by TR Cameron
Idryll faced off against her two remaining opponents. The magical on her left was pointing a gun at her, ready to fire. The other slashed her wand in a diagonal line, and a sheet of flame followed its path, racing toward Idryll. She couldn’t trust the agility in this form, no matter how good it was, to handle dodging both on top of a moving vehicle. Her body changed as she leapt, powerful tiger legs driving her up and over the oncoming wall of fire, in the direction of the one with the pistol. He fired convulsively, sending bullets at her as fast as the weapon would cycle. Several sizzled along her sides, but none plunged into her. She smashed into him and knocked him flying off the roof of the truck.
She scrambled sideways immediately, dodging a ball of fire that slammed into the spot where she’d been. If my enemy had survived, that would’ve incinerated him. No loyalty among criminals here. Her foe continued to throw magic at her, but Idryll smelled her fear, could almost sense what she was going to do before she did it by how her body twitched. She prowled closer, carefully stepping out of the path of attacks with no alarm, no panic. The other woman grew paler and paler as she neared, and when she was finally within claw’s reach, her foe leapt away, jumping into the darkness rather than face her.
Idryll laughed until a bullet lodged itself in the meaty part of her right flank. She turned with a growl to see that Morrigan was no longer on the third transport and that a pair of enemies still were. One of them was doing something at the back of the vehicle. At the same time, the other fired a rifle indiscriminately at her, the motion of the two trucks making any sort of aimed attack, magical or mundane, unpredictable at best.
With a growl, she launched herself into the air, easily clearing the distance between the transports. She landed on the hood and windshield, then scrambled up to the roof. Her new opponent, who had panicked at the sight of her leaping toward him, was covered in a glimmering sheen of magic, something that looked like a combination of force and ice. Large blades appeared in his hands, again magical, likely the same substance. She imagined that if they hit, they would cut as effectively as metal, if not better.
Idryll slowly circled as he turned to keep her in front of him, and she swiped at the one in the back in passing. He dropped over the edge to avoid it, but she was fairly sure he wasn’t gone, only out of sight. I wonder if that means their target is in this truck. She spoke into the mask that was still on her face, its elastic strap keeping it in place when she changed form, the same way the extensions built into her belt allowed it to stay on whether she had two feet or four. “One of them is trying to open the rear door.”
Ruby replied, “Dissuade him.”
She growled, “A little busy right now.”
“Well, Morrigan is too, and I’m not going to come back there. I need to keep an eye out for anything that might lie ahead. So, you know, do what you can. I believe in you.”
The mix of compliment and sarcasm made her laugh. “You’ll pay for that.”
Ruby chuckled. “Anytime, kitty cat. Be careful.”
Idryll killed her microphone and roared, the power of the sound momentarily startling her opponent. She dashed in, and he whipped one of the swords at her, forcing her to dance aside. He tried a quick flick of the weapon he’d used first as she moved away from the other blade, missing her again. She fell low and clawed at his foot. He gave a tiny leap, apparently as nervous as she was about taking big jumps that weren’t very carefully calculated, then stabbed both swords down, one toward either side of her body. She had to choose which side to sacrifice. He’d boxed her in, her size a detriment in this situation.
Of course, her size was changeable. She shifted into humanoid form, causing both blades to miss, and channeled all her strength and momentum from the shift into a punch that slammed into his chin. It shattered the ice and snapped his head back. He stood unsteadily, wobbling as he swiped a sword clumsily across at her. She dropped to the roof and kicked his feet out from underneath him. When he fell, fortunately for him away from the edge, the ice protecting him cracked with a loud sound.
They were both on their backs, lying next to each other. She swiveled and brought her leg high before slamming it down in an ax kick to his head. His magic faded as he lost consciousness. She dragged him to the middle of the truck so he wouldn’t roll off and headed toward the back to deal with the last one.
