The monster roared and stomped toward James. He didn’t bother to dodge as the fire head clamped down on him. It lifted him as the acid head moved toward him.
Kill enemy, Whispy demanded.
“You breathe, James Brownstone,” the balaur’s acid head bellowed. “I have seen it. I will smother you. All creatures have weaknesses, and your arrogance has blinded you to yours. Then I will feast on your flesh to grow stronger.”
James thrust his blade arm directly above him. The balaur roared in pain, and its mouth shot open. The bounty hunter fell to the ground, landing with a hard thud and a groan, the armor taking the impact.
He hopped to his feet and sprinted toward the creature’s body. Another lighting ball exploded right behind him, and James dodged the follow-up acid attack. A small amount splashed on him and burned through his pants, but it didn’t shave any layers off his armor.
James’ charge ended with his blade impaling the front of the balaur. The creature roared and writhed as the bounty hunter jogged around the body, his weapon still embedded, and created a deep laceration extending from the front to the center of the body. A well-timed kick sent James rolling away, but blood spilled in a torrent from the wound, along with some muscle and what James took to be organs hanging out. It wasn’t like he was an expert in magical zoology.
The creature bellowed and twitched, stumbling backward. “Brownstone!”
James growled and charged the balaur again, this time targeting the other side. The creature tried to kick his tormentor again, but his stiff moments allowed James to slice open the entire other side. The balaur collapsed to the ground, the roars from its three heads echoing in the nearby woods.
“I’ll destroy you, Brownstone,” the creature shrieked in unison. “You will suffer for this.”
James leapt onto a leg and then atop the main torso. He ran toward the necks. A few quick hacks hewed through the neck of the acid head. The other two heads rushed toward him, and he removed the fire head from the body. The monster writhed in pain, a deep mournful groan issuing from the remaining mouth until James finished the removal of the last head. The body slumped.
An acrid stench seeped out of the necks.
James wrinkled his nose. “Fuck. That smell is deadlier than its damned breath.”
All of James’ wounds had healed by the time he returned to the pond, but that didn’t do anything for his mostly missing clothes. If he didn’t have his armor, he would be almost as naked as the lele. It was rare that he walked around in any stage of transformation for such a long time since normally he couldn’t sustain the level of anger necessary to keep it going. It was an interesting experiment, and he liked having power on demand.
The lele stepped out of the pond as Brownstone approached, the diamond in her hand.
James imagined a shallow pocket in the side of his armor and it formed. He accepted the diamond and dropped it into the pocket. “Thanks. Now can you lead me to Shay, or is that going to be hard?”
The lele shook her head. “No, that task will be rather easy. Right now there’s only one other human in this entire forest. Your woman.” She started walking. “Let’s go find her.”
Chapter Twenty-One
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Shay thought as she lay on her stomach, peering over a small mound into the distance. The cobza raid had proven annoying enough, but she’d hoped that finding the instrument rather than recovering it would prove the primary issue.
The sight ahead of her let her know just how wrong she was.
Correk’s damned chicken had led her to a single-story wooden fort infested with Zmeu. Dozens of the creatures were scattered around within the first zone of defense behind the seven-foot gated wooden fence.
How the hell did they even build this thing? I can see nearby stumps, so I get where they got the materials, but what did they use for tools? How did they plan it?
The Zmeu had proven to be far more industrious than she’d anticipated. Now she needed to figure the best way through them so she could get the instrument and rendezvous with James, wherever he was.
Some of the monsters stood or sat near firepits roasting some sort of green-brown meat she didn’t recognize. There was some barbeque she couldn’t get behind.
A taller gate blocked Shay’s view inside, but there was enough screeching and hissing to convince her there were probably dozens more inside the fort. She frowned at the chicken figurine on the ground beside her head. It was pointing straight at the fort.
