Mage Hunters Box Set

by Andrew C Piazza

  “How am I supposed to use this and my gun?” he said.

  “Those little P90s can be shot with one hand,” Shifty said. “Pussy.”

  “Adjani, we’re going to have to leave you in here,” Dread said.

  “Don’t forget our arrangement,” Dr. Adjani said.

  “About killing you?” Dread said. “Oh, I’d be happy to take you out right now, but we may end up needing to you to talk Cass through how to disarm the device.”

  “Clock’s ticking, Dread,” Shifty said. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know,” Dread said. “Cass is the one who’s good at this sort of thing, not me.”

  “Come on, Big Dog,” Shifty said. “Think of something. You’re the one who came up with how to nail Polonius.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jolly asked.

  “Last time we were in this building, taking on Maestro Polonius, we got boxed in by these same goddamn things. Dread came up with the idea for me to teleport him down to where Polonius was, right on top of him.”

  “Yeah, but we can’t do that now, right? You said the floors are all guarded against teleportation.”

  “Warded.”

  “Whatever,” Jolly said. “What about teleportation on the floor? This same floor?”

  “What good is that going to do, Jolly?” Shifty said. “Teleport a few rooms over, so that we can get killed there?”

  “Hang on,” Dread said. “Hang on a second.”

  Dread was staring at the cameras, lost in thought, and Jolly thought about snapping his fingers a couple of times to get his attention when the big man finally nodded and spoke again.

  “I think I might have something.”

  “Yeah, well, make it quick, Dread, because we’re almost out of time,” Shifty said.

  The twittering and laughing of the bouda outside kept rising in intensity, as if to punctuate Shifty’s statement. Jolly felt like the noise was working its way into his spine.

  “We’ve got to kill Martin, right?” Dread said. “Otherwise we’re screwed. We can’t stay still or we’ll have to keep fighting those bouda until we run out of ammo.”

  “So we stay on the move?” Jolly said. “Teleporting around the floor?”

  “We can’t keep that up,” Shifty said. “I mean, one teleport is routine, but seriously, guys, it takes a lot out of you. We start doing multiple teleports close together… I’m just saying, I’m going to run out of juice quick.”

  “Right. And like you said, we’d only be trading one bad spot for another,” Dread said. “But if we can keep them off balance long enough to identify where Martin is holed up…”

  “Oh, right!” Jolly said. “Like, pop in and shoot him, and all the bouda disappear.”

  “Okay, but how are we supposed to know where he is?” Shifty said.

  Dread pointed at the cameras. “Adjani will spot for us.”

  Dr. Adjani stirred, having sat almost motionless through the entire discussion. “Me?”

  “It’s got to be you,” Dread said. “Any one of us stays behind, the bouda will tear them apart. But I don’t think they’ll attack you.”

  “Why not?” Jolly asked.

  “They’re under Martin’s control. Not like, one for one, like flying a drone or something, but he gives them general commands. That’s how Conjure mages work. They can focus in on one if they really try, but mostly, it’s conjure up a bunch a freaks, wind them up, and let them go.”

  “So unless Martin tells them specifically to attack Adjani, they won’t.”

  “Since he was Revived, they’ll probably still identify him as a friendly, or at least, not as a threat, and leave him be.”

  “Probably,” Shifty said.

  “We’ll have to take the chance,” Dread said. “Jolly, give Dr. Adjani one of our spare radio handsets. Shifty, pick out a teleport site. And a secondary site to jump to if we have to bug out in a hurry.”

  Jolly handed off a radio to Dr. Adjani and then the three of them stood back to back, facing outwards in a circle. The twittering laughter of the bouda filled the hallways, seeming to mock all of their preparations as useless.

  “Learn magic, they said,” Shifty muttered. “It’ll be fun, they said.”

