James grunted. “Anytime, anyplace, and all night long, preferably.”
5
Harrier slapped a magazine containing anti-magic bullets into his rifle. “Damn, I should have been working straight for the government this entire time. Giving us exact coordinates and flying our asses out there? That shit’s a lot easier than what I’ve had to deal with for most bounties.”
The hulking George chuckled as he inspected his machine gun. He pulled an anti-magic deflector out of a belt pouch and slipped it over his neck. “This your first level six?”
The other bounty hunter shook his head. “First stateside. Hit one in Mexico once. Had to dig the fucker out of the mountains.”
“This is my first six, but I’ve hit tons of fives,” commented Lise. The blonde bounty hunter pulled her hair into a ponytail before grabbing her helmet. Like the rest of her unique power armor, it was bright blue.
The only man without a gun was the short and ironically-named Big Tim. The wizard had no armor, and not much in the way of supplies other than a wand holster.
“Do we have much on the targets?” the wizard asked. “That briefing was kind of a joke, except the size of the reward.”
Harrier shook his head. His heart had already sped up like it did before every job. He didn’t believe in staying calm. Being freaked meant adrenaline, and that meant faster reactions. Keeping calm didn’t mean shit as long as he was the one still breathing at the end of the fight.
“Nope, just that two of the Council are in the warehouse. They have offensive and defensive magic, along with summoning abilities. We should expect weaker magical support and monsters, and a few anti-magic bullets should be enough to deal with the monsters.”
Lise slipped her helmet on and tapped a control on her wrist. “Nice to not have to take any prisoners. That’ll make this easy.” Her voice sounded hollow and distant through her helmet speaker.
“Let’s do this shit already,” George rumbled. “Nothing like getting rich. I think I’m gonna take a long vacation after this one.”
Harrier shook his head. “We’re waiting for the signal. Need to do this shit simultaneously.” His watch beeped, and he laughed. “Okay, there we go. Speak of the Devil and then go kick his ass.”
He grinned and threw open the back door of the truck. The four bounty hunters piled out of the vehicle. Their driver was long gone, at their insistence. They didn’t want some government stooge getting in their way.
Even if they didn’t normally work as a team, they all knew each other’s general capabilities and could avoid blowing someone up who didn’t have it coming.
Big Tim raised his wand and performed several quick movements. Several dozen tiny glowing orbs appeared and swirled around the group in an erratic pattern.
They marched in a rough line toward the warehouse, and Harrier nodded to Lise. “Do it.”
She tapped her wrist control. A distant whirring and buzzing grew louder and closer over several seconds until they could make out a dozen drones closing on the warehouse. The bounty hunters watched as the drones slammed into the roof of the warehouse and exploded. A cloud of debris rained from the sky as half the roof collapsed.
“Damn!” George shouted. He laughed and shook his head. “They did say dead or alive.”
Several more explosions blew holes in the warehouse’s first-floor walls. Men with guns and wands poured out, shooting and slinging fire and energy bolts. Tim’s orbs stopped orbiting and flew toward the bullets and spells to absorb them with a flash.
George lifted his heavy machine gun and grinned. His barrel spat lead in a steady stream, blowing man after man apart. Harrier slung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled out his pistol. No reason to waste anti-magic bullets on the peons.
Lise raised her arms and fired several micro-rockets from the launchers on her armor. The explosives slammed into the defenders, blowing several of them to pieces and spreading even more fire over the already burning warehouse.
A blue-skinned woman stepped to the edge of the roof. Harrier and Lise tried to shoot her, but their rounds bounced off a flashing blue shield and fell to the ground encased in ice.
A frowning gnome surrounded by a shimmering cloud joined her on the side and shook his head.
Harrier nodded to Lise. “Let Big Tim and George handle the defensive line.” He holstered his pistol and grabbed his rifle. “Let’s finish off the quarterbacks.”
