Nyx

Nyx felt the call; she’d been sleeping, or close enough that it made no difference. She was awake now, and being pulled into reality. She remembered her master’s last words to her, she knew that she would need to be ready to fight; so, she donned her armor, and armed herself with her new sword and shield. She didn’t know what would be asked of her, but she would prove herself to her creator regardless of the challenge.

When she could see again, she found herself in the middle of a battle. Her master was standing right in front of her, and he was covered in blood. The calm she had been working to maintain trembled at the sight, she kept her face still however. Her master was hurt, but he hadn’t told her who to attack yet. She did not want to attack the wrong foe.

“Master,” she said with a bow of her head. “How may I serve?”

He raised his scythe sword, and slashed it into the skull of a scaled creature covered in machinery. She recognized the blade with a thrill of pride, it was the King’s Blade. He had made it to honor her contributions during…no, the blue king’s contributions during the autumn hive battle.

“If it has scales and is covered in metal parts, kill it. The kobolds are overrunning us Nyx. Don’t stop until they’re all dead.” He shouted to her, as he swung the King’s Blade into another creature.

“As you will it master.” She replied, bowing her head again. he had given her, her first task. She was to slaughter these horrid creatures who dared to injure her master. She turned to the closest creature and bashed her new shield into its twisted face. following that up with a stab from her new sword. It was sharp, and well balanced.

The kobold was pierced through with the blow, her sword stopping only when the hilt reached the creatures chest. Turning the blade horizontally, she ripped it through the beast’s ribcage and free of its body. Stepping forward she brought the edge of her shield down onto the next kobolds head. it crumpled where it stood, not having time to react as its skull caved in.

The next beast blended into the one after that, soon she had lost track of the number of beasts she had slaughtered. A smile found its way onto her lips, and she giggled happily. She had to be making her master proud. When she felt the rush of dual essence flowing into her, she looked up to see why.

She was injured, she hadn’t noticed in the excitement of battle. The blades of her foes had found their way into the gaps in her armor and her blood was rushing out. Her master had noticed even when she had not and was working to fix the problem. That made her happy, and she laughed some more. Looking up to catch a glimpse of lord Benjamin while she fought for him. What she saw wiped the smile from her face.

He was surrounded by dozens of the little creatures. He was bloodied and battered, and was even now taking on the more bestial form she remembered from when they had fought before. She could feel the essence moving into his body from here, Ice was changing too. Growing larger and more powerful. The shaggy white fur growing from her master’s body and the way his jaw elongated to make room for the new teeth, reminded her of the elemental wolf.

“No,” she whispered, while she watched lord Benjamin change into his more wolf like combat form. She wasn’t doing a good job; she was supposed to kill them all. Her master was hurt, and so badly out classed that he had to take on his beast’s form. Yet, yet he still took the time to heal her wounds. “No” she said again, she would not let this happen. she would not fail like this on her first test.

“Aahh!” she roared out her anger and frustration. Diving into the horde of foes with reckless abandon, her sword and shield never pausing while she butchered the enemy before her. She stabbed and sliced and bashed. Sweeping her scything talons through the enemies who dared to attack her hive, her children would feast tonight…no; she shook her head, that wasn’t right.

A blow caught her under the chin while she had been distracted, and she staggered backwards. Blinking her eyes to clear away the stars, Nyx looked at her new opponent. It was huge for its kind, standing fully as tall and as broad as she did. It was armed similarly with sword and shield. The creature was glaring at her, waving its smaller brethren away.

Another kobold of equal size moved up next to the first, this one was female. She held a pair of daggers, and had four tentacle arms sticking from her back. Two held shields and the others held two more daggers. She looked even more outlandish standing next to her male counterpart, who only had a few cylinders bolted to each of his limbs. The cylinders were made of a larger tube and a smaller one, that compressed into the larger one as it moved.

It didn’t matter, she was going to destroy them both. Nyx felt the cooling rush of her master’s dual essence flowing into her again. It made her happy that he was looking out for her and enraged her at the same time; she was here to protect him, not to be protected by him. She bared her fangs at the big kobold monsters, she had waited long enough and it was time to kill.

She rushed forwards, a flap of her new and more powerful wings speeding her progress. She hadn’t used them much up to this point, but these foes would demand more than blind rage. Reaching the large male, she swung her sword and raised her shield simultaneously. Only to have her sword blocked by the tentacles of the female. The responding sword strike from the male however caught her by surprise.

she had raised her shield to block the incoming strike, but the shield shattered under the blow. Sending her flying backwards to smash into the ground. She rolled and flared her wings to stabilize herself and made her way back to her feet. What had happened, he couldn’t be that strong. Nyx’s eyes moved to the cylinders bolted into the kobold’s arms and legs.

They must be boosting his strength somehow, adding extra force to his blows. She didn’t understand how that could be, but it didn’t matter. She used some of the essence still flowing into her from her master to resummon her shield. Once she was reequipped, she launched herself at the kobold. The corridor was too narrow and low for her to fly, but she was able to add speed to her run with a few carefully timed wing strokes.

When she reached her target, she was moving faster than she could in a full-on sprint. Tucking her wings in tight, she hunched down behind her shield. When she made contact; she didn’t lower her head, trusting her horns to protect her skull as she drove every ounce of strength she could muster, into the stronger than average kobold.

