charm(less)

ūndecim

—— ū n d e c i m ——

"LUST AND DEATH?" Korey's eyebrows furrowed and Park felt him shift slightly where he standing against him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Death, that made sense. Park was a child of Hades — he was clearly the child of death. Lust was a little bit more confusing. It was clearly addressing Korey's godly heritage but Park couldn't think properly as to which goddess related to just, not with six monsters facing them off. He scanned them for any signs of hidden weapons or anything else to give away what monsters they were, but he saw nothing. They were just regular tourists with their fanny packs and sunglasses if not for those unnatural gold eyes swallowing their entire pupil. Park stored that particular phrase, lust and death, away for later consideration.

"Doesn't matter," Park said. "What are you things?"

One of the men flashed his teeth in a menacing smile. "You don't recognise us?"

"Eidolons," he said, after a moment of consideration. He had never seen them before but he understood the concept behind how they attacked their victims. "Spirits that have the ability to possess people."

"Well done. Smarter than you look," the woman in lime green cackled. "But now, you must die."

In unison, all six of them unzipped the fanny packs strapped around their waists and reached in to withdraw knives in such deliberate manner it was almost comical. Park wasn't laughing. Against most monsters, he always had his bow to hand which could rain down arrows on any target. But these monsters were coming to them in the form of people and Park couldn't just fire them down in a volley of arrows as he would in any other situation. Korey was having similar thoughts — he reached for his dagger that was tucked away in his pocket only to pause, uncertain confusion to pass across his face.

"We can't hurt them, right?" Korey asked. "I mean, killing monsters is one thing. There's no way I'm stabbing that lady."

Restless murmurs arose from the other people around the bus station who had heard Korey's very loud declaration of the word stabbing. There was no need for the Mist to twist this situation in the mortals eyes because there was nothing supernatural occurring. That meant they could all see plain as day the six knives being brandished and it was stirring up more than a little unwanted attention. Park glanced at the overhead electronic board and cursed. Their bus was still twenty minutes away.

"No one is stabbing anyone. Yet," Park said.

"Wrong this time," the woman in bright pink said, and lunged for Korey with her knife raised.

Park shoved him out of the way and felt a flash of hot pain where the edge of the blade managed to catch him across the forearm. He didn't have time to consider the pain — one of the other eidolons grabbed his sleeve and Park kicked out, managing to catch it's knee. He took advantage of the distraction to snatch the knife from it's hand before he could be gutted and gave it a push that send it stumbling back into the other eidolons. The onlookers were scrambling and ducking to take cover at the violence that had broken out. Overheard, Park heard a familiar high keening and glanced up to see Snowy circling, white feathered wings stretched out against the sun.

"Snowy!" Korey exclaimed.

"Move," Park said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him away from the eidolons. They were quickly regrouping and looked furious as they advanced. "Don't let them get close, not while they have those knives."

"You don't say," Korey said, with a measurable dose of sarcasm which Park didn't appreciate.

There wasn't anywhere for them to go within the bus station and Park glanced around desperately, trying to think of a way to ward the eidolons off before they could escape. These weren't monsters they could fight unless they wanted to harm the innocent people being possessed. He continued backing up with a tight grip on Korey and watched as Snowy swooped down into the midst of the eidolons. Park didn't miss that she was careful not to actually harm them — she flew straight for their faces, flapping her wings aggressively to block out their vision and send them into a confused disarray, but didn't use the beak or her talons.