Elated Fury/Vs. The Wyld Hunt P.2

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Fallstavia

They hit the bottom of the stairwell in the form of a door that Elated Fury ripped clean from its hinges. Door in one hand, he stared down twenty armed men and women, each with a bow and arrow beside their sheathed swords. He grinned his trademarked smile at them, knowing that the silver light was the only reason they hadn't fired.

If you were a mortal, you did not fucking fire on an Anathema unless you knew you could kill him. Yeah, they didn't think they could either. That's right, bitches, put your fucking bows down.

"Where's Yaoinr?" he demanded gruffly.

The soldiers glanced at each other. He gave them a second to think it over before he growled like a wolf at them. Faces paled in fear and they chose discretion over valor.

"He's back in there, with a slave!"

"Thanks."

Elated Fury passed through the door, the Scripture of Crimson Silver at his side. He thought about warning the troops that a host of Dragon-Blooded killers were about to cut them to shreds. He shrugged off the idea. They were dead either way so they might as well enjoy the last minute of their life relatively free of fear. You know, until the Shikari showed up and gutted them all.

Another corridor came up short against a door. Two guards stood there, otherwise prepared to take out any would-be assassin, turncoat or even a hit squad given their plate-and-chain. One look at him and they threw their weapons and themselves down on the ground.

"That's fucking right!" Elated Fury snarled. Anger masked his disconcertion. He was a man of enterprise, a leader when necessary and supremely good at surviving anything Fate through at him. But he was not a monster, no matter what he'd said to that All-Seeing Eye agent. It bothered him to see such fear on people's faces and it bothered him that it bothered him. Fuck it.

"The door's trapped," the Scripture said.

"Well, fuck, I'm glad something is. I can't believe Yaoinr has this shit for defenses. I was hoping the Wyld Hunt would be slowed down but no, the little fucker's too cheap to spring for enough traps to slow them down."

Elated Fury glanced at the door. Needle trap on the doorknob, naturally. No, that wouldn't do a fucking thing against a Dragon-Blooded in armor. Let's see...there, connected to the hinge, a nice lever system that would drop someone in a pit and then drop part of the ceiling down on him. That wasn't bad at all!

Once again, his finger became the perfect skeleton key and he bypassed both traps with something as simple as a Charm. Too fucking easy. No wonder the Dragon-Blooded hated the Anathema. Jealous bitches.

The middle-aged patrician in tight-fitting robes turned around and did a double-take. His hair was cut in the same style that Elated Fury wore, his build was the same, they even looked alike right now thanks to judicious use of Shaping the Ideal Form. Elated Fury was pleased that he'd gotten close, given he'd only had a sketch to work with.

Yaoinr's eyes shone with intelligence and very little fear as he looked the Anathema in his bedroom up and down.

"You must be Elated Fury. Always thought I'd meet up with you sooner or later. Are you here to kill me, then? I didn't think you went in for doing the wet-work yourself."

"You'd be surprised at what I'm willing to do," Elated Fury said threateningly. "Where's the fucking slave?" He stepped inside, letting the Scripture of Crimson Silver pass by his side, before closing the door. That should re-arm the traps and, between them and the guards, he should have a minute. Maybe longer if they had to dig out the staircase from the flaming wreckage he'd made of that room.

"I finished with her a few minutes ago. Your timing is impeccable. ...So you really are Anathema. I always thought that was just talk." Yaoinr settled back into a chair and appraised the Lunar frankly. Elated Fury tossed his hat on the desk and kicked off his boots. "No wonder you got this far. You don't have enough manpower in Arjuf to hit this place but I suppose you don't need it, do you? So, how much?"

"How much?" Elated Fury asked quizzically as he stripped out of his breeches.

"You want the stranglehold I have on the black market in Arjuf. It's obvious, I've been expecting you to make a move on my operations sooner or later. I've got a lot more resources than even you can guess at, enough to compete, but you beat me to the punch so let's talk price. I'm very good at running my businesses and I turn a very nice profit...one I'm willing to turn over to you."

