by Logan Jacobs
Suddenly, the rest of the flock returned and wrapped their talons around the edges of the van. They lifted the vehicle off the road, and we squeezed off a few more rounds wildly. We must have connected, because there was a painful squawk as the van fell back to the ground. A sickening screech sounded when Kal tried to keep us going straight, but it was absolutely no use.
The van tilted upward onto its side, and then there was a sickly thud as it fell over onto its side. The motion thew us all violently to the bottom of the van, and I saw sparks flying from the rough friction of metal on asphalt as we slid. Finally, the vehicle came to a stop, and the team breathed a sigh of relief.
When I finally stood up, my vision danced with stars. I had this strange feeling of total disconnection from my body as I tried to shake consciousness back into my head.
We didn’t have long to catch our breath after the harrowing crash, though, because the screech of the harpies pierced our eardrums. There was a barrage of loud bangs against the van’s bottom, and the vehicle started to lift into the air once more.
“They’re going to trap us in here,” Ariette yelled. “Everybody out!”
I helped Kal unbuckle herself from the driver’s seat in a flash, and then we all raced to get away from the van as it tilted further and further up. Seconds after we were clear of the vehicle, the van was flipped completely over and the harpies dived inside. Suddenly, they shrieked with anger when they realized their targets weren’t inside.
I took a quick glance around to see we were in the middle of a very hot, very dry desert about a quarter mile from the bottom of the Dracun Mountains. There was absolutely no cover to be seen.
The harpies screeched again in frustration, and the sounds of their anguish all morphed into one as they rose up in a group above us. I aimed my gun at the first one I saw and shot it out of the sky. I couldn’t get an exact count on the horrific beasts, but it looked like there were nearly thirty of the bastards.
We all backed up into a circle and faced down the giant creatures as they hovered in the air with murderous red eyes. And then, as a group, they dove toward us with terrifying speed.
For a moment, all I could see were dark black feathers and sharp talons, and the screeches of the harpies assaulted my ears with their pitch. I called on my Hand and searched for the first harpie’s blood I could find. I locked onto one of the creatures in the swarm and ripped her blood from her as forcefully as possible. The entire thing exploded like a grenade and showered me and every harpy around her with bright red blood and nasty pink innards.
A screech sounded right next to my ear, and before I knew what had happened, a grotesque yellow claw wrapped its sharp black talons around my wrist and yanked me into the air. Within a second, we had flown nearly fifty feet above the ground, and I flexed my fingers as I tried to wriggle free. I twisted my Hand around as I connected with the beast’s blood, ready to kill her, when the talons suddenly let me go.
For a long second, I couldn’t focus on anything but my stomach as it damn near dropped out of my body completely. The wind whistled through my hair and I felt completely weightless for a moment and stared at the deadly ground I was approaching quickly.
Without warning, I was caught by the familiar swish of Maaren’s air pocket. Twenty feet below me, Maaren had her Hand in the air and a gleam of pride in her green eyes as she slowed my fall and aided me to the ground. I got about ten feet further before a harpy flew at the hunter sideways, talons raised, and swept her to the ground.
“No!” I shouted, and then I fell the last ten feet to the ground.
I hit the sand hard, with my knees bent to absorb the impact, and whirled around to take on the harpy that had taken down Maaren. Instead, I saw the hunter on her feet, axe in hand, as she chopped the attacking creature’s head clean off.
Maaren shrugged coyly. “Never doubt me!” she called out with a smile.
A wave of heat rolled over me, and I turned to see Edora light five more of the harpies on fire. They screeched and burned, and the scent of charred flesh soon covered our area. About half the harpies were down now, and their mangled bodies littered the floor.
“The Racmoth,” a raspy voice to my side said, and I whirled around to find a bald harpy a few feet away. “K-Killl the Racmoth.”
I didn’t give the bird-lady a chance to say anything else. I connected with her blood and instantly ripped it from her body. The creature exploded in a nasty display of blood and gore, and I turned quickly to find my next target.
