Clockworks Chronicles of Zahn

14) Night Hunt

John Wingate was walking along the dark street on his way back to the old Calador manor house where he was staying. He was taking in a bit of the nightlife of Grandeur City. In other words, he was a bit inebriated. However, not so much he didn’t feel he was being tracked. So, he pretended to stumble into an alley to relieve himself. He waited, drawing his sword cane.

Daisy loped around the corner and whimpered at him as she looked at the sword. He closed his eyes and said, “I fell for it again, didn’t I?” as he felt her presence behind him.

Elishira tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Right dad.”

“So how long have you been out looking for me?”

“Not long. There’s bad juju tonight and I felt you needed to be home. There’s another night hunter out. This one is not hunting poachers.” Elishira was known on the Southern Continent as, “The Night Huntress.” She hunted poachers who took no regard to an even and balanced hunt. She was especially known for visiting their camps at night and putting the fear of God, and her, in them. The ones she catches for a second time never saw another dawn.

John nodded and said, “Yeah, I feel it too. That’s why I’m headed back early. Although I wouldn’t call that gold-plated outhouse home.”

“You know what I mean, pops.” Her head shot up as Daisy let out a low growl.

John went to an on-guard stance.

Elishira made a motion with her head and Daisy melted into the shadows. She checked her left arm apparatus to make sure the strap was adjusted correctly. She drew forth, from behind her back, a two-foot-long spear with a six-inch spear head, holding it outstretched. She made a shaking motion and the handle extended out to eight foot. This was followed by the spearhead made a clicking sound as its clockworks seemed to stretch it out to a foot long.

Out of the shadows a dozen men stepped in concert with one another.

John, who didn’t appear inebriated at all anymore, flatly intoned “If you’re here for me then let the little lady go.”

One of the shadows stepped forward from the rest; a man dressed in a long black coat wearing a top hat. “Sorry immortal. No witnesses.”

“Well then, we have a problem.”

As these affairs always go, it started in a blink of an eye.

Elishira became a whirling dervish, wielding her great spear in a lightning fast figure eight as John engaged the six on his side in a deadly dance. In the first second of the engagement, two Shadowmen were already falling as if in slow motion, one with a slit throat, the other was about a foot shorter as his blood fountained out of his headless neck. So much for the chaff.

The rest were better participants in the dance.

Meanwhile, Tophat stood back and watched for any opening that might afford itself.

A black blur briefly came from the darkness as, with a grunt, one of the Shadowmen disappeared. Somewhere beyond, there was a brief cry seeming to be silenced mid-scream.

Tophat changed his stance realizing these two weren’t the only ones he and his men were engaged with. He then put his back to a telegraph poll and readied his sword and bolt gun.

One more of the Shadowmen fell by the wayside and another disappeared to the black blur.

Tophat made a chopping sign in the air with two fingers extended. In from the shadows from the rooftop came several bolts barely perceptible to the eye.

John felt two bolts hit his left arm, but he had no time to focus on the pain. With some difficulty, he reached into his belt, withdrawing a glass vial, saying something in the Southern Continental language as he threw the vial to the ground.

Elishira went to one knee and covered her face as the alleyway became lit up like daylight for just an instant. She waited less than a second before she reengaged the blinded Shadowmen, killing two more. She froze as she felt the point of the knife on her spine midway down her back.

“Such a waste my pretty, too bad. Well it’s nothing person…” The Shadowman’s head disappeared as Daisy came up behind him out of the shadows and ripped it clean off with her powerful jaws.

Elishira realized she was alone with only the dead. She saw a trail of blood leading deeper into the alleyway. She followed it for a few paces only to find a smeared puddle of blood and nothing else. There was no more trail she could detect. She sniffed the blood. Her father’s scent was on the blood but nowhere else. Daisy came up next to her and whimpered as she couldn’t sense him either.

Fanny Ohara was a lady in all but title. Or at least as far as she was concerned. Though she hadn’t aged a day in over three hundred years, she still started her vanity routines early every day.

She was soaking in her milk and herb bath, when she heard a knock on her suite’s door. “Oh Donna, do see who could be knocking at this ungodly hour.”

“Yes mum.”

Fanny continued to soak and hum to herself when she heard a slight thud sound. “Donna, who is it?” but no response came. She started to get annoyed, but she schooled herself to not knit her eyebrows together for fear she would cause her forehead to wrinkle.

After a few minutes of silence, she said, “Donna, who is it…” but then she felt the impact of the blackjack on her head and saw stars.

Mitzi woke up earlier than normal. She was still getting used to the feel of mana as it flowed in and around her. This morning it had a sickly feel to it. She got out of her bed in the spare bedroom above Blake’s gadget repair shop. Dressing quickly, she opened her door to the hallway, only to be surprised by Blake standing there. He put his finger to his lips as he motioned with his bolt gun toward the downstairs area. She nodded and grabbed the rapid-fire crossbow she had made inspired by an old movie she saw as a kid. She loaded a magazine of bolts and grabbed two more to tuck into her leather apron.

She followed Blake downstairs quietly, making sure to step where he stepped because he knew where every squeaky board was. She closed her eyes and used her newfound abilities to feel the presence life forces. She sensed eight, other than Blake and herself. She then tapped Blake on his shoulder and pointed them out in the shadows.

Blake, who was never a boy scout, decided to not take any chances. When Mitzi pointed out the locations of the intruders, he just lit their locations up with bolt fire from right to left.

He had never been in combat alongside Mitzi, so he had concerns. However, those concerns melted away as she started firing left to right in a steady sweep.

The shop area became a crossfire hell but both Blake and Mitzi avoided getting hit as they made for the counter.

He heard Mitzi say, “Reloading!” like a professional soldier. He continued to pace out the remaining bolts in his gun to keep the enemy’s heads down. He did an inward shrug because he knew Mitzi had no military training or combat experience, but he didn’t think long on it because it was his turn to reload.

The front doors of the shop exploded inward as a cloaked behemoth stepped in holding a large Arclight. He heard a female voice say, “Heads down men!” as the behemoth held the Arclight up and depressed the button.

He then felt the hairs on the back of his hands and neck rise. He saw the flash and felt the jolt then nothing as everything went black.

Lady Kali stood above the two unconscious immortals nodding. She turned to the remaining Shadowmen and made a motion with her head. They stepped in, picking up the unconscious immortals and began to bind them. She and her entourage were gone as fast as they arrived.