AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No, not dead yet. The man moaned and opened his eyes.
I should kill him. Now, before he alerted the others. But we locked eyes with each other, and his fear and pain riveted me.
Wendel stepped from the darkness. Amarant’s shadows still clung to his skin.
The wounded man crawled on his stomach, struggling to drag himself upright. Wendel grabbed the man’s hair and drove his dagger into his neck. He severed his spine and lingered only long enough to raise the dead.
Cold chills ran down my spine. “Wendel.”
He looked at me with hollow eyes, then turned to another wounded man and slaughtered him. The dead man climbed to his feet and awaited his command.
Metal clanged on metal.
I peeked over the machine and saw an assassin hacking at the Eisenkrieger’s undamaged knee.
“Is that another scratch?” Konstantin said.
Maybe he should be more worried about dying instead.
Konstantin grabbed the assassin by his cloak, dangling him so his feet kicked. Disgusted, he flung him away. I tracked the man’s arc through the air. I didn’t see where he landed, but I heard a sickening crunch.
Only four assassins were still alive.
Wendel’s undead minions shambled breathlessly behind us. I snuck closer to the Eisenkrieger. An assassin lingered nearby, searching the darkness. My sword’s flames dimmed like it knew I needed stealth.
Wendel waved his minions onward.
The undead men dragged their scimitars along the floor. I winced at the screeching. The assassin narrowed his eyes, holstered the throwing knife, and unsheathed his scimitar instead. Backing away, he held his blade at a high angle, ready to behead the dead men.
I crept around the machine and circled the assassin.
He never saw me coming.
I aimed for his heart and stabbed him between the ribs. Chun Yi cleaved his flesh and sank to the hilt with stunning ease. The assassin died almost instantly. Wendel raised him from the dead an instant later.
I yanked out Chun Yi, my sword blazing even brighter.
“Three more,” I said.
Wendel commanded his tiny army of the dead with a wave. The undead ran almost as fast as the living, their muscles not yet stiff, and left bloody footprints. The assassins retreated to the center of the room. They stood back-to-back and brandished their scimitars.
Wary of more throwing knives, I kept to the shadows.
The dead men threw themselves onto the blades without hesitation. Impaled with a scimitar, a dead man clawed at an assassin. The second assassin hacked at the dead man’s neck andswore when the blade stuck. The third faced two undead at once, struggling to shove them back.
Konstantin limped closer and loomed over the fight.
I tensed, ready to duck flying machinery, but he balled the Eisenkrieger’s hands into fists. He reared back before charging the assassins. He knocked two out of three flying and clobbered an undead man on the way.
Bones cracked loud enough that I flinched.
I ran to finish off the last assassin, who dropped his scimitar and held up his hands.
“I surrender,” he said. “I surrender!”
I started to lower my sword.
The assassin stiffened as darkness descended behind him. A blade sliced his throat. The assassin went limp, like a marionette with its strings cut, then straightened as he was puppeted by Wendel’s necromancy.
