“Halt!” The voice called from behind as the legionnaire lunged forward. Masagh spun midair and dodged higher. Then he dove as he saw the Kathar follow. The legionnaire seemed to blur midair as he pumped his wings. His opponent vaulted forward impossibly fast and Masagh let the Ghoulblade dance before him. As the Kathar lunged he triggered a second spell.
The Kathar struck like a hawk diving on a fish. But when his spear thrust through Masagh’s chest there was no resistance. The Kathar plunged through Masagh’s form and he released the Phasing. The ghoul snarled in triumph as he kicked down at the KAthar with both legs. The legionnaire slammed into the hood of a passing vehicle, shattering the glass window.
Masagh heard a grunt of surprise before the Ghoulblade plummeted towards the enemy.
Seeing the blade a moment before impact the Kathar blurred again and launched himself sideways. The vehicle rocked and the driver began to swerve. The Ghoulblade stuck home in the hood of the vehicle and Masagh heard an explosion of aether as mechanisms erupted out of the bottom of the thing.
He didn’t have time to watch though. He was already gaining height. He felt the wash of pain as he summoned his Ghoulblade back to his hand. He was able to climb forty feet before the legionnaire was on him again.
Masagh spun and dove, letting gravity supplement his speed. As he was about to hit the ground he pulled up and split three Duplicates of the Ghoulblade around him. Dancing all of them around him like moons around a planet. The real weapon was hidden amongst them. The Kathar was pursuing him still, right on his heels. The wind rushed and feathers flew.
They were like a dove chasing a crow.
He spun around and lunged at the Kathar, wings spread and with a Duplicate before him. He brought it low and swiped up from below. The legionnaire’s handsome gaze flickered down to the blade and Masagh saw his eyes widen. He tried to bring his blade back up but was a fraction of a moment too late.
Masagh Phased through him and the two Duplicates and real Ghoulblade followed behind him. The Kathar took a glancing blow with the real sword, sending him reeling and tumbling through the air. Masagh caught the blade and lunged towards the off-balance Kathar.
Bringing the blade down from above, Masagh aimed for the shoulder or wing. His strike caught on the spear as the Kathar stopped his tumble instantly and blocked the blow. His flush face stared at Masagh’s own grey one inches apart.
“Undead.” He breathed with surprise.
Masagh Varnished the Ghoulblade with a Blink and sent it teleporting behind the Kathar. He reached out and grasped the spear with both hands as his own weapon swung around to strike. The legionnaire twisted, bringing the spear between himself and the Ghoulblade. Still the impact sent them both sprawling through the air above the street.
With a shattering of glass the pair went bursting through a third story window and into the living room of a family. People screamed as both warriors righted themselves. Masagh barely glanced at the family before his blade lashed out at the Kathar. The man slid sideways, dodging the blow and lashing out with his spear, viper quick.
This was the training of the legion. These Avialae were bred for such things. Masagh fell into a mid guard and stepped to him again. The spear flashed and the Ghoulblade was met at every turn. Then the Kathar swung the butt of his spear up and it struck Masagh’s fingers on the hilt. The sword went flying towards the family.
It only took a moment for Masagh to cast the Dance onto the blade before it hit anything and rein it back towards himself. The Kathar in that moment brought the blade down at Masagh. It found purchase between the gauntlet and pauldron of his armor. The spear bit into his flesh and tore as the legionnaire pulled it free.
A look of confusion passed over the warrior’s face as Masagh barely reacted. The Ghoulblade came slamming in from the Masagh’s right and knocked the Kathar towards the shattered window. A blurred chaos of kinetic energy erupted from the stumbling Kathar’s hand as he launched a spell at Masagh. The ghoul could only stare, not thinking fast enough to react.
Sure of death, Masagh was saved by the Ghoulblade. The pact weapon leapt to parry the spell of its own accord with the power of Rebuke. The kinetic energy diverting directly up. It cascaded across the ceiling, tearing apart wood and plaster. Is showered down on Masagh as he stumbled back.
An impact and a sharp tugging at the edge of his torso. Masagh waved the dust from his face to find the Kathar crouching before him, spear lodged in Masagh’s side. The ghoul gnashed his teeth from the pain, reaching down and yanking the spear free.
“Necromancy…” The Kathar Legionnaire muttered, standing straight and staring at Masagh’s hooded face. “Shrugging off attacks.” He reached for his belt and pulled a device from it. He pointed it towards Masagh and unleashed.
A beam of white light shot towards him. Masagh dove to the side, knocking over an armchair.
“Undead, Ghoul!” The Kathar raised a heavily runed horn to his lips. He blew a long note into it, though no sound came out.
Masagh was dead if he didn’t leave. The Ghoul erupted into motion, a blur of black armor and chains. He Blinked behind the Kathar and swung a downward strike, his blade tearing at the ceiling as well. The Kathar met the blow with a lightning reflex.
Another Blink and strike was met with another block. Like a storm Masagh pressed the Kathar back with sheer ferocity and tempo, although none of his strikes landed. Finally he split his focus and Blinked while Hitching his Pact weapon behind the Kathar. Masagh appeared from Slipspace before the legionnaire. There was a frantic moment of scrambling as he grappled with the legionnaire’s spear before the Ghoulblade Danced from behind towards the Kathar’s back.
