Chapter 92 – A Beastly Enemy

  “Howie, eyes on three BC pacs, two robes one helmet, north corner rooftop of five-story structure four-hundred meters east of your position, caved in west corner. Confirm you have structure in sight.”

  “That’s more than one structure from my station. NODs are on, lasso it for me.”

  Cole swapped back to his patient hunter rifle for a moment, using the pressure pad on the handguard to sweep an infrared laser in a tight circle on the structure. Norn and Bjorn had managed to install an accessory rail for him, and it had paid off. Hopefully, none of those Beast Cult hybrid freaks could see into the infrared spectrum.

  “Ok, confirmed. Standing by for indirect.”

  They didn’t have the luxury of dozens of other challengers here who wouldn’t take kindly to the assholes who whipped up a horde of monsters into a frenzy. They didn’t have enough time or water to make it to another staircase—which might also be guarded. It was them, and the three Beast Cult members that Cole could see moving on the rooftop before him. There was no avoiding this. They were going to have to fight. And if these ones were as tough as Ram-Head, only surprise, planning, and overwhelming aggression were going to let them come out the other side. With two mages and one of the armored knights, they were in for the fight of their lives.

  “Standby until Nona regroups with you.”

  “She’s already here, reported her side clear.”

  “Perfect. Be ready to move. BC activity looks like they aren’t aware of our presence, but they’ve got tripwires up around their position, and probably in the plaza outside the arena. So we’re going to hit them first. What’s your highest lethality munition?”

  “Hellfire-lightning fusion. Bypasses metal armor and keeps burning, perfect for those animal-headed assholes. Whenever you’re ready.”

  “That’s good, because I’m staring at a wolf-helmet knight right now, and the backs of two mages. Besson, be ready to support by fire when they break cover. Keep Artian with you. Roxy, with Beth. Keep her from jumping in sword-first.”

  “Got it,” whispered Roxy.

  “Nona, stick close to Roxy and Beth. We get a clean opening, we go for the stairs and get Beth to the next safe zone.”

  “I will,” said Nona.

  Cole settled in and lined up his snake-bite rifle. “Send it, Howie.”

  “On the way!”

  The whump of Howie’s mortar was barely audible above the crackling of the magma and noise of the creatures in the city, but the Wolf-Headed knight’s helmet immediately snapped to the general direction it came from. He dropped to all fours like an animal and pulled himself across the rooftop toward the source of the sound, angling his head to try and pinpoint the next instance not realizing that the threat was climbing up above him. The other two Beast Cult mages picked up on his behavior immediately, each turning to the west, and turning their backs to Cole.

  Not smart when he had a rifle with twelve seconds of silent operation. Cole burned the snake-bite rifle’s ability and marked all three enemies. He lined up his sights on the closest mage and began to fire. Even though the bolt-action otherworld armament slammed into his shoulder like a thrown brick, the rifle made no noise—not even a scrape as its barrel dragged across the irregular surface of the stone statue. The side-by-side rounds raced out, twin comets spurred on by his accretion wraps. He racked the bolt and fired again before the first rounds even reached his target.

  When the first rounds struck, a half-dome of blue energy crackled a meter back from the mage. Cole’s target barely had time to flinch before the shield shattered, and the second pair of rounds burrowed through his back, turned a tight ninety degrees, and slammed into Wolf-head from the side. While they failed to penetrate the knight’s armor, they at least knocked the enormous figure to the side. Cole fired again, directly at Wolf-head this time. And then the rooftop erupted in a flash of dazzling, red-tinged lightning. Under no illusions that would be enough, Cole racked the bolt again and waited for the light to dim enough for him to see his target.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The wolf-helmed knight stood with his back arched, contorted from what Cole initially took to be pain or the paralysis toxin from his snake-bite rifle. But as he watched, the knight’s body twisted, elongated, and started to shift as overlapping plates of his armor telescoped to allow for the knight’s body to extend into a more canine shape.

  “The fuck…?” Cole muttered to himself, too shocked to even fire. Above, Howie’s second mortar exploded mid-air as the surviving mage launched a bolt of white lightning up to intercept it. But creatures on the ground had started to take notice of the commotion on the rooftop, and multiple monsters were converging on the source of the light and noise.

  “Hold indirect,” whispered Cole. “The mage has defenses up, and they’re about to have company. This could be our chance to slip their net.”