  Dread worked the action on his weapon. “Dr. Adjani, we’re going to need you to spot them fast. Jolly, get ready for teleport. Hang on to that shield and keep your submachinegun in your other hand. Finger off the trigger. Remember you’re going to be a little disoriented the instant after transport.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jolly said. “I’m g…”

  Jolly blinked and the room was gone, replaced by a hallway he didn’t recognize. His feet seemed to wobble unsteadily underneath him, and he took a drunken step to balance himself.

  “…ood,” he said, right into the face of the seven-foot bouda he nearly stepped on.

  “Dread!” he shouted, falling backwards and firing his weapon one-handed into the hyena-man.

  The bouda were all around them; Jolly couldn’t tell how many. He hit the ground hard on his back, still firing non-stop at the bouda that he had nearly stepped on. It recoiled away from the gunfire, rushing to Jolly’s left to try to escape the hail of bullets, and then something heavy hit Jolly’s shield and pinned him underneath it.

  He could smell it, like a mangy dog dragged through a swamp, as it pressed down on top of him. He could see claws gripping the edges of his shield, trying to pry it off him, and he hung on for dear life. Part of him thought he should let the shield go so that he could get out from being trapped underneath it, get his gun into play, and the other half of him said that was a crazy idea, stay under the shield, idiot, it’s the only thing keeping you alive.

  The air around him was filled with the thunder of Dread’s F-shok and the maniacal twittering of the bouda. Jolly still had no idea what was going on, trapped underneath his shield, trying to draw his exposed legs under the protective shell while also trying to angle his gun around the shield to shoot at the bouda that was pinning him down with its bulk.

  Then, the weight was lifted, and Jolly peeked over his shield to see that Dread had stomp-kicked the bouda off him and to the floor. A long burst from Dread’s F-shok tore into the bouda, and Jolly took the moment’s reprieve to look around.

  Three bouda were dead, including the one Dread had kicked off him, and another three were trapped on the far side of a shield that Shifty held across the hallway. The creatures hammered on the shield, snarling, and Shifty looked back at Jolly like he was holding much too heavy of a weight over his head.

  “Hurry up!” he said.

  Dread reached a hand down and pulled Jolly to his feet. “Do you have any ammo in your weapon?”

  Jolly glanced down at the clear plastic magazine on top of his gun. “Uh, yeah, maybe a third of the…”

  “Get ready to shoot,” Dread said. “Shifty is going to drop the shield. Kill the one on the far left. Ready?”

  He wasn’t, not exactly, but it didn’t sound like Dread was going to wait either way, so he settled in behind his weapon and said, “Yeah.”

  “Do it, Shifty!”

  The shield disappeared. Jolly emptied the rest of the ammunition in his weapon into the body of the bouda on the far left, continuing to point the gun at the dead creature and pull the trigger even after it was down.

  Dread tore apart the other two with a long burst from his F-Shok, butt-stroking the second one to make sure it went down after it managed to charge in a little too close for comfort. Jolly started to dig out his pistol now that he realized he was out of ammunition, but the bouda stayed down at Dread’s feet.

  “Reload,” Dread said.

  Jolly snapped out of his panic mode and punched Shifty on the arm, hard. “Nice fucking job, Shifty! Great spot to drop us in!”

  “You rushed me!” Shifty said. “I told you, you can’t rush this shit!”

  “Oh yeah, and what happened to saying ‘three, two, one’ when we teleport? I almost threw up!”

&
nbsp; “Okay, yeah,” Shifty said. “That was my bad. I’m sorry! I told you, I got rushed.”

  “Are you two finished holding hands?” Dread said. “Because we’re not done here. Adjani? Dr. Adjani? Do you hear me?”

  Adjani’s voice came back to them over the radio. “I do not see Martin or the others.”

  “Keep looking,” Dread said, fitting another belt of ammunition into his weapon.

  Jolly followed his example, stripping the empty magazine out of his P90 and replacing it with a full one from his vest. His nerves were still tingling from the close contact with the bouda; he couldn’t seem to get the smell out of his nostrils.

  Adjani’s voice came again. “I still do not see Martin. I can see the three of you. Bouda are approaching your position from both directions. There are at least… twenty of them.”