Two seconds after she went airborne, Morrigan realized that rocketing after the chopper wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had. The pilot saw her coming and veered the craft away, meaning the arc that was supposed to take her to grab onto the landing skids at worst, or carry her through the open doorway, ideally, would now miss entirely. She flicked her gaze down to the ground to check what was underneath her, reassured to see that it was only bare desert. Sure, rocks, stones, plants, probably all of them with sharp edges waiting to slice me to ribbons, but, you know, at least not pavement and cars.
She whipped her hand up to throw a force blast at the rifleman who’d been taking shots at her, but he’d ducked inside, apparently not willing to hang out the door while the craft was practicing evasive maneuvers. Smart. She wondered whether she had an arrow appropriate for the moment, then remembered the new toy strapped to her arm. She lifted the harpoon and fired, and it sped toward the helicopter, unspooling the cable as it went. Kayleigh had assured her that the tether was sufficiently long for most circumstances, and it proved true in this case. The projectile passed through the space between one of the skids and the body and lodged itself in the aircraft's bottom.
Its magnet activated automatically on impact, powered by a battery pack she wore at the point where the line attached to her belt. The moving helicopter swung her forward, and she grabbed the cable to steady herself. Okay, problem number one addressed, I’m not going to fall quite yet. Now, what to do, what to do? As she swayed backward, she grinned. “I know. Blast that damn rifleman with a force burst. Send him straight out the other side. Both doors are always open on these things, right?”
She swung back and lifted her arm, then had to summon a shield instead as the reappearing gunman fired a stream of bullets at her swinging form.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Something caught Ruby’s eye in the darkness ahead, and she shifted through the display options in her lenses. Thermal showed a little, but electrical offered more, several SUV shapes with active power lines. She switched back to thermal again with that information and spotted people clustered behind vehicles.
She shouted, “Trouble,” as a dozen fireballs flew out when the police cars passed, aimed at all three transports. Ruby blasted herself into the air before they reached her, heading for the edge of the road, and saw them strike in flashes as she tumbled toward the ground. Their fireballs slammed into the truck she’d been riding, sending it skidding on its side. The next two went exactly the same way, sliding to a stop in a flurry of sparks. She got to her feet as the sound of gunfire rang out from above. She looked up and spotted combat drones, of a kind the Ely PD definitely didn’t possess, flying over the scene and firing indiscriminately. “Dammit, has to be PDA. They’ll blow up the transports.” The criminals had converged on the first, so she ran for the second in line. “Idryll, get yours open. I’ll do the middle one.”
Her partner replied, “What about the guy they’re trying to rescue?”
Ruby shook her head. “Can’t worry about that right now. We have to get those people out of the trucks before the stupid drones kill everyone here.”
Bullets deflected from Morrigan's force shield, which she’d had to wrap in a dome around her because of the ceaseless spinning. The impact of the rounds on her barrier made the motion worse. The rain stopped, and she saw as if the moment was frozen in time, the rifleman smiling as he slotted in a new magazine with a bright blue stripe on it. Holy hell. If it’s marked, they’re probably different. If they’re different, they’re probably anti-magic.
She looked around for any object she could grab to interpose between them, but of course none were t
o be had since she was dangling in midair. It forced her to accept the truth she’d been trying to avoid, that her only option was to take down the helicopter. She threw a fireball, aiming for the rotors in an optimistic hope that the people within might survive a crash in a way they wouldn’t withstand being burned. A cone of misty white-blue light flowed from inside the aircraft, originating from behind the rifleman, and intercepted her attack. The ice shattered as the two powers met, but it eliminated the flames and saved the enemy craft from her magic.
The rifleman sighted down his barrel at her, and she watched him carefully, getting ready to release the line and let herself drop, figuring it would be harder for him to re-target if he was already firing. Then, with a whir and a blur, a drone flew into her visual field and slammed into the gunman. He recoiled from the impact and fell, his safety line snapping taut and leaving him dangling about fifteen feet away from her, seemingly unconscious. Morrigan grabbed her bow and hit the button to start the assembly. Okay, that evens up the odds considerably. Show your face, icy bastard, so I can put an arrow into it.
