Ice and Toa rode toward the place where their SUV had been violently flipped by the demon. The city was silent, but not dead the kind of silence that hides teeth. Toa crouched beside a patch of dirt. "Ice… look. Footsteps." Ice knelt beside him, studying the markings. "Riot."Toa nodded slowly. "Remember, Ice… this city may be in ruins, but it still breathes. Creatures here won't hesitate to kill." Ice understood the truth in those words Riot might already be dead.
But he refused to accept it. "The city may be alive," Ice said, "but the human spirit never burns out. I will find my friend, Toa… even if I die trying." Toa admired him for that. This man doesn't see soldiers as numbers, Toa thought. He sees them as friends."Ice," Toa said, pointing ahead, "the trail leads that way.""Good. We will follow it."They mounted their horses and rode deeper into the demon city, following the faint tracks. After a long silence, Ice asked, "Toa… are you skilled in battle?" Toa nodded. "Yes, sir. Archery and swordsmanship.""Good," Ice said. "I'm going to need your help." "With what?" Ice pointed ahead. Five massive lion‑shaped demons six eyes each, fangs like sabertooths were tearing into a carcass. Toa quietly reached for an arrow. Ice whispered, "No. Avoid them they might be more hidden in the shadows." Toa nodded and followed Ice as they guided their horses around the beasts to avoid any sort of contact. Then CRACK. Toa's horse stepped on a twig.
In the dead city, it sounded like a bomb.The demon lions looked up towards Ice and Toa direction and one demon lion perched on a rooftop snapped its head toward them.Ice whispered, "On my cue… run." Toa held still.The demon lions had a small stare down with the heroes then they launched full speed at the heroes the pact of dmeon lions. Ice grabbed his reins and shouted, "RUN! "The horses exploded forward.
The demon lions abandoned their meal instantly, sprinting after them with terrifying speed.Ice and Toa raced through the streets, leaping over debris, crushed cars, and broken concrete. The demon lions were fast too fast climbing walls, jumping rooftops, closing the distance.Toa stood on the back of his horse and fired arrows.One beast fell.
Then another. But a rooftop demon lion launched itself down like a missile, claws slashing across Toa's face two deep cuts from forehead to mouth.Blood poured over his eye. Toa closed his eye and kept shooting with the other. "Toa!" Ice yelled. "Jump now!"A flipped box truck lay ahead.
As they rode past it, Ice and Toa leapt onto the back of the flipped box truck. The demon lions swarmed, leaping up the truck's walls. Ice and Toa slashed down at them, blades flashing.A beast lunged Ice sliced its lower jaw clean off. It stumbled back, fell to the ground… and the other lions immediately devoured it. Ice muttered, "There is no loyalty in the dark." More beasts leapt.
Ice cut them down one by one, Toa fighting beside him despite the blood in his eye.Then Ice grabbed a small ball from his belt. "Toa stay close."He threw it. BOOM.A cloud of black smoke erupted thick, suffocating, impossible to see through. The demon lions snarled blindly, confused. "Move!" Ice whispered.They slipped off the truck and into a nearby building, sprinting up the stairs and across rooftops, leaping from one to the next until the snarling faded behind them. Finally, they spotted their horses wandering calmly down a street.Toa exhaled, relieved. "We made it."Ice allowed himself a small smile but his mind was elsewhere.Riot… I'm coming. Hold on.