  They could hear them, twittering and laughing in the hallways around them. The sound of it kept Jolly’s nerves on edge; it would be one thing if they could see them, but knowing that they were surrounded while not being able to see any of the enemy was intolerable.

  “I’m starting to think that maybe this was a bad idea,” Jolly said.

  “Stick to the plan,” Dread said. His voice was smooth and the sound of it seemed to settle Jolly’s nerves a little. “Shifty?”

  “Okay. Okay. I’m ready.”

  “You’re sure?” Jolly said. “You’re not going to drop us on top of an army of bouda, or a pit of lava, or something?”

  “I said, I’m ready, Jolly.”

  “You’re going to count three, two, one this time, right?”

  “Yes, goddamn it. Stand by for teleport. Three, two, one…”

  Jolly blinked and they were in a conference room. The loud twittering of the bouda surrounding them was muted, now, separated from them by several walls and rooms. The conference room felt cooler than the hallway, somehow, as if being separated from the site of their desperate close-range fight had lowered the temperature of the air.

  “Where are we?” Jolly asked.

  “Other side of the…” Shifty said, breathing heavily, leaning against a desk for support. “Other side of the building.”

  “You okay?” Dread asked.

  Shifty gave him a thumbs up. “Peachy. Just… just give me a second.”

  “Dr. Adjani?” Dread said into his radio. “Dr. Adjani?”

  “I still do not see them,” came the reply.

  “Figures,” Shifty said, still leaning against the desk. “How about we…”

  A door on the far side of the room crashed inwards, torn completely off its hinges. A pair of bouda rushed into the room before the door hit the ground, spotting them and moving to charge.

  Dread unleashed a long burst into them from his F-shok, tearing apart chairs and desks as well as the two creatures sprinting towards them. Another, closer set of doors also flew inwards, and two more bouda charged the three of them where they stood in the center of the room.

  Jolly sprayed the two hyena-men with his submachinegun, joined by Shifty, but it took him an entire magazine before the two bouda dropped almost at his feet. He stared at the two bodies in stunned surprise at how close they’d gotten to him, until Dread punched his arm to shake him out of it.

  “Reload,” he said. “Shifty, we need to get out of here. More will be coming.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I… need a minute,” Shifty said.

  A long burst out of Dread’s F-shok ripped up another bouda trying to rush them through the close door. “We don’t have a minute.”

  “How’d they find us?” Jolly asked. “I didn’t hear them moving around here at all.”

  “Got lucky, maybe,” Dread said, firing again as bouda now crowded through both doors on either side of the room at once. “Shifty…”

  They blinked and reappeared elsewhere, stumbling drunkenly with the sudden transport. Now all Jolly could see were cubicle walls surrounding them, arranged in rows in a wide, long room.

  He heard the bouda almost right away. Twittering, laughing, moving in the corridors nearby as the creatures searched for the three of them.

  Jolly’s fingers fumbled through another reload. The laughter of the bouda seemed to fill the air around them like a toxic gas, needling away at his nerves. He kept looking this way, that way, sure that one of the hyena-men were coming up behind him, sure that one or maybe more of them were creeping along below the level of the cubicle walls, stalking toward him with teeth and claws ready to rip his throat out.

  “How you doing, Shifty?” Dread said, fitting another belt of ammunition into his weapon.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Don’t be a hero. I need a no bullshit answer.”

  Shifty was breathing heavily, and Jolly could see his hands were shaking slightly. “I’m… I’m pretty used up here, Dread.”

  Dread looked around the room, set his jaw, and nodded. “Okay. Okay. We may have to make a stand. Let’s put our backs to the wall over there. Try to limit how many directions we can be attacked from. Jolly, how many mags do you have left?”

  “Um,” Jolly said, patting at his vest to check, “this one and one more.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re burning up too much ammo. Shorter bursts.”

  “They don’t go down if I use shorter bursts.”

  “Go for the head,” Dread said. “Wait until they get close…”

  Adjani’s voice interrupted him over the radio. “I found them.”

