by Amanda Churi
For there she was. Pinion. On her knees. Screaming. Crying. Arm beside her. Detached and still clutching her sword.
The cyborg stood feet before her with his electrified barrel of a fist cooling down as clots of her blood continued to hit the snow. Pinion was hyperventilating, her eyes flickering sporadically between blue and green. She injected her fingers into her bare shoulder socket, strings of feeble, distressed green trying to pause time and stop the bleeding, all while the scarce remnants of Puteulanus detached from her forehead and sunk into the snow, revealing the shallow hole that reached into her skull. Her bare wing thrashed and flailed in torment, ready to break off, and her foul mouth, never one to shut, was trembling and shuddering, spurts of spit and gore shooting from her chattering teeth and anguishing wails.
Mabel tore off in a streak of red. “Forget the walls! I’m helping Pinion! You help Seek!”
What? Seek?
A violent combustion of plasma and machinery lit up the sky. I winced past the harsh rays, looking up at the black and white comets far above who hopped from ship to ship, creating a trail of stripped, blazing aircraft that were falling one by one.
Oh, there she was. But why did I have to help her? She seemed to be doing fine; after all, it was Typo who was running for his life. Better yet, how could I help? They were in the damn sky!
The walls were the main priority, but ultimately, going in there alone would accomplish nothing. I needed all the powerhouses I could get, so even though I didn’t have a single idea on how to help Seek in my blockish head, there was one thing I could do: quit standing there and start figuring it out.
Tracking them in the sky, I ran toward their location, my fists and Coruscus making the perfect duo as I crushed anyone that so much as looked at me the wrong way. It was a whole lot of running in one direction and then backtracking as their game of chase intensified, but I kept them as close as physically possible.
I also made sure to keep an eye on Mabel.
She powered forward toward Pinion and the cyborg, stabbing an Elite through its chest with her tail of fire. Agonized slush seeped out of his mouth; cracks rushed over his frame, hunks of his body crumbling until all that remained was his chest, which Mabel then flung with a piercing scream, catapulting the doomed Elite straight into the cyborg’s back.
Not even the weight of a solid ice block brought him down—it only caused his neck to spin like an owl, eyes locking onto Mabel.
Her spine-born tails shot out beside her as faulty wings, tips forward and hungry as she closed the final gap of distance. “COME AT ME!”
Once he had permission, he did just that. He fired his blaster without a pause and released his fistful of cards.
Mabel’s extensions slammed down and pushed her into the air as the strikes narrowly soared below her heels. She pulled her arm back as the creature reloaded and refocused aim; flaming spearheads tipped each of her fingers, and she launched them the moment the cyborg fired, each blow deflecting the other and covering the field in a pall of smoke and embers.
A katana suddenly came at my nose, nearly grazing my skin. The attack brought me to a quick standstill, spinning to the shi that was readying another swing. I kicked my knee up and knocked their blade right out of their bony hand, effortlessly catching it before turning it around and spearing them right through their energized chest. Their jaw dropped right off their rotten face, and I hurled my foot into their ribcage so that I shattered it completely. A supernova of purple, ethereal matter exploded straight from their chest—a galaxy of violet light fragments dicing the world apart until all energy had escaped, leaving nothing but a disintegrating, hollow shell in place of the demon.
I plucked their silver katana out of the snow, turning it over for a quick inspection. Aluminum… Really? Wow. I almost felt guilty that I left them with such a half-ass forger.
“Up there!”
The odd announcement caught my attention. It didn’t take a genius to realize what the trio of Elites hustling toward me was up to. Their spinning, iced chains were creating saucers in the air as a nipping mist leaked out of their bluing heels, frozen eyes tracking the circling creatures in the sky. Their legs continued gaining strength until they were almost directly beneath the two.
“Oh, like Heaven you will!” I broke into a sprint and ran at them, bulging arms back and inflamed Coruscus ready.
Two of them wisely refocused their aim, snapping their chins to meet my enraged face, but the other continued toward their initial target.
