Lucifer Reborn by Dante King (the reader ebook .TXT) 📗

I felt less excited about the whole thing than Christina did, to be sure. Honestly, I couldn’t help but feel like the two of us had walked into some kind of trap—a clever hazing ritual for new students. The chances of two brand new competitors facing down trained demons seemed unbelievable. It was far more likely this was intended to humiliate us, and maybe teach us a bit about the Arena’s healing abilities.

I didn’t like the idea of bleeding out. And I damn sure did not want to see Christina’s beautiful body get pulverized, even if both of us would be back up and healthy in a couple of minutes. Christina wanted this so badly. Her demonic body tensed in anticipation, crackling with an energy that was almost sexual.

Let’s give them a show, I thought, not wanting to disappoint her. And if this is a trap, let’s flip it right back on them…

A pistol appeared in Xora’s hand, forming out of the very air itself. She pulled the trigger, and a spray of confetti filled the arena. “Begin!”

“You got this, Luke!” Mareth roared, leaping up and down at the front of the crowd. “Christina, fucking kill ‘em…!”

Both demons attacked. It was as if they’d come to some silent agreement while our groups sized each other up—while Christina and I were unsure which demon to fight first, they’d already made up their minds. The big, bug-bodied demon dove past me, leaping into combat with Christina. She dove to the side, flexing her wings as she tested the larger demon’s strength and speed.

Then Bryan was dead ahead of me, and I had to focus on that. I just had to hope Christina could hold her own.

The Rake quickly revealed itself to be more than meets the eye. As he ran across the stone, his already long limbs elongated further, rubbing up against the ground. With an inhuman shriek it went from a two-legged gait to a four-legged one, charging like a lion across the plateau. I had just enough time to twist away before it barrelled into me, sliding to the demon’s side like a bullfighter.

Bryan twisted on a heel, snapping upright in an instant. As I watched, horrified, his hands contracted into fists and melted. Now he had two shorter arms with huge balls of meat on the ends, like a hammer. Before I could even come to grips with the fact that he didn’t need a weapon, that he was the weapon, razor-sharp spikes emerged from what used to be his hands.

I had no weapon to fight back with. Which meant I needed magic.

“Okay, Luke,” I growled, backing across the arena before the rake’s blows. His arms hit like trucks, but shifting so much weight around had left him slower—like he needed to put all of his strength into each punch. “Xora said you’ve got lots of aptitudes. Let’s see if we can put them into practice!”

As I ducked beneath the rake’s next swing, I held both hands in front of me and snapped my fingers. Flames roared across my palms, enough to warm them but definitely not anything like a flamethrower. The rake jumped backward, surprised by this development, suddenly wary at the appearance of magic. It didn’t realize yet that I had no idea how to use it.

During the pause in the fighting, Christina soared over my head. She’d taken to the air like she’d been born in the clouds, attacking the much larger Aztomund from above. Like me, she’d brought no weapon into the arena, but her talons functioned just as well as any blade or mace the demons might have provided her with.

I watched as she slashed downward with both claws, screaming with bloodlust as she left a gash in Aztomund’s armor. She’d generated a lot of sound and fury fighting him, but hadn’t done much damage. Those overlapping scale plates were too tough for a simple clawing to break, and Christina was beginning to realize it.

Aztomund swung with one blade, then another, feinting to either side like a dancer. It was amazing how fast such a big guy could move. One blade missed entirely, Christina’s back arching beneath it like a limbo dancer, but the other nicked her side. Black blood trickled down her leg, droplets staining the scales on her long, slender thighs.

“Damn it!” she roared, taking back to the air where it was safer. “That’s the last hit you get on me, you piece of—”

It was as far as she got. The back plates on Aztomund’s armor peeled back, like the hood retracting on a convertible. Underneath were gossamer-thin wings, flashing in the air like a dragonfly’s. It seemed impossible that such tiny, weak-looking wings could propel a big guy like the scarab demon into the air—yet when he leapt into the sky and stayed there, coming slowly but steadily after Christina, the crowd went fucking nuts.

Christina’s face fell as the scarab demon rose toward her. Any moment now, he’d tear those ugly blades across her skin, or snatch her out of the air like a bug and send her plummeting to the ground. I could already see her mangled body in my mind’s eye, the look of disbelief in her face as the lights went out…

My vision went red.

I had the tendrils out before I even knew I’d summoned them. The twin flames in my hands expanded, turning into fireballs so big you could have called me Super fucking Mario. A roar of pure, primal fury erupted from my throat, startling the crowd of demons into stunned silence.

Bryan shied away from that roar. I think he knew in his heart the moment he heard it that he was toast. Giving me a look of grim fury, he slammed both of his spiked hands together, turning the whole thing into a living halberd. The Rake