The axe head missed Ethan's shoulder by a centimetre, so close it almost caught on the cotton of his shirt as it swung down. Time seemed to stop when Ethan leaned back from the blow, almost like during his karate tournament days. Unlike back then, he was certain of the assailants' follow up move... so certain he felt like he was watching a ghostly 'fore-image' of the beastly man follow up with a spin that would end in a vicious horizontal swing at neck level.Ethan was already moving, spinning into and below the strike, rising behind him and delivering a surgical kick to the back of its knee. He must have been 7 feet tall, but, on his knee, Ethan easily grabbed his hair with one hand and pressed the edge of a wicked looking blade to his neck. Ethan had pulled the blade from its sheath so fast, he thought his hand might have blurred a little. He smiled in spite of himself."Enough!", Miri shouted. Though her voice sounded harsh, those blue eyes sparkled with pleasure. "I swear you

"Can you believe my parents want me to focus on exams right now?" Lily said, glancing up at Dan.  Since Ethan's death, Dan had become even more dependable, hardly leaving her side.  He'd changed in more ways than that though.  She often caught him with a far off look, as if he was seeing something different than her. "Earth to Dan, are you in there?" she said with a little laugh."Sorry," Dan said, shaking his head a little.  He turned towards Lily, Ethan's sister.  She had always hung around them while they were growing up, and now, as a teenager, he was noticing how beautiful she is. 'Not the right time Dan,' he thought."I did hear you.  I know it seems crazy, but I think they are trying to help you.  You know, focus on some normal things.  Besides, you're smart, but with everything that has happened, even you must be behind in your studies," Dan said, a sad smile lifting his lips.  "Ethan wouldn't want you to put your li

Sardi felt like he was a criminal returning to the scene of a crime as he walked slowly out of an alley and approached the battle site. He really must have been passed out for a while, because the crime scene mages were loading the bodies into carts. Each body was wrapped in a black shroud, and a visible magic seal was on them. Sardi was told this protected them from rotting, and from people tampering with them to cover their magical signatures. ‘My magic is all over this place… though how will I explain how Shinra and I did so much damage? He is only a zombie after all. I’m probably the only person who knows how … capable he is,’ Sardi thought. Capable was a strange word to describe the shadow of death he’d witnessed before he fell unconscious. ‘Shinra, you have a lot of explaining to do.’ As the crime scene team was busy cleaning up, it was easy for Sardi to spot the Sheriff in charge. He was a large muscled man with very dark skin, a bald head, and a deep scowl on his fa

The Simaldrian Forest was known as the farthest edge of Monster civilization on the continent, if it could be called that. It was home to many nomadic beasts, and clusters of small villages that all managed to coexist without too much fighting. There was an unspoken understanding amongst the magical and monstrous beings in the forest: it was better to live free in the forest, than have to follow the rules and laws of the powerful monster towns and Countries in this part of the continent.Just whispering Sekhnatio was enough to frighten most of the Forest’s inhabitants to make the sign of the evil eye and be on their way. That sort of organised power was terrifying to creatures that just wanted to live amongst themselves.“The Vampires have sent their heralds, and left their messages all over the forest. Don’t they realise we don’t care what happens to them?” The creature stomped its front hooves into the leaf covered ground, stirring them up into the air with the strength of the

The hot blood gushed into her mouth, and she arched her whole body to get closer, to hold on more tightly. The tingling filled every part of her, until it felt like her entire body was vibrating in time with the heartbeat she could feel through her lips.“There, there, sweet child. That is enough for now,” a calm, low voice said. She tried to clamp her mouth, her teeth, her hands more tightly, to hold on to the source of this life giving blood, but an unstoppable force peeled her away. Not roughly, but with the kind of power that is relentless. Suddenly she was looking up at a dark sky obscured by the dark boughs of large trees.“Mimi. Rest here. I need to go check on the others,” Cardual said as he rolled the sleeve of his jacket down over his unblemished arm.‘He heals so fast,’ Mimi thought. She felt incredibly powerful and extremely tired at the moment. That was the problem with Cardual’s blood, anything more than a drop was too much for a weaker vampire to process. It p