The “wind-walkers,” make ground quickly. It didn’t take long for them to step over the slowed masses and make their way about a third of the way up the hill.
“William, can you slow them?”
“Slow who?”
William peeks out from the side of the wall and sees the dogmen walking in the air. He pulls his pendant off his neck and fumbles with it a bit before holding it in front of him. He recites the incantation for Slow and a wave of energy washes down the hillside. Before it collides with the first wind-walking dogman, it draws its scimitar and slices through the energy, dispelling it before continuing its ascent.
“Dammit,” I mutter.
William looks at me apologetically as he ducks behind the wall again. He pulls out another jar. I don’t need it just yet, but I drink it nonetheless. I raise my cane even before the feeling of thread being unwound fades. While hiding, he pulls out a spear from his satchel. A spear just as long as he was tall. I really had to ask him about that bag when we were done here.
I had to work quickly; the wind-walkers were climbing quickly. The closest one was already about halfway up the hill. The wind-walker weaves back and forth in an attempt to make me lose my bead on him.
“I call upon Zeus; lord of Olympus, lend me a bolt so that I might smite my enemy.”
A blue bolt streaks out, and in the blink of an eye, strikes the dogman in the chest. The force sent the dogman flying backward; cartwheeling through the air before crashing onto the ground, never to rise again. It wasn’t long before the other wind-walkers caught up to him.
“A volley, O’ Djinn.”
This time six arrows form in the air in front of me and fly forward. One of the arrows collides with a dogman; it falls to the ground in a smoldering heap, while the others are deflected with deft turns of their shining blades.
“Dance before me, o’ daughters of the wind.”
A dervish forms at my command, and roars down the hill. It picks up loose dirt and the caltrops buried within as it makes its way down the hill. The conflicting currents of the small twister catches the currents of air beneath the feet of a few of the closer wind-walkers and sends them crashing into the poisoned caltrop-strewn ground, or into the ash-filled trenches. Three of them in total. One of the wind-walkers points their blade at the approaching dervish and utters something in their language a short-lived lance of air shoots forward and pierces the small tornado. The tornado falters and dies before it could go any further, and the wind-walkers continue their climb. There was no doubt about it; this was going to enter melee.
“You that bind the All, guard me from those that would cause me harm.”
A shimmering shell forms around my body, and I draw the kris hanging off my belt and hold it in my right hand. The first of the dogmen wind-walkers crests the hill a second later.
“An arrow, o’ djinn.”
I utter as quickly as possible. A red arrow of flame and wind shoots out and collides with the creature’s white tunic. It stumbles and falls off the wind as the heat of the burgeoning flames disrupts the airflow. The dog man falls at my feet.
“An awl, O’ thou servants of Gob the Highest, to strike my enemies.”
A spike about the thickness of my wrist raises from the ground and pierces the creature through the head. It twitches momentarily before it dies. It doesn’t take long before the next dogman crests. I punch forward with my kris before it has a chance to swing its blade. The curved knife slips into the thigh of the creature. Its weight pushes me back. It yelps in pain and kicks at me with its other foot. The kick is repelled by my shield, and I grab hold of the extended leg, toss it to the ground, and stomp with all of my weight on the creature’s hip. It howls in pain as the joint shatters, and I point my cane down at its face.
“I allow the blood of the salamanders to flow through me.”
A deluge of smoldering ash pours from the tip of the cane and buries the writing creature underneath.
“To your left, Lawrence!” William calls.
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Ping.
A scimitar’s blade swung at my blind spot and repelled off my shield drawing my attention. This dogman has a pair of scimitars and was already in the process of his second swing. I step backward, and William springs forward with his spear. The point sinks into the downward-swinging creature’s diaphragm. It lets out a long hiss of air as its momentum impales it all the further on William’s spear.
I shove William out of the way as another wind-walker crests the hill, and step forward. The swung blade bounces off of the shimmering, cracking shell as my shield shatters. I grab hold of the creature’s wrist and pull him forward; slamming my forehead down onto its muzzle. Hot red blood pours from its newly broken nose, and it is temporarily stunned. William falls over with the dying dogman thrashing on his spear. He lets go of it so he isn’t impaled.
