Season 3: Episode 3 – The Shape of Legend

This series contains mature themes and is intended for adult listeners.

POV: Kylah Marie

> Begin Porta Cor imprint.<

The elite guard’s body falls to the ground in front of me, with blood pouring out of her mouth.

“Fuck yeah!” I shout as the rush hits hard.

I spin and kick another one in the head. She flies backward.

One of mine – dragged by two enemies. I move.

I vault over two fighters locked together and drive my blade into one captor’s back.

The other drops her and turns to face me, snarling.

I smile at her, blood in my teeth.

Her eyes widen. She drops.

My throwing knife is already in her heart.

My right arm still extended from the throw.

I pull my fighter up.

I turn.

Three more behind me.

One of them Peryglus.

These three fuckers are mine.

“Kylah.” Peryglus draws out my name while pulling a knife into each of her hands. “We’ve had enough of you.”

“Not yet,” I spit a wad of blood on the ground at her feet.

The guard on her left slashes down on me.

I fake a block.

Then I side-step.

Come up behind her, wrenching her arm back.

Bone cracks.

I jab the blade in her back. She’s down.

I crouch, Goroeswyr up.

I watch the other two close in.

Fuckers going to come together.

Of course.

I wave them forward.

They hesitate.

I rush them before they can rush me.

The guard next to Peryglus stabs a knife into my left shoulder.

I jerk away as Peryglus’ knife rips across my collarbone on my right side.

I jab Goroeswyr into the forehead of the other guard.

Grind. Turn.

Then I yank it out hard while grappling with Peryglus with my right arm.

Peryglus drives me to the ground.

My knife tumbles out of my hand.

She bears down on me again.

I lock my legs around her torso and use a tournament trick to flip her over so she’s down with me on top.

My hand grabs a broken chunk of stone.

She stabs my arms.

I smash the into her head.

Again.

Again.

I’m up. Blood soaking me everywhere.

Mine, theirs.

I grab Goroeswyr.

“Over half my group’s still alive. We’re moving north.” I report to Bryn.

I wave my remaining fighters to follow me.

I run north out of Market Square and toward the smithy.

“Lines are holding south.” Myr’s report flows in my head. “Moving onto the….” It cut off.

Bryn calls back, “Moving to where?”

“Upper…yard.” Is Myr’s garbled reply.

“Gaffdyn, where are you?” Bryn called next.

“Too many,” Gaffdyn’s answer struggles.

I turn and hear my fighters running behind me to keep up.

“Where is Kylah? Where is my third line?” I hear Bryn.

“Kylah’s in the north.” Someone answers.

“No,” I hear another voice. “She took down…” and it gets cut off.

In a minute, they’ll know where I am.

Gaffdyn comes back on, “Nothing left to do. They want me. Sending forces back to the Medic lot. Bryn, make sure someone gets them.”

Her voice makes me run faster. I hear the determination.

I fly around a corner and onto Gogledd Street.

I see the smithy ahead.

Piling into it a swarm of enemy fighters.

Gaffdyn in the archway at the other side.

“For Linton.” I hear her calm voice and come to a skidding stop.

“Shit,” I exclaim.

My fighters stop behind me.

Instantly, a blast throws us off our feet.

The smithy and everything around it, for half a block, explode.

Silence everywhere.

Did that just happen? I look around at the devastation.

Debris lands. I’m up again.

“Let’s go,” I yell to my remaining fighters.

I rush into the fray of enemies before they get their bearings back.

I see Gaffdyn’s fighters fleeing on the other side.

“Draw them to us,” I yell back to my fighters.

“Where is Kylah?” I hear Bryn ask again.

“She’s drawing the forces away from Gaffdyn’s fighters,” someone answers.

“Kylah just cut down a whole row of them by herself,” another replies.

“Get my third line to shelter Gaffdyn’s forces and get them behind the line. Get my second line to push more east to meet with Kylah.” Bryn says. “Lock them in the middle.”

The noise is a blur as I fight.

My fighters are still with me.

I hear them.

Goroeswyr feels alive in my hands.

I ignore the chatter in the background and dance with her.

“Her fighters are following her lead,” someone reports.

“Kylah’s pulling all the remaining forces in the north to her,” someone else says.

I only know motion.

Myr’s transmission comes back in, “We’ve occupied the upper courtyard. Hynfyd is in my sights.”

I see one of my fighters go down.

The rest still stand.

Some of the remaining enemy turns. They are fighting behind them now.

Bryn’s second line.

“Hynfyd, as an elected councilor of Eleri, I remove you from office.” Myr’s voice again.

Clanging of steel over the transmission and here.

The transmission blares the sound of a sword sliding into flesh — a dying wail — Hynfyd.

Myr comes back, “South side is completely clear now. We push to the center of town – Market Square.”

I see the eyes of Bryn’s fighters now. Just a few rows left between us.

“She takes ten at a time,” a voice says.

Half a block gone…

Gaffdyn…

No time to stop.

Then I hear Bryn, “Dahlfia? Dahlfia?”

> End Porta Cor imprint.<