Prowler (Part One)

Leanna was five when she held a crossbow for the first time. And eight when her powers had been discovered. She seemed to have a natural affinity for shooting targets mid-air, which made her quite popular amongst the soldiers, and less popular with the male noblemen. It was hardly ladylike, in their opinion.

She felt the polished steel cool against her wrist, hiding safely behind a bush. The rain and mists cast a milky-white glow throughout, making the training grounds look ominous.

A single droplet perched on the tip of her loaded arrow, tracing its path over the Obsidian tip before falling harmlessly.

Suddenly, a stone target flipped upward from the ground, attached to some sort of mechanism. Each target was glowing a slight blue. They were all enveloped by Aegis. Lea quickly moved her hand to focus on the nearest target and shot with tremendous accuracy, hitting the middle and piercing straight through the shield, reducing the green wooden cores to splinters inside the stone frame.

Another target popped up, then three more. Lea stayed where she was, hitting each one from the distance. Exactly what she loved about a crossbow, an enemy would never see it coming.

Several sparrows startled and flew away at the repeated sounds of metal colliding against wood. Lea launched herself into the air with a burst of Arcane and fought against the rain, landing another blow in mid-air before her legs touched the ground. She instinctively jumped sideways, rolling over the wet muddy ground, and jumped again, this time finding a tree that provided a good view of the surroundings, obstructed only by the misty atmosphere.

She reloaded her weapon, and shot two more targets, looking up and nodding to herself at her good performance. At that moment, a red target popped up in the distance, smaller and further away than the rest.

She quickly focused on it again, but saw the target being reduced to splinters before she could press the trigger. She looked sideways in surprise.

Holt had beaten her to the final one, standing behind a tree, much further away from the red square than even Lea had been. He looked over and waved, smiling.

It was a rare gift, after all, a mark of something both cherished and feared. Her ability to harness Replicant energy gave her a deadly precision with projectiles.

One night, after a particularly grueling session, her mentor lingered, watching her as she panted from exertion, her brow beaded with sweat.

“For me, handling this power means being able to protect people, Lea. To be of service to the city. To make a difference,” he said, his voice rough yet kind, his weathered face softened. “It begs the question, though. . . What are you doing this for?”

Lea thought about that for a moment. The answer came to her pretty quickly. She figured it would be something about proving her parents wrong or learning to fight and make a difference. But she found herself saying something totally different.

“That’s the thing,” Holt had murmured as he turned to leave, a smirk twisting his lips. “There is not.”

Those words echoed in her mind, dark and unshakable. And life went on, day by day, mission by mission, as she watched comrades fall, the cruelty of their deaths leaving a cold emptiness in her heart.

And life went on, which seemed kind of strange, and very cruel, especially when you were seeing someone die in front of you, unable to do anything but watch.

The night was thick with tension as Leanna crouched atop the ruins, the flickering light of distant fires casting eerie shadows across the twisted landscape. Her sharp eyes scanned the darkness, searching for movement among the rubble.

Then she saw it- a girl´s face streaked with grime, struggling against a Ghoul´s grip. The creature towered over her, its long, shadowy limbs tightening as it pinned her to the ground. Leanna's heart quickened as she watched the scene unfold, her instincts flaring to life.

Without a second thought, she raised her crossbow, her fingers tightening around the trigger. “Get off her!” she shouted, her voice slicing through the night like a blade. The Ghoul´s head snapped up, its gaze turning toward her, and in that split second she took her shot. The arrow flew, obsidian tip glinting as it tore through the creature’s neck, severing its hold on the girl.

The civilian staggered back, gasping for breath, her face pale with terror yet blazing with defiance. She looked up at Leanna, their eyes meeting for a brief, intense moment. There was no gratitude, no fear- only a mutual understanding of survival.

But Leanna barely had a chance to process the encounter before another Ghoul lunged at her, its talons slashing through the air. She twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the blow, and fired another arrow, striking it between the eyes. The creature let out a guttural screech, crumpling to the ground, but more were already closing in, their shadows merging into a wave of darkness.

In the chaos, she glanced back, catching sight of the girl as she now stumbled forward, her gaze fixed on something in the distance- a faint, shivering light that seemed to pulse with a strange energy. Leanna realized what the girl was trying to reach: the Shroud. It was a death sentence, and yet the girl seemed oblivious, drawn to it with a desperation that burned with wonder in her eyes.

“Don’t!” Leanna shouted, but her voice was swallowed by the roar of battle as another Ghoul charged at her, forcing her to engage. She barely had time to register the girl’s fading silhouette, lost in the thickening smoke.

She quickly launched herself, hitting two nearby Ghouls straight in the eyes, and lunged forward. A Ghoul met her in mid-air, scratching her arm as she screamed, a wordless, anguished sound, but her voice was lost in the chaos.

She fell, hitting the ground back-first. Pained from the shock of the impact, she panted and coughed, jolting herself back up just in time to see two more reaching for her. Aegis blocked the first one, and Lea activated Arcane, skidding through the slippery wet ground and out of the creature´s reach.

Her gaze flicked back to the girl’s motionless dead body, lying just a few feet away from the Shroud. She collided softly against a wall behind, defusing her elements just in time to lessen the impact. Her arm bled, staining her cloak, as she hit another one with her last arrow, finding herself being cornered by at least thirty Ghouls. With no way to escape.

And then- out of nowhere, a storm broke.

The rain got caught swirling and dancing rigorously to the heavy winds. The air thickened with an electric charge, and for a moment, the Ghouls seemed to pause as the battlefield bathed in a harsh, white light, blinding Lea.

Through the smoke and flames, Leanna saw a figure emerging from the heart of the chaos, silhouetted against the inferno. The flames licked at its edges, casting a long, dark shadow across the ground, yet the figure stood there, unscathed, an unyielding presence amid destruction.

The air was thick, with ash and embers swirling like dark wings against the searing blaze. The figure was silhouetted against the brilliant, fiery backdrop, with flames cackling and surging around it.

She couldn’t make out any details, couldn’t see a face, but the shape was unmistakable- another Ghoul, probably more powerful than any other she had come across until now. It moved slowly with a deliberate and predatory grace, stepping through the flames as though they were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

Memories flickered through her mind- her childhood laughter mingling with her parents’ warm voices, the days of innocence spent playing beneath the open sky, far removed from the horrors of war.

"I´m so sorry, Kieran," she murmured, looking upward as cold water drops fell onto her face. "It´s been a nice life. . ." She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable end. 

The storm roared on, drowning her thoughts.