Exigent

(1) Contention

Hello all!
I just wanted to say a quick hello to people reading this and let you know how much I appreciate it! I would love for you to leave a vote if you liked it or a comment! Constructive critisism is always welcomed, as long as it's friendly. No rude comments, please.

This is the first book to the Arcane trilogy and this posted is still the first draft, so go easy on me!(:

Picture of Yuri up top.

Thanks again, you lovelies!
Xo, Emilee

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Chapter One
Contention

Yuri laughed as the Aagor lunged towards him; the creatures taloned fingers dangerously close to his abdomen as Yuri spun out of his reach. There was a whirlwind of clothes and limbs as he moved graciously away from the Aagor, planting his feet in his newfound spot behind the creature.

Yuri whistled sharply, causing the Aagor to whirl on his heel. Anger burned in the creatures face, causing his veins to darken in his pasty face. His bulged eyes stared down Yuri, the whites completely overtaken with a musty yellow colour; spidery black veins running through it. His pupils were constricted, the blues of his eyes almost swallowing it whole. He lifted his lips and snarled.

Yuri couldn't help but grin. He lived for being in a fight, whether it be with a Aagor or training with Torin, it always brought a rush of endorphins that he couldn't get anywhere else. The creature looked at him, his face burning with hatred.

"Well isn't this fun." Yuri said while smoothing his hair back. He looked the creature up and down. He looked like every other Aagor; a human infected with a parasitic disease that ate at their cortex until they were a drone for the Elders, but Yuri liked to goad them. "You really are a ugly one, aren't you?"

A high pitched squeal left the Aagor's lips as he simultaneously threw his body forwards. Yuri easily stepped out of the way, turning mid step to watch as the creature stumbled further into the alley. Yuri shook his head. "Sloppy."

The Aagor readied himself and turned around, his eyes filled with surplus amounts of hatred. "I'm going to kill you." He hissed.

Yuri just smiled. "You can try." Then his smile dropped. "Tell me Cretin, what did you do with Corey?"

"I don't know any Corey." He said, his eyes watching Yuri.

Yuri made a sound of disbelief as he leaned against the brick wall behind him. He had his free hand shoved in his jacket pocket while the other clutched the thin silver knife he adoringly called Viki. In his pocket he could feel the smooth surface of the Ambient, his fingers secretly flipping it as he studied the Aagor.

To Yuri the monster looked like he was about the same age as him, twenty four, when he got infected; but then again, Yuri wasn't the best at guessing ages. Not like his age as a human mattered, the human part of him was dead now. Now all that was left was the vicious, mutated creature, molded into a killing machine by the Elders. Though, from his lack of preciseness Yuri knew that this Aagor was reasonably new, yet he also knew better than to underestimate the fledgling.

Yuri flipped Viki through his fingers, his thin brown gloves giving him added grip. "You know Corey." He said, his eyes studying the Aagor's reactions. "The stocky guy? Kind of dull. Probably tried to convince you he wasn't the one you wanted."

The Aagor stared at Yuri blankly.

"C'mon." Yuri coaxed, though in the back of his mind he was piecing together a plan that would result in the creature taking a dirt nap. All he needed was for Torin to show up. Yuri could do it on his own, but he knew that Torin would have his head if Yuri did anything too reckless without him. So instead he tried to buy some time.

"You ought to know." Yuri pressed. "Think real hard. I'm sure you have at least a few brain cells left."

The Aagor tilted his head to the side, his eyes bright with recognition. His lips formed into a vicious smile. "Oh yes. I remember him now. He was the one screaming in pain as the Elders filleted him."

Yuri stopped flipping the knife. Anger rose deep inside of him but he didn't show it. Instead he just looked at the Aagor with a calm expression. The two of them were cloaked in darkness. A streetlight illuminated the road about twenty feet ahead, though not a single person had walked by, and the light wasn't enough to stretch to the back of the alley.

No one would ever know what was about to happen.

"What is your name?" Yuri demanded while pushing away from the wall. A slight drizzle started to fall. Yuri kept his hand wrapped around the Ambient in his pocket.

"The Elders call me Bane."

Yuri snorted. "Bringer of death. How fitting for a creature like yourself."

"And what do they call you, monster hunter?"

The rain started to come down harder now. It fell against the ground like tiny bullets. Yuri narrowed his eyes on the creature. "Yuri," he said, "Yuri Wurst. I'm a Pursuant; though I'm sure you know what that means."

Bane tilted his head to the side, his long, scraggly brown hair falling across his face. "I've heard the word before."

Yuri and Bane regarded each other evenly. He was out of time. Yuri rubbed his thumb over the Ambient one last time before releasing it. You better hurry Torin, or else you're going to miss all the fun, Yuri thought while taking a step forward. Bane's lips twisted in a dark smile. Without missing a beat, the creature lunged forward, his elongated fingers stretched out towards Yuri.

