Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2)

by Kal Aaron

  “I’d assume some sort of life essence,” Lyssa said. “But we don’t know. Be careful.”

  Ryan fell in behind Lyssa. Aisha and Antoine took up the rear. The darkness of the tunnels was almost complete except for the flicker of Aisha’s floating lantern. Light began to filter in from the other side, changing Lyssa’s gray night vision to something more natural.

  “There is light at the end of the tunnel,” she joked. “Maybe the twist is we lost that last battle, and we’re already dead.”

  Antoine chortled, but Aisha and Ryan looked annoyed. Some people had no sense of humor.

  “Don’t worry,” Lyssa said. “You don’t have to see me again anytime soon after this. I’ve got other things I’ll be taking care of.”

  After cleaning up this level of mess, including finding the rogue, her ticket to Last Remnant was all but assured.

  Something shifted and writhed toward the end of the tunnel, but nothing came at them. The shrieks of the lizards resounded from ahead. Familiarity fed into Lyssa’s cockiness. They could handle lizards, even a horde of them.

  She kept expecting a final, desperate monster charge through the tunnel, but nothing happened. Whoever was controlling the monsters, if they were doing such a thing, must have something else in mind.

  The presence of the Sorcerer could complicate their plans, but it wasn’t like one man could coordinate the tactics of a whole room full of monsters that well. He probably didn’t have much else planned other than trying to distract and then overwhelm them. He hadn’t been watching them.

  Lyssa frowned. That assumption was based on a faulty premise. She hadn’t felt any sorcery walking around the mine, so she’d believed he couldn’t be observing them from afar, but it wasn’t like she would have been able to carefully distinguish the sensation of remote viewing spells in the heat of the battle with three other people performing sorcery right next to her.

  Did he know four people were coming for him? Was that why the monsters were being held back?

  The group continued their advance until their tunnel emptied into the large room, its oval shape, curved, smooth walls, and huge size reminding her of a stadium. Dull light illuminated the area, leaving patches of shadows, but nothing like the smothering darkness of the rest of the mine.

  Masses of lizards and snake-roaches crawled over half the room, their scratching and hissing producing white noise that was easy to tune out. The motion of the carpet of life distracted Lyssa, and it took her a moment to realize there were mounds and other outcroppings spread throughout the room.

  Lyssa frowned. The monsters acted like they didn’t even see the new arrivals, and they were rather conspicuously avoiding the team’s side of the room. She could feel strong sorcery from the center of the room, but nothing closer. Before, she’d had to sneak up on the enemy using wraith form, but now they were standing twenty yards away in light without so much as a snake-roach trying to bite them.

  “I don’t get it,” she said. “How the hell are these things even being controlled? They split them up and kept them from spilling out at random.” She frowned. “I might not know the methods, but I think I understand the plan. They probably figured whoever investigated would retreat, and the game would be up. They needed to buy time until Halloween, but we ended up checking back and messing up their plans.”

  Aisha suggested, “The creatures might have existing behavior patterns they’re acting out.”

  “No.” Lyssa shook her head. “Someone lured two people here and managed to get a couple of monsters to attack them, but they kept them from swarming me before and us just now. There’s control here, not fine control, but some.”

  “Does that prove what you think?” Ryan asked. “They didn’t demonstrate much in the way of tactics before. I think they’ve been programmed to kill anything that moves that they can see or hear. Don’t attribute human intelligence to a pattern that can be produced without it.”

  “I get that, but why aren’t they attacking one another now? Or us?” Lyssa gestured with her pistol toward a hissing acid-spitter lizard. “Why aren’t they attacking the different species, at least?” She turned toward Ryan. “Can you check to see if they’re using some sort of sound frequency outside the normal range of hearing? If they are, you could jam it.”

  He cocked his head to the side, humming a complicated sequence of high notes. After a moment, he shook his head. “No ultrasound. No infrasound.”

  “Then what?” Lyssa looked around. They’d all sensed sorcery, but there was no sign of the Sorcerer. A shapeshifting spell, perhaps? That was a dangerous gamble.

