By The Sword - Homepage

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Blood roared in my ears as the flames moved toward me.

A frozen second in time hung in the air. It was as if the world was waiting for my reaction, teetering on the edge of its seat to gauge whether or not I would get scorched alive or make it out with minimal burn. As the fire of battle flooded my blood, I studied the real fire in front of me. I watched the writhing ball of it—tinged with red and flaring with energy. Its heat licked at the surface of my skin, taunting me with pain that was sure to come. But as my mind spun uselessly in the void between thoughts, I knew it couldn’t last forever. I had to decide or else the world would get fed up with watching at all.

My chest was pressed to the floor before I could think anything else. The ball of fire exploded against the stone behind me, flaring in a flash of light lined in red. Thoughts still spinning, my instincts carried me faster than my thoughts. Briefly I felt a searing pain on the side of my head along with the vile smell of smoke. Of burning hair, I realized. But without giving into the pain, I swatted it out and gritted my teeth.

Flicking my eyes up, I saw Keris still laughing. His wicked, incessant cackle rang out in the room. It echoed off the walls and whispered in my ears at the same time. I shook the sound away, forcing myself to focus. Whatever Keris was, I already hated him from the pit of my gut. No matter what he’d said amid the arrogant warnings and diabolical laughter, he’d stolen something from us. He’d attacked us. And he was going to pay.

I swallowed hard, staggering to a stand. Wiping dust and char off the cloth of my uniform, I felt sweat trickling down my back. In an instant, a shudder wracked my body and I realized it was becoming hotter. With Keris’ continued laughter, the air itself was erupting with heat. I cursed to myself and scanned the room for anything useful.

The flick of a bowstring. I turned, catching an object flying through the air from alongside me. The same sound repeated only a moment later. Arrows. Kye was firing arrows. The recognition brought a shaky breath cascading down from my lips.

I watched the arrows soar toward Keris. An unsuspecting target, as far as I was concerned. The man’s eyes were still sealed shut as he laughed, after all. Then, however, I heard the sound of wood breaking and metal grinding on rock. My smile dropped.

Turning, Keris flashed me a grin. The same, fiery intent lined the outer rim of his piercing eyes. But I didn’t get much time to consider his changing physicality. Without another thought, he pointed a metal-clad finger at me.

My mind stopped. The world around me spun uselessly before I could figure out what had happened. I was running, I realized at some point. With my blade gripped tight and my eyes darting over the room from form to form.

Then my brain caught up. My senses reacted at the same time, warning me of the red glow emanating from under my feet and the flames licking at my heels as I ran. With a jolt of mortal fear, I pushed on even faster. I dodged around wooden tables and chairs while my mind raced. And as it started to all click back into place, I saw Kye running opposite of me. On the other side of the room. Scrambling as she went to notch another arrow in her bow.

A sound behind me stopped my line of thought. Metal skidding on rock, I recognized. And in an instant, I knew what it was. The knights. They were here too, I reminded myself. It wasn’t just us. But as my eyes flicked back to Keris, that didn’t feel like much consolation. The furious, fiery eyes were on me. A growl rose out of my throat. I swerved, ducking past another table as a large form flashed in the corner of my eye. A man draped in metal armor while holding something high over his head. I barely got time to process the image before it left my periphery.

Thunderous footsteps rang off the room’s stone walls. Finally wavering, Keris’ eyes moved from me and toward the hammer-wielding brute. Flicking my gaze back, I smiled as Rik raised his hammer even more. A sneer grew over Keris’ lips and he stepped forward, flexing his fingers too ready for the attack.

I pushed harder, forcing my tired body forward. Keris was close now. Only a few paces away. Eyeing him, I could see his guard was up. He was ready for an attack, but I had to try anyway. I had to execute the maneuvers flooding my head—because I didn’t want to know what Keris would have time to do if I didn’t.

Swallowing my fear, I surged anew.

My sword shot out. Steel sliced through the air as I brought it down, stopping halfway and twisting my body around. The movement wrenched my wrist, sending a volley of pained signals to my brain, but it was worth it. He would’ve tried to block, I reminded myself. But my blade would already be somewhere else.

