by Jesse Wilson
“You need to put full power to the engines. Everything on the surface of the Western Kingdom is under attack, you need to believe me, just do it,” Evie screamed into the intercom. “Understood, get to the bridge as soon as you can and fill me in on the rest,” Rex replied to her. Evie quickly casted her clothing spell with what little energy she had recovered and made her way through the airlock and into the hall. She used her staff as support to make her way down the hall. Luckily for her it wasn't that far away.
The doors slid open and Rex was there to meet her. “I've already given the order, what is the problem,” he asked her and she caught her breath.
“Unicorns have invaded. I saw it in a dream, it's happening right now,” she said and he narrowed his eyes. “Elrox himself was there, I have to believe it's true, please we have to hurry,” she said and was so distraught that she almost collapsed, he caught her before she could hit the ground. “You go sit down, we are going as fast as this bucket can go,” Rex said and helped her to an empty chair. Evie almost fell into it.
“Rest easy, we'll do what we can, and I hope you're not right,” Rex said and worried about what they were going to find. Rex almost wanted to say something negative about the God of the sea, however, he also didn't feel like being turned into sea salt or something so he kept his mouth shut.
Rex kept this information to himself. He didn't see any reason to alarm anyone over what amounted to what could be a fever dream. But still the lack of signal from the city worried him more the longer it went and nothing was detected. He still could see nothing when Drask called him back on the intercom.
“You're not going to like this even a little bit. I tuned into a police scanner and apparently, it's insane out there. I've got reports that unicorns have, well, invaded the city, it's a blood bath,” Drask said and Rex was confused how this could happen.
“How are the hunters doing?” Rex asked, worried about the rest of them.
“No mention of them was made. I can only assume they are in the mess or soon will be,” she replied to him and Rex didn't know what he could do. “If you can get us their faster,” Rex said into the intercom. “No need to worry, I'm pushing this pile as far as it can go. It's times like this I miss the Voltarice,” she replied to him as she watched the gauge hit the red lines on her console. Rex didn't bother to reply.
They traveled through the air over the dark sea as fast as those second-rate engines could take them. Evie sat in that chair, still drained but aware of what was going on. Rex stood up from his chair as their ship began to approach what looked like a bank of fog in the distance.
It only took a few seconds to realize that there was more than just mist in this haze. The ash particles began to appear on the screen and he immediately knew it was smoke, they had arrived at their destination. Rex turned on his intercom.
“All hands to the bridge. We have an emergency. I repeat, we have an emergency,” he said as calmly as he could given the situation at hand. It didn't take very long before the rest of the crew came to the bridge in various states of being awake.
“What in the hell, did you fly us into fog?” Drask said, nervous about being away from the engines for any amount of time. “It's smoke, the whole of the city is under attack and we are just seeing the very beginning of all of this,” Rex said and Tayne narrowed his eyes, “Under attack by what, exactly?” he asked but didn't want to know the answer.
“Unicorns, someone sent an army of unicorns into the city, or that's all I can guess at what happened,” he replied and everyone looked worried. “What in the hell is going on with you people? You sure know how to wake someone up,” Calibri said, rubbing her eyes as she walked in the door. “You are not part of the crew,” Unie said, who followed Tayne on to the bridge.
“You're a stupid robot and not part of any crew, so shut up,” she replied and Rex had enough of the arguing.
“I don't know how the unicorns got there, but all I know is that something terrible has happened and we need to help any way we can. We need to split up and take different sectors of the city so we can get this under control. We don't know how many there are, we don't know what kinds they are so be ready for anything once we get on the ground. Do your job,” Rex said and they looked at one another.
This kind of thing was unheard of for a very long time and there were many questions that needed answers.
Chapter 21
The ship hovered over the city. Buildings were on fire and smoke filled every street. The eight of them stood on the deck looking down into the nightmare.
“Well, if we're going to do something about it we should do something about sooner rather than later,” Drask said and tightened her grip on the plasma rifle. “Evie, do you have enough power to get us down to the surface?” Rex asked her.
“I think so, I feel better now,” she replied and Tayne smiled. “Let me save you the trouble, see you on the ground somewhere,” he said and jumped of the edge of the airship without a second thought.
“Vampires are always such show offs if you ask me, but I wish I could do that sometimes,” Boz said. “No, you're just fine the way you are. Vampires may act all flashy but they horribly boring when it comes to the things that really count,” Nymie replied to him and everyone pretended they didn't hear that.
“Oh, for crying out loud let me do it already, your mage is obviously broken,” Calibri said, frustrated with how long this was all taking, she waved her hand through the smoke leaving a much darker swath of energy through the air and soon enough it covered all of them. Seconds later it was as if their outside world had melted away and been replaced by a nightmarish scene of fire and now screaming in the distance.
“Thanks, never thought I'd owe a necromancer twice over but thanks,” Rex said and she just nodded. “Alright there is no plan here. Pick a direction and go, banish any unicorns you see and save anyone you find, but also make sure to try and get some answers because I really want to know what's going on,” Rex said, took his blaster out of his holster and walked off into the smoke.
