Baleful Betrayal (15 page)

I pummeled the enemy again, finally overwhelming a shield and killing a flier, but it wasn't enough. I might as well ram my head against a stone wall for all the good my attacks were doing.

"Stop thinking in two dimensions," Elyssa said. "You're more than a Seraphim; you're part demon."

As usual, Elyssa's advice helped me take a step back.
Remember to look up.
My direct attacks weren't effective. Somehow I had to disrupt the mutant phalanx. Several different plans circled through my head and then I remembered how my father and I escaped from Serena's Gloom fortress.

"I've got an idea, but we have to go outside." I looked around for Kaelissa, expecting her to come up the stairs from the balcony, but found only Djola cowering in a corner.

"I will help," Djola said in a weak voice. "I must help."

"No, just stay inside," I told her. "There's no shame in not fighting."

Djola steeled herself and stood. "I will shield you."

Elyssa grabbed my arm. "You need the protection."

I nodded. "Fine, but be careful." That was all the time we had for words. I misted open the doorway and skirted behind the trees, out of sight of the attackers. "Get ready," I hissed.

Murk hammered on the attackers' shields sounding like a drummer gone mad. Houses exploded and legionnaires died. Mutants fell, but not nearly fast enough. I opened the window in my soul that connected me to Haedaemos and my demon half. I found a minor demon lurking in the spirit realm and snared it.

How'd you like to wreak some destruction?

It quaked with anticipation which was just what I had in mind. I imagined a portal opening at one end of the enemy lines. A small patch of the crystal street melted into black goo. The attackers were too busy looking at the horizontal plane to notice what was happening right at their feet.

I envisioned what I wanted to happen and punched the ground.

A huge shard of rock in the shape of a shark fin exploded from the ground and rammed straight down the line, splitting the seam between the backs of the mutants. Loyalists screamed, their bodies thrown into the air by the huge fin while the mutants were shoved apart, breaking their phalanx. The fin vanished back into the earth, leaving a giant furrow and mass confusion behind.

I pumped a fist. "Shark bowling for the win!"

Prahven spun toward me, face contorted with rage. "You will not escape here alive, Destroyer!"

Flava's people took advantage of the confusion, spearing fliers with Murk before they rose, precise stiletto attacks finding the seams in the dark armor. Elyssa rammed a loyalist with her shoulder and ran a sai sword through his throat. Legionnaires burst from the houses, swords in hand and began killing as many enemies as possible before they recovered from my surprise attack.

Prahven suddenly seemed to realize his fliers were at a severe disadvantage on the ground. He touched a gem on his uniform and the fliers rose, leaving the loyalists unprotected.

I summoned the demon once more, focusing on the ground beneath Prahven, but his dome protected him from all sides, and the demon portal refused to open. Rather than attempting to blast through his shield, I decided to counter it and threaded a sphere of Stasis from Murk and Brilliance.

Blasts of Murk rained down as the fliers turned their attention on me. Djola channeled a shield overhead, and Elyssa dove beneath it as the aerial assault began. Flava led her troops back into cover, but four fell before reaching safety. Loyalists shielded themselves and retreated toward their leader.

Prahven's eyes narrowed when he saw the Stasis forming. "Kill him!" he shouted to the loyalists. "Kill him now!"

The loyalists drew swords and attacked. With Flava's people pinned down, the odds were five to one. Djola couldn't help us since she was shielding our heads from the hail of Murk, so that technically made the odds seven and a half to one which was all the math my brain could process at the moment.

The other thing it quickly grasped was the need to retreat back inside the house. I stopped channeling Stasis, but before we could run, the loyalists blocked our way.

Elyssa twirled a sai sword in each hand, a savage grin on her face. "It's about time you fought your own battles, cowards!"

Since she said it in English, I translated for them.

Prahven scowled. "You'll see just how cowardly we are when we cut out your hearts, boy."

I looked over my shoulder. "Djola, can you hold on?"

Sweat poured down her face and every blow on the shield drew a wince, but she looked up and nodded.

"Ready, babe?" I asked Elyssa.

A cute growl rumbled in her throat. "More than ready."

