Chapter 17: Mists of War, Part 2

Kyungsoo feels the familiar cold of wet stone against his swollen face. A deep haze clouds his vision and he can’t move his limbs. The feeling isn’t anything unfamiliar to him. It felt unfamiliarly like home.

He still hears the echoing of his tutor’s voice hollering for him to get up.

“We do not fall. We are made of stone and steel. We do not fall!” he would bellow.

Kyungsoo doesn’t recall much about Thump Thunderfoot’s face, but he did remember his solitary eye—a souvenir from his many battles with the fiends beyond the Krags—that he never covered up. As was the custom of the soldiers of the great mountains, battle scars were to be worn like a badge, not a blemish. Based solely on Thump’s face, he pretty much a legend.

From the deep gash that trailed down the side of his head to the base of his neck from a surprise attack by a manticore, and the black claw marks that dance around half of his neck in an animated attack with a phaser, and the empty eye socket he gained while wrestling a full-grown ogre with his bare hand; the man was a walking tapestry of a veteran of war.

But however brash and unsightly the man may have been, he had instilled into Kyungsoo the unyielding spirit of the Krags.

“The mountain does not yield,” he would say, eyes dark and wretched while baring his teeth at Kyungsoo, “An unflinching, unwavering wall of nature and wrath, the mountain does not yield, not even to death.

His eyes open, frail and weak, but still alive. His vision is a haze of dismembered pigments and hues scrambling to find form.

Though his eyes cannot fathom the scene, his other sense can. He hears it first, the rhythmic crashing of the ocean against a wall; then the turbulence of the wind against his skin dampening his cheeks with spritzes of sea water.

Like a switch sets off in his head his vision clears. The figments of Blue and grey bleed into skies, stone and sea—it’s the deep night. The moon is bright and big above him. The sea thunders below and a figure stands a few feet away from where he lies. It’s a small, slender silhouette engulfed by the brilliance of the moon, its back is turned toward him, head bent as if whispering a secret to the wind.

He scoffs to himself. Jiya, well, the image of Jiya stands before him cradling the Deep Stone tenderly by her heart, as she murmurs tender words into dark rock.

How could he have not seen it before when everything added up? The unassuming, frail girl who flinched at every corner and scared too easy. It was too easy to exclude her from the equation.

“Doubt everyone. Even the one you trust the most. That’s how you find a snake.”

He can hear Thump cursing him from atop the Krags. His muddled face contorting into the most bitter sneer he reserved for Kyungsoo.

Snakes do not hide in the shadows, they lie in the bushes. It waits, hiding in plain sight, before it strikes. Jiya had done just that. She waited for all the stars to align, for mistrust to fester within the ranks, and fear cripple their morale. She waited silently and patiently for the pieces to fall. Then she carved her fangs into their necks.  

The attack on Minho and himself was quick and precise. Minho never saw the dagger coming and a swift paralyzing dart to the neck was the only thing she needed to keep him grounded.

But not completely.

The poison is foreign to him, the botanical probably indigenous to the Misty Isles. It should have left his entire body numbed and immobile, but he staved some of it.

In truth, he hadn’t tried this in the heat of battle, but at least now he knows it works. It’s a reflex he found can be useful after Thump tested poisons on him a few weeks before he left for Sanctuary. He had called it a parting gift. If you consider bring stabbed by dagger laced with basilisk venom a present. It started with an awkward hug that left Kyungsoo with a to his back. The venom began its work, spreading itself through his body. And Thump was ready to reward Kyungsoo with an antidote, having had his fun. But the veteran was shocked to find his student heaving himself up and landing a strong fist to his groin.

They later found out that Kyungsoo had the ability to stop the spread of foreign toxins in his body by enclosing through his stone form. Ever since, he has attempted to do it on command, having faint results.

He’s pleased to know that he’d done it, albeit only partially.

He has full mobility of his right leg, which he notices is tied tightly to the left. He also managed to move from the neck up. Now it was a matter of finding a way out of this mess.

The moon is bright. The night is young.

--

Kai sits in the silence of the deep forest of Everdale, the necklace grasped between his fingers, and the smell of pine and mineral filling his senses.

He doesn’t know how long he sits in quiet. It could have been minutes, hours, a day. But to him it come slowly. The shift in the wind, the blooming scent of sun kissed earth, the faint taste of blood.

His senses explode as he is hurled through the air, his eyes awakening with a jolt as he suddenly sees the night sky tainted in orange and red. It seemed like the sky was on fire, the way the world lit before him. Gone was the silence, like a horn blaring into his very soul the clanking of steel and screams of fighting descend upon him.

The world unfolds into a hell Kai has never seen before.

