Bravi sheathed two terrifying blades of Reshi’s design, one on either hip. “Understood.”
This was it; it was really happening. I ground my teeth and gestured for us to mount our group of redbills. The blood transfusion kit sat like a worrying reminder in my pack.
Team Lanzon was already in flight, dark shapes barely visible against a dark sky. A dull ache pulsed behind my eyes. Team Grayson took off on our redbills. I sat behind Bravi, Gina rode with another vampire, and our other four redbills. Each bird held a vampire warrior and a wildling. Up ahead, Arlonne and Reshi rode the jaspeth.
The valley grew closer, soft lights flickering as we flew. The camp sat on the far side of the valley, separated from us by about a quarter mile of flat, scrubby meadow full of what appeared to be thorny grass. Let’s try not to escape through that. It was nestled in a collection of jagged black boulders that grew into the base of the mountains. The black mountains seemed like they might fall at any moment, leaning against one another with clouds of thick fog choking their tops. It was the same fog I’d witnessed on my first journey into the Immortal Plane.
For the moment, the dim light aided our stealthy approach. Arlonne and Reshi flew before our teams, leading the flock. They dipped down through a cloud of fog. Soul-lights dotted the camp in the distance.
There was no sign of activity in the facility. It was roughly circular, surrounded by a wall of stone and metal. Guard towers were built into the wall, equally spaced around the camp. From what I could make out, the camp held a barracks-like living area with a spacious fenced area where I suspected the trainee hunters did drills and group exercise. A chill worked itself through me when I spotted a black wall with stockpiled objects next to the training grounds. Some of them glinted. Weapons? They certainly had their fair share. We needed to take them out as soon as possible with the vampire gauntlets.
“I can’t hear any alarms,” Bravi told me over the breeze. “The scouts haven’t made it back and they obviously haven’t been gone long enough to raise suspicion.”
Perhaps Team Lanzon had been successful, though it seemed too early for celebration.
Arlonne’s prosthetic arm lifted into the air, the metal giving off a subtle glint. Her team was ready. After a brief check, I indicated that I was ready as well. We dropped them in unison, signaling our teams to dive. This was it. The attack was on.
Reshi steered the jaspeth machine into a steep plunge. After a moment, a flurry of shots burst from the guard towers. I sucked in a sharp breath as vicious blue shots split the sky like lightning. We dodged one.
One of the Team Azpai redbills dropped closer to the camp. In a breathtaking act of recklessness, a wildling flung himself off the beast’s back. He wielded a knife, aiming to land on the roof of the closest guard tower. I swore viciously. Did he think he could take on all the guards inside, alone?
He never got the chance. A blast of green flung the wildling backward, pushed by an immense force. He flew several hundred yards through the air with a bloodcurdling scream, far overshooting his combat partner’s redbill. Smoke billowed through the air behind him, and the scent of scorched flesh reached my nose. There’s a freaking forcefield.
“Team Tahn is coming through on the right,” Bravi snapped to me. “Did you see that ward?”
I jerked my head up to see Team Tahn, our air defense squad led by Laini, dart into the fray. Charrek’s redbill snatched whatever was left of the wildling from midair. Their squad’s purpose was to pick up any wounded and transport them back to our camp in the mountains. Only a minute in, we had our first casualty. It was a disturbing reminder that not all our raiding party had professional training.
“I saw it,” I muttered bitterly. “Here’s hoping Reshi can take it down.” Otherwise, our attacks from the air were as good as useless. I counted our ranks. Teams Azpai, Tahn, and Grayson all knew about the forcefield now, but the Lanzon and Gavril squads would be at a disadvantage since they hadn’t seen it. We needed to work fast. Even now, the ward had earned the hunters time to mobilize. Commotion stirred below, the trainee hunters mobilizing to defend their precious camp as shouts of alarm now rang out.
Reshi swung back around, but her jaspeth climbed to a cautious height. She fired upon two guard towers with the magic-stripping darts from the machine’s mouth. The darts slammed into the invisible barrier with angry explosions, and suddenly I could see it. The entire forcefield lit up a light blue color, nearly transparent.
