by TR Cameron
He turned unexpectedly serious. “We should probably be careful what we wish for on that front. He seemed really intense about it.”
“Yeah. But still, I bet it would be a sight.”
“Speaking of seeing things, I need to pop home and grab the glow sticks and my weapons. Do you want to get there early?”
“No way. I’ll go home and eat something. We’ll meet you outside the casino at eight forty-five.” She summoned a portal and he did the same. “Don’t be late or I’ll have to start without you.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Walking through the Quarter in the martial outfit was out of the question. Even though most of the locals and tourists probably would have taken it in stride, Cali didn’t want to risk having some chucklehead delay her arrival. During their initial reconnaissance, Fyre had flown a circle around the area to identify the best location for a portal, and she arrived in the dark alley beside the casino to find nothing other than trash bins and the rodents that called them home.
She emerged from the narrow corridor with the veiled Draksa at her side. Tanyith stood nearby clad in a ridiculous-looking bright red windbreaker. She couldn’t help but laugh and he rolled his eyes at her and growled. “Seriously?”
“Once we’re down there, you should throw that away. No, wait—actually, you should burn it. If Kendra sees you in it, you won’t get any action for at least a month. Maybe a year.” Making fun of their couple-ness was one of her favorite pastimes at the moment. Which probably means I need better hobbies.
Cali led the way down the concealed staircase. At the bottom, they reached a door that she’d put a new padlock on when they’d found the tunnel. The lock was still intact but the hasp that had been attached to the concrete wall had been ripped free to permit access. “It looks like they accepted our invitation.”
He nodded. “Good. I would have hated to get all dressed up only for them to chicken out.”
She laughed and pulled the door open. It was dark beyond it but a distant glow looked like it might be fire. They walked for about a quarter of a mile in the increasing illumination until they could finally make out four bonfires set far enough apart to delineate the combat area. The space was sufficiently large to handle a bigger battle than the one at hand. Between the flames were the expected onlookers, blocking their view of whatever opponents waited inside.
A hundred feet away, she stopped walking, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly to center herself. Without moving her gaze from the gang members ahead of her, she whispered, “This is your last chance to back out, you two.” Their dismissive snorts were virtually identical. “All right, then. Let’s do this thing.”
Chapter Six
The rustling and chatter that had grown louder as they approached the gathering dwindled and vanished when their presence registered with the crowd. A gap appeared in the wall of people in their path and they strode through into the combat area. It was momentarily empty until the business-suited woman she had seen entirely too much of lately stepped forward.
Danna Cudon was dressed in gray today—an elegant pinstripe jacket and trousers over a black shirt and scarlet tie. She wore high heels in the same shade of red, a departure from her normal sensible footwear.
Maybe she has a date afterward. Dang, it could be Tanyith’s right. It seems like everyone’s partnering up lately.
“We are here as requested.” The woman sounded amused. Her lip curled a little and scorn entered her tone. “Nice outfits.”
Cali grinned. “Function over fashion, unlike some people. Pretty shoes, though.”
Cudon nodded as if accepting a compliment. “Are you ready to begin?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Three of us against you? That sounds great. Let’s go.”
The other woman merely shook her head. “Hardly, although I would welcome the chance to lock you in a box again.” Cali scowled, and the Atlantean second in command’s lips curved into a smile as she turned to her left. “Champions, step forth.”
From the back of the group farthest from where they’d entered, a trio of beings pushed forward, two bipedal and one about the size of a large dog. Fyre hissed at the sight of the other Draksa, and it responded by surging against the chain held by one of the two people. The woman who controlled it was dressed in some kind of scale armor that covered her from feet to throat and shimmered in the same hues as the creature she restrained with the thick chain in her left hand. In her right was a long spear with a wicked barb at the base of the sharp end and a blunt ball that rested on the floor. Her thin hair was dark and wild, defying gravity as if she were underwater.
The man beside her was undoubtedly an enforcer and obviously a more well-regarded one than those she’d faced previously. He too wore armor, a series of thick plates that resembled crab shells positioned over a black layer of shirt and pants. His boots had spikes on the front and back that again brought crab shells to mind. He had long, ropy blond braids confined in a band that hung down to the middle of his chest. Although he held no weapons, two handles protruded over his left shoulder so he clearly didn’t lack options.
Tanyith nudged her and whispered, “I wish I’d thought to bring a mallet and newspaper.”
She shook her head. Concern about the clear professionalism of the two Atlanteans put her beyond humor, an exceedingly rare condition for her. “Which one do you want?”
“I’ll handle the big dude. I should be able to keep him busy while you two deal with the others and then, you can save me.”
This time, she did laugh when his response cracked her wall of anxiety. “You have a very realistic sense of your own abilities. I promise not to tell Kendra what a wimp you are.”
He shrugged. “It’s merely logical. You know more about Draksa than I do and that’s a big damn wildcard. Especially if we start with hand-to-hand and no magic.”
The enemy non-Draksa rolled their shoulders and twisted to loosen up. Cali said, “We won’t do that. I’m sure they don’t consider the Draksa’s claws weapons, but neither of us will be able to defend against them without something in our fists. No, we’ll go for blades and sticks at first draw and hold off on the magic until it’s absolutely required.”
