Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Sixteen

Knowledgeable in the art of pick up scuffles, every crew member wrested weapons away from their attackers within moments. The girls paired, mowing down the hoard in a full circle around themselves. It was a technique that played into both of their natural agilities. Challah was the stronger fighter of the two, but could work easily with another, unlike most of the men. Calder was protecting their one non-combat member, now that Ashsib wasn't in the category, who was making things difficult by trying to examine the bodies under the still-masks. The other three men were doing whatever they felt like. Vel with his sword, Pashqua had an axe, and Quinn was just smashing away with his fists. The endless combatants held no hesitation and the live ones had no choice but to do the same.

"How many crews do you think?" Vel asked the doctor in passing.

"What?" Elian skipped over a body sliding across the floor.

"Can you not distract the man, please?" Calder grouched.

"These animated corpse-people." Vel came closer to protect Elian as they talked, "How many different crews are here?"

"It's impossible to tell." Elian gestured across the room, "Unless they have some sort of distinguishing mark of some sort. They're all wearing the same type of robe, some have wounds but they're as varied as the people are."

"But it's safe to say it's probably more than one." Vel asked differently.

"A galleon could fit this many people, but yeah, it's safe to say." Elian nodded.

Vel gave a snarl and went back on his way.

"What was that about?" Calder said with his usual disgust for everything to do with Vel.

Elian shrugged.

"Watch out!" Calder shoved the doctor just as a blade came like an arrow to strike the floor where he had been standing.

The black blade quivered slightly, unharmed, as it lodged firmly in the wooden floor. Calder glanced over his shoulder. Ashsib was losing momentum, already his fur was thinning. The hoard hadn't waned much, despite the amount of bodies that were laying motionless on the floor. Calder grimaced, seeing one of the prone rise again. He turned back to Elian just in time to see the man grasp the hilt of Karihyou.

Elian only had a touch before retracting his hand. The palm was burnt raw. The doctor's knees gave out under him.

"Are you okay, Elian?" Calder swiftly caught him, halfway through the motion before he knew it was too late to try and stop the man, "You should know better."

"Yeah, I should." Elian quickly wrapped the wound in a bit of fabric torn from his shirt hem. "That was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced."

"Can you stand?" Calder asked, eyeing the still-masks coming their way.

"I'm afraid not." Elian admitted.

"Okay, well, I'll have to put you down." Calder dumped him unceremoniously.

Elian tried to make himself a small target, though he couldn't stop his eyes from glancing at the standing sword. As far as he was concerned, it was the most dangerous thing in a room full of enemies.

Ashsib was slipping ground rapidly, he couldn't seem to keep up with the Smile any longer. Namere wearing the mask was a lot different than the last one. The more Ashsib tried to strategize, the more he thought, the more he was in his own head instead of the Beast's and that slowed him. Smile stopped his calculating by round-house kicking him in the ribs. He flew through the crowd, bowling over dozens of the hoard as he skidded across the floor. Rolling head over heels, then side to side, he stopped face down. Certain he was human again, Ashsib didn't even have the energy to roll over. Someone helped him and it dragged a groan out of him.

"Are you alive?" Elian's dry voice spoke above the sound of a hundred pairs of feet on a hardwood floor.

"A bit." Ashsib found his eyes were closed and it took no small effort to open them. The lights made him wince and his head throbbed. "No, less than that."

"Well, it won't last very long even if you had a lot of it at this point." Elian sighed, "We are being overwhelmed."

Ashsib managed to leverage himself up on one forearm and look around. He and Elian were inside a shrinking circle of calm. Outside of that, a sea of faceless bodies crashed at the rest of his crewmates.

"Why are there none attacking us?" Ashsib wondered.

Elian shifted and thumbed over his shoulder, "That."

Karihyou stood gleaming, the runes flashing in the bright.

"They seem adverse to it." The doctor mentioned, "I don't blame them." He clenched a bandaged hand.

Ashsib recognized the look, "You saw it."

Elian nodded once.

"I think it must be what Hell is like." Ashsib whispered.

Elian nodded again.

Ashsib, in thinking about that shadowy place, got an idea. Drawing every ounce of strength he had left, along with a bit of help from Elian, he staggered straight. Karihyou had led them to Namere, had allowed him to touch it, and the Smile's minions avoided it. He wiggled the blade free, the wood gave way to it's edge with little effort.

"Hey! Catch!" Ashsib shouted, throwing the blade at the cloaked Smile with what strength he could muster. Perhaps Karihyou even helped. The sword spiraled straight at the grinning overseer and was caught deftly.

"Last ditch effort, Ashsib Pretzel?" Smile laughed.

"Oh, come on, you know my name isn't pretzel." Ashsib said, sinking back to the floor.

"You couldn't even touch me with this blade!" Smile scoffed, "Hich! Hich! What made you think-" The smile convulsed, the voice abruptly going silent.

The hoard did the same, turning as one to their master. They collapsed and none rose again.

The last masked figure slowly floated to the ground, shaking it's arm as if it were trying to loosen something tacky, but the hand remained clenched tight around the braided grip of Karihyou.

"How're you-!?" A strangled voice said, one not quite as much like Namere's.

The other hand also began to misbehave, struggling to rise as fingers reached. Slowly, it made it to the face and worked to the edge of the mask as a crawling thing.

"No! You can't!" The Smile was panicking now, moving as much as possible. Its shoulders jumped and it's neck whipped side to side in a strange dance.

Fingers pulled at the mask, and in a near simultaneous movement, ripped the silver disk free to throw it to the ground while the other hand used Karihyou to strike the mask dead center. Under the force of the blow, the smiling mask split cleanly in two, the mouth frozen in a grin. Everything was silent.

Namere, her face still painted clownishly, looked at everyone in turn and gave a frown, "You guys okay?" She asked before her knees hit the floor and her eyes rolled up.