William's dagger sliced through the air beneath the spear, aiming for Sahger's fingers wrapped around the shaft.
The hunter yanked his bloodied hand away before the steel could reach it, then countered with the butt of his weapon, striking the chaplain directly across the wrist.
William absorbed the impact, pivoted on his lead foot, and tried to close the distance again, but the spear's green blade was already rising toward his throat.
He retreated.
Lutor filled the opening at once.
The giant's spear tore through the air inches from Sahger's gray beard before smashing into the tower wall, ripping thick shards of metal loose.
The hunter had barely shifted his head when Yasmin's weight came crashing down from the other side.
Her axe swept low across the floor, aimed at his legs.
Sahger saw her fingers tighten around the handle and her hips begin to turn.
He tried to pull his injured leg out of the way, but his knee gave out halfway through the movement, and the toe of his boot caught in a warped section of the floor.
With nowhere left to go, the hunter planted his spear vertically and braced its base against the steel.
The axe collided with the shaft in a deafening crash.
The force of the blow drove the spear against his thigh before the blade slipped toward the floor. The shock of the impact sent a jolt through Sahger's right hand, forcing his fingers open.
He only kept hold of his weapon because his left fingers remained locked around the metal.
Yasmin noticed the weakness and smiled.
"Having trouble keeping up?"
She pulled her axe back.
Sahger immediately tilted his spear, sweeping its green tip across her face and forcing her to abandon her second attack and retreat.
Blood from Sahger's injured palm ran down the shaft, staining the metal.
He could see the attacks coming, but his body demanded more breath and effort with every movement he made to avoid them.
William advanced, exploiting the hand that had just failed.
Sahger twisted his wrist and blocked the dagger's thrust with the metal of his own gauntlet.
The blade slipped through a gap in his armor and sliced into his fingers.
Pain tore through the nerves in his arm, but he swallowed the sharp sting, held his defense, and drove the base of his spear straight into the chaplain's chest.
William choked, releasing a short, strangled breath.
The impact wrenched his broken collarbone, pulling his shoulder upward.
Sahger was already preparing the fatal thrust when Lutor barreled into him from the side, smashing the shaft of his own spear against the hunter's ribs.
The blow hurled Sahger backward into a thick pipe.
His cracked armor gave way against his wounded flesh.
The impact against the pipe emptied his lungs, and the tip of his spear sagged toward the ground.
Yasmin leaped at him.
He jerked his head aside.
Her axe came down, shearing off the shoulder guard still hanging loosely from his shoulder before carving a gaping hole into the metal pipe behind him.
Pressurized water exploded outward in a freezing geyser, drenching them both beneath the storm.
Before Yasmin could pull her axe free, Sahger struck her mangled hand with the shaft of his spear.
Yasmin cursed in pain and released her injured fingers.
The full weight of the axe shifted into her left hand, forcing her to take a wide step backward to keep herself from being dragged to the ground.
The hunter tore himself away from the ruptured pipe.
Pressurized water washed over the hole in his abdomen, swelling the puddle beneath his boots until it became impossible to tell how much of the liquid came from the rain and how much was his own blood.
"Don't let him stop," William ordered through clenched teeth.
Lutor raised his spear.
His rear hand gripped the shaft firmly, but the arm with the torn elbow could barely support the weight of the steel.
Even as it trembled, the giant forced through two brutal thrusts.
Sahger blocked both attacks, retreating step by step.
The metal floor creaked and groaned.
Farther down the sloping platform, an entire steel plate tore free from its rivets and plunged into the darkness.
Water began pouring directly through the opening, carrying the debris of the battle with it.
The entire platform seemed to sag and tilt even farther.
Sahger felt around with his heel until he found a solid joint in the floor.
To his left, a narrow strip of metal remained wedged against the tower wall, separated from the rest of the platform by a twisted plate.
He retreated toward it.
William tried to block the passage, holding his dagger close against his forearm.
