Magic Vs. Aliens: Hybrid Sorcerer: Book One - Return of Magic: Book Five

by D. R. Rosier

  The first time the magical forest, elves, and dragons were almost destroyed by a chemical weapon. They could do a lot of damage to the balance if she let them. Worse, there was one group in Russia that would have a free hand for almost a week before she could even start hunting them.

  It was worrying.

  He asked casually, “So, are you going to share your plan?”

  She grinned, “Maybe. It’s pretty simple actually. A thin layer of ice on the slope should slow them down, perhaps even make them fall when they’re running onto it at thirty miles an hour. I should be able to make it very fine, and close to frictionless. But only if we can’t exhaust our magic and escape without needing to do so. It might get a little crazy.”

  He snorted, “Aliens slipping on ice? And here I didn’t bring my camera.”

  She giggled, “That’s what illusion-memory spells are for.”

  He nodded faux wisely, “Good point. We’re almost there, we should see them at about a hundred and fifty yards at the top of this rise.

  She nodded, the rise was little better than a gentle rounded hill at a five percent grade, but it should do for their first attack. She’d have to try to gather more allies.

  Bria said, “So, if you have right, and our leader has left, I’ll take care of the middle and switch to my blades if they get close.”

  She nodded, dragons were sorcerers too, but limited. While she and Ryan could work within all nature, the dragons only had power over the four elements. She knew Bria’s fire would be as effective as hers, if not quite as effective as her fire breath would be in the other form.

  They just couldn’t risk it though, since she couldn’t teleport the mass of a dragon and the shift took too long to guarantee a quick exit.

  She tore her eyes away from Ryan, again. She’d have to watch that when she was thinking. She felt nervous, not about Ryan, not really anyway, but about the battle. Hopefully it would be short and brutal, and they’d get away clean.

  She also hoped killing the leader was a good decision. It might make them pause to elect a new leader as she hoped, or it might drive them into a killing frenzy and stampede. Judging them by human psychology might be a mistake.

  Sadie’s thoughts felt rather scattered as she rode next to master. She may have used his name most of the time, as he wished, but to her he’d always be her master. His name simply meant the same thing to her when she said it. Most of her focus was on the mission, but there was a part of her that was confused, and a little in turmoil, ever since master had implied that she was annoyed at him.

  She hadn’t seen it until then, but she had been annoyed. She just hadn’t admitted it to herself until then. While it was true that she’d watched him grow up, had even changed his diapers at one time or another, their relationship had changed to friendship in his late teens, as companionship between adults instead of adult and child.

  The last year, spending all her time at his side, and being his and connected to his magic rather than Sean’s, had made an even bigger impact. She loved the fact he didn’t use her just to get off, that he thought too highly of her to use her so callously, even as she despaired of the fact that he still saw her in that way. That he loved her but wasn’t interested in more than that. A true relationship, not just of the body, but of the heart.

  She hadn’t even realized it herself, that she’d fallen for him, until she’d had her annoyance pointed out to her. She’d been… jealous, and she hadn’t even seen it. Jealous of the whores he slept with, instead of her, even as she was grateful for his thoughtfulness and caring. At least she had that much, she was family and loved by him, just not in the way she wanted.

  She didn’t want to be used after all. She wanted to be loved and cherished by master. She knew more about him than he did himself, and knew he was physically attracted to her, but was more possible? She didn’t know. She hoped and believed the past layers of relationship built between them were disguising and hiding his true feelings even from himself, that one day he would come to that realization and claim her as his in every way, but that could just be wishful thinking. Despite the way she caught him looking at her at times, she was almost sure he wasn’t even consciously aware of it.

  She was a little confused about it herself honestly, and she was older and wiser, had been around a lot longer, while he was new to adulthood and the more complicated realities of the world. She’d only realized the truth of how she herself felt earlier that morning, and there was no need to rush.

  She was content to wait for him to fully adjust to their new possibilities between them, for the most part, but also jealous. Not of the attentions he gave others, but of the attention he denied her. If that made sense, she supposed it was more envy than jealousy. She just wanted her fair share of master’s love and attention, not all of it.

  She was also a bit more jealous of Katie than the whores he forgot about before he was even cleaned and dressed. Katie obviously wowed her Ryan. It was just a matter of time before the two of them figured out the attraction was mutual. Ryan might be oblivious to that truth, but she could clearly see the signs of attraction in Katie’s body language. As to whether it worked out or went anywhere after that, was the real question. Shallow attraction would fizzle out fast, if they weren’t suited for each other, it was merely the spark that would either be blown out or be used to light a fire with a solid foundation.

  She’d be there to support him either way, even if he never noticed her desire and need for him, it was all confused in her head. Even if he never saw it, and it was just her vain hope, she’d always be there for master.

  As far as the battle, she’d do her best to keep any that got too close away from him and Katie. She was strong and fast, and while she could be overwhelmed, she wouldn’t have to hold out very long if it came down to it. Either Katie or he would teleport them out if it got too crazy.

