Wednesday, May 24, 2022 The Realm of Dark Sky

Cresting the rocky hill, the warm, humid wind hit Ekerri directly in the face. The glowing rock beneath him channeling the wind upwards.

The inky black sky made the world feel blank and even Ekerri felt uncomfortable in this strange world. It would be truly oppressive if the rock itself wasn’t luminescent.

As he looked down, he made a moue of disappointment. A skeleton lay in front of him, overgrown with the same rock. It’s large head and rib cage partially sunken into the soil.

This was the third of the hidden kingdoms that he had looked, and this was the last of them where the Akathartos could be found. He had expended significant amounts of magic to find the traces that led him here, all wasted.

He made his way down the hill, his staff at his side, and sat down, leaning his back against one of the large ribs.

The skull was curled around as if the creature had decided to curl up and take a nap and Ekerri looked into it’s eye sockets.

“It seems I did not provide for you well when I sealed you in here, old friends. One of these worlds was underwater and your compatriots died, drowning. The second was solid rock which must have at least been quicker. And this one? Maybe there was nothing to eat…”

The Akathartos skull said nothing, merely looked at him accusing. It’s row of sharp teeth grinning in the dark.

Ekerri would be forced to bargain with the Keres instead, if they still lived. The Akathartos had been almost childlike in their viciousness, point them at something and they would rampage. Their simian shapes, large size, and wiry almost steel like fur defending them against any attack. But they were gone now. Their giant forms never to be seen again.

Aqrabuamelu compound, Flushing, Queens, New York, United States

Ella put the sword and rod into a V to block the great sword bearing down on her and then kicked behind her to catch Davcina who had been coming closer for an attack with her two knives.

She got Davcina with a glancing blow but the great sword was coming down again. She deflected it to the side with the rod and followed the rod with a downward cut of the sword.

Zaidu let go of the great sword with his left hand and caught Ella’s wrist in one hand, arresting her sword in mid air.

Before she could bring the rod back up, Davcina came in and scored two kill shots with her knives.

“Foolish. You should have kept your weapon in it’s longer form to help keep your distance. Second, when you are surrounded you should have moved out of the middle. Go wait in a plank until I am done here. And watch the next fight and be prepared to provide critique.”

Ella put her sword staff back together into one longer piece and got into a plank and tilted her head slightly up to see the next round.

It was Adra versus Davcina this time. Adra had a large battle axe and Davcina her two knives. It felt very uneven to Ella, and it had always turned out that way. When they had armored fights, Adra usually won and when unarmored, he would get one swing in before Davcina would close the distance.

Today, it was unarmored. Adra choked up on his axe and kept it very tight. They circled and Davcina went first, a high swipe at the eyes with her leading right hand and then a stabbing motion low to the belly.

Adra used the axe blade to guard his face and deflected the stab hard with the handle of his axe, knocking Davcina out of balance. He quickly launched a kick at her exposed side which sent her staggering to her right.

He started moving in and was sliding his hands down the haft of the axe, still a shortened grip but enough to swing. But he wasn’t fast enough and Davcina threw a quick sidekick at him to block his momentum.

They got back to circling. A few fronts and Adra swung the axe hard. Davcina faded back and darted in for the kill. Adra had planned for it and used a low leg sweep to keep her back. Then he jumped forward poking Davcina directly in the chest with the top of his axe. She fell back into her back coughing.

“I think you broke a rib,” Davcina said and winced.

“Take care of it,” Zaidu hissed at Adra and they went over to the side where Adra started to bandage Davcina up.

“Get back here!” Zaidu indicated where Ella was to stand. She hopped up and stood waiting.

Zaidu lined up across from her, this time without a weapon.

Ella grinned, maybe she could finally get a hit on him. She left her weapon in two pieces and took her stance. She twirled the blade in her hand. Then the rod next. She began the pattern she had been working on in secret for weeks.

Zaidu’s eyes widened as she moved in without waiting. The kali instructor she had been training with was excited how well she had picks it up.

She got close and swung the blade down and watched as Zaidu hit the flat of the blade with the palm of his hand to defect it. The haft of her staff came next but he stepped back to avoid it. She followed with a step forward and a reversed slash from the blade. She had him!

And then she was tumbling over and landed on her back, hard, her own blade edge at her neck.

She looked up at Zaidu, “Pathetic,” was all he said.

He called Davcina back, who winced as she walked over for a round against an unarmed Zaidu. Davcina gave her a surreptitious thumbs up on her way in where Zaidu mercilessly forced her to move around while nursing either bruised or broken ribs.

After a while he took them to the shoot house, but not before going into excruciating detail how embarrassing he found them and how if they ever mentioned his name in connection with their training, he would be forced to kill them slowly as well as everyone who might have heard that vile slander.