by TR Cameron
Cali shouted, “So, one strike and you’re dead—one-shot city. Don’t get hit.”
Tanyith growled annoyance. “I’m doing my best.” He fired shadow bolts at the creature’s eyes but they deflected from its eyelids, which were almost closed to protect the vulnerable flesh beneath. She added her attacks to the same area but they failed to penetrate. The Drow had run closer to the creature to attempt a better angle, but her shadow blasts didn’t accomplish any more than their efforts had. The Kraken swung another tentacle across the docks, which forced them all to take evasive action, then whirled a different one from above. The appendage pounded into the terminal building that ran along the full length of the dock and caved the roof in, and bricks and debris erupted in all directions.
Cali dashed up beside Nylotte and tried to target the same areas she was. She had to yell to be heard over the thrashing water, the shouts of attackers, the shrieks of the Kraken, and the cries of pain. “We don’t seem to have inflicted any injuries.”
The Dark Elf shook her head. “We need to coordinate our attacks. You and Tanyith go tell everyone to take their lead from me. No is not an acceptable answer.”
She nodded and sent a telepathic message to Fyre—who had swooped in repeatedly to breathe frost at the beast’s face without significant effect—and told him to assist Nylotte and keep her safe. His acknowledgment was colored with irritation, but that was fine as long as he did it. The Draksa was a warrior and didn’t like to be taken out of the fight for any reason, but he was hopefully also smart enough to know he couldn’t defeat the giant octopus alone.
Her focus now on the task at hand, she sprinted to Tanyith and caught his arm to drag him along as she ran toward the others. “Tell everyone to follow Nylotte’s lead!” He nodded, and she pushed him at the wizards and witches, then raced to the Light Elves who were closest. She recognized Malonne from Zeb’s descriptions, but he had a lash mark across his cheek that was raw and bleeding, and his eyes were filled with anger. She yelled, “Do what Nylotte does,” and pointed at her. He looked like he would refuse, then turned and gestured his people forward toward where the Dark Elf dodged in and out between strikes from the Kraken’s tentacles.
Once satisfied that they would cooperate, she delivered the same message to the remaining Kilomea and to the Dark Elves, then rushed to rejoin the battle. She reached it in time to take a blow from one of the sweeping limbs. The force sent her into a sprawl and she screamed, “Aspida,” to invoke the shield charm her parents had left her. The huge column of octopus flesh raised high above her and hammered down, and she curled in desperate fear as it made impact.
Thankfully, the shield held. When the tentacle departed to seek other prey, she rose to her feet, unharmed and angry. “Okay, you stupid excuse for a sea creature. It’s time to go back to where you came from.” She darted into a corner of the warehouse building that was still standing and sent her mind out toward the Kraken’s.
She sensed it easily as its mental presence was as enormous as its physical one. Her sweep also brought the emotions of her allies to her, fear and pain the most common. She pushed them away and tried to pierce the monster’s mind, only to discover a barrier around it, too thick and strong for her to overcome. Another attempt failed and the one after did as well. “I don’t know what that means, but I bet it’s not good,” she muttered darkly and decided not to pursue the useless effort.
When she moved closer to Nylotte, the Dark Elf was shouting orders. “We have to target the eyes. Everyone needs to attack at once. Electricity first, then fire, then the rest. Let’s see if we can sneak in around the edges before it closes them.” Heads nodded all round as the collected group continued to launch their assaults. “If it attacks, shield, evade, and come back to it. We’ll keep doing it until it works or we think of something better.”
A tentacle swept across, then lifted and drove down almost without warning. The group scattered to avoid it, except for a witch who failed to get out of the way in time and was crushed and two Dark Elves who summoned shields to protect themselves. The group managed a single barrage keyed off the Drow’s attack and fired at the left eye before two tentacles swept viciously in a combined assault that made them break formation and bolt to safety.
