Demigod

by Sam Ryder

  Not if I have anything to say about it, I thought.

  The Viss’s many eyes locked on where we waited for it to notice us. The twin slits between its eyes flared and emitted the eerie keening sound. Here in our underground confines, the sound was painfully loud.

  The Viss snapped its beak at us, rows of teeth clashing. Eve said, “You fought one already. Any advice?”

  “Don’t telegraph your attacks. Feints work well.”

  She nodded, while Vrill added, “And watch out for its beak. They use them like swords.”

  Right on cue, the Viss whipped its head back and then slung it sharply back in our direction. There was a disgusting sucking sound as the corpse slid free of its mount and flew, flopping, in our direction. I stepped forward and raised my hand to ward off the dead body. The poor guy’s jaw hit my forearm and his head snapped back. He landed with a thump on the ground, blood still leaking from a multitude of wounds.

  Footsteps pounded behind us and I half-turned to find dozens of Lri Ay arriving, armed and ready for battle. The distraction was almost my undoing.

  The Viss moved with impressive silence in the wake of its eardrum piercing cry. “Look out!” Vrill shouted and I ducked instinctively. The beak flashed past, gouging into the wall, breaking stones that tumbled around my feet. In this close, my hammer was useless, so I grabbed its beak on the rounded side, careful not to sever my own arm on the bladelike underside. There was only one thing to do.

  I lifted my feet.

  It was funny, in a way. I felt like an oversized kid on the playground, swinging like a monkey from the, er, monkey bars.

  Except these monkey bars were alive and trying to kill me. Also, these monkey bars were not secured to the ground. Which meant my bulk and gravity were on my side. Though the Viss was fiercely strong, its beak dipped precariously and it was all I could do to not slide off. Thankfully, my two companions were pros at monster fighting, so they knew exactly what to do.

  They tore the motherfucker up.

  Eve stabbed it through one of its eyes with her borrowed sword, while Vrill drew her own twin blades and threw them in short succession. Rather than the eyes, she aimed for the breathing slits. One of her blade missed narrowly but still embedded itself in the creature’s flesh, while the other lodged itself directly into one of the slits, like a natural sheath.

  The Viss didn’t like that very much, issuing an even higher-pitched keening sound that, from this close, very nearly shattered my eardrums for real. A sharp pain arose between my eyebrows, but I ignored it, dropping from the bastard’s beak and raising my hammer, bringing it down. There was a crunching sound and the Viss’s beak cracked. Which unfortunately only made it screech even more, making me want to gouge my own eyes out. (And, had I had any hair, pull it out one hair at a time.) I slammed my hammer down one more time and the beak shattered, half of it falling free, teeth spilling forth and tinkling to the ground.

  Vrill released her own war cry and charged, weaponless, leaping onto the Viss’s head and hanging tight. She grabbed each of her daggers one at a time and wrenched them out, blood spurting her in the face. Then she began to stab. Again and again, taking out each orange-glowing eye until there was none. At some point, the creature lost its strength and toppled over with Vrill on top, still hacking away.

  It was some major overkill, years of pent up frustration and rage pouring out of the woman I’d known to be as kind as she was fierce. I didn’t try to stop her, because sometimes one just needed to get it out.

  Another keening sound rent the world in two, which finally made Vrill stop. She looked back at me, blood-splattered and wild-haired.

  “What is their total population?” I asked, to no one in particular.

  Delaqua, who had been hanging back and watching her daughter tear the asshole up, answered. “Enough that we cannot win. Not if they bring them all.”

  Sounded like the kind of odds we were used to on Tor. “Okay,” I said to the gathered Lri Ay warriors. “Then we need to go on the offensive, fight our way up the tunnel. The sooner we can close that portal the better. We have the advantage in here. This is your turf and their speed advantage is lost in these tight spaces. They’ll only be able to fight us one Viss at a time. Keep your energy up. When you get tired, drop back to rest and let another take your place. We rotate regularly. Understood?”

  Though I was an outsider, the Lri Ay nodded their agreement. Perhaps it was because of how big I was, or because they’d seen me crush the dead Viss’s beak in half. Whatever the case, we were all on the same page.

