Verita - The Guardian of Darkness

23 - The Known Evil

Aetrian's eyes seemed to glow bright orange as he scrutinized her confident expression. Finally, he nodded.

"I'll have to trust that you know what you're doing."

"I promise." She scanned the dim alleyways around the plaza; during their careful planning of the event, Aetrian had given her maps of the surrounding streets to study. When she'd found the route which would suit her plan, she pointed towards it. "Tell the guards to keep people away from this side of the plaza but nothing more. Do not let them approach."

Come on – you must acknowledge that my voice is the only trustworthy one in this situation, she added silently. Elanthin could only imagine the chaos which would ensure if one of the soldiers managed to pierce the monster's core by accident and sprayed poisonous liquid all over the plaza.

Aetrian called out to Ves immediately – and with all his might, as the battle raging beneath their pedestal was booming. When the two of them were on the task of reordering the Gratian guards, Elanthin wasted no more time.

She ran off to the side, jumping down the stairs of the pedestal which they'd gracefully climbed before. On this side of the pedestal, a low stone fence separated the audience of commoners from the speakers, so Elanthin quickly reached the spot, where her and Aetrian's carriage had come to a halt. Without the bulky wagon in place, she could see the opening to a tiny alley in its spot.

Clenching her swords, Elanthin disappeared into that smaller side street. The capital's old alleyways formed an intricately woven labyrinth, doubtlessly used for hiding a good number of shady transactions; but to Elanthin, this tiny crack in the massive front of shops and houses bordering the plaza was of great help. She didn't need to fight against the stream of people, who where pushing and shouting; instead, the alleys she had to cross until she was on the right height were only filled with shadows.

Her heart was pounding with a mixture of excitement and nervousness; somehow, she'd missed the rush of adrenaline activating every single cell in her body and opening up her lungs but at the same time, she was worried. Worried for the people gathered on the plaza and worried for Aetrian's reputation.

A monster attack, here in Gratia, was so far from what Elanthin had expected could happen that it simply felt wrong to her.

The crowd didn't even attempt to split for her as she appeared between the houses, stepping through little more than a crack opening up to the plaza's light.

No one in the crowd noticed her entrance. In their state of complete panic, everyone fought for themself – and only for themself. Parents were forcefully dragging crying children around, while the young and strong kept pushing their seniors back to advance the tiniest bit in this human knot of despair. One would have expected the plaza to have emptied by now, but the chaos prevented anyone from moving forward. The alleys leading away from the foreign horror growling in the midst of the crowd were sealed shut by people pressed against each other in fear.

It was with relief that Elanthin noticed a night blue coat next to her as she popped out of the dark alley. Her orders had been relayed, so the royal guards were doing their best to keep the panicked civilians out of the monster's reach. Having built a shield wall, they pushed back against hordes of confused people.

Elanthin questioned her decision to keep the soldiers away from the fight for a split-second. This way, it was just as likely that someone would get hurt. Pressing against the house facade next to her, she hesitated to throw herself into the crowd before it was under control.

Luckily, the turmoil seemed to settle somewhat, after the crowd was fully separated from the Deep's monster by a sturdy wall of soldiers and shields. The danger wasn't as immediate anymore, so a false sense of security spread amongst the people. Elanthin could see it in the faces of some of the commoners who where slowing down their escape: the spectacle started to be not only threatening but exciting; something they didn't want to miss.

Since the guards had succeeded in opening an empty corridor for Elanthin, the monster's disorientation was alleviated as well. It was still swaying but its large, bulging eyes started to fixate on the only thing inside of its shield-cage: Elanthin herself, who was using its hesitation to analyze what she was facing.

The monster was, as she'd expected, a low-class abyss crawler, meaning that it had four legs, which were sturdy and disappeared beneath the thick, charcoal fur. The rest of its body resembled a muscled bull. With every move, Nima – the sort Elanthin had finally managed to wash out of her clothes – fell out of the monster's fur and onto the cobblestone.

Don't you ruin my maid's efforts, sent Elanthin a mental threat to the monster, while stepping backwards, away from the crowd and towards the tiny alleyway in her back. It wasn't ideal to fight in a narrow space but there was no need to hurt the soldiers, who faithfully stood with their backs turned towards the monster. One wrong move of her or the creature and they'd be left with life-long scars if nothing worse.

She bent down to pick up a handful of tiny rocks from the floor. This technique wasn't sophisticated enough to be taught in textbooks but it had worked for her in the past. Abyss crawlers were as common as they were stupid, so it wouldn't take much more than a little provocation to lure it away from the crowd.

With a practiced move of her wrist, Elanthin flung some of the stones towards the monster. When it slowly narrowed its eyes – unable to blink in the absence of proper eyelids –, she threw some more. The swaying mass of charcoal fur started to move, nearly sweeping one of the soldiers off their feet.

The beast let go of a cry, louder than the previous groans, and the crowd erupted into nervous murmurs and screams from behind the shield-wall.

Despite the people's noise, Elanthin didn't care about her audience; she was focusing all her attention on the beast. Even though its behavior had been a little strange in the beginning, she was satisfied with the reaction she was receiving now. Such an angry cry meant that it had finally found its enemy – and there was no danger of it attacking random bystanders. Multi-tasking was beyond these crawlers, as she knew.

Elanthin could see the flame of rage burning in the monster's eyes. There wasn't much more to be found in these creatures apart from their all-consuming instinct to move, feed and survive.

Countering its glare, she freed her swords from their sheaths.

"Hello, old friend", she said in a bittersweet tone. "Let's go somewhere we won't be in anyone's way."

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