Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2)

by Kal Aaron

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Lyssa put two penetrators into the face of an armored panther. The creature roared and reared back on its hind legs. She would have preferred a quick death, but at least she now knew she could hurt it.

  Aisha took the chance to launch two fire blasts into its stomach, but the thick armor there kept it from being a kill shot. The force of the blasts knocked the monster over, but it quickly hopped to its feet and roared again.

  The second panther bounded toward Antoine. He clubbed the monster with his staff, but true to his prediction about armored foes, nothing happened. Another swing followed, causing no more damage than before.

  With a loud growl, the panther batted him away. He flew backward and crashed into a rock mound with a loud grunt.

  Lyssa ran toward the panther attacking Antoine and fired three rounds in rapid succession to draw its attention. It bounded toward her and swiped, but she ducked the blow and rolled beneath it.

  She rapid-fired both pistols into the monster’s exposed stomach. The rounds knocked out chunks of armor, and blood streamed from the wounds. It let out a loud howl of pain and lurched away.

  Lyssa rolled to her side and jumped to her feet. She thought she was clear until the panther kicked its back legs and launched her through the air. She snapped her guns toward the monster and emptied the rest of her magazines before landing with a splat in a group of mangled lizard corpses. The panther spun and let out a spittle-flecked roar.

  “I’ll keep this one distracted,” she yelled, changing her mags and standing. “Finish off the other one.”

  This wasn’t going as well as her first encounter. There were tears in her regalia and blood dripping from her wounds, but she still had her mobility and her ability to shoot. Her limits remained far away.

  Aisha pelted the first panther with fireballs, her attacks sanding off the thick armor. It bounded toward her, growling, but she rocketed into the air, avoiding its claws. She spun in midair and flipped over to drop and land in a crouch behind the creature, then threw out her hand. Another fireball exploded against the panther’s back.

  Lyssa smiled. It was a lot easier to appreciate Aisha’s skills now that they weren’t blood enemies.

  She spared a glance for Antoine. He was on the ground, not moving. She found it hard to believe he’d been killed by one hit with all his preparation, and the best thing she could do for him was keep the panther from following up.

  Confident that the rest of her team could handle the other panther, Lyssa focused on the large and angry monster in front of her. It wasn’t going for the easy lunge, but its steady, slow advance was backing her toward the other chamber and away from the others. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. At least she was keeping it away from the healer.

  “Maximum damage potential might be necessary,” Jofi said. “You should consider the use of a showstopper to destroy this enemy.”

  “Not in here.” Lyssa jumped back. “It’s no different than before. There’s too much of a risk of bringing down the cave, and now we also have a bunch of other people inside. Just because I don’t mow somebody down like nothing doesn’t mean I need to go right to the top. These guys aren’t that tough. All I have to do is not die for a minute or two.”

  “I would caution you against that strategy. It might not maximize your life expectancy.”

  Lyssa snickered. “Trying not to die will get me killed earlier?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then shut up and let me concentrate.”

  She was convinced that someday Jofi would start cackling and explain he’d been messing with her the entire time. It wouldn’t surprise her.

  Everyone on the team was as battered as she was, but no one was down except Antoine. Two overgrown monsters couldn’t take out four Illuminated. She wouldn’t use the showstopper out of pride, if nothing else.

  Lyssa ejected her empty magazines and continued backing away. She shoved one gun back into its holster before pulling out another penetrator magazine and loading it into her remaining weapon. Her panther opponent stalked toward her and let out a low, menacing rumble.

  It was moving slower than before. A win by attrition was still a win. She was glad she’d brought more ammo.

  Explosions, yells, and roars sounded behind the monster, with Aisha and Ryan engaging its partner. The panther in front of Lyssa hesitated for a moment and started to turn toward the other.

  “Not so mindless, huh?” Lyssa frowned. “Think I’m no longer a threat? That’s rude. You’re still dancing with me.”

