Until We Break (29 page)

“Let us out of here!” Daryn said.

“Oh, we will,” Loki said. “As soon as we have our defenses repaired. Until then, you can stay inside those boxes.”

Ev continued to pummel the invisible walls, but even with his gauntlets, it was futile; they weren’t going anywhere.
Dammit! We were so close to ending this threat
.

“What do we do?” CiCi said, panic creeping into her voice.

Maya replied, “Calm down.”

“I can’t calm down! I’m claustrophobic, Maya! I have to get out of here!” She began frantically moving about her box, searching desperately for a way out.

“CiCi!” Maya said. “You have to avoid thinking about it. Focus on the sound of my voice. Can you do that?”

“I—I don’t know!”

“Look at me! Concentrate on me and me alone. There is no box, there is only me. Focus!”

CiCi stared at her. She repeated, “There is no box. There is only you. I think… I think it’s working.” Her breathing visibly slowed, and Ev could tell she wasn’t as panicked.

Maya said, “All right, then. We have to approach this logically. Loki called this ‘mime power’. That implies it has to do with mimicry. That guy pretended he was trapped inside a box, and then we became trapped for real.”

“What are you thinking?” Ev said.

“I’m thinking, maybe mimicry is the key to getting us out of here. Let’s play along. Everyone, pretend there’s a door in front of you and open it.”

“Absurd! Ridiculous! That is most certainly not the way to escape. There
is
no escape, I assure you,” a nervous Loki said.

This sounded insane, but what the hell. Ev visualized a door and then reached out to grab the non-existent knob. He turned it slowly and pushed outward.

He took a step forward. Nothing stopped him this time. Maya and the others did the same, and Ev breathed a sigh of relief. They had escaped and could now bring the fight to Loki and his merry band of lunatics.

“Damn! Curses! We underestimated you. But don’t think you’ve won just because you got out of a simple trap. No, now you face the full might of Carnaval!”

Ev balled his hand into a resolute fist. “Bring it on! We’re not backing down.”

“Frigga!” Loki said. “Show these fools the power of a Norse god.”

A black-masked woman with long locks of flowing red hair, skimpily dressed in leather, pulled out a whip and snapped it at Ev. He didn’t expect much…

…but boy was he surprised.

The whip hit him with explosive force, hurling him backwards into the wall. He made a second rubble heap next to the one Dionysus had left.

* * *

“Ev!” Maya yelled. Ev was down and possibly even unconscious; the rest of them might be on their own.

Seeing no other choice, Maya conjured her bow and took aim at Frigga. She let fly several arrows, but the strange woman swatted them out of the air. Frigga responded by snapping her whip at Maya, but the student had already seen what that thing was capable of and wasted no time leaping backwards. The whip hit the floor, splintering it.

“Horus! Get them!” Loki commanded. A man with the head of a bird, not unlike Ra, but with actual wings, flew forward with incredible speed. He slashed at Maya with his wings, and she had to duck, sacrificing numerous strands of hair to avoid being decapitated.

Horus swung at her again with his other wing, forcing her to block with her bow. The weapon proved no match for his razor-sharp feathers, however, and was quickly sliced in two. Maya fell backwards to avoid suffering the same fate.

Horus was on top of her now. “For Carnaval!” he cried as he brought a wing down to cleave her in two. But at the last moment, there was a thud and his head snapped forward. He then fell forward onto Maya. A big hammer had clocked him from behind, and Daryn stood there. He rolled Horus off of her and then offered her his hand which she wasted no time taking. Daryn helped her up, and they stood ready to face the rest of Loki’s forces.

Loki quickly turned his attention to a hulking masked figure that carried a large black truncheon with a thick head. Like the others, the bruiser was dressed in bright colors and festive garb, but he looked in no mood to party. “Get them, Gurzil!”

Gurzil nodded and began stomping forward, his every step a violent echo. Maya gulped; she didn’t know how on Narska they were going to stop this one.

