Chronicles of Eden - Act V (41 page)

“Fuck yeah!” Clover shouted before a swarm crashed through the wall next to her, tackling the elf into a tumble down the stairs.

“We need to go, get up!” Tabitha ordered while swiping her blades around, slicing a few of the swarm that tried to fly at her while Complica remained motionless on the floor in shock.

Clover and the swarm that was trying to maul her tumbled down the stairs before landing on the ground floor with the elf being pinned down by the ravenous monster. She held it back by the neck and shoulder while her bow bounced to a stop next to her, growling with frustration as the swarm kept trying to snap at her while its hands frantically scratched at the girl’s tunic.

“You fucking bitch!” Clover yelled while trying to push the monster away before it scratched her across the cheek. She screamed in pain before the swarm swatted her arms away and lunged down to bite her face, right before Triska’s blade struck through its head from the side. Clover stared at seeing the stunned face of the swarm with surprise while blood dripped down its mouth then watched as Triska threw the monster off of her with a yell before she aimed her bloodied blade down at her.

“There, I saved
your
life!” she yelled out. “So that makes you
my
bitch, now doesn’t it?”

Clover glared at her with fury before they heard Complica screaming upstairs. Triska looked over to seeing Kroanette kicking another swarm through the wall with her legs then snapping her whip at one that was flying in through the broken front door. She then looked up the stairs again as Complica and Tabitha were heard yelling while more of the swarm crashed in through the side of the upstairs hallway.

“There’s too many!” Tabitha shouted as she hacked and slashed with her swords wildly, each swing slicing through a swarm or two as the monsters kept flooding into the room. With every one she killed two more seemed to crawl in to take its place, her eyes frantically shifting around at the constantly moving targets as she tried to fend the never-ending wave of the monsters off while Complica was now curled into a ball screaming for her life. Tabitha kept darting around the butterfly girl as she attempted to fight off the swarm from all sides, with a few of them now digging and clawing down through the ceiling with loud hisses and screeches.

“What are we going to do?” Kroanette cried out as she frantically bucked around and kicked with her legs while snapping her whip at the swarm in a panic.

Triska looked around quickly then saw a room next to theirs through a hole in the wall that Kroanette had kicked a swarm into earlier. She reached down and grabbed Clover, yanked the elf to her feet, then swung her around and threw her towards the opening, with the elf crashing through a few broken boards into the dark room that had a window with flickering beams of moonlight coming through it.

“Get in there now! Don’t let them surround you!” Triska ordered as she grabbed Clover’s bow and tossed it into the room, with Kroanette quickly galloping in after as Clover rubbed her head and growled with anger on the floor.

“What’s the big fucking idea?” Clover shouted as she grabbed her bow and stumbled to her feet.

“Just stay alive!” Triska yelled before she raced up the stairs. Clover and Kroanette watched as the swarm literally swarmed the living room and gathered around the broken hole into the study that the centaur and elf were cornered in before the two girls ran over and grabbed a bookshelf next to the opening and yanked it over onto its side with a loud thud. Clover backed up and started firing arrow after arrow through the gap above the toppled shelf at the swarm as they tried to squeeze through and get inside, the dead monsters being clawed and ripped apart by the living ones who were also digging through the walls with loud hisses.

“Oh yeah, we’ll be just fine trapped in here!” Clover raged while firing her arrows at the monsters in the wall. One crashed its head through the window behind them, with Kroanette screaming and promptly kicking the monster out and into an adjacent building.

“WAAAH! This day sucks!” Kroanette whined before she started whipping at the swarm that were now trying to crawl in through the window.

Triska raced up the stairs then slashed a swarm down the middle with a fierce yell, her eyes then seeing more of the monsters crawling around the hallway while Tabitha was seen trying to fight them off from all sides in the bedroom. Complica continued to scream while hiding in her ball before she saw Triska standing at the end of the hall with the moonlight shining on her. The butterfly watched in awe as the girl let out a feral roar and charged towards them. The world seemed to fall silent around Complica as her full attention was locked onto the human.

