“Keep guard, Jakob.” Ronan looked very frightened, in stark contrast to the man walking shoulder to shoulder with him ahead of everyone else. The man was clad from head to toe in rain gear reminiscent of a hazmat suit and he carried himself like this was a picnic and he’d come prepared.

  “Keep guard.” The carapaced man, Jakob, aped after Ronan’s terrible English with a grimace to match. “How about showing some appreciation for having your dirty work done for you by your betters, huh, Ronan?” Despite his boisterous and mocking attitude, Jabok did not turn his back on Crassus.

  Ronan responded, trying to communicate caution with his barely understandable English, but Jakob kept on taunting Ronan. Everyone in the group shifted uncomfortably. Only the rain gear guy seemed at ease. As they fought Isaac tried to scoot his way behind the closest pillar, moving one inch at a time trying to make each movement as imperceptible as possible.

  Jakob snapped to them immediately however. “Stay the fuck still!” he screamed. Isaac jumped, his heart beating twice a second.

  A hand reached out from the clouds of dust behind Jakob and grabbed his shoulder. The man covered in rain gear cried for Jakob to watch out. Jakob struggled but Crassus had already grabbed his neck with the other hand. Crassus’s fingers strained against the black carapace and it snapped open like a hard boiled crab, his fingers finding hold beneath it.

  The twisted and enraged face of Crassus shook as he flexed his muscles, each arm pulling in opposite directions like he was trying to break free from a pair of handcuffs. Spittle and sweat flew off his face and his black hair matted in front of dead-looking white eyes.

  Everyone stood paralyzed. Jakob screamed, almost louder than Crassus. Only Ronan moved. He threw one arm behind him and the other in front, aimed at Crassus. The ceiling and floor of the church cracked as an enormous pressure bled off from the kinetic force Ronan exerted onto Crassus.

  Crassus didn’t budge an inch. The stone tiles beneath him cracked and he sank into the floor as he was pushed into it, but the man himself stood unfazed. A chunk of the church wall behind Ronan snapped off and the pressure abated and disappeared.

  Jakob went silent. A split like the seam of a piece of clothing opened up and extended down from between his shoulder and neck as Crassus tore the shoulder off his body.

  Crassus threw the discarded arm and shoulder off to the side. The rest of the body he just let go off and it crumpled to the floor, much like how Crassus had done mere moments before. He breathed hard. Someone hurled the contents of their stomach out on the stone tiles.

  Ronan conjured a new wave of pressure and the whole church shook this time, threatening to send the church ceiling crashing down on them.

  He reared his head, screaming at the people around him. “Fight, you dogs!” With that the paralysis broke.

  Several lances of varying materials flew past Isaac and Aster huddled together on the floor. The lances hit Crassus, shattered or bounced off him leaving Crassus unharmed. Isaac tried to crawl away from the fighting but couldn’t muster the strength to drag Aster with him. A swarm of what looked like wooden spiders crawled over and past them.

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  Isaac cast about for a way out, for any means to spirit them away from this godforsaken church, but the line of fire was in between them and the only open exit. The two remaining exits were blocked by either Crassus or Ronan and his people. The pillar behind Crassus that Jakob had thrown him into burst and a large section of the roof fell between the three parties on top of some unfortunate soul who’d attempted to close in on Crassus.

  Then there came a loud hissing noise and suddenly everything above knee height became encased in a thick sickly yellow gas. Poison! Was all Isaac could manage to think before the tendrils of lightning crawling along the floor occupied all of his attention instead. The tendrils licked their way up across the pile of rubble where Crassus’s legs disappeared up into the gas cloud.

  Isaac watched as if in slow motion as the gas ever so slowly billowed towards the earth. One adventurous tendril spiked into the air, caught the edge of the cloud, and the gas ignited.

  Isaac blinked. He lay on the floor again. He could hear shouting, far away. Something passed overhead. Gasping, all the sound and sensation rushed back into him. He flailed around him with his arms and the broken one caught onto a body. He turned and checked it with his healthy hand. He could feel a pulse, and his own steadied somewhat.

  The poison gas had gone, but more dust and debris took its place. Light shone in from behind them now. Isaac’s eyes widened. Had they been blown around that much by the explosion? Isaac looked up. No, there was still a roof there, although much less intact than before.

  Someone collided with the pillar that he and Aster had been hiding besides mere seconds before. Crassus followed after, leaping out of the dust clouds, landed on top of the person, and drove his arm through the persons mid section as if it were made of butter.

  The next second some invisible force took hold of Crassus and hurled him to the side, away from them. The pillar cracked as if struck by a ten ton hammer and crumbled into a pile of gravel. An ominous moaning sound started from above. Someone stumbled behind them and Isaac turned to spot Ronan trying his best to keep himself standing.

  Ronan spared them only a glance and the time to shout “RUN!” at them before going after Crassus and two seconds later he had disappeared in the dust cloud. Screams of agony sounded from beyond the swirling dust.

  Isaac heaved Aster upon his back. He struggled to drag her up high enough to hold her with only one working hand. A particularly loud explosion much too close made him throw all caution to the wind however. Using both hands, broken or not, he forced himself through the intense pain until he finally got Aster secured on his back.

  “Fuck you!” he screamed. Isaac didn’t know whether he meant to curse at his broken arm, the unconscious Aster, Crassus, Ronan or, hell— himself. Somehow he mustered the last vestiges of his strength, enough to carry them both to the new exit behind them past the non-existent altar.

  Isaac thought he understood what had happened once he closed in on the new hole. Crassus must’ve made one of his hallmark moves of throwing something, he’d probably missed and hit the wall behind them instead. Perhaps it had been a blessing that they’d both been unconscious.

  When he was about the step through and out of the church, he spotted the discarded corpse of Jakob. Something silver gleamed there. In a spur of the moment, he bent down and yanked the chain around Jakob’s neck free. The added weight of Aster on his back threatened to slide forward and send them both face planting into the torn corpse but Isaac managed to hold on.

  “Who are you?” Aster mumbled over his shoulder on the way out.

  “It’s me, Aster.” Isaac said.

  “You take care of me.” It didn’t sound like she was fully aware of her surroundings. “Thanks, Ed…”

  Isaac hesitated. He secured her as he set into a brisk pace, carrying most of her weight on his healthy arm. “I got you, Aster.”

  “I got you.”

***