Tomtom’s ragged breaths stained the water red. The river was now knee height. Eddy currents stretched his blood in spiral patterns. The steady drumbeat of colliding bodies echoed through the air. He smmed his shield and pushed himself up off his knees. Known for his tenacity, a few injuries wouldn’t stop Heavy Tomtom from doing his job. He growled through grit teeth, putting one foot in front of the other, and moved back into the fray. The muscle fibers in his legs felt like unwound cord. Adrenaline forced his zombie-like body to advance.

  The Association President moved like the wind. He ducked under a ssh from the spindly arm demon by bending his waist only, like a 90 degree bow. If he had hair it would have been shaved from his head as the cws passed millimeters from his skull. Using the momentum from his bow he flipped forward, axe kicking the demon back and recovering his posture. His fingers curled into a talon shape as he transitioned into his next movement, flowing like the river water around him, and he stabbed forward. Fingers like shotgun shells ripped into the demon’s magic coating. This was the first wound the duo had nded on the enemy.

  “This boss is damn strong,” said the President as he stepped back to regroup with Tomtom. Mangled fingers twisted in all directions on his right hand. Cuts, gashes, and bruises marred the rest of his body. He looked like a stitched up doll. Through a bloody smile he spit out a glob of red phlegm.

  “Kuraaack!” The demonic creature danced on its long legs and made strange noises in glee. It smiled as it cpped its hands. Blue blood oozed from what looked like gunshot wounds on its chest. The wounds weren’t deep.

  “At least there’s only one.” Tomtom ughed. Magic power stirred and circled his armor. He looked like the North Star, a lone point of light over the bck waters of the half-drained Mississippi. He met the President’s eyes; the two men spoke an entire hour’s conversation in that single moment of eye contact. They both grinned and then charged forward again, throwing their broken bodies at the enemy like they were hurling eggs at a brick wall—and they expected the eggs to win.

  The battlefield stretched nearly half a mile. The regur creatures pouring from the Gate ignored the battle between the Demon and his two high-ranked foes. The stampede tested the mettle of all the Awakeners there. Bodies were broken. Shields were cracked. Magic split skulls.

  Death walked among the fighters like an old friend. Some greeted the reaper warmly. Others rejected him and kept fighting even as their hearts stopped beating. None retreated unless they were dragged away by their own allies. The unyielding human spirit awakened like the guts of an ancient machine; despite every spilled drop of oil, despite every broken cog, the wheels kept turning.

  Visceral howls of those who lost companions drowned out the roaring river. Their cries muted the thunderous artillery. Blood flowed like water. Rocks along the shore were pounded into sand. Under the bright glow of falling magic the stars couldn’t be seen. Only mankind and demons remained on this battlefield.

  Tomtom struck his shield forward. The demon slipped past the blow, moving like a snake. It writhed through the air and wrapped around Tomtom’s arm, constricting it like a boa. The bones in Tomtom’s arm snapped like chopsticks. He howled in pain. The shield fell from his grasp.

  The monster rolled over Tomtom’s back and leaped up. The President tried to take advantage of it being airborne to nd an attack but the creature formed bck footholds with its mana. Circur disks of energy bloomed in the air—they looked like ice crystals on the surface of still water.

  The beast nded behind the President and its cws sshed his back, forcing him to stumble forward and fall into the dark river water where his body slipped from view under the surface.

  As the beast sshed the President, Tomtom smmed into it with his remaining good shoulder, causing the demon to crumple. The monster flew backwards bouncing off the river’s surface, kicking up a pilr of water. It recovered by flipping on more bck mana ptforms.

  The creature looked at Tomtom with a dangerous mirth in its eyes. It chittered and clicked, dancing in celebration of its upcoming victory.

  “Fucking monster,” said Tomtom. Blood ran down his lips. “You’ve lost.”

  “Kurrack!” The creature hooted and howled like a chimpanzee. It started rushing forward towards Tomtom to nd the killing blow—

  Two sturdy arms burst from beneath the water’s surface and wrapped around the monster’s neck in one motion. The rising water level had finally allowed the President to implement his pn. Under the darkness of night and in the chaos of battle, seeing him swimming below the surface was nigh impossible.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarh!” The President roared. With a tremendous CRACK, he snapped the neck of the demon and ripped its skull from its body. Blood erupted like a fountain.

  The President and Tomtom leaned back to back against each other, using the other to keep themselves standing. The water level was now at waist height. Their breathing was bored and weak.

  “Hahaha!” Tomtom ughed. He ran his good arm through his hair. His voice sounded hollow and weak, as if it were tainted with despair.

  “What’s so funny?” The President asked between harsh breaths.

  “I think I jinxed us earlier.”

  The President stood up and followed Tomtom’s eyes. His body froze in pce. The Gate rippled. A second set of bck hands pierced the dimensional hole.

  “... At least it’s only one more—” Tomtom stopped mid sentence. Another pair of bck hands started ripping through the Gate simultaneously.

  “Stop talking.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The President sighed. They assumed the demon they’d been fighting was the boss, but now it just seemed to be an elite soldier.

  “We’re going to die here, huh?” The President straightened his dislocated fingers one by one as he prepared for the next battle.

  A third pair of demon hands broke through the Gate.

  “We need to call in a nuclear strike.”

  “Looks like it.”

  The two men looked at each other. They didn’t speak. Their magic started to accelerate. The president pulled out a communicator from his pants pocket.

  “Well, it was good working with you, friend.”

  “Likewise.”

  They prepared to make their st stand. Despair washed over all the Awakeners. The dead started to outnumber the living. The indomitable human spirit started to waver.

  And then something tremendous fell from the sky.

  The object nded directly in front of the Gate like a meteorite. The earth shook. A crater appeared. The ground depressed in a full circle simultaneously like if a sinkhole gave way. A tsunami ripped outward from the central zone but something stopped it before it reached the rest of the battlefield—the wall of water hung suspended in the air. A fit of coughs came from the crater followed by the irritated cry of a young woman.

  “Scale you stupid fat lizard!”

  “Wuwuwuwuwu! Watergss hates me now!”

  “Alyssa I’ll start evacuating everyone.”

  “No just gather them all together, the dead bodies too. Our dumbass lizard will heal them.”

  “Got it.”

  Bck holes formed under the feet of every living and dead Awakener. All at once they vanished and reappeared a short distance away, grouped together on the riverbank.

  “Now collect all the monsters together. I’ll wipe them out all at once.”

  “You will? Since when could you do something like that?”

  “I want to test out my new [Contract] skills.”

  Bck holes now gathered underneath every monster, including the three wiry demons, and they all appeared in front of the Gate. The wall of water lifted upwards and began to spin like a massive drill. With the wall of water out of the way, the spectators could now see two humans standing on top of what looked to be a white mountain.

  Alyssa stomped her feet. The mountain jiggled.

  “START FIXING YOUR MISTAKE, HEALSLUT.”

  “Wuwuwuwuwuwu—” The mountain cried. The spectators started to realize that it wasn’t a mountain. A fsh of white light flooded the world in a near biblical scene. Those standing at death’s door found themselves returned from the brink, their bodies now uninjured. Dead bodies stirred again. The life energy circling the Awakeners was so potent that pnts grew in real time around them. One by one those killed in action raised their heads.

  A collective held breath gave out all at once. Tears started to fall, watering the newborn field of flowers.

  A miracle bloomed on a moonless night in July.