Reshi fired again, and my heart soared as one of the darts made it through. The forcefield gave an audible snap before it disappeared entirely. More blasts fired up from the guard towers.
Team Azpai descended, the first group to successfully enter the training grounds. Their strategy, as soon as anyone’s feet hit the dirt, was to strip the magic from any and every object on the hunters to provide power for their vampire gauntlets. A wail of war cries went up. Trainee hunters darted from their barracks, rushing toward our comrades. Metal clashed against metal. Gem blasts tore through the air.
At the same time, Team Tahn landed to drop wildlings around the outside walls of the camp, the redbills staying low to defend them. The wildlings began running in random patterns. They wove their hands with desperate and powerful movements through the air. The ground gave a powerful tremor as thick roots tore through the dirt and sprang toward the trainee hunters, wrapping around their feet and climbing up their weapons.
My squad headed for the walls. Bravi clicked her tongue, and our redbill dove toward the closest wall. The wind whipped past my face, and I steeled myself as our redbill dropped into the camp, followed by our companions.
Bravi snarled as our redbill dodged a blast from a gem gun mounted on the closest tower. We needed to take over the guard towers, preferably without destroying the guns we wanted to use later. The redbill landed on the wall, and we jumped off, heading straight for the open doorway of the tower. Bravi managed to get into the room ahead of me. She growled as she tackled a female trainee hunter, who tried to fire her gem gauntlet. The blast went straight up to the ceiling. The second blast, Bravi sliced through easily with one of her stone knives.
A young, wide-eyed hunter stared at me. He raised his gauntlet almost as an afterthought. Thank goodness these are trainees. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I’d thought.
I dodged, pressing Lanzon’s stone against his leg armor. He jerked forward, unbalanced by the unaccustomed weight. I dispelled his gauntlet before he could fire it again, then brought my stone knife sharply across his throat. He dropped to the ground at the same time as Bravi’s hunter.
Bravi darted to the doorway, and I followed. With a key she must have stolen from the hunters, she locked the door and then broke the metal handles off to keep the gun from being used again. Our redbill had taken off, but we found a stone staircase built into the massive wall and raced down to the main square. Bravi jumped halfway down the length, then raced down the final half, charging into battle. I turned my attention to the battlefield, determining where I would be of most use.
“Watch the sky,” a hunter screamed before Bravi smashed her knife against the back of his head.
I looked up to see Team Lanzon drop from above. Dorian and Zach charged a group of hunters who’d tried to surround the wildlings. Four teams in, but there’s well over fifty on the ground with us. The walls still held guards who would storm down to the main square if it became too hard to fire their long-range weapons at us.
“Commander Rochel!” A hunter shouted at a towering figure. “What are your orders?”
A tall hunter with jet-black skin stepped forward, her gem-studded boots catching the light of several gauntlet blasts, her strides both powerful and elegant. She wielded a quarter staff with a gem blaster on each end. She bared her teeth at Dorian with vicious pleasure, ignoring the trainee. Her eyes promised death or worse.
“If you want a fight, leech, it’s a fight you’ll get.” She charged toward him with shocking speed.
Her moveme
nts reminded me of Inkarri as she displaced the air with her staff, wielding it with such precision and force that I couldn’t help but be impressed even as I watched her fighting strategy for a weakness.
Reshi turned the jaspeth on them and fired. Her darts slammed into Commander Rochel’s leg armor and one of her gem blasters. Dorian lunged at Rochel and sliced through her right thigh. Her armor was now easy to puncture, after having its magic stripped. She rewarded him with a powerful blow to his stomach. She smirked as Dorian reeled backward, clutching his gut. It would take more than stealing her magic to fight this one.
“Lyra!”
I tore myself away to join Gina.
“What—” My question died in my mouth as I ran to her, turning the corner around a tall rectangular building. Two parallel structures formed a makeshift street. She grimly stared down at the end. A massive soul-scourger filled the entire width of the passage, much larger than the last one we’d dealt with. The mist creature was agitated, lashing out at the tiniest movements in its environment.
