Endless Flight

by A. C. Cobble

Rhys grunted like he had been punched in the stomach.

  Towaal added, “An incredibly powerful demon that has been feeding on the power of the Rift for millennia. Think about how strong a demon can be after months of feeding. Multiply that by a thousand.”

  “That thing is coming here?” exclaimed the captain of the soldiers. He had drawn close to overhear the conversation.

  “I believe so,” answered Towaal flatly.

  “And what? W-We’re supposed to fight it?” sputtered the captain nervously. Ben hoped the captain’s men weren’t paying attention to him.

  “I will take care of it,” said Towaal, rubbing a hand over the wooden rod she held. “With a little help, I hope. Just keep its minions away from me.”

  Rhys nodded brusquely. “We can do that.”

  “Captain!” called one of the men, pointing across the square.

  Several thin-bodied and long-limbed demons streaked into the open space and were met with a hail of arrows. They quickly fell under the onslaught. Ben knew more would be right behind them. He gripped the hilt of his longsword and waited.

  Soon, another wave of demons burst out of the street and raced across the open square. Flight after flight of arrows soared into the sky and came crashing down into the demons with deadly effect. The stream of darkness did not stop or even slow. More and more of the creatures poured into the open.

  A line of soldiers advanced with pikes and spears lowered. They crouched on one knee and set their weapons like they were meeting a wave of heavy horse.

  Ben winced as the sound of the impact rolled across the square. He could see the silver-grey armor of the men disappear under a crush of demons. A company of men wielding swords and axes rushed to defend their companions. From two hundred paces away, the details were obscured, but the screams and death cries told them all they needed to know.

  Behind Ben, a man was getting noisily sick while his squad sergeant admonished him to get back in line.

  “Should we…” the captain asked Towaal.

  “No,” she replied calmly. “This is just the beginning. We wait.”

  Ben shifted nervously. He hated seeing the soldiers fight while he stayed back. With his training and mage-wrought blade, he could make a difference. He knew it.

  Rhys placed an assuring hand on his arm. “It’s just as important knowing when to fight as how to fight.”

  “They’re getting slaughtered,” Ben groaned.

  “Look,” said Rhys. “I believe Franklin has a plan.”

  More companies of soldiers were pouring into the square directly opposite of Ben and his companions, flanking the demons. A brilliant tactical move, if they had been facing a human opponent.

  Another wave of shouts and crunching armor sounded. Ben looked to see the guard pouring out of the keep. Atop, Lord Rhymer was sheathed in heavy plate mail and was observing his household troops rush out to join the fight.

  “The keep is unprotected,” remarked Ben.

  “Rhymer means to finish the fight in the square. After how easily the demons got through the main gate, I don’t blame him for not wanting to hide behind that one. Besides, if Towaal is right, that’s not where the demons want to go,” answered Rhys. “They want to go here.”

  The ferocity of the fight intensified as more soldiers charged into the battle and demons continued to storm out of the streets leading to the square.

  The men around them began to get antsy. Their friends and neighbors were fighting and they just sat back and watched.

  They didn’t have to just watch for long. On one side of the battle, the line of men bulged and a swarm of twenty demons broke free. They headed straight for the library.

  “Here we go,” called Rhys.

  Ben looked to Towaal, but she was still staring intently toward the street where the demons poured from. Whatever she was waiting on, this wasn’t it.

  Ben, Rhys, and the company of soldiers stepped forward to deal with the charging demons. Ben and Rhys took the lead. The soldiers, noticing the mage-wrought blades, fell in behind them. No one else volunteered to be in the front, facing a demon swarm.

  Charging forward, the two friends cleaved through the first wave of demons in a swirl of flashing steel. Purple blood and the bodies of demons spilled in their wake.

  The soldiers pounced on what was left, swords rising and falling as they took out their frustration on the remaining creatures.

  A few men went tumbling backward, clutching ugly wounds, but the fight was short and brutal. Twenty dead demons lay scattered on the cobblestones.

