Without the adept, the horde pressing in on them from all sides was less motivated. Those in the front who’d already taken damage, or been otherwise aggro’d by the raiders, continued to try to advance. Those further behind at the back of each tunnel began to wander away in small clumps of two or three. Not having the adept to deal with, Kuhns organized his group’s attacks to focus on one tunnel at a time while maintaining the ice, fire, and wind spells that were holding back the others. He was surprised when a stone wall suddenly grew up to block one of the tunnel entryways. Looking behind him, he saw a grinning earth mage waving his hands and creating a second wall. Right behind him was a flood of nearly a hundred raiders. Tanks moved down the stairs and formed a wall twenty shields wide in an arc that left room for melee fighters to fill in behind. Casters and ranged dps covered the stairs and the platform above, while the healers watched their rear and took turns trying to restore the injured man’s legs with spells and potions. A host of droids filled the tunnel behind them, waiting for orders.
With more than enough firepower, they opened two tunnels at a time, allowing the bottled up zombies to advance into the chamber. Few of them even made it to the line of tanks, a storm of magic and arrows filling the room and burning them down in record time. Less than ten minutes later the room grew quiet again. The droids advanced to loot the corpses and guard each tunnel entrance as the raid leaders put their heads together to form a plan. They now had ten full raid groups, plus Kuhns’ group, which was still down a man. Kuhns made the decision to send the afflicted man back to the tower with an escort of four droids, in hopes that one of the regeneration machines would be able to help him.
Kuhns and his raiders would remain in the chamber with two more groups, who would help maintain barriers sealing off four of the tunnels. The remaining eight groups were doubling up, two groups working together to clear each of the first four tunnels. Once they were secured, they’d return and clear the other four.
It wasn’t long before the other groups advanced into their assigned tunnels, and the sounds of battle resumed. Kuhns, tired and more than a little worried, sat on one of the steps, munched on a stale granola bar as he stared at a nearby droid that was holding the adepts bone staff. None of the humans had been willing to touch it after hearing what it had done to their comrade. With a sigh, he finished his granola snack, downed a few swigs of water, and took a minute to assign his newly earned attribute points.
*****
Allistor knelt in front of the knee wall on the roof of his chosen high rise. His sniper rifle snug against his shoulder, the bipod stand’s feet sitting atop the wall. He let out a long-held breath and kept his finger very still where it rested on the trigger. Through his scope he watched a window in a mid-rise building ten blocks away, waiting for the adept within to show its face again.
He didn’t need the sniper rifle and its super long distance scope for such a close target. He could easily have made this shot with a standard hunting rifle. But he wanted his first shot to be a kill shot, and the fifty caliber round that he was about to send downrange would, assuming he hit his target, turn its head into a splash of goo on the wall behind it. One would also never normally fire such a round into a city building, as they had a tendency to go through the target, the wall behind it, and several more walls beyond. The risk to innocent bystanders would be too great.
But in this case, the only living things out there in the dead zone around his city were the non-living. If he managed to pick off an extra zombie or two, bonus!
Allistor was having a hard time focusing. He was uncomfortably aware of Melise sitting, slightly too close for his comfort, to his left. And the bodyguard standing behind him, hand on the hilt of his sword as if just waiting to take Allistor’s head if he should accidently brush up against the elfess.
Taking in another deep breath, he held it while he refocused on the crosshairs in his scope. He’d spotted the adept while scanning the buildings, but it had moved out of his line of sight before he could fire. So he scanned that and several nearby windows every few seconds, as well as the building entry below. Though he’d grown up hunting, and had done more than his share of shooting since the apocalypse, he was no professional. He needed the thing to remain in view for a solid five or ten seconds to be sure he hit it.
Melise yawned, stretching her arms above her head, distracting Allistor to an even higher degree. “This is not what I expected from a hunt, Allistor.”
He chuckled, still eyeballing the building downrange. “I used to say the same to my father when I was a kid. I wanted to be sneaking through the woods Elmer Fudd style, shoot a deer on the move with a perfect shot right through the heart.” He smiled fondly, enjoying the memories of time with his dad even as he felt the familiar twinge of loss. “Instead we climbed up into a tree stand and sat there for hours, not moving, not talking, just waiting. Like we’re doing now. For a kid like me, that was almost torture.”
“Elmer…?” She questioned.
“Oh, right. Elmer Fudd style. He was a classic cartoon character. Uhm, make-believe. An animated drawing. Used to hunt a very clever bunny. He’d tiptoe through the woods trying to sneak up on the bunny, then fire about a thousand shotgun rounds in all directions without reloading. Not at all realistic, but it was funny.”
“Sounds… charming.” She was clearly just humoring him, but somehow he didn’t mind.
“If we ever get TVs or the internet working again, I’ll be sure and show you.” He offered.
“I believe I would like that very much.” She practically purred at him. He stiffened, afraid that he’d somehow just asked her out on a date. But all social awkwardness was forgotten as his target showed itself.