Sahger feinted a thrust toward his face, forcing the chaplain to raise his guard. Then, midway through the movement, he brought the butt of his spear down against the side of William's knee.
William lost his footing and staggered.
Sahger slipped past him before he could recover.
But Lutor was already close behind.
The giant filled the narrow passage, his massive shoulders scraping against the raised metal plate and the tower wall.
William had to squeeze in behind him.
Outside the passage, Yasmin sprinted across the open platform, searching for an angle from which to carve into the hunter's flank.
Sahger shortened his grip on the spear.
Blood slicked the metal like soap, and his right hand could no longer close all the way.
He secured it by pressing the shaft against the base of his palm, the only part of his hand that still obeyed him.
Lutor noticed the weakness and thrust with all his strength.
Sahger slapped the spearhead toward the wall, but the giant pulled the blade back before it could become lodged.
His second attack came low, flowing into a sweeping strike that used the shaft like a club.
The hunter caught the steel and bent his knees beneath the heavy blow.
His injured bone throbbed like a live coal.
A thick drop of blood fell from his beard onto his exposed chest.
Behind Lutor, William searched for an opening to drive his dagger into Sahger.
To the right, Yasmin's heavy boots pounded across the slanted metal.
Sahger had only seconds before they surrounded him.
He deliberately lowered the tip of his spear and retreated until the tower's cold wall pressed against his back.
His right hand trembled, beginning to open again.
He made no attempt to hide it.
Lutor planted his feet.
The giant's shoulder surged forward as he drove his spear with every ounce of strength he had left, aiming directly for the center of the hunter's exposed chest.
Sahger waited for death to draw near.
When his enemy's arm extended to its absolute limit, Sahger twisted sideways and knocked the spear off course.
The blade grazed his skin before plunging straight into the tower's steel wall behind him.
Lutor yanked the shaft with a violent jerk, but the weapon refused to budge.
The giant tried to brace his other hand against the wood to help pull it free, but his ruined elbow gave way under the strain, spilling fresh blood through the folds of his arm.
Sahger followed the collapse and immediately brought his green blade down, piercing the inside of the giant's uninjured wrist.
Lutor's fingers sprang open.
Blood burst from his wrist, splashing hot across Sahger's face before the hunter had even finished drawing back his spear.
The giant roared in pain.
In a bestial frenzy, Lutor threw his entire body forward, crushing Sahger against the tower.
The impact made blood stream from Sahger's eyes.
The remaining pieces of his breastplate shattered, driving loose shards of metal deep into the wounded flesh of his abdomen.
Blind with rage, Lutor grabbed Sahger by the throat.
The hunter's mutilated fingers slipped through the thick blood coating the giant's neck, unable to close into a proper grip, but Lutor's enormous weight continued to crush him against the steel.
"Hold him!" William shouted as he approached from behind his ally.
Sahger shifted his weight onto his injured leg and slid down the wall, lowering his body.
The giant's arm swept through empty air above his head.
Keeping his spear close to his body, Sahger pointed its blade straight upward, wedged between them.
Lutor lowered his face to crush him.
Sahger drove his entire boot against the floor.
The green blade shot upward, tearing through the underside of Lutor's jaw.
The giant's roar choked into a wet, broken sound as his cartilage gave way.
The hunter kept forcing both hands upward, feeling the steel pierce the roof of the giant's mouth until it struck bone at the base of his skull.
Lutor's lifeless forearm slammed against Sahger's shoulder.
Once.
The second spasm carried no strength.
Sahger forced himself one step forward.
The blade punched through the giant's nape, emerging between his red hair in a thick explosion of blood.
Lutor's jaw remained locked around the spear shaft.
What remained of his severed tongue spilled a dark stream over the hunter's fingers.
The giant's enormous body shuddered one last time, and Sahger's legs nearly buckled beneath its weight.
