from the rear.

  Her head broke free from her body, lobbing out backwards and falling perfectly near his right foot, whereas then the Davinian warrior used all his might to kick the head towards the adolescent, a straight shot into the creature’s chest. And the adolescent caught it as if making the winning catch of the championship game. With the creature now stunned, Vohro made an upward slash with his blade, cutting through both the woman’s and adolescent’s heads, splitting them from chin to scalp in a symmetrical fashion.

  At the end of the stairs leading to the fourth floor was a large window. Seeing that three more adolescents were making their way up the stairs from the third floor, Vohro rushed and dove feet first through the open-air window, and while suspended in mid air, he twisted his body as to get a hold of the window directly below the one he had dived through. Once again, he dove feet first through the window and effortlessly landed inside at the foot of the third floor’s stairs.

  Having the advantage, Vohro unsheathed his two large blades from his back, the “twin brothers” as he fondly named them, and lunged straight into the mass of adolescents. With his arms twisting about, downward then up, and to the side and in a circular motion, he produced a variety of darting limbs, opened chests, and severed heads, all cut clean, all spilling that meaningless black liquid before ever hitting the floor.

  Gliding down the stairs to the first floor, Vohro met with the woman who was sitting at the dining table minutes before. But this shadow-laced fiend; she was different than the rest. She came up to him, and her featureless face hovered gently in front of his eyes. “Would you like a taste of my shadow?” she said as she stuck out a blackened tongue.

  Vohro’s response? A swift blade to her mouth, sending her tongue to the far corner of the room! But this did little damage to the beastly woman, and her insolence doubled. She spat a massive wad of black blood onto Vohro’s face, and Vohro’s eyes trembled in fear of his own rage. As fast as lightening strikes the ground, Vohro put away his twins, drew his long blade from the back, and in a violent, upward slash, split the woman in two.

  As he stepped around the body, Vohro heard the rattle of a neighing horse, but not like his; this neighing was like a hand scratching the lengths of his spine with fingernails made of fire. He rushed outside and saw the rear of a horse-like thing moving about the back of the house. He ran and turned the corner and there he found the boy.

  Illustration 1 (Next Page)

  ***