by Frank Morin
Dierk could unleash the weapon if the incursion turned out to be a full assault and managed to break through the first and second layer of defenses. Verena hoped he didn't need to. They had not actually tested that bomb. Projections of its explosive power suggested it could lay waste to the pass and wreak terrible destruction upon both armies.
Verena was supposed to be stationed to the north, closer to compound where the weakening powder was supposed to be stored, but when the pass began to burn, she couldn't help but draw closer.
Now she utilized her long vision goggles and scanned the pass. It was all deep shadow and stark, crimson fire as the Obrioner army pushed forward. They were using Spitters to form shields of ice in front of their army and to cover any traps on the ground. Their soldiers crept forward inch by inch, pushing tall, steel barricades on wheels.
Firetongues sent sheeting flames whipping down the pass where the Grandurian Flameweavers wrested control and sent them back. It made for an impressive display of raw elements, but seemed to accomplish little. At the pace of the advance, it would take the army another hour or two to approach close to the Grandurian gate.
"Verena, we've got movement," Hamish's voice startled her, speaking into her ear through the tiny speakstone fitted inside her helmet. "Where are you?"
"Just completing reconnaissance of the main battle," she replied, banking the Swift in a tight turn and accelerating north down the plateau, over the massed army, back toward her station.
"I can't believe you got distracted," Hamish replied. "And you said eating six helpings of that stew was going to make me sluggish."
"It will," she snapped. "It's amazing you even squeezed into that suit of yours."
"All suits shrink a little in the evenings," he retorted. "Now get back here. Something's scaling the western cliff. Has to be rampagers."
Verena drove the Swift harder, the wind whistling in her ears, despite the protection of her helmet. Flying so fast was exhilarating, but she felt too nervous at the thought of facing the rampagers again to really enjoy it.
This time would be different. This time they held the advantage.
Why did she still worry, then?
Moving fast, Verena swooped over the plateau toward the northwest corner where a two-story wooden compound stood apart from everything else, built right against the edge of a thousand-foot cliff. The large structure was surrounded by a hardened earthen wall with towers at every corner. It was dark, with only a handful of guards visible even to her long vision goggles.
That was the spot Kilian had leaked to Dougal's spies as the location where they stored the precious secret powder that weakened Boulders. That was where they would spring their trap.
She slowed beside Hamish, who was hovering several hundred feet above the compound, out over the long drop beyond the cliff. He had painted the hardened granite of his armored torso a mottled gray color that blended extremely well with the gathering shadows.
When Verena slowed to hover nearby, Hamish pointed down toward the cliff. She took a moment to study his suit. She had helped design some of the elements, but had not entirely believed the concept was going to work. Hamish possessed a brilliant, if somewhat distracted, mind. Some of his ideas were nothing short of revolutionary.
He credited the sweetbreads.
Whatever inspired him to create that flying suit, she hoped it continued to send him ideas. The suit was a marvel. He was almost as nimble in the air as she on her Swift, and he possessed better armor. They hadn't tested their various weapons yet, but that streamlined suit packed an incredible punch. Tonight they'd get to see if they could punch hard enough to stop the rampagers.
Verena scanned the cliff, increasing the release rate on her long vision goggles. The darkness was already deep, but the western-facing cliff enjoyed the last of the fading light, so she could pierce the shadows a little.
There! Movement drew her attention and she sucked in a soft gasp.
"They're so fast," she whispered.
"Definitely rampagers," Hamish agreed, his voice calmer than she would have expected.
The monsters were racing up the sheer face of the cliff in fantastic leaps and bounds, moving faster than a running human could on flat ground. They could rival Wingrunners for speed on the flats, but watching the insanely muscled creatures throwing themselves twenty feet straight up was a stark reminder not to underestimate them.
Verena activated the other speakstone she had attached to the front of her helmet, just under the edge of her facemask. "Kilian, we have visual. Rampagers are closing on the compound."
"How many?" He responded immediately.
"I see seven," Hamish said. "Wait. Eight."
Verena's pulse quickened with fear. Eight rampagers. Two of them had destroyed an entire squad and very nearly killed Hamish and Kilian. She passed on the report.
Kilian did not sound surprised. "Very well. Allow them to enter the compound. All teams, prepare for operation Reclaiming the Lost."
Hamish glanced at Verena. "That's such a good name."
"It's a gift." He had been frustrated initially when Kilian had chosen Verena's operational name over his suggestion. He didn't seem to understand that Operation Chopped Monster didn't exactly fit the mission objective of capturing at least one of the creatures. She was happy he'd gotten over it.
In silence, they watched the squad of rampagers close on the compound. They had to be some kind of military unit. Monsters raging out of control would never work in tandem like that. With the sheer brute force they could bring to bear, the thought of the beasts also possessing some kind of rational control was terrifying.
When they reached the edge of the cliff, they leaped right over the high barrier wall. Two of the monsters split off and attacked the sentries in their watchtowers. Those men managed to leap off the wall and avoid getting ripped apart. One of the rampagers ignored the fleeing sentries and jumped into the compound after his companions.