  The next Viss tumbled erratically from the tunnel, which meant we’d already lost a valuable opportunity to gain some ground. Several of the Lri Ay raised decent quality bows and Vrill said, “Duck.” Eve, Vrill and I lowered ourselves to the ground, which meant I got a whiff of the dead Viss corpse. It smelled of rotting things and the coppery tang of blood. Blech.

  The Lri Ay bowstrings sang and a half-dozen arrows zipped past.

  Eyeballs popped, but this time I was ready for the mind-numbing cry, clamping my hands over my ears to deaden the sound. The latest Viss, now missing half its eyes, sprang forward desperately. One of its shoulders scraped the wall, stone crumbling in its wake. I was the first to rise, taking advantage of the little bit of space I had this time around, winding up like Babe Ruth after pointing to the left field bleachers.

  I swung hard enough to wreck a building Rampage style. The Viss was smart enough to realize it was about to lose its head, so it lifted one of its T-rex forelegs, long hooked claws flashing.

  Bones crunched and tendons snapped as I knocked the foreleg clean off its body, the claw slamming into its own face and popping yet another eye. The swing had been so hard that the follow through spun me around, leaving me vulnerable to its other foreleg, which it slashed with. The claw would’ve slid straight into my abdomen if not for my armor. Even still, the blade-like claw pierced my armor and was long enough to break my skin.

  I repositioned my hammer and brought it crashing down on the second arm, which was stuck on account of the claw being embedded in my metal armor and a portion of my flesh. Like the first, the arm broke free and I staggered back. If not for the burning pain in my gut, the scene might’ve almost been laughable. A deranged armless birdlike creature missing half its eyes standing before a dude with a severed arm sticking out from his stomach. Ha.

  Blood was spurting from both the creature’s stumps so fast it would be dead in moments. Which meant it was desperate, making it even deadlier. It dug its hindlegs into the dirt and exploded forward, using its beak like a spear. Eve, with her supercharged quickness, dodged the attack, the beak sliding safely past. Safe for her, but not for the Lri Ay archer just behind her.

  The woman tried to duck but was a hair too slow and the beak stabbed through her forehead, exiting out the back. Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped, blood already trickling from her lips.

  If any of the other Lri Ay warriors were shocked, they didn’t show it. Clearly this wasn’t their first altercation with the Viss. Instead of mourning their lost comrade, they fell on the Viss with numbers, stabbing it from all sides, not stopping until it was no longer moving save for the occasional twitch.

  My stomach was hurting but I didn’t pull the Viss arm free as it was currently stemming the flow of blood from my wound. Plus, we didn’t have time to regroup, not if we were going to make my plan work. So instead I yelled, “Forward!” and ran for the tunnel’s entrance, which was darker than I remembered. I tromped into the passage, trying to gain as much ground as possible before faced with the next foe. I realized why the tunnel appeared darker: at least half the lanterns had been knocked from the walls, stomped to bits, their flames extinguished.

  Keening cries pierced the tunnel’s typically silent firmament.

  They were close.

  I continued to run, my breathing heavy as the effort of defeating the first two enemies combined with the uphill climb began to take its toll. I could hear foo
tsteps behind me—Vrill and Eve, most likely. I needed to make sure I listened to my own advice and rested when necessary, but for now I wanted to give the people behind me hope.

  The next Viss was coming down the slope just ahead of me on all fours, claws clacking against the hard ground. Its eyes narrowed slightly when it spotted me. While I watched, it purposely slapped another lantern off the wall. The glass shattered on the ground, shards sprinkling my feet.

  With a hiss of air from its breathing slits, the Viss stalked forward. “Come at me, bro,” I growled, gripping my hammer by the shaft like one might hold a battering ram. It was like two storms approaching from opposite directions, poised to come together to create a superstorm of epic proportions. Except the two storms couldn’t co-exist. May the stronger storm win.

  I tried my feint maneuver, pretending like I would smash the blunt edge of my hammer into its head when in reality I was going to wallop him in the stomach.

