65.

  Have you ever tried to distract an 18-foot-tall nightmare wraith in its final boss form? Well, I can tell you it's way harder than it sounds. Somnix was a lurching colossus of dark energy, and he had his sights set on me. I was on my own now. The Pigeon King had secreted himself somewhere to gather his energy, leaving me alone to distract the monster.

  Somnix roared and brought down a fist the size of my entire body and would have flattened me like a penny on a railroad track. Desperately, I flung myself to one side, barely dodging the colossal blow. I turned and threw my finger guns up.

  “Bang! Bang!”

  I blew two holes the size of footballs in Somnix's leg, and he barely even flinched. He swiped his hand at me, caught me a glancing blow with just the tips of his claws, and sent me spinning across the floor. I was back on my feet almost instantly, knowing I had seconds between me and death. Just as I scrambled forward, I felt the massive whoosh of air exploding behind me as Somnix brought down his hand to crush me like an ant. That was the only good thing about fighting something so big, he was relatively slow by comparison. Somnix roared again, and I felt the air around me tremble.

  I lashed out with my Chain and caught the monster around one of his fingers, which was now the size of my leg, and he whipped me, and sent me flying into a wall. Luckily, I hit the wall arse first, which cushioned some of the blow but the fall was still brutal.

  How the hell was I going to stop this thing? It was impossible. I stumbled behind a pillar, desperate to keep anything between me and Somnix. He snarled and punched straight through the pillar, sending debris showering down on me. Somnix grabbed hold of the pillar and ripped it out of the ground to swing it like a club. Oh great, now he had a weapon.

  I ducked behind another pillar, and the two pillars met in an explosion of stone and masonry. Then I was running, a full-out sprint across the room, and it only took Somnix two great bounding steps to catch up with me. He raised his hoof and brought it down, trying to crush me underneath it. I hurled myself to one side narrowly avoiding death.

  I ended up underneath Somnix, staring up into the glossy blackness of his hind legs. I sent two more bolts of explosions from my fingertips into the backside of his calf and then into his leg. But the finger guns were beginning to run out of juice. My hand shook every time I tried to raise it, and instead of football-sized holes, the holes were barely bigger than my own head, and were having no effect on Somnix. I danced around under Somnix’s stamping hoofs, realising that being underneath him was actually the safest place to be. He was so big and unwieldy that he couldn't get hold of me. He tried to snatch me from between his legs, and when that failed he stomped his hooves, but every time, I just managed to avoid him.

  Then, the monster sat down.

  There was only a brief second of notice before he dropped, and I managed to avoid his backside by the barest of margins. Somnix snarled and tried to grab me but I was gone. Like a mouse when the light gets turned on, I ducked under his knees and got out of the way of his flailing limbs.

  He couldn’t catch me, so he sent his shadows after me. He reached out with a great hand, and from his fingertips poured long tendrils of shadow and smoke that whipped straight for me. I spun and flailed the Chain at them, turning them back into smoke. Then I lashed the Chain at Somnix's hand, gouging open his palm. He hissed and lumbered back to his feet, trying to chase me down while I desperately fled around the room using my expert fleeing skills to their maximum potential.

  How long had I been fighting him? 30 seconds? A minute? How much longer did the Pigeon King need? I was badly winded and didn't have the energy to keep this up for much longer. The extreme power I had felt from the raw emotions coming out of my Somnix-induced nightmares had faded, leaving me weak and clumsy. I was now having to wield the Chain with both hands, and the Runes were no longer alive with power but throbbing dully

  I raced around another pillar, while trying to regain my breath. As I grew more exhausted, Somnix seemed to be gaining power. The entire room was shaking now; bits of masonry were falling from the high ceiling, and I saw cracks appearing on the walls and floor. Somnix was literally tearing down his own castle, his power too immense to be contained in four walls.

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  "Foolish mortal!" he howled, his voice ringing with obscene power and venom. "Die! Die like the fleeing vermin that you are!" Somnix swept his hand and crushed another pillar.

  This time, a larger chunk of the roof came down with it, slamming into his head. It broke apart, and the beast staggered as more of the ceiling fell on him. The crazed wraith was going to entomb us all in his collapsing castle.

