by Evan Currie
The difference was, the people felt the loss of their numbers; the demons couldn’t care less.
So the fight began to sap out of them as some tried to rally the rioters to regroup, but every time one started to succeed, one of the more powerful demons would ensure that he went down. They’d make it highly visible and highly violent and bloody, and each time one of the new leaders fell, a little more of the fight in all of them died.
The riot in that area was only moments from breaking. A deep sense of despair had settled onto most of those, who fought only because they saw little other option but were actively looking for any way out they could find.
And then one of the Fifth Circle demons calling for the death of another man trying to rally the rioters died, a bloody halo erupting over his head as he fell, and everyone on both sides was stunned momentarily to see a slim young girl standing behind him with a staff in her arms that appeared taller than she was.
*****
The demon never even saw her coming.
Elan supposed that she should have felt at least a little guilty about killing him with his back turned, but she didn’t feel like offering a fair fight to any of them after having been used as entertainment by the bitch in charge of the whole thing. Unfortunately for the demons here, they were about to receive some of the pent-up aggression Elan had been holding back since she woke.
She looked at the staring humans who had been the most recent subjects of the demons’ aggression and snapped at them, “Pull the injured out of the line and grab a weapon! Help or get out of the way!”
That startled most of them into some action, at least, though she didn’t know what kind and, to be frank, didn’t care. It had also served to gather everyone’s attention to her, on both sides, which was just fine with Elan.
A scrabbling sound from her left side was all the warning she got or needed, causing Elan to snap her staff in a vicious arc that cracked the skull of a Ninth Circle demon that had tried to flank her. The blow took his feet out from under him, slamming the demon to his back with a force to crack bones. Elan paused only briefly to flip the staff back around in her hand, then jab it down and through the demon’s chest to end him for good.
Only then did she turn around to face the host behind her.
“Next.”
Chapter 23
Sword met axe with force that neither should have been able to match in the hands of mortal man. Neither was backed by the strength of a mortal man, however. The axe was powered by demonic strength and runic inscription, while the sword slammed home with the power of enhancing armor driving it.
Of the two, the sword was taking the worst of the deal with every meeting.
Caleb doubted his blade would cut water with its present shape. Every bang had dented the edge, sometimes twisted or bent the blade, but it was the only thing he had that could hope to penetrate the skin of the demon, so he kept fighting with the poor abused weapon, kept trying to find a way through the demon’s defense, and kept failing on both counts.
If this keeps up, I’m not going to have a club left, let alone a blade.
At least the rest of the fight had shifted in favor of the Atlantean force.
He only glimpsed bits and pieces of the rest of the fight, his focus being almost entirely on his own problem, but it was clear that the intervention of the animals, apparently on the side of his friends, had turned the fight in their favor. He didn’t know what the hells that was all about and didn’t really care.
Worst case, I just have to hold on a little while and . . .
Caleb’s eyes flicked over to the sickly-looking demon who was feverishly working on the stones and realized that he likely didn’t have the time to wait out his current opponent until backup could get to him. He had to find a solution, or it was all going to end badly in short order.
Unfortunately, the overseer had no intention of making it easy on him.
They clashed again, the hardened edge of the demon’s axe biting deep into the edge of Caleb’s own softer iron blade, locking the two together briefly in close quarters.
“You’re going to die here, little human,” the demon snarled through a wide, ugly grin. “I don’t care how strong you are; you brought the wrong tools to this job.”
“If that’s what happens, so be it,” Caleb told him grimly over the locked blades.
He twisted his blade away and down, using the demon’s own strength to drive the two weapons into the ground, then Caleb snapped a hard jab into his opponent’s face, rocking the demon’s head back in surprise. While he roared in pain, Caleb kicked out at his knee and tried to break the joint.
The overseer rolled with the blow, evading that fate, and broke contact with Caleb long enough to get his axe back into a defensive position and his feet under him.
“Not bad,” the demon admitted grudgingly, wiping his face where Caleb had struck him with the back of his fist, “but not good enough.”
Caleb barely had time to shift to defense as the demon rushed in on him, easily as fast as Caleb’s armor might have allowed him to move and with more mass and force behind the strike by far. He got the sword up between them again, intercepting the axe, but the force drove the iron blade back into his armor and then lifted him right off his feet and sent him tumbling across the ground until he skidded to a stop at the edge of the sand that led down to the shore.
He struggled to his feet as quickly as he could manage, planting the tip of his blade in the dirt and using it as a cane because he knew there was little else he could do to the blade that would damage it more than it already was. He was surprised that the overseer hadn’t bothered capitalizing on his advantage.
The arrogance was stunning.
Simone would tan my hide for doing something that stupid, Caleb thought, his gaze shifting to where Simone was even then fighting for her life—and his and everyone else’s.
The coughing roar of one of the jungle cats could be heard amid the distant screams, and Caleb looked back to the demon as a stray thought snapped to the front of his memory.
Caleb stood tall, lifting his battered blade from the sand and holding it up.
