Death - Mortis counter

Not precisely the most stable footing—especially since the shadowcaster was currently in the process of splitting almost in half—but enough for the Rider’s needs. He tensed and leapt, landing on the second shadowcaster almost as he would a horse, legs clamped tight to either side. Harvester, now a pair of heavy knives, rose to strike …
When two more of the demons swooped in from the side and launched Hellfire directly at him.
Death’s left arm tensed, swinging Mortis into the path of the oncoming missiles. Searing heat licked around the edges of the shield, and the tips of his hair crisped and sizzled, but nothing more.
An instant later, Mortis howled.
Shimmering waves, something between a heat mirage and a fever dream, billowed from the Grand Abomination’s single eye. With deceptive speed, it bridged the distance between Death and yet another of the shadowcasters—the fifth and final member of this particular group.
Mortis’s howl ceased, and the demon’s began. An enormous chunk of flesh simply vanished from its body, letting blood and viscera pour, steaming, into the open air. Death couldn’t help note, as the shadowcaster fell from sight, that the size and shape of the wound perfectly matched the fanged maw of the device he wore.
*And it’s nearly dead, at only a fraction of its former strength …*

***

Chapter 22