by Jack Crosby
My yelling brought her back to reality and seeing my struggle, got out of the way. With her safe, the chain vanished and the tree was free.
“Get on, now Death!”
I turned around and saw Khloros was coming up beside me. Roxanne flapped with her wings and landed on the horse. She reached out with her hand and yanked me up. Trees were still flailing at us as Khloros was running at full speed. It only came to an end when we found an opening in the woods. As soon as we entered, the trees became still.
“Holy shit!” I dropped off my horse buddy and hit the ground. “I don’t remember nature being that evil.”
“If we had any doubt about us going the right way, that has been put to rest. It is almost like the forest knows what our task is.” Khloros was out of breath and I couldn’t blame my buddy for that.
Another terrible howl ripped throughout the air. It sounded a hell of a lot closer than the first time. “I guess the only good thing is we’re heading the right direction.”
“Master, you saved my life again!” Roxanne jumped on top of me. “Your powers are returning!”
As much as I would’ve been up for dirty Tartarus sex, we had other things to do. “Yeah, but only for a moment.”
“If not for that moment, I would be dead.” She wrapped her arms around me again. Man her breasts felt nice…
Wait, no time, right. “Let’s take a rest here for awhile. I think we all need it.”
Roxanne figured out I wasn’t going to give in, not here at least and rolled off me. “We must return to the forest, correct?”
There was no denying that. “Yeah, unfortunately it seems that is our destiny.” I chuckled at the ‘our destiny’ line. “This time we will be much better prepared.”
I looked over at Khloros who had his eyes closed. We were going to need him for the second part of the ass kicking journey. When I looked back at Roxanne, her eyes were also closed. I found this strange because as a demon, she really didn’t need sleep. She liked it a lot, but I figured she would’ve been on high alert after the forest incident.
“Shit.” My eyes started feeling heavy; we’d fallen into another trap. Damnit all to hell, those were my last thoughts as I dozed off.
****
“The Reaper is waking.”
It was a very gravelly voice that was also way too close to my ear. Opening my eyes, “Oh damnit, not you people.”
Four little gremlins were looking at me. Khloros, Roxanne, and I were all tied up. The little bastards had done their best to make sure we weren’t going anywhere.
The little gremlin with the longest beard poked me with his spear. Get your mind out of the gutter, a real live spear. “Reaper, we told you that one day you’d get yours. Today is that day.”
“What the hell do you little freak shows want?”
“Payment!” The little one with the spear roared the answer. “We enchanted your scythe for you and you left us to die!”
“Ohhh, that…”
So in my only other trip to Tartarus, I came across the gremlins currently holding us captive. I discovered they had magic that could enchant items and make them smaller. In return for enchanting Leviathan, I was supposed to kill the demon that terrorized them. As you can see, I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain.
“You left us to die! The creature has nearly wiped us out because of you!”
Roxanne and Khloros were coming to as well. “Listen, I’m sorry that I bailed, but I had other things to do. I forgot.”
Khloros realized exactly what was going on. “I told you this would come back to haunt us.”
“You certainly didn’t say anything before we came to this damn realm!”
He blew up a ton of dust. “It is not my job to remember all those you have pissed off.”
“Excuse me,” everyone looked at Roxanne, “but can someone fill me in please?”
“Most certainly demon.” The lead gremlin poked me again. “This vile creature did not hold us his end of the bargain with us. The monster that hunts us still lives no thanks to the Reaper.”
She seemed genuinely curious. “What creature is that?”
“One so foul that Abaddon does not even try to tame it. It is close, as it hunts and eats us.”
Oh great, like this trip couldn’t get any worse. “How close is it?”
“The Behemoth comes Reaper. It is time for you to honor your bargain or die.”
Just as the gremlin finished, the ground shook; the Behemoth was here. “Quick, untie us!”
The leader nodded to the other three gremlins and they undid our restraints. The three of them then took off into the forest. I noticed the trees didn’t attack the little shits.