She stepped up beside Nylotte, who seemed to take the creature’s attempts to hurt them as a personal affront. The elf yelled, “I couldn’t get into its mind to convince it to leave, and its hide is insanely thick. It’s not normal.”
Well, at least I’m not the only one who failed with mental magic. Cali laughed, and if a note of growing hysteria was mixed into the sound, she wasn’t embarrassed by it. “As if anything about that gigantic monstrosity could be normal.”
“True enough. Let’s get to it.” Her companion surged forward, and the girl ran at her heels. She called to Fyre with her mind and instructed him to try to distract their adversary as Nylotte signaled an attack. A flood of approval from him washed over her. She sensed him swoop overhead but he maintained his veil, which she presumed meant the obscenely large octopus couldn’t see through it. Unfortunately, his frost attacks inflicted as little injury as any of their other assaults did.
A thought occurred to her as they launched yet another barrage of magical power at the Kraken and failed utterly to penetrate its thick hide. She avoided the next two appendages and ran to Tanyith’s side. He greeted her with a dark laugh. “So, this is fun.”
She nodded. “Are you okay?” He had a gash across his forehead that was bloody but not actively bleeding.
“Yeah. It was only flying shrapnel from the stupid building.”
“I have an idea, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t insane first.”
His laugh had actual humor in it this time. “Well, if it’s yours, I have my doubts going in. But let’s hear it.”
Cali flipped him off. “We can’t penetrate its skin, so we need to cut it so the magic can get to something more tender. Maybe all it will take is a single breach to make it happen, you know?”
The Kraken screeched and battered its tentacles into the warehouse building again. The people on the dock shielded, dove for cover, or took damage from the shrapnel. Tanyith cursed. “That beast is much smarter than the average octopus.”
“You think? Really?” She shook her head to try to get rid of the water that dripped into her eyes. “So, what about my plan?”
“I love it. How do we cut it?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead but I bet Nylotte will know, though.”
She blew out a breath, turned, and ran toward the Drow but only made it halfway there before the concussion from a large explosion swept her off her feet and she careened helplessly, entirely airborne. She collided with several others and they all crumpled in a heap against one of the remaining walls of the warehouse.
The person on the top, a thin witch who wore motorcycle leathers, groaned. “Hey, the humans are here. And they’ve brought rockets. That should make things way better.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The tangled pile of magicals quickly and carefully unstacked themselves and a minute later, Cali was on her feet again. She was bruised and battered but otherwise whole. Others had recovered from the blast faster or weathered it somehow because the fight against the monster octopus was still going strong.
The Kraken had taken notice of the newcomers and swiped two Humvees with machine guns away. They now burned at the far end of the docks, and everyone who had been positioned on that side had wisely moved toward the center. The remaining vehicles retreated to the edges and discharged soldiers with impressive-looking weapons.
She added her force magic to the attacks and sent a mental message to Fyre to assure him she was fine. When the pressure let up in her head, she realized he must have tried to contact her. Not telepathy, but definitely a connection. Her amazement at the Draksa’s abilities inched a touch higher.
Even with the addition of the bullets, grenades, and rockets, they didn’t seem to actually penetra
te the thick hide. She hurried up beside Nylotte and said as much, and the Dark Elf nodded as she fired thin lines of shadow at the creature. Her voice was hoarse and her clothes and hair were drenched and dripping. “It stands to reason it will require magic to pierce its skin since its nature is magical. But we’re running out of options to try.”
Tanyith stepped up on the other side of the Drow. “I’m completely out of ideas. I feel like we’re merely flailing away at this damn bastard. At least it’s stuck in the water.”
The elf shook her head emphatically. “It’s not. We’re holding it here. If whoever created it managed this much, they surely made it possible for it to fight on land.”
At that, he looked sick. “So this monstrosity could crawl through the French Quarter if we lose?”
She nodded. “Exactly that. So we mustn’t fail.”