“Boz, I know you want to come with me but you need to see if you can find people alive and help them,” Nymie said to him. “Yeah, I know, it's the same mission each and every time I go out on a hunt, be safe,” Boz replied to her and walked off without looking back into the smoke towards the screaming.
“You really like that elf, don't you?” Drask asked her. “Yeah, he's not so bad once you get past that stupid doctor mask he always wears,” Nymie replied and the painfully obvious size difference between the two of them was taking Drask's mind places it didn't want to go.
“Right, whatever. Don't get killed, I'll see you later,” she said and she walked away into the smoke and the unknown. Nymie found herself alone.
Calibri was missing and the robot wasn't here either, neither was Evie. “I'm sure their fine, right, yeah. Nothing bad happened to them,” she said to herself and started the hunt, trying to be ready for anything that might come out of the smoke.
Boz found it hard to see and the smoke was stinging his eyes the deeper he moved into the hellish orange glow of the city. He could feel the flames from the buildings and hoped he didn't have to deal with another Pyre horn or something worse.
Then he heard footsteps rushing up from a side alley towards his direction. Boz prepared to defend himself with his blade but quickly relaxed when he saw it was a badly burned Elroxian, she was screaming in pain. Boz immediately stopped her. “Lady what is going on? I'm a doctor and I can help you, tell me what happened,” Boz said to her.
“Unicorns, more than I've ever seen just appeared an hour after the power went out. So many of them,” he said as some of her scales on her left arm started to slide off. Boz widened his eyes and laid her on the ground as she was screaming. He reached in his pocket and pulled out an injector, flipped it on and pressed it against her burned skin, pressing the button.
“I am giving you a shot of nanites. I know your kind is against all this stuff but right now it's going
to save your life, you need to keep as still as you can for as long as you can. I know, it's dangerous out here but you were running. I'm going to guess you were being chased by something so, sorry about this,” Boz said to her and stood up despite the terror in her eyes.
“Forgive me,” he said and walked backwards into the smoke, disappearing, The Elroxian woman laid there, suffering as her body was badly burnt but was slowly healing. Boz watched as the nine-foot monster stepped out of the smoke. It was another Pyre horn and Boz cursed his luck.
The thing walked and its skin cracked open revealing the fire inside of it, its eyes glowed bright orange and the horn coming out of its skull was burning with blue and white fire. Its mane, tail and hooves were also fire, it was melting the pavement as it walked. This one was acting far more normal than the last one.
“Okay matchstick, just a little closer,” he said quietly and readied his electric blade for the coming attack.
Boz took a shallow breath and waited until the woman realized that the flaming horror was standing over her and the heat was making the skin on her shoulders sizzle, she began to scream. The Nanites would fix that, Boz wasn't worried but if he waited too long, she would just cook in a few more minutes.
The creature opened its maw, filled with fire and blackened teeth. It lowered its head to eat her alive, Boz leaped out of the shadows with his blade and struck the glowing blue horn at its base as hard as he could. The unicorn's head was knocked down with the blow but the horn was not severed from the skull. It flung its head back and Boz jumped back to avoid getting burned.
“Oh, come on how come that didn't work?” he said to himself and tried to think of a plan B. The woman was still on the ground. “Sorry I used you as bait but you'd better off now if you kept running and get out of sight,” he said to her as she was trying to pull herself off the ground and to get away. The pyre horn's eyes flashed and it opened its mouth to unleash its hellfire. Boz took off to the left just as the cone of fire erupted from its maw. Boz didn't have time to stop running as that fire followed him closely.
Boz dived to the ground and rolled, as he did so he threw his electric sword at the beast and hit it in the chest. Instantly the cone of white fire stopped as the beast reared up in pain and surprise as its molten blood spilled out over the hilt, instantly melting it.
“Well that was a dumb plan,” Boz said and while the thing was stunned. Boz took the advantage and ran away from the situation.
Without a weapon he didn't stand a chance against the thing and he was regretting his choices right now. Despite getting away he could still hear the screams of the beast behind him that didn't seem too far away.
Tayne landed on the ground on his feet and immediately looked around to make sure he didn't jump into a bad situation like an idiot. Luckily for him he appeared to be alone. Then something landed beside him and shattered the pavement sending shards in all directions. “What the hell,” he said and shielded his eyes. “I followed you down,” Unie said to him and Tayne was surprised that she just didn't break into pieces on impact.
“Well thanks, I don't know what we will face down here so scan the area for anything that might need our attention,” he said to her and she immediately looked around. “I detect energy sources in this direction, moving away from us,” she replied to him and pointed to the right. “I sense it too, but not that well so keep up if you can,” he said to her and took off running in that direction.
The machine started to run as well and while not quite as fast as the vampire, she was never more than a few feet behind him.
Tayne stopped and hid behind a wall, the machine copied his movement. “Look at that, I haven't seen a Hydro on land, ever, none of this is making sense,” he said to himself mostly. On the surface this unicorn was highly visible, its skin was transparent, but filled with the blood of its victims could still be seen flowing though it's body.
