Bannor staggered, only held up by the stone encasing his legs. Pebbles and globules of melted stone plinked and plunked around the area from high in the sky. A black sphere that was the force shield around Wren and the others blinked out and the savants along with Senalloy staggered out clutching their ears and dodging through the rain of flaming debris. Wren and Ziedra were being carried, Wren by Azir and Ziedra by Daena. Apparently, just protecting themselves and the others had taken every iota of strength they possessed. Even so, the metal bunker itself had been barely blemished by the incredible blow laid against it. The energy only succeeded in knocking down the shields and destroying the rock concealing it.
Bannor clutched his chest, heart fluttering and lungs tight. He never imagined actually hitting the limits of a second generation immortal body, but he and Gaea had slammed into that limit so hard stars spun in his vision.
Oh, ow. Gaea struggled to catch their breath.
Behind them they heard a snarl. The sound made a cold shiver go through his body. They had no nola energy left. Gaea was practically numb from the effort of controlling his body through the shaladen, and then directing such a huge amount of power. An unthinkable distance away in Kul’Amaron, he felt Gaea staggering, her physical body spent in the efforts expended here.
The all-mother had relinquished much of her control so Bannor pushed his consciousness up and slammed his power stiffened body into motion. The stone bracing his legs shattered as he grabbed the shaladen off his wrist and willed it into the form of axes and patterned into a fighting stance.
A dozen Lokori crouched just inside the wall. Hands curved into talons, they swayed back and forth, clothing singed and covered with soot. Among them was Bhaal, the female that nearly killed him.
Hard eyes glared at him, brows furrowed and teeth bared. Now, he saw a new emotion.
Fear.
They were hesitating, gazes darting around, scanning the devastated area. Gaea’s attack had turned a hill of rock almost a hundred paces high into a smoldering swath of melted and shattered stone. Even being in the body that did the damage, he found it hard to believe.
A shriek of metal made him look back. The rest of the team had pried open the vault-like doors of the storage bunker.
The noise catalyzed the Lokori, the uncertainty in their expressions vanished. Two shifted forward.
“Don’t,” he pointed his axe at them. He was surprised to find that there was any of Gaea left in him. He sounded stronger than he was though. “Gaea must have things from that place. It is our mission.”
“It is our mission to guard the items of the ancestors.”
“Your mission for Gaea. I am Gaea—well, her avatar anyway.”
“Your paa is strong, but you are not the avatar of Gaea,” one of the males said.
“Please,” he groaned. “Don’t do this. It will make Mother very unhappy. We do this at her request. We are her children… you, me, we are all her children.”
The Lokori paused for a moment, then rushed to go past him at the bunker doors where Senalloy was disappearing inside.
Bannor stepped back and to one side into the path of the Lokori with his weapons raised.
The creature halted and snarled, raising infinitely sharp claws.
Bannor stared ahead. He felt Gaea’s power still swirling through him, and the knowledge of the combat savants tickling behind his eyes. He didn’t have nola power, but he did have shaladen strength and speed—its power possessed no practical limit.
“Please,” he tried again, putting force and intention into the word. He didn’t even know if these war-like creatures even understood what it meant to plead. There were so many reasons not to fight much less kill. They were down to their last options though. Making their own genemar was the only viable plan they had to stop the Daergons and the Baronians. If they didn’t stop those rogue Kriar, it could possibly mean the destruction of entire worlds full of people. One life, his life, was nothing weighed against that.
He glanced over his shoulder, only a few handfuls of heartbeats had passed since Wren and the others had slipped inside, but it seemed like an eternity. He sensed the floodgate getting ready to open. Despite the truth of the situation, the Lokori were not willing to accept the agents of Gaea.
Bannor drew a breath seeing the muscles in Lokori’s arms and legs tense. These creatures possessed phenomenal speed but were not particularly subtle about disguising their intent. Their fighting was based on a flurry of attacks struck from every conceivable direction at the highest possible speed. It was numbers. Something would get through if the fight lasted long enough. With those claws, it didn’t take much to cripple an enemy.
He did not make the mistake he made with Bhaal. He struck the instant he saw the Lokori male commit. Ducking and spinning to bring the back of his axe against the ribs exposed even as the creature’s claws raked through the air above him.
The blunt side of the shaladen struck bone. A crack that sounded like a tree bough snapping echoed through the area as his weapon powered by tons of battleform mass caved in the creature’s side and knocked it skidding across the turf.
Bannor’s stomach churned as the Lokori thrashed and coughed in agony. He focused, struggling to harden his heart. He switched his footing and flourished with the axes and glared at the remaining Lokori. Behind his eyes, generations of G’Yakki hummed, studying body language, building contingencies and preparing to act.
Without really thinking, he let out a low growl that made the stone underfoot shudder. “Damn you, I would rather cut myself than hurt Gaea. Every strike against you is a strike against her!”
Bhaal sniffed, claws flaring with elemental power. “Then accept my ragi and die.”