The Elites who marked my head jumped apart as they charged, flanking my sides. One raised their grapples high, and the other brought them low, scraping the soil and leaving a trail of giant, needle-like icicles. Not a bad tactic at all… But they didn’t know who they were dealing with.
I relocated my center of mass, flexing my abs and locking my arms against my sternum before jumping and throwing my body sideways so that I tumbled through the air between their synchronized strikes.
Coruscus lashed as I finished my amazing dodge, cutting through one of their skulls and sending them flying as I finally lost altitude, hitting the ground in a high-speed roll. I bounced up as soon as my tumble began to falter, tearing back toward the stricken Elite’s partner that barely turned in time to face me. I leaped high and mighty, somersaulting right above their head and bringing Coruscus down upon them, shattering their entire frame into a heap of crystals.
My body immediately whipped back to the one who refused to change direction, still transfixed on Seek. Panting, I flew toward him, jaws readied and claws poised.
A column of ice shot up beneath the Elite’s feet, launching him into the air. I skid, nearly faceplanting the ginormous crystal as he gained the power of flight. He struck, a wave of blue energy flying out of his hand and up his whipping chain.
The grapple tore through Seek’s wing with an explosion of crystallized mist, hooking onto its thorny structure. Seek’s overshadowed eyes flared in pain and rage, the cry of an injured beast blaring across the battlefield. Eyes of a vengeful white narrowed to slits, and with a scream, her afflicted wing snapped out in front of her and then slammed back, sending the Elite flying into the nth dimension.
With a break in the chase, Typo hurriedly warped back to his natural form. With a smirk, his hands rose, black, spinning plates balancing on his steaming fingers. Fangs flashed in victory; his ebony cape expanded beside his levitating form as he pulled his arms back and then shoved them forward, releasing the spinning disks with a pressurized whine.
I urgently sank my claws into the stalagmite and bound up onto the spire, leaping in Seek’s direction and snatching the chain dangling from her wing. A squeak unworthy of her terrifying form weaseled out when I used my weight to pull her down, Typo’s disks missing her head by a hair. Stunned, she snapped her eyes to me. Her expression showed the conflict brewing within her brain—was I an enemy or an ally?—but I merely nodded, looking back at the personified nightmare in hopes she got the message.
Her eyes followed mine, her head mimicking my same nod as she took off once more toward Typo.
Dragging me with her.
“You stupid fairy!” I bellowed, thrusting my claws through the loops of the chain for dear life as she carried me into the sky. Typo resumed his pathetic flee, and Seek was overtaken by rage, giving no notice of me flailing around on the end of the chain.
Well jeez, now I really wasn’t of any help. I felt more useless than Pinion, who still couldn’t find it in her to stand, shielded by Mabel and her flames as she continued to duke it out with the robot.
I was flung to the side, my nails nearly ripped from their nubs. Seek screeched as a bird of prey, suddenly cutting to the right to intercept Typo as he changed direction. He jutted back before he could collide with her beaming wings, diving down instead, but, of course, Seek followed. She swiped her arms through the air, firing deadly arcs of light. Typo frantically distorted to avoid the hits. I was beginning to panic as Seek threw me side to side, bu
t so was Typo, too frightened to risk a blow of his own. With a mere instant of rest, she would be on him, and the rest would be history.
“Don’t aim for him!” I called out through my rising fatigue. “Aim for where he isn’t!”
Her frayed hair made a wave with the bob of her head. She stopped firing and pushed her arms out farther, adjusting the angle of her hands and forearms. The brief ceasefire inevitably turned Typo’s head, and the moment he looked, she released another barrage of shimmering blades. Typo instinctively veered off in one direction, and the moment he moved, his red eyes went black.
An arc sliced his ghastly leg clean off, and immediately, he lost stability, flailing through the open air. Seek’s pure aura began to creep through Typo’s vaporous form from the thigh up, bit by bit causing him to evaporate as he twirled and spun, falling faster and faster.
“Hit him again!” I encouraged as we chased him to the ground. He was already half of himself, his lower body nearly gone, now a sparkling white, whipping tail. The magic had reached his torso, continuing to consume him.
