Spires

“Um… guys, I getting weird proximity warnings,” Marian said as she pulled the shuttle up instead of continuing her descent to the school.

Dayana eyed the holographic projection of the overhead map.

Monsters attacked from all sides.

It was a sudden thing, as if a dinner bell had just been wrung.

Easy bet said it had something to do with the clown slasher.

The eidolon’s golden sign remained in the sky suspended in a pillar of golden light.

Then again, maybe that had been the dinner bell?

“Scan it,” Howard said. He turned to Willy. “Magic scan it.”

The wizard opened his spellbook with a gesture and cast several ghostly versions of his eyes, sending them through the shuttle’s floor.

A minute turned into two before Marian spoke first.

“The sensors are thinking that there’s a dome around the school… maybe… it sort of appears and disappears. Sending it to the tactical display.”

“Domain Skill.” Dayana knew of another slasher with a domain. If one had it, then why not another?

“Foster’s doesn’t trip sensors. If this one is reading as partially physical then flying through it might not end well,” Howard said.

“We’d crash,” Willy said. His eyes glowed blue. “The domain has elements of altered reality. Restrictions on entrance and exit. My eyes can’t get through.”

“What sort of restrictions?” Howard said.

“Unclear,” Willy shrugged.

“Take us down on the edge, Marian.”

She brought the shuttle down in the middle of the dark street next to a fence blocking access to a large field of overgrown green grass.

It was empty.

The school buildings were likewise dark.

“I thought they were using this place as a shelter,” Adrian said.

The hybrid supersoldier sniffed the air.

“Do you smell that?”

Howard took a sniff as well.

“Nope. But you’ve got a better nose than me.”

“It smells like a street faire. Fried food. Lots of it. And iron.” He bared his fangs in an unconscious snarl. “It’s blood.”

“Of course it is,” Dayana said. She was an old hat at this sort of thing. When in doubt expect the worse. “Lindsay the clown’s got a domain. I’m willing to bet half my Universal Points that what we’re seeing right now isn’t what’s actually going on in there.”

“No time to waste then. Let’s go. I’m first. Count to 10. Then follow.” Howard strode forward and promptly slammed into an invisible wall. He cursed. “Black Cat, you try it.”

Same result.

Adrian hissed and slashed the air. “It’s there and not there.”

“I’m going.”

Dayana stepped through.

There was a moment of resistance, then slowed movement, like she was walking through water.

She popped out the other side and saw the fight in the middle of the field between a demon-armed clown and a skull-masked soldier over 10 screaming kids.

She cursed and went back out.

“What—”

“No time,” she cut Howard off and quickly explained.

“Your personal strength was close enough to Lindsay the clown is my guess,” Willy said. “You’re over Level 50 and that’s about where he probably is based on the evidence.” He glanced over at Twice Clever Fox and Dancessassin. “Another guess, but you two might be able to get through also. Foxes are metaphysically known to be really clever about getting into places that try to keep them out. And you’re over Level 40. As for you, I’d try traveling through the shadows. You’ve used it to bypass magic shields and boundary spells before.”

Howard cursed.

“Fine,” he handed Dayana his viral pistol. “Do your best. We’ll keep trying. Wet, magic me up a portal.”

“I’ll try, but no promises. This feels like a little too high level for me.”

“Marian.”

“Yeah, boss man?”

“Get back in the air. Help the locals. Use the loudspeaker tell them we’re trying to save their kids. If they don’t have to fight monsters then they can help here.”

Dayana stepped through again.

Harder the second time.

She came out the other side breathing hard, like she had swam the length of the pool a few times on one breath.

Dancessassin climbed out of the shadow.

The too-alive eyes of her panther-like monster hood were wide, pupils dilated.

As for the young woman?

She punched the grass a few times before standing.

“Blood and circus,” Twice Clever Fox said as she too rose on unsteady legs.

“You have those where you’re from?”

“Yes.” The fox-masked woman regarded her like she had sprouted a second head.

“Eidolon.” Dancessassin pointed. “No more eidolon.”

