by Billy Wong
Rubbing her stiff back as she stood, the wound in her abdomen still bleeding profusely, she considered. She had driven him back by force of will prior, but didn't know if she could win every time against him. Even if he only seized control for a brief period, the damage he did could be catastrophic. What if he decided to murder her friends to spite her or in hopes of breaking her will so she wouldn't resist anymore? Such a ruthless man, she couldn't give any more chances than she had to... besides, she didn't accept she couldn't beat that dumb dragon by herself.
Speaking of which, Tiamat didn't seem to be following after her yet. Cart-Dragger gazed towards her to see her holding her claws together with her head down, as if in concentration. "What is it doing?" the nearby soldier asked.
She may be casting a spell. It's possible she is renewing the air barrier.
"That annoying thing?" She spat. "Might be time for a change in strategy." Instead of running back towards Tiamat like her instincts told her, she tried to sneak away through the alleys between houses.
Giving up?
"Of course not! I just figure she might let her guard down if she thinks I am, that and I may find something to use against her."
Tiamat's booming voice ruined her plan. "Cart-Dragger! You claim to care so much about your friends. But do you truly value those 'friends' not of your own kind equally to those who are?" She held up E's limp body between two gigantic talons. "Come out of your hiding spot, or show yourself to be a hypocrite."
She'd been afraid this would happen. Tiamat appealed to her reputation, but she would've wanted to save E regardless of that. Yet could she really do it? She feared if she did show herself, Tiamat would just finish off the elemental before she could do anything and then attack her. She was in a severely bad position right now, to be sure. Her best chance to rescue her friend would be if she could surprise the winged witch...
"Fine, Maxie," she said resignedly, "your dream will come true."
Do you mean..?
If she let him use her body, that might endanger her friends. But there was no guarantee they would come to harm, while if she didn't, it seemed a nigh certainty E would die. Though she didn't trust him still, she would have to put her faith in herself being able to overcome him if need be. "You can channel your magic through me. I mean, I don't even know how to give you 'permission' to do it," she added with a helpless shrug. "But I mean, I won't resist as long as you're doing something useful."
What do you want of me?
"I've seen you move incredibly fast, and make yourself lighter to jump hundreds of feet into the air. Can you let me do that?"
You are naturally heavier than me.
She rolled her eyes. "I highly doubt that's true. You were a foot taller than me and I'm not that fat, I just store some extra fuel for when I go into Hyper Beast Annihilation Mode. Anyway this is no time for banter between archnemeses, can you do it or not?"
I think I can.
"Then get me up there next to her claw! I'll do the rest."
She darted towards where Tiamat stood, buildings passing by in a blur as Maximilian's power filled her legs and body. So all it took was not fighting him. She honestly would love to have him as a full time ally, if only he wasn't... him. They burst into Tiamat's view, her eyes widening at their speedy arrival and speed in general. "What? How are you..."
"The shield!" Cart-Dragger warned, reminding Maximilian not to run themselves facefirst into it. Fortunately, as he didn't seem to hear, she retained enough control to bring herself to a skidding halt for them. "Aren't you listening?"
I had thought to charge your hammer up and break through it with magic and strength combined.
"Well, you should have told me..." She exhaled. "We're a terrible team."
To be expected.
Tiamat breathed at them. They dodged with a long jump sideways, covering more than fifteen feet in a split second. "Damn, you're pretty good," Cart-Dragger admitted. "Heck, I'm pretty good for beating you."
I have never met a warrior with greater strength than you.
She noticed he said "strength" instead of skill, but let it pass this time. "What are we going to do about E?"
See how she holds your friend, even though the shield should keep her out? I suspect it does not extend so far that it covers her claw. So...
"We might be able to just jump up and hit it without worrying about any shield!"
Exactly.