  “You’re getting good at this,” remarked Rhys. “Another year or two, and you could add a blademaster sigil to that scabbard.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Ben, ruefully shaking his head. “I’m just learning how to fight these things.”

  “Learning how to fight is learning how to fight,” replied Rhys sardonically.

  “Demons are different,” said Ben, wiping purple demon blood from his blade. “They have no cunning, no strategy. A good human opponent will think about your weaknesses and try to exploit them. A demon just comes right at you. That’s the only thing they know how to do. There is no fear, no caution. Once you understand that, it gets rather easy.”

  “Recognizing that and incorporating it into how you fight is a skill,” responded Rhys. “And anytime you think fighting a demon is easy, you have skill. What you’re talking about, that is you thinking through their weakness and altering your attack to take advantage, just like a good opponent should.”

  Ben shrugged, wincing as his injured shoulder moved. He supposed Rhys was right.

  “Behind us!” yelled one of the soldiers.

  They all spun in time to see several winged demons dropping off the roof of the library and landing in their midst. The demons were right next to Towaal.

  The mage crouched in alarm. Ben and Rhys rushed to defend her.

  Two soldiers went down, landing near her feet. She staggered backward. Then Ben and Rhys arrived, chopping down a demon from behind. The soldiers took care of the rest of them, but several human bodies joined the fallen demons on the ground.

  Rhys barked out orders to the men to circle up and keep eyes in all directions. The captain of the soldiers stood by, stunned. A tenth of his command was already dead and his sword was still spotless. The pace of the battle was too much for the man.

  “Why didn’t you,” Ben waved a hand in front of Towaal, “Do something?”

  She winced. “I’m still weak from the Wilds. I have to conserve everything I have to face what is coming.”

  He frowned. It had been weeks since she fell unconscious in the Wilds. Certainly she had recovered by now.

  A new roar drew his attention away from Towaal. Ben turned to see a dozen arch-demons enter the square. They stood twice Ben’s height. Even from a distance, he could see the claws extending from powerful hands. They had thick muscle-covered chests and shoulders which spanned the width of a wagon. They looked bigger and stronger than anything they’d faced in the Wilds.

  “Get ready,” murmured Towaal. “The leader will be close behind these.”

  “T-That isn’t the…” stuttered Ben. He was cut short when another wave of normal-sized demons began racing their way.

  The soldiers in the square were starting to break with the arrival of the arch-demons. Ben saw several men turn to flee. Their captains exhorted them to stay in the lines, but a pack of creatures standing twice the height of a man was enough to turn anyone’s spine to jelly.

  Ben left Towaal’s side to join the soldiers and Rhys. He saw one of the arch-demons scoop up a wagon and launch it high into the air. It crashed into a squad of solders, sending them flying like lawn bowling pins.

  “Shit,” muttered the captain under his breath. The men behind him weren’t quite as polite about it.

  Ben met Rhys’ eyes.

  Towaal called up to them, her voice barely audible above the screams and fighting in the square. “I will not be able to
assist with these.”

  “Whatever you did with that blade before, it’s time to do it again,” said Rhys. His longsword was steadily glowing brighter and brighter. It might have been Ben’s imagination, but silver smoke appeared to drift off and away from the blade. In the dark of the night, it would have been impossible to see without the glowing runes lighting the faint tendrils.

  The soldiers took a step back from Rhys. The rogue ignored them. He was focused on the swarming demons in front of them and the larger arch-demons who were quickly catching up. They were all headed directly toward the library.

  “I don’t know how I did that,” admitted Ben.

  “You used your instinct,” responded Rhys. “Remember, anything in this world is possible if you have the will to do it.”

  Slowly, Ben followed his instinct and took a tentative step forward.

  “There we go,” encouraged Rhys, taking a step to match Ben.

  Ben felt himself sliding into the sense of calm he’d felt earlier in the fight near the gates. There was no time to turn, no time to run. Fighting the evil creatures charging across the square was the only choice. It was simple.