Out of the corner of her eye, Daryn stepped forward past her. “Leave this one to me.”

“Uh… OK. Good luck, Daryn.”

He smiled. “Heh. I think that’s the first time you’ve ever cheered me on.”

“Right,” she said. “Sorry. About everything.”

“You don’t need to apologize anymore. I forgive you, Maya.” Those words warmed her heart, and she felt her confidence returning.

Daryn and Gurzil collided, their oversized weapons locked in fierce combat. Despite being outmatched in terms of size, Daryn was holding his own against the brute.

Maya didn’t have time to observe the spectacular clash because Frigga resumed her attack. Her whip began striking so fast it seemed there were half a dozen of them, and it was all she and CiCi could do to avoid getting blasted back like Ev. In fact, as far as she knew, he hadn’t even recovered yet.

Suddenly, Jaysin was in front of them, striking the ground with his staff. The whip flew upwards and away from them. Frigga grunted in annoyance at the interference. “In a hurry to die, are we? Patience, patience, my sweet fools. Or is it punishment you crave? If so, you’ve come to the right place.”

“This bitch is seriously crazy,” Maya said.

“Enough,” Frigga said. “I’m the only one here qualified to dispense abuse. Now, you’ve all been bad boys, so come here for your punishment.”

Maya stared at her. “But I’m not—”

Jaysin said, “Maya, forget it. There’s no reasoning with these jackos. Let’s just take them down and be done with it.”

“Fine.” She conjured another bow and again took aim at Frigga.

CiCi had her chakrams ready. “The three of us should be enough to take her down.”

“Focus on offense, you two. I’ll deflect her whip with my staff.”

“Got it,” Maya said.

“Not so fast, you naughty boys,” Frigga said. She stroked her whip lovingly, and before their eyes a dozen more whips grew out of it, until it resembled a mythical multi-headed serpent. “Now, let me show you what my baby can
really
do.”

Frigga snapped her new multi-whip, and all thirteen heads began attacking independently. Jaysin used his staff to try and fight them off, but there were too many of them. Within a few moments, the students were struck and flew backwards. Jaysin managed to catch CiCi, but both of them still went flying.

But while Jaysin hit the wall, someone caught Maya. She looked up at her knight in shining gauntlets. “Ev!”

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I kinda got knocked out there for a minute.” He surveyed the complex. “I see Daryn’s fighting that ugly cuck socker. Looks like he’s doing pretty well despite being half that guy’s size.”

Jaysin’s voice called out behind them, “Wish we could say the same. Thanks for catching me, by the way.”

Ev replied, “Relax. You’re a big boy; you can handle yourself. Besides, you recovered a lot faster than I me.”

Jaysin walked gingerly over to them. “That whip packs a punch, and I can’t fight it off now that it’s all grown up.”

“Maybe not,” Ev said. “But the four of us together can.”

“What are you thinking?” Maya said. Ev had let go of her and she now stood on her own.

He moved in close so he could whisper to them. “It’s simple, really. Just hold her off while I go in close.”

“Think we can do that, mate,” Jaysin grinned.

“You can count on us,” Maya said.

“Oh, yeah!” CiCi added.

Ev cocked his head. It was now or never. “You guys ready?”

 
“Ready,” they said simultaneously.

Ev began running forward. Frigga responded by throwing all her whips at him. Jaysin got in front and struck the ground. Half of them flew upwards—along with Ev—but the others kept coming. Maya furiously fired off arrow after arrow, each of which hit the whips head on, knocking them off balance. CiCi added to the attack with her chakrams.

With Frigga’s weapon momentarily neutralized, the now-airborne Ev came crashing down onto her. He wasted no time and began pulverizing her with his gauntlets. Despite what he had told Priscilia when they had fought, he hated having to hit a woman. With every blow, he felt a piece of his soul die, and he didn’t know if he would ever get them back. Memories of his father beating up his mother flooded his mind.