Who the hell is this guy!? Kaeron thought, gritting his teeth as he took a punch to the jaw with an unnatural amount of weight behind it, knocking him into the boarded up house in front of him.
Debris and glass filled the room, and Kaeron quickly picked himself up as his opponent stepped through the hole in the wall.
"I don't want to fight you, Fire Breather, but I won't ask again. Where is Lillian?" The future deadman known as Sebastian snarled at Kaeron.
Kaeron smiled cocky like and spit out blood and a tooth. "If you have to go this far to get a chick to call you back, then she doesn't really like you. Move on."
The deadman scoffed and, without warning, launched a vicious string of punches and kicks that Kaeron struggled to keep up with. The stupid fucking Phoenix ash was messing with his reactions and if things continued like this Kaeron would again be needing time to recuperate from serious injuries.
Kaeron ducked low, avoiding a shot to the face, and in an instant called upon the flame that made up his core, burning endlessly and bright, he took it and shaped it around his fist, and then he slammed it into the bastards gut.
The impact sent the bastard flying out the way he had entered, and into an entirely different, empty, boarded up building causing a mini explosion.
Kaeron cracked his neck and stepped out from the protection of the building. He looked over towards the wreckage of where he had launched the bastard. Flames and dust blanketed the area, and fires had begun spreading across to the other buildings, but even with the Phoenix ash in his system, obscuring Kaerons sight further. He had seen enough, and he finally knew why he couldn't get a read on the bastards scent. He was one of those puppets.
"I have to thank you." Kaeron breathed.
The dude was a damned "Golem," and was now glaring as the spot where Kaeron had struck began collecting the magic rock and dirt that made up its body, knitting together the hole Kaeron had punched into its stomach.
"I haven't been given a gift like you in a while." Kaerons smile turned sinister. "You look surprisingly human like for a bunch of repurposed bones and some ash. So. Who is pulling your strings, puppet?"
Golems are the disgusting creations of the infamous Necromancers. Necromancers are the one race that are even less common than Dragon Shifters. They are also the only race that has a limit on how many are allowed to be born in any given year. That number being 2. Their numbers are also monitored by every kingdom across Solaris and under the "World Alliance Treaty" if it were to ever reach above a certain number. They would ban together and reduce the population of the Necromancers. Again.
Clearly, though, somebody hasn't been doing their job.
The ancient Necromancers were to blame for why things are how they are. It was their decision to betray the world covenant and help in the ancient witch Beatrice's idiotic attempt at destroying the world. The only reason all the Necromancers weren't wiped out at the time was because some of the kings saw the value in their... talents.
Currently, there are only 30 Necromancers (that the powers above tell us about) roaming Solaris and only 22 Golems (clearly 23), and even The Seven, steer clear of Necromancers, especially Draefin. Necromancers are a mysterious, powerful race who can see into the future and manipulate dark arts to create all kinds of weapons, poisons, and monstrosities like golems, but Kaeron had heard that those monstrosities had some of the most brutal fighting strategies out there, and he had always wanted to get into a fight with one. So to have one just show up at his feet like this... It must have been his birthday.
"I didn't want to fight, but people like you. The strong. Only know how to settle things the one way." The golem sighed.
Kaeron scoffed. "Am I really getting a lecture about how to use my power from a creature who doesn't get a choice in how they get to use their o...?"
The golem took out a half blue and black pill with a dragon inscribed in the middle, and Kaeron cursed. Great. The mystery golem was also a V popper.
In most cases, Virpetro is just an over the counter drug meant to help fight the vamp disease that used to cause all vamps to become allergic to the sun, now known as Ansico. However, Virpetro was also later found to be a very powerful temporary all-around enhancement tool and is currently heavily leaned upon during war all across the world, even though it's extremely addictive and slowly kills the user. The boost to the user's magical and physical capabilities makes that fact irrelevant to the powers above playing around with the chess pieces.
"Smart. You're already nothing but a bunch of magic beans and burnt paper, made to look like flesh, so why not destroy yourself? What? Is you're master not the type to keep around their pets for too long?"