The loyalists raised their swords with a roar and charged.

I channeled a shield over my left arm and formed a blade of pure Brilliance in my right hand. Elyssa shifted into a ninja stance and bared her teeth.

Our last stand had begun.

Chapter 14

We had one advantage and I hoped to make it count. The trees in front of Kaelissa's house funneled the loyalists between them, allowing only three to attack us at once. Our advantage wouldn't last long once the bulk of the soldiers circumvented the trees and surrounded us, but I was determined to make it work.

Two loyalists aimed their hands at one of the trees and hammered the trunk with violet energy. The trunk exploded into splinters and toppled. Other loyalists pounded it with attacks, leaving behind a trail of pulp and branches. Just like that, our protection was gone.

The enemies raised black crystal swords and charged.

The hail of Murk from the fliers overhead ceased since Prahven didn't want to kill any loyalists. Djola collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Elyssa met two attackers at once, her sai swords singing as they deflected and redirected simultaneous attacks. I caught a heavy blow on my Murk shield and parried a thrust from another loyalist.

Elyssa caught the swing of a sword from a fifth attacker just inches from my head. She ducked, spun, and swept the legs from another. Her sword darted into the unprotected space of his armpit. The seraph cried out and went silent in the space of a second as the blade ruptured his heart.

Roaring, I rammed an attacker in the chest with my shield. A loyalist sword blurred for my head. I caught it with my energy blade then kicked the attacker between the legs. The impact drove him five feet in the air and he screamed like his daddy-sack just exploded.

"Guess who's not having kids anytime soon?" I shouted. My blazing sword whooshed, slicing through the loyalist's neck at the apex of his flight. His body tumbled one way, head rolled in the other. "You, bitch!"

Elyssa ducked beneath simultaneous attacks from both sides. The loyalists parried each other and flashed confused looks at each other. A sai sword in either hand, Elyssa thrust upward between the seams in their armor. Sharp metal punched through soft flesh where the legs joined the groin. Their battle cries went up a dozen octaves to porcine squeals of agony.

"If you're looking for free vasectomies, you've come to the right place!" I blocked another blow and kicked a loyalist so hard he rammed into a tree and went still. Three more loyalists leapt over the bodies of the fallen and pummeled me from all sides. It was all I could do to shield myself. My demon and Seraphim attributes gave me incredible reflexes, but that didn't give me much of an advantage over other Seraphim—especially not three of them.

That was when a fourth enemy joined the party.

Elyssa seemed to be doing fine dispatching her seven and a half attackers, but the mass of bodies shoved us apart so we could no longer protect each other. Djola was in no shape to help, and god only knew where Kaelissa was.

I considered throwing up a dome shield, but that would only delay the inevitable. I needed more arms and more swords. Since I didn't possess lizard DNA, that wasn't gonna happen. A memory of battle flashed through my head.
I have something better than extra arms.
Pulling it off while fighting would be the trick.

Summoning more aether, I envisioned what I needed to happen. My shoulder blades itched. A powerful blow from a loyalist knocked me off balance and sent me sprawling. I released my energy blade so I wouldn't accidentally cut off my own head and turned my tumble into a somersault. A quick roll avoided another sledgehammer attack. A backward flip dodged a blow meant to crush the family jewels.

"Hey, I'm not the one who needs sterilizing!" I shouted and blurred away from another attack.

I had a few seconds worth of space before the enemy rushed in to fill the void. The itch in my shoulder blades suddenly felt like daggers slicing through flesh as my dark and white wing unfurled from my back.

The loyalists staggered to a halt. I released the channel on my shield and flexed my wings. Just for show, I flicked my left hand and channeled a dark sword. Flicked my right hand and unsheathed a blade of blazing white destruction. A savage grin stretched my mouth. "Come get me, you little bitches."

One by one they smiled back as spheres of white destruction coalesced in their right hands. It didn't take a genius to realize Cephus had equipped his people with prisms so they could channel Brilliance.

My grin faded. I couldn't parry energy attacks with two energy swords. "You just totally ruined the moment for me," I shouted. "I was going to look so cool for my girlfriend, but no, you had to go and ruin it!" As I shouted, I morphed the dark sword into a shield again and ran forward.

