Relias: Uprising (52 page)

 Its body quivered. Its warm damp breath blew across her face, smelling putrid and rotten. But each progressive breath became shallower until they stopped entirely. Its eyes glazed over and its body went limp. Seraphine let go and the wolf collapsed to one side.

 Seraphine shook uncontrollably. She put a hand on the gutter and tried to stand.

 She couldn’t. Her eyes wouldn’t focus and her legs wouldn’t work. But slowly she pulled herself away from the dead Nightwolf, her eyes horrifically riveted on the expanding pool of red beneath its chest.

 Then, as her mind returned, Seraphine cried. The tears that ran down her face became a steady stream. They were going to die. All of them. Sable was dead, the Ditrinity was dying, and Seraphine wouldn’t make it anywhere.

 “Hey fellas, look at this!” It was a deep, booming voice. Rough, intimidating, frightening.  Seraphine’s entire body tensed and her eyes went wide. “Look at what this lil’ bitch did to Arty!”

 There was laughter. The Monolith kicked the corpse to the side.

 With her big, green eyes bursting with tears, Seraphine looked up at the Monolith, holding the Chainlance in folded arms across his chest. Then, from behind him, more Legionnaires appeared. Their armor was clean, untouched. None of them had even fought yet. Skirmishers, Knights, Berserkers, Nightwolves, they’d brought everybody. There were at least seven soldiers. They formed a semi-circle around Seraphine and watched with unfettered mirth as the Monolith toyed with her.

 “What you say? You say we put the slut down?”

 There was a resounding ‘yeah’. Seraphine shook her head pleadingly.

 “No, no, no, no, please… I-“

 “You what, you little whore. You what?”

 “I just…” Seraphine shook her head slowly, looking the Monolith in the black glossy visor that concealed his face, hoping that he’d understand. “I just want to go home! PLEASE! I just want to go home!”

 The Monolith pulled his helmet off and tossed it. He grinned from ear to ear, his white teeth shining through the dark. “You hear that!” He said to the others.

 Laughter once more. It was like a good joke at her expense. The Monolith’s laugh overpowered them all. Once he’d expended his share of laughs, he looked back Seraphine and shrugged.

 “Well, you just killed a Legionnaire. That’s a federal offense and this is martial law. You know what that means?”

 Seraphine knew where things were going. Her sobbing got harder. “P-please don’t… I… I want to see my mom again… I… she’s all that-”

 The Monolith mimicked a sad face and stuck out his bottom lip. “Uh-uh-uh I don’t give a shit!”

 He pressed a button on the handle of his Chainlance and it roared to life. The hundreds of three inch teeth became a blur. The Monolith stepped towards Seraphine with that same smile, one of complete pleasure, spreading from ear to ear.

 “PLEASE!” Seraphine screamed. Her screams, drown roughly beneath the grating roar of the Chainlance, echoed shrilly through the empty streets. 

Chapter 28

Frenz paced the control board as workers scurried all around him, giving the general a full picture of the battle at hand. Standing in front of a wall of video monitors, Frenz watched the chaotic events in and around Leramato unfold.

  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but the sheer anarchy that drowned the city put a smile on his face. He had to give it to the Ditrinity. Calling in that airstrike on the hotel and repelling down the side of the building as it was collapsing was a stroke of genius. But then there was Rafferty, pathetic excuse for a commander. When he got back Frenz would be bashing his head in himself. But as much as Frenz loved seeing this kind of destruction, the nagging, frustrating failures were starting to mount in the back of his mind. There were over twenty five thousand Legionnaire soldiers in the vicinity and the only reported death was that of the Monolith Muldoon.

 Frenz had known that the Darks were trying something big. Ever since his insider passed along information in regards to a high-priority, confidential mission just days after Praemon fell, Frenz had had a nearly insatiable appetite for the death of the Ditrinity. And Rush, Frenz kept laughing at the name. It was pathetic. And to think that they thought they’d be able to make it to Pyre even without the mole was just another joke in the heap. But they weren’t making it any further. Even though many of them had somehow managed to make it to the cruiser, with the Battlecruiser armadas that were moving in from every major city in the region, their laughable, long obsolete Mysto wasn’t going to make it a quarter mile.

