by TR Cameron
“Fyre? Are you ready?”
He rose from where he’d sprawled near one wall, stretched like a cat, and raised his rear end high in the air before he walked his paws back to stand properly. “I’ve been ready for hours. Let’s go show these jerks they don’t mess with our people.”
She nodded resolutely. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Chapter Ten
The portal Tanyith had set up earlier in the day deposited them in front of the factory. Other industrial buildings surrounded it on all sides, mostly abandoned except for a single shipping company that was apparently still in business to judge by the bright blue truck that almost ran them over.
“Maybe position the portal a little farther from the street next time, hmm?” Cali quipped. He gave her a cartoonish scowl and gestured ahead. Large double doors with a broken chain hanging from one handle stood before them. She straightened her back and rolled her neck until a loud crack sounded. “All right. Let’s go see what idiots they’ve brought to fight against us.”
In her mind, she added, Please, let it be the wench in the red shoes.
Danna Cudon was there, but she wasn’t at floor level. A catwalk ran across the outer perimeter of the building about halfway up its three-story height, and several cross pieces connected one side to the other. An audience had found vantage points along them and looked a little smaller than the previous times. Cali shouted, “Your people seem to be losing interest in this. Do you want to call it a day?”
The Atlantean leader laughed. “No, we’re good, thanks.” She looked as if she’d dressed to impress with perfect hair and an almost funereal black suit offset by a scarlet shirt, tie, and shoes. “Would you like to forfeit? I can offer you a quick death.”
“Hard pass.” She whispered to Tanyith, “It was worth a shot, right?”
He nodded. “They’re not smart enough to give up. But I’ve gotta say, I’m not a fan of this setup.”
She couldn’t have agreed more. Heavy pieces of equipment cluttered the area, arranged in no obvious pattern. Keeping an enemy at range would be difficult. The high ceiling offered an opportunity to anyone able to fly, and it would be too hopeful to believe the other side hadn’t selected at least one airborne fighter.
Cudon interrupted her train of thought as she called, “I only see three of you. The note was clear that this was a four-on-four battle.” An expression of false shock and concern appeared on her face. “Don’t tell me you’ve run out of allies already, Caliste. Surely you have more than two beings left on this planet who care for you.” She finished with a wide grin.
Well, that’s a big clue about who attacked Emalia and tried to kill Dasante. She didn’t imagine the woman had accomplished both on her own but she had almost certainly been involved since taunting her about it brought her such pleasure.
“Not at all,” she replied. “Based on the previous fights, we calculated that we’re worth at least six of yours. It seemed unfair to bring more.”
The other woman’s laugh sounded forced. “Your overconfidence will prove to be your undoing. Are you prepared?”
Cali frowned. Won’t we see our opponents before the fight starts? I guess that might not be a rule. She turned to Tanyith, who nodded and then to Fyre, who growled eagerly. Aggression and confidence flowed to her over their mental connection. All righty then. “Let’s do it, wench.”
The grin that she so desperately wanted to slap off Cudon’s face appeared again. “Let the battle commence,” she shouted, and two roars echoed in response. The first was from the crowd above, who punctuated the yell by stamping their feet on the metal catwalks. That wasn’t worrisome.
The second, though, emanated from floor level and sounded like a seriously ticked off lion—if lions were the size of elephants. She shook her head. “It’s always an adventure with these scumbags. Split up, stay safe, and use magic from the start. Maybe that will give us a momentary benefit of surprise, anyway.”
They nodded and Tanyith eased to the left while Fyre took to the air. She moved right under the cover of machinery, thankful for once that she wasn’t model-tall.
The Draksa soared over the factory floor and searched for the four opponents that were doubtless already in position to attack his teammates.
Not if I have anything to say about it. He located the enormous creature that had emitted the roar and growled deep in the back of his throat. His turn in that direction was cut off by the sudden appearance of another Draksa that arrowed up from directly below. It was bigger than him, and the light glinted off its fully metallic scales to mark it as male. They were pure ebony except at the pointed tips, where a slightly lighter outline resembled an arrow pointing back along its body.
He rolled to evade the slashing claws of his foe, only to discover that the attack had been calculated to force him into the handler’s line of fire. A burst of lightning streaked from floor level and wreathed him in pinpoints of agony. He folded his wings and dropped to land hard but mostly uninjured. His scales would stand up to almost any harm for at least a brief period.
Entirely focused, he considered the angles and scurried to where the one who’d attacked him had been. His gaze moved constantly, alert to any warning that the other Draksa attacked again.
Speed will be everything in this fight. Fortunately, I’m the fastest being I know.
Tanyith crept carefully from cover to cover and searched for any sign of motion or of an opponent. Verbal abuse rained from above but seemed to all be general insults rather than anything specific that might be a cause to claim cheating.
As if they haven’t cheated at every turn. Anger surged through him, and he shook his head to clear it. Since the trip to New Atlantis, he’d found his patience seemed to wear out rapidly. It was doubtless because he vehemently disliked being obligated to the Malniets. That, plus the ache in his back that even sips of healing potion didn’t seem to banish, kept him cranky.
