ShadowBound: The Need For Power

Liam and Asher dropped from Veyrhold’s great wall into the settlement below, the broken stone parapet disappearing above them as mist and ruined rooftops rose to meet their fall.

Asher enjoyed it too much. Blue flame burst beneath his boots in short, controlled pulses, not loud enough to announce them to the entire settlement, but bright enough to cut brief streaks through the dark as he angled himself toward the open edge of the southern courtyard. His hand already moving toward the longsword sheathed at his side. He did not usually rely on a blade. His body, fists, feet, and blue flames were normally more than enough for most things stupid enough to stand in front of him.

But Gravebound Maulers were not students in a sparring ring, nor were they soft-bodied Horrors that could be broken cleanly with heat and impact. They were heavy, plated, ruin-adapted predators with claws built to tear through old doors and jaws built to crush bone. Fighting them carelessly up close with only his hands would be arrogance, not confidence.

Liam fell more quietly.

He let gravity do most of the work, adjusting with a light twist of his body and the smallest controlled burst of fire near his heel to shift his angle toward a shadowed gap beside a broken wall. His uniform blended into the darkness beneath the archway as he landed with one knee bent, one palm grazing cracked stone, his other hand already drawing a dagger from his shadow. The blade came smoothly into his grip, dark metal catching only a thin glimmer from the weak pre-dawn light.

They did not land side by side.

That was the point.

Asher hit the courtyard’s edge with enough force to make the old stones complain, blue flame curling low around his boots as he rose. Liam landed near the half-collapsed wall opposite him, quiet enough that the mist barely shifted.

Between them stretched the southern quarter of Veyrhold: cracked roads swallowed by roots, broken stone walls, damaged inner courtyards, old barracks with torn doors, collapsed storage houses, leaning watchtowers, and narrow streets where mist crawled slowly between ruined buildings. Shadows gathered thickly beneath archways and open doorways, some natural, some too dense to be trusted.

The place felt large from within, larger than it had from the wall, with too many angles, too many enclosed spaces, and too many places where a careless group could be split before realizing the base they had reached was not yet theirs.

Above them, Kara Cale crouched behind the broken parapet with her bow ready.

Her fingers were tense against the string, but her breathing was steady enough. She watched the area Liam had pointed out, eyes moving between the old barracks, the collapsed storage house, the courtyard, and the circling shadow creature overhead. Wing drifted above the settlement in near silence, its smoke-edged wings folding and opening between lines of broken rooftops. Every time its narrow head shifted, Kara shifted with it, using the creature’s attention as one more warning sign in the dark.

At first, three Gravebound Maulers were visible.

One hunched near the barracks entrance, clawing through a pile of old wood and torn cloth. Another stood beside the collapsed storage house, thick arms hanging almost to the ground as it sniffed through rubble. The third moved slowly along the courtyard’s far side, stone-gray hide blending with the broken wall behind it.

They were larger up close than they had seemed from above, their bodies built heavy through the shoulders and chest, backs ridged with bone-like growths that jutted unevenly beneath their skin. Their heads sat low, jaws broad and brutal, their mouths shaped for crushing more than tearing. Their claws scraped the stones with a sound that made the ruined courtyard feel smaller than it was.

Asher drew attention first.

He wanted it.

His boots scraped deliberately against stone as he stepped into the open, longsword sliding free from its sheath with a clean metallic whisper. Blue flame wrapped along the blade’s edge in a thin layer, controlled tightly enough that it did not spill outward or lick at nearby debris. The nearest Mauler’s head snapped toward him. Its nostrils flared, shoulders rising as it recognized intrusion inside claimed territory.

"Come on then," Asher muttered.

The Mauler charged.

It moved faster than its bulk suggested, arms driving against the ground once before it surged forward, claws tearing sparks from old stone. Asher did not meet it head-on. He stepped diagonally, letting the first rush pass just enough that he could slash across the side of its skull with his blue-flame-coated blade. The impact rang unpleasantly. Flame hissed against stone-gray hide and bone plating, but the cut barely bit.

Asher’s eyes narrowed.

"Skull is useless," he snapped, already moving.

The Mauler swung one arm backward with startling force, claws carving through the air toward his ribs. Asher ducked under it, pivoted around the heavy limb, and struck again, this time at the inside of the elbow. The blade bit deeper. The blue flame along the edge seared into the softer joint fold, and the creature roared, its arm buckling for half a second.

"That works."

Liam had already known it would.