  She fired a single penetrator round into its flank, eliciting another horrendous roar but not the death she would have preferred. The dead monsters shook, along with the water.

  “Like I said, we’re not done, you reject,” Lyssa shouted.

  The panther jumped to face her. She’d gotten what she wanted.

  “Kill me, then you can go help your friend.”

  Lyssa fired roughly where an eye would be on a normal-sized, non-armored panther. The bullet ripped through the armor plates, and blood splattered out. She put a round into each of its front legs and sprinted toward the wall.

  A fireball from Aisha exploded against the side of the first panther’s head, vaporizing another layer of the bony armor. It snapped its head toward her and growled.

  Lyssa liked their chances. For the first time since beginning the fight, she felt like her team was controlling the tempo of the battle. They didn’t need showstoppers. Their teamwork would be enough.

  After Aisha nailed her target again, Ryan took his chance and charged the distracted panther. It swiped at him, but he was leaning back before it’d lifted its paw. The savage claws passed over him, and he snapped up and hacked at the paw with his invisible blade. His blow sliced past the armor and cut the flesh. He leaped back and shoved his hilt into the ground.

  A dull rumble followed, and the ground cracked and shook beneath the panther. Ryan whipped his arm back and low, rhythmic oscillations echoed throughout the chamber, almost making Lyssa lose her footing. It would have been nice if he’d announced the attack before doing it, but she managed to right herself a second later.

  Ryan shot into the air and stayed there, hovering in place. The panther leaped for him but missed and fell back to the ground, landing in a pile of dead monsters with a squelching, popping noise.

  Lyssa was half-tempted to use Dark Steps to get into the air like the other Torches. Antoine lay on the ground, still not moving from the earlier attack. She didn’t have time to worry about him. They needed to down the threats, then they could check on him.

  Ryan dropped out of the air, his hilt pointed down as he fell toward the monster’s head. His ultrasonic blade pierced the already thinned armor on the top, the victim of Aisha’s not-so-tender attentions. The panther howled in pain and rage and bucked, trying to shake off the man connected to it by an invisible sword of sound. Ryan quickly changed his attack to the neck of the beast.

  Aisha pivoted to deliver fireballs to the back of the panther advancing on Lyssa. She advanced toward it, throwing up her left and right hands in succession to conjure quick fireballs. Lyssa matched her off-hand rhythm with shots from her gun.

  The panther roared and ran to the side. It wasn’t going to last long in a Sorceress pincer.

  Ryan swung back and forth, using his ultrasonic sword for leverage. His movements dug the blade into the neck of the panther. He’d become a human saw. A drip of blood became a torrent, and soon the head came off in a crimson gush.

  Aisha’s attacks penetrated deeper and deeper into one side of the remaining panther’s head. Lyssa did the best she could to line up her shots near or on the previous holes until she’d produced a single large gaping bloody wound opposite the charred crater created by Aisha. With a final feeble huff, the panther fell onto its side and stopped breathing.

  Lyssa glanced down at her regalia. For the second time in far too soon, she was covered in disgusting grime, but at least she could
n’t smell it. It was the small luxuries in life that kept up morale.

  “Antoine, you all right?” she asked, jogging toward the downed Sorcerer.

  He stirred and groaned before planting his staff on the ground and standing. “Even with the potion, that one hurt.” He blew out a couple of breaths. “What about you?”

  “Let’s see. I’m scratched and burned all over,” Lyssa replied, “and I’m sure it’s going to be a lot more annoying once my adrenaline wears off.” She gestured with her gun at the nearest panther. “I’m doing a lot better than that thing.”

  Aisha took a deep breath. She was bathed in sweat, which made her regalia cling to her body. “A moment of rest would be helpful. That was a challenging battle, but victory tastes sweeter against a stronger foe.”

  Ryan held his hand over a deep wound Lyssa hadn’t spotted before. “I could use a little help. That guy got in some good licks.”