  Chapter Four

  The rising smoke from the crash was visible from a long way away as they crested the top of the hill. The large flat plain filled with aliens was an intimidating sight, and he was glad there’d be no final stands, because they’d surely lose their lives if they tried.

  Sadie said, “Are some of those females?”

  He nodded absently, “More than half of them.”

  Katie frowned, “Then it really must’ve been a colony ship. There were no females with the first group of invaders. Let’s get this started, before they notice us.”

  He nodded absently as he studied the enemy. The leading edge of the group was only about a hundred and fifty yards away down a slight slope and across a flat plain. He was a bit worried that would change the alien’s old tactics, especially if they were protective of their women. It made an insane charge much less likely.

  He looked at Katie, and when she nodded, he cast his spell.

  A single bolt of lightning seared through the air and hit one of the aliens in the middle of the large formation. The one he believed to be the leader. His next spell was the ball lightning, and he sent that flying into the right side of the alien crowd.

  At the same time Katie sent her mini-sun over the group which burst into twenty of the smaller compact fireballs and unerringly immolated twenty heads in the powerful but very limited in size and contained explosion.

  Bria’s attack was rather more spectacular, which was saying a lot given the pyrotechnics him and Katie were setting off. Her attack was more like a powerful expanding blast of flames in a sheet that grew wider like a single cross-section of a cone. The sheet of fire was at the average head level, some were hit in the throats, other near their temples, as a good sixty of their heads were set on fire.

  The aliens did not react as expected, be it the death of their leader, or the fact they had women with them this time, or both. The six thousand aliens, minus the hundred or so the three of them just killed, broke apart in seemingly random directions like a whole flock of startled birds taking to the sky.

  The three of them fired another round. The exp
loding mini-sun, coruscating ball lightning, and an expanding sheet of flames to take out another hundred or so. It looked like pure chaos from their viewpoint, but from the overhead perspective of his hawks, it was far more organized.

  About four hundred of the males were running at them, some straight on, other’s moving to the left and right flank. While the remaining fifty-four hundred seemed to be splitting up into twenty-seven groups of a hundred and sixty females and forty males while fleeing in a half circle arc away from them. They were moving quickly too, very quickly.

  He’d been afraid of that. Their need to protect their females must override their normally bloodthirstily aggressive instincts. The only good news was they were going further east, away from McKinney and not toward it. He wasn’t sure if there were any other communities close to here though, so he took that with a grain of salt.

  Not that they could do anything about it in that moment, Bria was focusing her third attack down the middle of the charging four hundred males. He was sending ball lightning to the right flank and Katie to the left.

  They killed about a quarter of them, a hundred between the three of them for each spell volley. They got one more in, taking out a second hundred and cutting the original charging four hundred in half. That’s about when they were racing up the hill.

  Katie shouted, “Ice capades!”

  He almost started to laugh at her spell’s keywords, but the words definitely matched the intent of the spell, as a sheet of slick ice covered the whole hill, except where they were standing. It’d also drained a good portion of her staff, but it was effective. The aliens dumped on their asses, and they started to slide up the hill and sideways with the slope. Some managed to keep their feet long enough to trip over someone else, and it was almost funny. Almost, because those two hundred aliens looked very determined to reach them and tear them limb from limb.

  They were also too far apart, there weren’t enough of them close enough together to get twenty with a spell, so he halved the power of his spell and took out two groups of ten in quick succession instead of one group of twenty, while Katie sent up another sunburst spell which had an advantage of range over his.

  Bria held her fire for the moment, obviously not wanting to burn the ice since her attack wasn’t as contained as Katie’s was, and they were all still trying to regain their feet.

  He adjusted and sent a ball lightning down the right and front slopes taking out twenty more.

  Four of the enemy managed to get to their feet, only to have Bria take them down with pinpoint bursts of fire to their faces. There were still about a hundred and twenty-five of them, and a lot of them had regained their feet at that point, and they were stalking forward carefully. If looks could kill, he’d be dead.

  Him, Katie, and Bria took down fifty more between them with fire and lightning, the last seventy-five were extremely close at that point. The aliens were ugly bastards.

  Bria pulled her sword and Sadie already had hers out, both of them darted forward almost faster than he could track. The aliens were just as wickedly fast as a dragon and created being, but they had no weapons. After losing their arms, their throats were slit a moment later. The other aliens moved more cautiously, choosing to dodge. Perhaps they’d been surprised that a primitive blade could cut through the advanced materials of their light armor suits even while unpowered.

  What they didn’t know was Bria’s magical blade was an artifact, and that he’d enchanted the hell out of Sadie’s sword. Chances were that their armor would stop a normal blade cold.

  He still had half his bracer’s power, and he poured it into a ball lightning spell that was a little different with a simple shift of intent. Taking a page from Katie’s book he tossed it up in the air above their heads, and it sent out twenty lightly bolts to the twenty aliens closest to the top, killing them all.

  Katie threw up her own spell that took twenty more, and then said, “That wasn’t the right side!”

  He laughed. They were in deadly danger, but it really struck him as funny.

