PART 1


    CHAPTER 4


    BLOD AND HONGR


    I suspect you are here to avenge your comrade.” the salamander thought, silently, in its own head, at the langostinos. “I am prepared! My will is steeled, and I cloak myself in honor. No harm may come to the righteous!”


    The langostinos, for their part, said nothing. They did notice the salamander waking, and turned their pincers to it.


    “I am prepared! The crippled coward who put these marks upon my lip surely told a tale of near victory, but know that today you die! FIRST TECHNIQUE, GLORY TAIL SMASH, HUMBLER OF THE WICKED!”


    “SECOND TECHNIQUE, HEAVENLY METEOR CRUSH, BREAKER OF SHELLS!”


    For the salamander’s second technique, it swam above the second langostino at high speed, and dove headfirst into it, smashing it against the underlying rock. Its thorax was shattered and it died on the spot.


    “THIRD TECHNIQUE...!”


    “DIVINE ROLLING FIRMAMENT…!”


    “ENDER OF DAYS!”


    The salamander spun its entire body, and the langostino spun with it. The salamander’s spin ripped the langostino’s arm from its socket before it could detach, and blue blood poured from the gaping hole. The langostino slowed, and became still.


    “You whose countrymen have been slain before your very eyes. You who invaded my palace to avenge another invader. You who have fought without honor, for a cause without honor...”


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    “What have you to say in defense of your pride? What dying words will you leave to this world, what final message to deliver to your brethren?”


    “Truly, you are a pathetic sort.” With that, the salamander took the langostino’s tail in its mouth, put a leg to its thorax, and tore the pitiful wretch in twain. It ate the langostino, and one more, and it was satisfied. But still, even in the wake of this victory, it felt that same vague sense of alarm. It climbed once more upon the rock, and looked out into the creek.


    “So many of them… So many marching east, but to where? For what purpose? And now, there are so many here, so many outside my pond… so many to kill, so many to eat!”


    “FOURTH TECHNIQUE, RISING FIRE, WHICH CASTS TO THE WIND!”


    “FIFTH TECHNIQUE, FIVE-FOLD SHACKLE, DISEMBOWELING GIBBET!”


    “If I am to die, let it be awash in glory!” In ones and twos, langostinos crawled up the rock, and the salamander crushed them in its mouth, or smashed them with its tail, but still they came. The horde thickened, and more were forced out of the water, and more climbed the rock. The salamander fought them valiantly, but the wounds mounted, and its strength waned.


    “So offended by my superiority are you that you send an army to cut me down! So powerful am I that only an unceasing horde of the wicked can bring me low! Know this! You cannot undo that I had existed, and though victorious you may be, you will know that my solitary existence so outclassed you, that this is the extremity you were forced to commit!”