by Jan Stryvant
"That's right! Canna heal a wound from iron, can ya'!" Daelyn laughed and jumped back as it lunged, and she parried the other arm with her warhammer. Spinning around, she came in low, extended the war hammer in a one-handed grip, and got it in the knee, causing it to scream in an unearthly voice as it toppled to the floor.
It had barely hit the ground when Daelyn came back in with her warhammer and drove the point through its skull, pinning it to the floor, where it shuddered and died.
"I may not be as graceful as Cali, but I can put a smackdown on yer ass just as well!" Daelyn laughed and, wrenching her warhammer from the skull of the forræderen djevel, she turned towards the door.
Opening the door exposed a scene of unexpected carnage; there were werewolves, mostly in wolf form, fighting what were obviously possessed humans, using tooth and claw. There was also a lioness dashing around and dropping them left and right, and a lot of bodies, both wolven and human, on the ground.
Daelyn threw her hammer at targets of opportunity, but the fight was mostly over by now and didn't last too much longer.
"What happened out here?" Daelyn demanded when the last of the possessed dropped.
"They haven't been issued steel or iron ammo," Julia growled. "Nor were they issued their lycan collars or silver tags, and the officers all had silver ammo!"
Daelyn swore.
"Well, there be no fixin' it now! Grab everyone and run on up to Marina Park. I'll call the base, get them to start dropping ammo when you get there, and I'll see what we can scare up collar-wise."
"How are they supposed to carry their weapons?"
"Mouths work!" Daelyn told her. "Look, I don't like it either, but anything is better than nothing. Now get a damn move on! They need you up there!"
"Okay, fine," Julia growled, "but I need one little thing."
"What's that?"
"Where in the hell is Marina Park?"
Daelyn rolled her eyes and snorted. Of all the things!
"I know where it is!" Draco said.
"Great! Draco, show 'em how to get there."
Daelyn checked her radio then and keyed it. "Chad, can ya' hear me?"
"Yes! Did you get through to McGuire? What's this about djevels?"
"McGuire was a traitor; his officer corps were all possessed. None of his people have the better ammo, nor do they have collars or tags. But I'm sending 'em up anyways. They'll need supplies, as they're all gonna show up naked."
"By was, does that mean you killed him?"
"Of course!"
"Small miracles!" Chad sighed.
"Tha' better not ha' been a joke!" Daelyn growled.
"More of a blessing. Get back to base and help set up some supply runs. I'm pulling the plug on Reno. I don't know how long we can hold out, but you can bet they know all our plans and our weak spots now."
"I hear ya'." Daelyn sighed. Looking around, she spied a Humvee. "What do you two say we borrow that vehicle and head back to base?"
"It ain't borrowing if you already own it," Tinker said with a smile.
Betty shivered a moment and then nodded. "Yes, going home would be good right now.
Daelyn walked over and gave Betty a hug. "Ya' done good, Betty. And you came through just fine. Josh'll be proud."
"You think so?"
"Ya' dropped an enemy general with a round to the head while shooting from the hip? Oh, yeah, he'll be proud!"
Betty nodded, and then looked down at her shirt, which had a hole in it and was covered in blood.
"He ruined my shirt!" she suddenly yelled indignantly. "That, that bastard!"
Daelyn and Tinker lost it then and started laughing.
"Oh yeah, Bet," Tinker snickered, "you did fine."
"Come on, I'll get you another one. But we gotta go!" Daelyn said and dragged the now fuming Betty off to the Humvee.
Nightlife
"How much longer are we going to be out here?" Jenna grumbled to Adam.
"Until Chad tells me to bring what's left of us back," Adam grumbled back. It was arguable whose night vision was better, the lions' or the djevels'. At this point there weren't any lycans left in Adam's group. They'd either been too injured to keep on fighting and sent back to base, or they were dead. As for the lions, he'd lost half of what he'd started out with. He wasn't at all looking forward to the reception he was going to get the next time he visited the mountain, much less what was going to happen to him if he died.
