The Heavenly Host

“Can they jump this?” Tom asked Talarius, who was now standing on his own again.

“They should not be able to, but I’ve only encountered them in Astlan. They’re on their home turf here so...”

“Great. Tizzy, which corridor?” Tom asked.

Tizzy was pointing back and forth at the two tunnels. Tom raised his eyebrows. If he did not know better, which he frankly did not, he would have sworn the demon was doing “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.” Tom closed his eyes for a moment, praying to he had no idea whom that this was not the case.

Now Tom heard more barking and clamoring from the right-hand tunnel.

“I think the one on the left!” Tizzy said suddenly, just as a horde of hounds came bursting out of the right-hand tunnel.

“Battle stations!” Talarius cried.

There had to be a dozen hounds coming out of the mouth of the tunnel! Suddenly Talarius was a whirlwind of motion as his mace spun and smashed at dogs. Boggy roared and began punching dogs in the face, with Antefalken slashing at the dogs’ legs from behind. Reggie began flailing and pounding with his four fists. Estrebrius launched himself in the air and began looking for an opening to swoop down upon the creatures. A dog leaped on Tizzy and the two began wrestling.

Rupert began kicking at two dogs charging him. Tom grabbed the first one approaching him and picked it up with both hands. It was huge! He spun and threw it as hard as he could down the chasm. It howled and then the noise was squelched as it hit the far side of the cavern.

Tom yelled in pain as a hound pounced on his back and bit the base of his left wing. His tail whipped up and stabbed the hound in the belly, unleashing his tail’s signature electrical blast. The dog howled and fell back to the ground, spasming and shaking. Tom lifted his hoof and stomped down on the dog’s head as hard as he could, smashing it flat. He tried to release the pressure after crunching the skull; he did not want to break the spine.

“Rupert!” he yelled at the boy demon, who was busy punching and kicking his dog. The boy had numerous bite and scratch marks. “Electrocute him with your tail! That will incapacitate him, and then stomp his skull!” Rupert nodded even as Tom felt the jaws of another dog close on his arm.

“What the hell?” He glanced and saw more dogs pouring through the right tunnel entrance. He twisted and struck the dog on his arm with his tail. The dog spasmed and hung loosely on his right arm, its teeth still latched around his forearm. Tom twisted and shook his arm hard, sending the paralyzed dog over the edge of the chasm.

Reggie had fallen on his butt and was wrestling a dog, using his four arms to pry the dog’s four legs apart. Suddenly the dog howled at an incredible level as Reggie managed to ingloriously and bloodily rip the dog’s four limbs off. The writhing and biting head and torso fell onto his body. Reggie started shouting obscenities and began batting at the dog’s torso to get it off, even as it bit him in the shoulder.

Talarius had left a pile of three dogs behind him, but was now at the chasm’s edge with two dogs attacking him. Boggy and Antefalken were battling their third dog with Estrebrius periodically plunging down to skewer the dog’s body. Tom moved to grab one of Talarius’s dogs when from out of nowhere, two other dogs attached themselves to his legs.

Tizzy had four dog haunches, one in each hand, and was busy smacking two other dogs with them. Their pack mates writhed on the ground with no hind legs, and severely mangled or missing forelegs.

“Fuck!” Tom yelled, whipping his tail around to one dog to zap it into paralysis and then grabbing at the other with his right hand claws. He ripped the non-paralyzed dog off his leg and forcefully threw it into the chasm even as he saw a third dog join the two on Talarius. It was too much; Talarius overbalanced and went over the edge with two dogs on top of him and the third yapping on the ledge!

Tom lunged but the paralyzed dog on his leg tripped him up. He fell to his knees with a thud, attracting the attention of the dog yelping where Talarius had gone over the cliff. Tom used his other leg to kick the spasming dog off his leg; it took a couple of tries. Talarius’s third dog was now on him. Tom grabbed the dog by the maw; one hand on the jaw, the other on the snout. He pulled with all his strength.

There was a horrendous noise from the hound as Tom ripped its jaw off. He then tossed the dog and its jaw down the chasm and prepared to dive after Talarius. Even as he moved to do so, Talarius rose from the chasm, whacking at a dog still attached to his leg. The knight could fly! What the hell?