We are on our back in the blink of an eye, but recover and kip up to standing. This is the speed I know. Even though I was expecting it, it still surprised me. Rhal bounces away on the pads of his feet and mimics a shadowboxing routine.
“Ooo!” he taunts. “Gotta be quicker than that, Bait!”
Can we match his speed?
my demon says with a growl. He is not being overconfident–and that is good. But the lack of my demon's normal bravado is also a little unnerving.
The large demon hops into melee range again and we circle each other. We swing and he bats our hand away. Rhal's fists connect in a powerful quick combo and slam into our sides. We move to defense and block what we can, then divert what we can't by knocking his hands away. He, however, catches our blows more often than anything else. The losing tactic is playing out just like with the beefed up wizard from a few days ago. Fatigue will kill us if his raw power doesn't. Our strategy in this is mostly to get him to lose himself in the fight until we see an opening for Brimstone or someone shows up to help. But if he’s only toying with us, we’ll have to rethink that plan. The hits keep coming, but we score a few solid hits and even manage to hip throw him when he overreaches. It doesn't do much, unfortunately. He claws the ground and lands on his feet, becoming more aggressive. But we did it. That's something, right?
Suddenly, he starts humming. The tune seems random at first, but when it starts to get faster, we realize it is the Jaws theme.
How ridiculous. He’s got time for jokes while he treats us like a martial arts pupil. His hands start to glow dimly with green light. He used this for a killing move against Bezhir, so we pulse out a void dome and the light vanishes.
“There’s that nuisance of an ability,” he snarls while pressing his attack without the aid of his energy. “That’s what nearly had me taken out. I forgot how pissed I was. Thanks, Bait.” He backs off and crouches to pounce. No one else has shown up, so our only backup might be the Hound.
Brimstone, now!
Their aura is flooded with relief. The anxiety and impatience in the Hound fades and excitement pours forth. Brimstone jumps and sails through the air behind Rhal, transforming from dog to Hellhound during the leap. The eyes of the shark-faced demon squint at the burst of demonic energy behind him. He starts to turn, but we jump forward and swing with a hook. The blow catches him on the nose from the left, then from the right to keep his attention on us. Rhal lowers his head and tenses, drawing back a fist just as Brimstone's jaws clamp down on his thick neck. The Hound pulls him backward, and we drop to the side to kick at the backs of the demon's knees.
The unexpected added weight pulls him down to the ground, and Brimstone tugs hard. Rhal screams as a chunk of his neck rips away. The Hound savages the mass of flesh then tosses it to the side, baring their teeth and issuing a rumbling growl. We rush to straddle him, hoping on the opening they gave us, but Rhal spins on the ground like a breakdancer and pushes himself up, ready to face us. Holding his neck with one hand, he blocks our attacks with the other, making it look effortless.
Brimstone bites his lower calf and tugs, trying for another takedown, but Rhal's stands firm. He shakes his leg free then jumps and brings a knee up into our stomach while swinging his other heel back into the Hound's neck. The hit is much harder than the others, and all the air in our lungs rushes out. The blows leave both us and Brimstone gasping and choking. I'm beginning to think everything we've done so far has still been part of his plan somehow–or maybe just not enough to matter. I know he wanted to make us think we had a chance, but neither my demon or I thought he was this capable. He grabs us by the neck with his free hand and takes the other off his neck. Looking at his fingers, he checks the damage then draws his hand back while we dangle from his grip. A full strength haymaker from him while we’re held like this will more than likely put us out if we don’t stop it.
Unibeam, unibeam! I scream in our headspace. At this range and this angle, it will cause serious damage to some of Rhal's vital parts if it can burn him like it did to Brimstone. We lift our feet and push off his thighs while he holds us up. The move hurts our neck, but it gives us enough space to swing forward. We bring our heels crashing into his knees. The first strike elicits a snapping sound and Rhal hisses in surprise. He’s still got us held, so we bounce off and quickly fire off another blow, this time with the bottoms of our feet. We are rewarded with an even louder cracking sound as his knees buckle and hyperextend backward. Excitement builds in our chest, but it fades just as quickly. The damage is not as effective as we had first thought. Rhal lets out a frustrated breath as his body adjusts to the new orientation of his knees. His heels raise up and his feet extend. He stands on his toes in digitigrade fashion. He’s only off balance for a moment during this, but we intend to make that moment count.
