“Not yet.” Sora squinted at where she’d last seen him and caught movement along a rocky outcropping. Not long after, there was a flash. Broomstick had set off a very small explosion.

“Now!” Sora said.

A deep rumble resonated through Daemon’s body, and adrenaline surged through their bond. Daemon stopped dimming his power, and bright blue electricity lit all around him and Sora as they tore through the air, leaving a streak behind them like lightning, the rumble in his chest bursting out and shaking the sky with his thunder.

The skeletons below froze at the light and the noise.

Fairy whipped into action, running through the nearest troop of warriors with her swords out, decapitating some and hacking at others at the ribs and knees. Another troop charged at her from farther out, and she launched a grenade at them. Bones flew everywhere, splashing into the water and careening over the edge of the falls.

Below, Broomstick set off an explosion in the helm of one of the ships. A few more blasts followed. The skeleton sailors on board scurried around in confusion.

“Now it’s our turn,” Sora said. “Let’s find Skullcrusher and Skeleton.”

Daemon swooped over the top of the island, his electric glow lighting the ground as if it were midday.

“There’s one of them!” Sora shouted, leaning so far off Daemon’s back she would have tumbled off but for the harness.

Skullcrusher was running from the other side of Dera Falls, yelling furiously at his warriors. Daemon charged down at him.

Sora commanded the ryuu particles around her to form stakes. She aimed them at Skullcrusher’s eyes and threw.

He flung up a shield of his own particles. The stakes bounced off and disintegrated back into emerald dust.

Fairy blew up another group of skeletons. Meanwhile, a loud blast sounded in the ocean. Broomstick had managed to sink one of the ships, and the skeletons fell overboard.

Skullcrusher stood immobile, looking from the waterfall to the edge of the island.

Where is his brother? Sora wondered.

But the fact that he was alone benefitted her. Skullcrusher’s indecisiveness allowed Fairy to destroy a few more warriors, and some of the skeletons in the water began to sink, since they weren’t given commands to swim.

Suddenly, though, the corpses on land began to fight back. They coordinated themselves and came at Fairy all at once, rather than in haphazard attacks. As they closed in, they eliminated her ability to use Broomstick’s bombs; if she threw a grenade, it would kill her as well as them.

Skullcrusher sneered up at Sora and Daemon. “Is that all you’ve got?”

“We have to try something new,” Sora said. “He’s onto our methods. Can you use your other powers while flying?”

“I’ll try.” Daemon growled. “I’d be a pretty pathetic demigod if I couldn’t.”