Fic: Ravages Of Hell (29/32)
Giles gasped as the resurrected Slayers tore into the demons, gliding into action with a deadly grace that was matched only with the terribleness of the monsters' charge to intercept them. Dismembered limbs flew mesmerisingly into the dark night sky, blood showering the Slayers as they went about their carnage, six or seven demons falling for every Slayer.
But fall they did. And as quickly as the demons died they were replaced, their reserves seemingly limitless. All too quickly the last of the revived Slayers fell.
Ignoring the groan that seemed to run through their ranks, Giles opened his leather overcoat and passed a shotgun over to his companion. "I trust you remember how to shoot?"
"Clay pigeon shooting old boy," Ethan looked ashen grey. "One never forgets that!"
"Then make every shot count!" he roared. Even as he spoke Giles knew that no matter what there was no way they could win this battle on their own, they were simply fighting a holding battle. It was down to Xander and the others. "You can do it son," he muttered.
Angel looked left and right, skin prickling uneasily as they continued down the rush-torch lit tunnel that led deeper into The Deeper Well's defences. "There's something-," his eyes widened as the wall to their left began to move, "run!"
"Shit!" Faith was off like a hare, long hair whipping from side to side as she sprinted with an effortlessness that any Olympic runner would envy. Xander was less fortunate, the wide-eyed kid stumbling.
Angel grabbed the youth's elbow, steadying him. Xander's brown orbs stared at him. "Thanks-."
"Don't thank me!" he yelled. "Run!"
"Yeah!" The youth's pants echoed in his ears but they managed to make it through the 100 metre dash a half-second before the two walls crashed together.
"Jesus, X," Faith scowled at Harris. "You don't make things easy-."
"Hey!" the Sunnydaler snapped, not backing an inch before the sultry Bostonian. "Not super-powered! This wasn't supposed to be my gig!"
"That's not the problem and you know it!" Faith snapped back. "If you took your head out of your ass and just believed in yourself for a minute-."
"We don't have time for this." Shaking his head, Angel stepped between the bickering duo. "Can you hear that?" Angel looked up to where the sound was coming from. His eyes widened as he saw a boulder rolling down the wall that had just moved. "Run!"
Xander threw his hands up before turning and starting down the path. "Again!"
Blast after blast went into the demons' massed ranks, putting down demon after demon. Still the monsters didn't stop or even falter in their advance, the dread of their master greater than the fear of the carnage being wrecked upon them.
"Bugger!" Giles yelled as his Mossberg 590 clicked empty. Throwing it down to the ground in disgust, he drew his longsword. Eyes fixed on the swarming mob facing them, he shouted to his companion. "How many rounds left, Ethan!"
"Last round now old bean!" Ethan flung his shotgun down. "I'd wager the lasses are out too."
"Indeed," Giles spoke rather than shouted as an uneasy quiet fell. "It would appear so."
For an instance the monsters stared at them before charging.
Xander groaned as he joined the others in turning the corner, his legs buckling under him at the last, hitting the ground on his shoulder. He lay there for a second, gasping as the massive boulder crashed into the end of the corridor behind them.
"It's alright, Xander," Angel eased him to his feet. "You managed it."
"Yeah," Xander leaned against the wall, chest still heaving, "just about."
"We getting this done or what?" Faith impatiently butted in.
It was on the tip of Xander's tongue to ask for a rest, but remembering the others fighting on the surface, he straightened. "Let's go."
Angel shot him a concerned look before slowly nodding. "Okay, this way."
"Gee, Sherlock, its like a tunnel, a tunnel with one route," Faith snarked.
Giles shuddered as the sixty or so yards still separating them from the monster army erupted in a circle of fire. Giles turned his head away from the blazing fire, the wall of heat causing sweat to bead down his forehead, the stench of burning flesh and the demons' screams almost unbearable.
"Your Wicca?" Ethan guessed.
"A secret weapon of mine," Giles shook his head. "Since I discovered the Devon Coven massacred, I've been finding as many witches and warlocks as possible." Giles chuckled humourlessly. "You can call them our weapons of mass destruction. The difference being they actually exist."
"You always were a crafty bugger." Ethan groaned as the fire disappeared. "Any more surprises?"
"I'm afraid not," Giles raised his sword.
"Ah, Ripper, you lead a lad on. Giving him hope like that."
Faith's ears filled with Xander's panting. Looking behind her, she saw the sweat-soaked Sunnydaler stumbling behind them. "Damn it," Faith muttered. She felt wicked bad about the way she'd spoken to him before; it wasn't his fault. He shouldn't have been here in the first place; this wasn't a place for him. What the hell had Queen C been thinking picking him? Ken or Conn would have been way smarter choices. Faith smiled wryly, but no-one ever said C was smart.
Faith slowed down until he was level with her. "Hey Xan, about before-."
"Yeah I know," Xander rocked her with the intensity of his glare, "I'm a handicap, I get it." The man's gasps increased as he forced extra pace from his legs, pulling away from her.
"X!" Faith shook her head. Damn fool man. Whatever Willow had done she'd done with the best of intentions, but it had sure messed with X's self-esteem. Sorta like that self-fulfilling prophecy thing they'd talked about in group therapy back in Stockton. Treat someone like they're useless, a thug, a slut whatever, and eventually they'll start to act like it. She remembered how Xand had once tried to help her and decided right there and then she was getting a new Watcher whether he liked it or not.
