"Damn, you're loud."
Ezra said wiping a streak of blood from his cheek with the back of his hand, unimpressed.
Beside him was Nia. Her eyes stayed on the thing in front of them. Ezra, shifted slightly and asked her without looking away.
"Where's that idiot?"
Her answer was calm. "I told him to stay as far as possible from this. He's helping the others evacuate the block."
Ezra smirked, "Good."
"I'm not here for you." The demon said, taking a slow, heavy step forward."I only want the boy with the scythe."
Ezra and Nia shared a glance. Ezra broke it with a grin.
"I... am Kyle."
The demon's head cocked, eyes narrowing, then widened in amusement. "You're too weak to have driven Draemir to a corner."
Ezra inhaled sharply to retort but Nia cut across him.
"What do you want with Kyle?"
"The boy with the scythe must die." The demon replied.
Ezra clicked his tongue, rolling his shoulders like a man shaking off boredom. "I've heard enough." He lifted one hand, casual yet deliberate.
And from behind him, shadows twisted and condensed into jagged teeth, dozens upon dozens of them, gnashing at the empty night.
The demon responded in kind. Its arms warped into blades. And it lunged.
Ezra's summoned teeth shot forward, slamming into the demon with thunderous force. The demon dodged, weaving between the gnashing barrage, its blades slicing through the teeth with unnatural precision.
Nia drew her katana without hesitation, her form blurring forward. She and Ezra had fought side by side for years... he didn't need to speak and neither did she. The teeth blinded, boxedband scattered the demon's movements. Nia used the chaos as an open path.
Her katana carved arcs of steel, sparks flying as she struck.
The demon retaliated with speed that belied its size. Its reshaped limbs lashed out, slicing across the street. Razor edges grazed her arms and shoulder. Blood spattered but she didn't falter.
The rhythm of the fight was chaotic. Ezra's teeth tore chunks out of the road, snarling around the demon, keeping it corralled. Nia darted in and out, the katana flashing like lightning and testing its hide.
With a guttural snarl, the demon pushed back, threads of sinew snapping open space in Ezra's barrage.
Nia's eyes widened. She was mid-slash, her katana angling for its arm but she saw the shift in its gaze. The focus was no longer on her but on Ezra.
Her throat tore with the scream: "EZRA!"
The ground cracked beneath the demon's feet as it flesh-stepped, blurring forward in a nightmare sprint.
Its fist, reshaped into a brutal wedge of bone and flesh, drove into Ezra's gut before he could brace.
"ghhhkkk!!"
Blood exploded from his mouth as the impact folded him. Then his body was sent sent flying, smashing through a parked car, crumpling the it like a tin skidding across the asphalt.
Ezra hit the ground, trembling hard and his entire body screaming in pain. Then blood poured from his mouth.
Nia lunged with fury in her step but without Ezra's cover, the demon had her pinned. Its slashes forced her back step after step. She parried, her arms shaking with each brutal impact.
Her breathing grew ragged and out of control. And... her voice tore out steady, even as her knuckles whitened on her katana's hilt:
"Syrren."
From the haze, her demon appeared... the skeletal wraith with chains rattling as it loomed behind her.
"Belmore Graveyard."
The street convulsed, gravestones burst from the ground, shattering concrete. A vast graveyard erupted into being, stretching into impossible distance.
The demon lunged for Syrren, rage burning. But before it could reach her, teeth pierced the air. Ezra was on his knees, his entire body trembling... coughing blood with every breath. Still, his voice cracked out...
"I'm not dead yet, you ape!"
His hand shook as he forced it up. "Wrech… let's add some juice into the contract."
Nia's eyes widened in horror. "Ezra, no...!"
But he didn't listen, his eyes burned with a fury darker than pain. He had already traded his sadness and his happiness away to Wrech. Now... through clenched teeth, he offered more. The contract etched itself across his veins.
"Use maximum power."
New jaws erupted, bigger and sharper... large enough to crush cars in their bite. The street vanished beneath their fury, every building groaning under the assault.
Nia didn't hesitate...
"Eternal Rest."
Coffins appeared and vanished around the demon, snapping shut like bear traps. The demon's speed was monstrous... it sliced them apart one after another, the coffins shattering under its blades.
Each one destroyed drained Nia further. Blood dripped from her nose, her hands shook and her knees buckled.
Ezra's teeth struck in tandem, gnashing at the openings she forced. Some pierced the monster's flesh, others sheared chunks off the street.
The count count of coffins was dropping.
Ten coffins.
Eight.
Six.
Suddenly, the last six slammed shut all at once. The demon roared, its body bound for the barest heartbeat.
That was all they needed.
Ezra screamed, his last strength burning in his lungs:
"TEAR IT APART, WRECH!!"
A storm of teeth fell, they crashed into the trapped demon in a frenzy, each one the size of a boulder, the gnashing sound deafening. The impact detonated the street, collapsing buildings, blowing the block into a haze of dust and fire.
And when it finally cleared, Ezra collapsed backward, his eyes rolling and blood streaming from his mouth.
Nia's domain shattered with a crack like glass. The graveyard faded, the coffins sinking back into nothing. Syrren flickered out too. And she fell to one knee, breathing like she was drowning.
And then… the dust swirled. The demon's silhouette stood in the haze.
A massive hole gaped in its chest but the head… remained intact.
The demon growled, shoulders heaving. And then, slowly the wound began to seal. But this time, its size diminished. Its towering form shrank down, compressing into something close to human height.
Ezra and Nia exchanged a look. Both of them worn out, they couldn't fight again.
But suddenly, a voice cut through the silence:
"Thank you for holding it until I came."
Footsteps followed.
"Sorry, I'm late."