"That's mighty generous of you," Elated Fury remarked, laying his clothes across the table. "Scarlet, mind if you get the arrows for me?"

"Of course, lover." There was nothing of gentleness in her firm hands, nor in the way they mercilessly pulled the shafts out of his back, but neither was there cruelty. Elated Fury ground his teeth and bore it.

"Elated Fury...I know you're a powerful man," Yaoinr said, finally showing some nervousness. Elated Fury's inhumanly excellent senses picked out every tidbit of emotion and motivation, rendering the other crime lord's pretense futile. Not bad, though. The shit-head was faking his fear. He really thought he could buy his way out of this and he was willing to act in any way that would do the trick. What a complete cocksucker.

"I've had a good run but I can see I'm outmaneuvered," the other crime lord said. "You want my business? It's yours. Just let me stay on and run it. I've spent my whole life getting to this point, Elated Fury. Surely you of all men can respect what I've accomplished. I'll turn my profits to you, I'll run under your colors, shit, you can do whatever you want with my crew. But there's no sense in killing me and wasting all I know."

"That IS a generous offer," Elated Fury acknowledged, grunting as the last arrow came out. He pulled his shirt off, wincing at the soreness of his closing wounds, and finally undid his underclothes. He stood before his rival in Arjuf naked and flashed his famous grin. The patrician broke into a cold sweat.

"What do you want from me?" Yaoinr said, and his scent revealed his fear at what Elated Fury's nakedness implied. It was always about sex, wasn't it? Elated Fury shook his head at the fucking pervert and his disgusting assumptions.

"I don't want your operations, Yaoinr. You're a fucking slaver and I hate slavers. Worse, you use the bodies of slaves to smuggle in your most illegal products. Sometimes you kill them and their corpses pass right by inspection, don't they? And other times you don't, leaving them to die horribly as whatever you shove inside them through whatever orifice breaks down their body, leaving them too crippled to work. Makes them ripe for disposal, doesn't it? You motherfucking cocksucker."

"If you don't want my business, you must want my money. My connections!" Yaoinr was sweating freely now. "Anything you want!"

"Right now, I want you to shut the fuck up."

Elated Fury grabbed his rival's head and slammed it into the back of the patrician's chair. It wasn't enough to kill but it did a fine job of dazing him. Just what he needed.

"Scarlet, get his boots, will you?"

Inside a minute, they'd stripped the patrician down and inside of the next they had him dressed up as Elated Fury. The Lunar leaned back, appraised his work and nodded approvingly. Then, he carefully unbound the rare flask on his side, the very one he'd bought at such great price weeks ago and worn every day since.

If the Scripture of Crimson Silver asked him, he'd have admitted to his own nervousness that it wouldn't survive the arduous path getting here. But she wasn't the kind of girl to ask questions. That was fine by him, it was one of the reasons they got on so well.

Elated Fury slipped off the metal bands securing the cork and popped it out, taking care to pocket it. He couldn't afford to leave any other evidence behind. Unending the bottle, he poured it over the slaver crime lord, taking care to cover every inch of him. Once the flask was empty, he tied it back on his belt and nodded again in satisfaction.

The sounds of still more screaming and swords warned him he was running out of time. The Wyld Hunt was every bit as ruthless and relentless as he'd heard. There was nothing like an enemy you could respect, was there? Not like this shitty waste of life lying in the chair.

"We are out of time," the Scripture echoed, looking to the door and the sounds still distant.

"We don't need much more, do we bitch? Hold him for me." Elated Fury picked up the arrows and got a hold on the man's back while his lover kept Yaoinr straight. The crime lord's clothes were already dry. That stuff really was as fast-acting as he'd heard. It'd better be, given how much it'd cost.

"There is a very good chance they will see through this deception," the Scripture warned, her precise voice as sharp as the swords killing people in the hallway. "You may succeed. You changed your face enough to pass for him if no one looks too closely...and your frantic flight insured that no one did. You've changed your clothes. But you cannot disguise the fact that your Anima has come to life...and that he lacks one."

