42. Night of Horrors

Lace ran with her mother in tow. The temple bells tolled a mournful beat, echoing throughout the city.

They were headed into First Light, as Torchbearer’s position was closer than the Lodge, and greater numbers would give them more of a chance to make it back to the Guild.

They had found C-Rank Hero Cliff-Face and D-Rank Hero Thorn along the way, as well as Thorn’s apprentice. They had also been sent out to oversee the night’s festivities before things had gone wrong.

A drip feed of confused and frightened civilians joined up with them along the way. They walked in a clump surrounded by the fighters.

Cliff-Face was at the head of the group as his body was made completely of granite, making him highly resistant to damage. Thorn was in the back as she possessed ranged capabilities. Lace held up the left side, and the other apprentice had the right.

They encountered Beasts along the way, feeding on freshly made corpses in the streets. Thorn picked off a few of them before they got close, by—as her name suggested—shooting thorny protrusions from the tips of her fingers as projectiles. Cliff-Face dealt with the rest, pounding the creatures with his blocky fists. Not a single sound escaped his wide, cracked mouth orifice while he fought.

As they entered First Light, they began to see bonfires similar to the one Lace had been guarding. Most were surrounded by bodies, though some civilians were alive, coughing and crying blood.

Lace argued that they should stay and save them, but Thorn maintained that there was no time.

“Right now, we have no way to help them and no time to carry them,” Thorn said. “It’s better to save those we can than die on a fool’s errand.”

Lace was reluctantly forced to agree. They had the townsfolk accompanying them carry whoever they could, and then kept on going.

Pillars of smoke had begun to rise over the city as the bells continued to toll.

It seemed that the attack was happening everywhere at once.

At last, they were nearing the wide intersection where Lace had left Torchbearer and the guards. Once they had reinforced their small caravan, they could make a push to the Lodge.

“It’s just up ahead!” Lace called, pointing with her staff towards the street corner up ahead.

The civilians gave out sighs and murmured prayers of relief.

They rounded the corner.

There, a giant of a man was framed against the flickering bonfire, back turned to them. The corpses of several guards lay at his feet. Many had had limbs torn clean off, others had been ripped open by grisly wounds.

The giant held something in his hand.

He slowly turned.

A man whose face was contorted in a mask of glee looked down at them all, mouth smeared with blood. One of his arms had been badly burnt.

The Beast from the hideout raid, Lace realized.

Somehow, he seemed even taller than the last time she had seen him—skin stretched taut and splitting around the shoulders.

He held Torchbearer’s limp body in one of his hands. The Hero still clutched his sword in one hand, flickering with white flame.

Unceremoniously, the Beast lifted up the body, wrapped his other hand around Torchbearer’s head and popped it clean off like a cork.

The Hero’s sword fell from his hand and clattered on the ground.

A shiver of pleasure went through the man, and he lifted the corpse to drink from the severed neck, letting the head drop to the ground.

“Oh yesss,” the Beast rumbled, gulping down big mouthfuls of blood, letting it run over his chin and chest. “This is exactly what I need. I’ve waited too long for such pleasure.”

Lace was stiff with shock and fear.

Her body wouldn’t move. Her brain wouldn’t process what was happening.

It’s not supposed to be like this.

Heroes aren’t supposed to die.

Memories of That Day flashed through her mind, a scar upon her soul pried open once more.

No, no, no.

Not again.

*****

There was some sort of trouble in the city.

Kiren watched dark fire smoke rise from the outer city, greatsword leaned against his shoulder in its scabbard. The moon gazed down on them, pale and full.

They were all on standby while people figured out what was happening. He sat with Haden and Tommyn atop the wall, who were both armed and armored.

Tommyn’s eyes had rolled back into his head, and he swayed slowly from side to side as he piloted an animal somewhere far away.

“What do you think is going on out there?” Kiren asked.

Haden looked out over the city with a deep frown. “Hard to tell. That’s no common fire, though. The smoke’s coming from several districts at once.”

“Yeah.”

Kiren had his own guess of who had done this.

The Dark Eye.

Something was bothering him about what had happened.

It had been a long time ago, now, but he still remembered the man known as Fade. He was a master of espionage. He seamlessly blended into whatever role he wanted to play.

Sometimes, the Villains had played a game where they would guess who was Fade out of a lineup.

Most of the time, Fade was better at playing someone than the actual person was. That was the only way to give him away

Bits was no such stroke of genius.

Looking back at it, there had been signs. He should have caught on sooner. The way he had almost played it like a game, skirting the very edge between maintaining his disguise and revealing himself as an enemy of the Heroes’ Guild.

Even the name, Bits, was suspicious.

What had Lace told him, once?

Like something you’d name a dog.

Either Fade had gotten worse with age, or…

A realization struck Kiren.

Just like Ripper, Fade had taken children. Although, instead of stealing them, he had bred his own.

Which meant they could have his Power.

Kiren stood up with his sudden epiphany. He had to tell someone. He had to tell…

Eagle-Eyes had already left to track Bits, and Excelerate was in no position to do much of anything.

Damn it all. Is there naught I can do but sit here and twiddle my fucking thumbs?

People were calling out atop the wall, causing Kiren to snap back to attention.

A dense crowd of townsfolk, perhaps a hundred in all, came up towards the wall of the Lodge. They approached the wall, and a sentry leaned out of the guardhouse to regard them.

“State your business!” the Hero said. “What’s happening in the city?”

“We are dying,” someone said from the crowd below.

“Let us in,” wept a boy, barely more than a child.

