Chapter 28: Sacred Strike

James watched the hummer drive off and turned to stare at the demon symbol. “I got a bad feeling about this synergy.”

“Walk and talk?” said Serenity.

“OK Jessica.”

She grinned and they fell into stride together. “You were saying you had a ‘bad feeling’ about this. I can’t imagine why. Things have been going so well so far.”

“Those symbols. Nobody’s paid them too much attention because they’ve not been killing anyone, but I don’t like the Nemesis 2’s not killing people to come hide beneath them. It means something, but by the time we find out it’ll be too late.”

“Hence this stroll.” Serenity stretched, the movement more limber and sinuous than anything she’d have been capable of when he first met her. “I like it. Feels like forever since you and I get out alone.”

James was watching the rooftops. “You feeling like the fireteam cramps your style?”

“No.” she said simply. “Just nice to not feel like part of something huge for a minute. But watch me regret those words three minutes from now.”

They circled out, keeping the same distance from the symbol, trying to get a sense of a perimeter. All the lights were dead in a three-block radius under the symbol. Every window was dark.

“How many people live on a city block?” asked James.

“A lot.”

“Well, where did everyone go who used to live here?” Just turning in the other direction revealed signs of life, lit windows, the sounds of the city.

“Maybe they didn’t want to live under a hell sign,” said Serenity shrugging one shoulder. “People are weird like that.”

James adjusted his grip on his rebar. A taller building cut off his line of sight to the symbol. Stressed-out looking trees grew out of square plots of dirt in the sidewalk every ten yards, and stoops rose to front doors behind spear-tipped black iron fences. Were it not for the pervasive sense of dread and danger and the complete absence of people, James could imagine he and Serenity were out for a stroll indeed.

The sight of the Nemesis 2 shattered the illusion.

It was crossing the street up ahead, its movements liquid smooth, but it noticed them at the same time and froze into inhuman stillness, its white mask swiveling to take them in.

It was big. James could have ridden on its back. He immediately regretted that image.

“Shall we kill it?” Serenity raised one of her guns. “Or you think that’ll draw others?”

James felt his brow prickle with sweat despite the freezing air. These were the kinds of decisions that would determine their fate. Yet he wanted violence. He needed more intel. Didn’t know if he was being rational or following some predatory instinct that had helped humanity become the globe’s apex predator.

He hoped those instincts weren’t fucking him over now.

“Take the shot. It’ll come at me, and I’ll try to impale it. Then we take it apart. If others come, we get the fuck out of Dodge. I’ve a hunch they’ll not want to move far from the symbol.”

“Whatever you say, Deputy Commissioner.” Serenity raised her gun which lit up with lambent gray flame, aimed, and squeezed off a shot.

The sound was like a thick hickory branch being snapped. The Nemesis 2 jerked as the burning bullet slammed into its chest. It was super disconcerting how its expression never changed.

“Looks like we got its attention,” said Serenity, stepping back.

James lowered one end of the rebar to the pavement and jammed it into a crack between the paving stones, lifting the other end so wavered at chest height. Kept his fire-axe over his shoulder, ready to swing, and waited for the Nemesis’ jump.

It skittered down the street, its four slender legs blurring, hopped up onto a car roof and then sprang at them, scythe forelegs popping open.

“Shit, shit, shit,” said Serenity, taking more steps back.

James frowned, adjusted the rebar, and at the last moment hit it with Smite. Its curved length flared with gray fire and the Nemesis fell upon it.

The tip of the rebar punched through its chest, shattering the chitin, its length flexing, and the Nemesis 2 kept coming, sliding down its length and still swinging.

James’s eyes widened for a second before he hurled himself aside. He’d thought for some reason the demon would be stopped by the bar, not slide on down it like a malefic piece of pepper on a shish kebab.

Thank God for his Blessed and enhanced Agility and Speed.

The world spun as he rolled away, axe drawing sparks as the back of its head hit the ground. Gunfire erupted, James came up to his feet, saw the Nemesis moving toward Serenity, rebar dragging, who was backing away, both Sigs blazing.

