Molting the Mortal Coil

The man in white and woman in black fled rapidly, retreating at their full speed. Only, their enemies seemed to be faster. There wasn’t much distance between them at the start and now it was rapidly closing. The woman in black smashed her fist against the ground and the impact caused a cloud of dust to form. From within the cloud a dozen black tendrils shot up and entangled the things that were chasing them. The two enemies were slowed down, but they reached down and started brushing off the ropes of black energy like they were seaweed stuck to them after a dip in the ocean. They were still walking forward like their feet were dragging in the surf, but the woman hadn’t thought she could stop them completely. Instead, the man in white used this opportunity to release a few bright rays of light. The beams shot forth and pierced through his enemies ankles, targeting their legs to cripple their movement.

In the distance, Sage watched calmly, not seeming to mind that the enemy had retreated from the first confrontation. Metallic blue bones were showing from where the beams had targeted on their ankles, tearing through their oil like bodies once again. They didn’t fall, but they also stopped advancing. The man in white and woman in black were able to escape, regrouping with the man in black and woman in white. The group of four reinforced each other and looked a bit more serious than previously. For his part, Sage didn’t say anything more, instead just summoning forth another two more of the strange creatures, this time without bothering to have them garbed in black cloaks and clothing.

With the skirmish over, even the soldiers in black and white on the walls got a good look at what they were up against. The four of them were identical in appearance, and they looked quite like a person had been sculpted out of clay and then dunked into a bath of tar. They were similar to a human, but more like a doll or action figure than a real person. Their facial features were blurry and indistinct, with every last bit of them seeming constructed of that dark tar, their eyes were little more than black pool. They were missing any outward expressions of gender, giving them an androgynous body shape. The people in half black and half white outfits were astounded. What sort of monster was this?

With their companions safely by their side once more, the man in black and woman in white took the opportunity to step forward. The woman in white looked to those on the wall and spoke with a calming voice, “Maintain your balance, you have nothing to fear with us here.”

The man in black took over, dispelling the terrified rumors, “The methods in the world are innumerable. There is a special profession known as Puppeteer, they use magic devices in the shape of humans or beasts. Those things might also just be unusual types of Demonic Beasts that he tamed, or just illusions covering their actual appearance. This is a good opportunity for you all to expand your horizons!”

Sage was quite impressed at their ability to bolster morale. Not only the guards on the wall, but also the man in white and woman in black looked much better after their words. On the battlefield, morale could make a big difference. Sage was only here to take care of Zhang Tu and from what he knew so far these were all just hired guards. The lower he could push their morale the more chance he had to make them quit. Initially, he’d planned to match them four on four, but now that they’d strengthened their resolve he laid down more of his cards.

Immediately, the four monsters tripled in number. Eight more of them appeared in front of Sage and rushed forward. Sage took this opportunity to undermine their resolve, “Hah, of course you’d let all these people die for you. Come out Zhang Tu, you mutinous traitor!”

The twelve black tar dolls took off at high speed towards the base of the Fortress. Sage started to walk as well, moving slowly closer as his minions flashed forward and starting leaping upon the boulders to ascend towards the castle-like structure. The four they were up against lost their confident faces. Even if the man in black and woman in white were stronger than the other pair, they were all still in the fifth rank. They knew they could handle the strength of these things much better than their companions, but they still didn’t know how or if the things could be killed.

The four of them formed a defensive formation, and the older couple was now the first to act. Huge pillars of darkness shot out from the shadow cast by the huge Fortress walls, manipulated by the man in black. One for each of the enemies, the twelve attacks had to converge as they approached the enemies. The twelve enemies quickly formed into a single file line, presenting a smaller target. The dark pillars were a yard wide and bumped into each other. Only half of them could target the lead tar person, said target crossing its arms in front of its chest as it was struck. Like a water balloon popping, the creature’s tar like skin was splashed in all directions. Only, it was too soon to celebrate. The second one in line grabbed the leader in front of itself, brandishing it like a shield.

The man in white let out an exasperated cry, “What sort of thing is that?”

With its ‘flesh’ missing, the lead creature now looked like nothing more than a skeleton made out of a cloudy blue ice. The skeleton’s bones caught the light oddly, seeming like cloudy ice from head on, but a reflective metallic blue on the edges and oblique faces. There were only a few small spots of that tar-like substance clinging to the front of it, but they seemed to be rapidly growing in volume. The four of them would be idiots if they didn’t realize that the black tar substance constantly regenerated, but the same couldn’t be said for the bones underneath. Seeing an opening, the man in black looked to the woman in white and she nodded.

They acted without any words, the man in black holding his hand up and grabbing the empty air. He put the backs of his hands together and then stabbed them slowly forward, tightening his fingers and then pulling his hands apart. It looked like he was trying to pry open the doors of an invisible escalator, except there was absolutely nothing there. At least until he pried his hands apart, at that point a crack of darkness formed in the air in front of him. As the space between his hands widened, so did the width of that dark crack until it became a full blown doorway made of shadow. Then he clapped his hands and shoved his right hand into the open door. From the back of it a giant hand emerged, it looked just like the man in black’s, except it was eight feet tall and composed of darkness. He reached in one side and from the other his hand came forth many times larger.

The black hand shot forward at high speed and it’s palm smashed against the lead creature. Then its fingers snapped shut, grasping the strange skeleton as well as the second creature who was carrying it. At almost the same time, the woman in white, who was standing just behind the man in black, disappeared. She faded away from the world as if she’d only been a mirage, her image shimmering and dissipating. Only then did the observers realize she had been standing in the air above the tar people for quite some time. Compared to the ray that fired from the man in white’s finger, the woman in white used both hands, forming a circle between where her index fingers and thumbs met each other. She held her hands up to the sky, thrusting them towards the sun like they were a focusing lens.

There was only a loud sizzling sound, and a flash of light connecting the sun and the ground. There was a loud buzzing noise from the wings of the Dragoons, a hole having already been busted through their defensive formation and a dozen of them losing their lives. The beam of light had been a full yard wide, but as it passed the sheer heat of it scorched the wings off the Dragoons in the vicinity sending them tumbling to the ground. On the ground there was a hundred foot white scorch zone, the rocks glowing with heat. Half of the tar creatures had been caught in the blast zone, but the skeleton had been at the center.

“Impossible!”