I strained my muscles as I forced metal up under Keris’ guard. Or, what I’d thought to be under Keris’ guard. When I felt the solid, immovable contact rippling through my arm, though, I wasn’t so sure. My eyes bloomed. I wheeled backward, kicking against the stone to force myself away. But with his metal gauntlets, the pyromancer didn’t have a hard time keeping his grip.

The sharp scraping of metal on metal echoed throughout the room. I tore my blade backward, my muscles shrieking. Yet it wasn’t enough, and Keris just threw my sword at me with another cackle. I stumbled to the ground, my balance and grip slipping. The blade of my sword clattered to the floor beside me.

“You must understand that I am simply mightier than you,” he said. I didn’t look up as the words poured into my ears. He laughed again. “Right?”

The stone beneath me burned. It erupted into heat and I scrambled, grinding my teeth and grabbing my sword. I did not want to get torched again. So I stumbled up, my feet in protest as they found solid ground. All the while, though, the red-tined glow grew ever-brighter.

Then it went out.

I blinked, weight slipping from my shoulders. A loud clash of metal rang out and the heat was gone. I spared a sincere and grateful prayer to the world before retrieving my sword and pushing myself as far away from the crazed pyromancer as I could.

After only a second or two of running, my body slid on stone. Before I even knew what I was doing, I twisted my head back. But unlike… whatever I’d expected, I only caught an eyeful of wood. Though, the sight of it actually offered some brief respite with a realization that I’d slid behind a table.

The loud clang rang out again, more broken this time; my respite was gone. I cringed at the sound. My ears whined with overstimulation, complaining in the same way the rest of my useless body did. Between the horrible cackling that was being relayed to me at short range, the sounds of all the movement in the room, and the pumping of my own blood, I was having trouble focusing on anything.

I sighed. Then collected myself and lifted my head out above the table to scan the room. This time from a different angle—and, more importantly, out of mortal danger. Instantly, I saw Keris. The smug, furious expression that turned strained at the edges as he held up a hammer being forced upon him. Vibrations shot through his arms, ruffling the grey cloth. And as he fought to resist, his legs looked near buckling.

Movement flashed in the corner of my eye. I turned, my eyes narrowing on the second knight—Vlad. He was running toward the fight with his gloriously-cut longsword at the ready. Pure determination etched itself into his features and, as though bored, his fingers drummed on the sword’s elegant crossguard.

A loud growl brought me back. It reminded me of the immediate threat, especially as the temperature spiked in the air around me. My burning skin pleaded with me, but I didn’t pay it any mind. As my gaze snapped back to Keris, I couldn’t pay it any mind. Despite Rik’s best efforts, Keris pushed out. The brute of a knight went stumbling backward. Pure, unbidden shock tore the previously-giddy knight’s resolve to shreds.

A new understanding of Keris grew in my head as I watched him stand there, seething. It was not an understanding I enjoyed.

Vlad came in next, almost on cue. He stared down the flame-haired man with blank eyes and slashed out. I winced, already expecting it when Keris shot out his hand, ready to catch the strike with metal gauntlets. But the strike never came. My eyes widened as I watched Vlad duck to the side. His feet carried him with an unnatural level of finesse, twisting into Keris’ peripheral vision before he leapt into the air.

For a moment, the look on Vlad’s face changed. His stoic shell cracked and a grimace shined through as he flew through thin air. In an action that seemed impossible, the knight kicked his foot out and pushed off of nothing. It was as if the world behind him had crystalized into a platform just so that he could haul his blade down from above.

My mind whirred for a moment, replaying the last second. The movement flashed again and again, sticking out like a sore thumb. It reminded me of something. A vague memory of sorts—from a story I’d learned about as a kid. The short, mythical tale of a swordsman who danced on the wind. It had enchanted me during my youth, and the movements Vlad made without much reaction reminded me exactly of it.

Though, even as nostalgia washed over me in waves, I didn’t get time to rest. Heat around me rose once more, holding me up by the throat as Keris stumbled backward. He threw his scorched gloves up recklessly in an attempt to block the strike. But as the blade came down, all he could do was save himself more damage. His arrogance earned him a shiny red cut on his cheek.

