Into Darkness

17

Richard was pleased to see that Iron Jack’s ire was so fixated on him that he didn’t even notice what was happening back over his shoulder until one of the tall creatures raced in and crashed into him. As it did, it grabbed him from behind. The Glee’s new tactic of ambush meant never letting the opponent see you coming. Iron Jack hadn’t seen them coming. Before the stunned bearded man could grasp what was happening and react, dark, slimy arms had already circled around him from each side.

Jack twisted frantically in an attempt to get out of the bear hug, but the powerful arms held him in tight against the Glee that had him. Shards of light flashed from the man’s hands as he tried to use some kind of power to get the better of his attacker. The Glee bent its head first one way and then the other to avoid each of the flashes of light, but another creature nearby was torn apart by the release of the man’s gift and fell dead.

Before Iron Jack could do anything to get away, the Glee that had him sank its teeth into the back of the man’s neck to hold him. The creature then pulled its claws in opposite directions as Iron Jack was being held by the teeth in his neck. One claw ripped open Iron Jack’s chest. At the same time, the other claw pulled in the opposite direction to tear out his throat. He didn’t even have time to cry out before the Glee dropped him in a bloody heap to come charging for Richard.

Fortunately, because they surprised Iron Jack first, Richard was ready, and the magic coursing through him from his sword was ready to respond with swift violence.

As the Glee charged in, Richard had already begun his counterattack. The tip of the blade came around with such speed that it whistled as it sliced through the air. When the creature saw the sword, it reflexively lifted its arms to defend itself. Richard gritted his teeth with the effort of the swing.

The blade took off both the creature’s claws and its head in that one lightning-quick strike. Richard held the blade up straight and took a step back, at the same time turning sideways and out of the way. The momentum of the clawless, headless body carried it past him to stumble across the cobblestones and collapse.

With Iron Jack dead, the Mord-Sith were suddenly able to scramble to their feet, and none too soon. More Glee charged down the street. The Mord-Sith raced to cut them off before they could get to Kahlan. Needle-sharp teeth clacked in anger. Most of them held an arm and claws cocked back, ready to strike. They were met with either an Agiel in one hand or a knife in the other.

Claws flashed through the air. Mord-Sith ducked under those claws as they swept by overhead and then sprang up to drive in for the kill. The Glee were clearly as vulnerable to an Agiel as any person would be. Wounded Glee fell in agonizing pain, holding arms across their injuries, or turned to scribbles and vanished, bleeding, back into their own world. Dead Glee simply dropped to the ground. Their blood ran down the slope in between the cobblestones.

As Richard noted what the Mord-Sith were doing, he was already moving into the attack. He swung his sword with deadly effectiveness. The magic from his sword, the same magic he had summoned to help free the blade from the scabbard, raged through him, demanding the blood of the enemy. He gave it all the blood it could want of any Glee within range. As he drove his attack directly into the enemy, Glee fell all around him, many without a head, others cut nearly in two, and some run through with his blade.

He turned and saw that Kahlan already had her knife to hand. It quickly became clear that she was the one the Glee wanted. They had come to rip the twins from her womb. She spun around when she heard one of them that had snuck around behind her and drove her knife into one of the big, glossy black eyes. The creature covered its eye as it shrieked. At the same time, it stumbled back awkwardly and, as it did, vanished to its own world. Even as she was pulling her blade back, Richard was there to protect her from others charging in to get her.

Shale, too, turned her abilities, rather than her knife, to the attack. With her eyes rolled up in her head, she lifted her hands, her fingers slowly waggling. As she did, masses of white snakes appeared, slithering across the cobblestones, going for the Glee.

The morning air was filled with the screams of the dark creatures as the snakes sank their fangs into them. From their awkward, jerky, contorted movements as they were struck by the snakes, it was clear to Richard that not only were the snakes venomous, but the venom acted so swiftly as to be almost immediate in its action. Glee, with snakes firmly attached to their legs, arms, and bodies, stumbled back, gurgling in choking pain as the venom quickly began to paralyze their lungs.