The lavender colored missile rocketed into the night.

“That elephant was flying with its ears,” Twice Clever Fox said.

“You didn’t have those in your circuses?”

“No. Did you?”

“In a cartoon. C’mon, let’s do this.”

They dashed through the field of tall grass.

Dayana flickered ahead of the other two, covering a dozen feet with every step.

A sudden burst of violence saw the other two carry the remaining kids away, leaving her and the skull-masked soldier alone with the clown.

Death’s Dancer got 5 stabs in before the demon-armed clown broke free of her anchoring stab to his shadow.

The clown moved quickly for all his waddling.

Must’ve been a slasher’s stride to allow him to eat up large chunks of ground with every step.

Fortunately, she had flicker movement to keep up.

She cut his colorful costume stained with blood and chunks. Shot him with the viral pistol.

The former didn’t bother him because there was something weird with his pale skin. Flesh almost like rubber with how her blade wasn’t biting.

The latter?

Well, he didn’t like the latter one bit.

He snarled.

Eyes widened, flashing with ugly light as the viral rounds broke down his skin at the molecular level.

She aimed at the demon arm, scoring a handful of shots down from shoulder to wrist.

“No cutters! Cutting in line is bad! Kids get into the circus before adults!” he howled, swinging the strangely bloodless demon arm at her.

“I’ve fought insane clowns before and you make them look normal. I hate that because they were nuttier than the shit that comes out of your fat ass.”

She shot him in the face.

Many colors ran with the red as his fat cheek melted.

He blubbered like a man baby.

Death’s Dancer leapt in with his spears, digging into the clown’s back and hoisting him into the air.

She placed accurate shots in the clown’s legs and body.

There wasn’t much risk of friendly fire especially with the targeting assistance provided by her helmet.

Plus, she couldn’t say that she cared too much about hitting the skull-masked soldier.

They weren’t exactly on the same side.

Well, technically, they were for the world event.

However, he was working with those other spec ops soldiers that had abandoned their humanity to take up a slasher class for more power.

The old government was like that. Always and forever looking for ways to gain and keep their power at the expense of the individual innocent person.

Adrian was just one example of that and he had been one of the lucky.

She ran out of viral rounds so she stowed it in her bag of holding and drew a regular pistol from her leg holster.

The only thing special about the 1911 were the enchanted rounds.

“Oh… shit!”

Death’s Dancer tossed the clown off his spears, but not quick enough to avoid the over-sized demon arm.

The other one.

As the clowns flesh sloughed off because of the viral rounds, pale glistening muscle appeared.

No—

It had always been.

The ethereal circus overlaid on reality morphed as the clown did.

Less laughter, more screaming.

Less fried Twinkies, more fried people.

Less fat clown, more lean demon.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She couldn’t help it.

A demon wasn’t on her level.

It was way over.

It was more of a Cal thing.

She had reviewed all the recordings of every fight anyone had ever had with a demon.

Even if they had all been different, one wanted to get an idea on how one would do against one.

This one was pale.

Its limbs seemed too big for its body, which was just about as tall as Death’s Dancer.

Exposed muscles minus the skin glistened with a smooth, viscous liquid.

Its face was only vaguely the clown’s.

The only thing that remained was the color scheme of the paint and the round red nose.

The wild tangle of multi-colored hair had become a wild tangle of writhing tentacles and serpents.

Circus music played in the back of Dayana’s thoughts.

The clown’s giggles tickled her up and down her spine.

The demon clown stood with a flourish, doffing his cap.

“Watch out!”

She flickered at the warning as a flock of bloody doves streamed out of the red and white baseball cap.

“Lady and gentleman!” The demon clown’s voice was a guttural reverberation of two voices in one. “For our showstopper! Your evisceration!”

Applause thundered in Dayana’s ears.

She caught the fireworks in the dark sky.

Colorful flashes turned into a single color.

Blood red, just like the moon behind them.

“Come one, come all! Children of all ages! Witness the incomparable event! Our grand parade of freaks!”