“You insolent…” he started, the words sounding distant this time. They didn’t trickle into my ear with all of the concentrated conceit I’d come to expect. At once, the pyromancer’s eyes flared dangerously—and Vlad seemed to notice. The stoic knight backpedaled, throwing his blade up to block, but the movement was only half-effective as Keris’ hands covered with tendrils of red flame.

“It is unwise to interfere with things you do not understand,” he said, his voice rattling up in intensity. Even still, it didn’t increase in volume, staying at the perfectly-still and harrowing whisper that pressed in from all sides.

A flash of light consumed my vision. And the next thing I knew, Vlad was surging backward, grunting in pain as flames scorched his armor. A second later, the fire cleared, and Keris lunged through it already swinging. My eyes barely tracked the flame-trailed movements. Faster than human, Keris’ fists came down to leave charred dents in Vlad’s armor.

The defending knight stumbled, quickly turning it into a run. He left Keris standing among the heat by himself, a satisfied smirk draped in pain decorating his face. The crazed energy the pyromancer still had sent a shiver down my sweat-soaked spine. I shook my head and cleared my thoughts for the moment. Fear would get me nowhere. I had to remember that. So instead, I furrowed my brows, strained my ears, and focused on the other thing I’d noticed in the room.

Kye.

Dozens of paces away, the huntress darted backward. She narrowed her eyes and watched Keris carefully, readying an arrow in her bow. As soon as the vile man opened his mouth, she let that arrow go. It streamed through the air for only a second before a truly irritated grunt sounded in its wake.

Darting my eyes to the sound, I saw a blackened gauntlet move to his chest. Keris tore the arrow out only a moment later, the smirk on his face not wavering in the slightest.

“Nuisances,” he said, his voice low and firm. A trickle of blood poured out of the wound, but Keris didn’t appear to mind. With a fire that he created on his finger, he cauterized the bleeding hole and discarded the arrow on the ground.

“Simply nuisances,” he repeated without hesitation.

I swallowed, my skin sweltering and my throat drying. The longer I watched the insane fire-mage, the worse it got. The more the breadth of his power expanded before me and cemented a singular thought that I had been trying to ignore for the entire fight. We were in trouble.

Spurred on, I forced myself to think. We needed a plan, obviously, and we needed one quick. Or we needed something at least. We couldn’t sit where we were for long. All that did was make Keris more angry, and the fact that his power appeared unfaltering at that terrified me.

I also realized that I had to move. Even if I didn’t have a plan immediately, I couldn’t hide behind a table forever. Especially not one made of wood. So, taking a deep breath, I rose to my feet and scanned the room again.

As I’d expected, Kye was in the same spot. In the middle of the room, the two knights were engaging Keris again—clashing in shrieks of metal and being pushed back by plumes of flame. I cursed under my breath, tearing my gaze away before I became to entrenched in the scene. Instead, I focused on the back of the room—on Lady Amelia. Because she stood completely immobile, her face carefully passive as she looked on.

I blinked, trying to refresh the world as though that would’ve nullified the sight. But it didn’t. If anything, it only made the doubt rise higher while I watched at her form. Distantly, my own paranoid dread whispered to me and tore up images of betrayal. Yet even as a hand fell to my blade, I didn’t buy it. With the tight, terse look on her face, she didn’t look in the spirit to do much betraying. She looked, in fact, more like she was preparing something. And her eyes led directly to Keris.

My anger melted away with a single breath. As I stepped forward, a loud ringing sound resonated throughout the room and came followed by a screaming grunt. Alertness poured down my spine with the realization that I had to move. So I did. I surged forward on instinct, my intended destination forming a moment later.

Keris was distracted. I knew that he was—the mess of metal clangs and grunts told me enough—and Lady Amelia had a plan. Whatever she was doing while standing stock-still and watching all of us sweat and blister, I hoped it was worth it. In the mean time, I just had to survive. And that meant only one thing.