A bolt of lightning cracked through the sky over Ariette, and the blonde harpy in front of her let out a half screech as it went completely stiff before it fell to the side.
There were about ten harpies left now, and I turned my Hand on the next nearest one. She had her gaze locked on Kalista, who was distracted by another beast. The harpy dashed toward the dwarf, intent to skewer her with its razor-sharp talons.
Not today, bitch.
I reached out and froze all of the blood in the harpy’s body. Then, I commanded it all to go straight to her heart in a matter of seconds. Instantly, the harpy’s eyes went wide, and she went limp and tipped backward.
Fire lit the sky once again as bright orange flames devoured three harpies that had come a little too close to Edora. They screeched, and their black forms shriveled into a crisp before they tumbled to the ground in a pile of charred flesh and smoking bones.
I turned to the remaining six harpies. They looked around at the dead bodies scattered over the red sand, let out a squawk, and then shot into the sky as a group. Their giant wings flapped desperately fast in the bright blue sky, and I called on my Hand as quickly as I could. Ariette’s lightning flashed down and killed one of the monsters as I ripped the blood out of a second, and Edora threw a ball of fire at a third. Each of our targets went down instantly, but three more remained.
“Take them out!” Edora hollered. “They can’t--“
I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eyes, and I glanced over to see Danira and Kalista with looks of pure horror on their faces.
“Everybody run for the mountain!” Danira shouted and pointed up in the sky. “Now!”
A huge, black blob or feathers dipped and swayed through the sky as it traveled over the hazy purple mountains and made a beeline straight for us. My heart fell into my stomach when I finally realized what we were seeing.
Hundreds of harpies flew toward us at top speed, claws outstretched and murder in their dull, dead eyes.
Even with all of us together, and our powerful Hands, there was no way we’d be able to fight off an army of monsters with just the six of us and no cover.
“I second Danira’s suggestion,” I ordered. “To the mountains!”
We started to run, and the three original harpies dived down to block our path. Ariette threw fast lightning bolts at the monsters, and they instantly crumpled over, dead.
We dashed past the rotting bodies of the fallen harpies and past the remains of the Van of Death. I estimated we only had about two minutes before the giant black blob of monsters was on top of us.
I pumped my muscles even harder as we all sprinted toward the steep base of the purple mountains. The red sand pulled my feet down every time I took a step, and even with my Fae strength, the muscles in my legs strained with effort. As I looked at the fast approaching mountains, with their purple dirt and strange lavender colored grass, I racked my brain for any ideas on what to do once we made it to the mountains. They may have been littered with cover, but we still needed something, some sort of upper hand.
“Guys, any ideas?” I called out breathlessly.
The harpies were close enough to us now that I could hear their harsh breath, and they blanketed the sky above us like a thick, dark cloud. We’d be under attack soon.
“There’s tunnels in the mountains,” Kalista huffed back to me. “The dwarves built them millennia ago. If we get inside, the smell will deter them.”
“The smell will deter them?�
� Edora asked as we hit the bottom of the first hill and started to scramble up it.
“Yeah, harpies don’t like the smell of dwarves,” the hacker answered obviously. “Or anything besides themselves, really. They won’t enter another creature’s nest. Evolution.”
“I feel like that needs a better explanation,” Edora responded breathlessly. “But not right now. Find a tunnel.”
It was then that the first wave of harpies was on us. My ears picked up the sound of flames and the crunch of metal against bone behind me as the team began the assault. Meanwhile, I focused on my Hand and called it to life. The cells vibrated as a pack of harpies stared down at me with intensely evil smirks on their face, like they thought I was already a goner.
“Not so fast, ladies,” I muttered.
A powerful vibration rocked so far up my Hand that I felt it in my shoulder. I clenched my fist before I threw my Hand out to the side with great force.
As I made the magic motion, all five harpies exploded in a sea of blood and guts at the exact same time.
