Obsidian Ridge - Jess Lebow [96]
Quinn scrambled, kicking, punching, and slashing as fast as he could. His blades hit the sides of the alcove as often as they hit the creatures, but he continued to battle. He was not going to die here and leave Erlkazar to these foul creatures.
Clang, clang, slash.
With the flick of a wrist, his blades sank into a fleshy throat, coming out the other side. The creature's blood spilled in a great gush down the floor of the alcove and out into the chamber beneath. The beast twitched as its life drained away, its body slumping sideways, creating further cover for Quinn.
Xeries's beasts were hulking masses of unrelenting muscle, bone, and claw. The alcove had not been intended to hold them-cramped for one, impossibly small for two.
The second black beast lunged deeper in, its obsidian claws grinding at the stone. But the corpse of its recently slain ally blocked the way, and the angry creature got stuck-unable to push in farther, unwilling to go back.
Quinn planted his foot on the head of the slain monster and kicked off, pushing himself up higher and deeper into the alcove. The creature growled and reached again. Its persistence allowed it to press in a few inches closer, and it was rewarded for such tenacity. The tips of its claws slid down the side of Quinn's leg, cutting into the leather of his boot. He winced and scrambled back, his head smacking against the stone behind him. The alcove was deep, but it did indeed end, and there was nowhere else to go.
The black beast continued to harass him, its long arm slapping to one side, grasping desperately at anything it could reach. Quinn's arms weren't as long, and he had to pull himself up into a tight ball to stay out of the monster's range.
Unbuckling his scabbard from his belt, he flipped it over and let his long sword slide out.
"Swallow that," he said as the weapon came free. Then he jammed the blade in the beast's face.
With so little room, there was no place for it to dodge, and the tip of the sword plunged past the creature's huge fangs and into its open, salivating mouth. Putting his foot on the hilt, Quinn stomped it into the creature’s brain.
The black beast convulsed once, choking on the sharpened steel. Thrashing mightily, it died on the sword, its body jammed against the other dead creature. Together they blocked out the orange light from below.
For now, their corpses clogged the opening, a temporary blockade against the hundreds of other beasts. Quinn could hear the rest of Xeries's monstrosities clamoring into the bottom of the alcove. It wouldn't be long before they simply managed to dig through the dead flesh and mount a new attack.
Reaching behind him, Quinn pressed his hands against the wall that had smacked his head. It was smooth, just like all the other exposed obsidian, except in the center. The stone had a large crack, an opening of crumbled rock that lead all the way down the wall toward the floor below.
"Mariko's shout," whispered Quinn. The spell the princess cast had damaged the stone in the lower chamber, but it must have reverberated up into this alcove as well. „,
"As you wish, Princess Mariko." His palm lit up, and he peered into the cracked obsidian.
The wall behind him wasn't very thick-just enough to close the alcove off from a much larger space behind. Rolling backward, Quinn braced his shoulders against the beasts he had just killed and slammed his boots against the broken stone.
The bodies slipped down with the blow, threatening to dislodge and clear the passage. Quinn slid along with them, that much closer to the hungry monsters below. Bits of broken stone rained down as well, a large chuck tumbling against the wall and smacking Quinn in the face.
He kicked and kicked again. More stone came away, a small hole opening in the wall. Obsidian shards fell on his head, and with one final kick, he broke the crack open wide.
His effort was successful, but the blow finally