My metal boots skidded against the stone floor as I scrambled across the room, side-eyeing the head-knight as I ran. I didn’t even bother looking over at the fight. It wouldn’t have been any use to me anyway. The noises were enough to tell me it was still raging, and as long as I heard them, Keris wasn’t coming after me.

Lady Amelia didn’t budge as I ran past her. And as I looked over her for a frozen moment, I could only narrow my eyes. I could swear I saw it again—the denting of rock underneath her feet. Offering her a half-assed nod, I simply reinforced my hope that whatever she was doing was worth it before turning back to my destination.

Kye was searching through her quiver when I arrived. She snapped her gaze up to me before twisting back toward the fight. She was keeping an eye on it, then, as her fingers thumbed past arrows. Every few moments, she would raise an eyebrow at one and raise it up before simply disregarding it and tossing it right back down. As soon as I slowed next to her, she clenched her jaw and bit back a cruse of annoyance.

“What are you looking for?” I asked, my voice carrying more like a hiss.

She didn’t even bother to look at me. “I was looking for any arrows that could be useful. But so far I’ve found jack *shit*.” She kicked her foot against the stone, wrapping fingers around her bow.

My eyebrows shot up. “Useful arrows? Are the pointed ones not enough?”

She shook her head. “I mean imbued arrows,” she said as though the term meant anything to me. Vaguely, I remembered rangers mentioning it here and there during preparations for hunts, but I’d never bothered to learn more. I wasn’t an archer, after all. “I got Lorah to work on some before we left, but apparently I used all of them up last night.”

I shuddered, remembering the dark forest and the feral kanir. After she’d killed it, Kye had said something about sunlight arrows—a statement I hadn’t questioned back then. Now I almost regretted it. But I didn’t have time for regret. I needed information—insight. We needed a plan.

I shook my head, gesturing to Keris as he burned a split piece of wood and threw it in Rik’s face. “Do you know who the hell that is?”

Whatever had been left of Kye’s smirk dropped in an instant. She scowled instead. “No. He said his name was… Keris. But I’ve never heard that in my life. Not even in legend.” She coughed once, the lines in the corner of her eye sharpening. “Even though with that kind of magical stamina, he almost reminds me of a mythical hero.”

I swallowed, trying to ignore the torrid air as I glanced back at Keris. Another flash of red-tinged flame erupted from his hand before Rik got the message and leapt backward. The previously-confident knight cursed and coughed. But Keris’ eyes still swirled with energy. With that same color of an undying flame.

He had to slow down at some point… didn’t he?

In an instant, my question was interrupted by more movement. Vlad reared away from the flames, regained his composure, and slashed again. Keris growled, the haunting sound echoing in my ears as he jumped back. The slash of Vlad’s steel missed him by more than a pace. A wicked smile grew on the pyromancer’s lips before it was quite literally blown off.

Keris stumbled, a gust of air washing over him. Red hair ruffled backward and caught the madman off guard. Caught him off guard just enough for Vlad to charge again. The slim, stoic knight twisted and sliced again, forcing as much concentration as he could into a blade of air that actually made Keris curse in pain.

“Dammit,” Kye said, ripping my thoughts away. “That won’t be enough. This guy has more stamina than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

I could only nod at that, staring in horror for a second longer as Keris matched Vlad with every flick of the blade. He caught them all and steamrolled past in a surge of fire. The longer I watched, the more my hope that he would slow down dwindled.

“I don’t know what we can do,” Kye spat, breathing heavily as air regained its weight in her vicinity. She took a step back as she stopped casting, wincing and rubbing her forehead. “And it’s not like she’s doing anything.”

I knew who the huntress meant without asking. “She has a plan,” I said with a nod that cemented the statement with more belief than I held for it. It would have to be enough, I decided.

Kye snorted derisively. “How would you know?”

“I just know,” I said, forcing weight into my words and leaving no room for argument. Kye seemed to hear it too as she straightened. I took a shallow breath and prayed to the world that I wasn’t lying. Because if I was, we were in more trouble than I’d thought even before.

“Well,” Kye started, nearly wheezing in the oppressive heat. “What the fuck do we do now?”