  “You found them?” Dread asked. “Where?”

  “Near the elevator shaft. I see Martin and Oswald.”

  “No Caleb?”

  “I do not see him.”

  “Shifty,” Dread said. “Shifty, we have to go. Now or never.”

  “Dread, there’s no way,” Shifty said. “I’m about to pass out. There’s no way I can teleport us over there.”

  Dread swore. He looked around the room, searching for a solution, and shook his head as the twittering got louder.

  “What about… what about only me?” he said.

  “Dude, I… I don’t know.”

  “You can try.”

  “Dread, man, I’m telling you, as spent as I am, I might end up putting you halfway into a wall or something, you know? I mean, if I did that to you…”

  “You’ve got this,” Dread said. “I trust you.”

  “It’s not a matter of trust, Dread, it’s…”

  “Shifty. You’ve got this.”

  Shifty looked at him, slumped his shoulders, and nodded. Dread clapped him on the back and turned to Jolly.

  “Jolly, you’re going to have to hold them off until I kill Martin. It could get rough. Shifty isn’t in much shape to fight. He’s your responsibility, do you understand?”

  “I… I’m not…” Jolly said, stammering.

  “Do you understand?”

  Jolly swallowed hard. “Yeah. Yeah, I understand. I’m not going to leave him. No matter what.”

  Dread checked his weapon, set his jaw, and lowered his shoulders. He nodded to Shifty.

  “Do it.”

  “Three,” Shifty said slowly. “Two. One.”

  Dread disappeared with the popping sound of displacing air. Jolly caught Shifty as he slumped forward, barely conscious.

  “Shifty? Shifty, man, you okay? Don’t pass out, okay?”

  A little life seemed to come back into Shifty. “Jus… just gimme a minute,” he said.

  The twittering filling the air began to get much, much louder. Jolly began to wring his hands around his weapon.

  “I don’t think we have a minute,” he said, as one of the doors on the other side of the cubicles burst open.

  His movements were instinct more than anything else. Shifty was already sitting in a nearby chair, and as Jolly ducked down below the level of the cubicles, he pulled Shifty down with him.

  “Hide,” he whispered.

  He heard more bouda crowd into the wide room, on either side, laughing and
twittering back and forth as they spread out amongst the cubicles. Jolly couldn’t see them but the laughing marked their positions, and he found himself twisting this way, that way, trying to look in all directions at once.

  They had to move. Some deep instinct screamed out to Jolly, don’t stay here, they’ll find you, they’ll rip you apart, get moving for the love of God before they get you.

  He half-led, half-dragged Shifty out from the cubicle they were hidden in and into an aisle separating their row of cubicles from the next one over. A quick glance either way to make sure the coast was clear…

  Then, one was right there, stepping directly into full view, almost on top of them. Jolly’s weapon came up reflexively and something moved out of the corner of his eye. Too late, he realized that he’d been tricked, that one of the bouda had distracted him from the front while the other was attacking from the side.

  He tried to turn and face it, tried to get his shield up in time, but it was a lost cause and he knew it even as every muscle in his body tried to defy physics and turn him in time to save his life. The bouda loomed large, came straight at his neck with fangs bared, and then disappeared into a cloud of black smoke.

  Jolly stood perfectly still for a second, unsure of what he’d just seen. Then, survival instinct kicked in and he turned back toward the first bouda that had distracted him, just in time to see the last wisps of black smoke disappearing there as well.

  “Holy shit,” he said. “I think he did it.”

  Jolly

  Score one for Dread, I guess.

  Once it fully dawned on me that I wasn’t dead and torn apart about by bouda, I dragged Shifty to his feet and checked him over. There wasn’t anything I could do for him; Shifty wasn’t wounded, he was exhausted, on the verge of passing out from over-exerting himself magically. Time was what he needed. Time, and rest.

  “He did it, Shifty,” I said. “The bouda are gone.”

  “Neat,” he said, leaning heavily on me. “I’ll have to get him a nice fruit basket or something… watch out!”