"Wanna fucking bet? Keep him quiet and I'll show you."


The crime lord tried to scream when Elated Fury rammed the arrows into his back but the Scripture's hand blocked all sound. Yaoinr writhed in his seat, held down only by the Lunar and his lover, until the pain settled him down. He wouldn't be very mobile but he didn't need to be, either.

Elated Fury released him, looked the Scripture in the eyes, and smiled through the moon-like mist wafting from his skin. The silvery light brightened another notch as jagged claws sprouted from his fingertips. A sympathetic glow suddenly lit up across Yaoinr's body. It didn't look quite like a Lunar Anima but it wasn't too far away either. A little too pale white, not enough silver, but all in all a good likeness.

He gestured her over to the wall as he delicately used his claws to lift his moonsilver knives from the table and place them through the crime lord's belt loops.

"Tree-Dwelling Jaguar Claws," the Scripture smirked. "Do you plan on digging your way to the surface?"

"Where the fuck do you get those names from?" Elated Fury swore, shaking his head in irritation. He swept her up in one arm as the other found purchase on the wall. His fingers dug in, his toes found purchase, and he climbed straight up until he reached the ceiling. He avoided the corners, knowing they were the obvious spots for a search, and kept along one edge as his lover held herself against him, legs and arms wrapped tautly across his muscular body. "Do I look like a big cat?"

"Charms have names, lover. As do mysterious potions." The Scripture's veils and silks were still vertical on her. Elated Fury blinked as he noticed that. His stolen robes were tight but still hung away from him, following the direction of gravity. Hers...didn't.

"Oh, that? Just something I picked up three years ago when House Nellens got put on the books. Dragon-Blooded go fucking nuts when there's a party and there's nothing like the celebration of a new House." Elated Fury smiled to himself at the memory of that night. "They had alchemical wizards mix together all sorts of special effects for their party. Among other things, Nellens put on a fucking awesome show. Their best dancers were coated in this stuff."

"It's reactive to Essence?" she asked curiously. It was rare for her to ask anything so Elated Fury indulged her.

"Mostly. It flares up when someone uses Essence but it'll keep glowing if it's near an active Charm. Made for a really beautiful performance when the audience joined in. It's flammable but it should do the trick because of that. Yeah, I think they'll believe he's me. The cocksucker enough looks like me, glows like me...and I left my moonsilver knives with him."

"Because you believe you can get them back," she said, sounding certain.

"It'll be chancy and I won't want to tip the Wyld Hunt off to the fact that I'm still alive. But yeah, it's worth the risk. I'd rather be alive without them than dead with them. Besides, what kind of an Exalt actually leaves his weapons behind for the enemy to get? They're Dragon-Blooded. They'll believe it because of their own fucking pride."

A horrible scream from outside the door alerted Elated Fury that they had run out of time. "You'll see. I need you to do two things though. Shroud us, first. Then, you'll need to float."

"And I must bear your weight." She sighed in a long-suffering manner. "If it's necessary."

"It's necessary if we want to avoid their Charms. As long as we're touching the ground or anything it touches, they'll notice us. We'll be fine, Scarlet. Promise."

"You do not know the first thing about promises," the Scripture of Crimson Silver said with ire. Elated Fury gave her a wondering look at the sudden venom before they vanished beneath the concealing cloud of her Charms. He lay atop her, enjoying the soft feel of her body.

It sure beat the shit out of being in Yaoinr's boots.

The crime lord of Arjuf finally got enough of his senses together to stagger for the door. He was bleeding enough that he could die without medical attention and he apparently hadn't noticed the commotion outside. More was the pity for him.

The door exploded from the torrent of flame that burst through. In a smoothly coordinated fashion, Iselsi Denasi leaped sideways in as an Immaculate Monk rolled beneath him. Yaoinr flung himself backward, awkward with the arrows, and his body shone with a whitish Anima-like display.

