"I have to admit that I was worried that excepting your services felt a little too much like slave trade," I said. "Seeing as you are all okay with it, I feel it a lot better about the situation."
"Still seems little wrong to me," Izzy said.
"I'm cool with it," Scarlett said. "I get the feeling we're in for some serious trouble and I think all the help we can get we should take.
"Wise words to live by," Morgana said. "Which is also the reason I hope this endeavor works and that we can cement the relationship between my house and your pack. The possibility of setting up a small chapter of my house in your pack with increased abilities and power excites me to no end."
"So I know about the Chloe is a Werebadger, but what of the rest of you?" I asked.
"Well our sniper here, is a Werehawk, demo expert is the Werebore, and are electronics expert is a Werebat. And as you know our martial artist is the Werebadger," Porshia said.
"Hawking and a bat, no shit?" I asked.
"no Shit. We are a group of rare Lycans," said Porshia. "To top it off were also bad ass bitches, smart as fuck, and deadly as can be."
"I don't doubt that," I said.
"Over here," the Werehawk Merc girl said. "I think I see a good place to set up my rifle and provide overwatch."
Morgana, who is currently acting as a driver, pull the vehicle off to the right parking next to the curb. Porshia squeezed past the second row of seats and climbed out the driver side rear door. Before heading off to her perch of choice she opened the trunk and ruffled and rifled inside getting her gear and then disappeared from sight. When she was gone Morgana pulled his back out of the street and continued our journey. Five minutes later the fire mage pulled the vehicle over once more this time putting it in park and turning off the engine.
"We go on foot from here," Morgana said.
Another five minutes was spent exiting the vehicle, gathering our gear, and strapping everything on. Then we followed Morgana down the dirt road. Tall pine trees and aspens blocked our view on both sides in the hills to the front and rear kept us from seeing more than 100 yards in front of us. We walked for 300 yards cresting two hills for Morgana walked into the woods to our right.
Fire mage stopped just inside the tree line waiting for the rest of us to join her. Once we were all gathered, she spoke. "Past this next hill the house will be visible so we have to go through the woods from here or risk being seen by their centuries. That also means we have to stay quiet and keep our heads on swivels. We don't know if these woods are trapped or if it's gonna be a nice easy stroll, keep that in mind."
We found out pretty quick that the woods were booby-trapped when Porshia grabbed Morgana's arm after her first step and pointed down. Running across to trees was a thin wire barely visible. With a quick inspection we discovered that one end of the wire was nailed to one tree in the other and was attached to a grenade fastened to the other tree. None of us needed a second reminder keep our eyes open and look for traps.
Porshia took the lead followed by the Chloe. The last remaining Merc girl took up her position at the rear of our little formation. 12 more traps were pointed out as we made our way to the house. Thanks to the Merc girl's none of the traps were set off and we arrived safely at the tree line that led out to the side yard of the house.
Morgana and I joined Porshia at the tree line as she looked out over the yard. "Do you have any idea of what kind of defenses we can expect when we get to the house?" Porshia whispered.
"No," Morgana answered. "Every spy we sent was either found dead or never seen again. We have no intel on this place. all we know for sure is that it's called Stone Spire Keep and rumors of a earthen warrior. what the earthen warrior thing means is beyond me. probably not even real."
"Porshia, how should we proceed?" I asked. If the boasts she made were true, then she was probably qualified to come up with an effective strategy.
"Give me a second to figure something out," Porshia said.
While we waited, she stepped away from us and touched the device I had noticed her on her neck. The remaining two Merc girl's and Izzy scanned the yard and the house with their heads constantly moving back and forth. Scarlett Morgana and I watched Porshia as she talked and whispered tones. After just a minute she returned to the group with a smile her face.
"It looks like were clear all the way to the house."
"How did you figure that out?" I asked.
"Our sniper on overwatch has a couple different optical settings that allow her to see the most dangerous and it looks clear. It makes sense if they have children that play outside, would want those kids getting blown up."
"So, you're saying we’re good to move?" Izzy asked.
"Yeah, follow me," Porshia said.
She moved at a fast crouch with the other two marks right behind her. I was behind them mimicking their movements, with my two and Morgana behind me. We made it to the house without incident moving to stand in a line with their backs against the wall. The moment all of us were against the wall Porshia started moving again heading for the back door.
Just before she reached the door and opened and the man with a long white beard stepped out. Porshia reacted instantly. She dropped her weapon letting it fall on the sling then grabbed the man by his arm. She spun around and swung him out wide then headfirst into the wall. As he fell unconscious, she held onto him keeping him from making too much noise on his way down. She pointed to Reina slapped her wrist together twice and then pointed at the man before turning back around.
We waited at the door for five minutes waiting to see if anyone else will come out, or so I thought. No one did so Porshia grabbed the door handle given a twist and slowly opened the door. After a quick peek she waved us on and opened the door enough to slide inside. We filed in after her one by one with me moving to the side so that everyone else could go in first and I would be last.