  “How do ants talk to each other?” offered a man’s muffled voice from the center of the room. There was a smug quality to it that annoyed Lyssa.

  The team spun toward the sound, but there was nothing there but a swarm of snake-roaches. They scurried away, revealing a pocket with a large boulder. A small stream of smoke spiraled up from behind it.

  “Smell,” Lyssa called out. “They leave smell trails.” She gagged. “Is that why it smells so awful in here? Everything’s controlled by scent?”

  “It’s effective,” the man replied. His shadow marked him as a normal-sized human on the other side of the rock, and a brief flash of his hand revealed the source of smoke: a burning incense stick. Given the sorcery they were feeling from that direction, it was almost certainly a shard.

  Lyssa wondered if she could have convinced the monsters she was one of them if she’d rolled around more in the sludge of the hatchery and queen’s chamber. But without Antoine protecting her nose, she wasn’t sure she could have continued to fight with that level of filth all over her.

  “Who the hell are you?” Lyssa asked. “I guess now I know how you were able to control the creatures, but that doesn’t explain everything.”

  “The rogue finally shows himself.” Aisha scoffed. “Yet still you cower. You understand our power, so you should surrender.”

  “I’m honored,” the man said. “The great Hecate, Flame Deva, and Ultrasound all gathered. I don’t know your other companion. I assume he’s another Torch. Four Torches to deal with one problem. This proves how dangerous my pets are.”

  “Give it up,” Aisha shouted. “Your wickedness ends here, friend. You’ve shamed the Society and misused your power by creating these disgusting creatures. We will give you one chance to surrender, but we have been authorized to kill whoever is responsible for this army.”

  “My power?” He laughed. “You don’t understand anything. I have no power other than what I’ve been given. I serve a grand family of Sorcerers, even if I don’t have the gift. But you shouldn’t threaten me. What I do today, I do for the Society in the future. You should be helping me as loyal Illuminated.”

  Lyssa scoffed. “This is a sanctioned Society contract. Flame Deva’s right. Surrender now if you know what’s good for you.” She kept her guns pointed toward the rock, but the man wasn’t exposing much more than the tip of the incense and a couple of fingers. “I don’t know what BS you’re spouting there or how you did all this, but if you don’t want to die, you’re going to use your shards to draw down your army. We’ll destroy the rest of it, and you’ll be turned over to be taken to Last Remnant.”

  He laughed. “Are you attempting to intimidate me, Hecate?” The incense disappeared behind the rock. “I must say I’m disappointed. I thought with your reputation, you wouldn’t bring so many helpers.”

  “You wanted me here?” Lyssa asked. “Why? This is way too elaborate if it’s just about assassinating me. Even I’m not that paranoid.”

  “No, I never wanted you here, but I anticipated you might come, given the location.” The man’s pale hand extended past the rock. He clutched a rune-inscribed flattened stone. “You now have a choice. We both know you came here to stop the monsters more than anything. The Society won’t care about a non-Illuminated servant. You could let me go.”

  “We care about whoever you’re working for,” Lyssa shouted. “And where yo
u got your shards. I’m assuming that is one, and the incense is another. Someone else obviously made the monsters, and you’re just keeping watch, right?”

  “Here’s your final choice,” the man replied. “You can turn around and leave with the understanding that in the years to come, you’ll welcome and praise what I’ve done, or you can try to capture me, and I’ll use this shard to collapse the entire mine. It doesn’t have much power left, but there’s enough to damage the key structural points in this place. Once this hits the ground, you’ll have no chance to escape, and this place will become your tomb. Four Illuminated will die, and for what? To avenge a couple of idiots?”

  Antoine tilted his head, the quizzical look humorous in the plague-doctor get-up. “Not to point out the obvious, but you’ll die, too.”

  “You don’t have the guts to do it,” Ryan said. “Flame Deva’s right. You’re a coward.”

  Lyssa thought taunting a man with a suicidal plan was the worst possible idea. She’d prefer to dare him into surrender.