Around him bodies, scaly and fleshy alike, their bodies turned into useless lumps decorating the battlefield. The world is ablaze in a heated battle as naga and humans clash in bloody battle.

He sees a man fall as a large naga swipes it’s great, scaly claws at his face. Flesh and moving out of the man’s face like ripe fruit.

He then hears a loud scream as a man comes charging forward, attempting to exact revenge for his fallen comrade. The naga throws the limp body into the increasing pile of ragged corpses littering the once clean earth before turning its attention to the new enemy.

The man attempts to swipe at the naga, but his sword is swiftly knocked out of his hand by his enemy’s scaly arm. As soon as this happens, Kai knows the man’s good as dead if he didn’t do anything.

He makes a grab for his daggers and in a wisp of smoke disappears from his spot. He lands on the naga’s shoulders. The creature, not expecting the sudden weight on its shoulder, is suddenly blind as Kai sinks his daggers down the creature’s eye sockets. It doesn’t even react fast enough to feel a dagger sink into its neck, slicing it clean through.

The creature falls, Kai still sitting atop the slain creature. He takes his daggers out of the creature and directs his attention to the man who has fallen from the sheer force of the Naga’s attack.

“What’s happening?”

The man takes a breath, then another, his body quaking with fear and disbelief.

“Man, answer.” Kai demands.

The man shakes out his stupor, “The n-naga, they’re attacking the village.”

Kai doesn’t heed anything else and disappears from his spot.

--

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Breathe

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Breathe

Baekhyun stands next to Jessi, his hands quivering slightly at the rumble coming from beyond the wall of the village. The naga have clashed with their first wave of resistance. A group primarily made of Glasskeep soldiers and a handful of natives. Baekhyun and Jessi’s contingent sizing up majority of the Misty Isles’ army, with the addition of Kyuhyun’s own squad at the banisters.

Right before they separated, Chanyeol told him to stand in the first line with Jessi. He mentioned that he may not lead of an army just yet, but he was deserving to stand up front; a place specified for the best fighters.

Jessi notices the slight waver in her companion’s body. She gives him a reassuring pat.

“It’s your first big battle. How you feeling?”

“Not the calmest person on earth, but I’m managing.”

Jessi smirks, “For someone who almost died a week ago, you’ve made startling progress.”

“You sound like Chanyeol.”

“The big one?”

Baekhyun nods, “He’s like a big, supportive puppy who knows how to swing a flaming sword.”

Jessi chuckles in spite of herself, “Well, you don’t want to disappoint that puppy, now would you.”

Baekhyun shakes his head in response.

“No, it would be heartbreaking.”

“Well, better it up then. They’re coming.” 

Chanyeol won’t admit that he likes bloodshed, but he will admit that he enjoys a good challenge. And right now, he was ecstatic.

He dodges a crude swipe of a sword directed at his shoulder and immediately charges forward, his two swords alive as he swipes the creatures arm clean off with an elegant flourish before severing its head.

Beside him, Kangin brings down his axe on another slithering creature, it’s shrill cry dying as the general does another great swing right into the serpent’s jugular. The man notices the swordsman staring at him and smirks.

“10” he says, eyebrows cocked arrogantly.

Chanyeol laughs, as he senses motion behind him. He turns on the spot and parries the stab of a trident with one sword, then swinging forward to bring the other straight into the lithe figure’s awaiting chest. The naga crumples on the spot.

Chanyeol looks at Kangin with a triumphant grin.

“11”

The other smiles, one that should not be so casually flashed in the heat of war, then he turns away from Chanyeol, looking for the next victim of his wrath.

Chanyeol turns as well, his eyes bright with enthusiasm.

He wouldn’t say he particularly liked killing or bloodshed, but Chanyeol will admit that he likes a good challenge. And what a challenge Kangin had just proposed.

Junmyeon stops as he sees the village in cascading hues of red and orange. From here it looked like the festival, the bright glow of the village warring against the bleakness of the cold night.

But he hears the screams and faint clashing of steel and flesh. He feels the tremor of pain and death in the soles of his feet. It’s nauseating. He takes a moment to see the catastrophe unfolding before him, then he hurls.

Acid spews from his guts, spilling into the damp forest floor. He convulses in erratic shakes, his body expunging nothing. As he wretches a sad, wrecked moan, with tears streaming down his eyes.

He’s on the ground, disgusting and weak, as he looks at his own bile pooling at his fingertips.

He cries. Tears fall down his face, mixing with the putrid bile. Clear, clean, pure tears creating holes in the dirt. He stays there, in tatters and tears quiet as the war rumbles before him. As the light grows brighter with each passing moment. As death continues to plague his beloved town.

The town he has sworn to protect. The town he had kept safe even if it cost him his sanity. The town that stole his life from him.

