The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

From Ruin: Victory

The rubble that filled the roadway shifted uneasily before, with a grinding rasp, a large chunk was pushed out of the way and a hand emerged. To only be snatched back when it began to glow and smolder in the daylight.

'My EM shield must be damaged!' Lash grimly thought as he waited for the tingling burn of overexposed nerves to recede.

In his long years as a soldier, Lash was no stranger to pain. It had taken some effort but eventually he learned how to channel it and harness it into driving him forward and succeeding where others failed.

The pain he was feeling in this moment, however, bordered on the very edge of what he could tolerate and still function. The big vampire had been knocked out by the artillery shell exploding nearby to send a hard wave of percussion over their position. The pain was enough to pull him forcibly from that welcoming darkness, howling in rage all the way.

Teeth grit against the agony, he nevertheless tried to assess the extent of his injuries. If they were repairable, he needed to do so, and as quickly as possible. With this entry point into the cavern breached, the White Flames had a straight line to the Castle, and its current guest of infamy, the arch traitor, Skol Demaskieros. He needed to do what he could to stop the modified humans from extracting their ally. Or this whole war would've been fought for nothing!

Almost immediately the big vampire was able to look through ghost pain to determine he was missing his right arm at the shoulder and leg just below the hip. And his left leg was still attached, but horribly crushed. Whatever had happened in the time shortly after the shell landed, it had literally torn him apart.

Lash felt a surge of anger rush through him in the echoing silence that followed his assessment. No! It couldn't end like this, with him bleeding out beneath a pile of rubble. Not after what he had done, what he had sacrificed for House and Clan.

Yet, there was no denying the perilous state he found himself in. Pinned, with no idea of where his missing limbs were, and no access to clean human or werewolf blood to enhance his regeneration, Lash had little to no chance of freeing himself and healing sufficiently to return to the fight.

Even if he could somehow piece himself together, his EM shield was gone, and his neuron armor was shredded. As soon as he pushed the first rock out of the way, Lash would take the full brunt of the sun's killing power.

With the pain of his injuries threatening to overwhelm the stricken vampire, he struggled to keep his mind focused on finding a way out. But, despite his experience, nothing found its way to his stumbling awareness as he desperately searched for a solution.

In and out of consciousness he went. And every time Lash returned to the surface, he wracked his mind. And time and time again he failed to see one as the weight of the rubble threatened to crush his weakening body.

That is until ...

"Mordecai," he hoarsely whispered.

- Lash! Is that you? - the psilord said almost immediately into his mind. Apparently satisfied that it was without the stricken vampire saying a word, the powerful psionic went on.

- You have to make it quick, my friend. We're currently engaging Brotherhood elements reinforced by White Flames ... -

Mordecai abruptly stopped talking. Then:

- Holy shit! What the hell happened to you?? -

- We are also ... under attack by White Flames, - Lash managed to say against the waves of pain surging through his battered body. He paused to refocus then:

- I ... I have taken damage. -

- Yeah. I can see that, - Mordecai replied, his mental voice subdued. - Stand by for a second. I'm going to see what I can do from here. -