Blood and Sand

by Matthew James

  Dust? No, not dust, sand. I turned the bullet to sand? Is that even possible?

  “You! How?” Omar—I mean Nannot—screams. He actually sounds confused. He must not have put two-and-two together.

  Now I’m freaking pissed. This jerk-off just tried to kill my father and is upset about it?

  “No, not me…us!” I react with pure emotion and instinct. I leap the thirty foot gap between the two of us and unleash the strongest punch I’ve ever delivered. I throw a right uppercut straight into his jaw. I feel my hand accelerate as fast as his bullet did. The wave of pressure accompanies it as I lay into him.

  I connect with a bone cracking thump, like he just got mule kicked by a herd of elephants. I send him flying a hundred feet to the stone wall with a crunch of bone. He hits with a disgusting smear of flesh and blood, exploding on impact.

  “What the…?” I say.

  Then the unthinkable happens. He starts putting himself back together. His spine, which was broken, pops back into place. His skull, crushed by the impact, which could only match getting hit by a semi going ninety, does the same. It’s the orichalcum. It’s like the Atlantean Gorilla Glue. No wonder they thought of it as more valuable than gold.

  The fully healed, former Atlantean priest stands holding his side. His grimace turns to a smile and he stands upright completely fine.

  Damn, I think. I didn’t put a dent in him. Well, I did for about thirty seconds.

  “Back up, all of you. Find somewhere to hide!” I yell to the others. Then I charge and swing another hammer blow, but am met by a gust of wind that slams into me and sends me flying. I land with a flop and a crack.

  “ARGH!” I scream in pain, but it only lasts a moment. I look down and find my legs have both healed already.

  Um, okay…That’s a new one.

  I stand, in no pain, absolutely none. I honestly feel like I just woke up from the perfect nap. My heart rate is normal, not even raised the slightest. I lift my hands and see they aren’t even shaking.

  “What…who?” Nannot asks not understanding.

  I take another giant leap forward and will the air to carry me. It works perfectly. I land twenty feet away from him as confident as ever.

  “My name is Hank Boyd and I am the Last Priest of Atlantis!” I kick out and slam an invisible bus-sized column of energy into Nannot sending him sprawling to the ground. He tumbles to a stop, looking up at me, confused.

  “Your brothers say hello,” I say letting my natural cockiness get the better of me.

  I crack my knuckles and lay into him with three more savage punches. His face pieces back together and he stares up at me through bleeding eyeless sockets.

  “Oh, and by the way…so does your father.”

  45

  Now if I had actually thought this through, I wouldn’t have antagonized an immortal-city-killing-death-monster. We’ll call this one a rookie mistake. The bad news is, he killed me five times. The good news is, I came back after all of them stronger than ever. And that’s something I’ve noticed too. Each time one of us dies, we come back sturdier, harder to kill. It forces us to come up with an even stronger attack the next time we have a go at each other.

  Like when he used a burst of fire to melt my face and I came back with a move I learned in the arcades as a kid playing Mortal Kombat. I hit him so hard that I knocked his head off, Johnny Cage-style. All I needed was the sunglasses, but dammit-to-hell, he mended back together.

  “You know…we can keep going at this all night…but I’m not sure anyone…is going to actually kill the other. Why don’t we…try to figure out…another solution—?”

  He grabs me and launches us both into the air. We hit terminal velocity and slam straight into the ceiling of the cave, bursting through. We explode into the courtyard, directly underneath a stone column. We hit it at full speed, turning it to dust, and go tumbling in different directions when exiting.

  I go sailing into the patio, taking out an unsuspecting man-lizard combo. I hit him so hard he basically disintegrates. I even saw a leg go flying into the air. I finally come to a stop by slamming into a very hard and very unrelenting mass.

  In the time it takes me to realize what I hit, Nannot lands and just stands there, staring daggers into me.

  “So, what did he have to say?” The man-demon asks.

  “Who?” I croak out. My throat’s meat literally just reconnected and he wants to have a conversation? Come on man, have some manners.