Idryll got to the back door of the rear transport and discovered the enemy who’d been there had been trying to open it. He’d managed to bend some of the metal away from the doors’ inside edges, just enough to reveal the heavy bar that secured them. She reached for the tool on her belt and only then did the stupidity that apparently struck all of them when Margrave had given them the explosives come roaring at her. I don’t have any way to cast shadow bolts. This is useless to me.
With a growl, she slapped it back into place and focused her thoughts. Her magic was weak in terms of ranged combat. That wasn’t in her nature. What she did possess was ferocity, strength, raw power, and an instinctive knowledge of how to apply it. She wedged her claws into the opening the previous attempt had created and pulled, channeling energy to her arms. It creaked and bent but failed to open. She panted from the effort and nodded to herself. Okay. Time to try again.
She’d experimented with her various forms in the past, discovering how many she had and how to best move from one to the next. On a few occasions, she’d tried only partial changes, adding cat ears to her human form, for instance, or turning her tiger paws into hands. She’d met with intermittent success but almost always wound up injuring herself and having to rest and let her enhanced healing abilities address the damage.
Now she required the leverage her humanoid form would provide, combined with the raw power of her natural tiger body. She closed her eyes and focused inward, visualizing what she needed, imagining the way the muscles and bones would have to change to accomplish her objective. Idryll willed the transformation to happen, and despite her hope that this time might spare her, the pain she expected washed over her. She endured it, roaring out her anger through her humanoid throat, which felt like it was shredding under the effort.
When the transformation finished, she was in human form with tiger muscles and reinforced bones above the waist. She shoved her claws through the opening and pulled, gritting her teeth and summoning all her strength until the doors finally spread apart enough to expose the bolt sufficiently. It took a dozen swipes to cut through it, but then the doors were free. The guards inside had already released the prisoners from the bonds that kept them in their seats, and now they were tied together. She helped pull the line from the transport and off to the side of the road, then examined each of the inmates carefully. None was the man they’d come to get. She activated her comm. “It’s open, but he’s not in this one.”
The magical stuck his face out the side of the helicopter, and Morrigan let one of her sharpened arrows fly. The figure waved his hands and ice appeared to intercept the projectile. She considered drawing the pistol strapped down on her right thigh, but the chances of successfully aiming that weapon were even less good than managing a shot with the bow at this point. A large chunk of ice flew at her, and she sent out a bolt of fire to shatter it, cringing as chill shards scraped along her skin on their way past.
She growled, “Okay. Enough of this garbage.” She reached back for the most destructive of the arrows Kayleigh had provided, nocked it, and loosed it at the rear rotor, figuring if she could take out the helicopter’s steering, it would have to land. She slapped the latch to release her line as the projectile arrived at its destination. The explosion was far larger than she’d expected, consuming the entire tail of the craft up to the cabin section. It heeled over and dove toward the ground.
She wrenched herself to face downward and hit the button to collapse her bow, confident she would see the surface coming at her in enough time to use magic to blunt her fall. Heh. I shot down the scumbags’ helicopter. That’s pretty awesome.
Ruby fired the shadow bolt from a distance, having already warned those within to get out of the way. It detonated the explosive and blew a perfect circle in the latch, allowing the door to open when the people inside kicked at it. She raced forward to look at the occupants, but none of them was Goryo. She activated her comm. “He’s in the first truck. Idryll, get a move on. Morrigan, you okay?”
Her sister’s reply sounded alarmed, a counterpoint to the actual words. “Yep, fine, don’t worry about me.”
The shapeshifter replied, “On my way.”
Ruby pounded forward, shielding over her head to avoid the drones’ occasional attacks, heading for the frontmost transport, which she could now see was open. Guards were on the ground or slumped in the illuminated rear, and a bunch of criminals ran off to either side. Her debate about which way to go, to pursue the group to the left or the group to the right, ended when she heard car doors slamming. She sprinted in that direction and spotted a black SUV peeling out, continuing down the highway.
