by Alex Sapegin
“Irran, tell him we will be there in five minutes,” Andy said. The Miur made a doubtful face but did not object. Renat paced outside the door for a few minutes, waiting, but when they took too long he decided to leave.
“I hope you are going to explain to us what in Tma’s name is going on here,” Irran said, turning back from the door.
“Yes, briefly and clearly.” Andy did not feel like getting into all the messy details. Instead of words, he grabbed a thin golden plate from his special pocket which looked like a credit card. He handed it over to the feline. “If you have any questions, I will answer.”
Irran, taking the magical card, ran her claw along the edge of the rectangle. An illusion of the Great Mother appeared over it. All the “ghosts” present in the room crowded behind the commander. While the detachment listened to the ruler and read the text that was magically bound to the card, Andy pulled a uniform and a light mail vest from his “pocket” and quickly put the armor on.
In the cat race, obedience to higher ranks had been hammered since childhood. The magical “backstage pass” presented by Andy, in which the ruler ordered all citizens without exception to render the necessary support to the owner of the device, made an indelible impression on the tailed ladies. The line about the shkas having full access to any army unit put any last doubts to rest.
No one had any questions. If the warriors were interested in the lifeless body on the floor, how the man came to be inside it, and for what merit he was given the full confidence of the over-cautious ruler, they did not express them. Outwardly, the cats remained unperturbed, thus showing remarkable restraint. Not even one lady twitched the tip of her tail. They could languish with curiosity, but it was unlikely they would be satisfied with detailed answers. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. The change of body had gone very smoothly with the miur. Now he had to persuade the princess of his authority. The dragons were unlikely to accept the disappearance of Anrisha and the appearance of the new ambassador as calmly.
“We’re heading out,” he said, fastening the buckle of his sling with two swords behind him and heading to the door. Irran shouted a guttural command. The cat people activated their protective amulets and the communicator amulets in their helmets.
Unceremoniously pushing the ambassador aside, one of the Miur opened the door to the corridor. The once-cat-woman, now man shrugged indifferently. “The girls” decided to play at security. He didn’t mind, as long as they did not interfere with his plans or stand on the front lines of a magical attack or defense, if necessary. Having thrown a deliberately lazy look at the doorway, already half-obstructed by the zealous bodyguard, Andy felt the hair stand on the scruff of his neck. All the space behind the thin haze of the curtain of silence was filled with a complex magical pattern. The fine interweave resembled the work of a knitting master; it was weightless lace, just as airy and filled with numerous curls, its designs often alternating, gathering in intricate patterns. The work of the unknown master could have been admired for a long time, if not for one thing—the curls were full of serious danger. The beautiful patterns were filled with deadly poison, and the power points of geometric structures served to secure the capture of the victims.
Time slowed down and contracted like a spring. Feeling the red mist of a trance cover his eyes and a lethal dose of adrenaline splash into his blood, Andy composed a spell and directed it towards the cat that had stepped her right foot over the threshold. He had to make it in time—one more moment and the Miur would be caught in the “lace” like a fly in a spider web, and death would pour through the threshold. The warrior who pushed him was swept aside by a magical “ram.”
“Stop!” Andy screamed, throwing a static double-sided shield over the opening. The magical assassin gravitated towards the living flesh but ran into an insuperable barrier. The collision of the “shield” and “sword” lasted for a brief instant, but during that time the curls managed to turn into long thorns and shoot thousands of needles which got stuck in the protective energy field. The shield faded but held. “The creature!” Andy roared, he did not doubt for a second that the magician who had put a parasite curse on the puppet and left a “surprise” in the corridor of the magistrate’s hotel was the same person. He had no doubts about the identity of the piece of filth that had wormed his way into the princess’ entourage. “Milla, Riur,” he called a second mage as well. “A window… follow me, we’ll intercept them. Quickly!”
“What… what??” Irran’s unfinished question hung in the air.
