Rising (51 page)

One very large reaper approached me, fully
twice my size.
 
He rubbed his two
sword-like arms against one another, making an eerie noise, a sharp clanging of
metal on metal.
 
Greenish sparks
sputtered around his arms.
 
I wondered
how these organic blades of bone could sound so much like metal, when Jeremy
snapped me out of my reverie.

“You ready, captain?”

“Ready.”

Not needing any more prodding, Jeremy stopped
singing and started a series of short yells, each flinging out with silvery
darts into the darkness.
 
I could see the
metal stars glinting as they flew through the air, hitting their targets,
shattering the shields of five reapers in front of us.
 
The stars spun to the ground not making a
mark on the reapers, but having done their job well.
 
I threw the first dart, but the gargantuan
reaper looming in front of me deflected it with his rapier arm.
 
He wielded that massive arm above us, smashing
down onto Clara’s shield.
 
A vibration of
golden light rippled around the dome.
 
Clara made a startled sound behind me.
 
I glanced back.
 
She still stood
fiercely, but there was a quizzical look on her face as if she didn’t know what
had just happened.

“Stay focused!” shouted Homer from the blue
circle.

Ben stood still now, breathing heavily with his
arms at his sides and his head tilted upward.
 
He was glowing brighter and brighter.
 
I faced the reaper in front of me.
 
He glared into my eyes with a look of deep hatred.

“Come now, Vanquisher,” he said, “Did you think
we’d just stand here and let you kill us without a plan of our own?
 
You have much to learn.
 
Too bad you won’t have the time.”

He took two steps backward and spoke in a low
guttural voice in a language I did not know that all of the reapers were able
to hear around the circle.
 
I only knew
they could hear, because they obeyed him instantly and in unison.
 
The language, if it could be called that, was
harsh and bestial.
 
Yet, its’ rhythmic cadence
denoted intelligence, rather than animalistic calls.
 
Then the creature spoke in our language, as
if allowing us to know their thoughts would instill more fear in their prey.

“Enclose,” he said, then half the reapers filed
in a perfectly spaced circle around the entire radius.
 
The other half stayed in the back with him,
then he spoke again.

“Deteriorate.”

All sharpened arms pointed upward into the sky
and came down in one loud clang against Clara’s shield.
 
I heard her shriek.
 
The reapers’ arms went up again, pounding
down with a hellish yell.
 
Their rhythmic
chant increased the fierceness of each blow.

“What the hell are you waiting for!” yelled
Jeremy.

I realized then that my power had built to a
boiling point.
 
I raised my arms and
pushed outward with a fierce wave of energy, incinerating four reapers in front
of me.
 
The leader of this demon band
made a throaty growl at me.

“Again!” he shouted, while the ring of reapers
pounded down again with their arms.

The shield of protection shrank slightly.
 
I had expected them to be clever as Homer
forewarned, but I hadn’t expected their military-like maneuvers, operating as
one cohesive mass.

“To the blue circle!” shouted Homer from
somewhere behind me.

Jeremy had thrown four darts in a row carrying
his sound, all sticking the reaper in front of him.
 
It refused to back down to him.

“Slaves,” I heard the creature growl, making a
forward motion with one sharpened arm.

Before I could react, two scouts that were
invisible appeared suddenly within the golden dome, only because their flesh
caught on fire.
 
They squealed in pain
while laying their hands on Jeremy.

“Down, Jeremy!” I yelled.

He jerked away and hit the dirt, the sleeves of
his shirt smoking. I flung a sphere of energy out, catching them as they tried
to escape.
 
They burst into leafy ash.

“Come on, Jeremy,” I called to him.
 
He jumped up over to me.
 
“We’ve got to move around the circle.
 
You go ahead of me.
 
As soon as you break the shields I’ll be
right behind you.”

“Let’s do it,” said Jeremy.

The reapers pounded again, but this time Clara
hadn’t weakened.
 
I glanced in her
direction and saw Mel standing next to her with a hand on Clara’s
shoulder.
 
Ben was even brighter than
before if that were even possible.
 
Jeremy started running, letting out a long, loud unending scream.
 
I followed, pushing my power through my arm
as I shot out the throwing darts he’d given me.
 
This time, I didn’t miss.
 
Every
time they landed, whether in the reaper’s chest, shoulder, or gut, the reaction
was the same—instantaneous explosion into black shards of charred bone and
sooty dust.
 
Gradually, I saw Clara’s
dome of light eking back out to the green line.
 
We were gaining ground.

Then, the unexpected happened.
 
Even though Homer warned us to beware of
their cleverness, I still didn’t see this coming.
 
Perhaps, that was because I hadn’t realized
that while this protective shield kept the reapers and their dark power
outside, that wasn’t true for the natural elements.

We had made a full circle, and I’d run out of
Chinese throwing darts, killing at least a dozen reapers in the process.
 
Of course, a dozen more stepped up from the
ranks in the background to fill their spaces.
 
I saw the leader, his gleaming eyes no longer on me.
 
He’d severed his arms into two giant
seven-fingered hands then made a sweeping motion with them.
 
Obeying his will, a gust of wind scooped up
two tons of water.
 
I watched it closely,
wondering what the hell he was doing then it shot like an arrow straight at
Ben.
 
The effect was horrifying.
 
Ben’s body was full to the point of bursting
with electricity from the shadow scouts and reapers around him.
 
As soon as the water touched his body, a
powerful shock wave ruptured out of him sending a shower of white sparks into
the air.
 
