Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms (31 page)

“That’s an understatement.”

“At least she didn’t have it the second time when she caused the flood.”

“Not very reassuring.”

As the pain lifted from her eyes, Samuel noticed her glance at his arm.

“You don’t have it anymore? Where is it?”

“I let a friend borrow Amitiel to keep her safe.”

“Oh bravo! You might have actually stood a chance if you had held on to her…”

Samuel glanced back up at the archdemon.

“My patience is at an end. Time to die Samuel. Rest easy knowing that your girlfriend here will be following along shortly.”

Samuel barely got Raguel up in time to block the vicious strike.

Raguel screeched in pain.

>It cut me!<

Samuel leapt backward to put distance between them before looking down. A gash was slowly closing up across Raguel’s back.

“Oh, you like that? It’s amazing what you can do with this old thing.”

Samuel looked back up as his opponent stalked toward him, casually waving his sword in front of him.

“Excalibur?”

“Precisely. Did you know this was an actual angelic weapon? Now you get to have a wonderful dilemma… Do you protect yourself at the expense of your little dragon there? Or do you take it on the chin for him instead.”

Samuel sprang at the archdemon, his blade locking up his opponent’s. As his face came within inches of Damien, he snarled.

“I vote for option three.”

§§§§§§§§§§§§

As Damien started to respond, Raguel spat at the fiend, causing a block of ice to form in his mouth and throat. Rotating his sword around Excalibur, Samuel slammed the pommel of Hoarfrost into his opponent’s temple, causing the archdemon’s head to snap sideways. As Damien tried to swing his head back, Samuel reared his blade back while sliding his right foot behind Damien’s feet before simultaneously sweeping his opponent’s legs out from under him while slamming the pommel straight into the creature’s forehead. Taking a double handed grip, Samuel whipped his blade around, trying to decapitate the arch-fiend as he fell backward.

At the last second, Damien swung his blade up to deflect Hoarfrost. Instead of having his head removed, Hoarfrost only left a gash on his forehead. Before Samuel could riposte, Damien swung his arm up and sprayed a swarm of stinging insects into Samuel’s face, forcing him to stumble backward.

“Did you really think it was going to be that easy?”

As the swarm fell to the ground, frozen by Raguel, Samuel tilted his head side-to-side, causing his neck to pop several times.

“Hey, I can hope, can’t I?”

Damien wiped the back of his hand across the gash on his forehead as maggots dripped out of the wound.

“Haven’t you heard,” Damien asked as he reared back, “hope is highly overrated.”

Lunging forward, the ferocity of the attack slowly forced Samuel backward. Sparks sprayed off both blades as they repeated clashed against each other. Locking blades again, Samuel tried to rock his blade around Excalibur to try and strip the sword away by hooking his pommel around it and yanking, but Damien held firm, yanking back and throwing Samuel several dozen yard through the air before he landed smoothly.

“Didn’t you know? The wielder of Excalibur can’t drop the blade while in combat. Guess you’ll have to try and fail at something else…”

>Give me two ice blasts when he charges us again. I want you to encase his feet and head in blocks of ice. See if we can slow him down some.<
>Say when.<

>NOW!<

As Damien sprung in again, Raguel spat out a huge globule of liquid nitrogen, striking him in the face. As he stumbled, the second blast lodged him in place, his feet frozen to the ground. Samuel sprang in, swinging his blade in an overhand strike in an attempt to cleave the archdemon in half. At the last second, Damien burst into a swarm of insects before reforming several feet away.

“Well that’s new…”

“Oh, you like it? I’ve been wanting to try it out for ages now. I know lots of new tricks.”

Without warning, Damien’s arm changed into a writhing mass of insects that lashed out at Samuel. It slammed into his chest like a wrecking ball, knocking him through a lamppost and causing him to leave a furrow in the asphalt as he slid to a stop. Springing to his feet, Samuel shook the chunks of road off.

“Well this it going to take longer than I expected.”

Sizing him up again, Samuel charged the archdemon. As he approached, Damien gestured toward him.

“Come get some!”

