Hero of Fire

by P. E. Padilla

  Kate put them all out of her mind. She had a task, and she needed to concentrate on the three figures before her.

  The demon lord was muscular as well, not so huge as the demon commander, but bulkier than the mage. His biceps strained against the metal bands encircling his upper arms as he gestured with his right hand and waved his staff about with his left. The head of the staff glowed with power, almost as if the center was on fire. His attire looked the most unreasonable of the three, a simple loin cloth hanging from an ornately worked metal belt around his waist, knee-height metal greaves covering his lower legs, and boots covering his feet. Other than that, the only thing he wore was a worked necklace hanging to the middle of his chest, the center dominated by a white gem.

  Since Kate could see him more closely now than she had before, she noted that the horns on his head were in the rough shape of a crown. They seemed to be made of the same bony material as all demon horns, but they swept up and slightly back in a regal fashion with another glowing stone—this one yellow—somehow set in the middle as if the horns had grown up and around the gem. The color matched the solid hue of Thozrixith’s eyes, but whether because he was wielding power or because they were always that way, Kate wasn’t sure.

  She shifted her weight from foot to foot as she inspected the three, anticipating the movements she would make.

  The demon commander’s head snapped toward Kate and she froze.

  Had it seen her? She waited as the monstrosity scanned the area in which she stood. Its eyes didn’t stop on her, instead sweeping past without focusing. Maybe it had sensed her somehow. Perhaps it was a side effect of the stones Arkith made. It was nice to know that even if it counteracted the firestones, it didn’t interfere with Molara’s blinding stones. Not completely, anyway.

  But Kate had delayed enough. The gap between the leaves of the gate was widening, and soon Thozrixith would give the order for the demons to attack. Kate looked to where her team had been and saw them edging closer to the opening and their own world.

  She needed to act now, to create their diversion. She pulled her death mask onto her face.

  Kate went within herself, breathing deeply and preparing her mind. With a final calming breath, she slowly drew her sword and tightened the grip on her shield. She cast a thought to her family; to Dante; to her new family, the Black Command; and then she committed.

  She lunged at the trio still standing there looking at the slowly opening gate.

  It was time to kill…and maybe, too, it was time to die.

  38

  Kate had no delusions that she would emerge from this battle alive. She was fine with that. The one thing she did insist on for herself was to kill Arkith, so he couldn’t make any more of the anti-firestones, and Thozrixith, so his plan would fall apart. Nothing else mattered.

  The stone the mage had made was the problem. As long as the demon commander wore it, Kate didn’t think she’d be able to hurt it. Though she couldn’t really care less if the demon lived or died, it would obviously step in to protect the higher-level demons. Because of that, it had to die. And it had to die first.

  Kate had a plan for that. In fact, her first move was designed to deal with the demon commander.

  She lunged in, not caring at that point if her rapid movements created sound or a rush of wind that could be detected. She was already committed. Things would fall as they may.

  Her first slash was accurate, traveling horizontally across the demon commander’s throat. Actually, it was just to the side of the throat. The target wasn’t the creature’s flesh at all, but something much more important.

  Her precise strike severed the cord holding the anti-firestone, and the talisman tumbled to the ground. Though the blade scraped along the demon’s flesh, no damage was done. Not even the thin line of a scratch was visible. The stone must have protected it.

  But now the protection was gone, and Kate planned to take advantage of it.

  Looping her sword in a lopsided figure eight, she used the force and speed it already had and changed the direction to come from the other side of the demon, from her left to right. The target this time was the creature’s neck. She struck at it with all her might, not only using her arms and shoulders but rotating her hips to gain power.

  She expected to see the demon commander’s head leave its body.

  It didn’t. Instead, Kate’s sword stopped instantly, as if she had struck a stone wall. The vibrations that jumped through the steel threatened to tear the blade apart and almost made her lose her grip.

  The demon grunted and then opened its mouthful of sharp teeth in a horrible smile. There was not a mark on its neck where the blade had struck.

  Kate was in real trouble. She had assumed the stone needed to be in contact with the demon for it to work. She realized now that the firestones didn’t work that way, and it seemed silly for her to believe the anti-firestones would.

  She had thrust herself into combat with three high-level demons who were invincible. The only advantage she had was that, at the moment, she was still invisible to them.

  That wouldn’t help her for long.

  The demon commander flipped its huge sword up into its hands. Its eyes scanned the area in front of it, looking for what had attacked it. Kate had leaped back when her attack failed, but she was still within range of the sword that was as long as she was tall.

  Thozrixith’s right hand flared and was instantly engulfed in flame. His staff glowed with a wicked power that Kate knew meant nothing good for her. Arkith began gesturing with his hands and chanting something. In a few seconds, Kate would die without even injuring any of the demons.

  She racked her brain for what to do. Could she make a run for it? She didn’t know what Arkith was casting, and she didn’t know how much longer the invisibility stone would have power. She had expected it to have lost its effect already.

  The thought came into her head and she acted immediately, not analyzing but just moving her body into position.

  She charged in again, getting perilously close to the demon commander’s blade. She drew back her sword, ready to swing. The move had to be timed perfectly, or she would be detected and killed within a second.

