The stitched thing moved like a nightmare given shape. It was fast... impossibly so for its hulking frame. Before they could react, it struck out, fist meeting air where Kyle stands.
Wrech reacted on their behalf, the demon shark struck from a tree-shadow, a sudden slash of jaws that clipped the demon's arm. The stitched thing yelped, then it spun... backpedaling faster than bone should allow. It had the speed of the woods working with it, shadows giving it leverage and it jumped free with a spray of leaf and bark.
"Another human using our kind against us..." it snarled. "Weaklings... I will tear your hearts from your chests."
Ezra's grin sharpened like a blade. He flicked his hand toward Kyle. "Get Nia out of here, now."
Teeth stabbed across the road... dozens of them, Wrech spit them out like a dark hailstorm. They tore at the trees, the air itself. The stitched demon moved like water though... between them, it dodged, blurred and closed with a punishment blow that exploded into Ezra's side. He was thrown like a ragdoll, slamming into a tree trunk with a thud that rattled the bones.
Kyle didn't run, he swung the scythe, with half-hope and half-despair. The haft connected with empty air as the demon's response was a brutal backhand that spun Kyle, sent him skidding across the gravel. He slammed into the roadside ditch, coughing blood.
The demon pivoted and drove a blow at Nia. She met it, feet braced... katana singing a metallic counter. The strike landed but not enough to stop it. The force smashed through her guard, pain exploding through her. She staggered, breathing sharp.
"Move!" Ezra coughed, spitting blood. He shot another volley of shadow-teeth, this time faster, angrier and Wrech was a gale of black maws chewing their way through the underbrush, tearing at the demon's flank.
Nia breathed in slow and deep. She switched, motion like a blade... defense to offense, a dance of blades and breath. She closed in, katana threads screeching like lightning.
It was speed against raw strength. The stitched monster was all bruising force and animal cunning; Nia was a blade in motion, angles and inevitability. She cut its forearm, and hot black blood spit into the dirt. The wound made it scream... not of pain so much as fury.
It altered strategy. Where before it traded blows, now it poured power into the other fist and struck with the force of a falling tree. The blow collided with Nia's stomach like a sledge. She went airborne and slammed into a low oak. The breath left her in a savage hiss and the world blurred.
"NIA!" Ezra's voice cracked, as he lurched free and dove like a shadow-shark, jaws snapping for anything the stitched thing might leave exposed.
"Death Vines."
Large vines erupted from the forest floor at the demon's command. They hammered up in a dozen places, tips honed cruel and glistening. The ground itself seemed to split as roots and vines pushed upward, each deadly as a thrown blade. They whistled, closing in with a speed that made Kyle's teeth ache.
"We're pinned!" Ezra roared as a vine slashed his leg. He spat, hissing as the shadow-shark lashed teeth at anything in reach.
Kyle saw the vines arching toward him, he was able to dodge them but one slammed into his shoulder so hard his scythe exploded from his fingers and he reeled as the pointed tip ripped at his side.
The voice inside his head hissed then. "Look at them, Kyle. They're going to die... give me control and I will save them."
Kyle's lungs wanted to give up on him. The demon ahead crouched, about to lunge in for the kill.
He's fingers curled in the dirt. "No." he breathed aloud, not to Nia but to himself and the thing inside. "Either you lend me your power or we both end here. Your choice."
The stitched thing barked a laugh that sounded like old rope tearing. "How noble..." it mocked. "A human pretending to bargain."
The voice flickered, then something happened that none of them had expected.
A thin, black mist rose from his skin... a cold aura unfurling like smoke. It wasn't the demon stepping fully free... it was her shadow, pressed against the glass of his ribs and let him borrow from it. The scythe at his side... forged with Drew's demonic steel tingled. The blade's edge drank the aura and went silver-black, sharpening until the air around it hummed.
Kyle's limbs felt lighter. Where before he flinched and slowed as if moving in sleep, now movement came like water. He moved, the scythe became an extension of instinct, as if his hands had been built to wield it for years. He cut a lazy arc and vines that had already plunged toward Nia were sawed through like paper. The scythe sang, a note that cleaved and the sound made the trees jump.
Nia pushed herself to her feet, eyes wide as she watched Kyle move with a new grace. He cut through the vines, closing the distance.
The demon's head snapped to him. For the first time it registered Kyle not as prey but as weapon. Kyle flesh-stepped and with the momentum of a practiced killer he sliced across the demon's thigh. The wound was a black waterfall. The stitched flesh unspooled in ribbons.
They traded blows like gods, the demon raw power and Kyle's swift, surgical strikes. The monster slammed into him, sending both of them spinning into a tangle of root and broken wood. Kyle tasted blood but the scythe came up like a living breath. He used a dirty trick, a roll that let the demon overcommit... and then he drove the blade through demon's chin to the top of it's head.
The stitched thing screamed, a torn sound that reverberated through the trees. It tried to catch him with a defensive hook but Kyle had already slid free, holding the scythe by the blade in a sideways, ugly grappling maneuver. He drove the haft at a joint like a crowbar and the stitched flesh tore.
The demon's balance broke, it stumbled back. Without hesitation, it chose flight... a terrible, panicked jump and then it was gone, melting into tree-shadow with a speed.
Everything went still, the vines collapsed. Kyle's demonic aura flickered and shivered, then snapped like a candle.
He collapsed.
Nia and Ezra were on him before his lungs could hiccup. Nia's hands were everywhere, checking for wounds. Ezra grunted, shaking out his limbs, then looked down at Kyle with an expression that was equal parts exasperation and something like pride.
"You idiot..." Ezra said, voice rough. "You want ys to carry you again?" He squinted, then cursed softly when he peered at the scythe. "And what the hell was that? You borrowed a demon's power? This guys is very not normal."
Nia kept her grip steady, her face drained of color but tight with concern. "Help me get him to the car." she said quietly, glancing down at Kyle's unconscious form. "I… I'm going deep into the woods to check for survivors."
"Come on, princess... we cleared the scene. The best thing we can do is head back and call for another squad to handle whatever's left. We've done enough."
Nia nodded, swallowing hard, then let herself lean just enough on Ezra for support as they carried Kyle to the waiting vehicle. The scythe was tucked safely behind them.
The car slid quietly onto the road, headlights cutting through the darkness...