Chapter 058:

Zig charged at Kal with all his might, waving the weapons over his head. From Kal's perspective he was not a skilled fighter. Zig seemed to rely on his parentage to get his way through the Orcs, not though his martial prowess. The magic he had probably helped but that was gone now. Without it he seemingly had no combat sense. He simply ran with no thought behind his actions or footwork.

The flamboyant clothes he wore tried to tangle with his arms, slowing his attack and giving her vital moments to react. She tensed her legs, for a burst of strength, and waited for him to close in. When he was a few steps away she darted to the side, using the poisoned blade to slice into his left arm and a normal blade at his leg. There was little armour beneath the colourful clothing.

He screamed in pain as his axes collided with the ground. As he struggled to understand how fast Kal had just moved, she scored a few more hits from both blades into his back before making more distance. He turned angrily to her, his teeth on full display.

A wild animal filled with rage.

Good. Got a few hits with the poison. Just need to keep moving about until it takes its toll...Just like how Anton used it.

That was a little disturbing to see, especially from someone she regarded so highly. She had tried to talk to Verona about it. Her only response was to not think about it too much. That brought up other questions that confused her, like-

Focus!

Another mental scream refocused her efforts.

“What the fuck was in that?” he screamed. Zig clutched at his arm, looking at the green poison that had surrounded his wound. Strangely he did not seem to be suffering like the others did.

There's something very strange about this one.

“I'm going to enjoy ripping out your heart."

The threat did not intimidate Kal nor did the spittle coming from his teeth. He picked up a small axe from one of the dead Orcs, he raised both his weapons and charged again. She readied herself to dash to the side at the last moment when he spun and threw an axe at her. She lunged to the right, the blunt head clipping her left shoulder and sending her arm back.

Zig closed in and swung his axe as Kal tried to dart away again. The axe dug lightly into her shoulder. An overwhelming pain screamed through her mind. Using her right hand she stabbed into his side. The armour underneath the chest his flamboyant clothing was not very strong, and allowed her blade passage through and into his flesh.

He howled in pain again, raising his left hand and backhanding her with his closed fist.

The sky and ground tumbled together as she rolled away, finally resting to look up at the sky. Suddenly her vision became clear. A different fear enveloped her as she felt flecks of dirt stick and fall from her face.

Her face cloth was gone. She raised herself back up as Zig's left arm started to twitch in a spasm.

“Guess it does work.” she mumbled as she righted herself and reformed her stance. She was tired and wounded but she wasn't going to give in yet.

Zig looked up at her, his face twisting in complete and utter confusion. It was then she realised she had spoken loud enough to him.

“What?...Why?” he could not form proper words, though she guessed it was not from the venom.

“Didn't expect to see a Beast-kin?” she asked.

If I can just drag this out a bit longer...

The deep wound on her shoulder was now beginning to hurt even more. How she had no passed out yet was a question best left to the gods. Anger and surprise most likely. Her fingers were tingling and they refused to respond to her mind correctly. Her entire arm was red with blood. And it was continuing to flow.

Zig was still not focusing on her, desperately clutching at his poisoned wounds. Taking a moment she used one hand to tighten the cloth straps around the wound. It was not a fix, but it would keep her moving for a bit longer.

“That...That doesn't explain anything.” Zig continued to look bewildered at her. “Someone like you? Willingly helping humans? What is happening in this wretched lands? What is wrong with the world?"

“I choose to help them.” Kal replied. She hoped that her answer would keep him talking, though it was the truth as well.

“So who do you serve now? Is it that Grand Mage?” he let out a laugh as he began to bind his poisoned wound shut, not that it would stop the poison already coursing through his blood. “You're kind always seem like you were bred to serve. Nothing else seems to fit your people. Where you ever anything but slaves?”

Kal let the insult go. It made her furious, it being clear on Zig's bemused expression, but she did not lunge into an attack. She was not a child anymore.

“Maybe you will make this whole, stupid, invasion worth while.” he said, a disgusting smile drawing on his face. “I've heard stories of someone like you...An adult half-breed...I wonder if they'll want you after I've broken your mind.”

“You think you could do that? After everything they've done to me."

Her arm, where her slave number was branded, burned. She dug her fingers into it to stop the pain. That was one of the softest things Seocuria had done to her.

Zig laughed. “I've broken in slaves before. Human, Orc, Beast-kin slaves. There's no difference to me.”

