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Elsewhere, Setters fought bravely, swelling Hadder'sheart with pride. McKintosh Reed fought off a quartet of Riserswith a fury. He struck out against the two combatants facing himwith two machetes while the Risers to his left and right dealt withMcKintosh's whirling dreadlocks, each one tipped with a smallknife. McKintosh took the hand from one Riser with a machete whilesimultaneously taking spiked knuckles to his shoulder from theother. He fell back, his dreadlocks keeping the other two at bay,the blade falling from his injured left arm. In a release of fury,McKintosh shot forward, driving his remaining machete deep into theshoulder of the spike-knuckled Riser. As the Riser fell, McKintoshwas pulled down, his lone blade stuck in the man's clavicle. TheRisers pounced on the grounded resident, one sending a thin swordthrough McKintosh's back while the other repeatedly kicked hissides with edged boots. McKintosh spat blood onto the lifeless faceof the Riser beneath him before he, too, dropped dead. Theattacking Risers both leaned down, screaming profanities at thedeceased Setter, but quieted suddenly as two dreadlocks leaped upfrom their owner's corpse, taking both men through the throat.
Hadder fought through the crowd, his swordshattering Riser weapons, stealing arms from torsos, andfertilizing the soft ground with Riser innards. He passed theCaesar Titus, who, although teetering on one leg, battered Riserswith his frightening battle-hammer. Further north, an area hadopened up where the albino twins Vespa and Vitellius teamed upagainst their fellow Caesar Otho. The ground shook as the titanswent at each other, Otho narrowly missing the traitors with hisdouble-headed ax. But as impressively as Otho fought, he was nomatch for the twins, who moved with practiced synchronization, eachwielding a matching glaive that allowed them to strike from adistance, rendering Otho's ax ineffective. Otho moved forwardwithout fear, trying to get inside those demon spears, but waseventually caught in the side by Vespa. Otho clutched his wound,and it was all the opening that Vitellius needed to slip his ownglaive between the loyal Caesar's ribs, pushing down the pole todrive the blade up and into Otho's gigantic heart. Otho fellface-first into the grass, and the twins moved on quickly, cuttinga swath through the Setter lines.
As Hadder reengaged in the center of the melee, hewas bleeding from a dozen wounds, although none of themincapacitating. He felt no pain as the Rage coursed through him,driving his body faster, strengthening each blow. Hadder battedaway a trident aimed for his stomach, then carved a path throughthe Riser's face on the backswing, taking out both eyes in theprocess. Feeling danger to his left, he spun without thinking,narrowly avoiding becoming split in two by a vicious sickle. TheRiser swinging the blade smiled, his face studded with metal andhis eyes tattooed entirely black. He attacked again, and Hadderleaped back, again moving just out of the curved blade's path.Hadder moved in as the weapon passed. The Riser flipped the handleover and regripped for a backswing attempt. Hadder, inside now,blocked the backswing with a right front kick while bringing hissword down atop his foe's head, which split down the middle like amelon.
A scream from behind Hadder saved his life, forcinghim to react by diving to his left. Despite the fast movement, along blade caught Hadder in his right side, neatly slicing throughhis cut-resistant clothing and ripping open a deep wound thatshowed off the white of his ribs. Hadder quickly rolled onto hisback on the ground, bringing his right sword arm up to defend whilecovering his injured side with his left. Hadder cursed under hisbreath as the Riser captain Wagner stared down at him, brown teethshowing between metal tusks. No insulting words or cute sayingswere delivered as Wagner began stabbing down with his long saber.Hadder knocked the first blow out wide to his left, and the secondwas backhanded to the right, although it still nicked his shoulder,adding to Hadder's laundry list of wounds. Hadder knew that Wagnerwould adjust; that one of the next few strikes would find a vitalorgan. In desperation, his left hand felt around the soft grass,hoping to grab dirt, pebbles, or anything else which could bethrown in the bastard Riser's eyes. His hand found nothing. It wastime to die.
Wagner came on again, both hands on the pommel ofhis sword to resist deflection, determined to drive the saberthrough the despised Marlin Hadder's heart. As Wagner started hisdownward thrust, two giant dark orange hands appeared from the redmist, reaching down from above to grasp a metal tusk in each hand.With a grunt and jerk, the tusks were ripped from Wagner as the manscreamed. The metal inserts each took one half of the Riser's jawwith them as they were removed and thrown across the Grasslands.Wagner fell to his knees, a gurgling cry caught in his throat ashis tongue hung in midair like red rope licorice. Ignoring the painin his side, Hadder pushed off with his left arm, propellinghimself forward, bringing his samurai sword around to cleave thecaptain cleanly through the neck. Wagner's head sat motionless fora moment before falling forward and rolling to a stop betweenHadder's legs.
Cal offered an oversized hand to Hadder, helping himto his feet. "That's two times you've saved my life," Hadder saidto the Caesar.
"Father Rott's orders," was all that Cal said beforerejoining the battle, his twin swords leading the way.
Hadder looked across the fighting once more, theRage working hard to overcome pain and exhaustion. Although theSetters were fighting admirably, felling at least one Riser forevery Setter that was killed, the numbers were simply becoming toomuch. Yasmin Dash performed a dance of death, spinning through theRiser ranks, her now-bladed wings out wide, carving up enemies asshe twisted and rolled. A knife soared from the crowd around herand managed to miss her twirling wings, burying itself to the hiltbetween the beautiful woman's shoulder blades. Yasmin arched herback in pain, and