by Billy Wong
"We've beaten you before," she reminded him. "If you don't stop right now, this time we will kill you."
"No more chances," Finn agreed, meeting her eyes with grim approval.
"Fine, then—I do not need any! You are the strongest of human warriors, but I have more power now. You can no longer impose your will over me." Hearing the confidence in his voice, a voice exultant with boundless energy, Rose feared it to be true.
The floor below her started to crack and shift as the hill shook above, and her husband stumbled as he tried to advance on Justin. "Finn, be careful!" She almost wished she could ask Justin to go outside with them first and fight there, but then he'd have free rein to fly off to Gustrone and slaughter their children. Though still not eager to kill him, she had mostly resigned herself to it by now. If he didn't back down of his own volition, she would do what she needed to insure a future for her kids.
Justin's preternatural balance hardly seemed challenged by the movement of the ground. Seizing the opportunity, he slashed deeply into Finn's side. Finn grazed Justin's head with his mace, but evidently didn't do much damage as he merely stepped back, glared at the pain-stricken warrior and charged him again. Rose stepped in, making him jump back from a low cut. He knocked her down with a downward swing that tore her shoulder and tried to jump on top of her. She kicked him back, then a large rock fell on him and bore him down.
Though she'd lucked out this time, Rose noticed the way chunks of stone began to rain down and whispered, "Crap."
She tried to take advantage of Justin's vulnerability by chopping down, but he turned his hindrance into an asset, throwing the rock that had hit him into her face. Standing up, he stabbed fingers forward and pierced her upper chest. She gritted her teeth and pushed him back with a kick, but he ducked her followup slash and a long arm shot out again to bury claws this time around her navel.
Rose gasped in pain, smacked him away with a shield blow and stumbled back coughing up blood. Finn's thrown mace knocked him on his side as he dashed after Rose, and ignoring her deep wounds she stepped forward to lay Justin's forearm open with a slice. He tried to trip her, and she jumped over his leg with fair ease. Then another large rock fell from the ceiling, this one landing squarely on her head.
She fell stunned to one knee and Finn took up the fight, spare axe flashing through the air into the demon's back. Justin spun, dropped Finn with a crushing backhand. Rose staggered up to aid him, only to step into a depression that hadn't been there seconds ago and nearly fall. Realizing the floor was buckling underneath them, she yelled, "Finn, this place is coming down hard!"
"I know!" he shouted back, the metal of his raised shield squealing as Justin's claws drew scratches down its front. "But he doesn't care!"
"Justin," Rose said though she knew it was hopeless, "you're going to get us all killed!" He ignored her if he heard and she threw herself at him, blood soaking her wig and running down her face and neck. She attempted a chop at the joint of his neck and shoulder, but a tremor threw off her aim so she missed completely. He stabbed back at her, missed himself due to the shaking ground. Then he grinned and levitated a foot into the air, leaving his opponents to struggle alone for balance.
Rose continued to battle while lurching and falling this way and that, barely avoiding the gaping holes which appeared now below them. It was as if the chamber crumbled slowly into the abyss, and she dared not think what awaited down there. Finn tried to sneak up behind Justin, but the demon turned and batted aside the axe as he raised it. Magically redirecting a shower of falling rocks, he propelled them at Finn to pin him beneath them. Another spell heated the blanket of stones to the point his clothing burst into flame, and Rose winced in sympathy while his flesh sizzled and he screamed.
She jumped over a small gap to stab into Justin's shoulder, and without retracting the blade drove her shield rim into his face. He grunted as he was launched off the sword and she chased after him, knocking him down again with an upward cut that ripped his chin. He rolled away and up only to struck by the wall behind him, ripped outward by Rose's spell to crumble onto him. Justin stumbled forward under the falling rubble, nearly walking onto her sword before leaning aside at the last moment from her thrust. The blade still nicked and bloodied his side, and he backed away with wide eyes.
"Unbelievable that you can still hold your own..."