She bunched her legs and soared higher than she would have ever imagined, the air cool around her face. Tiamat's claws with E between them came into reach and she swung the hammer. With a hiss, Tiamat's fingers opened. E plummeted downward, much faster than Cart-Dragger did due to not being lightened by magic. "Maxie, catch her!" E hit the ground hard, the bastard not having done a thing to stop her. She couldn't know if she was dead, but falling so far while being injured and unconscious didn't bode well. "What the hell, you..."
Excuse me, I was too slow. But she suspected it was more that he didn't care if E lived or not, perhaps in part because she was a former imperial servant who now helped his enemy. Tiamat slashed at Cart-Dragger with the claws of her other arm, which she intercepted with a hammer swing only to be sent flying back. She hoped she wouldn't be knocked through a wall yet again, but managed to land on her feet atop a roof this time. The Queen Elemental's maw opened, and she thought to dodge. Remember my magic, and turn your defense into offense!
He probably meant for her to leap over the breath and take the fight to Tiamat, but didn't count on how much his treatment of E enraged her. She grew so hot, it more than outweighed her increasing coldness due to blood loss and made her break out in a sweat. "To hell with your magic! Get out of me!" She swung her fist in an uppercut at the air—and like against Tentacle-Nest, found that she had the force of will now to throw him out of herself. His translucent spirit flew up towards Tiamat, disappearing into her chest before she could unleash her breath. Maximilian reemerged and flowed back into Cart-Dragger, not permanently evicted this time either—but Tiamat looked stunned just as her watery counterpart had, and this might give her a valuable opportunity.
Why... do you keep doing that to me?
"Because you're an ass! Thanks for helping me finish off this overgrown lizard though... no wait I take that back, I'm not grateful to you at all." She drew her last javelin and aimed it carefully at Tiamat's eye. While she didn't expect a single spear to the orb to kill given her size, blinding her would give Cart-Dragger a distinct advantage. Before she could throw, Tiamat spun—mammoth tail swiping at the rooftop.
She recovered much quicker than the other one!
Cart-Dragger guessed maybe she was stronger willed, or more mentally resilient. Still, even this gave her a chance to turn things around. She leapt, not as high as she would have with Maximilian's magic, but enough to clear and land atop the tail. She ran up it and then her opponent's back, the latter bellowing in anger all the while. No unseen force impeded her; it seemed the invisible barrier only covered the dragon's front, perhaps because going all around would dilute it. Tiamat jumped in an attempt to throw her off, but she grabbed onto the scales to hold on until the wyrm started to descend back towards earth, then jumped up and forward herself so that after Tiamat landed, she fell towards her head.
Tiamat turned to look at her and she smirked. That powerful breath shot up, but because it wasn't well aimed, she managed to disperse what little of it reached her with a hammer swing and continue on course for her target. "Heaven to Hell Burial Part Two!" Her maul came down on Tiamat's right eye, bursting it in a spray of goo. The wyrm shrieked in agony and flailed around, Cart-Dragger grabbing onto her eye socket to stay on. "Too bad you didn't learn from your brother that invading our continent would end badly for you." Timing Tiamat's movements, she found an opportune moment to swing around to the other side of her head. "This is where the race of evil's crusade stops."
"You are the race of evil!"
She hammered Tiamat in the other eye, turning it into
a ruined blob as well. "You're the one who was unclear, so the name sticks." The end drew near, she sensed. With both eyes blinded, all she had to do now was figure out how to finish her off. Before she could, Tiamat bent violently forward, driving her own head through the rooftop of the building Cart-Dragger had been on. Surprised, she fell off and into a family's dining room. She cursed as Tiamat's head retreated out the hole it'd made, but reassured herself it wouldn't be too hard to chase the dragon down given she was blind and couldn't fly. She jumped up to the hole and pulled herself onto the roof. As she did, however, she saw Tiamat flying clumsily away towards where her allies still fought. So her wing hadn't been completely disabled after all, and could function when desperation called for it albeit with difficulty? Darn.
She is escaping. Maximilian's voice sounded weak, which she attributed to entering Tiamat momentarily.
"Yeah," she said with a sigh, looking down. "But with both her eyes gone, and probably taking her army with her, I think I'd call that a victory."