 But what really bugged Frenz was why they hadn’t heard anything about Luke. A report came in earlier about his daughter which called out a slew of questions regarding Luke’s motives. If Frenz was right, and typically he was, Luke was still being driven by revenge and the fact that he wasn’t with the Ditrinity proved that he wasn’t as large a threat as he used to be. And the disappearances of nearly five hundred Legionnaires the night before furthered this theory. Frenz was more than willing to accept the deaths of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of Legionnaires if it meant keeping Luke from attacking the Counts, the Commanders, the people who actually mattered, in a governing sense, of course. Firsts would die, but in the long run the lives of those dead soldiers would be an investment in the success and prosperity of the Commune.

 “Status report.” Frenz ordered, keeping his eyes on the dozens of screens that gave him a multi-faceted view of the smoking city of Leramato. All across the screens there were flashes, explosions, and flames. The four screens concentrating on the shipyard, though, were so filled with violent flashes and rattling explosions that it made the images nearly indistinguishable from a blank white screen. What little he could see, though, showed that the Ditrinity’s battlecruiser had its shields angled towards the sky, absorbing fire from Helios and Blackshredders while soldiers in the docking bays fended off boarding parties.

 “Only three centers of activity being reported. We have confirmed locations on eight of the eleven insurgents.”

 Frenz didn’t take his eyes away from the screen. “Those locations being…”

 The operator pulled up a list on his screen and read the names from the lists. “On the cruiser we have the confirmed presences of Vyvyr Syvyr, Pontious Granlow, Morlo Greyhorn, Serenity Blake, Warren Pitt, and Trennen van Kristik.”

 Frenz shook his head. “Disgusting traitor…”

 “We have the confirmed death of Draken Muldoon while Nathan Hendrick and Tess Semprys are unaccounted for. The female member Sable has been reported KIA and we have a squad engaging the younger member, Seraphine Leyen.”

 “And that was the last thing you mentioned?” Frenz nearly shouted. “Throw it up onscreen.”

 The video feed was onscreen before Frenz could finish the command. The video was coming from the helmet camera of the Monolith. His vitals indicated an accelerated heart rate. He was about to end it; it was moments like this that were some of the countless perks that made Frenz love his job.

Chapter 29

 Seraphine scrambled away on her back, kicking and clawing against the ground as the Monolith bore down on her. The twelve other Legionnaires lined up behind the Monolith pointed and laughed, the scene at hand providing them entertainment that they seldom enjoyed.

 She had quit begging and could only scream. Lines streaked her face where the blood and dirt had been washed away by tears. She had seen movies, TV shows where people were brave, laughing at death, she’d watched the Ditrinity fighting off waves of Legionnaires without begging for their lives. But she was only fifteen. She was too young to die. She didn’t
want
to die.

 The Chainlance roared. Laughing through clenched teeth, the Monolith bore down on her, his heavy strides shaking the ground she crawled on. The breeze from the spinning saw blades came off the saw in sharp spurts and blew onto her face.

  The Monolith shouted, raising the Chainlance above his head, his eyes wide with pleasure and his teeth gritted in a smile. For a moment he hung it there, meeting eyes with Seraphine. His eyes were manic, but with her large, green eyes distorted with hopelessness and fear, Seraphine pleaded with him.

 He brought the Chainlance down hard, the three inch teeth screaming towards Seraphine’s forehead.

 Helpless, Seraphine held her hands up in defense. Through the water and sweat that blurred her eyes, she watched in terror as the Chainlance came down on top of her. In her mind her thoughts went to home, to her old life, and to the mother she’d never see again. She only hoped her mother didn’t hear of how Seraphine begged for her life. That wasn’t the memory she wanted her mother to have of her.

 So for the last split second of her life, Seraphine faced the grinding saw, it’s teeth wet with Sable’s blood, and looked at it firmly, bravely. Just like the Ditrinity would.

 The Monolith’s right hand fell off, still gripping the Chainlance. In only one hand, the massive saw swung freely down, the teeth coming within inches of Seraphine’s shin and digging effortlessly into the cement. The Monolith looked dumbfounded at his severed hand as the pain began to set in.

 A woman darted between the Monolith and Seraphine, crouched and ready for another attack.

 It was Sable.

