Soulguard

by Christopher Woods

  I sat down and leaned my head back. As my eyes closed I heard Ramirez, “At least we don’t have to listen to that racket all the way there.”

  “You’d rather listen to this loud assed plane?” Jacobs asked.

  “As a matter of fact, yeah.”

  Chapter 56

  “Holy shit,” Jacobs said, “You guys feel that?”

  “It’s still an hour away from us,” I said as I opened my Inner eye to look for it.

  “That thing must be huge,” Holsey said.

  “I can’t believe you kept the pink hair,” Lewis said to Holsey.

  “Why not? He’s still bald,” Holsey said, pointing at Jacobs.

  I started feeling the rage building inside of me.

  “Starting to get that look in his eyes again,” Prada said, “The killing starts soon after.”

  The Demon portal was so strong, I was having a hard time beating down the rage. I jerked as Ric squeezed my shoulder but it helped. They know what I deal with every time we fight Demons and they help when they can. It really means a great deal to me that they care as much as they do.

  I spent the next hour struggling with the Demon inside me. I was ready to get off the plane as soon as it stopped.

  “They’re both here, Boss,” Ric said, “but I don’t see the Elites.”

  I had a sneaky suspicion where they were. One of the first priorities would have been to get the attention of the Demon army so the innocents could run.

  I met Daphne and Sam as I got off the plane, “We don’t have time for practice so I’ll tell you what I have in mind.”

  I looked at Keller with a question on my lips.

  “It’s your show, kid,” he said, “just tell me where you want me.”

  “Daphne, I want you on the right flank and Rictor on the left. I want twenty Guards on each side and stack the others in a chevron formation right behind them. When I raise the shield we’ll all be pushing it.”

  “What shield?”

  “You’ll know it when you see it. When I raise it, pull your ranks up against it and get as many in on the push as you can.”

  She nodded even though she wasn’t clear on what the shield was yet.

  “Sam, I need you in the center doing Mage things. You see anything bigger than a soldier you burn it down.”

  I turned to the two hundred and fifty six Guards forming up.

  “I can’t thank you enough,” My amplified voice boomed across the airstrip, “my brothers and sisters.”

  I pointed to the horde of news helicopters heading north, “The world will be watching and the whole Guard will be judged by the actions we take today. We’ll do the Guard proud. And if we walk the road to Paradise today, it will be paved with thousands of Demon Souls!”

  The Guard roared. One of the pilots from our plane stepped off the plane, “Who the hell are you guys?”

  “Who are we?” my voice boomed.

  “Soulguard!” two hundred and fifty nine voices replied in unison.

  “North at a run!”

  I surged forward as the world slowed and the Guard fell in behind me. We were at a small airport to the north of Wichita and we headed straight north. The area was flat and we didn’t bother with a road. We ripped across the plain at close to eighty miles per hour.

  The evil feeling of Demons grew closer and closer and there was a huge darkness ahead of us. We had covered ten miles when I felt a Pull like I’d never felt before. It was huge and the horizon lit up in the distance.

  “What the hell was that?” I heard a Guard ask. I was afraid I knew what the answer to that question was and I felt a sinking feeling.

  Minutes later we were near enough to see the horde of Demons on the other side of a small township. People were fleeing south and we angled to the side and charged straight through the town, toward the Demons.

  I could see a white glow out in the center of that horde. There were a lot of Demons trying to get to them but there was a massive wave of them heading for the town.

  All the way here I had been weaving a shield and it stretched across the front of our formation. It was shaped like a razor sharp arrow head and it rested against the shields of the Guards in our chevron formation.

  “Shields up!”

  Every Guard turned on their personal shield. I opened the portal on the arrowhead and it flared to life. Every Guard who could get to it moved into the shield to push.

  I looked at the horde in front of us and the rage was boiling out of me. In the center was a huge Demon with an ugly purplish black glow around it.

  “See that big bitch in the middle?!” my voice boomed.

  “Hell yeah!”