  Antoine nodded. “Let me heal up, then I’ll get the rest of you, and we can go see what’s beyond the last panther cage there.”

  Lyssa spun her pistols in her hands, then caught them and pointed them forward. “With this team, we can’t lose.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Antoine couldn’t do anything about their regalia, but his spells took care of their burns, scrapes, punctures, and cuts. Soon, Lyssa felt almost as good as when she’d started the fight. It was a little eerie.

  She was used to relying on herbs for quick healing and the regalia for backup. It was nice having a dedicated life Sorcerer backing her up, though she suspected if she regularly had one, it might make her reckless.

  Having a team was proving to be less annoying than she’d thought. She’d worked plenty of doubles in the past, including with Aisha in Texas, but it’d been a long time since she’d worked with three other Sorcerers on a single job.

  The Shadows didn’t fully understand the importance of essence and how it empowered and limited at the same time. Each Illuminated could bend the world to their will in impressive ways, but their different essences meant their abilities varied wildly. There was no such thing as an all-powerful Sorcerer.

  With the wounds handled and Antoine’s previous warning about more monsters, Lyssa took stock of her ammo as they headed toward the third chamber. She was doing all right in terms of magazines. Preparation helped.

  Aisha and Ryan trudged along, their steps heavy with exhaustion, their defense spells temporarily gone. Antoine could help the fatigue from the fight, but there was nothing he could do about all the power they’d called on.

  Lyssa didn’t worry. As long as no one was seriously injured, she was confident they could win. They’d need to be more careful to protect Antoine against whatever threats remained.

  Each of the three Torches was a powerful fighter, but if they’d tried to clear out the mine by themselves, they would have died. The ridiculous number of monsters they had encountered spoke to an extreme level of commitment by the rogue responsible for the present insanity.

  Lyssa frowned at the sobering realization. The team had destroyed entire armies of monsters, and they still weren’t finished. The moment’s respite would allow them to catch their breath as they advanced into the now-empty third chamber, steeling themselves in preparation for another fight against a horde.

  Like the other chambers, it was mostly smooth. Several tunnels led out of the room, but almost all of them were at floor level, including two large enough to accommodate the armored panthers. Most of the tunnels looked larger than the ones in the other rooms.

  Lyssa frowned. “I don’t get it. Why are they staging things?”

  “Does it matter?” Aisha asked. “It doesn’t change our job. We destroy every last one of them.”

  “They aren’t staging them against us,” Ryan said. “These chambers weren’t set up to defend against Sorcerers, which is why all it took was a few exploding bullets from Hecate.” He nodded at one of the tunnels. “They were gathering them for something else.” He lifted his head. A faint whine sounded, followed by clicks. “The tunnels lead off in all sorts of directions, but they almost all connect to the ones on the other side. From what I can tell, they converge, and a couple of major tunnels lead to the surface.”

  “They were gathering an army to invade the county,” Lyssa said. “With these numbers, unless the military was ready and waiting, it could have gotten messy. Sending them up in different waves might be part of that.” She peered into the chamber, focusing on a far wall. “There were enough blocks in the other tunnels that I couldn’t go farther, but there wasn’t enough to stop a monster ready to dig or acid-vomit its way through.”

  “The ones I sense farther up are all decent-sized,” Antoine replied with a shrug.

  “That matches what I’m hearing,” Ryan said.

  Lyssa nodded at one of the giant tunnels. “You need to get a little more specific. How big are we talking?”

  “Big enough for a person or one of those lizards, easily,” Ryan replied. “But not one of the panthers.”

  “That’s not so bad, then,” Lyssa said. “We’ve got a good rhythm for attacking the regular monsters.”

  Antoine chuckled. “Don’t hate me, but everything I was sensing before is in the direction of those two large tunnels. It was more diffuse before, but now it’s more concentrated.”

  Ryan made more clicking sounds. “They converge on another huge room.”

