Shea bared his teeth and hissed. His legs bunched as he got ready to pounce.

  On his right, Enis lowered her head and aimed for my legs. Her long tail flicked out, getting ready to grab my ankles. Selch looked at his two compatriots and growled.

  “No!” Selch shouted.

  The two Damned stopped and looked at Selch. They tilted their reptilian heads inquisitively.

  Selch used his front two paws to claw the ground and let out a guttural sound from the back of his throat. “No.” He repeated the word. “This unnatural thing killed my nephew. If there is anyone who will kill him, it will be me and mine.”

  Unnatural? Me? The man was a transforming monster, and he thought I was unnatural? Well, he was a Damned. They were all hypocritical. I straightened and opened my mouth to respond.

  Before I could do that, the predators began to argue.

  “Selch, you think your followers can take on a Death Caster? Don’t be foolish,” Baron Shea said in a haughty tone.

  “With me, they can,” Selch snarled.

  Shea shook his reptilian head. “Selch, let’s just kill him and get it over with. We need to join the Thorgs in the throne room.”

  Selch whirled to face Shea. “You will not take this away from me, Shea. This is my revenge!”

  “Don’t you have another one?” Enis asked with a yawn and added, “A nephew, I mean.”

  “Yes, but he is a weakling. He won’t do what is needed to gain immortality.” Selch spat to the side.

  “You mean he won’t torture and kill the sister he loves?” Shea chuckled.

  Selch growled. “We all do what is needed to damn ourselves for immortality. Are you any different, Baron?”

  “I hated my wife. Burning her alive was kind of freeing for me,” Shea said with a smile in his voice.

  “Nevertheless, this one needs to die by my hands.” Selch pointed a clawed finger my way.

  Enis sat down on her haunches and yawned loudly. “Shea, let him. All this arguing is getting boring.”

  Shea sighed. “All right men, let’s take a step back and let Lord Selch and his followers get their revenge.”

  I blinked as the Damned shuffled back and forth, moving out of the way of each other.

  Amusement bubbled up inside me. It wasn’t mine. It was from the mana thread tying me to Ilya. I sent a pulse of annoyance at Ilya to stop her. It didn’t work.

  She laughed even harder watching things from up above. Ilya found the sight of the long lizards jostling each other as they turned their bodies and tucked in their tails to walk past each other hilarious. And the longer it went on, the harder she laughed.

  “Laugh it up, you unnatural thing. Soon you will be crying in pain,” Selch snarled.

  I blinked. Had I started to laugh too?

  A yelp and a snapping of jaws made me look to the side. A Damned had stepped on another one's tail. Both the Damned yelped, one with an injured foot and the other with a bruised thorny tail.

  I tried not to laugh. I really did. But I failed.

  Selch's lips parted, and he wordlessly snarled at me.

  I choked back my laughter and held up my hand. “My apologies. But honestly, stopping to reorganize in the middle of a battle to the death? That’s easily the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Soon, Truechild. Soon, I will bathe in your blood,” Selch growled.

  I turned away, hiding a grin.

  Shea looked at Selch with a snarl. “Lord Selch, you are making a mess of things.”

  Enis chuckled. “At least this is not boring.”

  Shea growled. “Does everything have to be entertaining for you?”

  “Yes. Otherwise, what is the point of living, Shea?” Enis answered while scratching the scales on her neck and continued, “And there is nothing more entertaining than watching a bumbling fool indulge in his foolishness.”

  “Enough of this!” Selch shouted, and spittle flew everywhere. “We kill him now.”

  I raised my sword to prepare and waited. And waited. The Damned were still not in place.

  I looked at Selch. He was beginning to lose control. I decided to push him over the edge. “Is being slow a family trait, Selch? Your nephew certainly didn't have the speed or the wits to stay alive. I assume you're following the same tradition?”

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  Selch lost it. He growled, “I am going to kill you, you bastard!” And flung himself up the rocks.

  He began to climb up the rocks to reach me. His followers, who were not ready, scrambled up behind him in staggered waves. His snout scraped against the rocks. His mouth opened to reveal large sharp teeth. He roared.

  It was a sound full of all his bottled-up frustration and anger.

  I raised my hand and pointed a finger at him. A bolt of pure darkness shot out of my hand and into his throat. The Damned choked.

  I didn’t give him the chance to jump backwards. I drove my sword into his eye and channeled my ice mana into the socket.

  Selch reeled. It wouldn’t be enough to kill an almost adult Damned such as him, but it would keep him down for a dozen seconds.

  I planted my foot on his snout, trapping him under me. I felt Ilya tug at my mana. She could see everything clearer from up above, so I followed her instruction. I spun around.

  A Damned had circled behind me. It was preparing to lunge.

  My hand came up, and this time I used the death bolt, only with ice. The result was completely different from what I had expected. Snow and ice flew out of my palm in a stream.

  It hit the Damned’s face and within seconds froze the lunging Damned into a statue of ice and flesh.

  Two more scrambled up the rocky outcropping, flanking me from both sides. I spread my hands to both sides, shooting death bolts at them. They both made it two steps further and fell.

  Selch raised his head. I took a step back and let him. As soon as his head came up, I swung my sword, channeling death magic into the blade. The blade hit the Damned Lord's scaly neck.

  The scales withered, and my blade dug deep into Selch’s throat and hit bone.

