by Jamie Hawke
I led the attack, this time, not ready to let her kill one of my teammates. She was fighting me off while Pucky used her massive rifle to repeatedly blow the skeletons to bits and occasionally hit Sharon, sending her back, while Red and the cat—who I assumed to be Bastet—fought Hekate.
When Bastet hissed toward Sekhmet, the latter growled back and said, “Kill them now, ask questions later.”
Nobody was allowed to talk of killing my friends. Anger at the thought gave me the courage to get in close with Sekhmet, even joining her on the sarcophagus before she managed to slice open my cheek and send me stumbling off.
In a burst of flames she was on me now, pushing me back with strikes that were fast and deadly, but my shield met each of them in turn. My runes glowed brighter with each blow, Excalibur too, and soon it was sparking—as if it was connected to the shield and I was saving up the energy from those strikes. Feeling a surge like I was at the edge of my bursting point, I returned the attack and swung out, thrusting even as I saw her step out of range. Too much power was flowing through me to stop, so I let it go, let it flow through me and into my hands, out through the sword. The light exploded, illuminating the room and knocking the skeletons back so that they fell lifeless to the floor.
Even something about Sekhmet had changed, though I didn’t realize what at first. Then I saw that her eyes had stopped glowing, but were staring at me like a normal lioness’s eyes would when belonging to a goddess.
“You… you really do have the power.” She paused, listening, and then we heard it too—a distant rumbling. “And they sense it now, too.”
“They?” I asked.
Hekate spun, paused at a look from Bastet, and then said, “I know.”
“Care to fill us in?” Elisa said, standing with hands outspread, all of our eyes darting about, wondering what was happening, what would happen next. Hekate had pressed herself up against a wall, eyes wide, hands trembling, while Sharon was on all fours and back to her human form.
“My sister thinks I shouldn’t kill you,” Sekhmet said.
“Funny,” I said, glancing at the cat but then remembering that maybe they could talk—magic and all.
Sekhmet gave me a confused glance, then motioned to the hall opposite the way we’d come in. “You’re Myths? On the side of good and righteousness and all that? Prove it. Your arrival here has unlocked an evil that has been asleep for a long time, though never long enough. See that it doesn’t enter this room, and I’ll consider not killing you all.”
“You’ll do us one better,” Red said, and for the first time she revealed the scepter.
Sekhmet’s eyes went wider and flared green, and for a moment she seemed to lose herself. “Leave it here when you go out to fight. It can’t fall into their hands.”
“Nor yours,” Red replied. “Not until you’ve agreed to help us find someone for us, you and your sister.”
Sekhmet bared her teeth, but the cat at her side stepped forward, eyes intently on Elisa, and then let out a meow.
“My sister would like to hear more,” Sekhmet said. “After.”
“Am I the only one who wants to know what the fuck happened here?” I asked, then gestured to Sharon and Hekate in turn. “To them?”
“The force within,” Sekhmet said, eyes still on the scepter. “It is powerful, calls upon others, brings them to this place. When they are close, it reveals their darkest sides.”
I nodded, kneeling next to Sharon and helping her up. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Sharon’s eyes rose to meet mine. “It always is.”
“She’s right,” Hekate said. “The darkness is within… we need to fight, to keep it out.”
“It’s without,” Sekhmet said, “like an evil flame that can and must be extinguished.
“What exactly are we fighting here?” I asked.
Sekhmet glanced over at Hekate, disdain in her voice as she said, “You saw what she was capable of, with the skeletons? That, but far worse.”
Fighting evil Legends was one thing. Going up against an army of the undead? That freaked me the fuck out.
Still, I held Excalibur at the ready, and nodded. No point in delaying any further.
“Oh, and when this is over,” Sekhmet said, leaping off of the sarcophagus and giving me an appraising look, “put your shirt back on. I’ve been hundreds of years without a man, and the sight of you half-naked is bound to cause some trouble, if you know what I mean.”
