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“Venom takes the form of a giant snake, and he’s a tough twat to fight.

He’s immune to most magic, at least mine, and it’ll take time to break down his scales to sever his head or get him to expose his underbelly to gut the fuckwit like a fish.

He’s strong, fast, and like you probably suspect, venomous,” I explained quickly, twirling my sword.

I kept a sharp eye out for the slithery twat.

“Poison controls a vaporous form that can travel a sizeable distance from his body. It'll incapacitate you if you’re in it longer than thirty seconds or so. Paralyze you for the snake to swallow or for someone to kidnap.”

My gaze connected with Nika’s, and she nodded, understanding perfectly what I was implying. My bird was quick on the uptake.

“My mask keeps me safe—”

“But we’ll be at risk,” Nika cleverly surmised.

“Right,” I confirmed, cutting a look to the top of the building.

Bear Claw was in his bear form, trampling across the top. His huge silhouette disappeared. He’d caught the scent of that bastard, that much I was certain. He hadn’t stopped to check on us or cast an assessing glance.

If it was one thing I was grateful for, it was that Bear Claw was former Brotherhood. He’d know these muppets as well as I did. He’d know the stages, and he’d know what was at stake if he didn’t work to bring down the barrier and get Nika out of the fumes.

“Lev, remember the day at the lake?” my bird asked. A conversation passed between them wordlessly. “Think it’ll work with this?”

The lad was all smiles. “I just don’t have to breathe, right?”

Catching on, I nodded. “It needs to be inhaled or it won’t work. As long as you don’t breathe, you’ll avoid its effects.”

“I can hold my breath for ten minutes with a bit of magic. How long can you keep this barrier in place?” he asked, peering around us.

Impressed by his creativity, I eyed the barrier I’d erected.

“I can keep it as long as it’s not attacked, but ten minutes is all I’ll need to get this bastard.

And if Bear Claw takes care of our little poisonous friend faster than I do mine, then we’ll only have Venom left to fight and no fumes to contend with.

It’s the fumes that makes it lethal to fight him. ”

The ground under our feet quaked. My head twisted round, catching sight of the oversized monster slinking toward us. “Stay here, little rebel.”

Nika tapped her chin, thinking. “The boys and I want to try something.”

I growled at her. “Now’s not the time—”

“I wasn’t asking,” she interjected. She reached out, her fingers nearly touching the barrier.

I snarled and grabbed her hand before she made contact. “Don’t touch it, love. It’ll poison you the same way the fumes do, just without inhaling and quicker.”

Nika cut a look up at me in irritation before sighing. Then she pulled her hand away and reached out again. The two phantom wankers who’d been invisible until now appeared on the other side of the barrier. Their arms went straight through it, and the magic shuddered and cracked.

A splinter grew around where their arms broke through. I realized within a few seconds that the poison injected into the magic wasn’t affecting them. They hadn’t dropped or grown wobbly on their feet. Were they immune to it, or just incapable of being killed?

“Go,” she commanded.

In awe of another bout of creativity on my rebel’s part, I laughed. “Chitter at me like that again, and I might forget we have to fight at all, love.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just go, asshole.”

Saluting her, I knocked my head the way of the snake. “Let’s see how well you fight while holding your breath, lad.”

We dashed into the thick noxious mist, two stupid plonkers about to take on a building-sized snake.

If it weren’t Nika’s future at stake, I’d drag out the fun.

But this needed to end before it truly begun.

After reinforcing the barrier to protect my feisty goddess, I sought out the beast waiting to strike in the dense fog.

He was massive, but the heavy concentration of vaporous poison inside the alley kept him well hidden.

I only sensed him but couldn’t see the bloody thing. He was immune to my magic, so I wouldn’t be able to track him that way, but at least barriers still worked to keep the beast at bay.

The first movement was the quickest. I barely dodged it, but he hadn’t been aiming for me.

The bloody beast had his eyes on the barrier I’d erected to protect the woman most important to me.

Magic exploded out of me, constructing another in record time.

The massive creature was thwarted by it at the very last second.

It wouldn’t hold for long, but it’d keep him from getting to Nika before I could do damage.

We were on the clock. The lad only had ten minutes before he became snake food.

The monster reared its massive head. Grinning, I spun my sword and feinted to the right. It struck where it expected me to go, but I’d already disappeared to another spot. The stupid thing hit its head on a brick wall. Smarting, it recoiled with a violent hiss.

“He’ll try to break down the barrier protecting Nika first chance he gets,” I yelled over the loud sounds of the beast. “He wants her paralyzed for Poison to take.”

The oversized creature snapped out again, massive fangs arm-sized, but I evaded it the same way I had every other time. He was fast in this form, but not faster than I was.

Lev was on the other side of the beast, trying to smash his sword into its huge body to no avail.

We moved along the length of the oversized creature, testing spots.

Everywhere I stabbed, my sword ricocheted off its metal-like scales.

I’d have to hit the same spot over and over to whittle down the strength of its scales.

I eyed the barrier trapping us, noticing the jagged web of cracks growing across the sides and top.

Whatever Nika had done, it was tearing through Poison’s barrier.

Spikes of my blue magic shot out of me, helping it along.

The sooner it was brought down, the less they could hold us inside the fumes.

It’d ruin their normally flawless attack.

“We need to get to its underbelly,” I told Lev who’d worked his way to my side.

Venom’s scales shimmered as the giant thing coiled and hit the newly constructed barrier with the full force of his weight. It’d lost interest in us because we couldn’t penetrate its body and do damage. He didn’t have any reason to fight us now.

The wall of shimmery blue magic hissed and splintered.

Kicking off the ground, I navigated the monster’s back and sought out the thinnest scales to weaken.

He’d protect his underbelly before all else.

I needed to find the spots he couldn’t. Lev ran at full speed to the top of the snake head.

Lightning quick, his dagger struck one eye.

Clever lad. It was any wonder why I hadn’t thought of it first. Guess protecting Nika no matter the cost had gone to my head a little. I’d blame the rerouted blood sent to the wrong head.

The snake reacted with a vicious hiss, snapping its jaws at him.

In all the reactive chaos, its body rolled perfectly to expose its sensitive underbelly.

I didn’t waste time as the barrier I put together broke apart.

I impaled my sword at one end and used brute force to drag it along its slinking form as far as I could take it, gutting the beast.

Blood the color and texture of tar poured out of its wound as the snake writhed from side to side. I’d withdrawn my sword with enough time to escape the violent thrashes, but Lev was thrown clear across the alley.

Bloody fucking hell…

If he hit the barrier and a brick wall at full force, he might not come out of it alive. My bird would never forgive me even if he did.

Magic swirled around me, and I disappeared before reappearing between the lad and barrier.

Or what was meant to be a barrier. I wasn’t given time to confirm it’d been destroyed before Lev came hurtling my way.

Arms out, I waited like an absolute twatwaffle to catch the airborne bugger, only for the lad to get caught and saved by a furry wanker.

Peeking around, the fumes and barrier were gone, and the giant snake lay slain, pouring black blood. Bear Claw had shifted back and helped the lad to his feet. Nika came over at a full run, and before I could stop it, she flung her arms around Bear Claw in a grateful embrace.