Chapter 21 Run Away! Run Away!
RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
Ozirax
They exchanged worried looks, the silent question hanging in the air for less than a breath before they made the decision.
Ozirax shoved past his father—he’d deal with that crisis later—and tried to clear his head. Plan… he needed a plan.
A grunt, followed by a curse, sounded behind him.
“Oh, didn’t see you there.” Ozirax turned to see Garion shrugging with both his weapons upraised, Zalvokan leaned over with his hand cradling his stomach. “Tail got away from me.”
That alone made Oz proud, but then Tonomoch made no effort to disguise the stomp into Zalvokan’s foot, followed by Rand smacking the red demon in the forehead with his elbow, both muttering half-hearted apologies.
Kalypso didn’t even disguise her move. With Zalvokan dazed and eye level with her, she flashed him a saccharine smile and then jabbed him in the throat with her fist.
“Human limbs,” she sighed, watching him fall to a knee as he coughed. “So worthless, right?”
If Ozirax didn’t already love her, that would have done it.
Another crisis he’d deal with later.
The guards were spilling out of the barracks, some in armor, others coming from their quarters, looking around in confusion. Noses lifted to the air, eyes widening as they realized what they were smelling.
“Find your squads and take the veilhounds,” Ozirax called, jogging backward as his own squad took formation around him.
“Spread out and cover every district. Direct crowds to get inside and then start moving toward the breach. Any monsters you encounter, you know what to do, and be quick. We have to close that portal.”
From there, he knew their squad leaders would be able to handle the chaos. Ozirax turned and caught up with his team easily as they left the perimeter of the barracks.
“Who is on watch in the city?” Rand asked, trees opening up as they sprinted toward Heck.
“Diaran’s squad,” Kalypso answered, new weapons shining in the moonlight as she pumped her arms. “The Dreadmoor scout would be halfway out by now and won’t make it back in time. We’re down five.”
“We can handle it,” Ozirax said. I hope.
The city finally came into view, the streets mostly empty as the last few demons scrambled for shelter. A few plants in windowsills had been knocked free, some demonlights snuffed, but otherwise there was minimal damage on this side of things.
Ozirax focused his senses, tuning out the echoes from the buildings and the pounding of their feet on the roads. Half a dozen screeches reached his ears, but he homed in on a subtle shift.
“Left,” he ordered, and they turned down the main street to find exactly what he feared.
The air fizzled, now just a thin vertical crack suspended in the middle of the street. Light pulsed from the fissure, waning fast. He put on a burst of speed, watching as the line got smaller and smaller.
His sickle slammed into the portal a split second after the sparking air disappeared. The air blurred, solid for a moment longer, before the anomaly was gone.
Oz stumbled through the space with a curse, head whipping around for what could have possibly come through.
He got his answer a second later when two mylioptera crashed down from the sky. His sickle was slicing through the first with ease, the screech of the second cut off as Tonomoch’s mace smashed it out of the sky.
Easy. Too easy.
“That wasn’t what made the noise,” Kaly panted, eyes scanning the sky. “There should be more of those things.”
Another mylioptera screeched from a distance, and Oz located it seconds before it dove out of sight several streets over.
“Small portals,” Ozirax grunted, starting his sprint again. “Whoever is doing this made a big one and is using the small ones to send them into the city.”
“Misdirection,” Rand growled. “Keeping us occupied and away from the big one.”
Eyes peered out from the windows of the homes as they sprinted by, but none were so foolish to leave until the guard gave the all clear.
There were good things to come from captains and councilors of the past, like protocols for a monster or two slipping past their runes.
It didn’t happen often, but he was thankful there were no citizens to worry about.
“I wasn’t fast enough to get a scent,” Ozirax said, guiding them down another street by sound. “But if we can find one before that tear closes, I might be able to find out where they’re coming from.”
“You said not to go through a portal,” Kalypso shouted from where she’d fallen to the back of their formation.
Fuck, he needed to reconsider their routes.
“Between planes, not that others are any safer, but we’re not going through them,” Oz called back, refocusing his tactic.
