by Eric Vall
“Which is?” Eligor questioned curiously.
“Us,” I said as I put my hand on her soft arm. “I need you to fly me up onto the creature. There’s got to be a chink in his armor somewhere. And if there’s not, I’ll fucking make one.”
“I’m not sure if that will--” the blonde knight began to protest, but then a mighty roar shook the ground.
“No time to argue,” I shouted. “Battle stations, everyone!”
My teammates and I dashed off in multiple directions and left the Shades standing in a small, obvious crowd. Eligor, Sia, and I went left while Todd and Cupi went right.
Suddenly, Leviathan’s massive, slithery form was upon us.
The Shades began to throw up their hands in the air and wave them wildly to attract the dragon’s attention. As soon as Leviathan got a little closer, they scattered across the rocky terrain like a group of billiard balls that’d just been broken.
Leviathan snapped his gargantuan jaws down onto one of the Shades, who screamed as he was lifted up into the air, shook around violently, and then tossed to the ground.
The Shade was still alive, but his entire bottom half was now hanging helplessly from his torso, connected only by the remnants of his spine.
Leviathan snapped down at another fleeing Shade, and we saw our opportunity arise.
Eligor summoned forth her dark black angel wings, zipped around behind me, and lifted me into the air gracefully. Then the knight and I darted up into the clouds, and we were instantly surrounded by fluffy black mist.
The haze was cold and damp against my face, and it was nearly impossible to see even a few feet in front of us.
Lucky for us, we had an elemental magic user on our team.
“Hold tight,” Eligor commanded as she released her right hand’s grip on my arm.
I saw a flash of lime green light as my weight shifted to her left arm, and we fell a bit in the air. Then the clouds around us froze, and the particles of mist lit up like fireflies as they floated to the side and revealed the scene below us.
Leviathan was shooting through the air similar to the way a crocodile would swim effortlessly through the water. His wings produced visible shockwaves with each movement they made, and the Shades on the ground went tumbling to the earth each time the muscles rippled on his bony appendages.
Sia was standing on the far left of the beast with her feet planted firmly on the ground. She was launching red fireball after red fireball at Leviathan, but they seemed to only be minor inconveniences to the dragon.
On the other hand, Todd was doing what he seemed to be best at in life: getting under people’s skin. He shot around the beast like an annoying gnat, and he launched tiny fireballs at its head at point-blank range before he zipped off to plan his next assault.
Cupi was floating about one-hundred feet in front of the creature on her black angel wings, and she almost looked disappointed that Leviathan wasn’t focused solely on her. She launched a few fireballs at the dragon, but he was too focused on Todd and the Shades to even notice.
Finally, Leviathan whipped his neck backward and took in a deep breath. As he inhaled, it almost looked like he was charging up. The crimson sparks of red Hellfire danced off his body like jumping fleas, and the very tips of his spines changed from bony white to a deep, mystical red glow.
Then the monster tossed his head forward and released death on the Shades below.
A tidal wave of white-hot flames, surrounded by the ectoplasmic glow of red Hellfire, shot out of the dragon’s mouth and lit up the ground. The Shades screamed in agony, and Sia quickly tossed up a spell of golden flames around herself. When the beast finally released his spell, there was nothing left but a pile of charred bodies that writhed in pain as they tried to stop, drop, and roll.
And Superbia.
The redheaded woman stood defiantly above the bodies of the fallen, completely unharmed.
Seeing someone survive his normally-fatal blast must have angered the dragon, because Leviathan stopped paying attention to Todd. Instead, he turned his head slowly, stared down at Superbia, and let out an inhuman hiss as he moved downward.
“He’s completely distracted!” I pointed out to my single-seat airliner. “Drop me!”
Eligor’s hands released their grip, and I felt my body become heavier than a box of rocks as I plummeted toward the spiny back of the dragon.
I tightened my grip on the Unhallowed Sword as I fell, and I used my free hand to summon my bronze Hellfire of Judgement. The wind roared in my ears as it whipped past my head and rustled up my brown locks. I briefly wondered if my horns would snap off from the wind resistance against them, but I couldn’t possibly be falling that fast, could I?