It was now three windows east and one floor up from where he’d seen it before. The adept was standing before the window, waving its hands at a tightly clustered group of undead making its way down the street below. Allistor wasted no time, sighting in on its face and letting out his breath slowly, then squeezing the trigger. The rifle bucked against his shoulder, the bipod legs leaving small scratch marks on the wall’s surface. An instant later the adept’s head exploded before its body fell from view inside the room. Down below on the street, the shuffling cluster of zombies slowed their march. Several began to wander off down side streets and alleys.
One down, who knew how many to go?
Allistor continued to monitor their progress, waiting for another adept to notice the uncontrolled group and take charge of them. This was how he’d found the adept he just killed. It had taken over for the one he’d killed before that. Since landing on this roof, they had taken down four more adepts.
The shot had effectively halted Melise’s subtle advance. She wasn’t pressuring him, exactly. Her touch was much lighter than that. She was making it clear that she was available and interested in him, while maintaining a carefully respectful and precise distance and acknowledging his recent loss, all without actually saying any of those things. Her social skills were flabbergasting, and Allistor imagined her Charisma attribute must be about a zillion.
The fact that he was responding the way he was, consciously or not, made him feel guilty and a little bit angry. With himself and with her. He felt like enjoying her attention was a betrayal, and that he should be stronger.
There was a crash below, and Allistor shook his head. The orcanin had quickly gotten bored and asked permission to descend into the building and clear it. When that was accomplished, they’d decided it was necessary to clear all the buildings within a one block perimeter, to ensure Allistor’s safety. He privately suspected that they were hungry as well as bored, and hoping for some tasty monsters to cook. A quick glance at the two who’d stayed on the roof with him showed them peering over the edge with envious looks on their faces. When one of them noticed his attention, he quickly straightened up and thumped his chest. “Another excellent shot, another kill!” He flashed a tusky grin at Allistor, who grinned back in acknowledgement.
They’d
been outside the wall for four hours, and the suns would be setting soon. Between the bored orcanin and his bored elf companion, he was convinced to give it a rest for the night. “Alright, let’s recall all your comrades and head back. We’ll come back out tomorrow and change things up a bit. Maybe move along at ground level for a while.”
Both orcanin perked up at this. They’d wanted to just bulldoze through the undead on the ground in typical orcanin fashion. While they didn’t consider sniping from a rooftop to be dishonorable, it was certainly not their preferred method of killing. One spoke into his wrist communicator while the other opened the roof access door and roared down into the stairwell.
Rekon obligingly called for the elven ship to retrieve them as Allistor got to his feet, then fought the natural urge to offer Melise a hand up. L’olwyn had drilled into his brain time after time that he should never make physical contact with those of other factions. Luckily for him, the nimble elf bounced to her feet and began stretching her legs before he’d had more than a second to feel awkward for not offering.
As if sensing his angst, she flashed a bright smile his direction, then fluttered her eyelashes innocently as she asked. “Can you demonstrate for me this hunting style? This… tippytoe?”
Allistor snorted, then blushed slightly when he realized she was really asking. Looking at the three serious and masculine bodyguards on the roof with them, he shook his head. “Like I said, it’s… silly.”
“Oh, please. I’m afraid I won’t be able to sleep tonight, wondering about this Fudd.”
With a quick glance at the guards, and another to see if the rest of the orcanin were arriving through the access door, he shook his head in resignation. “Alright, but just for a second.” He closed his eyes, remembering the cartoon as best he could from his childhood. Then, gripping his rifle in both hands, he raised up onto the balls of his feet and took several exaggerated, high-kneed tippytoe steps forward. Laughing to himself as he got into it, he even turned and held a finger to his lips, saying, “Sssshhhh!”
He quickly quit his shenanigans when Rekon snorted and Melise giggled. The two orcanin seemed confused and slightly embarrassed for him.
“That was wonderful!” Melise’s smile was wide and honest. “Though I doubt you’d have much luck sneaking up on your prey like that.”
“Ha! That was sort of the point.” Allistor moved back to kneel next to the hard case for his rifle, removing the scope and securing everything in place before returning it all to his storage ring.
The orcanin arrived shortly before the Or’Dralon ship, and they quickly loaded everyone aboard. Just ahead of him, Melise giggled again as she made a great show of tippytoeing up the ramp. Allistor did his best not to notice the sway of her hips as she did so.
*****
Bjurstrom and McCoy sat on crates in the stock room behind the Invictus tower’s main kitchen. They’d gone there to convince Sam to liberate a bottle of goblin brandy and join them in a toast to their lost friend and comrade. The battle with the undead was about to move into its second day as midnight approached. There would be time for formal memorials later. Right now their people were rotating down off the wall to get some rest while others took up the fight against the unceasing waves of zombies.
“To Goodrich!” Bjurstrom raised his glass. “He went out fighting, exactly as he would’ve wanted.”
“Goodrich!” Sam and McCoy raised their glasses as well before all three downed a shot of the brandy. McCoy coughed, then spoke with a raspy voice as he thumped his chest with his fist. “Woo! Good stuff.”
Sam refilled their glasses, then held his up. “Good stuff!” They clinked glasses and emptied them again.
McCoy sighed. “Not many of us left from the original gang.”
“Yeah.” Bjurstrom looked down at his empty glass, then held it out for Sam to refill. “You, me, and Andrea. Redd. A few of the desk jockeys. The rest of the old guild are gone now.”
