by D. R. Rosier
The most shocking thing was she wanted his baby badly already. Every time he came in her, filled her, it excited her and made her feel so feminine and sexy, and she imagined letting that seed take root. She never would of course, not without his permission. She also wasn’t completely ready for something like that, it was just an overwhelmingly potent emotional and instinctual urge. She needed the new shiny to wear off, and for them to truly fall into a life balanced routine, like they were already trying to do. Then and only then could she seriously consider children, it would be foolish to do so when she was in the whirlwind and could barely breathe.
Still, she was enjoying the fantasy of bearing his children, and it had her mind befuddled with lust.
It’d be a while for a true balance though. She’d spent six hours in the library that day, and she’d only gotten about two hours’ worth of work done. The rest of the time her mind had drifted to her lover. Still, it was worth the effort now. She didn’t ever want to feel smothered by him, better not to wait for it to happen at all. She’d rather just miss him badly, and honestly the idea was making their sex life even hotter. That, and her young sumptuously nubile body, and flawlessly beautiful face. She was rather vain, it was one of her greatest failings as far as her personality, she knew. She shamelessly enjoyed that he’d keep her young and beautiful indefinitely a lot, but it was the last reason she was with him. Even her light brown hair was silky and perfect, without a single split end.
As far as needing him in bed every night, she wasn’t even questioning that anymore, and couldn’t imagine not going to sleep in his arms or waking up cradled against him firmly but gently. She bit her lip, and really hoped he liked the lingerie.
She felt her nipples tighten in anticipation, and her pussy tingle in need, as she finally felt his magical force moving her way from Sadie’s guestroom. Goddess, how did the man have such an effect on her body, when he wasn’t even in the room? She resisted the powerful urge to touch herself, she wanted his touch, his strongly insistent and firm hands on her body.
She might not have loved him yet, but her body and mind belonged to him already, and the sex was the best she’d ever known.
The door opened, and the look of thunderstruck lust on his face as he took her in, made all the effort and waiting worth it…
Chapter Fourteen
The remnants of pancakes, syrup, and butter, as well as eggs and bacon on his plate still smelled good as they finished up their morning meal. He picked at the rest of it slowly, and he drank his orange juice as he absorbed and studied the memories of the three hawks circling the enemy at over a thousand feet.
He said, “The last three groups are about fifteen hundred, give or take fifty or sixty depending on the group. One of them is heading straight north, the other two southwest and southeast. They’re organized a lot differently. Our ship… they never knew to adjust their original tactics, but these guys were harried by and escaped the elves. They’ve adjusted their tactics to account for area of effect magic spells. Which will make it harder for us, obviously.
“They have two staggered rings of scouts that are split up at a quarter mile and eighth of a mile out. The main group itself is split up in thirty staggered groups of forty to fifty with at least a fifty-foot separation between them. No doubt the elves hit them with area of effect spells or dragon fire. On the good side our spells are wide enough in effectiveness to counter that, mostly.”
Katie smirked, “Fifteen hundred, our overkill spells suddenly aren’t overkill. I suspect we’ll have to cast at least twice, maybe three times, then some cleanup spells. But with three groups that will average out to what we’ve already been doing.”
He nodded, “Bad news, they all have weapons. Real weapons. Well, not all the aliens, but every group. They have enough for their scouts and some in the center. I’m seeing some elven and human weapons. Umm, the two southern groups each destroyed a human community last night, I assume that’s where they got swords and bows from. The northern group doesn’t have all that many at all.”
Katie cursed, “Fucking elves.”
Bria raised an eyebrow.
Katie sighed, “It’s the alien’s fault, but if the elves had bothered to track the enemy…” she shook her head, then said more calmly, “They know where all the human settlements are. If they’d seen the danger headed that way and had gotten me word, we could’ve tried to save those villages yesterday and left the last three groups here for later.”
Bria didn’t look all that happy with Katie’s anger, but she nodded reluctantly.
He interjected, “The main problem I see is my spell will kill about four hundred but take a good twelve or thirteen seconds to do so, while yours kills two hundred immediately. There’s also close to a hundred scouts, and if we do the in the middle trick with a group this large the scouts could overwhelm us. Especially with bows and real weapons.”
Katie nodded, “But your spell lingers, which will make it a good defense and perhaps even a trap. If we shoot an extra one right over our heads, that would kill any alien that got within a hundred feet of our position. Bria can deflect the arrows with earth magic. The trick is these aliens have been hounded by and are familiar with how deadly magic is. They might not be so quick to rush us like the uninformed groups were.”
Bria said, “So we need to be prepared so we aren’t overwhelmed, but also ready to chase them in case they split like a flock of ravens escaping an eagle.”
He grunted, “I’ll summon more birds if that happens, one for each group. They’re all in wilderness. The northern group is in a rocky area and skirting some mountains. The other groups are in rolling hills. I don’t see any other communities right now. The eagles can see a goodly distance.”
Katie nodded, “We need a plan that addresses both. If we have to, then we have to, but I’d prefer not to run down another fifteen or so groups of two hundred if we can possibly avoid it.”