He knelt for a moment and muttered a quick phrase in Old Norse. Futhark runes appeared on his boots, and he leapt toward the roof.
Lise fired a grappling hook at the edge of the roof and caught it. Soon, both bounty hunters were heading straight for the Council members.
Just as they brought up their weapons to fire, an opaque sphere of ice froze around the targets.
“Damn it,” Harrier muttered as he hit the roof. He grabbed a grenade and waited for Lise.
She rolled onto the roof and aimed one of her micro-rocket launchers at the ice shield.
The thunder of gunfire and exploding spells continued below, but Harrier kept his attention on the sphere.
“Three…two…one,” he counted and tossed his grenade.
Lise launched another volley of rockets. Chunks of ice blasted away from the orb. Harrier could make out the shadowy outlines of the two Council members before all the ice was clear, and he and Lise opened fire.
The blue-skinned woman jerked a few times, red blood blossoming from her wounds. Lise whipped out a pistol and opened fire with exploding bullets.
Harrier grinned. They were winning, they just needed to keep up the attack. A large piece of cement slammed into him and knocked him to his side. A follow-up explosion knocked him toward one of the holes in the ceiling. He grabbed the edge before falling and pulled himself up one-armed, not willing to lose his rifle.
“What the fuck?” He groaned, his body throbbing.
Lise’s bullets kept changing direction at the last second.
Harrier gritted his teeth. He knew she was using anti-magic bullets, just like he was.
Razor-sharp ice tendrils condensed from the air and pierced Lise’s armor in several places. She screamed, but the tendrils kept perforating her. She stumbled back, red blood painting her blue armor, and pressed a button on her wrist control
No rockets came out this time. Instead, a bright blast of glowing stones hit the blue-skinned woman and gnome.
A second later, a tendril stabbed the bounty hunter through the heart. Her helmeted head lolled forward, and she stopped moving.
Another piece of cement slammed into Harrier.
Where the fuck is that coming from?
He groaned and turned. Three smiling wizards floated off to the side of the building.
One of the wizards held George and Big Tim’s heads, and he tossed them onto the roof with a smirk.
“Fuck you,” Harrier yelled. He rolled and grabbed his gun, switching to full auto, and unloaded the rest of the anti-magic clip into the three wizards. The men tumbled to the ground in a shower of their own blood.
The gnome grinned from inside the remains of the ice orb. He held what looked like a heavy-tipped lawn dart. “You’ve done well.”
He nodded toward the blue-skin woman. She was on her knees, blood pouring from a dozen wounds, whereas the gnome had a single minor head wound.
The gnome made a gesture with his hand, and the dart disappeared. “I don’t even need this. Don’t feel too bad. There were only four of you, but you killed most of our people. That’s an achievement.” He sighed. “And an unfortunate loss of resources. Feel some pride before you die.”
Throbbing agony distracted Harrier as he yanked another anti-magic magazine from his tactical harness. “You’re dead, you son of a bitch. She’s fucked up and bleeding, and you’re wounded. You’re not gods.”
The bounty hunter tried to eject his magazine and load the new one, but his shaking and weak hands couldn’t seem to pull off the motion, and his ammunition dropped to the roof with a clink.
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The gnome shrugged. “And you’re not even us. Think about that as you die.” A whirling portal appeared, and the gnome dragged the blue-skinned woman through it with a frown.
Harrier clenched his jaw, trying to fight off the darkness that threatened to swallow him.
Fuck, I’m bleeding out. Need to get to my potion. I can… I can still do this.
The bounty hunter stopped breathing. His last sight was the gnome’s hand waving to him before he disappeared into the portal.
We can do this. The Wu family has brought down plenty of level fives. Time to show the world we can take down level sixes, too.
Dozens of fearless bronze and iron statues holding heavy curved swords marched forward, ignoring the bullets and fireballs blasting around them. Scorch marks and chips indicated the hits, but the statues’ expressions didn’t change.
