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“No one interferes,” said Barnabas, looking briefly around. The other Abolishers seemed disappointed, but none argued.

Vito was about to say something else, but Barnabas didn’t give him time.

The man blitzed forward, wooden club cocked back for a big swing.

Vito reacted without thinking. He sacrificed both arms to a surge of molten lutetium as the rest of him dashed backward in a succession of quick hops.

Barnabas took the attack head on and didn’t stop. The club crashed down just in front of Vito--and kept crashing even as he moved. Barnabas followed him with continued, thunderous swings, leaving craters and kicking up debris with each of Vito’s hops.

And it soon became apparent to Vito that this was not going to stop. They were in a chase now, one spurred on by superhuman endurance. They were not going to get tired for hours, days, or even weeks, depending on how hard their reapers chose to push them.

The castle was taking more of a beating than Vito. In their wake, Barnabas’ great wooden club annihilated inconvenient walls and rendered the ground virtually impassable for normal people.

There were close calls, though. Vito could feel the rush of air from each swing, enough so that it was almost a distraction unto itself. He wanted to slide through a blow for a counterattack, but he knew that to be a deadly gamble, at best. Barnabas was able to swing that thing as if it weighed no more than a knife.

So Vito decided to just keep blasting him with fire, instead. The attacks weren’t doing much, but they weren’t doing nothing, either. He could see Barnabas’ smoldering, half-melted skin. It was obviously going to take a lot more than that in order to bring down a servant, but in a battle of attrition, Vito would eventually get there while these swings would not.

Still, this was not ideal. One slip up might just be the end. He didn’t know if he’d be able to survive even a single attack from that club. It seemed a peculiar choice of weapon, and Vito had a rather strong suspicion that there was more to it than met the eye.

He had to endure. To stay focused. On both Barnabas and their environment. Leaping continually backwards like this was no easy feat. Kerikos had to make sure the way behind them was clear. That they weren’t backing themselves into a corner.