Duel

The leader of the "Hollow Men" looked even more imposing once it stood up. Even without the little branches jutting from its head like hair or something of a crown, it must have stood over two meters tall.

Its entire body had almost completely turned into vegetation, like a huge humanoid potted plant. A small snake lay in the hole in its chest, flicking its tongue out from time to time.

Resting a hand on the saber at its waist, the leader of the "Hollow Men" stepped over the fire and opened its gaping maw at Nick, making a rhythmic clicking sound.

Only then did Nick notice that this thing actually had three eyes. More precisely, two heads seemed to have fused together.

The upper head had almost completely been assimilated, leaving only one eye and half a forehead growing out of the upper right side of the lower head. Could that be why this thing seemed relatively intelligent?

But its vocal cords had completely mutated, making it impossible to tell what it was trying to say.

Still, judging both by its ability to build a fire and by its current behavior, this thing must have possessed some degree of intelligence-or rather, it had not completely regressed yet.

When Nick gave no response, the leader of the "Hollow Men" seemed to finally realize that they could not communicate through speech.

So it extended a vine-like finger, pointing first at Dahlia, then at itself, then at Nick, and finally at the sky.

Dahlia moved closer to Nick and asked quietly, "What does it mean?"

"I think it might have taken a fancy to you. It wants me to hand you over, and then it'll let me go." Nick even added a teasing remark. "It's got pretty good taste."

Dahlia punched him in annoyance. "So you're going to give me to it?"

"That depends on what it offers in exchange."

Nick winked at her to tell her not to worry yet, then stepped forward. He pointed at himself, then at Dahlia, and finally waved his hand to indicate that he could not give her away for nothing.

He had only been fooling around, but to his surprise, the leader of the "Hollow Men" seemed to actually understand. It turned and let out a roar mixed with clicking sounds toward those behind it.

A moment later, the sound of hooves drew closer, and two "Hollow Men" cavalrymen emerged from the fog, dragging a rust-covered Willys jeep.

Nick stared, dumbfounded. He had never expected things to develop like this. So it had even prepared a bride price in advance? Could this fellow have been a countryman of his in life?

The two "Hollow Men" dismounted and backed away, leaving both "plant horses" and the vehicle where they were.

The leader of the "Hollow Men" pointed first at its "luxury ride," then at Dahlia. Next, it stepped half a pace back, drew its saber with a ringing scrape, and pointed it at Nick from a distance.

So it wanted to fight him, too?

Nick looked at Dahlia. Seeing her purse her lips toward him with a half-smile that seemed encouraging, he could not help feeling a certain uniquely male urge to win.

He set his backpack on the ground, handed the M4A1 to Dahlia, and winked at her, then turned and drew his knife to meet the leader of the "Hollow Men."

A metallic clang rang out, as though announcing the official start of a strange duel.

Nick and the leader of the "Hollow Men" passed each other, switching positions after a single exchange before both took a step back.

Feeling a faint ache in the web of his hand, Nick flexed his fingers, inwardly surprised by his opponent's strength.

The thing looked as though it barely had any flesh on its entire body. Like a wooden puppet, it relied almost entirely on those unidentified vine-like tissues to keep functioning. Who knew where all that strength came from? Its reactions were not sluggish, either.

"Roar!"

The leader of the "Hollow Men" bellowed in fury, and the little snake in the hole on the right side of its chest flicked its tongue at Nick as well.

The two blades clashed again, sending sparks flying, but this time Nick used a dirty little trick. While holding the saber at bay, he stamped on his opponent's ankle-if that wooden knot could still be called an ankle.

With a crisp crack, the leader of the "Hollow Men" dropped to one knee and let out an inhuman scream, but its hand never stopped moving. Its saber slashed horizontally toward Nick's waist.

Nick blocked the saber with an incredibly swift downward sweep of his Bolo knife, then immediately changed moves. With a twist of his wrist, he viciously sliced the tip across his opponent's sword-wielding right hand.

Thick, foul-smelling black fluid spurted from the cut in the leader's right hand. Just as its saber hit the ground, the little snake in its chest suddenly shot out, opening its mouth to bite Nick's neck.

Although Nick had been watching out for it all along, it still startled him into a cold sweat. He quickly leaned back to avoid the snake's head while reaching out with his left hand to seize it three inches behind the head. Straightening up, he cut the snake in two with a single stroke.

The leader of the "Hollow Men" had been clutching its wrist and retreating with repeated screams. When it looked up and realized its little pet's head had been severed from its body, it roared again and charged headfirst without a care.

Nick spun and crouched to dodge the mindless charge, then slashed diagonally from the side. Using his opponent's momentum, the sharp blade cut straight through its right knee.

The fight was over. After falling to the ground, the leader of the "Hollow Men" did not even manage to raise its head before the next stroke severed it.

Nick stepped back twice to avoid the foul-smelling bodily fluids splashing everywhere as the corpse twitched. Looking up, he saw the distant "Hollow Men" cavalrymen hauling on their vine reins, their mounts rearing as they roared, looking ready to charge over and avenge their leader.

The sight scared him into dropping his Bolo knife and sprinting back toward Dahlia. He slid to her side on his knees, and by the time he turned around, the M4A1 was already in his hands.

With their backs to the cliff, the two raised their muzzles and pulled their triggers simultaneously. With two soft thunks, a pair of high-explosive grenades flew from the M203 grenade launchers mounted beneath their rifles.

Amid the booming explosions, the two automatic weapons began pouring fire into the "Hollow Men" cavalrymen as riders and mounts tumbled to the ground.

"Reloading!" Nick shouted a warning, using the magazine he had already been holding to knock the empty one free before swiftly replacing it. At the same time, Dahlia pulled her grenade launcher's trigger again, and another explosion rang out.

Within their field of view, the cavalrymen, deprived of the distance they needed to charge, were nothing but oversized targets before the two fully automatic weapons. However hard their wooden bodies might be, they were still wood, easily penetrated by 5.56 mm bullets.

The "plant horses" beneath the "Hollow Men" cavalrymen could perhaps take a few more bullets thanks to their size, but their riders were basically done for after a single short burst.

Dahlia might have been slightly worse at controlling recoil during sustained fire because of women's natural physical constitution, but her excellent feel for shooting made up for everything. At this close range in particular, almost every bullet landed exactly where she wanted it.

And that was also thanks to the bonfire their opponents had built themselves, which had dispersed the fog over a considerable area.

When the gunfire stopped, all the monsters lay motionless on the ground, with only the Willys jeep the two had deliberately avoided left untouched.

Nick walked over to the corpse of the "Hollow Men" leader he had beheaded and used his knife to pry aside the branches on the left side of its chest, hoping to identify which unit it had belonged to from the little rotten fabric that remained there.

"B. Shaw?" He read the name on the nameplate, then froze briefly. "Damn, don't tell me that's short for Bradford Shaw?"

"What?" Dahlia came over too, and Nick explained, "Remember that old photograph hanging in the West Tower? Captain Bradford Shaw, the first tower keeper. He was the one who came up with the name 'Hollow Men.'"

"So all these years, no one has ever left the canyon alive, right?" Dahlia unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself.