The smell of blood was already heavy in the air. Erik watched in horror and swung a clumsy kick at the old Kobold. She dodged back into the wall, and Erik landed his second kick in her midsection and she let out an grunt and doubled over.

  Oskar is gonna die if I don’t stop her! I may not be at my strongest, but the one thing I’ve been doing nonstop is walking.

  The floor under Oskar had an alarming amount of blood, and Erik slipped, but grabbed the Myelome’s tunic, pulling her down with him. He then slid his hand up to the back of her head, her wiry gray and lavender fur held tight in his grip. She was fighting him, trying to push herself up as she gasped for air, but he didn’t have the leverage to slam her face on the floor the way she had Oskar.

  He was still up on his knees trying to shove her head into the floor near Oskar’s boots with all his might, Myelome on all fours trying to climb to her feet when Sara slammed into Myelome’s right arm. It buckled and slid out from under her and she went down hard.

  Sara saved our lives just now.

  Erik fell forward, his knuckles white as he gripped the Kobold’s fur, slamming her head down with the force of his full weight. Her head clipped the metal of Oskar’s prosthetic on the way down, creating a gash across her face and stunning her; her struggling lost some of its vigor, and she clumsily pawed at his hand.

  With a grimace, he slammed her head back down, this time directly on the metal of Oskar’s prosthetic. And then he did it again. And again, and again. His grip felt weak, and there was so much blood.

  Erik realized he was crying as he rolled over, pulling Myelome into a one-armed choke to finish her, his head swimming. If she’d shown any sort of humanity, even once, he might have felt bad at the wet, gurgling breaths scraping out of her ruined face.

  But she hasn’t shown it, and I won’t feel bad. Oskar needs me.

  Still squeezing, Erik fell back onto his brother’s chest, wrapping his legs around the Kobold to trap her, and used what was left of his other shoulder for leverage as he arched into the choke.

  If he was honest, he didn’t know if he still had it in him. That self-awareness saved him; that and the fear that he wouldn’t be enough.

  I might not even be able to finish choking her.

  More importantly, the fear that, in this one last moment, he might not have enough left to be the big brother Oskar deserved- one last time.

  “No.”

  Power swelled inside him. His brother would not die today, not now at least. Not while Erik lived.

  In his desperation to be enough, his magic responded to that need, reaching out for another way.

  That way was still struggling, clawing weakly at his arm, and so… he took. He took and took. Everything she had. Enough that by the time she’d turned to dust in his arms, he’d barely needed to use anything of himself.

  Yet even the small amount of himself he used was more than he could spare without consequence, and so, overwhelmed and exhausted, Erik lost consciousness.

  ***

  Unseen by Erik, Sara climbed up on his chest. The human covered in the dust of an enemy and the blood of his brother. And… after just having had a pretty satisfactory nap in the pile of sheets, Sara felt very much up to the task of making sure anyone who walked through that door and wished the boys harm got a face full of unexpectantly fierce calico. Her bob-tail twitched as she settled in, curious to see what would happen next.

  ** Oskar **

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Oskar woke up, blinking and looking around for enemies. He was a mess of blood, some dry, some still sticky. His arms felt weak, but he felt otherwise unharmed. Thankfully, he also was in the same room as before, which helped a little with his disorientation. The lights, however, were flickering, and he could hear fighting and shouting nearby, somewhere in the hallway outside.

  His brother lay between him and the wall, covered in black dust, snoring softly. He was thin… but alive. Sara was sitting on his brother’s chest, looking toward the door, and slowly turned back to wink at Oskar, her mostly white face covered in sticky blood. She turned back around and started cleaning the blood off her face with her paws.

  What the hell?

  // If I had to guess, I’d say she was keeping an eye on you guys while you recovered. //

  Looks like she did a little more than just ‘kept an eye out.’ And I don’t know what happened with the Myelomes, but the one I hit with the maul is super duper dead. Any clue about the others?

