Nightsea Outlaw

Miss Malone pulled herself onto seven legs, holding her body close in a curled ball as she tried to force her mind to calm down. The barrier had collapsed a second time, and she didn't know why. Blood ran down her arm from where Drake had scratched her, and she was missing one of the spider legs he had ripped away. She wasn't out of the fight yet, though. She reached down with her curse, searching for the prince's mind so that she could force him to conjure a shield round her again. However, his mind was gone.

Her brow furrowed. She hadn't pushed him far enough to die yet. The last time, she had ripped away as much of him as she could, but she had left enough to keep his body running. The manipulation had been ham-fisted, but it hadn't been enough to completely wipe his mind. Yet, she couldn't sense the prince's mind. She looked down at her hand, only to see blood dripping down her webs and over her fingers.

"No," she whispered, though it was a booming yell in her enhanced size.

She shook her hand, but it did nothing to restore the prince. Her trump card had failed her in the final moments, and her entire plan was falling apart around her. Artur was the advantage she needed to take down Drake in a direct fight. Now that Artur was broken, she didn't stand a chance.

It wasn't fair. She had run through the portal before Drake could catch her. She had ambushed him, taken the precautions to shield herself. She clenched her fist, and in her free hand untangled the web to drop Artur. There was no need of him now.

Thud.

A heavy weight crashed into her side as Drake slammed against her, and she pushed back with all seven of her remaining legs. She lashed out with her fingers, slamming the heels of her palm into the dragon's face to force him off. Teeth dug into her arm, but she could ignore the pain. Her greater form was a shell. Her real body was connected inside.

"Get off!" She forced Drake back, and he took a line of her flesh with his mouth as he fell away from her.

It wasn't over. Her fight wasn't over yet.

She gathered aether down her back, coiling it in her abdomen and forming silken threads ready to explode out from her body. She would bind Drake and then run away. Her abdomen bent as she spread her legs to accommodate the space. Drake had recovered from her push and was charging toward her again.

"Acceleration Piston!"

Crack. Boom.

Her abdomen folded, a distant feeling in her inflated body. However, enough pain pierced through her form to release her into her main body, and she opened her real eyes inside the head of the human torso on her spider body.

Webs stretched out from her cocoon, connecting her to the rest of her spider form. Her gate blazed bright as energy pulsed out from her core, but already it was fraying at the edges. Her web was unraveling, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Shick.

She pierced her web cocoon with one long black finger and cut down it to release her body. She dropped into darkness below, landing on the web platform beneath her. The inside of her large spider form was made of webs, molded together with the power of her curse to create a monstrous creature. At her full strength, she could topple an entire city with it. In her weakened state, she could barely fend off Drake's attacks.

Clack.

Her heels caught her as she listed to the fight outside. Without her in control, her spider form would be like a puppet with the strings cut. As expected, her form shook as what she thought was Drake crashed into it. The body around her tilted, but the platform turned to remain level instantly.

It was an adjustment she had made early on to keep herself upright no matter where her form climbed. The platform that held her cocoon would always flip so that it oriented toward the ground. It was a combat advantage to not have to adjust to being upside down or on a wall. Not that it mattered at the moment.

"Pull yourself together," she whispered before starting toward the edge of the platform. "Hope that he doesn't decide to burn your body."

"I don't think you have to worry about that."

Miss Malone turned, her eyes racing across the darkness, but no one was there. No one could be there. To get to her core, someone would have to cut past thousands of entwined webs, curled into each other like muscle fibers. She dropped her hand, extending out her fingers into five long claws as she stepped back toward her cocoon.

"Come out," she said. "So I can cut your throat."

"You're lucky I want you alive." The voice chuckled. "Otherwise, I would have killed you when I destroyed your form's abdomen."

"Ortega?" She recognized the voice now, from the memories she had edited. "Of course it's you. I should have listened to Mister Tyson."

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"Yeah." She couldn't pinpoint his voice. "Well, you don't have to worry about him anymore."

Thump.

She knew she'd lost all her Fingers, but hearing him say it hurt a lot more than she thought. Fingers were loyal to Lord Baccia, the same as she was, but they were still her people. If things had gone differently, they might have all escaped and survived to retake Grim Aegis.

"Are you going to fight me, or just bore me to death?" Miss Malone asked, seizing control of her increasing heartbeat as she looked left and right.

"Step."

Thud.

Miss Malone gasped as a solid hammer connected with her abdomen. Ortega stood before her, his fist long and covered in jagged metal. It was too long to be his normal arm. However, she couldn't think much about it as her entire body screamed from the punch.

Thump.

A second arm came down, hitting the back of her head and sending her crashing into the ground. She didn't have time to breathe. She her claws clattered to the ground as they broke off from the sudden change in direction.

"Steel Barrage."

Miss Malone closed her eyes as she wished for the pain to stop.

Cough.

