by Charley Case
A moving spot of light in the sky caught her attention. When she focused on it, she immediately recognized the lightning ball effect that the Valkyries used to travel fast. After watching the streaking ball for a second, she could tell it was headed her way.
“Hey, babe, it looks like the other Valkyries are arriving.” The lightning ball started to fall towards her. “Get here quick if you can. But don't feel bad if you can’t. I just know how much you like a fight.” She crossed her arms and looked down, putting the phone close to her mouth. “I love you. I know I already said that, but fuck you, I’ll say it as much as I want. Okay. See you here, or see you at home.”
She looked back up and the lightning ball was practically on top of her, coming in at breakneck speed. Her eyes went wide when she saw that at the center of the crackling ball was Missy, a long silver sword in one hand, a black-spiked gauntlet on the other, and a maniacal grin on her face.
“Oh, fuck!” Mila dropped the phone and threw her arms up to protect herself.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mila created a shield and flooded her body with power just as Missy slammed her gauntlet into the golden barrier.
Light flashed from the impact and blew Mila off her feet. She tumbled across the roof, to slam into one of the wicker chairs. It slid across the deck, the side crumpled in.
Mila reached behind her, grabbed Gram with her right hand and the Ivar with her left, and yanked both weapons out at the same time. She activated her mythril armor and Gram with two whispered words. She bounced to her feet before the sword reached full extension, but Missy swung the silver longsword in a side arc that would take Mila’s head off.
Her heightened reflexes and muscle got Gram up just in time. The two swords clanged together to send a shower of sparks to the floor as Missy’s blade slid down the length of Gram.
Mila shot the Ivar from her hip, the magical bolt racing out at point-blank range, but Missy had a shield up to block it. The raw magic slammed into the semi-invisible barrier and exploded, sending both women flying apart.
Mila crashed into a glass table and chairs, a hastily erected shield keeping her from being hurt too badly as the glass shattered, and the chairs flew into the wall with a loud metallic clatter.
Mila landed badly and found herself draped over a now half-crumpled chair. Mila took a second to get to her feet, a second too long.
A silver sword jabbed into Mila’s stomach, doubled her over, and drove her into the ruined table. She twisted and fell over the frame, then through the empty opening where the glass had been to get tangled up with the table legs.
Her ribs screamed in pain where the point of the sword had jabbed them. Her mythril was enough to stop the blade, but it had still hurt like a motherfucker. It seemed that Missy wasn’t as willing to use her portion of infernal magic as Yaminah had been, or it was so small a portion that she couldn’t. That was fine with Mila; she didn’t want to have to worry about her mythril being cut thorough, but that was a hell of a way to test Missy’s abilities.
Missy raised her sword over her head to chop down at Mila’s legs, but Mila reached down with the Ivar and touched a finger to the ground. At the speed of thought, she sent a burst of magic and a force of will to shape it within the deck boards.
As Missy’s sword came down in an overhand chop, the deck boards below her warped and cracked, then exploded upward into a million high-speed splinters.
Missy screamed in pain as she flew ten feet into the air, several dozen long splinters stuck in her legs and arms.
Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Mila aimed the Ivar and hit the screaming Valkyrie in the chest with a bolt of magic. A flashing boom sent Missy tumbling end over end in an arc that ended with her slamming to the deck chest-first. Her head bounced once before she groaned and folded into a fetal position.
Mila pulled herself out of the remains of the table and aimed the Ivar at the blue-haired girl.
The groans slowly turned to laughter as Missy climbed to her feet. The right shoulder of her long sleeve black t-shirt had been shredded and there was a gaping wound four inches around, dripping blood rapidly.
“I didn't want to have to do this, but you’re just a little too full of surprises.” Missy’s eyes narrowed and her teeth clenched.
The blood slowed, then stopped, and black steam began to rise from the wound as it closed within the span of a few seconds.
Missy rolled her shoulder and grinned, locking eyes with Mila.
