I bob a little on the balls of my feet. Lincoln will go after Blaze while my tail and I take out everyone else.
This is going to be so awesome I can’t stand it.
Blaze pulls out two long daggers and raises them high. “Kill the usurper!”
I roll my eyes. “Finally.”
The other Acca warriors take up the cry and rush toward us. In response, I leap straight up into the air, my favorite battle cry on my lips. “Eat death!”
Meanwhile, Lincoln ignites his baculum as a long sword made of white angel fire. He rushes down the steps toward Blaze.
I’m a big fan of mixing in acrobatics with my battle plans, so I take care to do an aerial flip before I plant both my sensible schoolgirl flats right onto the chest of the Acca warrior nearest Blaze. He tumbles backward onto his ass. I’d give that fall about a six out of ten, tops.
Now, if I were wearing my battle boots, I would have crunched a few ribs with the impact, too. That would have pumped the rating up to a seven or eight. Guess you can’t have everything. I’m just happy to be kicking ass and taking names.
Lincoln’s now in a heated swordfight with Blaze. I hate to admit this, but Blaze is actually really good with a sword and hand-to-hand combat. His words about killing a Furor demon come back to me. My heart leaps into my throat.
The three remaining Acca warriors get out their throwing darts and start chucking stuff in my direction. Bring it on. This is like crack for my tail, which has a grand old time batting the weapons away from me. My backside moves so fast, it’s basically a blur. At the same time, the first warrior—aka the one I knocked unconscious with my landing—is still lying like a lump on the ground. He won’t be battle-ready again any time soon, so I run toward the trio of dagger chuckers.
One down. Three to go.
I quickly size up the three remaining Acca warriors. These guys are total projectile junkies. They’re standing in a perfect formation for me to take them down—one, two, three.
It’s so sweet I almost want to cry.
My power of demonic wrath rushes through my bloodstream, giving me extra strength and speed. I crouch down again, leap up even higher into the air, and land on the first Acca warrior’s back with a thud. There’s a snapping noise as some bones break. That guy isn’t getting up anytime soon.
Two down. Two to go.
Standing up, I go into a Thai kick, slamming my shin into the face of another Acca fighter. His nose crunches as I break it. My tail takes a breather from deflecting projectiles to wrap around the dude’s neck and smash his head into a nearby tree trunk. The warrior goes down like a sack of potatoes.
Only one left.
The final warrior stares at me, dumbfounded. He’s your standard Acca blondie with whip-strong limbs and a low IQ. He raises his hands in a defensive move. “Our prince says you will give us mercy if we surrender.”
I glance over to Lincoln, who’s still going at it with Blaze. They’ve now chopped through part of Prescott’s office and downed half an oak tree. My fiancé is such a stand-up guy. He really would want this Acca scumbag to stay alive.
My tail swipes slowly behind me. “Fine. I won’t kill you.”
“Thank you, Great Scala.”
I step up closer and raise my hands in a gesture that says, “You’re safe.” The guy sighs.
That’s when my tail goes to work and punches him right in the nuts. The dude hunches over and moans before falling to the ground. After that, the end of my tail balls into a fist and knocks the guy out cold.
And with that, I have kept my word. The guy isn’t dead. That said, he won’t be walking upright any time soon, though.
With warrior number four out of commission, I return my attention to the battle. Blaze and Lincoln are fighting it out under another massive oak tree with heavy branches. My tail goes berserk behind me. I pat the arrowhead end. “I know what you want to do, boy. I’m down with it.”
I rush across the clearing and start scaling the massive tree. We don’t have a lot of forests in Purgatory, and the ones that do exist have like two leaves. Long story short, they’re really only good for climbing, which is why I can scale this trunk super-fast. Holding my arms out, I balance-walk out onto a limb that juts out right above Lincoln and Blaze.
Almost there.
Once I’m right above the action, I loop my tail around the branch beneath my feet. Blaze is heaving breaths now. He won’t last much longer. Lincoln still looks pretty fresh, though. A warm sense of happy radiates through my chest. Lincoln’s winning.
Blaze pulls a charm from his pocket, crushes it in his hand, and releases a poof of purple smoke right into Lincoln’s face. My guy quickly counters by pulling out a charm of his own, but I don’t like this. At all.
Blaze is fighting dirty.
Well, two can play at that game.
I step forward off the tree branch. My tail holds me in place as I swing around, stopping when I’m upside down and face-to-face with Blaze. The Acca warrior freezes. Blaze was so focused on fighting with Lincoln, he didn’t see me coming.