CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

“OLEG, YOU BASTARD, let’s finish this thing.” I stood slightly crouched, a scimitar dangling from my right hand. While everyone else had been clothed accordingly, I remained in nothing except my sweat-soaked workout pants. The hot sand had seared the bottoms of my bare feet before working on the more sensitive tops as they sank into the loose sand.

Adel and the rest of the surviving Everlast militia removed themselves a dozen paces. The twitchers inhabited the rocky crags, Evie perched near the top. Finally, a single twitcher leapt down and closed the gap. From a few yards distance he morphed into the slightly hunched and shriveled form of Oleg of red eyes.

“Little Buck, Uncle Oleg gives you last chance to save lives of daughter and new friends.”

I shook my head.

“Is pity Oleg must kill so many Guardians so soon after Little Buck introduce us. I search over one hundred years to find ancient ones, unsure if myth even true. Maybe taking girlfriend alive is better than lost gene, no?”

“It’ll never happen.”

“Oh? You take Oleg up on offer?”

“Over your dead body.”

He shook out his shoulders, rolling his neck and standing almost a foot taller. “Ignorant, stupid Little Buck. Oleg’s body cannot die. I assure you, yours can.” He lunged with the tip of his sword, testing my reflexes in the sand. They were slow, to say the least.

The advantage would lay with the offensive, unless I could do something to change that. All nineteen twitcher smudges remained blocked, small coronas of light swirling at their edges. Evie shone as the sun from the top of the rocks. Circling Oleg, sword half extended in front of me, I tested my abilities by walking on the surface of the sand.

Taking a sloppy stab at his right, I allowed him to rebuff the strike and lunge in retaliation. Gripping the air with my toes, I spun as if on pavement. Knocking his sword aside, I slashed his chest before we collided. Shoving him clear, I danced back with a smile on my face.

With his garb rent diagonally and the cut dripping with blood, he staggered slightly. “Well played. But Little Buck do well not to neglect solid defense for bold offense.” His eyes flickered downward.

I followed them, scanning my chest and legs. On cue, blood began to seep from a deep wound to my left leg. I hadn’t even felt it. I swallowed.

“What is on Little Buck’s arm?”

Another cut appeared right before my eyes, then another to my chest.

“So much potential. So much arrogance. Pity.”

I had no choice. Charging him, I made less effort to block than to strike a killing blow. Taking the tip of his sword into the meat of my arm, I twisted my body, wrenching it from his grip and slamming my elbow into his ribs. The two of us struck the sand and rolled.

Quickly, he disarmed me. Just as quickly I struck his neck and chest with two rabbit punches. He slammed his elbow into my ear and threw me off. Flipping, I landed on my feet, his sword still sticking from my arm. With a grunt I yanked it out and focused on healing the wound. He’d already done the same, but faster.

He flew at me head first. Like a battering ram he forced the air from my lungs. Lacing my fingers together around his back, I flung him off before staggering to the ground. He recovered too fast.

Next a foot connected with my face, my nose mashed in the process. Tumbling and blinded by my own blood, I crashed into the sand. His signature swelled, sending a ripple across the entire current. He was everywhere faster than I could respond, no longer a smudge but a blur beneath the surface of my mind.

I rolled, dodging his blows the best I could. The coronas around the remaining twitchers grew white-hot, waiting to lash out, to take the others once I was dead. I dug my heels into the sand, and crossed my arms in front of my face, catching his kick. Spinning him off the ground and flipping forward, I landed on his middle. He sank beneath me, slipping through the sand and away from the force of my blow.

He laughed, suddenly standing with his foot on my neck.

I coughed. A clot of blood hurtled onto the sand. More blood drained from what used to be my nose. I couldn’t keep up. Internal bleeding had spilled into my lungs. The current vibrated, the signal flickering like on old analogue television station. The pain swelled beyond the boundaries of the stream until everything broke loose. The coronas around the twitchers flared and lashed out, blinding my mind’s eye. Only my connection to Evie remained.

Oleg knelt, replacing his foot on my throat with his knee. “Little Buck lose. Now everyone die.”