Chapter 94 – Unwelcome Guests

  Even the winged creatures that infested the city attacked the airborne mage, as though affronted that anyone would dare assume the right of entering their skies. Leathery-winged bat-like creatures with fangs and claws swarmed in a vortex above the Beast Cult mage. The spellcaster fended off bullets from below as well as diving swipes from above. Ammunition was dwindling fast, and they could hardly stop to unpack spare magazines from their kit. Not only that, but the firefight and bloodshed was bringing in monsters from further afield following the sounds and scent of slaughter in the plaza.

  “Get ready,” said Cole. “Once we do this, there’s no telling what’s going to happen.”

  “We’re ready, Cole,” called Nona.

  “Roxy, you’re up!”

  Roxy broke cover, moving up behind her shield and angling her shotgun up at the mage. White glyphs appeared where she shot, blocking the bladed buckshot and sizzling with heat. But the mage knew she wasn’t the real threat. It scanned around, so Cole gave it something else to chase.

  Burning a charge of Meteoric Leap, Cole took to the sky, flying over the mage and through the vortex of winged creatures. He extended his spear, shouting a battle cry. The last surviving Beast Cult took the bait, twisting upward. It might not have known what the spear was, but it must have figured it had some sort of barrier or armor piercing property—which, to be fair, it did. Not that Cole thought it would work against the high-level mage who seemingly never ran out of spells or stamina.

  Cole reached the apex of his jump and started to come down as the mage worked a spell to knock him clean out of the air. But before he could finish, the black mote of Beth’s ability flashed below, and the mage reached out to snatch the girl again. But this time, it wasn’t Beth that he grabbed. Beth was holding onto Nona. The mage’s fingers wrapped around Nona’s throat, and the woman kicked her feet in the air.

  “Nona, do it!” said Cole.

  Nona gripped the sleeve of the mage, digging in her own fingers. And then, as if melting away from reality, the mage faded from sight. Nona and Beth hung, suspended in midair for a brief moment before they started to fall. Beth warped them away with another charge of her ability and returned them to the ground, just as Cole landed nearby and blasted a wave of dust and debris across the plaza.

  Beth looked up to where the mage had vanished in midair. There were still remnants of his presence, white motes of power and glyphs of protection already dissolving into the ether once more. “What the fuck? What just happened?” she demanded.

  “I sent him home,” rasped Nona. She rubbed her throat. “It’s my ability.”

  “We could have done that this whole time?!”

  “It was a risk,” said Cole. “We couldn’t know for sure they had broken into the tower like us. It wouldn’t have worked otherwise. And there will be consequences.”

  “Like what?”

  Cole looked over to where Roxy, Howie, Artian, and Besson were jogging up to their position, only to see them stop mid-stride, staring past them with wide eyes and slack jaws. Cole twisted his own head and a shock ran through his veins.

  Outside the kaleidoscopic walls of the tower, six gigantic eyes pressed against the barrier, fixed on them like a kid leering into his ant farm. Only, Cole and his team were the ants. Every inch of his skin crawled under that gaze, and the ground under their feet started to rumble.

  UNWELCOME!

  GET OUT OF MY TOWER!

  The voice boomed in his mind, drowning out all thought and reason and stabbing like an icepick behind his eyes. Cole clamped his hands over his head and clenched his teeth until the echoes in his skull faded. “Like that!” he gasped, struggling to keep his feet. The rest of his team was recovering as well. Even Nutmeg howled with pain. The only ones unaffected were Beth and Artian.

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  Beth looked from him to the wall and her jaw dropped. Cole pulled her along, barely able to focus his eyes. Above him, the flock of winged monsters shrieked and fled in every direction. What a moment ago was a circling swarm quickly cleared. Far above, several blisters on the ceiling began to form, glowing from dark red, to orange, to bright yellow.

  “Move, move! To the arena!” Cole shouted.

  GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!

  Cole put a hand to his head against the pain and grunted with effort. The blisters on the ceiling erupted, and magma poured down, splashing over the ruins around them. Rivers of molten rock fell on the ruined city. It would bury the ruins, but first it would course through the streets, funneled by the structures in a flash flood of molten stone so hot that no magic potion could ever protect someone from it.

  “Holy shit!” shouted Howie. “I can hear him in my teeth!”

  “Let’s go!” shouted Roxy. A new stream of lava burst from overhead, cascading down over the temple east of the arena. The temple’s tower melted under the downpour. A wall of lava gushed out of the alleys, filling the street and creeping toward the arena gates. All the while, the eyes of Dallemonte tracked them through the plaza.