Artur's lungs burned as he lay against the cold ground. Wet grass wreathed him, and a bright sun burned in the sky above him. He couldn't quite make it out, because everything in his vision had turned into a blur. It all just sort of mixed together above him. However, he was glad. He could finally rest.

"A knight at rest is a rare sight," he whispered, closing his eyes for a moment. "A stir it would cause to nap, a fright."

He tried to laugh, but it hurt. It wasn't a sharp pain, more like a dull ache from a body that was too far away. Maybe after he rested for a while, he might find his friends again. Then they could go back to Grim Aegis. Miss Malone had been driven away. Now all that was left was to return home and celebrate.

Cough.

Blood covered the hand that reached over his mouth, and he dropped it to the side as all the strength faded from it.

"But friends, it would be nice to come and retrieve me." Artur turned his head left and right, opening his eyes to the green blurs around him. "I have no desire to be lost in this green sea."

No one answered his words, so he lay where he was. His fingers and toes began to tingle soon after, and it was hard not to focus on that. What had Harut once told him about how to solve it, when he was training his patience as a knight? Stayed knelt, even when it hurt. Standing when you weren't called for was a dishonor for a knight. A lot of things would dishonor a knight, it turned out.

However, the smiles of people when Artur patrolled the streets, the swooning ladies when he would give them a rose, and the—

Artur blinked. He remembered. He remembered all of it.

"This I cannot believe." He laughed. "I am finally free!"

Cough.

Well, relatively free. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he probed his mind. His memories were there, just jumbled now. The past few weeks with Miss Malone, or was it months? He couldn't tell. However, he remembered being bound in the cell. He remembered her bringing in his father, drool running down his mouth.

"He was controlled and tamed. At least Mother did not have to bear that shame."

Artur grimaced as he recalled Halogi. His father would not have survived taking on Halogi's form again. That also meant that his father's shame was over. Whatever happened back on Grim Aegis, he knew his father was dead.

That, he had no words for.

"Artur!"

Artur blinked at a familiar voice, and he craned his neck up to see a dark blur heading toward him across the green and blue. He smiled. Someone had come for him.

"Alex, my friend," Artur said. "I knew this would not be the end!"

Cough.

His eyes widened as the most recent cough shook through his body. A hand wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him up and resting him against something. He couldn't tell what it was, but it helped him breathe just a little easier.

"You look horrible," Alex said.

"I feel much the same." Artur smiled. "I'm not sure whom to blame."

Alex didn't say anything for a moment, and something wet hit Artur's face.

"Artur," Alex said. "I don't know how to say this."

Artur blinked and tried to pull Alex into focus, but his eyes failed him. Shames that had been blurs were darkening. He wasn't sure if he had closed his eyes, or if he was going blind. Everything just felt so far away.

"Ah, I see," Artur said as the realization hit him. "I will soon not be."

If they had followed him into the portal without help, without Erin or any other to aid in healing, then they couldn't easily get back. He didn't know the location of the island that Miss Malone had taken them all, he had never seen it, but if it didn't have the same gate to return, then there was no way back. Only his father or Harut could open the way, back on Grim Aegis.

"How can you rhyme right now?" Alex's voice shook. "Of all the times."

Cough.

Artur tried to laugh, but it hurt. He regretted a lot. He should have taken more time with the serving girls when he was younger. Maybe those flights of fancy would have bloomed into love, despite what his father wanted. He should have apologized to his father. That his father was willing to entertain his wants, even at the cost of his status in the higher courts, should have turned Artur away from his path. However, he couldn't help but be a little selfish. It was his life to live.

However, his regrets didn't matter. He wouldn't bear them for much longer. Alex, on the other hand, needed his words, or at least his best attempt.

"You don't understand, my friend," Artur said. "There is never truly an end."

Silence.

"Yeah, there is," Alex finally said. "And it's my fault. I thought I had it. I thought I could get you, but he—"

Artur reached up a hand, slapping it over what he thought was Alex's mouth.

"No, you need to hear," Artur said. "Don't speak, don't fear."

Artur didn't let his arm drop from Alex. If nothing else, he would say what needed to be said. If this were truly his time, then he wouldn't let a friend go crying. That wasn't what a knight would do, after all.

"We journeyed together for some time,

And you humored me and my rhyme.

Outlaw, swordsman, witch, zombie, gunslinger,

Chose a knight and allowed him to linger.

We had fun together, followed the road's bends,

I am glad that I could call you all my friends.

However, all things come to an end,

So that we can renew and start again.

Remember, these words and carry them ahead,

Know that they will push away all dread.

A knight is at service to all the people,

Knowing that he has one important ideal.

A knight faces the world without guile,

A hero must always remember to—"

Giving out at the end. It almost made him want to cry. However, that wasn't like a knight. His lips closed as his vision darkened. His strength left him as he closed his eyes one final time.