Shay clung to the ridiculous hope that it might change for some reason, but it didn’t. The cobza’s location was clear, and while she didn’t always trust that the Fixer’s agenda would overlap with hers, the elf wasn’t the kind of person who’d lead her and James into danger for the sake of a joke.
Makes sense that the cobza’s there. The Zmeu must understand what it is and hope to use it somehow. All the more reason to get that thing out of there as quickly as possible.
A leaf crunched behind her, then another.
Shay whipped out her gun and rolled onto her back. She pointed the weapon behind her, ready to shoot whoever was coming. She relaxed as a familiar Los Angeles bounty hunter approached, and raised a curious eye at his companion.
James closed the distance between them until he was right in front of her. His body was mostly covered by his armor, but his pants were now more a loincloth rather than an article of clothing. The man being in his armor obviously post-fight wasn’t surprising, but the smiling woman to his right was.
Okay, play it cool. Don’t want to come off as a jealous harpy, but there’s at least one question I have to ask.
Shay holstered her gun. “Why are you with some random naked chick? Who the hell is she?”
James shrugged. “She’s a lele. She asked me to kill a balaur in exchange for a diamond and tracking you down.”
“That actually makes a surprising amount of sense, considering where we are.” Shay blinked. “Wait, did you say diamond?”
James reached into his pocket and pulled out a huge diamond as the lele beamed at Shay.
Since when does his armor have pockets?
Shay laughed. “Damn, you’ve been a busy beaver. I feel like a slacker in comparison.” She nodded toward the lookout mound. “We’ve got a Zmeu fort over there, most likely with the cobza inside. I encountered a Zmeu earlier after we got separated. It wasn’t a pleasant meeting.”
“So did I.” James grunted. “Already killed a bunch of them.” He slapped a fist on his chest. “Fully adapted to their magic swords.”
So that implies they got at least one good hit in. Those dragon men are tougher than I thought.
“I killed one, but he was really fucking obnoxious, so he should count for more than one.” Shay shrugged.
“This situation no longer involves me,” the lele stated with an annoyed look.
James nodded. “Thanks for your help.”
“Thank you, James Brownstone, for clearing out the balaur.” The lele offered a polite nod to Shay before sashaying off.
It took Shay a few seconds to recognize that the grass and brush she stepped over and around were slowly turning bright red.
“So now we have to deal with our fort,” Shay commented. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “This shit has gotten complicated since the Zmeu decided they needed to show off their engineering skills. That’s cute. Wonder who they’re worried about, to make something like that. I doubt they just whipped up that thing in the last few hours because of you or me.”
“There’s a lot of angry and dangerous shit in this place.” James shrugged. “I think we haven’t seen half of it.”
“Probably.” Shay sighed. “You know, some days tomb raids don’t bother me, and some days I find myself asking, ‘What the hell is wrong with you, Shay? Why didn’t you take up bartending?’”
James shrugged. “I hunt dangerous criminals. Not like shit’s any better for me on most jobs. Even the low-level guys are mostly violent crimin
als.”
Shay snickered. “Yeah, we’ve made questionable career choices, for sure.” She shook her head. “But nothing we can do about that now. We need to get that cobza.” She nodded in the general direction of the fort. “Probably over a hundred of our fine cannibal dragon-men friends manning the walls of Fort Annoyance over there.”
“Are they technically cannibals? I mean, they eat people, but they aren’t human.” James furrowed his brow, thinking too much about the issue. “It’s like feeding chicken to a parrot or something.”
Shay pondered that for a few seconds before nodding. “Good point. Wait, does that mean if I ate an elf, I wouldn’t be a cannibal?”
James stared at her with a confused expression. “Are you planning to eat an elf?”
“No, I just was…” Shay groaned. “Never mind. We’ll worry about the nuances of cannibalism later. Let’s concentrate on the assholes we have to kill right now. My sword worked well on the one I killed, but I didn’t get a chance to test it on anyone else. You said you’re adapted to them, which means they have enough power in their swords that they might be able to get through my defenses with enough effort.”
