by Sam Ryder
“I owe my life to you and your stupid plan,” Beat said, which I thought was the closest thing to a thank you I might ever get from her.
“You’re welcome.” I grinned. “Shall we?”
First we located our buried weapons and Beat’s shield, prying them from the ground. Then we clambered up the side of the halfpipe, which was way steeper than it had seemed on the way down. I kept just missing the top, but finally managed to use my hammer to get a solid hold on the lip and haul myself up, reaching back to help Beat, who had to heft her shield and spear, do the same.
I fell onto my ass and she tumbled on top of me. She was covered in blood and dirt but it took nothing away from her statuesque face and body. I could hardly take my eyes off her. It wasn’t attraction exactly. Closer to awe. But then her eyes widened and I saw the surprise mixed with fear as she pushed off me and fought to her feet.
I rolled over and looked at what had caused her reaction.
Oh. Shit.
A horde of ten to twelve demons moved a hundred feet away, prowling along the edge of the runnel. One of them turned toward us and cocked its head to the side.
And then it grinned a toothy grin.
The Maluk’ori had found us.
TWENTY-ONE
MOTHERFUCKING MORDOR
The leather-skinned demons ran on all fours, their front claws seeming to propel them forwards while their back legs churned behind them.
Running was no option, and these particular monsters didn’t fear the light of day.
Beat had already dropped into a warrior’s stance, her legs slightly bent, her spear clutched at her side with her shield positioned in front. I counted my lucky stars she’d decided to come with me. I could take a few of these bastards, but twelve would’ve killed me. Hell, they might still kill me and my badass companion.
A plan formed in my mind. “Use the drop-off to protect our rear,” I said. “I’ll cover the left ninety degrees and you cover the right.”
Beat nodded, and I didn’t need her to verbally confirm her understanding. I trusted her to do her part. It also left me somewhat in front, but she didn’t argue about that. I’m pretty sure she knew I wasn’t doing it to be heroic. If we were going to survive this, we’d both need to kill our share of demons.
Still, the wave of death reached me first, a trio of the racoon-sized buggers spitting and gnashing their teeth as they closed in. Batter up.
I set my feet and timed my swing just as the leader leapt from his haunches, all four claws angled in my direction. My hammer whistled through the air. The metal head was as large as the demon’s entire body, crashing into its side viciously. It arced away, disappearing into the runnel. If it survived, it wouldn’t get up any time soon.
The next one was already lunging, going low for my legs. I brought the hammer back the other way, swinging it low like a golf club this time, but only managing to land a glancing blow on its back legs. Its jaws clamped down on my ankle and it clawed at my knees. Meanwhile, the third demon had thrown itself at one of my arms, which was angled across my body in the direction of the hammer’s momentum.
This forced me to release my two-handed grip to grab at the creature, which was snapping at my jaw as its claws clutched my arm skin, biting deep.
Several demons raced past me, targeting Beat. I couldn’t worry about her, nor did she need me to.
I had my own life to save.
I flung my left arm to the side and shook it to try to dislodge the demon. Its head rocked from side to side, which likely gave it a bad case of whiplash, but, if anything, it dug its claws in deeper, sending a slash of pain through my nervous system.
The other demon was eating my leg, blood spurting from the wound and dripping down its face. Which hurt. A lot.
I tried to hit it with my hammer, which was still gripped tightly in my right hand, but these things were difficult to fight in such close range. Again, it wasn’t better than a half-power blow, and the thing only paused its chomping for a moment before diving back into its order of Sam sashimi.
Two for one special, I thought, flinging the demon on my arm back the other way and downwards, slamming one demon into the other. Their heads knocked together and I finally got the effect I was hoping for. The strength in their claws released and they tumbled away in a tangle of dark leathery skin and glistening fangs.
I brought my hammer down on one’s skull, then the other’s, both of which exploded like crushed grapes. Grossly satisfying. There was no time to dwell on victories two and three, however, because another three demons were closing in.
