by J. P. Rice
Felix had blue lightning dancing around his palms. Shuten dōji stared at the short mage as his shoulders swayed left and right. Felix unleashed a bolt of lightning at Shuten dōji’s head. The demon ducked gracefully out of the way and the blue electricity slammed into a bookshelf, instantly charring it, but not setting it ablaze.
As the demon straightened himself back out, Felix threw another blue bolt at him. Shuten dōji dodged to the right, slamming his shoulder into a bookshelf, and narrowly avoiding the oncoming pain. The lightning raced across the open area of the library and slammed into the stone castle wall. Fragments busted out of the wall and the castle felt like it had moved.
I still couldn’t move and could only observe the action. Felix moved back and forth, hopping from foot to foot, not giving Shuten dōji a still target. In a flash, a thick werefox appeared behind Shuten dōji. She swiped her left hand across the back of the demon’s neck and disappeared again.
Shuten dōji spun around and I could see the trace of claw marks and the black blood oozing from the wound. He let out a wild roar and ran at Felix. The mage fired another bolt at Shuten dōji’s upper body. The demon lowered his shoulders, tucked his head and performed a front somersault that vaulted him right back to his feet.
Without losing speed, Shuten dōji lowered his head and shoulder and rammed into Felix. I held my breath, hoping that neither of his horns had pierced my friend. Felix’s back smacked into a bookshelf, knocking a bunch of books down onto the two and kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
Felix scrambled around, tossing books in every direction to get loose. But Shuten dōji extended his left hand and grabbed Felix around the throat. I could hear him gagging from across the room, yet I was helpless to assist my friend. Holding Felix steady with the choke hold, Shuten dōji drew back his right fist.
Out of the darkness, a shadowy flash streaked out of the bookshelves. In an instant, Glenda the shadow fox had closed in on Shuten dōji. As the demon threw the punch, Glenda reached out with her furry paw, and dug her claws into the forearm of Shuten dōji, seizing his momentum.
The beast screamed painfully as his neck jerked to the right to see what had stopped him. Glenda hopped to the left while maintaining her grip on Shuten dōji’s forearm. In one swift motion, she snapped her arm like a whip and Shuten dōji went head over heels and hit the floor with the right side of his body.
Glenda Gold had just thrown around a four-hundred-pound legendary demon like he was a rag doll. Best. Hire. Ever.
Felix sprang to his feet as Glenda retreated back into the shadows. Like a coach standing on the sidelines, I was proud of my players.
Shuten dōji jumped back to his feet and ran down the side of the open area in the library. Suddenly, flames shot out of his eyes and hit the bookshelves. He ran around lighting up his treasured books like they were worthless kindling. Smoke started to pour into the room.
Shuten dōji ran around the entire rectangular room, lighting anything that would catch fire. At first, I’d assumed he was trashing the place so that nobody would discover his secrets, but then my mind shifted. The crafty demon was eliminating most of the shadows, thus disabling Glenda’s successful attacks.
We weren’t fully enclosed by fire, there were several openings around the room, but most of our surroundings were ablaze. I studied the open areas for a worst-case scenario possibility.
As I stood still as a statue in the middle of this rectangular ring of fire, I felt worthless. Felix and Glenda were fighting their asses off, and I was under demon control. Shuten dōji finished his pyromaniacal spree and focused on Felix again.
The demon walked purposefully toward Felix. As he closed in on the mage, Glenda appeared to the left of Shuten dōji. Glenda spun around and reached back, ready to backhand Shuten dōji across the face. As her hand neared his face, the demon appeared to spot her from his peripheral.
He closed his fist, and his arm sprang into action at the speed of light. His huge fist raced up and crushed the werefox just under her chin. I heard the crunch of teeth and Glenda’s eyes rolled back in her head. She collapsed to the ground. Shuten dōji kicked her in the ribs and she slid about seven feet across the smooth stone floor.
With Shuten dōji distracted, Felix fired another streak of lightning at the demon. The beast turned at the last second and twisted his midsection to the side. The bolt collided with the side of Shuten dōji’s belly and a streak of black blood shot from the wound and splattered the stone floor.
