Chaos god, p.2
Chaos God, page 2
The guy lurched forward again, but this time I was ready. I gripped my crowbar tight, and I tried to shove at the guy’s chest. It was like shoving against a brick wall, so I shifted my angle and slid my foot forward to get more leverage, but he didn’t budge. The guy gnashed his teeth at me, and the sound sent goosebumps over my skin. My instincts told me to move, and I listened obediently.
I shoved him with all of my strength until he was forced to stumble back a step away from me. I didn’t waste a second of this advantage, and I bolted to the side and over a strategically placed wooden crate. Within two seconds I managed to put a fair bit of distance and objects between us.
“Come on, guy,” I grumbled at the drug-addled guy as I shuffled to keep some objects between us. “Don’t make me have to call the cops on you.”
The guy growled again and finally, he spoke. His voice was like broken glass scraping over rusty nails, and none of his words made any sense at all. I couldn’t understand a thing he said, and suddenly, he rushed at me once more.
The masked druggie crashed straight through a tower of cheap pallet crates I’d scrounged up from some flea market, and he sent broken bits of wood and old nails flying in every direction.
“Bastard,” I cursed under my breath at the destruction of my meticulously constructed escape room, and I kept my feet moving.
All this chaos was going to force me to shut down for at least a few days to repair, and I knew there was no way I’d get even a penny out of someone like this guy for the damages. I was pretty sure my business insurance wouldn’t cover shitty old furniture, either.
I lunged back to avoid his fists and foul breath, but he stomped through any objects I managed to put between us in pursuit of me. Then the costumed guy stepped into a thin swatch of light, and I finally got a good look at him.
“Shit…” I breathed as I took in the creature in front of me.
Unless this was some extra that had wandered off a big-budget Hollywood movie set, all I could think was that this guy wasn’t a guy at all, and he definitely wasn’t wearing a costume. The horns protruding from his large head were real, and they twisted up toward the ceiling from the grayish flesh at his temples. His eyes were almost entirely black with a thin ring of blood-red around the edges, and his pointed teeth were a sickly shade of yellow as a black forked tongue flicked out from his mouth. He wore a black robe around his broad shoulders, and he reached toward me with pointed fingers.
A voice in the back of my head told me that right in front of me was a demon come to life.
“What the fuck?” I hissed and cringed away from the sight.
My brain buzzed for a split second as it refused to accept this information, but the facts were clear in front of me. Before I could formulate a plan of action, the demon launched at me once more, and the shock delayed my reaction time just enough that his leathery hands connected with my shoulders. His weight was immense, and his momentum knocked me back as a bright flash of rainbow light burst out from behind me.
Then I felt the ground fall out from under my feet.
A swirl of rainbow light engulfed me, and all I could do was gasp as I fell into the abyss with the creature.
Chapter 2
My lungs tried to squeeze out a scream, but the pressure compressed my chest just enough that my weak voice was ripped away in the rushing wind of the rainbow-colored void. My stomach dropped out of my ass like that first huge fall on any roller coaster that was truly worth its salt.
If there had been any sense of direction or even gravity to my fall, I probably would have lost my dinner into the void.
The longer strands of my dark hair slapped around my cheeks and forehead as the wind whipped against my skin, and the pastel rainbow colors flashed everywhere with a nearly blinding luminosity.
I tumbled head over heels through absolute nothingness, and as I spun I spotted the demon free falling just as clumsily as I was nearby. He reached out with his pointed fingers toward me, but the screaming wind kept me out of his grimy hands. I forced my arms closer to my sides as I tried to maneuver myself even a little, and the shift gained me the slightest bit of control. The rapid spinning slowed, and I realized exactly how dizzy and nauseous I was getting from the incessant looping motions.
The demon stared right into my eyes, and it felt like his gaze burrowed deep into my body as it tried to rip out my soul. The beast growled at me and spoke in some language that felt weirdly familiar all of a sudden, but I couldn’t even begin to comprehend it. His intentions were clear by the pointed teeth he bared at me, and the way he reached out with aggressively curled fingers made me forget how to swallow for a second.
