Until We Break (30 page)

Nevertheless, he knew what he had to do, and he did it, no matter how much he despised himself for it. He smashed Frigga’s face until he was sure she had lost consciousness. Only then did he get off of her.

Maya and Jaysin came over to gawk at his handiwork. “Damn,” Jaysin said.

“Ev,” Maya said.

“I didn’t want to do it,” Ev said. “She was trying to kill us.”

Maya said, “It’s OK. We’re not judging you. We know you had to do it.”

She’s right, mate. This is war. Now come on; we need to help Daryn.”

* * *

Daryn Anders continued going toe to toe with the brute known as Gurzil, and he was proud to say he was holding his own. Gurzil’s club was certainly a weapon to be feared, but Daryn had so far managed to counter it.

That was, until Gurzil unleashed a savage kick that knocked him on his ass. The bruiser then wasted no time slamming his truncheon down towards Daryn’s throat. Only the latter’s quick thinking saved him when he brought his hammer up to block. Nevertheless, he felt the impact all throughout his body and knew he could not survive very many more of those.

Unfortunately, ‘more of those’ was exactly what Gurzil had in mind. He repeatedly slammed his club down. Daryn felt his strength faltering with each hit, and after several of them, came to the chilling realization the next one would finish him off. After competing in the God Games, he was at his limit.

Gurzil brought the truncheon above his head and was poised to finish the fight. But out of nowhere, an arrow flew in and pierced him in the throat. He ran around frantically while gurgling blood before dropping to the floor.

Daryn knew he had to capitalize on this, so he picked up his hammer and smashed Gurzil’s head where he lay, resulting in a sickening display of gore. He took no joy in this, but it had to be done.

Ev, Jaysin, Maya and CiCi came over to him. “Are you all right?” Ev asked.

“I’m fine, thanks to Maya’s arrow.”

“My pleasure,” Maya said.

“You monsters!” Loki yelled. “What have you done?”

“We took care of business, mate.”

The students looked the two remaining Carnaval members over. Only Loki and Vidar were left standing, and it seemed Vidar was useless without his tricks. Daryn said to them, “Give it up. You’ve lost.”

“No!” Loki rushed them, but Maya put him down with an arrow to the heart.

They stared at Vidar. “I’m hoping you’ll listen to reason,” Ev said.

“Not so fast, you cretins!” Loki suddenly rose to his feet before ripping the arrow from his chest.

“Impossible,” Maya said. “I shot you in the heart.”

He laughed at her. “Ah, yes, the heart. A god’s greatest weakness. Unfortunately for you, it’s one I found the solution to.” They watched in horror as his body began pulsating. Within moments, every inch of it started getting bloated with what looked like tumors, each one beating.

“What is this?” Ev said, disgusted.

“My heart,” Loki said. “
All of them
.”

“You mean?” Daryn said.

“That’s right! I added many new hearts all over my body. You’ll have to destroy them all if you want to kill me.”     

Maya unloaded several more arrows into the pulsating points on his body, but he just laughed them off before ripping them out. “Laughable! Pathetic! I don’t believe you realize just how many hearts I added. In fact, my body is now seventy percent hearts.”

“That’s impossible,” Ev said. “Your body couldn’t function if it was mostly hearts.”

“A normal body, perhaps. But I modified all my organs to double as secondary hearts while still performing their original functions.”

“That’s disgusting,” Daryn said.

 
“Yuck,” CiCi added.

“Say what you will, but I have no weaknesses. Do your worst!”

Ev leaned in to whisper to Maya. “Use a freeze arrow to pin him down.”

“Don’t underestimate my hearing!” He then vanished, and Ev was barely able to register him reappearing behind him a second too late. Loki delivered a savage kick which sent him flying.

“Ev!” Maya shouted. She didn’t have time to do anything else because Loki punched her in the face, sending her sailing across the court as well.

Daryn charged in with his hammer, but Loki disappeared again before he could bring it down on his head.

“How’d he get so fast?” Jaysin asked.

Loki suddenly appeared in front of him, causing him to jump back. But Loki didn’t attack. Instead, he stood there smirking. “With all the blood my hearts are pumping, I can do incredible things.”

Jaysin moved to strike the ground with his staff, but Loki was gone. “Bastard’s quick.”

By now Ev was to his feet. “We’ll have to work together to defeat him.”

Maya was as well. “We need a plan.”

“I’ve got one,” Daryn said, stepping forward. He threw down his hammer. “Hey, cuck socker,” he shouted to the air, “let’s settle this with our fists.” He then closed his eyes and seemed to focus.

Before any of them knew it, Loki was behind him. But Daryn ducked the resulting punch, grabbed Loki’s arm and swung him over his shoulders onto the floor. “Maya! Now!”

Maya fired two freeze arrows at Loki’s legs, pinning them in place. He shouted in rage at this development.

Ev said to Jaysin, “You’re up, buddy.”

Jaysin surged forward and struck the ground at Loki’s feet. Loki roared as his upper body broke free from his legs and rose into the air.

Ev then leapt after him, intending to meet his sorry ass up there. But CiCi’s chakrams suddenly sliced through the air, taking off Loki’s arms. Ev made a mental note to thank her later.

But for now, he had a job to finish. He overtook Loki and buried his fists into his chest, slamming him back down to earth. He then landed on the bastard and began pummeling him to a pulp.

Before long, Daryn strode over with his hammer. “Time to finish this.” He brought it down on Loki’s chest, squishing everything out.

They stood there, silent, for several minutes. When it became clear Loki wasn’t getting up from this, they allowed themselves to breathe a sigh of relief.

* * *

Vidar, who had sat back and watched, put his hands up in surrender.

Suddenly, the ship’s computer chimed in. “Repairs to God Dampener complete. Death of acting captain registered. Please designate new captain.”

Well, this was interesting. “Uh… me?” Ev said.

“Please identify yourself.”

“Ev Bannen.”

“Transfer of command completed. Awaiting orders, Captain Bannen.”

Ev beamed from ear to ear. “‘Captain Bannen’. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Your mom would be so proud,” Maya said. She was completely sincere.

“Thanks, Maya. I wish she was still here. Her love is the only reason I didn’t turn out like my father.”

“She was a very good person,” Maya agreed.

“Ahem,” Jaysin said. “Hate to interrupt, but we have a few prisoners here. What are we going to do about them?”

Ev’s eyes went from Vidar to Frigga and back again. “Good question. Computer?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Do we have… I don’t know… a brig or something?”

“There is a fully automated containment facility on Deck 13.”

That was good news, but there remained the possibility of their prisoners escaping. “Can the God Dampener reach in there?”

“The God Dampener is fully integrated with the ship’s systems and has been modified to use the holographic projectors. It can reach anywhere on the ship with projectors installed, including the containment facility.”

Ev smiled. “Good to know.”

* * *

They made their way to the bridge. They found it to be spacious and sterile. Strangely, there were chairs but only one console near the bridge entrance. Other than that, it was just like the starship bridges on old sci-fi TV series from several decades ago.