"That's Rose for ya," Finn managed to gasp after he lurched free of his intended pyre, barely able to stand as he trembled with pain.
Calling upon his magic again, Justin swept the room with a fiery beam which seared both of the couple badly about their waists. "I will not lose this time!" he roared with determination, flying at Rose just as she began to slip and slide down towards a hole opening before her. Desperately, she jumped and tried to tackle Justin in midair. Her angle poor and timing too rushed, she only managed to grab hold of a leg while he passed. He flew at the wall and veered sharply away just before impact, whipping her into it to peel her off himself, and she plummeted down amid a shower of rubble.
Justin swung around to zoom at Finn, who used magic to try and encase him in a cube of ice condensed out of water vapor. His injuries must make him desperate, and Rose feared for him. Justin burst right through and slammed into him, plowing him down. Sitting stunned on a section of breaking floor, Finn began to fall into the depths. He regained his composure in time to leap and grab hold of a steadier edge, but Justin stomped on his skull just after he pulled himself up, driving his face hard into the stone and rendering him limp. The demon grabbed him by the head and pulled him to his knees, raising his other hand to slash his throat.
Rose stopped Justin with a heavy chop to the back, making him cry out as her sword ripped him open. He turned angrily with a high swing, which she warded resoundingly with an aggressive shield block. She stabbed him through a knee, and he howled in anguish. The claws of his right hand speared her in the side and more blood welled up in her mouth, but she ignored this to bring her blade down like a hammer on his skull. His scalp split apart, yet the strong bone beneath held, and while he fell sideways he skewered her calf. Rose's leg gave out beneath her. As she knelt involuntarily beside her foe, she felt his claws slice into her hip and thigh.
Snarling through blood that dribbled over her lip, she chopped down at his neck. He stopped the blade with his forearm, though it cut partway through the bone. Staring with desperate fury at her set jaw and resolute eyes, he unleashed his strongest spell yet. A wave of flame carried her across the room to slam into the wall hard enough to crush her backplate. She felt ribs break and vertebrate crack, but willed herself upright again despite excruciating pain. Justin dove into her from flight and drove her against the wall again. Pinned there by his body, she lifted him farther into the air with a hard knee between his legs.
It barely affected him, hardly surprising given he now had no visible genitalia, but did enough to give her a chance to shove him back. She laid into him with a cut from shoulder to hip that felled him onto his back. Justin gasped for breath, seemingly unable to fight anymore, and Rose limped carefully over. She raised her sword high, blood dripping all the while from her terrible wounds. "Sorry," she breathed.
He grinned in response, and a column of lightning thick as a great tree engulfed her where she stood. While she swayed from the massive shock, Justin sat up and tried to put his claws under her ribcage into her heart. But though her teeth still chattered from the lightning stroke she somehow caught his hand, and twisted with every ounce of strength in her body to snap his wrist. Staring incredulously at his palm facing the wrong way, Justin moved too slow to dodge her next strike. Blood sprayed as her blade cleaved into his chest. He collapsed and began to tumble into the abyss opening up below both of them. Jumping over his body to catch the side of the pit, Rose yelled "Finn!" and thankfully saw him stir. Then, she felt the weight pulling at her legs.
She looked down to Justin still hanging on to her, hugging her knees. She tried to shake him off, but he quickly
figured out a better way to keep his hold, stabbing the claws of one hand into her thigh before releasing his hold with the other to try and climb up her body. The next stab found its home in her butt, and she realized she would soon be killed if she didn't stop this creation of handholds in her flesh.
Letting go with one hand though it left her other arm burdened with over six hundred total pounds, she directed a lightning bolt into the face of her clinging enemy. He didn't stop, but continued to climb, stabbing now into her lower back. She shrieked as one of his claws punctured her kidney. Reaching for her sword just before the pit, she grabbed it and stabbed downward, piercing his neck. Finally Justin fell limp and plummeted into the darkness, dragging his claws out of her as he went.
