Snick, snick.

  The sound of meat being pierced announced the arrival of Jaeger’s savior.

  “He is not for you.” Kaeleth hissed to the Flesh Trader’s, before using her sword hilts to haul the creature backwards.

  Unfortunately, he was still locked tight around the bounty hunter’s waist, and the unexpected weight caused the trio to fall to the ground. In the fall, Jaeger managed to free his sword arm and proceeded to lay into the Flesh Trader with it. What he did was not fancy or even a martial art; it was instead brutal and vicious—punching and sawing the blade into the being astride him.

  He wasn’t sure how much damage he was doing, but the thing retaliated with a final clench of its legs and two heavy strikes of its hands before shoving itself off him and scuttling away.

  The strikes had hit the Cuirass of the Greenwood Avenger and done nothing, but the armor had not been much help against the crushing force of its clench. Something around his chest cracked, and as he sat up, a burning pain let him know it wasn’t just noise. Using his blade as a crutch to get to his feet, Jaeger felt around and identified at least two broken ribs. As he’d been getting to his feet, Kaeleth had taken the fight to the Flesh Trader.

  —

  Kaeleth recovered from the fall, rolling to her feet, and saw the moment the thing that the Flesh trader had become scuttle off. She cast a glance at her fallen… companion before jerking her head back towards the thing that had attacked them. Whatever dark magic’s it had used to blur itself were gone, and now she could see it fully. It was an abomination, not because of its appearance; she’d met a few insectoid beings before. No, it was an abomination at its core; its aura and presence were anathema to this world and its magic. She could feel through her connection to Chaos that even the normally impassive element wanted this thing gone.

  “In Chaos’ name I name thee abomination.” Words poured from her, pushed through her, and were empowered by the source of her magic.

  For the first time, it oriented on her, its whole body turning towards her. In response, the creature before her merely laughed as the air around it flicked with echoes of chaos.

  “Chaos is nothing, simply the disorganized matter of pre-creation. I will rid myself of this darkness and bathe in your blood.”

  It shot, pouncing, clawed hands outstretched. She met them with her swords and shoved the thing to the side. As it rolled away, she stabbed into its heart, but she was not prepared for the unexpected resistance of its skin; it was less like piercing flesh and more akin to cutting into bark.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The momentary disruption was opening enough for the Flesh Trader as it kicked her legs out from under her and went for her throat. As she fell forward, Kaeleth spat a word of pure chaos.

  “Hpsu.”

  As the twisted word spread, two things happened. Kaeleth shot away, and her swords were pushed deeper into the Flesh Trader; she went back until she hit the wall, and the swords went to the hilt.

  Getting to her feet and breathing heavily, she knew she had to change her weapons; she needed something sharper. Kaeleth reached behind her back and drew out two wicked sickle swords; eying them curiously, she gave each a twirl, getting used to them. She could feel them rip through the air. She gave a grin and her thanks. The weapons supplied by her Mandrake weren’t always recognizable, but they were always familiar to her.

  She moved fast and low, sickles at the ready, and closed with the thing. It had been staggered by the sudden deepening of the swords, and it was slowly leaking black ichor. As she came upon it, it was grabbing the hilts; a task she decided to make more difficult. With a flick, she hooked her sickles around its wrists, then pulled down and away. The sickles ripped right through the flesh and were barely slowed by the bones beneath. They came free, stained black with sticky ichor.

  Seeing the overwhelming success of her attack, Kaeleth went for the kill. She shot up and swung her sickles across its throat, before flipping her wrists and bringing them back through again. The first pass through, she felt the same resistance but muscled through, and on her second pass, she went through with ease. With a contemptuous snort, she chest-kicked the Flesh Trader’s body and watched the head topple from its shoulders as the body fell to its knees.

  “Abomination.”

  Moving away from the body, she turned to find Jaeger watching her.

  “Did you not want to help?”

  He gave a dry laugh.

  “You finished it before I could get in.”

  She dismissed her weapons and moved to him.

  “Now what?”

  “We destroy the body.” Jaeger drew his blade. “Can’t risk it regenerating.”

  He lunged at her, his sword missing her head by a finger’s width and stabbing into something with a wet, meaty thud.

  Dropping and moving to the side, Kaeleth saw the Flesh Trader’s body had risen to its feet. Jaeger’s blade was stuck in the joint of its left shoulder. Kaeleth reached behind her for the sickles, and as she drew them, a muffled sound came from the headless body.

  Jaeger could feel the body vibrating as the sound rang from within it, and he didn’t want to know what it represented. Drawing back his sword, he placed one hand on its hilt and the other behind it and thrust once again, this time aiming for where a heart would be.

  As his blade thrust forward, Kaeleth appeared behind the thing, hooking her sickles deep into the meat beside its spine, before scissoring her arms apart. Three things happened all at once. Jaeger’s blade pierced into the thing’s chest and found something. Kaeleth unzipped the back of the creature, revealing its bare, black spine, which she proceeded to grab and pull. And along the stomach, the skin started to open, revealing a large seven-pupiled eye that spun in confusion before locking onto Jaeger. As it looked at him, he felt something familiar about it, and recognition seemed to light in it as well.

  “Die!” Kaeleth shouted as she tore the spine free, covering herself in a spray of disgusting black liquid.

  “I see you, Graben Jaeger der Wilden Jagdt.” A voice whispered into Jaeger’s mind as the light in the giant eye slowly faded.