Still flying through the air, a fearsome display of phoenixes and fire dragons setting the room aflame, Iselsi Denasi had spun upside down when he drew back his great red powerbow and shot the crime lord squarely through the heart.

The patrician folded over with hardly a cry, dropping the moonsilver knives with a clatter. Iselsi Denasi completed the revolution of his body, landing against the opposite wall with his jade boots before kicking off to land nimbly on his feet. The combined Animas of two Fire-Aspects were rapidly turning this place into a fucking inferno but Elated Fury held on through the smoke and sweat. He had to.

"That's it?" Iselsi Denasi said warily. He looked unconvinced as he stared at the brightly burning corpse of the crime lord and slaver, innocent only of being an Anathema. The oil caught fire at once but so had everything else in the room and the glow had died with the flame. The other two Monks moved in to flank their commander, then drew back as the flames leapt higher.

"Venerer, our Animas have compromised this structure. It's not safe to remain. The Anathema is down and his organization annihilated. There's nothing left to do here." The Fire-Aspect was somber, even respectful as he nodded toward Elated Fury's would-be corpse.

"True enough," Iselsi Denasi said, still looking at the burning body. He bent and retrieved the two moonsilver knives. "Move along. I wish to satisfy myself of any last doubt."

"Venerer, he's dead," said one of the others. "His Anima is extinguished."

"I have no fear of fire, Shikari!" the Iselsi said, showing a bit of temper. "Go on. Wrap up matters upstairs. It's a long trip back to the Azimuth Spire, though I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Yarrowstalk again. Provincial town." He shook his head and looked directly at the Fire-Aspect. "Amercer, you have your orders."

"Of course, Venerer." Despite Denasi's martial attitude, the Monk did not look particularly military as he motioned the other two out. "Don't be too long. A few of the barges have already tried to flee."

"Well, you won't let that happen, will you, Amercer?" Iselsi Denasi grinned suddenly. "The slaves can go but do not leave a single member of his band alive. It's not as if we need prisoners now and I would rather not have compromised mortals wandering the Blessed Isle. Who knows where Elated Fury's Exaltation might settle next."

The Monks left and Elated Fury watched, doing his best to ignore the flames that licked his stomach, his feet. The raw Essence flowing through his blood and bones could not be conquered by mere fire...but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like fuck. Pain was a distraction and, right now, he couldn't afford it. Not when he saw a chance to settle things.

"Elated Fury." Iselsi Denasi crouched down over the body. "You don't look like I remember...but the Silver Anathema were always good at changing their faces. I remember our first hunt together. Heh, you were the best education my men received at the House of Bells. Competition is one thing but being outmatched by a mortal humbled them. When you turned into an Anathema...that gave them resolve."

"Thanks, Elated Fury. Though your tainted, infectious grasp has spread evil throughout the Blessed Isle, some good has come of you. More, now that you're dead." He spit on the body. The moisture sizzled against the charred flesh. "I don't fear your soul coming after me, you animal. You killed my son. Burn in hell for I'm certain the Yozi's have a special place, just for you."

Elated Fury's arms tensed and he swung around to hang beneath the floating woman, maneuvering to get his feet near the wall.

| You are an arrogant fool if you do this. | Even in his mind, her voice hissed like steel from a sheath. | You have engineered the perfect escape. You have eluded the Wyld Hunt, destroyed a rival and faked your own death all in one stroke. Do not compromise your genius with bloodlust. |

| A man does what he needs to. | Elated Fury thought, knowing she would hear him. | I need to do this, Scarlet. You're still hidden, you're safe. Only thing I have to risk is myself, just like ever. But some things have to be settled or they never stay settled. |

| You stupid Lunar! | she growled in his thoughts, though of course he couldn't see the facial expression that accompanied the mental sound. | A full moon rises tonight and all you can think about is glory! Why do I waste my time on you? |

| Because... | Elated Fury stopped at once, unwilling to voice the one truth he knew she would never bear to hear. The Scripture of Crimson Silver, strange as she was, was still something that felt things and those feelings translated into scents. It had taken him a few years to puzzle them out but now he could read her like an open book...which he never did because of how jealous she was of her privacy.