The house reminded me a lot of Morgana's house. Tends to spin around the floor and clotheslines stretched across the room high enough to not have to duck to go underneath them. Unlike the other house there was no one around and all was quiet. Porshia stopped in the center of the room and waved his close.
"This doesn't feel right," she whispered.
"It's not right," Morgana said. "I've never heard of a mage house being empty. There are always people around always members of the community going about their day to day activities. This is freaking me out."
"With this house be laid out like your house with the top floor being the apartment for the man in charge?" I asked.
" That's the way it's been in all the major houses I've been to. I'm sure this one wouldn't be any different considering the reputation of the man in charge. Everyone seems to think is a bit of a megalomaniac," Morgana said.
"Then I think an excuse for the obvious. We had upstairs to see if we can find the man in charge," I said.
Merc girl two nodded then headed for the stairs. The rest was followed going up to the second floor and finding it just as deserted as the first. Since that was the case we moved on to the third floor.
The door the top of the stairs open into the big living room. Much like Michael's house the living room was packed with soft and expensive looking furniture. The differences came in the color and placement the furniture in this room all had earth tones as opposed to the warm resin yellows and Michael's house.
From what I could tell this floor was laid out in a straight line where Michaels was a horseshoe. There were two doors not counting the stairwell doors I want each side of the room indicating we were not one of the ends of the building.
"do we go left or right?" Porshia asked.
"Let's go to the right," I said. "I've got a good feeling about that direction."
Once again we followed Porshia to the door and threw it open. The room beyond was too dark to see into so the Merc girl's turned on the flash lights mounted on the rifles and rushed into the room. I was right behind them with Morgana and my two in tow.
; As soon as we were all in the room the door slam shut behind us and the lights came on. The room was empty except for one thing, a large stone statue of a man standing in the center of the room. Laughter began to echo from all around us and the statues eyes glowed red.
Chapter 29
Glowing red eyes turned out to be the least of our worries. The statue came to life.
It pulled its feet free of the stone pedestal and stepped forward dripping off with a loud thump. Then it broke its arms free of its sides and held up the stone blade and shield it held.
The laughter stopped. “Morgana, my dear, did you think you could come into my home and do as you wished?” The voice was a raspy dry sound that came from everywhere. At first, I thought it was the statue, but that wasn’t the case.
“You think you were cleaver by stopping far up the road and coming in on foot through the woods, is that right? Since you are about to die, let me clue you in. This entire area belongs to me. Everything in a five mile radius is bonded to me. Nothing moves on my land without the very earth letting me know.” He snickered.
“I suppose I should expect a fire whore to understand. Not only do we draw our power from the earth, but we become one with it. I am as much a part of this land as it is to me. You never stood a chance.”
The statue dropped into a low defensive stance. Since it stood well over eleven feet tall, it still towered over us.
The merc girls took that as their cue and opened fire. As the shot their rifles they spread put hitting it from different angles. The rounds bounced off the stone hide with a lucky shot sending a small chip flying here and there. It was clear bullets wouldn’t work.
I had an idea of what might work against the stone statue. I step back until I was between Izzy and Scarlett then looked at my mage.
"I think the only way we're gonna be this thing is if you water it up," I said. "Throughout time water is eroded rocks so I think this is our best bet. The bullets are doing Shit and I doubt clawes would either. Can you do this, Scarlett?"
My Hydro mage smiled as water streamed up from all the the canister she carried. "I think this is gonna be fun," she said.
Izzy place your hand on my shoulder. "I don't know what to do here. Bullets will stop that thing and nothing I can do will. But the hell do we do, Terry?"
I let my turtle and the eyes seeing fear. I understood how she felt because I knew she was right. On the other hand that doesn't mean we were gonna roll over and die we would fight to the end. "You're right about that, Izzy. But I don't think the fight is lost. You can do your part by keeping that thing distracted while we work on taking it down. Can you do that for me?"
my turtle Tua nodded. "I can."
My total step forward raising her pistol and firing off a couple shots. I felt relief, pride, and a sense of purpose from her as she moved away from us firing off shots at a leisurely pace.
"Be careful," I sent to her through our mental link. She didn't respond but I felt pleasure coming from her at my concern.
The Merc girl's continued their fire but I thought they too could be used in better ways. I waved to Porshia getting her attention as I ran towards her.
"Stop firing and shift," I said. "I need you girls to be more of a distraction and I think the best way to do that is if you're at your best."
Porshia nodded as she lowered her weapon. "I see your point, but that's not gonna be enough to beat this thing. I hope you have a plan?"
"I do have a plan, do your part and I'll make sure that that thing is taken down."
Porshia touched the device around her neck. "Cease fire and shift, cease fire and shift. We are to get that thing's attention so our Tuatha can deal with it."
All weapons fire stopped with the exception of the occasional shot from Izzy's pistol. I watched in amazement as the Merc girl's went from pretty women to towering beasts. The bore, the badger, and the hawk were impressive creatures. All of them stood taller than 8 feet and had the distinctive features of the animal they were akin to.