Turning back, I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out. In truth, I really didn’t have an answer. I really didn’t know. There was a vague idea in my head about tactics and distractions, but it fell flat. It didn’t feel like it applied in a fight filled with unending flurries of magic. Not in a fight where we were seriously outmatched.

In my old body, I was sure I could’ve done more. I could’ve danced around the pyromancer and tricked him with maneuvers executed so perfectly he would’ve stumbled over himself. I could’ve gotten the upper hand if I’d focused. But now… I wasn’t so sure. I was stronger than I’d been weeks ago, sure, but not strong enough. I didn’t trust my faulty muscles with the life they protected.

I couldn’t face the beast again so soon. Not like this.

“Maybe nothing,” I said, still eyeing the two knights that were keeping the fire-mage occupied. They were slowing down noticeably—succumbing to the heat, their injuries, and exhaustion. But they were also fairing rather well together against Keris. They were doing some damage, at least.

“Nothing?” Kye asked. I assumed she’d meant the question to be pointed, but it fell soft as she coughed again. “He looks occupied, maybe even strained at this point, but I’m not convinced. They won’t last for long—and from the looks of it, his flames aren’t running out anytime soon.”

I nodded shallowly, the sounds of their battle overwhelming even my pounding pulse as I watched. As my eyes flicked across their forms and tracked every movement. Studying. Analyzing. Waiting for any kind of opening.

Shrieks of resonant metal echoed through the room. Rik growled, having already discarded his levity. He pushed forward with his hammer and forced through Keris’ guard. Only for the knight to be pushed away in a flash of fire a second later. The large man backpedaled quickly as he patted out smoking hair.

Vlad came running in right after, continuing the dynamic the two had started on. He pushed off crystalized air behind him and flew with all the force he could muster, a trembling whirlwind of air circling his straight blade.

The pyromancer staggered, coughing air for a moment before he turned back. Vlad was ready, though, and he sliced his blade out without the need for magic. Keris was barely fast enough, ducking under the strike and hauling the knight away as cut strands of red hair fell through the air. Vlad went tumbling.

Keris smiled, teetering in place. His fierce eyes faltered for a moment, flitting as he tried to keep balance. But unfortunately for us, there was no one to take advantage. No one close or ready enough to do damage in his unguarded state. And even when Kye notched another arrow in her bow, it was already too late.

The heat in the room surged higher. Sweat spilled off my skin, matting the blue cloth of my uniform with grime and char. Keris’ lips ticked carefully upward, and with each moment, the ferocity returned. It stretched even further than before as blood trickled down his nose and he stared toward the ceiling. The faint, fiery image of something incomprehensibly terrifying floated in the air behind him.

Then it was gone.

In an instant, whatever he’d done had finished. He’d become even more crazed than normal. Even more powerful than normal, I was forced to realize. And as tendrils of flame wrapped around his body, culminating in bright red bursts on his fingers, I knew something horrible had changed.

“Imbeciles,” he said. But his lips didn’t move. The word simply radiated through my mind like one of my own thoughts had gone rogue.

I shook it off, pushing away the terror and taking a step back. I darted my eyes back toward Lady Amelia. She stared at the pyromancer wide-eyed before redoubling her focus and pressing her feet into the ground.

She still had a plan, then. She just needed to focus. We needed to let her focus. We needed to buy her time.

I swallowed, my mouth a desolate wasteland as I gathered courage. “Cover me!” I yelled back at Kye as my body lurched. In the corner of my eye, I saw her turn to me. But I didn’t stay to see her reaction. I didn’t have time to see.

My legs screamed at me to stop. They screamed in tandem with the fear and dread still circling in my head to turn back. They tried to get me to falter—to fall, even, as it would’ve been preferable to getting my face burned off. I didn’t listen to them, of course. I knew better than that. There was no place for any of us to flee, and if we didn’t do something now, we would all meet each other souls as plumes of smoke. No. I kept my body moving with an iron grip and just prayed to the world that luck was on our side.

A moment later, an arrow shrieked past me. It sliced through air like butter and would’ve pierced Keris in the face had he been any normal soul. Unfortunately for us, however, he was a far cry from such descriptions. He dodged to the side easily with a scowl on his face. As soon as he did, another arrow came through and forced him to do the exact same thing.

