Mage Hunters Box Set

by Andrew C Piazza

  “Pick one,” Cass said. “Just one. Ignore the others. You see him?”

  “Y… yes.”

  “Put the red dot of your sight on him. On the head. Ready?”

  “I don’t… I’m shaking…”

  “That’s fine. Now shoot. Shoot!”

  Mickey pulled the trigger and let out a little yelp as her weapon bucked and coughed out a round. The shot went far wide and hit one of the ghouls to the side of her target in the leg. The ghoul stumbled momentarily, but recovered and continued its charge almost without pause.

  “Again,” Cass said.

  “They’re getting closer, Cass…”

  “Again, Mickey!” she said, shouldering her own weapon and firing off two quick shots. “Like me! Come on, Mickey!”

  “Come on, Mickey!” Dread said. “You’ve got this, come on!”

  Mickey pulled the trigger again, and then again, and then faster, each shot coming more quickly and more confidently than the last. Cass gave her another second or two to make sure Mickey would continue firing on her own before clapping her on the back.

  “Good. Keep it up. Now you, Jolly!”

  Jolly stepped up next to Mickey, firing his weapon quickly, pop pop pop, tearing holes out of the ghouls as quickly as he could. He even let out a little war whoop while he fired, but his shots were landing wild and doing nothing but punching holes into non-vital areas. The ghouls he shot kept coming on in their strange, loping rush, heedless of the superficial wounds torn into them.

  “Slow down. Head shots only. Now you, Lys.”

  Lysette joined in, her fire much more smooth and accurate than Mickey’s or Jolly’s. Ghouls in the front rank of the attack began to fall, headshot, tripping up the mob following behind them and slowing their charge towards the hub.

  Cass joined in on the gunfire, picking her targets and dropping them quickly, continuing to call out encouragement to Mickey and Jolly over the loud coughs of their suppressed shots. Their fire started to have some effect; more and more of the ghouls fell to the ground.

  Still, the sheer number of ghouls charging down the hallway was too much for the four of them to hold back, especially with Mickey and Jolly being so new to the game. The tide of Kel’s ghouls kept pressing closer and closer, inexorably, and out of the corner of her eye, Cass could see Dread fidgeting, waiting anxiously for her order.

  She took one more look at Mickey and Jolly. They were firing away steadily, even Mickey, who looked terrified and like she wanted to turn and run, but Cass stood close behind her with a hand on her shoulder to reassure her and keep her from breaking.

  All right, she thought. All right. I’ve got the noobs in the game. Now I need the big guns.

  “Dread,” she said, “light ‘em up!”

  Dread stepped forward to the center of their little firing squad and cut loose with the SAW, the close thunder of his weapon shattering the air in stark contrast to the quiet cracks of the P90’s suppressed gunfire. Cass could feel the concussion of his weapon’s recoil shake her spine; it was startling in its intensity and yet, she found it reassuring at the same time in knowing the damage it would do to her enemies.

  “Cass! They’re getting close!” Mickey said, pausing to look back with terror in her eyes.

  “Hold the line!” Cass shouted, pushing Mickey back to face the ghouls, standing next to her and firing away to set an example to the others. “Hold the line!”

  “Hold the line!” Dread roared between bursts from his machine-gun. “Hold the line!”

  “Hold the line!” Lysette added in, and then Jolly, and finally even Mickey joined in, shouting “Hold the line!” as she began once again shooting into the crowd of ghouls charging toward them.

  Ghouls began to drop at a faster rate, in two and threes and fours, and their combined firepower finally began to push back the tide of undead swarming down the cell block. Holes began to form in the formation of ghouls, their numbers dwindling enough that they no longer faced a wide, unbroken mass of enemies, but now a series of scattered small groups.

  The effect compounded quickly. As more ghouls fell and the mass became less dense, it became easier and easier to pick out single targets and drop them with careful head shots. The panic induced from the pressure of a single, wide mass charging them was gone, replaced by confidence in seeing their fire have real effect.

