Page 16

There was a list of other people she hoped hadn’t found salvation within its stomach.

It had been nearly an hour since the first bell rang, and the carnage just this one monster had produced in that short amount of time was terrifying.

A stick breaking in the trees behind her had all the hairs on her body rising.Wren said it usually travels in a pair.Where was the winged one she’d spoken of? Surely this one Duskwalker hadn’t produced this much death on its own.

Gloved fingers snapped directly in Emerie’s face, and she flinched. Her frantic gaze darted to her team.

She noted all of them had irritated squinted eyes.

“Sorry,” she whispered, ducking down to be at their level. “What’s your orders?”

“You’re not going to fuck this up for us, are you?” Lily, the finger snapper, quietly bit at her. “I’m not interested in dying because Wren paired us with a coward.”

“No,” she said as she shook her head. “I was just shocked. I hadn’t expected to see so many dead yet. It’s barely been forty minutes since the fighting started.”

“Never seen a Duskwalker before?” Connor said behind his mask, his voice easy to pick out.

“Have you?” Sahira snapped back. “Look, I was freaked out too, but as long as we all keep our resolve, there’s no point in judging the newbie yet.”

Newbie?She was a Master rank Demonslayer!

“At least she didn’t piss her pants,” Daemon said, nodding his material-covered nose to the line of foot soldiers. “I’m betting half of them are aiding us with the stench of fear and piss right now.”

“This would be a good time to start,” Emerie chimed in, wanting to steer the conversation back to why they were here. “Wren said this one doesn’t travel alone. We may only have a small window to catch this one before its friend shows up.”

“She’s right.” Connor roamed his grey eyes over the trees behind her.

Lily’s hard, dagger-like stare softened at Emerie, likely in appreciation of the reminder and the confirmation she wasn’t planning on backing out.

“It has a tail,” Lily noted, and they all turned their attention to the Duskwalker eating a new person. “We can use that against it.”

“If one of us can get an enchanted rope around its beak, we might be able to rule its face out as a danger,” Daemon added in.

“That won’t work,” Emerie said. “It’ll be able to slide the rope off its beak, since it’s tapered. It will also still be able to peck at us.”

“We still have to shut it,” Lily argued.

“Yeah, but” – Emerie pointed to its skull – “if we can thread the rope around its beak and horns together, that will at least keep it closed. Then we just have to avoid any quick strikes from its skull, horns, and beak.”

“Obviously, we have to go for its legs too,” Lily added.

All five of them nodded.

“Okay. We’ve noted the areas we need to attack. From now on, it’s just whoever can get to that limb first.” Sahira pulled a dagger from her hip and uncoiled her whip. “Let’s get this over with. Give the signal.”

Connor lowered his mask just long enough to place his thumb and middle finger to his mouth. He let out a whistle.

For a few breaths, nothing happened as they watched and waited.They aren’t attacking,she thought with her lips flattening in worry.

After too long, Elders shoved foot soldiers forward, forcing them to attack. They skewered the cowards who wouldn’t with their swords. Some continued to refuse, and the Elders killed just enough people to frighten the mass of soldiers into charging.

The moment the first brave soldier came upon the creature, Emerie and her team were moving. She didn’t have time to think, only react – and she was thankful for the quiet of her thoughts amongst the chaos.

She sidestepped around soldiers and spears, occasionally ducking when a person was thrown through the air by either a strong arm or the long, thick lizard tail. She noted the vertebrae going down the flexible limb were white and protruding from its flesh.

The closer she got, the more she was able to take in its features.

Wren was right; it had a raven skull for a head, with a long, almost straight bone-coloured beak. Two short, upward-jutting goat horns were small and a dark, sandy brown. Now that she was close enough, she took note that it would be difficult to get a rope around its horns and beak, since all were tapered. And it no doubt wouldn’t hold for long.