  “Convenient,” Aisha said, putting her hands on her hips. “That solves one major problem. I’m weary of this vermin extermination. I’d prefer to face a Sorcerer. This is our best chance of finding him if he’s here.”

  “They’re making a last stand,” Lyssa said. “Do they have enough instinct to do that, or do they somehow sense what’s going on with the others?” She shook her head. “I doubt they’ll suddenly change tactics, so we might as well get this over with.” She surveyed the group. “Everyone up for this? I’d say back off and rest, but the clock isn’t on our side, and we can’t be sure there isn’t a Sorcerer waiting for his chance to mess with us.”

  Aisha scoffed. “You’re not going to outdo me, friend. I will not quit until I’m dead or they all are.”

  “I’ll remember those words for your tombstone.”

  Ryan lifted his hilt. The increased whine and distortion marked the return of his blade. “This job beats killing monsters in sewers. Let’s find and eliminate the last targets.”

  “A showstopper into the heart of the enemy formation could devastate it,” Jofi said. “Consider their use in the next battle to lower the risk to your group.”

  Lyssa furrowed her brow. He’d been far too eager for her to shoot a showstopper in the mine. She wasn’t going to use them to cut down groups of disposable minions. They’d been able to fight the panthers without them.

  He wasn’t wrong. His attack choice might be questionable, but the general idea held promise.

  “We need to be a little smarter about this,” she said. “Aisha, during the next fight, how about Ryan and I cover you while you rev up some major fireballs? We need to take these guys out in larger batches.”

  Aisha nodded with a proud smile. “I could do that.”

  “Antoine, you stay in the rear,” Lyssa said. “If you go down, we could be screwed later.”

  He nodded. “I’m more than happy to let you continue the slaughter-fest, and I’m more than happy to pop any lizards or snake-roaches that get too close.”

  Reloading her pistols with explosive and penetrator magazines, Lyssa made a mental note to save at least one explosive and one penetrator magazine. She had several ablative magazines left, reasoning earlier that she could kill the panther quicker by getting to its brain than burning off its armor. That caution was paying off in an unexpected way.

  “Then we’ve got a plan.” Lyssa lifted her guns. “We’re Torches. It’s time we burn more impurities from this world.”

  “Excellent, Hecate,” Aisha said.

  Lyssa jogged toward a large tun
nel. Sometimes a long battle tried one’s patience, and sometimes even a short, intense skirmish left a woman ready to go home and collapse into bed.

  “I’m never going into a cave again after this,” Lyssa stated.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Lyssa continued down the tunnel, unsurprised and satisfied at feeling active sorcery from somewhere in front of her. “Am I the only one feeling that, or did one of you somehow pull a stunt?”

  “The rogue’s finally showing himself.” Aisha sneered. “I’ll enjoy seeing his fear. Once he sees how many have come for him, he might surrender.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on it,” Lyssa replied. “But I wouldn’t complain if it happened either.”

  After all battles against disgusting monsters, sensing the sorcery flooded Lyssa with relief. She wanted the job over and the bastard captured or killed. After the stunt at the library, she’d worried she might not be able to track him down.

  “That explains why they’re consolidating forces,” Ryan said. “The rogue might have just arrived during our earlier attack.”

  Lyssa nodded. “As long as it means we can finish this, I’m happy.” She turned to Aisha. “Try to take him alive if possible. Given what we’ve seen, it’s highly possible this guy didn’t do all this by himself, and I think Samuel and Theodora would love the chance to call up the Tribunal and send them after the other rogues.”

  Aisha frowned and folded her arms. “I’ll do my best, but that’s up to him. I’m not going to risk my life or any of yours on the chance we can gain something.”

  “You do what you have to do,” Lyssa said. “It’s like with Allard. Sometimes you don’t have a choice. I get that.”

  “This sounds bad, but you can mess him up, and I can save him,” Antoine said with a shrug. “Just don’t kill him and we’re good.”

  Aisha’s smile turned chilling. “I’ll keep that in mind. It does increase the number of options.”