Before I could ponder the question any further, I realized I was closing in on Leviathan fast. I extended my enchanted hand, blasted a beam of bronze fire directly into the dragon’s back, and lifted the Unhallowed Sword above my head.
It was time to see how well this thing was gonna work in battle.
Leviathan roared with surprise when the spell smashed into his back, and then I was upon him.
I slammed the black blade of the Unhallowed Sword between his shoulder blades, right where his spinal cord should have been located.
Much to my surprise, the tip of the sword hit the dragon’s back, bounced off his tough hide, and spun out of my hands and into the dark clouds.
The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs and sent me tumbling across the creature’s rough back. I caught myself when I lashed out and grabbed onto one of his massive white spines, and my momentum came to a crashing halt. I put my head on a swivel as I searched the cloudy sky for the missing blade, but it was nearly impossible to find the jet-black metal against the darkened sky.
Leviathan whipped his head back once again as the tips of his spines began to glow, and then he approached a fleeing figure on the ground.
Sia.
The monster threw his head forward and unleashed his fiery blast at the succubus.
From below, Sia threw another healing spell around herself.
However, she didn’t need it.
Right at the last minute, a massive, intense wave of blue Hellfire crashed into Leviathan’s blaze and snuffed it out like an enchanted fire extinguisher.
I looked up as the dragon raised his head and saw Cupi hanging above our position with a large, shit-eating grin on her face. Her entire body was aglow with blue Hellfire, and her violet eyes were more piercing than normal.
The beast roared angrily and blasted at the succubus with another round of Hellfire breath.
This time, she was already prepared.
Cupi clapped her hands in front of her body and shot forward a beam of blue magic three times the size of her figure. It illuminated the dark sky as it rocketed through the air and collided with the dragon’s breath, and the surrounding area turned into a canvas of purple.
“Pretty badass, huh?” Todd’s voice asked out of nowhere. “I think you dropped this.”
I turned to see the imp hovering beside me, and his body was still aglow with mystical black Hellfire. In his hands, the imp was holding the Unhallowed Sword, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Todd with a sword nearly twice his size. He held it out a little wobbly, and I snatched it out of his tiny mitts.
“Thanks, bro,” I chuckled. “Some magic sword this is. Maybe it’s just for cutting locks.”
“Did you light it first?” Todd asked pointedly. “Please tell me you didn’t forget to light it first.”
“No … ” I admitted. “I figured it would do all the damage on its own. It’s called the Unhallowed Sword, for crying out loud!”
“You have so much to learn, Jakey boy,” Todd said with a click of his tongue. “By now I woulda figured you realized everything Demonic runs on Hellfire, bro. It’s the lifeblood of this whole place. Kinda like coffee back on Earth. No Hellfire? No go.”
Cupi and Leviathan’s fire beam struggle continued, with neither party reall
y gaining an advantage on the other. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a massive, lime-green chunk of brimstone hurtling through the sky. It struck Leviathan with a giant crash in the side of the head, and the dragon grunted as his skull was whipped to the side and Cupi’s fire crashed into his face.
As the monster’s figure spun around in the sky, all I could do was tighten my grip and hold on for dear life. Todd zipped off into the clouds, and the Unhallowed Sword was extended behind me like a shotput about to be launched.
My vision started to go blurry as my brain rattled around against the inside of my skull, but then we finally came to a stop. I shook my head to try and dispel the dizziness, and then I pulled myself into a crouching position.
Leviathan now hovered in the air as Cupi, Todd, and Eligor darted around his head and occasionally blasted him with Hellfire. On the surface, they weren’t doing much damage. Then again, they weren’t trying to.
They were just trying to keep the creature distracted long enough for me to make my move.
Todd said the Unhallowed Sword worked better when it was enchanted. All I needed to do was light this thing up.
