The Dead Scout's Handbook of Afterlife Survival

Chapter 46: The Battle for Idaho Springs

In an instant, Sergei snatched the arrow and side-stepped a crimson and black blur as another smoldering gash appeared in the ground. Inspecting it briefly, Sergei placed the arrow in his jacket. "You use their speed against them. I will show you soon" Sergei ducked as Famine toppled over him and tumbled along the park.

To the right, Death readied his bow and fired off another arrow, blasted off course by a breeze carried with Cayden's fingertips. Cayden lunged at Death, drawing both arms back and thrusting them forward. As the flames rushed forth, emotion swept over Cayden. However, this time, it wasn't anger.

Everything from his goodbye to Toby, to the classroom door shutting with Sarah behind it, flooded over Cayden. A deep melancholy hollowed his chest as the fire poured out, the slow, tumbling wave of orange, auburn, and yellow engulfing Death. Death's misty cloak disappeared into it and his burning body flew and rattled into a storefront. Cayden wouldn't allow him to escape this time and kept the flames rolling as smoke billowed and steam spewed from the grooves in the earth.

A breeze struck Cayden's neck, and he glanced back as Sergei grabbed Famine's knife-wielding wrist inches from Cayden's scalp, the serrated blade glowing and humming. Sergei hit Famine with a closed fist in the jaw and they both disappeared in flashes and blurs streaking across the expanse.

Cayden relented as the dull, scarlet metal cooled and smoke coiled into the air, he found no body, no armor, not even a thread of tattered cloth. The gusts flew by with Sergei and Famine's blows while Cayden listened for any motion beneath the cacophony. Complete disintegration could have been possible with such an inferno though Cayden doubted such a fate met a powerful healer.

A faint hum caught Cayden's attention as a wall rippled, and from it Death burst forth, the reflection sticking for a few steps before it snapped back into place. Heart racing, Cayden backpedaled to the center of the metallic park, foil grass crinkling with each step. The entire city was The Four's portal.

The translucent cloaked figure continued its steady march as Cayden back stepped further, luring Death from any possible escape route. With his right arm, Cayden circled wind about the park, buffeting every surface in the area. With his left, he channeled heat within it, embers dancing about. The roar of the fire reverberated the surface of scrap metal covering the shimmering expanse around them. Sorrow washed over Cayden as the fire whipped and churned, framing their battle within a scorching arena. Despite his heart sunken and heavy, Cayden felt no hatred for the flames and whatever fell beneath them. They were delicate, warm, and above all, beautiful as they washed like the ebbing of a stream over stones smoothed by millennia of well weathered trauma. Cayden smiled, he sighed and when he finished, soot covered all things, and not a single reflection could be recovered from the blackness.

Death's mirrored mask rippled as a sword protruded from its surface. Reaching a hand up, he grabbed the hilt and withdrew a long, thin blade. Not wishing to allow the fight to continue, Cayden blasted every bit of heat and wind he could muster at Death. Deaths flailing limbs flew ahead of his torso as he sailed into one of the legs of the swing set. Cayden trudged ahead, continuing his barrage as the playground behind Death glowed a soft crimson amidst the tumultuous fire. After two minutes, the walls and flooring shone a steady orange and distorted, the swing melting and sinking into itself. Another rush passed as Famine's sword buzzed by Cayden's ear. Similar to last time, the sound fell into the sustained boom of Sergei and Famine rushing away as Cayden fueled the inferno further.

Behind Cayden, Sergei had tripped up Famine yet again as the dark, ribbed and spine covered figure trembled with rage while staggering to her feet. Pacing to the wall behind him, Sergei withdrew the arrow from his jacket, broke it in half, and jammed the shaft into a crack in a steel building, its menacing tip facing out.