Pink brain matter from one of them splattered across my cheek and slipped down it to make a warm, wet trail. I took a tiny moment to let the shock roll over me.
My powers were way stronger than they had been when I first started, and I wanted to see just how strong they had grown.
I turned and focused on another group of three harpies, and I did the exact same thing to them. Their bodies exploded into waves of gore and viscera as they shrieked in terror.
But no matter how many harpies I took out, there were loads of replacements. I was reminded of the hydra from our last mission. Cut off one head, and two more grew back in its place. Mangled and twisted bodies thundered to the floor around me like some sick sort of rain, but the dark cloud of monsters still looked just as big as it had two minutes ago.
“Kal, how are we doing on that tunnel?” Ariette hollered as she launched another attack.
Electricity weaved a net around a harpy not even a foot away from the elf, and then it shriveled and shrank. The deadly electricity pumped into the harpy’s body until she fell from the sky, dead as a doornail.
“We’re not-- wait! Found it!” the dwarf shouted out.
“Good job, Kal!” Danira shouted. “Everybody in!”
I took my eyes off the harpies for a millisecond to find my footing and peek back at the commander. She and Kalista stood next to a gaping hole in the ground and a huge gray boulder that had clearly just been moved. Edora’s red hair disappeared into the hole as I watched. Danira and Kal held the harpies at bay with their weapons, but one slipped past them and made a beeline for the fleeing Unseelie.
As soon as the harpy got close enough to the tunnel, she pulled back with a loud screech, as if she’d just been burned.
I guess the smell of dwarf was that powerful.
A second later, a huge red flame leapt from the tunnel and engulfed the harpy. The creature squawked painfully as her body was turned into little more than charred flesh and bones.
A sharp sting in my bicep brought me back to the harpies. I threw a wild haymaker at the beast that had just clawed me and struck her directly in the gut. She tumbled backward in the air for a brief moment before I caught her blood and sent every ounce of it to her heart.
“Ariette, go!” I ordered the blonde next to me as Kal and Danira leapt down into the tunnel.
I was sure the elf wanted to protest, but she just sighed and ran toward the hole. I quickly dispelled another monster with my Hand, but I was still completely surrounded.
My entire team was in the tunnel now, but I couldn’t spare a moment to feel any sort of relief. I was still completely surrounded by an army of harpies, and they grew more confident as they realized I was alone now.
I clocked the distance between me and the tunnel as a giant wing smacked into the back of my head and brought me to my knees. Stars swam in my vision, but I calculated there was about ten feet and an army of nasty harpies between me and safety.
Ten feet was doable. I’d encountered worse odds before. My first kiss had seemed an insurmountable obstacle in the sixth grade, and yet I’d managed it. I could get those ten feet and slide into that tunnel and be safe.
My vision cleared enough for me to see the grotesque face of a brown haired harpy with stringy locks and lifeless gray eyes as she came at me, claws first. I raised my gun and fired right between her eyes before I turned and made a mad dash for the tunnel. A few claws slashed across my back and tried to tumble me to the ground, and I heard my shirt rip as a wave of pain shot through my back.
Right as I got to the tunnel and was about to dive headfirst into its murky depths, a clawed foot wrapped around my bicep and yanked me backward. I spun around to face the harpy, but she kept a grip on my arm as another one of her sisters pinned my other wrist to the ground. I struggled against their grip, but then another harpy threw her claws around my neck and squeezed so hard the corners of my vision started to turn black. The tingle in my Hand had nearly faded as I gasped for air.
I couldn’t die here. I was the Racmoth. I had to make it to Zolderon and save the world and all of my friends. That couldn’t happen if I became harpy food.
The tingling in my Hand returned more forcefully than it ever had, and the pulse of my magic seemed to roll from my open palm in giant waves. Every harpy that had a grip on me released, and I watched in amazement as all of the creatures within my line of sight were thrown back and exploded like a gruesome fireworks show.