He cried out again and traced his fingers over the wound, wincing. He licked the blood from his fingers and smiled at Felix. I was surprised he wasn’t finishing the job with me or with the knocked-out werefox who was lying perilously close to the flames. Her fur could catch at any second.
Without warning, I took a few steps forward. Holy shit, I had control of my body again. Thinking quickly, I created a heavy pocket of air.
Staring up at the ceiling, I located a crack in the stone. Aiming my pocket of air at the compromised spot, I heaved it as hard as I could. The heavy air acted like a battering ram and smashed into the ceiling, sending stone shrapnel down on the castle floor. I’d succeeded in puncturing a hole in the ceiling, and the smoke billowed up and out of the opening. At least we wouldn’t die of smoke inhalation now.
With that taken care of, I ran across the room behind Shuten dōji. As he turned to spot me, I leaned down and pulled Glenda away from the fire. Before the beast could react, I sneaked over to Felix’s side.
Now the tables had turned.
Shuten dōji looked up toward the ceiling and shot fire from his eyes. As I watched the flames grow, I also noticed something flying across the room. By the time I’d refocused, Shuten dōji’s magic long arms were racing at Felix and me. Before I could react, the huge hand grabbed the side of my face.
I wasn’t sure of Shuten dōji’s plan until he rammed my skull into Felix’s, rattling my brain and knocking me to the floor. As I tried to regain my bearings, I noticed Felix was out cold. An evil laugh filled my ears, and as I looked up, the beast was closing in on me. The tables had turned yet again.
This would be easy pickins for the bleeding demon.
A rattling, clanking sound echoed around the room and I wondered if the Morrigan had arrived to claim her soul. My soul.
Shuten dōji leaned down and hovered over me. He extended his fingers, making his hand flat, and I stared at the long claws. He pulled back his arm and prepared to pierce my heart with his claws. I went to close my eyes when something appeared behind the beast. I couldn’t believe it.
Standing behind the legendary demon was a strange, yet welcome sight. Somehow, Okumura’s bones had reassembled into a working skeleton. Man was I glad I’d showed respect to those bones. The blackened bones danced from foot to foot and both hands sprang forward.
The beast let out a scream that could be heard back in Pittsburgh, his attack hand dropped harmlessly to his side, and he fell to his knees only inches from my chest, barely avoiding crushing me. I rolled away to get away from the beast.
Okumura’s skull released a grunt like you would hear from a tennis player, but in his throat, and he drove his open hand into the Shuten dōji’s ribs. The demon squealed and arched his body away from the impact, almost folding himself in two. Okumura’s bones danced around with his fists extended as he yelled at the demon in Japanese.
He wanted retribution. I could hardly blame the man.
Okumura’s skeleton approached Shuten dōji from behind. The big demon was having trouble getting to his feet, scrambling around on the ground. Okumura boxed his ears, and I watched Shuten dōji’s molten eyes go crossed. The demon fell on his face causing a solid thud when his skull made contact with the stone floor.
With Felix and Glenda still out, I couldn’t wait any longer to shake the cobwebs loose. I couldn’t depend on the bones of a dead man to win this battle. Instead of racing into the action like a fool, I prepared an attack.
I drew a purple fireball into my
right hand. As I prepared to fire, I noticed Shuten dōji wasn’t moving. Okumura danced around the body, shouting what I assumed to be insults at the demon. Was the demon dead?
Okumura moved close to Shuten dōji’s head and lifted his foot back. His leg swung back down like a soccer player and his bony foot headed for the demon’s skull. At the very last moment, Shuten dōji’s hand raced from his side to his face. He grabbed the foot, and jumped to his feet.
Shuten dōji maintained his hold on the foot, which sent Okumura’s skeleton upside down, hanging in mid-air. Shuten dōji walked calmly over to the tables as Okumura screamed and shouted, wildly waving his arms and legs. The demon reached back and swung the bones of Okumura down on one of the tables.
