7 Deadly Instincts (The Sinfire Chronicles Book 1)

The cooking carts had a dozen eggs laying in straw with little bowls filled with spices and several bottles of oil and pads of butter. The sponsors had all left the field and each squad was in their little section cordoned off with ribbons that matched their team’s official colors. There was about fifteen yards between teams. Squad 23 was in the center with the Fire Flyers on their right and the Wrath City Raiders on their left.

Crewel continued to float over them. “Eggs will be judged by a panel of Fieldkeepers and will be anonymous. The judges will evaluate the eggs on both their taste and their appearance because of course as everyone knows, the eyes eat first.”

“Yes,” Lilian said, enthusiastically. “I hate eggs with brown spots. Overcooked eggs are far worse than undercooked eggs.”

“No,” Ames hissed. “Undercooked eggs feel like snot and taste like it too. Salt and pepper only. We’ll use the garlic oil. Remember, Midj said with eggs, less is more.”

“No,” Lilian countered. “We’ll use the butter. And the special ingredient. Our eggs will be the best.”

“Recruits! Eyes on me!” Crewel thundered. “Three eggs—one for each judge—are required.” He motioned to the table in the first row of seats where three big orcs sat looking hungry. Two wooden staircases led up to them.

The Magistrate continued. “With a dozen eggs, that gives you four tries to perfect the eggs. And a bit of a reminder, cold eggs are not going to win. They must be hot off the grill. Now, repeat after me—by instincts strong and mana bright, the best eggs here will win the fight.”

They did, with swords held to their hearts, until the competition began with a thunderous. “Squads start cooking!”

The number fifteen appeared in flames hanging in the air—and it started the countdown. They had fifteen minutes to cook three perfect eggs. That didn’t seem so bad. What was the catch?

The minute Crewel’s voice faded away, all the demon doors on the other side of the field burst open. Blue-furred terror emerged—a massive amount of moving bodies—each about four-feet tall.

Gray was shocked to see how humanoid the things looked—two arms, two legs, a face—but they were hairy and had tails and big fangs in their mouths. Their ears were comically big and filled with hair like the rest of them. They chittered and shrieked and tore across the field. There had to be a hundred of the things—

“Sloth monkeys!” someone from another squad shouted. “They can be speedy so watch out—”

Some of the monkeys blurred, and a second later, and one monkey appeared within ten feet of Gray’s cooking cart.

Ames hurled mana and the sloth monkey exploded into steaming meat. They were a lot of the things, but they were so fragile.

Lilian was white—she wasn’t moving. “What…what are those things?”

“Get to cooking!” Gray called to her even as he channeled mana into Ames, who kept on hurling mana blasts as the monkeys descended on them.

Screams from his right—the dwarven cart had been overwhelmed. Four of the dwarves were fighting the sloth monkeys while the other three ran over to where the Fire Flyers were, trying to get to their cart.

It wasn’t a second later the new pale sisters— Varonnna and Deedaena Magnifica both morphed into dragons and started spouting fire into the demons while the others defended their cart from the sudden onslaught.

A monkey appeared next Gray, and he splits skull with a swing of his lethal bloodless blade.

Ames was being overrun until a second later when she vented her core. Around her, demons vanished from the outpouring of the energy.

The crowd went wild, hooting and hollering.

Gray gave her mana, then turned, and Lilian was still at the cart, eyes as wide as saucers, frozen with an egg in her hand.

The anger he felt flooded his core with magic. “Fuck, Lilian! If you don’t start fucking cooking, we’ll lose. Cook!”

She came unstuck. “I can’t! I can’t cook eggs. There are demons!”

They were losing time. At least some of the teams were cooking. The smell of eggs frying filled the air. But then the stench of the sloth monkeys hit—both the living and dead, and Gray tried never to smell again.

“Ames—” Gray started to say.

The Quelling girl growled at him, “Go! Cook! For me! Not for her!”

If they lost, Ames wouldn’t be allowed back on the team.

The Quelling elf had her fully charged bloodless blade in one hand—glowing red—and a handful of mana in the other, and using both, she kept the demons back to well that some of the shrieking monkeys went after the orcs.

Gray shoved Lilian aside, slammed down a pan, and then tossed in a dollop of butter.