The other leaped after a running soldier, clearly intending to remove any witnesses. The man max-tapped granite and faced the monster.
Kilian had shared reports with Verena about the Rumblers whose arms had gotten ripped off by the first pair of rampagers. In any other situation, that brave soldier would have died an ugly death.
Not tonight.
As the rampager leaped toward him, the man punched out a gauntleted fist. Verena smiled to see the anthracite blocks worked into his glove work as planned. The beast's raking claws somehow slid across the man's arms and torso without gaining purchase, and it stumbled past, its terrible maw opening. It didn't roar in frustrated anger as Verena expected. It really could control itself.
Before the beast could attack again, the ground liquefied under its feet, and fingers of earth shot up to snag it and drag it down. This time it did howl, a sound that sent a new shiver of fear rippling down Verena's spine.
The other rampagers, who had already burst through the main door and were ripping their way through the compound responded with amazing speed, leaping out windows and doors and bounding toward the outer wall.
They could actually communicate.
"They know!" Verena cried. "That was a warning shout."
"Too late," Kilian said. "All teams, go!"
His voice echoed through Verena's helmet with the intensity it carried only when he was embracing marble.
Kilian appeared from inside the wall surrounding the compound where he had crouched concealed during the rampagers' initial assault. With hands burning with both fire and water, he leaped down into the court at the front of the compound and faced the seven rampagers alone.
They swarmed toward him and Verena couldn't bear to hold back like she had been ordered. She dove with the desperate speed of a pedra, driving the Swift with every thruster thrown wide open. Hamish had reacted at the same time, and together they tore through the sky to help, knowing they would arrive too late.
Kilian laughed in the face of the rampagers and fire exploded from him
and whipped the monsters. They barely flinched as they leaped through the flames.
He jumped back, and a wall of ice materialized in the air where he'd been. The monsters crashed into it, cracking it, but not breaking through. They bounced back, tumbling to the ground.
Anton was waiting.
The huge Sapper, along with two other earth walkers, stood atop the compound's outer wall, hands embedded in the surface. When the rampagers struck the ground, they all sank into liquefied earth that hardened around their thrashing limbs.
Howling with rage, the monsters ripped and tore at the restraining earth that formed into grasping fingers to drag them down again. Water Moccasins drew upon concealed tubs of water, and snaking tendrils of liquid encircled the monsters, wrapping them in powerful cords.
Three of the monsters ripped free of the restraints and disappeared into the battered compound while Kilian and two other Flameweavers snapped whips of fire into the remaining rampagers' faces, blinding them and keeping them distracted. Within seconds, four of the mighty rampagers were bound by multiple elements, despite their powerful struggles. Rumblers bearing heavy lengths of chain and wearing anthracite-enhanced gloves moved in to bind the creatures tight enough to secure a hurricane.
Verena slowed her descent, remembering Kilian's command to stay back and observe. Then she spotted one of the monsters who had fled into the compound. It leaped back into the fray with a howling vengeance, vaulting twenty feet and landing in the middle of a squad of Rumblers who had been closing on the trapped rampagers. The beast scattered them and ripped down the back of one of the men. Despite his max-tapped granite strength, the claws ripped chunks of flesh free and the man fell screaming to the ground.
The other two rampagers who had fled into the building burst up through the ceiling in an explosion of debris. They leaped together onto the outer wall, then charged one of the Sappers. They burst through grasping fingers of earth, their red-glowing eyes focused on their prey.
The other tertiary Petralists were all committed in restraining the already-captive monsters, who redoubled their efforts to break free. They couldn't deal with the new threat fast enough.
"Our turn," Hamish said, echoing Verena's thoughts.
As one, they resumed their dive. Hamish headed for the monster attacking the Rumblers, and Verena shot forward to intercept the two closing on the Sapper. As she dove, the rushing air seemed to cleanse her of all fear, replacing it with a fixed resolve.
She would stop them, or die trying.
Chapter 36
The rampagers were closing too fast on the Sapper, who raised a solid wall of earth to block the way.
They smashed through it, shedding the grasping tendrils of earth he tried to restrain them with.
Verena tore out of the night sky, triggering the twin speedslings along both sides of her seat. She'd enhanced them so she could start their spinning by activating a bit of anthracite on either end. That slippery property engaged immediately and enhanced the already-blurring capacity of the drums, bringing them to full speed in a matter of seconds.
Now she opened the restraining ports and pointed the flexible nozzles toward the leaping rampagers and screamed a battle cry.
They turned toward the sound just as hundreds of hornets ripped through the air, buzzing like deadly insects. She adjusted her aim, using tiny quartzite thrusters built into the nozzles, and caught both of the rampagers in the face.
She had also activated her long view goggles, and the first monster loomed large in her vision, a terrifying sight that left her cold with terror. It felt like she was standing right in front of them, rather than diving at them from high in the air.
The red-furred monster stood as tall as a man, with bulging muscles that strained the limits of its thick hide. Its unnaturally long arms were capped with deadly, clawed paws, identical to those on its feet. Its bald, leathery head was elongated, with a maw like a giant wolf's. But Verena's gaze focused on those inhuman, glittering, crimson eyes that burned with bloodlust.