Our chest blazes with heat until the concentrated flame bursts out, even burning through our enchanted shirt. His eyes widen at the sudden build-up of energy, and he flicks us to the side just as the beam scorches a mark across his chest. The beam is aimed at his center mass, but it only singes his ribs, shearing off a portion of his side and severely burning his skin. It is, unfortunately, not a fatal hit. Probably not even debilitating considering he was fine with losing an arm and a leg last time. He growls and throws us to the ground. With a grunt, he snaps his legs back into their original orientation, then kicks us away from him. We slide about thirty feet away, clawing at the ground until we skid to a halt. Standing up and breathing heavily, we look for our Hound, spotting them lying off to our right.
We approached this battle with no small amount of caution, but this is far more one-sided than we thought it would be. We made as many preparations as we could, and even the start of this fight felt like Apollo Creed versus Ivan Drago. The Comedian versus Ozymandias is what it feels like now. In either case, it didn’t end well for the party that I am playing. He’s made us feel like no matter what we did, no matter how much we prepared, we never stood a chance. As these thoughts swirl in our headspace, I wonder if Rhal can see it. A wide smile spreads across his face.
“You’re feelin’ it, aren’t ya, Bait?” he taunts. “That hopeless sinking feeling in your gut?” He closes his eyes and sniffs the air, letting out a shuddering breath. “Oh, it’s so good.”
What passes for perspiration in this form streams down our face and our breathing is becoming ragged. We’re running on empty from the physical punishment of this encounter. Rhal barely looks winded and has still had an answer for everything we’ve done. Hell, he was almost literally fighting us with one hand tied behind his back while he was holding his neck. My demon would never admit it, but Rhal is right. At this point, I feel that we’re hopelessly outmatched.
But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up.
We feel heat coming from our wrist and look down. The bracelet that Eph gave us is leaking spark-like energy. I had completely forgotten that this was offering us some small amount of protection. Could that be why the blows from Rhal were easier to handle in the beginning? If that's the case, we should've gone all out at the beginning instead of trying to draw this out. That’s another blow to our confidence. Why do my plans here never work like they should? It's gotta be the venue. So much has happened here. This place is cursed.
Brimstone, you okay? I ask.
(Fine,) comes the labored voice of my Hound. (Choking, but fine.)
(Master?)
The three-headed vibrating thingy, I say, ever the wordsmith.
(Throat damaged. Need time.)
Oof. Time. Just the luxury I might not be able to afford.
Rhal’s smile vanishes and his behavior suddenly changes. He darts away from us and picks up a nearby detached excavator bucket, throwing it at us. We dive out of the way, and it bounces off the ground, crashing into the pile of gravel he was using as a bed earlier. The impact sends rocks shooting in all directions. He bares his teeth and grunts with the effort of kicking a large dumpster at us. We jump out of its way, as well. We want to get closer, but he's throwing everything close at us and moving to the next object before we can recover and close the distance. His style seems to favor close quarters, and I'm not sure why he's not utilizing that. He basically had us on the ropes. I know he's not too injured to fight, but there's no mistaking it–he's keeping us at a distance. We hear Brimstone let out a hacking cough, trying to fix their throat before Rhal starts speaking.
“Not gonna ambush me again!” he yells, throwing more building materials at us and making us retreat to avoid it. He knows my Hound is here now, what the hell is he talking about?
(Master, ready!)
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We strafe to the left, making Rhal turn away from Brimstone.
“Where are they?!” Rhal yells, throwing more at us. We don't say anything. If he wants to think we've got the resources to stage another ambush, we'll let him. He's only buying us time–time for backup, yes, but mostly for this next attack. The vibration starts, and the additional heads appear on the Hound. I know that he's a full demon, so it won't separate his mind, but we're hoping it still affects his concentration like it did to us. Brimstone runs close behind him and the resonance begins. The waves of reverberating sound hit him like a wall of force. As it begins he is holding something over his head, ready to throw. When the waves hit him, he drops it on himself. The improvised projectile bounces off his head and thuds hard on the packed earth beneath him. The impact doesn't hurt him, but he goes to a knee with his hands to his head.
Let's do this!
The void pours out of us, and its tendrils of dark, starry energy creep across the ground.