These ones implemented a different tactic, however, catching me by surprise as one clambered up another’s back and used the added height to leap at my head.
As it flew toward me, I was reminded of how I’d once seen a major league slugger try to hit a high fastball out of the park with two strikes already against him. Yeah. My own hammer swing was just about as effective. Or I should say ineffective.
Just as the slugger had struck out, I missed completely, my own momentum spinning me around. Thus, the demon landed on the back of my head, its claws piercing my scalp, digging in like an angry gargat’s talons as it swooped from above.
The other two demons attacked the backs of my legs, causing me to stumble and almost tumble into the pit I’d placed at my back, which was now at my front. My arms pinwheeled and I managed to catch my balance. On the leftmost edge of my peripheral vision, I saw a flash of movement, but I was already whirling around like a bull trying to dislodge its unwanted rider at a rodeo.
Claws and teeth bit into me. As I spun and stomped, I saw Beat in a similar situation. At least three demons were dead, bleeding from nasty spear wounds, but another three had infiltrated her defenses and were now clinging to various parts of her body.
As the demons tasted our blood, it seemed to send them into a frenzy, like sharks in the middle of an ocean of chum.
I dropped my useless hammer and reached over my head to grab the demon on my back. It bit my forearm, but I ignored the flash of pain, which was the equivalent of a single raindrop in a hurricane. My muscles popped as I used raw strength to tear the demon’s claws from my flesh, roaring as a fresh wave of agony hit me. I slung the demon to the ground and kicked it in the head, sending it sprawling.
The other two wrenched at my legs, bringing them too close together and throwing off my center of gravity. I fell, throwing down a desperate hand to stop myself, knowing all too well that to fall was to lose. To die.
The weight of the demons clambering up my legs to my back was too much, my wrist twisting and screaming in pain as I slammed to the hard ground.
My eyes found Beat’s. She was on the ground, too, three demons clawing at her skin, her own blood mixing with the troll’s blood and dirt.
Her eyes were shocked and wild. She didn’t want to die any more than I did. Unfortunately, the Maluk’ori had other ideas.
That’s when my Lri-Ay savior came to my rescue for the second time in the short weeks I’d spent on this planet.
Vrill’s wicked blade flashed in the silver sun and two demon heads left their stunted necks, bouncing and tumbling across the terrain. Another slash and two of the demons on Beat’s back became headless. Vrill dispatched the final demon by stabbing it through the back and picking it up like a hotdog on a skewer before kicking it off her blade and sending it over the edge of the halfpipe.
She stood between us, her eyes flicking back and forth, as if expecting another attack where there was none. Her armor shimmered, spotted with drops of flammable demonblood.
“Want a little company?” she asked.
~~~
I walked in the middle, with a badass “traitor” on one side and my badass loyal Warrior ally on the other. It was weird as hell. Neither woman spoke, our footfalls on the brittle ground doing all the talking. Beat and I were leaking blood from multiple wounds, but none of them were mortal, and the flow had slowed substantially from when the demons were gnawing on o
ur flesh. Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch.
Eventually, however, I couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“Look, Vrill, if you’ve come to talk me out of this, you can’t.”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Vrill said, and I was surprised to detect a hint of injustice in her voice.
“Then why?”
“You think just because I’m not with the Three that I’m not a part of this world, that I’m invisible?”
“No, I just—”
“Well that’s what the Three think. Eve too. Those tribes of Warriors who’ve betrayed them are dead in their eyes. We’re not dead.”
“I know th—”
“Do you?” Vrill stopped and grabbed my arm, pulling me to look at her. “Because if you did, you wouldn’t have questioned my motives.”
I looked into her compelling brown eyes, my mind ticking over the facts. She found us shortly after the Black, well away from any of her usual hideouts. She managed to sneak up on the Maluk’ori because she’d been in the troll-carcass furrow.
…I’m a part of this world…
It clicked.
“You’re hunting the Morgoss too?”