That's where she aimed.
Hornets tore into that hideous face, and even the monsters' extremely tough hides were not immune to the tiny projectiles. They spun away from the barrage, their bodies shuddering under scores of impacts that drove them right off the perimeter wall.
Verena shot over them, pivoting the Swift in the air to fire on the monsters again.
She had forgotten how high they could jump.
In her intense dive, she'd descended to just over fifty feet. It had seemed a safe distance until the monsters leaped out of the dark shadows outside the wall, their many little wounds not seeming to affect their strength, but only compounding their rage. Both monsters rose into the air, terrible claws extended toward her.
Verena unleashed the Puking Doom.
A solid wall of fire erupted from under the Swift, engulfing the rampagers. The force of the flames drove Verena into the air, the pressure like a vast weight on her shoulders.
Laughing from the thrill of the abrupt rise as much as from the thrill of surviving the rampager attack, she snapped closed the marble. The abrupt return to cool darkness was a welcome relief, but it took her a few seconds to regain some night vision. She was high enough that the rampagers couldn't reach her, but the soldiers on the ground were not so lucky.
Blinking rapidly, she glanced around and caught sight of Hamish.
And blinked again.
Hamish had tackled the lone remaining rampager, which had been attacking the Rumblers. The beast was bloodied from half a hundred wounds and lay on its back, slashing at Hamish, who was straddling it, driving his fists into its face.
Verena activated her long vision goggles. She hadn't even known about those enhancements. Hamish had embedded granite into the sleeves of his suit, and they were now stiff, as if all of those pieces had fused together, forming a battering ram that extended just past his knuckles. With each punch, Hamish was opening wide some quartzite thrusters in his elbows, driving those hardened battering ram arms into the face of the rampager with at least as much force as a max-tapped Rumbler.
He was brilliant, but insane.
Those hammer blows were hurting it, but not disabling it. Its slashing claws were tearing out granite leaves and leaving long gashes in his suit. None of the strikes appeared to have cut through yet, but it wouldn't take long.
The rampager kicked out with all four limbs, sending Hamish tumbling into the air. With a burst of quartzite, he caught himself and hovered above the monster as it crouched to spring upon him.
Kilian struck first.
The ancient Dawnus leaped upon the monster's back and drove fists into its ears. One hand was burning with white hot fire, the other rippling with living waters.
The rampager stiffened, rising to its full height, head thrown back in a silent scream as Kilian drove his elements into its head. The monster seemed to swell and it flung its deadly arms out wide.
Then its head exploded in a gush of mingled fire and steam.
Kilian jumped off as it toppled. The dead beast began shifting back into the form of the man it had once been.
Kilian brushed off his hands and turned to look up at Verena, his eyes filled with white-hot flames. "Pick me up. We need to track those two you let get away."
Verena hesitated. In the grip of his powers, Kilian was even scarier than the rampagers. She scanned the ground outside of the compound. Sure enough, there was no sign of the two rampagers she had knocked over the wall.
Chiding herself for losing focus, Verena swooped down toward Kilian. A gout of fire under his feet threw him into the air and he caught the handles at the back of her seat twenty feet above the ground.
"Nice addition," he said when he noticed the stirrups she had fashioned for him back there. His eyes no longer burned, and he seemed remarkably calm after that death battle.
"With how often you hitch a ride, I figured that would make it easier," she replied as she banked away and flew out over the cliff. Behind th
em, the Rumblers had resumed their work, chaining the rampagers, whose belligerence finally seemed broken after Kilian had killed the last free one.
"I should probably design a two-seater," Verena added as she scanned the cliff for the escaped rampagers."
"Not a bad idea," Kilian said. "Carrying a partner on your missions will probably be a common requirement."
"We'll work on it," she promised.
Hamish joined them, and his panting rang through the activated speakstone. Then he laughed. "That was amazing."
"You took unnecessary risks," Kilian said, but his tone was not quite reproving.
"You jumped right on that one's back," Hamish protested. "And faced all seven of them alone."
"I know what I'm doing."
"There." Verena pointed toward the cliff. It had taken a moment to spot the rampagers because they were not descending the cliff, but racing across its face in mighty leaps. Despite their wounds, they moved with undiminished power and grace.
"They're so strong," she breathed.
"I can't believe you let them get away," Hamish said.
"All part of the plan," Kilian said.
Verena bit her lip, saying nothing. She had forgotten they needed live monsters, and in that moment of battle, she would have killed the rampagers if she could have. She wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that, despite all of her preparation, she hadn't managed to kill a single one.
"What part?" Hamish asked as they took up a hovering position high above the monsters to remain invisible in the darkness.
"Our trap was twofold," Kilian explained. Even though he was not wearing the insulated flight clothing Verena had on, nor a helmet to protect his face from the bitter cold, he looked comfortable. His eyes were flickering with tiny flames again, so he was probably regulating his temperature from within. "The primary objective was to lure Dougal into unleashing the rampagers to prove he does in fact control them somehow."