“For your guild!” Sam raised another toast. Though he’d not been much of a gamer in his youth, he recognized that gamer guilds could develop into a sort of family.
As Sam refilled the glasses once more, Bjurstrom shook his head, a grin forming on his somber face. Then he chuckled quietly to himself.
“What?” McCoy eyed him, knowing his longtime friend was likely having some completely inappropriate thoughts.
“I was just… thinking. It’s kind of too bad the zombies ate Goodrich. If we’d been able to recover his body, we could have fed him to the mama murder chicken.”
“Ha!” Sam roared, setting down the bottle to slap his knee. “You are one sick dude.”
McCoy snort-laughed. “Yaknow, I actually think he would have liked that. He’d probably hope he gave her the runs, or something. After that whole junk-biting incident, she was totally his nemesis.”
Sam raised his glass, waiting for the other two before downing the liquid. “Amanda told me that Goodrich actually tried to bribe Nancy to make it grow back bigger when she used the regenerator machine thingy.”
Bjurstrom nodded. “Oh, he bragged to everyone that she did it. Threatened to smack people around with it. He was totally full of shit, but it made people laugh. We don’t laugh enough these days.”
The three men sat there in silence for a full minute or so before Sam reached out to refill their drinks with the last of the brandy in the bottle. Raising his glass slowly this time, he clinked it against both of theirs. “Goodrich, his junk, and laughter.”
Chapter 17
Agni walked into Rajesh’s private quarters with slow, resigned steps. He was not looking forward to speaking with his nephew. Still, anytime there was bad news, he needed to be the one to deliver it. Anyone else would be risking their safety, maybe even their lives, by angering their Earl. As unstable as Rajesh was, he would never harm his uncle. Rajesh depended too heavily upon him.
He found his nephew lounging in an oversized marble hot tub on the balcony of his luxurious suite. There were three young women in the tub attending him, none of them looking happy to be there. Though if Rajesh looked directly at any one of them, they would instantly be all smiles and gracious words. Agni carefully warned all the staff against upsetting Rajesh.
As he stepped out onto the balcony and cleared his throat, all the young women were instantly laser focused on him. With just a raise of his eyebrows and a nod toward the door, he did them the favor of dismissing them. When Rajesh began to object, Agni held up a hand for silence and gave his nephew a stern look, implying that he had information for his ears only.
Slightly mollified by the implication of intrigue, Rajesh settled back in the water and waited impatiently for the women to depart, which they did with alacrity.
The moment the French doors closed behind them, Agni began. “We were able to reach Allistor’s representatives via radio this morning.” He purposely left off emperor as the title was a sure way to annoy Rajesh. “They assured me that he would be interested in speaking with you in the near future. However, more specific arrangements will have to wait.”
“What?!” Rajesh sloshed to his feet, his face twisting in instant anger. “This is an insult!”
Agni shook his head. “His city has been under attack for the last three days by a large army of undead. I’m sure that once he has dealt with the problem, he will wish to speak with you, and…”
“Nonsense! He must have thousands, maybe tens of thousands of peasant fighters to deal with the zombies! Surely he could come here himself and leave the fighting to them. Does he not have generals or… captains or something?”
Agni held his tongue. He’d been told that Allistor was in fact on the walls fighting with his people. Sharing this information with his nephew, who had not personally participated in a battle for nearly a year since he secured the Stronghold they now sat in, would only make him feel inadequate.
Then again… it might do him some good.
“Allistor is personally leading his people in the battle. I’m told he do
es this regularly, preferring to risk his own life in hopes of saving those of his citizens.” He let that sink in for a moment, waiting for Rajesh to open his mouth to protest before cutting him off by adding the next barb. “That may be the secret to his rapid rise in power. You have said yourself that fighting and killing creatures is the fastest way to gain experience and levels.”
Rajesh was a conniving coward at heart. Implying that his lack of advancement over the rank of Earl, while Allistor had risen to become Emperor of Earth, because he was unwilling to risk his own neck… well that closed Rajesh’s mouth with an audible click. Agni watched as his fists clenched, his face slowly turned purple.
It was hard for any man to be reminded of his own shortcomings. It was exceptionally hard for Earl Rajesh.
Agni waited patiently for Rajesh to either calm himself, or explode in a fit of rage. The odds were about even, either way. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted one of the young ladies peeking around a corner inside, her own eyes wide with fear. He subtly shook his head and waved at her with a hand placed behind his back where Rajesh could not see. She immediately disappeared.
There was a splash as Rajesh stomped a foot inside the tub, then a larger splash as that foot slipped and he lost his balance, falling clumsily into the shallow water. Spitting and spluttering like a drowned cat, he struggled back to his feet as Agni studiously inspected his own shoes, pretending not to have noticed the fall.
“This insult shall not stand!” Rajesh stepped out of the tub and wrapped a towel around himself before beginning to pace back and forth on the balcony. “We must repay him. Get him here, and make him suffer for his insolence.”
Agni sighed, able to guess what was coming.
Shadow Sun Unification: Shadow Sun Book Five Page 28