Sybil tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Samuel and Damien were moving so quickly that she was tracking them more by sound than sight. Flashes of light kept strobing as their blades crossed over and over, sounding like thunder in the distance.

“How the hell is Samuel able to fight like that?” she whispered to herself as she slowly tried to get back to the library steps.

The better question is, how come his sword hasn’t broken? All it took was one swipe for Damien to shatter my blade like it was made out of glass. If we survive this, I’ve got a lot of questions for him.

Sybil winced as she saw Samuel get kicked in the chest like Damien had done to her, but unlike her, Samuel was able to back-flip out of it and slide for several yards before charging at the archdemon again. Sybil couldn’t help but notice that, while the archdemon still was moving effortlessly, Samuel was starting to slow down.

If he falls, we’re done for. There’s nobody else who’s even going to come close to fighting like Samuel is. I wish there was something more we could do to help.

“Excuse me… are you Sybil?”

The unexpected voice startled her, causing her to spin around and bring her broken sword up in a defensive position. Standing before her was a very out of place looking, petite, blond-haired girl. She was startled when an arc of electricity sparked between her eyes before turning green again.

A wilder here, now? This can’t be a coincidence.

Lowering her broken blade she nodded.

“Yes, I’m Sybil. Have we met before?”

“No, but Amitiel suggested I look for you. She thought you might know where I could find Samuel.”

Sybil’s eyes widened as she realized who the woman was.

“Are you, by any chance, the friend that Samuel gave his Paltae to?”

“Peltae?”

“Yes. You might…”

She trailed off as the other woman cocked her head slightly to the side.

“Yes, he sent his dragon with me, but I couldn’t leave the city without knowing he was safe.”

Sybil gestured behind her.

“Safe wouldn’t be the word I’d use. He’s all that’s stands between us and destruction, and at this point, it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to hold out much longer.”

Sybil watched as the other woman looked beyond her, observing her eyes go wide as the fighting continued behind her.

“I’ve got to help him!”

Sybil barely reacted in time to keep the other woman from sprinting past her.

“Hang on, miss…”

“Let me go. He needs me!”

The other woman struggled against her before going limp.

“Let me go,” she whispered, her voice barely heard above the fight raging beyond them. “He’s the only guy that ever saw me as a woman and didn’t hurt me. I can’t lose him.”

“You can’t help him, miss…”

“Blythe. My name’s Blythe. Can’t you do anything to help him?”

Sybil glanced down at the other woman’s arm, gently lifting it up in between them.

“We can’t, but she might…”

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Samuel barely deflected the rapid flurry of strikes. Without warning, Damien lashed out with a vicious axe kick to his face, knocking out several teeth as he was slammed into the pavement. Stomping on his chest, Damien smirked down at him.

“Gee, this seems kinda familiar, doesn’t it.”

Samuel pushed up against Damien’s foot, lifting it several inches off his chest before the archdemon flexed, slamming his foot down on his chest again.

“Uh, uh… You’re not going to get out of it this time. You might’ve gotten lucky at the hospital, but it’s not going to happen again. Any last words?”

“Bite me.”

“What is it with syphons and stupid comebacks? Why can’t you just die screaming like everyone else? Oh, well, guess I can’t have everything… Oh wait, I can. Now die!”

Samuel watched as Damien swung his arm back to deliver the fatal blow. Suddenly, Damien was launched backward by a ball of flame. Looking behind him, he watched as Amitiel, now nearly the size of an eighteen-wheeler, came charging across the battlefield toward him.

“MINE!”

Samuel kipped back to his feet an instant before Amitiel shrunk down and latched onto his back, bonding to him and bursting into flames. As she fanned her wings out, superheated air blasted dust and debris out in all directions. Energy surged up in him as all his wounds instantly healed. The air started shimmering around him as his energy levels continued to climb.

>Am I glad to see you, but is Blythe safe?<
>She’s with Sybil. I like her. She wouldn’t leave without you.<
>Thanks for the save. You need to be careful. His blade can cut you.<
>Understood. Let’s show this piece of offal what we’re really capable of.<
>Lovely idea.<

Samuel reached up with his left hand, grabbing ahold of Brimstone’s handle. As he drew the blade, another blast of superheated air erupted around him.

