Chapter 222: Cutthroats
"Two of our prison camps have been attacked in the past few days. Both Wardens have been defeated. We believe it to be the work of the Paria Empire, sir."
A low grumble escaped behind a green skull mask.
"For what reason are they attacking us? We have done nothing to warrant their aggression. No. Where are they getting the spare manpower to deal with us?"
"We aren’t sure, sir. However, there is no pattern in their attacks yet. They are seemingly being attacked at random."
"Bastards. Looks like we can’t let our guard down anymore. Tell the others to keep a high alert for anything that may look suspicious. I’ll be in my office for the time being trying to get a hold of a nearby outpost."
The servant nodded his head and rushed out of the room. The Warden sighed and walked over to a strange metallic-looking handle. He pressed it to his ear and spoke to it quietly.
"Blood runs new. Bodies grow old. All hail Zalo."
A voice began speaking from the other line.
"Warden."
"The Epigones under attack. Keep your outposts on high alert."
"How many?"
"Enemies, unknown. Two Wardens gone."
"Understood."
The warden put the strange metal handle back where it was with a clicking sound. He looked around the room and sat in his chair patiently waiting. However, nothing was happening. The camp was eerily quiet.
"Hmph."
After three moments of uncomfortable silence, the Warden stood up from his chair and walked towards the door. He creaked it open and called down the hallway.
"Report!"
No response.
"No response? Are we under attack?"
The Warden began walking down his dimly lit corridor and started opening every room he could. In every single one, there was nothing. It looked as if someone was in the middle of working before suddenly vanishing, similar to how their powers worked for trapping prisoners.
He continued walking until he opened a room where a man was finally resting in a chair while facing a window.
"Report."
No response. The person stayed completely still.
"I said..."
The Warden walked over to the unresponsive man.
"REPORT!"
When he yanked the man’s head back, a long slit from a perfect knife cut was resting on his neck. The Warden flinched and backed away from him. His shoulders raised and he looked around the room.
"They’re here, but where?"
Suddenly, his Zalo activated. A vision of his near future. His throat had been cut open, and he dropped to the ground in a bloody mess while holding his wound.
His heart dropped into his stomach, prompting him to jump forward out of the room in fear. He crashed against the wall and looked back into the room while panting heavily. There was nothing there. No sign of any danger whatsoever.
"W-What the hell was that? I’m almost positive I just died right in that spot. What did it? Who did it?"
He peeked back in the room carefully. Another vision. His vision had gone completely black, as if something had attacked his eyes or blinded him. Either that, or he had died instantly. Once again, the Warden jumped away from the room.
"T-This room. It’s this room that’s dangerous. Are other rooms like this?"
The Warden began to venture around the prison camp, walking cautiously into every room to see if he would experience something similar. Nothing. There weren’t even any other Epigones left in the camp. Not even their bodies remained. Whatever was in this prison with him was dangerous.
He screamed out in the empty hallways.
"Come and face me like a man, you bastard! Afraid of getting a little hurt?!"
No response. A loud banging sound rang from deeper within the prison. The Warden ran towards it with a mix of anger and anxiety welling in his gut. Once he reached the source of the sound, he found all the prisoners in their cells banging against the bars.
"Let us out of here! There’s a ghost attacking this place!"
"The guards... they just... died. I’ve never seen anything like it."
"I didn’t even see any blood. Whatever kind of ghost this is, they know what they’re doing."
Even though the prisoners were talking nonsense, it still sent fear into the Wardens heart.
"NONESENSE! Ghosts aren’t real! You will stay in your cage and be quiet!"
Suddenly, another vision. This time, a knife had pierced his heart from behind. He dangled on the dagger for a few moments trying to look back at what stabbed him, and when he did...
"G-GHOST?!"
The Warden shot forward and dodged the supposed attack once more. His heart was beating out of his chest. He never could have guessed that whatever was around him was completely invisible, as if there was nothing there at all. He had enough and began to swing wildly into the air. He looked like a crazy man as his fists flailed around the air, unable to attack anything.
Another vision.
For the first time, he saw the semblance of an arm being thrown right as his chin.
"S-Shit!"
The Warden dodged with all his might, but the fist still managed to scrape against his mask, scratching it slightly. As he spun around, the attacker was finally revealed to him for the first time.
It was a tall, slender man with scars all over his face and arms. He was wearing a tattered red shirt with long beige pants. Half of his head was shaved while the other half had messy, black hair. His eyes were that of a reptile as he stared the Warden down, panting anxiously to himself with his mouth hung open. Strangely, there was no knife to be seen in his hands.
"Y-You bastard. You finally reveal yourself, huh?"
Steel mumbled to himself in a crazy chant.
"cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut..."
The Warden’s emotionless skull didn’t show it, but he was scared beyond belief.
"Are you actually a ghoul?! SPEAK!"
Steel had enough mumbling and charged the man, swinging his hands down on the Epigones robes. Luckily, they had just enough time to bring out a small dagger hidden in their belt.
Another vision flashed in his mind. The man’s hands sliced through his dagger with ease and he was stabbed in the stomach. The Warden jumped back and dodged Steels attack with ease.
