“If you say so.”
“...in most cases.” No sense in lying to him.
Keegan turned his head to look at me, just as a Slaugh slammed into his side. He let out a loud grunt, and a battle for our lives began in earnest. Keegan was a wild swinger, but the shillelagh gave him even more range than his impressive stature. “Form them up!” he shouted. “I want to see how many I can hit in one go!”
“This is not one of your stupid video games!” I snapped. “You don’t get points for combos!” I shouted, although it was an interesting theory. I could evaluate it... later.
“You’re no fun,” Keegan huffed. He then made a mighty swipe, knocking three of the five Slaugh’s into each other. “There’s a combo for you!”
I shook my head before lunging at one of the Slaugh’s that hadn’t formed up so tightly. While Keegan’s range was advantageous, it didn’t quite mesh with my current weapon set and strategy. Nonetheless, his tactics drew their attention. He battered as many as he could in one go, which helped isolate targets for me. His mighty swipe sent bits of shadowy Slaugh spraying. The Slaugh retaliated, dissolving into smoke, disorienting me by passing right through, before raking my back with a black claw. Hissing in pain, I whirled and struck for the creature’s throat with both knives. Creatures made of magic don’t necessarily follow proper vulnerability rules. Still, removing the head is as good a tactic as any.
Behind (or through) my current opponent, Keegan was struggling. His wild swings and crushing blows were beginning to tire him out. He puffed and panted, and jammed his shillelagh into a Slaugh’s belly. It grabbed onto the knobby end of the cudgel, jerking Keegan closer and gouging his side with its black claws. Alas, Keegan was like a famous Irish / Mexican boxer of yore, Danny “Little Red” Lopez. Red’s opponents were always warned: “Don’t knock him down. You’ll only make him mad.” The same went for Keegan. That which did not kill him merely made him even angrier. He battered the creature with a powerful punch to the face. “My stick! Mine, you dumb fuck!”
I still had my own battle. My initial strike ripped a big chunk out of the creature’s neck. Now, with a second well-timed slash, I cut its head off. The shadow dispersed into a cloud of glittering black dust. The slash wound on my back was stinging. I could not ignore the blood flowing down my back, but I needed to push through the pain. I could heal myself… later. If I took too much more energy from my surroundings now, the damage could be irreversible, and the earth could have trouble recovering.
Fueled by battle rage, Keegan got a bit more precise with his swings. He dropped the game of multiple blasts, and focused on knocking their heads clean off, one at a time. He shattered sloughs like bursting piñatas, covering him in sparkly black dust. “Is this fucking glitter? Please tell me I’m not sparkling.” Keegan threw another Slaugh to the ground. He gave it a savage beatdown, really laying boots on the manky beast. Instead of dissolving into the dust, it broke apart in thick chunks of wreckage that looked like gooey charcoal.
The Slaughs were tough targets, but we had them on the defensive now. I was pleased with how the tides had turned. “Grab that last one!” I yelled, “I’m pulling the barrier down and activating a seal!” The dome above the area began to fade away, and as I drew power, more leaves heaped themselves onto the ground. A pentagram conjured itself, with me and one very unlucky Slaugh at the center.
“Right!” With a twisted sneer, Keegan wrenched the Slaugh to the ground in the pentagram’s boundaries. This tore the creature apart down the middle, with a trail of dust forming as it split.
“Well done,” I nodded to my battle partner. “Now, as for you...” I pressed down on the Slaugh’s shoulders, hard enough to force it into a sitting position. Although technically, I must admit, “sitting” was a debatable description, given that the top half of the creature was all that remained.
I wrenched its head around to face me. “Why do you want Keira?”
The Slaugh blinked, its shadow edges billowing weakly. Keegan applied a little more persuasion, this time with a boot. “Don’t play dumb!” His words sizzled with white hot fury. “Who sent you? Why do you want Keira? What do you plan to do with her?”
Still, no response. Keegan gave the thing another kick. “Can’t you force him to talk? Isn’t there a spell, or something you can use?”
I exhaled heavily, feeling pressure over losing valuable time. The magic I had already pulled from the life forces around us had filled me with that incredible, euphoric high that I knew was dangerous. I needed another method.
I considered my uncooperative captive. “How curious…” A sinister edge slipped into my voice. “Surely, even something as foul as you must have a self-preservation instinct. My friend will be happy to wipe you from this world, and the other world, completely – if you don’t start giving us answers.”
“Maybe he’s too fucking dumb to save his own manky oxters,” Keegan taunted. He rapped his shillelagh smartly against the Slaugh’s head. “Listen to me, you bucket o’ snots. Drugging a human is a foul and disgusting thing, but you drugged our girl...” Keegan said, smacking the creature almost hard enough to decapitate it. “Now I’m a reasonable sort of leprechaun. We’re a jolly sort, full of fun and mischief.” Keegan’s next blow went to the body. “But me oul pardner Brann here? Aye, he’s a scientific type. Curious. I’ll bet he can find a thousand ways to shred you down to flitters, but still keep you just short of blessed death.”
I nodded. “That’s enough time wasted, Keegan. He’s willing to sacrifice himself for the cause. And I’m dying of curiosity. Let’s just take him