I looked around me and realized I’d managed to hang onto my crowbar, but there was nothing else. It was just me, my crowbar, and a fucking demon falling through a psychedelic rainbow of light. I wondered briefly if I’d somehow gotten a contact high from this asshole, but it all felt entirely too real to be a bad trip.
The demon’s black eyes seemed to light up as he looked at me, and he suddenly darted toward me like Superman flying through the sky. My fighting instincts took over, and I blocked his attack with the crowbar. The demon was stronger than me, though, and without anything to brace myself against, he easily knocked me toward the rushing walls of light around us.
I didn’t want to find out what happened if I touched the vibrant colors, or worse, fell through them, so I clutched at the demon’s shoulder with one hand, curled my legs up toward my stomach and dragged myself past him. I flew fast to the other side of the tunnel of light and worked to reorient myself to face the demon again.
The ugly horned beast roared at me again, and little droplets of spittle flew from its reeking mouth and splattered on my forearm. He seemed to halt his attacks for a moment, and I took the opportunity to study the demon.
Its features were truly hideous.
He hardly had a nose to comment on, just two large, flared nostrils in the middle of his face. The beast’s lips were pulled thin around his jagged yellow teeth, and his eyes were like blood-rimmed black holes. It felt as though he could suck me right out of my own body if I gazed for too long into his bottomless eyes. His shoulders were wide, but his body was much leaner than I’d first thought. He was covered in wiry bands of muscle and patches of coarse black hair, and I quickly averted my eyes as I realized he was entirely naked.
I didn’t need that image haunting my dreams.
I gripped my crowbar until my knuckles turned white, and I prepared for another attack from the horned demon. The hellish creature narrowed his black eyes at me and roared again, but before either of us could attempt to swim through the vacuum toward the other, the rainbow light around us suddenly flashed away.
I didn’t even have the chance to wonder what was happening before my body slammed hard into what felt like a concrete wall. Every last bit of air exploded right out of my lungs like I’d been struck by a Japanese bullet train, and I gasped for breath as my vision tunneled out.
I slammed my eyes shut and focused on not losing consciousness. The last thing I wanted was to give this ugly horned bastard an easy way to kill me.
“Uuuggghhh.” My head spun and throbbed, and there wasn’t a single square inch of my body that didn’t hurt.
I blinked frantically as I tried to figure out my new surroundings and keep my dinner where it was. I’d been thrown aggressively against a warm stone floor, and the air was hot, dry, and pitch black. I couldn’t tell if the space was actually that devoid of light, or if my eyes just hadn’t adjusted yet from the brightness of the rainbow void.
I slowly moved each of my limbs to check for injuries. I breathed a sigh as I realized nothing was broken, but I knew I’d be sore as all hell tomorrow. If I could make it to tomorrow, that is.
My eyes finally started to adjust to the darkness around me, and I looked for the demon.
My search ended abruptly when a raspy grumbling echoed off the stone walls. I lurched to my feet and braced myself for another attack, and it was just in time.
The demon staggered toward me. He seemed affected by the impact almost as much as me, and I was ready this time.
A fresh dump of adrenaline poured through my body, and I gripped my crowbar like a bat and swung at the demon’s horned temple. The cracking sound of thick iron against skin and bone churned in my stomach, and the demon fell backward and dropped to his knees on the ground.
My eyes flashed quickly around, and I saw that we had landed in a pretty ordinary-looking cave. The air was tinged with smoke and the smell of ash, and it chafed inside my throat as I sucked in a few ragged breaths. The stone walls of the large cave were smooth, and a vivid orange light flickered and glowed in the distance.
The demon sucked in a shuddering breath and roared again, and its broken-glass voice scraped inside my eardrums as he heaved himself back to his feet. I looked down and saw that the beast had cloven feet like every depiction of Satan I’d ever seen during my watered-down Catholic upbringing.