The woman whose power and nature mystified him...loved him. It was a peculiar love, one that, from the beginning, had woven into it a hopeless despair at ever truly claiming his heart. She knew he did not. He knew she did. But the polite fiction maintained by silence was all that made the discrepancy bearable.

| Because you haven't seen a fight like this one's going to be in a fucking century! | he finished, filling his mind with savage images and bloodlust.

With a surge of muscle, Elated Fury kicked off the edge of the wall he was against. He soared over the flaming room, ignoring the way the wood was beginning to crumble. This whole place could come down on top of them. But right now, he didn't give a shit. All he cared about was coming down on top of the Iselsi archer.

The Wyld Hunter reacted with admirable ability, thanks to a Charm. He spun, nocked an arrow and fired. Elated Fury took the shaft through the shoulder and slammed into the Dragon-Blood anyway. Using the momentum, Elated Fury grabbed Denasi's hair and used the full force of their combined impact against the wall to ram his face in. The Venerer's head went right through the weakened wood with a satisfying sound.

He could have tried to beat the man through his jade armor but first he had to establish priorities. Elated Fury yanked the Dragon-Blooded out of the wall and Iselsi Denasi cracked his jade powerbow right across Elated Fury's face in retaliation. Blinking through the pain, Elated Fury's fist shot forward and crumpled the Dragon-Blooded Harrier's mouth.

"I'm not a fucking animal," Elated Fury spoke up, backing up to give both of them fighting room. His boots had caught on fire but he was beyond that. He looked at the man who'd shot him in the back a hundred years ago, who'd tried twice more and who'd tried again today. Yeah, he wanted a piece of him.

No, fuck the piece, he wanted the whole meal.

The Venerer tried to mumble something and Elated Fury grinned ferally at his opponent. A bar of jade that he was trying to call his friends back here. Life's a fucking bitch when you can't even mouth words though, isn't it?

In a split second, the Iselsi went for another arrow, snapping it out of his quiver and launching it with inhuman speed. Elated Fury was far more than human, though, and he crossed the distance between them faster than the arrow. He caught the steel head between two fingers. Then his other hand flashed up, trying to jab past the powerbow that spun in a defensive arc. Fast as he could attack, Denasi was blocking, twisting the bow every which way to not only foil every strike but to keep him from getting a good grip on the weapon.

Again the powerbow bashed him, right across the nose, and Elated Fury beat his anger down. He needed to be fighting intelligently, putting his enemy down instead of lashing out like a beast at the source of an old injury. Elated Fury glimpsed his two moonsilver knives in the Dragon-Blooded's belt and got an idea.

He flipped backward, landing on the floorboard section of the bed. The fire hurt but he'd worry about the pain later. He had too much to do.

Just as he hoped, Iselsi Denasi took advantage of the space to go for another arrow. Elated Fury waited until he lifted the powerbow for his shot...and then stretched his arm out, three times further than he was tall. The arrow released just as his hand caught the knives, thankfully exposed due to the positioning of the bow. His arm snapped back to it's normal length and his other hand snatched the arrow in mid-air.

The Fire-Aspected Dragon-Blooded yelled his frustration through the ruined remains of his jaw. Elated Fury didn't question his preternaturally excellent skill at catching arrows, or knives for that matter. He only thanked Luna for it because otherwise he'd be dead a dozen times over by now.

Elated Fury's fingers flexed around his knife hilts, feeling the cool moonsilver like chilled wine against his scorched flesh. Denasi tossed his powerbow aside and drew a magnificent steel sword from his back. It wasn't jade but it was obviously ensorcelled at great cost and effort. Personal commission? More likely a trophy from a fallen Anathema.

