Between the pillars Ascanio swiveled the crossbow on the tripod, squeezed the trigger, and fired. The oversized bolt sliced through the air above me. Thank you, kid.
The world exploded with green. The blast wave slapped my back. I squeezed the last burst of speed from my exhausted body and cleared the pillars. I skidded to a stop and turned around. On the road the draugr stomped forward, an enormous monstrosity, dwarfing the trees, impossibly big. His magic swirled about him in a stormy cloud.
Raphael dashed out of the trees like a fur-sheathed nightmare and charged the giant, ripping into undead flesh.
I pushed Ascanio from the tripod and reloaded.
The undead tried to stomp on him, but Raphael darted back and forth, too fast, stripping dried muscle and gristle from the giant’s left leg.
Kate burst from the undergrowth and thrust her sword into the draugr’s right foot. I yanked the crossbow up and sighted on Håkon. Eat this, you undead piece of shit.
“Hit the deck!” I screamed.
Raphael and Kate dashed away. I fired. The bolt took the undead below the chest, burning it with emerald flames, and exploded. Undead flesh rained, but the draugr remained upright.
Roman staggered to his feet, his face contorted by anger. He screamed something. A flock of crows fell on the giant, ripping rotting flesh from its bones.
“Help the alpha!” I barked, reloading. Ascanio dashed to the draugr.
Raphael picked Kate up and threw her. She sank her sword into the side of the draugr’s leg. Magic snapped, and then a car-hood-sized kneecap crashed onto the road. Kate jumped clear. The draugr teetered and dropped to its knees.
“Fire in the hole!” I fired another shot. For half a second the arrowhead buzzed, lodged between the undead’s ribs, then it exploded, splashing emerald fire over desiccated flesh. The blast wrenched the draugr’s ribs wide open and through it I saw the shriveled sack of its heart.
The crows hurtled into the hole and out of the draugr’s back, dragging chunks of bone and tissue with them.
I saw the ravaged remains of the heart and fired. The arrow pierced the tough muscle. Bull’s-eye.
The explosion shook the ground. Chunks of rotting corpse pelted the ground and Håkon crashed like a falling skyscraper. His chin hit the dirt, his entire skull reverberating from the impact.
Ha. We killed an unkillable giant. Eat your heart out, Beast Lord.
Kate got up and limped toward us.
Her knee. She had an old injury that kept flaring up. I had completely forgot. Damn it. “Is your knee okay?”
“It’s not the knee.” Kate limped past the pillar and sagged against the cart. “He backhanded me, the sonovabitch. I hit a tree trunk with my hip. I swear this leg is cursed.”
Roman spat on the ground. His face was mournful. “Such a waste. One-of-a-kind and we had to kill it.”
It almost tore us to pieces and he had regrets. Wow.
Raphael strode to me. His eyes were on fire.
“Nice shot,” he said.
“Thank you. You were…” Awesome, brave, fast, amazing. “…not so bad yourself.”
Roman shook his head. “Such a waste.”
“I’ll split the teeth with you,” Kate said. “If you want them.”
He turned to her. “Of course I want the teeth. And the hair.”
The two of them started for the head, looking like two starved dogs who had just found a fresh juicy carcass.
Raphael grabbed me into a bear hug. I grinned at him. This wasn’t so hard after all.
Ascanio trotted up. “Why are they pulling his teeth out?”
“They’re magic,” I said.
“Do you want me to help them?”
“Yes,” Raphael said.
The kid went off to the giant corpse, where Kate and Roman argued over the teeth.
The draugr’s head moved.
“Watch out!” I screamed.
Kate looked at me.
I ran.
The eyes flared with green fire, the great jaws gaped, baring thick teeth. Kate whipped about, slicing with her sword.
I was six feet away when magic erupted out of the draugr’s mouth, wound about Kate, and dragged her into the maw, crushing her between those stumpy teeth.
I leaped onto the skull, pulled my knife, and sliced into the tendons holding it together. Let go of my friend, you fucker!
The jaws mauled Kate, trying to crack her like a nut.
Grisly flesh tore under my fingers. I caught a glimpse of Kate—she’d curled into a ball, keeping away from the teeth.
The tendons I had severed snapped right back together. I needed to cut faster.
We were rising. I glanced down. The draugr had pulled himself up.
“Raphael!” I yelled, slicing across the flesh. “He’s regenerating!” Where was he?
Slayer’s blade sliced through the flesh right in the corner of the joint where the mandible fit into the upper jaw. Slayer’s blade smoked. Kate was trying to cut her way out.