He sighed, feeling Gaea moan in despair. Her children were lost in their hatred and mistrust of other creatures. It was probably best that he was in control now. He didn’t know if it had come to it if she could have killed. As it was, being this close to it would be painful.
Bhaal streaked forward as did half a dozen others.
With a yell of frustration, he waded into the fray. This time he was not off guard, he was in battle form with Gaea’s entire being serving as his nola. Speed could only avail the Lokori so much. As they whirled around him claws flashing, they learned. The Kriar armor had not protected him before because the flesh underneath was soft. As an avatar of Gaea, his flesh had become harder and denser than steel. It would take more than a glancing blow to do him significant damage, and to gouge him deeply would take a solid hit.
The Lokori had no fear and a complete disdain for his ability to fight back. With Vera and the skills of the G’Yakki guiding his movements the sluggishness of his battleform was little hindrance. A quarter-step and a lean cut the corner between himself and one of the males that found itself folded around an anvil hard knee. Axe flats, fists, elbows, knees and shoulders he pivoted through them driving home punishing blows as claws raked and bit at his armor and skin.
As the tenth Lokori went down, he knew there was no way for him to revert back to flesh. The gouges that merely slowed this monolithic battleshape would have him dead of blood loss in a few long breaths.
“Hurry up in there!” he bellowed. He felt a strike score on his back and pivoted to deal with the threat. He realized then that more Lokori had joined the fray, and in the distance he saw scores more pressing in from the surrounding trees.
Oh spit.
He danced through his enemies, landing incapacitating blows and taking hits in return. Even with all the skills of the G’Yakki masters it was impossible to avoid every swing. Not with this tons-heavy body that lacked flexibility of any sort. Only the truly miraculous skills of the battle-savants had kept him from losing an arm or leg to the irresistible sharpness of Lokori talons.
Bodies thrashed and whirled around him. Blood splattered over him as the Lokori in t
heir fury to get at him began cutting one another. Out of the corner of his eye he saw half a dozen blue-haired warriors disappear through the bunker doors.
He felt himself slowing down. Even battleform had limits to how much damage it could sustain. The air churned with blood, the Lokori ravaging each other in their lust to take his life. Lokori battle shrieks, and the screams of the dying smote the air. He had tried to avoid taking their lives and in their frenzy, they ended up slaughtering each other.
Inside him, he felt Gaea cringing, wanting to pull away but unwilling to withdraw and leave him to die.
A shriek of pain went up Bannor’s spine—a deep hit. His metal heart pounded. He sucked air with galvanized lungs. He slammed the two halves of the shaladen together fusing it into a single long staff and brought it around slamming bodies away from him to clear a space.
He staggered and slipped on the blood-soaked stone, hearing bones crunch as he tripped over the bodies of the dead, injured, and dying. A few dozen steps seemed like a marathon. He forged forward, slamming aside hurtling bodies and making for the bunker entrance.
He yelled as another hot slash raked his back and another on his side. He elbowed and spun, slapping away the creatures trying to trip him up and bear him to the ground. If he fell, they would chop him up like dinner scraps.
Bannor stumbled at the threshold to the bunker, his shoulder clanging against the adamantine surface. Vision going gray, he turned in the narrow space and formed the shaladen into a tower shield. He had no energy left to fight back. He hoped the others could deal with the few that had gotten inside because he couldn’t handle them now. He felt like a piece of meat mauled by broadpaw.
A few Lokori foolishly tried to phase through the shaladen. The blue-haired creatures were instantly punished by the power of Eternity, knocked sprawling as tongues of magic licked and rasped around their twitching limbs.
He hung on, shaladen metal shrieking as ultra-sharp claws raked at the surface of the shield. When Bhaal had attacked him, Xersis had given way because the metal had not yet fully taken shape. Even now, he wondered how long Xersis could hold up against the onslaught. Gritting his teeth, he clung to consciousness, driving attackers back and avoiding groping claws seeking to get at him around his defensive barrier. He could close the door, but then they couldn’t teleport out. They would have to open that gap again to get out and then they would be vulnerable to whatever assault the Lokori prepared in the meantime.
From deeper in the bunker he heard yells and blasts, his friends seemed to have their hands full as well.
The Lokori piled on, trying to swarm over the shield and get into the bunker. Dots spinning in his vision, he thrust them back only to have steely claws cling to the edges, trying to hold the shield away from the door threshold.
Heart thundering and chest aching, he hauled the shield back, dragging a dozen Lokori with him. Arms, legs, and torso scored by dozens of strikes he looked and felt like sparring dummy left too long at the lists. With a heave, he slammed the shield up and down and side-to-side against the door opening to dislodge the growling Lokori furiously trying to pull him out of the bunker. He planted a foot against the frame and anchored himself. He looked down again and noticed that black liquid was leaking down his arms and legs. His battleform was actually bleeding. How did metal bleed? It was all a nightmare—one he wouldn’t wake up from if they didn’t get out of here.
