Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (35 page)

All of the water columns that stuck out of the ocean surface surrounding the tall rocks were now connected. Like the metal bars of a cage, long thick tunnels of flowing water connected each vertical column. The aquatic cage, with its dome-like shape, stood suspended in midair defying the law of gravity. The boy wondered if the water would just keep dragging him back in if he tried to make another break for it. His gut told him
yes
, and he was sick of nearly drowning. So he plopped down on the rock and rested for a while, waiting to see what else the demon had in store for him.

“
Given up yet you stupid devil
?”

“I see you’re still too
scared
to get close to me,” Aura replied.

“
Idiot
!
I’m closer than you think
,” Orkazek said. It really sounded closer…

What does he mean by that
? Aura thought as he tried to locate the source of the voice. It didn’t sound like it was coming from the sea below. The boy saw a dark figure swimming through the water stream next to him and tried to follow it, but lost track as it disappeared into a connecting channel. That’s when it hit him.

He can swim through all this water surrounding me
!

Aura went on top guard, standing at alert with his gauntlet removed. Since he was completely surrounded on all sides by the watery cage he figured the best place to be was in the middle of the tall rocks, the furthest spot from the water streams. He kept his guard up while he moved to the center rock platform. He didn’t want to get too close to the water streams that were above him either, so he kept his wings tucked in and moved entirely by foot.

As he jumped from rock to rock Aura would occasionally see a giant dark blur swim by in one of the water streams around him. It was always too fast to follow, even for Aura’s powerful devil eyes. When the boy made it to the center of the rocks, a sinister demonic laugh rang out from each stream of water surrounding the death toucher.

“
Think I’ll have a hard time getting to you in the middle, huh
?” Orkazek asked, once he’d settled down. “
You think you’re clever, but it’s no problem for me
!
Watch and see just how brilliant my plan is
!”

Aura caught a glimpse of the huge black blur in the water swimming up one of the streams and followed. The floating water column rose and bent inward until it ended in a giant cross-stream where all of the water columns met directly above Aura. The death toucher jumped to another rock just as a massive black demon with a jagged black fin shot out of the water current. The demon fell directly on top of where Aura had been standing only seconds ago, its powerful jaws and dagger-sharp teeth chomping down on only air instead.

When Aura retreated to what he felt was a safe enough distance he turned around to finally get a good look at his greater demon foe. He’d seen some ugly creatures in his day, and this time was no exception. Still, Aura felt slightly disappointed at what he was expecting to be a terrifying and powerful enemy. For a greater demon working for a Demon Prince, he was expecting something a little more…
bad ass.

The demon known as Orkazek slowly rose on two legs, standing like a person. Its back was turned to Aura, and emerging from between two shoulder blades was the jagged black fin, now flopping lifelessly to the side. The demon spun around to face Aura and got
much
weirder. Though it was similar to devils in shape, it was difficult to tell where this demon’s torso ended and its head began. It was covered in shiny black skin that looked like soft rubber. The skin on its front was white from its belly up to its lower jaw. Two white spots appeared over the demon’s eyes, giving the impression of arched eyebrows. Everywhere else its skin was black, including on its giant
whale face
that stared at Aura with nearly indistinguishable black eyes.

Orkazek grinned, or at least Aura thought it was grinning. The demon could have just been showing off its teeth.

“
Well, what do you think
?” Orkazek asked, throwing his hands up. “
I’m a marvelous creature, aren’t I
?
I’m a genetic cousin to an advanced form of species found on the human world. The humans call me an orca, but they have another name for me
:
the killer whale
!
Killer whales are known to be extremely intelligent and deadly, just like me
!”

Great
, Aura thought.
He’s a talker.

“Killer whale? You look more like a
cuddle
whale to me, with that dopey face of yours,” said Aura. “Let’s just get this fight over with so I can hurry back to my friends. I need to tell them I eliminated a target.”

Orkazek shrieked with demonic laughter. “
You still think you’re getting out of here alive
?
Stupid
!
It’s impossible
!
This is where you die, death toucher
!
Prince Otozek has given me permission to eat you alive
!
Why do you think I didn’t simply drown you when I had the chance
?
It is only because I prefer my prey to be alive and fighting back when I consume them
!”

Damn
, Aura thought.
That’s some confidence
!
I could really be in danger
…

“
My genius ability, ‘Stream Queen’, allows me to freely control the flow of any water nearby
!
The moment you got caught in my Aquarium Cage, your fate was sealed
.
You lost this fight by being too stupid, devil boy
!”

“Wait just a minute,” Aura said, switching to a more serious tone. His face went blank, uncertain almost. “You call your ability
Stream Queen
? Does that mean you’re actually… a
female
?”

It was impossible to read the demon’s mood. Orkazek’s big dumb whale head didn’t exactly display a full pallet of expressions. Its eyes blinked and its mouth moved, but that was about it.

“
Greater demons don’t always have predetermined genders like devils do
,” the demon said. “
However, speaking strictly for me, I guess I would consider myself female
.”

Aura’s blank expression turned to stifled rage. His muscles tensed as he tried to keep his temper under control.

“If that’s the case I’ll make this quick. I have no sympathy for
ugly
chicks, and girl,
you are ugly
. Real women have curves. The only curve you’ve got is a big dumb whale hump-head! You’re an
insult
to
sexiness
!”

