Slave Pits of the Tyrannical God (Path of Transcendence Book 2) (25 page)

Sandor and Gabriel pushed forward on either side of Talon. Sandor's axe has a lambent green glow, the outward sign of the Power bound into it. Micheal's sword was wrapped in fire, but it did not come from the weapon itself. Michael was actually a caster specializing in fire magic, but almost all of his spells were personal or point blank in their range. Neither of their weapons were as effective against the incorporeal undead as Talon's black energy, but they were still effective enough to do real damage.

Glancing over his shoulder, Talon saw the rest of the Bohemian Cats forming a square behind him. Yoh and one Galadria were drawing spell patterns in the air.

Talon ignored Galadria but narrowed his eyes, as he stared at Yoh's spell.

There were over a hundred of the undead in the warehouse, and more are still coming though the empty doorway.

“Fuck. We are already in deep shit. There are too many undead coming for us to fight our way to the sewer entry.”

Sandor glared at Talon. “You fucking bastard. You're the one that got us into the this, so get us out of it!”

Talon stared at Sandor, while accurately targeting the heads of the undead in front of him. The coldness in Talon's eyes sent chills downs Sandor's spine, and he flinched when Galadria's spell destroyed several undead that were about to tear him apart. Quickly looking around himself, he hammered his shield into a couple of the nearest undead, forcing them back into the packed mass building up behind them.

“I thought you were the fucking legendary Talon. Are giving up already, asshole?” Despite his hard mocking words, Sandor's voice was weaker than he would have liked.

Talon glanced around, as he fought through the undead toward the door. “I never give up. Don't worry, I'll get out of this alive. Though, I might walk over your corpses to do it.”

A cone of fire burst outward from Gabriel, setting more than a dozen undead ablaze. Ignoring the flames, Talon grabbed two of the burning bodies and hurled them into more undead that were still undamaged. Pushing into the gap, Talon continued to fight his way to the warehouse door.

An explosion of Power filled the air for more than twenty feet in all directions around Yoh, as he unleashed the spell he had been preparing. With the howls of the damned, the corporeal undead touched by the light withered and fell to the ground decaying. The incorporeal undead shrieked, as the faded away.

Talon looked around quickly, after the light passed over him, and launched himself into the last of the undead blocking his way to the warehouse doorway. Sandor and Gabriel quickly closed in behind him, effectively blocking the warehouse door against the undead.

“Clean up what's left of the undead in here!” Talon's command was directed at the Bohemian Cats behind himself, while he continued fighting the undead trying to get into the warehouse.

“Fuck. How do we get through that mass.” Sandor's mumbled question was not really meant for anyone else, as he stared at the hundreds of undead outside the warehouse.

“The only chance for you is if we can get into the sewers.” Talon's comment was made in an emotionless tone of voice.

“Um . . . if all we need to do is get into the sewers, I can help.” Galadria's words were delivered in a hesitant voice.

Talon looked over his shoulder, while still unerringly hammering undead with his fists and feet. “How can you help?”

“No, Galadria! It would be too much of stain on you!” Yoh's shout was filled with fear.

Talon turned his glare on Yoh. “Shut the fuck up, unless you think it's better for her to die.”

Galadria's face had paled, when Talon looked at her again. “How can you help?”

Galadria glanced at her brother, before replying. “I'm an Earth mage. If there are sewer tunnels, I can find them, because they will be empty spaces. I should be able to dig a hole to one too.”

“Galadria, your Power isn't strong enough. You could cripple yourself, if you try to dig too deep. Remember what happened last time you overexerted yourself.”

Galadria stared resolutely at Yoh. “If I can't do this, we're all going to die. How can I just do nothing and watch everyone die?”

“If you can do what you said girl, you had better get started. There are more undead coming, and they're a lot stronger that what's already here.” Talon was staring toward the left side wall of the warehouse, as he spoke.

“You can't know that. You're just trying to manipulate her.” Yoh's stare was full of anger and hostility.