Rookie mistake. Yuri grinned while once again stepping easily out of the way. Then moving faster than Bane could, he brought his knife up in a arc. The enchanted metal sliced cleanly through skin and bone; brackish blood sprayed as Bane's left hand fell to the ground. Bane let out a wail of agony. Yuri took the opportunity and swung his knife around again, this time slicing the Aagor's chest wide open.

An array of ichor spattered across Yuri's face and clothes as the monster fell to his knees, clutching his chest with his good hand. Blood poured from his stump. Bane looked up at Yuri, pure, absolute hatred almost causing his eyes to glow. "You'll regret this."

Yuri wiped a hand over his face. He looked down at Bane darkly. "Tell me where Corey is."

The Aagor hissed. "I already told you." He gritted, "They killed him."

Yuri rolled his shoulders back. "See. I don't believe you. Why would you kill your hostage?"

"The Elders had no use for him." Bane snarled. His breathing was starting to hitch. Aagor's may have had everything human stripped from them, but they still bled and died just the same.

"You left me behind. Again."

Yuri glanced over his shoulder as Torin's voice rang from behind him. He was dressed in street clothes, though Yuri knew he had a arsenal hidden beneath his dark jacket, as well as the multitude of knives thrust through his belt. Torin was always prepared. The smell of gunpowder hit Yuri, which made his eyes widen slightly. He even brought the Tamer.

He made Yuri feel woefully unprepared. Yuri hadn't had any intentions of Aagor hunting tonight. He had been in a bar, wearing a pair of expensive blue jeans and his favorite brown sports jacket, which was now regrettably ruined, with no extra weapons other than Viki. Yuri had been chatting up the cute waitress when he saw Bane slinking through the darkness, looking like he wanted to grab someone and take a bite out of them. He couldn't just ignore him, so Yuri had followed him out of the bar and to the alley.

Torin looked between Yuri and the Aagor on the ground, his blue eyes black in the darkness. Finally, he looked back at Yuri, exasperation clouding his features. "You did it again. You know this is against the law, right? You're supposed to wait for back-up. For me."

"I called for you." Yuri argued while constantly blinking to keep the rain from getting in his eyes. He pushed his brown hair back from his face impatiently, just to have it fall back into his eyes again.

"That's not the point." Torin groaned while shaking his head.

Yuri grinned. He always found it somewhat amusing when Torin worried about him. Most times Yuri suggested Torin put his energy elsewhere, it was a waste of time to spend it worrying about him. Torin would never have it. Someone has to watch your back, he would always say. By now Yuri accepted it. Besides, the two had been assigned to one another for six years, even Yuri admitted they were like brothers.

Though Yuri still had a hell of a time pestering him.

"You look like you're ready to fight a whole platoon of Aagor, Tori." Yuri laughed, though he never fully took his eyes off of Bane, who was now collapsed onto his back.

"Don't call me that." Torin scowled, his face twisted as if he were in real pain. "You know how much I hate that."

Yuri shot him a wolfish grin. "Sorry, would you prefer pillock?"

Torin just rolled his eyes and gestured to the half dead creature on the ground. "Find out anything about Corey?"

The grin fell off Yuri's face. The earlier anger returned. Scowling, he shook his head. "Nothing good. This wanker claimed they killed him."

"We did." Bane's voice was a pathetic gurgle. "We killed him and many others."

"Who?" Yuri demanded, all his attention back on Bane. The blood started to mix with the rain around him, creating a murky puddle of black. Bane's ragged breathing broke through the sound of the rain. He looked pitiful, yet Yuri felt absolutely no remorse towards him. Anger was screaming through his entire body. The thought of his fellow comrades being mutilated and murdered at the hands of the Elders made him want to scream. Or go on a rampage.

"Who else?" Yuri demanded when Bane said nothing. He gripped Viki with the intent of slicing the creatures neck open and started towards him.

"Be careful, Yuri." Torin warned, his own hand floating over one of the knives at his belt.

Yuri ignored him. He crouched down beside the pitiful creature. His skin was a pasty, deathlike white. When Yuri spoke his voice was like death. "I'm going to ask you one last time. How many of ours have you killed?"

Bane grinned, blood had turned his teeth red. The movement infuriated Yuri. He looked at Bane, feeling his anger reach new heights as he looked into the creatures eyes. There was no sign of defeat in them, just a look of sick satisfaction, as if he enjoyed talking about killing people. It took everything inside of Yuri to stand and not smash the monsters face in with his heavy boot. Instead he turned and walked towards Torin, who still had his hand at his belt.

"This thing isn't going to tell us anything." He said darkly. "I vote we just leave it here to die."

Torin frowned at his friend. "You know that's not how we do things. We have to kill it. We're not torturers."

