Hangman’s enemy Renegade hit the ground just as Alien overpowered his opponent. He brought his massive stone weapons down in a shattering blow that splintered his adversary’s metal blades.

  The blades crackled all the way down to their fancy hilts. Alien left the guy standing there holding nothing but the two handgrips.

  The guy looked down at his handgrips and then up at Alien just as Alien stormed forward a second time.

  Alien brought his kukris together in a punishing chop on either side of the big Renegade’s head. The man went down hard.

  Alien shot a scowl in Hangman’s direction. Then both of them turned around to see Chaos finish his fight.

  That was the moment when Hangman noticed movement from his left. He glanced that way for a split second and spotted four more Renegades coming closer.

  The noise of fighting told these men exactly what was going on.

  Hangman didn’t wait for them to come. If the noise attracted these Renegades, it would attract others, too.

  He raced between the trees and engaged with the Renegades right away. Alien followed him. Chaos showed up a second later. He must have just been toying with his adversary.

  Now the three Godless men faced off against four Renegades instead of three.

  The one good thing in all of this was that the Renegades fought silently. They didn’t yell out in fury or alarm. They never made a sound all through the fight.

  Hangman, Alien, and Chaos only had to keep quiet, too. No other Renegades would find out what was going on.

  Hangman closed with the two Renegades on this end of the line. They tried to split apart to send two of their men after Alien. Alien’s size fooled them. They never thought the smaller, younger men would be more dangerous.

  Alien’s sheer size, strength, and skill overwhelmed the Renegades soon enough. He didn’t have to rely on his strength. He could fight just as well without it.

  The other two went after Hangman and Chaos, but the fight against Alien distracted both of them.

  Hangman’s adversary tried to break away to go support his friends. A few seconds later, Chaos’s opponent did exactly the same thing.

  Hangman didn’t go after his enemy—not yet. He stayed where he was and let the guy break off the skirmish. The guy rushed over to attack Alien—and Hangman struck without mercy.

  He cut down his own adversary and then took out one of Alien’s opponents. That left one for Alien and one for Chaos.

  Hangman didn’t wait around to help them. He already spotted another patrol coming—a bigger patrol.

  The Renegades must have heard the noise from their camp. They sent out ten men this time—too many for Hangman and his cousins to handle on their own.

  Hangman didn’t know where the other Godless were in the jungle. Hangman wouldn’t have called out to them for help even if he knew.

  He, Alien, and Chaos had to handle this side of the camp. The three cousins had to make sure every Renegade who came over here met their end and never returned.

  He rushed the ten Renegades, faked, and pretended to change his mind. He darted away into the trees, but the Renegades turned out to be faster and smarter than the jungle creatures Hangman usually fought.

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  The Renegades chased him down. He wove between trees, hurdled fallen obstacles, and would have run all the way back into the camp.

  He dodged sideways, darted deeper into the jungle, and doubled back to meet up with his cousins.

  His strategy worked. The Renegades ran after him trying to stop him from getting away. Then they widened their formation to cover more territory.

  He kept veering this way and that until the Renegades separated enough. He spun around to confront those nearest them. That was the last thing they expected.

  He charged two of them who hounded him right on his tail. He hacked one of them across the front of the neck. The other one pulled up short and Hangman cleaved the guy’s skull down to the eyebrows.

  Both bodies dropped and left the way clear for him to charge the other Renegades following in a messy line.

  He met up with a single Renegade and chopped the guy’s head clean off in one stroke.

  The other Renegades realized their mistake and closed their formation to encircle him. He couldn’t let that happen.

  At that moment, he heard the sound of scratching in the jungle. He knew that sound.

  He waited just long enough for the Renegades to gather into a tighter cluster. They all chased him from behind.

  He headed straight for the sound. He even slowed down to make sure the Renegades caught up with him. He didn’t want them to fall behind or leave him alone.

  They closed the gap exactly the way he hoped they would. They actually sped up thinking they were about to catch him.

  He dashed for the scratching sound, dove through another curtain of leafy vines, and burst out into a small clearing.

  There was only room in the clearing for one creature. The Gurlg was an enormous bird-thing with long feathers on its wings, dirty brown downy fluff on its chest, and not much else.

  It stood twice as tall as Hangman with thick, muscular legs and scratched its long claws in the dirt at the base of a tree. The creature uncovered grubs and worms, pecked them up, and spun around with a ferocious shriek when Hangman blundered into its clearing.

  He was running too fast to stop. The Gurlg snapped its beak at him as he ran right into its face.

  He took a running leap, grabbed the creature by the neck right behind its head, and the creature tossed its head in annoyance trying to get rid of him.

  It flung its head back carrying him with it. He let go at the top of the arc, sailed clear, and flew off into a dense patch of canopy directly above the Gurlg and the Renegades.

  He scrambled to turn over just as his pursuers blundered into the Gurlg’s hunting grounds. The creature couldn’t see anything else to attack, so of course it attacked the Renegades instead.

  Hangman couldn’t get comfortable here in the trees. He barely straightened himself out on the branches before he spotted a Krakelow coming for him. The commotion in the canopy must have attracted it.

  This one came in just as fast.

  He got a good look at this one in the light of day. He’d seen their gaping mouths, dripping fangs, and beady eyes every other day for as long as he could remember.

  He couldn’t fight this creature—not in the treetops. He wouldn’t have been able to fight it on his own at all.

  He jumped out of the canopy, grabbed another branch, and swung from branch to branch on his way to the ground. He let gravity take him, but the Krakelow picked up speed to match him.

  He barely stayed ahead of it until he landed in another dense thicket thirty yards away from the Gurlg.

  The noise of combat drifted out of the Gurlg’s clearing. The Renegades must be fighting the creature.

  Branches snapped above his head as the Krakelow smashed down through the trees falling from branch to branch.

  He hit the ground and took off running, but it still wasn’t enough. The Krakelow landed right behind him and sprang after him.

  Its scratchy, dart-infested skin made a whipping noise when the creature coiled itself in rapid contortions, bounced off tree trunks, and used its scales to propel itself forward.

  Hangman didn’t have to turn around. His ears told him exactly how close the creature was to capturing him and taking him down.

  He took off running back toward the Renegade camp. His only thought was to lead the Krakelow back to the camp and turn the creature loose on his enemies.

  Then he remembered. There were Renegades running around out here in the jungle right this minute.

  He swerved to his right and led the Krakelow straight into the Gurlg. Five Renegades fought the creature, but they were already starting to disengage and back away. They would escape any second now.

  Hangman veered farther left, came up behind them, and the Gurlg looked up at him. The creature would attack him the minute he came within its range.

  At that moment, he heard a different sound behind him. It wasn’t the scratching of the Krakelow’s scales against tree bark.

  This sounded more like the whistle of fast-moving wind. The Krakelow was making its move.

  The Renegades all saw and heard him coming. They turned around to face him.

  He flung himself full length onto the ground and sprawled on his face right in front of them. The Krakelow sailed clear over his head and collided with the Renegades instead.

  The Gurlg shrieked in fright, took wing, and launched into the canopy to get away from the Krakelow.

  Hangman didn’t wait around. He sprang to his feet and took off running back in the other direction toward the Renegade camp.

  End of Chapter 9.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

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