The Sac'a'rith Read Online Free Page B

waiting for our attackers to come.
    The location he chose had nowhere to retreat to. That meant either that he was confident of being able to take this enemy, or that he felt retreat was not an option in this case. I really hoped it was the former, but feared it was the latter.
    Soon some strange, lumbering, humanoid beasts came into sight and slowly made their way towards us. Narcion did not move at all for a long time, until all of them seemed to have come into view; then he pulled out his weapons and began to fire rapidly into the mass of advancing creatures. I joined him and slowly we mowed them down. The devices he had planted along the corridor sent waves of fire into the crowd of beasts, helping to reduce their numbers and filling the corridor with thick black smoke. The station’s environmental controls struggled to clear the air, but thankfully succeeded well enough for the filters in my armor to handle it. If they had failed I would have had to fall back on the oxygen tanks on the suit, but they were limited in size and I did not want to think about the difficulty of fighting in this smoke if they ran out.
    When the beasts were all dealt with, I said, “It seems to me that the military could have handled that easily enough.”
    “Possibly, but that's not our target,” he said. He kept looking down the corridor as if he were waiting for something. I tried to guess what it was he was looking for, but all I could see was rapidly clearing smoke and piles of bodies.
    “Then what is?” I asked.
    In answer, a being of some kind came into view wearing a long, dark, ragged robe, its face hidden by a deep cowl. The robe did not quite reach the ground, and neither did its feet; in fact, I was not at all sure if it actually had feet. It just hovered there a few inches off the floor and seemed to lock its gaze on Narcion. I could not make out any eyes, but still somehow I had the impression that it was looking hard into Narcion’s eyes as if trying to win a staring contest. As they had their standoff, two more of the creatures appeared and one of them locked its gaze on me.
    Fear rocked my body and I turned my eyes away. I could not hold its gaze without my body shaking in fear. Narcion seemed unaffected and stared on. Soon all three of them were focused on him. I raised my weapon, ready to shoot, but Narcion said, “Don’t waste your time. That gun can’t hurt them.”
    I looked at his hands and saw that he had put his blasters away and drawn his knives, so I did the same. Since my armor covered my hands completely, I could not use my claws. I had never used knives in a real fight before, as they seemed clumsy compared to my claws, but I was grateful for them now. I took a deep breath and tried to steady my nerves. I would need a clear mind for this.
    Looking at the creatures, I wondered what in Zalith’s name they could be. Eventually the standoff ended and Narcion called out, “We are the Sac’a’rith, and we are sending you back to the abyss from which you came!” and charged them.
    Quickly I followed him, choosing the creature on the right as my target. They spread out quickly as we charged, no doubt hoping to get one of us between two of them. Narcion leaped forward as we closed the distance and landed on one of the creatures.
    I lost track of his fight as I turned to face one of the others. As I approached, it swiped a translucent skeletal hand straight at my face. Moving quickly as Narcion had taught me, I stepped to a thirty-degree angle and used my arm to parry its attack while jabbing it with one of my knives. I hit something hard, but whatever it was it gave under the blow and the creature fell back. Before it could recover, I spun my tail around and slammed it hard into its chest, sending it flying into the wall. As I finished my spin I swung my other knife out, slashing up and across its body.
    The creature screamed the most bone-chilling scream I had ever heard as it collapsed and faded away. I