  “That’s the target! And I want it’s head! Full speed!”

  With another roar the Guards poured on the speed.

  The arrowhead slammed into the horde of Demons with an explosive crash and Demon parts and Demon blood exploded in every direction. We didn’t even slow down for several moments. We plowed through nearly half the distance from the outer edge to the Demonmage before our formation was bogging down.

  “Diamond formation!” my voice boomed.

  The Guard fell into a formation with twenty guards per side of a diamond. The rest formed a second diamond inside and a third inside of that one. Sam Keller was in the middle looking for Wraiths. I dropped the arrowhead and drew my swords which flamed to life.

  “Let’s dance!”

  My Guards had formed the outer diamond and most of them had been practicing the Dance of Blades with me. The world slowed and the Dance began. My swords blurred and Demons died. To my left Rictor’s swords took life after life and his soul was filled with glee.

  I love Marines.

  To my right, Andrea Prada danced and Demons died.

  “Wraith inbound! Three o’clock!”

  I heard Sam cut loose with his fireballer. The Wraith exploded before reaching the Guards. We cut our way ever further toward the Demonmage.

  “Switch!” my voice boomed and the Rednecks stepped smoothly back while the next rank of Guards stepped up. Daphne Cavanaugh stepped into the point position as I stepped back.

  “Wraith 3 o’clock!”

  “Wraith 9 o’clock!”

  “Wraith 1 o’clock!”

  Just as those voices rang out, the Demonmage erupted with ugly purplish black fireballs. I quickly formed a flat shield and placed it in front of the first fireball. It slammed into the shield and drove me backward ten feet. The next one I angled the shield so it just deflected the fireball right into a tightly packed group of Demons.

  They were incinerated. The fireballs kept coming and each was on a different trajectory so I had to concentrate on deflecting them all.

  As this was going on, Sam unloaded into the first Wraith at 1 o’clock. It exploded after three fireballs slammed into it. He turned and opened fire into the Wraith at 3 o’clock. The other one slammed through the lines and aimed straight at Sam’s back.

  It was mere feet from Sam when out of nowhere, Jacobs hit the thing high on the back, wrapping an arm around its throat. He hit it so fast it drove the Wraith toward the left and it missed Sam by inches. It roared and reached back to rake its claws up Jacobs’ back ripping long gashes into the man. His shield blunted a bit of the force and kept the claws from killing him outright. He reached to his belt and drew a dagger which lit with Soulfire. Then he raked it across the Wraiths right eye.

  It roared and began spinning, trying to get ahold of Jacobs. Finally it grabbed his left leg and snatched Jacobs from behind it. It raised the Guard to look at who had been on its back and opened its mouth to mangle him with its huge teeth.

  Jacobs armed plunged into its mouth and he slammed the flaming dagger through the roof of its mouth, right into its brain. It slammed its jaws closed, severing Jacobs’ arm, just below the elbow and it spasmed, ripping his left leg off below the knee.

  Jacobs cartwheeled outward toward the Demon horde to fall limply to the ground. Soldier Demons charged the dow
ned Guard, but Holsey, of all people stepped across him and began holding the horde back. In seconds, Ramirez joined him, while several guards I hadn’t met pulled Jacobs inside the formation.

  All of this I saw afterwards through the memories of several Guards. It took all my concentration to block the fireballs flying toward us. If they had been aimed at me, it would have been easier, but the fireballs were flying toward all different points in our formation. Then we reached the point where I was in range of the bastard.

  I opened the portals on six disk launchers and pushed the shields up high above the heads of my Guards. Then I Pulled hard and all six launchers sent fiery disks flashing toward one point. Straight at the chest of the Demonmage.

  Each of my launchers fires two disks per second and there were six. The disks began slamming into the thing’s shield and it stepped backward with each strike. It took five seconds before the first disk penetrated the shield and slammed into its chest. It screamed as disk after disk ripped it to shreds.

  Then I slammed my triple shield out to cover the rest of my men and opened the portals. The few Demons inside the shield were dealt with quite quickly.