But it was also the town that raised him. The town that nurtured him. The town that loved him. It’s a small, weak, unassuming town. One that had too heavy a burden to carry, it’s his father’s town, his sister’s town, his acenstor’s town; his town.

And right now, maybe for the last time, his town needed him.

The fire rages, and only water can extinguish it.

Kai shows up in the center of town—right in to the heat of battle. He narrowly evades a sword that swings his way, as ragged naga and humans battled it out by in the clear, cloudless night.

Kai goes onto carrying his weight, popping out of existence before landing a strike on an unassuming nagas throat. The creature falls, but not before another naga is hurtling over it, spear bared and ready to strike.

Kai immediately disappears, sending the heavy body crashing into the floor, Kai appears right above the creature, landing serenely onto its back before taking both daggers and piercing the back of the naga’s neck, before he drags his dagger down the spine, leaving the creature incapacitated and slowly bleeding to death.

He pops out of existence again, now appearing by an alley close to the opening of town. The battle is thicker, with numerous bodies littering the floor, both human and naga taking a considerable number of casualties.

In the heat of battle he can barely distinguish friend from foe as metal and fire dance in the night. But a spark of light suddenly glimmers at the corner of his eyes as a very distinct ray of light bursts right through a unmoving naga’s body.

Baekhyun is standing there virtually unscathed as he pushes the body away to find another body to incapasitate. The boys eyes looked like they were burning in the night, with the way they looked so determined and unyielding in the midst of war.

Kai almost didn’t recognize him. This was not the boy he brought out of Everdale. This was a fighter.

“Baekhyun!”

The anger in his eyes suddenly fade as he loses concentration hearing the familiar voice of his friend. Baekhyun searches, head spinning suddenly until he sees Kai sprinting towards him.

Baekhyun sees him and his smiles.

“Where’s everyone?” Kai says as stands beside Baekhyun, daggers at the ready.

Baekhyun stands next to him, with his fists prepared for the next attack, his eyes glowing once more. A pair of naga with spears take interest in the two, eyes flaring as they approached the pair.

“Chanyeol’s at the front,” he says as he stands back to back to Kai, hands glowing dangerously as the naga drew closer, “We can’t find the rest.”

“What do you mean you can’t find the rest?” Kai says before transporting from the spot to take a blow at the naga’s wrist.

His dagger finds purchase on the scaly arm, swiping it clean off. Kai then spins around as the he finds the throat with his daggers, slitting it and causing a gush of blood to spew out.

Baekhyun, on the other hand, waits until the naga launches at him with its fangs bared. He sidesteps, allowing the naga drag through the ground before its charging once again. Baekhyun waits until it’s close enough before he lets a beam out of his hand straight at the Naga’s heart. The beam burns a hole straight through, corroded flesh and scales hanging dully from the cavity his radial beam created.

“It means they’re probably busy,” Baekhyun says as Kai jogs up to him, “And what have you been up to?”

The two stand back to back again as a new wave of naga prepare to engage them.

“I was in Everdale.”

Baekhyun’s eyes flared up, “What do you mean!?”

“I mean what I mean,” Kai says as Baekhyun steadies himself from the initial shock, “I managed to transport to Everdale where I met someone.”

Baekhyun looks at him skeptically as a spear hurls past their heads, Baekhyun ducking as he shoots a beam from the source of the weapon, hitting a naga straight in the face.

“You don’t know anyone.”

“But he knew me.”

“What?”

“It’s hard to explain now, but he helped. He knew what was happening here, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun stills as he looks at Kai.

“He said that snakes shed their skin.”

Baekhyun looks at him quizzically before his gaze is drawn upward. His hand starts shivering at the rumbling coming from the sky. He pushes past Kai as he looks towards the direction of the bay. There in the horizon is a dark, ominous cloud that is swiftly moving through the sky.

Kai notices the sudden change in his companion and follow’s Baekhyun’s gaze to the sky.

“What is that? The sky was clear this entire time.”

Baekhyun shivers as he feels the dark energy brewing at the distance.

“Whatever it is, it’s dark energy and its coming straight at us.”

Suddenly there’re loud screeches filling the air as nagas turn to the sky and growl in what they can only decipher as pure elation.

Baekhyun gulps.

“This is just the beginning Kai. The night is young.”

Author’s note:
 

Wow. It’s been too long. I’m sorry, but life got in the way. I won’t give excuses. This wasn’t the actual chapter that I wanted at the beginning, but I feel like I need something to give to you guys.

This is unbeta’d so I apologize for any mistakes.

But the war (lol) is waging and things are about to get messy.

Anyway, I apologize again and I hope you guys enjoy this, albeit short, chapter.

Hopefully I can update soon.

See you guys soon!