Chapter 183: Close Call

Harvey lunged backward, avoiding the hulking frame of War crashing into him as the centaur leaped onto the shell. The horseman loomed over him, nearly double Harvey’s height and at least three times his width. Muscles that would’ve made Mr. Olympia look small back on Earth were barely hidden under thick leather armor lined with bloody furs. The pair of axes that had just severed the Marbleback's head from its neck dangled from loops around his belt, both dripping golden blood onto the white marble floor. Despite the freakish mix of man and beast, the centaur’s face was unsettlingly human. He was bald with a bushy black beard, leathery skin, and a long scar cutting down his left eye. If it weren’t for the glowing ruby-red eyes, the horseman could’ve easily been mistaken for any of humanity's barbarians that had been the scourge of civilization throughout the ages.

Harvey trembled as he stared into those eyes, slowly backing away like the beast might let him go as long as he didn’t spook it. Any notion of a peaceful retreat ended when the centaur let out an exultant, guttural warcry. It only took a moment for Harvey to trade the rifle in his hands for the shotgun in his spatial ring, but the axes moved faster. Harvey frantically activated Booster to shoot himself away, but he still felt the edges of the black blades scraping against his silver. With his weave embedded all throughout the arrays covering his armor, it was like feeling a needle being dragged across his soul. His Willpower was enough to make those strands of weave strong like sturdy tree roots instead of the silk they used to be, but he could still feel the deadly promise of War’s blades.

The revolver hovering beside him rose into the air, moving outside the horseman’s reach before shooting two bursts of Heaven’s Wrath into his chest. The silver rounds punched right through the leather armor, but struggled to push very deep into his flesh. A herald of the apocalypse wasn’t going down after one clean shot through a vital organ, but the chunks of flesh blasted out by Harvey’s explosive arrays proved the beast could bleed.

For the first time, Harvey racked the slide of his shotgun, conjured one of his holy slugs right inside the chamber, and slammed the shell into place.

A brilliant flash shone from the aethersteel barrel as a streak of silver bored into the horseman’s chest, staggering him just long enough for Harvey to dodge the second slash of War’s axes.

He was surprised to feel the heavy stock kick back into his shoulder like a mule. He’d been spoiled by the recoil absorption arrays he’d added to the rest of his weapons and forgotten just how powerful these hellpowder-based shells were supposed to be. Julius, making use of the vast repository of engineering data Harvey had originally built into Aurelia, had warned him over and over again that this wasn’t going to be anything like the shotguns he’d used back home, but knowing that in your head and feeling that in your body were two very different things.

Harvey pulled the trigger again, feeling his arm already getting sore as the second explosion of heavenly flame licked the front of his armor. Julius had unloaded the rest of his bullets and was trying to jostle out the casings now clogging the chambers so Harvey could conjure him a fresh batch of bullets. The squad of angels all did the same, shooting skills and silver into the centaur from all directions.

The stormy sky brightened with another flash of lightning, making his heart skip a beat as he feared becoming collateral damage. Luckily, he didn’t feel any changes in the air as the bolts dissipated. The Fulgur Phoenixes circling above had devoted all of their power to killing Conquest, but it looked like they were leaving War to them. He didn’t know if he should feel relieved or terrified, but Heaven’s limited number of offensive beasts meant other spots along the wall had been neglected and were at risk of being overrun.

Having tasted the efforts of all his attackers, War lunged towards his greatest threat. Harvey could feel his father attempting to use his teleportation skill to swap places with him, but Harvey staunchly rebuffed with his own aura. He could feel Steve pushing harder, but he didn’t have the Willpower to force a connection.

Abyssal flames erupted from the axes as they screamed through the air, one aiming to split Harvey’s helmet and the other shooting towards his side. He could try to boost himself away again, but he was running out of shell to stand on. Sure, he could fly high into the air and keep blasting from out of War’s reach, but Booster was one of his most essence-hungry abilities, and this was only the second of the four horsemen.

