The taller guard glanced up in surprise, the first to catch my approach. His eyes widened, realization spreading through them like the flames of a fire that would ravage a city. My anger boiled like those flames, growing as I stepped closer, my hands instinctively reaching for the man before I was even in range of him.
Everything I had felt in the camp came rushing back in overwhelming force. Like a wave trying to bury me beneath the weight of its force. I would not be caged again. I let it overwhelm me. Let it be the fuel that I needed in that moment. The System tried to tell me something, but I ignored it, focusing my attention solely on the men in front of me.
The men that had to die.
"Stop!" The taller guard yelled, his voice trembling with panic, his hand moving toward his sword.
I didn't give him a chance. I used [Swift Strike], focusing it on my hands. My fist found the man's throat. I felt something give underneath the weight of my attack, his breath suddenly ragged and choked as he tried to take a step back. To give himself some distance. My other hand reached for his sword hilt. For a brief moment, it looked like our hands might meet, but I was quicker.
I ripped it free of the sheath; the sound echoing through the silence of the hallway. Using the precious seconds it gave me, I used [Swift Strike] once more, bringing the sword up, the blade sliding along his throat, a line of red blossoming against his pale skin.
His eyes widened further as the blood sprayed outward, coating my face in a red sheen.
The shorter guard was already turning toward me. The commotion had also drawn the attention of the other guard and Sil, who were both rushing down the hallway, swords drawn. I got a glimpse of the despair on Sil's face as I brought the sword up to meet the second guard's, the sound of metal on metal echoing through the hall.
"You bitch," the man muttered, blocking another attack from me. "Who are you?" Panic spread across his face as we traded blows, each one bringing us further from the stairwell as I forced him backward.
The sound of swords clashing together echoed from further down the hall, and I glanced past the shorter guard to see Sil smashing his own sword into the third guard's. I didn't have time to watch their fight, though, as the shorter guard rushed in for the attack, using my momentary lapse in attention as an opening.
[Swift Strike.]
I dodged to the side, easily parrying the attack away and the man grunted as my sword met the weak part of his armor where the upper arm meets the chest plate. Red sprouted along the edges where the blade cut, and I offered him a smile which only seemed to fuel the fury and panic in his eyes.
"I'm going to kill you," he sneered. "And then we'll cut out your rebellion like we'll cut out your heart."
Our blades met again and again. Each time the man looked like he might get a hit on me, I used [Swift Strike] to dodge out of the way. Each dodge brought more anger to his movements. Each direct attack from him became more reckless. I parried his next assault away and then shoved the tip of my sword into his throat. The blade clanged against metal as it collided with the back of his helmet, his mouth dropping open in surprise and pain, blood leaking down the weapon and onto the cross guard, dripping past my hand and onto the floor.
I let it rest there for a second, a part of me reveling in the sight of his neck pinned around my blade, before ripping it free and letting his body crash to the ground with a clatter of armor.
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A soft voice within me asked a question that almost quenched the fury. Could he have been one of the humans who had remained loyal to me with the [Hero]'s uprising? No, the fury responded. It didn't matter. Too much of humanity had turned its back on me. They had murdered my kind. All so a mocking [Hero] could become their god. They had abandoned the ones that had lifted them up over so many centuries, not the other way around.
The questioning voice grew silent, overwhelmed by the screams for justice that resonated within my heart.
The sound of blades slamming together still rang through the air as I refocused my attention on the present. Soft music penetrated the sounds of battle, flitting by with an eerie tune which sent shivers across my skin. A moment later another crash of armor sounded the death of Sil's opponent as a bright light flashed through the hall. The smell of burnt flesh collided with my nose.
"We need to leave, now," Sil said closing the distance.
"No," I muttered, my anger still overflowing. "The general is here."
"I know, that's why we have to leave." He grabbed my arm and I jerked it away, my eyes meeting his.
He had blood on the uniform he'd stolen, but I didn't think it was nearly as much blood as I had on me. I might as well as have bathed in the blood of that first guard. Killing him had felt different somehow. Like I'd released something inside me that had been holding part of me back.
The System answered my inquiring thoughts with a glowing window of golden words, the notification from earlier appearing before Sil's face.
[New Skill: Lust of the Blood Dragon – The user becomes enraged and empowered by the fury of the dragon within. Attacks are more powerful, even brutal. Activates only when certain criteria are met. Not directable.]
I dismissed the message, feeling the anger still burning hot within me, poking at me like a stoker building a fire in a boiler. It begged to be used. I didn't have time for explanations. I didn't have time for Sil's pleading looks. The way his eyes tried to meet mine.
I needed blood.
Everything within me cried out for it, like a fledgling crying out for its next meal. It demanded to be fed, and I had every intention of giving it what it wanted.
"Others will come, Aria. We have to go now. You've got what we need, right? We shouldn’t waste any more time. Ophelia needs those beans."
I ignored his pleading, staring down the hall, my face set in a sneer. He was right there. I could kill him today.
"Come on," Sil finally said, resignation coating his words like molasses. "He's down here."
Sil turned back to where he and the other guard had come from. I let him lead me further down the hall, stepping over the other dead guard’s body before we came to a stop in front of a door.
"I doubt we have long. The only reason we're not being swarmed right now is because everyone on this floor is too weak to do anything."
My hand reached for the door, ready to push inside. The fury inside demanding to be taken out on someone. Sil's fingers wrapped around my wrist, my eyes snapping to his, my face further contorting into rage.
"Let go of me." The words were a low hiss.
"We can still get away, but we have to leave now."
"Not until he's dead."
"You can't change what happened at the camp, Aria. Killing him won't change anything."
"It will change me."
The words were empty. We both knew it. But I didn't need to justify my actions to Sil. I didn't need to justify my actions to anyone. I held up the sword I'd taken from the first guard, pointing the blade at him.
"We are allies," I said, keeping my voice low. "But I will get what I want."
His grip loosened and then pulled away, his hands raising up. Hurt spread across his face. It wasn't quite a look of betrayal, but it felt like one.
Taking a step back, he shook his head. "Do what you want. I'm getting out of here." He turned and started to walk away, leaving me standing at the door alone.
I ignored his retreat, turning my eyes back to the room, and pushed the door open slowly.
The room inside was simple by most standards. A large window on one wall, a bed in the center, and a table with various bandages and other medical supplies across from it. A hulking form took up most of the bed, the man's arms, legs, and even most of his face covered in bandages. He opened his eyes as I entered the room, taking me in.
"I remember you." His voice was haggard; his words slow. Slurred. Helpless. Just like the woman he had killed at the gate that day. Just like everyone else he had killed in his camp.
"Good," I said, stepping forward. I drove the sword into his chest. His body jumped against the assault and then settled into the bed, his eyes meeting mine for a moment before they slid away, the life gone from them.
The anger within me boiled for a moment longer and then settled, becoming a simmering mass in my gut once more. Satiated, I turned from the bed, leaving the sword sticking out of his chest.
A message to those who found him.