  “I have my orders,” the man replied. “If I can’t carry them out, death is the only acceptable alternative. The only reason I’d flee is that my master has told me I should.”

  “And who is that?” Lyssa asked.

  “You’ll never know, Hecate. My master will be furious. You’ve destroyed so many hand-crafted creations, including his latest masterpiece that could produce new creatures for him. The level of effort you wasted!”

  That explained why they hadn’t run into more queens, but it didn’t explain who was behind the whole thing. There was an even more dangerous Sorcerer still out there somewhere in need of a good three rounds to the face. She still also didn’t understand why he’d drawn the victims there.

  Lyssa kept her guns holstered while she murmured a Phrygian incantation under her breath. A single thin shadow tentacle extended behind her, born of her shadow. The man had given her a clue about how to survive this and capture him, and she hoped it’d be enough.

  She did have one major advantage. He’d already admitted he wasn’t a Sorcerer, which meant, most importantly, he couldn’t sense sorcery.

  “If you come for me, you’ll never be able to get me in time,” the man shouted. “The incense will ensure my horde stops you before you can get close to me. You will allow me to leave, and then we shall all survive.”

  “I’ve got a new plan,” Lyssa murmured.

  “Use your ultimate sanction,” Jofi said. “The showstopper will annihilate the shards and end their threat.”

  She ignored him. “Just keep the monsters off me.”

  “I thought we were keeping them off Flame Deva,” Ryan said, sounding annoyed.

  Antoine stepped forward. “I’ll keep them off her, and you keep them off Hecate.” He looked at Lyssa. “I hope this is a good plan.”

  “It’s a plan.” Lyssa shrugged.

  Aisha stepped forward. “It’s fine. I can push myself if I know it’ll be over soon. You two concentrate on Hecate. I’ll stay in the air while I deliver the fireballs. But are you sure we shouldn’t just kill him from here?”

  “If you blast him, that might set off the shard,” Lyssa said.

  “What are you talking about over there?” the man yelled. “You’re outnumbered, and you have no chance of stopping me with the army attacking you. You can leave or die. It’s simple, really. There’s nothing to debate.”

  “Last chance,” Lyssa shouted. “You don’t have to die in a hole in the ground surrounded by monsters, especially for some asshole rogue who is willing to make you take all the blame.”

  “No, I don’t have to die here,” he called back. “But it seems you do. Fine. Face the last of the army.”

  The trail of incense smoke ended, the last whisps floating into the air. The monsters all stopped crawling over each other and turned toward the group.

  “I won’t need long!” Lyssa shouted.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The monsters surged toward the team. Lyssa concentrated on the rock, not paying much attention to anything else. She couldn’t make out anything different among the monsters. They seemed to be what they’d fought before.

  Aisha roared into the air, rapidly chanting in Sanskrit as she made intricate motions with her hands. Antoine stepped in front of Lyssa and brought his staff back, ready to strike. Ryan moved to her other side, lifting his sonic sword.

  They might have been tired. They might have fought a huge horde of monsters already, but none of them was ready to quit. The final enemy wasn’t a skilled life Sorcerer but nothing more than a Shadow with some toys and a pack of borrowed monsters.

  Lyssa concentrated on growing her shadow tentacle without lowering her arms. She murmured the incantation while visualizing the thin tenebrous strands stretching it. She couldn’t see the incense anymore, but the runic shard remained visible.

  This could work. It wouldn’t have been possible without the team. She could get used to that.

  Antoine yanked out several potions and threw them into the advancing monsters. The vials shattered and splattered dark liquids over lizards and snake-roaches. Their skins and hides sizzled as the liquid ate through them. One lizard vaporized in a puff of yellow smoke.

  Lyssa was almost startled out of her concentration. She’d not known Antoine could pull that off, but they’d wanted him to stay back earlier, and his staff attacks hadn’t done a good job. He must have known his potions wouldn’t work against the armored panthers.

