Blessed by Night

It took Malachi all of 1.6 seconds to identify exactly which direction the outsider was staring at them from.

Instead of acting out immediately, Malachi picked up Camille like nothing was the matter and brought her face ever closer to his.

"You might hear daddy use a couple of bad words… just close your eyes and don't tell your moms." (Luna & Sei)

Cami nodded and quietly placed her head on her dad's shoulder, her eyes alert and unusually serious for a baby.

'How do you want to handle this?'

Anna rested her head against Malachi's shoulder as she stared at Cami, making the three of them look like the perfect little family.

'We have a couple of options… how much exercise do you feel like getting?'

'Barely any, ever. But I'll do whatever if it gets us home quicker.'

Malachi smiled as he rested his head against Anna's.

'We can let it scout all it wants, and then let it bring back it's reinforcements. Let some of our enemies come to us without moving another step.'

Anna only needed to hear 'without moving another step' and she was entirely on board.

'I don't mind that. It'd give us the luxury of not fighting cross-country style like we've been doing. We could draw up some actual plans now while we're at it too.'

'Oh, plans… yea.'

'…You and your unit haven't been planning shit, have you??'

'Well with me and Aisha working together on the same squad, our plans are kind of just-'

'Hit with powers, make fall down?'

'And chain swords.' Malachi held up his bracelet weapons, which he was really growing fond of.

Anna rolled her eyes and pushed her fiancé's forehead playfully.

'You're both idiots… how do we know this guy will even bring a force that's worth the extra wait?'

Malachi thought about the possible methods to ensure that Anna's concerns were addressed, and he realized that he may have to get his hands dirty a bit.

"Hey, Cami?"

"Da?"

"Push that little stop on my wrist for me... Yea, right there."

Cami used her little finger to press a small invisible mechanism on the side of his golden bracelets.

Not two seconds later, a short spear appeared within Malachi's grasp.

"Close your eyes, peach."

"Bu..."

Malachi clutched the short spear loosely with his free hand and tossed it up high in the air above his head.

Like a dog after a bone, Manda enlarged itself to reach up and catch the weapon in it's mouth.

Using it's body like a whip, it flung it's head to one side of the lake and launched the handheld spear like a rocket towards a grove of trees.

The weapon cut through the wind with so much force and power that it created a large sonic boom in the air as it traveled.

A loud boom shook the forest and a horrible scream was released into the air, signaling that the weapon had found it's target.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

"Bullseye."

"Bwa!"

"Hey, your eyes are supposed to be closed."

Camille made a small 'Oop' sound like she'd been caught and covered both her eyes with her free hand.

The mutant axolotl on top of her head also covered it's eyes in solidarity.

"That's better."

Chuckling, Malachi passed Camille and her pet over to Annalise before he started walking towards the site of his attack.

Through the gaps in the destroyed trees, he could see a large, demonic looking abomination, pinned to the front of a relatively thick tree.

Malachi's spear was still lodged into it's shoulder blade like a staple, and no matter how many times it tried to pry itself free, it was never able to do so.

And as Mal came closer and closer to it, the abomination became even more desperate in it's attempts to break free.

Ever since he had first dipped his feet in the lake, the N'Kai had shed his physical body and switched to the spiritual one gifted to him by his mother.

Though his form was quite beautiful if one was paying close attention to it, it's complexities could not be fully appreciated when one was being loomed over.

All that the pinned abomination could see were the enormous fangs too big for a human mouth, and the horrifying serpents jutting from it's back that seemed to grow larger with every second.

"S-Stay back, creature! If you come any closer to me then I will-"

"Have you seen everything that you needed to see...? Do you feel enlightened..?"

Malachi's boxdy was like a black hole, absorbing any and all light within a growing radius and creating a perpetual night around him.

This only further added to the feeling of dread that was accumulating within the mind of the degenerative abomination.

"G-Get away from me, bastard! I'll eat your fucking face off!"

Oblivious to the words spat at him by the spy, Malachi drew himself closer and closer to the impaled prisoner.

His face hovered mere inches from the mottled green skin of the abomination, and reveled at the sight of the terror in his eyes.

"Who were you going to tell about us..?"

"N-No one!"

"Lie to me and I'll stab you again."

"M-My tribe leader!"

"Aww, that's too bad. Thinking real small there, aren't you buddy?"

"W-What...?"

Malachi grabbed the abomination by the face and squeezed just hard enough to make the abomination feel like his skull was going to cave in.

"Why such a small audience?? You should tell everyone! Shout it from the rooftops, scream it from the rooftops! Gather your whole race here and see if you all are enough to feed on my flesh!"

Malachi yanked out the spear impaling his prisoner and gave him a hard kick that sent him skidding several feet away.

The abomination's yellow eyes showed clear confusion when he saw that Malachi didn't seem to be trying to chase or trick him.

Not one to wait around, he scrambled to his feet while holding his wound and he ran as fast as he possibly could in the opposite direction.

Turning back to the lake, Malachi whistled as he walked back toward his family while reattaching his alien skin.

Upon coming close enough, he frowned deeply when he found both Anna and Camille muttering to themselves and snickering like playmates.

"Something funny?"

"W-What was with that whole unseen horror act you had going there?? It was so cringey! Kekeke!"

"Aba!" (Cringey!)

Malachi felt his brow twitch uncontrollably and he showed both girls a smile that wasn't a smile.

"It was apart of the act. I had to really sell that-"

*Poorly mimicking Malachi* "Have you seen everything you needed to see? Do you feel enlig-"

"Go cool off!"

"KYAAA!!"

Using one of his tails, Malachi lifted up his fiancé by the waist and tossed her into the water.

It was one thin to make fun of him, but making fun of him with his daughter around was unforgivable!

She had actually called him cringey!

"The girls were right.. Anna really is a bad influence." he said with a sigh as he walked back inside.