And now, I need someone to take it out on. A thin grin stretched his lips when he saw the tip of a boot protrude from behind a piece of equipment ahead and to the left. He focused his attention on his magic, drew it forth, and held it, increasing the pressure with each passing second. I gotta go as far as I can for this to work. Finally, when he could no longer restrain the growing power, he threw it forward.
The force blast pounded into the huge machine. With a squeal of broken fasteners and sliding metal, the object slid along the floor and away from him but failed to topple as he’d hoped.
Damn it, I should have hit higher. A figure sprawled in the open space beside it but rolled out of sight too quickly for his follow-up force bolts to intercept. The microphone pinned to his uniform collar carried his voice to the flesh-colored earpiece Cali wore. “I found one, probably an enforcer. I’ll take care of him.”
Cali nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. “Got it. No contact here yet, although it feels like Fyre is fighting.” The microphones and earpieces were part of a set of four she’d found among the spy gear.
Four. Mom, Dad, Atreo, and I. She closed her eyes and allowed herself a moment of regret for what could have been, then jerked her attention to the present. A blur above had caught her notice moments before and she attributed it to the flying creature she’d expected. The emotions from her dragon lizard partner were the same as when he’d faced another Draksa, so she presumed that was what it was. A familiar crackle suggested its breath attack was electricity.
She hated being on the receiving end of lightning. It burned, cut, and plain hurt. For all those reasons, she looked forward to adding the magic to her offensive arsenal to give her foes a taste of their own medicine. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of a thin passage between two pieces of high equipment ahead. It blocked her view and would leave her vulnerable while she went through.
Decisions, decisions.
Before she got too swept up in her internal debate to go through or around, she decided to go over. She used a blast of force magic to vault the piece
s and remained alert for the enemy Draksa. She didn’t see it but she did notice the flying net as it hurtled toward her. Lightning licked along the mesh, and she realized instantly that it wasn’t rope with electricity on it but a web formed of the electrical magic itself.
She battered it with a burst of force to send it off course and had a moment of satisfaction before another roar sounded, this one from much closer than before. Her gaze snapped down when a giant form knocked aside pieces of equipment as it closed on the position she had chosen for her landing.
Holy hell. How did a crab get so damned huge?
Fyre broke out into the open and located the enemy handler, who magically retrieved a lightning net from the air. She was clad in what looked like plates made of shell over a layer of leather. The brown base and beige pieces complemented one another and her light hair was braided in a single strand that fell to the middle of her back. He grinned at the woman’s distraction and took a deep breath as he performed his quiet serpentine slither to close the distance. When he was close enough, he directed a blast of frost at her.
The other Draksa intercepted his attack with a barrage of lightning that suffused and melted his magical assault, which resulted in its handler suffering nothing more than a cold, soaking shower. He launched another blast of frost, this time at the other dragon lizard, but again, their magics met and were rendered ineffective.
Claws and teeth, then.
He drove forward on the assumption that his foe would expect a less direct approach. When the other Draksa lowered its head to protect its vulnerable neck and eyes, Fyre leapt over it, scraped his claws down its back, and landed in a sprint toward the handler.
His airborne opponent bellowed and thrashed, and its thick tail slapped him into the air. It was a short flight that ended with a loud impact against a heavy piece of manufacturing gear. He landed hard, momentarily dazed, and when his senses returned, both the Draksa and its partner closed on him. The latter swung the net in one hand and grasped a trident poised to throw in the other.
As she landed and frantically avoided the snapping claws, Cali yelled, “Guys, it’s a giant crab and its pincers look really damn sharp. Other than summoning an immense hammer, how do I defeat this thing?”
The connection with Fyre was filled with battle emotions, so she couldn’t get a read on his response. Tanyith merely laughed. “Giant leg-cracker thingy, maybe?” He sounded out of breath and gave a small yelp. “I’m gonna have to get back to you.”
She ducked and rolled under another swipe of the beast’s front appendages and fired a force bolt that struck it squarely in the face, hoping there were eyes in there that she might damage. It didn’t seem to be affected in the least, so she tried flames instead—the largest cone she could summon targeted the same place. Aside from turning its rainbow-hued shell a slightly brighter shade, that also failed to accomplish anything notable.
The beast scuttled ahead and eight turquoise legs propelled it forward while the two that ended in sharp black tips reached for her. She shook her head.
I’ll never be able to watch the Little Mermaid again. Things from Under the Sea should bloody well stay there.
Chapter Eleven
Tanyith closed on the Atlantean enforcer, who had found his feet by the time he located him again. The man wore the crab-inspired armor he’d encountered on a previous opponent, but his wasn’t in natural shades. Instead, the hard shell was painted with images of combat. He frowned. “Before we try to kill each other, what’s up with the pictures?”
His foe grinned and spun the long spear at his side from its attack position to vertical and thumped the blunt bottom against the ground. “Each is a battle I have fought and won. I come from a family of warriors, and someday in the distant future, my armor shall join theirs to tell of our legacy.”