  There was a massive roar from every Demon on the field and they all turned toward us.

  “That got their attention, Boss!” Prada yelled.

  “Damn straight!” another Guard yelled as the Demons charged and slammed into my shield.

  That’s when I turned to find Sam Keller bent over Jacobs pushing life-force into the man.

  “That crazy son of a bitch killed a Wraith!” Holsey was hovering behind Sam. I watched the memories flashing across auras and shook my head in wonder.

  “You know, if he lives through this he’ll be insufferable,” Prada said beside me.

  “It’ll be worth it,” I said, “Get some people to help him, we need to close ranks with the Elites. They’ve been hammered for over an hour.”

  Chapter 57

  I opened a hole up high in my shield dome and began lobbing Soulbombs out into the horde of demons. Sam had stabilized Jacobs as best he could and began doing the same.

  “When the shield goes down, diamond formation. The Elites are the target. We join forces, now that I think they’re definitely focused on us,” My voice boomed, “Rednecks to the front rank! I’m on point!”

  I looked at Sam Keller with a savage grin, “Fire in the hole!”

  I cut the tethers on thirty Soulbombs, He had made twenty-seven more and he cut the tethers to them.

  The explosion was deafening. Demons and parts of Demons exploded in every direction. I dropped the shield and shot forward with the Guard in perfect formation. My eyes stayed focused on the Elites as they began closing the distance toward us as well.

  I could see the individual Souls now and relief flooded through my as I saw both Kharl and Kyra were still alive. I could also see Paige’s aura and Darrel’s. But I didn’t see Nora’s and I knew what that explosion must have been, earlier. Gregor was still there so it had to be Nora.

  As we hit the horde of Demons again I Danced once more and the rage was fed Demon blood. I saw the Wraith coming head on at me and I opened up with the disks again. It made short work of the beast and I kept dancing. I glanced left to see Ric with a smile of pure happiness on his face. He’s never happier than when he is fighting.

  I love frigging Marines.

  I kept my eyes on the other group. Kharl’s soul was burning like a furnace over to the left side of the group and Kyra was moving so fast her soul looked like a firefly off to the right. They were each leading a group of Guards on the flanks.

  Suddenly, the firefly stopped and her Soul flickered. A great pit opened in my chest, I heard a horrible wail and I realized it was me. I saw the vision of my birth mother in the midst of the bloody massacre where she’d died. I saw my friends ripped apart in a cavern. I saw all the dead at Morndel and all the losses we had already taken here, but the one person I knew I couldn’t bear to lose was my mom.

  The rage wasn’t just peaking through the surface any more, it flowed like a tidal wave across my consciousness and I embraced that flood.

  I went berserk.

  I screamed in fury and began Pulling with all my might. My disk launchers spewed fiery death and my swords launched arcs of power into the horde between me and my mom. I surged forward across heaps of dead Demons, slamming arc after arc into the masses in front of me. My disk launchers spewed fire through Demon after Demon. My swords melted and I dropped them to sling arcs from my fists instead.

  I saw another Wraith and leaped to its back, before it knew what was happening. I reached down and ripped its head off with my bare hands. Then I jumped from its back into another packed group of Soldiers. I never slowed down, screaming in fury, I ripped them apart with my bare hands.

  Suddenly, I was in an open area and there were no Demons around me. I was still screaming in rage and looking for more. Then my eyes connected with those of Paige Turner and I realized I was there. I looked back to see my Guard was right behind me and I slammed my shields back up around us all.

  The fire was dangerously high in me but my first act was to leap to Kyra’s side. Kharl closed in from the left flank and when he saw Kyra laying in front of me he ripped the soldier he was fighting in half with a roar and went airborne. He landed right beside us to fall to his knees and pull Kyra to his chest. He cradled her head in his arm and tears were flowing freely down his face. Kyra was barely alive and I did the only thing I could think of.