“Hostiles!” Death’s Dancer snapped.

Ethereal forms coalesced around him, grabbing, hitting.

She felt the same hands clutching at her limbs, groping at her chest and between her legs.

Flickering out a short distance away she cursed.

She was wearing armor.

Why did she feel those cold, clammy fingers on her flesh?

She caught headlights out of the corner of her eye.

What was that about circuses and cars?

Clown cars.

Small cars that fit a lot of clowns.

Just what she needed.

More clowns on top of the demon one and the ethereal freaks, chasing after her as she flickered around the field.

Except—

The height of the headlights suggested a large truck not a small car.

The horn blared.

The demon clown turned to the lights that had zeroed in on him.

The truck’s armored grill slammed into him.

Dayana watched the door open and a small, cloaked form jump out as the truck and the demon impaled on its front slammed into the side of the big top— she shook her head.

Not a huge tent.

Just a regular school building.

The cloaked form rose to its feet.

No. Not it. Her.

Her hood was an empty void.

Darker than the abyss.

A startlingly white smile split the darkest black.

The shadows took on a crimson hue as they began to writhe.

“You…”

“Me,” the voice coming from everywhere agreed.

Death’s Dancer pointed a machine gun one-handed at the newly arrived slasher.

“I’m only here for one thing,” Holly said. “Don’t make it two things.”

Dayana tensed.

Technically, Holly was an ally. Not that she had to like it.

Part of her would’ve considered turning a blind eye if there was a good opportunity to rid the world of a high level serial killer. It didn’t matter if Holly only killed evil people now, she was still a potential threat.

The truck emerged from the hole in the building with the squeal of metal.

“More cutters, cutting in line! No fun,” he growled.

The demon clown hurled it like a missile.

They dived out of the way.

When Dayana looked up the demon clown was gone.

No bets on where it was headed.

“You guys have incoming!” she barked into the comms.

No answer.

Only static.

“Try to keep up,” Holly said as she strode after the demon clown.

Dayana followed flickering up to the school’s roof.

Death’s Dancer leapt.

He was too slow.

It wasn’t something that he was used to.

The two women would’ve been faster than him even if he wasn’t slowed down by the constant cycle of his guts tearing and healing with every violent movement.

The slasher chick that looked like she was wearing a cloak of bloody shadows was all over the demon clown like dogs on a hog. The kitchen knives in her hands were doing way more damage than he had managed with his superstrength and solid steel spears.

Dark crimson sprayed the air like sideways rain.

Shootystabby was living up to the latter half of her dumb name by stabbing blades into writhing shadows.

He watched them part like torn cloth on the rooftop as the demon clown kept on the move.

Still, she was slowing him down enough to give the other two chicks running and jumping across the school’s buildings time to keep the kids in their clutches just out of those over-sized demon hands.

“Why are you morons still here!” he called out. “Run! Get them out of this stupid domain!”

So said, he tripped.

Rather, a pair of arms wrapped around his legs like a flesh-colored snake.

Damn ghost freaks!

He kicked at the contortionist fading in and out of reality as a big man with rough, green growths all over his body like an alligator loomed above him.

He rolled as the man stomped.

The huge foot crashed right through the rooftop.

“Are you a ghost or not? Make up your damned minds!” He plunged one spear into the alligator man’s other foot, pining it to the—

The man faded, leaving the spear alone as he kicked Death’s Dancer in the face.

His enchanted mask took away some of the force, but he had felt that.

He flowed with the kick, turning the momentum into a leg sweep followed by a boot to the alligator man’s grotesque face on the next revolution.

Ghostly teeth and blood went flying.

The alligator man vanished.

That left the contortionist, who leapt at him with a hiss.

A spear to the face sent her off to wherever ghost freaks went in between bouts of murderous violence.

He rose to his feet, spitting blood into his mask.

The running fight had left him well-behind.

With a tired sigh, he leapt.

Too much internal damage was calling into question his earlier boast.

He couldn’t, in fact, fight all night.

