by Cryptic Fawn
Well, shit. That hadn’t worked. Tenuxhals fighting style may have been unpredictable, but his disposition remained as reliable as ever. As far as Elsi was concerned, the demon was a temper in search of a tantrum.
“You kept fighting to gain more power, Rhoads,” Tenuxhal finally replied flatly as he moved through the air towards the witch, hate running undisguised and rampant in the way he emphasized her name. “Well, so am I.”
“I did it to protect my friends and everyone I love. What’s your excuse?” the brunette haired woman persisted.
“Or have you just got nothing better to do - demon?”
Elsi cringed inwardly at her own caustic reply. She had intended to try and talk her way out of a fight with the insane man, not antagonize him. She bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from egging him on. She had a feeling she was only going to keep digging herself another foot further into the ground every time she opened her mouth. She just couldn’t keep the snide remarks from rolling off her tongue. This always happened to her when she was around Tenuxhal. They were like fire and ice.
Tenuxhal stilled, then bristled.
Elsi tightened her group around the lower half of her staff, raising it well above her shoulders. Well, it appeared she had hit a nerve.
Hazel eyes remained locked with liquid silver in a battle not to look away. A tense silence reigned, and it seemed to Elsi that Tenuxhal wasn’t going to muster an answer. The demon was almost motionless until he finally bared his unnaturally sharp teeth and spoke slowly, so dangerously, his tone edged with such a cold fury that it sent every inch of Elsi’s skin crawling for safety.
“You looked down on me back then.” His jaw muscles tensed and twitched. “And you’re still doing it now. You piece of shit.” He tilted his head slightly, and with a sharp jerk, audibly cracked his neck. “That ain’t happening... Anymore.”
Shit. Shit!
Tenuxhal vanished with a low sizzle as the air rushed to fill in the space where he’d just been hovering.
Elsi’s mind whirled, her head whipping around in a panic as adrenaline flooding into her heart, throwing it into overdrive. Memory flashed; she was was standing in star littered black sky high above the lights of Boulder, Colorado, then there was pain, disorientation, falling from the sky, colliding with hard concrete. It was their first fight, all over again.
In almost the same instant that he’d left, the demon reappeared behind Elsi, lashing out with a powerful roundhouse kick aimed for her head. Elsi barely had time to raise her staff to block the attack. Tenuxhal’s foot struck the wands thin top half, the length deflecting some of its energy, but it wasn’t enough to keep Rhoads from being thrown back and pushed off balance.
Tenuxhal was a vicious opponent, a natural fighter, brilliant in hand to hand, relentless in his attacks. Elsi’s defensive abilities had always been strong, but her own forte lay in her speed and brute strength unusual for the human woman, even for a witch of her status, and neither seemed to be enough tonight. The knight had it in spades over Elsi in a dirty street fight, throwing bruising punches and bone breaking kicks at random. He was hard as hell to read, and with more than enough power to back it up and make it hurt so you didn’t forget. Lord knew Elsi had certainly tried to forget.
Elsi knew she couldn’t win. She wasn’t at the level she needed to be at to take on the demon and actually walk away unscathed, or at all if the ferocity of Tenuxhals attacks were anything to go by. What Elsi lacked in strength without the full use of her Wisp, she made up as much as she could with speed and her familiarity with Tenuxhals fighting style. Avoiding being struck was her biggest concern at the moment.
She knew the demon would be quick and dangerous, despite his size, and she couldn’t afford to show Tenuxhal just how far she’d regressed. She could only hold her Wisp for about two minutes after the war and she hadn’t trained more than a few times with it since. But she could, if she were careful, release it early before it began to suck her dry of energy, and use it again seconds later. It was a ridiculous way to have to fight, but the technique was her only choice. If Tenuxhal realized how weak she really was, he would drop all of his defenses and focus entirely on the kill. That scenario sent a surge of panic through her. She had her life back and she wanted to keep it.
Elsi dragged slender fingers down in front of her chest, right below her collarbone and between her cleavage, and formed her Wisp form, encasing herself in the pure light blue light that seemed to melt onto her entire figure. Only her eyes held any detail and remained the same as before.