In the last moment the Avialae wrested his weapon free of Masagh’s grip and turned, deflecting the Ghoulblade. A legionnaire’s boot kicked out at Masagh’s kneecap, crumpling his leg inward. As the warrior spun Masagh reached out to grab him again but only caught a handful of feathers in a fist. As the Kathar deflected the Ghoulblade Masagh took his opportunity.
The Ghoul leapt out of the shattered window. He let himself plummet as he called Ghoulblade back to himself.
He unfurled his wings and let them catch an air current as he tore out down the street. He could see in the distance two more flying shapes high in the skyline above Gel’Grandal. More Kathar Avialae come in answer of their fellow.
The legionnaire burst free of the window behind him and gave chase. A torrent of day line erupted past his shoulder and reflected off the nearby glass of another second story window. Masagh cursed in ancient imperial as he spun out and skidded along the second story balcony of an expensive apartment. He tumbled along, not losing speed but sending potted plants scattering.
Masagh leapt into the air again. The two other Kathar were much closer and who knew how many more shots of light magic his pursuer’s device had. IT was escape or death now. The Kathar was quick and knew Masagh’s weakness to light. He had brought in reinforcements as well.
The Chimera wings beat hard against the night air as Masagh tore between buildings. He needed to break the line of sight from the pursuing legionnaire. He tumbled again as another beam of sunlight passed beneath him, where he had been a fraction of a second earlier. Masagh dove again and swerved around the corner of a building. As he did so he Phased through the wall.
Darkness and chaos as he collided with something hard and was sent sprawling. Masagh groaned as he landed on what felt like a wooden chair and toppled head over heads over it. Ichor leaked from his wounds and the Ghoul felt the aching pain that reminded him he was not completely removed from life.
He thrust the Ghoulblade into the wooden floorboards with a dull thud and pulled himself to his feet. His vision was distorting at the edges, a sign of nearing overstepping for him. A light flickered on somewhere in the building and a doorway was suddenly illuminated. Masagh could hear a voice calling out in fear, though he could not make out what they said.
He had Phased into some sort of library. The first impact had been a heavy oak side table holding a vase of old dead flowers and a pair of glass figurines, which he had shattered. The second impact had indeed been a wooden chair arranged at a desk, which was now cracked along one leg and gleaming with ichor from his wounds.
There were footsteps now.
Was the Kathar going to know he had come in this building? He had seen Masagh Phase before. He needed to assume his pursuers would be smart enough to figure it out.
Masagh scrounged up the aether within him, stirring the power impatiently. He began to form a Railway to his Cell in the Creth Compound. Escape was all he had left. The rending in the air had just completed when the voice cried out again.
“I’ll warn you, I’m armed!” A frightened woman’s voice said.
Masagh ignored her. Unless she was a Kathar Avialae with sunlight magic he had bigger issues to worry about.
When the portal finally completed a few moments later he stepped into the Slipspace and onto the familiar trim of the leyline there. He gave a quick glance over his shoulder before letting the portal fade behind him.
A young woman in a nightdress stood with a large candlestick and a broom in hand. She stared open mouthed at the portal before it closed and left him looking at the black expanse of Slipspace.
As Masagh hobbled his way back to his own cell he knew it had been a mistake to fly so openly. Gel’Grandal wasn’t what it had once been, and he was becoming more reckless with his desperation. It had begun during the Eclipse, and now he had almost died. He walked in silence, dripping ichor into the nothingness of Slipspace occasionally.
He had spent his ichor and his aether, and had nothing but feathers in his hand. Masagh thought about fashioning the feathers into a totem of the Avialae. In the end though, he let the battered feathers fall into the void. The Kinvaren were still out there, and he was no closer to them.
The odd echo of his footsteps in the Slipspace leylines was, for a long time, the only sound. A shuffle that seemed weak to his ears. Was this why his mother never moved her pieces or risked anything? Just a single night of activity, or initiative, had cost him a few wounds that would kill a redvein. He had made the Kathar of all people aware of him, if not his House’s existence. For it he had gained nothing, nothing but perhaps another enemy to add to the Creth paranoia. There, bleeding ichor into the void of Slipspace, Masagh hadn’t felt so alone and far from his dream of a free and safe place for the Graveborn.
But it hadn’t been one night. It had been every action since he had decided his mother’s stagnant strategy was not enough. His every illuminating move had brought to light another obstacle, or enemy, or rift between himself and his family. His family’s ancient doctrine stood out against his the reality he was coming to accept.
Since acting towards that doctrine he had found those he had always depended on, Sabrione, Emerande, the Creth, were not willing to walk that path. Now, as Masagh bled his way home in the dark and endless void of the Slipspace, he found himself at a decision. Find a way to be comfortable living the life of the forgotten, bolstered by the laurels of the long dead, or forge something new by himself.
Masagh turned and looked off into the black. He had thought his eye was caught by a motion in the distance. When he looked he could discern neither distance nor motion. As he paused in his slow progress home, the impact of the emptiness around him stuck like it had never done before. He felt the ichor dripping from him even as his undead flesh mended itself slowly.
He had enemies, but he was still here. Pale knuckles curled tightly around the hilt of the Ghoulblade. There was only one decision he could make.
He was a knight of Creth.
He was a knight of the Undead Empire.