  Soon, it became clear that they had gained the upper hand. The scattered tide of ghouls was pushed back further and further, until they actually had to wait and let them get closer before firing in order to make sure that they could actually hit their targets at that range.

  All the while, Dread’s machine-gun roared, churning out bursts of gunfire that took down ghouls two and three at a time. Finally, his weapon went dry and he went to one knee to quickly feed another belt of ammunition into his gun, but by then, hardly any ghouls were left. Cass could see some of the bodies that Kel had placed at the far end of the cell block rise up in their grotesque jerking, twitching manner, but they stayed by the far end of the cell block, massing their numbers before the next wave.

  “We’re doing it! It’s working!” Mickey said, actually grinning now.

  Don’t get too excited, kid, Cass thought. We’re just getting started.

  Sure enough, across the hub, the prison guards stationed by the doorway to One started to shout, “On me! On One… Jesus Christ! They’ve got a golem!”

  “Dread?” Cass said.

  “We’ve got this!” Dread said, raking the charging handle on his weapon now that it was reloaded. “You go!”

  Cass stole a last look through the entrance of Seven to make sure the situation was under control before dashing across the hub toward One. Just like the probe, she thought. Attack on two entrances, then go after a third entrance across the room.

  Despite the situation, Cass had to smile. Kel had used her probe to practice this little maneuver, had used it as a dress rehearsal to make it easier for her to pull it off once the main event arrived, but in doing so, she had also telegraphed her move. Cass had seen it over and over again working with the Wreck Squads; a powerful mage showing their hand early, overconfident in their supernatural abilities, never thinking for a moment that those they faced could outwit them.

  Except now, that mage was facing Cass, and Cass was ready for her.

  “Shifty! You good?”

  Shifty gave her a nod and thumbs up from where his squad was holding down their entrance. “Yeah!”

  “I need you.”

  “Hang on,” Shifty said, then patted his squad’s Striker mage on the back and said, “Fry ‘em!”

  The Striker mage took a small step in front of the rest of the squad, arms held wide. Massive arcs of lightning jumped from one hand to the other, then through the entrance of Four and down the hallway of the cell block, fanning out in a wide spray.

  Cass had to look away, the lightning was so bright, and the sound of thunder was nearly deafening in the confines of the hub. When it was over, Cass could see through the doorway of Four that the cell block beyond was strewn with the charred, smoking remnants of ghouls blasted apart by the mage’s chain lightning.

  Shifty joined her and they ran to the entrance of One. “My guys have got Four locked down, at least for now. What are we doing?”

  “Golem,” Cass said. “On One. Give me two frags and get ready to put up a shield for close detonation.”

  Shifty shrugged and pulled two grenades out of pouches on his vest. “Well, we knew this was going to be exciting.”

  Cass took the grenades from him and pulled the pins on them, careful to hold down the spoons. As long as she held those safety levers in place, the five second fuses on the grenades wouldn’t activate.

  “You, take these,” she said to one of the prison guards stationed at the door of One. “Be sure to keep the spoons held down until I say.”

  The guard took the grenades from her carefully, looking back and forth from them to the door that was thumping and shaking from t
he inhuman assault on the other side, as if not sure which one was more worrisome. “What are we going to do?”

  Cass nodded toward the other guard as she took two more grenades out of pouches on her vest and pulled the pins on them. “He is going to pull that door open really quickly. Then you and I are going to toss these grenades in… not too hard, we need them to stay right by the entrance.”

  “Isn’t that going to blow us up?” the guard with the grenades asked.

  “Trust me,” Cass said, tipping him a broad wink, then nodded again to the other guard. “Do it!”

  After a moment’s hesitation, the second guard grabbed on to the handle of the steel door, waiting for a pause between the heavy blows which shook it from the far side. He pinched his eyes shut, steeling himself, and then pulled the door open with an abrupt yank.

  “Now!” Cass said, tossing her grenades over the threshold of the door.

