Angels and Demons - The First Arc
The hunt

“Let’s go over the plan again,” Ange said, clenching their hands inside the pockets of their jacket.

“If it makes you feel better,” Briz rolled her eyes and walked ahead. Or maybe they had frozen in place.

After days of silent wandering and hesitant plotting, some hot, needle-sharp pull at their chest had guided Ange to the park.

Because it was time. But…

“It’s not too late to turn back, guys.” Claud said.

“If you weren’t ready for real action,” Briz sneered. “You could have stayed hiding behind your mother’s skirts.”

With the initial shock wearing out, something between anger, disappointment and disgust took its place, something bitter stirring in Ange’s core.

They had been so entranced. Back then, in the heat of the moment. Beautiful was not the world for what they saw in the ruined care station, but close enough. It didn’t quite enclose the immensity of it, the way the creatures tugged at their heart. Perhaps no word could.

The worst of it, however, was how little they had cared. Truly cared. Truly understood. How many people had died? How many had made it? How many times had this scene played out already, in some other place and some other time? How many times would it repeat itself? Why did it feel to Ange, even if only for an instant, that none of it mattered?

They had not asked themself any of these questions until long after the fact.

Whatever the answers, the monster would pay.

“So,” Ange started. Next to them, a duck swaddled through the tall grass, carving a path for its ducklings as they whacked out of rhythm. A few meters more, and they’d be at the lake. “I will be the one to deal the blunt of the damage. You’ll stay back, distracting it and making sure there’s nothing and no one else in the way. I’ll create a shield, and we’ll fight from a distance. We must not get close to it, at all costs.”

“How boring!” Briz said with a mock yawn. Yet, her lack of conviction showed a glimpse of her uncertainty.

Claud looked at Ange. He placed his massive hand on their shoulder, and asked, “Ange, are you sure?”

They simply nodded.

Straightening from a sharp burst in his chest, they crossed the last row of oaks before lakeshore. Rustling grass turned to coarse sand. “It’s here.”

Above the perfect mirror of the watery surface, the angel hovered, tending to a deep gash on its side. Wise, not to have given it time to recover.

All over its body, eyes blinked, spinning wildly in their sockets until they faced Ange.

Only their quick reflexes saved them from the beam of white light the creature cast at them. Ange’s fireball dissipated in a blast of heat. They steadied their stance, feet apart, and called for the shield.

As they prepared a counterattack, the angel soared high into the air. The shadow of its massive wings swallowed the three friends.

“Hit it!” Briz shouted. “Do something!”

Ange raised a hand.

Swiping its hand, the angel knocked aside their second fireball. It exploded on the ground to their left, rising hot air distorting the view of a burning tree. Above, the monster screeched.

Ange tried again. And again. Every time, it parried, until the two settled into a dance of sorts. Strike here, block there, step to the side, advance, retreat… whichever move matched its.

“Watch out!”

They were rolling through sand, Claud shielding them with his body. The angel had taken advantage of their pattern to throw a surprise beam of light that tore through their shield. While they pulled themself to their feet, Ange spat out dirt.

They needed something else. Something more.

Before they could think exactly what, the creature’s eyes focused on a blur of movement near the edge of the trees. Briz had a sharpened stick in her hands. Another one was lodged between two of the angel’s ribs, though as it removed it, not a single drop of blood flowed out. A flap of its wings, and it dropped to the ground in front of her, puffing out a chillingly cold breath.

“Briz!” Claud called. “Get out of there! Get back!”

But the golden knife gleaned in her hand, and a smile both cunning and desperate twisted her face. Claud broke into a run.

Two of the monster’s hands came down, but the ground burst, and fiery tendrils held them back before they could crush her.

“I need to get close to it!” Briz yelled as she fought Claud’s grasp.

As Ange deflected a second set of arms, they fell to their knees. It wasn’t that they were too weak. No. They were too strong: their body struggled to hold the energy seeping into it. Their vision blurred, and their heart hammered against their chest.

They couldn’t prevent the creature’s third attack.

Briz dodged its clawed hand by mere inches, suddenly separated from Claud. She thrust her knife down until the crunch of bone reached even Ange’s ears.

This time, there was real pain in the monster’s cries. It recoiled, maws opened wide.

“See? I can hurt it!” Briz raised her knife. Her arm was coated in a pale runny fluid that must have been its blood. “I just need...”

“This was a mistake!” Claud shouted, grabbing her once again. “We must get Ange and leave!”

If she hadn’t pushed him away then, if he hadn’t relented, and even fallen back a few meters, if she hadn’t flung the knife with her free hand, the beam of light would have killed them both. Instead, they collapsed as the impact created a whirlwind of sand. Briz fell like a limp ragdoll over the boulders on the lakeshore.

When Ange managed to look away from her twitching at each labored breath, the angel was nowhere to be seen.

“She’s hurt,” they whispered uselessly, when Claud, bruised but conscious, limped to his side. “We have to get her somewhere. We need help.!

“Where? We have nowhere to go!”

The care center was destroyed, and Claud’s home… He had never spoke much of it. But Ange…

“I think…” Their Gran’ma was going to kill them. Now for real. “It has to be. Briz? Briz? Can you hear me? Please hang in there. We’ll get you somewhere safe, I promise.”