such that it was. Darn you, Kreios, where are you when I need you? I looked toward Michael. He had found a blunt object for a weapon and had returned to Kim’s side. He stood ready, with his feet apart. Good. He’ll keep her safe.
There was nothing left for me but the mountain of nastiness that was waiting for me. I turned back to my enemy, sizing him—it—up. I remembered how Kreios had taught me about using hate or love to fuel and augment my abilities.
Then She spoke up. “Believe in what can be, not only in what is.”
“Ooooooo-kay,” I said, completely baffled. But something instinctual was rumbling within me, and before I knew it I had taken off running, directly at the monster.
The thing crouched into a battle stance.
“Feint,” She said.
I knew what that was. It was pretending to do one thing while intending to do another in battle. It was a good idea, and might buy me time. I needed to sell it well.
When I was close enough, within a couple of strides of my enemy, I crouched in midstride as if I was going to leap up at the creature’s head once more. Instead, I intended to slide beneath and try to get behind it.
It worked.
The thing rose up slightly and cocked one arm as if to backhand me. I dove into the opening this created, sliding right between its legs on wet pavement. I scrambled to my feet, stomping on and grabbing at one of its wings, trying to climb up, maybe get to the head, find a weak spot, a way to wound it. Clearly I needed a weapon. Something besides my bare hands. Maybe I can poke it in the eye or something.
I could feel my energy, my will to fight being sapped as the evil of the Brotherhood drained my power, feeding on it. “Make it short and sweet,” She said.
The demon twisted and turned, shaking its back, trying to throw me off. I had it with one hand by the leading edge of its wing with one hand. My other hand flailed around for a moment, then came to rest on one of the strange flexible iridescent scales that were like feathers. I yanked on the scale as hard as I could, ripping it out, causing the demon to shriek with rage. It gyrated horribly then, and it was all I could do to hold on. Thankfully, no matter what the thing did, it couldn’t reach me on its back. I felt stupid though, because all I was doing was just pissing it off.
“Take up the Sword.”
A picture flashed into my mind. It was the cliff top. The place I had died. Ellie’s words from a few moments ago came sweeping back to me: “Get your sword…” Ellie couldn’t have known, but She certainly did.
The Sword. Can I make it appear at will? Is that how it happened on the cliff’s edge? Or is there something I’m missing…
I didn’t have time to deliberate. While I was forming a committee to vote on the issue in my head, the demon was working its own solutions to its problem: me.
“Hey!” I heard a voice in the distance.
Michael. I searched for him as the mountain of corrupt flesh heaved beneath me. Michael was trying to get its attention, running toward it with his piece of jagged street-brawl weaponry at the ready. I then realized what was happening: the beast was backing toward the fire. It’s going to try to burn me off! Crap.
Michael was closer now, running faster. “Hey, reject! Yeah, you!” he swung his weapon as a warning. “I got somethin’ for ya. Come get it.”
The demon paused.
“Now!”
With as much strength and speed as I could muster, I vaulted up onto the demon’s shoulders and clawed as hard as I could, digging deep into the monster’s left eyeball, squeezing, wrenching, pulling. Something burst like a water balloon and a jelly-goo gushed in between my fingers.
Ewwwww!
The demon dropped to a crouch and doubled over, howling with pain and rage. I used its motion to get the heck off the ride and run for Michael.
“Michael, get back!” I ran at him gesturing for him to get back, to move away. “This thing’s gonna be really angry now!”
The look on his face was priceless. He’s impressed, was all I could think.
“Come on,” I said, “stay back there with Kim! She needs you!” I wheeled back around to face my foe; I didn’t have time to see if