saw Kovos’ muscles twitch with magic as Legon reestablished the connection with him, but too late. She could only watch in horror as the Iumenta’s other fenrra came across Kovos at his neck. Time ceased as Kovos’ head separated from his body as he fell to the ground.
* * * * *
Keither watched in horror as his brother’s body fell to the earth. Pain erupted from his knees as he hit the ground himself. Legon cut a man in half and was now on the Iumenta, but the outcome of their fight did not matter.
The Elf and Iumenta were flitting around the clearing at amazing speeds, the fenrra just a shiny blur. A steady spattering of blood was coming from the fenrra, not from fresh wounds, but from the blood of the slain now being flung off by the tremendous speed at which they were being swung.
His brother was dead. He saw the head roll away from his body which still held that ridiculous sword in a limp hand. He felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks and he was aware that his throat hurt. He was screaming himself hoarse, but he didn’t hear the sound. Sara and Sasha were clinging to him, trying to drag him back to the horses. Arkin was attempting to clear a path as the two non-humans fought, pushing themselves to kill the other. Keither hoped they did it. He hoped that Legon would kill the bastard.
A knife flew by him, nicking Sara’s arm and causing her to yelp. He heard that sound. He looked at Sara’s arm now with blood running down it. He looked at his brother, the one who had protected him his whole life, who had tried to make him a man. The one that would never let bad things happen to good people. He had proved that with Sasha. Rage filled Keither. Rage at what he had been through, what Sara had been made into, and what the Iumenta had taken from all of them. His hand was still on the cleaver and he gripped it with white knuckles. Now the scream was not that of loss but of a terrible drive to stop those that had hurt the people he loved. To kill all of those that murdered in the name of the Queen.
Sara let go of his arm, and Keither ran forward, raising the cleaver. One of the morons looked at him coming and smiled, thinking he was going to get an easy kill off of this fat kid. Fat he may have been, but under that fat was the muscle that carried it all. The man attempted to block with a flimsy metal shield. The cleaver dented it and the man’s arm gave way. Again and again the cleaver came down. The shield was a wreck of what it once was. Again the cleaver came down, removing the pathetic hunk of metal from its owner. Now the look of amusement was replaced with one of terror. The cleaver came down again, hitting at the base of the man’s neck, crunching and slurping as it came out.
Another man was at his side raising his own weapon. Keither jerked the blade out of one and hit the other in the ribs, dropping the screaming man to the ground. This time the blade was stuck, but no matter. He was next to his brother’s body. He reached down and grabbed the sword with the ridiculous flames on it, but they weren’t ridiculous to him anymore. Now he understood, now he saw them for that they were. Arms grabbed around him and he saw Arkin pulling him to the horses.
“The bastard is using magic!” he thought. Arkin pushed and pulled him to the horses, but he resisted. Finally, the look on Sara’s face made him reluctantly get on.
* * * * *
Legon was now very aware that he was no longer human. He saw his surroundings in sharp clarity. Colors were more vibrant, minute details in the world were now clear. He would have continued his appraisal of the world if it weren’t for his current situation. He was also aware that his spells had stopped when he had changed. His magical power should have been drained, but it was far from tapped out. He could feel it in every fiber of himself. He saw Kovos and an Iumenta, and with that sight clarity was restored. He tried to fortify Kovos…too late. He saw the tip of the blade passing along