“There’s four of us. We could totally surround them,” he said with mock gravity, like it was the only plan that made sense.
Sadie giggled.
He shrugged and winked.
Katie said teasingly, “We’ll keep that plan in reserve,” then said seriously, “We need to catch them in a valley, or some other place that limits the directions they can run, and where we’ll have an elevation advantage.”
He replied, “The northern group will be easiest for that. They’re travelling between mountains right now, nothing but valleys and gorges. They also have the least number of weapons, so might be a good choice for our first run to work out any bugs in our plan against these larger groups.”
Katie nodded, “Alright, when they enter a relatively thin valley, we’ll teleport in behind them. We’ll set two of your spells in the air to block their retreat for a good hour. Then we can teleport to a good high point slightly ahead of them, and then start taking them out. If they rush forward, then we cast the enchanted spells until they’re dead, while Bria takes any trying to climb up the slope to our covered overlook. If they retreat, we can just walk spells down the valley to get most, then do a little spell cleanup, or Bria can.”
He nodded, “If a lot charge us, I’ll pop a spell right over our heads to help Bria.”
She smiled, “Exactly.”
He cast the simple illusion spell, so they could see what he was seeing through his bird’s eyes. In scale of course, the room couldn’t accommodate fifteen hundred aliens spread out in a valley at full size. The Aliens looked like little ants.
“Looks like they’ll be entering that valley in about ten minutes. The eastern and western slopes are pretty daunting, but I’m guessing four arms makes them good climbers? But we’ll see.”
Katie nodded, “That’s perfect.”
He let the spell die, finished off the pancakes, and his orange juice. He wondered if she went to Florida for oranges, it wasn’t like they had delivery trucks anymore, and orange trees didn’t grow in the north. He knew Sadie had made the juice fresh that m
orning squeezing them.
Sadie still hadn’t said yes or no to his date idea for later that night. He wasn’t too worried. He’d told her not to until they were done hunting for the day, but he was a little worried how this might change how they saw each other, and not necessarily for the better.
The plan went well, to a point. He teleported them to the mouth of a valley the aliens had just passed through, and he set up two spells over their heads to block them from retreating in that direction. That’d kill over half their numbers if they did a mass retreat. It also gave them an hour to initiate the plan, before the spells fizzled out.
The valley itself was about a mile long and about a quarter wide, so the aliens were close to halfway through it when he teleported them onto the slope of the western mountain near the widening mouth of the northern exit of the valley. The slopes on the west and east side were rather daunting, with cliffsides and a lot of rocky terrain there weren’t all that many trees on them, which was to the good. The bad part was the valley itself was very green, with plenty of trees.
That’s when the plan went a little wrong. There was a loud agonizing and echoing alien scream and the sound of a lightning bolt searing through the air. The only thing he could figure was one of their rear scouts had sensed them somehow, or they’d saw the flicker of the ball lightning in the bright sunlight, and they’d decided to investigate.
The alien formation immediately stopped their forward movement and turned to the south. They were very alert, and at least a half mile away and possibly a quarter mile down in elevation. It probably wasn’t that big a deal, but they’d wanted them a lot closer before springing the trap.
Katie said, “Hit them.”
He nodded, and he activated the enchantment twice to start with. He hit the leading edge of the main groups with his large six-foot diameter ball lightning, which split into sixteen creating a two hundred and fifty feet by two-hundred and fifty-feet death zone over their heads. That was all in range of about ten of the thirty groups of forty to fifty, and he shot a second one even deeper.
Katie overshot his attacks with hers, sending two huge suns across the valley, which split into six, then thirty-six, then two hundred and sixteen as it rained hell on the back of the group.
Even the dumbest being alive could track their shots, big balls of lightning and suns streaking across the sky and all, so a number of scouts raced in their direction, while the main groups tried to flee the destruction.
Bria didn’t wait for them to get close, and she started to pick them off with relatively small fireballs.
He sent a third ball lightning spell a little further in, while Katie was walking her suns from the rear to the middle. Technically just three spells each from one of them had enough power to kill all the enemies present, but they were too spread out and getting more so in their panic. A quarter mile by a quarter mile was a lot of area to cover. He had the front and rear blocked, and had fired five spells, so he let Katie pound the rest with her spells.
The sun-burst spells had a much greater range of effect, if they killed less per spell. When she’d fired off five spells as well, she stopped too. Five of her spells killed two hundred and sixteen each time, which was more than a thousand. His spells had killed most of the rest. Most of the aliens were dead at that point, except for the few scouts on the eastern and western flanks. The rear scouts had been killed, and most of the front scouts had been taken down by Bria who was defending the slope with fire of her own.
Those remaining scouts were climbing the slopes trying to escape, knowing to move north or south where his spells still waited was certain death.
Katie said, “I’ve got the eastern slope.”
He nodded, and he cast a fire spell himself that time. He used the life force he felt because they were within a mile range, and a series of simple fireballs shot from his hand to take them out. They flew down the valley hugging the western slope. He couldn’t even see all of them, but thanks to his hybrid advantages he didn’t need to. Each fireball unerringly struck down a scout.