"Wait." She looked ahead to see Angel had come to a halt. "There's a pit here."
Faith stopped at the edge and peered down into a spike-filled trench. "Wouldn't wanna land on those beauties," she caustically commented before looking to the other side and grinning. "Only six feet across, no problem for any of us."
"Yeah," Angel nodded. "It looks easy. Too easy." The vampire looked at both of them in turn. "Don't come until I say."
"Yes sir!" Xander mockingly saluted the vampire.
"I'm serious, Xander," Angel scowled at the Sunnydaler before bending his knees and leaping across the pit.
And disappearing from view.
Sweat dripped into his eyes and his arms burnt with the effort of swinging his heavy blade. "Not as fit as I used to be," Ethan chuckled hoarsely. It seemed as if the battle had been joined for hours but in reality it had only been a few minutes. A few hell-filled minutes crammed with terror and the screams of the dead and dying. "A bloody idiot you are, Ethan," he muttered. "I could be chatting up a barsmaid here, preparing myself a last good night, but instead I'm here."
His eyes widened as he saw his friend, god Ripper hadn't been this fearsome in their halcyon youth, fall to the ground under a blow from a Hornak, blood seeping from his brow. The Hornak threw back his head and howled, the sound lost in the battle's bedlam. Then the monster raised his crimson slicked blade.
"Nooo!" Desperation surging through him, Ethan shoved aside weariness to hurdle over a Slayer's crumpled corpse to leap between Giles and the down-swinging blade. He screamed as the longsword sliced through his left shoulder. He had the briefest glimpse of the blood spurting out of his shoulder wound and then the blade ripped through him to his heart. And then nothing.
"What the!" Angel's eyes widened as the ground he was about to land on disappeared from under him, silver spikes suddenly glinting dangerously up at him. Twisting in mid-air, he desperately grabbed for the path he'd been stood on.
"FANG!"
He heard Faith's terrified scream even as his fingers landed on the outcropping. Grimacing with the effort he swung back onto path, hitting the reassuringly hard stone on his shoulder, rolling up to his feet, and turning to face Faith and Xander. "You can walk to here, the pit's an illusion. The real pit is behind me."
"Are you sure?" Xander demanded.
Always the sceptic. "I'm standing here aren't I?" Angel retorted.
After a second, Xander nodded. "Fair enough."
Once the others had traversed the obstacle, they continued doggedly on until they came to six feet wide two pits filled with more silver spikes but separated by a three foot ledge in-between. "T-R-A-P." Xander shrugged when both he and Faith turned to him. "Thought I'd spell it out in case you were wondering."
"Really wasn't," Faith took her watch off and threw it at the first pit. "Fuck!" The sultry Bostonian cursed when the timepiece disappeared into the spike-filled trench. "That cost me forty bucks!"
"You could go in after it." Xander raised his hands at the brunette beauty's glare. "No need for the dagger eyes, you could just say no."
Angel felt the beginnings of a throbbing headache. He'd never babysat, but judging from his two 'children' whatever baby-sitters got it wasn't enough. "I'll jump to the middle, we'll work things out from there."
"What if the middle's the trap?" Faith asked.
"I'm the most durable of all three of us," Angel said. "Wait here." Before Faith had a chance to argue, because he was certain she would, Angel bent his knees and leapt onto the middle. "Whoa!" Angel's left and then right foot slid on impact. "It's oil underfoot."
"Ah hell!" Faith exclaimed. "They wanted people to jump into the middle and either slip back into the first trap or slide right into the second!"
"That'd be my guess," Angel agreed. "Faith, you take a run-up and jump, it's only 20 – 22 feet in total."
"Five by five," the brunette nodded before trotting back eight feet, dropping into a sprinter's crouch, one hand braced against the stone. A half-second later and she exploded like a gazelle, hair swinging as she blurred to the edge of the pit and leapt. Faith's flight was a thing of beauty, like watching Carl Lewis at his very best. Except Carl never landed on his feet, knees crouched, after jumping twenty plus feet and turned and winked at his audience. "Wicked buzz."
"Okay," Angel turned back to Xander stood nervously waiting, "you jump across to me, I'll catch you."
"You are winding me up!" Xander stared at him.
"Don't be shy," he needled. "I promise not to hold you too tight."
"Not funny," Xander shook his head before stepping back perhaps ten feet and charging towards the hole. As he reached the edge, Xander pushed off. The Sunnydaler's flight was a good deal less graceful than the Slayer's but did the job it was meant to, carrying him to a landing in Angel's waiting arms.
"Xander," Angel smiled at the youth, "have you been putting on weight?"
"Funny Captain HairGel," Xander scowled. "How am I going to get across if I can't take a run-up?"
"I'm going to have to throw you," Angel smiled.
"What-, Deadboy!" Xander let out a wail as Angel picked him up by the collar and flung him across the pit.
Angel smiled. "I can die happy now."
After he'd leapt across, he joined the others in continuing their journey until they reached a wide cavern, his amusement dying at the creature stood snarling there.