Instead of running, thick layers of molten earth rose to meet the axes courtesy of his Fangburner skill stuffed chock full of his Tempered Heart Imprint. The barriers were better than his old Fangbreaker skill, where a pebble tossed by an elemental was enough to trigger the burst of repulsive force, but they weren’t enough to stop the axes in their tracks. Black metal sank into stone, carving into the silver beneath before a gout of forgefire blasted them away. His flesh was spared, but his weave screamed in pain as he racked the shotgun and blasted War’s head. He couldn’t quite reach the centaur’s chin to press the barrel against its throat, but he was close enough to hopefully sneak the slug in underneath its thick skull.

[Agh! That hurt!]

Harvey ignored him. Exposing his weave was always a risk, but it was that symbiotic relationship with his armor that stopped the blade at his silver instead of his skull.

The shotgun blast sent War reeling up onto his hind legs, backing away before Harvey could land another easy headshot. Two faceless baseball players made the most of the opportunity and swung silver bats at either side of the centaur’s kneecaps. Tyler might not have the strength to go toe-to-toe with a foe like this alone, but he could definitely hurt him.

Harvey had seen plenty of movies where a shady bookie threatens to break your legs, and was pleasantly surprised to see just how effective a baseball bat to the knee really was. The centaur’s legs gave out, and he fell on his side. The angels moved in as one, slashing and stabbing as War struggled to get his footing on the smooth marble. Harvey couldn’t get a clear line of sight through the melee, so he took a moment to survey the battlefield.

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He couldn’t shake the feeling they were missing something. These centaurs were supposedly following apocalyptic paths, but so far they’d only managed to make a few hounds march in unison and display above-average skill in hand-to-hand combat. Sure, Conquest had died before his path could truly be brought to bear, but there had to be more up War’s sleeve.

All across the battlefield, Harvey saw hellish creatures scrambling through the water to strike at the line of Cathedral Beetles while avoiding the Marblebacks' jaws. The Floodtusks had stopped sending a tidal wave rushing across the battlefield, now turning to shooting condensed blasts of water directly at the nearest monsters, like they were doing riot control. The elephant’s essence reserves weren’t endless, so he assumed these concentrated blasts were a more efficient use of whatever power they had left. Fulgur Phoenixes shot bolts into the largest packs, letting the water carry their lightning over a wide area while somehow avoiding frying any of the beetles. Angels were doing their best to mop up the rest, but it was a severe numbers advantage that got them into this fight in the first place.

Despite Heaven’s tactics working surprisingly well, Hell was giving back just as good as they got. Mortarhorns lobbed giant balls of abyssal flames that seemed utterly unbothered by the heavy rain falling down from above. They knew they couldn’t blast through the marble shells of the tortoises, so they focused on blowing a hole in the wall of stained glass that was already struggling to hold back the weight of hounds and minotaurs bearing down on them. The dense healing mist gathering behind the wall, courtesy of the vents in the cathedral beetle's backs, was helping to ameliorate the damage, but it was being used faster than the small army of bugs could replenish it. The brimfiends were struggling to fight through the rain bullets with their paper-thin skin, but a few still managed to brave the storm well enough to start sending fireballs hurtling towards the angels.

His eyes snapped to a golden mist rising right in front of the shell they stood on. It hung suspended in the air despite the heavy rain, reminding him of something he’d seen in the past. Anything gold was almost instinctively associated with the angels, but he’d never met one that used blood magic before.

Two minotaurs leaped through the mist, carrying a piece of the cloud with them as their hooves clopped onto the marble. It gathered around their heads, rapidly turning from gold to crimson before sinking into their eyes.

A surge of aura slammed against Harvey’s as War screamed in outrage, sending out a blast of fury given form that knocked Steve, Tyler, Celeste, and all the other angels daring to attack the fallen herald onto their backs. Finally free, War pounded his fists into the shell and pushed himself to his feet. As he rose, Harvey could see that the eyes of his avengers now matched War’s own.

[You just had to complain about his skills not feeling strong enough,] Julius groaned as he started firing once more.

In the blink of an eye, War threw one of his hatchets. It tumbled end over end before sinking into Adrian’s head, cutting a perfect line between his eyes. Cash rushed to catch the falling angel, healing light bursting out of his hands as he tried to repair the impossible wound. Blood flowed freely from Adrian’s mouth, vaporizing into mist that joined the golden cloud. A hellhound scrambled onto the shell, its own eyes turning crimson as the blood mist sank into them.

