Death had already proven to be a worthy foe for Quinn, the two were complete opposites in their fighting styles… his recklessness was like a vision to the future for Death.

  “Stay still!” Quinn commanded, missing yet another trident. “You dirty cambion! Every attack?! That is ridiculous!”

  Death deflected two more tridents before going for a feigned strike. Quinn blocked with water around his wrist, turning it to ice as a shield. Fool, Death thought. He fell for one of the oldest tricks of combat… I was never going to use my sword this close.

  Death stuck his sword into the cobble beneath and swung his body upward, kicking the underneath of Quinn’s jaw, then punching him in the liver, shoulder, and finally nose in the small window of disorientation he had created.

  Quinn slammed water to the ground and released an icy blast, separating the two.

  Death stayed upright and calm, twirling his sword with a taunting flaunt and then sheathing it. “Need a break already, hm?” he yelled. “Fight with all you have, ‘twas that some kind of self-motivation you refuse to follow?” That wash of ice has made me feel like I am in a blizzard… if I get too close again, he will do the same thing, or is his ape-brain too barbaric to think of that? If he jumps to me like he did with Vera, I will have a sword waiting to pierce his groin, use his own momentum against him to make up for the lack of my own… I will need to fight under the assumption that I will lose some exchanges, and that over time I will be forced into a defeat simply from my body freezing, that is where Vera can give me a soul to strike down to heal myself.

  Quinn spat out a tooth and chuckled. “Where is your magic, your power?” he asked. “Those strikes were strength only, weak, but in the right places… you look so young, where did you learn to fight like that?”

  “Oh, come on, you want to suck my cock too? There’s already a line I’m struggling to get rid of.”

  “I’m telling you to use your powers,” Quinn snarled. “Healing that fox bitch, that’s rare, what are you hiding. Raw iron without the strength of a magical hand cannot pierce skin but I bet somehow, you’d be able to prove me wrong… I will relish killing you.”

  He thinks I am some healer. How funny, if only he knew.

  “I’m already dying of boredom,” he yawned. “Come, Cum Master, as I said, until one of us falls.”

  Quinn formed another trident. Another one? Does he not see by now that spamming brute throws is a waste of his energy? No, I see that look in his eye…

  He began to destroy every building around him, tearing apart families and cutting their throats with sharp blades of ice.

  I… did not expect that at all, Death thought. Of all possibilities, this was not one I foresaw.

  “Sick bastard,” Quinn joked. “These poor peasants dead and you don’t care to pray for them.”

  Surely he isn’t smart enough to have figured out I can drain the powers of those I kill… what is he… oh…

  Quinn flung dozens of corpses in the air with maniacal laughter, forming a circle of spinning tridents around himself as he impaled them on by one, shattering them into millions of tiny sharp shards.

  “Let’s see you dodge this, cambion scum!” he yelled. “I love this attack so much that I named it—raining bodies!”

  He’s stupid enough to announce it.

  The tiny fragments listened to Quinn’s command, raining down on Death and slicing upon his forearm and hand as he protecting his head from above. This isn’t an attack; this is a distraction. Death lowered his arm and endured the hundreds of tiny slices ripping into his cheek and scalp and was right to do so, as his opponent had gathered more corpses, throwing them as projectiles.

  Death cut the corpses as they came, covering himself in a sheet of red, intestines wrapping around his neck like a scarf, still warm.

  “You’ll run out of energy soon!” Quinn yelled. “You cannot beat me in battle, cambion!”

  “You will run out of bodies first.”

  “I like your spirit!”

  I just need to keep playing defensive until an opportunity comes for me to make him bleed… his ego is phenomenal, godly, the type of man whose mother never taught him humility. It’s time he learnt that in my world he is nothing more than a pawn. No, he’s not even worthy of that title, he’s a maggot posing as power, a birthright gift that he never bothered to apply skill to.

