Time slows as your brain processes impending pain and death.
The massive fist, larger than my head, was attached to a creature intent on ending my life. I glanced down the street and saw Koda obliterating several rummers as they tried to swarm her.
The creature in front of me smiled, or at least bared its teeth, in some hideous expression that resembled a smile.
Too late I realized the plan.
The rummogre raised a massive foot and attempted to stomp me into next week. I rolled away and drew Fatebringer, my gun.
<That will prove ineffective, mage. You must unleash me.>
<I’d rather keep you as a last resort.>
My dark blade, Darkspirit, was also the home of Izanami, a bloodthirsty and mostly unstable goddess. Even though I was bonded to the blade, I wasn’t going to use it unless I absolutely had to.
“I think you need to use your blade, old man,” Koda said as she tried to make her way to me through a mob of rummers. “My fans are barely slowing these things down.”
<Or you can use your ability. An obliteration cast should be efficient.>
“No casting, thanks.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” Koda replied. “Oh, you’re talking to your psychoblade again. Maybe a little focus on the sudden death we’re facing here?”
“Thanks for the tactical advice,” I said, firing Fatebringer into the mob of rummers. “Get clear!”
The negation rounds punched into the mob, exploding them on contact. More rummers raced down the street, bearing down on Koda’s position.
“Seems like I have my own fan club,” she said. “See what I did there?”
She waved a fan in my direction, before dodging another rummer intent on destroying her.
“Good thing you still have a sense of humor,” I said. “Facing impending death with humor is always a good thing.”
“We can’t keep this up all night, Grey.”
“I don’t intend on it.”
The tremors to my left drew my attention back to the rummogre. I dodged a haymaker designed to remove my head as the creature growled into the night.
“You die tonight, Warden,” it said. “I will chew on your bones before the sun rises.”
We stood in the deserted intersection of 34th Street and Herald Square. In a few hours, this street would be filled with traffic and pedestrians. Right now, it was filled with foul-smelling creatures who only wanted one thing.
To kill us.
“We need to retreat,” I said, raising my voice. “Koda, get to the Beast. I’ll keep Tall-Dark-and-Hideous busy.”
“Hell no,” Koda shot back, throwing a fan and removing the heads of several rummers in the process. “There’s too many of them. You need to use the sword, Grey. It’s the only way.”
There’s always more than one way.
<But none so effective as unleashing my darkness, mage. You know she is right. At the very least, allow me to dispatch the rummogre. You and your apprentice can handle the smaller threats.>
I hated when my bloodthirsty sword was right.
“I’ll handle the rummogre,” I said, drawing Darkspirit. “Make your way to the Beast.”
She shot me a look.
“Sure, I’ll just ask them politely to get out of my way,” she snapped. “I’m sure they’ll listen, since rummers are polite like that. Dust that thing and stop wasting time. Look out!”
She released a fan, which sliced at the rummogre’s face, distracting it momentarily from burying a fist in my chest. I slid to the side and unleashed Darkspirit.
<Yes, mage. You have done the right thing.>
I heard more rummers coming our way. This was getting bad in a hurry. The scent of sickly sweet honey filled the air as I buried Darkspirit in the rummogre’s chest.
Black tendrils of energy burst from the blade and impaled the rummogre where it stood.
It started laughing.
The response threw me. Usually when I buried my sword in a creature, laughter was not the first thing that happened. Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
The rummogre slid forward on my blade and grabbed me in a breath-stealing bear hug. Pain shot up my arms as the rummogre squeezed.
“Stupid Warden,” the rummogre hissed in my face. “We will kill you later. For now, we will take her.”
The rummogre looked over to where Koda was fighting for her life. It pulled its head back and proceeded to headbutt me in the face. Stars exploded in my vision as the street tilted dangerously to one side.
More laughter.
I felt it take one step, then another. It rotated its body with speed, releasing mine as it shotput me across the street. Darkspirit disappeared right before I crashed into the concrete sidewalk in front of Macy’s.
A second later, the rummogre burst into a cloud of dust. I tried to get to my feet and failed, stumbling forward and ending up on all fours. The rummers screamed into the night and then suddenly—silence.
I looked to where I’d seen Koda last.
She was gone.
There in the midst of the dust that was the rummogre a few seconds earlier, I saw it.
One of Koda’s fans.
I crawled over to where it lay and grabbed it, not wanting to believe she was gone. She couldn’t be gone.
Footsteps behind me, getting closer.
“If you want her back, you will do as you’re told,” the female voice said. “We will contact you in three days with instructions. If you don’t follow them exactly, we will send her back to you…one piece at a time, Night Warden.”
“Who the hell—?”
I made to turn and see who was speaking when a steel-toed boot gracefully connected with my jaw, plunging me into a bottomless darkness.
