by Scott Baron
“Ara, you seeing this?”
“Yes. It seems the concentration of fighting is contained to the intersection ahead of you.”
“Okay, that should make the next bit a little easier,” he replied. “I’m going to hit up Nat on the comms and have her tell those little ships she has circling high above to come in a bit closer and fan out to look for their ship. They’re pretty far into the city, and I don’t think they’d want to trek all the way back to the water’s edge if they didn’t have to.”
“You think they flew their craft into the city?” Ara asked. “That would be tactically foolish.”
“Yeah, but these guys are cocky. They think they’re untraceable, and that makes them sloppy.”
A familiar shape flashed overhead, banking sharply and looping back before dropping down on the opposite side of the area of engagement from Charlie.
“Looks like Eddie’s here with the others,” he noted. “We’ll keep these guys busy. But what I need you to do––besides working on some way to mess with their shimmers––is to join those ships and look along the shore areas for signs of water.”
Charlie’s idea suddenly clicked into place for his dragon friend. “Very clever,” she said with an appreciative tone. “The shimmer makes the craft invisible to the eye, but the water running off of it would still flow onto the ground.”
“Yep. And so long as they haven’t been out of the water too long, that means there will still be some sort of trail showing where they went. We don’t know the size of the ship, but I’d think it would have to travel in the less-dense areas. Maybe look for highways or parks.”
“I shall,” Ara replied as she changed course toward the nearby coastline.
“Hey, you guys hear me?” Charlie transmitted over his comms.
“Loud and clear,” Rika replied. “We’re set up on the enemy’s three o’clock.”
“I saw you come in. But that means they probably did too, so keep it tight. They’re using killing spells,” Charlie informed them. “Ara got a good whiff of their shimmers and is working on a disrupting spell. But until she does, just follow the targeting from Nat’s auto cannons. She seems to have a pretty good idea where these bastards are pinned down.”
“Copy that,” Leila said over the comms. “Did I do that right?”
Despite being in battle, Charlie chuckled. “Yeah, babe. That was right.”
“I’m getting the hang of these ear-skree devices,” she said. He knew the satisfied tone in her voice. Leila was undoubtedly grinning.
Eddie dropped low, his cannon firing off a series of rapid bursts at likely areas of cover for the enemy before he veered off. Good thing he did, because a blast of deadly debris was flung into the air he had just occupied.
“You see that?” Charlie asked, rhetorically. “That is why we have to be careful, Eddie.”
“Yeah, but I thought I saw one of them,” the AI said, a slight hint of concern in his voice.
“Well, just hang back out of their reach until we can properly target them.”
Ara’s familiar shape flew past, swooping low over the battle.
“Why can she do it?” Eddie whined.
Another blast of debris was flung skyward, but the powerful Zomoki’s magic easily batted it away.
“That’s why, Eddie. This is a fight she’s far better equipped for than any of us,” Charlie replied.
And it was true, though he and his friends were also wearing slaaps and konuses should the need––or opportunity––to use them arise.
“That was what I needed,” Ara sent to Charlie. “Their foolish use of that particular spell has given me the last piece I believe I require.”
“You have the spell ready?”
“It’s imperfect, but I think it will serve our purposes well enough,” she replied. “Stand by a moment while I give this a try. Oh, and be ready to attack.”
“Ara’s going to try something. Target the hot zone. This is about to get interesting,” he called out over their comms.
The deep red Zomoki focused her magic as she dove down toward the fighting, then cast a rumbling spell, the mix of power blowing out power in the surrounding buildings as the wave of magic hit the ground.
It also damaged the enemy’s shimmers, rendering them partially visible.
“Shit,” Rika blurted.
The others shared her sentiment. This wasn’t just a handful of attackers. There were well over a dozen of them. Only a few had been actively engaging, hoping to lure their opposition farther forward, where the other members of their cloaked force sat quietly waiting to strike. It was a classic maneuver.
This was no amateur operation, Charlie realized. This was high-level military strategy at play. And it might have worked, but for one thing.
“We’ve got eyes-on,” he called out. “Light ’em up!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Charlie, the other ships believe they’ve found a patch of wet ground,” Eddie relayed to the man on the ground.
“Copy that. I’ll tell Ara,” he replied. “Stand by.”
“Hey, the ships think they found that wet spot you’ve been looking for.”
“Yes, I see where they’re focusing their search. Damn, they’re going in too close. Tell them to fly by and pretend they do not see it. Quickly!”
Charlie relayed her instructions without hesitation or question. He knew better by now. “You mind telling me why you’re giving them a free pass?”
“You’ll see,” she replied. “But for now, you have more pressing matters.”
She was right. The fighting raged across the battlefield, the formerly cloaked invaders now visible––more or less––providing tangible targets for AI and human forces alike. The Tslavar mercenaries had prepared for much, but the loss of their camouflage was not something they’d expected.
They moved to a fallback position quickly enough, but not before giving up all of their tactical positioning advantage. No longer were the Earthlings walking into a crossfire. Rather, they were driving the Tslavars back on their heels.
