“Get back inside!” Nameless ordered; “It isn’t safe! Everyone get inside and lock your doors!”
It was fortunate that he was still wearing his uniform; most people did as he said when they accepted his authority as a member of the Aegis, though more than a few scholars simply gawked at him and the Minotaur sprinting past them.
With every step it felt like Evadne was going to land on his back, but Nameless did his best to put the terrifying thought out of his head.
Milly tugged at his sleeve to stop him a moment later.
“Master, we’ll be completely exposed in the square!”
He followed her worried gaze to the wide-open space, the entrance to the Bastion’s courtyard on the opposite side of it.
They could skirt around the edge...
He shook aside the thought.
“We’ll have to risk it.”
She lowed involuntarily, a sign of her nerves, but nodded.
They crossed the square feeling utterly vulnerable, he and Milly both eyeing the sky all the while to see if Evadne was going to attack them from above, but she was nowhere to be seen and they reached the other side without incident.
They arrived at the Bastion in time to witness a surge of Aegis operatives flood out of it like ants from a mound that had been kicked.
Looking from one face to the next he spotted one of the senior commanders.
“Sir!” He called out breathlessly to get his attention; “We’ve got a collapsed building on Hazel Street! Evadne brought it down! Two of my bond-mates are on-site enacting triage protocol.”
The man’s eyes widened and then narrowed as he took in Nameless’s stature and the dust covering him, not to mention the glorious shield he was carrying and the Minotaur at his side with her black spear held tight and one eye still on the sky.
Everyone in the Aegis knew who he was by now, and even if they didn’t know him personally they at least knew how short he was, not to mention who he was bonded to.
To his credit, the man didn’t hesitate for long; immediately he turned to the others and started barking orders.
“Three relief teams, Hazel Street, now! The rest of you, security sweeps outwards from here! Prepare for imminent Tenebrae assault! If you encounter the Chimera, fall back and report on her location, do not engage until we can assemble a proper tac-team!”
Evadne and her bond-mate were the most wanted fugitives in Aegis history, and after Lipton Falls the protocol was to assume that wherever they were spotted, there would likely be Tenebrae.
Hands were clapped to breasts as the men, women, and monsters of the Aegis sprinted, hopped, and flew to get it done.
The commander looked down at Nameless, doubled over now as he caught his breath from the mad sprint to the Bastion.
“Aegis Armstrong, you and your bond-mate get inside and get safe. I’m assuming I don’t need to tell you why.”
“Yes sir.” Nameless nodded, saluting quickly before doing as he was told.
Just as he and Milly entered the building though, an explosion of water occurred on one of the upper floors, punching a hole in the wall as it flooded out of the massive old-world structure, drawing several sets of eyes upwards.
Oblivious to this, Nameless and his Minotaur rushed up towards the third floor mess hall, one of the designated muster areas during a city-wide crisis.
Given that Evadne wasn’t likely to stop with just blowing up their apartment, a city-wide crisis seemed likely.
Chapter 36:
Run Bunny Run
The muscles in Tiana’s arms flexed as she pulled herself up onto the thick wall around the boarding school, moving quickly to join Myrina and Lilly after the Wolfen’s howl sounded the alarm.
“Our day just turned to shit.” The pack-leader said plainly, an unhappy look on her face as they watched the Ogres in the distance drawing closer.
The group of fifteen giants weren’t being subtle about their approach through the cultivated valley outside of the city, and already people were shouting in alarm and fleeing deeper into Garland.
“I fear the city is being attacked elsewhere.” Myrina noted grimly.
Tiana’s lips pressed thinly together as she counted the charging Tenebrae; they weren’t slowing down, and would be on them in minutes if they did nothing.
“Perhaps. But our fight is here.” The de facto leader in Volka’s absence said decisively.
Myrina nodded in agreement.
She looked over her shoulder at the disparate groups of monsters scrambling to arm themselves and get the children into shelter: it was a mixed bunch of tribes, adding up to just shy of three hundred fighters, less of an army and more of a disorganized mob, really.
But it was all they had.
“Do we have to? That’s a lot of hurt coming our way.” Lilly muttered, not taking her eyes of the giants.
Tiana set her hand on the Wolfen’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Our Dominar has made our task plain Lil. We protect the children. We will meet the Ogres in the open. Separate them from one another and use their rage against them to take them down one at a time.”
“Can we even afford to take them alive?”
They could all feel the ground shaking now with their approach, and with her keen eyes she could see their faces, hungry for blood.
Ogres were not as powerful as Gigas, but they were still far stronger than any individual monster amongst those that had assembled in answer to Volka’s call.
“Until we have no cause for hope, we can’t afford not to.” Tiana snapped back; “Now gather your pack and aid me. Or get the hell out of my way.”
The two of them had butted heads a few times since Volka had dragged the Wolfen to join up with Tiana and her sisters.
Though the Valkyrie had curbed the worst of her self-destructive impulses, Lilly still fought and fucked with as many of the other girls as she could.
The big wolf sighed, but didn’t push it.
“When this is over, you both owe me a drink.”
“If we yet live, I shall give you two.” Myrina promised with a humourless smile.