  He took another step then broke into a jog. Delay was pointless. The sound of the wind filled his head again.

  It wasn’t the soft, subtle breeze that stirred the leaves on a sunny spring day. This was the sound of a storm howling through the bare branches of winter’s trees, a screaming gale blasting down the mountainous ravines and valleys that surrounded Farview. It was the sound of home, the sound of a place that had no ruler but its own, it was the sound of defiance.

  Rhys followed in Ben’s wake. Behind them, Ben heard the clatter of armor as the company protecting the library fell in. Despite themselves, Ben suspected. But they also had to know that there was only one way to live through this battle. Kill or die. The demons would give no quarter.

  Towaal yelled something, but Ben did not hear. He was entirely focused on the closing wave of demons. Squat, muscular shapes that reached the height of his shoulder were leaping and bounding forward. They were closing quickly, only fifty paces away.

  At twenty-five paces, the two sides were rushing forward at full speed, eager to engage and finish it.

  Ben drew his hand back. Still running, he violently swept it across his body, pushing with all of his might at the air in front of him.

  A blast of thunderous wind raced ahead of the charging men and blew into the line of demons like an avalanche. Bodies twisted wildly as they were picked up and scattered backward. They fell on their backs and sides and slid across the cobblestones, pushed by the powerful wind.

  Men surged into the wake of the gale and fell on the fallen and stunned demons. Scores of demons were slaughtered where they lay, too confused to understand what happened to them.

  The arch-demons were the first to recover. They hadn’t been thrown as violently as their smaller fellows, and they quickly rose. They bellowed challenges that shook the foundations of the buildings ringing the square.

  Berserk madness filled Ben’s veins. He ran right at them, his mage-wrought blade drawn back for the first swing.

  Beside him, Rhys ran as well, his longsword now clearly trailing a brilliant streamer of silver smoke.

  Briefly, Ben thought the towering creatures cringed at the sight of the two men. It could have been his imagination. Before he could be sure, he was amongst them.

  He slashed neatly into the first demon’s thigh and kept moving to avoid its sweeping claws. Another spun, trying to catch him, missing with its grasping hands, but fouling his path with extended wings.

  Ben cut at the leathery appendage then jumped to the side, barely avoiding a huge taloned foot, which slammed down where he had been headed.

  Between the legs and wings, he saw Rhys spinning and cutting like a mad dervish. His blazing glyph-covered blade passed through the flesh and bone of the demons with the ease of slicing through cold air.

  Howls and confusion filled the square. Within heartbeats, the massive creatures were stumbling away from Rhys. All of their attention was on the rogue. He and his blade were a blur.

  Ben took advantage and plunged his sword into the spine of an easy target. Twisting, he yanked the weapon free and endeavored to make contact with the crowd around him. The things were so tall it was near impossible to get a killing blow, but the mage-wrought steel cut clean and deep.

  Ducking and spinning, he wasn’t able to avoid the back of one clawed hand whipping down, trying to catch him. It struck him squarely in the face, just above his right eye. The force of the blow sent him flying.

  He ricocheted off the leg of another demon and fell to the ground, stunned. Blood poured into his right eye. Blinking furiously, he scrambled to his feet. Out of his one good eye, he could see a third of the monsters had been felled. One by him and the rest by Rhys. The others surrounded him.

  Abandoning his attack, Ben jumped away from one huge beast. He was engulfed from behind by another’s wing. The leathery skin tumbled him forward and he was rolling across the cobblestones. Animal instinct took over. He twisted away as a massive foot stomped down a hand’s length away from him.

  Ben was on his back, staring up at a demon twice his height. It was directly over him, legs spread on either side. Its huge head was tilted down and he looked into its soulless eyes. A human would have sneered at him. The demon just raised its foot, ready to crush out his life.

  A spear punched into its abdomen and the creature howled.

  Ben shoved himself back, pushing with his heels and elbows.