He didn’t back down at all when she came at him. He braced himself on the floor and leaned into her charge. When the pair collided, both of their shields shattered this time. The sound was like thunder in the confined space. She was deflected to the side, beginning to move passed her target. That was unacceptable; she reached her now empty shield hand out, snagging onto one of the cylinders.

When her momentum carried her passed the reeling kobold, her grip on the cylinder ripped it from his arm. There was an agonized howl from the brute, along with a fountain of blood and oil. She could see white bone near the elbow, where she had gripped. Nyx didn’t know what the cylinder did, but she had broken it, on this arm at least.

She had never let go of the object, so when she reached the end of its length she was jerked to a stop. A carefully timed stroke of her powerful wings carried her backwards, dragging the howling kobold with her. Nyx thrust forward with the sword, again and again as she flapped backwards. Keeping the creature off balance and in pain while she stabbed it to death.

She didn’t stop until she ran back first into the corridors wall. the mortally wounded kobold slamming into her from its own momentum. Thrusting her blade to the hilt into his chest she giggled happily as the light left his eyes. She had killed this threat to her master, now she needed to kill the other one.

Pulling the sword from the dead kobold, Nyx rose to her feet. she was unsteady, looking down she saw why. She had several stab wounds of her own. Her natural regeneration was handling it, along with more essence from lord Benjamin. She looked around, leaning against the wall to steady herself while she found another target. There was an ogre battling the female kobold, with the extra tentacle arms.

The ogre held a javelin in each hand, and was stabbing at the big kobold with frantic intensity. He was ignoring the slashes from the four knives the woman held, in favor of killing her quickly. A strategy Nyx strongly approved of. She might have gotten angry that the ogre had taken her prey away, if there hadn’t been so many more around. Recovered enough to stand unassisted; Nyx rematerialized her shield for the second time in as many minutes, and charged into another group of the lizard machine hybrids.

These had surrounded a wounded Ice. The already massive wolf had grown even larger, thanks to her master’s enhancement. There were now spikes protruding from her spine and shoulders, and a horn growing from her forehead. Nyx approved, smashing her own horns into the nearest kobold. Her charge caught the group surrounding the wounded wolf by surprise, giving her the chance to snatch one of their number in her massive jaws and crush it.

She scythed her…sword…through the gathered kobolds. Ice was mother and alpha to her, she had followed her into death to…no, she was Nyx. Her master had given her the name, and the mission. The memories of those lost, were there to help her fight more fiercely, nothing more. To protect lord Benjamin and keep him smiling at her, like he had that night she had come to him.

“Aahhh!” she screamed again, trying to rid herself of the distracting thoughts. She tried to regain her calm. The calm that had seen her through the conquest of two universes before this one. When her old master had given her the rod of power, and sent her here to destroy. Well, she was still here to destroy, only the targets had changed. Her master was Benjamin now, and she had to stay calm to protect him.

Breathing easier, Nyx moved on from these kobolds to the next batch. Once those had been smashed and slashed into bloody chunks on the floor, she moved on again. before long, she ended up in front of a strange looking kobold. It held an essence pistol and was projecting an essence shield. The pink that tinged the shield matched the pink in her short blonde hair. As Nyx neared, she noticed that this kobold didn’t have any scales or metal parts. That caused her to pause, she was told to kill the ones with scales and metal parts.

“No scales, or metal parts. Master told me to kill the ones with scales and metal parts.” She murmured to herself before turning away. There were others, she could find a different kobold to kill. One who had scales and metal parts.

She looked around, but couldn’t find any still living enemies. The ogre had finished off the woman and was slumped in a pile on the floor, slowly healing. Ice had been reduced to a pile of bloody meat in the corridor, but she knew the she wolf would return. She scanned for her master, spotting him at last. He was moving towards her, covered from head to toe with blood and gore.

The elongated jaws and his longer hand and foot claws were slowly shrinking away. The white fur that had grown from his body was now retracting as well. By the time he reached where she stood, he was back to his normal appearance.

“Master,” she greeted him, dropping into a deep bow. “I hope, I pleased you. I am sorry I couldn’t kill them faster, and that you had to dirty your own hands. I shall do better in the future, if you give me another chance.” She said, head still bowed.

“Nyx, please lift your head.” he said, voice weary.

She did as she was bid, lifting her head to look into his eyes. They weren’t any whites in them, they were the solid color of wolf’s eyes. Dark blue around the edges and fading gradually to near white by the pupal. She didn’t remember them looking like that when she had stared into them… that hadn’t been her. His transformation must have changed them.

“I am very pleased with your performance here, Nyx.” He said, while she stared into his eyes. A happy smile was beginning to bloom on her face and she giggled. “Thank you for following instructions, and not killing Jade or Tok.” He continued pointing at the ogre and the blonde kobold.

Nyx bobbed her head with that happy smile still in place. She had done good; he was happy with her. She giggled again, trying to contain herself and return to her calm stillness. She couldn’t do that while her master was praising her though.

“Thank you, Master.” She said with another bow.

“I’m going to dismiss you now, get some rest. I hope next time I call; we can talk. Be prepared for battle though, just in case. We are in enemy territory.”

Nyx bobbed her head again at his words, and felt reality slipping away as she returned to her sleep to await her master’s next call.