A feral grin slowly stretched out across the demons angular face, sharp teeth otherwise hidden behind snarling lips and slit eyes making him look almost rabid with the desire to kill.
“No one’s around to help you this time, Elsi Rhoads.”
Elsi’s heart skidded as she was momentarily pinned by that familiar, and haunting predatory look, one that could only come from a very cruel and very dangerous thing.
Tenuxhal lunged. Elsi tried to block. Blood began to rain in thick droplets onto the street.
She donned the Wisp again as Tenuxhal appeared above her, just in time to deflect part of an Infernal Tempest before the rest of it engulfed her. It was like being in an oven, hard to breath, as Elsi and a ball of fiery energy plummeted straight into the street, the force of it sending her crashing into the pavement, smelling of singed flesh and fabric.
~~~
The knight rained down on the witch, landing blow after devastating blow to her face and chest. Elsi felt her Wisp beginning to give and in desperation slashed at the knight’s legs. Tenuxhal dodged but not before the staff ripped through the fabric of his trousers.
Elsi leapt far back and released her Wisp form. Great. So far she had succeeded in cutting the knights pants to ribbons. Very helpful.
The knight followed, landing smoothly on three limbs in the crater where Elsi lay panting and struggling to get up, his right arm already raised to deliver a lethal blow to Elsi's body. Elsi rolled, dodging the blow by a hair, and Tenuxhal's fist smashed into the street instead, the skin over tight knuckles splitting apart on impact.. The young woman backed away warily. The knight held his fist up to Elsi, inspecting it with interest, as a single tear of dark blood ran down the back of his hand.
"Oh look, witch. You finally made me bleed."
Elsi took that moment to remove her Wisp again while Tenuxhal taunted her.
At least now his clothes were as tattered as her own. One sleeve was completely gone, exposing her bra. The back of her dress was barely holding together. Clearly she needs to rethink how much energy to imbue into her clothes when she got home. Maybe ask Olivia to help as well.
Tenuxhal flicked his hand clean of blood and growled. Rhoads was trying to piss him off. The way she kept choosing to fight without her Wisp, pulling it on and taking it off at random... it was an open insult to the knight.
Tenuxhals' rage was palpable, an ugly frenzied thing exploding with a life of its own now, feeding on his adrenaline, the blood and the pain, consuming him until all he knew was the screaming of his demonic soul. He was going to cut her, bruise her, bleed her, break her... Watch her struggle, hopeless and defeated at his feet... Then blast her into oblivion.
Elsi watched in alarm as the last of Tenuxhals's thin veil of control finally cracked. There was mayhem in his eyes. And it was a race as Elsi reached deep inside her heart for her Wisp once again, the knight determined not to let her pull it on this time. If the bitch was going to play games with him, then he was going to fuck her up six ways to Sunday. Tenuxhal teleported forward, grabbing a sharp edge of the staff that swung out to greet him, ignoring the lance of pain as it bit into the softer skin of his palm. It wasn't deep at all, barely a scratch, and the small annoyance was more than worth it to get at the woman.
Elsi swore as her attention was split between reaching for her Wisp and trying to fend off the attack with her staff. Weapon pushed aside, the knight collided with the witch and they both tumbled t
o the ground, rolling in a tangle of limbs along the unbroken pavement until they came to a sudden stop, Elsi thoroughly pinned beneath the man.
Elsi glared fire into Tenuxhal's eyes in the fading light. Those eyes. Liquid silver and full of hatred. Every line of their owner's body screamed savage and feral. Tenuxhal returned the humans look twice over and growled with a predatory hunger that he could not have contained even if he tried.
There it was. There was that fear he'd been looking for.
Hazel eyes widened as the witch started to squirm underneath the demon, struggling almost frantically to grasp Tenuxhals' hands in order to keep herself from being blasted or pummelled into the asphalt by those fists... again. And suddenly, she had them both in her hands, muscles flexing as she pushed against the weight of the knight. For a split second, Elsi felt the smallest sense of relief, but ass she watched the grin spread across Tenuxhal's face, reaching up into those malevolent silver eyes, she realized that her small victory had been won far too easily.
