But that was not what happened.
What happened was that mere inches before horn met flesh with extreme prejudice, Devin’s battle-axe came into view, his approach obscured by the beast’s immense bulk.
Screaming his defiance, Devin’s two-handed axe came streaking down, with the full power of his body behind the blow. Magic metal met mutated ivory with a retort like a thunderclap, hitting hard enough to shear off a three-foot segment of horn in the process.
It wasn’t enough to keep Veronica from being hit, but Devin’s strike sapped some power from the blow. As a result, instead of rupturing every organ in her body, the beast’s horns knocked Veronica back, scoring a deep cut across her stomach along the way. Devin dropped his weapon, helping her get out of the way before the fallen creature could follow up, dragging the leather-clad woman beyond its reach.
Meanwhile, Nick and James hacked away at the rhino’s damaged flank. Each slash carved foul chunks out of its increasingly tattered hide, the once thick sheet of muscle reduced to weeping ruin. Another few hits and I’ll penetrate to its organs. We just need to hold on for a short while longer.
The monster spun to face its assailants, then locked its gaze upon James, sensing that he was the weakest opponent within range. “Get back and focus on defense,” Nick yelled, jabbing the tip of his sword into the beast’s neck before it struck the younger man. It growled in pain and took a blind swipe in Nick’s direction, reaching out to claim his life.
He ducked just in time, scimitar claws whizzing half an inch above his helmet. He leapt back to avoid a sweep from the rhino’s horn, painful cuts opening across his shoulder as he failed to dodge by the narrowest of margins. Nick shut out the pain and resumed his stance.
By this point, he was gasping for breath. Black motes of exhaustion danced before his eyes. Sweat poured down his body, and his muscles burned from overuse.
The mutant turned to face him, lowering its head to execute a straight thrust. Just as Nick tensed to dodge, his back slammed against something cold and hard. Fuck. Oh fuck. A spike of pure adrenaline went surging through Nick’s veins when he realized that he was trapped against the arena wall, having lost track of his position while scrambling to survive the frantic melee.
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The beast took aim and poised to lunge, eager to take advantage of his mistake. But a heartbeat before it could claim Nick’s life, Sophia arrived at its side.
A javelin slammed into the creature’s flank, punching between two thick ribs now that the layer of protective muscle had been sliced away. Sophia bent her knees and leapt like a cat, landing upon the protruding shaft with a dagger clasp in each hand.
She sprang from her perch before the rhino could react, long legs flashing in the sunlight as she rolled over its back, looking in that moment like nothing so much as a rodeo star. In the blink of an eye, she was past its spine and sliding down the other side of its broad torso, weapons poised to strike.
On the way back down to the ground, Sophia lunged with both daggers at once, using the momentum she’d gathered to carve a pair of twin gouges deep into the fallen rhino’s uninjured flank.
Nick didn’t stop to watch the amazing feat of athleticism, using the opening that Sophia had created to make a break for it. He sprinted away from the wall before whirling back around with his weapon at the ready. He turned in time to watch the rhino spin to face Sophia, but the remarkable woman was already gone.
Where? Nick sought to find her, afraid that Sophia had endangered her life to save his own. There! She was hunched under the beast’s belly, beneath the fountain of blood still pouring out from the cuts powered by Veronica’s ability.
Sophia had left her daggers embedded in the rhino’s side, and already had another set of weapons in hand. Instead of more daggers, she was wielding a pair of the stingers that she had removed from the bodies of the frostfury wasps, the reason she had claimed them becoming clear in that moment.
Sophia took aim for the knee that had been ravaged by Veronica’s acidic bolt, then lunged with both stingers at once; powerful stabs that lodged the black barbs deep within the joint of the rhino’s knee. Nick immediately understood what she was attempting. He only prayed that there was enough venom inside of the stingers to prove effective.
His fears were allayed only three seconds later, when the rhino’s knee began steaming with frost. Spreading rime crept forth, growing into a solid block of ice within a handful of heartbeats. As Sophia scrambled out of the way, Nick caught a glimpse down the front of her shirt. Embedded in the space between her breasts was a gleaming black gemstone the size of his thumb.
It was weird, but he didn’t have time to ponder it now, because the battle had reached its climax. The pivotal moment that would determine their fate had arrived at last, and Nick was ready to give it his all.