  She swung her sword, but not at any of the demons. Her target was much smaller.

  Kate’s aim was true. She struck the small stone on the ground in front of her with the edge of her sword. On contact, it shattered, throwing dark light and shards everywhere.

  The movement had alerted the commander to where she must be. It moved its giant sword much more quickly than should have been possible in an overhand chop. Kate barely sidestepped in time to avoid being cut down the middle.

  As she evaded the sword, she pushed at it with her shield, a dull metal ring echoing around her. She deflected the sword enough to turn the demon commander’s body. Besides putting it off-balance, the move also opened up the demon’s left side to Kate.

  It was time to test the effectiveness of her plan. She prayed that there were not more of the anti-firestones.

  She slashed downward and diagonally, planning to cut the demon commander from chest to trunk.

  Her sword skittered off the demon’s breastplate, but caught flesh in a gap under its arm. A line of green blood appeared, and the demon howled.

  It worked! There was a chance for Kate to actually do some damage.

  The demon commander swept its sword up, gauging the location of the invisible attacker.

  A clang reverberated over the entire area as the sword struck Kate’s shield. Her arm went numb, but she kept her hold on the shield’s handle as she let her body flow with the force, leaving the ground.

  Kate left her feet but tucked her shoulder and her sword as she had practiced, rolling her body. She came to her feet smoothly several feet away, ready to take on her opponent.

  Arkith had finished the spell he had been casting, and red light shot out of his hand. It went through the area where Kate had been, the spot she still would have been had she
not let the demon commander’s strike push her aside.

  Thozrixith still scanned the area, but his eyes were very near Kate’s position. She wasn’t sure if her invisibility was still in effect, but if it was, she needed to take advantage of it before she lost the protection of invisibility.

  Dipping her shoulder, she rolled toward the commander. Its eyes were still focused on the area its massive sword had struck Kate’s shield. She pivoted to the side and lunged in, thrusting her sword straight at the huge demon’s unprotected throat.

  Just as the blade was about to strike, the demon’s eyes went wide and focused on Kate.

  Her invisibility had worn off, but it was too late for the demon. The sharpened steel slid through the muscle and cartilage and punched out of the back of the demon’s neck. As it did, the demon’s left eye twitched and then went slack.

  Kate swept her arm across her body with her full strength, cutting through the demon’s neck until the blade came free.

  The demon commander dropped its sword and stood for a moment, its one good eye rapidly blinking. Then it fell to the ground, its lifeblood pouring out of the ruined neck.

  Kate only saw it in her peripheral vision because she was already moving toward Arkith. The mage gestured wildly, chanting so quickly that Kate didn’t think she would understand him even if she knew his language.

  It was a race. Kate shuffled as fast as she could while still keeping her guard up and Arkith prepared to hit her with his magic.

  She arrived within reach and the mage finished his casting at the same time.

  Kate slashed diagonally downward while holding her shield in front of her. The blade bit deeply into the mage’s left wing, but the explosion of power rammed her shield and threw her back, nearly causing her to lose her protection once again.

  Kate landed on her back, but rolled over backward and onto her feet in an instant. She could smell burned hair, and the top of her head felt raw and hot, but that was something she would worry about later. For the moment, she forced her legs to pump to drive her forward toward the mage again.

  This time, there was no chance for Arkith to finish a spell. He brought his claws up, flame wreathing them, and tried to swipe at the human in front of him.

  Kate dove to her right side just before she got within range of the mage, having seen Thozrixith swing his staff toward her in the corner of her vision. A red beam shot out and blackened the ground where Kate would have been. The demon lord growled what had to be cursing in the demon tongue at her evasion.

  She rolled again, slipping behind Arkith so that the mage was between her and the demon lord. Two more slashes at the injured wing, and she sheared the entire thing from the mage’s body.

  She went in for the kill, but Arkith’s other wing swept out and connected with the side of her shield. It was surprisingly strong, nearly knocking her off her feet, though she angled the shield to deflect most of the force.

  Again, Kate allowed the attack against her to push her body away, flowing with it and rolling as another red beam sliced the air where she had been a moment before. In her peripheral vision, she not only saw Thozrixith maneuvering for a better position to fire his magic at her, but also many of the surrounding troops coming to help. She didn’t have much time.

  One hasty look told her that her team had used the opportunity to sneak up to the gate even as demons were going through to engage the human shield wall. At least she had done that much correctly.

  But she could do more. She had to do more. She needed to kill at least the mage so he couldn’t make any more of the anti-firestones. Assuming her theory was correct that there had been only the one and this was their test battle for it.

  Kate rolled to the side again, narrowly evading another burst from Thozrixith’s staff. This bouncing around between the two demons was going to get her killed. She pivoted and slashed at Arkith again, but this time the demon dodged her blow. He seemed to be casting another spell, but even while evading, his gestures and chanting didn’t cease.

  Kate feinted, lunging in toward Arkith and then changing direction and veering off to her left. The mage was still between the demon lord and herself, so Thozrixith couldn’t bring his staff to bear, but Arkith reacted to the feint as Kate thought he would: he swung his wing out to strike at her.

