Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 4 - KNIGHT

What the hell was wrong with me?

The reality of it slammed down, leaving my knees shaking. This was no hallucination, this was not the kind of problem I could just box away in my head and worry about later. This was a real place, this colourless fake-city, and it had opened up and swallowed me for a second time.

No time for panic attacks, I reprimanded myself. I had to focus on getting out of here before the monsters found me again.

More than that, I had to figure out what was going on. My new senses I'd been so absorbed in trying out had come from this place, and if I figured out why, maybe I could figure out how to never end up here again.

I turned around and slowly started back the way I'd come. I stretched my senses out again and felt a humming stillness, darkness pressing into the corners of the empty streets. No sign of the vibrant lure that had dragged me back in here, no clues about what was happening. Everything was dark and grey and quiet.

I came to a wider road paved with cobblestone. It looked like an old market district with wide shop windows lining the streets. Every door was shut tight, however, and the displays were all empty. A market for ghosts.

Stepping quietly, I made my way down the side of the street, where I'd have alleyways to escape down. I tried to keep the sense-channel open as wide as it would go to give me constant feedback of my surroundings. The sense pushed a few feet down each alleyway I passed, and I soon got an idea of just how labyrinthine this place was. Seen from above, it must look like an anthill.

Suddenly, movement, at the other end of the road. I froze. Was it better to stay still, or try to hide?

I chose to stay where I was and a shadow drifted from the fog around it, head raised to the air. A demon, all right—it looked just like the one that had tried to jump Huang outside the sanctuary. Bat-like, walking on its strange, long wings like a monkey. Its head was oddly human-shaped and ringed with long spikes. It lowered its nose to the ground and started to move back and forth... sniffing.

I started to move, ever so slowly, into the nearest alleyway. My sense told me that the alley would continue straight and then take a hard right. I pushed it further. After the right it straightened and emerged between two buildings on the other side of the street. From there—

And just like that, the sense was gone. I bit my tongue in frustration as the world suddenly shrunk around me, reduced back to sight and sound. Damn it—this was not the time! It wasn't like I wanted weird radar powers, but why did they disappear the moment they were actually useful?

The bat was still moving slowly; it hadn't sniffed me out yet. With no other choice, I backed further into the alley.

Just as I retreated out of sight, the bat gave a sudden shriek. I flinched and got ready to run, but a flash of light overhead made me stop. It wasn't me the bat was screaming at—it was the giant feathered dragon shining like a light bulb as it flew overhead. Huang was back. He circled once over the buildings, then swooped down toward the demon.

I continued backing along the alleyway as the sounds of their fight carried over, then turned and started to jog away. Behind me there was a final hoarse shriek, then silence.

I didn't get far before the shining dragon overtook me, soaring above my alleyway. It landed delicately on one of the buildings, then hopped down in front of me, just able to fit. The giant creature dwindled and faded until Joshua Huang, the human, was standing there.

I crossed my arms tightly. "What are you?"

He looked nervous, his hands bunched at his sides. "I'm... okay, I don't know if you're going to believe me. But I'm just human."