“Get away from her!” Triska yelled as she swung her sword, slicing through the face of a swarm with a slick crunch, before shoving the dead monster aside then kicking another out the broken wall of the corridor. She then swung down and slashed a swarm’s skull in half before spinning around it and slicing across another’s body. A swarm flew in from the opening and tackled Triska against the wall, to which she then promptly bashed her head against the monster’s, knocking it back, before she swung down repeatedly at it and slashed the swarm down the middle with loud crunches. The dead monster dropped back and fell out of the hallway as Triska ran towards the bedroom again, swinging her blade around with one hand and slicing off the arm of a swarm before slashing another across its back. The wounded monsters screeched and flailed around behind her as she ran into the room and swung her blade up, striking through the head of another swarm while Tabitha continued to swing her katanas around to keep the others at bay.

“We need to go!” Triska ordered before swinging her sword behind and cutting down another swarm. As she did Complica stared up at her with awe, watching as the human turned back around with her hair flowing behind her and a fierce look in her eye.

“I am not getting paid enough for this, I just know it!” Tabitha cursed as she swung her blades and hacked two more swarms through their chests.

“Who cares about that? We need to get her home,” Triska countered as she reached down and grabbed Complica, holding her close with one hand and lifting her to her feet. To her surprise the girl quickly grabbed hold of her waist, seeming to cling to her for dear life while burying her face in the human’s chest.

“For dealing with this, her mother had better pay me double!” Tabitha shouted out with anger.

“Glad to know you care so much about her!” Triska barked back.

A swarm flew through the hallway and into the room, grabbing Triska from behind and flying her out of the room as she held onto Complica. Triska screamed as Complica clung to the human with a similar cry while Tabitha watched with a frustrated yell as she struck down yet another nearby fiend.

“Dammit, I need that kid alive!” she shouted with anger.

“Let us go!” Triska yelled before she bashed with her head behind her, smacking the swarm in the face which caused it to screech and let go of its prey. The two girls screamed as they fell before Triska felt the hard cobblestone street greet her back with a hard thump. She grunted heavily before tumbling into a roll, holding Complica close as the young butterfly didn’t feel the ground hitting her while they bounced about with Triska always landing down onto it in their roll. The swarm nearby flew up and circled them while others landed down around them as the two girls rolled to a stop, with Triska lying atop Complica and shielding her while the girl’s sword bounced on the street with a few clanks before stopping next to her. Complica whimpered and peeked from side to side, seeing the wicked smiles and fluttering wings of the swarm drawing closer, and then hid her face in Triska’s bosom again as the girl grabbed hold of her sword.

“Are you okay?” Triska asked as she got up on her knees over the girl and watched as the swarm around them circled the two both above in the air and along the ground, all of the monsters hissing and eyeing their prey with their wide smiles and quickly buzzing wings. Complica whimpered and saw all the swarm closing in them before one lunged towards her, the monster then being met with Triska’s blade as the teen furiously swiped through its face before striking behind her and slashing another down its exposed chest.

Complica looked up at Triska with eyes of wonder, watching as the human swung around and slashed a swarm with her sword before spinning around and swiping at another. Her hair flowed behind her with grace as she kept swinging and stepping around the butterfly girl with her attacks, blood splattering onto the road from the swarm that were hit with her blade while she herself shouted with energy in each swing. Another swarm was struck down, followed by another, and then another, one by one being hacked and slashed by the lone human and tumbling about before collapsing onto the road dead.

“You’re not touching a hair on her head!” Triska roared as she cut down another of the ravenous fiends. She was then struck across her back by the nails of a swarm, causing her to yell in anger rather than pain before she spun around and slashed across the monster with a fierce swipe. As the bisected swarm dropped to the ground with a hoarse screech Complica started to tune the world around her out as Triska kept her full attention.

‘She’s amazing.’