“I can feel the Umbral Power in them. None of these in front of us are Umbral users, but the ones coming are.” Talon continued killing the undead in front of his face, while staring in the direction of the coming danger. “If you have any wards that are meant to keep the living dead at bay, you better start casting them.”

Both Yoh and Galadria began tracing new spell patterns in the air, while Talon, Sandor and Gabriel held the door against the coming mass. Having finished off the last of the undead in the warehouse, Selestra and Simon were looking around nervously, waiting for more incorporeal undead to pass through the solid stone walls.

In less than thirty seconds, Galadria pointed to the back corner of the warehouse. “There should be sewer tunnel over there, right outside the warehouse. It's about ten feet deep, but it might be mostly filled with water.”

“We're close to twenty feet above the high tide mark, so there will be air. You will have to swim, if you can't stand.”

At the looks of disgust crossed the Bohemian Cats' faces, Talon laughed. “What are you worried about? There hasn't been anyone taking a crap in this city in a long time.”

Brilliant symbols made of silver-white light flared outward from Yoh. They filled the door of the warehouse for a few seconds, before fading. The undead inside its boundaries howled in agony, as they tried to forced their way out the wards boundaries, against the pressure of the other undead behind them.

“That's the best I can do without an elaborate ritual.” Yoh's expression looked more worried than satisfied.

Unleashing a whirlwind of attacks on the unattentive undead, Talon destroyed the ones still inside the wards. He grimaced in irritation, as he looked around.

“The rest of you go with Galadria and guard her, while she does whatever she has to. I'll stay here and take care of anything that gets past these fucking wards.”

“Talon, let me guard the door. Without you and Sandor here, I can use my full power. With my fire, I can block this entire door.”

“Gabriel, let this asshole guard the door.” Sandor did not bother trying to hide the animosity in his voice.

Gabriel shook his head. “Talon's not one of us. We have to take some responsibility for our actions and not try to use him like a sacrifice.”

Talon stared at Gabriel for a moment. “Fine. You guard the door. I'll go with the rest. It doesn't matter where I am. Even if you all die, I'm walking out of this city alive.”

Gabriel smiled. “You're not as heartless as you try to pretend. God bless you.”

Talon turned his back and started walking toward the back of the warehouse. “Gods are myths.”

Gabriel laughed. “There is only one God, and He is no myth.”

The rest of the Bohemian Cats paid no attention to Gabriel's words. Even in the modern era where it was politically incorrect, his family kept to their Christian faith, and the rest of the Bohemian Cats were used to him.

Galadria began tracing a far more elaborate spell than the last one she had cast, and Yoh started to cast his wards again. The rest of the Bohemian Cats and Talon spread out in a circle around them, watching for incorporeal undead. All of the Bohemian Cats had weapons which could harm and destroy those undead, but Talon's black energy was the most effective against them.

It was only a few seconds, before a conflagration of orangish-red fire sprang up outside the door of the warehouse. The clash of metal on metal almost immediately follow the flames. Gabriel was a few feet outside of the warehouse, fighting with some of the undead.

Talon frowned, while he looked in that direction, but stayed where he was.

Ten seconds later, a new set of symbols flared outward from Yoh, and he looked toward the warehouse doorway. “Something out there broke through my wards. Gabriel's fire is the only thing keeping them out.”

Sandor immediately ran back to the doorway, but just like most of the undead, Gabriel's fire kept him at bay.

The incorporeal undead that came though the walls were quickly dispatched, while Galadria continued drawing her spell pattern. A little more than a minute later, she looked around.

“Everyone move back, this is going to be a little violent.”

Galadria waited waited for the others to move away from her, before activating her spell and running away herself. As the spell hit the ground, rubble began to fly in all directions, pelting her in the back as she ran.

“Argh!”

“Gabriel!”

Talon crossed the distance between himself and the warehouse doorway so quickly that the watching Bohemian Cats were astonished.