  The arena itself was slightly elevated, which came as a blessing as Cole and the others dashed up the stairs, only to fall to their knees again at the top as the voice of an angry god whited out their minds.

  LEAVE MY REALM!

  “We’re trying, you fucking asshole!” screamed Roxy. Cole pulled her to her feet, and they staggered into the arena. A section in the center of the ring had been hollowed out, like a cylinder had been pulled from the ground.

  “There!” shouted Besson.

  Cracks formed in the walls of the arena as the ground shook. Parts of the walls began to tumble down. Dallemonte was destroying his own preserved city in an effort to burn them out of his tower. Fissures opened in the sand of the arena. More magma began to seep up, spilling out onto the sands with a hiss and crackle, smoking and spreading noxious fumes. Cole gasped, vaulting over a stream of molten rock and then dodging as a geyser of super-heated steam vented just a few feet away from him.

  “Let’s go, let’s go!” said Cole. The hollow hole led down, and over the lip, Cole could see a swirling vortex of mist.

  “That’s the door to the safe room!” shouted Beth. She prepared to jump in, but Roxy grabbed her.

  “Wait!” she said. Roxy looked over at Cole, screaming over the rumbling. “Cole, I can’t leave her!”

  “We’ve got no choice,” said Cole. He glanced back. A three-foot wall of lava burst through the arena gates, flooding towards them. Cole grabbed Artian. “Stay with her! Keep her safe until our people find her!”

  Artian nodded. “I owe you that much and more, Lord Cole. I will guard her with my life.” His expression grew thoughtful. “And if I should chance to reach home, shall I carry with me a message from your lordship?”

  Cole hesitated, then grit his teeth. “Find Ryan. Tell him I’m out there, and I won’t stop until I find a way to reach him. Expect me.”

  Artian nodded. Beth hugged Roxy, and then surprised Cole by also hugging Nona, who stiffened up, looking a bit like a cat that hadn’t wanted to be picked up. Beth let go and turned to Cole, biting her lip.

  “I guess this is it,” she said. “You guys weren’t total assholes, sort of.”

  Cole unzipped his admin pack, pulling out the pouch of Babel bucks. He stuffed it into her hands. “Use these. Get stronger. Survive, until our extraction team can pull you out, and come find us when you make it out.”

  She took the pouch, then stepped off the edge with Artian close behind.

  “Can we fucking go?” asked Howie.

  Cole waved them on. Besson, Howie, Nutmeg, and Nona all jumped. Roxy hesitated, looking at the portal, then at Cole. She took a breath, and her expression smoothed. She nodded, reaching out her hand. Cole took it, and together, they stepped off the edge into the mist.

  The vortex swallowed them, and then there was a sensation of being jerked sideways. Cole tried to hold on to Roxy, but they were pulled apart and he was thrown end over end, tumbling through a colorless gray storm with no discernible direction and a muffled roar in his ears like he was underwater. Only the sensation that he was moving, fast. He continued to tumble until the mist around him glowed brighter and brighter. It became almost painfully bright, and he clenched his eyes shut against it, for all the good it did. Then, with a final flash, the bright light winked out and he hit a cold cement floor.

  Cole gasped, opening his eyes to the yellow painted markings below him. Authorized teams and medical personnel only beyond this point. He pushed his head up, head still swimming, and looked around at the pit room of the DOR compound. The fifty-cals were on station, pointing down at them. And every member of his squad was accounted for, sprawling on the floor in various states of hating life. It took every ounce of willpower to climb to his knees, and that was so shaky there was no way he’d be able to stand without help. He raised his right hand.

  Medics rushed forward, along with a bearded Kicker that Cole recognized as the leader of one of the higher-level teams. He was at least level 40, more than twice Cole’s level.

  “Welcome back, Airborne. Anything?”

  “We just took Beth Black through the gate to the seventh floor safe room. But you better fucking hurry. She doesn’t want to be rescued.”

  The Kicker sprinted up the ramp out of the pit, raising his voice to be heard over the siren and hustle of medical personnel. “Seventh floor! Black is seventh floor! Prep for invasive entry! Clear the pit!”

  Two medics helped Cole to his feet and out of the pit.

  His part in the rescue was over. The rest was up to Hard Tone and her squad.

  Patreon has already reached the start of the next mission, so as always if you want to read ahead, you're welcome to check that out.