Lions could be real assholes at times, and he was without a doubt in for a lot of payback, considering his own career in the past.
Currently he was leading a stealth attack on what they thought was the commander for the current bunch Maitland was fighting. It was now three in the morning or thereabouts, and Maitland was still fighting.
"Look, Jenna, until Maitland gets a break, I'm not planning on taking one, either. He's in a bad place, and I'm not going to be the one to hang him out to dry, okay?"
"Fine," she grumbled.
"You got any comments, Marcus?" Adam asked, looking over at him. Shamus had been killed around midnight, so that was one of his headaches gone.
"Not me!" Marcus said with a shake of his head.
"Okay, all you leaders, gather in close, cause I'm not gonna repeat this," Adam said, hunkering down on the ground. "Chad's pretty sure there's a prince holed up in the Panda Express on Prater Way and Sparks Boulevard."
"What's a Panda Express?"
"Chinese fast food," Adam said with a sigh. He shouldn't be surprised; most of this group hadn't set foot on Earth in a hundred years.
"What's…"
"It doesn't matter," Jenna growled. "Just shut up and listen up!"
"Thanks, Jen," Adam said with a slight smile. "Anyway, you know what a panda is, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"There's signs with pandas on them all around the place."
"Why would he hole up in a food place?"
Adam gave a shrug of his leonine shoulders. "Best guess is there were scavengers in there stealing food, and the prince decided to have some fast food of his own."
"There are still people here?" Kell, a lioness, asked in surprise.
"Yup, I've lost count of the number of dead bodies I've come across in the last few hours. Mostly I've steered us clear of them, because there tends to be groups of demons around them."
"Guess they didn't believe what they were told," Marcus said.
"Doesn't matter. Not our problem. Now, we're going to come in from the northeast, which is why we've spent the last hour covering all that terrain. When we get close enough, I'll take us west a short ways, then we'll head due south. There's a bunch of buildings we can use for cover as we get closer," Adam said with a grin.
"Okay, and?" Marcus prompted.
"There is a big ass liquor store we'll have to go by."
"Oh! Molotovs! That'll help!"
"We set the Panda Express on fire, and then when the prince comes out, we all attack as one. We probably won't have a lot of time, there are troops everywhere, but if we take this guy down, Maitland gets a break."
"And if Maitland gets a break, we get a break, right?" Jenna asked with an excited growl.
"Bingo. Now, come on, let's make this happen."
Adam got up on all fours, shook himself a little, and took off at a trot with the others strung out behind him. The other leaders would go back to their groups, fill them in real quick, and join the procession. He had about five hundred with him at this point. He'd broken a few groups off earlier and had them going around stirring up shit just to keep anyone from thinking he was planning something like this. But all told, he had about a thousand left of what he'd started with this morning.
Considering what it took to kill one of them now, that was saying something. Then again, the F1s were probably bulletproof by this point. Adam wondered idly what that would be like? Would it just be continuous pain until you either killed them or they gave up and left you alone?
Maybe that was why the First
and his mom could be such pricks at times. He'd much rather die than go through something like that! Because at least you came back. And since Sean had opened that gateway, you came back pretty damn quickly. About as fast as a djevel did.
Which made him wonder for a moment, but shaking his head, Adam got his head back in the game. Maitland needed this, Maitland's people needed this, and so did all the people depending on him and his.
Slowing down as they got into enemy territory, it wasn't hard to skirt around the different roving bands of djevels in the dark. There wasn't any kind of a guard or patrol set up; no, these guys were all looking for food, and sadly they were still finding it, too. After everything that had been going on, you'd have thought people would listen.
Then again, listening never used to be his strong point, either.
He came out of the neighborhood to the north of the intersection. There were a couple of big drainage tunnels under the road—big enough for a lion that is—and he ducked through them and into the neighborhood directly north of their destination and quickly picked his way through the houses until he got to the first set of businesses.