Brilliance speared from enemy hands and splashed against my shield. They might have prisms, but these dudes weren't very strong with destruction and they knew it. Their swords came up to meet mine and the spheres of white energy vanished. I transformed my shield back into a sword and loosed a savage cry.

Blades of energy met those of ultraviolet crystal. I flexed my left wing and parried a thrust meant for my back. I spun and whipped my white wing at another attacker. The destructive energy sliced deep into his armor. Duck. Parry. Thrust. I leapt over a low swing, flapped my wings and flipped over the attackers.

My sword of Brilliance speared one seraph through the back. Blood spurted and sizzled. I slammed another loyalist to the ground with a wing, leapt on his chest and buried both swords in his throat. As he gurgled his last, I flipped backward, over the attacks of the other loyalists. Before they could spin to face me, I sheared off their heads with a savage swipe. Headless bodies dropped to their knees and toppled.

I braced for more attackers, but when I looked back, only bodies littered the ground. Elyssa spun and delivered a roundhouse kick to one last seraph. Before he could rise, she leapt and drove her swords through the broken armor on his back. His bloodcurdling scream went silent.

A wide-eyed Djola emerged from behind a tree. "I have never seen such vicious fighting."

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yes, I believe so."

Elyssa wiped angelic blood from her face. "We need to finish Prahven."

We raced through the trees and came back to the street. A handful of fliers hovered over a building, firing volleys at legionnaires inside, but their attacks splashed off the defenders' shields.

Prahven was nowhere to be seen.

Elyssa grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. "Look!"

I spotted Prahven and a handful of loyalists retreating into the sky aboard a cloudlet.

"The son of a bitch got away again," I growled. "Let's fight off the rest of the fliers."

Before I could focus on the remaining enemies, a volley of dark energy slammed into a flier's helmeted head with a loud crack. The stricken flier tumbled to the ground like a lead balloon. Another flurry streaked through the air like guided missiles, smacking mutants in the head and dropping them like flies. A beam of Brilliance sheared through the armor of two mutants like a hot knife through butter and the last of the fliers slammed to earth.

I turned and saw Kaelissa standing on the roof of her house. She wiped her hands and grimaced as if she'd just touched a dirty toilet seat. With a graceful flip, she dismounted the roof and landed next to us.

"Why didn't you help us before?" I said. "We could have ended the fight without so much carnage."

"Do not ask me to perform such menial acts," Kaelissa replied, face flushing red. "Had you been up to the task, I would not have interceded."

"Up to the task?" Elyssa said. "People died because you vanished and didn't help."

Kaelissa ignored the comment, rubbing her hands furiously on the silk material of her dress as she walked among the fallen. She knelt next to a dead loyalist and plucked a diamond-like prism from the palm of his hand. "Is it a sign? Will our ancient greatness soon return?"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Dual channeling," she said. "No more Darklings. No more division." Kaelissa's eyes glowed white. "Unity at last."

"That's what we're striving for," Elyssa reminded her. "After we beat Cephus, we'll reunite the two empires."

Flava emerged from the rubble of a house, followed by Joss and Otaleon. Nailan sprinted down the road, trailed by Lanaeia and two others. I looked around for other signs of life, but found only the stillness of death.

"Are we all that is left?" Lanaeia said in a despairing voice.

"Everyone, look for survivors," Flava said.

We raced from house to house, removing bodies. I heard a groan from beneath a pile of crystalline Murk and tossed aside large chunks. A bloodied Axo stared up at me. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and the breath rattled in his throat.

"Flava!" I shouted. "I need help, now!"

She ran over and touched the stricken seraph's chest.

Axo bared his teeth in a bloody smile. "The Destroyer's curse sits heavily upon my family," he rasped. "I am the last. Our city in ruins. At least I will see my brother."

Flava looked at me and shook her head. "He is too badly injured."

"Put him in a stasis spell," Elyssa said.

"I don't have the strength." Tears trickled down Flava's face. "I am exhausted from battle."