A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  “Sorcerers or oni?” Layla asked. “I’m going after Nergal’s sorcerers. If either of them get past the two on our side, we’re all screwed.” She hoped that the oni could be kept busy until everyone was done with the sorcerers. The smell of the magical fight made her wish she’d brought a mask.

  “I’m with you,” Kase said. “Sorcerers first, then oni.”

  “So we’re all in agreement?” Remy asked. “Sounds good to me.”

  “We need to get around the back, through those houses down there,” Kase said. “If we can get behind them, we should be able to box them in. Attack from all sides. The oni is . . . a future problem.”

  “Where are the people?” Layla asked Remy.

  He pointed to a ten-story building next to a slightly taller, partially destroyed office block.

  “Okay, so we need to make sure the people inside are alright.”

  “That’s me,” Remy said. “I can get in and around quicker than the rest of you, and if there’s anyone inside who shouldn’t be, I’m okay with teaching them the error of their ways.”

  The group split, and Layla, Chloe, and Kase followed the road, staying far enough back to keep out of the sorcerer’s line of sight. They crept through the remains of a house that had been blasted apart by magic.

  Layla had gained a newfound respect for sorcerers after meeting a few during her time opposing Avalon. Most of them were at least centuries old and appeared to be more focused with their magic use, and less interested in causing mass devastation, a marked difference to the sorcerers fighting near Layla and her team.

  Some of the buildings that had been damaged by the magical blasts started to collapse, spilling furniture and bricks onto the street close by.

  Once outside the house, they moved to the edge of the exterior wall and Kase looked beyond it as a bolt of lightning smashed into the rock above her head. She leapt back, avoiding the powerful magic, and scowled at the destroyed brick wall close to where her head had been.

  “You okay?” Layla asked.

  Kase nodded. “Errant blast. The two enemy sorcerers are about twenty feet in front and to the right of this house.”

  “Can we get to them without them noticing?” Remy asked as he appeared out of nowhere.

  “How is everyone in the building?” Layla asked, trying not to show Remy that his new ability to appear in a puff of smoke was unnerving.

  “Scared. There are twenty-six people in there. Eight of them are under ten.”

  “Oh shit.”

  “Pretty much,” Remy said. “Considering where they are, they’re all being incredibly brave. No idea how long that will last if those sorcerers or the oni get to them. Everyone’s human.”

  “So, back to my question, can we get to the sorcerers without them noticing? The second we open fire on them, they’re going to know where we are, and they’re going to come for us. We have to do this quickly, or we’re going to have a serious problem on our hands, silver bullets or not.”

  Kase shrugged. “We have to try.” She was the only one not carrying a silver weapon: weres of all kinds hated silver with a passion, so Layla could understand Kase’s reluctance to use it.

  Remy ran to the end of the alley and vanished from view, leaving small traces of smoke behind. He reappeared a moment later on the other side of the street.

  “I’ll never get used to the fact that he can do that now,” Chloe said.

  “I’m so glad I’m not the only one,” Layla replied as she moved around the front of the alley and crouched behind a partially destroyed car.

  She reached out with her power just as a jet of flame slammed into the house next her, turning it into an inferno. Chloe crouched beside her. “Our sorcerers need to learn some control,” she said.

  Layla kept a hold of her power as it wrapped around the door of a barely recognizable coupe nearby. She couldn’t move anything that was larger than her, but weight didn’t appear to be a factor. She watched for Remy as he and Kase—now in full werewolf beast form—charged into the enemy sorcerer closest to them. Layla tore the door off the coupe and threw it at the second sorcerer with incredible force. He had turned to see what his friend was doing and didn’t notice the door as it smashed into his head at high speed.

  It would have killed a human. No question about it. And even the sorcerer was knocked to the sidewalk, blood pouring from a deep gash in the side of his head. Layla raised her MP5, and the hours of training that her father put her through, coupled with all of the training she’d completed since joining Hades’ organization, kicked in. She fired a three-round killing burst into the closest sorcerer. Two of the shots hit his hastily assembled shield of air, and the third struck him in the shoulder. Layla continued to fire, keeping the sorcerer’s attention on her, but none of the other bullets got through his shield.

