The blade went through, breaking bone, and sank into the soft stuff inside. The hellbeast died half a second later.
Acelina looked at him, blank face somehow conveying a million expressions. Before he could say anything, another hellhound dashed around the nearest tombstone, and dove for David, but two pairs of big ram horns crashed into its side hard enough he heard the crunch.
Daoka, clicking up a storm, helped him back to his feet. The dagger was stuck, because of course it was. Groaning and spitting venom, he yanked on it hard, drilled a foot into the big dog’s side, and pulled harder, both hands.
With an annoyed snort, the spire mother got to her hooves, pushed David back, yanked the dagger free with two fingers, and tossed it to him, literally. He had to snap it out of the air quick so it didn’t stab his foot on the way down.
Daoka clicked up at Acelina, angry at her for nearly stabbing him, but she turned mid click and dove headfirst into another hellhound, interrupting its pounce. The creature fell, and Dao brought her axe down before it got the chance to move. It didn’t die. Writhing and snarling, it twisted enough to get its teeth around the axe’s shaft, yanked, and pulled Dao forward.
She fell to her knees, right in front of the cannam, but Acelina brought her much, much bigger axe down onto the hellhound, and instead of sinking the black, jagged, half-blunt blade six inches deep like Dao had, she cut the beast in two. The ground rumbled, and blood turned the black dirt red.
Without a word, Acelina helped Dao back up, and used her wings to nudge her and David forward until the zotiva had enough space between her and them to swing her enormous axe with freedom. Another hellhound dove for her, and she cleaved its skull in two down the center.
“I thought you lived in a spire your whole life?” David asked. His lungs burned already, sweat beaded on his forehead, and every word spoken was a moment without breathing. Focus, you dumbass. Breathe. Nothing in life — or the afterlife — was as taxing as a fight.
“You say that as if a spire life is easy. I have killed many demons.” Acelina turned and walked backward, glancing back only long enough to make sure she was following them before bringing her axe down and scaring off another hellhound. “If we do not move faster, the rider will find us.”
“He’s kilometers away by now.” The words sounded hollow, even to him. They were fucked at this rate.
The Las hopped from one tombstone to the next, gliding low out of sight of potential angels above, but gliding low meant being in biting distance. Hellhounds jumped high, snapping at them, and the little ladies shrieked with rage, and panic. They couldn’t fight things like this, not with how small they were, how easy a target their wings were, and how suicidally violent the hellhounds were. Unlike a real animal, they didn’t have any sense of self preservation, and only dodged an attack if it meant an immediate opportunity at another one.
They had more in common with demons than the demons probably wanted to admit.
David couldn’t fight things like this anymore than the Las could. Another hellhound came at him, and Dao was quick to get between him and the beast, driving it back, only for a half dozen remnants to rip up the ground from underneath the creature. They were slow, but twelve hands made quick work of the dirt, softening it as they climbed up out of the ground so the cannam’s paws sank into the hole.
It ripped apart their soft bodies like a dog biting into a roll of toilet paper, but the distraction was enough for Dao, and she got her axe into its face. She couldn’t muster the same level of destruction Acelina could, but the hellhound managed only a small yelp before it died. It sank deeper into the mess of writhing libs and soft dirt until it disappeared into the ground.
“Las!” David yelled. “Go up front. More remnants up there. Jes! Help us back here!” Why he was yelling orders, he didn’t know, but the words came out before he could process hesitation.
Everyone listened. The Las joined Caera and Vicus, away from the hellhounds, and slaughtered the remnants in their path, coating the ground in dead bodies. The hellhounds were mostly coming at their group from the back end, and he needed Jes. He almost asked for Caera to come join them, but she was their best bet at spotting a demon ambush, or killing Vicus if he betrayed them, or dealing with any number of horrible things that were bound to happen any moment now.
The hellhounds got smarter. Once Jes joined them and cut down one of the huge beasts with her sword, they stopped throwing themselves at the group. They prowled at the edge of the fog, snarling, waiting. A scream made David jump, and Jes turned and cut down the remnant that tore up from the ground behind David. A signal for the hellhounds, and they rushed in quick, only for Acelina to flare her wings and bring them to a halt as her enormous wing span covered over twenty feet.
Rumbling deep in their throats, the hellhounds slowed again, until they followed at the edge of the fog, sneaking around tombstones, and hiding in shadow. Not as dumb as David thought.
“Someone better think of something fast,” Jes said. “We–” She spun and cut a remnant in half. “Someone is going to hear this.”
No point in asking why the hellhounds weren’t going for the remnants. Hellbeasts preferred eating humans and demons; far more filling than remnants. Grems and imps scavenged remnants, sometimes, and even their little bodies struggled to survive on them. But nine demons and a soul, getting dogged by hundreds of remnants? They were easy prey.
“If you could use some of those powers of yours,” Acelina said, “now would be a good time.”
“I’d love to, but I can’t!”
“These remnants are here because of you!”
“You don’t know that!”
She snarled over her shoulder at him.
“Every random, vile upsetting of Hell happens because of you and the other unmarked. It is your responsibility to deal with this situation. So deal with it!”
David ground his teeth and looked at his sides. Jes traded a look with him, and his stomach sank. She agreed with Acelina. He looked Dao’s way, and she looked away with a snap, as if he could see the truth in her non-existent eyes. A mountain of trouble was falling on their lap, again, and it might not have been his fault, but it was his responsibility.
And in the distance, metal on metal clinked. Quiet, barely audible behind all the screaming and violence, but the telltale ting of metal bouncing and hitting more metal reached his ears, and a familiar chill shot through him. Far too familiar.
“Caera,” he yelled, “we have to get out of here!”
“I hear it! But these remnants aren’t stopping!”