My blade had slipped out of my hand as it scraped against the thigh bone of the dogman currently buried in the ash, so I can only really do one thing. I hold my breath and pull forward the stunned dogman with all the strength I could muster, and bury my teeth into the creature’s throat. It screams in pain as its flesh parts and hot copper flows down my throat. I pull away and spit out the chunk of pink flesh and fur. The dogman gurgles and William’s face blanches. I pick up the dying creature’s scimitar.
MISTER BEHIND YOU. Shadow’s voice echoes in my head.
Something blunt strikes me from my blind side, and I fall to the grass. I quickly roll over onto my back just in time to see a saber’s point falling down toward me. I kick up both of my legs and manage to connect with the creature’s sternum, and I deflect the point of the blade with the scimitar raised out in front of me. The point of the creature’s blade slips from the flat of my blade and pierces my shoulder. I grab hold of its wrist to hold it in place. From my periphery, I could see more of the wind-walkers nearing the end of the climb.
“Oh, you ruler of Olympus, lend thy power for my steps.”
A blast of blue shoots out from the bottom of my extended feet and into the creature’s chest. The dogman is tossed backward, and I manage to pull the blade from my shoulder, grab my cane, and sit up in time to see the dogman collide against the fogwall just beyond the door, slide off of it, and fall into it once it hits the ground. The soles of my shoes had been melted off and melded into its chest, it seems.
Three more dogmen make it to the top and aim for both me and William. I promised Monica that I’d keep him safe, so I stand up and leap at the one swinging its blade toward William. I wrap my arms around its waist just as two deep gashes slide across my back. Adrenaline pumps through my veins at such a level that I barely feel the gashes, and I grit my teeth, plant my feet, and arch my back to pull the dogman targeting the younger man over my head, and to the ground in a pile drive.
“Dance for me, o’ djinn.”
Wind and flames breathe to life around me in a roaring tempest, and catch hold of the pair of dogmen who had attacked me from behind. I hear something crash behind me, though I cannot see what. All I can see is red. Their screams fall on muted ears, as I can barely hear anything other than the blood pumping into my head. I turn over, and the dogman throws an elbow. It scrapes against my nose and probably breaks it. I respond by slamming my knee into its sternum. Bones crack and its chest sinks ever so slightly. It snarls and gnashes its teeth at me. I clench my fist and throw a haymaker into the hinge of its jaw.
The shock of the punch turns its head, so I throw another into its temple on the other side of its head. And then another, and another, and another. Tens of punches follow until my fists are throbbing and raw. Until the snarling stops. The Djinn’s Dance fades, and I snap back into reality and stand up. The creature’s ribs bowed inward, and its head looked more like a slab of ground beef than a dog’s.
I glance around. One of the dogmen wind walkers was currently dueling with the others; its black eyes glazed over as it slashed through the throat of one, and received the blow of another: a downward slash that parted its skull like a rotted log. Three lay dead at its feet, and with it dead, that would be four. The last remaining dogman snarls and glances at William holding a broken spear in front of himself.
I pick up the cane from the grass and point it at the dogman whose head turns towards me.
“You that bind the All, move for me.”
An invisible force slams into the side of the earth-bound wind-walker and sends it sprawling to the ground. It tries to stand, but I lay it low with a kick into its chin. I shove the tip of the cane into its mouth.
“You that bind the All, move for me.”
The dogman's head splatters apart, and it quickly lays still. I step back and huff. My shoulders heave and hurt. Blood, skull, and brain matter stick to my pants as I step away and turn around to take in the damage. Dogmen corpses lay scattered in the grass of the hilltop. William has a gash on his chest, and the wall had partially collapsed. Beneath the few logs that had been knocked free, the feet of a dogman twitch. We were both still standing, however, and I could see the grass tremble in between William’s legs where Shadow was hiding. We had made it through. I breathe a sigh of relief; now just to hold off the rest of the infantry until Monica finishes up in the sky.
“You alright there, bud?” I ask William.
His face was as pale as a ghost, and his eyes were fixed solely on the horizon.
“William?”
He didn’t respond.
I follow his gaze. Coming from the distant horizon; beyond the cluster of trees where the Godbeast and the Dogman army had come from was another army approaching. An army that far outsized the one we were currently facing. It was only then that I feel the slight tremors of the earth at their movements. How many thousands? No. How many tens of thousands of dogmen clustered on the horizon and marched towards us? The earth shook again as they marched in unison to join the fray. How the fuck were we supposed to deal with something like this?
“Hurry up, Monica,” William utters.
I can't agree more.