“Maybe it’s time you jumped to the other planet to summon your friends to the rescue again,” Cali suggested
The Dark Elf barked a frustrated laugh. “Believe me, I tried that before I came to get you folks. They’re hidden from me. I’m sure they’re fine, but wherever they are, it blocks my ability to detect them. There are many places like that on Oriceran, unfortunately.”
They all dealt with the tentacle that assaulted their position in different ways. Tanyith launched himself up with a force burst and moved to the side of the mammoth limb. Cali ran, then dove and rolled and barely managed to avoid it as it thumped onto the concrete surface of the docks. Nylotte shielded herself and the wall of flesh didn’t touch her. When the appendage pulled away to cause more mayhem elsewhere, she was still standing and began to attack again. “The Kilomea hurt the bastard earlier,” she shouted, They must have a magic weapon that was strong enough to work. Go and find it.”
Cali turned and ran, thankful that she made time for morning runs so that she could sprint down the docks again and know she’d be able to fight thereafter. On top of the warehouse building, Light and Dark elves fired actual arrows from long ornate bows, but even when they managed to get through the waving limbs, they simply stuck in its hide. They must be magical if they accomplish that much.
The crushed bodies of the Kilomean contingent were a short distance ahead, and she had almost reached them when a giant tentacle thwacked on the ground in front of her to cut her off from them. She cursed under her breath and punched at the barrier with fists of force that had no effect. “Move, you ugly beast,” she muttered. It seemed as if the creature knew what she’d intended to do and had determined to stop her.
Cali activated her sticks and pounded furiously on the limb but again, the attack accomplished nothing. She cursed. “It sure would be nice to have a magic sword right about now.” Her jaw fell open in surprise when the black sticks with the red etchings transformed into blades, the edges so sharp they seemed to glow when the sun caught them. Her brain stopped working, stunned by the development, but her body, fortunately, didn’t. She sliced at the appendage and the creature pulled it back with a screech, which gave her access to the Kilomeas’ magical weapon.
Quickly, she converted her left weapon into a bracelet once more, grasped the spear in that hand, then turned and raced toward the Dark elf again. When she arrived, she immediately shared her discovery. “Magical blades can cut it.”
Nylotte took the spear. “That’s good to know. Now to make this weapon count.”
She had assumed that the Drow simply wanted to replicate the earlier tactic and let the monster’s tentacles impale themselves on it, but she clearly had something else in mind as she ceased her attacks. She summoned a shield in her left hand, a body-high shimmering force field that wrapped around her on both sides and the top, almost like half a cocoon. Cali stored the idea of the insanely practical defense into a corner of her mind so she could learn to copy it later when an enormous octopus wasn’t gleefully trying to destroy her city. Assuming there is a later.
The elf swayed from side to side with the spear in a throwing position, clearly waiting for the creature to present her with a target. What she needs is a distraction. She put her hand on Nylotte’s shoulder and yelled, “Hold on a second. We can give that monster something else to worry about.” She sent a message to Fyre. “You need to distract it. Get in there and claw it or something and make sure it sees you coming. But don’t you dare get hurt.” Acceptance and amusement flickered across the connection between them, and a slight shimmer in the air overhead resolved into the form of the Draksa, who now climbed in a spiral.
The Kraken saw him immediately and shrieked with rage, but Fyre was out of range of the grasping tentacles for the moment. The Dark Elf yelled, “Good plan,” and called to those near her. “Pass the word. When it takes a wound, direct everything you have to the point of injury. Tanyith, go and tell the humans.” He looked like he would argue, then sprinted away. She was close enough to hear the Drow chuckle and murmur, “If only all the people I work with would be so practical.”
Cali banished her second stick and readied her power. It was there, waiting for her call and anxious to be released. The surrounding battle slowed as her brain latched onto a thought and refused to let it go. It’s another metaphor. All this time, I’ve thought of my magic as a reservoir or a pool, something that needs to be drawn from and replenished. Maybe that’s what it was when I was under my parents’ magical restriction, but not anymore. The sensation of power was present in every cell and she was full to bursting with it. It’s not about pulling my magic up and sending it out. It’s already present all through my body. I simply need to let it flow.