Their eyes met...

Bursting from the floor like an explosion of firedust, the Iselsi shot across the room and up. Flipping upside down, his feet caught the ceiling and launched him straight down toward Elated Fury. The Lunar let him come and then unleashed his Crouching Tiger Stance.

The steel sword's impact hit Elated Fury so hard that the end of the bed he stood on snapped in half, driving him down through the burning remains until his feet hit the floor. But the moonsilver knife held against the enchanted blade...and then his other punctured the Dragon-Blooded's jade mail, right through the side. Elated Fury's silvery Anima shone like the moon in a firestorm and he stepped back again to appraise his adversary.

Denasi's sword came up, saluting him for the wicked strike, and then he came on again like a wildfire. His Anima's fire pulsed and the weapon blurred with impossible speed. Elated Fury knew he didn't want to be in the way of that Charm so he did the logical thing; he used Wind-Dancing Method to soar all the way across the room with a single backwards bound. The Dragon-Blooded's sword tore through the air in a volley of futile blows, the last carving through the floor to vent his aggravation.

Iselsi Denasi, his jaw broken, said nothing in complaint but the heat of his glare communicated across the fiery inferno of the room.

"Yeah, I know. Let's just get this over with." Elated Fury brought his knives up in a fighting stance. "Be a good little Dragon-Blooded and don't stick around to bother me afterwards, alright? I hate spirits."

That said, Elated Fury leaped back across the room. He spun as he came and his knives sparked off sword and stone armor as he pressed a vigorous attack on the Shikari. Each blow staggered the Fire-Aspect a little more and his Anima roared louder than the fire as it took Essence to keep his sword between him and Elated Fury.

With the last blow, Denasi suddenly counterattacked and drove his sword right between Elated Fury's blades. The Lunar took the weapon straight in the stomach. Elated Fury ground his teeth at the flash of agony so much greater than the fire still burning at his legs.

Then, his moonsilver knives pulsed with a faint purple and blue color. With a wrench of excruciating effort, Elated Fury shoved himself up the Dragon-Blooded's blade, forcing the point out through his back. Iselsi Denasi roared with incoherent fury as specks of brilliant silver and red light shot through the Lunar's Anima like a frantically shaken Dynastic snow globe.

Elated Fury crossed his arms, then scythed both of his silver blades across Denasi's throat. The Lunar's blackened skin cracked above the surge of muscle...and then a fountain of blood burbled out of his enemy's neck in all directions. The Fire-Aspected Archer got a very strange expression on his face just before his head rolled off his shoulders.

His own shoulders heaving, Elated Fury stood triumphant over the body of the Wyld Hunt's Venerer. If only he had a way of stripping the body down, that was a fortune in red jade! But some risks weren't worth taking and he'd run out of time. Even now, the black of the fire crept higher across his legs. Essence continually renewed his skin as fast as it burned but the long run and the finishing fight had exhausted him. He was beginning to lose this last battle against the fire itself.

"Scarlet! Time to go."

"I will be with you when you have left this place." The Scripture of Crimson Silver stood with her hands folded before her. His lover's silks weren't even stirring despite the draft caused by the flames. To look at her, there wasn't a fire at all.

"Whatever. Take a look and see if Denasi's got any valuable trinkets while you wait?"

"You slew him in fair combat. His possessions are yours if you want them." She didn't sound like she cared either way...nor did it sound like she'd agreed to do what he asked. Elated Fury bared his teeth and decided he couldn't ignore the searing pain any longer.

"I'll settle for the sword for now. I'll see you later."

Elated Fury snatched up the enchanted blade and turned to the open space where the door used to be and jumped through to avoid the pit below. The whole place was up in flames and wreckage was beginning to drop down from the ceiling. Yeah, this operation was annihilated, like the Monk had said.

Good. So was all the evidence.

