The Noble Queen-A Shadow Slave Fanfic

Harlow, of course, did not heed the command, but the two other Masters did. They retreated to the bedroom door.

The moment Harlow's leg reached its highest point, Noble called out the names of light and getting darker.

The Skinwalker might need the light to see, but she did not. And with the other Masters out of the way, there was no reason to give the enemy that advantage.

The bunker went dark, with only a small area around the lamps barely holding on against her command. Noble might have been able to snuff them out with extra effort, but there was no time. Making the room darker was only half of the plan.

Gripping her Zenith, Noble lifted her body a little higher off of the ground. She had minimized the contact while the Skinwalker had her pinned, and now she was free of her flaw. The damage had been done, but at least it wasn't continuing to inflict new pain on her soul.

Noble gritted her teeth, forgetting everything except the principles of combat. And one of those principles was in play just now.

'Never underestimate your enemy when they are down.'

The poisonous blade sped over her head and aimed straight at the joint directly above her. The Zenith met no resistance, sailing through the soft flesh, and ligaments and separating the femoral head from its seat.

Harlow swayed as her leg detached from her body. But Noble wasn't through. The return swing was just as devastating, cutting yet another part of Harlow from her torso.

Noble rolled in the air to avoid the falling pieces of flesh and bone.

Normally, the parts would have begun their pull toward one another as the vessel sought them out, but the poison of the Zenith slowed the process.

It wasn't by much, but it was enough. Before the vessel could heal, Noble used her Ability to open the door and send the appendages into the stairwell.

Harlow hissed as blood flowed in every direction. She glared at the floating Master, seething. Noble went for the woman's head. But even with just her arms, Harlow was fast enough to slip out of the way of the strike.

With the door now open, Noble could hear and sense dozens of other bodies on the stairs. They were out of time!

"Collapse it!" She screamed, "Bring down the roof!"

"But!" Coy began, unsure of what was happening.

"Collapse it and retreat!" Noble clarified.

She lifted Harlow's body and slammed it into the ceiling. The cracks that had already formed from the battle widened, as debris started to tumble.

Chip dismissed his Kama Yari and began pounding the walls with his fists, They morphed into large claw-like hammers, obliterating the old concrete and sending pink stone flying.

'Harlow did shoddy work again,' Chip thought as he continued to demolish the wall.

Noble ignored him as she let the vessel drop to the ground. Her actions had drained her of much of her essence, and she couldn't risk using any more on the Skinwalker when so many others were almost on top of them.

She scanned the integrity of the ceiling, and finding a detached weak point, she focused on making the stone as heavy as possible. The stone dislodged, pulling with it the beams holding up the ceiling and creating the foundation for the government building.

"Incoming! Get out!" Coy screamed.

Noble opened her eyes, but only darkness greeted them.

The three Masters' mayhem had not only destroyed the lights but also the furniture and any other sign that this had once been a bunker.

It was only with her second sight that Noble could see the stone slowly giving way. Her heavy boulder landed on Harlow's crawling corpse, and the vessel went still.

But Noble had no time to check if her attack had been successful.

Something whizzed past her, flying from Coy's hands. She and the two men ran full force, pushing open the door to the bedroom and slamming it behind them.

"Everyone get down!" Coy frantically placed his hands against the door as his hands glowed softly.

Noble and Chip used their bodies to shield the other three.

A sound like roaring rapids filled the air and for a moment Noble felt like the world would come crashing down on her head. Yet when the dust settled, the room still stood.

Sweat formed on Coy's brow as the color in his hands dimmed.

"An explosive Memory?" Noble asked as she used her sight to find that there was no cavity on the other side of the door.

"Yeah," Coy wiped his forehead and pushed his dislocated jaw back into place. It was no wonder that his speech had sounded slurred!

"Nice work. Explosive Memories are my favorite." Noble allowed a smile.

She offered her hands to help Lonzo and Teran from the ground.

"That's a neat thing with your hands there!" Chip's face returned to normal. The cavity around one of his eyes was badly damaged and his jaw looked crooked, making him appear monstrous even in his human form.

Coy rubbed his chin as the final bit of light faded from his fingers. "It is part of my Ascended Ability. I have never tried it on a whole room though."

Teran stood and looked around. "Where is Harry?"

"Under a thousand tons of rubble if we are lucky," Chip tried to frown and touched his jaw gently.

"She's gone, Sweetie," Noble answered gently.

Even though Noble hated Harlow and all she had done to her and her family, Teran had some affection for the former bodyguard.

"The skinwalker took her." 

"Oh…" Teran sighed, earning a hug from his father in response.

"We'll be gone too if we don't find a way out of here," Fir hugged his shoulders. "I am assuming that crash blocked our exit?"

"We were preventing the Skinwalker from reaching us," Coy defended himself.

"We just have to take a moment and figure this—ouch!" Noble cried out as her body brushed up against the bed.

"Your leg!" Lonzo's face went pale.

Noble looked down, the armor on her shin was crumpled. She dismissed the outer layer to show the purple underpinnings. The area around her left calf was soaked with blood as her ankle and foot hung at an odd angle.

'Yeah, that's very broken.' Noble had felt so much pain from the activation of her flaw that the physical injury felt tame by comparison.

"How are you standing?!" Lonzo tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

"I..can float," Noble answered sheepishly. "I'll deal with this after we get out of here."

Her body hurt, but it would hurt much more if they were caught and mangled by the Skinwalker.

"Thanks to Teran, I have some medical training. Would you mind?" Lonzo indicated the synthetic wood paneling behind the bed to Chip.

The burly master tore off two half-meter planks while Lonzo cut the sheet with a mundane pocket knife. With Fir's help—in addition to being a scout, the man had once been a medic—Noble's leg was set and splinted in no time.

While they worked, Coy checked for any hidden exit that the bunker might have.

"No hidden passage," he announced with a sigh.

"Of course not, that would just be convenient," Noble winced as the last knot was tied.

They fell silent as an eerie sound caught their attention beyond the bedroom door.

It was soft but it filled Noble with dread.

There was only one thing it could be.

Scraping.