It slithers quickly like a snake moving toward its prey. The energy is the same, but its form feels different. It seems like our fear and hatred for the demon are amplifying the effect. There's a rising power to it, and I think maybe I shouldn't enjoy the feeling so much, but I can't help it–It feels good. The void looks wholly unaffected by the resonance and reaches him quickly, coiling him at first. He tries to shake it off, but that only makes the coils constrict tighter. He then tears at it, attempting to rip it off of him. It comes away in chunks, but replenishes itself just as quickly, with some of the damaged parts growing even more tendrils. Getting to his feet, he tries to move away. It slows his movement by covering his feet and wraps around trying to bind him. The energy spreads around his figure, forming the cage above and below him with thick bars. With an effort of willpower, the flat surfaces above his head and beneath his feet start closing in.
Rhal rages against the bars, pressing his hands against the top and pushing hard. Even though we're not technically touching him, we can feel his force against the cage. He inches the top up, but more of the nebulous substance pours out, thickening the surface and solidly pushing down to crush him. His arms lower and the top rests against his neck. He lets out a roar of bestial wrath as he strains against it still. Veins in his neck, arms and legs bulge as he fights against the pressure. The elation we feel at watching him suffer, trying to push against us, should be a warning, but it's only fueling the strength of our power. He falls to his knees, then to his chest, the cage crushing in more and more. Brimstone intensifies his confusion-causing resonance ability, and blood starts to fall from Rhal's ear holes. His eyes bulge and, for the first time, I see fear in them. His smug confidence and murderous intent have all but evaporated.
The same two blips of energy I felt when I arrived here register in my senses again, but I don't care. I'm finishing this now.
I grin, but a memory causes me to falter.
Memories of the last time I enjoyed hurting someone flash across my psyche. The way I enjoyed their fear, the thrill of the hunt, their terrified expressions–It brings me back from the brink.
You're not like that anymore though, right? Anna's words ring so loudly in my mind that I nearly feel her hand on my arm again. I… no, we! We can’t surrender to this feeling. My demon and I have a singular goal, a very defined purpose. We nearly melded together in the headspace and I almost lost my consciousness. Focusing my attention back on the grisly task at hand, I have to remember to keep the intoxicating will of my demon’s desire from spreading into my thoughts. Rhal needs to be stopped, and I will do that. But I can't let myself enjoy it that much–no matter what grief he's caused me. If I do that, even if we win, I lose.
Thank you, Anna.
I pour more of the void through us to finish the job, but a high pitched ringing nearly causes us to claw at our eardrums. This is a very clear warning, but before we have a chance to react, something slams into us like a bullet to our back. A foreign energy spreads through our spine, and our legs give out, driving us to the ground. The energy we were expelling into the cage wanes, and Rhal wastes no time breaking free. He rips the nearly solid energy to pieces and stands up quickly, but falls back to a knee. He shakes his head and puts his hands on the sides, closing his eyes. We turn away from him and see two robed white-masked figures standing about twenty feet behind us. I can’t believe this is happening. We almost had him.
“No!” we rasp. “You idiots!” Rhal grunts and we look at him while he glances down at us, then up at the two wizards. Confusion spreads across his features.
Brimstone, still in their cerberus form, leaps and attempts to latch onto Rhal again, but he must be ready for anything right now. He doesn’t even look back but backhands the Hound and knocks them to the ground. They bounce back up and clamp a mouth down on his shoulder. He tears them off and grabs the offending mouth on either side while the other mouths try to bite at him. There's a loud yelp as he pulls the jaw apart, ripping the bottom mandible off of the Hound’s head. He shoves the lower jaw into their chest and kicks them away. His eyes follow them as they skid across the ground and stay where they lie, then he walks toward us casually.
“What the hell is this, Mike?” he asks.
“We had to be sure that the demonspawn met his end,” one of them says, their voice a low toned bass.
“They're not with you?” he asks me.
“No,” the other responds, the voice more feminine sounding, “We were instructed to follow him. It looked like you needed help. So we assisted.”
“You think I–I needed . . . help? I…” His incredulous response trails off. In a blur of motion, he charges past me and into the two wizards, knocking them to the ground. They hit so hard that the force shatters their masks, forcing pieces into their face and neck. They both scream in pain, but their cries are cut short when he grabs their legs and brutally slams them both against the ground. He does it again and again, like he’s overdoing battle rope exercises. He brings them back up as bloody messes and looks at them. Opening his jaws wide, he chomps down on their necks and chews their heads with a few sickeningly wet crunches. Tossing the bodies aside, he looks down on them and swallows.