Leviathan sprang to life in my hands. I pointed the scythe of the gremlin still here. “Know this creature; if I survive this, you best pray to the Almighty that you never see me again.”
“I know of your deeds Reaper. This will be our last encounter, one way or another.” And with that, he joined his little friends in the woods. Even though it was pointless, I still flipped them off.
Another earth shaking step. “What’s the plan Death?”
The Behemoth, from my vague memory, is a primordial monster roughly in the shape of a dragon. It didn’t have wings, but I thought it might breathe fire. “Stay away from its mouth! Don’t hold me to this, but I think it’s a fire breather!”
Unlike the howls before, this noise was like none I’d ever heard. If the end of the world had a noise, it would’ve been this one. Breaking through the forest, the large creature made its arrival.
Yellow eyes full of intelligence, long dagger like teeth, a forked tongue that flicked in and out, and the fact it was at least twenty feet tall and twice as long, The Behemoth was an impressive creature.
“Spread out! Let’s try not to give it one easy target!”
As Khloros went right and Roxanne went left, I stayed in the center. The creature seemed amused, up to the point where it opened its mouth and let loose a torrent of blue flames.
Chapter 26 – …And Into the Fire
The Behemoth was only toying with me, as the fire was way too easy to avoid. With Leviathan out, I ran towards the big lizard in the hopes that if I got close, it would be harder to attack me. No dice there, it was just as quick with its front claws as it was with breathing fire.
Its large claw came way too close to my head as I front rolled under it. It followed up by leaning back and letting more fire go in my direction. I couldn’t see what Khloros or Roxanne was doing, but the Behemoth didn’t really seem to care either.
No, luckily for me, it seemed intent on making me Death BBQ. It lumbered forward after me, which freed up my peripheral vision to see Roxanne had somehow gotten on its back leg. She was climbing up, rather slowly, but so far she was unnoticed.
Trying to buy her time, I ran towards the forest. As we closed in, I changed directions. The Behemoth couldn’t turn as quickly as I did, and he caught the brunt force of one of the trees slamming into it. It wasn’t hurt at all, but it was now pissed at something else beside me. Opening its mouth, it sent a wave of flames into the forest.
The trees shrieked in pain as the fire spread. I was pretty pleased with myself on that one, but after its attack, the creature remembered me. I looked to see Roxanne was closing on getting to the top, so I took off again.
Hearing a horse running, “Would you care for a lift?”
Khloros was beside me and I grabbed the saddle and pulled myself up. “Any ideas old buddy?”
“The she-devil seems to have one, but I do not know what her intentions are. Can you summons your chains?”
“I will try.”
As the Behemoth chased us, I reached deep inside me. The celestial fire was there, but it seemed to be dancing away from me. It was burning brighter than I can remember in recent history. If only I could catch it.
“Death, jump!”
Khloros’s voice brought me back to our current situation and I did as he asked. Hopp
ing off the saddle, I landed in the middle of the clearing. The Behemoth had overtaken us and swiped where I had been. Unfortunately, he caught Khloros on the back and sent the stallion to the ground.
I almost panicked, but saw he was okay, just stunned. I needed to get the Behemoth back to me, so I yelled. “Hey asshole, over here!”
His eyes went from a staggered Khloros back to me. Slowly stalking me, it opened its mouth to finish the job.
“Not this time!” It was Roxanne this time and she was on top of the lizard’s head. Bringing her dagger into its eye, the Behemoth let out another horrifying cry. If Abaddon had any questions where we were before this, they’ve been answered.
As the dagger pierced the eye, orange-like slime poured from it. The goo must’ve been super hot because Roxanne let the dagger go and it melted into the mess. The remnants of the eye dissolved into an ooze and leaked from the socket on to the Behemoth. The trail burned a path as it dripped down its face.
