eye. A topless woman.

Shit, he thought. Squinting, he verified that it was a pale-skinned woman with long white hair, and the lower body of a many-legged spider. Whats she doing? Just standing there?

His eyes shifted back and forth as he looked for more. So far, there was only one, and she was indeed just standing there.

An Abhorrent spawn lunged at him. He slashed it in half. Another followed. It suffered the same fate.

Then the fighting began in earnest.

The spawn didnt stop coming. Xerxes blade was black with gore, and in the brief seconds of breathing time he occasionally found, he looked left and right at the soldiers on the mound, and all were in similar situations.

However, there hadnt been any casualties yet.

What was more, he hadnt cast a single spell.

He heard screaming to the west, but the angle of view was still bad, making it impossible to tell what was happening.

Another spawn leaped at him. He skewered it and pushed it off his blade with his foot.

Then a white streak shot at him, followed by another, and another.

Shes here. The juvenile.

The Abhorrent said something in her language as her severed fingers retracted, then started to grow again.

However, Xerxes used the momentum hed generated by the wild swing of the sword to lurch forward, bring the sword up, and then slash it down.

Numerous spindly legs flopped to the ground, and the Abhorrent backed up.

He bent his legs and jumped.

The sword stabbed into her belly. She screamed.

He reached out with his free hand, grabbed her shoulder, and shoved at the sword, causing the blade to whip to the side within her. It ripped out of her, along with a jumble of internal organs.

Then he brought it back around toward her neck. The blade bit into her, but didnt sever her head as hed hoped. Nonetheless, she fell, bringing him with her.

They landed in a flop of spider-like legs, blood, and gore.

She was dead.

Trying not to retch, he yanked his blade from her neck and got to his feet.

An Abhorrent spawn slammed into him from the side, knocking him down.

He punched it. Twice. Three times. It fell away, and he kicked it, sending it flying several cubits away.

First Lieutenant, Sergeant Stratos yelled. Get back ere. Theres more of em!

Xerxes ran, planted his foot, and jumped. Grabbing the end of one of the wooden stakes, he pulled himself over it and landed on the mound. Then he turned to look back out at the field.

There were four more juvenile Abhorrent like the one hed just killed.

Behind them was a fifth who was larger than any of the others by twofold.