The Wendigo grinned at us with sharp teeth and glowing eyes. It opened its mouth and screams came out of it. Human screams. Female. Several voices all keening in terror and pain. One of the voices started pleading to God and begging to die.

I'd considered myself pretty jaded by this point. I'd fought Shadows. Killed a vampire. I'd seen friends die, and I'd stabbed a man to death with a magic sword. But those screams... It was like ice water in my veins. My body clenched. My heart hammered so hard the blood pounded in my ears.

William the Green Knight was less concerned. "Oh, come off it you wanker!" He rushed forward, shield raised and sword held high. The Blue Knight was half a step behind him.

The Wendigo chuckled, a low, grating, and decidedly male sound. The monster laughed at the knights for two whole seconds. Then it moved as fast an any vampire. It vanished in a big grey blur, snatching the Red Knight up along the way.

"Mike!" I shouted uselessly. I tried to follow the motion, to figure out which way I had to go to chase the son of a bitch. I couldn't. The Wendigo was fast, and then it was gone. Mike hadn't even had time to scream.

The Green Knight swore. "Form up. We need to stay close."

"Can it get through the armor?" I asked. Maybe Mike was still alive. Maybe we still had time.

"No." Patrick shook his head. "But it doesn't need to. Once it snaps Mike's neck, the armor will disappear. Just like the guy on the beach."

The Pink Knight's corpse was still laying where it fell. The man's armor had disappeared, revealing slacks and an expensive looking shirt and tie. The pink Sword of Bequest had appeared next to him. The Blue Knight had strapped it to his back.

"Fuck." I cast around, looking for a sign we could follow. Mike's sword and shotgun were still on the ground, next to a duffel bag with a broken strap. "Maybe we can still..."

A massive fireball burst into existence about two hundreds yard away. The ball widened into a column, flames towering above the trees, several of which caught fire themselves. There was an outraged yell, and the entire column bolted twenty yards to the right.

"Let's go!" William sprinted towards the fire. Patrick followed. I sheathed Solais so I could pick up Mike's stuff and ran after them.

I was slower than the other two. Separate. Easy pickings. The thought almost brought me to a halt as I eyed the trees around me. Then a better thought made me actually stop. An illusion of myself kept running, huffing and puffing with it's arms full of Mike's gear. Invisible and soundless, I followed, keeping a good ten feet between the illusion and me.

My decoy had almost reached the fire when it happened. William and Patrick turned to look at me just in time to see a giant grey hand snatch the illusion. The Wendigo flashed past. It was gone before any of us could react, but thanks to my decoy it had to leave empty handed.

"Son of a bitch," Patrick muttered. His rapier whipped around as he checked the area, the point following the direction of his eyes.

An evil laugh reverberated through the forest. I couldn't tell which direction it came from. The Wendigo spoke. It's voice was both deeper and smoother than I'd expected. "Parlor tricks. They won't help. I can smell you. Smell your bones. You can't hide, little knight." It laughed again. "You can only run."

I didn't reply myself. Instead, I had an illusory voice yell from twenty feet to the left. "You're the one who should be running, asshole! I'm gonna make you eat your own ass! With my balls!"

The Wendigo did not reply.

The Green Knight somehow managed to give me a weird look even with his face covered. "You're going to need to work on your insults, mate." He twitched his shoulder. "You know. If we survive all this."

"What do you mean, if?" The Blue Knight scoffed. He turned towards the flames. "Hey, Mike! We're here. You can put the fire out, now."

The roar of the flames sputtered. The column of flame died down. The Red Knight was revealed. He was face down on the blackened ground. His body was twisted. I think his back was broken. "Son of a bitch threw me at a tree," Mike complained. He must have been in pain, but he just sounded like he was annoyed.

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"I've got you," the Green Knight put clasped Mike's wrist. Mike's body righted itself with a sickening series of pops and crunches.

The Blue Knight was looking at Drynwyn, still tucked under the duffel bag in my arms. He gestured at the burnt trees around us. "How'd you do that without your sword?"

"I'm the Red fucking Knight," Mike asserted as he climbed to his feet. He opened his hand to reveal a lighter. It was one of those push button ones that makes a blue flame, like a miniature blow torch. "I'd have to be an idiot to just have one way to make fire."

Mike's stuff disappeared as my decoy held out its hands. "Well..."

"Shaddup." Mike made a gimme gesture. "Give me my stuff."