“What the actual hell?” I muttered, and I wondered if I’d been sucked into the bowels of the earth to serve an eternity of torture for my mischievous ways.
It took me about two seconds to decide I wasn’t going to give the devil the satisfaction of having me going quietly.
The demon lunged at me with his hands raised, and he managed to grab hold of the straight end of my crowbar. He snapped forward at my face with his uneven teeth, and I leaned back to keep my nose from his foul breath. More of the demon’s disgusting slobber sprayed out across my chest.
I gripped my weapon tight in both of my hands and stepped back with my right foot, and then I yanked fast and hard on the iron bar. The sudden aggressive pull surprised the demon just enough that his grip loosened on the crowbar, and I pulled it free from his gray hands.
I didn’t waste a millisecond. I took several steps in the direction of the orange light, and even though I couldn’t be sure if the outside of this cave would give me any advantage, I knew that at the very least, a little bit more light would be beneficial.
“Jarred de graggrtyy,” the demon growled vaguely familiar yet entirely unintelligible words as he stomped after me.
I knew I couldn’t evade this asshole forever, so I started to rapidly evaluate my options. I could try to skewer the hideous demon with my crowbar, I could try to evade and find somewhere to hide, or I could try and kick the ever-loving shit out of him with my steel-toed boots. I said a quick word of thanks to myself that I’d decided to skip less weaponized footwear options tonight in lieu of something more sturdy.
I glanced around as I continued to evade the demon and his garbled words. The mouth of the cave was well within sight now, and I could see what appeared to be a barren landscape just on the other side. The orange light was much brighter this close to the entrance, and the heat was intense as it wafted into the stone cave.
The demon launched forward suddenly and swiped at my face with his claw-like fingers. I ducked just in time to miss being mauled, but he followed the move with a harsh fist to my chest.
The air rushed out of my lungs from the forceful impact, but I maintained my footing and quickly kicked out at the demon’s knee with my steel-toed boot. The satisfying crunch of his kneecap bounced off the stone walls, and I couldn’t stop the smug smirk that spread across my lips as I continued toward the mouth of the cave.
My victory didn’t last long, however.
The demon hunched for a few seconds, and then he actually grinned up at me and stepped forward on stable hooves.
“Aw, shit.” I readjusted my hands on my crowbar and took another few steps back.
The cave entrance was only about fifteen feet away now, and while the air was hot and smoky, I finally caught sight of my best course of action.
Directly outside the cave was a flat expanse of stone, but on the other side, maybe fifty yards away from my current position, was a sheer cliff that dropped straight down. It looked like the gorge was deep enough to at least trap the demon. This asshole seemed to love charging forward at me like a bull, so if I got lucky with my dodge, he might yeet himself off the edge and splatter on the ground below like a bug on the windshield of a fully-loaded eighteen-wheeler going eighty miles per hour.
The image of the demon liquifying at the bottom was satisfying, and I decided to go for it.
But before I could take another step, the demon bull-charged me again, and the force of his attack knocked me to the ground. We rolled together like a tumbleweed, and I instinctively tucked my chin to my chest to protect my skull from the impacts. We rolled head over heels three times before our momentum died out, and the demon landed on top of me.
He threw a few punches down at my chest and head, but I managed to block them with my forearms and crowbar. The hits still hurt, but I knew they weren’t doing any serious damage.
“Fuck off!” I angled the crowbar back like I was blocking another shot, and then I took full advantage and slammed the hook end straight into the gap between two of the hideous beast’s ribs.
The heavy iron bar pierced into his thick flesh with a squelching sound, and the demon’s roar drummed in my ears before it faded into a sickly bubbling sound. I knew I’d punctured the bastard’s lung as black blood started to fill his mouth.
My attack packed enough surprise and damage that I was able to shove the demon off of me and roll to my feet.
