Jerif’s dying fire gets heightened again, and Crux readies himself to turn more demons inside out. Echo shakes off his tattoos, making them return to the sky, and Iceman waits, wanting to strike at the perfect time for the maximum amount of damage since every strike needs to count.
But all of their careful planning and determination goes to the wayside when the ground shakes and a huge fucking one-eyed demon comes squeezing through the mausoleum doorway, snapping the door right off in the process. At the size of him, I’m surprised he doesn’t just knock down the whole damn building altogether.
Like a rat squeezing out of a cage, the giant cyclops crawls out on hands and knees, and then straightens up on bulbous, meaty legs. He looks up at the Ophidian standing on the roof, coming eye-level to him. “Get the Scythed One,” he orders.
The giant doesn’t hesitate. It’s massive head swivels, though it’s a weird sight since the thing doesn’t look like it has a neck. As soon as his single eye lands on me, he starts running, not even caring that he mows down some of the smaller demons at his feet.
“Steady!” Iceman shouts as he starts raining down sharp-ended icicles directed right at the giant’s skull. But whatever his rhino skin is made of acts like armor, because the ice just bounces right off of him.
“Jerif!” Iceman calls.
Jerif turns at Iceman’s direction, and the flames on the circle of surrounding bodies get swept away as he launches the fire at the giant that’s still sprinting toward us.
But the fire does nothing. It catches on the giant’s vest and pants, but other than that, it doesn’t affect him at all. Goliath doesn’t even flinch.
The guys don’t have time to plan another way to take him down, because he’s suddenly on us. One great sweep of his arm is all it takes for him to bat Iceman away like a fly.
Another sweep, and he takes out Echo and Jerif before either of them can do a damn thing. Crux moves in front of me and clenches his fist, trying to turn the fucker inside out, but either Crux has exhausted his power or that shit doesn’t work on this rock-faced motherfucker, because nothing happens.
Without the others to help us hold the line, the rest of the demons finally break through. Crux and I get separated, and then it’s just me, facing off with Goliath. I square my shoulders and get ready to swing and ash the shit out of him. If this ugly fucker thinks he’s going to take me, he’s in for a rude awakening.
I hope.
I slash out at him, but he jumps back, clearly on to me and what my scythe can do. I try a couple more times, but just when I think I’m about to nick him, the massive demon manages to dodge my efforts.
Fuck my life, the one-eyed bastard seems smart, which I was not expecting. I personally blame Harry Potter for making me think trolls and giants have little brains. This one has the foresight to realize that if he tries to snatch me up, I’m going to nail him with my scythe. So instead, he kicks me, faster than I can see his foot coming.
I get nailed in the stomach and my body goes flying. My landing is just as painful as the hit. My back collides with a headstone in a crash that would have shattered my body before my trip to Nihil, and I land in a pained heap on the ground.
By the time I can pull in a breath and my head isn’t swimming with stars, there are a dozen demons on top of me, all of them with yellowish skin and jaundiced eyes. They’re only about four feet tall and some of them suffering from permanently curved spines, but they’re strong.
They pin me down, clawed fingers holding me in place, snapping jaws threatening to take pieces out of me if I don’t hold still. I can’t move my arm or even my fingers around the scythe, and they’re all taking extra precautions not to come into contact with the blades.
“Get off, you fuckers!” I yell, trying to buck and force their grips to loosen, but they overpower me, and my mind gets yanked back into the memory of the Vestibule battle when I was pinned down just like this—when similar shrieks and shouts filled my ears, and the smell of blood