"A Zalo, huh? Those hands of yours are quite sharp."
Steel continued charging at the man, swinging his hands in a frenzy, not allowing the Warden a single moment of respite.
"When I can see you, this battle is easy!"
With his power, the Warden was always a step ahead of whatever attack Steel was planning. He slammed his leg against Steel’s ribs, causing him to be sent flying into the bars of the prison cage. Steel shook off the attack quite easily and sprinted back towards the action.
Over and over again, Steel was getting outclassed. The Warden’s visions were simply too powerful. There wasn’t a single hit landing on his body or robes. After three moments of fighting, Steel was sent to the ground with a powerful right hook. The Warden waded over him and prepared to sink his blade into Steel’s flesh.
Another vision flashed. He saw his blade sinking into the man’s neck, watching him bleed out, but then...
Darkness.
The Warden didn’t take any chances. He backed up and hesitantly raised his knife again. Steel was still holding his stomach in pain while trying to stand up. The Warden charged in for another finisher.
A vision flashed once more.
His dagger sunk into Steel’s eye, causing him to go limp instantly, then...
Darkness.
The Warden faltered once more and flew backward panting heavily.
’Is my power broken? What keeps happening when I kill this man?’
Steel had enough time to get up and raise his hands again. Under his breath, he continued whispering.
"cut... cut... cut..."
The Warden was growing impatient.
"Damn it."
Suddenly, something strange began to happen to Steel’s body. His limbs grew thinner and longers, as if they were the roots of a tree. Even his head stretched as thin as a piece of rope. The color of his skin turned into a bright white color. The thing that was standing in front the Warden, was no longer human.
"A transformation."
The Warden nodded and raised his fists.
"It won’t matter."
A vision.
Darkness.
The Warden widened his eyes behind his mask and jumped backward with all his might. Just as he did, the white tendrils of the creature in front of him slashed through the air just above where his head had been. The entire prison behind the attack began to suddenly crumble. With one cut, the entire half of the camp had been perfectly sliced in two. A strange whirring sound echoed from an invisible maw of the creature.
Suddenly, the Wardens mask split in two and clashed against the stone floors.
"Shit."
He jumped further back to create some distance. The creature sprinted toward him the moment he flew into the air.
A vision.
The creature jumped into the air and smacked him out of the sky like a bug, cutting his torso completely in half.
Using all the strength he could, he flung his legs backwards to slightly change the position of his buddy. Even with this, the creature managed to scrape his back severely, leaving trails of blood to escape from his tattered robe.
Another vision.
Darkness.
"My power."
The Warden desperately made another move by throwing the dagger at the creature. It’s pointed edge simply smacked against its skin and fell to the ground like a twig.
"It’s... not..."
Darkness.
He tried crouching to the ground and kicked away from where he was standing.
"Working!"
Darkness.
No matter what move the Warden was making, every single one managed to only lead him closer to an inevitable demise. His power was beyond excellent for fighting humans, since they lose any opportunity of surprise against him. However, beasts are not about surprises. They are all about overwhelming power. In this fight, even with his strength, battling a beast would be next to impossible without a proper weapon. What would be the point of seeing the next attack if you were unable to avoid it anyway?
The Warden screamed and continued dodging with all his might. This battle only left him one option left.
Run.
And so, that’s exactly what he did. He turned around and tried to run. But right as he did, one last vision flashed in his mind. The eerie smile of a blonde hair man with gray eyes as he waved a bloody dagger in his face maniacally. And similar to how every other vision ended, darkness followed his appearance.
And just like the vision had just shown, the man appeared in front of him. The same bloody dagger waved in his face as they held a creepy smile on their face.
"W-What are you?"
Darkness.
"Your ghost."
The Wardens head had been completely chopped into three, perfectly cut pieces from the white tendrils of Steels transformation. His body fell limp at Bo’s feet, allowing blood to stain his boots.
Bo kicked rolled his body over with his foot and looked up at Steel’s form.
"Good work, Steel. I hope I wasn’t too heavy while you carried me around."
Steel slowly began transforming back into himself. Once he was back to normal, he stumbled to the ground and coughed up blood. Bo walked over to him and lifted him up.
"This... was the best mission... ever. So much cutting. I need... more."
Bo looked at him creepily.
"Easy there. Once you get rested up, we’ll go for another one. Got it?"
"Yes."
"We should check on Zoey and Serena. There was another camp close by just beyond that-"
Just as he began to speak, a raging inferno lit up the sky dozens of miles from where they were. Even from being so far away, both Bo and Steel felt the shockwave from the combustion. They covered their faces as it flew past them.
"... On second thought, maybe they will be alright. Especially with Zoey and Serena’s transformations."
Bo shivered slightly to himself remembering their combined forms.
Steel coughed more blood on the ground.
"Luna? Lucy?"
"Luna is travelling further south, so we can only hope to hear from her soon. As for Lucy... Well, to be honest with you, do you really need to worry about her? One look at that wall is all you need to remember she will be okay."
"She is not a fighter, Bo."
Bo scoffed.
"If you insist. You’re just saying that because she kicked your ass in a spar and you want people to believe you lost on purpose."
"... shut up... or I’ll cut you."