Satahsusar was caught completely by surprise as more tentacular, white strands wrapped around her legs and pulled them out from under her. She screamed, but it was cut short as her back and skull smacked onto the roof tiles. Several tiles cracked to pieces beneath her, and then the white tendrils started dragging her down toward the courtyard. She screamed again.

Xerxes didn’t like this woman one bit, but she was a fellow Isinian, a fellow mage, and a fellow human. So he bound over the rooftop and leaped forward to grab her hand.

Roof tiles crunched beneath him as he landed, but he managed to wrap his fingers around her wrist and felt her fingers tighten.

“Hold on,” he said.

Unfortunately, the roof was sharply angled. Almost as soon as he grabbed onto Satahsusar, he found himself sliding down toward the courtyard with her. He dropped his sword and tried to grab onto something, but there were only more roof tiles. His fingers closed on the edge of one, but then they slipped loose and he fell.

He landed nearly on top of Satahsusar, with roof tile chunks raining down around them. There were hulking, spider-like Abhorrent everywhere. However, they all seemed to be looming in place and doing nothing else. They weren’t advancing toward him and Satahsusar. The reason was obvious, and it caused his mouth to dry with dread. There was a more powerful of their kind emerging. A topless woman climbed out from the shadows of the mansion. Beneath her were a host of spindly legs, and she had long white hair and lips like dried blood.

He thought for a moment that this was the same beast that had dragged Bel to her death. But it wasn’t. Her facial features were different, her chin rounder, her nose flatter. In other respects, though, she was almost exactly the same. And her long, ropey fingers still had a tight hold on Satahsusar.

“Melam-oth,” the female Abhorrent said, and she chuckled, dragging Satahusar out from under Xerxes.

Days ago, Xerxes would have been scared witless. But not now.

“Let go of her,” he growled, getting up on one knee. He jabbed his hand into his component pouch, drew out some crabnickel powder, and started the Asgagu Isten rune.

The female Abhorrent made a dismissive gesture, and the other Abhorrent began moving again. Toward him.

He ignored them and focused on his anger to keep fear from taking hold inside.

His fist flared with bright light, and not bothering to come up with a plan of attack, he jumped toward the female Abhorrent.

Apparently, this came as a surprise to her. All she managed to do was open her eyes widely before his fist plunged into her side, burning through the soft skin beneath her ribs. Sizzling and popping sounds could be heard, accompanied by a cloying reek so intense that Satahsusar vomited.

The Abhorrent reared back screaming, dropping Satahusar but dragging Xerxes up with her, as his hand was now inside her. She clawed at him with her legs, but he didn’t think about the sting of pain and instead reached out and grabbed her forearm. With that bit of leverage, he shoved his burning hand deeper into her side, ignoring the wave of nausea that swept through him as the steam from her boiling blood and ichor entered his nostrils. He shoved his hand deeper. Deeper. And even deeper still. The shrieks of the monster were almost unbearable.

“Fuck you and all your kind!” he growled. His arm was now inside her up to the elbow, and she was reeling to the point where it seemed she might topple over backward. Letting loose a gutteral shout, he shoved his hand even farther inside her torso, toward where he hoped her heart was. Gore spurted out of her, coating his shoulder, splashing onto his face, but he ignored it.

Then his shoulder was inside her, and she fell backward.

He saw the ground approaching him, and leaned his head back just in time to avoid smacking it on the paving stones.

Crawling to his feet, he yanked his arm out from inside the beast, resulting in a sound like a cantaloupe being extracted from a barrel of lard. He flicked his arm, sending chunks of mostly-cooked bits of internal organs, muscle, and even skin off of him. His fist still burned, so he held it out in front of him as he prepared for the Abhorrent woman to clamber to her feet.

She didn’t.

That didn’t mean the other Abhorrent had suddenly disappeared, though. As blood and other fluids dripped from his elbow to the ground, he saw movement all around him. Satahusar was a few cubits away, her hand gripping her thigh, where a stain of blood was rapidly spreading out. Apparently, the death of this larger Abhorrent hadn’t cowed the others. If nothing else, her living presence had. They were moving.

Again, no time for delay. The light of Singular Lethality was fading, so Xerxes grabbed another handful of powder and recast it. Just as one of the Abhorrent lunged at him, the light shone brightly again, and he punched it hard in the abdomen. His fist drove directly into the thing, killing it in a single blow. Except… more came out of the mansion.

He heard a thump behind him, and turned to see Ninsunu in her bestial form. Lashing out at the nearby Abhorrent with clawed hands, she drove them back, then reached out and picked up Satahusar with both arms.

“Come!” she said. Then she jumped back up. Xerxes smashed one more nearby Abhorrent, melting its face, before following. Ninsunu was already running up to the ridge of the roof.

His sword lay precariously at the edge of the rooftop; snatching it, he bolted after Ninsunu. Together, they ran along the ridge, then reached the end and leaped off, clearing ten feet of intervening empty space before landing hard on another rooftop.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw one of the spider-like Abhorrent climbing up. He kept running.

A clattering noise caught his attention from behind as the Abhorrent from moments ago jumped in pursuit.