Inches from the ground, Typo reached up with his body and narrowly avoided collision, shooting off and skimming the surface.
My stomach dropped. “WAIT, SEEK!”
She again ignored the fact that she had a passenger on board. I couldn’t undo the intricate workings of my claws before I slammed into the ground, falling subject to the most terrifying drag-race in history. She kept low to the ground, taking apart whoever was on the runway with her blinding wings, so not only was I taking dirt to the face but limbs and innards too. Typo was just barely maintaining flight, pushing his body to the limit while leaving a trail of gaudy glitter behind. Wisps of holiness were finding his face and even hair, cleansing his rotten soul for good. “GRIFFIN! HELP!”
I didn’t see the nightmare of an invention until the cyborg skidded before Typo, the henchman gaining just enough lift to reach Griffin’s face and fly into his nostrils.
Griffin’s beaming eyes immediately died, falling to a black abyss before a rush of blood rose to his pupils.
Seek did not slow down. As she closed in, Griffin’s spine violently spun, linked gun flying up and firing right at Seek.
The angel tumbled, my brain and eyes scrambling as I rolled with her. The stress on the chain suddenly slacked as the rapid rotation dislodged the grapple from Seek’s wing. I smacked the soil with my gut, still for the first time in what seemed like forever.
My breaths were slow and shaky as I lifted my eyes, watching the two initiate a standoff. Seek’s wobbling legs were hardly holding her, a stream of blood gushing from her nose with the beat of her wings tied to her weary pulse. The brightness of her aura had dulled significantly over the course of the battle, now hardly forming a film, and her eyelids were drooping, pupils a mere dot and gaze unable to settle on the threat before her.
I hadn’t realized it until now, but she was faltering. Merritt’s death was mere oil thrown to a flame, giving her a huge but short-lived burst of power.
Even though Seek had a clear opening, she used it to tend to herself. Typo too took advantage of her lapsing strength, taking the opportunity to get situated in his new vessel. The rippling, magical plates coating Griffin’s indestructible body shifted from an opaque, misty white to a potent, bubbling black. The pores of his skin opened, dark, deadly pollutants from all lines billowing out and birthing a sheen of death. His festering red eyes circled down to his weaponized arm, curiously watching the forms shift as he pondered all he was suddenly capable of. Typo may have been reduced to a weak demon, but he now had the body of a tyrant.
And he knew it. “Oh, what a pity,” the chilling voice began. “So close… Yet not close at all.” He threw his arm up and fired a round of combusting spheres. Seek quickly pulled her wings in front of her, taking shelter behind their arms as she was forced back.
Laughter erupted from Griffin’s barren chest, and he advanced, arm raised and firing round after round in rapid succession. Each bullet slid Seek back another inch, wings and eyes shaking under the pounding rain. She was suddenly immobilized by her own fear; her veil continued to darken and fade, the thorns and briars of her wings cracking, breaking under the weight of what she asked.
I tried to undo the bonds that my claws were caught in, but I couldn’t free them. “Come on…!” I resorted to smacking my hands against the ground as my eyes flew from my magical bondage to Typo, back to chains, and then to Seek, who was struggling more and more with each passing second.
A cyclone of fire shot past me, coming so close that I felt the heat char my skin. Typo somersaulted in midair, the burning torrent washing cleanly under him. Mist was pouring from his nose like a bull when he landed on both feet, and his head swished to Mabel, who was running toward us.
“Oh, nooo!” Typo mocked. “Females! Oh, Satan, whatever will I do?!” His neck snapped back to Seek the moment she lowered her wings, and he blew off another wave so fast that Seek couldn’t lift her walls, struck right in the chest and launched back.
“SEEK!” Mabel screamed.
Typo stared, waiting to see if the angel could get up, but the heaving, distant heap of disintegrating thorns made his answer clear. His throbbing eyes slyly found the oncoming charge of flames. He smiled smugly. “Bite me, bitch.”