She nodded, a determined gleam in her eyes. “The Blacks are getting longer. That affects us all. I’m not doing it for the Three. I’m doing it for the planet.”
Gods, she’s beautiful. I couldn’t help the thought, because she was. She was a warrior amongst warriors, and though she’d abandoned the Three, she’d had her reasons. That didn’t mean she wasn’t better than us all.
Beat cleared her throat behind me. “Are you going to stand there making love with your eyes or should I get you a room?”
“What kind of room?” Vrill asked, narrowing her eyes slightly as she wasn’t familiar with many human expressions.
Beat snorted.
“We should go,” I said, we can’t waste any time between Blacks. “Thank you for saving our lives, Vrill. And welcome aboard.”
“I had the bastards right where I wanted them,” Beat muttered.
“Aboard what?” Vrill asked.
~~~
Ten more hours of walking and I was so tired I almost wished for the next Black. We could dig our holes and sleep for a while. Hell, I wouldn’t even care if an entire pack of hellhounds came by to drool all over my face.
“We need to rest,” I said, glaring at the mountains. They were definitely closer, looming monstrosities that I half-expected to stand up and squash me under a stone trod. And yet hours away. Maybe days. It was difficult to judge distances on these goddesses-forsaken plains. And the fact that the Morgoss had dragged massive fucking troll corpses all this way…it left a pit in my stomach. How could we hope to fight creatures that strong?
“Speak for yourself, pussy,” Beat said.
Vrill smirked at that. Great. They were teaming up on me. “I was. I feel ready to drop.”
“Chew this,” Vrill said, reaching inside the top of her breastplate and extracting several green leaves.
“Are those…”
“From a leafrat,” she confirmed. “When cooked they aren’t particularly potent. They provide some sustenance. But when consumed raw the effect is magnified.”
“What effect?” I asked, sniffing at the leaf. It smelled fragrant and earthy at the same time. I nibbled on the corner, shifting the greenery to a position in my mouth where my molars could grind it up. “Oh,” I said, feeling the effect almost instantaneously. My vision was sharper. My head clearer, like the fog had been burned away by a blazing sun. I felt a little tingly, like I had a surplus of energy just waiting to spill out of me. “It’s like a quadruple shot of expresso.”
“Exp—what?” Vrill asked.
“Coffee?” Beat said. “You know, caffeine?” Vrill looked at her blankly. “No? Energy?”
“Ahh,” Vrill said. “Like rejuvenation. Yes. It works for me too. Temporarily. It doesn’t have the long-lasting rejuvenation power that se—”
“Good stuff,” I said, cutting Vrill off and munching some more of the leaf. The last thing I wanted these two women to talk about was sex, especially because I knew Vrill would bring the conversation around to the two of us. Beat would have a field day.
Beat looked at me with narrowed eyes, but then let it go. “Gimme some of that.”
Vrill passed a couple leaves over and for a while we all basked in the sensation provided by the raw leafrat foliage. Yes, this will keep me going for a while.
More hours passed, and finally I felt like we were making real progress. I could judge the distance to the mountains. One, maybe two, hours at most. We would make it just in time, meaning we wouldn’t have to face another Black out here on the plains. Then again, would facing a Black in the mountains be any better? For all we knew, the place could be swarming with monsters.
“You ever been here?” I asked Vrill, trying to use conversation to quell my growing nerves.
“Of course,” she said, shrugging.
“Of course? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Beat asked.
“I was a Seeker before…I left. Me and…the other Seekers would come here often. That was our job. To scour the ancient lands seeking valuable magical artifacts, charmed weapons, that sort of thing.
And goddess hearts, I finished in my head. “What’s the coolest thing you ever found?” I asked.
“Coolest? Like cold?”
I chuckled. “Sorry. It’s another humanism. It means ‘best’ or ‘most awesome’.”