Demon speed and strength would allow the others to keep up this pace, but at some point, Kalypso wouldn’t be able to maintain it without suffering.
They’d just come from training, and if he had a choice, he’d rather have her in fighting shape, not running zigzags to each potential portal opening.
Garion was the one to fill in the rest, his pace slowing to keep in step with her.
“Portals are doors. If they remain on this plane, we can see through them. If we get to one while it’s still open, catch a glimpse of what’s on the other side, we can pin down where this demon has set up camp.
Catch a whiff of their signature and find out who it is. ”
Before they could turn the next corner, a lekguine body flew across their path, rolling another several feet before coming to rest in a wet heap.
Followed by a second who met the same fate as a red demon stepped out of the alley.
“Just my luck.” Diaran spat at the dead creatures, her double-edged polearm dripping green muck onto the ground. “I fucking hate those things.”
Oz stuttered to a stop. “Where is the rest of your squad?”
The answer came as half of a lekguine body fell to the ground. Without looking up, Diaran pointed to the second story of the building. “There.”
Ozirax blew out a breath of relief, then snapped to attention. “What’s the situation?”
“Kalypso was right. Someone is summoning these feral bastards, but I’m too busy with the little ones opening that I’m not making any progress.”
He hadn’t known what to make of Kalypso telling Diaran the truth, but at her insistence, he’d met with the demon. If Kaly trusted her, he would trust her too. And it seemed that was a good thing, considering their current state.
Diaran swiped a finger over the rune on her weapon’s handle, the green blood burning off and leaving her blade clean. “I suppose you want the glory of finding who is doing this?”
He hesitated, but the red demon only waved him off.
“Go. We aren’t technically cleared for anything beyond patrolling. And…” She glanced at the other four in her squad as they gathered, a pinch to her brow. “I don’t think we are ready.”
“What more do you know?”
“Something big came from that direction,” she said, pointing with her polearm. “The little ones have no pattern, and they’re unstable. One closed on an otsoran and split it in half.”
Ozirax grimaced, once again starting his run. “Direct the rest of the squads as they come.”
“I know how to do my job,” Diaran called back.
They followed her directions, winding through the streets and ordering demons back inside their homes. Only once did they detour, the portal closing before he could catch a glimpse of anything except a very confused hiriivi pacing back and forth in an alley.
He hadn’t noticed how blind to the smell he was until they turned past a family’s front garden and another wave of sulphur stench made him choke.
“Kaly, keep up,” Garion grunted, slowing until he was out of Ozirax’s periphery. “What are you—”
“I saw something when I fell behind,” Kalypso said, and they slowed to a stop. She’d paused half a block back, gaze locked on the side street.
Rand bounced on his toes, pointing in the original direction. “We have to make it to the portal. That way.”
But Kalypso was shaking her head, hands rhythmically squeezing the hilts of her blades. “I don’t think that’s…” She clenched her jaw, then flashed Oz an apologetic look. “I have to make sure.”
“Kaly, wait!”
She took off, and Ozirax could only curse under his breath before he was chasing after her. He called over his shoulder, “Your choice.”
Split up or follow.
It wasn’t really a choice, though, because without hesitation the other demons followed him.
Followed her.
Spicy had picked up speed, boots pounding the ground as she sprinted. Enough that Oz had to exert himself to catch up. By the time they’d wound around another building, he’d fallen into step with her, the others just a fraction behind.
“What did you see?”
Her eyes were fixed ahead, breaths labored. “A tail.”
That narrowed it down to… most demons and almost all monsters in existence.
“That… alley,” she panted out, blade flailing in the direction she was running.
“Kaly, we should wait—”
He couldn’t stop her before they slid to a stop at the alley’s entrance, finally catching sight of what she’d been chasing. The other three nearly crashed into them, and then they were all cursing.
Frustration mounted as he stared at the bushy backside of the tiny creature rooting through trash at the end of the alley.
Garion cursed. “A fucking kewniq?”
“Shh,” Kalypso hissed, shaking her head. “That’s not… whatever the fuck you said. Just wait a second.”
