Rhal grunts, and his weight is released from my waist. I peek open an eye and see that he's not right above me anymore. In fact, he’s no longer on me at all.

“Not my baby,” my mom's voice calls out. From her tone, I can tell that it's not a plea or a request. It's a statement of fact. I follow the sound and see her about thirty yards away, her purple energy crackling around her hands. She's got a few blood stains and tears across her clothing, and she's leaning forward, breathing heavily. The black curly flare of hair at her back is now wavy and slick with blood and black goo and her braids are in no better condition. She looks like she's been through one hell of a fight–just like me–but her eyes remain fierce and defiant.

“More interference? I knew you had another trick!” he says, with a snap of his fingers.

“You won't hurt him any more,” she says.

“Oh, please. Wait your turn. I know the extent of your power, witch. I can smell it,” he says, sniffing the air. “I can even taste it, just like I'll taste you when I'm done with your boy here.” He turns his attention back to me, a renewed vigor blazing in his black eyes, “I'm gonna finish ripping you apart piece by piece, then chew the meat off your bones. You should've just taken my mercy, boy. I don't offer it much. I would've just bitten your head off, nice, quick and clean. Now, I get to enjoy this.” He smiles his predatory smile.

I’m curious as to what he means by blaming me. I know it seems ridiculous to focus on this thought, but I am gone, dead to rights. I can't defend myself–and he says I didn’t take his mercy? Whatever. He crawls over to me on his three limbs and rests on his stump of a leg, reaching for my arms to finish the job. Her knees, covered in her purple energy, connect with his jaw. The energy burns spark patterns across the skin of his face and he flies away from me, skipping twice on the ground before skidding to a stop. She stands over me, glaring at him with more malice than I've ever seen on her face.

“Mom,” I say… or at least I try to. It comes out in nearly a whisper, far more faint than it was intended.

She looks down at me, and tears fill her eyes. Her chin quivers before she speaks.

“Shhh, you just lie there, honey. You're okay now.” Her expression turns from sorrow back to feral rage when she focuses on him once again. I follow her gaze.

“Augh!” Rhal yells, his jaw is hanging open and to one side. He touches it and pulls his hands back quickly, a grimace on his twisted face.

“I'll say it again slower to make sure it gets through your thick skull. You will not hurt him any more,” she says, over-enunciating each word.

Rhal’s jaw clicks as he tries to readjust it, but it drops and hangs open again. He shoves it up once more, bites down, roars, and crawls quickly toward her. Brimstone, now with only one head, darts behind him and clamps down on his good calf, tearing more flesh from him. The Hound quickly darts away after. Rhal growls in pain and his charge falters into more of a hopping lope. He glances back at the Hound for just a moment and when he turns back, she's right there. She slides past him while sending a fierce chop to his thick neck, impeding his charge. He hops to a stop and chokes, bending further at the waist.

Her feet kick up dust as she stops herself and dashes back over to him. She presses the attack from the side by delivering a jumping axe kick to the back of his head. He falls forward to his hands and stops himself from collapsing. He pushes himself up, right into a second axe kick. This time he doesn't catch himself, and it causes him to fall. His face slams to the ground. He spins and draws himself back up into a semi-crouch. On the ground below him are what looks like a mouthful of teeth. At least, it would be if he didn’t have a shark’s mouth. Even with his multiple rows, he still has some empty spots. Blood flows freely from his nose and mouth, and he touches his lip. He pulls his finger away, looking at it.

“You're gonna pay for that, witch,” he says. His menacing smile is a little less fear inducing when he's missing so many teeth. She smiles back, and I almost don't hear what she says–there's so much magical ringing in my ears that it's hard to concentrate.

“I knew I should've found and ended you myself when he told me about you,” she says. “But my son wanted to take care of this himself. I know what people like you are capable of–and I'm ashamed that I let him. You should've licked your wounds like the animal you are and left it alone. Now, you won't make it out of here.” The overcast skies darken and purple lightning flashes, jumping throughout the clouds in a strobing effect until a bright bolt strikes the ground near her. The unexpected brightness hurts my eyes, and I squeeze them shut. The arc of the bolt stays as an afterimage in my vision as I open them again, watching her. I want to shield my eyes in case it happens again, but I still can't feel my legs, and my arms are useless. I've been paralyzed by magic and might.

“Nitakuongoza hadi Shimoni.” The words spill from her lips in a rage-filled threatening tone. I don't know what it means, but there was power behind those words. I don't mean they were just powerful–I mean there was magic laced into each syllable of them–and a lot of it. White and purple energy sparks from her eyes and her hands. Blood from different sources lifts into the air. It comes from the bodies of the decapitated wizards. Even though they’re the reason my plan failed, I had completely forgotten they were there. The blood also trails from me, from Brimstone, from Rhal, and even the blood that was staining her own clothes and wetting her hair. Any of the available lifeblood lifts and travels through the air. I notice as it lifts from me that nothing is drained from within me, only the blood that has already left my body is taken, and it forms a perfect sphere in front of her.

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Rhal starts crawling toward her, but two Brimstones attack him from either side. He knocks one away with a strong backhand and grabs the other by the mouth, twisting so quickly that the head of the hound separates from the body in one violent motion. He tosses them aside and continues to move toward her. She reaches out a hand and a ribbon of the blood streams toward her and slides up her arm. It coils around, leaving what look like bracelets and bangles on her wrist. The path of blood continues across her back and slides down her other arm, doing the same.