  He glances up and I follow his deadly gaze, recognizing the object I hit, and dented. Oops. It’s the gleaming monument to Thoth, Nannot’s father.

  “Your father—”

  “He’s not my father!” Nannot screams in anger.

  “He said that he and your brothers forgive you.”

  “Forgive me? They forgive me? For what? I did nothing wrong. They saw me as an oppressor and an executioner—”

  “You murdered thousands! I saw it with my own eyes. You killed your own people, the ones you swore to protect. And after all of the vile things you did, your family still loves you.”

  “ARGH!” Nannot’s form flickers and just for a moment I think I see Omar standing there, no sign of the evil parasite.

  “Ha-ha-ha, little one. Nice try,” And then he’s back, just like that. “Your little game of love and affection can’t save you and this wretched race of abominations.”

  SCREEE!

  I jump to my feet and turn at the sound of something to my left. It sounded like a very large bird, maybe a hawk.

  That’s when I see it perched on a pedestal, wings outstretched. The Peregrine Falcon has a wing span of about twelve feet. The talons on its feet are the size of butchers knives. The human face and bird beak mix gives me the chills, but the eyes aren’t focused on me like Rhonar. They are focused somewhere else. The creature looks in the air behind me.

  SCREEE!

  SCREEE!

  The Nightmare screeches into the air as if calling someone, and that’s exactly what happens.

  Shit.

  Three more of these things appear surrounding us. It’s basically a petting zoo from hell, and I’m in the middle of it.

  We now have a Tiger-lady, a silver-back gorilla-man and a bat…man. I swear to you, an honest-to-god eyeless bat-guy is perched on one of the other stands.

  A bat-man…if only Kane was here to see this, I think while trying to put together a battle plan.

  That’s when I remember my friends down in the basement under the pyramid. I hope the roof didn’t cave in when I got body-slammed through it. That would really ruin my day. The minute I turn immortal my team dies.

  I turn, doing a 360, and take in my surroundings. Nannot is in front of me, back to the iron gate of the pyramid. I have a flying creature on either side of me, paired with another stone Minotaur.

  “This may end badly,” I mutter to myself realizing I’m seriously outgunned.

  “Looks like your little freak show family arrived just in time to watch you get your ass kick Na—”

  POP!

  A bullet tears into the back of my shoulder, the force of it spinning me around. Before I can register the pain it quickly heals over. Confused at who just shot me, I turn to see a loan man, covered in blood, standing at the edge of the forest, automatic rifle in hand. He takes a step forward, but doesn’t make it any farther.

  ROAR!

  A humungous beast leaps out of the taller trees lining the courtyard and lands directly on top of the shooter, smearing the ground with his blood and whatever innards survived the impact.

  Ugh, gross.

  This thing is an absolute monster. Yes, it’s a literal monster, but it’s also huge in size. It stands on all fours, but is still easily two stories tall from foot-to-back and just over that from snout-to-tail. Oh, and it’s covered in blood…human blood.

  “Holy mother! Is that…a bear?”

  Its body looks exactly the same as a polar bear would, except it’s bigger than a bulldozer on steroids. I
ts maw and front paws are dripping with blood, looking like it just ran through the men from Zero, pulverizing them.

  And now he’s here to do the same to me, I think planning my own funeral in my head.

  But, the strangest thing about this particular stone giant is that it looks completely normal, besides its massive size of course. What I mean is that it doesn’t have the human traits like the others do. No humanoid features what so ever.

  The look of amazement on my face must be pretty easy to see.

  “Impressed are you? Ares was my first and greatest.”

  Ares? He’s named after the Greek god of war? I think, an awestruck look on my face.

  “Yes, as you may have guessed, the beast’s temperament is where the myth comes from,” Nannot replies, as if he read my mind.

  Great, a goliath the size of a large dump truck with the attitude problems of a volcano…must be a sweetheart, I think to myself, biting my lip. How the hell I’m I supposed to kill that?