“You liked that?” he asked. “Come on, I’ll give you some more.”
“Arrogant pup!” the demon spat, snarling at him.
Caleb laughed. “You have some nerve to call me arrogant. How many times did you let me recover in this fight alone?”
“It is not arrogance when my opponent is so far from my level,” the overseer snapped at him, clearly irritated.
“You keep giving me chances like that”—Caleb laughed loudly—“and sooner or later I’m going to shove this busted sword right up your—”
“Blasted pest!” the overseer cut him off, snarling openly then.
“Come on then, show me I’m wrong,” Caleb challenged, sneering. Though the demon couldn’t see it, the tone was clear in his speech.
The overseer roared, axe coming up high over his head as he charged. Caleb held for a moment, bringing his twisted sword up in defense as he waited for the last moment, and then charged right into the face of the overseer and his axe.
They met just a dozen feet from where Caleb had stood, the big axe coming down in a powerful blow that would have probably killed him from concussion alone, assuming it didn’t split him from head to tail.
The axe didn’t land, however, as Caleb ducked low instead of meeting the weapon head-on, using his blade to deflect it off just enough to clear the road, letting the axe sail over his head and to the side. He slammed his shoulder into the demon’s abdomen and planted his feet as solidly as he could as the demon’s momentum and swing bent him over.
Caleb powered upright, using all the strength in the armor to snap up and throw the demon over his shoulder.
The overseer let out a grunt of surprise. His feet lifted clear off the ground as Caleb twisted and threw him in an arc through the air. He hit the beach hard and skidded down into the waves, coming to a stop as he clawed at and left l
ong furrows in the sand along the entire length of his slide. When he stopped, the overseer got up slowly, sneering back at Caleb.
“I’m not some weak Ninth Circle, boy. Moving water has no effect on me.”
Caleb nodded. “I know.”
Caleb lifted his blade, examining it. His old, trustworthy sword was a mangled ruin, not even fit to be a club. It hadn’t broken, but it was twisted so badly that he doubted he could swing it straight with the balance as ruined as it was, and there wasn’t an actual edge to be seen anywhere along it. He sighed and tossed the blade aside, earning a laugh from the demon.
“Giving up?”
“No, just don’t need it anymore,” Caleb answered. “It’s been fun.”
“What—?” the overseer began, confused, but then something caused him to spin around just as a gray and white form exploded out of the surf and two massive rows of teeth slammed down around him.
Black blood frothed in the surf as the massive shark twisted and snapped around violently, tossing the big demon back and forth until the sea creature managed to pull back into the sea, taking its prey along with it.
“Damn,” Caleb mumbled, looking at the water. “That was a nice axe.”
Well, there wasn’t a chance in the hells that he was going to go after the axe now, so he supposed he would have to do without. Caleb turned around and began to trudge back up the beach to where the stones were perched on the overlook.
There was still work to be done.
*****
Merlin actually started slightly when he observed the shark explode from the water and take down the demon, amazed that the boy had pulled it off.
That was decent thinking, assuming it was intentional, Merlin thought, wondering if he’d underestimated the boy.
Of course, remembering half the boneheaded things he’d said in the past, that seemed unlikely.
Well, perhaps it’s a sign that he may grow to something special, the elemental intelligence thought wryly as he linked back into the communications system.
“Good job, Caleb,” he said. “The rune specialist is still working, but I do not know how much time you have.”
“Yeah, got it, on my way,” Caleb said tiredly.
“Some good news,” Merlin offered up. “Elan has made contact. Apparently she, or someone, managed to set the whole city aflame in riots. Demons are having a busy, if not rather bad, night in Lemuria tonight.”
Caleb laughed slightly. “Sounds like Elan . . .” He paused, something bothering him. “Wait! Night? It’s daytime.”
“Not in Lemuria,” Merlin said. “It is a big world, Caleb, and only half of it sees daylight at any given time.”
“How does that work?”
“I’ll explain it sometime, when you finish the job there,” Merlin promised.
Caleb nodded as he trudged. “Right. I’ll hold you to it.”
“I look forward to it.”
*****
Simone screamed as she drove her blade through a demon and twisted it as hard as she could manage, eliciting a scream and rattling breath of air as it died and slumped in place. She planted a foot in it and kicked it back so she could pull her blade free and then took a moment to examine the field.
The animals had turned the tide, not that she had any idea how or why they’d attacked and not gone after any of her people.
Thank the fates they did, she thought with a hint of desperation coloring her thoughts. They’d come close to losing, and she didn’t know where the hells Caleb had gotten to.
It seemed that while they had taken losses, the fight had gone far worse for the demons.
She carefully stepped over the body of the demon she had just killed, trying not to disturb the insects that had rushed the body. More than once they’d finished off demons who had gone down but not quite been killed, so as little as she wanted to be near the little beasts, Simone was fully inclined to extend a degree of respect and courtesy to everything that existed in nature at that moment in time . . . no matter how irritating or dangerous they might normally be.