Sure enough, seeing their defeated leader pass the city boundary, the aerial horde fled after her, leaving numerous of their dead draped over the wall and ground. She imagined many more probably lay outside Galantria, shot down or killed by her and the other riders before reaching it. While she may not have slain Tiamat, the day's result might not be too much to complain about—depending on how many of their own had fallen.
She staggered dizzily downstairs, really feeling her wounds now. The claw had gone deep into her, probably enough to be fatal for most considering blood dribbled over her lip and filled her mouth with its salty taste. Her whole body throbbed from all the breath attacks and crashes through walls, and she wouldn't be surprised if she had fractured bones. She was the unstoppable duchess though, and couldn't go down before inspiring the no doubt exhausted defenders with a show of strength. After that, and discussing what to do next, then she could collapse into bed for a much needed rest. She wondered where Scott was now, and if he'd rejoined the battle. Hopefully, he and all her friends were safe...
She exited the building, spotted E lying there and gasped. How could she have forgotten about her? Maybe Tiamat was right about her being a hypocrite subconsciously... though the beating she had taken could account for that too. Either way, she ran to E now and knelt beside her. "E, wake up! Are you alright? Tell me you're not dead at least..." She didn't respond. Checking fearfully told her the elemental still lived—but only just, her breath barely detectable on Cart-Dragger's hand. "Maximilian, you know healing magic don't you? Treat her, please!"
So you'll let me use your body again?
"Yes, I just want to save my friend! Please..."
He didn't answer for a second. I fear I am too weak.
Too weak, at a time like this? She considered whether he might be holding out on purpose—but if he was, he would probably gladly admit to it. Most likely, he was being earnest; her using him as a projectile had rendered him useless for now. Maybe she should have thought more about it before doing that... but then, Tiamat might not have opted for a tail whip if she hadn't made that attack. If the fight had gone on longer, there was no assurance E wouldn't have been crushed under Tiamat's feet before it ended. Anyway, she couldn't change the past. Maybe she shouldn't dwell so much on choices she'd made, when things might not have turned out better had she gone another way. As a leader of a city still in danger, she needed to focus on what lay ahead.
"I suppose I'll just have to get help for E when I meet up with everyone. I hope it won't be too late..." She also wished they had stored water elemental cores for healing, as she didn't know if they could do much for E otherwise, but this long after the battles at Athendar, all the cores would've expired by now. She headed for the wall where she figured most of the defenders were still gathered.
"Willow, you beat her!" Scott said from a staircase while she approached, holding a new tube weapon he had gotten somewhere. "I knew you could do it."
"How are our friends?" Judging from his mood, it seemed unlikely any of them were dead, for which she felt glad. Before he could answer, she turned to the medics treating wounded fighters nearby. "A friend of mine needs help, back near the apartments behind Tobias' Jewelry Shop. I know you have a lot to do, but if a couple of you could go check on her..."
"At once, Duchess!" one lean man replied, grabbed a colleague by the arm with a blood-covered hand and ran off in the specified direction.
"A friend? You mean E?" Scott asked. "I'm not sure healers trained to help humans will be able to do much for her."
"I understand. But I have to do what I can. Let's just hope they can-" She coughed blood and fell to her hands and knees on the bottom steps of the stairs up to the wall, her vision wavering so that the ground resembled a gray fuzz as the anguish finally overwhelmed her.
Voices of concern filled the air around her. "Willow! Duchess!"
She looked up and blinked her eyes slightly clearer, still seeing overlapping double images of Scott before her. This was a tad embarrassing, so she put on a bashful smile. "I'm fine, really... just need a moment to gather my strength. So, about our other friends?"
"Russ got hurt pretty bad saving one of the guards—don't worry, we think he'll make it. Broke probably half his ribs, though. Mindy had to retreat from the battle too with injuries, but she should be okay. Actually she wanted to stay and fight, but we made her go back fearing she would get herself killed dazed as she was."