I stared after her as she exited, quite confused by that remark and even more so by the way she—from the back—looked like a normal, petite and scantily clothed, Egyptian woman. And let’s all be honest about the fact that Egyptian women can be damn fine. Damn. Fine. It was a weird thought, knowing that she had the face of a lioness.
Pucky chuckled as she walked by, looking me over too. “You are looking hot,” she admitted, and winked.
“I’m not just a piece of meat,” I called after them, then stiffened as Red slapped my ass and Sharon and Elisa chuckled.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was just a piece of meat to them—that was fine, because when this was over, I was going to remind them that I was the finest quality meat they’d ever tasted.
But yeah, fighting an undead army first. Yay.
35
It wasn’t until we reached the entrance to another room—much larger and too dark to see the ceiling or far wall, filled with more intricately designed pillars—that Bastet hissed and Sekhmet held up a hand.
“Be wary,” she said. “Isis has waged war on me… it’s here she’ll attack.”
“Isis?” I asked, confused. “Wasn’t she the goddess of birth or something?”
“Originally, yes—fertility and healing. Until she became corrupt, ran off with my lover and, well…” Sekhmet took a deep breath, lioness eyes flashing in anger as she worked to regain her composure. “It was nasty, the way she’d slaughter others, such as Luasaas, Mut-Shet, and more, to take on their powers and become the monster she is today. She swore an oath to destroy me and absorb my Ichor as well.”
“So getting out of here is as much an escape mission for you as it is for us to get you out so you can help track down Morganna?”
She shrugged. “Win-win, as you say.”
The cat gave me a curt glance, then moved toward the entrance to the room. She paused, lifting her paw to touch what had been an invisible wall but now shimmered purple and green.
“Are we ready?” Sekhmet asked. “Once we go through this barrier, all hell will break loose.”
“Ready,” Red said.
Elisa was about to answer, when I raised a hand. “This Isis… Dark hair, covered in tattoos that glow?”
“She can take on many forms,” Sekhmet replied, looking at me with curiosity. “But yes, that would be her base form. You’ve met?”
“Only briefly,” I replied with a shudder, noting the knowing look from Pucky. “I’d be just fine never meeting her again.”
“I can’t promise that, but I’ll be sure to tear her throat out first chance I get, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Actually,” looking at her, I had to admit, “it does.”
“Let’s get to it then,” Elisa said, nodding to Excalibur and reminding me to draw the sword, while the others armed themselves as well.
“If she comes a-knocking, I’ll have something for her,” Hekate said with a grin, strolling past the rest of us to join the cat, hand up and fire sparking to life from her fingertips.
“Something tells me I’m going to like you bunch,” Sekhmet said, and then nodded to Bastet.
The cat pushed her paw through, purple magic of the doorway matching her own, and giving me the impression that the barrier had been of her doing and not the other way around. As the barrier faded, a thud like bass dropping hit, then the pillars began to come to life.
“Quickly now!” Sekhmet roared, and we were charging out.
When I say the pillars came to life, I don’t mean they literally did…
but the images carved onto them did. Skeleton warriors clad in gold and carrying curved blades leaped out, alongside mummies and winged cats.
Working our way out of the tomb was like shrinking down and charging through a hornet’s nest. Dark magic was clearly at work here, and by that I mean the type that had watched too many Saturday morning cartoons. Armies of skeletons and mummies, bones clattering and groans echoing lurched into view. Spiders and what I had to assume were flesh-eating beetles crawled out of the walls, and this time it wasn’t in our minds, no illusions here. Now that Sekhmet and Bastet weren’t keeping the darkness at bay, it was throwing all manner of evil at us.
And then we clashed.
First came the skeletons, bones blasting apart or bursting into flames as we hit them with shots and spells. My sword did a number on them, cutting through bone and leaving them writhing on the floor behind us as we progressed.
