The Minion sat astride a Fetid Hulk. Twelve feet tall and powerfully built with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, the Fetid Hulk was an engine of destruction. The green hide glowed with lambent energy.
Seated on the Fetid Hulk’s shoulders, legs wrapped around the larger demon’s neck, the Minion urged his savage mount forward. Covered in thick gray hide, the Minion looked as if it had been squashed into a squared-off form, condensed from something somehow larger, more solid and threatening. Minions’ hands were removed at birth and the arms outfitted with organic links or technological implants that allowed the slotting of different weapons. They carried spare “hands” with them that gave them a range of attacks. The right hand worn by the Minion atop the Fetid Hulk sparked with electricity, and the left one glowed a dark violet.
The demons knew we hunted here, Simon thought desperately. They were waiting on us. He whipped his head around in time to watch Nathan go down before a charging Carnagor. The demon put its feet in the center of Nathan’s chest and knocked him down.
Frantically, the Carnagor dug its feet in and tried to overcome its forward momentum as it struggled to turn around and go back after its fallen foe.
“Nathan!” Simon shouted as he ran toward his friend.
There was no response. Nathan lay half buried in the snow and loose dirt.
Simon placed his hand onto Nathan’s helm. The suit-to-suit connection displayed Nathan’s vital signs on Simon’s HUD. SINGH, NATHAN. CONCUSSED. READY STIM?
“Administer stim,” Simon ordered.
Nathan’s suit affixed a slap-patch to the Templar’s body. Simon knew chemicals already raced through Nathan’s body, but it would be a few seconds before he would be aware enough to save himself.
The Carnagor completed its turn and ran back in Nathan’s direction. Knowing he couldn’t grab Nathan, hoist the fallen man from the ground, and get them both out of the way of the rampaging Carnagor in time, Simon set himself before the demon and hunkered behind the Blockade Shield. It was almost three feet in diameter.
“Connect shield to armor power,” Simon rasped.
“Shield connected,” the suit AI replied. “Power levels at full.”
“Anchor.” Simon stared into the Carnagor’s feverish red eyes as it closed the distance.
“Anchor not recommended at this time,” the suit AI said. “Suggest evasive maneuvers. Personal safety is at risk.”
“Anchor,” Simon ordered. “Personal safety override.” He felt the vibration as the spikes drove deeply into the ground. Just before the Carnagor reached him, Simon leaned forward to intercept the demon with the shield and hoped he hadn’t foolishly gotten himself killed. Death would be better than getting captured by the demons.
At the moment of collision, the world seemed to go away. During his training as a Templar novice, during the years of extreme sports that included base jumping, as well as nanospring skateboarding with wipeouts at over sixty miles an hour and eighty feet in height, he’d never before been hit so hard.
The Blockade Shield was designed to offer anticoncussive resistance. Whatever force it defended against, the arcane energy and nanotech was designed to re-create, meet, and negate. That worked well in theory. The Templar that had designed it had suggested that it might stop a speeding automobile.
No one had ever tested that.
No one had ever used it in a head-on competition against a Carnagor, either.
Simon flew backward at the impact. Pain wracked his body, and he was certain that his legs had ripped free of his hips. The shield had slammed against his knees, shoulder, and chest so hard it knocked the breath from his lungs in spite of the anti-impact energies and natural resistance of the armor.
Then he landed on his butt and rolled through the snow and savaged earth. Somewhere along the way he lost the shield, but he kept hold of the sword. His vision swam as he tried to focus. He had managed to deflect the Carnagor from Nathan. Behind the demon, Nathan groggily got to his feet and reached for his sword.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Danielle asked.
“I was really hoping not to,” Simon replied as he stared at the charging Carnagor. He tried to move his feet, then discovered the spikes had yanked chunks of stone from the earth. He recalled the spikes and the stone dropped away. He pushed himself to his feet and turned profile as the Carnagor bore down on him. There was no time to get away.
Slightly before his left palm made contact with the Carnagor’s head, Simon leaped and tucked himself into a forward roll across the demon’s massive shoulders. Simon slammed his boot soles against the Carnagor’s spine.
“Anchor,” Simon ordered again.
Immediately, the spikes shot down from his boots and sank deeply into the Carnagor’s body. At least one of them severed the demon’s spine. The Carnagor’s steps suddenly lacked power and went wobbly. But it lashed its huge head around and flashed its tusks.
Reversing his sword, Simon took a two-handed grip on it and rammed it through the Carnagor’s neck at the base of the demon’s skull. At that point the Carnagor became a pile of dead meat that was only just then realizing it.
Simon retracted the anchoring spikes and leaped from the demon’s back. Landing, Simon plunged into a four-foot snowdrift and had to fight his way free. The suit AI located his shield and he made straightaway for it.
“Thanks for the save, mate,” Nathan said as he joined him.
Simon nodded, then swept the grounds with his gaze. “Retreat,” he broadcast over the comm. “To the west.”
“The cliffs are that way, Simon,” Danielle protested.
Simon saw her in the distance as she employed both the Molten Edge swords to disembowel a Ravager and then take the head from a second.
“The demons lie in all other directions,” Simon said. “We don’t have a choice. Do it