Ozirax was going to have a serious talk with her about actually studying the materials he gave her about monsters of their realm. “Kaly, we don’t have time—”
He balked as the kewniq—not-kewniq turned.
“What the fuck is that?” Rand hissed.
“It’s so ugly,” Tonomoch whispered, a wave of horror emanating from him before he clamped down on his magic. “What happened to it?”
Kaly turned and looked at them like they’d all gone mad. “Ugly? It’s a fucking rabbit.”
“That thing is an abomination,” Garion said, hiding a good portion of himself behind Tonomoch. “Where are the antlers? Why doesn’t it have all its eyes?”
Kalypso spluttered, then pointed to the hideous thing with her blade. “It does. Two of them. Right there. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Ozirax recoiled as the tiny white thing bounced toward them, and he might have let out a squeak. “That thing is cursed.”
She rolled her eyes, annoyance dripping from her almost more than sweat. “That rabbit is a human realm creature—which I have never seen in Heck—and yet started hopping this direction with freakish speed. That’s why I followed it.”
Tonomoch whimpered as the not-kewniq bounced again. “We followed this terrifying monster because you recognized it from the human realm?”
Kaly gestured wildly with her blades in frustration. “I don’t know! It felt like a sign because it looked at me and I had the urge to follow. It’s completely harmless—”
A fizzle popped at the end of the alley, and their heads snapped toward the noise as a crack formed in the air. Space seemed to tear, the end of the alley going hazy as the rip crept down, down—
It opened the moment it met the fuzzy monster’s back, a sputtering attempt at a portal as it held the not-kewniq captive.
And through that doorway was the figure of a demon too focused on his rune work to notice the opening behind him.
A collection of buildings were visible in the distance, a scattering of dark trees surrounding him, all highlighted by the massive fucking portal in the background releasing the most nightmarish monsters at random intervals.
“Dolgeraus,” Ozirax growled.
The blue demon’s head snapped up, but before he could turn and see them, the portal disappeared completely, releasing the not-kewniq from its hold. The white thing began rooting around in the garbage again like nothing had ever happened.
Kalypso’s arm jerked to the end of the alleyway, pointing with her blade as she simultaneously glared at them. “Told you. Sign.”
Rand shook his head in disbelief. “That fucker. Dolgeraus is behind this?”
“Makes sense.” Ozirax’s spikes flared. “He was petitioning for funding and the captain’s position. No surprise he’s summoning these monsters to help make a case for his proposal.”
“The more of us he injures, the more damage, the more reason to increase numbers in our ranks.”
“Probably wasn’t too happy to see your application on Harrox’s desk,” Garion muttered. “This seems a little dramatic, though.”
Kaly’s glare was gone, replaced with one of focused rage. “Please tell me you recognized where he was.”
A wicked smile curled on Ozirax’s face as he looked at his squad. “Spicy, I think Frank sent that monstrosity as a sign so we could find Dolgeraus, because that’s the opposite direction of where we were going.”
Rand clapped his hands together with a look of feral glee. “Let’s go stop this bastard.”
Tonomoch cleared his throat. “Not that the portal isn’t important, but… what are we supposed to do about that?”
They turned to the end of the alley, where the not-kewniq—definitely-not-kewniq’s head was twitching, beady eyes turned orange with new fangs poking out of its not-as-tiny-as-before mouth.
Oh, no, that thing was a good four times its previous size now, claws actively shredding the trash it was searching through.
As if sensing it was being watched, it lifted its head, sniffing the air before focusing its eyes on the squad.
“Oh, fuck,” Rand whimpered.
“This is why you don’t fuck with portals,” Tonomoch said with a shudder. “Could have used a ranged weapons master like Sev right about now.”
Ozirax blew out a defeated breath. “I really hate Frank’s sense of humor.”
“Nope. Not loving that. What do we do?” Garion asked, a tremble in his voice.
Oz cocked his head. “Run?”
The transformed creature hissed, red spittle flying from its mouth as the jaw unhinged to reveal yet another row of sharp teeth.
“Run away,” Kaly agreed.
They took off in a sprint.