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I stop and look back at my friends, my family, and the look on my face must say it all.
“It’s bad isn’t it?” Ryker asks.
“Slayer—Knox’s new form—says there’s close to forty Demons on our tail, and they are all armed.”
“Well, we obviously can’t fight them here, so let’s work on finding a position we can defend,” Knots says and turns to Moni. “You ready to save us?”
“Me?” she squeaks, pointing to her magenta bark.
“Yeah.”
Moni raises her chin, pulls her shoulders back and nods. “What did you have in mind?”
* * *
“Is that enough room to get through?” I ask after a few minutes. Exhausted, I wipe the sweat off of my forehead with the back of my hand.
“It should be. I’m the widest of us all, and I can go through sideways,” Knots confirms as he shuffles out through the passageway. He looks back at us. “Are you girls ready?”
Moni and I share a look and a small smile. “Bosom besties for life,” Moni says.
“For Life!” I agree, even though she got the saying wrong once again. I love her, though. ‘Are you sure you are okay?’ I ask Knots.
‘I am a Door Knight and before that… Guardian. This is what I do.’
‘That’s still not an answer.’
‘Yes it was.’ He smiles.
He glances over at Lynx, Zeke, and JP. “You guys clear on the plan?” They nod, and he takes a deep breath. “Okay, then let’s go.”
Zeke and Lynx join Knots on the other side of the passageway while JP, Moni, Ryker, Levi, and I stay behind. I hate this plan, but I have to agree with Knots. It is smart, and it’s better than fighting them head on, especially since we aren’t sure what monster we will be dealing with at the door, and we know we can’t fight two enemies at once.
“Go ahead and call Slayer back,” Knots says before he disappears on the other side of our wall.
‘Okay, Slayer, bring home the bacon.’
‘That’s what I’m talking about,’ he says.
Before me is a massive pit that would be difficult for a Giant to get out of, it’s extremely deep and runs from wall to wall. In front of it is a wall of dirt that was formed with all the loose dirt Moni blasted up from her Sonic Booms. She has focused them down to the precise area to make a trap, where hopefully we can confine the Demons in the pit and make a run for it. My shield is holding the wall of dirt in place, and Ryker is holding the illusion that there is no wall.
The scariest part, sending the guys out there to fight or lure them into the trap. I’ve tied Reaper up further back so we don’t give away our plan too soon. I check around the edge of my wall and see the guys taking their fighting stance as the Demonic horde approaches.
I swear, my breath hitches as I see the first Demon approach. He throws something at Lynx, and I quickly toss up a shield around him. It plinks off of it before Lynx’s tiger paw slices through the Demon’s gut, ending his life.
Shit, why didn’t I throw shields around all of them? I quickly apply shields around Knox and Zeke as they engage the enemy. Slayer creeps along the wall and picks off Demons on his way back to us. All I see is Demons being plucked out of thin air and dropped back down without heads.
“Okay, the platform is built for JP,” Levi calls out.
“Go,” I urge, and JP climbs the nearly invisible platform where he’ll be able to perform his job safely.
I send out a burst of my shield to push the Demons back that are in front of the platform—the signal we agreed on—and Zeke, Knots, and Lynx all pull back. As soon as Lynx crosses the pit using the plank, he turns and digs his claws into it and pulls, keeping the Demon’s from crossing over safely. The Demons laugh at our retreat, and they step forward to follow, only to find there is no floor below them.
As soon as they realize their mistake, they try to stop but with the Demons in the back pushing the mob forward, there’s no stopping the mass. They cry out in pain and fear, but they haven’t seen anything yet. JP had said he could feel water in the tunnels, so his job is to fill the hole with it. My bet is most of these Demons don’t know how to swim.
Water quickly starts to rush into the hole from the bottom and the Demons frantically start to climb over each other to get out. Well, those that didn’t die from the fall alone. Those that were the last to fall in, hang on to the edge of the pit or dunk the others to try and survive, but that’s where I come in once again.
I take in a deep breath and bring my hands up against my chest, as if I’m about to do a chest press, and push against my shield. The same shield holding up tons of dirt and soil. It crashes over the hole and onto the Demons that are still in the tunnel. Cleaning up my mess, my shield smooths out the top of the hole where it is more watery mud.