My arms grew tired as I tore through skeletons and mummies, each swing of Excalibur starting to weigh down on me. Halfway through the room Hekate sent a new wave of snakes and spiders running with walls of flame, but one made it through. I lifted the sword to take a swing, but the energy simply wasn’t there. If not for a well-placed shot from Pucky’s rifle, which caused the snake’s head to explode even as it lunged for me, I would’ve been in trouble.
I kicked out at a skeleton that came around the next pillar, dodged another’s sickle, then came up and threw my weight into a spinning attack that managed to get my sword into position to stop a mostly-decomposed mummy whose unraveling bandages weren’t staying on in the slightest.
“That’s hardly the worst of it,” Sekhmet said, seeing my exhaustion and frowning in frustration. “You’re sure you’re the Protector?”
“I just started,” I confessed moving forward at her side and annoyed that I had to admit to that at a time like this.
She looked slightly worried, but to her credit said nothing more on the subject. At least, not until a line of light coming from a hole in the ceiling was blocked out by a flying form.
“Whatever you know or don’t know, it’s time to pull up your big boy pants,” Sekhmet said. “She’s here.”
Those wings were clear when passing overhead again, and the flashback of the woman clawing at me in the oasis was enough to give me strength to lift Excalibur. In fact, I realized that her presence—or maybe the fear or excitement of facing her here—was causing my tattoos to glow bright again, and this in turn gave me strength.
Noticing my curious glance down, Elisa took a stance next to me, calling on her brothers so that bursts of light showed first as swans, then three of her brothers in shining armor of blinding light took up the defense, fighting the skeletons and other forces to give us some room.
“When true darkness is close, your light shines through,” Elisa explained. “In a way it’s a sign of danger, because you’d only need the extra strength to face true evil, but hey—better to have the extra burst than not.”
“Damn straight,” I said, adjusting my grip on the sword and watching for any signs of Isis coming back in for a strike.
A gush of wind came first and I thought it was her until two women attacked—one missing half a jaw, both with eyes eaten out long ago and wearing what would’ve otherwise been sexy, gold Egyptian jewelry and very little clothing. Watching mummy movies I’d always known there was a hot actress underneath the makeup, making even these scenes hot. Let me tell you right now that the reality is quite different. Even when one of their breasts fell out during an attack, nipple almost hitting me in the face, it was probably the farthest from “hot” I could imagine. These long-dead ladies were reanimated corpses fighting on the side of my enemies.
Yeah, not hot.
I thrust with Excalibur only to be blocked by their curved blades, very similar to Sekhmet’s. One went for a leg sweep and I went down, totally caught off-guard by how fast they were.
Flashing flames cut through one of them, leaving a writhing corpse on the ground, and I looked up to see Sekhmet going for the other. She glanced over and simply pointed behind me while preparing a strike.
When I spun around, I was face to face with Isis. She’d just struck Pucky, who now had three of these dead-women minions on her.
A clawed hand came for my throat but I swung upward with Excalibur and caught her—not hard enough, as the blade stuck in her flesh and stopped on bone. Shit, how hard did people swing these things to be able to cut an arm off? She roared and lunged, pinning me down with the blade still in her, my team and our recent additions fighting off the other monsters in all directions and unable to come to my aid.
It was time to prove I could carry my weight. Hell, I still wondered what made me so special anyway. What was it about being a Protector that gave me any advantage in a fight that, say, Jean-Claude wouldn’t have? I certainly couldn’t do spinning jump kicks like he could. But I had this sword, and some strange glowing tattoos… that had to mean something.
I pushed back, focusing my energy into the light and away from sheer force, and my tattoos glowed brighter—so bright, in fact, that Isis had to pull back to cover her eyes. That gave me the moment I needed to roll out from under her and regain my sword.