  The sorcerer moved away from the sidewalk into the middle of the road, keeping his shield up at all times. Layla fired another round, which was easily deflected by the shield, but had the advantage of keeping the sorcerer’s attention firmly on her, and not on Chloe, who ran around the nearby building.

  Layla fired another round as Chloe came into view, staying low as she crept along the wall closest to the sorcerer. The shadows kept her from being seen until she fired into the man’s exposed flank. He whipped up his shield to stop them, but Chloe and Layla kept firing. All of the bullets just fell to the ground as if they’d struck a wall, but the damage Layla had done to the sorcerer’s shoulder was going to take its toll sooner or later. Eventually his shields faltered and both Chloe and Layla fired at him: two bullets, both headshots. The sorcerer crumpled to the ground as Remy drove a silver dagger into the heart of the second sorcerer, who had been dazed and unable to defend against the attack. Both were dead in seconds.

  Layla looked over at Hades’ sorcerers, who’d been fighting Nergal’s men; one of them had collapsed onto the ground. She ran over to him, but he died before she could do anything to help with his injuries.

  “They shot him with a silver round,” the other sorcerer said sadly as he got back to his feet from behind the ruins of a nearby brick wall that had once been part of a house. He looked bloodied and banged up, but otherwise seemed okay. “There’s no coming back from that. He wasn’t even a hundred. He still fought, though.”

  “I’m sorry,” Layla said as a cheer went up from the group fighting the oni—who now fled through the city, knocking down pieces of building to stop anyone following it.

  “My magic is running low. Any chance of one of those guns?”

  Remy handed his Glock to the sorcerer.

  “We’ll get the people out of the building,” Kase told him. She’d remained in her werewolf beast form, which was the only way she could use her elemental powers. Layla hadn’t met another werewolf-elemental hybrid, and if Kase was the only one, she was glad she was on their side.

  “Thank you,” the sorcerer said. “I’ll go check on everyone.” He ran off toward his companions, who’d given chase to the oni.

  On their way to the residential block, Layla checked her MP5 and found it empty. Chloe was also out of ammunition, so they dropped the weapons on the sidewalk. They didn’t expect to need them now that Nergal’s forces had been dealt with, and they were empty anyway, so were no longer of use. At the apartment building, they found most of the people huddled together in the foyer.

  “You’re going to get us out?” an elderly woman asked as a small child clung to her leg.

  “That’s the plan,” Layla told her. “Is anyone in this building injured, or need help getting out?”

  “We’ll all be fine,” she said. “We just want to leave.”

  “Why didn’t you evacuate with the others?” Chloe asked.

  “We were supposed to, and trucks arrived to get us out of town, but the street turned into a war zone. Hades’ soldiers told us to wait in here. I assume the rest of the city got out okay?”

  “Looks that way,” Layla told her. “We’ll wait for our frien
d to return with a truck and load you all onboard. It might be a rough ride out of town, but it’s better than staying here.”

  “What about the monster?” the little girl clinging to the elderly woman asked.

  “It ran away,” Chloe said. “That’s how good we are at defeating monsters. They run away as soon as they see us.”

  The little girl beamed. “My name is Summer.”

  “That’s a beautiful name,” Layla said, crouching in front of her. “How old are you, Summer?”

  “I’m this old,” she said, raising three fingers.

  “Three? That’s very old. Can you drive yet?”

  The little girl laughed. “No, I’m not old enough to drive.”

  “You sure?” Chloe asked. “You look like someone who likes taking her granny’s car out for a spin.”

  Summer looked serious. “That’s bad,” she said at almost a whisper.

  Layla heard a scream from outside the building. “All of you go into one of those rooms.” She pointed to the doors at the end of the foyer. Each had a number on them. “I’m just going to go make sure that was only someone doing something stupid.”

  Layla and Chloe shared a look of concern as Remy ran into the building. “I think we might have a problem.” They followed him out and immediately saw the problem.

