Page 79 of Ashes of Honor

“Nobody. Move. A. Muscle,” I said, my voice a harsh whisper.

The inability to identify how many walked among us left us at an extreme disadvantage. With visibility reduced to nothing, I judged that engaging only when necessary was the best bet. Clicking with complex patterns echoed around us. Ronan’s experiments.

These weren’t OGs.

OGs were predictable—mindless, slow, and easy to dispatch if you stayed alert. But these? These were something else entirely. Faster. Smarter. They communicated, their patterns of movement coordinated in ways that defied what we thought we understood. And if we got caught by one, it wouldn’t be alone for long.

I tempered my breathing, hoping, praying, the others were doing the same. No matter how many you killed, the complete terror of confronting them never went away.

Time dragged as we held our position, even though I knew it had been just a few minutes. My legs burned, muscles trembling under the pressure of remaining utterly still. The damp chill of the air clung to my skin, mixing with the sweat that had soaked through my shirt. Then the wind shifted. A faint rustle reached my ears, just enough to send my heart stopped.

“Fuck,” I hissed, my hand already closing around the hilt of the blade at my waist. “Make it quiet and make it quick,” I commanded the others and chaos erupted.

I couldn’t see shit between the dense fog and the early morning sun. The concern wasn’t necessarily the Pansies but making sure we avoided each other. Sound became our lifeline, guiding us in the blind field of death. Something moved to my left. I swung on instinct, my blade finding purchase in the throat of a Pansie. The flesh gave way with a wet, sickening sound. I yanked the blade free, driving it upward into its skull before it could lunge again.

Jaws clamped open then shut behind me. Fingers sharp as talons raked at the uncovered skin of my forearm. One at my six, another at one o’clock. I ducked and sheathed the blade back in the holster, falling to a side lunge position. With the same movement, I grabbed one of the twin blades and twirled it forward, the hilt firm in my grip. Rising to my feet, I pivoted sharply, spinning in a full circle. The blade’s edge met resistance—twice—slicing clean through two Pansies’ necks with force. The strain rippled through my core, each muscle screaming from the effort.

The sharp whistle of an arrow grazed past my ear. “Reina,” I snapped.

“To be fair, I threw that,” her voice called out, closer than I’d expected.

“There’s this thing called a knife,” Tomoe shouted from somewhere ahead. “Use it.”

“I lost it,” Reina admitted, her floral scent cutting through the surrounding stench of death as she moved to my side.

I sighed, yanking the knife from my hip and pressing it into her hand. “Don’t lose this one.”

“Thank ya kindly,” she chirped, and then she was gone again, slipping back into the fray.

The fog loosened, no longer swallowing the sound and movement of our fight. We needed to end this quickly. I swung my blade low, severing a Pansie’s leg at the knee before I leaped on top and drove the knife into its skull. Hunter’s deep grunt echoed as he grappled with one, punching with pointed brass knuckles into its head with brutal efficiency.

To my right, Serenity’s voice cut through the chaos. “Caleb, duck!” A boomerang flew in the direction of her shout and cut through a Pansies gaping mouth as it lunged for Caleb. He rolled to his feet, his saber sword flashing in the muted light. It cleaved through a neck while then slid out in perfect timing to embed in a skull with a sickening crack. Serenity stood, watching Caleb with relief to have not had to witness his death.

“Serenity, move!” Hunter bellowed. His hatchet became a blur, sweeping in an arc that split two Pansies in half.

Serenity sidestepped and raised a hand instead of reaching for her dagger. A Pansie lunged, slamming to a sudden stop midair, its limbs spasming as if caught in an invisible vice. She flicked her fingers, and the creature whipped sideways, crashing into another with a bone-crunching thud. Only then did she draw her dagger, finishing off a smaller one that had slipped past Hunter’s range.

I had just enough time to see a shadow surge at my side. Twisting, I raised my blade, catching the Pansie mid-leap. The momentum drove me backward, and my back hit the ground hard. White stars soured my vision but the loss of breath hurt me more. It fell atop me and I pointed the blade up in a defensive motion. Then the weight vanished.

The Pansie shot upward, flung into the air as if a giant hand had yanked it back. It crashed down hard, skull cracking against the hard ground. I sucked in air, my chest heaving, as Serenity lowered her hand. Her silence said it all—You owe me one.

The field was a frenzy of snarls and glinting steel, but slowly, the sounds thinned. By the time the last Pansie fell, we were panting, bloodied, but alive.

“Everyone okay?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay steady despite the lingering adrenaline.

“Hands out, let me assess,” Reina said, already moving to check on Tomoe.

Hunter moved with his sister, checking her over before moving on to Serenity. “I’ll help.”

I straightened, my eyes scanning the group. We were all still standing. For now, that was enough.

“Let’s get moving,” I said, not granting the group more than a few moments to catch their breath. “Fog will clear out soon and the sun’s nearly up.”

Serenity offered me a sarcastic salute, her face covered in guts and gore. “After you, General.”

Alexiares

“You left without me,” I said with a smirk from the top of the red bricked roof, feet dangling over the side. “Ouch.”

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