“Anyone know how to kill a giant?” McKenna asked.
“You guys are forgetting one thing,” Leon said. “It took nearly three hours to get here hiking through the forest, how are we going to reach them in time?”
“Leave that to me,” McKenna said as she ran back to the comm center.
“Great idea!” I said. “We can radio for help.”
“I doubt they’re answering their radios," she hollered back. "Even if they’re aware that it’s fixed now, they’re a bit preoccupied.”
The earth quaked as we stayed close on the commander's heels, causing me to stumble, but I managed to keep upright. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Eton slam his fists into the ground right before another mini quake ripped through the mountain range.
“Chet, that thing is strong.”
McKenna burst into the comm center, placed her shoulder against a steel locker, and began to shove. It inched away, grinding against the concrete.
“A little help here,” she called out.
Coming up alongside her, I placed my hands above her head and pushed. Together, we moved the locker about three or four feet.
When I stepped back, I saw that the locker had concealed a doorway that led into a dark room. McKenna stepped in and pressed an unseen switch. Light flickered on with a loud buzz—dim at first, but brightening with every second.
An air cruiser sat in the middle of a large open warehouse. Except it was unlike any air cruiser that I’d ever seen before. It was short and fat with no doors and open access to the main cargo hold from either side of the ship. There was a small cockpit that could fit two people. But most peculiar were the giant blades of metal that crisscrossed on top of the cruiser.
“What is that?” Bella asked.
McKenna opened her mouth to answer, but Izaiah butt in, “Is that a—It is. That’s a Hamilton S23 Dropship.”
“A what?” I asked.
“It’s pre-AGIS—pre-Allyrian even. I didn’t know these things still existed,” Izaiah exclaimed.
“It was decommissioned decades ago,” McKenna said. “But Lockwin is a bit of a nostalgic. He doesn’t think I know about it, but I got bored up here on my earlier assignments. I repaired her. Took me five years, but she should work.”
“Should?” Izaiah asked.
“Well, it’s not like I’ve flown it around or anything, but she’ll fire up,” McKenna answered. She smiled—actually smiled for the first time since I met her. Her face was beaming with pride.
“Not to be a downer again, but how do you expect to fit the thing through that door?” Leon asked.
McKenna turned and punched a large red button on the wall.
The warehouse shook and light flooded into the room from high above as two great iron doors separated, spilling chunks of dirt down onto the floor.
“Who’s up for a ride?”
Thirty-Two
McKenna jumped into the pilot’s seat and flipped a few switches.
Izaiah joined her in the cockpit. “This is amazing!”
“Not really,” she said. “It’s old and inefficient, but it’ll do. Everyone get in and hold onto something; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
I hopped into the open bay and grabbed hold of a strap that hung down from the ceiling. “This doesn’t seem secure.”
“Have any other ideas?” McKenna shouted back.
“No,” I admitted.
“Then shut up and sit tight.”
The engine roared to life, and the blades atop the cruiser started to spin slowly. With each second, they picked up speed, and then we were airborne. The dropship lurched to the side, and I about fell out.
“Whoa, easy!” I yelled.
“Sorry, I forgot to engage the stabilizers,” McKenna called back. “These old models have to be turned on manually.”
“Let’s try to avoid killing us all, if we can. Thanks,” I said, but I doubt she heard me over the noise.
We steadily rose into the air until we cleared the hangar doors, and the whole mountain range became visible. The view was staggering, so much so that I almost dropped to my death. It didn’t seem that high until I saw just how truly far up we were.
I didn’t think of myself as having a fear of heights, but the sheer lack of security I felt sent a surge of panic through my body that nearly paralyzed me.
As soon as we moved beyond the mountain, McKenna lowered the dropship to just above the trees, allowing my heart to return to a more normal rhythm. The ship leaned forward, and we picked up speed, flying across the forest faster than I thought possible in this old rust bucket.
The sounds of battle grew the closer we got to the base. Looking out the opening to my left, I tried to catch a glimpse of the battle raging below us.
Ahead, Eton roared and slammed his fist into the ground, sending a tremor forward that turned up the earth in a straight line. Little black dots surrounded the god on either side, tiny colorful blasts escaping from them and lancing in both directions.
I focused on the earth god, and his stats fully displayed before my eyes since I'd never turned off the display from the neural link.
ETON
LEVEL 99
4,569/9,900 HP
TYPE: GROUND
IMMUNITY: FIRE
ABSORBS: EARTH
WEAKNESS: NONE
DROPS: N/A
“HP?” I asked out loud.
“What?” Claire yelled over the thrum of the engines and whir of the blades.
I leaned back in and placed my mouth next to her ear as I shouted, “Eton has Hit Points?”
Claire nodded. “The gods can’t be killed,” she explained. “But they’re banished when their HP drops below 1,000. If you’re strong enough to drop it to zero, you’ll shatter the Summoner’s stone. It doesn’t kill the god but prevents the Summoner from using it again.”
“Hang on tight,” McKenna yelled. “We’re coming in hot!”
The dropship banked, and the battle came into full view. Bella grabbed a rifle hanging on the wall and pulled it off the hook.