“Creator’s balls,” Haden whispered. “These people have been attacked?”

The Hero in the guard house glanced at some of his peers, who shrugged.

“Alright, we’re letting you in!” he called down. “Just hold on while we get the gates open!”

“Let us in!” a woman wailed.

“Let us in!” several townsfolk cried.

Two Heroes spun the wheels which controlled the gates, and they began to move.

Kiren frowned.

The way they talk.

Almost like…

He slung the greatsword over his shoulder and set off towards the guard house.

“Hey!” he shouted, waving his arms. “Don’t open that fucking gate! Those aren’t people down there!”

The Hero operating the wheel paused and turned to face Kiren.

“What the feck are you talking about, kid?” he asked.

There was a ruckus down below as the people shoved against the half-open gates, pushing themselves into the crack. It wasn’t wide enough for a person to get through, but they pulled on it until it started to give, the great doors groaning as its materials strained.

“They’re Beasts!” Kiren shouted. “Get the gates closed!”

Too late.

The gates came open and the townsfolk surged into the courtyard. They brandished improvised weapons and spread out across the yard, moving soundlessly.

Kiren motioned violently to Haden, who was already getting to his feet. “We need to get down there, come on!”

The Beast-influenced people were quickly making their way across the courtyard. A group of them moved onto the practice yard, cutting down an apprentice and continuing towards a handful others who had nowhere to escape. The other group rushed to the Guild Hall and started hacking at the door with hatchets and makeshift clubs.

Kiren needed to get down there, but going alone would be suicide. The Heroes at the gates, dipshits that they were, were still struggling to comprehend what was happening.

One Hero leapt off the wall and floated into the air. His outfit was grey, like an angry stormcloud, and he rose steadily into the air above the practice yard, several dozen meters up.

Steelfeather.

A-Rank Hero.

At the height of his arc, he suddenly dropped out of the air like a stone. He fell, outfit flapping, curling up as he gained speed.

He hit the ground with a silent shockwave that made the ground tremble. Debris was thrown up all around him, and the dozen or so Beast-folk nearest to him were knocked over, riddled through with stone and gravel.

Steelfeather stood in the crater of his own making, having placed himself between the Beast-folk and the remaining apprentices.

The attackers went for him instead, hacking and slashing with whatever meager weapons they had. Steelfeather glided easily away from their attacks like a leaf on the wind, his feet alighting off the ground.

He rose a meter into the air, then slammed back down with a punch that sent one of the Beast-folk sprawling, knocking over a pair of his compatriots. His blows packed the force of a thunder strike and made the attackers fly like ragdolls.

Kiren couldn’t help but grin.

At least they had him on their side.

He leapt off the wall, and Haden started going down the stairs. Kiren hit the ground and tucked into a roll. His right ankle flared with sharp pain, likely sprained, but that was a problem which would solve itself.

He half-limped, half-jogged towards the second group of Beast-folk. He flipped his weapon around so that he held the greatsword by its blade, with the cross guard and pommel at the end like the head of a hammer.

A few of the attackers noticed him and spun around to face him.

Kiren hammered the first to the head and knocked him down. He thrust the second in the stomach with the pommel of his greatsword, making the man double over, spawnling sliding partially out of his throat.

Kiren grabbed the slimy, fleshy thing and pulled, dragging it completely from its host. He threw it on the ground and stomped it until it no longer moved.

A third came at him with a sharpened sickle, and he blocked the slash on his crossguard. He maneuvered to the side, catching the curved blade on his own weapon, and knocked the sickle out of the Beast’s hands. With a low sweep, he knocked the man off his feet.

Four, five, and six rushed him all at once. He couldn’t have blocked them all, but Haden came barreling through, taking five and six with him in a hard tackle that took them all to the ground.

Kiren finished off four with an upward swing that caught him in the chin and sent him to the ground.

Kiren fought alongside Haden, first pushing into the crowd of Beast-folk, then back-to-back once the tide of bodies grew too strong.

It felt like hours by the time the other Heroes finally got their act together and started fighting. Once that happened, it wasn’t long before the infested townsfolk were all either killed or subdued.

When it was all over, Kiren wiped the sweat from his brow and spared a glance towards Steelfeather. Several dozen townsfolk lay piled up before the A-Rank, stopped before they could ever have become a threat to the remaining apprentices. From this distance, it didn’t look like he’d broken a sweat.

More Heroes poured out of the Guild Hall. Counter was barking orders relayed from Bloodhound, and a few D-Ranks were put in charge of tying up the subdued townsfolk.

Titaness was able to get the gates closed with her massive bulk, rendering them safe for the time being.

And yet, the Heroes had failed.

Kiren approached the apprentice who had been cut down. Good Doctor knelt before him, and he was surrounded by a small group of his peers.

Kiren didn’t know his name, but he had seen him around the main hall a few times. He had been studying under the D-Rank Hero Copycat.

He was dead.

What a fucking travesty.

He got a bitter taste in his mouth, thinking that all of this could have been prevented. The Heroes had been too slow, too stupid.

Kiren heard yelling and looked back. Tommyn was rushing down the wall, a crow seated on his shoulder. He ran up to Haden, who was still catching his breath.

Kiren walked over.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Lace!” Tommyn exclaimed. “S-She’s in trouble! There are Beasts all over the city!”

“Where?”

“Uh, First Light. Under attack. S-She’s with other Heroes, but they’re not h-holding up well.”

Kiren looked across the courtyard.

At Steelfeather.

He’ll save her.

He has to.