Chapter Twenty-One
Corde
It was unfair, he thought, the greatsword of yellow-orange flame springing into existence in his hand. The light from it cast the darkness back as he charged at the interloper from another realm.
Unfair that he’d not been able to tell Kylie the way he wanted to that he loved her. Or when. It was unfair that she’d not been granted the opportunity to respond in any way.
Most of all, it was unfair to both of them that they might not get the chance to see just where it all led between them.
The Outsider loomed up in front of him and he swung. Arms the color of midnight darkness rose in a cross to protect it. Corde grunted and slammed his sword into the makeshift shield. The matte-black exoskeleton shook with the terrible blow, but it didn’t yield as he’d expected. Instead of slicing through it and ending things then and there, Corde came to an abrupt halt, muscles screaming as they absorbed his sudden deceleration.
“Oh shit.”
Without a sound the creature pushed forward and uncrossed its arms at the same time. The effect sent his sword, and Corde, tumbling back into the darkness. He hit the ground, smashing through a handful of old abandoned shopping carts before coming to a halt.
“So you’ve learned,” he snarled, getting to his feet. The fires blazed brighter in his eyes as he stepped forward, the sword reigniting in his hand.
With an irritated grunt he slashed it at the remaining carts, clearing the debris from around his legs and blasting it free from his path. The Outsider came at him now, thankfully ignoring Kylie for the moment, hopefully long enough for her to get secured underground. He had no idea what sort of defenses Colonel Mara had set up, but he doubted they would be minimal. She knew what was at stake.
The ends of the black appendages that served as arms on the infernal creature began to reshape themselves. Strands of black material shot out, like thin vines or strands of wire, before looping back into the shifting, rippling surface. Corde’s stomach rumbled uneasily at the display, before stabbing him with unease.
Instead of a blunt “hand” at the end, the arm now sprouted a sword nearly the rival of his own. One on each arm. Which meant he was suddenly outnumbered.
“Not fair,” he grumbled as the alien beast came at him, its “legs” traveling in that ungainly half-lurch half-humping motion that gave it such a horrifying movement.
Black chitin-like weapons flashed and he ducked and weaved, mustering every skill of the blade he’d ever learned to defend himself and keep himself out of harm’s way. Corde did not want to know what it felt like to be touched by the creature.
The Outsider was swift, and strong, but it lacked experience. A wild swing of the sword-hand left it overbalanced and Corde struck with lightning quickness. His sword whipped around, catching the onyx blade on the edge, shattering it.
A painful keening trumpet-like wail shattered the night. It was so loud it hurt his ears, driving him back as he winced against the pain, unable to press his attack home. Purple goo far thicker than blood seeped from the stump of a sword. Corde had hurt the damn thing, and his fury at being unable to finish the job grew, starting to block out the pain.
He might not be able to close to sword-fighting range, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t attack. Pointing the tip of the sword at the monstrous creature, he called forth all the fire he could and flung it forward. The sword was swept up in the terrific blast, a beam of fire the width of his bicep hitting his foe center mass.
Corde grinned as the Outsider was swept up in the fire and hurled clear across the loading bay until it crashed into the stack of old wooden pallets, sinking to the ground as they collapsed inward on it. Adding insult to injury he pulled back his arm, focused his fire into a ball, and tossed it into the wood. The concentrated fireball blew apart, turning the stack of wood into a towering bonfire in an instant.
To his left, ahead and to the side of the fire, the sound of metal clinking against itself reached his ears. Corde’s head whipped around to see the homeless man pushing his cart, running for safety. At the same moment a shadowy figure covered in fire burst from the side of the pallet pile, heading straight for the helpless man.
“NO!” Corde roared, charging forward. He hit the Outsider with another blast of fire, but it was moving too fast for him to keep it on target. The last thing he wanted to do was crisp the human he was trying to save.
He jumped, trying to tackle the Outsider. As he did, a massive black club came around as the creature reversed its arm in the socket, smashing the reshaped arm into his ribs, all without slowing. Corde flew sideways, through a concrete wall. He took out a support post and part of the building came crashing down on top of him.
Concern for the old man filled him and he leapt free from the debris, just in time to see the Outsider stab its mangled sword-arm into the rags covering his back. A faint blue light leapt from the human into the creature, traveling up its sword-arm and into its core.
Corde watched in disgust as the arm stopped spewing purple goop and healed itself, the new armor a slightly shinier black that would dull with time. Snarling with barely restrained fury, he thrust both palms forward and hit it with every ounce of fire he could call up.
The Outsider raised the club arm, the appendage reshaping itself into a shield in less time than it took the fire to travel the distance from Corde’s palms to it. Fire blasted to the sides, the hardened shield seeming to take no damage.
He continued to let the fire pour through him, advancing on his foe even as he began to tire, the effort of unleashing so much energy sapping him of some of his strength. The Outsider came to meet him. The black armor seemed impervious to his attack, no matter what he did.
Ten steps separated them now, and still he gave it everything he had.
Seven.
The Outsider never wavered.
Five.
Corde gritted his teeth together and opened up his last reserves. He didn’t have much left if this didn’t work. The Outsider would kill him if he didn’t succeed.
Three steps.
It never stopped, like a juggernaut advancing through the best he could throw at it as if it was little more than a heavy stream of water.
Two.
Corde was giving up hope. He couldn’t do it. It was too strong, too powerful for him to defeat. A few more seconds, and it would have him, sucking his own lifeforce and leaving his limp, lifeless corpse behind as it hunted down Kylie.
One.
A chunk of something hit the ground between them, a thick, viscous fluid.
Corde’s eyes flew open. It could be hurt. Each time he’d hit it, the Outsider seemed to adapt, to grow more impervious to his fire. But it wasn’t invincible. He could still beat it. Still save Kylie.
He just needed more fire.
The shield, now dripping from the heat as it started to melt, came up and slammed into his head. Corde cartwheeled through the air, through a huge glass window that was somehow still intact, and into the second floor of a building, coming to rest in some sort of office. Groaning, he got to his feet.
Outside he saw the monster take a long look at him, and then advance on the building that had the safe house in it. The safe house and Kylie.
Corde charged, leaping out the window to the floor and heading for the wall. Even with a short course straight through the side of the building he knew he was going to be too late. It was going to reach Kylie first.