Part 42 (2/2)
Simon swung, cleaving bodies almost effortlessly. He slashed again and again, not worrying about skill.
All he needed for the task at hand was brute strength. There was no need to finesse when targets tried to envelop him like a coc.o.o.n. Despite the damage he was inflicting, the demons continued to try to drag him down. They'd succeeded in taking some of the Templar down.
”Retreat!” Simon yelled to the survivors. ”Retreat!”
”You heard him!” Wertham crowed. ”We've got a train to catch!”
Simon fired the Scorcher into the face of a Darksp.a.w.n that shot at him. All of the Templar that were able to, disengaged from the demons and ran down the tube. Simon waited for just a moment, then ran after them. With his enhanced strength and speed, he surprised the demons and managed to get a head start.
He hoped it was enough. h.e.l.l dogged his footsteps.
Dragging himself to the top of the dead demons, Warren looked around in disbelief. He'd seen the Templar. They'd been seriously outmatched, outnumbered. Even now nearly half their number lay scattered across the tube floor. Those that still lingered in life wouldn't last long.
Standing, swaying, his eyesight showing double now because a chunk of ceiling had fallen and clipped him in the head, Warren knew he'd never be able to catch up with the Templar. The one who'd taken his hand was still alive. He screamed in helpless fury, then an idea came to him.
He looked at one of the nearby Blood Angels. ”Come. Obey me.”
The Blood Angel glided over to where he stood. She hissed and snapped at him, but she didn't come close to him in spite of her efforts.
”Down,” Warren ordered.
Kneeling, the Blood Angel was only inches from Warren's feet. Wiping blood from his eyes, Warren threw himself on top of the demon.
”Get up,” he ordered, wrapping his legs around the Blood Angel's waist and leaving her enough room to use her wings. ”Fly.”
The Blood Angel rose to its haunches and threw itself forward. It flapped hurriedly, struggling with the extra weight. Then it was airborne, streaking over the carnage and pursuing the Templar. At her best speed she barely made headway against her quarry. Warren knew then that the armor gave its wearer extra speed and strength.
Glancing down, he saw that the chase continued. The demons weren't going to simply let the Templar get away. They were in hot pursuit, and they weren't going to stop until they overtook the Templar.
Looking forward, Warren felt the Blood Angel's muscles contract and loosen as it winged through the air. It shot over the leading demon hordes and caught the attention of the Templar.
Then, ahead in the darkness, Warren spotted a bright light headed away from him.A train!
He recognized the train for what it was almost at the same time he realized that it was moving under its own power when it should have been stalled. Somehow the Templar had arranged an escape.
The Templar caught up to the last car and pulled themselves up. They scattered across the train car at once, lying p.r.o.ne and filling their hands with pistols.
Several energy bolts and flaming explosions whizzed by Warren, ripping into the ceiling and the walls around him. The Blood Angel never wavered, but she threw bolts that struck the train and knocked one of the armored men off.
Summoning the power he felt within him, Warren created a glowing ball of force in his hand. When he felt, instinctively, that it was the proper size and strength, he threw it at the train.
Two of the knights dodged away, fleeing back along the train car, but a third wasn't so lucky. The ball of crackling blue-white energy smashed into the knight and blasted pieces of his armor away as it knocked his body from the train to the nearest wall.
The train continued on its way but hadn't reached its top speed yet. The demons closed on it.
Warren guided the Blood Angel with his thoughts, causing the demon to dip down low enough so that he could see what the armored men had sought to protect. When he looked through the broken gla.s.s windows and saw men, women, and children huddled fearfully on the floor of the train car, he was surprised.
He was even more surprised when something whipped out of the darkness and wrapped around the Blood Angel's neck. Then the demon was yanked sideways, brought into a distinct collision with the side of the car.
Dazed, Warren tried to hang on to the Blood Angel, then he saw the demon's feet slide under the train car's wheels. Recognizing the danger, he jumped for the side of the train car just before the churning wheels yanked the Blood Angel beneath them. Before he could pull himself up, a knight stood at the edge and peered down at him, pointing a large pistol straight at his face.
Running hard as he could, Simon caught up with the train with the last of the Templar. His HUD informed him that nineteen of the warriors had been lost. The number shocked him. He'd expected some losses, but nothing like this.
Don't think about that,he told himself.You've still got over a thousand people to save.
Taking three more steps, pulling to within five feet of the train car, Simon reached for the safety bar surrounding the platform. Something hit him in the back between the shoulder blades and threw him off-stride. He lost ground for a moment, then recovered and ran again.
When he was close enough this time, he jumped as hard as he could, propelling himself forward and aiming for alt.i.tude, using all the strength the armor gave him. He spun in the air and pulled his other pistol, filling both hands, then firing at the wave of demons trailing the train.
Palladium spikes and the Greek Fire rounds staggered the advancing demons but didn't stop them. But the train was finally gaining more speed.
Simon landed on his feet on top of the train car, feeling it cave in slightly under the impact of his weight.
He was tilted too far forward, though, and couldn't stop himself from falling on his face. He skidded across the train car top for a moment, watching helplessly as a Blood Angel swooped in and the rider on its back threw a glowing energy ball that slammed into a Templar only a few feet away.
Forty-Nine.
In disbelief and horror, Simon watched as the glowing ball of energy ripped the Templar to shreds and knocked his scattered remains from the train car. The doomed Templar's Grappler sped across the roof of the train car.
Releasing the Scorcher, Simon grabbed for the Grappler and barely caught it. The Scorcher slid off the side of the train car and disappeared.
Grappler in hand, Simon stood and anch.o.r.ed his boots to the train roof. He shoved the Grappler toward the Blood Angel as it overtook the train and glided alongside. Simon aimed at the demon's rider at first, then realized that would leave the Blood Angel still able to attack. Behind the train, the demons were finally losing ground, falling back as the train raced on. They were almost free.
Simon s.h.i.+fted his aim to the Blood Angel and squeezed the trigger. The nano-molecular line crossed the distance between him and the demon, then looped around the Blood Angel's neck. Triggering the Grappler's reel, Simon braced himself as the line tightened. He yanked, pulling the Blood Angel into the side of the train.
The impact vibrated through the train car. Simon held on, then felt the Blood Angel pull back with impossible strength. Realizing that the creature was getting caught under the train car's wheels, Simon released the line from the Grappler. A moment later, he saw torn and b.l.o.o.d.y hunks of the scattered Blood Angel along the train's wake.
Then he saw the demon's hand holding on to the side of the train.
Simon stepped to the train's edge, listening to the scream of metal along the tracks, and saw the man attached to the demon's hand. He was surprised to find that it was the same man he'd encountered while searching for Balekor's Hammer.
Leveling the Spike Bolter, Simon aimed between the man's eyes. He didn't know how the man had gotten there or why, and he didn't know what had moved him to conspire with the demons, but it was going to end now. The Templar had left too many dead behind them to let them go unavenged.
He pulled the trigger as the man threw up a hand. Arcane energy gathered in front of the man and the palladium spikes froze in midair. Undeterred, Simon holstered the Spike Bolter and plucked a grenade from his gear, pulling the pin and dropping the grenade into the man's face.
As Simon had expected, the grenade froze in midair as well. But the grenade would also explode.
Before Simon could move, though, the man gestured at him.
An invisible wall of force slammed into Simon, tearing his boot anchors free of the train's roof and throwing him across the train.
<script>