Olimpia

Blood golems blotted out the light, and the piles of flesh scattered over the floor were releasing rivers of blood to join the ocean already there.

My steps, and everyone else's, were marked by a splash, then a wet rip as the cooling blood was separated.

Everywhere I looked, there was fighting.

Badgers, in their stone war forms, tour into the golems as they landed.

Beastkin that had to be bulls ripped up giant blocks of stone from the floor and smashed them into the golems, much to the annoyance of the badger being helped. The bulls usually had to dodge a swipe or two if they were close.

In some places, the blood formed into blades before being launched into the air, slicing into the falling golems, or the blood was vaporized by fire along with the nearby tentacles.

And around the room's edges, I saw the flashing of fish scales and deep flickering shadows.

But even if all the gathered beastkins were working together, the outcome was already assured.

When I finally got around to processing the information I gained from shattering the golem's core, I knew the reality of what we were facing. Well, mostly. There were hundreds of golems, and once I decided there were closer to a thousand than not, I stopped trying.

Some of the best fighters that the beastkin had to offer might be around me, but they would be overwhelmed by numbers. Which was ironic as fuck, but I would enjoy the humor more if I wasn't in the room.

Then I released a pulse covering the chamber and found where Kanieta had gotten off to. Once I recovered from the flood of information, it brought me to where I am now.

Running through the center of an increasingly frantic melee for the slight hope of escaping this alive.

"Kanieta!" I shouted as she cast a spell, tearing apart a golem.

The moment I shouted, a blood golem hit the ground between us. Not stopping, I pulled on my mental energy and fed it to the strands I was keeping around me.

Dozens of flesh appendages telescoped out for me, most of them curling around the sides to hem me in, but I ignored them as I ran forward. I drove my mental energy into the meat.

It was easy, like digging a furrow through the sand.

When my tendrils entered the golem, a slight thrumming started beating against them. With a thought, I drove my mental strands forward, following the waves of power to its source.

In a fraction of a second, my tendrils encased the blood crystal and squeezed, shattering it into fragments. Expecting the eruption of energy, I was able to resist sending out a quasi-pulse this time.

Reshaping my tendrils with a twinge of willpower, I pulled them apart. As I rushed through the gap, the already slumping mound of flesh was separated, forming red walls on either side of me.

“Ahh…" Whined Chieftain Franklin as he ran next to me, "I didn't even get to tear off a tendril."

Ignoring the badger, I waved to Kanieta, who was searching for the one who called out to her.

Her eyes settled on me, and I felt more than saw the darkness hanging around her. It wasn't the whiffs of shadow unfurling from her body but her emotions.

I could feel her guilt and the stench of failure. But most of all, a feeling of loss and burning rage was building up inside of her.

Even while she was fighting, her mind was clouded as everything was focused inwards. A condition that was going to get her killed in this mess. I gotta shift it.

It might have been how I called out to her or the look on my face, but Kanieta must have realized I had something important to tell her. Thick shadows wrapped around her body, and in the next moment, she was standing an arm's reach from me.

Moving right into what mattered, I started talking, but even then, I never stopped looking around for the closest blood golem. "That bastard in the center is the one controlling them all."

“…What? Derg?" Asked Kanieta, disbelief overflowing her voice.

"I guess? I don't really know or care what his name is. Look, when I killed a golem, I accidentally released a pulse along their network…" I could see a question on her lips, but I shook my head as I kept talking. "It doesn't matter how it happened. I felt the energy connecting all of them. Derg is the center!" I even went so far as to turn and point at him for extra emphasis.

"Besides," I said, throwing a glance up to the flock of blood golems, "Obviously, he is involved with these creatures. We might as well take him down with us."

"Impossible!" Snarled Chieftain Franklin in a blood-curdling tone. Every warning bell in my head went off, and I pulled myself to the side with a mental strand and dropped into a fighting stance, "No Chieftain would sully their honor to associate with such filth."

I looked at the badger incredulously, seeing that he was completely serious. Turning to Kanieta, I saw her looking away, her teeth worrying at her lip in thought.

"Then why did he shout he would protect those who swore to him?" I asked the badger, "Why aren't the golems attacking anyone on the stage?"

He opened his mouth to respond to me but said nothing as his eyes darted around in suspicion. "I wasn't really paying attention when I saw a fight start…" he muttered in careful thought.