“I needed your help? I would rather have died,” he says to the headless bodies and spits on them. Turning away from them, he walks back toward us and stops just short of our unmoving legs.
He looks down at us with a sad, stern expression and kicks at our legs. We're trying to move, to get back up to our feet, but our legs are still numb. What the hell did they do to us? Rhal stands over us and sighs deeply. Brimstone tries to sit up again, but falls back to the ground.
(Brimstone failed, Master. Apologies.)
You did what you could, buddy. I couldn't ask any more of you. Get out of here if you can.
(Brimstone will stay. Share Master’s fate.)
The shark-faced demon purses his lips. “You almost had me, kid. Respect.” He thumps a hand to his chest in a salute. “This isn’t the way I hoped it would end, but I gotta kill ya now. Since those assholes cheated, I'll make it quick.” We try hitting our legs with balled fists, but we don't feel the impact of our blows. What we do feel is the tip of the wand sticking out of the pocket we left it in. We grab it out and point it at Rhal, trying to quickly fire it. He snatches it out of our hand and snarls.
“Are you kidding me?” he asks through gritted teeth. “We were having a nice moment and then you go and ruin my respect by trying to use these human's magic against me? Bad move.” He takes it in both hands and brings it down on his knee. Thank any available gods that he finds humans and their magic so abhorrent, because the energy stored within explodes out with such force that it shoves us across the ground and away from him. The expulsion also kicks up a dust cloud in the air that obscures our vision. When it settles, Rhal is getting back up–or at least trying to. One of his legs is missing and he falls during the attempt. He inspects it, then turns his head up at us, frowning.
“Damn it, Bait. Why is it that every time you and I fight, I end up losing pieces? This is gonna take months to grow back.” He leans forward and scurries back over to us on his three remaining limbs. We try to scoot back with our hands, but he closes the distance quickly and straddles us.
“Now, where were we? Oh, right. I was just about to finally finish this little feud.”
Other Mike is almost completely in control and fighting off what he can, but we have nothing left. Rhal is just too strong. My void ability is expended, my Hound is down for the count, and we can't use our legs. This is the worst case scenario for how this would end. Rhal fends off our strikes at first but then catches our arms and holds them.
“Shh, stop squirming,” Rhal says. “It'll be over soon.”
We tug, but I can feel my demon's despair. He knows just as well as I do that this could be it. Our enemy pulls our arms apart so hard that the joints audibly pop. Our fingers go cold as the pain stretches down our arms. We let out a cry at the initial pain, then hiss through gritted teeth as Rhal holds them there and continues his closing speech.
“I can't believe how close you were, Bait. You really almost had me. It would've been a good death.” He pulls our arms apart further. A new wave of pain spikes with each tendon and ligament snap in the over stretched muscles in shoulders. The pain is so intense that nothing but air escapes from our throat for a moment. After that, our screams turn into whimpers, our throat gone raw. Rhal is expressionless as he stares into our eyes. I can't even tell if he's enjoying this, but it definitely hasn't stopped him if he isn't. We blaze with all the fire we can muster, burning the dirt beneath us black–but my demon has begun to retreat. The hiss, sizzle and smell of burnt flesh tells me that Rhal is being burned, but his blank face hasn’t changed. Blood splashes up onto our face as our molten skin splits at the joint. Our arms have now gone completely cold and numb, the rest of our body starts to feel cold too. Our stomach heaves and, although we want to, we have no more screams to give.
He's nearly removed the arms from us–an eye for an eye I suppose. Clearly my fear of this demon was warranted. If I were a full human, I know I’d either be dead already or deep into shock right now. Honestly, I can’t tell if I’d prefer that. My demonic endurance keeps me in the moment and all I can do is stare and feel the pain. He stops abruptly and drops the arms with a heavy sigh. The appendages fall limply to the ground.
“Ugh. I've had this moment in my head for a year. It's been my every thought, taking you apart. Now it just feels… Well, it feels cheap. You set up plans, I had some of my own, and mine went out the window when I thought you had a second ambush planned. This is so–so unsatisfying, y’know?” He looks around with another deep sigh. “Ah, well, nothing to be done for it now. G'bye, Mike.” He throws his head back and opens his jaws wide, dislocating them like a snake. He turns his head down, ready to clamp his gaping maw shut on our neck.
My demon has fully withdrawn from our headspace and I close our eyes when the sides of his mouth surround our head.
I’m sorry, mom, Anna, Eph, Vithar. I couldn't do it.