  The guard didn’t disappoint her; in fact, he tossed the grenades eagerly past the doorway, as if ridding himself of a couple of foul smelling objects. In that instant, Cass was able to catch a glimpse of the golem on the other side of the doorway. It was much smaller than the one in the yard, made up of perhaps five or six bodies at most, and two of its limbs were formed into heavy, club-like appendages which appeared to be covered in horn.

  It took a step back, as if startled by the door suddenly opening, and Shifty sealed the doorway with a force field as the golem recovered and charged them. The creature smashed against the force field with its horned, club-like limbs, but Shifty’s shield held firm.

  “Get your weapons ready,” Cass said, counting down from five in her head.

  Past the golem, she could see that dozens of ghouls were waiting in the cell block to charge in once the doorway was breached. Get ready for a surprise, assholes, Cass thought.

  Her countdown ended, and all four grenades exploded almost as one on the far side of the doorway. Shifty’s shield contained the blast, protecting them and acting like the back end of a shaped charge, directing all of the concussive force of the combined explosions into a focused funnel that hit the golem like a hurricane wind filled with razor blades.

  Large parts of the golem were practically vaporized; limbs torn away, heads sheared off, gory chunks of flesh exploding into the cell block. What was left of the golem staggered backwards into the ranks of the ghouls, who had also been pushed backwards from the force of the focused explosion.

  “Shifty,” Cass said, and once Shifty dropped his shield, she shouted, “Kill them all!”

  All four of them poured gunfire into the golem and the ghouls left reeling from the blast. Cass sprayed bursts into the few remaining heads of the golem, dropping the creature at last, and Shifty and the guards killed almost a dozen ghouls before the rest of the enemy seemed to recover and regain their senses.

  “Cease fire!” Cass said. “Shut that door!”

  One of the guards jumped forward, slamming the steel door shut before any of the ghouls could reach the doorway. Cass stepped close and took a good look at it, inspecting it for signs of damage from the golem’s assault.

  “Good. We’re good. This door’s still intact. Ghouls by themselves won’t be able to force their way through this steel door. And now we’ve isolated some of Kel’s forces where they can’t do her any good.”

  “Holy shit, that was intense!” one of the guards said, leaning up against the wall.

  “Stay on that door, both of you,” Cass said. “This isn’t over yet.”

  “All things considered, this isn’t going too bad,” Shifty said, breathily heavily from his magical exertions.

  “Don’t get cocky. This is just the first wave.”

  “Right. What now?”

  “Get back to your squad,” Cass said, “but be ready to do a repeat performance if another golem tries to smash a door down.”

  “You got it,” Shifty said, heading back to his team as Mickey ran up to her.

  “Dread says, um, he’s holding, but he needs more belts for his gun,” Mickey said, catching her breath after her short run. “I think I said that right.”

  Cass led her over to the duffel bags where they’d gotten their guns and pulled a few long belts of machine-gun ammunition out of one of them. She handed them to Mickey, who draped them over her shoulder with a grunt.

  “Ooofff. These are heavy,” Mickey said. “Hey, we’re doing okay, right? The ghouls can’t seem to make it all the way down the hallway before Dread or one of the rest of us shoots them. It looks like they’ve stopped for now.”

  “That’s good,” Cass said, leading Mickey back towards Dread and the entrance to Seven, but she didn’t believe her own words.

  It was going well. Really well. Her grenade trick with Shifty had neutralized one of Kel’s golems, which were presumably valuable considering how Kel had protected them during the probe, and Cass’s flying squads were holding back the mass charges of the ghouls effectively.

  So what was she missing? Cass paused in the middle of the hub, looking around at the various entranceways, trying to see it all from her adversary’s perspective. It couldn’t be this easy. It couldn’t be this straightforward. Kel had put too much time and too much effort and too much planning into this for their defense to be going this smoothly.

  “What are you thinking, Kel?” Cass murmured to herself, then jumped a little as a heavy, thumping crash came from above her as an answer.