  She slid under the appendage and sliced upward with her sword, tearing a large rent in the membrane of the wing. Arkith gritted his teeth and his eyes went wide, but he maintained his control and continued to chant, his wing moving almost like it had a mind of its own. Unfortunately for the demon, it didn’t.

  But Kate did.

  She had set herself up in the perfect position for how Arkith moved his injured wing out of harm’s way. As he drew it back in toward his body, Kate struck a powerful downward blow at the joint where the wing folded up.

  A cracking sound announced her blade going through the slender structure of the wing, shearing through it completely and tearing into what was left of the membrane.

  Arkith couldn’t resist. He screamed in pain and rage, losing his focus and aborting the spell.

  Blood dripped from the wing, but not as much as if Kate had cut an arm or a leg. The ruined appendage hung from a few tendons and bits of shredded wing membrane. Arkith was trying to bring the whole thing in to his body, to fold it up for safety, but it was too late. He’d lost most of his control over it.

  The demon glared hatefully at the human. In his glowing eyes was a promise of retribution.

  Kate circled around the mage, keeping out of the line of fire of the demon lord. With a practiced ease, she began to carve Arkith to pieces.

  First she lunged and skewered the mage’s right arm, dousing the flame that was forming in his palm. She turned, using the momentum from her spin to gain power to cut deeply into the same arm, precisely at the hollow on the other side of the elbow. The blade cut cleanly through the arm and separated the hand and forearm from the rest of Arkith’s body. An upward strike opened up the mage’s belly. The quick reversal of the blade’s direction and another turn to gain the necessary power, and Kate sliced through the demon’s neck. She felt the tug as the sharpened steel went through the cartilage, and it pulled free on the other side.

  Arkith’s head toppled from his body.

  Kate had lost track of Thozrixith because of the close combat with Arkith. As she finished the mage, she was free to locate her other enemy.

  He was directly in front of her, his staff alight and flaring its power directly at her.

  Kate brought her shield up to block the ray she knew was coming. She barely got it in place in time. The next thing she knew, she was being thrown off her feet and deposited in a heap two paces away from where she had stood, despite having braced herself.

  The sensation started as a dull ache accompanied by sizzling. Then it flared into what it truly was: the flesh on her forearm was burning with contact with the red hot metal of the shield. If it weren’t for the leather lining, her skin would have been melting and sloughing off in large patches. It hurt like it was.

  She couldn’t throw her shield away, though. It was her only protection. Her sword wouldn’t do for both offense and defense.

  Kate screamed, half in rage and half in pain, her eyes screwed shut to help her focus. She snapped them open and glowered at Thozrixith. The demon lord showed his teeth, smiling or baring his fangs at her. It didn’t matter. She planned on knocking all those sharp, white chompers right out of his mouth.

  With another scream, this one in defiance, Kate charged the demon, sure he couldn’t channel magic through his staff again so soon.

  She was wrong.

  Another flare of the red energy struck her shield and buffeted her to the right. The angle of her shield had saved her from the bulk of the force, but the heat in the metal increased, and Kate’s nose filled with the pungent scent of burning skin.

  Kate used the spin the strike caused and twirled in a circle, barely breaking her stride and her forward momentum. A
s she spun, she threw her sword out and, when she got within range, she whipped it across Thozrixith’s face.

  The demon lord’s head jerked back, and a line of green appeared, grew more pronounced, and then seeped onto his face. A perfect straight cut across his left cheek bled down the side of his head, some getting into his mouth. Unlike many of the demons Kate had bloodied in the past, this one apparently did not like the taste of his own blood. He spat it out and gritted his teeth.

  Kate watched the gem set within the head of Thozrixith’s staff. As soon as it flared again, she slammed her shield into the shaft. The beam of red magic angled off into the sky harmlessly. Too close to use her sword, Kate jabbed her shoulder into the demon’s chest, knocking him off-balance and causing him to fall away from her.

  Once the distance between them opened up as Thozrixith fell, Kate slashed at the demon lord, but he evaded her blow somehow. He countered by swinging up the bottom of his staff and connecting with Kate’s ribs on her right side. She grunted as the air was driven from her, and she felt more than heard several ribs crack.

  The combatants spun away from each other, carefully marking each other’s position. Thozrixith raised his staff as the gem began to flare again.

  Kate had just about had enough of the staff’s magic. She feinted a ram with her shield, making the demon flinch defensively. As he did, she brought her sword around with all her strength in a horizontal slash. Too late, Thozrixith saw what she was doing. He bellowed his own frustration as Kate’s sword went through the staff, lopping off the top. The gem spun away. The glow dissipated, and by the time it hit the ground, it looked like no more than a dull red rock.

  Kate smiled.

  The demon growled, widened his stance, and began to beat at Kate with his staff.

  Kate had thought Thozrixith would be easily dispatched if she put his magic out of commission.

  Wrong again.

  39

  The demon lord seemed to get faster with every swing of his staff, moving fluidly from one strike to the next, but not doing so in a predictable manner. Kate had trained for years and could read opponents and their intended strikes, but the demon pummeled her like she was a child with a toy sword. The only thing keeping her from broken bones was her shield.