I watched him spin in place once, and I could feel the sudden focus as he scrutinized everything for the first time. His intensity was more than a little intimidating.

Taking another step back, I lifted my hands and tendrils, my hand clutching my belt knife and my mental tendrils plucking up head-sized stones from the ground.

I had seen Chieftain Franklin shout. I had seen him rage against the bars of our cage and curse everyone and thing around us. I had seen him and his people fight, tearing into each other.

Even now, I could feel the enjoyment they got from this fight and the chance of death and could just imagine vicious grins on their faces as they leaped at their enemies.

I thought I had seen them angry, but I hadn't.

As of this moment, I realized I have never seen them mildly irritated. It was just that their emotional spectrum was between active violence and crotchety asshole, making them always ready and willing to lash out at everything and anything around them.

The blood lust radiating off the badger was literally visible. It started like blood was creeping into Franklin's eyes before they shone, and then the glow spread around him, coloring the world around his body.

"Slowly take a step towards me." Kanieta said, her voice tense but level, "And lower your knife."

I wanted to look at her, but I couldn't bring myself to look away from the badger. One didn't look away from a predator readying itself to lash out. And more important to me, one didn't let their mind surf the waves of madness of someone in the throws of a bloodrage.

It was easy to be caught up a carried along by such dark emotions.

The tip of my arm shivered as I struggled internally to lower my arm. I knew being perceived as a threat would get me killed, but if I was going to die, I wouldn't go down easy. I'm fighting to the death!

Pushing away the intrusive instincts, I haltingly lowered my arm and slid my foot over the blood-soaked ground. It wasn't very far, but it was far enough to help with the impulses to attack filling my mind.

Throwing his arms wide, chieftain Franklin roared into the air. The roar was such that it echoed through the chamber even though the sounds of battle were thick in my ears.

And amazingly, everyone and thing froze in place to look over at the source. Even the blood golems on the ground stopped writhing as if they looked at him.

Chieftain Franklin lifted his right arm and pointed at the center of the platform. "BY THE RIGHT OF THE BADGERS, I NAME YOU AND YOUR'S TRAITORS! BETRAYERS~ OF THE PEOPLE!" His shouted pronunciation echoed across the room.

"Hahaha!" Barked out Derg as he threw his head back in laughter. "What does that even mean? What does it matter? None of you stinking rodents will walk out o—

"BETRAYER~!" The chorused shout sounded like it was voiced by the earth itself, and it even shook the ground and the walls with the collective wrath.

I looked around me, and I saw bright spots of red filling the room.

It was the badgers' eyes. The badgers' stone eyes were glowing. Should be shielding my mind now, I thought, moving past that.

Someone saying they hate something was easy. And for a moment, most could dredge up that level of emotion.

Loathing something takes work.

It didn't happen on the spur of the moment. It would take a lifetime of indoctrination into a specific set of beliefs and then someone you once trusted breaking them all to spark that level of emotion.

As the badgers spoke the word 'betrayer,' their voices were filled with loathing.

The room exploded into motion like some invisible signal was sent to everyone simultaneously. Everyone but the badgers.

Golems fell from the sky, crashing into the ground with room-shaking thuds. The beastkins' fight against the golems restarted with a vengeance, all but the badgers as they still glared rays of loathing from their eyes.

Those golems that fell onto badgers or were close enough to wrap them up exploded a moment later as the stone badgers clawed their way out. The golems tried to stop the badgers by lashing out more flesh tendrils, but the attacks were ignored as the badgers began moving.

Their stone fur rippled, and the appendages attempting to hold them back were shredded. Other golems tried to move into their paths, but they were shouldered out of the way without trouble or apparent notice.

It wasn't a unified charge, as the badgers were scattered across the room. However, every badger did charge.

They no longer shouted or growled.

They didn't move their heads to the side for the next target.

They only looked forward to their goal.

A target that would need the Guardains' help if he wanted a chance to survive.

"So the Keepers of the People have judged." the old rabbit's voice reverberated through the chamber, filled with power, and a white light grew in power to my right. "So will the People know."

The swelling of white power vanished at his words, and nothing happened.

Then dozens of bells told. From Chieftain Franklin and every other badger, I saw a ring of blue energy expand out from them.

