Chapter 34: Monster Break

Leon and Xander were on their feet before the scream finished.

They ran out of the burger shop and skidded to a stop at the railing. Below them, the mall was in chaos. People poured toward the exits, shoving and shouting, dropping bags and shoes as they ran.

And in the middle of it all, a gate hung in the air.

It was broken, torn half through the second floor and half through the first, a huge spinning vortex of dark blue light. Cracks ran across the marble around it. Monsters were pouring out in massive numbers. Goblins, demon dogs, kobolds, and others he did not recognize.

Some of them had already caught people. Leon saw a man go down under three goblins. A woman was dragged by her ankle. Screams echoed off the glass.

A few hunters were in the mall, and they had started fighting back. Flashes of fire and steel lit up the lower floor, but they were outnumbered.

’Sophia. Lily.’

His chest went tight. He needed to know where they were, right now.

"Xander," he said, turning. "Stay back. Find somewhere safe. I’ll..."

Xander laughed.

He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, and underneath was a sleek set of body armor, dark and fitted, with thin lines of silver running along it. It was high-end. It was almost on the level of the platinum star Leon wore.

"You don’t have to worry about me," Xander said, with a grin. "I can hold myself."

Leon looked him up and down.

Xander joked about everything. But he had never once joked about his own life or safety, and Leon knew it. He nodded.

"Then let’s go."

They ran together toward the escalator that led upstairs. The floor was slick with spilled drinks, and people kept crashing into them as they fled the other way.

They were halfway there when a pack of goblins burst out of a side corridor and rushed a woman who had fallen near a bench. She covered her head and screamed.

Xander changed direction without a word.

He leaped, spun in the air, and drove his heel straight into the first goblin’s head.

CRACK!

The goblin flew backward, skidded across the floor, and did not move. Its skull had caved in. Xander landed in a clean stance, his fists up, his feet planted, like he had done it a thousand times.

Leon stared. He had never known Xander had martial arts like that.

"Even if we’re going to find your sister," Xander said, glancing back, "we can’t just ignore people who are getting hurt."

Leon let out a breath.

He wanted to run straight upstairs. But Xander was right. Lily was with Sophia, and Sophia was a hunter with a lot of experience. She could hold on for a bit. And he could not leave a woman on the floor with goblins around her.

"Yeah," he said. "You’re right."

Another goblin launched at him.

Leon stretched out his hand. From his shadow, his katana flew out and landed in his grip. He pulled it from the sheath in one smooth motion and slashed across. The goblin split in two before it hit the ground.

The shadow behind him rippled, and Shadow popped up.

"Need a hand?" he asked.

Leon glanced at Xander. He would have to explain this later, why there was a talking, physical version of his shadow standing next to him. Xander was blinking at Shadow with his mouth open.

’Later.’

Leon nodded.

Shadow nodded back, and his arms melted and reshaped. One became a long blade. The other became a spear. He rushed forward, and in a moment, goblins and demon dogs were flying in every direction. Leon and Xander moved in behind him, cutting and punching, covering each side.

A kobold dropped from a railing above and landed behind Leon.

He spun and slashed down. The kobold twisted in midair, and the blade missed it by an inch. It hit the floor, scrambled forward, and sank its teeth into his leg.

Leon looked down.

The suit did not let the teeth go through. He plunged the katana into its back and ended it.

’Again. It dodged again.’

He frowned. That was the third monster that had learned to avoid him. They did not just charge in blindly like they were supposed to. They adapted. He had never heard of anything like it until he started fighting monsters himself, and he did not think it was normal.

They cut their way through the group around them. Slowly, a gap opened.

"Everyone, run!" Leon shouted at the top of his lungs. "Get out of the mall! Go!"

The people near them stared for a moment, and then they scrambled to their feet and bolted for the exits.

Leon looked up.

More monsters were coming. A flood of them, pouring down from the upper floors, spilling over the railings and crawling down the walls. Their growls rolled across the mall like thunder.

"There’s no way we can handle that alone," Xander said, breathing hard.

Leon let out a long sigh.

They could not back down. Lily was up there.

Shadow stepped in front of them.

"Stay close," he said.

He spread both arms wide, and his body stretched and changed. His hands flowed outward into a huge dark dome that wrapped around the three of them. It was solid, black, and humming faintly.

He looked back at Leon.

"Let’s go."

Leon looked at Xander. They nodded.

Then they pushed forward.

The dome slammed into the monsters ahead of them and threw them aside like dolls. Goblins bounced off the surface. A demon dog was crushed against a pillar. They moved up the escalator in a tight group, step by step, the dome ramming through everything in front of it.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

By the time they reached the top, the second floor stretched out in front of them, full of noise and destroucting all around, people fleeing and hiding.