Though the pain was still immense, Cart-Dragger stood stiffly back up and grasped his shoulders. "So of my old group of friends, you're the last man standing? Pretty impressive for an engineer."
"Not really, my machine took my beating for me."
"I saw that. Still, it must've been a harrowing experience."
He frowned. "It was. If my chest—I mean the metal one—caved in any deeper, I would be dead."
She gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Then I'm very happy you made it."
"What about us?" Lars yelled from above. "Aren't you going to tell her about our wounds?"
Cart-Dragger spotted him atop the wall with one arm hanging limp, sleeve soaked with blood. Ruth held onto him for support, face contorted in pain, but it wasn't evident what injury she had until she pointed behind herself and said, "Gash from my shoulder blade down to the opposite hip. Some other cuts and bruises too, but not as bad." Allen leaned on his spear beside them, looking tired but not obviously hurt. Lars had probably worked hard to protect him, though the reverse applied too.
"You hardened mercenaries are used to getting hurt," Scott said with a wink, "since when are a couple of scrapes like that on you worth mentioning?"
Lars nodded. "True enough."
Scott was getting to be something of a hardened warrior himself if he could joke around in the aftermath of a battle like this. "What about our allies? How many have we lost?"
His voice immediately sobered, growing small. "Over four hundred were killed, at least. But we did manage to get a lot more of theirs than they did ours, somehow."
She scaled the wall to gaze over the parapet to the field below. Thousands of elemental corpses littered the dusty earth, in addition to the ones that lay within the city. So the armaments they'd prepared were put to good use after all. "A lot of those bigger ones are mine," Strength said limping up next to her, broad face and armor splattered with blood.
"So you actually mustered the nerve to fly out there again? I assume you didn't shoot your victims down from range."
"Somebody had to stop those gigantic whales from reaching your precious city. I got a bunch of them, though your horned friend played a big part too." Abaddon rested in his clearing behind the wall, still towering over everything in his seated pose.
"Thanks for your hard work. Maybe I'll give you a bonus for half or so of that month's pay." She was feeling generous after all, having defended her home from the most daunting threat to it yet. With Tiamat blinded and their forces having incurred heavy losses, she doubted the New Elemen
tal Order—er, the race of evil... or just the enemy would try something again soon. And when they did, human ingenuity and determination would be ready for them once more.
Strength grinned. "By the way, a message from the druids arrived for you during the battle."
"What did it say?"
"No clue. I didn't read it."
She'd have to do it herself, but first things first. "Have two of our fastest fliers tail the enemy force, and come back to warn us right away if they do anything suspicious—that is, anything besides flee or rest. And tell them to make sure not to get too close."
She addressed post-battle concerns from soldiers and civilians while having the medics patch her up as best they could, then went to visit Russ and Mindy in the makeshift hospital set up in a warehouse. The captain of the guard lay in a cot with practically his entire torso wrapped up, while their mutual friend sat in hers drinking from a bowl of soup with a bandage around her head. "Hey," she said. "Really glad you two made it through. I heard about both your performances. You should be proud."
"What, getting dragged off the battlefield all groggy and mumbling incoherently is something to take pride in?" Mindy asked.
"I hear it was after you led the volunteers in repelling a heavy offensive, then collapsed from a blow to the head taken beforehand. That's not a poor showing."
The blacksmith shrugged. "I suppose it wasn't too bad, though I wish they let me stay longer. I could have kept fighting, even if I didn't know where I was."
Cart-Dragger sympathized, being just the type to say something similar herself, but replied, "Heh, no need to risk your life so much in your state. We weren't that desperate yet. And Russ, you jumping in the way of a chunk of falling masonry to save your men is impressively selfless."
He accepted the compliment with a nod, but also a slight flush. "I thought I could catch it and toss it aside. Guess I've been watching you and Strength too much."
All three of them shared a laugh. "It still takes some guts to try and imitate those two," Mindy pointed out, "if you're not used to being like them. You feeling okay though, Willow? You look pale."
