FVN Chapter 22: The Wait
Chapter 22: The Wait
The wind stilled for an instant and the rustle of the petals abated with it, leaving the only sound in the forest of flowers the delicate drip of blood as it rolled down the huge man’s fingertips and pattered to a small pool at his feet.“You weren’t here before,” Diego said. He spoke as if he tasted every word as it left his lips, choosing them carefully and intentionally. The scent of blood wafted so strongly from the bodies around him that even Alex’s nose could pick it up. It mixed with the sweetness of the pollen and honeyed smells in the air, nearly making him retch on the spot. Diego didn’t even seem to notice it. “You aren’t from the town.”
Alex didn’t let himself take a step back. Showing fear to a predator was as good as lifting his jaw to expose his throat and closing his eyes to wait for the inevitable end — and there was no doubt about it. Diego was a predator.
Even if the bodies hadn’t been strewn across the ground at his feet and blood painted across the pale canvas of his body, it would still have been as obvious as the color splashed across the petals of the flowers above them. Alex could see the hunger in Diego’s beady black eyes, the desire in his taut muscles.
“What makes you say that?” Alex asked. Claire moved behind him and hunched her shoulders, but it wasn’t out of concern. It took her time to use the blood she’d gathered to change her form. She was trying to keep out of sight as she shifted for as long as possible.
“I memorized the faces of everyone that adapted to the new world,” Diego replied. He looked down at his right hand and rubbed his fingers together, looking mildly surprised at the blood covering his hands. His gaze lifted back to Alex. “You weren’t one of them.”
“I’ve been traveling,” Alex said. He longed to give Glint an order to attack, but he wasn’t even sure what order to give yet. Sending Glint at the man now would just result in the small monster getting crushed to a paste. This wasn’t a fight that could be won through brute force. He needed time“How’d you hit Novice 6 so quickly? That’s impressive.”hat could actually hit back?” Alex taunted as Glint leapt away from Diego’s grasp, narrowly avoiding getting crushed.
Claire slashed at him again, but once more his skin turned a metallic gray and her weapon rang off. She bounded back with impressive speed, easily avoiding Diego’s next attack, then dashed at him again in a conjoined attack with Glint.
Alex saw the man shift his weight a moment too late. He went to call out a warning, but the other two were already upon Diego, who hadn’t even tried to dodge out of the way. Both of his hands flitted forward like striking snakes.
He caught Glint between them. Several loud, metallic screeches rang out, followed by a crack. A flicker of pain flashed over Diego’s face and he cried out. He yanked his hands apart and dropped Glint’s crushed body to the ground, even as it transformed into a stream of energy and raced into Alex’s body.
Blood ran from several deep puncture wounds in Diego’s palms. By squeezing Glint, he’d accidentally impaled himself on the monster’s sharp body, and his defense had failed to protect him.
“Stab him!” Alex yelled.
Claire drove her sword for Diego’s side without a second of hesitation. He twisted to avoid it, but the weapon’s point still managed to bite an inch into his flesh before a huge hand slammed down onto the sword and sent it spinning from her grip.
Diego reached out for Claire and she weaved back. He barely even seemed to notice. The huge man grabbed at the wound in his side and let out a whimper. “You stabbed me!”
Alex dashed forward and drove his palm into Diego’s back, calling on Glint’s powers as they coursed through his body. Cold metal met his hand and a mirror shard thrust into Diego. It only managed to penetrate his defenses by half an inch, but that was enough to draw a cry of pain from him.
Diving to the side, Alex hit the ground with a grunt. Wind rushed over his head in the wake of a deadly blow. A shadow passed over his head and he threw himself out of the way.
Diego’s foot slammed down with far more force than any man should have been able to muster, no matter his size. The ground shuddered and a rock drove into Alex’s jaw, causing his teeth to crack against each other painfully.
Alex rolled to the side and kicked at Diego’s leg. A spike of glass jutted out of his heel and punched through the bottom of his shoe before biting into Diego’s hamstring. The large man screamed and lurched back.
The air around the mountain of a man rippled in a haze. Alex’s hair stood on end and he backpedaled. Claire did the same. Diego barely even seemed to notice. He lifted a foot and drove it down into the ground with a furious cry.
A deep rumble shook the ground. The earth ruptured. Spikes of jagged stone erupted in a circle around Diego in a wave, rising up to impale anything around him. Alex tripped over a protruding root as he tried to dodge out of the way and went down with a pained grunt.
The spikes ground to a halt just a foot away from him and he scrambled back to his feet, scanning for Claire. She’d also managed to avoid the attack and had climbed over the jutting spikes.
Diego hadn’t noticed her yet. He’d bent over, seemingly having forgotten them, and clutching his wounded leg. Claire didn’t wait for him to remember their fight. She extended a hand toward him and her eyes narrowed in concentration.
The blood covering Diego’s body rippled. It peeled away from him like a sheet, melting together into a thin spike. That finally caught his attention and he lifted his gaze just in time for Claire to send it driving straight into his chest, aiming for his heart.
He lurched to the side at the last second and the spike slammed home into his solar plexus, drilling a thin hole into it. The blood splattered back across him as Claire’s control over it vanished and a primal roar ripped from Diego’s lips.
Alex shifted his footing, swallowing. There was almost nothing left about Diego that resembled a human. The man’s eyes were wide and bloodshot. His breathing came in snarling, ragged gasps. He stood hunched, his hands flexed into claws at his sides as he jerked his head left and right, looking between Alex and Claire.
Alex formed a long, thin mirror spike from one finger and snapped it off. He held it in one hand and reared back, preparing to throw it. He wasn’t exactly a great shot — but Diego didn’t know that.
Claire extended a hand and the blood around the big man swirled again, rising to form spikes all around him. She held them suspended in the air, waiting to make sure she actually landed a finishing blow instead of wasting her energy again.
And then the three of them waited. The room was so silent that Alex could hear the drip of blood against the grass and the thump of his heart in his ears.
This wasn’t a battle between civilized people anymore. Perhaps it had never been. Their primal instincts had been laid bare and were the only thing that remained.
Nobody spoke, but the same truth had imprinted itself into every single one of their minds. Whoever made the first wrong move would lose — and whoever moved first was the most likely to make a mistake.
And so they waited. They waited to see whose self-control would crack first. To see who would waste their move and expose an opening.
They waited to see who would die.