He paused a moment to let them bunch up behind him, then continued on, threading his way through the wrecked cars in the parking lot—a bomb had fallen close enough to do some serious damage—then stopped at East Prater Way. There were wrecked cars all up and down it. A lot of people had waited too long to leave, and now never would. The lucky ones had been killed when the bomb fell. The unlucky ones got eaten.
Checking to be sure things were safe, he dashed across the road and made his way into the liquor store, the lack of windows making it easy to get inside. Once there, he shifted to his hybrid form and started gathering supplies. There were lighters here, which meant he wouldn't have to try to make something himself. There were lots of bottles, but there wasn't much in the way of fabric to wrap them in.
"We need t-shirts or something," he said, looking around.
"The place next door looked like it had a lot," Jenna said.
"Great. Kell, grab a few people and start a chain. Move all the shirts you can in here. Lucas, get a couple of people and wrap the bottles, then pass them out to the front." Adam pointed to two random lionesses he didn't know. "You, toss them up to the roof," he pointed to two more, "you catch them. Everyone else, up on the roof. I'll pass out lighters, and once we have enough of a stock, we'll start bombing them. Okay?"
Everyone nodded.
"Great, let's get up on the roof!"
Adam went back outside, jumped up onto the metal awning, grabbed the top of the façade, and pulled himself onto the roof. Getting down low, he scrambled over to the other side. Looking to his left, he saw there was a better position, and quietly moved to it.
Looking down, he could see there were indeed a lot of djevels down there, and the weakest one he saw was a raseri. The place was packed with ridders and biskops. He even thought he saw a lord down there.
"Damn, that doesn't look easy," Jenna whispered softly.
"Maybe that lord'll leave…" Adam whispered back as he watched carefully. "In any case, we've got a wait until we have enough bottles up here."
The next twenty minutes were stressful ones. Twice they had to stop passing up bottles as a group wandered by, the second of which was small enough that ten lionesses snuck up behind them and quickly killed them. By the time they had everything they thought had enough alcohol in it to made a good fire up on the roof, the lord had ridden off on his mount and taken almost half the ridders and biskops with him, along with a good deal of the raseris as well.
"No time like the present," Adam said. Passing out the lighters, he then lit one of the bottles, and threw it over so it smashed on the floor of the Panda Express.
It was immediately followed by several hundred more bottles, as everyone threw as fast as they could. Several of the biskops were immediately consumed by flames, and any of the ridders who tried to put them out soon found themselves on fire as well. The Panda Express building was now burning quite merrily, and the prince came running out.
Adam didn't hesitate; drawing his sword, he leapt down from the roof and charged the prince, a dozen other lions already hot on his heels, and more coming over the side every second.
Prince Lagereld couldn't believe his eyes; there were a dozen lions with swords attacking him! And more were dropping down behind them as he watched.
"Attack the lions, you fools! Let the others burn!" he screamed and drew his own weapons as the leader ignored everything between him and them and engaged him immediately.
The ones behind him protected his back so he only had the one to deal with, but with the numbers of them coming from who knows where and joining the fight, Lagereld didn't think the situation would last for very long. Gathering up his mana, he cast the strongest spell he could and stunned all the lions within twice an arms length.
Taking the head off the one nearest him and the maneless one behind it, he watched as his biskops killed the twenty or so that were already gathered around. But rather than be intimated by the display of magic and might, the remaining lions roared loudly and redoubled their attack!
And more were still joining the fight! There were dozens of them now, and he couldn't move any further back because of the fire there. He tried to move to his left, but there were even more lions coming from that direction! He needed to act quickly; if he was killed by a lion, that would be it! He wouldn't respawn, he would die as if Sladd himself had killed him!
For the first time in his long life, Lagereld knew fear. Turing to his right, he saw still had several biskops left! They were sworn to him, so a death at their hand would mean nothing; he'd still respawn at home. Dashing over to one, he screamed at them, "Kill me! Quickly, before the lions steal my soul!"
