I dove deeper into my divination affinity and whispered my intention into the ground of the arena.
The arena started to rumble and shake. My body leaped like a pebble as the entire structure warped and groaned.
“Rise,” I bid, and my voice was not entirely my own as it echoed powerfully through the arena.
Screams and moans rose through the stands as we were joined by every dead player in the history of the game.
I felt the jolt of surprise in the smoke of those harnessing me.
“Hold,” roared the purple. She was in charge, not the red.Good to know.
She shouted again, “They’re not real. It’s magus tricks.”
Well, yes. But she shouldn’t underestimate a ghost. They were rather more solid than echoes, and I’d filled them with my intent.
“Ignore them. Crush her,” came another order.
So they did.
And I smiled as one of the nets trussing me up flickered, then disappeared.
The first of them had fallen victim to a ghost, and that was all it took for most of the others to abandon their efforts to fight the new threat.
Only six demons had the strength or stupidity of mind to continue their efforts on me.
In their weakened net, I regained my footing.
I walked to the purple, who was sweating with her efforts to trap me.
I released my demon magic to bat away her paltry power. She stumbled back, and I formed a disc of my power, then launched it at her neck.
Her scream was cut short, and I supposed that her body was cut short too.
The remaining five. Where were they? Oh, scrambling over rock.
I ignored them to whistle low at the sight of all I’d unleashed.Thousandsof demon ghosts, all in terrible, gory conditions. Headless, many of them. Some had holes in their chests where their hearts had been. Others were nothing but melted flesh with flames still licking their bodies.
I threw another few discs out and caught two more of the remaining five.
“Demons,” I called at the ghosts.
They blurred to me and knelt.
“Catch the three.” I pushed my intention into them, and the demons blurred away after the worst of my attackers.
I turned to the red male.
He was waiting for me to notice him. A red, and not a lesser red. There was a more complex hue to his scales that placed him somewhere between red and crimson.
I circled him. “You did not join with the other reds last week.”
“I knew they would not win.”
“You joined the ambush today.”
“Desperation, Mate-Intended.”
“You cannot beat me, demon.”
