the way of the fiery arrow, as fluidly as if his joints were made of water, and struck it down with his
knife. Pieces of the arrow fell to the sand, sizzling with magic.
The archer's head snapped. The crossbow bolt sprouted precisely between her eyes. Her mouth
gaped open in a black O and she toppled back like a log.
The man next to her closed his eyes and fell back. His body never touched the sand. Thin strands
of magic caught and cloaked him, knitting into a gossamer web, cradling his body like a hammock.
His face turned placid. He appeared asleep.
The Fu Lion roared, sounding more like a pissed-off wolverine than a feline. Plumes of reddish
smoke billowed from its mouth. It charged.
It covered the distance to our line in three great bounds, each strike of its clawed feet shaking the
sand like the blow of a huge sledgehammer. Derek lunged into its path, ripping the sweatpants from
his body. Skin split on his back, spilling fur. Muscle and bone boiled and a seven-foot-tall werewolf
grasped the Fu Lion's head. The nightmare and the lion collided, raising a spray of sand into the air.
The impact pushed Derek across the sand. Derek dug his lupine feet into the sand, grinding the
lion's charge to a dead halt. Sinewy muscle played along his long back under the patchy fur.
The Fu Lion jerked his head, trying to shake off the half-beast, half-man. Derek thrust his claws
into the creature's massive neck. To the left Jim became a jaguar in an explosion of flesh and
golden fur.
The Fu Lion reared, trying to claw. The moment it exposed its gut, Raphael and the werejaguar
darted to it. Knives and claws flashed and the slippery clumps of the beast's innards tumbled out in
a whoosh of blood. Derek tore his claws free and leapt aside. The Fu Lion swayed and fell.
The shapeshifters rose from his corpse, silent. Derek's eyes glowed amber, while Jim's were
pools of green.
«Jim improved his warrior form,» Curran said. «Interesting.»
Behind the shapeshifters Andrea loaded the crossbow and fired. The crossbow spat bolts, one
after another. Three shafts punctured the oni's chest, but the ogre just bellowed and brushed them
off the massive shield of flesh he called his torso.
Andrea landed a shot to the forehead. The bolt bounced off the ogre's skull.
Magic grew behind the oni, blooming like a flower around the sleeping man. Long, translucent
strands snaked past the oni's legs, like pale ribbons.
«Bad,» Dali murmured behind me. «Bad, bad, bad . . .»
The strands knotted together. Light flashed and a creature spilled forth. Ten feet tall, it resembled
a human crouching on frog legs. It squatted in the sand, leaning on abnormally long forelimbs, the
magic ribbons binding its back and legs to the sleeping mage. A second set of forearms sprouted
from its elbows, terminating in long, slender fingers tipped with narrow claws. A huge maw gaped
where its face would have been, a black funnel turned inward. Its hide shimmered with a metallic
sheen, as if the creature were spun from silver wool.
The Arena fell silent.
The shapeshifters backed up. Andrea reloaded and sent a bolt into the creature's maw. It
vanished and emerged from the aberration's back. The oni danced behind it, stomping the sand.
The creature reared slightly, its sallow chest expanded, and it belched a glittering, silvery cloud.
Fine metal needles rained into the sand. One grazed Jim and he snarled. Silver.
The shapeshifters retreated. The monster kept a steady stream of metal vomit, and began
crawling forward, slowly, ponderously, chasing them back to the fence.
The cloud caught Derek, slicing through his torso. He jerked as if burned, and leapt away.
«Take out the sleeper,» I murmured.
Jim barked a short order, barely audible behind the hiss of needles slicing the sand. Derek
ducked left, while Raphael darted right, trying to flank the creature. A second mouth bloomed in the
side of the creature's chest and the new flood of needles cut Raphael short.
I clenched my sword. Curran watched with no expression, like a rock.
Another command. Raphael and Jim fell back, while Derek backed away slowly, just out of the
monster's reach. The two shapeshifters grasped Andrea's legs and heaved. She flew straight up,
squeezing off a single shot.
The bolt punched through the sleeper's chest, emerging through his back. He awoke with a
startled scream and clawed at the shaft. The threads of translucent magic ribbons ripped and he
crashed into the sand. The ribbons shrank, breaking from the monster's skin, leaving deep black
gaps as they tore. The gaps grew, and the creature began to melt. It whipped about and backhanded
the oni out of the way. The blue brute crashed into the fence. The silver aberration crawled to the
sleeper, dragging itself faster and faster across the sand. Its back and hips were gone, melted into