One cry came from the hall, heartbreaking, on one note. A man ran through a section of the hall that was lit by an open door. The poor man, stuck in a trap placed in someone else’s game, decomposed right before their eyes. The shreds of hair and pieces of skin fell on the wide floorboards; smelly slime dripped from the man’s mouth, nose, and ears. Before reaching the second turn, he fell on the planks of the floor and grew into a shapeless puddle. A terrible death…. The stranger acted as a minesweeper, giving his own life to de-mine the hall. His death rattle had not yet faded when the magical lace crumbled into small fractions, which immediately evaporated with spectacular trickles of saturated steam. There was not a trace of the magical trap left. Andy mentally applauded the failed killer, who proved himself a top-notch professional. The self-destruction of the interweave destroyed absolutely all the energy fingerprints. Now no magician reading the energy traces would be able to determine who was present in the corridor a minute ago, let alone an hour or two, which means that they would never catch the ill-wisher.
The commander of the “ghosts” was the first to come out of the brief stupor that had seized the detachment. With one movement, she tore the gunner off her shoulder and shot several times at the window wall, taking out a decent piece of the third floor along with it. Andy jumped through the smoking opening. Next, wailing with righteous anger and wishing to punish the traitor, the others followed.
“Three follow me, the rest go down below,” Andy instructed the felines, pointing to the tile-covered rooftops and the pavement. He then used a levitation spell to rise to the roof of the magistrate. “Do not get involved in the fight, I authorize the use of gunners. Press Renat to the fortress. I’ll try to take him alive if he changes hypostasis—knock him down, cut the freak!” He shouted the last order and jumped over to the roof of the next house. Smashing shingles with their feet, Milla, Riur and a third, unknown Miur ran beside him. “Milla, Riur, go to the neighboring streets. I’ll just drop back, I do not have any armor.” The felines, who took off their invisibility for a moment, synchronously nodded, and, wrapped in magic curtain, jumped onto the roofs of the houses in the parallel streets. Andy slightly slowed down. A chase is a good thing, but don’t forget about the astral. Renat proved visibly and without a doubt that in a magical duel, he would be extremely difficult to beat. Difficult, but not impossible. The dragon was a mage, but his opponent possessed an unlimited reserve of mana. Dismissing such a trump card would be a reckless decision. Andy was more confident in himself than ever. Merging with the world of energy came instantly. The image of the golden dragon flared in his mind brighter than a thousand suns. The astral double sparkled with force and, as if reprovingly, shook his head on his elegant neck, sending his master an endless stream of questions: “Where have you been? Why did you leave me alone?”
The tattoo on his left shoulder started to itch. The flow of strength somewhat weakened the induced shields. Andy looked at the cavalcade of elves sweeping through the streets below on troxes and carefully touched the family coat of arms.
“No one can have two deaths, and no one gets to refuse one,” he thought.
Suddenly the troxes cawed loudly. An invisible force carried two birds off the road; the riders flew out of the saddles and rolled onto the pavement. The pride of combat Miur appeared from around the corner. A dense box of warriors, covered by full-length shields, swept along the narrow street like an icebreaker on jet propulsion. From the roofs of the houses, one
could see how the tailed Amazons split the crowd like pack ice, causing the townspeople to cling to the walls of the buildings. Several oncoming wagons with drivers who imagined themselves to be masters of the roadway were thrown back by two Miur mages. No one else tried to get in the way of the “ghosts” after that.
One thing he liked about the tailed “girls” was the fact that they didn’t hesitate for an instant. Once they received the order from their ruler, they no longer doubted for a second the authority of the blue-eyed non-human, who turned out to be especially close to the monarch. Discipline was priority number one for the cats. They were ideal warriors and assassins. With his last word, they turned into inexorable arrows moving in the direction of the designated target, and only death could stop their flight.