  A roaring fireball screamed down from Aisha and blasted apart the center of the advancing horde. The mindless monsters continued to advance, reinforcements from the sides filling the gap in the formation. The man’s crude control wasn’t enough to introduce impressive tactics.

  Antoine continued tossing potions with skillful accuracy. His newest ones didn’t eat away at their victims, but their bodies began flaking away, dark patches spreading until they collapsed to the ground.

  For all his protestations, he wasn’t half-bad in a fight. She wasn’t ready to suggest he become a Torch, but he was a powerful reminder there was no such thing as a weak Sorcerer. Even Tricia could be scary under the right circumstances.

  Ryan met the first surge of arriving monsters with a wide swing, slicing through three snake-roaches like they were paper. Loud warbles sounded as he attacked and moved into his next swing so quickly he became a blur. No one could follow his enhanced movements with the naked eye.

  A little jealous of Ryan, Lyssa pulled her triggers but didn’t aim, relying on the density of enemies to ensure kills. Her explosions shattered the line before one of Aisha’s massive fireballs descended from above and unleashed a rippling wave of fiery death on the enemy.

  Continuing to attack made it hard to concentrate on her spell, but the shadow tentacle continued to grow behind her, thin and getting huge. Even if the man saw it, he might not realize what her plan was.

  He was reluctant to die. He must have convinced himself the last horde could defeat the team. She doubted he had a shard that had let him watch the earlier battles.

  “You see?” the man shouted from behind the rock. “It’s pointless. You’re going to be overwhelmed.” He held the runic shard with two fingers. “Don’t you understand? Your stubbornness doesn’t serve any purpose. I’d rather not kill Illuminated if possible.”

  “Then surrender, fool,” Aisha shouted. She split a massive fireball into two large ones. The pair crashed into the swarming monsters, scorching a clear path through the army for a brief moment.

  Lyssa shoved one empty gun into a holster and whipped her hand forward, along with the tentacle. It flew toward the shard and yanked it out of the man’s loose grip in a whiplike motion. She gritted her teeth and forced the tentacle to stop in front of her, then grabbed the shard and stuck it in her pocket while shredding the advancing monsters with the rest of the explosive rounds in her remaining gun.

  “No!” the man shrieked. “No! No! No!”

  “Not so cocky now, huh?” L
yssa grinned.

  She reloaded both pistols with ablative rounds, then swept them back and forth to deliver a storm of purple fire in an arc around her. Knowing she wasn’t going to be crushed really motivated a woman.

  Ryan’s warbling blade dance continued. An acid-spitter nailed his side before he cut it in half and cleaved through two lizards with one swing. Lyssa wasn’t sure how long he could maintain the technique, but she liked the trail of death it was leaving behind. She needed to catch up with him and Aisha.

  Antoine kept popping monsters with one-armed swings while he chucked his few remaining vials. His attacks hadn’t killed as many monsters as quickly, but the half-dissolved, half-necrotized twitching and writhing creatures near him were slowing the advance of the others. A shower of firebolts rained from above, burning through monsters threatening to overwhelm the team.

  The monsters weren’t any tougher than they’d been in the other rooms, but the greater amount of open space made it harder for the team to concentrate their fire. They were all downing monsters one after another, but now that Lyssa had grabbed the shard, the battle had become four separate fights than a cohesive team effort.

  Their earlier strategy had collapsed. The occasional claw or bite made it through, and the monsters were doing a decent job of encircling them individually.

  Aisha dropped to the ground, her jaw tight and sweat covering her face. She threw up her arms and launched two more blasts into the crowd.

  Something bright flipped over the rock. Lyssa fried two more monsters before looking that way. It was a tumbling coin. She didn’t have enough time to grow a new tentacle. Instead, she dropped one pistol and aimed at the falling coin, then fired.

  Her first round missed. Her second round burst into purple flames around it, but the coin flew sideways, spinning even faster before dropping to the ground. A great pulse of sorcery shot through the room, knocking the team back and leaving them gasping for breath. The light in the room vanished except for Aisha’s orb.