I shakily stood to my feet, held out the black sword in front of me, and summoned red Hellfire into my hands. As I ran my burning palm across the blunt end of the blade, the carvings in the sword began to glow intensely. A high-pitched, vibration-like noise filled the air around me, and it was almost as if the sword itself had been awoken from a centuries-long slumber.
Finally, once all of the carvings, letters, and insignias were illuminated, the Unhallowed Sword caught on fire.
But these embers weren’t like the ones that normally danced on my blade. This Hellfire was a deep, dark ruby, almost as black as the sword itself. Yet, despite its shadowy appearance, the flames glowed with the luminescence of a miniature sun, and the dark sky around me lit up with the blade’s radiance as I prepared to strike.
I probably was only going to have one shot at this, so I had to make it count. It’d already been established that the dragon’s hide was too thick to pierce. Even if this thing were to cut through his scaly flesh, it wasn’t long enough to reach his heart or his brain or anything too vital. I was about halfway down the dragon’s back, and I surveyed his body for any damage I could do with my limited time.
The wings.
Leviathan’s wings were incredibly massive, but they were connected to his body by an appendage only about double the width of a human body. It would take quite the effort, but it was the only chance we had of evening the odds.
This was it. The second I let go of the spine on Leviathan’s back, there was nothing to keep me from being thrown off onto the rocky ground below. Even if I was lucky enough to miss the rocks, the Lake of Fire itself would burn me into a crisp.
Then there was the fact that this might not even work. The Unhallowed Sword hadn’t been strong enough to break Leviathan’s skin, even with the help of my bronze fire. For all I knew, the blade could bounce off again and be lost to the fiery depths of the lake.
But I had to do something.
I tightened my grip on the sword, took a deep breath, and let go of the spine. I stepped toward the creature’s left wing and then nearly fell when his body jerked to the side suddenly. I righted my body at the last minute, gripped both hands around the hilt of the Unhallowed Sword, and swung it as hard as I could at the green flesh of Leviathan.
This time, the enchanted blade sliced through the dragon’s skin like butter. Then the massive wing twisted awkwardly in the air as it fell away from the dragon’s body and left nothing but a cauterized stump.
Leviathan unleashed an ungodly shriek of pain, and then his entire right side jerked downward.
I reached out for something, anything, to grab, but it was useless. I was tossed from the dragon’s back as he plummeted toward the ground, and it was all I could do to throw down a wall of purple flames to catch myself. I slammed into the violet barrier, hard, and then groggily pulled myself back up to my feet.
Below, Leviathan had gone into a complete tailspin, guided by his singular remaining wing. The severed appendage fell through the sky until it finally landed in the Lake of Fire with a sizzle. The dragon’s lost wing rested at the lake’s surface for a second before it caught fire and sank into the depths.
Meanwhile, the creature himself smashed into the rocky brimstone about half a mile away from the lake’s shore. Debris sprayed upward as he collided with the ground, and a massive cloud of dust rose into the air and obscured him from my view.
“You think we got him?” Todd asked curiously as he, Eligor, and Cupi fluttered to my side.
“I think I hobbled him, at the very least.” I shrugged. “But there’s no way that fall killed him.”
“I agree,” Eligor added, “but now we will at least have a chance to finish him off on our terms.”
Cupi swooped around, wrapped her arms under my armpits, and lifted me up into the air.
“That was pretty fucking cool back there,” I mused to the blonde succubus as we descended.
“Yeah, Cupi,” Todd giggled. “You totally just went all Mr. Freeze on that thing. All that was missing were the terrible ice puns.”
“I’ll be sure to do one next time,” Cupi promised coyly.
We lowered ourselves down on the ground about two hundred feet away from the edge of the dust cloud. Sia was nearby, and she was using her golden Hellfire to heal our fallen allies.
“That was quite the show,” the redheaded succubus chuckled as we approached.
“It’s not over yet,” I acknowledged as I nodded to the cloud of dust. “We’re just getting ready for round two.”
“Do you have a plan?” Superbia asked curiously.
“Of course my boy Jakey has a plan,” Todd scoffed. “Uhhh. Right?”
