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Edge of Triumph

  The Infernal didn’t stand a chance. He wore a thick leather vest, gauntlets of the same material, sturdy pants and boots, and was armed with an antiquated spear. The shaft was six feet long and made of wood with an Infernal Iron head. The hell-creature thrust the spearhead at Ava’s heart in a last ditch effort to put some space between them.

  It didn’t work.

  Ava lightly sidestepped the thrust and lopped off the top third of the weapon with a flick of her wrist. She left the Infernal with nothing but a stick to defend himself. To his credit, the man was brave. He raised the four foot shaft like a sword and took a swing at her. She crossed the distance in the blink of an eye, easily caught the wood, and took the man’s arm midway between his elbow and shoulder. His scream drowned out the dull thud of the spear shaft she dropped to the ground. It kicked up ash on impact.

  Ava and her team had ambushed a group of Infernals three times their size who had attacked a group of human soldiers. The humans were trying to take refuge in an armored personnel carrier when the Infernals started butchering them. Camouflaged limbs littered the ground and blood was splattered across the dented, tan armor of the APC. The machine gun on top of the vehicle had been bent at a ninety degree angle by the Infernal’s leader, who now lay headless a few yards away thanks to Bart. The Infernal Ava had just made a lefty was the only opposition remaining.

  She repositioned for a killing blow, but the man dove away. Blood squirted as he tucked his head and hit the ground just below the shoulder in a textbook combat roll. His remaining hand darted out and snatched a pistol lying idly on the asphalt. He came out of the roll with the weapon raised and squeezed off two shots before Ava was on top of him. Both bullets impacted her Divine Steel armor and flattened against the superior metal. They didn’t even leave a scratch. With a final lazy swipe she removed the Infernal’s head before becoming insubstantial.

  “Clear.” A chorus of replies answered her as her team reassembled. “Report.”

  “We are making inroads,” Bart deployed a map of the city that showed the positions of their Guardians.

  The deployment of their noose had been executed perfectly, and minute by minute it was tightening around the Infernal interlopers.

  “We have casualties,” Bart informed with a sigh. “A pair of Guardians were overwhelmed here, and another here.” Two points glowed subtly on the map. “I’ve ordered troops away from the sectors with the least resistance to investigate.”

  “Good.” Ava’s heart was heavy from even more death, but she knew the angels sacrificed their bodies for the good of the humans they protected. They would live again. Maria’s smiling face flashed in her vision for a moment before she banished it back to the dark sections of her mind where she kept all that pain contained. Unlike the Guardians, Maria would not see another sunrise on Earth.

  “Where can we do the most good?” She needed anything to take her mind off the past.

  “Here,” Bart answered instantly. Another Guardian’s light went out as they looked at the map. “We should hurry.”

  The small party took to the air, and was at their destination in a few seconds. It was hard to miss. A giant serpent steed was tearing apart a city block while skeletal soldiers, with skin sloshing off their bones, jumped from its back and through the windows of nearby buildings. The screams of cornered humans nearly overshadowed the hiss of the beast.

  “Into the buildings. Protect the people.” Ava ordered her small command into action, but she did not join them. Instead, she landed a hundred yards away from the rampaging beast.

  It was a giant ugly, creature. Its tongue flicked out and grabbed a young man trying to run for the protection of a nearby building. It wrapped him up and snapped back into the snake’s jaw lightning-fast. Ava saw the man’s face smash into one of the fangs as it passed, but the great creature’s maw snapped closed before she could see if he survived the impact. Not that it mattered. The acid juices in the snake’s digestive system would eat through his flesh in minutes.

  

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