“What is this?” she asked, detaching a piece of metal from the bottom of the weapon. “It’s got bullets?”
“Well, she did say it was old,” Leon replied. He shrugged and grabbed his own rifle off the wall.
I didn’t need a gun when I had my bow. I nocked an arrow, aimed at the god, and let fly.
Eton didn’t even react as the arrow hit home, his focus remaining entirely on the battle below. He used his gargantuan arms to swat at the soldiers below, but they managed to keep their distance.
Bella and Leon started unloading their weapons.
Claire used what MP she had left to fire off blasts of magic while I tapped the Lightning magika stone on my bow and loosed arrow after arrow.
The more we struck, the more Eton began to take notice of us. One arrow wasn’t enough to be worth his time, but our barrage, coupled with the ground forces, was slowly whittling away at the god’s HP.
Eyes larger than my whole head lifted and settled on our drop ship.
“Abort!” I shouted.
The dropship jerked suddenly, and we were flying away as a hand bigger than our ship flew past, narrowly missing us.
Bracing myself against the inside of the ship, I continued to fire arrow after arrow, this time aiming at the god’s face. I wasn’t sure if it would actually provide any extra damage, but it was worth the shot.
The only problem was that the god was so large and our ship so far away that it was impossible to tell where the arrows were landing.
A clicking sound drew my attention to the side.
“Ah, I’m out,” Bella said.
“Me, too,” Leon declared.
“Make that three,” Claire added. “My MP is spent, there’s not much else I can do without manaburning, unless…”
Claire drew her sword.
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“I’ve spent my life fighting the gods. It’s a Summoner’s duty to su
bdue them. I know what I’m doing,” she said.
“It’s suicide.”
“Have faith, little brother. I’ll be all right,” she told me, then she banged her fist on the wall of the cockpit.
“What?” McKenna shouted back.
“Take me over Eton’s head!” Claire yelled.
“Say again? It sounded like you want me to fly over the god’s head.”
“That’s what I said!”
“Are you crazy?” McKenna spat back.
“Just do it,” Claire answered.
“All right, here we go!”
The dropship sped off toward the god.
Eton grabbed for us, but McKenna banked to the right, dodging the god’s lumbering movements. As we passed over it, Claire enabled her shield, wincing as the manaburn stung her, then she jumped from the dropship.
“Screw it,” Bella said.
I turned my head just as her shield appeared, and then she was gone, too, jumping after Claire.
“No!” I shouted after her, but the roar of the winds swallowed my words, and I was sure she didn’t hear me.
I watched in horror as they both flew through the air. Claire landed atop the god’s head, plunging her sword deep into his skin.
The pain caused the god to jerk his head, making Bella miss her landing.
My heart leapt into my throat as I stood helplessly by, watching her fall to her death.
She reached out with her sword and stabbed it into the side of Eton’s head, but her momentum wrenched it free, and she was falling once more. As she crashed into the god’s shoulder, she drove her sword into as much flesh as she could manage and held on with all her might…
…and found purchase.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Climbing up onto Eton’s shoulder, she withdrew her blade and began slashing at his neck.
Claire was likewise pulling out her sword and stabbing it into the god’s head, perforating his skull over and over again.
I shook away my paralysis and once more began loosing arrows.
I didn’t dare shoot at the god’s head with both Claire and Bella up there, so I aimed for his chest. Twang after twang of my bow sounded, and my arm began to burn with all the effort.
A bright light appeared on the god’s neck, and my jaw dropped as I watched Bella slash into Eton with lightning speed a hundred times over in rapid succession. As the light faded from her sword—and I was sure that’s where it was coming from—she took one final swing and punched the sword as deep into Eton’s neck as she could.
“What was that?” I asked Leon.
“An overload attack,” he answered. “When your weapon glows, it means it has built up too much magika and has to be released. Every weapon’s overload is different. Use the same weapon long enough, and it’ll even develop a second.”
Before I could ask more, a geyser of blood exploded from the wound on Eton’s neck, jettisoning Bella into the air.
I lost sight of her before I even knew what was happening.
Sadness, anger, grief, and rage all welled up within me.
I would kill that god if it was the last thing I did.
As I reached back to grab another arrow, my hand found nothing but air. I slipped the quiver off my shoulder and discovered that I only had three arrows left.
Chet. I was almost out. Better make them count.
“Can you get me closer to his face?” I hollered.
“I think so!” McKenna shouted.
The dropship sped off, turned around, and dashed in. I didn’t figure McKenna would stop, so I nocked my arrow and prepared to fire.
As soon as the god’s eye came into view, I let it fly and watched with satisfaction as it slammed into Eton’s pupil.
The god roared, and a moment later, we were spinning end over end in the air.
I tried to hold on, but the centrifugal force tossed me free of the craft and out into the air.
For a brief moment, the world came to a halt. The battle faded away from my mind, and all I heard was the rushing of the wind as it whipped past my face. With a surge, it all came flooding back as the dirt below rose up to meet me.
“Shield!” I shouted a second before my body slammed into the ground.
