SFC Book III – Chapter Fifty-Four – Reckoning
Halfway down the staircase, Lilian came to an abrupt halt. “No. Gray. Stop!”
He turned. He was giving Tomi mana so she could stay in her karujin form with the fae still in her arms. Gray hated the idea of the cat girl setting down Pinch, so she could fight. What if something happened to Pinch while she was on the ground?
He hated all of this.
But it seemed the princess hated it more. “I don’t want to be hunted.”
They were all struck silent. Tomi didn’t snort nor laugh. Midj did grab Gray’s hand. Her palm was sweaty.
Instead of fear, Gray clung to anger. “Of course we don’t want to be hunted. But we could go back to the palace, come up with an ambush, and take him out.”
“No,” Lilian said.
Gray wanted to shake her. “What do you mean ‘no?’”
“No. It would be waiting for him to come. He would be hunting us. I can’t do that, Gray. I can’t. It would kill me. I’d rather die. I can melt those iron spikes. I can open a way for you all. Let me do this. Pamalee is gone. And I’ll be gone. And it will be you five again. It’s how it was meant to be, I can feel it.”
Gray left Midj and walked back up the stairs. “That’s fucking seacow shit, Lil, and you know it. Squads have seven recruits. You belong on our team. Yes, you’re a pain in the ass and Ames has to scream in your face but Settie chose you for a reason. You’re right. I think you can melt those spikes. But what would it cost you? Let’s regroup back in at the palace.”
Rynn walked up to where Lilian was standing. “No, Gray, she’s right. I don’t want to run either. Fighting the fae and orcs is going to take a lot of energy out of him. I don’t know how demons generate mana, but we don’t want him resting. We strike while he’s tired. No one sacrifices themselves. We fight as a team.”
Ames joined Rynn and Lilian. “Yes. It’s not time to return to the palace, not with Bellichor still alive. We knew we would be facing a demon. We shouldn’t wait. I’m sure Aunt Florence would say that we shouldn’t put off until tomorrow what we could do today.”
Rynn laughed a little. “That is what she’d say all right. Let’s hunt him. He’s revealed himself. And Lilian has the ruby necklace. It will protect her.”
“But those spikes,” Gray said. “Somehow, he can summon iron spikes using his mana. One of us is going to get hurt.”
Midj sighed and walked up to join the rest of the squad. “Fighting demon lords and going down in history means getting bloody. Right, Tomi?”
The cat girl stood with Gray lower down on the steps. She wasn’t saying a word. It was so unlike her.
Gray turned to her. “What do you say, Tomi?”
It was silent on the staircase for far too long.
“He’s not just a demon lord…he’s part of the Offal Guard. They were part of the Troublemaker’s strike team. It’s not just we’ll get hurt. It’s that…we’ll all probably die.” And then the cat girl laugh, and it was bitter but also oddly happy. “And I don’t mind dying, but I kinda wanted to get into the history books somehow. No one will know. We’ll be a footnote maybe.”
“Or we win,” Gray said. There was a strange feeling inside of him—it wasn’t giving him mana but it felt like a power all the same. He walked up to join the other women. Now they were all staring down at Tomi and Pinch, who’s eyes were open but she really wasn’t there.
Tomi snorted. “We’re not going to win.”
“But if we win, Squad 23 didn’t just get gold on Culling Day, we killed Bellichor. Midj will use her mana hands to keep us safe. She can stay back, providing us shielding from the spikes. Lilian and I charge the demon. Rynn and Ames can throw mana bursts if not their pain touch.”
Ames’s smile was eerie. “Causing the demon pain would make me very happy.”
Rynn gave her a bit of a worried look. “I can’t do that yet, but I can throw mana, and I can attack him if gets past Lilian and Gray. He’s big, quick definitely, but I’m a very good fighter.”
Gray nodded. “Tomi, you stay back. If it looks like the fight is going to be a slaughter, you run with Pinch. You can tell everyone what happened. You can tell them that Squad 23 weren’t the hunted, they were the hunters. I mean, fuck. It’s what we’re all doing in the Belly in the first place. We might as well fucking hunt the big game right away.”
“Not just big game,” Tomi said. “He’s basically a demi-god.”
“Fuck demi-gods,” Lilian cursed. “You’re just saying he’s a wannabe god. Well, we’ll show him what we do to wannabe gods.”
While she talked tough, Gray knew the truth—she was going up those steps to die. That despair gave her mana.
“Then let’s go and get this over with.” Tomi climbed up the stairs. “But we should hurry. Is it wrong that I want to see Tillwick Duskdrop get spiked?”
“It should be,” Rynn said. “But I can’t help agree with you.”
And then it was a climb up the steps as they put their plan together.
There was no going back.
In his heart of hearts, Gray knew this was the real reckoning and it wasn’t just part of some game they were playing where they had to follow the rules of a sadist. This was a reckoning of their lives.
It felt clean. For the first time, they weren’t just fighting other recruits, they were going against something vile and evil to its core.
It was a fitting enemy for Squad 23 to face.
And Tillwick Duskdrop confirmed it as he came fleeing down, he tripped, fell, and rolled down the steps in front of them. His bloodless blade had been broke in half, and still he gripped it, though he didn’t have the mana to charge it.
“They’re dead.” He spat blood onto the steps. He’d been stabbed and was bleeding internally. Maybe a heal spell could fix that, but maybe not. “They’re all dead. If you go up there, you’ll die too. We need to fucking run. That’s not Blonko. That’s…that’s something else.”
Gray thought about healing the fae, thinking he might join them, but no, the once arrogant recruit kept on running down the steps.
Tomi laughed. “I enjoyed that far more than I should’ve. Do we still have a plan?”
Gray felt the adrenaline in his veins as he took in the familiar faces of his squad…his friends, his family. He’d never felt more alive or loved. “Let me adjust it a little, but yes. Anyone up for an ambush?”
“Always.” Rynn kissed him.
And if it was to be their last, he made sure it was a good one.