Katie cast two of her smaller sunburst spells to take down the fifteen desperately scrabbling up the eastern slope. Then it was finished.
“That took more magic than I liked.”
He reloaded his bracers for the first time that day. Despite that, he might not have enough magic for a second time, after activating the ball lightning enchantment five times.
“We might have to get the third group tomorrow. That’s still not bad, finishing off two ship groups in six days, when we thought the first one would take that long.”
It’d been five days since all this had started.
Katie sighed, “That was a bit of a mess, but I agree. It would’ve been worse on an open plain, which is where we’re headed next?”
He nodded, “Rolling hills, lots of greenery. Not flat, but nothing that will give them pause. I don’t see a way to limit their mobility.”
Katie chewed her bottom lip in thought.
“Bria?”
Bria grimaced, “I can’t protect you very well if I’m in the sky razing aliens with fire breath and keeping them corralled. If we have to, I’d rather chase down split groups than give up my true purpose to make the hunt easier.”
Katie sighed, “You’re right. Give me a minute to think.”
Sadie said, “We never did check back with home. I’m sure Sean’s ship is done for by now. Maybe if Cassie and… Lori could help?”
Katie tilted her head, “We could bluff. I mean, it’s not a bad idea, Sadie. But just two more of us won’t let us surround them. An army of zombies would help, but just getting them in place and teleporting so many would be a problem.”
“Bluff?”
Katie nodded, “We’ll find a hill tall enough to give us the high ground, set a lightning spell above us, then I want you to set a ball lightning directly over the center of them. As it starts raining down death, I’ll create an illusion of ball lightnings to surround the entire the group. That should stop them from running right into it thinking its suicide. Then do a couple of more in the front, and I’ll hit the back and strafe forward.
“It might not work, even if it does the third group will have to wait for tomorrow. Bria arrows, your lighting spell will stop the aliens armed for melee from closing with us.”
Sadie said, “If we do that, and they feel trapped, they’ll all charge the hill we’re standing on to take us out with them. Just like any cornered rat.”
Katie smiled, “Good, that’s better than them running in six or seven different directions. If that happens put a second lightning spell over our heads, and I’ll use my sunburst enchantment on the shrinking front line instead of strafing forward from the back. You and Bria can take care of any stragglers that might get through all that.”
He grunted, “Good plan, just don’t forget your emergency teleport enchantment if things go really wrong.”
She smirked, “I will, if it feels like our spells will be overrun. But two lightning spells will kill sixty-four a second, and I’ll be killing two hundred sixteen every few seconds, and Bria can bathe any in fire. It should be quick and nasty.”
Bria shook her head, “Not if I’m deflecting arrows I can’t. But it’s a good plan, and the risks are manageable.”
He nodded, and he cast the illusion spell to show what his bird was seeing. Katie didn’t take long to pick out a hill that was a little higher than the surrounding ones, about two miles in front of the alien group’s path.
He cast the modified teleport spell, to put them down on it using the bird’s sight for targeting. They ducked down low. They’d start the ambush when the enemy was about two hundred yards away, the scouts. It was very open, and he hoped the aliens would fall for Katie’s illusion. A human wouldn’t, they’d understand that many lightning balls would be impossible for a sorcerer to create, and they’d guess it was an illusion. The aliens had very little understanding and exposure to magic however, so it might work.
He
wondered how many aliens the elves had actually killed. It was hard to say, but just based on the other ships probably six to eight thousand of the aliens had managed to escape the ship. Which meant they put down at least a quarter of the aliens, fifteen hundred to thirty-five hundred at the outside. He just… wondered why it wasn’t more, and he understood Katie’s frustration.
How hard would it be for a couple of dragons to burn them all in open land? They must’ve stopped as soon as the aliens fled their precious forest. He kind of understood it, intellectually. The elves and dragons would trade with humans, but any kind of mutual defense had been off the table since their return.
Still, the reasons for that was they didn’t want to take sides in human on human wars and violence, which was prudent because it could backfire on them badly over time as human empires rose and fell all within a single elf’s lifetime. He’d have thought an outside alien threat to the whole planet would’ve been a logical exception to that rule, and in everyone’s interests. He could only conclude the elves and dragons didn’t really care if humans died. As long as it wasn’t all of them the balance would be maintained. Given that they were discernibly content with letting Katie muddle through her job without support, no matter the cost to humans in pain, suffering, and lives lost.
He got it, but it pissed him off too. He also understood Bria wasn’t really different. She believed in the balance, and was serving the bearer of the mantle, that the bearer happened to be human was immaterial.
“It’s not too late to try my plan instead,” he said teasingly.
Katie snickered, “We’ll hold off on that, sweetie.”
Sadie giggled.
The sky was a bit cloudy in this new area, but that might’ve even been better for the plan. The relative dimming of the sun’s light would just make the ball lightning killing them more obvious, and the ball lightning illusions that surrounded them more visible and obvious even in a panic.