Both turned on him and raised their swords, but doing so allowed the lions who were already attacking them to do so unopposed, and both the biskops went down before they'd even touched him.
It was at that moment something hit him in the back, hard, and felt a burning sensation in his thorax. Looking down, he saw a sword sticking out there! And then suddenly the world started to turn end over end as his head was separated from his body, the shock of it hitting the pavement rendering him unconscious before he died.
Ξ
King Sladd bolted upright in his seat. Lagereld was gone! "Eldstaden!" he roared. "Eldstaden! Attend me!"
Growling in anger, Sladd stood up and pounded on his desk, driving his fists through the slate top, cracking it in two. He'd been reviewing what little recorded knowledge there was on the lions. Only once had a prince ever been recorded as being killed by one, and that was a very long time ago.
Yet he'd now lost two! Two of his best!
"What is it, my King?" Eldstaden asked, running into his quarters.
"Lagereld is dead! The lions have killed him!" King Sladd yelled. For some reason the look of complete and utter shock on his most trusted advisor's face calmed him. He knew what he had to do, and what he had to do was act. Planning, planning was for those who would not risk, and without risk, there was no reward.
"What, what are you going to do, my King?" Eldstaden asked, looking up at King Sladd as he walked up to him.
"What I should have done already," King Sladd growled. "I'm going to the main gate. I'm going to summon all my forces, all my forces. Once they have assembled, I'm going through."
Eldstaden nodded. "I will see to the orders immediately, my King."
King Sladd grabbed Eldstaden's shoulder before he could finish, turned him back to face him, and pulled him closer, seizing him with both hands.
"No. Your time is finished. I need what you know, but I no longer need you."
Lifting his advisor up, Sladd opened his mouth wide, seized Eldstaden's throat, and ripped it out, causing his advisor to give a brief gasp as his body began to convulse in Sladd's grasp, and his advisor slowly died. King Sladd drew all that Eldstaden was into himself, savoring the power and the knowledg
e, trying to hold onto as much of the later as he could.
When Eldstaden had given his last and was truly dead, King Sladd tossed the body on the wreckage of his desk. The servants could clean up the mess. King Sladd knew he no longer had the time for advisors, so he would eat them all before he left. Eldstaden had at least gone gracefully, probably having always known that one day his king would eat him. King Sladd doubted the others would be so wise.
"Beskerder! Valse!" King Sladd called out as he stepped from his rooms.
"Yes, my King?" they both asked, ignoring the dark blood on their king's lips and chin.
"Beskerder, gather everyone, and I do mean everyone. We will depart for the gateway in a half daer's time."
"Yes, my King!" Beskerder said and ran off.
"Valse, take a mount and ride to Princes Lykta, Talt, and Vises Ikke. Order them all to come to the main gate as soon as possible and to bring all their fighters. We will be going through once I have sufficient forces. Along the way, I want you to stop at any of Lagereld's lords whose lands you might pass through and order them to accompany me as well."
"Yes, my King!" Valse said and ran off.
King Sladd smiled, yes, action. Action was what he needed! But first, first he was going to sate his appetite for knowledge.
Ξ
"What the hell!" Jessie said and, belly crawling backwards until she was far enough away that she could stand up, she ran down the hillside as fast as she could. Sliding to a halt by Trevor, she grabbed him by the pack harness he was wearing, and physically lifted him to his feet.
"Jessie!" Trevor growled, he'd just been settling down to meditate and check in with the others.
"Come! Now!" she said and ran back to where she'd been keeping watch.
Trevor ran after her. He knew full well when she got excited like this about something, getting her to talk was a complete waste of time. Hopefully this wasn't that prince who'd been chasing them. Somehow he'd figured out they hadn't used that last gateway and he was still looking for them. He hadn't found them yet, but that was only because they'd spent a day laying down false trails and several interesting pit traps and improvised landmines, using their grenades and extra black powder cartridges.