IV
The Black Sea at night was brought to glorious life by a multitude of noises. Felix waited until the moment was right, then stopped and let his Odh radiate outward.
Closer than I thought...and more than I thought...?! With a sigh, he turned around to see Silky. Instead of her usual outfit, she was wearing flashy light armor that appeared handmade. Further examination revealed a sword strapped to her waist.
Fidgeting with embarrassment, she looked up at Felix through her lashes and said, “Does it suit me?”
“Yes, very mu— Wait, no. What are you doing here?”
Silky puffed her chest out with pride. “I’m here to fight at your side, of course!”
“I don’t remember asking you,” Felix replied with deliberate coldness to try and make her go away. But Silky’s eyes slowly widened, then her cheeks puffed out. It seemed his words had had the opposite effect.
Oh, no... Felix did his best to soften his expression as he looked into Silky’s eyes. “You don’t think I’ll be safe on my own?”
“I didn’t say that! That’s not what I meant!”
“Then please, go on protecting the Azure Knights from the shadows, just like you have been. You’re the only one I can ask, Silky.”
“No fair, Felix.” They held each other’s gaze in silence for a long moment, then Silky kicked the air and tore dramatically at her hair. “If I sense the tiniest bit of danger, I don’t care if you get mad—I’m coming to rescue you!”
She zoomed off, leaving a trail of stardust. Felix waited until she was out of sensory range, then pulled his blade Elhazard, also known as “the Godslayer,” from its scabbard at his belt.
Kah kah kah kah kah kah kah kah kah...
The uncanny sound came at sharp, regular intervals, gradually growing louder. Claws came gliding out from a gap between the trees until they reached a tree trunk in front of Felix, and the source of the sound emerged from the shadows. Reddish-black fur, faces split from jowl to jowl by a mouth from which two tusks curved up to the top of the skull, and bodies almost impervious to blades and capable of walking on two legs like a human—these were none other than Norfess, the legendary beasts that were known for acting with their mates. Based on the length of the tusks on these ones, the one on the left was a female and the one on the right male.
“I cannot allow you to attack the Azure Knights.” Felix held Elhazard out in front of him. In response, the two Norfess growled low and bared their teeth, splitting off one to either side. Felix saw the caution in their gait and knew; they saw him not as prey, but as a rival that had to be eliminated.
The Norfess closed on him to a point, then as one, they struck. They moved with unbelievable speed for their bulk, but Felix did not move. He focused all his attention on watching.
Left. Felix saw that the female was a fraction of a second faster. He used Swift Step of Gales to slip around behind them. His sword seemed to flow like water as he made a sideways slash, but before the blade made contact, the female threw herself at the ground in a dive roll. All he managed to do was shave a few hairs off her back. He spun around at once to follow through with another strike, but the male came at him from the right and headed him off. The fist that flew at his face with a rush of air made it clear he wasn’t going to be making any counterattacks. Felix leaped to the left so that the blow missed him by a hair, only to find the female waiting for him.
With the Norfess, what one had to watch out for was not the powerful arms that could rip a man limb from limb or the claws that could slice through solid rock. What really made the Norfess dangerous was their skill in working together. The coordination between the Norfess that lived in the Black Sea was enough to make Felix’s blood run cold.
With a fist coming at him at incredible speed, Felix only had one option—get out of the way. He leaped up and twisted to dodge the fist. Adjusting his balance in midair, he put distance between himself and the Norfess. Before he could get his breath back, they were on him again. Constantly swapping positions, they launched a furious coordinated attack. Felix avoided every blow. He observed them, then deliberately left himself exposed to lure the Norfess’s fists where he wanted them. He took two solid hits, one to his left shoulder and one to his right side, but by elevating his Odh in just those spots, he successfully protected himself. Neither knocked him out.
A total of eight eyes roved around wildly as the Norfess, faced with this abnormal enemy, tried to work out what was going on. It lasted only a few seconds, but for Felix, that was enough. He set his sights on the female and thrust up with Elhazard, then swung through as though he was drawing a circle. With the creature’s fetid dying breath on his back, he pointed his sword at the male. After witnessing the death of his mate, the male let out a fell roar, then scrambled up a nearby tree to attack him from above. It was not remotely cautious anymore. This Norfess might have survived in the Black Sea, but it was not exempt from the madness that had overcome the others of its kind he had slain in the past upon losing their other half.
Felix swapped Elhazard to his other hand, ready to put an end to things. He shifted his weight to his left foot while concentrating his Odh in his right arm. Without pausing, he flexed his arm like a whip. The furious roar produced by his blade resounded through the Black Sea and blasted through the male’s skull. The remaining chunks of flesh fell in unresisting obedience to gravity to at last hit the ground with dull thumps.
That’s over. Felix went to retrieve Elhazard, then his ears caught a strange noise, like something being dragged. Looking over, he saw the enormous corpse of the Norfess being pulled away into the darkness. Its leg was gripped by many long, spindly fingers like withered branches.
At that very moment, the wild revels of the Black Sea were approaching their climax.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login