She stood to her full height and let loose with a reverberating ululation to call her sisters to battle, and a moment later the Wolfen likewise drew in a deep breath and howled at the sky.
Then the two of them followed Tiana’s lead and leapt off the wall to pit themselves against the coming Tenebrae.
__________
On the opposite side of the city, Rebecca’s legs pumped frantically, throwing the bunny girl into a frantic burst of speed.
Even as the street she was on cut sharply to the right, she didn’t slow down.
“I’ve got two!” She shouted out in warning between rapid breaths.
One of the buildings sat at a forty-five degree angle right at the corner, so she threw herself into a leap, twisting in midair to get her legs in position, then hit the wall above the door with both feet as her thighs curled up to store the energy.
A split second later they extended and she threw herself at a right angle from where she had been running, tumbling onto the cobblestone street in a painful roll.
Meanwhile the two Ogres chasing her couldn’t correct their course in time and smashed into each other and the front of the building, tearing the wall down on top of themselves.
“She’s done it! Get on them! Focus on their limbs!”
Nine Aegis cadets, at the direction of Instructor Kavanaugh, surged forwards on either side of Becks and cast their adhesive canisters onto the pile of broken bricks and blue Ogre-flesh in a desperate bid to restrain them as the Tenebrae wrestled with the rubble and each other to get back on their feet and continue their rampage.
Propped up on her elbows, Rebecca watched on with wide eyes, her chest rising and falling in short rapid breaths.
She wasn’t in the least bit tired, too scared to be tired, and she needed to know if the Ogres were okay.
As much as she was terrified of the Tenebrae that they had
become, she knew that wasn’t who they really were, and her gentle heart couldn’t bear the thought of them getting hurt while chasing her.
Sparing a moment from overseeing the cadets’ efforts, Kavanaugh reached down and gripped her hand to help her to her feet.
“Any injuries girlie?”
“No. I’m alright.” She replied immediately.
Right after she spoke, the bunny girl quickly checked herself over to make sure that she wasn’t lying.
Kavanaugh made a sound in his throat and nodded, then together they moved to check on the Ogres.
When the call had come into the academy that Garland was under attack, Becks was just leaving after finishing with the legacy induction process, terrified and excited to go through training with the next round of prospects in a couple weeks.
But as the students and faculty scrambled to arm themselves to deal with the threat, Rebecca’s doubts fell away; because while every person at the academy had more training or experience than her, not a one of them could run as fast as she could.
Miranda was in the city, training could wait.
“Oi! You dimwits! Get her legs!” Kavanaugh shouted suddenly; “Contain her movement!”
The Ogres had landed one on top of the other against the side of the damaged building, and the cadets had succeeded in securing the bottom one, the poor girl essentially glued to the broken stonework below her.
But the one on top was already back on her feet and raging with one arm stuck to her side and half of her face covered in the adhesive substance.
“Shit, fall back and regroup!” Kavanaugh ordered curtly.
To cover their retreat he expertly tossed a strobe right into the towering monster’s face, but luck wasn’t on his side: the adhesive goo held one of her eyes closed and the angle was wrong for the light to fully blind the other.
So all he did was piss her off even more.
Before anyone could comply with his order, the Tenebrae swung wildly downwards with her free arm, her fist clipping the shoulder of one of the cadets and sending him sprawling to the street.
With everyone scattering and the Ogre lumbering over to crush him, Becks didn’t even think, she just moved.
She took three powerful strides and then kicked off the ground hard to hop up and fly past the blue girl’s face, barely clearing her shoulder as her poofy tail tickled the Tenebrae’s nose.
“Over here dummy!” Becks squeaked in mid-air, feeling very foolish indeed when her eyes met the dark madness in the giant’s; “I’m the one you want!”
The half-blind Tenebrae turned away from the injured cadet and roared at the bunny’s back when she landed.
“Mister Kavanaugh! I’ll take her for another run around the blo-aah!”
Her words were cut off when the Ogre reached into the building and grabbed a heavy armchair to chuck at her, narrowly missing her as she tumbled to the ground.
The ground shook all around her as the giant stepped forwards to finally squish the irksome bunny, while Becks scrambled on all fours to get away.
Before she could regain her feet she felt an enormous hand grip her ankle and knew she was in trouble. The Ogre roared and yanked her off the ground, twisting her leg painfully as it lifted her high into the air and made to swing her like a club.
She heard Kavanaugh shouting orders, but couldn’t tell what he was saying as she rapidly kicked with her free leg at the Ogre’s knuckles.
But before things could get really serious for her, a green blur landed between the Ogre’s shoulders and the hulking monster girl was driven all the way down to the street.
Lucky Becks actually landed on the plush chair the Tenebrae had tried to kill her with, the damaged furniture tilting back slightly before settling with its startled occupant gripping both armrests tight.
Though her knee hurt from being twisted around, the Lapine was more or less alive.
There was a plaintive roar from the Ogre that helped her get her bearings again and she looked up in time to witness a clawed gauntlet of a fist grip the staggered Tenebrae by the back of the head and smash her face into the street again.
