* * *
Managarm cursed under his breath when he saw Sally through the few remaining saplings. He moved fast, trying to get free of the mangled bulldozer while Bonnie and Tariq repositioned their machine for another damaging blow. Half the cab was collapsed and the one open window had been crushed inward. Managarm squeezed his upper body through the narrow opening and grabbed an outer handrail for leverage. He saw Sally, her pure-white hair streaked with blood, square her feet to draw up energy through the earth. She pointed directly at him and narrowed her eyes.
A blinding flash of light shot out from Sally’s outstretched hand, striking the side of the bulldozer and narrowly missing Managarm as he freed himself and fell to the ground just as the rival bulldozer slammed into his.
Momentarily stunned, Managarm sat up in the dirt and looked up at the blackened, three-foot-wide blast hole that still sparked and hissed in the side of the bulldozer.
Sally advanced on him as Managarm scrambled to his feet. Her right hand was still outstretched as she prepared to target him again, and he saw the rune Uruz blazing bright on her thumb. Managarm lurched behind his smoking, crumpled bulldozer, and peeked out to see Sally headed straight toward him. He dashed to his right, taking cover behind the rival bulldozer.
“No, you don’t!” Tariq shouted at him and reached down from the cab to swat at Managarm with his shoe. “You make little children and old ladies fight your battles for you? Now you come to cower beside me?”
Managarm stumbled away from the bulldozer, wearing the tread marks of Tariq’s shoe on his face.
Valhalla Page 62