Game of Life

Chapter 21

They just kept coming, hordes of them. A wave of walking corpses. I backed up into the others, holding my sword low to the ground.There were so few of us left, three hundred and twenty two out of more than two thousand, I didn't even know if we had representations of all the elements anymore. Well except for me. Our group huddled close together as the army of the Fallen slowly inched their way closer to us. "Um..anyone have any ideas?"

"Our only real option is to fight," Darren remarked, pushing through the others to stand at my side.

"Well obviously, I figured we'd just stand here and get eaten," I snapped, immediately feeling guilty for my tone.

"Hey, relax, it was a joke."

"Now isn't a good time for jokes," I grumbled, twisting my sword around in my hand, trying to get used to its weight.

"Try frying them alive," he suggested, lighting a small flickering ball of fire in his palm and waiting for me to do the same.

"Alright." I summoned my fire as well and together we shot out of a stream of power, incinerating those closest to us like a flamethrower. I watched their bodies be enveloped with flames, heard their inhumane screams, saw them crumple to the ground...and then get right back up. Oh shit.

"Fire is no good," I said, letting the fire die and closing my fist.

"Well what about earth?" Darren beckonded for Adrian and moved to the side, allowing him room beside me.

I dipped my head in acknowledgment and we pulled the earth around us into a massive rock, slamming it down and crushing several of the Fallen underneath. We gave it a minute, grinding the stone into them then shattered it with a flick of our wrists, sending little pellets flying out in all directions that did nothing to slow their targets. Blood and guts stained the ground where the boulder had been. The organs had virtually exploded and yet still twitched slightly, trying to push forward even without a solid body.

"Um..that was...effective? Don't know how I feel about intestines still trying to chase us though." Adrian scratched at his head and I saw the little pieces of earth move as he toyed around with the leftover chunks. 

"Adrian," I scolded. "Is that really necessary?" At once the movements paused and he gave me a sheepish grin.

"Sorry."

"Do we even want to bother trying the other elements?" I asked, moving on. Thankfully, the Fallen moved very slowly and seemed to only be coming from the opposite side of the colosseum so we still had plenty of room to back away from them if need be and plan our next attack. 

Adrian tapped his sword on the ground a few times. "We didn't get these for nothing Cal. I would assume these are what we gotta use to kill 'em."

"Goddamnit," I swore, he had a point, Severin didn't do things for no reason. "Do not want to even think about what those things can do at such a close range."

"Well, burn 'em and decapitate 'em, shouldn't be too hard." Darren grasped his sword firmly with one hand and held a fireball in the other, the first to charge into battle against the oncoming horde.

I shot a sideways glance at Adrian who shrugged and the two of us sprinted after him, swords raised to strike. We ran right into the thick of them, slashing, ducking and rolling our way through, all the while covering each others' backs with our magic. Our relief was indescribable when cutting off their heads resulting in them disintegrating, for good this time. We may actually have a chance here.

I didn't know how long we fought, piles of dust lay at our feet as we cut away at the horde. Piece by piece we wore away the enemy. It seemed almost neverending, every time we turned around new creature was crawling up behind us, and everytime we cut down one foe three more replaced it. How many of these goddamn things does he have? My arms were aching, screaming for rest, the breath pushing out of my lungs coming faster and faster as my heart pounded a mile a minute.

A shriek interrupted us and even the Fallen turned at the noise. I watched in confusion as they wobbled their way after it. "What's going on?" I called to Darren. He shrugged and spread his arms then turned back to watch, just as curious about their behaviour as I was.

The Fallen looked almost like they were running but that was impossible or they would have done that against us. Wouldn't they? But they were definitely moving quicker now than they had before, reaching the edge of the stadium in mere minutes and climbing their way up. They didn't leave though, which confused me more, instead they stood almost at attention, spreading out to form a semi circle on the top ring of the colosseum.

Their eyes all turned to the entrance opposite us and I focused my gaze there as well, fearful anticipation prominent in my mind. It wouldn't be a proper finale without some kind of horror and Severin definitely didn't disappoint.

Slowly the wide gates opened and a beast crawled out. My heart froze in my chest as I saw it and I took an involuntary step back as its whole form was revealed. Eight long skinny legs, each glowing with the color of a different element stepped up to the center of the stadium, carrying a massive body that blocked out the light of the sun, plunging us into a cover of shadows.

I heard the whimpers of fear behind me and knew we were fucked, there was no way we would muster up enough courage from those we had left to beat this, no fucking way. Even I felt almost paralysed with fear.

Severin's final pet, his final test of our resolve before he decided if he was going to kill us all or not was a goddamn, twenty foot tall, hairy, bulging, multi-elemental fucking nightmare of a spider.

Are you bloody kidding me?