“I doubt that.” Kal lowered her weapons.

While the words spilling out of his mouth were repugnant and vile he was not attacking yet. It would not take him long to figure out that she was playing for time, in more ways than one. The sounds of fighting had stopped. The rumble of the lightning had not happened in some time. She hoped the battle had been won or was still ongoing.

He laughed again, glancing back as a lightning echo came from behind the collapsed building. It was much closer than before. Zig completely ignored it.

“You think your kind is any stronger than a human?” he shook his head, his wounded arm started to twitch even more. “Felines, like you, are pretty easy to break. A few honeyed words of niceties and your kind lap it up. Become like a toy. I'm sure that's what he did to get you...When you've broken a Drakeling, then-”

“Really?” Kal asked.

They were a fierce breed of Beast-kin and one of the few very dangerous breeds still alive. They were not weak in any sort of form. Everyone knew that. And no one touched them. Ever.

Zig looked quite proud with himself. “They becoming quite docile once I ram my cock down their throats. And you-”

Something clicked in her mind. Something that was so obvious she could not believe why she had not seen it before. Kal started laughing, Zig stopped dead in his speech. A mixture of annoyance and confusion clear on his face as he clutched more tightly on his arm.

“They would never let someone like you touch them.” She began to smile. “Only their mate can. The Seocurians know not to touch them, because the last time a slaver tried to rape one they had their dick bitten off and rammed down their throat. Before their teared their body apart. Then ate them. The only reason they're still alive is because they're so obedient, so long as nobody touches them. Everyone in Seocuria knows that.”

Zig readied both his weapons to attack, even though one of his arms was no longer working that well.

“Which means you've lost it, or you've never had one to begin with.”

Zig's face's colour drained. It was clear with hindsight.

“You're a Thrall." she spoke quietly.

She said it partly to anger him and increase the spread of the venom but mostly because she was offended by everything he said. Never had she seen someone who was angry as Zig was now. Not even the most vile and hateful slave master, right before they killed a slave for striking them, radiated anything like the anger he had.

“Is that why you threw that clansmen from the mansion? Because he found out?”

The anger in his face subsided, but only a little.

“No. But, I know you want to keep me talking. I can see that.” he looked at his arm. “This has been getting worse with every word you speak. So...I'm going to bring back your corpse to Seocuria. See if your old friends recognise it."

A brief flicker of her mother seeing her dead body flashed through her mind. It was enough to distract her. Something was coming towards her. Zig had already thrown his axe, the blunt head hitting her in the gut. Again the breath was taken from her. He lunged at her and they crashed into the ground.

Kal's vision tumbled again. Zig recovered first and he grabbed her foot tight, spinning her into a pile of rubble. Her head and side screamed in pain. He continued to hold her foot as both her daggers clanged and bounced away from her. Now she was unarmed, and they both knew it.

I'm not going to die like this. Not without....Fight! Damn it!

She tucked her leg behind and lunged towards him, using her arms to add what little they could. Zig's face began to turn into a smirk, thinking that she was going to head-but him. She still had one weapon left, one that she had not used in nearly ten winters.

Her teeth.

Each was like a blade on its own. She opened her mouth and barred down on his face, a look of horror accompanying the realisation. He let go of her leg and tried to stop her but it was too late. Green flesh peeled away from his face as she bit down with all her might, her teeth grinding through to the bone beneath. She twisted around as she bit so her mouth encompassed his face from his nose to his eye. He screamed and pulled her away as Kal dug both of her clawed hands into the back of his skull.

Zig could have attacked her again, but the shock and pain told him to tear her away. Slowly her strength failed against his but it only helped her. She slid her bottom jaw away from his nose and her upper teeth dug into something soft. It popped, filling her mouth with something salty.

With an almighty scream he threw her away. She took one last snap at his face as she bounded away. Great tufts of skin stuck in her claws and teeth. In her mouth was a particularly large piece of flesh; his nose. She spat the flesh out and stared angrily at the now one eyed and nose-less Zig. He was consumed by anger, hollowing like a rabid bear. His remaining eye tried to bore a hole through her mouth, where his blood dripped out of her mouth. However the pain and wounds hadn't brought him down yet.

He pulled out a thin small blade from his hip and held it in a reverse grip. The wounded arm no longer seemed to be working, the venom finally having taken effect. Still, one weapon was more than she had. She doubted that she would be able to bite him again, or at least to win.

