by Peter Glenn
Well, that settled that. My shirt would officially have to be thrown away now. Blood stains were a pain to remove.
Damn.
Pain seared through my abdomen as I made a quick lunge at Small Blue’s chest, more to force her backward than damage her. My blade passed through her body as it shimmered and swam right around it.
It was no use. My attacks were useless.
My mind raced, and I freaked out, wondering if I’d finally bit off more than I could chew. How do you kill a fae with a sword if you can’t actually cut it?
Small Blue came at me again with those claws of hers, and I danced backward, smacking into a brownie that was flitting around behind me, trying to kill another tree fae.
The brownie scowled and hurled a bolt of magic at my head. White-hot magic soared past me, and I ducked just in time to feel it whizz over my head. The bolt of power careened into Small Blue’s chest, smacking it dead on.
I smiled as the magic bolt did what I could not. Small Blue’s chest fizzled, and she doubled over in pain.
Small Blue and the brownie both glared at each other, then, so got out of their way and went in search of easier prey. I couldn’t very well cause a distraction dead. Not yet, at least.
I could only hope that LaLuna was having an easier time with all of this than I was.
Another tree fae crossed my path a few moments later with thick, bark-like skin and glowing red eyes. I stabbed it in the back while its attention was caught by another human-esque fae with fanged teeth and club-like hands. The tree withered and died just like the previous one had, and I beckoned for the club-hand fae to strike at me.
Club Hands growled and swung one of his heavy fists right for my head. I ducked under the blow and lunged forward with Grax’thor at the same time. My blade bit into the fae’s abdomen, but only an inch or so. Not enough to do serious damage.
The creature howled anyway and reared backward a step, so I pressed the attack. I made a few wild swipes with my sword, but they all went wide. Club Hands was a wiry little bitch.
He came at me again, this time balling both fists together in a slamming motion, aimed right for my injured core. I danced to the side, but he still caught me on the same arm I’d fallen on earlier, sending a fresh wave of pain radiating out from it. I staggered backward and fell to one knee.
Club Hands lurched forward, and I swung upward in a last ditch effort. My blade sliced deep into one of his arms, leaving behind a large, red mark with blood oozing out of it. Club Hands hissed and howled, rearing backward.
In his anger, he made a backhanded swing for my head. This one, I managed to dodge, but only by bending backward in a precarious position.
Club Hands pressed his advantage and slammed into me, sending me sprawling. Then he grunted and jabbed downward with both fists again, trying to flatten me like a pancake. It was all I could do to roll away. His fists smacked the earth next to me, sending a minor shockwave in their wake that made my body jump.
He swiped at me again and one of his hands grazed my head as I rolled away, trying to scramble to my feet. Stars swam in my eyes as pain seared from the new injury.
Club Hands flung me to the ground once more and straddled my body. My vision was still cloudy, and I could barely make out his outline. He laughed and raised his hands to end me.
I grabbed tight onto my sword and heaved upward in a final attempt to end him before he could succeed.
Grax’thor managed to find a soft spot in his chest, and my blade buried itself deeply, sprouting out his back and sending guts and blood flying everywhere.
Club Hands let out one final growl and fell over, finally unmoving.
Racking coughs erupted from my throat as I spat out a little blood and got to my feet, one hand clutching my stomach wound, which was now throbbing and felt like it was on fire. My eyes scanned the battlefield. I had taken out a few of the fae, and there were several others that had gone down by this point, too. There were maybe a dozen or so left, with Alyta and Elden being chief among them. Neither of them looked like they were even winded.
Great. I was hoping they would have at least worn each other out by now. How was I going to kill them both?
But I had other worries on my mind, too. I scanned through the bodies and rubble a little longer, looking for LaLuna, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. I could only hope that she’d already found the baby and gotten out of here.
Panting, wheezing, and feeling like hell, I gripped Grax’thor in my good hand and made my way over toward the center of the conflict.
“You!” a voice from above me shouted. I thought it belonged to Hera or Heta. I couldn’t tell the two apart, but it didn’t matter, as only one of them was still flying. “You’re mine!”
I cracked my neck muscles and turned to face her, determined to make sure one less djinn survived this conflict. I mean, they don’t even grant three wishes in real life. How bunk is that?
Hera—I decided it was Hera—swooped through the sky, aiming straight for me. I brought my blade up to guard against her taloned hands, and blade clashed against bone.
The force of her downward swing sent me reeling back a half step, but I managed to hold my ground. A fireball came for me next, and I managed to dodge out of the way easily enough. If I ever got out of this, I was going to have to learn ranged weapon combat. Being the only one without a ranged attack was not fun.
Another fireball came for me next, slamming into the ground at my feet. Dirt and fae body parts flew upward, obscuring my vision as one more fireball took out the ground under me. I had a second or two of feeling weightless as my body flew through the air, then I crashed into the earth, falling on top of a dead fae’s body with a loud thud.
My hands scraped against the ground as I tried to right myself, and one of them slipped in what I could only assume was the dead fae’s blood. I retracted my hand, but it was already coated in the thick, green ooze.