They had jumped off the rooftops and onto the large parking lot.

Torn bodies littered the space.

The children’s defenders.

He couldn’t tell if it was the demon clown that got them or the domain’s ghosts.

He doubted that it was the freaks.

The damage looked to have been done by teeth and claws.

One had been stomped into a gory smear on the asphalt.

The distance gave him a wider view of the fight.

Which was why he noticed the flying elephant before they did.

He nailed it with a thrown spear. Just behind one flapping ear.

Dumbo trumpeted a death cry before it crashed into the demon clown.

A bit of luck was nice.

The elephant vanished as the slasher chick cut the demon clown’s pale muscles a dozen times in less than a second before skipping away from a clawed hand.

An ear shattering pop and whistles brought everyone not the demon clown to a sudden halt.

The ghosts of confetti showered down on them like a sudden summer storm.

So much screaming.

So much pain.

His bare torso smoked and sizzled at their touch.

Him and the kids.

The deadly chicks were covered up.

Shit was fucked.

The chick with the fox mask and the chick with the… blinking monster head hooded cloak… which didn’t look happy?

Well, he had seen weirder things.

A partially alive cloak was the least of it.

They tried to shield the kids stacked under their arms, but even a single piece of confetti on their exposed heads was enough.

“Get them inside!” Shootystabby shot a gout of fire from under her gauntlet, creating an orange-yellow umbrella for them to dash under into the school.

“No! That’s the worst place for them to be! Just keep burning the confetti!”

“Only have one shot!” she snapped.

Fair enough.

The demon clown strode into the school.

The slasher chick on his heels.

Death’s Dancer picked a wall, hoping to cut the demon clown off.

He lowered his shoulder and barged through a classroom and into the hallway.

Demon clown and slasher chick to the left of him.

Two other chicks with the kids to the right.

More luck.

Which ended the moment he had that thought.

The circus music was louder inside the school.

It was accompanied by a honking horn coming from further down the right.

“Oh, come on!” he snapped.

A bear appeared in and out of reality, heading for the kids and their two caretakers.

It was an ordinary-looking brown bear with the exception of its colorful vest and hat like an upside down plant pot. Oh… and the bicycle it was peddling.

That was when the demon clown and the slasher chick swept him up in their whirlwind of death.

Dancessassin threw her kids behind her before leaping to take the bear on its bicycle.

Twice Clever Fox muttered a curse as she contorted her body gracefully to catch them all.

Two gentle kicks juggled two kids as she loosened her hold on the pair already held under each of her arms like small sacks of rice.

She bent backward to catch one on her chest.

The boys tiny arms wrapped around her neck as she spun and bent forward to catch the little girl on her back.

Two sets of arms held on for dear life around her neck. Had she not been a cultivator of high level they might have succeeded in choking her unconscious. Though, perhaps that was an exaggeration born of the children’s terror.

Such evil, such regret.

If only human monsters didn’t exist.

Then again, they had existed since time immemorial, classes or not.

To think of evil people of old backed by the tangible power from Skills and spells sent a shiver up her spine.

It wasn’t enough to throw off the precise movements of her laden body such that she might miss the last pair of kids as they slotted in the cramp space between her arms.

The children were fortunate that they were small and skinny for she couldn’t have fit three under each arm had they been fed on a glutton’s diet of rice and fatty pork.

Thus, Twice Clever Fox ran up the side of the lockers to get around Dancessassin and the fearsome bear on its bicycle as the pair battled like fierce predators.

She carried the hopes and dreams of continued life for the 8 children in her arms or clinging to her neck like baby monkeys.

A leaping kick dispersed the ghostly thing barring her path before it had time to coalesce into form.

Not so the next set of creatures.

A tiger and a lion, each coming at her while balanced on a large ball.

A spinning kick in passing cut the balls from under their paws, while a twist of her body saw their claw swipes going just above and below her and the children.

“I require assistance,” she said into the comms.

“I’m tracking you. Head for the cafeteria. I’ll open the windows,” Shootystabby said.