The golem swallowed the pill, ignoring Kaerons statement, and it felt kind of anticlimactic. The guy didn't turn red or gold, and he didn't start dripping magical aura like a real power-up.
But Kaeron did see the moment that the golem had felt the change in himself. Even though it was so beaten down from years of abusing the stuff, Kaeron almost missed the microexpression and almost laughed because even now, the addict was still feeling the high. Must be one hell of a drug
Kaeron pulled out one of his hidden blades and a pistol. He'd play with his new toy. Just until he got bored, and then. He would incinerate the bastard.
They began to circle each other.
...
The golem launched his assault lashing out with an elbow targeting Kaerons face, and when Kaeron twisted around he avoided the strike but was met with a foot that he only just managed to block, but the weight behind the kick made his arms fling out wildly and he could basically hear them scream in agonizing pain, but he was able to keep a hold on to his weapons as he used the moment to leap backwards and put some space between the two and smiled, showing off his fangs.
They charged each other once more, and the golem was quicker again, but Kaeron refused to be caught off guard this time.
He predicted the golems' movements and fired along that path, but as expected, the doped up golem moved faster than the bullets and struck, aiming for Kaerons throat, this time with a dagger.
Kaeron grunted as he again made it just in time to deflect the blow with his own blade. The collision knocked him back a few feet, but he stayed upright.
"This is great!" Kaerons laugh was warped. "No, really. Let's keep going!"
"Tsk." The golem must have been annoyed with Kaerons taunting because he dropped into a low stance and tossed the dagger in his hand at Kaeron at such an unreal speed that even when Kaeron ducked backward he wasn't quick enough to avoid the blade completely, and while he was watching the dagger fly by just inches above him in what seemed like slow motion, he felt blood on his cheek. The knife was moving so slow though that to Kaeron it felt like it was just hovering there and he never felt like he was in any danger, even as the blade was so close to his retina that it could only be considered a miracle that he wasn't made blind in one eye. He watched as the dagger continued right on by the spot his head would have been if he would have moved even a thought slower, and he didn't even blink. It was in that moment that he felt his heart skip a beat. This was the most fun he had had since agreeing to come on this stupid quest. There were no girls to protect or to judge him, giving him the green light to just enjoy this feeling for as long as he could.
"Yes! This was what I've been needing! I've earned this! I deserve this!" Kaeron ranted, swinging his arms out dramatically and flinging his head back with the same amount of flare so he could be heard by even the moon.
"What a freak." The golem spat.
Kaeron snapped his attention back onto the cretin. "Says the golem." Kaeron said, his voice dipping low venom dripping from each word.
The golem pulled out another dagger from his utility belt that, from what Kaeron saw, held one more.
This time, Kaeron was determined to be the one on the offensive, and the only way he was going to do that was by stunning the bastard. Even if for only a second. Kaeron could work with that. He just needed a way to get in close, and he couldn't think of a better way than bringing back an old trick.
He took a quick breath, holding it in for a moment, and then he roared.
******
Lillian was tired of this sibling bond crap that Lex and Kaeron shared. The last time Lex had one of these moments, Lillian had been kidnapped and tortured by a still unidentified third party, and now they were full sprint running towards a burning complex of buildings after seeing a second explosion.
"And if we run into any of the fae law enforcement, we ignore them and keep moving! I mean it, don't even stop!" Lex shouted as Lillian did her best to keep up with the woman, but she was like a freaking leopard. Navigating the traffic of onlookers so quick and elegant like, it made it difficult for the far slower and a lot less elegant Lillian who was slamming into people left and right, to keep up.
Lillian would have asked, "Why not?" But she was so wholey focused on not passing out from running at these speeds for this long that she forgot to, but luckily Lex continued on her own, "Kaeron says that they are very corrupt, and if they were to capture the girl worth a fortune, and the sister of the bounty hunter worth a fortune..."
"I get it!" Lillian spat out weakly.
