Chapter 103

                                    

                                          
I felt my heart stop momentarily, only for fiery-hot rage to get my heart pumping again.
                          
  "Shit," I growled, facing my team as they looked at me nervously: "I screwed up, but let's focus on kicking ass and getting out of here alive. Dorrian, Benjamin, Nova and Seon: get to cover and be prepared to shoot at our enemies. I'm relying on you four to provide cover fire for everyone else as we deal with any enemies that are sent our way. Serafine and Miras, do what you need to do. Sylvia, I need you to stay with Nova. I understand you know how to fight, but I'm not risking your safety-you mean too much to me. If something tries to attack Nova, you have the right to tear it to shreds, but I don't want you jumping into the fray."
                          
  "Okay dad," She replied fearfully.
                          
  "Why are you so on edge, Helix?" Reinhardt cooed.
                          
  I chose to ignore him.
                          
  I noticed something weird as my team started to disperse: shadows that stood in broad daylight. The weird thing is that it was currently two in the afternoon.
                          
  "You see that?" I asked Luna.
                          
  She nodded: "Beware the shadows that appear in the middle of the day...What are they?"
                          
  A quiet dread gripped my heart as I remembered Virrius telling me about one of the creatures he wrote about in the handbook he gifted to me a while ago. He told me trying to document this creature was one of the most difficult things he had ever tried to do, and everything my dear master has told me about the shadowy beings that slowly approached us made me sweat.
                          
  "Schatten wächters," I told her quietly, "Shadow guardians. These things mean business."
                          
  Luna looked at the shadows nervously: "What are they doing?"
                          
  "Watching us," I answered, "They'll make a move soon enough."
                          
  I then sent out an all-call warning my team of the fearsome creatures that lurked in the shadows around them-creatures that should've been wiped out during the Dread Decades.
                          
  Instead of a Schatten wächter appearing, Reinhardt showed up a few feet before us.
                          
  "You never did answer my question," He began with a razor-sharp sweetness: "Why are you on edge?"
                          
  "Because I made a bad move," I told him simply.
                          
  A dark chuckle escaped the angel of death: "Mmm, Afraid of what your losses will total out to thanks to this little...slip up?"
                          
  I growled: "Lay one finger on my family, and I'll chop your fucking arm off."
                          
  Reinhardt's smile turned manic: "Oh, trust me Helix, I don't need to lay a single finger on your team. They'll be dead all the same."
                          
  He then uttered a single word that chilled me to the bone: "Attack."
                          
  Dark figures leapt from the shadows and charged at us. From a rough estimate before I engaged my attacker, Azrael had called in about twenty of these damn things. From what I could remember from the lesson Virrius gave me over Schatten wächters, these creatures are extremely deadly and will continue to fight until they're dead. I was able to see just how durable these things were when I clashed swords with one. We kept blocking each other's attacks before I was able to land a blow to the creature's side. It gave no indication that it was in any pain, and it continued to throw itself at me even as its purplish-black blood dripped to the ground.
                          
  I got a good look at my opponent and cringed. Schatten wächters normally wear heavy leather armor and fight with a long ass sword that's strapped onto their backs. The thing's face reminded me of Azrael when I bashed his helmet off: Slitted purple eyes, sharp teeth, and a dark elf-like complexion.