Patrick W. Marsh

2025-12-19 15:00:00

Beware the Ills: Part 22

She gawks at the stuck blade. I smash my shoulder into her and knock her backwards. The edge of my shoulder’s armor cuts her somewhere. I can smell the electric blood. She doesn’t move. She’s a living pillar. I hit her again with my left hand, letting the gauntlet connect with her stomach. Some skin is torn from her abdomen. I can see it on my arm. It’s delicate, like untouched snow. She tries to headbutt me. I duck and she rolls over my shoulder. I sprint towards where my sword’s lodged in the deck. There are bodies clustered around it. I leap over them and pull the sword out in one clean movement. More screaming, she’s behind me. I will not turn fast enough to counter any of her attacks. I whip my Untaro cloak at her from behind. I hear the axe hit the deck. I turn, kicking her in her hacked stomach. The deck shutters critically, the damage will cause it all to fall apart.

I’m running out of time.

I look around. We’ve already circled around towards the shore. I can see the seething black waves. She’s on her feet and charging at me. I hold my sword with both hands. I’m leaping back between corpses. I want to connect. I want contact. The axe, the power of the vial, I must truly test the strength. We connect, the wood shatters at our feet. The energy pours out of her skin, her veins, and eyes.

A sun lives within her.

My arms shake as she pushes, we’re both beginning to wither, but she’s decaying faster. I push her down to her knees in a quick motion. The axes handle rattles to the bloodstained deck. She immediately starts to look more normal, more human. The abnormal colors are fading. She falls to her knees sobbing wildly. Something stabs at me from behind. It’s the one from earlier, the pushover. He’s circling me, reevaluating his attack.

No time for a fresh engagement, soon the airship will be over the sea, and we’ll crash amongst the white beasts.

He drives at me with the spear. I jump to the side and counter the stab. The woman has started recuperating on the floor. She’s still shaking on her knees.

Making monsters out of people, what nation operates like this?

The man circles me again. I swear he looks older than before, and more grizzled. He might’ve been bluffing about his ineptness earlier. He was scouting me, judging my strength. We’ll have to hypothesize later though, the shore’s closing fast. I’m on the rail. More wind, flakes, and cold. The green edges of the trees beneath us are dissipating quickly in flashes. The wind shifts east. I smile at them and fall off the side. It’s cold and whirling. I watch the propellers as I fall backwards. They lazily fall off the black end of the airship. They groan and thrum ridiculously as they spin off. The ship won’t fall into the sea after all.

I fall into the tree tops and spin my body as they release me gently into the snow. They’ll survive the crash, I know it.

The woman, she was beautiful despite the blood, despite the blood.

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I’ll be releasing my novel Beware the Ills in segments every Friday. You can find out more about the book right here, or check out Amazon’s info. I love this book. Happy to simply share it.

#books #darkfantasy #fantasy #fiction #horror #novels #reading #steampunk #writing

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