The bones exploded into smaller fragments and dust and the skull rolled unevenly until it came to a sudden stop. Shuten dōji took the foot and threw it into a fire off to the side. I heard something rustling around and hoped it was Felix. My eyes darted in his direction, but he was still laid out on the ground.
Shuten dōji shot flames from his eyes at me and I jumped to the side to avoid the fire. Due to the altitude, I was short of breath and energy. We were playing on Shuten dōji’s home turf and I wondered why he wasn’t even breathing heavy. He had been brawling four people continuously while I got to take an extended break.
I backed away as the demon closed in on me, unsure of what magic could kill this beast. Before I could launch a plan, a moving fog of smoke appeared behind Shuten dōji. A furry blur streaked out of the haze. My favorite werefox raked her hands down Shuten dōji’s back, from his shoulders to his hips.
He screamed in agony again and turned around, trying to locate Glenda. There was my opening. I fired my purple orb at the left side of Shuten dōji’s back. The baseball sized object connected with his ribcage. The dense ball of fire shattered his bones and burrowed straight into his chest cavity.
Within moments, the ball tore through his heart and raced through the front of his ribcage, shattering more bones on the way out. The purple fireball coated with black blood, bone and muscle tissue flew across the open room before Shuten dōji even dropped to the ground.
The beast fell unsteadily to his knees and then crashed onto his side, finally settling face down on the stone floor. He twitched for another half minute before going completely still. Holy shit. We’d done it.
“Glenda, are you all right?” I screamed as I raced over to her though the increasing smoke in the castle.
She was confused and struggled to get up, but made it to her feet as I approached. “I will be. Is that motherfucker dead or should we tear him up some more?”
“He’s dead,” I said, wrapping my arms around her naked body for a victory hug. “Unless he doesn’t need a heart or lungs, we got that motherfucker.”
“I need to get into some clothes.” Glenda tried to cover her enormous boobs unsuccessfully, and scurried off to her hiking bag.
I ran over to Felix and shook his shoulder. The mage didn’t budge. No. He couldn’t be dead. Right?
My hand grabbed his wrist and I put my thumb over the blue veins near his palm. I couldn’t tell if there was a pulse because my entire body was beating with my erratic heart. My hand shot up to the side of his neck.
“Why are you poking and prodding me?” Felix asked, blinking his eyes open.
I jumped back in surprise. “Holy shit. You’re alive. Sweet. Get up. We gotta get out of here. The smoke’s getting too thick.” I ran to the tables in the center of the room and found my backpack with the Blood Goblet in it. It was covered in fragments of Okumura’s bones. Dusting off the bag with the back of my right hand, I grabbed the shoulder strap with my left hand.
“You thought I was dead?” asked Felix, rhetorically. He laughed and got back to his feet.
I motioned with my right arm for Glenda to follow us out. She confirmed with a nod, hooked her arm through her hiking bag and we moved toward the entrance.
I said, “Yeah, silly me. When a body is completely still and doesn’t appear to be breathing, I naturally assume the worst.” I jumped over a few loose books that were still in flames and entered the hallway to the foyer. The smoke was heavier in the enclosed hallway and I frantically fanned away the thick clouds.
The portcullis was still raised just enough for us to crawl under. I gagged as I passed through because the opening was pulling the smoke in and forcing it into my lungs. Rolling over continuously on my side, I finally escaped the toxic smoke. Coughing and gagging, I got up to my knees and turned back to the castle.
Plumes of smoke billowed out of every opening in the castle. I didn’t expect the blaze would take down the stone castle, but it didn’t matter anymore. All we needed to do was go back down the mountain side now. Oh, shit. We still needed to fill the Goblet.
Felix pumped his fist in the air, then pounded it against his chest. “Well. We fucking did it. Wait till I tell Fukutama about this. He has no choice but to respect me now.”
I knew that was nagging on him, and for his sake, I wasn’t going to tell Fukutama that Felix had been passed out when we’d actually killed the demon. I’d let him have this one. I didn’t need personal accolades anymore.
I said, “Why don’t we let this fire blaze out and then we can go back in and fill the goblet?”
“Sounds like a plan.” Felix pulled out his vape pen and took a hit.