Mila took aim with the Ivar as Missy charged. As Mila pulled the trigger, the bolt shot out of the pistol at incredible speed toward Missy’s chest.
At the last second, Missy spun to her left, dodged the projectile, and raced towards Mila, her speed augmented to unbelievable levels. The distance shrank faster than Mila could comprehend.
A golden wing of light blocked Mila’s view as Victoria stepped between them to block Missy’s charge.
The two Valkyries slammed into one another, their shields out and crackling with golden light.
Victoria was shoved back several feet, her sneakers leaving black marks across the boards.
She stopped only a foot or two in front of Mila, her wings spread wide as she stood tall. The golden-orange color of the insubstantial wings roiled like molten iron. Mila could see now that the wings were not actually attached to Victoria’s back, If she looked past the wings, she could see that they were translucent.
Mila scooted back and to the side to give Victoria room to move, and so that she would have a sightline on Missy.
The two eldest Valkyries stood a dozen feet apart, their faces hard as they stared into one another’s eyes. Victoria’s weapon wasn’t what Mila would have expected the tall, elegant woman to carry. She had expected a rapier or saber, but in her hands she held a five-foot-long falchion.
The blade of the huge weapon didn’t have a pointed tip like a traditional sword but rather had a flat end. The blade tapered from four inches wide at the end to about two inches where the long leather-wrapped handle started. It had no cross-guard or pommel. A falchion was not a finesse weapon. It was not a fast weapon. It wasn’t even a pretty weapon. A falchion was the weapon of a savage fighter who screamed curses into the faces of the gods. It was the weapon of a maniac.
Finn would love one.
“Why?” Victoria shook with rage. “Why are you doing this? Betraying your sisters to that…thing?”
A look of shame flashed across Missy’s face before it hardened again. “I’m done with this fucking piece-of-shit vessel! It was supposed to be only a few hundred years, then we would go home, but that fucking Huldu couldn’t be bothered to do his cursed job and gets us stuck out in the ass-end of the universe. Hundreds of years turned to thousands, and we’re still here, Victoria. Unless I do something, we were going to be here forever. I had a mission, and now I can complete it. It cost lives, but this is war, sister. People die all the time. It was an acceptable cost.”
“So that’s it? You’d sell your sisters into eternal death just so you can get home? You don't think we want to go home too? Are we not worth the same, you and I?”
Missy clenched her teeth in anger as she glared daggers at Victoria. “You’re the one who sold us out, Victoria. Look at you! You don’t want to leave. You have your money and your power, and you can act like a god among men here. But I remember what it was like for you back home; always looked over for promotion, always reprimanded for your viciousness. You were an animal, Victoria. You might play the part of a high society bitch here, but I’ve seen the things you’ve done in the name of victory.
“We got stuck here, and you saw an opportunity to start over. To make yourself into something more than you ever could be out there. You wanted to stay. You’ve always been willing to sacrifice the mission for your own gain.
“Well, I wasn't. I had a life out there. I had a home and a wife who loved me. I lost all that, and you were more than happy to let me suffer for your gains.”
Tears ran
down Missy’s cheeks, but her face was still a mask of fury.
“That’s not what happened, Missy,” Victoria said as the fire in her voice dimmed to be replaced by confusion. “I wasn’t keeping you here. I didn’t sacrifice your life out there for my own gain; I made the best of the situation we were in. The taint in you is corrupting your emotions, Missy. Don’t you remember us trying to get home? We spent a thousand years combing through every cargo hold and private residence trying to find any way home we could.”
Missy barked a laugh. “A thousand years? What is that to us? You might as well have looked for ten minutes.”
“Why would you let him take you?” Mila asked.
Something about all of this didn’t make sense.
The two Valkyries seemed to have forgotten she was there.
“You made a deal with Azoth,” Mila continued, determined to understand. “I’m guessing that if you fed him some of your sisters so he could regain his power, he promised to take you away from Earth, but what did he get in return? And how did you know he was going to awaken? Unless…”
“What are you talking about?” Victoria asked, frustrated that Mila was interfering, but Mila didn't give a fuck. There was a missing puzzle piece she needed to find.