  Armored men swarmed around him, thrusting polearms into the arch-demon then getting clobbered by its heavy arm. Half a dozen of the men were swept away like crumbs brushed off a table. More men surged forward behind them. Through the blood staining his vision, Ben recognized the captain. He’d finally gotten into the fight.

  Ben lurched to his feet and stumbled away from the fighting. His vision was swirling and brilliant flashes of color pulsated in front of him. He tried to wipe the blood out of his eye and ignore the ringing bell that filled his head.

  Originating from where the demon had struck his skull, waves of nausea roiled his body. He hung his head and dropped to one knee.

  As he was going down, a sharp and painful tug caught the back of his tunic and spun him around. He crashed onto his back in time to see a squat, muscular demon leaping forward to land on him. It wasn’t one of the massive arch-demons, but it was big enough.

  A heavy foot slammed onto his sword arm. Ben quickly realized struggling to free the arm was useless. The demon weighed twice what he did, and from his back, he had no leverage.

  The creature opened its maw wide and descended to tear out Ben’s throat. He could feel its awful breath on face.

  With his left hand, he yanked out his hunting knife and whipped it up into the demon’s jaw. He shoved as hard as he could to punch through the tough flesh.

  A hand’s length from his face, he saw his steel slide through the bottom to the top of the demon’s open mouth, ending with three fingers of the knife buried in its brain.

  A shower of foul, purple blood dripped down onto his face. The heavy creature’s body collapsed on him.

  Struggling weakly, Ben tried to wiggle out from under the weight. He was trapped. His sword arm was now free, but the other hand was pinned underneath the demon, still gripping his hunting knife. He managed to push its head off to one side so its blood was no longer drenching his face, but he couldn’t get out from under it.

  His breath was coming short and fast, his ribcage unable to expand with the weight on top of him.

  Ben felt a thump through the cobblestones and turned to look. One of the arch-demons was walking toward him. Broken spearheads and wounds from the soldier’s swords marred its body, but none of those soldiers were in Ben’s field of vision now. The demon had an unobstructed route to him, and he couldn’t move. Pinned beneath the creature on top of him, he had no way to defend himself. He panicked,
knowing that death was just moments away.

  With a reserve of strength he didn’t know existed, he made a final, determined effort to pull loose. Bit by bit, he exerted everything he had and was able to pull his left hand free. With both hands in the open, he shoved down on the dead creature and slid himself out from under it.

  He scrambled across the cobblestones, searching for his sword. The approaching arch-demon was just a long stride away when Ben turned to face it. He saw his longsword now, behind the approaching monster, too far to reach. His knife was still buried in the dead demon at his feet.

  The wind he felt earlier wasn’t in his head. He realized it was tied to the sword. Without the weapon in his hand, he couldn’t pull the same trick.

  Scrambling backward, he looked for anything he could try to defend himself with, but he knew it was too late. The massive demon roared, and Ben cringed, imagining the pain when those arm-length teeth ripped his body apart.

  Suddenly, a spear of silver light burst through the front of the demon’s chest then drew back. Surprised, the creature dropped to its knees, right in front of Ben.

  Ben jumped away, knowing that if he got trapped under that one there was no way he could get out from under it.

  Slowly, the demon toppled forward.

  Ben smiled when he saw Rhys standing behind it, blazing silver longsword held shakily in front of him.

  “You look like shit,” muttered Rhys, sinking down to his knees, clearly exhausted.

  Around them, a score of the remaining soldiers all watched silently. A dozen arch-demons, each twice the height of a man, were dead. Limbs the thickness of Ben’s torso lay neatly severed next to bodies that had razor clean stab wounds and lacerations. Thin tendrils of silver smoke curled away from many of the brutal injuries.

  The fighting continued in the square around them, but in the immediate area, it was clear. The smaller demons were either scared of the arch-demons or scared of Rhys. The other soldiers made for easier targets.

  “Did you do all of that?” panted Ben, glancing at the carnage.

  Rhys, shoulders and body slumped, shivers running violently through him, didn’t answer.