She was doing damage, but it had taken a Smite SAW several seconds to drop one of these. Her Sigs weren’t up to the task, her aura baking it, causing its jet-black exoskeleton to gray.

James grabbed the fire-axe with both hands, took three skipping steps, then swung and summoned Sacred Strike.

White fire burst down the length of his axe like water from a broken fire hydrant. It washed over the Nemesis 2, engulfing it, and the demon shrieked, stumbling away, its legs no longer coordinated, its body hideously melted as if James had taken a propane torch to a wedding party ice sculpture.

James caught the axe as it swung wide, never having intended to hit but feeling like he needed to launch some kind of attack to use Sacred Strike, brought it up and around and then it was his turn to take a step and leap.

Explosive Power filled him, rank 12 with the Blessing, and he surged into the air, axe behind his head, to fall upon the Nemesis 2 like an angel of vengeance.

Its shriek had tapered off like that of a dying kettle, and his axe blasted past its scythes to hammer home into its mask, which shattered, revealing a cauldron of black oil and gleaming orbs that could have been a mess of spider eyes. Smite lit up the blade as it sank in all the way, and the Nemesis 2 collapsed, James’s aura alive and burning it.

He landed awkwardly on its frame, staggered off, tore his axe free, turned, saw that it was dead, and raised the fire-ax to his shoulder.

“More of them coming,” said Serenity, voice all business as she ditched her mags and set to reloading.

“Shit,” he gasped, looking at the building across the street and the opposite side of the symbol. Three Nemeses were watching them, faces tilted as if trying to understand what they’d just seen, feet clutching the brickwork as if they stood upon level ground. “You good?”

Serenity slammed the final mag home. “Good.”

She raised both guns and began to fire. Burning bullets cratered into the lowest Nemesis who immediately ran along the building’s face, a sideways sprint that she tracked with no problem, firing just ahead of it so that each bullet struck home.

James bent down, grabbed the rebar, tore it free of the corpse and ignited it with Smite. A third of his reserves were gone. Sacred Strike was a beast when it came to consuming his divine power pool.

The other two Nemeses leaped down to the ground. James skipped forward like an Olympic javelin hurler and threw the rebar.

It was not made for throwing, but Power 12 and Strength 12 compensated for its ungainliness, and the Nemesis’s size only helped.

Plus he wasn’t expecting to kill the fucker. He just wanted to give it something to think about while he danced with its partner.

The rebar turned as it flew, so that clotheslined the Nemesis, causing it to rear back as if affronted and knock the burning spear away.

James watched the second one as it came bounding toward him, his axe burning with gray fire, held back and to the side.

Timing. It was all about timing.

Unless you had Sacred Strike.

The Nemesis 2 leaped, scythe arms opening wide. James swung his axe and unleashed his new Benediction.

The result was pleasing.

White fire engulfed the Nemesis 2, reducing its upper torso momentarily to a shadowed silhouette within the conflagration, and then James ducked and darted past it toward the first.

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The Nemesis 2 landed behind him and crumpled.

Your rank is now Supplicant 2

You have 5 unspent points.

James felt a twinge of satisfaction, but he didn’t have time to open his sheet. The other Nemesis 2 was coming at him, blindingly fast and this one didn’t risk a jump. That second Sacred Strike combined with his lighting up his axe with Smite had drained him down to around one third of his juice.

He could probably get one more out.

To use it, or save it for an emergency?

Two Aeviternum points left.

Time for a decision.

James swung his axe and blasted the Nemesis 2 with another Sacred Strike. White fire roared forth, so fucking satisfying, a spiritual gout of power that felt as therapeutic as screaming your frustration and pain into the void.

The Nemesis 2 wilted, careened wildly, crashed down before James who swung his axe around, raised it up high, then brought it down as if splitting a log.

The Nemesis 2’s head split open and the axe dug into the blacktop.

“Level!” shouted Serenity, her gunfire finally ceasing. “Fuck yeah!”

James yanked his axe out, turned to survey the block.

Another Nemesis 2 was crossing the street all the way down at the next intersection. It watched them as it went but didn’t draw closer.

James watched it disappear, his misgivings growing.