  “Is he human? Any of him?” I ask trying to keep the monologue going. The longer the conversation continues, the better chance I have of formulating one of my ridiculous plans.

  “Perhaps, once,” Nannot answers. “But now…” He smiles slightly. “There’s just enough to control him.”

  He needs the human aspect in order to control them? Is that the secret? I put that idea away for later. I’m not sure how much it could possibly help at this time. Maybe there is something I can do to turn things in my favor.

  The colossal stone bear lumbers toward me, ground shaking and stops twenty feet away. The power lurking within Ares must be amazing. It took out at least six trained assassins—all of which carried modern firepower. And what’s even more impressive, it did it without taking very much damage at all, barely a scratch.

  Crap. How could this get any worse?

  “Harrison!”

  I spin around, back towards the pyramid’s gate entrance, and see my dad, along with Kane and Nicole. They have their weapons drawn and pointed at Nannot.

  Then as you would imagine…the shit really hits the fan.

  46

  Just imagine putting high caliber bullets and sharpened stone arrow heads in a blender and starting that bad boy up. That’s exactly what’s going on now. Utter chaos. And I’m right smack in the middle of it. Well, technically the statue of Thoth is in the middle of it all. I’m just bobbing and weaving through it all.

  BOOM! BOOM!

  BOOM! BOOM!

  I turn towards the ear-splitting sound, seeing the carnage left behind. The Tiger-woman is in pieces, Kane standing over her, twin cannons smoking. It looks like he took a claw over the left side of his jaw too, digging in and drawing blood. He’s going to have a wicked scar when it’s all said and done, that’s for sure. I doubt the man cares though. He’ll probably think it makes him look like more of a badass, and I can’t help but agree.

  POP! POP! POP! POP!

  POP! POP! POP! POP!

  Nicole and Dad use shear volume to take out the bat-man, while Kane cuts the gorilla-guy in half with his .50 caliber rounds. They all take off running, reloading in the process, as another of the Nightmares moves in for the kill. The half-human half-hawk swoops down and almost decapitates Nicole, but she masterfully rolls and comes up shooting, twin Rugers roaring to life. Dad and Kane join in and they de-wing the flying freak, which plummets to the ground, smashing to bits.

  CRACK!

  I get whacked from behind, and forcefully thrown into one of the long standing columns. After blowing right through it, I come to a stop in a very painful and very, very ungraceful roll. I probably looked like one of those cartwheeling skiers who loses all their equipment going down a steep slope. I think the term is called a yard sale. Thankfully, I didn’t lose anything, primarily my arms and legs, although they do break horribly. They heal faster than the pain can register, but the sound of my bones breaking is unnerving for sure.

  All of this happens while the monstrous Ares stands and watches. It doesn’t move an inch. Just the beast’s eyes move, watching as the fight unfolds. Waiting for his opportunity to join in.

  A hand grabs my wrist and yanks me to my feet.

  I turn and let lose a punch that would have killed a water buffalo, but hit nothing.

  “Dammit, Hank!”

  I look down and see Nicole on the ground. She must have ducked my wild strike and hit the dirt. Thank God I didn’t connect.

  “Sorry,” I say and help her up.

  She gets right to the point, “What do we do now? We need to get out of here before that thing attacks us.” She says motioning to Ares. “We don’t have enough ammo to slow it down, let alone take it out.”

  She’s right. I’m the only one that can survive. The last thing I need right now is to watch my friends and father fall while trying to help.

  “Fall back to the shaft entrance and get the hell out of here. Have Kane call in whatever heavy hitters he has available. We can’t let either of them make it to the surface.” She’s about to argue. “Blow the damn shaft if you have to. If I survive I will find another way out. I promise.”

  I make sure she understands the meaning behind the ‘I promise.’ I want to make it as crystal clear to her about how I feel.

  “If I lost you I—”

  “ARGH!”

  Nannot screams and leaps straight at Nicole. If he gets to her there is nothing I can do. I do the only thing I can think of—I shove Nicole and send her to a hard, but survivable landing twenty feet away.