  Nergal had arrived and defeated Hades’ people, who had been fighting the oni. Their uniformed bodies were strewn around the area. He half-dragged, half-carried one by the neck as he walked up the street toward Layla and her friends.

  When Nergal was about fifty feet away, he dropped the struggling man on the ground and crushed his skull with his boot.

  “Who screamed?” Layla asked.

  “He was dragging a second person,” Kase told her. “He killed her just as he came into view. She was terrified.”

  Layla knew that Nergal’s ability to siphon life energy from people was limited to using humans, but she also knew that his power could spread fear throughout both humans and non-human, alike. It was like an aura that surrounded him, making him incredibly difficult to fight. Irkalla had told her that he’d only lived this long because anyone who tried to kill him up close was too scared to act once he activated his power. Layla wondered if there was any way to take him out from afar, and immediately wished she’d found more ammo for the gun she’d discarded.

  “I decided to wait around in Thunder Bay,” Nergal shouted. “I wanted to bask in the glory of my victory. And then I saw you people, so I thought I’d come say hello.”

  A man rushed at Nergal from behind the remains of a car, a sword in one hand. Nergal looked over at him, stepped aside, and punched him in the stomach, sending the man to the ground. Then Nergal reached down and picked him up by the throat. “Come out quickly and I won’t kill him,” he shouted.

  “Bullshit,” Remy replied.

  “Humans think they can kill me. I’ve killed a lot of them today.” Nergal kept hold of the man, who was now shivering and screaming in pain. A second later, Nergal dropped his mummified corpse and smiled. “Dozens of dead, maybe more. I’ve taken this one’s life force. I’m now stronger, faster, and more dangerous than you can ever imagine. My advice is to surrender.”

  “My advice is to shove it up your arse,” Kase shouted back.

  “Good comeback,” Remy said.

  “I’ve been practicing,” Kase told him.

  “Nergal will kill the people in this building,” Layla said as she walked away from it, crouching down behind a collapsed wall.

  “We’re not going to let that happen,” Kase said, standing beside her.

  “The five of you against me?” Nergal asked, and started to laugh. “My word, you are going to die quickly.”

  “Everyone you’ve sent against me and my friends hasn’t fared well,” Layla said. “You’re older, more powerful, and certainly a much bigger sack of dicks than anyone I know, but I think you’ll find us more than ready to do what needs to be done.”

  Nergal laughed. “You are children. I am a god.”

  “You were never a god,” Remy shouted. “You just played one until everyone woke up and realized you were just a douchebag with power. Like all douchebags with power, you think a lot of yourself.”

  Nergal’s eyes narrowed in anger. “I wanted you alive,” he told Layla. “I wanted to use you to make your father work for me. But I see now that you’re just going to cause me problems. So, dead is fine, too. I’m going to kill you all, and then I’m going to kill your families, your friends, and the people you’re helping. I’m going to burn down your entire resistance and piss on the ashes.”

  Chloe stood up and motioned with one hand for Nergal to get on with it. “Come try.”

  19

  Nergal shrugged off his long coat and laid it on a nearby bench, before removing the cufflinks from his white shirt and slowly rolling up the sleeves.

  Layla knew that none of the group would attack him, not while he was clearly trying to get them to do so. Nergal was many things, but she doubted an idiot was among them.

  He turned back as Remy appeared out of nowhere, slashing at Nergal’s face with his sword. Nergal grabbed Remy out of the air and dumped him on his back, on the ground. He went to stomp down on the dazed fox-man as Chloe charged Nergal, punching him in the face.

  Nergal staggered back, but grabbed Chloe’s arm, swinging her face-first into the brick wall beside him, then launched her across the road and through the window of a nearby house.

  Kase opened her mouth, pouring more and more ice over Nergal. But he charged through it, punched her in the face and stomped down on her knee. Layla heard the crack as Kase cried out. Nergal lifted Kase in the air by her throat, but Layla punched him in the stomach with a metal wrapped fist, sending him sprawling.

