Death's Bitter Embrace (#Wattys2015)

Act II, Chapter X: The Alpha

I look at the Hellion with the crown and Raven, it was a different colour to the rest: all the other were glowing crimson red, whilst the Alpha Hellion was glowing a violent cobalt blue. The Raven it held was also coloured, it was beaming cyan blue, shining in the light.

    I compress Raven to the size of a giant ice pick—the only way to get to the Alpha Hellion at the back was to go through all smaller demon looking things.

    The Alpha Hellion was at least 20 feet taller than the other Hellions—which were two feet taller than I was, I was six foot five. I throw Raven at the pack, killing ten of them in an instant, I race back to Raven; dodging the swords, maces and all other weapons as I sprint towards her.

    Raven was only a couple meters away but Alex was up to her neck in danger, she needed help—so I turned myself around and started darting to Alex. She was about to get struck by Hellion from behind—I vaulted over a dead Hellion—kicking the Hellion that would have struck Alex—in the head, its body made of stone crumbled to the ground—one kick was certainly not enough, but it was enough to stun it.

"You okay?" I ask whilst running back to get Raven, Raven wasn't hard to find, her blade still covered with the glowy shit from the demons I had fought earlier in the day.

"I am now" she says while looking and smiling at me—almost getting her killed a second time, then I would have saved her for nothing—but she held her own in this particular fight.

    One of the Hellions brings its mace down to the ground just short of where I stood at the moment— I had been practicing parkour for a long time now, I thought that I might show off what I knew. As the Hellion strikes again I backflip out of the way, avoiding the mace, I then grab Raven whom was two feet away from me and slice its head off in one swift movement—Alex was looking at me. She was smiling again.

"How could she smile at a moment like this, we were surrounded by thousands of devilish creatures, and she was smiling, her smile wasn't a blood crazed creepy smile. It was a genuine smile like before the branding" I thought, confused on how she could be smiling at a grim time such as this.

"Who says you can't have fun while killing thousands of demons?" She says emphatically while laughing, she then does a handstand grabbing a Hellion's head with her legs and snapping its neck.

    I sprint to the Alpha Hellion at the back of the room, backflipping, vaulting and rolling out the way of any weapons or body parts flying towards me, as I get to the Alpha it lets rip an almighty roar, the ground shaking as a result.

    It strikes downwards with Raven's duplicate creating a thousand tiny cracks on the steel floor, I vault over Raven's copy and onto the Alpha's arm, I jump kick it in the face, knocking it to the ground stunning it for a short second then it was back up ready to strike me.

    It brought Raven's duplicate down, gashing my arm as I roll out of its reach. I stretch Raven out, now full length she is ready for the fight, I grasp Her with one hand the other; by my side, I strike the Alpha Hellion with Her, swiftly cutting its head off. "Well that was easy, I thought that it would be harder than that, could it have been that easy?." I ponder aloud to no-one in particular.

    The Alpha drove his Raven's butt-end into my head from behind, knocking me flat on my ass, I turn back, my head spinning and my vision blury, I was close to the edge of passing out, to look at it and discover something shocking apart from it getting back up and striking me—it had grown its head back, plus another two heads, I just had to fucking ask myself didn't I?