  I reached down into her Soulstream and Pulled gently. I didn’t know whether it would work or not but I had to try. The Source flowed up her stream and the horrible gash in her side stopped bleeding. Her soul began to stabilize itself and I noticed that the fire that had built up in me was noticeably less.

  “Told you he’d get here,” She mumbled to Kharl.

  He looked at her with love flowing across his aura. They’d been together for close to thirty years and he had finally realized he loved the woman.

  I knelt beside her and kissed her forehead, “You’ll be ok now, Mom, I love you.”

  Kharl looked at me, “Thank you, Son.”

  I nodded at him and stood up, turning to find Rictor and Daphne waiting patiently for me.

  Sam Keller stood behind them with awe flowing across his aura.

  “You take us to the greatest places, Boss,” Rictor said with a grin. The sad part is he meant it.

  “What are our losses?” I asked with dread.

  “Thirty two dead, seven critically injured and forty three wounded.”

  “God, I’m sorry. I lost it back there.”

  “Lost it?” Ric snorted, “Most of those losses were from before you did that, I’m on fire and I’m gonna kill everything move.”

  Daphne chuckled, “Accurate description but it needs to be shortened a bit. I’d hate to try to remember all that every time I wanted to order it done.”

  “We were right behind you on the way in,” Ric said.

  I sighed and turned to look for the wounded. I saw the small group that Paige was tending and headed that way. As I passed the critically injured I stopped and Pulled through their streams as I had done with Kyra. By the time I reached Jacobs I was Pulling from the Source to power myself as I Pulled through his stream. His Soul stabilized and his eyes opened.

  “Did I get the bastard?” he groaned.

  “Hell yeah you did,” I answered, “Only Guard dumb enough to tackle a Wraith by himself. They’ll sing songs about it.”

  “God I hope it’s a better song than Rocketman,” He muttered as his eyes closed again.

  I turned to find Paige standing behind me with a haunted look in her eyes. I stepped forward and placed my hands on her shoulders.

  “Are you ok?” I asked softly.

  “I was ten feet from her when it came through,” she said and I watched her memory as she saw it in her mind.

  Wraith warnings sounded from everywhere and Nora had opened fire with disk launchers. She k
illed three of them but the fourth came in from behind. Nora didn’t have an Ivan Jacobs and she managed to turn, half facing the beast as its claws ripped through her side. Incredibly fast, she’d latched onto the creatures arm. You could tell that her spine was severed as she dragged herself around to latch onto the Wraith.

  It had happened so fast, Paige hadn’t even gotten her fireballer charged all the way before it was already too late.

  It surged through the Guards and out into the horde outside the perimeter. It began trying to dislodge Nora but she held tight. Paige was looking straight into her eyes when Nora Kestril Pulled the world inside out.

  Gregor barely got the shield up before the blast wave rolled over them. And the last look on Nora’s face was burned into Paige’s memory. She had a sad look of acceptance just before she screamed as the Source consumed her and Left a crater where the Wraith and close to four hundred demons had been.

  “Damn,” I said softly, “I’m sorry Paige. I have to go, just stay strong.”

  She nodded with a sadness filling her Soul. She and Nora had become very good friends over the last ten years.

  I made my way over to Gregor who gave me a strange look, “What the Hell did you just do? Those Guards Pulled from the Source.”

  “It must be one of those Soullord skills,” I answered, “I’ve never done that before but I couldn’t just watch her die.”

  “Amazing.”

  I looked out at the horde of screaming Demons pounding on my shield and an idea began to form. Something else caught my eye and I poured power into my eyesight to see a group of helicopters on their way toward us.

  “I think we have reinforcements incoming,” I said with my voice amplified, “Clear a spot in the center of the shield.”

  I opened the top of the shield and pushed the edges high enough that the Demons couldn’t get in and with a little push I made the whole thing glow brightly so the choppers could avoid it.

  I looked again at the horde outside, “Mages,” My voice boomed again, “Soulbombs out the top of the shield all the way around us. Let’s clear out the perimeter so I can expand the shield.”