But right now there weren’t any more in the immediate environs.

Serenity was reloading, drawing mags out of her vest pockets. The other Nemesis 2 lay at her feet.

“Supplicant 1?” asked James.

She flashed him a victorious smile. “You know it. Already took Deadeye. Holy shit, it’s pinpoint accuracy at maximum range.” She raised her mag and aimed down the street. “It’s like built-in zoom. I could fucking shoot leaves off that tree on the next block.”

“Nice.” He walked over, still looking back and forth for more trouble. “Your five points?”

“Got myself an Aeviternum when I hit Level 9 back at the warehouse, but now I think…” She bit the tip of her tongue as she stared at her invisible stats. “I don’t want to let my Aura fall too far behind. I’ll put four points in to bring it to 25 and bank the last point.”

“Not going to raise your Agility higher?”

“It’s at 21 already, and with Deadeye I want to shore up some other spots. You?”

James summoned his sheet.

Three Aeviternum points was plenty. Sacred Strike was fantastic, and like his Smite was fueled by Arete and made potent by his Power/Strength synergy. But right now it was doing plenty of damage to the Nemesis 2’s. He just wanted more of them and putting all 5 points in Arete would also bring his score to 40, raising his Lead Aura to Strength 7, leaving his extra point from last time in the bank.

“Going to bump Arete to 40. Aura needs more juice, and that should allow me to squeeze out another Sacred Strike.”

“Which are, by the way, insane. I was tempted, I mean, not really, but the way you torched ‘em? Hell, James, that’s crazy good.”

“Right?” He smiled and put the points in Arete. Soon as it hit 40, he felt his sense of expansiveness and clarity grow, and took a deep, settling breath. “Let’s see what Aura 7 does to these things.”

“You want to kill a few more?”

“What I really want to do is figure out what they’re doing.” James frowned up and down the street. “Without getting swarmed. We can get out of one more scrape before we’re running low on power.”

“Well, I don’t hang out with you because you’re boring. Sure. But when we’re done, let’s hit up Herman’s? I want to check in on him and grab a drink.”

“Sounds good.” He fetched the rebar. Other than being slicked in ichor, it was undamaged. The thing was durable, but not quite right. Maybe it had to be longer? There had to be a way to get the Nemeses from sliding down its length. A crossbar, two feet down from the top?

“There’s a distance at which they don’t bother us,” said James. “If we move slowly, maybe we can find that threshold and not cross it.”

“And if we cross it?”

“At that point we probably run like hell.”

“Right, ‘cause we’re so much faster than them.” She frowned. “Though I guess I could just trip you up. I don’t need to be faster than them, just you.”

“Nice.” James led the way down the block. “I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy now.”

She laughed. “I always thought I had that effect on people. Weird how friends never stuck around.”

“Super weird,” said James distractedly, slowing as he reached the street corner. The whole area was residential, and the cross street went straight through the demon symbol 3- block radius.

Nemesis 2’s were gliding past. James pressed against the wall and watched them descend the sides of buildings, emerge from an alley halfway down the next block, drift through the intersection. All with the same mask, the same expression, their scythe-arms opening and closing dreamily, their movements insectile.

A dozen, easy.

One passed down the far side of the street, and as it drew abreast of them it turned to stare.

James’s breath caught. It was maybe twenty yards away. It slowed as if considering them, then continued heading toward the dead blocks.

James slowly exhaled. “Maybe the don’t-fuck-with-us radius is just outside their manifestation range.”

“Maybe you’re just making shit up.”

“Probably.” He rippled his fingers along the axe-haft. “Ready to take a peek?”

“This is so stupid. And I’m sober.” Serenity blew a lock of hair out of her face. “The old me would never, ever have believed I’d do something like this without being high on at least three different substances.”

“Glad it’s the new you that’s with me.” He smiled grimly. “I’ve got a hunch. They don’t want to fight, or at least, not yet. If we go slow, if we make no sudden movements, we might be able to get a little closer.”

She shrugged. “And they didn’t attack the hummer when we drove right into their territory. I say OK.”

James held her gaze, waited to be absolutely sure, then slipped around the corner.

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