“Cash! Look out!” Harvey screamed as jaws lunged for his neck. Just as he feared he’d lost another friend – one who couldn’t come back as another voice in his head – a golden lion pounced. Cash’s conjured creature had been roaming the battlefield to support where it could, but it had come back just in time to save its master. The beast would normally have no problem dealing with the relatively weak hellhounds, but something about that mist sent it into a berserker rage that let it beat back the lion. When it was clear Adrian was past the point of healing, the golden light emanating from Cash’s hand was replaced with a golden gun that put that dog down.

Bloodstained teeth smiled wide as War hurled his other axe, this time headed right for Tyler. His brother recoiled, turning to the side like he was about to get hit by a pitch instead of a lethal weapon. Just as the axe was about to hit, two things happened at once. First, their father appeared in Tyler’s place, already conjuring a shield that they all knew wouldn’t be enough to stop the axe. Second, Celeste flashed in front of him, deftly batting the hatchet aside with her sword.

“Kill his backup!” she commanded as she advanced on the centaur. Ignoring her orders, Steve conjured a golden chain that he shot towards the centaur's feet. Like a snake, it wound around the leg, barely restricting War’s movement but giving Steve something to yank on. Dad strength was no match for monster strength, however, and Steve found himself falling forward rather than the centaur. Harvey rushed over, trading his shotgun for the Sentinel’s Arcblade and slashing through the chain before War could use it to pull his father in like a fish on a hook.

“What are you thinking!” Harvey screamed.

“He tried to kill your brother!” Steve raved.

“Leave War to me! Tyler needs your help!” Harvey shouted, pointing to where his brother was fighting one of the Helltaurs hopped up on berserker blood. The sight sent a fresh dose of adrenaline surging through his father’s body, and suddenly Harvey found himself frantically blocking a baseball bat as his brother appeared in front of him.

“He has to stop doing that,” Tyler growled.

“You have to let him,” Harvey warned. Neither had time to stand around, nor could they ignore the fact that Tyler had almost let their father die for him. Harvey didn’t know what he would do in that same situation, but he never wanted to find out.

Tyler dashed back toward the battlefield, his Fast Break skill helping him charge a burst of explosive momentum that sent the minotaur reeling. Harvey turned to where Celeste was struggling to dodge a flurry of punches and kicks while her blades of cutting essence left behind shallow wounds in War’s chest. Even without his weapons, one well-placed punch would send the much smaller woman flying, forcing her to focus on evasion instead of cutting the herald down.

Harvey was happy to take that role upon himself.

Using Booster to leap over the centaur, Harvey unloaded shell after shell into the centaur's lower half. He couldn’t go for the head without risking hitting Celeste, so he traded quality for quantity.

War was better than most at fighting through pain, but drill a big enough hole, and anything will bleed out eventually. The centaur ignored him at first, but eventually turned to face him when the shots didn’t stop. Harvey had burned through most of his essence already, but he forced himself to channel more as he raised two Fangburner-covered arms to block two meaty arms slamming down on him. The slam pushed him to his knees, and he worried the bones in his arms would snap even as flames geysered into the horseman’s face. The pressure finally relented, and he stood up to see Celeste sitting atop War’s lower half, riding him like a rodeo cowgirl with her sword buried halfway through his neck. The centaur tried to buck her off, but she grabbed the blade of her sword with her gauntleted hand and used it to hold herself steady. War reached up and grabbed her long, swinging braid, making her yelp in pain as they both pulled on each other's heads.

Luckily, pulling hair was nowhere near as lethal as pulling a blade through a throat, and with a snap, she cut through the spine and decapitated the herald. War’s body took a few more steps before collapsing to the ground, sending Celeste sliding across the slick marble.

Harvey ran over and knelt down beside her, uncorked a healing potion, and poured it into her mouth. “Are you ok?”

She sputtered, spitting out some of the potion as she pushed his hand away, “I’m fine!”

He nervously pulled her to her feet, and they both dashed into the fray. War may be dead, but plenty of heavenly blood had been turned into a lethal cocktail that now ran through the demon army’s veins.