“Hey! Don’t push me, Gray!” Lilian screamed at him. She didn’t even have her sword in her hand. It was up against the cart, doing exactly nothing.

Gray didn’t say a word because he knew if he started yelling he wouldn’t stop. He cracked open two eggs, remembering to do it how Midj taught him to avoid the shells. He was working on third—the first two already frying, when the a sloth monkey appeared right in front of him.

He didn’t have his weapon, but he did has hand. He grabbed the thing by the neck, gripping it hard with his pain touch. It immediately started to scratch at his arms with its talons. It’s feet shredded the front of his uniform.

“Throw it, Gray!” Lilian shouted, finally holding her sword and charging it with mana until it gleamed red.

He threw the demon monkey at the princess, and she sliced it in half. Turning, Gray wiped his hand on his chest to try and get a little of the monkey stink off it before snapping up another egg. He cracked that one open and added it to the others. But then blood from his gashed up arm dribbled into the eggs, sizzling on the pain. He’d have to throw those out.

Lilian was fighting now, but the monkeys were being funneled right to Gray’s cart—the orcs were using their firewalls to keep the monkeys away, and it was working great for them.

The princess wasn’t using mana—no because of her issue with using too much in her meridians—but the way she moved, the way she cut into the demons, it really was a dance, smooth and elegant and lethal.

But with the sloth monkeys coming from the orcs, there were too many demons for Ames and Lilian to fight.

The Quelling elf was backed up against the cart even as Gray was replacing the blood-splattered eggs with new ones. There were monkeys on her, about rip into her neck.

She had no voice.

Ames vented her core, which cleared them of demons, but their cart took the brunt of the explosion as well. It went flying. The lust rocks were strewn over the grass, which ignited.

Gray gave Ames mana, keeping her on her feet.

Kabe, Blonko, and Ishnash had a wall of fire around their cart. Smart. But they wouldn’t be able to keep up their mana for long.

Gray went to Lilian and grabbed her arm. “You’re going to run through the walls of fire, and you’re going after Kabe. He’s the one with the gold tooth and the scars. We need their cart, and they are not going to give it us willingly.”

“Steal their cart?” Lilian blinked. “But we can’t. It’s not fair.”

He laughed at that. “Fair? This is the Testing. Just don’t kill anyone. Get your sword gold and go to work. Empty your mana into your meridians. I’ll be right behind you.”

Lilian was breathing hard. “But…but there’s three of them.” It was clear she was terrified.

Gray knew how to make her feel better. “And you’re a wind dancer.”

That made her smile.

She whirled, and he watched that blood-red fill up every channel in her arms and legs. She turned into a blur herself—as faster than any sloth monkey—and she raced through the flames, striking Kabe in the leg, which sent him to the ground. She dodged Ishnash’s sword, and cracked him across the shoulder, breaking the joint. He wailed in agony.

Spinning, Lilian should’ve been able to hit Blonko, but the pale orc grabbed her blade in his metal hand, smiled, and punched her in the face.

But by that time, the flames were gone—which let Ames and Gray race over.

He was getting dizzy—he’d lost a lot of blood—but he still had plenty of mana. He gave some to Lilan, who had an empty core, before he rammed his shoulder into Blonko, knocking him backward.

Ames streaked by him, and vented her core, which sent him flying into the middle of sloth monkeys, who jumped on him. He crushed one windpipe in his metal fingers before retrieving his sword. A second later, it wasn’t just a scarlet bloodless blade, but flames covered the sword, adding an additional lethality to the weapon. The stink of frying monkey meat filled the air.

Kabe got up, but Gray grabbed, filling his hand full of the pain touch.

Kabe shrieked and managed to bash himself free. He was on his feet, running away. Gray didn’t know why, until he saw Ishnash, his arm hanging limply, run off with a plate of eggs. They’d managed to finish their eggs, but how good were they?

Ishnash raced away—as Lilian got to work.

“Kabe! To me!” Blonko roared. The pale orc with the metal arm had cleared the demons and started back toward his cart. The flames were gone, but he still had his sword glowing gold.

“We’re getting our fucking stove back!” Blonko screamed.

Kabe was with him.

The pair charged.

