“Fire again,” Frank shouted. More arrows pierced the sky, and more landed and drew blood. Lord Amon stumbled and swatted the air, catching arrowheads with its arm.
“Again.”
More arrows. More blood. The angel was hurt, staggering.
“Again.”
More arrows flew, but not so many this time. Only a couple found the target.
“Again.”
Even fewer arrows flew. The archers were all out.
“It waited,” said Ted, once again speaking to himself. “It waited until we were low on ammo. Now we’re defenceless.”
The massive beast slowly recovered, standing tall and gingerly taking a step forward. One or two more arrows flew, but they landed harmlessly in the mud. Lord Amon reached down and plucked up the demons at its feet, collecting them in its massive hand like writhing insects. It was unclear what it was doing.
Until it became clear.
Lord Amon hurled the demons into the air just like it had the tree trunk. They sailed through the air almost comically before raining down on top of the arrow-less archers. Havoc ensued. Those armed with melee weapons were down below, not up top, and it meant the archers were defenceless against the thrashing beasts that now tore them apart. Ted rushed across the wooden platform, sweeping up a demon with his heavy hammer and lifting it up and over the wall. The next demon he couldn’t get to because a man named Brian was in the way. Brian screamed, batting at the demon frantically with hands that were being sliced to pieces. The primate leapt on Brian and tore out his throat, then Ted crushed its skull.
More demons flew in from overhead, scattering along the ramparts and in the courtyard below. Men fought everywhere, but there was no order or strategy to their defence. This was pure chaos, demon against man.
Frank was on the other side of the ramparts, separated from Ted by the broken section caused by the flying tree trunk. He gave Ted a nod that summed up what they were both thinking. This is it.
“Don’t let ’em scare you, lads,” Frank shouted. “They’re just grumpy ’cos their mums never loved ’em. Send ’em back to Hell.”
Ted left the ramparts and entered the courtyard just as another round of demons came raining down from the skies. Some landed badly, snapping legs or even necks, but others landed on top of people and began clawing and biting. Ted ducked as a primate almost landed on top of him. It hit the muddy ground at his feet and bounced. He didn’t wait for it to recover. He caved in its chest with his hammer.
Dr Kamiyo fretted nearby. He shouted to Ted, but it was out of fear more than reason. The doctor could fight, but he had spent the last few months caring for their sick and injured. Ted’s fondness for him forced him to fight his way over. He bashed aside two demons and then a third just as it was about to pounce on the doctor. “Where are the children, Kamiyo?”
Kamiyo just stared at him.
Ted shook him. “Where are the kids?”
“In the Great Hall.”
“Go to them. Protect them with your life.”
Kamiyo nodded and took off, the man’s courage greater than his fear. Ted suddenly missed Hannah.
That kid would’ve been an asset right now.
But even with Hannah’s loss, Kielder still had a secret weapon.
Sorrow charged like a raging bull, swatting aside primates and twisting the heads off burnt men. Demons managed to leap onto his back but were quickly thrown high into the air by the flapping of his jet-black wings. Sorrow was a force of nature – a whirlwind of destruction – and each second he crushed another demon to dust, without a moment’s hesitation. There was no sign of Scarlett, but Ted knew she would have been banished to the Great Hall along with the children.
There was an almighty clatter, and bricks rained from the sky. Part of the castle’s original stone wall toppled. The rivets holding the portcullis popped loose and the iron gate flopped onto the shingle pathway. A stream of demons tore their way inside, eviscerating everything in their path. For the first time in history, the walls surrounding Kothal Castle had been breached.
“Ted! Ted, we need to get out of here.” Ted turned in the direction of the voice and saw Damien and his small group of soldiers standing at the far edge of the courtyard. They were hacking at demons wherever they could find them, Damien waved a hand at Ted and shouted again for him to get over there. “I can get us out of here.”
Ted ran, dodging a burnt man that instead fell upon a poor woman named Jamie-Lee. He made it over to Damien, huffing and puffing. Tosco was there with the woman, Maddy, and the other newcomers from the Hatchet. Maddy grabbed Ted and straightened him up, then fired a handgun into the demonic crowd to buy some breathing room. Tosco was holding a radio and said, “I can level this place, but we need to not be here when I do.”
“There’s no escape,” said Ted. “There’re demons everywhere. Where would we even go?”
“That’s what I need to know,” said Damien. “Give me a destination and I’ll get us there.”
Nancy appeared, and begged in a voice both fragile and fierce, “We need to get to The Hatchet. I need to be with my daughter.”
“So that’s option one,” said Damien. “Ted, do you have an option two?”
He was about to shrug and go with what Nancy had said, but then he shook his head and frowned. “What does it even matter? This is our last stand. We can’t escape.”
“Yes, we can,” said a woman who Ted thought was called Steph. She was dating a guy named Harry, and the two seemed to be friends of Damien’s. Damien reached out his hands and they each took one, the three of them linking up in a line. A smell of burning arose. The air seemed to