  It was still not enough to kill him. I saw smoky essence leave his wounds and begin to stitch him back together.

  Before I could bring my sword down again, Ilya pushed at my mana urgently. I didn’t question it.

  I released a wave of death through my pores followed by a wave of ice. The combined mana pushed the Damned that had sprung into action behind Selch’s followers back.

  Selch squealed. The death mana swirled around us, a curtain of decaying darkness that shielded us from the others and ate into the Damned Lord's skin and scales.

  In those handful of seconds of privacy, I summoned my essence. Dull, dark black essence flowed out of my palm. It created a dagger that I had used to kill hundreds, maybe thousands, of creatures like Selch.

  Selch’s eyes widened as he recognized the power.

  I winked at the Damned Lord and drove the essence dagger into his brain. I twisted it, scrambling his mind, and breathed in the released essence.

  Now, he was finally dead.

  I didn’t stop. Still hidden from the rest, I turned and ran to finish the others. One stab. One down. Two stabs. Two down. One final stab, and the third one fell. My blade broke with the last thrust.

  It had lasted longer than expected. Was it because of my death mana? No, I couldn’t get distracted right now.

  I breathed in essence and mana. My body pulled it from the downed enemies, and Rustle rustled in pleasure.

  Ilya urgently pulled at me. I took two quick steps back.

  The curtain of death cleared just in time to reveal a lunging Damned. I kicked it in its snout, flinging it back into the other seven snarling Damned. The larger Damned hissed at me with venom.

  I raised my broken blade and announced, “Four more down. Now there are just ten of you.”

  The two Damned leaders looked at each other. They did not talk. They did not speak. They did not even growl. They leaned back on their haunches and jumped.

  My eyes widened. They were fast.

  One flew at me from the right. The other went for my legs. The other Damned scrambled up behind them in a deadly wave.

  Somehow, I dodged the first attack which was aimed at my chest. The second one landed. Teeth scraped against the metal of my sabatons. I pulled back, only to be hit in the chest with the thorns on the tails.

  I flew backwards and rolled to my feet. I had to immediately jump to the side to avoid teeth. They clacked shut inches from my neck.

  I swayed left to avoid another set of teeth inches from my face.

  Something hit my legs, and I fell flat on the ground. Claws came down on my chest. They tried to rip into my chest plate and almost did. Rustle screamed in pain inside me. I barely had time to register his pained cry.

  Another screech, this one louder, buzzed over my head and made a lunging Damned stagger. It was followed up by another one. This one aimed at the other large Damned.

  Shea jumped and dodged the wind blade. Both of the Damned turned towards the tornado and hissed at Ilya in anger.

  Shea snarled and grabbed me by the foot. His powerful jaw crushed my sabatons. With a violent wrench that shot a sharp pain down my ankle, he flung me into the air.

  I spun in the air and righted myself only to see a sea of lizard jaws ready to tear me apart.

  Rustle reacted faster than I could. He pulled at my death mana and released it. I pulled back control of my death mana from him. I couldn’t afford to lose it all.

  Mana released from my pores in a sputter of dark smoke. The Damned scrambled out of the way. I landed awkwardly. Something snapped in my shoulder, and my left arm stopped moving.

  I rolled to my side and used my sword to get to my knees.

  I had to duck almost immediately. A spiked tail almost took my head off. I shot back to my feet and swung my sword, deflecting another tailed strike. And then I had to block a lunging Damned. It staggered me and made me fall back to my knees.

  A heavy weight landed on me, and teeth grazed my neck. I tried to pull away. The teeth dug in and drew blood.

  “Don’t move.” Enis’s long tongue flicked out and licked my blood. She shivered in pleasure. Her snout sniffed and then took a deeper breath. She whispered, “You have so much essence. Aren’t you a find?”

  I gulped. Enis now knew about the essence I had. I knew now that she would never let me live.

  I was a delicacy that the Damned Baroness couldn’t resist. The only question was if she would share me with Shea or not.

  I tried to turn and look back at her face for a clue. Enis’s clawed paw stopped my motion midway.

  “I said, don’t move.” She hissed, and her claws dug into me.

  I stopped resisting and looked at the wind blades flying towards the Damned. A few had fallen in battle. I don’t know when or how Ilya had managed to take them down. But now the Damned were aware of her wind blades. They moved like lizards, dodging the wind blades easily.

  And with Shea free to focus on Ilya’s magic, they were no longer in danger. They hissed out a laugh every time he deflected a wind blade.

  Shea preened at the attention and announced, “Look, these are the vaunted Truechildren of the Emperor Starbright.”

  The Damned laughed.

  “They are nothing but bugs under our immortal claws,” Shea sneered.

  Enis hissed. “Shea, don’t drag this out. It’s boring when you do that.”

  “Fine. Fine.” Shea flicked his tail and deflected a wind blade to the left. He looked back at the tornado and shouted, “Come down, girl!”

  A screeching wind blade larger than the others rushed at him.

  Shea dodged to the side, letting it pass him harmlessly. He looked back up and growled, “I said, come down. Or your brother dies.”

  The wind roaring around the tornado slowed, and Ilya’s troubled face appeared at the center of the tornado. She looked down at the Damned surrounding me and then made eye contact with me.

  “That’s right. You are out of options now.” Shea smiled. “Time to submit.”