The Americans certainly lacked elegance in their naming conventions.

“The burning rain of paper?”

“Gone. Either it ran out or he’s got limits to the demented circus crap he can come up with.”

“There are fierce animals riding bicycles and giant balls.”

“Of course there are. Now, take the next right. Cafeteria’s at the end. I’m blowing a hole through the west windows.”

The building shook just as she reached the double doors.

One dynamic entry with a flying kick saw her and the children through only to be beset by more creatures and twisted people fading in and out of reality.

“Move like their lives depend on it!” Shootystabby flickered around her, cutting, stabbing, shooting.

Hands full, she could only leap and kick.

Deer leaps through wolves carried her out the smoking hole and into the bright, flashing lights of many colors.

Grass-covered fields greeted her.

A baseball diamond to the left.

She ran until the ground suddenly shifted beneath her.

The children screamed as they went up with sudden violence.

She stood upon a spinning caged compartment, which was one of many rotating around a much larger wheel that rivaled the height of the big top tent she had just exited.

No.

Not a tent.

She had to remind herself not to believe her eyes half of the time.

It was a school.

A handful of interconnected buildings.

Only one of which was more than a single story.

She balanced with a cultivator’s grace, forced to move her feet to keep from being thrown off by the speedy rotation.

The little girl clinging to her back gagged.

“Please, do not—”

Chunky liquid splashed the side of her fox mask.

Thankfully—

Other children gagged.

“Please, try to vomit away from me and the others.”

They tried their best, bless their tiny, innocent souls.

None of them deserved to be subjected to this nightmare.

Her only consolation was that the open air and wind generated by their passage mitigated the odor.

The grassy field loomed large.

She leapt, making for the edge of the school’s territory.

Her hope was that the demon clown was preoccupied and perhaps weakened by the fight, thereby weakening the strength of his domain enough for her to take the children out.

The field ended at a fence of thin metal links.

Gray mist seeped the length of her arm from the other side.

The dark street appeared empty, but she knew better.

She released the children and pried the two off her neck.

“One moment.”

A pair of knife hand chops to the fence cleared an opening.

“Try to walk through.”

They blinked up at her with tear-streaked faces.

The mist continued to expand as she waited patiently for them to cooperate.

“It may be dangerous, but I judge it less so than what’s back there.” She gestured toward the school. “Very well,” she sighed and grabbed a kid’s hand at random. “I will be with you. Try to walk through. I will pull you back if you can. Then we will all go together.”

The little girl held out hand tentatively as she walked into the gap in the fence only to recoil as if touching a hot stove.

“It hurts!” She shook her hand.

“No one leaves the circus until everyone has had their fun!”

The guttural growl came from behind them.

Children screamed.

Twice Clever Fox launched herself with tiger pounces upon the ox.

Pinpoint Qi strikes barely slowed the demon clown as he swept his over-sized hands.

Claws tore her tight clothing, cutting through Threnium armor to score deep gashes in the flesh beneath.

“So many line cutters to punish tonight!” He leered at her with a fang-filled mouth large enough to swallow her whole.

She swayed away from a thrusting hand, grabbed slick exposed muscle in the wrist and arm, flowed into river rushes down the mountain side to throw the demon clown over a hundred meters away.

The sound of a burning wick caused her to flatten herself to the grass.

Just in time to avoid the rush of wind and the thunderous crack.

Of all things… a man with a pointed helmet flew into the distance before fading from reality.

She turned, catching sight of the massive cannon before it vanished.

She turned again, meeting a clawed hand large enough to rake across her mask-covered face and upper chest.

The fox mask stayed on thanks to a Skill despite the damage that exposed part of her face.

One wicked claw had come oh so close to her eye.

She tumbled across the grass.

Vision darkened a moment.

Stars dotted it when she woke up.

Children screamed, huddling together as the demon clown loomed.

“Where is everyone?” she said into the comms.

Reality wavered.

She was in a school field. She was in a circus.

The sounds of one blended with the sounds of the other.

That was the only answer she got.