Inside the nearby residence that had swarm crawling all over it Tabitha rolled to the side in the bedroom as the roof collapsed above her, with broken boards and beams dropping down along with a few swarm before the crazed monsters started to flutter and hop around above the debris. She growled with frustration then watched as Triska and Complica vanished from sight with the growing number of swarm that were gathering around them in the street on both the ground and air.

“That’s it, there’s no way I’m getting paid enough for this!” she yelled as she struck her katana through a swarm’s head while sheathing her other blade behind her. With a fierce kick and a loud yowl she knocked the dead monster away before diving into a roll along the floor, just evading two other swarm that tried to grab her then swung forward and sliced down another that dropped in front of her.

“That kid’s as good as dead. I’m not sharing her fate!” Tabitha declared as she grabbed her black satchel nearby. “Dealing with swarm, no amount of reward is worth this.”

Before she could run a large support beam dropped from the broken ceiling and crashed into the floorboards, breaking through them with the floor then caving in and falling down into the lower level of the building. Tabitha dropped down onto Clover with a loud yowl while Kroanette kicked another swarm’s face in through the broken window using her hind legs.

“Never should have taken this job,” Tabitha cursed as she grabbed her sword nearby.

“Where are Triska and the princess?” Kroanette demanded before snapping her whip at a swarm that was trying to crawl through the hole in the wall over the toppled bookshelf.

“Get off me, you bitch!” Clover yelled out before Tabitha got to her feet and swiped up the black bag at her feet.

“The swarm took them outside to devour, they’re as good as dead,” Tabitha scoffed before striking back behind her with her sword and into the skull of a swarm as it crawled in through the disheveled wall.

“What? They’re outside?” Kroanette cried out.

“Then they’re definitely fucked,” Clover grunted as she got up with her bow and promptly shot an arrow through the broken opening into a swarm’s head, with it falling back dead and four more rushing towards the hole together with loud screeches.

“No, I have to save them!” Kroanette shouted before a swarm dropped down next to her with a screech. The centaur screamed and quickly turned to kick the monster straight through the wall with a loud crash. As it flew into a wicked tumble the girls saw through the new opening a thick crowd of swarm flying around and racing along the ground towards something in the street, with so many of the monsters buzzing around in the air and hopping about on the road that it was almost like a massive shadow that spun about like a dark funnel in the moonlight.

“Oh my god,” Kroanette breathed out with wide eyes.

“Go on then, save them,” Clover mocked. “I dare you.”

“They’re no way they could survive that, this job is over,” Tabitha stated solemnly before she ran over and struck her sword through the head of a swarm outside the window to the side. “They have however drawn most of them away from us. If you wish to save yourselves I suggest you run like hell.”

Clover and Kroanette watched as the neko then jumped through the open window, tucking into a roll before she took off down the street away from the gathering of swarm. As she ran she swung her sword around to slash and ward off other swarm that were in her way, her eyes going from one to another as they tried to pounce on her before she cut them down and continued on.

“Sorry, Triska,” she voiced quietly with a fleeting glance behind her. “You are brave, but as I told you before, you can’t save everyone you meet in this world.”

“She just left us!” Kroanette whined while looking from where the neko had fled to where the monstrous gathering of swarm was occupying most of the street outside.

“She’s right though, we need get the fuck out of here!” Clover yelled before quickly grabbing the black bag on the floor next to her then running over and jumping onto the centaur’s back, taking hold of her hair like reins and kicking her boots against her gut. “
Hya
! Get going!”

“
Ow!
” Kroanette screamed before she knocked Clover’s hand away from her head. “I’m not your horse!”

“Ride or we die!”

“But what about Triska?” Kroanette whined looking out the building again.

“She’s dead! Nobody could survive that!” Clover yelled waving to the swarm outside before she glanced over to them and watched as a blue light suddenly flared up from within the crowd.

“What is that?” Kroanette asked as the swarm around the area turned their focus towards the brightly glowing light. Slowly the crazed fiends began to back up and fly in larger loops around the source in the road, the sudden bloom slowly fading and revealing a blue streak of light that was going around in circles with Triska standing in the middle.