Pillars of Smoke, Licks of Flame

Chapter 54: Pillars of Smoke, Licks of Flame

/Some people disgust me. Those vile, slimy, spiteful little cretins, hiding in the dark cracks of society and humanity as a whole. The scum of the earth, crawling out of their holes only to ruin others' time.

I hate people who try to control you and me.

Seriously, someone trying to blackmail, oppress, trick, deceive, mind-control, or gaslight any others is the worst. They are as bad as it gets, the bottom of the barrel, the wrapper of the candy, the stinger of the bee. Absolute, incredible, incomparable scum.

Especially vampires.

Oh vampires, with their families, and blooded bonds, and their feuds and politics, and their weirdly sexualised forms of mind control. I despise them.

Yes, that's racism, and I understand not all vampires use their abilities. I know that most people are completely immune to the effects of vampire mind-control. Usually, their petty tricks can only affect animals, small critters at best, but in the rare cases where they do something to humans?

No.

Taking away one's right to self is perhaps the worst offense someone can commit, and as an ambassador for equal rights, use of such an ability is not the be tolerated. However, any vampires who abstain from such vile practices are people as much as the rest of us, and do not deserve to be faulted for the sins of their brethren.

The few shall suffer for the sins of the few.

It is one's own duty to take responsibility, and if the ability to fulfill that duty is taken, it falls upon the taker to accept responsibility not twice, but squared. And as such, I say we blame not victims, but perpetrators!

Not all, but the conniving weasels at the core of the threat!/

A publicly held speech by Dr. Alucard Acula, studied wiseman and friend of the people.

- - - - - -

Mercury was approaching the city after a good night's rest. The journey wasn't too long, but the sun was already approaching the middle of the sky. It was maybe around 11 a.m., if he had to guess, when he heard a faint sound.

It was a bit of a rumbling in the distance, and immediately after it, he heard multiple bangs go off in a row, straight from the city.

He started to sprint as fast as he could, the explosions having wrung the sleep right out of his whole body as he burst into a sprint. He could already see smoke and licks of flames rising from the city.

When he arrived at the gate, the guards were already largely gone. They had to abandon their posts and rush inwards, trying to rescue as many civilians as possible, and just generally keep the damages to a minimum.

Mercury decided that it would also be best for him to do so, and thus, he rushed straight through the streets, towards the nearest pillar of smoke, being one of the guardhouses. The entire thing had collapsed in on itself, unable to withstand the whole force of the blow, as broken down walls were all that still stood.

Only a couple of seconds later, Mercury had jumped right into the pile of rubble, and began throwing away any smaller pieces of wood and stone he could find, trying to see if anything was still moving below the whole thing, when he heard people actively screaming around him.

Instantly, Mercury turned around, finding one of the northern warrior, clad in white furs and brown leather with her sword drawn and running after a middle-aged man. Almost by itself, Mercury's body moved.

He saw the man running and tripping, saw the woman get closer with each fateful step, and charged at her, using the mana he had regained, and the stamina now coursing through his veins.

His every step turned into a leap, and after a short few seconds, he had made contact with the warrior woman's legs, crashing into her. The impact was enough to knock her leg into one another, tangling them up and knocking her to the floor, where she barely caught herself, still holding onto the sword.

She quickly stabbed at the nuisance in front of her. Whatever the little ball of fur was, it sure seemed dangerous enough, being able to pack that much speed and power. But Mercury wasn't an idiot, so he simply ran across the woman, making sure to keep his claws all the way out. After only moments, he had successfully avoided the stab and reached her face.

Mercury put as much power as he could into every swipe of his claws, getting a good hit on one of her eyes, before she blocked him with her arm and smacked the mopaaw off her. But before she had a chance to get back on her feet, Mercury coursed mana through himself, accelerating his recovery and charging at her face again.

The ball of furious fur bit her nose very quickly, to which the woman responded with an angry smack, only to hit herself in the face once more as the beast was nowhere to be found. She only saw on one side now, and the beast certainly wasn't to her left, but just as she started to turn her head to the right, she felt an intense, flaming pain go down her side.

The mopaaw had gotten her with another large claw, and while the wound was only a couple millimeters thick, the claws cut well. She could feel that her skin proved to be little resistance, and the critter was probably supercharging its attacks with stamina, so her armor wouldn't put up much of a fight.

With the new knowledge on respecting her opponent, the woman grit her teeth and got to her feet, even with the mopaaw still dangling off her elbow, only letting go when she smacked at it. She used the moment her foe was mid air to draw a dagger from her hip and get into a low crouch, ready to respond to anything.

Unfortunately, everything wasn't quite enough, as the beast was also smarter than her. It instantly dashed towards her blind left side, and keeping track of it was all the harder as it ran around, so instead, the woman decided to rely on her combat sense, waiting for an attack to come.

Yet, just as she closed her eyes, her senses already alarmed her of an incoming attack from behind, and while she tried to twist out of the way, she couldn't entirely avoid the thing, and even worse, it clung to her back with one set of claws.

The woman began shaking herself around, trying to get the beast off herself, letting out screams of rage and pain, but the mopaaw simply wouldn't let go, actually clinging to her with another claw and scratching her entire back up looking for a foothold, until she finally got the idea to just smash her back against the floor.