The hunter turned toward the passage, letting the corpse topple outward.
Yasmin had just rounded the metal plate when she saw her companion fall.
"Lutor!"
She jumped aside.
The giant hit the floor hard enough to buckle the metal, then began sliding down the slanted platform.
The spear remained lodged in his head.
The sudden pull dragged Sahger out of the passage.
Still gripping the shaft, he tried to follow the descending body, but his injured knee failed, and his boots skidded across the wet steel.
The corpse dragged him several more feet.
Lutor finally stopped when his shoulder caught on a support bar near the edge of the abyss.
Sahger managed to brace his feet just behind him, hunched over his weapon.
He pulled at the spear, but the blade would not move.
The shaft slipped through his wounded palm, tearing the cut wider.
He held his breath, planted a boot against Lutor's shoulder, and used the corpse for leverage as he pulled with his entire body.
Bone cracked, and the spear came free with a sharp snap.
But Yasmin was already descending upon him.
Her axe came down toward his head before he could recover.
He raised the shaft diagonally, forcing the axe blade to slide along the metal.
The brutal impact tore a cry from the hunter's throat, but he avoided death.
The edge skimmed past his chest and split the floor plate beside his boot.
Yasmin did not even blink.
Without losing momentum, she pulled the handle in the opposite direction and slammed the wooden haft straight into his mouth.
Sahger staggered, dazed, his split lip pressed against his teeth as blood flooded his tongue.
Yasmin closed in, using the handle of her own axe to pin the spear shaft and prevent him from pushing her away with its blade.
She kept her strikes tight and close, using her mangled fingers only to steady the wood while channeling the full force of each attack through her good arm.
The hunter drove his spear forward.
Yasmin knocked the green blade aside with the steel of her axe and attacked from above, forcing him to retreat out of the narrow passage and back onto the open platform.
William took advantage of the space.
He sheathed his dagger and went straight for the spear Lutor had left embedded in the tower.
His first attempt to wrench it free twisted his face into a grimace of pain.
The chaplain repositioned his arms, braced the sole of his boot against the metal, and pulled the embedded weapon loose with the weight of his own body.
When he turned back, the blade was aimed steadily at Sahger.
The hunter knew that fighting stance.
William held the spear low near his waist, his elbows tucked close to his torso to spare his broken shoulder.
His movements were short and lethal, and the steel tip barely wavered as he advanced across the stable sections of the floor.
"Right side," William rasped.
Yasmin obeyed without a word, circling around the flank.
Sahger retreated toward the middle of the smooth metal platform, which sloped dangerously toward an exposed steel crossbeam at the broken edge of the abyss.
He felt the metal give beneath his heel and had to shift his balance in a hurry before his injured knee sent him face-first into the floor.
William thrust quickly toward his abdomen.
Sahger slapped the spearhead aside with his own weapon, but the chaplain withdrew in the blink of an eye and attacked lower.
Sahger pulled his leg out of the blade's path as Yasmin's axe came down at the same instant, aiming to split his skull.
He threw his entire body downward.
The blade skimmed his hair and split a fallen pipe on the floor.
Yasmin used the collision with the pipe to arrest her swing, then hauled the axe upward, giving Sahger no room to breathe while William unleashed thrust after thrust.
The hunter's green spear became a swaying shield between them.
Whenever one closed in, he threatened the other, stealing precious fractions of a second before either could complete the encirclement.
But blood from his abdomen stained the floor, his mouth hung open as he gasped for air, and his strength was beginning to vanish beneath a murderous exhaustion.
William noticed the tremor in the hunter's leg.
His next thrust plunged straight toward the damaged knee.
Sahger lowered his weapon to block.
Midway through the movement, the chaplain twisted his wrist, redirecting the attack upward toward Sahger's stomach.
The hunter desperately turned sideways. William's steel tore through what remained of his side armor, scraping the leather over his ribs and leaving a painful, shallow gash.