James gestured to his chest. It took Shay a second to realize he was pointing to where his holster had once been.
Come to think of it, pretty much all his gear is gone, including his backpack. Did it all get destroyed?
Shay’s backpack sat on the ground a yard away. She’d wanted to be ready to move rapidly.
“I tried shooting them with regular bullets, and it did jack shit,” James explained. “Grenades also did shit.” He raised his blade. “This went through them like they were made of paper.”
Shay nodded. “So we’re going to have to go in there and carve lizards up to get the cobza. I don’t have enough anti-magic bullets on me to take out that many, so does a stabby-slashy plan sound good?”
“I don’t think they can do much to me at this point. It’ll just be a matter of how much fucking time it takes.”
“Why? Got some special plans?” Shay grinned. “This recovery assumes you’re not too busy running around with naked chicks. I didn’t realize this tomb raid was going to turn into Brownstone After Dark. Might have packed a few extras for you. Special oils and shit.”
James grunted. “It’s not my fault she’s naked. She’s some nymph thing. She did try to come onto me, and I told her to fuck off.”
“When you get engaged to a woman, you’re supposed to play the field less, not more.” Shay winked, but the mirth left her face. “Your loyalty to me is the one thing I’ll never question about you, James. Let me make that clear right now.”
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Shay’s face heated and she looked away. “Glad my plan worked, though.”
“Plan?” James eyed her with suspicion. “What plan?”
“When I lost you through the miracle of what I assume was random portal shit, I decided to just go directly to the cobza under the theory that you’d eventually catch up, but I didn’t expect you to become the Scourge of Zmeu and Saint Brownstone the Dragon Slayer in the meantime. You really did have a busy day, but at least now we know we have the resources we need to take down the little army gathered at Fort Annoyance.”
“Oh, by the way, Whispy’s figured how to feed the power to some of this shit off background magic.” James shrugged, his bland expression not matching the huge revelation.
Shay blinked. “That’s a pretty big damned deal. I was kind of wondering how you could be in advanced mode, because you don’t seem pissed off at all.”
“Not sure if it’s gonna work in a place other than this, but at least it’s let me stay in this form all day.” James raised a blade and give an evil grin. “I wonder about Oriceran. It’s a good thing to test at some point in case I have to go fight more Drow.”
Shay patted the hilt of her sword. “Maybe we can convince the Zmeu to surrender the cobza, considering all the noise you’ve been making. A victory by force of will rather than random slaughter might be nice.”
James marched toward the lookout.
“Where are you going?” Shay asked.
“To talk to them. Might as well get this shit over with.” James shrugged. “Not like I’m getting anything else out of fighting the fuckers at this point.”
“So much for even considering a surprise attack.” Shay jogged after him. “When I said maybe we could convince them, that was just a suggestion. I thought we were going to go through a few more options.”
“It’s a good plan, so why spend more time talking?” James jumped off the short lip of the hill. Screeches and hisses erupted from the Zmeu behind the fence, along with other noise from inside the stronghold. The enemy had eyes on them.
“I’m James Brownstone,” the bounty hunter bellowed, his voice carrying. “I’m here with a woman to get the cobza you’ve got in there.” He continued his advance. “If you’re thinking, ‘We’ll just fight this guy and eat him,’ you should know I’ve already killed a shitload of you, as well as a balaur. To be honest, I want to kill you scaly motherfuckers because you eat people, but I figure at some point they’re gonna figure out how to fix all the shit around here and then the Romanian government will probably bomb the fuck out of you anyway.” He shrugged. “Why waste my time? But let’s make this shit clear: If you fight us, you will die. If you leave right now, you won’t. Or if you give us the cobza, we walk away and you get to live for at least one more day, but any choice involving fighting us will end with you dead.”
“Nice intimidation,” Shay observed.