After only a moment of hesitation, she jumped backwards, already arranging for the mopaaw to be as close to the floor with as little warning time as possible. It even worked, the thing let go, but not before having its head banged against the floor once.

Then, the woman herself landed, somewhat softening the fall with her left hand, but even so both that one and her back got badly scraped up and bloody. Her only solace was that when she looked up, the beast in front of her was standing, but panting heavily, and the fur on its head was turning red.

'Little monster, got you now,' she thought, tightening her grip on the dagger in her right.

Mercury felt like fucking puking. His head was still spinning, and man, getting a grip on reality this soon after sleeping was already a pain. He could feel all muscles in his body aching, still screaming of yesterday, and he hadn't even eaten or drank anything yet.

His stomach felt like it was turning inside out and his lungs were burning, his muscles tired and barely doing what he wanted to. But he fought against it, shaking his head a little to clear it, keeping his eyes open and the woman in check.

She was a well-trained melee fighter, and had even faced some beasts before, he could tell. Still, he had the jump on her, and she was blinded on one eye. All it came down to was how much the wounds on her back were affecting her.

Mercury took a deep breath and focused. He focused on her every move, her every twitch, focused on the mana and stamina in his body and moving them around, slowly coursing the energy into his legs, before bringing it to a boil.

He took a second breath as he dug his claws into the floor, using them for extra grip, as he lunged at the woman again. His third breath was taken mid air, when he saw the dagger plunging towards him, and he adjusted his tail to catch the wind as he turned to the side. And then, he spun off to the left, away from the stab and into her blind spot.

Then, he took a fourth breath as he lunged again, this time towards her stomach, and sliced her open as she was struggling to regain balance. He did it as he dove by, running his left set of claws across her belly and digging them deep into her, leaving a set of five deep gashes.

For a second, he felt the blood drip onto his fur.

"UAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!"

The woman screamed in pain as she was cut open. She was doomed, Mercury knew that, but he couldn't think about that still, so he pushed it into the back of his mind and ran off.

He took just one more breath as he was running inwards, begging his legs to go just another step for now.

His vision was blurry and red, some of the blood from his head now dripping into his eye, but Mercury worked to quickly blink it away as he continued forward, running until he found another opponent. A man with a long, thick mace, spikes and everything.

This wasn't a good fight for him, but Mercury decided to take it anyway. He focused on himself for a moment, and on his legs, since he only had the four of them and his mouth to attack, and then steeled himself for what he was to do next. The screams of the woman still rang in his mind.

Mercury pushed his power into his legs, and even when they burned and resisted, he tightened his muscles, and released it all in a giant burst of power, leaping up all the way into the side of the mace-wielder's face. The mopaaw crashed into the guy full force, and Mercury' wasted no time before going to town, biting down on ears and scratching at eyes.

"Argh!"

The soldier quickly flinched and yelled, before grabbing at the wild thing on his face, taking it into his massive hand and gripping down on it as hard as he could.

Mercury yelped out in pain as the man's hand dug into him, crushing down on his chest and shoulders, but quickly regained his composure and bit into the mans finger as hard as he could. Reflexively, the soldier let go, only for Mercury not to, hanging onto the finger with all his weight and throwing his head around to try and hurt it.

After just a moment, he heard a sickening snap, and let go, dropping to the floor and running off, his breathing now even more laboured.

"The fuck was that?", the man grunted out in pain, grabbing at his, now broken, index finger, only for the blur of an attacker to show itself again.

The red-white monster was on the man's heel again after only moments, clawing, scratching and biting at his calfs with great ferocity as it ripped out chunks of meat, disappearing between the buildings again before the man could catch it.

Grunting in frustration, the soldier stopped moving forwards and started scanning the environment around himself, waiting for the beast to show itself. Only after a couple moments, he already caught a blur of it, just slightly to his right, and immediately, he swung his club down.

"AAAHHH!!" Mercury screamed as it came down on his right front paw with a crunch, fracturing his bones as one of the spikes dug into him. Then, before he could even regain his composure, the large man kicked him in the face, sending him through the air, into a wall.

Mercury was roughed up, and he could tell many of his bones were broken, but this couldn't be the end of him yet. Immediately, he bought another healing potion from his shop. It cost him another 1000 Gold, marking the end of his savings, and a potion that didn't even come close to fully restoring him, but at the very least, it felt like his ribs weren't all the way in his throat anymore.

A bit of crunching later, and Mercury got up from the crumpled mess he was on the floor, only to see that maceman had left. But the cat was persistent, and using his very sensitive nose, he could track him down.

After only a couple turns on the street, Mercury had caught up to the soldier and decided to throw a rock this time. He had been hasty before, but he was all sobered up now.

The sharpened, and fully runed up rock quickly penetrated the man's armor and dug itself into the muscle mass on the man's back, as he let out a grunt.

Then, when he was still turning around, Mercury threw out another three rocks. One aimed at the face, which got blocked, one that stabbed the man's chest, but got stuck between two ribs, as far as Mercury could tell, and the final one, which smashed the giant's kneecap and brought him down.