The creature started thrashing its head around and sent Roxanne flying. She unfolded her wings and glided back to the ground safely, but it was now injured and pissed. But, she’d gotten me a chance, as it was momentarily stunned from the attack.
“Now Master, use your power!”
I called it and it resisted at first. Why wouldn’t it come to me? “Damnit, come on!”
Khloros looked over, “Take what’s yours! It is responding to the nature of Tartarus, embrace yourself, Death of the Horseman!”
A cool calm came over me. I AM Death! I don’t ask for shit, I demand it! “Answer my call!”
Chains wrapped around my arms. With my free hand and sent the first one around the neck of the Behemoth and wrapped it up. The second formed into the handle of Leviathan and swinging it around, tossed it into the top of its head. The scythe buried itself in its skull.
Using both hands, I pulled the chains down, against the resistance of the beast. It wasn’t about to give up and began to pull upwards. It jerked hard and brought me off the ground. When I landed, I had to hold tight to keep control of the chains.
Roxanne was behind me and held on. “We are a team, we can do this together!”
As I pulled, she began flapping her wings backwards, giving us extra leverage. The creature was starting to falter, sliding towards us. Putting me energy into the chains, they blazed to life, burning the Behemoth.
Then it gave. The large lizard fell face first to the ground, overcome by the power of Roxanne and I, plus the burnings of the chains.
“We did it!” Roxanne let go and collapsed to the ground.
We had, but now the Behemoth was suffering. It’s not in my nature to let others suffer in pain, so I formed the chains into balls of celestial fire. I brought the two together into one larger ball and with as much effort as I could bring, sent it right into the empty eye socket of the creature.
As the fire passed through, it blazed the creature into oblivion, ending the battle and its life. It burned so fast, that it didn’t even flinch as the fire tore through it. In an instant, the only thing that was left was a large blackened shell in the shape of the Behemoth.
“We were lucky to survive.”
“No Khloros,” I turned to look at the horse, feeling the celestial fire of old flowing freely through me, “from here on out, those who do not encounter us will be the lucky ones.”
Chapter 27 – The Big Bad Wolf
The forest knew not to mess with me. The first tree that tried to attack us was caught in the celestial fire chains and burned to a crisp. Since that incident, the plant life remained very still.
“We had better hurry. I cannot imagine that Abaddon is not on his way here right this instant.”
“I know Khloros.” Even as my strength was returning, to face that menace would be suicide. “We don’t stop until we find the dire wolves.”
Dire wolves are demonic wolves that make the ones back on Earth seem like mini schnauzers. They used to roam around the badlands in Hell until they were considered too much of a nuisance. Lucifer sent them all here, which in hindsight wasn’t a very good idea. Under the control of Abaddon, I can only imagine the horror they are capable now.
“What’s that up there?”
Roxanne was pointing at a large dirt mound, or what looked like one. “You two stay here; I’ll go investigate.”
As quietly as I could, I made my way towards the unusual bulge in the land (you can snicker at the word bulge). I didn’t even need to get that close to catch the downwind stench of dog. Bingo, we’d found their lair. I crept up a little more to get a good look. In the flatland below hill, twenty, maybe thirty of the wolves were roaming around.
I flattened myself out and hung around for a few more minutes. My patience was rewarded when two large (not quite Behemoth size but still freaking huge) dire wolves walked out.
The male actually started speaking. “My children, the Behemoth is dead.”
The normal (and by that I mean smaller) sized wolves turned towards the Alpha and started growling.
“The stench of a Horseman is close.” The voice was feminine, so it must’ve been the Alpha’s mate.
The male started laughing. “I wonder which of the arrogant fools has come to visit! Abaddon will be most pleased if we catch the bitch.”
That wasn’t happening. I’d heard enough and made my hasty retreat before they realized I was right there. When I got back to Roxanne and Khloros, I got them up to speed.
“So we got maybe thirty regular dire wolves, plus the Alpha and his mate waiting for us.”
“And they know we are coming Death?”