Barely able to hold onto her fading senses, Rose hung there with her blood dripping into the pit while the ledge she clung to began to crack. Summoning all her willpower, she started to pull herself up. But the ground tilted as if to deny her, and she found her progress reversed as she slid backwards towards the depths. With a desperate heave of her godlike muscles, she threw herself up and over to the nearest section of flat floor, only to find this one too giving way.
Finn crawled close enough to grab her and dragged her onto momentarily safer ground, his massively swollen face twisted in a grotesque frown of worry. "You're all cut to pieces, Rose."
"They're just flesh wounds," she lied as she raised herself to her knees, the shaking of the chamber making it even harder for her shredded body to find its balance. "Finn, we've got to get out of here. Can you stand?"
He forced himself up, legs quivering dangerously. Holding his shoulder for support, Rose stood with him though every movement caused agony to flare through her innumerable wounds. Leaning hard against one another, they ran lurching for the entrance. They were halfway there when they heard a scream, and turned to see Justin fly up from the abyss and land heavily on the closest intact ground. "You die!" he said.
He summoned into being a giant cone of ice and sent it forward, the point piercing Rose's chest and pushing her back. Its cold was so intense it began to freeze her from the inside where it entered her, and also her hands where they held onto its sides. Justin flew after it as if to ram it, no doubt looking to drive the rest of that massive spike through her and tear her apart. She shoved it out of herself and forward, smashing it into the oncoming demon earlier and with more force than he'd prepared for. It did little damage, the icicle shattering around him. But that obscured his vision long enough for her to dash at him and swing her sword through his torso, nearly shearing him in two. And when he fell this time, she knew he was really dead, for his body crumpled and shrank in on itself until all that remained was a dark blue spike.
#
They limped out of the hillside opening, dragging the demonic spike after them. "You okay, Rose?" Finn asked. "You're a mess."
"I'm fine," she murmured, but then she collapsed and rolled to her back, prompting Finn to lean over her with lips parted in worry. Her body felt light, and her extremities numb. Her chest was tight, making it hard to breathe. She knew the sky overhead to be bright with sun, yet it seemed to grow dim... She closed her eyes.
She opened her eyes, and Finn smiled in relief. "Did you have to scare me like that? Thought I'd lost you."
"I wouldn't die on you, I just needed to rest my eyes for a second... it was just a second, right?"
"A few."
She might have blacked out for a bit. But now she pushed back the weakness, unwilling to die even if the magical cold had half frozen her lungs and heart. She felt bad about Justin, but knew there'd been no other choice. Still, her spirit ached that she hadn't been able to save him. "Dammit, I failed again," she said, sniffling. "He never gave in to the demonic power, you know. Whatever destructive urges he had, he controlled successfully, and everything he did was under his own will. He just thought he had no other choice... shit, if only the pool had worked!"
Holding her close, he reminded her, "We did save our twins and avert the prophecy of doom, so it's not like we failed at all our goals. Justin isn't that big a loss."
"I know you didn't like him, and I didn't that much either, but I respected him. He wasn't a bad person, just one who held very strongly to his beliefs, right or wrong—and he still helped us when he thought it was right. I really feel like to the very end, he was trying to do the best thing he could."
"I suppose you're right. I don't think he was flat out evil. But we had to kill him. He would've murdered our kids, and your beautiful self."
The attempt to cheer her up had no effect, and her voice remained choked. "I'm not saying what we did was wrong. Just that it's a tragedy it had to end up this way."
"Perhaps. But at least we finally put an end to The Lost, and those guys, you have to agree were deserving enough."
"I'd rather that I never met The Lost," she whispered, fingering her side where the blade had penetrated to steal her baby's life. "Though then they'd still be somebody else's problem, so I might want to retract that statement... a little too selfish of me, perhaps. But since they're gone now, I'd rather we not talk about them anymore. Let The Lost now be The Forgotten."
"Clever girl."
Finally, she managed a small grin. This was the way life was sometimes, and for her family and herself, she'd take the stings and move on dreaming the next day would be better than the last. "Not that clever! So, what do we do with this spike now?"