  Quinn threw a trident at Death’s chest. Instead of blocking or redirecting, he caught it before it made impact. I will get nowhere from my current method. His hand turned black from frostbite, red cracks spreading on his darkened knuckles. He can’t have control over water, no, that is far too powerful of a gift to have, what is his mighty gift? Death’s hand went numb from the cold. If I don’t figure this out, I will never get this fight into my favour!

  He threw the trident back at him. Quinn blocked it with a corpse of a young girl, which exploded and stunned him. Death ran up the street and closed the distance, slashing with his sword and missing on purpose until Quinn created a shield with a wall of water.

  Perfect, he thought. Cum Master has fell into my trap.

  Death shoved his arm into the water; Quinn froze his arm solid and snapped his arm off at the elbow. “Fool,” he said. “Perhaps you are not as smart as I thought.”

  Such an idiot, he boasts when he doesn’t see the disadvantage inches from his face. Death smirked. I am the fool? You covered my arm in your own frost, one you’ve proved you’re scared of by blocking with a body, you have no control over what becomes ice and what doesn’t, you have no way to revert it because you don’t know how! My severed arm is now a magical weapon, the protruding bone was snapped in such a way that you’ve given me a spear and I don’t even feel a thing because my arm is so numb that this is painless! You are the fool, Cum Master.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Death sliced Quinn’s cheek with his sharp bone, then cut open his shoulder, covering him in dozens of quick cuts until he grabbed Death by the cloth of his back and threw him into a smashed home.

  And now that should be time, Death thought.

  “Here!” Vera yelled. “Take this one!”

  Vera had a small child in her grasp, eyes full of fear. She threw the girl to Death’s feet, she grovelled, Death raised his sword and cut head off with one swing. Vera gave another, which he took the head of too, his arm regrew and his cuts healed, Death clenched his freshly pink fist until his knuckles whitened. My hand was stuck in that gloved gauntlet since my tomb, I feel free from it. “Well done, Vera,” he applauded. “You came at the time I predicted you would. Once more, you will know when to give it to me, and then this fight will end with his death!” If she follows the plan accordingly. I’ve accounted for her idiocracy and rash tendencies, this will work.

  Quinn was looking at his bleeding hands, panting, not from fear, but embarrassment.

  “What’s the matter, Cum Master?” said Death. “I thought you this is what you wanted, does death scare you more than you let on?”

  “Who are you?” he snarled.

  I would tell him… Snow commanded me to rescue Vera, fight Quinn, all without revealing my greater purpose… oh, that’s an interesting fact, his blood is joining the water of his own supply flowing around him… but if he had control of blood, he would just freeze mine and the fight would be over. I don’t think he has control over water at all, I think it is a fa?ade. “Your gift,” Death whispered slowly. “Is highly specific… three in total. You can alter the path of rainfall, change the temperature of rainfall, and your third, which is your main weapon, is the manipulation of your blood, sweat, and saliva to guide the rain.”

  Quinn’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “A little bit mixed with the volume of water is enough for it to listen to your full control… your weakness is yourself, you cannot sweat of the temperature is cooler than ice, your blood is naturally not a liquid you’d wish to release… so you’ve been spitting, this whole battle, I’ve only just noticed you would spit over and over between your attacks but that’s not all, you’re spitting to release the rain you gathered in your gob because your ability to freeze is not in your control, it is instinctual, and you never bothered to learn it because brute strength was enough for you.”

  “How the fuck do you know that?” he growled. “My mind, have you invaded it with your spells?”

  “You are so simple to read, of course you’d pretend you control the water when in reality your gift is nowhere near as impressive as that!” Death said. “Each throw of your trident and use of your power you lose more of your precious resource to fight… how close are you to running out, hm? Are your lips parched, is your throat dry? You mustn’t be able to drink the rainwater in wells, or take sips from ponds and lakes… where is the closest glass of nice, filtered, clean water?” His mind is faltering, I can see the urges are clawing at him… this is so fun, how I have missed digging into my opponent’s mind and learning about their weaknesses as I duel them… all of this done in my weak body, I am a god, a glorious, divine god! His power is so detrimental to my long plan that I don’t even want it! “Are you frightened, Cum Master? There is shame in surrender, I’ll never let anyone forget it if you flee.”