“Yeah Khloros, they do. Evidently they could sense the Behemoth’s death.”
Both their faces went slack. “Did you notice anything that could help us?”
I closed my eyes and went back over the site of their lair. It sat on a pile of Tartarus dirt, so maybe we could make it collapse on itself? “If we could somehow get all those wolves into the cave, I might be able to bury them.”
“How do you plan to get these demons to cooperate?” Khloros had that sarcastic tone again. “Please, follow me to your doom, okay?”
“Listen, this is a work in progress. I need support not assholes.”
“As fortune has it, I believe I can add to this plan of yours.”
I looked at him skeptically. “Do tell.”
“We need bait. As I am the fastest of us, I will lure the wolves into their den. Once there, it will be your job to collapse the mount on top of them.”
He said it so calmly. There wasn’t even fear in his eyes. “Are you fucking nuts?”
Roxanne backed me up. “Even if you can escape the teeth and claws of those horrid piss-ants, there is a good chance you’ll die in the cave in.”
“I am the horse of the Pale Rider; death holds no fear for me. I will not have either of you two pussy out on me, is that understood?”
It was one thing to put myself in harm’s way, but to let my best friend. “Khloros, I can’t let you do this.”
“We do not have time to debate this. Abaddon is lurking in the shadows, plus we do not know when Dante and Conquest will be able to open the rift. We do this my way and we do it now.”
He didn’t give us a chance to argue. The dumbass galloped off towards the wolves. He was a lot faster than both Roxanne and I, we there was no way to stop his plan from happening. As Khloros veered off towards the clearing below where the wolves were, Roxanne and I headed back to the top of the den.
“How will you collapse this place?”
My idea was to shoot my chains straight into the ground, and continue to weaken the structure itself. I just hoped I’d be able to do this quickly and get Khloros out of there before the fool get himself killed. “You just keep watch on Khloros and make sure none of those wolves come towards us.”
With a plan in place, we had no more time to waste. The wolves were howling and that could only mean Khloros was in the crosshairs.
I brought forth the chain
s and put the first two into the ground of the base of the lair. The ground was thick at the top, but the deeper you got, the looser it was. I repeated the process three more times, progressing up the hill.
“Master, you must hurry, the Alpha and his mate have joined the chase!”
By this time, the dirt was pretty well loose. “One more should do it!”
Pushing as hard as I could, I sent the chains deep. This time the ground under us started shaking; the lair was about to go down.
“Khloros has led them in!”
Ripping the chains back up, the ground gave way and Roxanne and I went tumbling down with the dirt. In the chaos, I heard the screams of wolves being crushed.
Landing on my back, it took a bit for the dust to clear and for me to gather my senses. “Roxanne? Khloros?”
Silence followed. As my vision cleared, I saw Roxanne laying not too far away, a few cuts on her head and a nasty bruise, but she was breathing. But I didn’t see Khloros.
“Khloros? Buddy! Where are you?” There was still no answer. I tried to reach out to him, but I couldn’t feel his presence anywhere. “Shit! No!!!”
There was movement and I turned to see. Had he survived? But the answer was no, it was the very large frame of a dire wolf. He was in bad shape, but still alive.
“Horseman! Horseman!! Show yourself and pay for your crimes!”
I heard the wolf but I didn’t give a damn. My friend… was gone.
“Horseman! I can smell your stench!” I finally looked over; the wolf was sniffing and spotted me. “There you are! I will tear the flesh from your bones!”
“Piss off you giant bag of fur!” All his bitching was pissing me off.
He got all the way to his feet. The wolf could barely stand, but the fact he’d survived showed how tough a son of a bitch he was. “You killed my mate and my spawn! The last thing I will do is see your soul leave your body!”
I said nothing. I turned and fully gave my attention to the Alpha. I brought Leviathan to life and waited. As expected, the wolf charged at me. His rows of teeth were showing and his eyes offered the desperation that was in his actions.