Alator reached the fiend in two bounds. He was swift, unthinking rage, but the vampyri was ready for him. A burst of smoke swirled about as it beat its wings and lifted itself a yard and threw its body over Alator as he leapt. In the air, another flap of his wings sent him plummeting towards Alator beneath him and he snapped his torso about and threw a punch.
Reacting instantly, eyes flashing, Alator stamped a bare foot hard into the planks, denting and cracking the wood, and span on his heel, reaching out with a savage grip. The thrown punch landed hard against my companion’s jaw, a splash of blood came out of a torn lip, but he grunted as he turned his head with the blow.
He grabbed the demon by the throat with his left hand and smashed his knuckles deep into the thing’s ribs. The impact and sound of the thing’s emptied lungs reverberated the air.
With a massive gush of wind it attempted to escape the grapple while grabbing Alator’s head with one hand, a clawed thumbnail seeking his blue eyes. Alator shut his eyes hard and yelled, landing another punch to the ribs. Bone on metal thudded dully out as a welt was left and black-purple gore rippled up its side.
Locked in their death grip, I finally reached them. With the contorting, twisting target, I couldn’t be confident in a stab, so I brought the Bronze Spear of Blinding across me and aimed to slash at the thing’s wings.
As the spearhead cut through the air, its eyes darted to me and it made a wild turn in the air, black muscles stretched beneath skin and pulled torn lines across its arms as he clasped both hands onto Alator’s face, even as I advanced, and with shaking strength dug into Alator’s clenched eyelids.
“One second more!” I yelled.
The spear cut clean across the fiend’s wing, searing through the black leather patagium and a thumb-like bone of brittle metal. It screeched and redoubled its effort. Alator finally relented and let go of his grip, using both hands to lift the thing’s arms up and away from him, fists around its wrists.
“Now!” he roared.
I brought the spear back and with a burst of [Vigour], stabbed towards its head. In hindsight, a mistake — the target was too small, and the thing’s Dexterity was too great. With its attention fully on me, it grinned sharp, pointed metallic teeth and dodged aside, the spear whistling harmlessly past its shoulder.
With the Skill pumping hundred mph blood, I layered on [Weapon Mastery] and twisted the spear’s pole, bashed it hard against the thing’s neck, and brought my weapon back, pulling myself backwards a yard, meaning to tear through its carotid.
The razor-sharp bronze blade, shaped long like a cypress tree, cut a half-inch through wet, gummy skin beneath its jaw and a glut of ichor burst from it like a water balloon bubble popping. With the momentum, I fell back and tripped to one knee, and the HEAVY weight of all the Skill use so far today settled into the balls of my shoulders and my thighs.
The vampyri screeched bloody murder, fricative motion vibrating the strained lines in its neck. I winced my eyes closed and brought my hands up to my ears in horrible pain. When it had abated after a few seconds, I saw it had made ten yards’ space away from Alator.
My companion was wiping blood from his eyes and staggering, likely all he saw was blood and stars. His teeth were gnashing and the muscles in his arms were all twitching ferocity.
The vampyri fiend tried to leap into the air with a flap of its wings, but air sailed through the long cut through its left and it tilted dangerously and gave up, landing softly on the ground. Its ribs were covered in cracks and dents, dripping blood, the metal bone showing through. It held up a hand to its neck and fingered the wound to test the depth.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Instead of the normal disgusting, evil smile it wore previously, its face was locked in a grimace. Its eyes flitted about like a feral beast, and its mouth snapped this way and that, snarling and spitting.
I wanted to give Alator a moment to get his bearings, but as I took a breath, the fiend locked its eyes on me and started in a drastic sprint. Without thinking, I leapt a few yards to Alator’s side and clapped him on the back, then raised my spear and faced off with the creature.
It reached me in a single moment. In full dreadful hysteria, I pumped [Weapon Mastery] and threw my weapon-arm forwards to beat it back, but as it had done before, it dodged, even through its half-mad spitting rage, and the bronze stopped at the extent of my reach, loose in the air.
Then it was on me. I felt cold emanating from it, enough to turn my stomach and dry my eyes. I tried to flash [Vigour] and leap away, but the stream of my inner power was becoming murky, the lights almost out of sight, and it took me too long to try to reach for it.
Two punches, one after the other on either side of my torso, landed with sickening thuds. I felt my flesh bruise to the bone and the Linothorax quaked and stiffened with frost.
Wincing through the pain, breath coming tortured, I finally found [Vigour] in me and shocked it into my system, and kicked out at the beast. My foot hit it in its abdomen and it doubled over for a moment. Its eyes flashed further hate and black and purple bile poured from its mouth as it righted itself. I took the chance to pull my spear back, the ultimate echo of the last two activated Skills still with me, and sent it down as I did, tearing the spearhead into its shoulder, splitting the skin over metal bones and black-purple sinews like a Japanese omelette.
The bile and the damage was nauseating, but I swallowed hard and leapt backwards, landing heavily as the agony in my ribs sent shuddering waves. That moment, Alator roared, finally back with us, and set off at a dash towards the fiend. As he ran, he brought his arms out wide and with a flash of golden sunlight, almost faster than the eye could see, he impacted the thing and tackled it to the ground.
Grappling furiously, both beasts traded blows, punching and scratching and hammering the other. Almost in full exhaustion, I leant against my spear and could only watch.
Eventually, it was clear Alator had the upper hand, and the vampyri dug its fingers into a plank behind its head and pulled hard, sliding free of Alator’s onslaught. It righted itself, looked between us, and jumped a beeline for my companion.
“Talbot, he’s after you!” Lenya’s delicate voice was panicked, but somehow amplified over the bedlam rush of blood in my ears, the thing twisted to an impossible angle and its one good wing beat violently to turn and indeed it lunged at me. The second’s warning Lenya had given me provided the time to wrench my spear up and I stabbed wildly at it. The blade pierced skin and rasped on metal bone and the side of its hip was torn open.
The pain was enough for it to pull back and make a few paces distance. It hissed at Lenya, but made no move to try to pass me. I glanced behind me to see her collapsed against the wall, one hand grasping her staff, the other hand out. A buzz of energy poured from her and her bright grey eyes were rolled back white, then the grey faded back in and she fell to her knees.
I breathed silent thanks to her, and focused again on the vampyri. Covered in wounds, it hobbled forwards, clawed fingers playing at the mess we had made of its body. The hate in its face was mingled with fear, its sagging jaw twitched about as it looked to Alator and then myself. A faint rush of magic moved towards it, pulling debris and splinters, but then stilled.
“You don’t have the strength left,” Alator mocked it.
Alator of the Solar Wheel took a heavy step forward, searing the planks of wood with the radiant heat of his bare feet, leaving faint, smoking footprints as he went.
“You will not take anything more from me.”
Before he reached the demon fiend, it brought itself up to its full height and sucked in air, energy, life, happiness, and attempted again to summon the fireball. The smoke covering the courtyard began to drift towards him, and leaves rustled all about me and began to tumble across the floor.
“No,” Alator simply hissed, and made the last five yards in a bound. A wild clawed slash was deflected, the thing’s body was twisted round under a savage grip, and its knees were kicked out from behind. Dropping to the floor, Alator placed his forearm under its jaw and the other hand dug into its skull. I heard the creaking strain of the metal beneath its skin. Magic twisted the air and warped reality around them, but the impact gradually drifted away, the winds stilling. Then with a howl like a mourning wolf’s last, he jerked one way CRACK, then the other CRUNCH, and the thing went limp in his grasp.