Fight!

                Keera stood facing the demon as it approached. Although she wasn’t nearly as sensitive to energies as her Terrow co-worker, she could feel the power emanating from Mammons body. The energy felt like grease as it passed over her. It was cold and slimy. The angel noticed that Carahya was shaking a bit. Her eyes were glazed over and she her eyes were locked onto the demonic form. Keera needed to get her out of here soon, lest she become a liability.

                Mammon approached, he stepped through the shadows and continued on. Kole must be biding his time, Keera presumed, waiting for the moment to strike.  That meant that it would be up to her, Royal, and Tibias to create the opening.  Keera grimaced. This was going to be hard.

                 As Keera was trying to formulate a plan of attack, the demon chuckled a bit. His voice was smooth and low, and it felt as if the sound was bypassing her ears and going straight into her mind.  It unnerved her a bit. “What’s this my dear Morgan? I suddenly get your voice in my head telling me to return.  That was quite foolish of you my dear.” He smiled. His mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. “Although, I must admit, I am shocked that you have managed to avoid execution by that pest of a council. Especially in the Grim Reaper’s home city. You must possess some cleverness indeed.” He gave an exaggerated mock bow.

                Carahya, who was still in the form of Mrs. Fortier, seemed to snap out of whatever it was she was thinking and give a polite nod and say “I have my ways.”

                “Hmm.” The demon responded. “So then, may I inquire as to who you have brought with you?” Before Carahya could respond, he continued. “Presumably this is some kind of ambush on me” He nodded over to Keera. He also pointed at Tibias who was supposed to be hidden  by an imperceptibility spell at a nearby table. He didn’t give time for anyone to respond before he spoke again. He turned to Keera “A fallen angel…I will have fun ripping your wings off.” He turned back to Carahya and stared at her a few seconds. “You know, there is something a bit off about you, Morgan. You don’t feel like Morgan. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Plus, your whole composure is different than hers.” Carahya stood there, rooted to the floor. “Who are you really?”

                Carahya looked over to Keera. Keera gave her the subtlest of nods. The shifter turned and started running in the opposite direction.  Mammon snickered a bit, and took a couple of steps forward to pursue her, but Keera was ready to intercept him. She dashed towards the demon and put a well placed fist into his gut, and pushed him back a few feet. The demon gave a mild grunt of annoyance before bursting out in laughter. “Very quick for an angel; and strong too, but still no match for me.”  With a blur of speed that Keera could never keep up with, he appeared by her left side and placed his clawed hand on her torso. It was there for only a fraction of a second before he pushed with a force that to Keera, felt like a truck. She went sprawling back a good dozen feet away from him.

                The pain coming from her chest was incredible. Just from that one push, he broke one of her ribs. From the view on the ground, Keera saw Carahya’s form start to shrink and take on a more avian appearance until it became that of a pigeon and flew off. “Aha!” She heard Mammon exclaim as he walked over to Keeras still prone body. “She was a shifter! A very clever idea my little angel.”

                Keera palmed a dagger , and waited until he was a few feet away from her. When he reached the perfect distance, Keera sprung back up, ignoring the sharp pain in her chest, and hurled the dagger  at him with all her might.

                With yet another burst of speed, Mammon caught it and without missing a beat tossed it at an oncoming acorn bullet which was launched from the balcony. The knife hit with perfect precision, causing a tangle of vines and roots to engulf it in a mess before landing on the ground. Keera flew at her attacker with another two knives in hand. Mammon moved to intercept her blows when right from behind him, Keera heard an “Amen.” There was a flash of yellow light and Mammon was tumbling  forwards, coming right towards Keera. As Keera moved to stab him, the demon managed to correct his balance and jumped over Keera’s head where he landed on his feet a good twenty feet away.

                “Goddamit that hurt!” He shouted. There was a bluish black bruise on the side of his head.

Tibias stood where Mammon was moments ago. His face, a sea of cold rage. “Apparently not enough. Normally one blow with this is enough to knock a hole through a lesser being.”

 “Indeed” Said Mammon. “However, you just got lucky with that shot.”

“Well then, let’s see if my luck will hold.” Tibias smirked.

“Yes, either way, this will prove fun.” The Lord of Sin smirked. “May I assume that you are from the council?”

 “I’ll tell you after we defeat you.” Tibias replied coolly.

“What arrogance!” Mammon exclaimed. Without another word he rushed over at Tibias, dodging the oncoming acorn bullets like a professional acrobatic. He reached him in almost a blink of an eye and Tibias barely had time to avoid the blow. The claw grazed his shoulder and Tibias rolled to the side. Keera saw blood dripping down his arm.

 Rage boiled under Keera’s skin. No one does that to Tibias! She roared and charged at him. Mammon leaped into the air to dodge her oncoming blow, but Keera would not let him get away that easily. She unfurled her wings and soared into the air. She was clenching her fist, determined to punch that bastard in the face. As she swung out with her arm though, the demon grabbed it and pulled her down with him. With a twist of his body, he swung himself upward with a near physics defying flip and landed on her back. With a forceful jump off of her backside, he sent himself even further up into the air, while forcing her crash into the ground on top of a chair, knocking the wind out her.

