As much as I wanted to look back at him, I made myself turn toward the chimeras instead. I gripped Babs by her blade and held the sword up where I could see her face again.
“So this is my grand plan. Sacrifice myself so my friends can live. An oldie but a goodie. At least, I think it is. I hope you agree.”
This was what having a Spartan heart really meant to me, even if it had taken me a while to figure it out.
“I’m so proud of you, Rory,” Babs said, a tear streaking down her cheek, her green eye glowing as bright as an emerald in her silver hilt. “So very, very proud. It’s been an honor to serve you.”
“Just as it’s been an honor to wield you.” I bowed my head to her. “Now, let’s show these chimeras what a real fight looks like. What do you say?”
Babs’s mouth split into a wide grin. “Bring on the beasties! We’ll slay them all! Victory will be ours!”
She kept right on talking, each statement getting bolder and more outrageous than the last. I grinned the whole time, letting her words wash over me and fill me with confidence. I wasn’t going to survive the fight, but I was going to give the chimeras all they could handle—and then some.
With one thought, the chimeras licked their chops a final time and headed straight for me.
I grabbed Babs by the hilt, raised the sword high, and rushed forward to meet the monsters.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I plunged into the pack of chimeras.
The creatures must have been used to people running away from them, because my full-frontal attack surprised them and slowed their reactions for one precious second. One of the creatures swiped its paw out, trying to lay my stomach open with its sharp claws, but I dropped to my knees. Even as I slid forward across the slick floor, I snapped up my sword, slicing it all the way down the creature’s side. Smoke and blood boiled out of the mortal wound. The chimera snarled a final time, then vanished.
Two down, five to go.
Too many to go.
I slid all the way over to the opposite side of the rotunda, but I didn’t stop moving. Not even for an instant. I kicked out with my left foot, stopping myself right before I hit the wall. Then I surged to my feet and whirled back around.
“Rory! Rory!” Multiple voices screamed my name.
Across the room, Zoe stood on the other side of the gate, her hands wrapped around the iron bars, trying to lift it so she could come in here and help me. Aunt Rachel was there too, straining to lift the gate with her, along with Takeda. Mateo was lying on the floor behind them, still bleeding from his injuries.
To my surprise, Ian wasn’t there. I frowned. Where had he gone? Why wasn’t he trying to help me like the others were? Maybe he’d already realized that it was a lost cause and didn’t want to stick around to see my death. Couldn’t blame him for that.
“Guards! Guards!” Takeda barked out. “All guards converge on my position at once!”
He was trying to summon enough men to lift the gate, but it would take them precious minutes to get here—minutes I didn’t have.
The five remaining chimeras whipped around, and they all leaped at me at once. I threw myself to the right, trying to get out of the way, but I couldn’t avoid them all.
I managed to dodge four of the creatures, but the fifth swiped its claws down my left arm, making me scream with pain. I staggered forward and hit one of the display cases hard enough to rattle the glass in its frame. The blow stunned me, and my knees hit the floor. One of the chimeras used the opportunity to leap across the rotunda, charging right at me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of the way of its sharp claws and jagged teeth—
Thunk!
A dagger zipped across the rotunda and lodged itself in the chimera’s right eye. The creature screamed and exploded in a shower of smoke, and the dagger clattered to the floor. I coughed and looked across the room. Aunt Rachel was pressed up against the gate, her arm stuck through one of the openings. She’d thrown the dagger, and her Spartan aim had been true.
“Get me a bow and some arrows!” she screamed. “Now!”
Zoe darted away from the door, but it would take her time to find a ranged weapon that Aunt Rachel could use. Her Spartan killer instincts were the only reason she’d been able to throw that dagger and hit her mark.
“Rory!” Babs’s mouth moved under my hand. “Get up! Get up!”
I shook off my daze and staggered to my feet. I glanced down at my injury and wished I hadn’t, given the blood that covered my arm from my shoulder all the way down to my fingertips. More and more pain pulsed through my body, the red-hot intensity of it threatening to block out everything else, but I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths, push the agony away, and tighten my grip on Babs’s hilt. I couldn’t afford to let myself feel the pain right now. Not with the chimeras advancing on me again.
Another one pounced, and I lurched to the side, barely avoiding the scorpion’s stinger on the end of its tail. The chimera slammed into the display case, breaking the glass and crushing the wooden stand to bits. The hard blow stunned the creature, and I charged forward and stabbed it in the side, shoving my sword deep into its body. The creature screamed and vanished in a puff of smoke.
Four down, three to go.
Still too many to go.
The other chimeras were tired of playing with me, and they moved so that they were all standing in a loose circle around me. Then they slowly started closing in. I drew in a deep breath and raised Babs, getting ready for the multiple attacks that were coming next.
And then there was no more time to think.
There was only fighting.
The three chimeras all pounced at me at the same time, swiping out with their claws and snapping at me with their jagged teeth. For once, I was glad Takeda had spent so much time on agility drills in gym class this past week. I ducked and dodged and spun this way and that, avoiding as many of the blows as I could.
But I couldn’t avoid them all.
One of the chimeras lashed out with its paw, catching me square in the chest, but its claws skidded off the tough leather that Zoe had woven into my dress. I had never been so grateful for armor before.
But it wasn’t going to be enough to save me.
My chest might be protected by Zoe’s braided leather armor, but the rest of my body wasn’t, and the creatures quickly took advantage.
The first chimera swiped its claws across my right arm. The second creature nicked my left thigh, while the third caught me across the back of my right calf. In an instant, I was the one on the defensive, trying to ward off all their attacks and failing miserably. The chimeras realized that they had me trapped and beaten, and they were going to kill me, one swipe of their claws at a time. Even if Aunt Rachel somehow got her hands on a bow and some arrows, she couldn’t help me now. Not with the chimeras all around me. She couldn’t risk shooting at the creatures for fear that she would hit me instead.