“She awoke five years ago.” Mila looked at Missy “Yeah, we know you’re not fifteen. So she wakes up and her parents die in a crash, then nothing until she shows up claiming the last five years never happened. You knew the Drude wasn't dead. You also knew he could potentially take you home. You woke him up, didn't you? That’s what you were doing for those five years. You were waking that creature up and putting your plan into motion.”
“I needed to do my research,” Missy said, a smile growing on her face. “You are a clever girl, aren’t you? I knew you were going to be a problem the second I heard about you.
“You’re right, I watched and learned, mostly about where and how my sisters were protecting themselves. After all, I needed a quick way in and out if I was going to be taking Valkyries by surprise. How else would I know to come here to find you?”
Mila saw from the corner of her eye Carl and Tina climb over the wall behind Missy to take defensible positions.
“But why did you let him take you? I understand that you have to be a thrall of his to be taken off-planet, but why now? Why so early? Why not when you’re ready to leave?” Mila asked. Then her face brightened. “He tricked you. He said he was ready to go, but once he took you, he controlled you. Now you’re just his puppet.”
Missy started laughing. “If you only knew the truth. I know what I’m doing, child.”
She tossed a flat stone pulled from the waistband of her skirt to the deck.
“No!” Victoria screamed, but it was too late.
The stone hit the floor and flashed with black energy. A circle of black power rushed out in all directions. When the circle hit a ward, there was a flash of gold, but it quickly died under the wave of infernal magic.
Within seconds, the entire building had been stripped of its wards.
Twenty void portals ripped open across the rooftop and thralls, and Rougarou poured out by the dozens.
Chapter Thirty
Spells and silenced rifle fire lit up the night, as the G.A.E.L. team opened fire on the minions. Thralls and Rougarou went down fast, but for every one killed, two more came out of a portal.
Missy rushed towards Victoria, her own golden wings unfurling the moment sword and falchion crashed together to ring out over the sounds of battle all around them.
At the first strike between the two Valkyries, Mila noticed the sky darkened with storm clouds that formed out of nothing. At the second clash, lightning streaked through the clouds, making them glow purple and angry. Another clash and more lightning flashed as thunder rolled across the city.
Mila jumped back as a Rougarou charged and took a swipe at her. She landed on her back foot, then sprang forward to take the wolfman’s head in a single strike. A pack of four thralls charged her and she danced to the side, then cut two down with Gram and sent a bolt from the Ivar to blow a large hole through the other two.
On deciding the overflowing minions were the larger threat, Mila charged into the fray, Gram singing through the air to slice the enemy into bloody chunks.
After chopping down three thralls, Mila dropped to one knee as a Rougarou slashed thorough the empty air where her head had just been. Before she could react, the giant beast doubled over, howling in pain as something sliced its belly wide open. The Rougarou fell to the deck, still twitching as Remmy materialized in front of it, her daggers covered in blood.
“Heya, boss.” She saluted, then sucked in a deep breath and disappeared.
Mila smiled. That little goblin lived for this stuff.
Mila shot off another bolt that ripped through a bunched-up group of thralls tried to flank Howard and Jenny. Jenny nodded thanks, then threw a gravity grenade to the far corner of the roof where three of the portals stood open to dump enemies at an alarming rate. With a blue flash, two dozen thralls and Rougarou were sucked into the epicenter where their bodies crushed each other. Then the field reversed, and bodies flew in all directions. Most slammed into the wall next to them, but a few were tossed twenty feet into air only to smack into the deck.
As the crowd thinned around her, Mila took aim at Missy. She started to pull the trigger, but a chill ran over her arms. She spun around and threw her shield up just in time to intercept a black dagger. The shield screamed and sparked as the blade slowly plunged into the flashing gold barrier, only to be stopped by the dagger’s own hilt.