“I see him,” the communicator amulet came to life. One of the Miur, galloping fifty yards ahead of Andy, stopped on the roof of the last house before the central city square. The masking mode they’d turned on made her invisible to the outside observer; the fact that shingles scattered and cracked under the kitty’s feet did not bother anyone. People are not accustomed to looking up, and the many-voiced hubbub of the crowd was as effective as any canopy of silence to ensure the privacy of their communication.
“Where?” Andy asked, leaping onto the next ramp and “suspending” another runic scheme of killer character in his mind.
“Behind the second fountain in the central square.”
“Got it!” He sent three free sentry modules, converted into scouts, in the direction of the city square. “Yes, the label worked! The module is leading it! Irrand, bypass the square. You have to come from the market side; I’ll block the road to the fortress.”
“Yes, sir!” Irrand answered in a frenzied voice through the magic radio. Andy grit his teeth: all she cares about is having fun. She should be chasing balls in a house rather than commanding a detachment.
“Irran! Be careful, do not go near him. Strike from a distance; Renat is not the half-wit he pretended to be. You cannot be too cautious….”
“I got it. Irran out,” the cat stood up. “Do not try to teach me what I already know,” she said under her breath.
“Break up into threes. Block the streets leading to the square. If this lizard even thinks of taking off, shoot at his wings. Let us see how he does at repelling fire from different directions.”
Andy hid behind a wide chimney. He did not have magic armor, and making a grand show-off gesture would not be in his best interest. If everything went as planned, the pride would drive the prey to him. But for now, the important thing was to prepare as many combat rune schemes as possible.
Remembering the lessons Gray taught him, he hammered out fatal interweaves one after another: “firestorm,” “air knives,” “battering ram,” “ax.” He slightly energized the nodal runes and set his work aside, ready for use. Small lightning interweaves composed a parallel flow. Now that’s know-how! After their training fights, the ancient dragon always arranged a debriefing, during which Andy seemed to turn into a bug.
“If you’re up against a more experienced and sophisticated enemy,” the old dragon Gray once told him, “then you should not try to defeat him, contrasting sophisticated skills with complex schemes. It will be much more effective to use several elementary but energy-saturated structures. Always keep with you a dozen different pre-made spells; your connection with the astral allows you to easily bring their number to hundreds or more. Remember: simple interweaves are easy to combine and alternate the sequence of their application. Four or five sample patterns allow you to make a multitude of bundles with completely unexpected properties, and while your opponent makes up and imbues a complex combat scheme, you bring down on him a real killer hail of dozens of spells. The enemy will take a beating and go on the defense. As soon as the dome or shield appears, he lost. How many strikes can a passive or active shield withstand if you hit it with all your might? In a real battle, there is absolutely no time to put up a stationary defense. Five or six direct hits, a maximum of a dozen, and then he’s yours….”
Thank you, Gray. You had a good student, even if you’re not the one to examine me right now. It’s for the best. A battle with an unfamiliar opponent will show whether or not your ward is prepared to fight independently. Andy, completing the “ax” interweave, decided to diversify the menu. In addition to a hundred ready-made spells, he compiled a scheme of “earth knives” and a “fiery rain” scheme. A “press” and a “sledgehammer” were added to the magical arsenal, the runes of which were pumped up with energy. As soon as he pronounced the activation key in his mind, the lethal power of the spells would break out.
“Careful, he’s noticed us!”
Silence… It seemed to last forever. Andy fell into a trance in the blink of an eye and looked out from behind the pipe. He did not know how Renat was able to spot one of the Miur triplets, but he drew his conclusions instantly: the cats had come for his head.
