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“Why didn’t they turn back to normal in your presence?” Ben shouted to Brigid over the pounding of hooves.
“I thought your magic would make them well again!”
“I don’t know!” she shouted back.
“Perhaps the Master’s power is too strong now. We must deal with the source if my people are to regain their senses.”
They had no more breath to converse as they made a mad sprint through the forest, hoping that their speed would deter any more monsters from intercepting their path.
But these hopes were dashed when a half dozen of the werewolf-like monsters they’d encountered before at the park came leaping down upon them from the trees.
One of them knocked both Ben and Annie to the ground. Another got close enough to make Brigid and Sai’s unicorn rear into an abrupt halt, stamping its front hooves at the creature as it slashed at the steed with long, sharp claws.
Ben had his hands full deflecting the attack of two monsters coming fast and furious at him with dripping fangs and slashing claws. Now that he knew Annie had formidable powers, he left her to fend off a third with her fire bombs, which she drew continuously from the ring of flames that still surrounded them.
Sai had dismounted from the other unicorn, leaving Brigid on its back. Singlehandedly, he kept the three other monsters back, cutting a wide swathe with sword in one hand and dirk in the other, as if the blades were extensions of his body.
Ben envied the dragon. He himself, a mere human, trained in martial arts though he was, could only wield the broad sword with both hands, as it was intended to be used. But Sai was clearly imbued with supernatural strength, for he swung the weapon one-handed as if it were light as a needle. Already, he’d beheaded one monster and cut another down in half from head to groin.
While Ben still struggled to hold back his own two monsters, and getting winded from the exertion.
A fire bomb exploded into the back of one creature that had Ben’s sword locked between its claws. It howled with pain at impact. Ben could hear and smell the sizzling of monster flesh and fur.
Apparently, these flames were lethal, unlike the ones Annie used to deter the turned humans earlier.
Ben pushed the creature off his sword and spun in a parallel swing, using his hips and torso to strengthen the blow. His foe was cleanly beheaded, and as Ben completed the rotation, the sword caught the second monster in the side as it crept up behind his back. With his sword stuck under the monster’s ribs, Ben closed in with the dirk and stabbed it straight up into its throat and jaw from beneath, until the blade’s tip came out through its face.
Blows like that would have killed any normal being, but these monsters were far from normal. The dirk had nailed its jaw shut so it couldn’t bite, but it still kept coming at Ben with its gigantic claws.
Ben ducked and rolled, pulling out his sword in the process. The monster followed, leaping after him.
Annie shouted, seeing the danger he was in, and hurled more fire bombs at the creature’s back. A couple glanced it while it dodged and bounded, but not enough to slow it down.
With one giant leap, the monster bore down on top of Ben, claws fully extended.
Ben slid to his back and stuck the sword straight out perpendicular to his torso, impaling the creature through its belly as it landed, its claws mere centimeters from Ben’s face and neck.
He turned just in time to avoid the saliva and blood that dripped from the dead monster’s maw. Good thing too, for the liquid hissed upon contact with the leaf-covered forest floor, burning through the ground like acid.
With a mighty heave, Ben pushed the monster off of him and staggered to his feet. Chest heaving, he yanked the sword from his foe’s tough, hairy hide and looked around.
The woods were silent once more, but for a chilly breeze that swept through the trees. Annie stood beside the unicorns, palms still full of flames, though they’d died down to two small torches to see by.
And that was when Ben noticed what was wrong:
“Where are Brigid and Sai?”
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Brigid felt useless sitting atop the unicorn while Sai fought back their foes.
But she didn’t have the amazing powers Annie apparently possessed—the ability to command fire and make weapons and protective armor out of it. All Brigid had was a magic she couldn’t see, couldn’t manifest as of yet in any corporeal form.
Lord Larkin alluded to the fact that her mere presence was enough to change the world around her for the better. He and Sai saw things she didn’t. And she saw things they didn’t. But whatever powers she possessed, it wasn’t enough to help her friends in this critical moment.
She wished there was something more she could do. How was she to defeat the Master if all she did was sit there while others fought her battles?
As Sai cut through the demons surrounding them, the unicorn, which had been calm and steady up to this point, started to snort and prance.
