Page 189 of Huntress

She waited until the demon recovered and made another lunge. Saint braced himself and grabbed one of the creature’s mandibles, yanking her head to the left and giving Elsie enough time to secure the rope around the spiky protrusion on the right. Once it was secure, she tossed the other end to Saint.

Boosting herself up on one of the demon’s broken legs, Elsie climbed onto the demon’s shoulders while her squad did their best to hold it in place.

“Ready?!”

Saint tossed her the rope, and Elsie hauled it in tight, using every muscle in her body to yank back on the mandibles, holding the demon’s mouth open wide.

“Perrie, now!”

The witch came on the run, hands glowing with magic as she formed what was basically a condensed bomb.

Elsie sent a quick prayer to her mother, begging her to give the witch the strength to pull this off. She and Saint locked eyes the moment before Perrie reared back and hurled her magic into the demon’s mouth, screaming with the effort. All eight of the centipede’s eyes bulged as raw power hit the back of her throat, and the magic exploded.

The centipede’s body seized, throwing Elsie backward, but it wasn’t enough to save her from the weight of the blast. Elsie hit the ground hard, bouncing and rolling, landing horribly and breaking an arm.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she cursed through the pain.

Exposed and vulnerable, the demon turned on her. The rope still hung from those mandibles, and her jaw and throat were torn asunder, but still she came directly for Elsie’s face. Saint was at her side in an instant, his sword slicing down and severing the demon’s head from her shoulders.

It hit the ground with a wet slap, and the centipede’s eyes darted around, still searching for her next foe.

Silence stretched as the hunters absorbed the fact that they’d defeated the enormous creature, and then whoops and cheers erupted from all sides. Even in a dazed state, Elsie listened to it all with a stupid grin on her face. They’d done it.

“You’re hurt,” Saint reminded her, hitting his knees to get down to her level. “Holy hell, how are you still functional?”

Elsie blinked at him in surprise, then looked down at herself. The adrenaline had been running too high. She hadn’t even noticed how badly the demon’s armor plating had shredded her skin. Saint wasn’t looking any better.

“Worry about yourself,” she huffed.

All around them, soldiers’ awareness of their own injuries sank in. “We need help over here!” someone shouted, and Trenton went running to their aid, followed by Perrie.

The rest of Elsie’s squad either dispersed to where they were needed, or dragged themselves over to where Marley had set up a triage point. The healer was single-handedly running a field hospital, directing the other squad’s healers on who needed to be helped and in what order.

Elsie stood, aches and pangs jolting through her body, complaining about the extent of the damage she’d taken. She winced, cradled her broken arm against her stomach, then laughed about it, earning her a scowl from her demon.

“Oh come on, we’ve survived worse,” she joked, but she couldn’t force a smile. Not everyone could say the same, and they wouldn’t have a full count of the dead until they ripped the demon open and examined the contents of her stomach.

Even with five squads, plus Saint fighting at her side, not one person had come out of it injury-free. Bleeding, broken, and bruised demon hunters wandered aimlessly around them with various versions of the same lost expression on their faces.

“That was a lord, right? I’ve never even seen a lord before. With or without five squads to help me,” she snickered, moving closer to the centipede to inspect the damage.

“A lord? Mistress, don’t you recognize an ancient forest god when you see it? Don’t get too close to her,” Saint warned. “We may have severed her damned head, but that doesn’t mean she’s dead yet.”

Sure enough, the demon’s eyes were still open, and as soon as she noticed how close the pair had gotten, those mandibles started working, as if itching for one last chance at revenge. The legs were still twitching as well.

“I need all squads to give the centipede thirty feet of clearance. The head is severed, but still functioning. Nobody gets close to this thing unless I say so,” she ordered in the comms.

The squad leaders gave their acknowledgments, but they were slower now, quieter. Everyone was starting to realize how deep a toll this fight had taken.

“I need reports. How’d we do?” she asked.

“One amputation, several broken bones, and the loss of my second in command,” the leader of squad three answered first. It felt like a punch to the gut, and Elsie actually grabbed her stomach in response.

“Three of my people are still in triage. Loss of one warrior, waiting to learn if our geographer will survive,” Squad Two’s leader replied.

“The battle is over, and the survivors have you to thank for it. You’ve fulfilled your duty to them, it’s time for us to go,” Saint muttered. He caught Elsie’s pale eyes, and for just a second her mouth tightened, then she nodded.

“Let’s go.” She took a step toward him, jerking back when a tall man walked in front of her.