I swallowed heavily and adjusted my stanceas fire circled up around Kobal’s wrists. I didn’t have to knowwhat they were saying to know the words he spat at the ogre werealong the lines of doing something anatomically impossible.
Kobal swung his arm out in an archingmotion. Green blood sprayed out from where he sliced through theogre’s thick skin and rolled neck. Kobal flicked the blood away asthe ogre released a gurgling bellow and swung his hands through thebranches. The ogre’s head bobbed awkwardly on his neck. I had thedisquieting feeling that if someone pushed its head back, it wouldhang half off its car-sized shoulders.
To my right, something smashed into thethick branches. Then something else crashed into them on my left.The leaves all turned over in a crackling wave that amplified thetension in the air and created a breeze.
Grunts echoed through the thick branches ashands tore at the limbs keeping us protected from the ogres. Theone Kobal had nearly decapitated was suddenly snatched back by thetrees, but to my right, branches gave way beneath the toweringstructure of an ogre who would have made Zeus tremble.
The cracking of the branches echoed throughthe air, and the leaves rippled with an angry hiss that caused thehair on my nape to rise. Branches shot down from above us, drivinginto the creature’s shoulders and propelling him backward. Theogre’s hands tore at the limbs, breaking them in half as its neongreen blood oozed from its shoulders. The branches propelled theogre into the wall before it tore the last of them away from itsbody.
The skelleins released a battle cry as Hawkopened fire. A bullet struck the ogre dead center in its forehead,a forehead that brought to mind a dinosaur with a head like abattering ram. The ogre’s head snapped back, but it didn’t hesitateas it continued to charge forward.
“Holy shit,” Hawk said.
A branch dropped before me, curling in thesame inviting way the last one that had taken me into the treeshad. “Get on it, River!” Kobal yelled as he charged across theclearing toward the ogre who had honed in on Hawk.
My heart gave a stuttering beat when Kobalsprang at the creature and wrapped his arms around its neck. Bloodspurted out beneath his claws before he drove his fangs into theogre’s throat. Corson grabbed my arm and propelled me toward thebranch thumping impatiently on the ground for me.
“Don’t!” I jerked my arm away from him.
The tree gave another impatient thump.Instead of climbing onto the bough and allowing it to lift me awayfrom the clearing, I rested my hand on the limb and took in theflow of life pulsing beneath my palm. Directly before me, ashimmering image of Magnus materialized and then solidified intosomething more realistic looking. I hadn’t noticed the other ogrecoming at me until the mirage of Magnus smiled at it and gave alittle wave of his fingers, distracting it from its direct coursetoward me.
The mirage Magnus had created sidesteppedwhen the ogre threw itself forward. Its barrel-shaped body plowedinto the ground, kicking up dirt and rocks. I threw my hands up toprotect myself from the debris battering against me. The groundbeneath my feet gave a heaving roll when the ogre slammed its fistsinto the terrain.
Taking hold of the tree branch again, I drewon the flow of its life once more. I suspected the life within thetrees was so strong because they were interwoven with each otherand communicated in a way no trees on Earth did. Of course, treeson Earth didn’t come to life to pummel the crap out of thingseither. If they did, I had a feeling woodpeckers and lumberjackswouldn’t exist anymore.
Deep purple sparks, the same color as theleaves of the tree, flared at the tips of my fingers. The sparksspread to encircle my wrist and arm. I focused on the beady redeyes of the ogre when it lifted its head to look at me.
Turning my wrist over, light poured over mewhen I dug the toes of my boots into the ground beneath me. Thelight shot from my fingertips, blasting through the mirage ofMagnus and dispelling it on impact. The ogre screamed when the flowof energy hit it; its feet gouged the ground as its six-inch, blacktoenails kicked into it repeatedly.
Gritting my teeth, I drew deeper from thewell of life within the tree and focused it into my hand. Corsonleapt forward, his foot-long talons extended from the backs of hishands as he readied himself to attack the ogre. The creaturereleased a wail the likes of which I’d never heard before. I didn’tdare take my hand away from the tree to cover my ears against thehideous sound, but I was certain my eardrums might burst.
The ogre’s cry was abruptly silenced by itshead exploding. Debris blew outward, reminding me of the egg I’donce cooked in the microwave when I was six. I’d believed a babychick would hatch from it; instead, all I’d gotten was a bunch ofyellow chunks and bits of shell splattered across the inside. I’dcried because I’d been convinced I’d killed the chick. When mymother saw what I’d done, she hit me so hard that I hadn’t beenable to sit for a week after.
Now, a wash of neon goo and orange-hued skinblew over me and Corson, coating us from head to toe. It drippedfrom my hair when I tremulously pushed the cloying strands awayfrom my eyes. I didn’t dare open my mouth for fear of somethinggetting inside.
Corson frantically wiped at his eyes beforethey slid to me. He gave me a look that said he was contemplatingchoking me as green goo trickled over his narrow features anddangled from the tips of his pointed ears. I wanted to protest thatI hadn’t known it was going to explode, but that would requireopening my mouth.
A sound to my right drew my attention inthat direction as another ogre leapt over a branch and toward us. Ithrew my hands up as fire erupted from them and blasted outward.The ogre yelped as it was thrown backward, its body smoldering asit tumbled head over heels across the ground.
A less-than-delightful glimpse of its asscrack followed by a full image of its twig and berries made merealize the ogres were completely nude. What I had believed wassome sort of fur around their waist was actually a brown, reallybushy patch of hair, which rapidly caught on fire.
The ogre rose to its feet and raced acrossthe clearing toward one of the entrances they had torn into thewall surrounding us. Before it could flee, Kobal leapt onto itsback and drove his claws through its neck. The ogre beat at himover the top of its head, but Kobal held firm as he worked atslicing through the ogre’s thick muscles.
The skelleins hacked at another one. Theskeletal demons clung to its neck and back, biting and stabbingwith their teeth and swords. Their normally enthusiastic chatterhad grown eerily silent as they focused on taking down the creaturealmost six feet taller than most of them. Behind the ogre, Ispotted a heap of bones lying on the ground. My heart sank as Irealized one of the skelleins had been lost in the battle.
Another ogre charged at us, but Corson doveforward. Swinging his talons out, he sliced through the ogre’sbelly to spill its intestines across the ground. Bale jumped ontothe creature from behind and methodically twisted its head to theside until the rending sound of muscle and bone could be heardthroughout the clearing.
Hawk dodged out of the way of another, andin a flowing move that more than matched the speed of the demons,he drove his knife upward and through the jaw of the ogre lungingat him. The creature’s hands clawed at the knife. Before it couldpull the blade free, a tree branch came down like a lightning boltfrom above and pierced directly down the center of the ogre.
Hawk ripped his knife free from thecreature’s jaw before the branch yanked it into the trees where itvanished. I couldn’t think about what the trees did with thosebodies; I had eaten their fruit after all.
Magnus stepped forward to stand beside me asBale succeeded in wrenching the ogre’s head off its shoulders, theone beneath Kobal collapsed, and the skelleins succeeded inbringing their ogre down. Magnus’s silver eyes surveyed me; thesmile quirking the corner of his mouth had me balling my hands tokeep from punching him.
“Maybe next time, you’ll climb on thebranch,” he said.
Unable to open my mouth in order to respond,I gave him the finger.
“Shut up, Magnus,” Kobal said as he stalkedacross the clearing toward us. “Are you okay?” he demanded ofme.