Cursing, he turned toward Kye. He directed the full brunt of his rage at her and sent pillars of searing flame in her direction. My heart froze for a moment as she yelped, but I just had to hope the sounds erupting behind me belonged more against the stone wall than against my companion’s charred flesh.

I tried not to think about it much. I needed to keep my focus ahead.

So that was exactly what I did. Sweeping in as dexterously as I could, I swung my sword from the side. Keris turned to me a moment too late, his eyes flaring with rage and confusion before reaching his hands out. But my maneuver hadn’t been that simple.

No. I stopped myself in place and spun, stepping around to angle another strike up against the side of his leg. Sweltering air streamed around me and, before I knew it, my blade had gotten stuck in something. Without bothering to figure out what it was, I pushed forward. Keris screamed in agony me before the hilt of my blade started to burn my hand.

Blinking, I leapt back. I let go of the sword only for it to start glowing red-hot. Keris stared down at it and ripped the burning steel from its lodging in his leg. It erupted in flames before he discarded it by slamming it into the wall behind him. Then, without even waiting for my reaction, he stepped toward me and smirked.

A flash of light. A hand against my chest. A hellish cacophony of pain.

I hit the ground hard. My body skidded on stone as jolts of torment tore through my spine and up to my already aching head. The world spun fleetingly around me as I slipped from control. As the exhaustion’s roots took hold and dragged me deeper and deeper.

“Simply a nuisance,” I heard Keris say as my eyes flitted.

I’d given them a chance, I told myself with whatever conscious thought I could retain. He’d been distracted long enough while I’d attacked him. They had to do something. Someone had to do something.

A clash of metal. A gust of wind. An explosion of flame.

Keris cackled, the noise still filtering into my ears even if my brain could hardly make heads or tails of it. “You—“ he started.

The ground shook.

I coughed and lurched upward, ice-cold fear forcing lucidity upon me. Glancing up at Keris, though, he looked just as confused. He took multiple tentative steps while staring at the stone below him—only for it to shape in a single frozen instant and grow into shackles that kept him stiff and immobile.

That sight was enough to calm my fear. My body slumped back, resting against the heated rock as the world spiraled away.

The sound of metal footsteps. Yelling. A few sighs of relief.

“You,” a voice said. Lady Amelia, I noted lazily. “How did you break in here without consequence?”

“What is this?” asked another voice. Keris, I assumed based on its erratic, raspy qualities. “How does one control the world itself with their magic?”

A silent moment of satisfaction as footsteps passed my ears and toward the trapped man.

“How did you get in here without consequence?” Lady Amelia repeated.

A laugh. One that sounded far too sinister.

“You cannot disgrace her children and ask questions about the punishments,” Keris said.

“How did you steal it,” Lady Amelia asked, the iron in her voice raising me from the depths of the dark abyss for a moment.

A soft, restrained yelp.

“You should not…” Keris started, his voice shaking. “You should not…” His tone ramped up in both severity and volume this time. A belated look of horror dawned over my faint features before I could even see what was going on.

“Not what?” Lady Amelia asked. “Am I going to require further action?”

A cackle. One as recognizable as it was terrifying.

“Further action shall most certainly be necessary.”

Heat. Smoke. Choking, blistering air. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My body was dying—slipping far into the void. Sizzling and tearing. Cracks through rock. Something exploded in front of me. It sent me tumbling a few paces. I felt pain, but a white flame came to heal me. It coddled me. I didn’t understand.

“Where did he go?” a strained voice asked. I couldn’t discern its proper source.

More smoke filled my lungs. It mixed in with all the rest, hazing together in a grey fog that blocked out thoughts. I tried to cough it out. My body wouldn’t listen. I grasped tight for my sword. I realized too late that it wasn’t there.

I was dying, I told myself as my consciousness drifted away. Falling. Draining. Twitching in too much pain. I saw the visage of the beast—its silver scythe was there waiting for me. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t face it now. Yet I had no other choice. It was happening all the same. The abyss came to swallow me up.

I just hoped the darkness would be nice.