Reaching over his shoulder, Caspian drew out a silver sword. The sword was long, slender, and double-edged. It almost reached one's shoulder when positioned upright.
Beside him, Violet uncoiled a long metal whip with a spiked head from her hip. Her fingers tracing the whip sent a spark of violet-white electricity down the entire whip, making the sharp, spiked tip crackle with lightning.
Mesmerized, Irin watched the display, amazed by the skill it took to imbue a metal whip with lightning. He looked at Levi, ready to exchange a gaze of awe. Instead, he witnessed an almost surreal sight.
Gimzo leaped from the wall back onto Levi's shoulder. At the same moment, something made a low growl.
From the darkness behind Levi, a massive saber-toothed tiger prowled forward.
Irin had the notion that Levi could only tame something like a chameleon. But seeing such a primeval beast for the first time, tamed and submissive to Levi's side, was something he had never imagined possible.
"Irin! Hide behind the crates!" Caspian roared.
Irin didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted toward a stack of wooden barrels and construction crates at the corner of the room and hid behind them.
Suddenly, the cult leader ran towards them like a madman. Caspian, Violet, and Levi charged to meet him.
Halfway across the floor, the cult leader stopped running.
He pointed his hands at the trio charging towards him with speed and screamed: "Attack!"
Something began to crawl out from its hiding place.
"Gods..." Irin whispered from behind his cover.
They were not entirely human. Far from it. They had disjointed bodies and limbs that were bent at impossible angles.
Some had three arms sprouting from a single shoulder; others had no eyes at all, or their skin stretched smooth over their sockets, and their mouths were filled with rows of needle teeth.
"NightSpawns," Violet said, whacking her whip into the air as she took a defensive stance.
"They've been using the locals for dark rituals. These aren't humans anymore. These depraved cultists have turned them into monsters."
The cult leader retreated toward his altar, while the Night Spawns attacked on his command.
The first NightSpawn, a creature that possessed nine limbs, attacked Caspian. It leaped high into the air and extended its fingers designed to shred flesh apart.
At the last possible microsecond, when the NightSpawn descended dangerously close, Caspian dropped into a low crouch, sliding across the dusty floor. As the monster passed over him, he swung his long sword in a vertical arc.
The blade sliced through the NightSpawn's torso. The blade perfectly split the creature down the middle, and its two halves crashed to the ground behind Caspian. A black, slimy fluid sprayed across the floor from its body.
Caspian stopped to admire his work before he charged through a crowd of NightSpawns. His blade and body reflexes moved so fast that before the monsters could even make an attack, strings of slashes tore through the air, and the creatures collapsed into piles of severed parts.
Violet found herself cornered against the wall by two Nightspawns that closed in from either side.
Each of the NightSpawn lifted its limb and swung at the same time, intending to squish her head to a pulp.
Violet neatly cut out the limb of the NightSpawn on her left, which gave her ample seconds to dodge the attack coming from the right. She ducked down and transferred the whip from her left hand to the right, then she rotated the whip.
The whip struck the throats of the two NightSpawns, electrifying them and burning them from the inside. Two Nightspawn's heads fell off their shoulders and rolled on the floor.
Across the hall, Levi and his saber-toothed tiger worked hand in hand. The saber-toothed tiger leaped up and drove its long fangs into the NightSpawn's neck, snapping its neck in one bite.
Behind the scenes, Irin and Gizmo watched as the trio killed every NightSpawn one after another.
At long last, when the last NightSpawn fell by Caspian's sword, Caspian wiped a smear of black blood from his cheek. Then he looked around him and saw that the floor was entirely covered with these monsters.
"How?" Levi questioned the cult leader. "How did you get so many humans? How did you turn them into... this?"
The cult leader laughed so loudly.
"Oh, little warrior. You wouldn't believe me even if I whispered the truth into your dying ears."
Violet snapped her whip, and the tip sparked, sending streams of lightning across the surface of the floor.
"You're demented," she said.
"Why has the Desecrated Hand suddenly reappeared after two hundred years of silence? What is the purpose?" Violet demanded.
"Purpose?" The leader's eyes went wide. "Our plan is already in motion. You are delusional if you think a few dead pets will change the tide."
Without warning, he dropped to his knees. He reached down, grabbing the severed arm of a fallen NightSpawn, and with a sickening crunch, he feasted on the raw, corrupted flesh. He devoured it with a crazed hunger.
After he had finished eating the flesh, his body reacted. His bones started cracking, and some part of his skin began to peel off. As his body grew larger and larger, he rolled across the floor in immeasurable pain until he fully transformed into a NightSpawn.
The once cult leader, now turned monster, threw back his head and let out a gurgling, triumphant laugh.
His gaze settled not on the three people before him, but on someone behind them.
Levi, Violet, and Caspian turned around instantly.
Irin was still hiding behind the crates.
'Why are they all looking at me?' Irin wondered why the trio had shifted their focus from the giant monster to look at him.
He blinked, confused by their expressions of pure horror.
He didn't turn his head until something made a noise by stepping on a stick at his back.
A NightSpawn was standing behind him.
The monster swung its talons, aiming directly for his throat.
There was no time to run. Terrified, Irin shut his eyes, willing to accept his death this time.
He waited for a few seconds, and nothing happened. Irin was shocked to see him still alive and breathing.
Irin's eyes fluttered open, one after the other.
At first, he assumed a soft cloth made of silk had covered and absorbed him from the NightSpawn's attack
However, upon closer examination, Irin saw someone shielding him with two sets of wide white wings.