“That’s got to be him in the black vehicle. I’m going after it.” She dashed to one of the police motorcycles that had been knocked onto its side and pulled it upright, using force magic to assist with the heavy vehicle. It was big and bulky, not her preferred ride, but beggars certainly couldn’t be choosers, especially in the middle of a battle. The drones noticed, and she threw a hasty shield over herself and the bike.
She climbed on, started it, and was about to take off when Idryll growled, “Ten seconds. I’m almost there.” Her partner made it in less than that and climbed onto the seat behind her. Ruby twisted the grip, and they were off in pursuit.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ruby bent low over the handlebars, her eyes scanning the distance for the fleeing SUV. She asked, “Morrigan, are you okay?”
Her sister’s voice was pained as she replied, “Yeah. Fell. I think I broke my leg. About to take my potion. Don’t worry, if I need to, I’ll ask our friend to send an ambulance.”
Her tone made Ruby want to stop and go to help her, but she knew she couldn’t. Doing so would make all this effort useless. Even though she was convinced that whoever was after Goryo would’ve killed their way through the prison to get to him if the convoy hadn’t been an option, and that she and her team had done better than the police would have, she still felt like the fallout was her responsibility. Maybe I need to talk to Diana about being a leader. I’m not sure I have the instinct for this garbage. She replied, “Okay. You call if you need me. Don’t be stupid.”
Morrigan made a noise somewhere between a cough and a laugh. “I’d say the same to you, but I know you too well. Good luck.”
The bike rolled over a small rise, and suddenly the SUV was in sight. A moment later gunfire came back at them, and Ruby put the motorcycle into a slalom to increase the difficulty of targeting them. It seemed like one pistol from the left-hand side and two from the other. She diverted a little attention to reinforce her full body shield. “Idryll, make sure you’re directly behind me. I’ll protect you.”
The other woman snorted. “I’m filled with confidence.”
The situation continued for about ten seconds before the rear door of the SUV flew open and two men with rifles aimed at them. She swung the bike to the side, yelling “Kagji” t
o summon her pendant's shield for additional defense. Bullets whizzed by, and Idryll cried out in pain. Ruby snapped, “What happened? Are you hit?”
Her partner’s response was cross. “No, I enjoy making noises that sound like I’ve been shot. What do you think?”
“Damn, anti-magic rounds, then.” She gunned the engine and pulled up at the vehicle’s seven o’clock, so the rear shooters couldn’t aim at her. That put her in range for the left-hand shooter, who paused as the SUV tried to knock her off the road. She swerved to the left to avoid it. “Take your potion.”
The shapeshifter’s pained voice replied, “I’m fine.”
Ruby yelled, “You’re not fine. Drink the damn potion and quit arguing for once, will you, please?” Her partner said something nasty in reply, but the movements against Ruby’s back suggested the shapeshifter was following her orders. “There’s only one way to deal with this. We’ll have to use Margrave’s grenade. I think if we get close, I can toss it through the window.”
Idryll growled, “Right. While simultaneously making sure not to wipe us out, you’re going to have to make a perfect throw with the only thing we have to stop them. That’s stupid. I’ll take care of it.”
“Speaking of stupid, your idea is probably something idiotic, like jumping from a moving motorcycle onto a moving car.”
Idryll grabbed the grenade from her belt and raised herself into a crouch on the back of the seat. Ruby nudged the bike over toward the SUV. “Don’t fall.” She flicked her fingers to knock the gun from the nearest set of hands before they brought it back into the fight.
Idryll replied, “I never fall.” Her ride bucked as the woman jumped off of it, and Ruby slewed to the side, off the road, and into the dirt and shrubs. Her partner reported, “It’s on, and I’m off,” followed by a grunt.