“Someone smashed its containment pen in the chaos,” Gina muttered. “These things are annoying to kill.”
Last time, nothing had affected it until Arlonne had burned it alive. We needed heat.
We had grenades, but I wanted to avoid using them if we could. The last soul-scourger had gone up in a massive conflagration even without an explosive force, and the last thing we needed was an uncontrolled fire harming our allies or damaging the facilities we hoped to use.
I eyed a nearby pile of smoking rubble, an inadvertent gift from the battle, and flagged down a Coalition vampire standing nearby. He’d been watching the beast warily as the foreboding mist swirled at the end of the street, fighting against currents of air from passing redbills. I asked the vampire to yank one of the wooden poles from the pile. After applying it to the embers and blowing carefully, a small flame flickered over the tip. Now I just had to hope it wouldn’t blow out before I could use it.
I walked carefully with my fiery makeshift spear, using my hand to shelter the small flame. When the soul-scourger noticed me, I threw it forward into its oncoming tendrils, my heart launching into my throat. I turned to run without waiting to see if it connected. I didn’t look back when I felt a blast of heat against my shoulders, just ducked my head and ran for my life.
When I reached the vampire and a cheering Gina, I bent double, bracing my hands on my knees and sucking in sharp gasps. I’d gone all out to get away from that thing. I finally looked back and swore. The soul-scourger had diminished by about a quarter of its mass, but the blow wasn’t enough to kill it. Worse, it was now out for blood. Gina cursed as the mist creature lurched toward us, and the three of us dove into a narrow gap between two buildings.
“Time to go big,” Gina said, digging into her backpack. She was right; we no longer had a choice about the explosives.
A passing trainee hunter caught the soul-scourger’s attention when she accidentally stumbled back to avoid an attacking wildling. The mist lurched toward the hunter, enveloping her in a painful embrace. Smoke rose up from the contact, followed by an agonized scream. Gina used the distraction to chuck a grenade at the mist creature. It landed square in the center of the soul-scourger’s strange, foggy body. The beast pulsed, unaware of what was happening.
“Take cover!” I barked. We ducked behind the building, yanking the Coalition vampire along with us.
“What was that—”
His question was answered by a massive explosion that shook the walls. The soul-scourger was gone, leaving merely a smoking pile of embers. The burnt body of the trainee hunter lay in several pieces among the scorched marks left on the ground. I turned to Gina, who was grinning maniacally.
“It worked,” she noted proudly.
Maybe she had more in common with my brother than I’d realized.
“You’re right about—” My words were cut off as a redbill dove overhead, letting out a war cry.
It smashed into a hunter looming over a wounded vampire, batting him aside. The redbill snatched up the wounded vampire, using its long beak to toss the man onto its back with surprising gentleness. The bird took off, but there were others. A blast hit one as it tried to land for two wounded in the distance. I traced the shot to a watchtower cannon. Someone from the tower fired again into the sky, lighting the fog overhead. We needed to take them out, to protect our allies and the redbills.
“Make for the tower,” I shouted to what I could see of Team Grayson. “Fall behind me.”
Gina nodded. Bravi emerged from a successful skirmish with a hunter, face marred with sweat and dark blood. She rallied the wildlings and vampires with us as we converged once again. They had made headway with the other towers, but it looked like the entire team would be required to take this one. We ran for the tower.
I led the charge, surging up the winding stairs with my knife out. Paranoia accelerated my heartrate with each step, and I kept expecting a guard to appear around every bend. Finally, my fear became reality when a guard from the wall thrust his pike at me. I sidestepped just in time and yanked on his pike with all my weight. His leg armor must’ve already been unmagicked by a jaspeth dart, because he toppled past me like a broken doll, and my companions finished him off.
My heart stopped in surprise as Dorian’s dark head of hair came into view. He was already on the wall. He must’ve had the same idea. Team Lanzon was already upon the guards, but as I watched, a wave of hunters poured from another tower. Team Lanzon was in danger of being overwhelmed, and if they were, we’d never take out the gunner. I changed plans.
