Tree of Life Book III

Part I - Chapter 11

TREE OF LIFE BOOK III – PART I

CHAPTER 11

The fighting wore on.

Brian kicked his opponent in the chest. It was like landing his foot on a brick wall.

Malchus stood and took it and didn't budge.

Using the kick, Brian launched himself away and put some distance between himself and the enemy, some sixty feet from where the two had been standing before. He drifted out to the edge of the terrace and stopped there, right by the lip of it, where you could fall down into the village a mile below if you weren't careful and knew exactly where you were putting your feet.

Brian was taking a moment to catch his breath, while Malchus continued to edge over in tight steps.

Nicole zipped over to Brian's side.

"Nikki…" Brian was dragging breath in and out. "…I got an idea."

"What?"

"Get ready…"

"For what?"

"Remember the cliff?"

Nicole made a face. The cliff? What?

Malchus was close. Forty feet away.

Brian glared at her. "Remember the cliff? How you and Julian had ganged up on me?"

"Yeah, but…" Nicole frowned, remembering.

Thirty feet.

Malchus charged in again.

Brian bolted backward but Malchus was already on him. He was right on top of him, right in front of his chest.

Brian squirmed to get away but he was too slow.

Malchus swung out his arm. He seized Brian by the neck.

Brian's eyes went wide. He took hold of the other man's wrist.

Malchus squeezed.

Brian scrunched his eyes together. "Nikki!"

Malchus dropped his hammer. He slapped his other hand onto Brian too.

"Nikki! Now!"

Nikki dove onto Brian's back. She wrapped herself around him.

Remembering the cliff, remembering how she had sneaked up on Brian at the very end, then like what she did to Julian before, she began channeling her energy into Brian now, through his back and up his shoulders, into his arms and then his hands. Her arms glowed blue. She scrunched up her eyes. She gave him everything she had, sparing nothing, leaving nothing behind. She emptied herself of power.

Brian could feel it filling him up and it was a tidal wave.

He took a grip around Malchus' fingers. He squeezed.

The bigger man's eyes went wide.

Brian took the man's hands and ripped them from his throat.

Malchus swung his head back, yowling.

Brian cranked back his arm, until it was a good five feet away, and then corkscrewed his fist into the bigger man's stomach. It was a pile driver, a thunderbolt and it curved up and into his heart.

It was dynamite. Like C4.

Boom!

Malchus' mouth cracked open but no sound escaped past it.