Underwater these were near top predators because they blended in with the water, on the land it looked as if water came to life and learned how to walk around.
It's eyes glowed blue and the horn was just as clear as the rest of it, tinted with blood. “What do we do?” she asked him. “It looks confused, it's clearly out of its element. We send it back to whatever hell it came from,” he whispered and got his shotgun ready.
“I can do this,” she said to him. “All you need to do is take the horn off its head and it's over, sounds pretty simple but I'd be careful if I were you,” he replied and waited to see what it was doing next, but all it was doing was slowly walking down the street, confused.
“Okay, wait here. I will do this,” he replied and stood up and started to walk down the street after the thing. “Hey, water horse, we need to talk,” she said to the thing and it turned around as soon as it heard the words. “This is not where you belong, you need to come with me so we can send you back home and” she was cut off as it opened its mouth and let loose a high pressured stream of water. It immediately knocked her off her feet and sent her sliding all the way back to where Tayne was still waiting.
Her clothes were torn and the artificial skin was torn showing silver underneath it. It was clear the blast would have been lethal to anything living.
“Well look at that, you talked to a monster and you got blasted, who would have seen that coming?” he asked her and laughed. She sat and stood up at once.
“I will not stop,” she replied and walked forward yet again. The Hydro horn towered over the machine but the water, to a machine that spent most of her time underwater was nothing more than an inconvenience. The beast narrowed its eyes at her and didn't understand, usually this was the end of the fight after a direct hit, but this time was different. If the water wouldn't work it was going to try something that would. The water unicorn started to run at the machine, but it was awkward and clumsy as it strode forward. In the water it was incredibly fast, but not here.
Unie did not move, she was incapable of being afraid. Tayne watched this and fully expected an impalement to happen at any moment. At the last second, she twisted to the side, leaped into the air and grabbed onto the horn of the beast.
She brought it down with all of the considerable weight of her metal body and snapped the horn off the beast. She stepped away and watched as the thing screamed in what looked like pain. As the blood infested water streamed from its body and it fell to the ground, dissolving into nothing. Tayne walked beside her.
“Unicorns can't die, we just sent it back home where it belongs is all,” he said as the liquid horn in her hand lost its structure and splashed on the ground. “I didn't feel bad for the creature, I don't know how to do that. However, it appears to be the right thing to do,” she replied to him and Tayne smiled.
“Yeah, it was. Also, that was really impressive how you did that. That water has the force to break bones on impact, good thing you're metal on the inside,” he said with a smile. “Yes, let us find another one to send home,” she replied and the two of them went looking for more prey.
Chapter 22
Nymie was walking down the street, but to her everything was looking the same. “Come out little unicorn, wherever you are,” she said to no one. But nothing came out, nothing even was moving where she was at. “Maybe I picked the one direction where there isn't anything to find, my lucky day,” she said to herself, then she stepped on something soft but it had a crunchy center as it cracked under her weight.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked and looked down, there was a human arm that used to be part of a police officer on the ground but it looked like it was cut off with a surgical tool.
“Razorhorn,” she said quietly and looked around for more body parts and a trail of blood that she could follow somewhere and find this thing. She hated these monsters, out of all the more common unicorns out there, razors were the worst ones.
Nymie walked through the smoke and listened for the telltale sounds of crunching bones to detect the monster but all she could hear was fire and distant screaming.
She turned a corner carefully just in time to watch another officer get sliced in half by the long, curved sword like horn of the razor unicorn from behind. There was nothing she could do to save him.
The blood sprayed over its black, sharp body and the thing grunted with a sick satisfaction. It wasn't the first time she saw something like this but it wasn't exactly something you ever wanted to get used to by any means. She quietly slipped behind the corner and out of sight while the thing was distracted by the fresh kill, it wouldn't smell her nearby with any luck.
Her plan was simple. With any luck it was going to be easy and without any problems. She passed by a window and looked inside, there was a small group of children there, scared out of their minds and she didn't think they noticed her.
She crept past the window and moved around the building as fast and as quietly as she could to get behind the razor horn. Thankfully there wasn't another nearby, she didn't think there would be however because they usually hated one another anyways. After one more corner, the beast could be seen there, feasting on its meal. She lifted her axe and took a quiet, deep breath.
Nymie lunged at the beast and swung her axe.
The blade bit into the back leg of the black skinned beast but didn't go very deep as the thing turned at the same time. The acid blood sizzled against the axe as she pulled it out. The beast roared in pain, turned around in one fluid move slashing that bladed, curved horn in her direction. Nymie barely got out of the way of the attack and narrowed her eyes.
This was part of her plan, tried and true strategy in fighting these things. The beast recovered and started to run in her direction.
“Bring it sword face,” she screamed at it as it leapt through the air in her direction. She didn't back down and did the same thing. She connected her axe with the fragile, yet extremely sharp blade horn at its base. True to form and exactly as she expected, the horn shattered sending fragments in all directions.