But Yasmin did not forgive the opening.
Her axe smashed into Sahger's spear near his left hand, pinning the green shaft directly against the hunter's chest.
The brutal impact drove Sahger backward. His injured knee twisted, and the shattered edges of his breastplate were forced even deeper into his abdomen.
He locked his muscles and kept his guard raised.
Yasmin leaned in close, white strands of hair plastered by the rain against her pale cheeks.
"I'm going to kill you with his weapon, you bastard."
Sahger lowered his eyes and watched her mangled fingers struggle to tighten around the handle, trying to force the axe blade into him.
Her wounded hand squeezed the steel, failed, opened again, and found no strength to kill.
The hunter violently shoved his spear upward, sending Yasmin's heavy blade sliding through the air and harmlessly past his shoulder.
Before she could pull the weapon back, he drove the blunt end of the shaft into the inside of the arm supporting the full weight of her axe.
The blow numbed the nerve.
She cursed and stumbled backward, her axe striking the floor.
But William was already coming in with another low thrust.
Sahger knocked the incoming spearhead downward and slid his green shaft over the chaplain's weapon, closing the distance.
William tried to pull his spear back to avoid close combat, but the hunter twisted his weapon and drove a hard, dry strike straight into the chaplain's Adam's apple.
William's eyes widened as he choked.
He released his spear and clawed desperately at his crushed throat.
Bent forward and coughing, the chaplain staggered backward, sucking at air that could no longer pass through his throat.
Sahger tried to pursue him and finish the fight, but his knee locked in place with a chilling snap.
Pain shot up his spine, paralyzing him with one foot suspended in the air.
By the time he managed to plant his leg again, his body was off balance on the damned sunken metal ramp.
Yasmin saw the slip before he could correct it.
She swung her axe around her waist and swept it across the space between his legs.
To keep his shins from being taken out, Sahger pulled his good leg back and shifted his entire weight onto the spear planted against the floor.
The axe blade scraped violently across his leg, tearing away a fragment of the armor on his thigh.
Yasmin's rotation did not stop.
With the space clear, she let the wooden handle slide freely through her still-functional hand, extending her reach. Then she raised the entire blade over her head for a brutal overhead chop.
Behind her, William's breathing began to return.
His spear rose again, aimed at Sahger's ribs.
The hunter's eyes darted backward. He spotted the exposed crossbeam at the far end of the floor, a broken step just beyond the warped iron plate trembling beneath his boots.
Yasmin's axe began its descent.
Sahger let himself fall backward onto the slanted plate and began sliding down the ramp without releasing his spear.
The impact shifted what remained of his breastplate.
Its broken edges pressed against the wound in his abdomen, digging deeper into his flesh with every jolt across the uneven floor.
A roar of pain tore from his throat, and his fingers nearly lost their grip on the shaft.
He pulled the weapon against his chest, extended his good leg, and planted the sole of his boot against the exposed steel crossbeam.
The impact shook his entire body, but stopped his descent inches from the edge.
The heavy axe crashed down, crushing and shattering the exact spot where his chest had rested a heartbeat earlier.
The blade tore through the damaged platform and sank deep into the framework beneath the floor with a dull, thunderous impact.
The sudden jolt threw Yasmin off balance, wrenching her shoulder.
In a desperate reflex to survive, she threw her mangled fingers over the handle, trying to help her good hand wrench the weapon free from the trapped metal.
Her fingers slipped helplessly across a pool of her own blood, skidding over the slick handle.
Sahger swallowed the pain and threw his entire body up the ramp.
By the time Yasmin realized what was happening and released the trapped axe, it was too late.
The green blade pierced her stomach, climbed through her ribs, and drove all the way in, bursting out through her back near the right shoulder blade.
The soaked fabric around the exit wound darkened to black and deep red.
Yasmin's mouth fell open in a soundless scream.
The breath she tried to force out emerged as a dark, bubbling gurgle.