Rhal leaps off his good foot and swings with a forceful strike. She rips a bracelet off of her right wrist and brings her left arm up. A crimson colored shield forms and absorbs the impact as he makes contact. The force of the blow drives her feet an inch into the ground, but the attack fails to truly connect. Suspending him in the air with the shield, she reaches her right arm up and rips a bracelet from her left wrist. This time, a thin three-foot rapier style blade forms in her right hand–and she wastes no time putting it to use.

The blade slides in and out twice through his abdomen in quick succession. The demon's tough skin and layered muscle seem to offer no resistance to the blood blade. He sucks in a shuddering breath and falls back to his good foot and crouches before jumping to his left. Her shield drips and falls into a puddle of blood after her arm comes down.

He tries to press her again and gets stabbed much the same, but this time she pierces his shoulder and leaves the blade in. Rhal lets out a frustrated growl and turns, hobbling away from her. He grabs at the blade, but as soon as his hand wraps around the hilt, it splashes down into useless blood just like the shield. It seems like the bangles and bracelets might be a quick one-time use enchantment and she's got four of them remaining on each wrist. The next bracelet turns into a spear that she throws like a javelin as he runs. It pierces through his back and out through his chest, sticking into the ground. The sudden pinning move makes him flip end over end and impales him further. He rights himself and chops at the front of the spear while trying to grab the front like he plans to throw it back. Again, as soon as he touches it, the spear turns back into a glob of blood in his hands and slips through his fingers. He bellows an enraged roar with a frustrated expression.

“Damn it!” He seethes through his teeth, glaring at her. He glances at me quickly. “Screw it! If I'm going out, I'm taking him with me!”

He drops down into a stunted crawl and rushes toward me. Brimstone, lying in wait for another ambush opportunity, gives chase. They're too far from Rhal though, so they are only able to harry him, nipping at his heel. Mom pulls another weapon and throws it at him, but his claws dig into the ground and he changes his trajectory. I can do nothing but watch as he leaps into the air on a course to fall onto me. Mom pulls all of the remaining bracelets from her wrists, slaps them together then raises her hands, offering them up to the sky. The strobe of lightning increases as she raises her hands into the air, chanting.

A devastatingly large bolt of magically infused lightning crashes down from the sky and strikes Rhal in his back. The arc lifts him further into the air, and his limbs flex, straightening out and shaking. Veins pop to the surface of his mottled skin, and the energy pushes through his chest, splattering me with his baking blood. He screams, and the sounds come out at a higher pitch that turns into a rasp. It's like the air is being forced from him, and he is screaming with what little bit of breath he has left. The life energy in his aura is fading fast, and I know this scream is the last sound he'll ever make. His halted momentum keeps him suspended in the air as he is fried from the inside out. Every remaining muscle in his body ripples visibly under his blackened and sizzling skin. His eyes pop, and fluid runs down his cheeks, as if he's crying from the empty sockets.

The whole image is very reminiscent of the opening of the ark–and it is horrifying.

He drops to the ground, falling to his knee and stump, his muscles locked in the stiffened death throes of his violent end. Then, finally, his body slumps to the ground in a heap about ten feet from me, unmoving but for the sparks and spasms of his rapidly cooked meat.

“Mikael,” Mom calls out to me, and I look back toward her. She is still crackling with the swirling purple-white energy and looking at her hands. “I'll be right back, honey. I have to get rid of this extra energy. Brimstone, watch over him.”

She turns and runs away at an incredible speed. Brimstone comes over and collapses next to me, lying their head over my legs and whining. There's a particularly violent spasm from the corpse next to me. My skin prickles and fear in the pit of my stomach roils. Brimstone looks at the corpse then lays their head back down.

(Strong one is dead, Master.) Relief floods my body. I can't feel most of it, but I know it does. Tears fall from my eyes and hiss a trail while falling down my cheeks. I try to blink them away, but they won't stop.

Rhal is gone. I'm afraid to extinguish the burn. Some of the pain of my wrecked body is being held at bay by my demonic resistances and elevated pain tolerance while in this state.

my demon says, and I feel his presence returning. My legs start to twitch and tingle.

Warn me of what? Brimstone moves as my knees lift. We are scooting in the dirt little by little, pushing ourself in a singular direction.

he says, inching toward Rhal's body. Our arms look like they are dangling by flesh and perhaps a tendon, but he's moving us forward with the heels of our feet, pushing the rest of us across the ground.

I don't… What? You want his resilience? What does that mean?

What? No. You… His resilience… Since when?

Why don't I know about this? We didn't do that with Christine?

We've reached his body, now and despite the pain, despite our dangling arms, we take a bite. We eat. It is… disgusting. Rhal's charred flesh comes away in chunks. The skin is sharp as knives, and it scrapes and shreds my throat like glass on the way down.

I can't be here. I can't be doing this… I disassociate while he sets to the grisly task. I have to, or I'll make us throw it right back up. We stop for a moment when a large discharge of energy draws our attention away. The sky crackles with light purple energy before going calm.

(May I, Master?) Brimstone asks.

my demon says.

Oh, good. They're bonding.

In the distance, someone is moving quickly toward us. I wonder how everyone else is doing. Fatigue is finally setting in now that the danger is gone and the adrenaline leaves my body. I think I'll just get some…