The Tale of Aeryn Glaze (UNDER MAJOR REVISION)

Chapter 9: When all seems dark

They talked about that 'he' again. Whoever he is, or what kind of creature it is, demon, or anything, the shadow demons seemed to be following him, under the same hold as the others. The two of them had made me feel a stronger force, stronger than what I felt when I fought against their likeness before this happened. I could feel it deep within me, whispering darkness, clawing deep wounds through my skin, and as if that energy was enough to make me wanna escape. And somehow, I had a feeling that it was not just what I felt was stronger but them, too. The pressure came from them. The overwhelming feeling came from them. And that was the only thing I knew that made my skin stand up as if the fear I felt earlier wasn't enough.

Grim and I took a step back from the shadow demons as I took out my sword from my scabbard, the long steel blade with the color of silver shone through the night and the hilt was as black as the smoke that was on the shadow demon's body. I fixated my gaze on the creature in my right and gripped tightly on the hilt of my sword. I stared right back at them, determined to fight against my fear.

"Aeryn," Grim called me. I didn't look at him and didn't remove my gaze from the shadow demon. "There were three of them with the same dark energy."

"What?" I whispered asking. "What do you mean there were three?"

"I'll explain it to you after this. But for now, we'll have to stick together to defeat them."

From the shadow demon's scabbard, the shadow demon on my left dashed toward us with his blade ready to cut through our skin. I sucked in a harsh breath and at that moment, I was ready to block the attack with my weapon when Grim did the action himself. I took a step back, and that very second, the other creature ran in my direction, and I positioned my sword in a horizontal position to block his attack.

The strong impact of his attack made a deafening sound against my sword, it took my breath away and I backed away a few times and only used my sword to make a counterattack when he ran after me and attacked me again. I swing my sword as strong as I can, slashing it to the left and right and blocking an attack from below. I slashed my sword again, using a stronger force this time, and with a little jump, I brought down the sword from above and then slashed it vertically, hoping to at least get him to get intimidated by the action. The gravel beneath me crunched when I came down to the ground, but I saw him not moving an inch from his position after that.

I let out a heavy sigh after stepping away from him and growled at the creature. He grinned at me, and swiftly rotated his sword in slow-motion as if telling me, nothing had fazed him at all after that fight. He was strong and he was fast to attack or defend himself, while I was trembling to the bones.

I spread my fingers clasping around the hilt of the sword, closing it, finger after finger then gripped my hand tighter on it. I put my right foot forward, slightly bending, and then stretched my arms forward along with the sword. He gave me a mocking grin, and at the same time, I heard a clang of swords and I took a glance towards Grim who was still fighting with the other shadow demon.

Unfortunately, I only realized right then that I made a mistake when the shadow demon I was fighting against dashed toward me and made an attempt to knock me down with that opportunity. Two changes in the position of my sword made it possible for me to block that sudden attack, however, I almost lost my balance after that because of the force he put on it.

"Never take your eyes off your enemy, human," he said with a growl, our sword still in contact, as his dark hooded eye glared at me before his eyes changed into complete darkness.

I slightly pushed the sword and then completely pushed it sidewards so he would take his sword against me. The tip of the blade did not reach him he immediately dodged it by backing away from his body. So I made an aggressive attack. I continuously swung my sword at him, thrusting with a force that could push through my limitations. I swung my sword downward against his, his sword quickly pointed to the ground, and before he could make another move, I took that chance to turn around and made a hard kick to his stomach that made him stagger to his knees, taking a couple of steps back from me.