Several of the demons jumped on Simon, bringing him down with their sheer numbers.
“Simon,” McCorkleson called. “I’ve got the train on the tracks. Should I wait for you, or—”
“Get out of here!” Simon roared. He put a hand on the ground and shoved himself up, throwing as many of the demons from him as he could. He reached over his shoulder and drew his sword. Focusing the arcane power he had, he said a quick Prayer of Conflagration.
Immediately a flaming nimbus appeared around him, setting several of the demons on fire. They squalled and peeled away from him. By then the tide shifted and Simon had both hands on his sword.
Simon swung, cleaving bodies almost effortlessly. He slashed again and again, not worrying about skill. All he needed for the task at hand was brute strength. There was no need to finesse when targets tried to envelop him like a cocoon. Despite the damage he was inflicting, the demons continued to try to drag him down. They’d succeeded in taking some of the Templar down.
“Retreat!” Simon yelled to the survivors. “Retreat!”
“You heard him!” Wertham crowed. “We’ve got a train to catch!”
Simon fired the Scorcher into the face of a Darkspawn that shot at him. All of the Templar that were able to, disengaged from the demons and ran down the tube. Simon waited for just a moment, then ran after them. With his enhanced strength and speed, he surprised the demons and managed to get a head start.
He hoped it was enough. Hell dogged his footsteps.
Dragging himself to the top of the dead demons, Warren looked around in disbelief. He’d seen the Templar. They’d been seriously outmatched, outnumbered. Even now nearly half their number lay scattered across the tube floor. Those that still lingered in life wouldn’t last long.
Standing, swaying, his eyesight showing double now because a chunk of ceiling had fallen and clipped him in the head, Warren knew he’d never be able to catch up with the Templar. The one who’d taken his hand was still alive. He screamed in helpless fury, then an idea came to him.
He looked at one of the nearby Blood Angels. “Come. Obey me.”
The Blood Angel glided over to where he stood. She hissed and snapped at him, but she didn’t come close to him in spite of her efforts.
“Down,” Warren ordered.
Kneeling, the Blood Angel was only inches from Warren’s feet. Wiping blood from his eyes, Warren threw himself on top of the demon.
“Get up,” he ordered, wrapping his legs around the Blood Angel’s waist and leaving her enough room to use her wings. “Fly.”
The Blood Angel rose to its haunches and threw itself forward. It flapped hurriedly, struggling with the extra weight. Then it was airborne, streaking over the carnage and pursuing the Templar. At her best speed she barely made headway against her quarry. Warren knew then that the armor gave its wearer extra speed and strength.
Glancing down, he saw that the chase continued. The demons weren’t going to simply let the Templar get away. They were in hot pursuit, and they weren’t going to stop until they overtook the Templar.
Looking forward, Warren felt the Blood Angel’s muscles contract and loosen as it winged through the air. It shot over the leading demon hordes and caught the attention of the Templar.
Then, ahead in the darkness, Warren spotted a bright light headed away from him. A train!
He recognized the train for what it was almost at the same time he realized that it was moving under its own power when it should have been stalled. Somehow the Templar had arranged an escape.
The Templar caught up to the last car and pulled themselves up. They scattered across the train car at once, lying prone and filling their hands with pistols.
Several energy bolts and flaming explosions whizzed by Warren, ripping into the ceiling and the walls around him. The Blood Angel never wavered, but she threw bolts that struck the train and knocked one of the armored men off.
Summoning the power he felt within him, Warren created a glowing ball of force in his hand. When he felt, instinctively, that it was the proper size and strength, he threw it at the train.
Two of the knights dodged away, fleeing back along the train car, but a third wasn’t so lucky. The ball of crackling blue-white energy smashed into the knight and blasted pieces of his armor away as it knocked his body from the train to the nearest wall.
The train continued on its way but hadn’t reached its top speed yet. The demons closed on it.
Warren guided the Blood Angel with his thoughts, causing the demon to dip down low enough so that he could see what the armored men had sought to protect. When he looked through the broken glass windows and saw men, women, and children huddled fearfully on the floor of the train car, he was surprised.
He was even more surprised when something whipped out of the darkness and wrapped around the Blood Angel’s neck. Then the demon was yanked sideways, brought into a distinct collision with the side of the car.
Dazed, Warren tried to hang on to the Blood Angel, then he saw the demon’s feet slide under the train car’s wheels. Recognizing the danger, he jumped for the side of the train car just before the churning wheels yanked the Blood Angel beneath them. Before he could pull himself up, a knight stood at the edge and peered down at him, pointing a large pistol straight at his face.
Running hard as he could, Simon caught up with the train with the last of the Templar. His HUD informed him that nineteen of the warriors had been lost. The number shocked him. He’d expected some