One massive swing of Excalibur and I had the rest of her arm off! I was going for the neck, but she managed to throw her remaining arm up in a blocking motion. But this wasn’t some ordinary Legend, this was a goddess who had taken others’ powers into her own, and so it made sense on some strange level when her blood splattered out into shapes of mini-demons that started in on me.
My sword was of light, pure, so it cut them down, but I was backing away as she recovered and flew into the sky, hand outstretched and eyes turning to flames. The room spun and the flames and bursts of light and skeletons were all a blur of darkness and blotches of colors. She was trying to pull me back to the spirit realm, the Fae land.
Since she had an advantage there, I wasn’t having it.
“No!” I shouted, swiping with Excalibur, and then I was charging in the direction of the flapping of her wings, swiping to try and hit more of those demons as I went. One spot of brightness became viewable in that moment—my screen saying I’d leveled up to five, though no new Ichor points to assign. I’d take what I could get.
Darkness surrounded me and my last step sent me falling into nothingess—except that my sword caught her, or something, and it was like a climbing hold stuck into the side of a mountain as I clung on desperately, my only means of not falling.
Her shrieks echoed above all other sounds, and she flapped, rising high with me attached. My vision returned as she lost focus, and I saw two of the swan brothers running toward the spot I had been, directly below me now. Knowing what I had to do, I grabbed my sword with both hands, flung my legs up, and kicked out. The blade came free and I fell…
Caught by the two brothers as they flew up, partially shifted between swan and human. We were soon on the ground again and running. I realized my team was ahead of us, Hekate and the other newcomers taking up the rear.
“Get out of here!” Sekhmet said, motioning as she slid across the ground, fiery blades cutting through a sphinx and setting it aflame.
I did as she commanded, no questions asked. More dark forms appeared in our path, Shades and several men with the heads of dogs, but we made mincemeat out of them and were through. Turning, I saw Sekhmet go full lioness mode, tearing through one more of them and then leaping to meet Isis mid-air—the two pummeled down as Bastet made it through the doorway, and then Sekhmet was right behind her.
Isis was up and coming in fast, Sekhmet leaping and Bastet hissing. A clawed hand reached out for Sekhmet’s tail, and then Sekhmet was on our side, Bastet letting out a sound like a high-pitched meow. Isis slammed up against a translucent purple barrier.
She stood glaring at us, blood still dripping from her one arm, and opening her mouth to yell—but no sound made it through.
“She’s trapped,” Sekhmet said, returning to her huma
noid form with the lion face. “That barrier will hold her… for now. She’s not strong enough to break out on her own.”
I turned, pulling up my screen to quickly assign my new prana, but just as I was finishing Elisa said, “We’re not done yet.”
Sure enough, more of those monsters—the men with dog faces, some wearing loincloths, others hanging out for the world to see—were approaching. I closed my screen and charged, no hesitation in this moment. The last thing I wanted was for Isis to somehow break out of there.
“Weaken them,” Hekate said, “but keep as many alive as possible.”
“You’re not making sense!” I shouted, already stabbing through a mummy with my sword and then kicking it off.
“Just do it!”
I growled, backing off and working on disarming them instead, making non-lethal strikes when possible, while the others worked their magic.
“Now!” Hekate said, and she stepped forward with hands extended. Green tendrils shot out into the surrounding throng of monsters.
“You fight for me now!” she declared, and then pulled. Sure enough, the green snapped back, hitting monsters on the way and leaving those of the undead variety with green, glowing eyes. “Attack your brothers and sisters! Destroy those who I have not claimed!”
The skeletons and mummies turned on the others, to the point that the winged beasts and other animals soon tucked tail and fled. We gave chase, Pucky shooting down a good number of them, my prana points coming in hot and fast to the point that I’d just leveled up to six, and Sharon was howling in victory.
It finally calmed down, and Hekate’s converted warriors trickled back over to us, where they stood, awaiting their next command.
“We have our army to keep this place under our control,” Hekate said. “They’ll guard the barrier from this side… at least as long as I’m alive. You’re welcome.”