“Oh, Darcy used to say ‘awesome’ a lot.” She stopped, as if realizing that she’d spoken of her dead friend again. “I—we—found lots of ‘cool’ artifacts. This armor, for example. It’s thousands of years old and yet never shows its wear. It’s the only thing besides my blade I have left from those days. Except memories.”
“The Three took the rest?”
She nodded. “They have a trove of what has been found over the years. They stockpile it for their own use during the Final Black.”
“Final Black?” Beat and I asked at the same time, making eye contact. That didn’t sound good.
“D-Darcy called it Armageddon. She said humans had a similar concept on Earth.”
The pit in my stomach got bigger. “We do. It means the end of the world. Destruction. Chaos. Death. Pretty much all the worst stuff you can think of happening at the same time.”
“What is supposed to cause the Final Black?” Beat asked.
Vrill shrugged. The Three have never explained that to any of us, if they even know. It’s probably all—what’s that term you like to use? Ah, yes, bullshit.”
“Probably,” I said, not feeling confident at all. In this place, the end of the world seemed far more likely than on Earth.
“Friggin’ goddesses,” Beat muttered.
“What?” I asked.
“Hording weapons and shit. Making new Warriors choose from the leftovers. Unarmored. Wearing no better than bathing suits to fight monsters.”
She had a point. Unless there was some reason new Warriors—or any Warriors—couldn’t utilize the magical weapons and artifacts. Then again, Lace was allowed to use the magical bow and arrows, so that was something. But if there were more weapons like that, why not share them with the Warriors who were trying to protect them? I looked to Vrill for an answer.
She shrugged. “I’m not certain as to the reason. I never handled one of them until I leveled up to Seeker. But I wouldn’t put it past the Three to deny their Warriors valuable things they could use. They are selfish and cold.”
I’d certainly seen that side of Persepheus, but I’d also seen a hint of another side. Or perhaps a clue that her coldness was all an act. And Minertha…she’d been nothing but warm, going so far as to grieve for Dravon when he was killed. I didn’t point all of that out to Vrill, however, because I knew she didn’t want to hear it. All these years later, she was still grieving for her lost friend. Grief made it hard to think logically sometimes.
As for Airiel,
I didn’t even know for sure whether she existed.
The area before us was growing darker, but not just because of the sun’s frantic descent toward the horizon. Because of the shadows. The mountains seemed to radiate darkness, even though the position of the sun was such that they shouldn’t have cast any shadows in our direction. It was freaking intimidating. “Is this…normal?” I asked.
“Yes,” Vrill said. “This is where the real Black lives.”
“Because of the Morgoss?”
“Yes. And those creatures beholden to them. Their spawn.”
“Wait…what?” Beat said. “The Morgoss gave birth to the other monsters? How is that possible? Each species looks so different.”
“In a manner of speaking,” Vrill confirmed. “The Morgoss birth their soldiers through dark magic, fashioning them from the mountain’s molten earth, using parts from other dead monsters.”
“Sounds Frankensteinian,” I said.
“It’s like we’re one person sometimes,” Beat commented. Apparently, she’d had the same exact thought.
Vrill wouldn’t have gotten the reference, but she ignored it and continued talking, gesturing toward the largest mountain’s peak. “Allomir. The place where the sky meets the earth meets the sea. Or at least where it once did.”
Before the ocean dried up and the sky turned to ash and the mountains to darkness.
“This was the Three’s kingdom,” I said. “Their palace. Their home.”
“Yes,” Vrill said. “It was. But that was a long time ago.”
We walked on, into the ever-deepening shadows.
~~~
I expected to have to fight through hordes of monsters, ten deep on every side. What I got was zero resistance.
“Um, this feels too easy,” I said. We were in the mountain’s foothills now. The Black was perhaps an hour away, but the shadows radiating from the earth itself made it almost impossible to see. Luckily, we’d found a few gnarled trees growing resiliently from cracks in the rocks. We’d broken three brittle branches off and smeared them with the demonblood still stained on our skin, before clacking stones together to generate a spark sufficient to light the flammable ichor.