“Keep them going, May,” Cheng Wu yelled to his daughter. He reloaded his enchanted repeating crossbow and fired into the monsters. His bolt exploded and scattered several of them.
The young woman kept both hands tightly on her wand as her warriors slammed into the line of four-armed monsters that had emerged from the mansion. Their claws scratched at her animated statues to little effect. She smiled as her creations brought down their mighty swords and cleaved the first group of monsters in half. They’d already finished off all the gunmen and wizards the Council members had brought with them.
You Council jerks don’t know who you’re dealing with.
Fire, lightning, and strange prismatic rays rained down on the flickering dome her two sisters maintained over the family.
They were so close. According to the information the government had given them, the elf, witch, and wizard standing behind the horde of monsters were their primary targets, members of the mysterious and dangerous Council.
Just need to hold off their monsters, and we can break through and take them out.
Her father’s plan had worked. The defensive forces had concentrated on his daughters and him, never expecting they had two more men with them—her brothers. Not only that, they each carried powerful magical swords.
Almost there. Almost there.
May smiled as she spotted Harry and Tony on the roof above the Council members. Without a word both dropped, pointing their swords down.
We win, Council.
Harry’s blade slid through the witch’s heart. Tony nailed the wizard’s arm, but it wasn’t an instant kill. The elf frowned and leapt back a dozen yards as if magically tossed by an invisible hand.
He whipped up his hand, and a complex series of glyphs appeared in the air. Two bright rays blasted from his hand and through Harry and Tim.
May blinked several times as her brothers fell to the ground, large holes in their chests.
“Keep up the attack,” her father yelled, “or we’re all dead.”
The elf spun toward the rest of the family. May jerked her head toward her sisters and realized they’d dropped their wands in shock.
“Harmony, Lindsey!” she shouted. “The dome!”
Her father fired a bolt at the elf, which exploded but didn’t muss a hair on the target’s head. He growled and fired another bolt at the wounded wizard. The explosion knocked the man back and he dropped to the ground, charred and twitching.
The elf raised his hands. Two more rays blasted out, carving holes through May’s father and Lindsey.
May trembled, her heart thundering. She made several quick motions with her wand, and a half-dozen of her statue warriors broke away from the few remaining monsters and lumbered toward the elf.
They slashed at him, their blows striking an invisible shield around him. May kept up the attack. Once the last of the monsters fell to her other soldiers’ blades, she sent the entire group. The elf blasted the heads off a couple, but they kept attacking.
That weakens them, but it’s not enough, you bastard. You’re going to pay for what you did to my family.
One of the statues’ blades finally made it through the elf’s shield and slashed his chest. He slapped his hands together, and a massive wave of energy knocked the statues to the ground. The hot wave slammed into May and Harmony.
Every cell in May’s body felt like it was on fire. She hissed and blindly patted the ground around her to try to find her wand. Her fingers reached it just as a portal appeared in front of the elf, who limped through it, his arm outstretched and the wizard floating behind him.
May crawled over to Harmony. Her younger sister was unconscious and bleeding, but still breathing.
Her other sister, brothers, and father were all dead. May wiped tears from her eyes and glared at the dead witch’s body.
6
Crazak hissed as he emerged from the portal, Lawrence in tow. Ferrao was pacing back and forth with a frown. Yilin knelt on the ground, ice covering several obvious wounds. He Who Hunts glided over the ground, a sinister specter in front of an otherwise nondescript but large rustic mountain cabin.
Dozens of wizards and armed men stood in lines, awaiting orders. It was fortunate the Council had planned for this eventuality, even if Crazak was still shocked at just how savage the government attacks had proven so far.
We overplayed our hand. Subtlety might have served our cause better for a few years.
“Where’s Elizabeth?” Ferrao asked.
“Dead,” Crazak muttered. “We underestimated those government fools.” He shook his head. “Are the air defenses still active? If they knew to attack us at those other locations, they might know about this one.”
