The Mantis Variant - Book One - 18. Chapter 18 - Massacre

"I can hear the cosmic music from the radiation of the universe." A woman was speaking and her voice echoed from multiple locations along the alley where she was cornered. "I can taste the elements that burn in the stars." She sounded like a goddess. "I see the world; I can see eons. I look into distant corners of alien galaxies." There was wrath in her words, and they reverberated against the old concrete walls.

Black discs of shadow hovered in the air like holes punched in reality, voids in the atmosphere. From them protruded headless skeletal torsos of smoke that were armed with weapons made out of darkness.

The apparitions impaled with spears, slashed with swords, and crushed with clubs and maces. Human flesh was severed and pierced by the void warriors, and the cries of the dying rang out through the nearby streets of Teshon City. Bodies were broken, limbs were lost, and skulls were smashed by the shadow weapons.

Any survivors of the massacre who tried to drag themselves away from the chaos were nailed to the pavement by massive pikes of smoke. All who entered that alleyway were utterly ruined, butchered by headless enemies against whom they were powerless.

From his position of observation, Talin helplessly watched the evisceration of his underprepared team. The individual they were supposed to be hunting slaughtered them all, and Talin cursed his gift, giving him a perfect view of the devastation that befell his crew.

Claw One was decapitated.

Claw Two's arms were both lopped off above the elbows. She fell to the pavement, writhing and screaming for a moment, but she was skewered where she lay.

Claw Four was smashed and slashed, and he turned to flee for the mouth of the alley but was hamstrung and crashed to the street. He roared in agony.

The horrible weapons of darkness cleaved Claws Five, Six, and Seven and their bodies fell mangled to the grimy gutter.

Claw Four was still wailing from the pavement and trying to crawl away, as the woman who was supposed to be their prey stepped up and stood over him.

"Where are the others?" she asked him in a voice that came from all around.

She did not wait for his reply. Another shadow hole opened and a headless torsos rose from it. A massive battle-axe was gripped in the apparition's bony fingers. It swung the weapon over where its head would have been, and brought the blade down on the man's ankles like a guillotine.

Claw Four screamed like a lobster being boiled, as his feet were removed from his ankles.

The woman asked again. "Where are they?"

"Fuck you!" he spat, and without hesitation, her darkness monster made another terrible cut with its axe. Claw Four shrieked, as both his legs were chopped through the femurs above his knees.

"Who's out there?" she snarled above him.

"Talin!" Claw Four bawled and reached forward.

Damnit, thought Talin.

"Who is that? Where is he?" She repeated herself with a snarl. "Where is he?!"

The shadow torso struck again with its axe, sinking through the meat and bone of Claw Four's shoulder. The slice took off his arm.

He whimpered and pointed up at the rooftop only a few blocks away where Talin was perched.

She looked up and saw the man's shocked face staring back at her, and the battle-axe of shadow fell like an avalanche on Claw Four’s neck. His head rolled away.

Talin's enhancement allowed him to see every detail about her, including the expression of righteous malevolence that was scrawled across her face.

In a flash of darkness, another disc appeared in the air beside Talin, and one of her creatures thrust its spear through his heart. His eyes bulged and he gasped, as the headless apparition disappeared, and Talin fell from the rooftop and landed in a crumpled mess on the pavement✪