Above her, Fyre sounded a battle cry and dove, his wings folded tightly against his body. He arrowed toward the Kraken and flicked his tail and wings when needed to avoid the tentacles that sought him. He aimed for the head, and Nylotte’s arm shifted slightly to target the creature’s eye. Around them, magic blasted, the chatter of machine guns sounded, and rockets continued to impact into the creature with concussive force, but it was all background noise to the drama that played out before here.
The Draksa curved his trajectory as he reached the monster, extended his talons, and scraped them across the massive forehead. Its protective shell parted and ichor belched from the wound. Nylotte’s spear was already in the air, and it narrowly missed the dragon lizard as it rocketed past to plunge into the monstrous octopus. The beast howled in pain, the weapon buried to three-quarters of its length in its eye.
“Now—everything!” Nylotte screamed, and Cali hurtled fire down an imaginary line that connected her hands to the wound on the monster’s forehead. Her magic copied the shape of the chasm Fyre had created and stretched to encompass the entire opening at once. This time, the Kraken’s screech sounded like fear, and it continued to scream as it writhed in clear agony under the angry barrage that had finally found a vulnerability to exploit.
Fyre darted in again and added his own frost attack to the magical fusillade, and she blasted the ice with force to turn it into shards that plunged deeper into the creature. The Draksa rolled and climbed for another strike. Tanyith had returned and fired his own blasts of power at their foe to wreathe the open wounds in lightning that stabbed deep within.
When the killing blow struck, it was a surprise to everyone. One of the humans fired a shoulder-mounted rocket and it drilled into the cavity that had been created where the spear had pierced its eye. The muffled sound of a detonation from inside the giant skull preceded its collapse. The enormous head and body thrashed violently, then surged onto the dock. Its weight and ferocious struggles destroyed the center portion entirely and dropped it into the water, along with the defenders who had been positioned there. As the Kraken sunk, the people still on the dock raced to rescue those who had been injured by the creature’s death throes.
Cali raced toward the center and shouted in her head for Fyre to assist. The request was unnecessary, as he was already rising from the water with a Light Elf in his claws and carried the wounded magical to safety. She’d never imagined tha
t the scene ahead could be possible. Magicals of one group helped those of the others without concern for the various issues that usually divided them. Even amidst the chaos, the sight made something inside her shout with triumph. This was how things ought to be all the time.
An hour later, the rescues were complete, the wounded had been stabilized and transported, and most of those who had risen to the responsibility of protecting the city had portaled away. Nylotte had vanished quickly after the situation became stable, saying she needed to check on her student and let her know what had happened, assuming she could find her. Cali and Tanyith sat on the concrete, wrapped in blankets, with Fyre the Rottweiler at her side. She recognized the boots before she managed to summon the energy to look up. When she did finally raise her eyes, she saw a disheveled woman with a cut on her cheek and a red-stained bandage tied around one bicep.
“Detective Barton. Have you come to check on your boyfriend?”
She laughed. “He only wishes he was my boyfriend. What do you know about this situation? I have all kinds of information on what happened but no idea why it happened. Is there any chance you have a line on that?”
Cali looked at Tanyith, who shook his head. She replied, “It’s incredibly frustrating to admit this, but I know nothing. Our involvement started when the alert went out about something happening at the docks. We came here and joined the battle. It’s nice that you were able to join us, though. And even nicer that you brought friends with big guns.”
Barton sighed. “Yeah, big guns that were basically useless until you all used your magic. It’s kind of frightening to think that without a group of civilians, we’d have a ludicrous mythological sea creature crawling through the streets right now.”
“Maybe New Orleans should have one of those special SWAT teams. What are they called?”