I could attack on the side of his wounded eye, but he'll know that's what's going to happen....I'll have to go back to an old trick.

“After this, I'm going to go find Anton." she shook her head as Zig began to advance, the anger and pain clear on his wounded face. "Then we're going to go home, then to Graterious, to Seocuria and then rescue my mother. And I am going to live to see that happen!”

She took a deep breath and ran backwards with all her might, lunging for a dagger. Zig ran after her followed by a blood curdling scream. She grabbed the plain dagger in one hand and a fist full of dirt and ash with the other. As she got up and started to run again.

Kal stopped and waited for Zig to get close. He readied to strike only to receive a handful of dirt in his good eye. With a howl he stopped and began thrashing about wildly, trying to use his shoulder to try and clean his eye and keeping his weapon up. With all the strength she could muster she lunged forward, dodging his wild strikes, and drove the dagger into the wounded eye. Some of his vision had returned as he raised his hand and caught the edge of the blade with his fingers, slicing them apart as the blade continued in.

Zig screamed in pain as Kal drove the dagger further into his head.

Pain came from her side, she glanced down and saw the thin dagger slowly twisting into her side. She gasped in pain. Another two strikes drove into her side, one into the same wound and one higher, before she kicked his hand away. Her next breath felt weak and wet.

Now or never!

She screamed as she forced the dagger through his mutilated hand and into Zig's head. It clicked and tore through. He tried to say something but the dagger dug into something soft. His body twitched, a gurgle of a bloody breath, before going limp. It slumped down as she backed away, clutching at her wounded side. Time slowed to a crawl as she stared at the still body.

“I did it!” she said. “I-”

A violent cough overcame her, blood pooling in her hands and staining her mouth even further. Her side burned in agony.

That bastard got me.

Strength was starting to leave her.

I...I need to find him...He can...

There had not been a lightning blast in some time. She had no idea where Anton, the only person that could heal her, was.

She removed her hands and looked at the blood that was starting to pour out of her side. A quick rebinding of the cloth slowed the bleeding to a crawl. With a grim determination she started to climb the rubble of the collapsed building. Every step up the steep rubble took every effort she could summon. Quickly her vision started to become even more blurred. She looked down and saw blood pouring over her hand. The wound, near her armpit, continued to leak blood. She bound that but it was taking every ounce of strength.

As she took the next step a clay slate tile slid out, causing her to fall down. A broken end of a wooden beam struck her wounded side. She cried out in pain and rolled onto her back. It was getting very difficult to move. Difficult to think.

She looked at what she had managed to do. At her first mission that she had been given.

“I...I did alright.” she said aloud, not caring that nobody seemed to be around to hear. “I did stop him...but...”

She looked down at her wound. The blood was starting to slow down while her body was starting to feel cold. It was not good a sign.

“I wasn't meant to get hurt like this...I'm sorry that I let you down Anton.” tears started to fall down. “I'm sorry mother. Sorry that I couldn't see you again, to show you the things that I've found. And tell you what I've done.”

A clink, of a clay tile being stood on, came from behind. Through the wall. A strength came from within her. A defiance. She was not going to die just yet.

Part of her wanted to call out, to get someone to find Anton. Her exposed half-breed beast-kin face did not even come into her mind. Neither did the Qaiviel soldiers reactions. However, whether or not they were their soldiers or the enemy did play on her mind. She unravelled a piece of cloth and wrapped it over the top of her head. It was covered in blood but it would hide her ears, if not her eyes.

“Shit,” an unrecognised voice called out. “Looks like the last Orcs got hit by the Grand Mage.”

“Nah, see the hands.” another voice spoke condescendingly to the other. “The building crushed 'em. Who knows how many there are on the other side. The bosses won't be happy to hear that.”

“We'd better tell them.” the first voice spoke up. “They're not going to like having to come back here. Save us having to work through the streets.” A few more tiles were kicked around. “Doesn't look good for them, does it?”

It was not Anton, or anyone she recognised, but it did not sound like an Orc or Clansmen.

If they leave now they might not search here for some time and go around...No. I'm not going to let myself die here. I'm just going to have to risk it.

“Hello?” Kal yelled out.

“Who's there!” the voice shouted back. The sound of swords being drawn accompanied the voice.