Fyre growled his approval of the idea. She looked at him but he didn’t meet her gaze, his focus entirely locked on the creature across the way. She sent a message mind-to-mind. “We’ll start with you on the Draksa and me on the woman and change it up if needed or if they don’t behave.”
She assumed their foes would adhere to the previous rules and battle them as single opponents first, but she hadn’t been confident enough in that to assume it in her attack plan. He returned anger and nodded his head. She’d never seen her partner so aggressive and was glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of his ire.
Danna Cudon seemed to be waiting, so Cali gave her a nod. The Atlantean gang leader whispered, “Goodbye, Caliste Leblanc,” then proclaimed, “Battle three begins!”
The woman backed out of the space and the fighters separated. Cali and Tanyith pointed at their chosen opponents and received slight head-tilts of acknowledgment in return. The woman flicked her wrist and the chain detached from the Draksa’s collar. It stood motionless but trembling, ready to attack Fyre. For his part, her life-partner dragon lizard was rigid and focused but now displayed slightly more emotion than usual. Cali willed her bracelets to become sticks and Tanyith drew his Sai, which inspired smiles on their foes’ faces.
The tense moment hung in silence before the armored woman broke it with a loud shout and the trio attacked as one.
Fyre didn’t recall ever fighting another Draksa, although if the truth be told, he remembered little from before his time in the cemetery. Nevertheless, instincts flooded his mind with attacks and counterattacks and cataloged the creature across from him as something other than what he was. He imagined most non-Draksa would find it difficult to distinguish one from the other, but it was as clear as day that his enemy came from a
different branch of the species than he did.
Cali had learned that breath weapons could be considered magic in ritual combat and they had concluded that this ability was best kept in reserve for a moment of need. As a result, the start would be all claws and teeth and tail. Which suits me perfectly.
It was strange seeing another creature doing the slithering approach he knew so well, but it was only the opening note of a song yet to be sung. He crouched and waited, ready to move in whatever direction the next verse required of him.
The enemy Draksa stopped suddenly and spun to reveal a much longer tail than Fyre had expected. It seemed to elongate as it traveled and stretched toward him. The spikes on the end of it inspired a moment of jealousy as he responded, leapt upward, and used a beat of his wings to hurtle at his foe.
His talons scored a thin line across the creature’s back, a scratch on the scales that failed to penetrate. The enemy snapped and grazed his rear leg with its teeth but accomplished nothing substantial. He flapped to gain a little more height, although the twelve-foot ceiling of the tunnel didn’t permit him to use his best moves. As he circled, he had to actively resist breathing ice on the bipedal enemies below him and dove toward his opponent again.
Tanyith had predicted that the pommels visible over his foe’s shoulders would be for swords and would have bet everything he owned on that conclusion. He almost stumbled in surprise when the man drew two short-handled, double-bladed battle axes. The curved blades were solid black and the handles gleamed silver except for the brown leather wraps that had been visible during his approach. He judged that they were slightly longer than his own Sai in the instant before the first one chopped down at his head.
The metal clanged against the guard of his weapon and for a moment, he thought it would shear completely through. The force of the blow almost ripped it from his grasp and yanked him to the side enough that the horizontal strike from the ax in the other hand almost caught him. He dropped into a crouch to avoid decapitation and spun to sweep his opponent’s feet from beneath him.
The Atlantean enforcer vaulted over the attempt and lashed a kick that struck the meaty part of his opponent’s chest. Tanyith tumbled back, turned it into a somersault, and pushed up as it completed in time to catch the next downward hack on crossed blades. He let one sai slide away, captured the weapon with the other, and wrenched it to the side. The free blade intercepted the other ax on its way in and for an instant, his foe was open. He delivered a front kick to the man’s sternum and forced him into a doubled-over retreat.
Intent on striking hard before his enemy could recover, he thrust into an assault.
Cali pivoted to her left to avoid the first stab of the spear and deflected the second with her stick. She shuffled forward and tried a sidekick, but the armored woman smacked it aside with the staff of her weapon. When she whipped her other stick around toward her adversary’s head, the larger weapon again interposed itself and blocked the effort. The Atlantean champion wore a condescending grin as she defended against the attacks with her spear and spun it in one hand as if it were no bigger than a baton to ensure it was always at the right angle to deflect her strikes.
Okay, wench, I was wrong to hope you were simply an appendage to the Draksa. Duly noted. She threw a stick at her head and circled away from the woman’s weapon to try to sneak in a strike. Again, her foe defended herself with the spear against both blows. Damn it, woman, are you showing off one-handed simply to mock me?
The chain that suddenly wound around her ankle and ripped her balance away answered that question. Cali fell hard on the concrete and managed to sneak an arm under her head to prevent her skull from impact with the unyielding surface. She threw her remaining stick at the woman, who had raised the spear and now pivoted toward her. It gave her only a second’s grace, but it was enough to wriggle onto her back. Her opponent stabbed down and she intercepted the tip of the weapon with the reinforced heel of her boot and hoped it would be strong enough to prevent the point from thrusting through and stabbing into her.