“Why aren’t these things taking them down?” Leila shouted over the gunfire.
She fired off another volley, the shots traveling true––she had been a very quick study at the range, and her accuracy was exceptional for someone from a world where firearms didn’t even exist. Yet, somehow, the Tslavar fighters remained upright, the shots deflecting into the ground and neighboring buildings.
It was the same for the other forces, Charlie saw. Their fire was simply not effective. Only the larger projectiles from Nat’s city cannons were causing damage, and even those were largely stopped, though the sheer kinetic force of the much larger rounds was still enough to drive the Tslavar mercenaries back.
“Well, that’s new,” Charlie grumbled as he fired off a quick spell from his konus, slinging his ineffective carbine over his shoulder.
“These aren’t working, Charlie!” Rika yelled through the echoing concussions of the auto-cannons. “What the fuck? Their magic shouldn’t be able to stop these. It’s not designed to adapt so quickly.”
“Well, they’ve seen this before,” Leila noted. “We used guns a few times against them. The Balamar Wastelands, for one. So they’ve had time to plan and prepare for it.”
“That was almost a thousand years ago, Leila,” Charlie said over her comms. “What kind of people pass down a grudge for that many generations? It’s nuts.”
Even across the battleground, he could see Rika’s wry grin. “I’m half Italian. Trust me, people can definitely hold a grudge a lot longer than that.”
Another flurry of magical attacks took a pair of the advancing cyborgs off their feet, slamming them violently into the building behind them. Any flesh being would have been broken irreparably. The metal men, however, would be fine if they survived the battle long enough to have their bent parts swapped out.
The Tslavars were making a move, and his friends were pinned down, the mercenaries rapidly closing the distan
ce between them.
Shit. “You’ve got company!” he called over comms.
“Yes, Charlie, we can see that!” was Rika’s terse reply. “But our goddamn guns aren’t doing much, here.”
Charlie realized he had to act immediately or they’d be overrun. He quickly focused his attention on his slaap, channeling his internal power as well, building both to peak readiness.
Well, here goes nothing.
He leapt from cover and charged across the intersection toward his friends. The Tslavars shifted their attention to him, as he expected, but he was ready. Each of their spells was met with not only a counterspell, but one with a redirection twist. An unusual addition of his own making that threw their own magic back in their faces. More than a few of the mercenaries fell victim to their own spells in that manner.
Charlie cleared the street, ducking for cover beside his friends.
“Now you break out the magic?” Rika complained.
“I’ve only got so many things I can do before they expect it,” he replied. “They seem to be entirely focused on Earth weapons, at the moment, though I have a feeling that just changed.”
Indeed, their attackers had shifted tactics, deploying defensive spells in addition to their increasing barrage of attacks.
“This isn’t looking good, Charlie,” Rika said.
“I know, I know.” He poked his head out, quickly surveying the approaching men’s formation. “Okay, I have an idea. Did you guys bring your pointy things?”
Leila and Rika both flashed their swords and knives.
“Excellent.”
“What are you thinking, Charlie?” Leila asked. “There’s no way we can fight magic with knives from here.”
A little smile curled his lips. “Nope, you’re right. That means it’s time to ditch those carbines and get ready to move fast.”
“Are we running away?” Rika asked. “Doesn’t seem your style.”
“You’re goddamn right it’s not my style,” he replied with a chuckle. “We have to go on the offensive. Do something they won’t expect. Something I learned from my pirating days.”
“Which is?”
“We get so close that they can’t use their magic without the risk of hitting their own men. Listen, I’ve watched you two train, and I know you’re more than ready for it. I’ll cast a series of diversion and counterspells until we’re upon them. Then we let loose. It looks like they’re relying on slaaps, and only a few have anything more than a basic blade on them from what I could see. If we do this right, we’ll have them on their heels.”
The women looked at one another, determination in their eyes.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Leila said. “You ready?”
“Oh yeah,” Rika said. “Stay close, right?”
“Right.”
Charlie felt a surge of pride. The two most important women in his life were impressively badass, and now they would be fighting on the same side.
“All right. On three,” Charlie said, beginning his countdown. When he reached one, the spells were already flying fast and wide, a barrage of magic hurled like a massive burst of scattershot.
Several Tslavars were taken off their feet, their defensive spells not prepared for the unusual assault. All of them were forced to divert their energies to broad-ranging defensive spells as they attempted to cope with the odd strategy. It was all the time Charlie and his friends would get. And it was all they would need.
They sprinted across the area, Nat’s auto cannons blasting out a stream of projectiles, further knocking the mercenaries back, focusing on the cannons until, finally, the three of them were in close. Too close for the invaders to use magic. And with only their hands and short blades, they suddenly found themselves at a most unexpected disadvantage.
Rika and Leila whirled into action, a pair of dervishes unleashing their flashing steel. The Tslavars wore armor, but a light variety designed more for maneuverability and protection from minor impacts than Valkyrie-like attackers.