"Torture." Bane sang, his voice strangely muffled. "Isn't that just such a wonderful word?"

Yuri's shoulders tightened. He froze mid step. His brown eyes dimmed to black pits. His intentions must have been pouring from him because he could vaguely hear Torin telling him to calm down. Though the words were lost in a sea of anger. Without giving it a second thought, Yuri whirled around on his heel. Viki was loose between his two fingers as he intended to throw her straight into Bane's right eye.

As he turned Yuri heard a wet sort of gurgling noise then saw a flash of movement. He heard Torin's panicked yell to move but before he could even react there was a long, grotesque, greyish tongue shooting towards him. Black drool dripped from every orifice, melting the gravel where it landed. Bane's face had collapsed into itself, resulting in nothing but a rough gaping hole for the thick organ.

"What the hell." Yuri started. He watched in a sort of daze as the outlandish organ wrapped itself around his bicep. The acidic drool quickly ate through his jacket then soaked into his arm, causing blistering pain to expand throughout his limb. Small razor sharp teeth started to saw into his skin. Yuri stood staring in astonishment as blood streamed down his arm. He felt too dumbstruck to even react; he had never seen anything like this before. The pain felt like a distant thing.

"Yuri!" Torin screamed, his voice sounding far away, though Yuri managed to look over. He felt as if he were in a dream, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Torin had a knife pulled now, the black metal disappearing into the shadows, as he ran over to Yuri.

Then suddenly the pain expanded. The teeth started cutting into his arm, digging deeper and deeper every second. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It threatened to take him over completely. Just as the pain was getting to be too much to bare, Yuri felt the intrusion of toxins in his veins. He had a counter measure in his system for poisons, but he could feel the venom moving through his body at a alarming pace; the growing instability of his mind confirming that his counteraction wasn't working.

Blackness started to crowd his vision. He could feel himself starting to sway. The clang of Viki hitting the ground sounded miles away. Vaguely, he could hear Torin screaming, though he wasn't sure if it was to him or Bane. All he could feel was fire. His whole body felt like it had been thrown into a vat of boiling oil. The stench of burning flesh clogged his nostrils as the pain started to tear his mind.

The darkness started to fall down onto him.

"Yuri! Open your goddamn eyes!"

The voice broke through the haze in his mind. The darkness dispersed then as if someone had thrown a pale of ice water, and the pale itself, at him; he jolted, suddenly back to complete awareness.

First, Yuri felt the pain. It was like someone was ripping the nerves out of his arm one by one then melting the skin through a heated magnifying glass. Then, he realized he was collapsed on the ground, Viki more than a arms reach away. Third, he noticed how much of his blood was pooling around him-too much. If he lost much more he doubted he would wake up again.

Fighting against the mind breaking pain, Yuri forced his eyes to find Torin. He was crouched next to Yuri, his knife clutched in his hand as he stared darkly at Bane. Yuri blinked against the darkness. He moved his gaze towards where Bane was crouched then looked at his own arm. The tongue was still attached to him, dripping it's acidic slobber all down his arm. Yuri stared in disbelief, unable to comprehend that a Aagor was capable of this.

"Let him go." Torin growled.

The teeth tightened on Yuri's arm. He gasped and somehow managed to force out words. "Kill him."

Torin looked at him, his face a mask of panic. He hesitated.

"Do it!" Yuri yelled, just as Bane emitted a high pitched scream. Without warning the tongue constricted. Yuri screamed as the teeth bit deep into his arm, cutting through the muscles and ligaments as if they were nothing. He felt the teeth scrape against his bone. A pain worse than before washed over him, sending Yuri into a realm of white. All he could feel was pain as the teeth started to dig into the bone. He knew he was screaming but he couldn't hear it. Nothing existed except for the pain.

Yuri didn't know how much more he could take. His eyes rolled back in his head as the pain started to swallow him. The whiteness danced around him, taking over everything. Yuri felt himself start to fall when suddenly an ear piercing wail cut through the static.

For a minute Yuri could see again.

The rain was still falling. Torin was no longer standing beside Yuri, instead he was crouched overtop of Bane, his knife deep in the creatures chest. Bane was flailing beneath Torin. Yuri watched, his vision blurring between the scene in front of him and darkness, as Torin pulled the knife out of the Aagor's chest. Again, they blinked out of existence, then reappeared just as Torin dug the knife back into the creature.

Bane screamed again, it was a inhuman noise, then the tongue on Yuri's bicep tightened so rapidly that it cut straight through the bone. Yuri let out a breath of air, the pain making it hard to breath back in.

"Yuri." Torin shouted, his face suddenly swimming in Yuri's vision. Yuri tried to say something but no words came out. The poison swimming through his veins, as well as the loss of blood, was dragging him down. He knew Torin was saying something but he couldn't comprehend any of the words. A cold hand wrapped around Yuri as the pain made his mind collapse.