He moved from the shadowed wall as the second Mauler turned toward Asher’s noise. Liam did not rush across open ground. He used the broken wall beside him, stepping onto a fallen stone, then slipping behind a cracked pillar as the Mauler’s attention dragged toward the brighter threat. When it shifted its weight, its right leg favored the outside edge, protecting old damage near the knee. That meant the other knee was stronger, but less guarded. Liam waited until the creature angled to charge Asher, then moved in low from its blind side.

His dagger cut behind the knee.

Not deep enough to sever completely. Deep enough to change the leg’s truth.

The Mauler jerked, weight dropping unevenly. Liam followed with a small burst of fire directly into its lower eye ridge, not to burn through the skull, but to blind and force its head up. It roared and reared back, exposing the side ribs beneath its shoulder plating. Liam’s second dagger appeared from shadow into his free hand, and he drove it between two ribs with surgical violence, twisting once before sliding away.

The Mauler crashed sideways into a broken support beam instead of completing its charge.

Asher caught the movement from the corner of his eye and grinned sharply. "Already hiding behind its knees, gloom rat?"

"Already hitting useless armor, walking furnace?"

"I adjusted."

"After wasting a strike."

"It was testing."

"It was loud ignorance."

"Shut up and kill yours."

Liam did not bother answering because the Mauler he had wounded was still alive. It slammed one thick arm into the broken beam, splintering old wood and sending dust into the air. Liam’s gaze flicked toward the structure behind it. Too weak. If the creature kept smashing there, that wall would collapse and possibly block the lane they might need later. He could not let it thrash freely.

He stepped left, drawing its attention away from the beam, then flicked a small flame near its uninjured foot. The Mauler flinched toward him and lunged. Liam retreated through a narrow gap between fallen masonry that its shoulders could not easily pass. The creature tried anyway, stone scraping against bone growths as it squeezed through. Its movement slowed for half a breath.

Kara’s first arrow struck.

The ice-reinforced tip punched into the wounded knee from above, frost spreading around the cut Liam had opened. The Mauler’s leg locked awkwardly, and Liam moved back in before it could pull free. He stepped onto a low stone, rose with the motion, and drove his dagger beneath the jaw into the soft fold of its throat. A short flicker of fire ran along the blade, burning inward without flaring outward. The Mauler convulsed, jaws snapping once at empty air, then collapsed heavily onto the cracked road.

Liam pulled the dagger free and looked up briefly.

Kara was already drawing another arrow, eyes wide but focused.

"Good shot," he called quietly.

She seemed startled by the praise but did not lower the bow.

Asher’s first Mauler had recovered enough to come at him again, its injured elbow dragging but not useless. Asher met it in the open courtyard because the space gave him room and kept the creature away from the barracks wall. He used a short blue-flame burst to slide sideways just as it slammed both claws down, cracking stone where he had stood.

His longsword came around in a two-handed cut toward the back plating, but halfway through the motion he changed angle, turning the blade down into the creature’s exposed wrist joint instead. The edge bit, flame searing into tendon. The Mauler’s clawed hand hit the ground uselessly for a second.

Asher kicked a loose stone hard into its front foot.

The creature stumbled over its own weight.

Kara’s second arrow struck the inside of its other elbow, ice blooming over the joint. Asher took the opening, stepped in close enough that a mistake would have let the Mauler bite through his shoulder, and drove the longsword upward beneath the creature’s jaw. Blue flame surged, still narrow and controlled, burning through the throat fold. He ripped the blade free and spun away as the Mauler dropped forward, its jaws crushing into stone instead of him.

"Not bad, archer girl!" Asher shouted.

"Kara!" came her strained reply from above.

"Shoot like that again and I might remember!"

Liam moved before the argument could become a liability.

The third Mauler had not charged immediately. It had backed toward the barracks entrance, issuing a low rumbling sound that vibrated through the courtyard. From inside the ruined structures came answering movement. Doors groaned. Wood cracked. Stone shifted. The den was waking properly now.

Wing’s sight flashed through Liam’s mind.

Movement behind the barracks door. Two shapes. Another through the storage house. One above.

"More," Liam said.

Asher turned, blade low. "How many?"

"Enough."

"That is not a number."

"Ten. Maybe more."

Asher’s grin returned, not because the situation was safe, but because danger made his blood sharpen. "Now it gets interesting."

"Do not wreck the base."

"You say that like I was planning to redecorate."

"You usually fight like property is temporary."

"It is."

"Not today."