Ben screamed and crumbled
lifelessly to the ground.
 
His light went
out, plunging us into darkness.

“Ben!” I yelled, starting to run to him.

“No, Gabe.
 
Focus, son.
 
Focus!
 
Don’t let your emotions rule you!” shouted
Homer.

Mel ran away from Clara, falling to Ben’s
side.
 
The shield of light was shrinking
again back behind the blue line, almost to where Ben had fallen.
 
Several dark shapes loomed just on the
periphery of the shield where Ben lay.
 
I
looked back at Clara who stared intently at a shadow scout across the dome of
light opposite her.
 
I followed her gaze,
recognizing the tall scout with the greenish gash on its head as the one who’d
attacked her parents.
 
It was also the
one who’d led the reapers on us last night from the mill.
 
The scout appeared to be taunting her.

I was distracted, and so was Clara.
 
I hadn’t noticed that their leader had
wielded the wind and lifted a fallen cypress tree.

“Gabriel!” yelled Homer.

He was pointing up.
 
All I saw was an oblong object flying swiftly
through the air straight for Clara.
 
Seeing
it coming, she dropped to her knees, still holding up her shield.
 
Without even thinking, I flung a bolt of
power through my arm directly at the tree soaring for Clara.
 
It cracked and split, falling in two large
pieces on either side of Clara, nearly crushing Homer in the process.

“Are you okay?” I yelled over to him.

He crawled up from behind the trunk, making his
way closer to Clara.
 
I looked at her,
trying to gauge her emotions to see if she was still holding strong.
 
She seemed to know.

“I’ve got it,” she said confidently, “don’t
worry.
 
I’m not letting this shield go.”

She pulled up from her knees, holding the
protective dome now half its original size in place.
 
There was no fear coming from her.
 
I clutched at the pouch hanging around my
neck.
 
This remnant linked me to this
Vanquisher from the past.
 
There was
power left in this stone, undaunted by centuries of time or death.
 
The power seeped outward.
 
I quivered as it pulsed through me.
 
The power beat from it stronger than ever
before.
 
I could visibly see my chest
shaking, but I was no longer filled with bitterness or hatred for these
creatures who had stormed into our world, taking innocent lives in a ruthless
rampage.
 
I was filled with an unwavering
emotion that felt something like anger, but less hostile, something more steady
and true—it was a deep desire for justice.
 
There was no way that I’d let it end like this, these beasts killing us
all.
 
Clara’s shield shrank further, then
I saw that shadow scout pacing just behind the ring of reapers in her
view.
 
The leader of this demon band
leapt on top of the split trunk that protruded from the shield so he could get
a good view of us.
 
He flung his black
cloak wide over his shoulders puffing out his massive chest and urging his
sinister fiends on.

“Okay, Jeremy and Clara; listen up,” I said in
a low voice, still staring ahead at the leader who ordered another barrage of
beatings against Clara’s shield, longer and louder this time.
 
The clanging noise drowned out my words which
was only to our advantage.
 
“We’re going
to gather everything we’ve got and push it out all at the same time.
 
Clara, your shield can burn them and look how
close they’ve come.
 
Their confidence is
their weakness.
 
Let them come in just a
bit closer, then I’ll say when.”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies
closer, eh,” said Jeremy, though his flippant remark had a nervous edge to it.

Clara’s eyes kept darting around us as she
continued to focus on holding up her shield.

“Jeremy, you need to pool all of your power into
one fierce yell that shatters as many shields as you can at the same time.
 
This may be our only way—for Ben, and for
everyone else.
 
Are you ready?”

Both Jeremy and Clara nodded with heavy, steady
looks in their eyes.
 
I turned back to
the rhythmic beating of the reapers.
 
Their persistent pounding against the shield spit up green sparks
chaotically into the air.
 
With each
hammering blow, their demon chant continued.
 
As Clara’s shield shrank and they drew closer, I could finally make out
the ghostly figures of the ash-eaters behind them, slinking further forward
like hyenas to the lions’ prey.
 
The
leader gloated at me from high on his cypress platform as the relentless
hammering brought them closer and closer.
 
I was trembling with the power filling every inch of my frame.
 
Clang, clang, clang.
 
They stalked even nearer.
 
The sight of those serpentine eyes glaring at
us in the dark would have frozen me with fear if I hadn’t known deep down that
my clan could, and would prevail.
 

“Now!” I yelled.

Clara’s shield spilled outward, Jeremy’s sound
wave blasted, and my power detonated into the darkness lighting every shadow
scout and every reaper on fire.
 
In that
split second of victory, I watched that ghoulish shadow scout that taunted
Clara burst into flame, screeching into the night as it died.
 
The malevolent leader’s monstrous face showed
a
milli
-second of fear as it was blown from atop his
dais then exploded into shards of bone and splintered flesh.
 
In one deafening blow, the last of the
reapers, shadow scouts, and ash-eaters incinerated into a massive cloud of
black dust that coated all of us.
 
I
looked to Clara and Jeremy near me, who gagged under the weight of the
ash.
 
Then, a kind of miracle
happened.
 
A gusting wind carried the
dark ash into a mushroom cloud that curled upward.
 
A clap of thunder echoed into the night,
seeming to split and open up the sky.
 
Our heads tilted upward as a torrent of rain began to fall, washing away
all evidence of the demons who’d come to slaughter us.
 
I watched as Clara’s face was washed clean of
the dark powder, hardly believing what we had all just done.