  The dude was ready for the fake.

  Which meant they were learning from each other’s failures.

  The only problem: they hadn’t been together to watch each other’s demises.

  I didn’t have time to contemplate what that meant—did they share some sort of a telepathic hive mind?—because this one had me by the balls, figuratively speaking. Rather than attempting to block my high fake, it snapped its beak downward, clamping its jaws around my arm before I could drive my hammer into its gut. I tried to fight its strength like an arm-wrestling match, but my Demigod power was no match for this creature. Slowly, it began to bend my arm backwards in the wrong direction, teeth biting through my armor and into my flesh once more.

  If I continued to fight it this way, it would break my arm. I quite liked my arm unbroken, so I twisted my body in such a way that went with its momentum, like steering in the direction of your car’s skid on an icy road until you could regain control. I also simultaneously dropped to one knee and ducked my head to make my back relatively flat—like a tabletop.

  The Viss’s momentum caused it to flip over my back while its teeth were still dug in deep on my arm.

  Can you picture it? Yeah.

  With its head stuck in one place and its body moving too fast in a complete other direction, its neck contorted viciously.

  There was an audible SNAP! as its neck broke. The sound was as satisfying as it was cringeworthy, mostly because I was the one getting chomped on. The creature became, literally, dead weight, tumbling past me and down the slope toward my friends. Which meant that because its teeth were still burrowed into my flesh, it dragged me with it. I toppled over backwards and then skidded several feet until it came to rest.

  “Holy fuck,” Eve said, staring at my chewed-on arm, the ragged flesh visible through a breach in the armor.

  “Go,” I said, not wanting my rather quick victory to be for naught.

  “But your arm.”

  “Will be fine. Delaqua will take care of it.”

  “Yes,” Vrill’s mother agreed, close behind and hearing our conversation.

  Eve’s chin firmed up. “Fine. But don’t puss out on us.”

  I laughed. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Vrill and Eve charged up the tunnel with dozens of Lri Ay warriors behind them. Yep, that’s right. The two women who’d been archrivals for over two years were now, together, leading the pack. Unbelievable.

  I heard more keening shrieks echoing down the passageway, so I said to Delaqua, “Hurry. Please.”

  “Give me your hammer,” she said. I blinked, looking down at my fist, which was somehow still clamped around my hammer’s shaft. One by one, I released my fingers, which ached at the knuckles from gripping my weapon so hard. I watched as Delaqua struggled to lift the heavy iron weapon. Eventually she just dragged it the two feet she needed, angling the shaft so that she could shove the top end into a narrow space between a part of the Viss’s teeth and my arm. Then she began to pry.

  It didn’t budge, the teeth stuck fast in the metal and flesh. I used my opposite arm to help her, lending her a portion of my strength.

  Oh shit, that hurt. I gritted my teeth, closing my eyes as flashes of light caused by the pain erupted in my head. “Arrr,” I said, doing my best pirate impression as the dead Viss’s jaws began to open, its teeth pulling free. At first it was a slow process, but as the friction lessened, the teeth began to slide out more rapidly until they tore free completely. The white-fleshed creature’s head flopped gruesomely to the side.

  “Ow,” I said, the understatement of the year. My arm burned, slick with blood. I could see a portion of my bone, which had divots in it from where the teeth had left their mark. “Can you stop the bleeding?” I asked.

  “Yes. But you cannot fight until it heals.”

  “Listen, Delaqua,” I said. “If I wait until it heals I’ll be killed by the Viss when they come storming down that tunnel. We’ll all be killed. So thanks for looking out for me, but this is war. Stop the bleeding, slap me on the ass, and send me back into battle.”

  “Slap you on”—she motioned to my behind—“the buttocks?”

  Oh geez, maybe she and her daughter had even more in common than I realized. “It was just an expression. I just mean get me back out there as soon as possible.”

  No longer hung up on the confusing nature of human expressions, she got to work. First she ripped off a generous portion of her long dress, revealing those mile-long legs that had captivated me during my threesome with her and Vrill. She folded the fabric over three times to thicken it and then wrapped it around my arm tightly before tying it off. “This is only temporary. It will not fully stop the bleeding. You need complete medical attention as soon as possible.”

