Page 60 of Claiming Demons

I shifted into my dove form and easily swooped through and around the blasts, then surged up into the sky.

“Where did you go, little bug?” Erini hiss-shouted.

Good, she didn’t know where I was. She’d probably sense me in a moment, but would hopefully be distracted just long enough for me to…

I reached where I wished to be, above Erini, then I returned to myself, falling on her from behind, my sword slashing down.

She sensed me and shifted just in time. My strike, which had been aimed for the middle of her back, hit her shoulder… and severed her arm.

I shifted back to a dove as Erini screamed in pain and fury. She was preoccupied, at least for a moment, so I quickly darted down to Fen, returned to my human form, and healed his injuries. After everything else I’d been through tonight, I was feeling the pull of fatigue, but I was also filled with the thrill of battle, which kept me going.

“You’re amazing,” Fen breathed. His physical wounds were closed, but he was clearly still weak and tired.

“She’s recovering!” Ramsey hissed, drawing near. There was something different about him, a new strength and confidence, and then it hit me. I could feel his chaos unleashed and whipping around him, but it was also perfectly contained and controlled, far different from before.

“You good?” I asked as I rose.

“Better than ever.”

“And I’m feeling up for a second round,” Fen said standing next to me on the other side.

“Then, let’s do th— ahh what the fuck?” My confidence wavered as I looked up at Erini.

Something was happening. She was shaking, vibrating, almost as if she was tearing apart from the inside… and it turned out… she was.

Throwing her head back with a scream of rage, she broke apart and shifted. Two more heads sprouted from her neck, and four more arms from her sides as she became all three furies in one body. A spiked whip appeared in one of her hands, a sword in another, and a shield in a third.

“Really?” I shouted as I summoned my sword and shield as well.

“You can’t stop me!” her three heads said at once in a strange reverberating echo. “You’ve corrupted my brother and stolen my true love. Time to die, little bug!”

She came at us in a blur, all flailing arms and weapons and fury, screaming incoherently.

Ramsey lashed out with chaos, but she blocked with her shield.

Fen launched himself at her with tooth and claw, but her whip flashed out and caught him around the neck, flinging him away.

I fought her sword to sword, but I was being driven back by the storm of her rage.

I’d thought myself good with a sword, but that had been against mindless zompires. Against a trained goddess, I was losing… badly.

She was too fast. Her strikes slid past my guard and shattered my armor. Stabs and slashes opened my flesh, faster than I could heal them.

My armor remade itself only to be torn open again and again. Even with Fen and Ramsey distracting her, it wasn’t enough. She was fury incarnate and she was winning.

Then, even as she continued her physical assault, another barrage of her fiery bolts surged out from her, surprising us.

Ramsey screamed, Fen was knocked back, and I was sent sprawling, armor blasted open, chest charred, the breath knocked out of me.

It would take me a moment to heal myself, but that gave Erini time to play. She went to Fen, kneeling beside him, one of her free hands fondling his face.

“We could have ruled it all — ruined it all — my prince of destruction,” she moaned at him. Then she slapped him, hard, turning his head, before gripping it again and digging her nails in. “But no! You fucked that whore! You chose a nice pair of tits over your soulmate in destruction and for that, you’ll die!”

Healing coursed through me, my armor mending. I sat up, slowly, still aching and wounded. I’d be ready in a moment… I just didn’t know if Fen had that long.

Luckily Erini was still ranting. “All my life I’ve been told to rein in my rage, only bring it out a little at certain times. Well, fuck that! I’ve waited for so long to unleash my full power and now that I have, Ilikeit! The world will burn, and you’ll burn with it! It’s time this world felt the wrath of the furies!”

I was up.