“Leave this tower to Dorian and me. Back up Team Lanzon.”
As my squad adjusted their trajectory, I waved and caught Dorian’s eye. He gave me an understanding nod as I jerked my thumb to the tower. Suddenly, something in the air changed for a split second. An ear-shattering shriek washed over us. It lasted only seconds, but I fell to my knees with many of the fighters around me—hunters and vampires alike. My vision swam from pain as I pawed at my head, trying to cover my ears. I crawled up the last few stairs and managed to look down upon the compound.
Two rulers, each with a shining red jewel in their forehead, sat upon ash wraiths. The wraiths scratched the ground with their lion-like paws, wings stretching to show a shimmer of fiery embers. Smoke leaked from their mouths. Their muzzles were open, preparing to scream again.
Not good. My skull felt like it was about to split open.
“Plug your ears!” someone screeched.
Was it a Coalition vampire? I swung my head around to look for them, but my vision skipped. Nausea punched my stomach.
Arlonne rushed on foot toward the two rulers. Overhead, Reshi aimed the jaspeth toward them as well. One of the rulers raised her hand. Instead of a blast of energy, a crossbow-like dart flew from her wrist. Arlonne dodged out of the way, and it slammed into a vampire on Team Azpai. He cried out as he went down.
Above, Team Tahn dove to catch the wounded vampire on their redbills. At the same time, a team of trainee hunters rushed to finish the wounded vampire off. I tore myself away, knowing that the tower was top priority.
I struggled back to my feet, slamming my hands over my ears. “Protect your ears with anything you can before it screams again,” I shouted at my squad. “Defend our position!”
Dorian kicked down the heavy door to the tower. Hopefully, the stone walls would protect us from another wraith scream. I gave a grateful gasp as the tower’s cool air hit my face. Three trainee hunters whirled on us, two guards and one who had been manning the tower’s enormous gun against our allies in the courtyard. The gun dominated the small space, taking pride of place in the center of the room.
The tallest trainee brought his sword down on Dorian with a powerful slice. Dorian couldn’t evade in time, the blade scoring a wound across the front of his torso. Dorian launched himself at the hunter, aiming for the neck.
I went for a stout hunter in front of me. He’d made the mistake of
focusing on the vampire. I landed Lanzon’s stone on several points of his armor and kicked him in the stomach before he recovered from the added weight. He slammed into the wall headfirst, with a sickening wet sound.
I turned to Dorian, and at the same time, his eyes found me. The tall hunter had fallen to the ground, unmoving. One hunter, a female with snake-like eyes, remained between us. I stepped forward, but a sudden, familiar flare of pain burned my chest and made my breath catch.
The woman rushed me. I struggled to lift my knife to defend myself, the pain slowing my responses. The hunter couldn’t bring up her sword or gauntlet because of our proximity, so she settled for punching me straight in the solar plexus. I gasped as I fell back, momentarily stunned. The heartburn surged as Dorian darted forward to help, but the tall hunter suddenly grabbed at Dorian’s leg with the last remaining strength in his dying body.
Dorian couldn’t save me, but I would save myself. I threw myself at the hunter with both knives out. She tried jerking back, but the gun was closer than she’d thought, blocking her escape. I managed to strip the magic from her chest armor and sank my blade straight through the metal. Thank you, Reshi. She gasped, blood spewing from her mouth and onto my face. The smell of it made my stomach turn.
“I can’t fight like this,” I muttered, wiping the blood from my face as the hunter’s body slumped to the floor.
Dorian helped me move the bodies to the window. He shoved all of them out but one. I sagged against the wall as Dorian fed, trying to ignore the squelching sounds. My vision danced with white dots. That punch had hurt me more than I thought.
Dorian took a step toward me, but I threw out my arms to stop him. The telltale burning in my chest flared, and I saw understanding dawn on him as the pain appeared in his chest too. His glacial eyes softened as they found mine.
“I just fed. I can give you blood,” he said, whipping out a blade with an elegant movement and cutting his arm. “No time for needles.”
Darklight 5: Darktide Page 23