Page 104 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
Either way, I was quite all right with killing it and my uncertainty remaining an academic question.
Davina fired at it again, and it seemed to realize it wasn’t safe, as it dove again. She hit it, and I could see the impact on its skin. The energy was black in that spot. Like the arrow had created a patch of void.
Sever with light. Seiji’s spells were succinct but accurate, it seemed.
Then the beastie appeared again, not from the ceiling, but from the side—no, wait, it was smaller? Less substantial, somehow, the colors muted. Like a poor copy. The same second I spotted it, Davina cursed.
“On your left!”
“Right as well,” I called out.
Fuck me, there were two of ’em. Only thing worse than one of ’em was a damned twin.
Shite, please tell me there wasn’t a nest down here. I could only handle so much fun in a day. I was nearly vibrating out of my skin already; much more fun than this, I’d be worse than them kids in the Willy Wonka factory.
That said, as much fun as I was having, I did worry about my Seiji. “Leannan, tell me there’s not more of these things!”
“There’s only one,” Seiji answered, steadying his aim and firing off a shot of his own. The fact he could summon, shape, and fire off pure energy straight from his palm was sexy as fuck. The calm expression he had on his face was just a cherry on that sexy cake. “The other you’re seeing is a phantom copy—fuck.”
A third shot out from the side. This thing could make two clones of itself? That was annoying.
Fun, too.
I grinned like the maniac my family accused me of being even as I moved, getting something of a jump start and managing another score against the beastie as it flew overhead. It screamed in pain and anger before flicking straight up into a stalactite.
Wait, was that right?
“Is it the stalactite that’s coming down? Or stalagmite?”
“Lachlan,” Davina snapped, “will you fucking focus?!”
I’d have to Google it later.
A rush of air came from my right side and I spun, this time throwing one of my dirks and scoring directly dead-center mass. The dirk sank right into the chest, torso, whatever you want to call it, and I saw what Seiji meant then. The dirk’s energy clashed with the beastie’s, and it spread out like a poison, leaving dead-looking skin behind that turned grey as stone.
Wow. Now that was quite the lethal weapon.
The beastie veered off, losing all momentum as it crashed heavily into the ground. The second it impacted, it flew apart, energy scattering in a million directions. My dirk clattered to the stone in a sharp drop, the metal ringing as it struck the floor.
“Good job!” Seiji tossed me a delighted grin. “Now, my turn.”
Davina snorted like he was being funny and she lifted her bow, aiming for the beastie’s second clone as it rushed us. I had a hand on my claymore, ready to draw, but I could tell from her stance, she was sure of the shot. The second her arrow released, I had a gut feeling it would land.
Her arrow flew true, piercing it right through the side, and with the same devastating effect. It grew cold, dark, then blew apart like a bag of flour dropped off the roof. Davina’s arrow also clattered to the floor. None of us tried to pick up those weapons.
The main body was still around here somewhere.
Now, I wasn’t chasing a flying thing in an unstable cavern underground. Seen too many horror movies to believe that agood idea. The beastie seemed more cautious now we’d so handily dispatched its clones. Time to draw it out and make short work of this fight. So I took two dirks and banged the blades together, taunting it.
“Come here, you motherfucker,” I called to it. “Come ’ere, you nyaff. Hackit! Scrote!”
Schoolyard taunts, in a way, but it worked! The beastie didn’t like being called dirty or annoying, and it dove straight at me. Aye, that was more like it.
I grinned in delight even as I braced myself. It would be in range in three, two, one—
Davina’s arrow hit it right in the side, even as I sliced one dirk right along its neck (or whatever that was), and this time, I felt Seiji’s magic like I never had before. It hummed, like a glove around my hand and wrist, and when my blade met beastie, its hum became so audible I found myself humming along with it, a deep-pitched note.
The beastie screamed, this otherworldly sound, and it thrashed as it hit the stone floor hard. It skidded for just a few feet, but I would not let it get back up.
