Anita

Layette kept pace beside Anita as they marched their way down into the courtyard. “Are you alright?” the girl asked, concern set heavily across her features. She was protective, they both were. Layette had had her back in the fights for as long as Anita could remember. They fought well together and Anita had a great respect for the younger girl.

“I’ll live,” Anita assured her. She kept her volume to a minimum, the guards enjoyed snapping at them if they talked too loud. Enjoyed snapping at them for whatever they could get away with, and that was a lot. They weren’t considered human and the Keepers and guards made sure they knew it at every chance they got. A creation not worth respect. It still pissed her off, they were nothing more than weapons to the humans, but utterly and completely unable to fight back.

“Would it really be so hard for you to go one day without pissing someone off?” Anita rolled her eyes but Layette pressed on, “I can’t stand seeing them hurt you. I just want to rip the Keeper’s head off everytime I see him with that bat.”

Anita paused and grasped her wrist, “Promise me you won’t get involved.” A sharp kick to her side had her moving again, more for Layette’s sake than her own. The young girl glared at the guard who had lashed out and Anita shook her head firmly. “Don’t. I can handle it and you know what they’ll do to you if you help me again. He’ll make an example out of you and I’ll never forgive myself if they hurt you because of me.”

Layette kicked at the ground as she walked, a low growl rumbling from her chest. “I just wish I could do something, anything.”

They had reached the bottom of the steps, and soft grass squished beneath their feet. It had rained last night and Anita grunted in disgust at the splashes of mud spraying up with each step. She looked across the field, her gaze on the fence where the horde of Herects screamed and pounded at the invisible field surrounding them. The protection spell, courtesy of the Keepers. It would be dropped for ten seconds. A wave of the Herects would make it into the courtyard and they would fight. Guardians versus Herects. The Keepers and the other humans would watch them fight it out, give them a ten minute reprieve after each wave where they would clear the bodies, and they would start all over again.

There were three levels of the Herects, the twisted savage beasts that hungered for the flesh of the Guardians. The government had named them Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Nobody knew where they came from, they had just shown up weeks after the first Guardian had been created and had hunted them ever since, drawn like beacons to the crystals embedded in their skin.

The protection spell and the compounds had been the solution. The Herects were relatively harmless when they weren’t on the trail of a Guardian so they gathered hundreds of them into one spot, waited for the Herects to show up, and pit them against each other. Every day, over and over. Doing tests and experiments on the dead from each side.

Anita prayed there would be a large number of Gammas. The weakest of the Herects. The Gammas resembled wolves, bulky furry creatures about the size of a german shepard. Even a horde of Gammas was easier than a single Beta. Betas were like bears, twice the size of the Gammas and twice as fast, four times as strong with fangs of liquid poison. A single bite from them would leave a Guardian paralyzed by pain for hours, if they survived.

Alphas were the worst. Humanoid in shape and a touch that brought incredible agony and corruption. A crystal touched by an Alpha had to be removed, or it would spread until the Guardian was nothing more than a mindless monster. And removing a crystal was a lot like ripping out a finger but with double the nerve endings, coupled with the pain of their touch, it was absolute hell. Anita knew that from experience.

“You can help us stay alive.” Layette nudged her shoulder at that, shaking her head slowly.

“I won’t let you down.”

“You never do.” Anita shoved her back before settling into position.

There would be at least three waves, more depending on how many died. The size entirely dependent on how fast the Herects moved. Not the best system but they had managed to survive so far.

Anita felt her crystals shudder in preparation, the Guardians were just as attuned to the Herects as the Herects were to them and it set her whole body on edge. Her crystals rose up from their delicate positioning so they were no longer flush against her skin and instead faced outwards towards the fence.

Magic swirled through her core, itching to be released and Anita held it back firmly, waiting for the spell to drop while Layette mimicked her actions, her own magic creating a bright glow along the surface of her crystals.

“Are you ready?” Anita grunted as the alarm blared overhead, twenty seconds ’til the spell would drop.

Layette nodded once, not taking her eyes off the horde. Sounds like cannons went off overhead, counting down the seconds.

Ten.

The Gammas raised their heads and howled, the chorus picked up by the Betas and mimicked by the more carefree of the Guardians.

Nine.

Several Betas charged the fence, bouncing backwards off the forcefield. Their gruesome snarls easily reached the ears of the Guardians.

Eight.

Glowing crystals lit up around the forcefield, magic charging to attack.

Seven.

Cheers erupted from the Keepers, forever eager to see the fight begin.

Six.

Anita bared her teeth, meeting the gaze of an Alpha near the front row of the fence and tensing to charge.

Five.

As one the Guardians began their slow walk forward, decreasing the distance between them and the fence.

Four.

Several crystals brush her flanks as the rest of the Guardians filed into place, their shirts discarded carelessly on the ground.

Three.

The sharp sound of Keepers issuing commands at each other.

Two.

A glimmer in the forcefield, the thundering sound of magic.

One.