“Seriously! I get interrupted twice in one day while trying to kill a syphon. What is this world coming to?”

As Samuel watched, a look of understanding washed over Damien’s face. Looking up toward the sky, he screamed in anger.

“You’re not going to stop me! It’s too late!”

His gaze dropped back toward Samuel.

“And you,” he said, stalking toward Samuel, “are going to die. No more games. It ends here!”

Charging in, Damien took a vicious two-handed strike at Samuel’s neck. Blocking it with Brimstone, he smiled cruelly at Damien.

“My turn!”

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Samuel ducked under the blade as it passed over his head. Without warning, Damien reversed the direction and height of the strike, slashing out at Samuel’s legs instead. Samuel cartwheeled over the blade, using Brimstone to drive it into the ground as he thrust out with Hoarfrost. Damien barely got Excalibur up in time to deflect the strike, causing it to nick his shoulder instead of impaling him.

“Let’s see how you deal with an aerial attack!”

Samuel watched as Damien launched himself skyward before unfurling his wings and chasing after him, flames trailing off the tips of the wings.

“You’re not going to get away that easily.”

As he approached, Samuel reared his arm back before swinging forward, Brimstone snaking out before him and wrapping around Damien’s leg.

“Get over here!”

Samuel yanked back hard, snatching the archdemon out of the sky. He spun him around several times before swinging him downward, slamming him into the pavement. The impact caused several cars to flip over from the shockwave. Samuel took off, flying toward the library while dragging Damien across the ground and slamming him through several vehicles along the way.

Damien twisted around and knocked the blade off his foot, causing Samuel to tilt off balance momentarily before righting himself. Doing a loop, he bore down on the archdemon before flipping over and drop kicking him in the chest, launching him across the battlefield and bouncing off the wall of the library steps.

“This isn’t over yet!”

>Give him both barrels!<

As Damien launched himself back at Samuel, Raguel and Amitiel alternated blasting him with ice and fireballs, slowing his approach. Getting close, he hissed in Samuel’s face as he locked blades with him again.

“You really think you can win, don’t you?”

Freeing his blades, he lashed out and nicked Damien in the throat, before kicking him in the chest.

“Yeah, I do.”

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Samuel slowly forced Damien back across the battlefield again. For every attack the archdemon tried to muster, Samuel would lash out with a vicious counter, striking several times for each attempt Damien made. Without warning, Samuel launched a powerful kick at his opponent’s chest, blasting him back through the air to slam into the stone wall beside the library steps again, causing spidery cracks to form in the stone. Before he could move, Samuel thrust his blades forward, driving them into the archdemon’s chest. Excalibur dropped to the pavement with a loud rattle.

“And so it ends.”

Samuel’s muscles rippled as energy surged through them. Twisting the blades horizontally, he pressed against them, crossing the blades in front of him, leaving deep gouges in the stone as he sliced Damien in half. Stepping back, he watched as the upper and lower parts of the body started sliding away in opposite directions. Turning away, he started searching for Sybil and Blythe.

He sensed movement behind him as he tried to dodge to the side, but realized he’d been too slow as Excalibur appeared jutting out of the front of his chest.

“You still don’t get it, do you?”

Samuel gasped at the pain, blood misting out of his mouth as the sound of mocking laughter came from behind him. Damien slowly started twisting the blade as he whispered in Samuel’s ear.

“You can’t banish me from this world now. Can’t you feel it? As we fought, the amount of aetheric and demonic energy was gradually increasing as the weave of the world slowly unravels. There’s enough here now that I’m immortal.”

Damien grabbed his head as he forcefully twisted it from side to side.

“Look around you. It’s only a matter of time before the realms start to merge. I don’t have to beat you to win. I just have keep you busy.”

As Samuel looked around, he noticed it starting to get darker. Glancing up, he watched as the moon slowly started to take on a reddish tinge as more demonic energy gathered in the area.

“Why don’t you just give up now and save yourself the pain and suffering of losing. I promise, if you drop your swords now, I’ll kill you quickly. Just for old times sake.”