Really?

“My name is Kal. I am travelling with Anton, the Grand Mage. I-” She began to cough up even more blood, and only just stopped herself from passing out. “I need you to bring him here! Now!”

She looked up and saw a soldier peering over. She quickly lowered her head and raised her hand so the soldiers on top could see. One let out a gasp as they saw her bloodied cloth hand.

“That's one of the ones that came with him.” he said. “We'll send someone down to help you until we find-”

The fear of being exposed came back.

“No!” she yelled. “Just bring him here now!”

She was certain that their armours clicked as they shrugged.

“Okay. Just, hang on then. He shouldn't be too far away. Oh, I can see him! Hang on!”

Thank the gods.

---[]---

It was nearly impossible to tell how much time had passed since the soldiers left as Kal kept trying to fall asleep. She forced herself to stay awake. If she fell asleep now she would definitely be found dead. Not now. Especially when help was so close to living.

When she finally hear something like Anton's voice calling out she had never been so happy to hear her name . Her strength had almost left her but she managed to let out a squeak. A groan. It seemed to be enough. A single person started to scurry down the debris next to her. A few loose tiles and small stones and pieces of timber tumbled past her. She first saw his shoes, the ones that nobody else in this world used or even had. Her heart throbbed to see those things.

“Fucking hell Kal.” he said, scrambling and stumbling to get to her. “What happened to you?”

Tears flooded down her face as she pointed to the dead Orcs. Anton followed and gasped.

“You did all that?” he asked as he got closer. Kal nodded, not that Anton seemed to be paying much attention. He knelt down next to her.

“Right. I'm going to do something and I don't want you to complain.” he said, a warm smile forming on his face, which Kal weakly returned. “You've more than earned it.”

She did not bother to ask what he meant as he placed his hand on her head. A moment later everything sparked back into life; her body began to burn with heat, the wounds and pain vanished, the seeping sensation of her blood ceased, everything quickly replaced with an odd tingling all over her body. Breathing became easier with every passing moment as the magic coursed through her body.

She looked towards him, but his eyes were closed. Whatever he was doing it was taking all of his attention. Feeling such care and attention he had for her moved her heart. It ached, more so than it had ever before.

Other parts of her body started to ache and twitch. Her ears, arms, hands, feet, everything felt odd. If anything it was as if she was growing. She was told not to complain so she held her questions until it was done. She trusted him. More every moment.

Anton opened his eyes and slumped down onto the debris, his arms lost all their strength and crumpled beneath him. Just like at the Gravestone.

“Anton!” she squeaked out, coming to his aide. She moved, with a speed she never knew she had, and made sure that he was still breathing. A smile broke out on his face.

“Sorry. I just used a lot of mana then.” he chuckled and brought his hand up to her head. Something in her took control and guided the hand from her head to her cheek. He looked a little surprised but said nothing.

Kal closed her eyes and clasped the hand tight, enjoying his warmth flowing into her. Something she thought she would never have was right infront of her. Slowly her throat began to choke as more tears began to flow.

“It's okay.” Anton said, not removing his hand. “Everything's fine now.”

It was a silly thing to say, but a gate within her heart broke. The words that she wanted to hear ever since escaping Seocuria. That she could relax. That everything was fine. She didn't have to run, hide or cower anymore. Someone was there for her.

That she was safe.

She could no longer hold it in. Every bottled up emotion came out at once. Her throat chocked as she began to hunch over and cry. Everything was coming out. Things that she had kept cramped and locked in her heart, never to be released.

No words flowed forth, only incomprehensible cries. Anton said nothing, only moving his other hand to hold her head, slowly caressing it. She would have said something but her tears overwhelmed her thoughts. She cried louder and louder. Finally turning into a wail that burned at her throat.

It was a wail from the bottom of her soul.

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Hello.

So, Zig's dead, and ramifications for that will happen. A tiny bit more info on what the Orcs, at least, do to Beast-kin and why Lazgar, and his Orcs, were a little concerned to see her.

Also Kal using a 'trick' (throwing dust like she did with Sam), I thought it would be good to bring that back. Just a little nod. Also her teeth which are all cannines, she's said she's used them before and why they can be so dangerous.

Kal got away and has, seemingly, been healed completely. She's also finally letting out bottled emotions that she's never been able to let out over the past twenty odd years.

So that's that.

Thanks for reading!