Killed Killers (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter Thirty Eight

As Ere stepped through the portal and back into the castle beyond, the faint sounds of fighting reached her ears, followed closely by the smell of smoke. Another scent that she couldn't quite identify accompanied the smoke, and it almost made her gag. She opened her eyes to see the portal room just as they had left it, although it was filled with a blue tinged haze.

"Shit." She heard Gem's unmistakeable voice cursing to her left, and she turned in time to see him unsheathe his weapon, which looked to be a regular sword, but upon closer inspection had a second blade on the other end of the hilt. He swung it easily in his grasp, and took two quick steps towards the door that lead to the hallway before he seemed to remember that he had Ere to take care of. He stopped suddenly, turned abruptly, and motioned stiffly for her to follow after him, which she did without hesitation.

He reached the door at the same time as Doran, who had also noticed the sounds and smells coming from the hallway. He threw a sideways glare at Doran, who pulled up short, seeming not too keen on the idea of getting in a fight with Gem. Without even acknowledging Doran's movements or Ere's slight confusion, he twisted the handle and threw the door open with the hand that wasn't clasping his sword, and dropped instinctively into a fighting position, ready for anything that might come flying at him from the hallway.

When nothing came at him from the open doorway, he cautiously proceeded to stick his head out into the hallway. Seeming to see nothing dangerous, he stepped out of the portal room, motioning for Ere to follow him. She rolled her eyes, feeling insulted by his apparent feeling that he had to protect her. She may have been new to this whole thing, but that didn't mean that she needed to be protected. She had more than enough of her share of fighting off people who decided to intrude into her home.

Home. The thought caused her to pull up short. The way she had so casually referred to this castle as her home surprised her. She had been kidnapped and brought here, not come of her own volition, and yet the place had seemed to grow on her.

She shook her head to clear it, knowing full well that now was not the time to ponder how comfortable she was in this new place. She proceeded after Gem, who had slunk down the hallway a few paces, seeming to slip from shadow to shadow. His dark hair and tanned skin helped him to blend in to the nooks and crannies that the poor lighting in the hallway didn't manage to  brighten. She pulled  her blades out of their leather sheathes, and crept quietly after him.

They followed the hallway for a ways before Gem veered off into a smaller corridor on the their right, heading deeper into the heart of the castle. As they progressed, the sounds of fighting got louder, and Ere felt her shoulders tense.

They took a few more turns, into smaller corridors and then finally a larger one that looked somewhat familiar to Ere. The lack of action was starting to seem suspicious to Ere, and she adjusted her grip on her swords nervously.

Ahead of her, she saw Gem's hold on his sword tighten, a split second before a wooden door on their right exploded suddenly in a shower of splinters. Ere threw up her arms instinctively covering her head from the onslaught of wood chunks, her pulse spiking.

She looked back up a moment later to see Gem staggering across the hallway with a thrashing form clinging to his back. She yelped a moment before Gem threw his full weight backwards into the wall on the other side of the corridor. She saw his attacker's grip loosen for a split second, before Gem took the opportunity and feinted to his right, throwing the attacker off of his back. Ere's initial shock faded and she jumped into motion, lunging towards the form on the floor and aiming a strong blow with her right hand where she assumed the attacker's head was.

Just before her blade struck, the form moved, and it turned its head towards Ere, so that her blade slashed a deep cut across its face. Dark crimson blood splashed across the stone floor and onto one of the decorative rugs, and a second later the form on the ground let out an inhumane screech. Ere staggered backwards, showing weakness for a second that would have killed her had Gem not jumped in and slashed the attacker's throat with one end of his blade. The form slumped to the ground, its previous thrashing cut short.

Ere's breath came in quick, short gasps, and she stared at the motionless person on the ground, watching as a pool of blood seeped out of its wounds and puddled beneath it on the cold stone floor. Gem grabbed her arm, snapping her out of her former daze. He yanked her down the hallway, throwing a backwards glance over his shoulder at the empty doorway where the attacker had just come from. After a moment of stillness within the room, he seemed satisfied that it was empty and focused on pulling Ere quickly down the hallway. Their previous attempts to be quiet and stealthy were abandoned, and Ere was sure that anyone with ears could hear their footsteps as they hurtled down the corridor.

Gem rounded a corner into a final corridor, and towards the end Ere could see a lighter room. They thundered towards it, the unidentified smell from earlier growing stronger.

They burst into the room at the end of the hallway to find a scene straight out of hell. In the center of the room, a battle raged. Ere recognized the dark clothes of the Hiltzaile, interspersed throughout others that she didn't recognize. Ere spotted more than a few of the Kidemónas in the crowd, the grey mist that formed their bodies flickering among the fighters. Towards the edges of the room, Ere saw bodies, some of which were undeniably Hiltzaile. Ere felt her stomach churn as she looked at the massacre taking place before her, noticing as much as she could in the few seconds she had to take it all in.

Gem's grip on her wrist tightened, and she heard him hissing curses under his breath. He jerked her towards him, grabbing the back of her knees with the arm that wasn't holding his sword and throwing her over his shoulder before she knew what was happening. She yelped and hastily grabbed both of her blades with one hand, freeing the other to grasp at the back of Gem's shirt. In several long strides Gem had crossed the room, skirting the fight that was raging at the center. He cut down a man that lunged for them, stepping over his corpse before it had even fully stopped twitching, and passing out of the room again, into another corridor that Ere was sure she recognized.

He quickly set her down, grabbing her hand in his again and taking off down the hallway. It took a few seconds for Ere to realize why she recognized the hallway; it was the one that lead to the cavern that Cayde and Monica resided in.

Sure enough, halfway down the hall Gem took a sharp turn so that he was facing the doorway that opened up to the stairwell. Where the door used to be, there was now a hole, not unlike the one that had been left when the attacker had burst through the door at Gem. Ere's stomach began to sink, and she started to get a really bad feeling. She glanced up at Gem, and found that his tanned face that he so carefully arranged into a look of indifference normally was completely white, his mouth gaping.

For what felt like an eternity, they stood there, Ere looking at Gem's face in the rare moment of weakness, before Gem's grip on Ere's hand tightened again and he plunged down the stairs ahead of them, Ere fumbling desperately after him, the feeling of horror that had gripped her earlier growing steadily stronger as they descended.

Wow, that chapter was a lot of fun to write. Maybe I should write more about fights. I know it's kind of short, but it'll have to do for now. Anyways, I'm on a role so I might just keep on writing, but this is a good stopping place for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and if you did make sure to vote! Thanks as always for reading!