He felt his right foot slide over the cliff’s edge and tried to stop himself from falling. The gutted Carnagor struck him again, driving both feet forward again.
The demon’s momentum propelled Simon over the edge, but the Carnagor failed to stop its own headlong momentum and ended up following after him. They both began the long fall to the broken ground below.
In mid-fall, Simon’s reflexes and training took over. He’d learned a lot about falling and how to handle momentum in his Templar training, but his background in extreme sports had taken what was out of the ordinary and made it everyday for him.
Upside down in his fall, Simon slapped his empty hand against the cliff’s sheer face. “Anchor right hand.”
Immediately, the suit AI shot spikes out from the underside of his wrist that bored into the solid rock of the cliff. Simon’s fall ended abruptly and uncomfortably as his hand stayed connected to the cliff face. He was suddenly right side up again, but his hand was trapped behind him. Pain flared through his wrist and arm. He slammed his boot soles against the wall and anchored them as well.
Shifting his shield to his back, Simon anchored his left hand and released his right. He swung out a little and stared at the Carnagor’s broken body below.
Nathan cried out in panic.
Simon glanced up as a flood of snow poured over the cliff’s edge nine feet above him. He barely registered the fact that Nathan fell before he reachinged for his friend. Nathan fell headfirst when Simon’s hand closed around his ankle. For a moment Simon thought his shoulder might pop out of joint, but it held.
“Lord love a duck,” Nathan breathed as he swung like a pendulum from Simon’s hand. “I thought I was done for then, mate.”
“Me, too,” Simon said.
One of the flying demons dove from the sky. As it neared, Simon judged that it wasn’t much bigger than an African condor, but that still made it bloody big. It had batwings and a forked tail over half again its length from nose to anterior.
The flying demon beat its wings fiercely and brought itself to a brief halt. Then it whipped its tail forward and attempted to drive the barbed end through Simon’s visor. Minute fissures appeared in the high-impact polycarbonate.
“Warning,” the suit AI said. “Repeated blows—”
The demon wheeled around, screamed in bloodlust, and attacked again. The fissures grew longer and wider.
“—may succeed in faceplate penetration,” the suit AI finished. “Atmosphere integrity breached.”
Simon swung Nathan toward the wall. “Lock on,” he growled, then heard Nathan’s suit anchors fire. Trusting the suit anchors to hold, Simon turned his attention to the attacking demon.
Staying with its usual method of attack, the demon swung around again and struck once more with its tail. This time, though, Simon seized the striking tail and stopped the wicked barb less than an inch from his faceplate.
The demon tried to escape by flapping its wings furiously. When it discovered that it couldn’t escape, the demon curled over and attacked with a razor-sharp bill that scored Simon’s armor.
Two other winged demons gathered in front of Simon. He whipped the demon to one side with its tail. Bones shattered when they met the cliff face. He released the dead demon and raised his free arm to defend against the two new ones.
Before they reached him, Nathan curled up with his Firefield Caster clenched in his fist. Flames belched from the pistol and charred both demons to ruin. Dead or dying, they dropped like stones.
“Thanks,” Simon said.
“Don’t mention it,” Nathan replied. “If it weren’t for you, mate, I wouldn’t still be hanging about.”
Turning back to the cliff face, Simon used the suit’s anchors to climb. As he pulled himself up, he accessed the other Templar’s video feeds through his HUD. Danielle and the other four battled desperately against terrible odds. Then Honeywell went down beneath a Carnagor’s attack. The demon reared in savage, animalistic glee and pounded the fallen Templar.
Simon hauled himself over the edge and got to his feet. He freed his sword while on the run to aid Honeywell, hoping that he wasn’t arriving too late. Nathan trailed behind him.
The Carnagor spotted Simon on the approach and tried to turn to face him. Before the beast set itself, Simon slit the Carnagor’s throat with his sword. He rammed a shoulder into the demon to shove it from Honeywell.
Be alive, Simon commanded as he knelt and put a hand on Honeywell’s chest. The suit-to-suit dataswap kicked in immediately and provided the fallen Templar’s vitals.
Honeywell was alive. But only just. The list of broken bones and internal injuries spilled forth. She wouldn’t return to the battle, and might not live to survive it.
“Initiate medical override,” Simon said, contacting Honeywell’s AI.
“Initiating medical override,” the suit’s AI responded.
“Full system shutdown.”
“Affirmative. Kris Honeywell needs immediate medical attention.”
“Noted,” Simon replied. He stood and shifted his shield from his back. As soon as it locked into position, his suit powered it up again. By that time Nathan stood at his side, and the Ravagers had turned their attentions to them.
“What do you think, mate?” Nathan asked as he shot a Ravager with the Firefield Caster. Flames blazed up around the Ravager, and it howled in dismay.
Simon caught a leaping Ravager on his shield, bashed it to the ground, then stomped its throat to smash the trachea. He stomped again and put an anchor spike through its brain.
“If we can get Honeywell up, we can try to go down the cliffs.”
“The Ravagers can climb.”
“But the Carnagors can’t.”
“True.”
Simon smashed his sword through a Ravager’s skull and dropped another dead body at his feet. But they just kept coming. He called Danielle and the others to him. Bravely, the Templar fought
