We both keep swinging our swords, and we both keep blocking each other’s shots. The muscles in my arms are screaming from the constant swinging, and I know I have to take this motherfucker down fast if I want to survive this fight. The demon is showing no signs of tiring, and I don’t want to find myself in a position where a member of the team has to come and bail me out. The thought of that happening spurs me on, giving me fresh energy and momentarily stopping the ache in my arms from feeling so intense.
I swing again, but it’s a badly timed swing and the Ven Demon manages to get his sword beneath mine, and with a flick of his wrist, my sword is wrenched from my hands. I curse myself as it falls to the ground just out of my reach.
The Ven Demon grins at me, a malicious grin that shows wolf-like white teeth and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He steps towards me, and I take a step back. I need to get to my dagger, but if I bend down to get to my boot now, he’ll chop my head off. I duck to the side to avoid another shot.
He swings again and I crouch and then throw myself to the ground and roll. As I roll, I pull my dagger out of my boot. I end up on my back and I go to stand back up, but the demon is hovering over me, the tip of his sword pressed to my throat.
I don’t have time to think, I just act. I pull my knees up to my chest and kick out hard with both feet. They catch the demon in the stomach, right where I was aiming to hit him, and he goes sprawling. I spring up and run towards him. I don’t waste any time, I just ram my dagger into his eye, jumping back to avoid the hot spurt of acidic black blood that sprays from his ruined eye. I step back to him when the spurting becomes a trickle, and I wrench my dagger free, turn away, and run back to retrieve my sword.
I pick my sword up, push my dagger into the back of my jeans where I can grab it easily, and start to run back into the battle. I’ve only taken a couple steps when I feel a sharp stinging pain across the top of my arm. I gasp in a breath through gritted teeth, already seeing the blood seeping through my sleeve. I look up, but there’s no one close enough to have done that. I swing out in a wide arc with my sword and I feel it connect with something that’s both hard and soft.
A Ven Demon materializes in front of my eyes, becoming visible now that I’ve wounded him. My sword caught him in the side, but it’s far from a fatal wound and he grins and launches himself at me, his own sword swinging. The tip scratches across my stomach as I jump back, not quickly enough to avoid the swing altogether, but quickly enough to avoid being cut in half. Pain fills me for a moment, threatening to overwhelm my senses, but I can’t let it distract me completely. I swallow hard, forcing myself to ignore the stinging pain in my stomach and my arm.
I jump back as he swings again, and this time, he misses me completely. I circle him for a moment, my eyes locked on his, waiting for him to drop his guard slightly, waiting for an opening to end him. He doesn’t drop his guard, but he does advance on me and swing his sword hard, attempting to cut my head off.
I duck beneath his potentially lethal swing and I throw myself toward him. I grab my dagger out of my jeans as I launch myself forward, and I ram it into his stomach and wrench it upwards, splitting his stomach wide open. Black sausage-like intestines spill from the wound. The demon drops his sword, using his hands to try and hold his insides in. It doesn’t work. They spill out through his fingers. His knees buckle and he falls to them before slamming to the ground on his face. As he falls, he catches my eye, and I see a look of almost comical surprise on his face.
“Yeah. You fuck with the Paradox, you don’t live to tell the tale,” I mutter.
I start to move again, putting my dagger away once more, wanting my hands free to use my sword. I have covered another couple of steps when a blanket of blue electricity flies towards me. I throw myself flat on the ground and it passes over the top of me. I get to my feet, my eyes narrowed at Ya-Ya as she runs towards me, a look of horror on her face.
“Sailor. Oh my God, I’m sorry. Are you alright?” she says.
I nod my head, my eyes still narrowed, trying to work out if her apology is genuine. Did she just try to take me out because she’s the Horseman? Why else would she have launched a wall of lightning at me?
“Watch out behind you,” Ya-Ya shouts, not seeming to notice the way I’m eyeing her suspiciously.
I spin around in time to see about twelve Ven Demons coming at me.
“Get down,” Ya-Ya shouts.
I drop to the ground and she throws another blanket of blue electricity at them. She keeps it coming, and it connects with all but one of them and I have to look away for a moment as the sparks consume their bodies, making them convulse and drop