Tenuxhal laughed once, short, sharp, and then he head butted her. Concussion, coma, broken neck...
He didn't care. This piece of shit was dead. She just didn't know it yet.
Elsi bit her tongue as her head bounced once off of the hard concrete, and gasped as pain lanced through her skull from both sides, the coppery taste of her own blood filling her mouth. The beast above her instantly split into two, and Elsi shook her head to clear her vision and rid herself of Tenuxhal's double. One was enough, thank you.
She released her grip on one of Tenuxhal's hands and pushed up abruptly against the other. One hand freed unexpectedly, Tenuxhal lost his balance and toppled off of Elsi, and they both scrambled to regain their footing. Tenuxhal was faster. He grabbed an unstable Elsi by her curly brown hair, hauling her upright, and struck her closed-fisted across the face, all the force of his grudge behind the hit. A strangled sound and a spray of blood from a split lip were Tenuxhal's reward, and he began to laugh shrilly.
He had so much more to say to the witch, and he expressed his feelings towards Elsi with another savage swing, the sharp uppercut uprooting Elsi and sending her reeling thirty feet into the air. The woman didn't make a sound any louder than a grunt at the pain. There was no way she was going to give Tenuxhal any more satisfaction than she already had by letting him hear her suffering.
Elsi dragged her fingers through the air in an attempt to slow herself, but knew it was futile. She had to get her Wisp on again, or she was done. But Tenuxhal was there again. He was just everywhere. And Elsi was slowing down. The knight grabbed the young woman by the arm and heaved on it, twisting it around behind her back and wrenching her shoulder into an unnatural position in the socket, enjoying the exquisite pain he was causing her. Elsi did scream then.
Elsi's cry of agony fell on deaf ears. There was no mercy here. The knight only increased the pressure on her arm and Elsi began to see black spots as the pain overwhelmed her.
"Well, come on, witch," Tenuxhal purred into her ear. "You're not even fighting back. Don't be so pathetic. Don't you want to tear me apart anymore?"
He used his leverage to force Elsi around to face him, then released her and shoved her back. Then without even a twitch to telegraph his next move, he spun around and caught the woman across the midsection with a savage kick.
There was a sickening crunch and an anguished cry as Tenuxhal's foot pressed into the college student's ribcage, bending bones and cracking them easily with the sheer strength and speed of his attack. Elsi’s breath exploded from her lungs in a sharp wheezing burst of wet air and blood, and a searing bolt of pain shot through her as felt her ribs shatter. The blow sent her rocketing through the air towards one of the darkened buildings below as the last traces of light finally vanished, swallowed up by the gaping maw of night.
The knight dropped any pretence of defense that he might have had, and he threw his head back towards the sky in a shameless bray of laughter, arms stretched out and muscles flexing as an intoxicating rush of adrenaline surged through him, leaving him feeling pleasantly giddy. God, how he had missed this. The smell of Elsi Rhoads blood, the battle, the heat, the pain, and the release of power. It was all so fucking arousing.
Four
He had aimed to send his prey through the window. But she went through the side of the building instead, missing the window altogether. Tenuxhal barred razor sharp teeth in a feral grin and laughed cruelly. Even better. Sometimes it was the little things that he appreciated the most.
Elsi crashed through the wall, hit the open floor and rolled several times until she was able to plant her feet and free hand, to slow her momentum, the floor squeaking under her as she skidded to a jerking stop. Coughing on the dust in the air, she grunted and shook her head as she took stock of her injuries. Crashing through concrete didn't actually hurt as much as one thought it would. It was the goddamn re-bar underneath, the reinforced steel beams that were a bitch.
Oh God, she was hurting. If she were a normal human, she’d be long dead. Thankfully being a witch came with perks, and being able to withstand getting the shit beat out of her was one of them. She could feel several of her badly fractured ribs threatening to break right through, blood was seeping into her clothes from several deep and stinging cuts, and her weakened muscles burned in places that would soon be turning ugly shades of blue and black. Or they would if she survived.