“Damn. He's not human.”

Selestra's laugh was morbid. “He's a fucking monster.”

Selestra stared at Talon's back, with a mix of hate and disgust turning her beautiful face into an ugly mask. Simon and Yoh looked at Selestra, with something more than curiosity, but did not say anything else. The Lord of Jet and The Lady of Gold were the only ones in the Bohemian Cats that were really close with Selestra. To the rest of the guild, she was more of an outsider than anything.

Outside the warehouse, Gabriel was facing three huge plate mail clad skeletons. Each of the skeletons stood nearly seven feet tall, and their armor seemed to hover over their bones, as though it was riding on invisible flesh. Black auras protected them from the flames, and their heavy swords and shields made Gabriel's look more like a child's toys than weapons.

The rerebrace on Gabriel's shield arm was rent, and he was having trouble maneuvering his shield into position to block the blows on that side. Still, he fought on doggedly, brighter flames on his sword with each strike.

“Back up and kill those flames!”

Gabriel glanced back at Talon's snarl, and one of the skeleton's blades pierced the right side o his chest.

“Gabriel! No!” Sandor's voice was filled with horror.

“I hate fucking FIRE!” Talon's shout echoed in the warehouse, as he lept into the middle of the conflagration. Grabbing Gabriel by the shoulder, Talon hurled him backward into the warehouse, before advancing on the skeletons. Pulling a pair of axes from the sheath strapped to his back, he hacked into them with short vicious chops. The black energies from his hands enwrapped his axes and dispersed the auras around the skeletons. The heavy axe blades cleaved through the armor and severed the heads of two of the skeletons.

As Talon dodged the slash from the third skeleton, one axe took off an arm, and the other axe took off a leg. With the skeleton falling toward the ground, he chopped off its head and jumped backwards into the doorway of the warehouse.

“How much fucking longer?” Talon's snarl projected his annoyance.

Galadria started, her eyes filling with temerity. “Less than a minute.”

“Take your buddy and get over with the rest. I'll hold them here.”

Sandor's hate-filled stare burned into Talon's back, as he hauled the barely conscious Gabriel onto his shoulders and ran to the back of the warehouse. To his rear, he heard the sound of Talon's axes tearing into desiccated flesh and bone.

Selestra and Simon were double teaming some type of incorporeal undead, that Sandor did not recognize. As soon as the undead dissipated, Simon ran over helping Sandor lower Gabriel to the ground. Yoh had already started tracing a new spell pattern, and in a few seconds, it streaked into Gabriel's chest.

Gabriel groaned, and his eye opened wide. He clamped his hand over the hole in his breastplate, looking at Yoh.

“It feels like you poured acid into my chest.”

Yoh frowned. “There is some kind Power in your chest that's destroying my spell. Let me try a different one.”

Yoh quickly drew a new spell pattern and cast that spell into Gabriel's wound. The muscles at the back of Gabriel's jaw bunched up, as he clenched his teeth to avoid screaming.

“That was even worse than the last one.”

Yoh's eyes glowed faintly as he stared at the hole in Gabriel's armor, and his face paled. “This isn't good. There is an active spell that I don't recognize in your chest. It looks like it's attacking your heart. I don't even know what is, let alone how to stop it.”

Gabriel's attempt to smile looked more like a grimace. “Don't worry, Yoh. Everyone has to die sometime. If this is mine, so be it, but I'm not giving up while I still have breath. You have to promise that if I die you'll help Sandor look out for everyone. Keep as many as you can alive, until you can return to your real bodies.”

“It's open! The tunnel's open to the sewer!” Galadria stared down the hole, while she excitedly called to her friends.

Simon and Yoh grabbed Gabriel's arms and helped him down the steep slope. The rest of the Bohemian Cat's followed without calling out Talon.

“Galadria, collapse the tunnel!” Sandor glared in the direction of Talon, who he could no longer see.