  Layla dragged Kase away, and the team regrouped as Nergal watched from the other side of the road. “We can’t win this,” Layla said.

  “No shit,” Kase replied, her body already healing from Nergal’s attack.

  Layla looked over at Nergal. There was no point in holding back. She needed to fight with everything she had, with no second-guessing. Either Nergal died, or they did, because there was no way he was going to allow himself to be taken captive.

  Nergal cracked his knuckles, and Chloe sprinted toward him, punching him in the face with her ability to absorb kinetic energy. Nergal flew into the wall behind him, knocking it to the ground, but a second later he tore through its remains, hitting Chloe hard enough to send her reeling. Even her considerable power had its limits.

  Layla used her power to reach for the dozens of tiny metal pieces around the area and flung them all at Nergal. Screws, nails, and shards of metal slammed into him, causing him to cry out in pain as blood began to flow from the many wounds. Then he laughed and tore off his blood-drenched shirt, showing the metal pieces being pushed out of his body, and his wounds closing almost immediately. He shut his eyes and sighed, his skin glowing before the screams started inside the apartment building.

  “You can keep hurting me, and I can keep siphoning the life-force from those around me to heal,” Nergal told everyone. “The added benefit of terrifying the rest of them is a beautiful bonus.”

  Kase’s leg had healed and she ran toward Nergal with Layla right behind her, pulling small pieces of metal from around her and wrapping them around her arm. Kase swiped at Nergal’s chest with her razor-sharp claws, but Nergal moved too quickly, putting distance between him and her.

  Kase piled on the pressure, forcing Nergal further and further away from the residential building, until Nergal grabbed her arm, headbutted her, and threw her into Remy, who had run up to stab Nergal in the back. Both clattered to the ground as Layla struck, changing the metal in her arm into a spear and puncturing it up into Nergal’s chest, piercing his heart. Chloe hit him with a blast of kinetic energy, throwing him back into the wall of another nearby house, pinning him in place for a second before Nergal’s considerable power won out, and he threw a large piece
of wall at the group, forcing them to scatter.

  Everyone was ready to continue fighting when the truck, driven by Harry, appeared at the end of the road, smashing through debris and pulling up outside the apartment building.

  Most of the group ran into the building while Remy remained outside with the truck. He was covered in small cuts and had a nasty wound on his head, but he was alive and looked exceptionally angry.

  The residents ran out of the apartment building toward the truck, each of them terrified. Nergal moved his hands and several of the adults dropped to the ground, mummified.

  “Keep going,” Layla shouted as cries and screams filled the air. Layla sprinted back toward Nergal, who smiled. She pushed out with her power, grabbing hold of a nearby car door and flinging it at him with everything she had. Nergal caught it in one hand, doing little more than taking a few steps back to absorb the power. He threw it back at Layla, who stopped it in midair, then let it drop to the ground. She stepped over it, dragging the metal from the car door and wrapping it around her arms.

  Kase let loose a jet of ice, which Nergal sidestepped, putting himself closer to Layla. He moved faster than Layla had expected, and she went down quickly from a punch to the stomach. Only a second jet of ice slamming him down the street kept him from following it with a knee to her face.

  Layla wasn’t sure what else they could do. Nergal had an answer for everything they threw at him. There was no attack he wasn’t capable of ignoring, countering, or avoiding altogether.

  “We can’t beat him,” Kase said as Harry’s truck took off with the residents inside.

  Remy and Chloe charged Nergal, trying to catch him off guard. Layla took the opportunity to gather a bunch of metal behind him, then yanked it toward her with incredible force. Nergal kicked Remy into the path of the metal, forcing Layla to throw it all aside to avoid her friend.

  Nergal kicked Chloe in the ribs as he moved past her, and she retaliated by blasting him in the chest. Layla sprinted forward and, with a fist wrapped in metal, punched Nergal in the face with everything she had, snapping his head to one side. He grabbed her wrist and headbutted her on the nose before kicking her in the chest so hard she thought he’d broken her sternum.