  “Understood, doc. I’ll be back as soon as the portal is closed and then you can pamper me all you want.”

  With that, I fought to my feet, pain surging up my arm and causing dark spots to dance before my vision. I steadied myself and blinked them away. And then I strode up the tunnel, favoring my left arm, which is the one unfortunate enough to get chomped on.

  I found the first body about twenty steps up the slope. My heart skipped a beat as I saw the dark skin. Not Eve, but could it be…

  I released a whistling breath when I quickly realized it was a male. Was it bad to be relieved to see that a dead person wasn’t the one you thought it might be? Maybe, on some level, but if you were called in to a morgue to identify a body believed to be your best friend, or lover, or relative, would you not be relieved to find it to be a complete stranger instead?

  Yeah, that’s how I felt seeing that the dead person was one of the many Lri Ay I didn’t know personally. Three steps further was the corpse of the Viss that had killed this poor guy. It had numerous wounds that had leaked blood everywhere, pooling beneath it. A one for one trade—which was not bad, all things considered. This was war. There would be casualties. The trick was making them count.

  Arm screaming at me, I pounded up the slope, the shouts of battle growing closer, punctuated occasionally by a burst of the high-pitched keening from one of the Viss.

  It took me longer than expected to reach the fray, which was a good thing because it meant the others had made progress toward the portal. However, now it appeared things had stalled and I soon found out why. At first I pushed my way through toward the front of the throng, but once some of the Lri Ay realized I’d caught up they parted for me. Many of the warriors were blood-spattered and injured. They also looked exhausted, like they might pass out at any second. I found Eve partway through the crowd. She was favoring her left arm and had a deep gash on her right cheek from the edge of her eye to her chin. It was weeping blood which sheeted down her cheek and dripped from her jawline. Truth be told, the injury made her look even more badass than usual.

  Beyond her three of the Lri Ay, including Vrill, fought TWO of the Viss. Hence the stall in our progress forward. The Viss had figured out a way to even the odds a bit. Which meant they were smarter than I was giving them credit for
. They’d realized the ceiling was taller than the passageway was wide, so while they couldn’t stand two Viss next to each other, if one perched on the other’s shoulders they could both fight us at once.

  Now, one of the monsters lashed out with a claw on one side while the other creature slashed from the opposite side. A coordinated attack. Maybe they really did share a hive mind.

  Vrill dodged the attack directed at her, one of her blades wicking through the air and severing the offending arm. The clawed hand plonked to the ground. On the opposite side, however, the Lri Ay male wasn’t quick enough. The Viss’s claws plunged into his throat and exited out the back of his neck. His body stiffened as the Viss lifted him in the air. Then it cocked its arm back and launched him right at the rest of our group. Reacting on instinct alone, I lunged forward and caught the body before he could be used as a projectile to break any of the others’ bones. The man’s eyes locked on mine as he gagged on his own blood. He was trying to speak, to say something to me, but there was simply too much blood in his airways. Instead, he managed one more sucking breathing and then his eyes fluttered closed as he died.

  Damn these Viss! I wanted to scream, but it wouldn’t do us any good. Instead, I placed the guy’s body on the ground, turned to Eve and said, “You good?” and then, when she nodded, I charged back into the fray, adrenaline pumping.

  My left arm was useless now, but I had no trouble wielding my heavy hammer with only one hand, which was my dominant one anyway. I raced past Vrill, who cried something like, “Sam, wait!” but I was in rage-mode now, determined to blast my way through these bastards even if it killed me.

  I ducked a slash attempt by the top Viss, the one who’d lost a hand to Vrill’s slick maneuver, and then slammed my hammer butt-end first into the bottom Viss’s nose slits. A whoosh of air shot out like an exhalation from a dolphin’s blowhole. The Viss recovered quickly, snapping at me with its jaws, but I managed to get the business end of my hammer in the way, and instead the ugly asshole chomped on thick metal. Which made me do something that would’ve been impossible and rather stupid before I was upgraded to Demigod.