For the observer in the combat trance, the events on the square unfolded as if in slow motion. A sound like nails on a chalkboard grated his eardrums. Renat sent a dark “harness,” visible to the naked eye, in the direction of the warriors he’d discovered. The humans and elves who fell under the influence of the spell gathered into a huge bunch and threw themselves at the Miur. The film of the shield flashed brightly. The amulets did not disappoint, but this did not save the people. The bodies reflected by the static barrier were magically accelerated and flew in all directions at a speed of one hundred miles per hour. The living “shells” knocked down and maimed the city residents and refugees who were in their path. Many of the “harnessed” ones ended their lives upon crashing into the stone walls of the surrounding buildings. A din of many voices rose above the square, but this was only the beginning…
Renat was just getting warmed up. A crowd of frightened people rushed to seek salvation in the side streets, but many did not have time to make three steps. The traitor stood in the center of a fountain, in the center of which was a tall stone statue of a bearded man. It collapsed, crashed into the Miur’s defensive field, and shattered, sending shrapnel flying in all directions, killing the righteous and the guilty alike. After the stone shower, a spell unknown to Andy struck at the center of the miur’s defensive barrier. The protection couldn’t withstand it. The dim glow faded completely. A fireball that burst at the feet of the feline, who was armed with a gunner, put an end to her career. The warrior was thrown twenty feet up in the air. Renat seized the opportunity to finish off the opponent, throwing some complicated crap at her. A red-brown puddle spread out from under the fallen body onto the pavement. With that, the dragon’s tactical successes were over; the pride mages coming up violently attacked him with a dozen different interweaves. The cats, unlike their opponent, could not go at him at full strength. The magicians feared one of their spells would accidentally kill a fellow clan member on the opposite side of the square, so they attacked often, but with weak spells. The dragon went into a deep defense mode and decided that there were a lot of them, but only one of him, and that today was not his day. Thoughts about the unsuccessful day resulted in a change of hypostasis. By Renat’s thinking, in his true form, he could take advantage of stronger and more destructible interweaves, or at the very least fly away, but... Andy’s partners were fully rehabilitated from their brief stupor in the hotel. The dragon, in his haste, failed to take into account the small nuance that for one or two seconds at the time of the change of appearance, he would not have protection. The energy spent on defense would change for a brief moment in order to change his form. Irran did not disappoint. The gunner in her hands spat out a few fireballs; the third shell-spell didn’t encounter any obstacles, if you don’t count the webbing of Renat’s right wing. He could forget about escaping by flight; no one had taught him how to fly on an honest word and one wing.
The wounded monster’s thunderous roar rang out over the square. He was not even thinking of moving his legs to flee.
The dragon answered Irras’s third shot with a long tongue of flame from his angry open mouth. The commander and one of her companions managed to dive into the fountain. The third cat was burned up faster than a match. Neither armor nor protective amulets saved her from the dragon’s wrath. With his somehow detached perception, Andy noted that the hot flame turned a dozen townspeople to ashes. The wounded humans and elves simply did not have time to get out of the way. Meanwhile, Renat observed that only one opponent was blocking the way to the fortress. The Miur from the second detachment gave herself away by shooting from a gunner, which did not do any damage to the black-scaled monster. He had put up a shield that was feeding from a strong magical accumulator amulet on his left paw.
Retribution was not long in coming. The dragon proved capable of unexpected attacks. A second later, the cat and a third of the roof disappeared in a bright flash, and her killer quickly moved his paws in the direction of the street leading to the fortress with a stationary portal, where at that moment the princess and her virk were.
The time had come! Andy jumped off the roof, sending a bundle of five interweaves in a short flight to the vis-a-vis. A landing, a roll, and five more blanks shot at the black truck moving at full speed. Five gifts from the Miur mages hit the rear hemisphere of the dragon’s protective dome. Bam! The shield burst. A weakened shield usually disappears with an explosion like that. Renat, once again using the accumulator, built a new dome around himself. Andy grinned carnivorously. His mentor turned out to be right. The spells pumped with astral energy after a dozen hits drained the black dragon’s protection and drained his amulet. It’s time for surprises! Do you like the “earth knives?” Slapping his hands on the pavement, Andy continued shooting at the enemy. The composite interweave worked with a slight delay, but for now, he could beat the stuffing out of him with a simple “battering ram.”
The black spikes of the “earth knives” interweave, once it was ready, skewering the dragon like a butterfly on a needle, punched through the stones of the pavement and his strong scales.