Angry screeches followed, along with so many hisses it sounded like a river for a moment. The Zmeu summoned their dark blades out of smoke, enough that a billowing cloud spread above the fort. Faint hints of sulfur filtered from it.
Wonder if that means they’re demons? Or maybe something else. Who the fuck knows?
“It doesn’t seem like they’re getting scared,” Shay observed, lowering her hand to her sword. “And no one’s calling back in English. Looks like it’s going to be the hard way. Well, you gave them a chance to surrender. Not our fault they’re choosing to get sliced up.”
“This is what happens when you don’t pay attention to your local news.” James shrugged. He jogged toward the fence. “Let’s just clear them out and get this over with. I want to get the fuck out of this forest.”
Shay headed after her man, not yet drawing her tachi. She wanted to wait until she was closer so as not to waste energy.
I wonder what it would have been like to have James with me on all my longer tomb raids. Like that shit in Australia.
The Zmeu continued to screech and hiss while rhythmically banging their swords against the ground or fence. James continued toward the large wooden gate securing the front fence. Several of the dragon men rushed toward it, ready to intercept the armored bounty hunter and the tomb raider.
Shay and James closed to twenty yards.
“Ready?” James asked. “I’m gonna do this the direct way. No fancy shit, since they can’t hurt me.”
“You do what you need to,” Shay replied. “I’ll clean up afterward.”
With a grunt, James broke into a sprint and barreled toward the gate. Shay picked up her pace but didn’t match his. Even with the pendant and the ring, it made more sense to let James take the lead and bear the brunt of the enemy’s attention.
He smashed shoulder-first into the gate with an echoing crash. One of the wooden doors ripped off its hinges and collapsed on the Zmeu on the other side. A river of dark swords and green scales surged toward the opening and the invader.
Here we go.
James recovered quickly and swung his blade in a wide arc, and a whole line of the enemy fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Other Zmeu slashed at James or tried to bite or claw him, but their attacks accomplished nothing more than setting the creatures up for easy counterattacks from the armored bounty hunter.
The enemies bodies began to pile
up as the writhing mass of reptilian monsters surrounded James, every individual creature desperately seeking a weak spot.
Their focus on James gave Shay her opening. She arrived at the entrance and started slashing with wild abandon. The tachi cut deep into the flesh of the Zmeu. Her initial victim lost his head, just as the first Zmeu she’d encountered had. The next several dropped as she pierced their chests or slashed at their legs.
With a roar, James threw several of the monsters off him. His follow-up thrusts came so quickly it was almost mechanical, with a new enemy dead every second. The Zmeu apparently refused to believe they couldn’t overwhelm their nemesis with sheer numbers as they continued to hack away at him, but even the lucky few who struck his non-armored neck or head were surprised that they netted only quickly healing scratches.
There’s brave, and then there’s stupid.
The initial dozens of foes dropped to a single dozen after a few minutes and were reduced to a half-dozen a minute later. The last Zmeu in the outer yard fell to Shay’s blade.
Shay took short, ragged breaths as she walked through the tangled pile of dead monsters toward James, who had been painted blue by the enemy’s blood. She pushed a body out of the way with her foot. “That was some old-fashioned ultra-violence.” She nodded toward the inner gate. “Maybe that convinced them of the wisdom of diplomatic solutions.”
James turned toward the inner gate and raised his blade. “Give us the cobza or die, assholes.”
“That’s pretty straightforward, but these things have come off so far as pretty stubborn. Here’s hoping.” Shay frowned and grabbed a rag out of her bag to wipe the Zmeu blood off her blade.
“If they’re smart enough to build a fort then they’re worried about survival,” James replied, his low voice reminding her of an avalanche. “That means we can reason with them, and they just saw half their guys get taken out. Not everyone is as dumb as the Harriken.”
The inner gates squeaked open. Zmeu were shoulder to shoulder inside, their swords at the ready. There was a commotion at the back and some sort of undulating movement through the crowd. They were passing a cloth sack to the front.
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