  I saw my moment to strike while he was off balance. I ran towards him, spinning the heavy Chain over my head with both hands, gaining enough momentum to hurl it at Somnix's ankle. The Chain wrapped around it twice, and he howled as the enchanted metal bit into his shadow flesh, sending up sizzling sparks. I tried to send as much power as I had left through it. He roared, then kicked his leg, sending me flying again.

  I soared across the room in a massive arc. The Chain was ripped from my palms. I crashed into the organ, smashing through it and finally putting an end to its haunting melody. I lay there in a mass of broken wood and metal, groaning, barely able to breathe. Somnix was still flailing around with the Chain wrapped around his leg. He stumbled and clawed at it, trying to rip it off and burning his own hands as he did. I noticed the more damage the creature took, the more of the shadows fled from him and returned to their rightful owners.

  He kicked and struggled with the Chain, then turned and looked at me, hate glazing his red eyes. He charged, determined to kill me, and I couldn't move. My body was exhausted and frozen in pain and fear as I watched this mammoth monster descend upon me, both fists raised, ready to bring them down in a crushing blow that would turn me into meat and powdered bones. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable end.

  Then, I heard the shriek of the Pigeon King. The noise was pure and clear and cut through the shadows. The golden light, which bathed the room, was so powerful that it stopped Somnix dead in his tracks. He raised his giant arms to shield his eyes, and the Pigeon King unleashed another mighty war cry. He dropped from the ceiling like a hunting bird swooping on a mouse in the desert, his wings folded, his body an aerodynamic missile. I barely saw him in the golden blur as he crashed into Somnix's chest. There was a perfect moment of golden clarity, and then the world exploded in light and shadow.

  I could barely register what happened. My eyes felt like they had been burned and frozen at the same time, the retinas aching from the fierce light. Out of pure instinct, I scrambled off the organ, rolling to try and shield my face from the searing energy pouring from the two beasts. Then I heard Somnix howl, his roar sounding like a wounded animal trapped and in dire pain. The floor suddenly felt like it had been torn by an earthquake, and I could see stones vibrating around me as the sheer mass of the shadow beast fell.

  There was silence; even Somnix's howls ceased, and only the sound of falling debris could be heard. I dragged myself to my feet, and saw the Pigeon King laying on the floor. Both of his wings were badly broken, and he lay on his side gasping for breath, his eyes filmy and white. His sleek feathers were badly singed and entirely missing in patches. He was panting with his beak open next to Somnix, who was laid out similarly, gasping in a bizarre rhythm for air, his chest broken open. Shadows slowly flitted away from Somnix. Hundreds of them darted away from his broken body. There was a gleam of a crystallized shard in his chest: the monster's true heart. Somnix's body twitched and spasmed as if he had no control over it.

  The Pigeon King's eyes rolled to me, and he gasped.

  "Now… mageling… do it! Destroy the heart before the thing recovers!”

  I dragged my broken body forward, stumbling and tripping over fallen debris, scraping my flesh as I did. I saw Somnix’s fingers twitching and his hooves begin to shift as he pulled himself back together, regaining his power. I could hear him snuffling and gasping. I pulled myself up his massive leg, crawling across his muscled stomach, my fingers tangled in the inky blackness of his fur until finally, I was at his chest. Bent and broken, I looked the beast in his eyes. He turned his giant head and looked at me.

  "Mortal," he groaned.

  I raised my fingers, cocked them, and then lowered it directly at his heart, looking him in his eye.

  "Sweet dreams, goat face." I said.

  Somnix's red eyes widened and he tried to cry out. I summoned every final ounce of energy in my body, everything in my soul. I poured all of my hate, anger, fear, self-loathing, regret, and guilt into the tips of my fingers. I felt the energy blossom and pulse down my arm.

  "Bang," I said, and the bolt of explosive energy went off like a grenade, hitting Somnix square in his crystal heart.

  The explosion was so powerful it sent me flying off my feet and tumbling down his body. I caught myself and stood just in time to see the heart crack. Dark shadows blossomed forth from it, and then it exploded.

  My entire world became screaming shadows. They whipped by in a frenzy as they fled from the crystal heart, pouring back out into the world, an endless stream of haunting, screaming humanoid shadows. Were these all the souls that Somnix had tortured? Somnix gave one final bellow, and then his heart shattered and his kingdom fell.