Dante's legs were burning, but his mind was racing faster. Behind them, the heavy, rhythmic thud of the Einherjar's boots was getting louder, echoing off the narrow walls of the Papine road.
"We can't outrun them on a straight uphill," Dante panted, the bicycle wobbling slightly under his grip. He slowed down just enough, telling Astrid to trust him and get on.
"I might be able to lose them," Dante said, bracing himself as she leapt onto the frame.
"Then what is your strategy, squire?" Astrid demanded, glancing over her shoulder. The glowing green eyes of the lead warrior were cutting through the darkness, closing the distance. "If we do not reach Dainsleif soon—"
"We haffi lose dem first!" Dante yelled. He slammed on the brakes and violently yanked the handlebars to the right, abandoning the mountain road and veering straight toward the illuminated gates of UTech. "Hold on! We're taking a detour!"
Astrid gripped the metal frame as Dante pedaled furiously past a startled security guard who shouted, "Hey! Yute! Where you going on that bike at this hour?"
They blitzed into the University of Technology campus. Despite the late hour, clusters of students were still milling about outside the dorms and study areas. Dante wove the bicycle erratically through the pathways, hoping the complex layout would confuse their pursuers.
"Make way! Make way for the Princess of Asgard!" Astrid bellowed as they barreled toward a group of students huddled around a laptop on a concrete bench.
The students scattered just in time. "Yo, mad man!" one of the guys yelled, spilling his energy drink. "What kinda cosplay is this?"
Before the student could say another word, the temperature plummeted. The air turned instantly to frost. The three Einherjar crashed through the campus perimeter, their heavy Uru armor cracking the pavement. The students froze in pure terror as the undead warriors stalked past them, completely ignoring the mortals in favor of their target.
"They're still on us!" Dante yelled. He didn't stop. He cut sharply out of a side exit, crossing the road and weaving frantically through heavy traffic. Horns blared and headlights swerved as Dante navigated the chaos. Behind them, the Einherjar didn't bother to dodge.
CRASH! A speeding taxi slammed directly into one of the undead soldiers, the sickening crunch of metal echoing as the car's front end crumpled completely against the unyielding Uru armor. A second vehicle clipped another warrior, sending it skidding across the asphalt in a shower of sparks. The impacts didn't injure the immortal soldiers, but it broke their momentum, buying Dante the precious seconds he needed before plunging them directly into the massive, sprawling grounds of UWI Mona.
This was Dante's gamble. UWI was huge, a labyrinth of faculties, dorms, and the Ring Road.
They sped past the old stone aqueducts. A group of students liming near the library stopped and stared as the armored girl and the frantic kid on the bicycle flew past them.
"My youth, you carrying some serious AC with you!" a girl joked, rubbing her arms as the unnatural Asgardian chill hit the air.
"Run!" Astrid shouted back at her, her voice ringing with royal authority. "Seek shelter, mortals! Death follows!"
The students laughed nervously, thinking it was a joke—until the Einherjar burst through the trees a moment later, scattering the crowd in a chorus of genuine screams. But Dante's plan was working. The sheer number of life forces on the campus, combined with Dante weaving blindly between buildings, faculty blocks, and dark parking lots, was confusing the undead trackers. Two of the green lights veered off course, mistakenly following the panic of the fleeing students.
But the lead Einherjar remained locked on.
Dante burst out of the UWI back gates and pedaled fiercely up towards Gordon Town road, aiming for the steep, secluded drive of VTDI. His lungs felt like they were bleeding. The bicycle chain was rattling, pushed far beyond its limits.
"Dante," Astrid warned, her voice tight. "He is right behind us."
Dante looked back. The warrior was mere feet away, its massive gauntlet reaching out to crush the rear tire. They were out of road. They were out of energy.
"Okay," Dante breathed, making a split-second decision. "You wanted to know about mortal games, Princess? Time to play one."
Dante slammed the brakes with everything he had.
The sudden stop defied the Einherjar's momentum. The massive warrior lunged, but Dante twisted the handlebars violently, throwing his own weight off the bike and pulling Astrid down with him into the grassy ditch.
"Now, Astrid!" Dante screamed.
Astrid didn't hesitate. Tapping into the last residual ounce of her Asgardian strength, she grabbed the frame of the airborne bicycle, spun on her heel, and swung the entire metal contraption like a massive warhammer directly into the charging Einherjar's chest.
CRUNCH.
The impact was deafening. The bicycle's front wheel shattered, the metal frame bending wildly around the undead warrior's armor. The spokes and the broken steel of the handlebars wedged perfectly into the gaps of the Einherjar's breastplate, tearing through the dark magic that animated it.
The warrior let out a hollow, unnatural shriek, stumbling backward. Its foot caught on the curb, and with the ruined bicycle tangled in its armor, the massive creature tumbled backward down the steep embankment, crashing through the heavy Jamaican brush until the sound of its fall faded into the dark.
Silence rushed back into the night.
Dante lay on his back in the dirt, chest heaving, staring up at the flickering streetlights of VTDI. Astrid stood over him, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
She looked down the embankment, then looked at the shattered remains of the bike, and finally down at Dante. A genuine, impressed smirk crossed her face.
"A formidable weapon, squire," she breathed.
"Yeah," Dante coughed, slowly sitting up and dusting the dirt off his clothes. "Though I'm pretty sure my dad is going to kill me for destroying that."
Astrid offered Dante her hand. He took it, and she pulled him to his feet with surprising gentleness. As she did, a heavy, grease-stained section of the broken bicycle chain slipped from her grasp and clattered onto the asphalt.
"The other two have lost our trail in the mortal campuses," Astrid said, looking up toward the peaks of the Blue Mountains, where the faint, pulsating red glow of Dainsleif was now visible through the trees. "But they will not be distracted for long."
Dante looked down at the ruined ride, and his eyes locked onto the discarded chain. He remembered how helpless he had felt against Juba's gang earlier that day, and how utterly outmatched he was by these undead monsters. He didn't know how to fight. He was just a kid from Kingston. But walking up a pitch-black mountain with nothing but his bare hands seemed like a surefire way to get killed.
Bending down, Dante scooped up the heavy metal chain. He tested its weight, wrapping the greasy steel links securely around his right fist like a heavy, makeshift knuckleduster. It was a far cry from a magical Asgardian sword, but it had a solid, grounding weight to it.
"Well," Dante sighed, adjusting his grip on his new weapon and looking up at the dark, winding mountain path ahead of them. "I guess we're taking the rest of this trip on foot."