This is where I would die.

  It was finally over. The weeks on the run. The frigid weather. The worry. At least I wasn’t alone. The girls were a comforting presence as I set my gaze on whatever eldritch nonsense was oozing through the entrance to our cave. Dead thralls littered the area between us. They’d led with their human slaves and we’d made short work of them. It turns out that commercial hunting spears are good for more than feral hogs. The longsword in my hands had been bought as a Christmas present to myself just last year. It was a splurge I hadn't regretted, even before tentacle monsters started attacking from everywhere.

  The slave masters were on another level entirely, and we could feel the psychic itching of more than one of them. It didn't seem fair that our first glimpse of magic would come from monsters that could track us by our thoughts.

  “My Champion.”

  I turned toward McKenna. She wasn’t a fighter, but she held her pistol with confidence. “Milady,” I answered. The smile came unbidden. It was still a good joke. Our joke.

  “You were a good man.”

  That hit harder than I’d have expected. We’d only known each other for a few weeks, but an apocalypse made it feel like an eternity. I searched for the words to respond with, but I'd never been good at that. High-functioning is not well-functioning, I told myself yet again. I settled for returning her smile, then faced back toward the monster.

  Smoke boiled off its gray skin, obscuring even the tentacles that held it aloft. A pair of red eyes observed us as a psychic chitter tried to bore into our sanity. The mental itching was irritating, but but we’d never really been bothered by it. Not like the people who'd lost their minds.

  “Are there any Valkyries out and about, today?”

  Katy snickered at her sister’s question. We’d seen a grizzly a few days ago, and the sisters had asked me if I’d run from a bear. “Of course not,” I’d replied. “What if there were Valkyries watching? You’ve got to put on a show if you want to make it to Valhalla.” They’d gotten a kick out of that. After a long lifetime alone, my heart ached at the thought of losing this new family. Life sucks, and then you have an apocalypse.

  “I’m sure of it, Kaylee,” I said. “Let’s give ‘em a show.”

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  “Maximum effort.” Katy hefted her spear.

  Damn it, I was going to miss these girls.

  I exploded forward, my shield leading the way. A thirty-foot tentacle whipped toward me. My sword snapped out to meet it. A few steps further I'd reached the creature. I knew my form was perfect as I drove the shield into its face. A sense of shock exploded from the tentacle monster as it was driven outside the cave. I didn’t waste time, and alternated slicing with my sword and slamming with my shield. A moment later a pair of spears buried themselves deep into the smoky mess.

  A low moan of pain turned to a scream as the girls wrenched their spears free, then stabbed them forward again. The creature wailed, then exploded into smoke and was gone.

  I was cleaving another tentacle in two before I’d fully realized it was attacking through the smoke. Several more tentacles speared in from all around as we desperately defended. One of them pierced my chest. I'd never expected to know what it felt like to have a lung fill with blood. I could feel the urge to cough building as blood flowed from the hole in my chest. Damn it.

  Katy and Kaylee leaped in front of me and went to work. Pieces of tentacles fell all about as the sisters fought to take the pressure off. It helped, but there was no time to rest. My sword went to work at their flanks, cleaving tentacles while the smoke slowly cleared. Then I saw what looked like a body. My shield was smashing into it before it was fully in view. I followed up by stabbing repeatedly with my sword until the creature dropped to the ground.

  Orange glows started building in the haze just before McKenna opened up with the pistol. Her instincts were good, and the bullets quickly put a stop to whatever was happening as the orange glows began exploding.

  The rapid explosions slapped away the smoke and the fog, and now we could see the twenty-foot tall giant getting ready to step on us. Two spears sprouted from its face just before Mckenna slammed another magazine home and emptied it into the giant’s chest. The giant keened as it toppled over backward. I followed it as it fell, but the sisters beat me to the head. They ripped out their spears and were tearing into the surrounding tentacle monsters as I caught up.

  I began slamming the shield rim into the giant’s face. It wailed and swept an appendage at me, and my sword flew off somewhere. I kept slamming my shield into its face until the straps failed and it, too, went flying.

  I stood there, struggling to pull air into my lungs, as McKenna slipped by me. The pistol was no longer in her hands, but she had a pair of pocketknives. She went feral on the giant until it stopped making noises.

  The lung with the hole in it didn’t seem to be working any longer, and I was having trouble catching my breath. We stood there, exhausted. Big damn heroes. I wondered whether Valhalla existed as Katy handed me my sword. The fog and the smoke had creeped in again, and I couldn’t see any enemies through it. But my mind still itched. We weren't getting out of this.

  It's a good death.

  There was almost 30 seconds of calm before the orange glow built again, from all sides. McKenna let out a primal scream of rage as the fireballs flashed toward us.