Chapter 23: The Forbidding
"NO!" Kir screamed, struggling against his captors. They bent his wings upward, forcing his face into the stone as the merchant shoved the girl aside and stepped around her, careful not to get his clothes dirty.
"There you go, Boss," the elf said, stomping on Kir's hand as Kir tried to conjure a ball of compressed water, only to fail as pain shot through the join of his wings and his hand.
The spell had been too slow because of the hunger Kir felt.
He couldn't see what was happening above him. He couldn't stop the nameless, greedy man as he lowered the knife toward Kir's wing...
"Eh... something wrong, boss?" The human Kir had kicked asked, still holding his stomach.
"I... can't... for some reason... My body... won't let me..."
Kir felt a burning sensation on his chest. He didn't know how, but he could sense mana filling him as if coming from the demonkin in front of him... like he was draining him.
"A Forbidding... no... no!" The merchant clutched at his chest, collapsing onto his knees as Kir used his newfound well of power to cloak himself in fire.
Kir didn't know how he knew, but he knew that the fire he'd made wouldn't burn him. The elf and human clutching his wings let go, trying desperately to put themselves out as they were burned all over.
The other human, seeing this, ran, taking off toward the dock.
He got a half dozen steps before, suddenly, the man fell into two halves, bisected from head to crotch. Stepping out of a portal was the last person Kir wanted to see, and he watched the men Kir had set on fire fall to the ground and scream their last.