By the time I righted myself once more, the demon had also returned to his feet, and he stepped toward me again. He spit black blood on the ground at my feet and dragged the back of his hand across his mouth. The wound in his ribcage still gaped wide at me, but the free flow of blood had stopped disturbingly quick.
“Oh, fuck you,” I groaned, and I knew that the gorge was going to be my best, if not only, option.
The demon lurched forward again, and I swung out with my crowbar at his head like a baseball bat. A forceful tremor raced up my arms as the metal connected with his skull like an over-the-fence homerun. The side of his face caved in enough that his eyeball turned cloudy, and black blood trickled out from his broken flesh, but the fucker just kept coming at me.
I quickly glanced over my shoulder and judged the distance between myself and the gorge. It was only a few yards away from me at this point, and I subtly shifted my angle so the drop was straight behind me. Then I loosened my grip on the crowbar, and I decided to take the opportunity to discover the demon’s level of intelligence.
“Please,” I pretended to beg, and I raised one hand palm-up in a pleading gesture. “Please, what do you want from me?”
The demon growled a long jumble of foreign words at me, and his advancing footsteps continued at a steady pace. I stopped about seven feet away from the edge of the cliff, and I stared at the demon with my best impression of sheer desperation.
“Please, I’ll give you whatever you want,” I whined at the demon, and I ground the balls of my feet into the gritty stone to brace myself for his attack.
“I want only one thing,” the demon growled, and he took another step toward me. “Your death.”
My jaw nearly hit the ground as I realized he’d actually spoken English. His voice was thick with some kind of weird accent, and gravelly like he’d spent his entire life sucking down razor blades and a tall glass of acid at every meal.
“Well, then,” I said, and I gave up the fake pleading as I layered my usual cocky tone thick into the words. “What are you waiting for?”
“Your confidence will be your death,” the demon snarled at me, and the corners of his wide mouth turned up in what I can only describe as a menacing grin.
“Riiiight,” I said as I discreetly checked my position out of my peripheral vision. All I needed was to piss this asshat off enough that he launched himself at me again, but he seemed to be enjoying his attempts to taunt me. I lowered my hands just a fraction, and I shrugged with casual indifference. “Well, I’ll just be over here, when you decide to do something about it.”
The demon’s face contorted with indignation and rage, and he sank slightly into his haunches. The beast was gearing up for an attack, and I was ready for him. I sank my weight down into my hips to stabilize myself as best as I could without giving away my plan.
“Cretin!” The demon spit the word at me, literally. More droplets of saliva splattered across the front of my shirt and forearms. Then he shifted deliberately to the side, and he advanced several paces toward the cliff side. “You cannot hope to survive this land.”
“Uhhh, I live in Boston,” I growled. “I can survive anywhere.”
The demon had effectively thrown an enormous monkey wrench into my plan to launch him backward over the cliff face, and I needed a new course of action to send him falling to his splatterific end.
I peered inconspicuously over the edge and saw only blackness instead of a distant ground.
Perfect.
The chasm was well beyond deep enough to squash him into a puddle at the bottom. If I was lucky, there would be lovely pointy spikes at the bottom that would skewer him through in a dozen places, but that would just be a nice cherry on top for me. All I needed was the right opportunity to send him over the edge.
Lucky for me, finding the right opportunity was one of my best skills in life.
“Imbecile!” the demon cackled maniacally at me.
“Doubtful.” I smirked at the demon, and I side-stepped away from the cliffside. “I’ve never met a single person… or whatever the fuck kind of ugly you are, that hasn’t underestimated me.”
“Silence,” the demon demanded. “I grow weary of your filthy, driveling language.”
“Then why don’t you do something about it already?” I said tauntingly as I watched the demon’s hips and shoulders, and I was ready to spring at the slightest movement.
The demon hissed at me, and his teeth clamped together like a bear trap that missed its meal. Then the demon shifted his weight to his right hoof, but before he could step forward, I kicked out with my steel-toed boot and caught him right in the hip joint. It was just enough force to throw him completely off-balance, and I moved faster than I ever have before in my entire life.