Mila heard a sizzle from her pant leg and moved it to the side to avoid more of the dripping black magic from the dagger’s tip. She looked up to see the crazed face of Yaminah.
“Dammit, woman!” Mila screamed up at the vicious woman. “These are new pants!”
She slammed her fist to the deck and willed the floor beneath Yaminah to burst into a pillar of flame. The mage danced back to dodge most of the spell but left her blade stuck in Mila’s shield, smacking at her pants to put out a small fire.
Mila dropped the shield, avoided the falling dagger, and let it thunk to the deck. With a sharp kick to the flat of the blade, she sent it skittering across the boards and under a built-in bench.
The almost continual lightning above them that was somehow a reaction to the Valkyries’ fighting caused a bit of a strobe effect. When Yaminah lifted her hand and shot three sets of three diamond-shaped missiles at her, Mila could see the whole thing in stop-motion.
It seemed to be a weak attack, considering how easy it was to see coming. Mila put up her shield and took the nine missiles against it, each exploding and leaving a purple cloud behind.
But Yaminah had used the missiles as a diversion and circled around Mila’s shield. Mila realized her mistake as soon as a dagger sliced across her back, cutting through the leather, t-shirt, and mythril with ease.
Mila arched her back and gasped as the infernal magical coating of the blade burned its way into her muscle. She spun to protect herself from another attack, but Yaminah wasn’t there anymore, and another slash, this one at her mid-back, burned into her.
Mila sent a little healing to the two cuts and felt her stores of magic dip considerably, but the burning stopped, and she felt the wounds close. She needed to avoid healing if she was going to last the rest of the battle.
She started to pivot again, just like last time, then reversed the move and launched herself forward, her shield leading. Just as she’d thought, Yaminah had tried the same move again, but this time Mila caught her and slammed into the surprised woman like a charging bull.
Mila pumped her legs like a front linesman and drove the off-balance woman towards the edge of the building. Mila knew a three-story fall wouldn’t be enough to kill someone like Yaminah, but it should be enough to get her out of the fight long enough to clear out the rest of the minions.
When she saw what Mila planned, Yaminah put her back
to the shield. The moment they were close enough, she planted her feet on the short wall at the edge of the roof and kicked off to slide up the shield and flip over Mila’s head.
Half expecting something ridiculous from the woman, Mila slashed backward with Gram. The sword slammed into Yaminah’s dagger, and the golden blade slid down the dagger to jam into the crossguard.
“Fucking hell, it’s like I’m fighting Finn or something!” Mila shouted in frustration. “Always with the countermove! I fucking hate it!”
“Do better, then!” Yaminah jumped back and flung a spell at Mila’s face.
Mila dropped to her knees as a green ball of acid shot over her head. Then she pivoted to the side but kept her shield arm where it was.
In a move that shocked both Mila and Yaminah, the acid splashed onto the spherical interior of Mila’s shield, making it glow and crackle as it resisted the acid spray. The watery caustic fluid shot down the front and out the bottom of the curved surface of the shield’s interior, to splash back at Yaminah’s booted feet.
The other woman danced backward but got a bit of the magical fluid on the tip of her boot. The leather quickly split and began to smoke.
Mila saw the battle in full view from the edge of the roof. Eighty percent of the minions had gone down, and the rest were desperately fighting a losing battle with Carl and his team. Mila’s eyes widened when she got her first glimpse of Nick in the fight. How she had missed the enormous brown bear crushing thralls and Rougarou alike she had no idea, but the addition of Remmy riding on his back like some Russian cavalry unit from hell, made her really glad she had.
Someone had given the goblin a rifle and she made the most of it, whooping and hollering as she pumped rounds into a charging eight-foot-tall wolfman. It was a hell of a thing to see, and she knew it would be an image that stuck with her for the rest of her life.
The hairs on Mila's arms stood on end, and she glanced up to see that the lightning was almost continuous at this point. Each time the two elder Valkyries struck their blades together, another flash of electricity ripped through the sky. Mila felt like she could just reach up and grab it.