“You seem…uh, fairly accomplished.”
The man nodded and the portion of his face visible beneath the half-helm that covered the upper part revealed a smile. “Indeed. Soon, I’ll enter the trials to become one of the Empress’s personal guards.” He said the words with deep reverence, whether for the battles to come or the potential for serving the monarch, Tanyith had no idea.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Your loss today will certainly be a black mark on your record. You could leave, though. That wouldn’t count as a defeat, merely an intelligent decision.”
The enforcer laughed. “Enough conversation. I must kill you quickly so I can engage the others before my inferiors dispatch them.” He lowered the spear and advanced, looking as if being struck by the giant piece of machinery earlier hadn’t affected him at all.
Damn it. He drew his Sai and charged to meet him, hoping a surprise speed attack might get past the man’s defenses. One cut, that’s all I need to knock him out. He was forced onto the defensive as the enforcer used the length of his weapon and stabbed it forward on the line of his approach. Tanyith swung his right-hand weapon up and out, caught the metal point in the guard, and moved it away. He couldn’t get close enough to attack and still control the weapon, though, and when he released the spear to lunge ahead, his foe pivoted and smacked him with the shaft.
The blow caught his shoulder and knocked him aside. The short wind-up lacked enough force to do any damage but delivered enough to provide his opponent a moment to get outside his daggers’ range again. He considered hurling his weapons in the hope that he might achieve a lucky hit, but they weren’t balanced for throwing and he hadn’t really been all that lucky of late.
He set his feet and waited for the man’s next attack.
Fyre charged the enemy Draksa in the hope that the assault would keep the handler from launching the trident. Casting the net would require her to twist awkwardly across her body, which would compromise the aim. That part of the plan worked, but he received a full blast of electricity from his winged counterpart. He growled through the pain as he twisted his head to breathe ice over the woman, but she dove aside to avoid the attack.
A claw raked along his side and sliced through several scales before he could take to the air to escape it. As he flapped his wings to gain altitude, he exhaled another cone of frost at the enemy Draksa, who defended with his own breath weapon. The lightning net spiraled in and Fyre plummeted in a shallow dive to avoid it. The evasion made him lose sight of his foes but revealed the giant creature menacing Cali.
He coated it with frost, but while its shell immediately became rimed with ice, it didn’t appear to hinder the beast. The crab continued to close on her as he circled, but his attention was ripped away by another flurry of lightning from the enemy Draksa that passed under his extended wing. The dire need to end his own battle to assist with the creature was a sudden and powerful pressure, but he pushed the worry aside.
I can’t afford to be distracted, not against two.
They had obviously trained together, as his effort to dodge a lightning blast from below put him in the path of one from the other dragon lizard that scorched the scales on his belly. Even though his body would repair them quickly, the successive attacks risked a strike against them while they were weak, which would probably be fatal in this kind of fight. Outdoors, he would simply work to draw them away from one another, but there wasn’t enough room for that to be an option in the current battle.
Only a single solution offered a reasonable chance of success, and even though he didn’t like the idea, his body already shifted to make the attempt before the logical part of his mind could override the plan.
Cali summoned her sticks and raced toward the crab, dodged between the grasping claws, and drove her weapons into where she thought its face should be. The flesh there gave a little, more than a shell would have, but the beast seemed not to care. It scuttled far faster than she would have believed possible and snapped at her from both sides. She vaulted upward on a force blast and landed six feet away from her opponent, but it had already resumed its attack.
Damn it, how am I supposed to get through that shell? Maybe I ca
n crush the bastard with something?
She turned and sprinted through a slalom of equipment, hoping to buy time. The sound of crashing metal behind her confirmed that the crab pursued. She trickled power into her muscles, heart, and lungs to increase her speed to remain ahead of her foe. The sight of the jeering audience overhead triggered the idea of dropping a catwalk or three on the creature, but she rejected it as potentially ineffective and definitely outside her comfort range. Killing someone who tried to kill her was one thing. She didn’t like it but she’d do it if required. To simply kill the other gang members while they watched wasn’t an option.
A single image stood out among them—the grinning face of Danna Cudon. Okay, maybe she could make an exception for her. She slid to cross under the center portion of a large piece of equipment and emerged facing in the other direction. The crab grasped the multi-ton metal machine and ripped it from the floor. In the instant the machinery was held high, she assaulted it with a full-strength burst of force and hurled it out of the creature’s hold to land on its shell. The machine bounced and tumbled off the side, and the giant crustacean stopped in its tracks.
Go down, you bastard.
Cali’s moment of hope was brief as the beast scuttled toward her with another deafening roar and forced her to run again. Since when, she wondered desperately, did damn crabs roar?
Fyre accepted the lightning blast the handler fired from her trident and wondered idly if the magic came from the weapon or was channeled through it. The attack scoured his side, penetrated a weakened scale, and stabbed into his flesh. He locked his jaw against the pain and knew it was a small precursor to a larger portion to come.