The badger began slashing at the stone statue with her long claws. Detected no damage but the statue immediately turned his attention to her. The hawk flapped her wings darting forward and raising her legs. She slashed at the statue with the talons on her feet as she passed over it. Once more the attack did no damage but the creature shifted its attention from the badger to the hawk. Then the bore hit the creature from behind tusks first. She ran her head up and down scraping her test against the stone back and pounded meaty fist against it. As before no damage was done but the creature's attention was changed so the board jumped back.
Izzy fired off shots while she ran towards the stone statue. She leapt and spun shifting while she was in the air. Her armored back slammed into the side of the statue causing it to stumble a little and then she rushed away. The stone warrior turned and made a step toward is the while the badger made another attack run. The Merc girls and Izzy continue to alternate their attacks while they waited for Scarlett and I to make our move.
While Izzy and the Merc girl's had been attacking Scarlett was busy gathering all the water on her person into a single sphere. Once the last drop joined the spear hovering above her head she lowered her stance and put her hands out in front of her with her thumbs and four fingers touching. A moment later a beam of white blue water shot out of the sphere striking the stone warrior in the chest. It was enough to make good statue stumble but I saw no visible damage as the water continued to stream at it. This fear shrunk in size until the water splashing off of the statue returned maintaining the size of the smaller sphere.
"it doesn't seem to be working," I whispered to Scarlett.
"We have to give it time. Rosen of stone doesn't work that way it needs time to work," Scarlett said with strain evident in her voice.
"Are you using Hydro beam?" I asked.
"Hydro what now?"
"Your mate skill Hydro beam. I unlocked it when I signed your skill points, you should have access to the skill."
"How do I use skills?" Scarlett asked.
"Focus on the words Hydro being activated in your mind. I think it's all you have to do."
Without dropping her current water spell her face took on the look of concentration. Then the water stopped, and rushed back to the sphere. The sphere shrunk and condensed until it was a quarter of the size. Where before it was translucent and see-through the other side now it was an opaque white blue. A short burst of a white blue beam shot out from the sphere hitting this statue in the chest and creating a crack. She had done it.
"That's so fucking awesome," I said. "You're doing it Scarlett, you're so fucking doing."
"We need to have a talk about the skills after this is all over," Scarlett said. "And yeah this is Fucking awesome."
"Can you do a continuous beam?" I asked while another short beam shot out.
"I don't know, let me… Oh."
A continuous blue white beam shot out from the sphere hitting the statue dead center in the chest boring a hole into it. While this was happening the Merc girl's and is the grabbed the statue holding it in place. The stone warrior struggle but was no match for the combined might of the four Lycan women.
Fat drops of water flew back from the warrior's chest condensing just before they joined the orb. I was happy to see that this attack also recycle the water meaning that it could go on for as long as Scarlett could keep it up. Then her beam burst through his back to hit the wall. Scarlett moved her hands slowly up and the beam followed. Once the beam penetrated all the way, cutting up through the body, neck, and head was like a hot knife through butter.
Things de-escalated quickly after that. The Lycan women all shifted back to human form. Izzy, being one of my Tua had her clothes on but her shirt was torn along the sides. It still managed to cover up all the important stuff so she didn't bother to take it off. The Merc girl's on the other hand, shredded all their clothes and they shifted and now stood before me naked.
the woman standing before me made me realize
I was in the wrong line of business. If I could bottle lycanthropy I'd make a fortune selling the greatest beauty products on the market. So far I have not seen one ugly or unattractive Lycan and I suspect it had something to do with whatever it was that made Lycans what they were. I supposed to the how and why of it didn't really matter as long as I got to enjoy the view.
"Had I realized this was gonna be how you would've ended up I probably would've asked you ship sooner," I said.
"I know right," Scarlett said. "These bitches are hot."
"Let's focus on the task at hand," Izzy said as she fingered her torn shirt. "We don't know what else the Dick has waiting for us so we need our heads in the game, all of us."
"She's right, sorry for getting distracted. If it was ready let's head out and find this guy. I'm anxious to get this over with that too much Shit to do to stay here for too long."
Merck girl number 2 Sashayed Her Way over to me with her bare hips swaying back and forth. "You know, if you accept the sum of the pack anything you want us to do, and I do mean anything," she ran a finger down my chest, "is yours for the asking."
I took her hand in the mind moving away from my body. She was crazy hot and way too much of a distraction, which I didn't need right then. "I appreciate the offer, I really do, and it's so tempting, but I can make this decision right now. I'm sorry. What makes you so sure that you even want to be part of my pack?"
"The fact that you're apologizing for this is more than enough from for me to know that I want to join with you," Merc girl two said.
"Same goes for me," the Chloe said.
"Same here," the third Merc girl said.
“That’s great, really it is. And tempting as hell, but now is not the time. We need to go back to the livingroom and try door number two.”
Chapter 30
Nothing jumped out to attack us in the living room, nor did we hear a disembodied voice. The only problem was the three naked women standing between me and the next door. They were all lean with athletic bodies varying shapes.
Turtleshift Page 17