  “Until one of us falls,” Quinn repeated. “Your tricks are clever, but you know nothing about me, or my past battles.”

  Quinn ripped up a large wooden signpost, resting it on his shoulder like a hammer.

  Just as I planned, he is swapping from his gifts to physical power to overwhelm me… he doesn’t know how close he is to losing. He will use his gift recklessly when he realises his strength means little to my prowess, and that is where the fight will end, it will be hard feigning a frown. “You must be useless in the summer when you are far from wells,” Death taunted. “What are you going to do with that damned plank, hm? Hit me with it?”

  Quinn jumped to Death and hit him with it. He allowed the strike to land, luring Quinn into the false belief he had the advantage. He feigned a slip on a puddle and allowed a second strike. When Quinn dropped the post and went to strangle him, Death stuck his fingers into one of the open wounds on Quinn’s stomach and pushed his fingers into his intestines.

  Quinn screamed and threw Death into a wall, water desperately attaching to Death’s arm and joining it the stone. Perfect. Now for the final tactic, I must feign defeat. He shattered his arm and dealt with the pain, swinging a sword for Quinn’s neck in a deliberately slow and sloppy manner. He stabbed Death in the belly with a knife of ice, then grabbed him by the throat, slamming him to the street.

  “You lost!” Quinn yelled. “You gave a good fight! But you lost fairly! I will take your head!”

  Death couldn’t contain his laughter, he wasn’t able to fake the loss. “Cum Master,” he whispered. “You lost the moment this fight begun.”

  “What?”

  Vera stabbed Quinn in his shoulder. “Fuck you!” she yelled. “Never turn your back on—”

  He struck her with the back of his hand and knocked her cold. “Fucking fox,” he groaned, trying to seal the gushing wound, but he was out of spit and water. “Damnit…”

  Oh, Death thought in disappointment. Well, it seems at the end of my plan, it all failed—Vera, you fucking fool, I knew you would rashly come to my aid even when I told you not to, I just didn’t think you would use my distraction to stab him in the shoulder and not his neck… well, I need a new plan, this situation doesn’t favour me.

  Death rammed his heel into Quinn’s balls, then sliced his ankle with the bone from his amputated arm. He crawled under his legs and grabbed Vera, protecting her as she came to back conscious, opposing Quinn again. I need to find two souls to kill and heal my arm, or one large man could do good… I need to… is that… what is that?

  Three joined roars gained the attention of the combatants, black-scaled dragons descended from the dark clouds and separated them with lines of fire, laying siege to the town.

  “Dragons!” someone yelled. “Get down!” The bells rang, the tower was immediately burned by a beam of orange.

  A flaming man crashed through the door of his burning home and fell to the floor, rolling in puddles trying to extinguish it. Death ran to the man. “Help me!” he begged. “Fucking help me!”

  He helped the man by crushing his skull under the weight of his boot, healing his arm and the three holes in his belly. “Vera!” Death yelled. “Where is Snow?”

  “I’m here!” Snow yelled, running out the alley. “Oh, I feel very faint, catch me!”

  Death let her collapse onto the floor, blood leaking from her head. Well, she can’t be dead, otherwise I would be too. He walked to her and reluctantly gave her a small amount of power to heal her head, then slapped her. “Why are you injured?” he shouted.

  “Rock,” she groaned. “Big rock fell from sky.”

  My conquest was nearly ended from a falling rock, pitiful.

  “We’re trapped in by fire!” Vera said. “We have to find a way out of here before those dragons notice us!”

  Death saw Quinn through a blazing wall, staring up at the three beasts with a determined look. I will come back to kill him, but I will allow him to live if he is planning to attack those dragons.

  “We don’t need to escape,” Death said. “Stay close to me, I’m going to find a way to kill those dragons.”