The fae’s blood burned, and I worked to brush it off on the clothes of the dead fae. There was something hard underneath its shirt, so I felt around with my other hand and came up with a severed talon. No doubt a gift from another dead fae.
I hefted the talon in my hand for a moment and marveled at how well it was balanced. Not exactly a throwing dagger, but it just might do in a pinch.
Grinning, I finally pushed myself back up to my feet and turned to face down Hera. She was soaring through the air, flying straight at me, a sword in her outstretched hands. She lowered the blade, and an evil grin creased her face as she made to skewer me.
I gripped tight onto the talon and tried to judge the distance. I would only get one shot at this.
At the last possible moment, I threw the talon, and it went hurtling through the air. In the same motion, I ducked, forcing her attack to go wide as she whizzed past me. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the talon embed itself in Hera’s chest.
The djinn howled and fell to the ground, lying in a heap with blood oozing out of multiple wounds. Only now did I see how battered she was. My blow might kill her, but she hadn’t been in great shape to begin with.
I sauntered over to where she lay, a wry grin on my face. “Not so tough now, are you?”
Hera glared at me and spat at my feet. The spittle was mixed with blood from her wounds. “Go to hell!”
I shrugged. “Would if I could, mate.”
With that, I beheaded her where she lay, finally putting her out of her misery.
I glanced around the battlefield once more. Things were really starting to die down, though Alyta and Elden were still going strong right in the center, hurling all kinds of magic at each other. I wondered for a moment whether or not I should do anything to interrupt them, or just wait for LaLuna to find the baby and get me out of here.
Soon enough, the choice was made for me.
“How dare you!” Alyta screamed, turning to face me. “Heta! You shall be avenged!”
Damn. I’d gotten it wrong. Well, in fairness, they were twins.
She fired off a massive blast of fire that struck Elden right in the torso. Somehow, this blast connected where the others had fizzled, slamming right into him. I saw his chest burn, and the smell of acrid smoke filled my nostrils as the fae guardian went down screaming, lost in a pile of dead bodies.
I didn’t watch long enough to know whether or not he still lived, as I had other things to contend with. Namely, Fireball Chick gunning for me. And I was all out of talons to throw at her. Besides, the breastplate around her torso told me that approach wouldn’t be as effective even if I’d had one.
Alyta wasted no time, flinging a fireball straight for my head. I danced to the side, letting it detonate well behind me, tearing apart the body of some fae that was already dead. Several more flaming balls followed suit, each one coming faster than the one before it.
Time after time, I dodged out of the way, letting the flames careen into the ground instead of my tender skin, though it got harder and harder with each successive blast until I feared I could no longer keep up.
I needed a miracle. Something to get her to stop flinging fireballs and come at me on the ground instead.
As if in answer to my desires, a gout of green flame shot forth from where Elden had fallen, crashing into one of Alyta’s wings with full force.
Who said djinn didn’t grant wishes?
Alyta shrieked and fell hurtling toward the earth, barely righting herself before she smacked headlong into a dead fae. She folded the injured wing behind her and scowled, sending another jet of flames off in Elden’s direction. The acrid stench of burning flesh assaulted my nostrils once more.
Her anger and power was such that I almost felt bad for Elden. But mostly because it wasn’t me doing it.
Furtively, I spared a glance at Elden’s resting spot, but I couldn’t make anything out and, seeing as there was no answering volley, I could only assume he was dead at last.
Shame. But at least now Alyta could no longer fly, and we were on more equal footing.
Alyta pulled out a sword from a sheath I hadn’t noticed earlier and scowled at me, then started her advance. Whether it was because she was out of fire magic or she just wanted to kill me with a more personal touch, I didn’t really care. Sword fights were my jam.
We raced toward each other, each holding our respective blades out front. Right before she reached me, I dropped to my knees and skidded to the side of her, my blade held out high.
Her sword danced over my head, missing me entirely, and I managed to score a glancing blow against her sword arm. Not much, but at least I’d been the one to draw first blood.
I scrambled to my feet and spun around, Grax’thor swinging in a wide arc to keep her at bay. My blade met hers in midair, and the two bits of steel clanged off each other. I swung my sword again in a horizontal swipe, but she managed to parry that attack as well.
“You’re not half bad at this!” I spat, swinging my sword again.
“Better than you.”
She lunged forward, quick as a bolt of lightning, catching me off guard. I brought my blade up, but only fast enough to misdirect the blow, not outright block it. The tip of her weapon sliced into my chest, opening up another hole in my shirt. It was beyond hopeless now.
I reared backward, hissing from the sharp pain that filled my body. Had I been a second slower, that blow would have gone right through my heart. As it were, I was just reeling from the pain and dripping blood everywhere.
That I could deal with.
Our blades clashed in the air several more times, each blow sending a jolt through my arm. She had the upper hand, being less injured, and slowly forced me backward toward another mound of dead bodies.
My foot butted up against something soft a moment later. This was it. I was stuck. I couldn’t retreat further, or I’d trip and fall.
I lowered my head and lunged forward, headbutting her right in the abdomen. Stars swam in my eyes as my head impacted the metal of her breastplate, but I managed to knock her off her feet, and we both tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs and steel.