Clutching the bloodied shaft with her only usable hand, she tried to hold the hunter's body, but Sahger was already pressed against her face, his painful breaths nearly mingling with the dying woman's.
"You..."
A torrent of red spilled from her lips, drowning the final words before they could be spoken.
But William was already leaping toward them, blindly attempting to finish Sahger from behind his dying ally.
Sahger wrapped his arms around Yasmin and twisted his hips, shoving her forward between himself and the chaplain.
The spear buried in her chest twisted through her flesh, producing a sickening crack as bones shattered and ribs broke.
The fingers of her good hand tightened around the hot metal one last time before going limp.
William desperately pulled his spear sideways, trying to find an opening through the barrier of flesh.
That gave Sahger the precise second he needed to brace himself and wrench the weapon free with both hands in a burst of raw fury.
The green blade tore loose, spraying the dead woman's blood outward.
Yasmin's body staggered forward into empty space, then collapsed to her knees in a shallow pool on the platform. She pitched forward, her mouth and nose striking the dented steel beside the spot where her own axe remained buried.
William kept his weapon loosely aimed at the place where Yasmin had fallen.
"You should have accepted," William finally said, his voice scraping against his own injuries.
The hunter turned his head, his shoulder hanging loose with deep pain. He spat out the fine white fragments of his shattered teeth, then swallowed against the torn, burning flesh beneath his ruined armor.
"And end up like this?" Sahger's voice came out dry and ragged.
"End up like you, William?"
"My life is worth more than yours, chaplain."
William stopped.
His chest heaved in violent spasms.
He raised his good hand to his face and pulled away the soaked blindfold. The fabric fell onto the platform, revealing ruined eye sockets and opaque, rotting eyes that seemed to stare into nothing, though they remained fixed precisely on the hunter.
Then he tore off his wide-brimmed hat and threw it into the dirty water.
The chaplain reached for his clothes.
Pulling off the heavy, soaked fabric forced him to move his broken shoulder, and William's face twisted into a brutal grimace as the shattered collarbone shifted beneath his skin.
He snarled through clenched teeth but refused to stop.
He tore off his coat and shirt, leaving his torso bare beneath the storm.
His brown skin was covered in bruises, stained by the blood running from his crushed nose.
"Then, Sahger..." William gasped.
He opened his fingers and let his spear fall.
The wood struck the wet steel with a hollow clack.
"Since this is going to be our last fight..."
He reached for his waist.
He drew the daggers he had taken from Vladimir and flung them blindly toward the dark abyss.
His hands were now completely empty.
William raised his face, allowing the freezing rain to wash over his dead eyes.
Ignoring the pain in his limp arm, he lifted his fists and settled into a clean unarmed fighting stance.
"Give me something I've never felt in my life," the chaplain demanded, his voice cutting through the storm.
"A fair fight."
The hunter held his gaze.
The advantage of keeping his weapon was obvious, but exhaustion, hatred, and the weight of that moment spoke louder than caution.
William had once been called his friend.
Sahger brought his right hand to his mouth.
Using his teeth, he bit down on the end of the leather strap binding the spear shaft to his injured fingers and pulled hard.
The knot came loose, stained with blood.
The spear slipped through his torn palm and fell, its green steel ringing against the platform.
Using his left hand, Sahger undid the last buckles holding together what remained of his armor.
The cracked breastplate, broken straps, and shattered guards fell away with a heavy clatter, leaving him bare-chested, wearing only dark leather pants.
The cutting wind and rain struck the open wound in his abdomen and the shallow cuts across his ribs, but he ignored the cold.
The hunter planted his boot against the floor, enduring the sharp pain in his ruined knee, and raised his arms.
His fists clenched.
The fingers of his right hand protested, the torn flesh stretching and bleeding again with every fraction of an inch he tightened them, but his guard remained firm.
Neither man had anywhere left to retreat.