Glenda pulled out a bottle of Old Crow and took a healthy drink. She reached back into her bag and produced a hardpack of Newports. She dug her hand into her back pocket and came out with a red lighter. She fired up a cigarette, and spoke with smoke pouring out of her mouth, “I’m good with that.”
We went to the spring and used our hands as cups to chug some water. Damn, it tasted refreshing after a battle inside a ring of fire. I splashed some of the cold water on my face and rubbed my eyes.
The three of us went back in three hours later, when most of the smoke had cleared out. The interior lay in ruins. The musty smoke still lingering represented the destruction of all the words and all the possible knowledge in those books that had burned. I wasn’t a fan of destroying literature, even if it covered the subject of black magic.
We located the body of Shuten dōji, still face down in the exact spot where he had fallen. I went and found the dagger on one of the tables in the open area. We worked together to position his arm on his back. I dragged the edge of the blade over his elbow and Felix pushed the Goblet under the wound. Glenda squeezed around the wound and we filled the Blood Goblet with his black blood.
The heat from the fire had warped the special, form-fitting cap Fukutama had made for the Goblet. We wrapped it in plastic wrap about a hundred times. I hadn’t thought about it, but we would probably need Glenda’s smuggling skills to get it back home on a flight.
They hadn’t asked about the Blood Goblet on the way over, but it being filled presented another problem. Glenda had smuggled her pistol over in her cleavage. I still couldn’t understand how she hadn’t set off the metal detectors. The Goblet was bigger and more awkward than a gun, but it could still get lost in Glenda’s massive breasts.
With the full Goblet in tow, we exited Shuten dōji’s castle and headed down the hill for the guide lodge. If worst came to worst, we could always stop in the lodge we’d stayed in on the way up the mountain. The hard part of the journey seemed to be over.
Chapter 24
Two days later, we sat inside the ruined castle, starving. Vanishing Slope apparently worked both ways. Up and down. We’d even tried more than seven times, assuming that was the trick, so nothing seemed to make sense. We would come to the bottom of the hill that leveled out. As we walked forward, we were somehow transported back up to Shuten dōji’s castle at the top of the mountain.
We had no food since the MREs had been destroyed in the fire. Glenda was almost out of booze and cigarettes. She prayed constantly. Felix didn’t have any more wax for his vape pen and was already getting moody. However, we faced a much bigger
problem.
After the second failed attempt to descend the mountain, I’d packed Shuten dōji’s body in ice. Felix and Glenda had wondered why at the time. I’d done it in hope that we wouldn’t have to face this decision.
“Before we starve to death, we do have a food source here,” I hinted.
“You talking about eating a demon. No thanks.” Felix shook his head with wide eyes.
Glenda stopped praying and opened her eyes. She tossed her head back and forth, indecisive. “What if we just drank some of his blood? I could mix it into some of my Crow and barely taste it. Shit, it’s worked for vampires for hundreds of years.”
It wasn’t exactly the blood of Christ. I wondered if it would be considered sacrilegious for Glenda to drink the blood of a demon. Unfortunately for me, I’d have to drink the blood straight. “This might sound weird, but if we butcher it and cook the meat correctly...”
Felix interrupted me, “I’m gonna stop you right...”
A lion’s roar echoed around the open library room. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Looking over my right shoulder, I saw a mountain cougar only five feet away. You had to be kidding me.
I spun around, trying to figure out what magic to use. Without being prepared, calling on any spell or type of magic would be difficult. The cougar’s shoulder and leg muscles rippled as it slowly put one paw in front of the other. The predator opened its mouth wide, showing off its fangs and destructive power.
Peeking over my left shoulder, I saw that Glenda was backing away. What the fuck. I tried to produce a fireball in my right hand. It was my most trusted magical act. Wasn’t working. Terrifying nervousness didn’t help the magic flow either. Where the fuck were my friends? Felix?
The cougar took four more steps and lowered its legs to get into a crouched position. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. The predator prepared to leap at me and I couldn’t move. It was too quick, and running was the worst thing you could do.
