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Curran snarled His irises went gold All rational thought fled fro his teeth

Holy shit Apparently they were happy to see each other

Hugh reached behind his back and pulled out two short black axes He pointed one at Curran and roared, "Lennart!"

It was the kind of roar that would cut straight through the chaotic noise of battle It bounced off Mishiant birds screeched in alarh screamed

"Curran?" I asked

Curran didn’t even hearoff his jacket as he e Muscles on his back and shoulders bulged under the dark shirt He broke into a run Curran was gone Only the Beast Lord reripped his axes He e to Curran, so he went for so that could cleave a li?" Nasrin murht my aunt with me He would remember the armor "Claon’t penetrate that ared

They tore toward each other There wasn’t a force on the planet that could stop the the world didn’t end when they hit each other

I wanted to cut Hugh into pieces I owed him for Mauro, my broken sword, and seven days in the hole But Curran owed hi out where I went, for running afterif I was still alive, and then for fighting his way to Misher score to settle

Blood rushed through my veins I could hear my own heartbeat The faue Coic was down

"Can you take out the gunners?" Thomas asked Andrea next tobehind the blast shield I could get one, h spun the axes as if they weighed nothing and chopped with the right axe straight down, putting all of his power into the swing Curran blocked the haft with his forear The axe head bit into Curran’s stoht to left

No!

The world slowed I saw the bloody blade of the axe slide free, flinging the finetoo loud in h continued the stroke with his left axe, bringing it up and cleaving with dizzying speed Curran knocked Hugh’s arht axe head in Curran’s side Instead, the blade grazed Curran’s side Move faster, baby Move Move!

Curran leaped back His left side bled The cut on his stoh flicked his axes and flung the blood at Curran Red spray splashed over Curran’s neck and chest He’d flicked Curran’s own blood at hih s for Hugh’s face Hugh spun, picking up momentum, and sliced at Curran’shis face wide open It’s a trap, Curran Don’t!

Curran dodged and raered back, leaning back, turning the energy of the impact into his own blow, and chopped at Curran’s left side The axe bit into flesh at least two inches deep Daed forward, slicing at Curran’s leading leg Curran dodged left, jerked his fists up, and brought the? I kicked the snow Curran was better than this I fought hih jerked his axes up, hafts crossed, caught Curran’s ar Curran’s blow slide off Curran kicked with his left leg, sweeping Hugh’s leading leg out fro back up Curran chased hi, each blow fast and hard enough to knock ht

The undead horde behind us was growing closer and closer

Curran was cut in four places His blood was all over the overpass Hugh favored his right leg, but he showed no signs of tiring His axes cleaved, chopped, and carved, one second ai Curran’s chest I began to pace back and forth It was that or I’d explode

Another graze of the axe Another open wound More blood

Curran was taking too e, even for a shapeshifter I wouldn’t lose hie This wasn’t the way it ended It couldn’t be Hugh would not take him from me

The door behind us shuddered under the press of undead bodies Finish it Finish it, Curran

Hugh reversed the blow and raht axe head into Curran’s h smashed the haft of his left axe into Curran’s skull

My heart clenched into a painful hard ball

Curran bent forward, dazed

D’A the two axes at once Stupid flashy move In myclosed Curran’s head slid off his shouldersMy throat closed I couldn’t take a single breath

Curran surged up, grabbed Hugh’s wrists, planted his foot into the left side of Hugh’s stoh tuht leg over Hugh’s neck Hugh crashed to the ground on his back and Curran rolled up on top of hih’s throat, the other over his chest Juji Gatame, the most powerful arh screamed as his shoulder joint came apart His rotator cuff must’ve torn Triceps too, probably Curran arched his hips Hugh’s elbow joint popped like a chopstick snapping Yes! Heal that, you sonovabitch

Hugh roared and tried to chop at Curran with his reered to his feet His left ar useless It was over now Curran would take hih’s face was ashen He was beaten and he knew it

Hugh swung his axe Curran leaned out of the way and hah’s face Ooo, broken nose Curran spun and kicked hih flew back and crashed into the snow

The door creaked In my mind, the space behind the door was just a wall of undeath

"Shoot the left gunner," Ghastek said quietly

Andrea blinked

The two gunners stood together, the right hidden by the blast shield, the left standing so just the top of his face protruded above the shield as he craned his neck to watch the fight It was an iet was about the size of a large matchbox

"Shoot The left Gunner," Ghastek repeated, pronouncing each word exactly

Andrea snapped her rifle up and fired