“Wren!” he hollered as loud as he could muster.
He drove a fist into the face of male Lokori trying to climb over his shield, and hauled the edge back. He knew how that felt.
He shook the shield, trying to dislodge opponents.
Hiding behind the shield he turned sideways to try and get a glimpse of what was within the bunker. The Lokori continued to pound away at his barricade as he took furtive glances into the darkness behind the opening. He saw nothing significant, only a corridor slanting down into darkness.
A massive blow against the shield knocked him back a step forcing him to focus back on his guarding. That little bit of space was all his enemies needed. His already pounding heart went into a frenzy, and an icy fist clenched in his gut as he saw two warriors dive over the top of his shield and into the corridor.
The word ‘frell’ started repeating in his head over and over.
Frell. Not good, if he swung the shield around he would get diced into tiny pieces. He slammed the shield outward, slapping aside a claw that came at his head, ducking and kicking to drive the warriors in the corridor back. Frell. He shook the shield blocking another Lokori trying to come over the top. Frell! He leaped over a slash aimed to take out his leg. FRELL!
Only several dozen millennia of G’Yakki instincts kept his head and limbs from getting sheared off by a whirlwind of attacks.
“Aie!” He yelled as claws scored on his torso and leg causing the streams of black blood already flowing down his arms and legs to increase. Since his days as a green recruit, his fear of dying had been blunted, but the prospect of getting shredded made a panic explode through him. “Guys, get up here—NOW!”
He just didn’t have the strength to keep dodging these death machines.
Gaea forgive me.
It was obvious that while the Lokori did get so wild that they hurt each other, in general, they seemed aware of the danger of getting in each other’s way. The G’Yakki in Bannor felt the rhythm of the fight and slapped a slash aimed at his midsection in a deflection toward the other Lokori.
Blood splashed as irresistible claws scored on unprotected flash. Pain and surprise made an opening. Bannor drove a fist into the creature’s torso at full strength.
Despite Lokori flexibility and speed, the cramped foyer didn’t allow enough maneuvering space to avoid the wall-crushing power of the attack. The blue-haired creature smashed back and splayed up against the solid metal bulkhead with a crunch. It slid down with a mushy slurp leaving a series of scratches as its claws dragged down the wall.
It made Bannor sick inside, these creatures were of his blood—his family. Slashed deep by his partner, the other Lokori was injured and slowed.
Bannor was too hurt and weakened himself to be delicate or use any finesse. The injured Lokori’s next attack was a finishing move. He came down on the arm, his hammering fist pulverizing flesh and shattering bone.
The enemy howled and clutched his mangled arm and lurched back.
Bannor didn’t wait, he flourished and punched. The power of the strike stabbed out a pace from the end of his reach and thundered home in the warrior’s chest and flattened him against the wall with a crack of breaking bones.
More hits rattled his shield at the same instant, knocking him off balance. Knowing what was coming, he pounded back two of the bodies trying to slip inside, but a third managed to thrash and squeeze through into the space.
Damn, why couldn’t they just stop? The world was getting hazy. He simply didn’t have enough st
rength left to fight both sides of this doorway. As he wrestled the shield, he realized the new intruder was female.
Bhaal.
The Lokori female crouched in the corridor panting, she hadn’t moved to strike yet, but she would. Her gaze tracked to the two other warriors smashed against the bulkhead, her glowing eyes narrowed and she growled.
Bhaal’s body tensed. He braced, but didn’t think he would have the power necessary to fend off another battle-crazed Lokori.
He drew a breath. Where the frell were Wren and the others? His mind reached out briefly to Sarai, and he felt her panic. She was trying to summon him but he had the shaladen blocked, he refused to be pulled out until the others were here to come with him. He felt Gaea squirming in fear.
The instants stretched out like an eternity; each thud and scratch of the enemies trying to force past the shaladen shield, the labored beats of his slowing heart, and the throbbing pulse of blood oozing from deep lacerations.
The attack that came whistling at him was as inevitable as the setting sun. Seeing him weakened and ready to collapse obviously made Bhaal over-confident and over-eager. The slash at his throat was a tiny bit too wide and a heartbeat too slow, a lean and a slipping block sent Bhaal’s devastating claws skipping across the surface of his skin, adding four more furrows to the host of gouges already marring his body. He reversed the block and shoved the female off balance and sent her sliding down the corridor.
Damn, he was tired. The world was jumping around. His back felt like a herd of horses were running him over. It was by Gaea’s will he was still moving.
He kept his attention on the shield, he’d bought himself another few moments. Sarai was screaming at him to let her summon him out. Gaea was crying and frightened. She’d never been inside one of her children dying. He felt sorry for both of them but he wouldn’t abandon the others especially when so many lives counted on their success.
Bhaal picked herself up off the floor, glowing eyes burning like flame. Her claws gleamed with elemental fire, winking in the reddish light coming through the spaces around his shield in the bunker doorway.
Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Page 24