  It practically shook the ground beneath her. She looked up at the ceiling, instinctively backing away from the noise, as dust and plaster fell all around her. Cass frowned, wondering what could possibly have made such an impact on the roof, and pushed Mickey back and away from the center of the hub as she backed away herself.

  “What was that?” Mickey said, as another titanic impact shook the roof of the hub.

  “An attack on the guard tower over the top of the hub, maybe,” Cass said, then shook her head. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. That tower was already destroyed, and it has no strategic value at this point, so why…”

  A third impact on the roof, and Cass threw an arm up to shield her face from the plaster and scattered debris falling down all around her from above. Cracks began to form in the roof itself, black snakes twisting their way amongst each other along the center of the roof, and Cass’s eyes went wide as she realized what was about to happen.

  “Oh, shit!” she swore, backpedaling more quickly. “Mickey! Get back…”

  Her words were drowned out by the final crash, the one that brought down the center of the roof in a shower of metal and dust and debris. Down through the gaping hole in the roof, fell a huge mass of undead flesh, landing heavily on massive legs each as thick as a man.

  It was a golem. Huge, but not shaped like the one in the yard, which had seemed almost like a scorpion or a centipede in its shape; this one stood like a giant on two legs, over a dozen feet tall. Four thick arms stretched out from what passed as its torso, and countless whipping tentacles sprouted out of its back, waving like a mass of snakes.

  The misshapen heads of the golem screamed and howled an inhuman chorus of rage and hate. It stomped forward on its massive legs and swung its arms wildly, setting on the defenders of the hub before they had a chance to recover from the collapse of the roof.

  Cass

  When that super-sized golem came crashing through the roof and into the middle of the hub, I knew things were going to go to shit in a hurry. I was not wrong.

  I should’ve seen it coming. Maybe not before the first impact with the roof, but I really should’ve put it together after that.

  Kel couldn’t force her way in through the cell blocks. We had them locked down too well, with firepower and magefire, for her ghouls to make any headway. So she came up with another way into the hub: from above.

  As big as that golem was, there must’ve been twenty bodies making it up. Twenty bodies is a lot of mass. A lot of weight. Like several thousand pounds of weight. So my best guess is, Kel tel
eported that big bastard over the roof of the hub, as high as the dome-like shield surrounding the prison would let her, and then dropped it like a wrecking ball onto the roof until it all caved in.

  Stupid of me. Stupid of me to not see that coming, to think that I’d outsmarted her so easily.

  Now our well-coordinated defense was instantly in tatters. When all that mass and all that debris came crashing down in the middle of the hub, everyone ducked and covered to protect their faces from the chunks of metal or roof or whatever else came down with the golem.

  That includes me. Mickey and I were the closest to the golem as it dropped into the hub, and we had to leap backwards to avoid getting hit by the larger, more substantial fragments of debris. Both of us ended up falling on our asses, blinking hard and coughing out the dust and grit that filled the air from the roof collapse.

  The golem was on the attack almost immediately, swiping hard with arms that ended in claws the size of daggers. It tore the head clean off a prison guard and almost took out Shifty before he managed to get a shield up to protect himself.

  Then, Mickey screamed, and the golem swung its massive body to face us. The heads scattered across its misshapen body shrieked and howled and it stomped toward us on legs as thick as oak trees.

  I was still flat on my ass, trying to get myself sorted out after the roof almost fell on my head, and as the golem came on, all I could do was scramble backwards away from it, spraying gunfire into it one-handed in a desperate attempt to slow it down. Instinctively, I was firing into the mass of the creature, until I came back to my senses and remembered that I had to kill the heads to make a dent in the goddamn thing.

  Not that it was going to make a difference. The golem was gigantic; it would be impossible to kill before it crushed Mickey and I, and all I could think to do was to knee-cap it by shooting one of the heads sticking out of one of the massive legs stomping towards me.

  It roared and swayed drunkenly in its approach, thrown off its balance by a piece of its leg suddenly going dead underneath it. I felt a distant sense of satisfaction at actually being able to put a little hurt on the big bastard.