A wizard stepped toward him and nodded. “Yes, sir. If any government aircraft even gets close to this area, we’ll be able to shoot them down with minimum effort.”
Crazak nodded. “Fine. We can lick our wounds a little here. We’re too far away for them to attack us without a massive number of portals or aircraft, so it’ll be fine. We’ll have to consider our next step. We might need to abandon our American locations temporarily and rebuild operational strength.”
The ice melted on Yilin’s wounds and several closed, but she wasn’t completely healed. “I thought our contacts were supposed to assure these sorts of things didn’t happen?”
He Who Hunts chuckled lightly. “Death comes for all eventually, regardless of power. Such is the way of existence.”
Ferrao snorted. “And what of you?”
“Yes, even me eventually.”
Crazak shook his head. “The past is irrelevant. We still have resources and forces we can muster—”
A massive explosion hundreds of feet up shook the area, and a few seconds later a missile exploded against the aerial defensive field.
Damn it! So soon?
“They know we’re here.” The elf clenched his jaw. “Everyone, prepare for an attack,” he shouted. “We must make our enemies pay in blood for daring to oppose the Council.”
Dozens of dark streaks filled the horizon. Seconds ticked past before the missiles smacked into the shield, producing grand explosion after explosion. The bombardment continued for a good half-minute, but toward the end Crazak chuckled, some of his tension flowing away.
Arrogant fools overplayed their hand.
“They think they can brute-force their way in?” He shook his head. “We can evacuate before they even know what’s happenin—”
A loud roar preceded screams from guards and wizards as a railgun round tore through a half-dozen men. Dozens of uniformed men in exoskeletons rushed from the opposite side, the US Army.
What? How?
Crazak’s eyes widened as more soldiers rushed through a portal, followed by several witches and wizards. He’d been so focused on the bombardment he hadn’t even sensed the portal magic.
The soldiers quickly spread out, their rifles spewing anti-magic bullets and shredding the wizards and armed guards. Railgun rounds and grenades pelted the area, and less than thirty seconds after the soldiers had arrived they’d reduced half the support forces to red paste.
The Co
uncil troops’ guns proved ineffective against the heavy armor of the advancing Special Forces, and their distracted wizards and witches took too long to start flinging elemental and magical death toward the arriving enemy. Counterspells in various forms—orb, field, and bolt—zoomed out to meet the Council wizards’ magic.
The cacophony of the battle swallowed the thunk of several grenades being launched into the air. The soldiers continued moving forward, their mix of weapons tearing up the ground and cutting through the lesser magic users’ defenses.
“It’s time to leave,” Crazak announced, throwing up a shimmering magical shield. “Our brave servants can slow our enemies’ advances. I’ll give them credit for their tactics, and we’ll make them pay for it later.”
Ferrao grimaced and snapped, “It won’t open.”
Crazak raised his hands to summon a new portal and frowned. Nothing. Something was blocking the spell.
Damn you.
He glared at the wizards and witches in the rearguard behind the soldiers. They had to be the source of the disruption. Once they died, the Council would be free.
Explosions ripped up the ground around the Council members and strained the shield. It flashed with each hit, and more than a few bullets slid through, albeit slowly, dropping to the ground shortly after entry.
How many anti-magic bullets do these damned soldiers have? At least they’re putting a grand effort into trying to kill us.
The flash and loud report of gunfire ceased. Crazak surveyed the area. The soldiers were spreading around the Council members. All their servants and guards lay dead. The government’s witches and wizards walked slowly forward but remained well behind the soldiers.
We will die here, but not to these mere servants.
All the enemies raised their weapons and opened fire. Ferrao and Crazak both gritted their teeth, feeding more energy into the shield. Yilin stood, unsteady on her feet. Lawrence groaned and sat up, one of his arms hanging limply.
“If we have no servants,” Crazak shouted, “then we should summon new ones. Ferrao, hold the shield. The rest of us will do what is needed.”
Fatal Mistake: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone Book 11) Page 5