Resolve was everything to Elsi. It was key to her victories. Almost every violent encounter she'd had in her early witch days had ended in her favour only because she had hardened her resolve in the face of defeat. But at this moment, she barely even had a chance to form a cohesive thought, let alone muster up the resolve to overcome this supposed-to-be-demon-food knight. After eight months of trying to be a relatively normal human college student, and dispatching the occasional moron, she wasn't mentally or physically ready for a fight of this magnitude. It stung her to admit it, even to herself, to acknowledge just how completely out-classed she was right now.
From her spot on the floor, Elsi looked up, torn from her musings and her eyes widened. Tenuxhal stood framed at the outer edge of the jagged opening, black and chaotic, silhouetted in the dust against the background light from the street behind him. He had already grabbed his right wrist with his left hand and formed a ridiculously large, sun coloured Infernal Tempest. Even from this distance the woman could feel the heat fanning out as Tenuxhal released the energy in one controlled burst. But he hadn't aimed it at Elsi. He aimed up.
Elsi let out a heartfelt,"Shit."
Above Elsi's head, the roof exploded. Despite being half blinded by the Tempest, its large afterimage cutting a wide swath across all but her most peripheral vision, Elsi was up and moving, ribs and cuts protesting vehemently. There was only one way out. She had to make it to one of the windows that would be on the other side of the warehouse. She knew that the roof was coming down on her in large pieces.
Choking dust billowed up as heavy debris smashed into the floor all around her. She pooled her energy into her legs and dashed as quickly as possible towards escape.
But it was dark and she was blind. A large slab plunged earthward, spinning as it fell.
You couldn't dodge what you couldn't see.
~~~
Elsi reached out awkwardly for support from a wall that was just beyond her grasp. She stumbled forward until she did hit it, the side of her face taking the brunt of the impact, then her arms and shoulders. She scrambled ineffectively for purchase against the stone, the long edges of her fingernails and fingertips seeking out cracks and indentations in the porous surface and finding none. She cursed, slipping downwards along the rough concrete, further abrading her hands, cheek, and forehead, painting a long red streak of blood on the wall as she fell forward and the cold hard floor rushed up to meet her.
She hadn't made it out of the destroyed building unscathed. The chunk of ceiling had come down against the side her head, but her momentum had carried her through the window and in
to an alley, where she'd landed hard on the pavement in a shower of broken glass. Barely able to think through the haze of pain, she had forced her muscles to push herself up, and stumbled across the short space between buildings, towards the next warehouse and the illusion of safety.
It was the kind of blow to the head that only someone like Elsi could have survived, because she was Elsi Rhoads, and because she had pulled on her Wisp form at the last possible second, using its power to absorb and deflect the skull crushing force of the solid concrete missile. That magnificent form, powerful in its design, delicate in its structure, had saved her - and then instantly shattered, spent already, leaving her more vulnerable now than she had been before she reached for it.
She dragged up the last of her strength, fighting to get her feet back under her as she groped her way along the dirty concrete floor, scarcely aware of her own name or how she had come to be in this situation. She knew that death was on its way, but she didn't know why. Her mind was shutting down and instinct was telling her to be terrified. The very essence of it was pumping through her veins. It was the most primal type of fear.
Elsi couldn't stay on her feet anymore, couldn't even feel them. Too many things were going critically wrong inside her body. Her heart pounded rapidly and white-hot pain seared through her skull. She choked and coughed up a warm wet bubble of something thick and iron-tasting. The liquid spilled over her pale lips, staining them red and cutting a long crimson trail as it dribbled down the side of her mouth, her chin, her throat.
I must look like shit.
She stumbled again and landed painfully hard on sore knees and raw hands. It should have been easier for her to stay upright that way, but it made no difference. She was struggling against her limbs, mutinous and shaking, as the crates beside her and the walls around her, with their large gated windows, listed to one side and then the other. Blood flowed into her eyes, washing her already dark world with a reddish haze. She scrubbed it away twice in frustration, almost falling on her side for her trouble, but the blood returned each time.