“I have one,” Eligor admitted. “That sword can cut through Leviathan’s flesh, no?”
I confirmed her question with a nod.
“It can, but it’s not long enough to reach any of his vital organs from the surface,” I sighed.
“It doesn’t have to be,” the knight explained. “His eyes, ears, and nostrils are all exposed. Maybe we can completely cripple him?”
“That’s not a terrible idea,” I admitted, “but how the fuck am I going to get close enough to--”
Before I could finish my sentence, the ground began to quake underneath our feet. The roar of Leviathan cut through the dust cloud, just as the particles of the cloud started to settle. Suddenly, the monster’s enormous figure blasted through the remaining dust and charged at us with deadly speed.
Even from all the way over here, I could tell Leviathan was through playing games. He was moving with purpose, and his mouth and spines were already beginning to glow as he charged up his Hellfire.
“Leave the restraining to me,” Eligor roared as she charged at the beast. “You just have the Unhallowed Sword ready. Oh, and try to keep up!”
Even in the midst of battle, I couldn’t help but smile at the knight’s playful banter. Todd, Cupi, and Sia all followed Eligor into battle, and I was right behind them.
Once the dragon was within firing distance, he unleashed his white-hot fire in our direction.
Each member of my team reacted differently.
I summoned forth a massive shield of purple flames in front of our position, and the dragon’s Hellfire wrapped around it furiously. I felt the simmering heat of the attack as it flew over my head and both of my sides, but my barrier held.
Just in case it didn’t, Sia stood by my side with her healing spell at the ready. The petite succubus had her brow furrowed with determination as she watched the flames dance up and over my shield, and my heart couldn’t help but soften at just how adorable she looked. Like a kitten that was trying to portray itself as a ferocious hunter.
Todd was beside me, as well. The imp was down on his knees, reciting off every single terrible thing he’d ever done in his life. We were both already in Hell, but I did
n’t have the heart nor the time to stop his impromptu confession.
Meanwhile, Eligor and Cupi had taken to the sky. Both of the blonde women activated their spells in unison, and the sky lit up with bright green and blue flames.
The Sister of Greed’s spell struck Leviathan directly in the mouth and extinguished his flames instantly. As the blonde succubus held her assault, the brimstone around the dragon was engulfed with lime green fire. The rocky landscape began to twist and crumble, and then two long, rocky tendrils shot up out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the monster’s body. The glowing green tendrils slammed Leviathan to the ground, and the monster let out a grunt of annoyance.
“Go, now!” I ordered as I released my barrier.
The three of us dashed toward the trapped beast as he struggled to break free of his magical prison.
Todd got there first. He hovered up to Leviathan’s left eyeball, summoned forth red Hellfire into his fist, and hauled back.
“Falcon punch!” he cackled as he brought his hand forward and struck the dragon in the soft flesh of his eye.
Leviathan shrieked and tried to blast his Hellfire, but Cupi’s spell held it back.
I ducked underneath the blue beam of magic, slid across the rocky ground, and then came up with my sword at the ready. Instantly, I jabbed the pointy end of the Unhallowed Sword into the beast’s right eye. As I pulled the weapon out of Leviathan’s eye socket, his entire eyeball came with it.
The orb made a wet shlock as it exited his head, and there was a quick spray of gore as I yanked it free of its retina.
This attack must have done way more damage than Todd’s, because this time Leviathan let out an eardrum-shattering wail. At the same time, he pushed his body up with all of his weight, and the remnants of Eligor’s restraints flew into the air.
Leviathan was free.
The monster roared as he swung his head to the right and smashed it into my body.
The impact from the attack sent me tumbling across the rocky ground at breakneck speed. As I rolled like a ragdoll, I could feel the jagged brimstone of the terrain tearing at my face. I threw up a wall of purple to halt my momentum, and a wave of pain shot up my body as I crashed into it. Warm blood was now oozing down my face, and there was a sensation in my ribs that somehow felt numb and tender all at the same time.