  Serpentine forms snaked their way out of the magma canals, while savage reptiles started scrabbling at the walls of the smoking structure. Even several of the winged bat-things, roused by the shockwave of Howie’s mortar, began to circle. As Cole watched, the first of the dinosaur-like monsters crested the roof, ready to swarm and devour the Beast Cult.

  Until the knight finished his transformation, dropping to all fours and roaring through the visor of his helmet. The creatures flinched away, and Wolf-head dashed forward, whirling in a flash of elongated claws and blood. That explained why the knight hadn’t carried a weapon like Ram-head. He was the weapon. Behind him, the mage lashed out with whips of light or squeezed his fist and caused monsters to simply crumble mid-stride in a mass of shattered limbs.

  Cole called the rest of his team while he stowed his snake-bite rifle. “One robe down, others busy. Go, now!”

  Now, with his suppressed rifle, he continued to fire on the Beast Cult position from the twin statues. Even without the marks assisting his aim, the accretion wraps sped his bullets such that he didn’t even have to account for the drop across the intervening distance. Unfortunately, whatever active defense the sorcerer had wasn’t limited to swatting mortars out of the sky. Bright white motes shot out from the mage, intercepting his meteoric bullets before they could reach his body.

  With the rooftop quickly becoming overwhelmed with monsters, the mage simply lifted into the air, hovering on a swirling cloud of obsidian dust. The monsters below jumped at him, snapping jaws inches away from his heels. But the mage paid them no heed. He twisted his hands, then swept them overhead as an expanding ring of white light shot out from his position.

  As it passed over Cole, he felt a jolt of panic, as though he’d been caught out, despite his cover. The Beast Cult mage spun, facing his exact direction, and worked another spell.

  “Oh, shit!” said Cole. He pushed off the statue’s head instants before it exploded underneath him in a dazzling white burst. Shrapnel peppered his vest and stung him through his thick uniform. Hoping he wasn’t bleeding too badly, he slowed his fall as much as he could, clipping the edge of a rooftop and rebounding off the side of it. The ground rushed up at him, and he landed awkwardly in a fall that would have killed an un-enhanced human. For him, it merely hurt like hell. But he hadn’t broken anything.

  He pushed to his feet, dashing through the alley toward the arena with his head down as more ethereal explosions detonated around him. Ahead, two monsters cut across his path, headed for the fight. One of them skid to a stop when it noticed him, scrabbling against the black stone street and hissing. It launched at him with hunger in its eyes. It looked like a monitor lizard, except it had jet-black scales and was about the size of a horse. Cole cut left through a narrow opening in the building and pushed through a series of tight rooms, with the giant reptile wrecking its way through the building behind him.

  Finally, Cole found a window too tight for the creature to squeeze through and vaulted through it, rolling out the other side and pressing himself against the opposite structure. The creature tried to jam its way through, scrabbling at him with six-inch toes tipped with gleaming black talons. It swiped at him, close enough that he could hear the air whistling off its talons, before pulling itself back to look for another path.

  Disinclined to wait for it to find one, Cole kept moving, approaching a set of exterior stairs to hopefully get a look at the rest of the squad’s situation. The Beast Cult mage’s attention seemed to shift elsewhere, and Cole lost the over-exposed sensation. Was that some sort of Soul-sight ability like Nona was always so worried about? If so, he could see why she hated it

  “Sitrep,” he called as he ascended.

  “Half-way across the plaza,” called Roxy. Cole could hear her shotgun barking over the radio, along with Nutmeg’s ferocious barks and snarls. “No sign of—shit! Contact right! Two hundred meter—is that a fucking werewolf?!”

  Cole pushed on. Somewhere behind him, a wall or door burst, and he heard the hiss and snuffle of the lizard monster looking for his trail. But he wasn’t planning on sticking around. He burned a meteoric leap charge before he even hit the roof. The rooftop to his east was a sea of red splotches, like a film climbing up from below even as it swirled above in the flocks of avian monsters. The mage looked like a one-man lightning storm, scouring the air, the rooftop, and the ground for fifty meters in every direction with jagged arcs of electricity that sounded like a constantly cracking bullwhip, even over the long distance between them.

  And Wolf-head, where was Wolf-head? Cole scanned, finally seeing one red dot moving against the flow, bounding from rooftop to rooftop—straight toward the one patch of blue making its way across the plaza toward the entrance to the arena.

  “Keep moving!” shouted Cole. “I’m on my way.”

  Power burning in his legs, he launched himself into the air.

  They’d executed a perfect ambush. But they’d also poked the bear. It was time to see how far his squad had come since Curahee.

  Patreon.