Orkazek grinded her teeth the entire time Aura insulted her. That last statement was the final offense. The killer whale demon backed toward the nearest water column glaring at Aura. “
I’m going to chew your body slowly for that, stupid devil
!”

Orkazek jumped into the water stream, leaving Aura to defend himself. The boy allowed a quick smirk, as his plan had succeeded. He’d purposely tried to anger the demon, to lure her into attacking first. The boy knew there was no way he could ever hope to chase and catch the demon. Not inside the Aquarium Cage, where Orkazek could move fast and freely through the water streams.

He turned to the nearest cage bar made of water and waited, his gauntlet already clipped to his waist. The rocky platforms were quickly becoming slicker as the demon splashed around the watery cage, adding another obstacle to the death toucher’s list of problems.

While Aura tested his footing and watched the streams around him for his enemy to appear, he was taken by surprise when Orkazek shot out of a stream like a projectile being shot from the opposite direction. Aura was lucky it made a sloshing water sound or he wouldn’t have turned around just in time to see an immense, open set of demon jaws flying at him. He dodged, hopping back just far enough to give the creature a little death tag.

But Orkazek’s gigantic jaws collided with the rock platform instead. Aura certainly wasn’t expecting the rock to break apart from the force, so when it did the boy had to make a surprise maneuver and abandon rock. It’s a good thing he did, because the demon’s jaws reduced the tall rock to a tiny stump, barely poking out of the ocean. Out of the devil’s sight, the demon returned to the water to attack again.

Okay, wasn’t expecting it to have that much power
, thought Aura.
There’s nothing I can do when it comes flying at me jaws-first like that. It’s too dangerous to get in a death touch. I’ll have to think of something else
-

Orkazek launched herself out of the Aquarium Cage like a bullet leaving a barrel. She came from an angle above Aura again, less of a surprise this time. The death toucher used the seconds before the collision to detect a weakness, a blind spot, or anything that could help him make the best of the situation. There was nothing. He abandoned the tall rock he was standing on as once again Orkazek crashed. The tall rock platform was leveled like the last one to a small nub.

That’s when Aura made an alarming realization.
It’s going to keep destroying my rocks until I have nothing to stand on
!
I’ll be forced into the water, one way or another, if I don’t figure out a way to beat her quick
!

Aura desperately plotted his next move while dodging the next few demon whale attacks. Orkazek leveled another three rock platforms before Aura finally came up with something. As the demon ejected itself at high velocity toward Aura, the boy did something the whale did not expect it to do.

Aura leapt
toward
the demon’s open jaws.

The death toucher kept his wings tucked as he jumped forward. When he was just inches from being eaten he adjusted his wings to give him some lift. The boy rose the necessary height to avoid being eaten alive, grinning as he prepared to throw his famous death punch.

“
Got you
!”

A blast of funny-smelling water and vapor erupted from Orkazek’s blowhole. It hit Aura in the face, blinding him. Unable to death-punch the demon, he glided forward wiping the water from his eyes. Instead of chewing the next rock platform to pieces, Orkazek bounced off it and launched back at the blinded boy. The demon kicked the boy in the gut and sent him plummeting into the nearest stream.

Aura twisted and tumbled through the fast-flowing tube of water. The kick to the gut had left him with little air in his lungs to begin with. Now he had drowning to deal with. He could hear and feel a far-off splash in the water, and then Orkazek spoke, her voice vibrating clearly through the water.

“
Stupid devil
!
You thought you were smart
!
You thought you could take me head on, but you forget I’m a genius
!
I seem to recall you weren’t a fan of the sensation of drowning, so I thought it would fun to let you experience that again before I eat you.
”

Do I really have to drown
and
listen to this moron babble
? thought Aura. He struggled against the current, tried to change his direction, to break free from the center of the water stream. Nothing worked. He swirled around the Aquarium Cage, a slave to the current.
No
!
There must be something I can do
! he thought, trying to remain confident in the face of death.

Up ahead in the stream Aura could see the black whale face appear, the white spots on its forehead looking like giant menacing eyes. She headed straight for him, jaws wide-open, teeth exposed. The creature was a perfect fit for the water tunnel. There’d be no way for Aura to avoid the demon without getting eaten. The current would take him straight into the demon’s mouth, and he had seconds to come up with something to save his life.

If I could just reach
… he thought, sticking both his arms straight out as far as he could. He kept his eyes on the demon as he kicked his legs, which were floating up behind him. His little kicks gave him the small steady motion he needed. He moved forward just enough, and his hands broke the surface of the water. As soon as he felt the dry air on his palms, Aura released a massive blast of flames.

The force pushed him like a torpedo backward. He shot out of the water stream as the demon’s jaws clamped down on nothing but water. Aura hit the rocks hard, reinforcing his backside with soul power just a moment too late. He felt the birth of a bruise as he slammed into the solid slick stone below.

When his vision cleared, Aura found himself on top of a stone close to the edge of the tall rocks. The view he got looking between the water columns was of the East Hell beach that seemed so far away now. The group of concerned spectators had grown until it swallowed every inch of the beach. A squad of Royal Guard stood around twiddling their thumbs, unable to act intelligently without a Captain in sight.