Shocked people appeared in windows, looking down on the frantic battle. Some screamed and ran back into dark rooms. Some, their mouths hanging open and hands gripping the windowsills, leaned out to watch.

Knowing the snakes were Shale’s and meant for the Glee, Richard ignored them. It was Kahlan most of the Glee were going for. She was the one they most wanted to kill. It was Kahlan he had to protect.

In that moment, as the fury of the sword’s magic twisted together with his own and stormed through every fiber of his being, he lost himself to the madness of the battle. He became that madness. The Glee had come as hunters.Richard was now the hunter and they the prey.

As he responded to the attacks, he suddenly came to comprehend in a new and clear way how the Glee moved, the extent, the range, and the limitations of their movements. He began to see exactly how they used their claws to strike, with their teeth being their backup weapon. It was often a quick flick of a strike, but other times they used those claws to intimidate their prey for a fraction of a second to make the prey freeze just before they struck. That allowed them to be more accurate and deadly when they did strike.

The reason for the tactic, he saw, was that the Glee had most of their power when their arms were used in close combat. The farther they reached, the less power they had. The way they had killed Iron Jack had been their biggest strength—holding the prey in close as they tore it apart.

Once he grasped the technique in their strikes and how they set up for an attack, he was able to predict how they would move, which claw they would use first, and when they would strike with it, or instead, if their claws were not able to be used to their best advantage, use their teeth to try to kill.

He began to understand the fight with them in a whole new way. It all made sense in an entirely new light. He understood the battle from their perspective, rather than seeing it from his perspective, defensively.

Once he had the full scope of the realization, those attackers, rather than seeming like frightening creatures coming for him and Kahlan in a crazy, hysterical frenzy, became instead a part of the larger dance with death.

That meant he was no longer fighting them in the same ways he had previously. Now he was using their nature against them, turning it back on them, using their limitations and weaknesses as openings. For the first time, he was, in a sense, fighting them on their terms, and in that way, because he could anticipate what they would do next, he abruptly put them at a distinct disadvantage.

In that moment, he came back at them in a new way, in a way that completely overwhelmed their multiple tactical advantages of teeth and claws. Their limitations in range and movement became his advantages and openings.

In that moment, he stopped trying to kill them and switched instead to the quicker task of cutting off their powerful, deadly claws. It was a revelation. He didn’t need to kill them. He simply needed to deny them their primary weapon. If the Glee didn’t have those razor-sharp claws, they were nearly defenseless. They couldn’t grasp or cut or rip or hold prey in order to use their teeth.

His sword spun through the air without pause, cutting at a dizzying pace. He moved around Kahlan, protecting her, disabling any enemy that came for her. She took out several with her knife as he momentarily moved around the other side of her. His sword lopped off claws as fast as they came within reach of his blade. He understood, now, where and how those claws would be coming, and which of the two were the actual threat. Severed claws tumbled through the air as he lopped them off at the wrist or forearm. The still-twitching claws littered the ground.

The creatures shrieked as they lost their precious claws. Some held out stubs in disbelief, and tried to reach out to grasp so they could attack with their teeth, but without their claws, it was easy for Richard to take off the heads of those determined enough to continue to come for him rather than escape back into the safety of their world. Seeing what happened when they came in at him, and seeing so many of their fellows with stubs of arms and no claws as they vanished back into their own world, they began to rightly fear to swing their own claws and lose them.

As they hesitated, the snakes struck and sank fangs into them. Once they had their fangs in the soft black skin, they would not let go. As that happened, Richard spun through their midst, taking the claws off the ends of their arms. Without their claws, they couldn’t effectively try to tear at the snakes to get them off.

All around, panic spread among the shrieking and dying Glee. As their boldness and aggression turned to terror and timidity, those who still could started to turn to scribbles to flee back to the safety of their own world before Richard or the snakes could get to them.

Without a target, Richard finally paused, panting to get his breath as he let the tip of his sword lower to rest on the cobblestones. He looked all around, searching for any threat. The rage of his sword still thundered through him, demanding more blood. The ground was littered with hundreds of claws and dozens of heads, as well as the bodies of those that couldn’t vanish before death.