After they peeled each other out of their wrecked armor and patched up their wounds, they tried to smash it with their weapons. But their blows proved unable to do any damage at all. "How does it make sense that we could hurt and kill him, but not even scratch his remains?" Finn asked with a scowl.
"Magic, I guess. Looks like we'll have to find another means of destruction. For now, let's just take it along." She paused. "By the way, think we should visit Evan on the way back? He isn't too far out of the way, and he'll probably be relieved to know this is all over with."
"Sure, let's visit him. Can't hurt."
#
Entering Evan's lakeside house, Finn's first step inside disturbed one of several leaves resting on the floor. The trip here had taken longer than expected due their severe wounds slowing them down, but they still felt enthusiastic to see their friend. "Irresponsible of him to leave his door open on the way out," he mused.
Rose looked around the dirty cabin and frowned. "That's a lot of dust all over his furnishings. He's been away for a while." Finn smiled at a bird's nest visible in the open closet, but Rose's growing worry kept her from sharing his amusement. "Hopefully he left a note saying where he's gone. We might have some trouble finding him otherwise."
They checked all over, but found nothing like a considerate memo. "Maybe the wind blew it out of the house, or an animal took it," Finn said with a sigh. "But wait, there is this red thing in the nest..." Curiously, he removed the object, shaking his hand after the mother bird pecked him. "Looks like it's just a scrap of cloth, not a note. But it does look kind of familiar."
Rose walked over to his side and studied the soiled piece of fabric. She poured a bit of water from her canteen onto the red cloth and rubbed it as clean as she could. The pattern upon it grew more recognizable, calling to mind a certain surcoat, and her eyes narrowed as she growled, "Victor."
"You mean you think he took him again?"
She clenched her fist. "Yes, that's part of his symbol, and considering he's done it before... We have to tell Prince Lawrence, and get a written order from him for Victor to release Evan."
"Go all the way to Gustrone and back for an order? Why waste all that time and energy, when Jugeld is that much closer?"
"You want us just to go there and take him back ourselves? We're not in great condition for another fight, though..."
"Victor probably still doesn't have what it takes to bring us down," Finn said with a smile. "Besides, he probably wouldn't kill us even if he could. He knows that'll get him in too much trouble with his brothe
r, especially when he already has a strike against him."
She frowned. "But even if he won't kill us, we don't have authority to take Evan from his custody either."
"And does he have authority to keep him? Evan's done nothing wrong. So just let me do the talking, and I'll make Victor see he'd be wise to let our friend go."
Rose still wasn't sure this would work, but she didn't want to travel to Gustrone and back either, and figured the risk to their lives not too great. Hopefully this time, fortune would once again favor the bold.
Entering the capital of Jugeld again, they headed straight for the jail. The guards made to stop them, but Finn threatened them and they didn't even try to fight. Apparently, these weren't as fanatically devoted to their jobs as they could have been, for which Rose was glad. They found Evan in a small, dirt-covered cell at the very end of a row, and at their sight tears of joy showed in his eyes.
"Rose, Finn! I'm sure glad to see you. I can barely remember how it feels to breathe fresh air!"
Finn nodded. "Then it's time to refresh you memory." Since they hadn't asked the guards for the keys, he kicked the door down instead and Evan ran out to hug Rose. "But I'm the one who saved you," Finn protested.
"Thank you both so much. Kind of embarrassing I had to be rescued again."
"Guess you're the story's damsel in distress."
Rose punched Finn. "Don't worry about it Evan, everybody needs help sometimes and you're our friend—plus, you've done more than your share for us. Maybe you should stay closer to us from now on though, so we can better keep an eye on you."
"I wouldn't mind relocating closer to Gustrone, or even to it. So what's happened since we last saw each other? You two look pretty beat up."
"It's a long story. We'll tell you on the way.
Leaving the city, Rose spotted a big gray-bearded warrior with a warhammer watching them from the walls. He didn't address them, but she felt a chill just to recognize him. "Finn, look. That man..."