Ames flung mana blasts but the orcs dodged them. Blonko’s metal arm glowed hot red before he hurled a fireball right at Lilian, who had three eggs cooking in butter. She was fumbling in her pocket for the secret ingredient—it would win them the day, or so Midj had promised.

Gray leapt in front of the fireball, while at the same time venting his core. There was an explosion of mana that disrupted the fire.

His core was empty, but he’d saved Lilian from the blast. They were so close to getting their eggs. It was all on Lilian now, but she had to fight off a few demons while she fought. However, she’d managed to toss on their secret ingredient.

The smell of the bacon bits made the demon meat smell almost good.

The clock flames only gave them two minutes to get those eggs cooked. They had just enough time.

Gray felt a sudden pride in not only himself and Ames, but for Lilian as well. Her nose was broken, crushed by Blonko’s punch, and her face was covered in blood. And yet, she was cooking those eggs while slicing up demons in a surprising display of agility.

Then he got mad at the fucking Magistrate for sending in the sloth monkeys. There was plenty of hate to go around because Blonko was in his face.

“Mother fucker,” the pale orc spat. “We’re getting our cart back.”

The orc fought with his sword in his left hand, using his right hand to fend off Gray. Their blades sparked off one another, as Blonko tried to get to Lilian. They had their eggs, yes, but maybe they weren’t that good. Or maybe the orcs just wanted to stop them from cooking, but either way, it was going to be a battle all the way to the finish.

Gray managed to grab Blonko’s metal arm, and he tried the pain touch it, but the orc just laughed and shoved him before trying to break skull with his bloodless blade.

Kabe screamed in pain. “Stop touching me!”

Ames just laughed, getting mana from the cruelty. She was vicious.

Ishnash came running back, with his plate in his hand—was that a good thing?

It didn’t matter. Lilian flipped the eggs. “Almost done! No brown spots!”

“Lilian, you have an orc incoming!” Gray called out to her.

Was Ishnash coming to cook more? Or was something else going on?

The ground began to chant the countdown. They had less than ten seconds left.

Lilian left her pan, dumbed her core into her meridians, and swung her bloodless blade, crushing Ishnash’s knee. Now he had two joints out of commission.

Ames scooped the eggs out of the pan, dumped them on a plate, and went racing away toward where the judges were sitting at their table in the stands. But she wasn’t going to fast enough.

Lilian saw that—she still had mana in her meridians. She snatched the plate away from Ames and went charging away, moving faster than sight.

Gray couldn’t help but be distracted—and Blonko took advantage of that.

Using his metal fist, he punched Gray in he jaw.

His bone gave way with a crunch, and the pain blinded him.

He fell to his knees.

Looking up, he saw that Blonko’s sword was glowing red. It was going to be a lethal blow. Maybe the pale orc through he would be able to escape before he was killed.

Either way, Gray was about to die.

He didn’t have much mana left in his core—he’d emptied it once but the pride and anger and maybe just a hint of humility had given him magic.

He used every bit of it to blow Blonko off his feet.

Ames then was on the orc, her hands on his face, making him scream in pain as she filled her core with mana with the cruelty.

“Enough!” Crewel shouted. “Redemption Midnight’s first event is over! And the Winners are…Squad 23 won gold with the very best of eggs thanks to a secret ingredient they smuggled in! Froggy’s Thunder took silver for the next best eggs. Last not least, the Lucky Bastards have won!”

Blonko was still writing when Ames walked over to him. She touched his jaw, and his arm, which made him wince. It hurt.

Ames smiled. “Now you can smile again, my sunshine. We won.”

He sighed.

They stood up, looking for Lilian. She was unconscious at the foot of the wooden steps. She had delivered their eggs, but she had used everything inside of her to get them there.

Crewel floated down to the ground in front of Gray and Ames.

“How did you know you’d need the bacon?” he asked.

Gray smiled. “Because I did the Soulshred Week. I know how hungry you like to keep us, Magistrate. I wasn’t going to do Redemption Midnight without some bacon in my pocket.”

Crewel laughed a little before walking away.

Then Gray and Ames went to see about Lilian.

They got her conscious just in time to hear Crewel shout, “Now, recruits. Cooking eggs was fun. But running is more fun. Let’s see how far you can run this night, shall we?”

It was going to be a long night.