She breathed a thank you to her parents for protecting her yet again when the barrier held. Her opponent stared at her in shock and she smirked as her sticks smacked into her hands once more. She lowered her blocking leg and used the other to kick the spear away, then continued the twist to rise to her feet and spun to face her foe.
The champion snapped the chain again but this time, Cali was ready. She skipped over it, worked against the woman’s natural turn for the strike, and pounded her stick into her elbow. The chain dropped from her suddenly numbed hand but the rewarding crack of a broken joint failed to materialize. Damn armor. The spear whipped at her with the barb and its unexpectedly sharp edge leading. She leaned back, released her left stick as the point whistled past her face, and stepped in to grasp her enemy’s wrist. The scales were flexible enough that she could squeeze hard and secure her grip, and she used it to yank the Atlantean forward. She kicked the back of her knee as she went past and the woman dropped.
Her opponent yelled a command and the woman’s partner Draksa immediately turned away from Fyre and suffered a deep rake from his claws as he obediently abandoned his own defense. He vaulted upward to put his head level with Cali’s. His mouth gaped wide and suddenly, the scene shifted into movie-style slow motion for her. The individual droplets of his breath weapon reflected the glow of the bonfires as a cone-shaped cloud of liquid and mist emerged and headed lazily toward her face. She threw herself back and fell to avoid the floating stream and barely noticed when her spine and skull connected hard with the concrete.
Pain stabbed through her head but she ignored it and clenched her muscles to defend against the creature that now plummeted toward her. A scream of agony from behind her triggered a reflex twist to discover its source. Tanyith staggered with his hands over his face and she realized instantly realized what had happened. She’d blocked his view of the Draksa or he’d been too intent on his own fight, and the little bastard’s acid breath had struck her friend. She watched, horrified, as he fell and the ax-wielding enforcer surged forward to deliver a killing blow.
Chapter Seven
Rage filled Cali, and she released her hold on the magical pressure inside her with a shout as she sliced her hand in an arc. Force power followed the line of her movement and rocketed into the flying Draksa, the scaly wench, and the enforcer. None was able to react in time, and they all catapulted away. As she rose, the man landed upright in a skid and the woman struck the cement on her back but continued it into an acrobatic flip to her feet. The Draksa pounded into the roof and plunged to sprawl near them.
She mentally shouted, “Get the woman,” to Fyre and turned her attention to the enemy dragon lizard. I only have seconds before the enforcer will target Tanyith again. Her stomach squirmed uncomfortably but she pushed it down ruthlessly and raised her hands. A focused cone of fire surged toward the enemy Draksa. She bathed him in it and spread her fingers so every inch of him was covered in flame. The creature screeched and spasmed, then collapsed. She spun in time to see the enforcer hurl an ax at her injured partner, who writhed on the ground. His screams had stopped, which was a bad sign. She launched a force blast to send the ax off target and was unsurprised when it returned to the enforcer’s hand.
“Pay attention to me, scumbag,” she shouted, thrust into the attack, and launched a series of force punches at him as she ran.
Fyre had dropped and rolled under Cali’s blast of magic and barely managed to avoid it. When he recovered his feet, he was ten feet away from the enemy woman and to her side. The chances that she was unaware that he had an angle on her were small, he thought, but it was worth the attempt. He breathed ice at her boots on the assumption that if she hadn’t seen him, a low attack might go unnoticed.
His second hope—that she might stay focused on the plight of her pet long enough that he could sneak his strike in—was dashed when she vaulted upward and whirled with a scream. Her knees came to her chest as she avoided his bla
st, and as soon as she landed, she leapt toward him. The spearhead created a silver circle as she twirled it and her scale armor glittered. He waited, immobile, for her to commit herself.
She landed a foot away from his head and thrust the point at his snout. He threw himself to the right in a roll, twisted as he regained his feet, and whipped his tail around in a short arc to strike at her knees. She drove the base of the spear down to block and kicked his flank. The impact radiated pain through his whole body and he saw his blood glistening on the tip of her boot, which clearly had a sharp edge of some kind. She drew it back for another kick.
Fyre used all his speed to whirl behind her and managed to avoid the follow-up blow. His mouth stretched wide and he snapped his teeth onto her calf, then bit hard against the initial resistance from the armor before he tasted her flesh beneath it. He wrenched his head from side to side to tear at the wound but disengaged in time to avoid the spear point that drove into the ground below where his skull had been. He backpedaled and felt a surge of satisfaction as the limb collapsed when she turned to follow. Now it’s only a matter of time before she bleeds out. Let’s see if I can make that moment come sooner.
She uttered a command and raised her hands, and he released an involuntary screech of alarm when she summoned her own version of her pet’s breath weapon and discharged it toward his face.
Cali’s force punches were blocked by the enforcer’s axes, which came as a complete shock. She growled at the realization that they were almost certainly magical and with a shield ability of some kind included. Fine. Let’s see how you deal with this. She summoned a full-body force shield and pushed forward behind it.