Heat pressed him on all sides but he didn't let himself get sloppy. Thankful that the glow of the flames would obscure the blaze of moonlight surrounding him, Elated Fury reached the entry room to this floor and crept to the stairwell. Closing his eyes, he opened his ears as far as he could, feeling them shift and change as his Essence magnified them.

Yes, there were two Immaculates up there at the top, just outside whatever was left of the office. They had to back off eventually but they clearly weren't bothered by the flames and intended to stick it out until their Venerer came out. Fuck.

Elated Fury closed his eyes, took his bearings and found the Imperial Mountain. The Charm had come in handy in his early years, when he'd traveled a great deal. But he'd discovered over time that he could refine his sense, judge not only where he was relative to the Mountain but where he was relative to his surroundings. He didn't know quite how he did it but right now it was going to save his life.

Yes, this underground section of the warehouse ran parallel to the waterfront. All along here, there were wooden walls but beyond lay the ocean and safety. Elated Fury opened his eyes and knew what he had to do.

He sprinted back through the fiery hall, hissed when the skin on his right foot cracked and began to bleed. Essence could only do so much. But it didn't need to do much more.

Elated Fury took a different turn before reaching the crime lord's door, moved down one hall, then another. The fire had spread everywhere and was burning even more hotly here because the fuel was fresher...but it was also further away from the stairwell. If the Dragon-Blooded came down here to investigate, chances are they'd never make it this far.

Of course, the body of their Venerer might be a different matter.

He turned around, went back to the room and found it empty of the Scripture, though Iselsi Denasi's body was burning away merrily now. The fucker was getting a right cremation, just like the Dragon-Blooded preferred. Looking up and around, Elated Fury saw the gaps in the ceiling where wood had started to fall in. Perfect.

Again, claws sprouted from his fingertips. This time, he didn't use them to climb...but instead to rip. Great sections of the ceiling fell away and then Elated Fury had to dive out of the room to avoid getting buried when the whole thing came down. That should do for handling the body.

Rolling through the fire, Elated Fury was back on his feet and running again, leaving bloody footprints behind. In a minute, he'd reached the far end of this underground complex in the form of a large storage room. The smell of the smoke in here suggested that drugs had been stashed in this place. He shook his head at the financial loss and turned his attention to the wall.

With his climbing claws, he tore away the wooden planking and started prying apart the stones beneath. If they'd built this place right, this would have been a lot harder but Yaoinr had evidently settled for packing the rock instead of cementing it. Cool dirt came after it, bringing a blissful sensation to Elated Fury's feet where it fell across them in a great pile.

His arms burned but he dug and dug, forcing his way through the increasingly sticky dirt. This would be so much easier if he could just become a ground squirrel or something but such shapechanging was impossible while the silver light shone from his body. He could still become a wolf but he was making better time as a man right now.

Minutes later, he tore through a thick barrier of mud and rock and bore the weight of the ocean as it broke through. A last expenditure of Essence grew gills and he just endured while the water tried to dislodge him. After yet more minutes, the heavy current slackened and he was able to swim his way out.

Out. He was out and he'd won. In a single day, he'd ditched the Wyld Hunt, killed a bastard of a rival in Arjuf, eliminated a Dragon-Blooded who'd wanted him dead for a century, and poised himself to take over the network Yaoinr had built. All he'd had to do was run. Mostly.

The Scripture of Crimson Silver stood on the bottom of the ocean bed, her clothes undisturbed by the ceaseless tides, and her arms were held out to embrace him. He swam to her and hardly winced when she suddenly clung to him. His wounds would heal and he was very experienced with how the Scripture worked. However doubtful or concerned she might be, she loved victory and she rewarded it well. Very well, as her silks parted to reveal the woman beneath, the prize to the winner.

Elated Fury took her with as much passion as he'd approached everything today. He took her with all he had.

Comments

Just wanted to say "good work" to the author. While I'm not a big fan of the adult-themed content (my fantasy worlds, ironically, don't involve other men sleeping with the hot girls), I really enjoyed reading all three of these. Feel encouraged to write more! -- GreenLantern