 There was a wide, jagged gap in the side of her armor where the Chainlance had sawed through. Blood still wetted the armor but the wound was gone. And through sweat dampened hair that stuck to her cheeks and forehead, Sable faced the Monolith and the Legionnaires, he sword held tightly behind her as she crouched defensively over Seraphine.

 “You’re not taking this one you son of a bitch.” She said with weakened breaths. Her eyes darted across the other Legionnaires as they all formed up for attack. Slowly they began to surround her, fanning out with their weapons held high.

 The Monolith fell to one knee, blood pouring from his severed wrist and pooling on the pavement.

 “Go.” Sable muttered over her shoulder back to Seraphine. “The shipyard is just down the street. You can find it from there.” 

 From somewhere within her, another tear found its way to Seraphine’s eye. “But Sable, I…”

 “If anybody’s going to survive, it’s you.” Sable said, getting more tense as the Legionnaires closed the circle. “Now get out of here.”

 “But-“

 “PLEASE!”

 Seraphine got to her feet and turned to run. After a few steps she looked back, watching the squad of Legionnaires close in around Sable, outnumbering her twelve to one. Seraphine wanted to cry again. “I’ll never forget you.”

 Shaking unstably on her feet, Sable nodded. Over her shoulder she watched Seraphine running as fast as she could down the street, obviously unsteady on her feet. But getting to Seraphine, the first step, was over now. Sable could only hope she’d survive long enough for Seraphine to get away.

 She faced the Legionnaires again, the Nightwolves, the Skirmishers, Knights, the Berserker, and stood strong. She held herself like tearing through these soldiers would be a simple task. But she knew it was impossible. But there was a strength she felt as she looked across the soldiers knowing that she wouldn’t be walking away from that spot. She looked at them all, stared the Nightwolves in their dark scarlet eyes, and she felt no fear. She thought of her friends, of her life, of Hendrick, and she felt complete. It was time to go honorably. It was time to die like a Ditrinity.

 “
Die su Relia.
” She whispered.

 “DON’T LOSE HER!” The Monolith shouted, his shaking hand pointed down the street to Seraphine. The Legionnaires on Sable’s flanks broke ranks after Seraphine. Then Sable struck.

 She slashed right, catching the Knight’s throat, and hacked left, clipping the shoulder of the Skirmisher.

 The Legionnaires knew they couldn’t reach Seraphine unless they killed Sable first. They charged her hard.

 Sable back peddled hard, slashing left and right as she held off the Legionnaires that came from both sides. They sprinted at her, the Skirmishers attacking with halberds and spiraling razor flails, the Knights with their swords, the Nightwolves with their bare teeth. Every half dozen strikes Sable would make contact with a Legionnaire’s body, hurting but not disabling them.

 The Berserker drew a massive, double headed axe from his back, yelled, and ran to join the fight. Immediately Sable stopped, disorienting some of the soldiers. As they overshot her, Sable beheaded two of the passing soldiers.

 Blades were coming from everywhere, and Sable dodged the best she could, avoiding excessive injury but taking hits regardless. Swords clipped her legs, razor flails shredded her arms, but Sable held her ground long enough for the lacerations to heal. But her blood wasn’t regenerating nearly as fast. Sable had lost a massive amount of blood. Her vision was starting to blur.

 She took down another Knight, bringing her katana down and putting its bloodied edge clean through his collar bone. Immediately she ducked and a Skirmisher’s razor flail skimmed over her head and caught one of the Nightwolves. It howled as the razors dug into his face, eyes, and snout. The Skirmisher tried to yank it loose but the blades only dug deeper. Sable took her chance. Her sword severed the Skirmisher’s arm at the elbow, flipping the sword in her hand and skewering the wolf.

 The Legionnaires kept charging. Her skin was starting to get pale and her legs were losing feeling.

 Sable quickly checked behind her and saw that Seraphine was gone and her mood lightened; she might be able to make it after all. She checked back in front of her and counted the soldiers.

 There were two left, a Skirmisher and a Berserker. Only that thought crossed her mind before the Skirmisher speared her around the waist. Her katana jerked from her grip as both of them tumbled to the ground throwing strikes at one another.

 The Skirmisher was strong. He had her by at least sixty pounds without armor. Sable raised her knees into his chest and defended against his assault. With his armored fists battering at her guard, Sable calmly protected her face as she prepared to counter.