  He lands in front of me expecting to tear into a very killable human being, but finds me instead. I’m just as invulnerable as he is, and I’m angry.

  I land a massive blow to the side of his head, concentrating on a pressure wave between my fist and his head. I increase it exponentially and cave in his skull. I then grab his unmoving body and hurl him into the stone forest, breaking his body in countless spots. That should buy us a few seconds at least. At least I hope.

  Kane and my father have joined me, having already helped Nicole to her feet. I notice she’s limping and holding her ribs. Damn. I knew I pushed her too hard.

  She sees my concern, “I’m fine Hank. Thank you.”

  “You sure?”

  She nods, “Could have been worse.”

  “Like how?” I ask.

  “Like, dead.”

  I know she’s right, but I still feel bad about doing what I did. I could have killed her if I reacted with any more force.

  Then I come to realize something. Everything I do is basically based on my reactions and my emotions. Could I use that for a better, greater good? Something inside me says I can. But how?

  Okay, what are my strongest inner feelings? What drives me the most? I look around at this once beautiful world and then at the people who are with me.

  My Dad is an easy one. I mean he’s my Dad. The guy’s my hero, no question. Even though I’ve never told him and would probably be too embarrassed to tell him to his face. The man dug me out of the gutter when I was at my lowest and gave me a job. He gave me new life, a purpose. One that I really love.

  Kane has turned into a most trustworthy ally and partner in crime. The man has been by my side from the moment this crap started. He has never once questioned my judgment or stepped over any line.

  And then there’s Nicole. The tough-as-nails, blonde bombshell with an iron will. She has forced a new emotion building within me I thought long dead. Love. I think I love the woman. The pain and agony she has felt in her life is like a beacon to me. I want to help her. I want to hold her. I want to tell her she’s safe—not that she can’t handle herself or anything. She’s proven that much and then some for sure.

  My father, Kane and Nicole, I love these people. I would do anything for them. My family, my friend and my…something else. They are what matters most. And that emotion is what drives me now.

  Love.

  I know it sounds pretty cliché, but it’s the truth.

  It’s lik
e the way the three brothers loved their sibling, and how the mighty Thoth loved his son even after his treachery. They forgave him for what he has done. It’s blind, unconditional love.

  I turn and look towards the very imposing form of Ares. He still hasn’t moved but is now looking in our direction, his saucer-sized black eyes looking at us. Wait, black eyes? They aren’t red or even bleeding. Nannot has no control over him. Come to think of it, his eyes weren’t bleeding when he first emerged from the forest either.

  I get an unbelievably crazy idea, but decide to keep it to myself. I don’t think the others would approve.

  “Go,” I say, motioning to the courtyard exit.

  Before anyone can argue, I turn and walk straight toward Ares. The immense creature is even bigger when you’re less than three feet from its snout, which is eye level with me now.

  It doesn’t move, or blink. It just stands there and stares. I lift my hand in a non-threatening posture, like I’m about to pet an unfamiliar dog. The beast lets out an almost nervous snort, but doesn’t attack. I calmly place my hand atop the tip of its nose and close my eyes.

  FLASH!

  I see more pain and torment. It’s the same as the others. The torture these things must have gone through is almost too much to bare. It’s sickening. But Ares is different. I can feel something else in there. I can feel another consciousness, like a hidden brain within the monster’s brain. I feel an almost human presence in there. It’s like a person’s consciousness got plucked out of a body and implanted into this one.

  I’m not sure if Ares can understand me, but I try anyway, “For the crimes against you, I am sorry, and for your crimes against humanity you are forgiven.” I project my feelings as much as I can into the beast. The love I have for my family and friends and the loss and emptiness I have inside of me for what Nannot has done.

  “You are free from his will, you must feel it. He cannot invade your mind anymore. He has taken a new host and doesn’t have the ability to hurt someone of your strength.

  He grunts when I say someone and not something.