The big blue girl stopped moving after that.
Rebecca let out a little squeak as a Dragon’s glowing green eyes looked to her in her impromptu seat.
“I commend your efforts, brave Lapine. Would that they alone were enough to stop this insanity.”
Her clawed hand settled on Rebecca’s wrist and helped her out of the chair, though the raw power of it was making her knees shake.
The Ogres turned Tenebrae were terrifying, but this? It was a struggle just to stay upright in sudden the presence of the Dragon.
“Am good of well thanks.” She said nonsensically.
Xalanth chuckled in her throat and surprised the bunny by stroking her claws affectingly over her flattened ears before turning away to address Kavanaugh.
“I go to stretch my wings only to find my city under siege.” Xalanth spoke through a growl; “The Dominar’s forces are holding the west side, but a great many other Ogres came in from other directions. Two score at least remain to be dealt with.”
Rebecca shuddered, having seen up close what one of the dark girls was capable of.
“We were heading towards the Bastion when we encountered these two.” Kavanaugh remarked after making sure the Ogre Xalanth downed was still alive; “We’ll take them to the Bastion and link up with the Aegis response.”
Xalanth nodded.
“From what I have seen the streets are clear from here to there, though they may not remain so. And I fear the one who orchestrated this is here as well. I must ensure the safety of my lady. Then I will hunt for the Chimera. You and the Aegis must do what you can to keep the city out of the grip of the fallen girls she has enslaved.”
The Dragon nodded by way of farewell and took flight, a minor shockwave greeting her leap into the air as she did.
Standing just slightly too close to Xalanth when she took off, Rebecca was shoved backwards and ended up sitting on the broken, yet comfortable, chair again.
“Carrot sticks.” She cursed in a bit of a daze; “Did anyone see a Dragon here just now?”
Kavanaugh barked out a laugh.
“Missed that part didja? Come along then, you got more running to do, assuming you still can?”
He looked to her leg where the Ogre had grabbed her, his brow quirked questioningly.
Rebecca licked her lips and twisted her injured knee from side to side, then nodded.
“I’ve got a few miles left in me.” She faked a cheerful smile.
“Good. Then get your ass out of that chair and fall in, cadet.”
With no training yet, she didn’t quite understand what he meant, but the brave bunny got up all the same.
Chapter 37:
Stand Together
Nameless and Milly were in for a shock when they arrived on the third floor of the Bastion.
Evadne was waiting for them.
Or rather, the Chimera happened to be there, casually murdering anyone and everyone in the mess hall that caught her attention.
They weren’t the only ones that knew about the muster point, and the Chimera had decided to disrupt the Aegis response to the crisis outside, so she had emerged from darkness right in the middle of their preparations.
The assembled men, women, and monster had put up a fight, but she was on them too quickly for them to react effectively.
“Less than I expected.” She muttered as she cast aside another body, the man’s throat gouged out by her merciless claws; “But these things are like weeds.”
Before the Chimera could find another victim though, a steel-clad hoof hit her in the side of the head, its owner having vaulted off of the floor with her black spear and committed her entire body into a dropkick the likes of which no Minotaur before her had ever pulled off.
It rang Evadne’s bell hard.
But in preparation for attacking Garland, the Chimera was already wearing her demonic a
rmour, and having given all of herself to entropy, she was far stronger than she had been the first night that she and Milly had fought.
Holding the side of her head, Evadne hissed at the pain in her scalp, but was distracted from it when she saw the Minotaur and recognized who she was.
“You!” She snarled as Milly came to her feet and raised her spear; “I know you!”
“No you don’t. But I know you.” The brave cow declared firmly; “You are a coward and a bully.”
Her normally bell-like voice was low and steady while she stalked at the edge of the Chimera’s reach in a bid to keep her attention away from Nameless and the other non-combatants.
Crouching low behind a counter, the Empath was franticly beckoning for members of the kitchen staff, likewise cowering from the Chimera, to come towards him and escape down the stairs.
Milly’s distraction worked, as Evadne would not soon forget the pain of being impaled by the cow-girl, not to mention the weeks of being laid up in bed that followed, desperately trying not to die.
“I’m going to take that thing and fuck you to death with it!” She pronounced as her eyes fell on the Minotaur’s spear, black from the Chimera’s tainted blood.
Despite the gruesome threat, Milly’s chest filled with a warrior’s courage.
“Bring it on.”
They charged towards each other.
But this wasn’t the same Minotaur that Evadne had met before: this Minotaur had been regularly trained by a Gigas to know when she was outmatched.
At the last second she slid on her knees across the floor while Evadne’s claws audibly swiped through the air above her horns.
The Chimera’s snake tail darted out, it too remembering the bitter sting of that spear, but it got tangled up in one of the low benches by the tables, so Milly was able to bat it aside before its deadly fangs could pierce her.
She came back to her feet afterwards and whirled to face her off-balance opponent.
“You are slower than I remember.” She taunted as she began to circle out of her reach again.
Her movements were taking them towards one side of the room, luring the Chimera away from the stairs to help her bond-mate get the survivors out.
The Heartstone Saga Page 32