He never even had to look as the rockets came at him, able to dodge all without breaking a sweat. His blaster resumed its barrage, working so hard and fast that it was steaming; in his other hand, the cards resurfaced, this time the size of paper sheets and a vile shade of purple. He was still able to twirl them—three in hand—before they were launched, replaced instantaneously and flying again.
Dammit… There was no way Mabel could get close like that, which gave the bastard all the more time to dodge her strikes.
I evaluated him closely, noting the subtle patterns of his movements. The cards always twirled in a specific sequence, switching places in the same order, and the middle one left his grasp just before the others. Each ball of electricity shot had the same interval between expulsions, and after all six had been fired, it took approximately one second to reload.
It wasn’t much. It wasn’t great. But it was something.
The frozen chains finally crumbled under my infuriated slam, and I tore forward, two walls of raging flames flanking me on each side.
I suppressed any unneeded senses as I squatted, bringing my fists before my face… Waiting. In a world of dull hues, the saturation and colors deepened, widening my spectrum and sharpening the outlines of everything as Typo turned to face my challenge. Each stride that brought him closer to me was more heated than the last—more urgent and vengeful than any enemy I had squared off with in quite some time. He wasn’t doing it just because; he was coming for my blood for a deeper reason unknown to me.
Once a dozen feet out, Typo suddenly blurred and appeared in high-definition nose-to-nose with me. His teeth were curled in a victorious smile, tongue flapping and eyes pinched in the corners. A diamond blade large enough to squish me like a bug grew beside him in slow motion, and he chuckled, so close that his hot breath brewed from fossil fuels and rotten blood set my nostrils on fire. “HI.”
The world spun as Time resumed its normal trek, hardly allowing me to avoid the cynic’s strike—in fact, I couldn’t. The blade that reached for my throat missed the windpipe, but it still got me on the side.
I tottered back, huffing irritably as I applied pressure to the shallow wound. Of course, he would change tactics… I should have predicted something so simple. He caught me off guard, I would give him that…
“But you’re nothing compared to Satan.”
A single eye twitched. Typo’s slick smile twisted until it flipped upside down.
His muscles flexed just before he lunged, hardly enabling my spine to bend in time as his blade whooshed a hair above my chest. I demanded my back to pivot to the opposite side of the dragging blade, rebounding up where it was safe and coming down on his face with f
ully loaded fists. My knuckles shattered his jaw with a single punch, but his eyes did not register the pain, only my menacing presence. “’Tis but a scratch!”
“I’ll show you!” I swung my teeth at his neck, and suddenly, our chests met, a sponge of musky blood squishing between us.
Suddenly, I couldn’t get air. Suddenly, he was smiling again, pushing the blade farther and farther until his fist was submerged inside me. “I think that’s a good enough scratch, don’t you?”
The stab left me outside of myself, dazed as Typo powerfully recalled his blade, and I dropped to the ground, watching my globs of golden blood turn red. I heard Mabel scream my name, but only faintly before Typo jumped back from a cyclone of flames shot directly between us, a smile forever branded on his face and in his devilish eyes.
I kneeled with my hands clutching my squirting gut, unmoving as Mabel took the lead to protect not just Seek but me. She couldn’t take the time to check on my situation, but in a gradually slowing world, I saw the tears falling from her steaming face, fueling her already enraged strikes.
Typo kept avoiding her while effortlessly moving back, never allowing Mabel to get close. He was no longer fighting back, only dodging with slit and observant eyes as each of Mabel’s four, deadly arms smacked down and out like roots, nearly catching him. But nearly wasn’t good enough.
A spurt of blood shot out of my mouth with a powerful cough. I mindlessly stared at the puddle it formed, feeling my heartbeat reverberate throughout. My focus was far gone, but I managed what I could, listening to the frantic cries of my fledglings as they realized their own impending fates. I didn’t have to force them to help me; they took to it themselves, flooding me with as much energy as they could in an attempt to stitch my wounds. I groggily watched as young, golden sprouts and vines reached out from my torn innards, intricately weaving with my skin and organs, but the blood flow was strong—and the damage stronger.