It ruffled my hair like a strong wind as it washed over me, but other than that, I felt nothing.

But I saw Kanieta to my side nearly fall and have to step to the side to catch herself as it washed over her. Even the blood golems started shivering in place as if uncertain about what to do for a moment.

Before I could move to steady Kanieta, she straightened up, new focus shining in her eyes.

Seeing that she was okay, I turned to watch Chieftain Franklin as he charged the center platform with his kin. Then a shadow blurred from the corner of my eye to land on top of Chieftain Franklin.

Already knowing the answer, I looked to my right. Kanieta was gone.

The most prominent voice for peace between our peoples and the guarantor of my safety was charging into the center of the battle. Ancestor protect her, I thought with mild irritation.

Kicking off the ground, I threw myself into a sprint, trying to catch up to Kanieta.

The stone badger before me was the first to reach the glowing muscle-bound warriors.

Stone head tilting to the side, the badger lunged at the beastkin blocking his path.

The wolf beastkin stepped to the side and then lashed out with his arm. A crack sounded, and half of the badge's stone head exploded into shards.

Franklin swiped his paw at the beastkin as his body turned with the hit, his claws connecting with the beastkin. The noise was like a stone scraping over steel as the beastkin was forced back a step but was otherwise unharmed.

A shadow tendril appeared from the beastkin's feet, stopping his fist as it swung forward. As his arm came to a stop, a shadow spike stabbed out, striking the beastkin in the upper chest and knocking the wolfkin off balance.

Adding onto the attack, Chieftain Franklin leaped forward, his paws reaching out to drive the beastkin into the ground.

But with a roar, the blue glow around the beastkin brightened as the veins in his arm bulged. The shadows snapped and dissipated like sparks from a campfire.

The wolf beastkin and Chieftain Franklines hands met, then Franklin was pushed back.

He wasn't forced to take a step back. No, the stone multi-ton badger was literally pushed back across the floor, his six-inch hind claws digging furrows.

Franklin wasn't the only one. The other badgers attacking the ring of beastkin were having even less success, as they didn't have Kanieta on their back helping.

The badgers covered in stone were being overwhelmed by raw physical power.

My mind had trouble accepting that fact, but it didn't stop my body from acting. I knew what I had to do, and it looked like I was the only one able to do it.

Skirting past the stone badger, I used his two-legged stance to keep me hidden as long as possible.

When I came around his side and saw the beastkin, I pulled myself forward with a tendril while bringing a brick as large as my chest around and up into his chin.

I held up an arm to block the slivers of the broken stone thrown in my direction as I continued moving. When the dust cleared, I saw that there was no wound on his body, but his eyes did look a little glazed over as he lowered his head, shaking it.

By the time his head twitched to look at me and I felt his gaze, I had already moved under his arms and past him, looking at the second line of beastkin.

When I saw my target, my mental energy was already focused into a single tendril, ready to drive forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Even the beastkin, as fast as he was, didn't have the time to react. The tip of my tendril covered the distance between us in a flash and drove my belt knife into his throat to the hilt before twisting it.

The beastkin dropped to his knees, clutching at the half of his throat that was now torn flesh. Try as he might, his lifeblood sipped through his fingers.

Burning through my mental energy, I coved the distance between us in a couple steps.

Whipping my tendril to the side, I threw the knife at one of the beastkin, moving to intercept me, forcing him to slow down a moment to deflect the blade. It was all I needed, as the other had taken a beat too long to react to my appearance.

Derg turned to look at me, a look of scorn on his face.

"You know, I thought you looked like a giant muscle with no brains." I said with my best smile, "I was right."

Shock covered the beastkin's face as my tendril drove into his chest. Before it had entered more than a few inches, I felt the massive blood crystal in the beastkin's chest and broke it in half as my tendril pierced it.

Surprised by the crystal's size and density, part of my energy was carried along with the backlash as it destabilized and released part of its contained energy into the controlling spell.

"Hergh!" I grunted as information pressed on my mind. Before, my energy echoed around the network in the room. Now it traveled down the link connecting it to whoever was casting the spell.

The world along the spell length revealed itself to me, miles upon miles of rolling hills and scattered groves and farmland. Then I felt the caster.

And all the sacrifices that powered the spell.