  // So, we’re not sure exactly how it was done, but I can confirm your brother somehow used an ability to kill the absolute crap out of your old pukey friend after she almost killed you. Erik’s PUB sent off that much before going into sub sleep. We gets no sunshine down here, so we’re running vitals for the most part. //

  We ‘gets?’

  // Just trying it out. //

  Oskar reached down to pick up his weapon, trying to ignore the fact that there was blood covering him- from the bottom of his prosthetic clear up to his neck. It was hard to ignore, because by the time he noticed the off-white chunks of what could only be Kobold teeth beside his blood smeared boot, he knew not all the blood covering him was his own. With a thought, turned it back into a spear as he stood up with a grunt.

  Trying to get a grasp of what was going on, Oskar reached out for Penny to get a better picture of what was happening outside the structure. The results were worse than he feared.

  Shadow creatures were everywhere. They’d breached the structure itself, and Penny had done what she could to assist the Kobolds that were still fighting. There seemed to be two factions, and the ones Penny didn’t like smelled wrong, just like Myelome.

  Many of the others, the ones Penny helped, escaped through a different tunnel than the entrance that led to another illusionary wall. Fox and Touwon had led a valiant attempt at a defense to give the non-combatants a chance to escape.

  It seemed the Kobolds had been almost immediately pushed inside the structure from their failed defensive measures outside, and the fighting inside had ramped up to dangerous levels, especially when the Myelome outside led a group of Shadow creatures into their flank. Penny couldn’t find a safe way inside the structure herself, so she was now hiding in a dune nearby, afraid to move.

  The main reason she was afraid to move was because the moment the sun dipped behind the horizon, Valla herself arrived. The liquid darkness that covered her body swirled around her, and Penny gave Oskar the impression the Pangolor could hear voices in it… and also the impression that Valla felt like a lot of enemies in one place.

  Valla’s clothing was all gone, and the liquid corruption covered her now from head to toe. The only part of her not covered in the stuff was her eyes, purple, and the black fetish she carried, covered in a different type of darkness that seemed to swallow what little light remained.

  Whatever Valla had become, now stood outside the structure, taunting the Kobolds in a voice that Penny did not like at all. The Shaman would occasionally stop as if listening to something Penny couldn’t hear, and then she’d start laughing. At one point, Valla had laughed for a long time, and it had gotten louder and louder until it sounded more like crying and screaming. And then she was crying and screaming, and did so for a little longer. That was about the time Penny got the hell out.

  Time was a little fuzzy for Penny, but Oskar guessed it was around half an hour with the PUB’s help. He pulled his Goggles down, and his eyes immediately adjusted to the flickering light. Oskar blinked, trying to clear his thoughts.

  Blood covered the room. Himself, Erik, Sara, the floor, the wall and the door were all sticky with it, and Oskar realized even with what he’d done to the younger Myelome with his mace, it couldn’t all just be his and hers.

  Okay, but she’s a cat. A big one, true… actually a little bigger than I remember, now that I look at her… but still just a cat. She couldn’t seriously be a threat, right?

  // I don’t know, man. Maybe you could ask the Kobold finger on the ground what it thinks. //

  There was a Kobold finger on the ground, just against the wall by the door.

  What the hell is wrong with you?

  Oskar leaned over to check on Erik and gave Sara a careful scratch on the top of the head, which was mostly ignored save for a little leaning into it on Sara’s part.

  “You’re the best kitty ever. A little scary, but still.”

  Her intense gaze was unsettling with the amount of blood on her face.

  Slowly, Oskar retracted his hand and stood up.

  “Okay then. How do I find Fox and Touwon?” he said aloud, pointedly ignoring Sara.

  Again, he heard the familiar sound of the cat licking blood from its fur.

  His first step away from the scene, sticky with blood, left a red bootprint behind him, but there was nothing that could be done for it, so he summoned his Resonant Ward and made his way to the door, listening outside.