I took a deep breath, and my chest ached with pain, eliciting a groan.
Pain was good. Pain meant I wasn’t dead.
A bright light penetrated the darkness of my mind, and I thought it was the sun. But as I opened my eyes, I saw that it was my bow.
My bow—that was normally a Guardian pastel blue—was glowing a bright white.
It was ready for an overload.
Pushing aside the pain, I bolted to my feet and nocked an arrow.
The great god towered before me, but his back was toward me.
That’s not right, I thought, furrowing my brow in confusion. But that means…
I spun around and found myself deep in enemy lines. Several Balgyrans around me recoiled in surprise, then leveled their weapons at me.
Before they could fire, a second light more brilliant than the sun could ever be, filled the entire battle zone. The Balgyrans mouths fell slack, and even I couldn’t fight the urge to turn around.
Eton’s skin had taken on a vibrant sheen looking as if he were about to explode.
Was he… dying?
But as he roared and raised two fists above his head, I realized the truth of it. The gods could overload, too.
His fists slammed down into the earth, sending a ripple through the ground that upended dirt, rocks, and trees. The ground in front of him gave way, and a trench opened up before him racing forward in a straight line, engulfing everything and everyone in its path.
The force of the blow was so strong that the shockwave knocked everyone in and out of its path—Allyrian and Balgyran alike—to the ground.
That’s when a second glow appeared atop the god’s head, and a beam of light lanced out. A tiny figure jumped off the god’s head and sliced the beam of light straight through the god from top to bottom as she plummeted through the air.
Eton arched his back in pain with the loudest roar I’d ever heard and then faded into nothing.
Chet!
I had wanted to kill him.
My misplaced anger at Claire was short-lived, however, as all around me, Balgyrans started to rise.
I was still in enemy territory—alone—and nearly out of arrows.
I did the only thing I could do: I jumped to my feet and pulled back an arrow.
Without knowing what my overload would do, I aimed the arrow at the center of the Balgyran army and let it fly.
I audibly gasped as the arrow split into a hundred different arrows and rained death upon the enemy, striking Balgyrans in the throat, neck, eyes, chest, or wherever they found purchase.
All over the battlefield, screaming erupted. Magic blasted into the air as dying men fell to the ground and pulled the trigger of their weapons in a last-ditch effort to fight. More often than not, their shots hit their own allies while others went careening off into the sky.
Confusion broke out over who was firing on whom.
I dove to the ground and covered my head, doing my best to stay out of harm’s way as brother turned on brother. More Balgyrans fell to their own weapons in the turmoil than even I’d managed to take out.
When they’d finally realized what was going on and ceased their fire, less than four or five dozen of them remained. The Allyrians who had survived Eton’s attack shouted in victory behind me and surged forward.
Some of the Balgyrans opened fire, but most fled into the forest, realizing that the battle was lost.
We won.
Thirty-Three
My affinity mark pulsed in rapid succession more times than I could possibly count. I glanced at my stats to see how much I’d earned:
AREN HALLAND
LEVEL 26
AFFILIATION: ALLYRIA
PROFESSION: GUARDIAN
260/260 MP
&n
bsp; 17,730/26,000 EXP
17 AP AVAILABLE
-32,123 FAME – DANGEROUS
0 RIFKELS
“Whoa!” I shouted.
“What?” a voice asked behind me.
I spun around, drawing my bow. As Claire’s face came into focus, I tossed my bow and embraced her.
“Don’t you dare do anything like that again,” I said, leaning back and pointing my finger at her like a parent lectures a child.
She shrugged. “What was so amazing?”
“Huh?” I asked.
“When I walked up, you seemed shocked about something.”
“Oh, I gained like 12 levels from that,” I explained.
“You what?” she exclaimed. “I only gained one.”
“Leon said something about me gaining double EXP—oh, chet, Leon!” I shouted. “He was in the dropship when it went down. Not to mention McKenna and Izaiah.”
Glancing around the battlefield, I saw a pillar of smoke rising into the sky in the forest to the north. Both Claire and I took off as fast as our exhausted bodies would carry us.
It didn’t take long before the dropship came into view, thick black smoke billowing out of it. I doubled my speed and raced for the cockpit. Its door hung slightly ajar, the frame bent and the window smashed to pieces.
“Aren, wait!” Claire yelled, but I ignored her.
When I arrived, I saw Izaiah sitting in the co-pilot’s seat with a long piece of metal impaling him through the gut and nailing him to the back of the dropship. McKenna was nowhere to be seen.
“Izaiah!” I shouted.
His eyes flitted open, and he groaned.
“Oh, thank the gods! Are you all right?”
He coughed and moaned in pain. “Do I—Do I look—”
“Okay, don’t talk, dumb question,” I said. “You’re going to be all right. We’ll get you out of this.”
“Bella—”
“I—I don’t know. Hang on,” I said.
Spinning around, I looked for Claire, but she was no longer behind me. Someone hissed, and I turned in the direction of the voice. McKenna sat propped against a tree about a hundred feet away. Claire was leaning over her, healing her.
Sworn Guardian: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (Forbidden Magic Book 1) Page 24