Judgement (The Twelve) (56 page)

Anvil realising he had been terribly wounded choose instead to ignore the blow and delivered one of his own. Edge was not expecting such a thing to happen. The hammer head struck home, crushing Edges left shoulder and driving bone fragments into both lungs and his throat.

Spinning away, Edge staggered to a stop, dropping his sword back into the dirt. Facing the opposi
te direction he spoke chokingly,
“I have killed you father.”

Anvil
placed the head of his mighty hammer on the ground
, collapsing to his knees he held himself upright by shear will power,
“Aye
and I you
.”

There was great sorrow and hurt in his voice.
But then an animal roar of pure rage filled the air. Rage, monstrous Rage, hurled himself forward with madness in his eyes and froth upon his lips. The new members of the Dark,
Pigswell and Ridgeback
tried to block his path, but Rage ploughed
Pigswell
aside with ease
, kicking him twenty feet through the air before he could spew fire. Ridgeback met him head on, giant to giant. But The Dark
one
called Ridgeback, a former
freak show hunchbacked
wrestler
forgot one thing, Rage was a warrior from
a
distan
t
past
, who had fought in hundreds of battles
and knew the ways of dealing death.
But above all he was a man that most feared to be near in battle. Rage was a berserker.
He ignored a blow to his face that could punch through a foot of concrete. He ignored the next that cut him open above his right eye. Then it was Rages turn, he smashed Ridgeback in the groin with his knee and as The Dark folded,
Rage jumped up and brought the full force of his primeval strength down
,
smash
ing
his elbow down on the back of
Ridgebacks head. Dazed, The Dark never felt Rage take hold of him with an arm hooked under and around his chin.  Rage screamed and stood up straight,
The Darks
neck snapp
ed
with ease.
Ridgeback collapsed as if pole axed, dead before he hit the ground.
Claws tried to stop him,
but
his mighty hands lifted her easily into the air and
even as she slashed his body a dozen times, Rage
casually thr
ew her
over his shoulder as he thundered onwards.
Claws landed hard, she curled up into a ball like a spider and lay there dazed.
Retch tried to spew giant red ants at him but Rage punched him once in the mouth, hurling him from his feet.
Finally within reach of Coffee, Rage reached for her neck.
Coffee lifted one tiny finger and stopped him dead in his tracks. Rage thrashed and hurled himself blindly at an invisible barrier. Screaming incoherently
,
his mouth frothing in mindless fury,
Rage
pounded his fists against thin air. Finally tired of him, she thrust Rage aside
. H
is huge body flew sideways to smash into the graveyards iron gates
, crashing
through the
m onto the dirt path beyond
. Rage ended up semi conscious wrapped in the mangled remains of the gates.

Coffee, wiped the tip of her finger on her chest, “I wondered when he’d live up to his name.”

Edge slowly, carefully, turned bit by bit until he faced Anvil, blood was pouring from his mouth, “The Chosen One
is great. She
shall heal my wounds.”

Anvil sadly shook his head, “No she cannot. It is not allowed for her to interfere.”

Huntress
who
had
placed Hot Crosses head under a nearby bush, ran
across to kneel besides Rage, “He’s okay I think the berserker has passed.”

Edge looked implor
ingly at Coffee, who ignored him and stared daggers at Anvil.

Edge took a step forward and collapsed. Coffee gritted her teeth
as she looked down at Edge
.

S
lowly she raised
her eyes to lock onto Chris
’s
,
“
W
e
have both lost this day
”

Chris
listened to Judgements inner voice and knew her to be wrong
, “
You are wrong. This is all that I hoped for.
”

Coffee gritted her teeth and sneered, “You hoped to see your father and half brother die
. T
ruly you should be one of us!
”

Priest moved forward
to kneel besides Anvil, his arms supporting him
, “I
cannot heal this wound my friend.
”

Chris walked up to stand toe to toe with Coffee, her breath a foul stench in his nostrils, “The law states  that I cannot help my father  and you cannot help Edge, but there is a way we can help each other.”

Understanding dawned on her face, “You mean?”

Chris smiled,” We help each other, something never done before.”

Chris moved to stand
next to
Edge whilst Coffee
after a moment hesitation
moved towards Anvil.

Bulls Eye clicked back both triggers, “Stay back witch!”

Chris raised a hand, “It’s alright
Bulls Eye leave her alone
.”

Coffee looked down with loathing at Anvils body, “I have lost another one today. I cannot afford to loose Edge as well.”

At a nod from Chris, both Coffee and Judgement
spoke loud and clear,
their voices
echoing around the old graveyard,
Judgement spoke first with Coffee repeating exactly  every word he uttered,
“
I choose to help and heal my immortal foe, so that
another
may live. I choose to heal my immortal foe so that the law shall not be broken
,”

With that
they
both placed a hand on the head of Edge and Anvil.
A
t the exact same time both
hands started to glow first a golden yellow before turning a deep dark red. The light pulsated
down through the body of each mortally wounded man. The glow from the light beating like a living heart, s
urprisingly they both beat as one.

Wounds
that should not heal
started
to heal.
The
terrible injuries
slowly
faded under the pulsating light
, internal organs healed and blood pressure started to rise.

Anvil took a deep cleansing breath,
“That will suffic
e, I….thank you.”

Edge waited until Chris had finished before flipping himself to his feet. He slapped his chest and laughed. Retrieving his one sword
he
frown
ed
at the shattered one.

Coffee
smiled and walked up to Chris, she offered him her hand before suddenly trying
to surprise him with a quick and deadly blow to his neck but Chris deflected the blow easily.

“
You belittle what we have done this day.
”
Chris stated coldly.

Edge frowned, “He saved my life and you return the favour by trying to kill him.”

Coffee
gritted her teeth again, “
Shut up
dolt
, you live do you not!
”

Chris spoke to Edge, “Remember this day my brother.”

Speed flew back over the fence,
landed
,
ran and skidded to a halt besides Huntress, “That was one hell of a ride
. A
nyone got any water on them?”

One of Jennings men threw him a canteen, which he emptied in two seconds flat.

Cougar and Panther
silently rose up behind Jennings people. They had been concealed in a drainage ditch.

Screech
had managed to climb from the overturned wagon
. To say she was pissed
off
was an understatement.
She pulled up her skirt and soiled petticoats
and
shuffled slowly
towards
her nearest enemy who happened to be
Bulls Eye.

Sling staggered up to his Mistress, a broken arrow head protruding from just under his left collar bone. He knelt before her with bowed head, “With your blessings oh wise and beautiful lady.” He spoke through teeth filed to sharp points.

Coffee smiled down at her ebony warrior, reached out with her index finger, gently touched the arrow head, which turned to
ash
the wound heal
ed
itself in an instant. Sling stood, bowed and
moved off to the far right.

Priest knew something wasn’t quite right with this game plan and whispered to Anvil, “
Hang on where’s
Venom
,
Leach
, Ghost
and
those two cats
?”

Chris shook his head, “This fight should stop here and now. What needed doing has been done.”

But Coffee had second thoughts.

Before Anvil could think about that, Coffee scooped up a three foot wide clod of earth, bones and skulls
with a single thought
and hurled the mass directly at Chris,  Anvil and Priest.

Priest
moved fast for a fat man
and interposed his body in front of the others
,
“Behind me!”