Alyta howled and punched me in the side of the head with the hand holding her sword. My ears rang, and my vision went black around the edges as I teetered and almost fell off of her, but I managed to hold onto consciousness by a string.
I found a gap in the side of her armor and laid into her with a few furious punches of my own, shouting obscenities at her all the while.
She cried out in pain, and I saw her eyes start to glow a darker red as she jabbed at me again.
That flare could only mean one thing. I spun and fell off her right as a large blast of fire flew out of her balled up fingers, inhabiting the space I’d just been in a moment prior.
I thanked my lucky stars for the close call and punched her right in the face in retaliation. I watched with a grim satisfaction as the back of her head smacked into the dirt with a loud crack and then bounced upward a little before settling back down.
But she wasn’t done with me yet. She used her good wing to right herself quickly and kicked me in the kidneys.
Another wave of pain shot up my abdomen, and this time, I thought I would lose it for sure, but I swung wildly with Grax’thor anyway, hoping to get under her armor and end this battle once and for all.
“Heh,” Alyta said with a chuckle. “You think you’re so powerful, but now I have you right where I want you.”
“Yeah?” I told her. “Me too.”
I summoned all the force I could and punched her right on the back of her knee. She crumpled down to the ground in an instant, holding the leg with one hand.
With great effort, I managed to get myself up onto my knees, and as I did so, I swung my blade as hard as I could, trying to score a deadly blow. The tip of my sword managed to scrape up the side of her sword arm, and she howled and dropped the blade in frustration.
Before she could do anything else, I swung my blade one more time, this time aiming for her neck. Grax’thor bit greedily into the soft skin there, sending a shower of blood spraying out from the deep gash.
Alyta stared at me with her bright, fiery eyes for another second or so in disbelief, then the fires went out, and a glassy, lifeless gaze was all that was left of her hatred. Her body dropped unceremoniously to the ground as I struggled to get back onto my feet.
“Told you,” I spat at her. Then I turned and left her dead body bleeding out on the ground there without a second thought.
The battlefield was a dead, battered shell of what it had been earlier. Fae bodies were strewn about everywhere, bleeding and dying in various shades of red, green, or black. Most of the dead lay on the sunbaked street, though there were a few that littered people’s porches and yards as well. A stark reminder of the ravages of war.
Once more, I looked around for LaLuna, but I still didn’t see her anywhere. My heart lurched as I wondered whether or not my decision to have her go off on her own had gotten her killed.
Still, I didn’t see any bodies that looked like hers amongst the fallen, and I was pretty sure I would have noticed her blue magic if she’d been anywhere near me, so I could only hope and assume that she was still safe out there somewhere.
I turned my attention back to where I’d last seen Elden. I was pretty sure that guy was dead as well, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I decided to make sure of that fact.
A hacking cough that I was pretty sure wasn’t my own told me that he was somehow still alive and kicking after all of that, even if only by a little bit.
Grunting and leaning heavily to one side, with blood oozing out of a handful of cuts and my non-sword arm feeling practically useless, I hobbled over to where I’d seen him go down.
Soon enough, I came across him. Half of his face was blackened and oozing, and most of his body didn’t look much better, but somehow in spite of it all, he was still breathing. Fae guardians must be tough little suckers. I was glad I wouldn’t have to face him at his prime again.
I raised Grax’thor
up high, poised to strike him down, and stared straight into his beady little eyes. “Say goodnight, Elden. I’ll make it quick.”
Hey, I was a gentleman at heart.
Elden sucked in an uneven breath and cradled his injured side. “Please,” he said, his voice shaky and ragged. “Please just promise me one thing before you kill me.”
“Which is?”
I waited for a reply. I was feeling generous. I’d at least hear him out, even if I didn’t do what he said afterward. Whether or not I did depended entirely on his next words, which shocked me to my core.
“Please,” he repeated, wincing and sucking in a harsh breath. “When you kill Grace, do it quickly, too. I don’t want her to suffer.”
Chapter Fifteen
“SAY WHAT?” I ASKED Elden. I was so confused, I almost dropped my blade.
“Please see to it that Grace dies quickly,” he repeated. “I... I don’t want her to suffer.”
It felt like a classic trap. Say something completely ridiculous to make your enemy falter so you can escape at the last moment. And for the life of me, it was working.
“What are you on about?” I prodded, staring at him with a confused expression. I let Grax’thor fall to my side, momentarily forgotten. “What do you mean, ‘kill her quickly’? I don’t want to harm baby Grace. I want to save her!”
Elden’s eyes fogged over for a second, and he looked confused. “You... you don’t?”
“Heck no!” I put my hands on my hips. He was making no sense. “You’re the one that kidnapped her from us! Don’t you want her dead?”
“Why would I want a fae princess dead? I’m a bloody guardian, for goodness’ sake!”
I balked and almost lost my footing. “A fae princess?”
But further revelations were going to have to wait a bit. At that moment, LaLuna came running toward me, holding a small bundle in her arms.
“Damian! I found her! I found Grace. We can...” her words trailed off as she saw Elden laying there on the ground, still alive.