I didn't want to give away my position, so I set the gear on the ground and moved before I made it visible again. Mike re-armed himself, grumbling about the duffel's broken strap.

Women screamed. All around us. Then men joined in. We fanned out, our backs to each other, swords at the ready. Children screamed next. Horrible, high pitched wails and blubbering.

"The fuck's it doing that for?" Mike wondered.

"It wants to scare us," Patrick told him. "We taste better when we're afraid."

"Then I'm fucking delicious right now," I quipped. "What can it do?"

"You've seen most of it," said William. "It's fast and strong, like a vampire. It can imitate human voices. Wendigos heal fast, and they don't die from wounds."

"They can reattach limbs, including the head," Patrick added. "They get bigger for a while when they eat people."

"They're one of the nastier things we deal with," the Green Knight continued. "They're smart and they're stealthy, and the only thing they care about is eating human flesh. The fresher the better."

"Sounds fun," Mike grumbled. "How do we kill it?"

"We dismember it," said William. "Then we burn it down to ashes."

"Which ain't as easy as it sounds," said Patrick. "Vamps and trolls and shit, one or two of us is enough. But when a Wendigo shows up, every Knight we have tackles it together."

"Yes," the Wendigo's voice whispered through the trees. "Together. Like the ones before." I couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. "A fine feast. Will your flesh be as tender? Will your marrow be as fine?"

"Come and find out," taunted William. "If you think you're hard enough."

"Ah, William." The Wendigo chuckled again. A blur, and a cry. The Green Knight's sword arm was gone. "You already know I am." I could hear it slurping and crunching, but I still couldn't figure out where it was. It let out a moan of pleasure. "All these years, and you still taste the same."

The Green Knight let out a stream of expletives. I tuned him out. We needed a plan. The thing was faster than the Pink Knight. Maybe faster than Madeline. If that wasn't bad enough, it had some way to get close without us seeing it. We were surrounded by trees, but they were apple trees, and there wasn't a lot of underbrush. A fifteen foot tall monster shouldn't be able to hide that easily. I couldn't rely on sound, either. The thing had already shown us it could project its voice.

I couldn't do jack about it's speed. The hiding, though... Two could play that game. Or five. You know. However many of us there were. I kept my decoy where it was. Instructions appeared in front of the other three Knights, and then I made them invisible. They (hopefully) moved several steps away from the decoys I'd left in their place. I crept forward, sword held out. If I was lucky, the Wendigo would run into it when it made it's next attack.

"Told you," a voice gloated as a hand clamped on my invisible body. I was yanked into the air. I tried to swing Solais, but the monster caught my arm. "Smell your bones." With a jerk, it shattered my elbow. It hurt. A lot. Now I was the one screaming.

I set it on fire. Sort of. The Wendigo flinched for a fraction of a second. Then it laughed. "Parlor tricks." It spun, and I enjoyed a terrifying half a second of flying face first into a tree.

Then I was on the ground, looking up at the Green Knight. He had his arm back, but it was bare. No armor on it. "A little more touch and go than I'd like," the man remarked. His visor was raised, and his eyes gleamed in grim satisfaction. "But we got the bastard."

Cursing and hissing brought my gaze around, to see the Wendigo in pieces. The Red Knight was still chopping at it. Either my fake fire was still active, or Mike was using fire of his own. The Wendigo hissed and yelled, heedless of the fact that its head wasn't attached to its body.

"Good work with the invisible thing," the Blue Knight remarked. "And the fire. You distracted it long enough for William to take its legs, and it couldn't hide anymore."

"Bloody well right it couldn't." The Green Knight turned and spat. The loogie splatted just above the Wendigo's glowing green eye. William regarded the chopped up pile of monster critically. "That looks dismembered enough. Lets set the son of bitch on fire for real."

"Damn straight," said Mike. He drew Drynwyn. The sword pointed down at the monster. Fire burst into life. With a gesture, the Red Knight created a column of flame, so bright it hurt my eyes and so hot it created it's own wind.

I frowned. "Are you sure we can take the time for this?" I had to shout to be heard over the roar of the Red Knight's wrath.

"We don't have a choice," The Green Knight shouted back. "We either burn it to nothing now, or it'll hit us from behind while we're fighting Roderick."

"That's probably why he sent it," I guessed. "He's playing for time."

"I know!" William's smile was almost gleeful. "I don't care. Fucking worth it!"