She stabbed her dagger into the white human flesh of a medium-sized Demon’s chest while it was distracted and sliced upwards. Emerie spun on the spot with her sword raised, ready to defend Lindiwe while she finished carving it up.
Once more, the Demon King disappeared from view.
He materialised at the podium for just a second to assess his next placement.
In front of Emerie, Delora floated in the air as she tried to evade the two flying Demons – one with bat wings, the other with feathers. Emerie shuddered, but turned her focus away when she looked relatively okay.
She wished she hadn’t.
She wouldn’t have witnessed Jabez standing behind Reia, who had been lifted off the ground by the claws he’d stabbed into the back of her skull. The stain of red flowed down the blonde strands like a macabre river. Her lips were parted like she’d gasped, and she was forced to look up at Jabez, who had bent over her from behind with a twisted sneer.
Her legs weren’t still, but they didn’t kick; they twitched, like her pierced brain was sending strange signals to them.
Her sword clattered to the ground when her body went limp. Demons sliced her arms and legs into ribbons with their claws as they dragged her corpse off Jabez’s fingers. They began to devour her, along with the three Demons she had managed to kill by herself.
Like he was unbothered by the fact he was in the middle of a battle, surrounded by the carnage his servants created, he licked her blood and whatever brain matter had clung to his fingers.
Reia, Emerie thought with a sob. She’d barely made it a few minutes; an obvious target for Jabez.
She had to look away from the Demons mauling her corpse and bringing bits of her to their mouths. Bile rose in her throat, and she threatened to dry retch when the smacking of lips, slurping, and hungry snarls flooded her ears.
Delora descended to the ground only two metres in front of Emerie.
The yellow skirt of her dress was in tatters, but she appeared fine. Then she let out a cry and cupped her ribs from the force of a Demon shoving her down and landing overtop of her.
Emerie charged.
There was no battle cry from her as she jumped and came down on the small, bat-winged Demon’s back. With her arms above her, both hands gripping the handle of her sword, she shoved it through its chest from behind. When she steadied her hand against its back to support herself from its thrashing, her palm print slowly began to singe and burn into its rough flesh.
Surprised, Emerie pulled her hand back. The diadem? Although she said it would only work against some medium and smaller Demons, no wonder Reia had given it to her.
Emerie didn’t have time to linger on it.
Whatever the Demon had been able to do to Delora was forgotten. The enraged creature roared and swiped its arm back, throwing Emerie across the stone floor. Within seconds, Lindiwe was bent above her on her bare feet, a single hand extended.
A shield formed, just as the Demon lunged.
When it landed on the shield, Lindiwe was quick to react. She opened up a hole in it so her hand could fit, grasped it by its foot, then glanced at Emerie.
She nodded and moved into a crouch.
When Lindiwe released the rest of the dome, Emerie grunted as she shoved her sword through its throat. Lindiwe kicked the pommel, and the blade rotated, slicing through its neck and partially beheading it.
Emerie stumbled back in surprise, not expecting Lindiwe to pull such an insane, badass move.
“Watch out!” Delora squealed, unleashing an arrow right for Emerie.
She turned and watched Jabez dematerialise just as he’d been reaching out to grab her. She startled and nearly tripped over her own feet.
She’d almost been fucking grabbed!
Delora flittered to them and turned solid. Lindiwe threw a shield over them so they could take a breather, and Emerie assessed their opponents.
The feather-winged Demon landed right in front of her with a double thwap of its pawed feet. Terror and painful memories bubbled hot inside her consciousness like acid, threatening to corrode the remnants of clear-headedness she’d somehow been pulling out of her arse for this fight.
Emerie pushed herself between the two women waiting near her and turned to give the winged Demon her back. Someone else could deal with it because she sure as shit could not.
However, other than it, only two more Demons remained besides Jabez. Four enemies in total, not bad.
Reia had managed to take out quite a few on her own, and many were littered with Delora’s arrows. Emerie was sure those black magical tentacles aiding them had crushed one or two as well. She and Lindiwe hadn’t been so successful, considering Emerie couldn’t just turn intangible within the blink of an eye, but every monster they killed had helped.
“What are we going to do?” Emerie asked. “Reia, she… Won’t the guys come now?”
“Every Phantom’s return time is different,” Lindiwe explained. “It could be a few minutes, or an hour. It won’t matter anyway. It’ll take them a day to get here in their monstrous forms. This will be over long before that.”
Guilt squeezed Emerie’s heart, and she wished the reminder of Ingram hadn’t been pushed into her thoughts. This will be over soon… Her life was about to be over, and she worried how Ingram would react to that.
She clenched her eyes and shook her head. No. I’m replaceable, she reminded herself, hoping, pleading that was true.
“I-I need to collect my arrows,” Delora muttered through heavy pants of exertion. “I’m almost out.”
“We need to focus on Jabez,” Lindiwe demanded. “The barrier… It won’t last much longer. Weldir’s magic is waning. We’re running out of time.”
Even now, Emerie could see it pulsating and growing smaller before it suddenly expanded – only to shrink again. Weldir must be helping from wherever he was, pushing more magic into it sporadically as it continued to weaken.
“I thought he was powerful,” Emerie accused, panic threatening to settle in completely.
Honestly, watching Jabez disappear and reappear out of nowhere was frightening her. How was she supposed to get him before he teleported?
And the fact he could just slyly come up behind her had her spine tingling with awareness of how… vulnerable it was.
At any given moment, she could end up like Reia and everything would be lost.
“He is, but it’s limited,” Lindiwe quickly defended. “Everything I do drains him.”
“Fuck it then,” Emerie rasped. “Guess we better hurry up.”
“Delora, keep the Demons from interfering with us.”
She nodded, shoulder-length hair waving around her sombre face. “Got it.”
Their backs bumped up against each other’s in encouragement before they lunged forward. Lindiwe and Emerie ran for Jabez standing on the steps of the throne’s podium, while Delora ran in the only direction there wasn’t a Demon so she could grab what arrows she could.
The ones she picked up would be blunt, but the force of her shots should still penetrate. Not as deeply, but hopefully enough.
“He’ll focus on me,” Lindiwe said under her breath, glancing at Emerie from the corner of her eye.
That was all Emerie needed to know.
They separated, going around him to split his focus. Just as she foresaw, Jabez turned to Lindiwe.