Charlie felt a surge of energy flow through him. The initial adrenaline surge was long gone. Now he was in the middle of it. And he was in his element. For the former gladiator, it was a surprisingly welcome sensation.
He truly let loose for the first time since they had escaped the clutches of King Horgund’s men a few thousand years in the past. But now, on what felt far more like his own home turf than an ancient castle, Charlie was a sight to see. And despite the violence they were unleashing themselves, the two women fighting at his side couldn’t help but note his skill with appreciative glances before refocusing on the opponents in front of them.
Leila dropped low, punching a mercenary in the groin. The man didn’t have time to react, though, as Rika spun, her sword catching the seam above his shoulder guards, nearly taking his head clean off.
Blood sprayed, the ground becoming slick with gore as the three worked their way through the greater numbers of mercenaries. The cyborgs watched, unsure what to do. They’d been hastily armed with firearms, but these were not military-grade units, and they had absolutely no experience in hand-to-hand combat. Nat and Cal, wisely, instructed them to stay clear, lest they become an unintentional hindrance rather than a help.
Several more invaders fell to the flashing blades, the trio throwing the attackers into confusion, when a new volley of magic blasted toward them, forcing Charlie and his friends back as he frantically cast defensive spells, barely stopping the barrage.
“What the hell?” Rika blurted, looking for any sign of the new attackers.
“Ara, what’s going on? We’ve got new attackers here.”
“Yes, Charlie. They appear to have sent more men to reinforce their ranks when it appeared you might defeat them. As I had hoped.”
“Hoped? What the hell do you mean, hoped? We’re in the shit, Ara. What are you up to?”
“We found their ship, Charlie. We found it, but pretended it remained unnoted. And now they have sent men to your position.”
He realized what she had done, and it was brilliant. “You know where they are. Even with their shimmer cloaks, they came from point A to point B.”
“Now you get it,” her amused voice chuckled in his head.
Charlie started laughing along with her.
“What’s so funny? We’re getting our asses handed to us!” Rika growled.
“You know something, don’t you?” Leila added.
Charlie smiled wide. “Just wait. You’re going to love this.”
A massive shadow crossed overhead as Ara lined up for a low pass. Dropping in as low as she could, Ara then lay down a massive stream of her magical fire, incinerating the dozens of invisible men as she torched the entire path, all the way back to their ship.
Its doors had been closed when she reached it, so whatever troops remained in the staging area managed to escape her wrath. The ship, however, took the full force of her magical flames, the shimmer dropping in an instant.
The captain of the craft knew his men were lost, or as good as lost. They were hired mercenaries anyway, and knew what they were in for, so as fast as he was able, he spun his ship and flew straight for the coast, diving deep beneath the waves.
Ara, however, was unconcerned. They might be able to get their shimmer back up and functional eventually, but the entire craft had been doused in fiery magic. Her magic. And she knew that smell like her own shadow. There was nowhere they could hide from her now, no matter how deep they may dive. Not for long. Once they came near the surface, she’d be able to track it anywhere.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The carnage the dragon had wrought was a destruction of the enemy force that was frightening in its totality. The men who had fallen to Ara’s flaming barrage had been invisible to the eye when she ignited them, and they remained that way even in death, no more than little piles of ash where men had once been.
The few remaining combatants still engaging Charlie and the others had quickly shifted their course of action and attempted t
o flee, but their route of escape disappeared as the flaming ship lifted off and dove into the ocean in a cloud of steam.
Charlie had briefly considered attempting to capture them for interrogation, but these were hardened fighters. They’d never talk, but he still wondered if they might be of some strategic use. Before he could think on it further, Ara landed atop them, immolating some, while snatching up and devouring the remaining few in a single bite.
He and his friends were ready for the spectacle. The domestic cyborgs pressed into combat service, however, were not.
“It...it...” a wide-eyed cyborg stuttered––which was saying something, as his mind was a state-of-the-art computer, and his eyes were mere flesh-and-blood enhancements covering his true sight apparatus.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a trip, right?” Charlie said with a low chuckle.
“She-she ate them.”
“Yup. That she did,” Rika said, giving Leila an amused elbow.
“I think he may need a little bit of time to process this,” Leila added, hiding her amusement as best she could.
Eddie touched down nearby, and Ripley bounded out of his door the second it opened.
“Did you see that? It was awesome! The way she was all, ‘whoosh’! Spitting fire and just messing up all of their shit! That was so cool!”
“Thank you, Ripley. I’m glad to have provided you a touch of entertainment,” Ara said.
Ripley spun around. “How did you land so quietly? I didn’t even hear you.”
“Ah, that,” the dragon said with a grin. “With age comes certain talents one picks up over the years. And I have found the spells that prevent my wings from throwing wind or making noise to be most useful when hunting some of my more skittish prey. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you, though. I was merely still rather caught up in the moment and cast without consciously thinking about it.”
She turned to Charlie as he surveyed the carnage.
“So, did you enjoy that?” he asked.