I didn’t waste any time. As the other harpies screeched and pulled back in terror, I flipped myself around and launched my body headfirst into the blackness of the tunnel.
Chapter Fourteen
I discovered really fast that the headfirst dive into a pitch-black tunnel probably hadn’t been the best mode of action. I plummeted through the darkness for about five feet until I finally smacked my head on some very, very hard dirt that felt like it hadn’t seen water in centuries.
“Nice fall, HC,” Ariette laughed as she helped me get to my feet. “Somehow, you make even that feel graceful.”
My head ached and my back stung, and I was sure I’d have some nice purple bruises around my neck in the morning. But we were all alive, and the harpies wouldn’t come after us. That was a win in my book.
A few of the harpies hovered above the tunnel angrily, with their noses pinched up in disgust, but Kalista had been right. Not a single harpy even made an effort to enter the tunnel thanks to the smell of dwarf that had lingered for centuries.
“Falling with grace,” I replied casually to Ariette. “It’s one of my many talents.”
“Not your only talent, I hope,” Edora interrupted with a very obvious glance at my dick.
“Not in the least,” I shot back, glad I still had my sense of humour despite the aches all over my body.
“He’s quite talented with his tongue, too.” Maaren winked at me saucily.
“And hands,” Ariette called out.
“And monster dong!” Kal added.
“Rave reviews, thank you,” I chuckled as a hot flash of arousal and pride spread out over my neck.
The tunnel we had jumped through was wide and deep, made of nothing but the dirt of the mountain. It stretched on for what looked like forever in front of me, but curved into a turn a few feet behind me. On the walls were little bowls that held a strange green flame, and the fire gave off enough light to give the entire tunnel a nice, luminous glow.
“What’s the fire?” I asked aloud.
“Never ending flame,” Kal responded. “It’s a dwarf thing. Doesn’t get much use nowadays. Just burns for eternity, that’s all.”
“We should get moving,” Maaren pointed out. “If any of those harpies go get the Phobos, we’ll be sitting ducks.”
We all looked at each other knowingly, and then we moved forward down the tunnel for a few silent minutes. The further we got into the former dwarf dwelling, the more I realized it really was like a giant maze. Every few feet t
here was an offshoot tunnel that led somewhere deeper into the mountain. I glanced down a few of them and saw they, too, had offshoots. I just hoped and prayed we didn’t get lost down here.
“Where are we going, exactly?” Ariette asked as she looked around. “Does anyone know how to get out of here? Kal?”
“I just knew about the tunnels, I didn’t map the place!” the dwarf protested. “I figured it was better than being eaten alive by the harpies.”
“Very good point,” I said diplomatically. “But we can’t stay down here forever. We’ve got a prophecy to fulfill and all that. We should--”
Edora shushed us with an abrupt hiss and put her hand up, a silent order for us not to move. Kalista opened her mouth to protest, but then we heard what had made Edora freeze.
A few offshoots down, a voice reverberated through the tunnels. The voice was deep and creaky, and very, very angry. I had no idea who or what this thing was, but it certainly didn’t sound friendly.
“I just don’t understand what gives them the right, you know?” The voice grew louder as it spoke. “So what? You’re the Seelie and you’ve got these big guilds and shit and you think you’ve got the right to tell me who I can and cannot eat? No, sir.”
Edora pointed quickly down the closest offshoot and then silently shoved both Maaren and Kal in that direction. The rest of us quickly followed suit as the sound of approaching footsteps alerted us to how close our unidentified subjects were.
“I think you’re right ‘bout that, Gerk,” a second, higher pitched voice chimed in. “You just show ‘em, you know? You just show ‘em.”
We hurried into the next tunnel as the footsteps came closer, but we had little to no cover. It was dim in these caverns, sure, but the Never Ending Flame produced enough light to give us away.
“Here,” Danira hissed and pulled us into a much smaller tunnel off to our right.