“Check for injured,” she ordered to a couple of others who were taking breaths as they realized there was no more fighting in their immediate area. “Get our people out of the way of our . . . friends.”
Respect, yes. Trust . . . well, that might be another matter. She’d prefer not to leave any temptation out in the open that the animals, whose motivations she still didn’t understand, might succumb to. It seemed like a step too far, but perhaps she would learn otherwise.
If so, then I’ll apologize, Simone thought with a hint of a genuine smile on her face as she recognized Caleb slogging up over the crest of the hill from the beach. He looked worn and weary but intact and with all his limbs. That was as good as she could hope for.
*****
This is not good.
Merlin was having to split his focus, but thankfully things at the island had calmed considerably. The situation itself, however, was no less dire than it had been.
The rune specialist was now effectively alone, but Merlin believed that he had finished his work.
Most of the sacrifices were prevented . . . but was it enough?
The sickly-looking demon seemed unperturbed at the loss of his protectors and barely cast even a glance toward Caleb as the boy approached the stones. Merlin shifted more probes into the area and began to edge them around, looking for information that would make sense of what he was seeing.
He was raiding the data gathered by the various operational groups from before the war ended—had been almost nonstop since he’d identified what the demons were working on—but there was far too little in the records about the demons’ runic language.
He was aware that it somehow created sympathetic links with the subquanta of the universe, altering the laws and probabilities that governed reality. How that worked, exactly, was a mystery, but no matter how one looked at it, it was a powerful and lethal tool at the enemy’s disposal. He had already translated all the runes he could, which was unfortunately few of them, but now it was up to the people on the scene.
Lord, I wish we had a proper operations team there . . . or at Lemuria . . . or literally anywhere right now.
For Merlin, the lack of knowledge, the lack of influence . . . the general overall lack . . . was almost literally maddening.
*****
Caleb came to a stop as he felt something pushing against him, making it harder to move forward with each step. He carefully reached out a hand and pushed into the air, feeling a resistance like a powerful wind blowing against him, but there was no wind to be felt.
“There’s something here, Merlin,” he said. “I can’t see it, but I can feel something blocking the way.”
“An invisible field? Disturbing,” Merlin replied. “How strong is it? Can you push through?”
“Probably, for a bit at least, but it seems to get stronger as I move closer to the stones,” Caleb answered.
“Be careful,” Merlin advised, “but proceed forward. I’m moving a probe in closer to see if I can detect any changes.”
“Right,” Caleb said dryly. “Be careful he says. Easy for you to say, Merlin. I’m starting forward.”
He took a step, then another, feeling the resistance climbing with each motion closer to the stones. It wasn’t hard at first, but after just a few more steps, he found himself leaning in and pushing hard against the ground, his feet seeking out crevices to dig into with each step. He was still over thirty feet from his target when it became clear that he wasn’t getting any farther.
“That’s it,” he said. “I could maybe climb if there were handgrips, but I’m not walking any closer.”
“Fascinating,” Merlin said. “I’m registering an unusual flux in the quantum field surrounding the stones, strongest around you, but nothing I can identify or counteract. I will continue searching.”
Caleb didn’t say anything. He was too busy keeping his balance, as he was almost horizontal with the ground, hands an
d feet dug into what grips he could find in order to keep him in place.
“Caleb!”
He couldn’t look behind, but he recognized Simone’s voice and weakly waved one hand over his shoulder.
The demon he’d been seeking out glanced over at him, a smug look on the sickly, scarred face, and slowly got to its feet and stretched. Caleb watched it with narrowed eyes as it seemed to smile in his direction and then began to slowly amble over, taking its time.
“Having trouble?” the demon asked mockingly.
Caleb said nothing; there wasn’t much to say.
The demon shortly grew impatient with waiting for a response anyway.
“You needn’t bother,” it said, smirking. “Stronger than you have tried against the warding I can establish, and they all failed. Your little attack was futile. You may have slowed my circle, but you did not stop it.”
Caleb seethed but still kept his mouth shut. As long as the demon was talking, it wasn’t doing anything else.
“Being silent will not gain you anything.” The demon laughed roughly. “The runes are complete. Charging is now inevitable.”
“Your overseer thought his victory was inevitable as well.” Caleb decided to try taunting a bit.
“He was a fool.” The demon sneered, gesturing dismissively.
“Well, I’ve heard it said that a fool can tell another fool by sight.” Caleb grinned.
The demon snapped around, glaring. “Watch your mouth!”
“Why? It seems I’m about to die anyway, aren’t I?” Caleb asked, laughing at the demon’s reaction. “Not much reason to listen to you.”
“Arrogant, foolish pup!”
“I’ve been called worse,” Caleb said simply, still trying to hold against the pressure of the field pushing against him. It was utterly bizarre to be there, straining against an invisible force as he was, and see the demon just mere feet away, standing there as though nothing at all was wrong. There was something entirely too creepy about the situation.