And then it happened.
A roar so loud, so powerful, Lillian had no other choice but to stop running, duck down, cover her ears, and shout back just to try and alleviate some of the skull shattering pain in her head.
It lasted for what felt like decades, but what she was sure was only a moment, and when it finally did end, she could feel blood in her ears.
"Lily!? Are you alright!?" Lex shouted. Her voice sounded muffled and far away, but when Lillian was snatched upright, Lex was standing right there, horror turning her normally gorgeous night black eyes to a haunting, unfeeling, soulless black.
"I'll be alright." She could hardly hear herself or anything around, but she couldn't slow down Lex, who, naturally, recovered from the incident way quicker than anybody else on the street. Actually. Some of the people still had yet to move from off the ground.
Were they dead?
Lex eyed where Lillian was looking and then looked back at Lillian, sympathy now filling her gaze. "Lily, we have to go."
Lillian nodded. She knew she'd have to get over it. It's not like she could have stopped any of this... whatever this was, from happening. She just hated the thought of knowing that innocent people might have possibly died because of her. She took a step forward, but that's when it hit her. The dizziness that threatened to tare the ground from under her, and her mouth filling with saliva...
She vomited... Gross.
She heard Lex walk up behind her and felt it as she started using her fingers to draw symbols on her back, as Lillian started to heeve up nothing but air, and she found it. Oddly comforting.
Anybody up and moving by now were too busy focused on their own family or friends to have noticed Lex and Lillian as Lex threw Lillian's arm around her, and they continued towards what was starting to resemble some of the drawings of the first level of hell Lillian had seen posted in Talion's art gallery back in his prison of a mansion, and it gave her goosebumps. What the hell was going on.
******
Kaeron angled his arm over his head and licked the blood that dripped down to his fingertips and watched as the golem regenerated the arm that Kaeron had managed to cut off after surprising the thing with his dragons roar, but it didn't come without loss. The bastard had somehow retained enough of his senses to counter with a very deep cut into Kaerons' right shoulder and avoid the death blow Kaeron had gone for.
"You've been great so far!" Kaeron shouted, his smile warped. "But it's time to up the ante."
The nausea before the shift wasn't all that bad for the first time, but the Phoenix ash made the shift feel like swimming in a pool of drying concrete a mile deep, but he pushed through it as the stabbing pains from his bones breaking, reshaping, and then reinforcing started and ended in the blink of an eye. His senses got thrown into overdrive, and he could feel his body healing itself. The cut on his shoulder stitching itself together, the one on his cheeks, and the bruises on his back. The shift was complete.
The golem took a step back, clearly reassessing the situation.
"Don't get scared on me now, golem." Kaeron snarled menacingly.
"Monster." The golem bit out.
Kaeron stared down at the golem for a long second and smiled a dark smile. "So?"
The golem bit its lip and moved, and that was the moment Kaeron knew that his fun was over.
The golem struck with his dagger aiming again for Kaerons throat. Kaeron didn't even blink. He caught the golems hand stopping the blade in its tracks. The golem tried to pull away, but Kaerons iron grip locked it in place.
Kaeron stared down at the golem, and for the first time, he could see the fear in its eyes.
"You pathetic worm." Kaeron said, letting go of the golems hand. "Burn."
The golem turned to run, but he'd be a pile of ash before he could make it more than a few feet. Kaeron called to the flame that was now a roaring inferno inside him, and it gathered in his stomach, ready to be unleashed in a flaming torrent of death.
"Kaeron!?"
He flicked his head towards where he heard his name, head low, fire dancing in his mouth, a pulsing desire to eradicate singing in his blood...
"Lex!?" He shouted, the fire inside cooling.
Lillian dropped to her knees beside her, gasping for air. "We've come... to slave you." She slurred as she fought to inhale.
He turned his head back toward his opponent, but as expected, the bastard was gone. Sadly, his fun was now truly over.
"Who the fuck is Sebastian?" Kaeron asked turning back to them and stared down at the girl accusatorially.