As Mammon was approaching the ceiling of the food court, Keera managed to turn around in enough time to see a large bolt of green light come hurtling up at the monster, coming from the balcony where Royal was camped. It collided with the Demon full on, exploding in the air.  Following that came dozens of smaller ones, each one, adding onto the green explosion until the light was near unbearable.  Yet they kept on coming at him. Finally, the bolts stopped and the  light vanished.  A smoking figure crashed down to the floor. “Good Job Royal!” Shouted Tibias.

“Good?” Came an exhausted voice from above. “That was Brilliant!”

 The figure on the ground got up and shook himself off. Now that the smoke had cleared, it showed mammon, mildly singed, and covered with a green tinted soot. “That. Was. Annoying.” He growled. He moved before Keera or Tibias could react. His speed was faster than her eyes could even follow. He headed straight to the area Royal was perched in.

 Keera felt the temperature drop before she saw anything. As the demon practically flew towards Royal, readying to jump, the room dimmed and there was a loud ripping sound as a scythe went right through the Demon’s shoulder.   Mammon, stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the man holding the scythe that was now plunged his side. “You are indeed fast. “ Kole mused. “and very lucky that you sensed me that fraction of a second before I struck. If you didn’t, this blade would have beheaded you. “ Kole yanked the scythe out of the wound, causing mammon to flinch.  Keera let out a sigh of relief. She had never felt so relieved to see her bastard of a superior.

Mammon snarled. Green blood poured out of his shoulder. “Why did I not sense your presence earlier, Grim Reaper?”  

 Kole smirked. “Why would I tell you that?” He then struck out with the scythe again. Mammon backed up just as quickly, evading the swing of the blade. 

“If you’re here, that changes things quite a lot.” Mammon murmured. “Tell me, is the Dragoness here as well?”

Kole said nothing as he lunged forward again. Mammon’s claws turned a sickly gold color and caught the scythe by the blade. There were sparks as the shadow-metal blade struck against the layer that coated Mammons claws.  “Guess I’ll have to step up my game.” The demon said before charging at Kole.

 Kole sidestepped the swipe with the demons claws, when suddenly, Mammon’s tongue whipped out of his mouth like a dart, aimed at Kole’s torso.  Kole’s body suddenly looked a lot more pale right as the tongue went right through his chest. Keera gasped in surprise. Kole didn’t seem that affected by it however, and when mammon retracted his tongue, there appeared to be no wound.

 “Nifty Trick” Mammon said as he deflected another strike with the scythe.  “Turning your body incorporeal.” 

 Kole said nothing as he continued his assault. To Keera, both of them were moving at an incredibly high speed and on a level that she could never compete with. Mammons entire body was by now a dark yellow, and keeping up with Kole in both speed and strength. Whenever the scythe struck mammon, more sparks came off, but there was no damage, and whenever a blow was about to be landed on Kole, they would just pass right through him or be deflected by his scythe.

 Tibias approached Keera while she was observing all of this. “Are you okay?” He asked, checking her over.

 “I’m fine.” Keera grunted. “I have some good bruises, a stomachache, and a broken rib or two, but nothing permanent. How’s your cut?”

 “It’s already starting to clot.” Tibias said, covering up his claw mark. “Now, listen, Mr. Tarrant is fighting at a level that is right now beyond us.  What we need to do is get Royal and make sure he’s okay. After that, I want you two to leave. We will handle Mammon.”

“What!?” Keera said. “But you need us here to help! No way can you guys do this on your own!”

“He’s right Keera” Royal said, crawling over to them between the tables, panting heavily. “Sorry, I am still a bit exhausted from earlier.”

 “Of course you are!” Tibias said. “That stunt should have used up so much energy you should be unconscious right now.”

“And yet I’m not.” Royal grinned. “I guess I have more in me than I thought. Anyways, Keera, we really do need to go. There’s nothing more we can do. I’m exhausted and out of ammo, and you are beaten up. We will only be in the way if we stay here.”

“But Tibias,” Keera complained. She knew that if Royal and her left, they would most likely die. “What if-”

 She was interrupted by a fierce cry of triumph. “Aha! I finally got you, Grim Reaper!”  Keera looked over and saw Mammon there, standing with a look of joy. There was a long gash running across Kole’s face, with blood seeking out. “So, I finally figured you out, you have to be tangible in order to hit me, so that’s when I’ll get you!”

 “Seems like you’ve got part of it figured out at least.” Kole said calmly, and struck out with the scythe again. Mammon let it slide over him and in that moment, struck out at Kole. The scythe dissolved in Kole’s hand as he jumped backwards, reforming a new one as he went.

 Mammon laughed.  “Part of it? I got the whole thing!” He then continued after Kole and the fight continued.

Tibias turned to Keera. “Mr. Tarrant isn’t going to be able to last much longer. You must get going now!”

 Keera knew he was right, and she hated that fact. “Fine then.” She said, tears coming from her eyes “But before I go…” She let the sentence drop off as she grabbed Tibias and brought him in for one hell of a kiss.