"Hard fall, bitch?" Mercury asked, lodging a final rock into the man's head, before limping off somewhere else, to his residence, the inn he stayed at.

- - - - - -

Davis had never been much of a fighter. He was a polite young man, someone who preferred to sit down for a glass of wine or somesuch, and play a game of cards, maybe swap some stories. He always loved the life of the bar, whether he was visiting one or running it.

The mellow, calming music. The stories and the jokes. The atmosphere, the smell of wood and liquor, the clean glasses and polished counters. The groups of friends, sitting and having a good time without necessarily disturbing anyone.

Being the centerpiece of all that as a barman was fulfilling to him. Hearing people's stories, listening to the woes of life, the ups and downs, to Dave's new lucky lady, and Lod's shoddy time in the army. He liked it when Billy and Joel came to visit, two brothers who particularly liked the piano he kept in the corner of the bar.

But what he didn't like was his situation right now, cowering behind his counter with a broken nose, the wood smashed in, the bottles broken and sticky alcohol all over the floor, drying out and leaving gross residue.

His eyes were teared up as he looked at all of it, at his life's work, and saw it vanish under the broadsword of a single soldier. He saw the mission in the corner of his eye, to "Protect that which is dear to you", making out the letters through his blurry vision, and he knew he couldn't.

Davis knew that if he got up, it wouldn't be the furniture cleft apart. He saw the carnage out the window, the streets painted with splatters of blood, the houses that had come crashing down, and the pillars of smoke, leaking up into the sky.

He felt the clot in the back of his throat getting thicker, as his breaths became shaky. He wanted to keep crying, but the overwhelming sense of loss only grew stronger each time a chair crashes, or a table snapped. It was degrading, seeing all of it being vandalised like that with no way to fight back.

All in all, he knew he could do nothing but just watch on powerlessly, as all he had worked for was breaking. And eventually, when he saw more glasses hit the floor, and bottles crumble, he felt hot tears stream down the sides of his cheek.

"No," he whispered under his breath. For he knew, he couldn't scream.

- - - - - -

Rondo grunted loudly as he shuffled his weight around in the rubble. It felt heavy on his old bones, and it took him longer than he would have liked to admit to drag himself up.

To be fair, it was only because of the young lady he was still standing. She had cast a shield of light, just before the scorching blast had hit him, and thus, only his right arm had been burnt, though that surely was enough anyways.

He was blind on that eye now, but at the very least, he was breathing. Lady herself had still taken a rough hit, but the lass was tough, he knew she'd make it. Avery though hadn't got nothing near as lucky. Man was leaning far enough back to get hit with the whole blast, and Rondo didn't want to imagine what he looked like.

Instead of imagining, he simply cleared away the rubble until he saw the two of them, splashing two healing potions onto their faces.

The lass would still need to live with singed hair and a slightly burn scar next to her chin, but Avery's entire throat was charred, his skin cracked and black. Honestly, Rondo didn't even know if another potion would do the trick.

He checked the godseeker's backpack, and found an emergency bottle. The glass had been stored inside a metal casing, keeping it safe enough, though there were cracks in it, and the potion was starting to hiss as it came in contact with the metal.

Rondo quickly pulled the stopper and poured some of it on the wound, as well as some down Avery's pipes. Hopefully it'd do its job there he thought, pouring the rest on the church lass.

Those two needed to wake up right fast, that much was clear. After all, they, as well as himself, had a city to protect. Sadly, there was no water 'round, so Rondo simply slapped both of their faces, which seemed to wake up Lucia at least, though Avery was still out cold.

"Fast reaction lass, saved my hide there you did. Go on now, we have a city to tend to, no?"

"Your arm," Lucia simply stated. "Let me see it. There is little hope for your eye, but this much I can do."

Rondo didn't like being ordered around, but when it came to healers and clerics, he knew none of them had any calm at all. Those people were stressed, and he sure didn't want to make the lass mad.

So, instead of making a big fuss about it, he simply held out his arm as best he could, resulting in a half-hearted thirty degree angle of liftage, or somesuch. It was almost embarrassing for a bear like Rondo, but the lass was a cleric, so she would be used to it.

Soon after, he felt a little better, though his other comrade in arms was still out.

"Can you get 'im up, young lady?" Rondo asked her, nodding at Avery.

"I certainly can try, but my hopes would be low. It is not his health keeping him down, but rather his stamina. His body is focused on healing, and until he is a little better, I fear he may remain as such."

"We hide him then," Rondo said with a grim look on his face, slinging Avery's body over his shoulder at the nod of Lucia, and placing it down on the inside of the lower city wall. Some dark corner that didn't matter much, with no people passing through.

"Good enough," the guard captain muttered to himself, before running back, seeing that the church girl had already vanished.

"She takes works seriously, respectable," he spoke to himself again, a habit he had developed in his later years. Well, it wouldn't be right manners if he let some girl new to this city throw herself before he did so himself. He was the city's guard captain, and unlike those seekers, he had found his calling.

He wasn't just the guard captain, he was this city's wall and defense all at once. And he could not stand for it if the place he stood for was damaged.