  “Sorry.”

  She winked.

  The aliens were down to thirty-five, when they turned and slid wildly down the slope, and started to run.

  He covered the right side, and he took down the last fifteen on that side with a ball lightning and four individual bolts because they were too far apart. Katie and Bria finished off the rest, before they got out of range.

  The good news was they’d successfully killed six hundred of the bastards. The bad news was they still had plenty of magic left and there was no enemy in sight. The plan was to kill a thousand and run, not just six hundred.

  He used the rest of his bracer’s magic to summon twenty-three of his small birds from around the country, where he had more than one in the same area. Then sent them winging off after the groups of aliens, including the four birds that had already been present. There were fifty-four hundred left, in twenty-seven groups of two hundred. Forty males and a hundred and sixty females per group.

  He also recharged his bracers for the second and last time that day. Katie also just reloaded her staff, which was it for her for a day. Still, she had twice as much magic left to blow than he did, before he’d have to dig into his reserves.

  Bria asked, “What was that for?”

  He said, “Worst case scenario. They might come back together, but it’s possible they may not regroup, and I don’t want to lose any of them in the wilderness. We can track them, and then attack them based on priority or any communities being in danger. I’m guessing there’s some significance to the breakup. Exactly one out of five were males in each of the twenty-seven groups. I’m not sure if that was the plan, or something that happened because I took out the leader.”

  Sadie pointed out playfully, “Turns out he was right about them retreating.”

  Bria snorted, and then rolled her eyes.

  Sadie winked at him.

  Katie nodded, “It wasn’t to plan, but we killed six hundred, didn’t have to flee, and we still have magic to burn today. Twenty-seven groups aren’t great news, but they’ll also be far more manageable to take down if they stay apart, just harder to run down.”

  “I can get us to any of them with teleport, with my birds overhead.”

  Katie grinned, “Even better, I forgot about that. We can even leave the horses at home. They wouldn’t do us any good anyway, since the aliens can run faster than equines. Let’s go to my place, grab lunch, see what they’re up to and prioritize targets. I also want to talk to the council about getting more support. As long as we take out two groups of two hundred today, we’ll be back on schedule. If we can get more, that’s even better.”

  Bria said, “Elven nature magic will be relatively worthless for this, but perhaps some of my people will offer further aid for the balance.”

  He nodded, “Sounds like a plan. I feel like we should just run after them now, but it’s smarter to prioritize and look for communities that may be in the path of some of those groups.”

  Katie smiled, and then activated her teleport enchantment.

  The kitchen was very familiar to him. He’d spent almost three years at Katie’s for a lot of the time. It was also a little odd being back in it. There was a griddle and stove that both ran off enchantments, but also a wood burning stove. The table was a strong stained oak and he couldn’t even imagine how old it was. It was in excellent condition, but there were a few mars and scratches from the years if he looked for them. The matching chairs had scrollwork on the backs.

  There were cold cuts and fresh bread on the table, along with sauces. It was a simple but satisfying lunch.

  Katie asked, “So, you’ve been wandering around the last year?”

  He replied easily, “Doing my best to help out, find a place and purpose. My father and his created creatures keep the west coast safe, but there’s still a lot of problems elsewhere. It’s also mostly settled, so I guess I was just doing what I could. Building up my own power at the same time. It would
seem criminal to waste the potential. What’ve you been up to?”

  Katie tilted her head, “The usual. Reading the library, although after twenty years I’ve finally made a dent in the place. I’ve also been doing my own research to improve what I’ve found there so far, and you know I’ve been collaborating with your mother on enchantments for years. Then there’s keeping the balance, though thankfully that doesn’t come up all that often.”

  “So, what we’re saying is we’re both workaholics.”

  She snickered, “Something like that. I… want to extend you a new official invitation. If you want to do any research or something, just feel free.”

  Bria snickered, “Or something?”

  She glared at the silver dragon, “Why don’t you go hunt, bitch.”

  Bria giggled, “Good idea, I’ll be back before your done with the council, and have a campaign mapped out.”

  She nodded, “Something, like a consult or just to visit. I do spend too much time in that dusty library.”

  Bria gave her a look he couldn’t quite discern, and then the dragoness got up and sauntered out.

  He said, “I look forward to it, thank you.”

  She smiled warmly, “So, any other obsessions, or just magic, and growing your power by helping others?”

  His mind skipped, when he considered saying she was, but kept that embarrassing tidbit to himself. She was incredibly beautiful, sexy, powerful, and wiser than he remembered. She was also if anything even more alluring to him now than in the past when he thought of her as perfect. Her fear and obvious worry over the balance and aliens was engendering his protective instincts in a big way.

  Which made him wonder for the first time, if the remnants of his crush wouldn’t go away at all as he’d hoped, but instead evolve into something stronger and more mature.

  He finally said, “It’s all tied in to making my own way, and in making a positive impact on the world. My father’s legacy is a lot to live up to. He’s done so much for the people in his territory, and by helping you. I’d be happy to do that, by the way, if you ever need help, I’m just a call away.”