Chapter 79

  A quick look at the map confirmed that Mickey’s Kitty-cat Jump Drive had just deposited me at the closest point to Riaret, about halfway between the running battle Second Battalion was conducting and where she was. I had no time to linger and see how the battle was going, so I immediately turned towards Riaret’s position.

  Progress was good, according to Reinos’ scouts; the column of the Second Wave was pouring through the camp and heading to the edge of the crater and the Path leading through the Wilds. Soon they’d be through and gather at the rear-guard position, and I hoped whatever situation Riaret was in, I could turn it around and prevent the enemy general from reaching Camp Colosseum and wreaking havoc on the ongoing evacuation.

  I knew she was still alive — her army would have noticed if she had died and I would have received reports — and I wanted to keep it that way. I broke into a sprint, heading towards her, putting my levels and stats to good use, rifle ready in my hands, holding it as steady as I could so I could get a picture of what was happening through the zoom function. The images on my NeuroHUD’s zoom screen weren’t encouraging; I had been under the impression that the terrain between the camps and the crater’s edge was flat and barren, so I was more than just a little surprised to see structures popping up in the distance. Were those walls? And what the hell was up with all the rocks and spikes flying around? Oh. Earth mages. The specialty of the Third Ringers. Of course. I had encountered these things before at Garoshek, but back then the low levels of the mage-grunts had made it relatively easy for my SAC to withstand anything they had managed to lob at me. But if the minotaur general turned out to be a mage, that would be a different story. Riaret was strong and fast; hell, she could easily best most other demons in hand-to-hand even without her halberd — including me — but at a distance? A high-level mage might be a very bad match-up for her.

  I still couldn’t see Riaret; those magical walls were a pain in the ass already, not to mention a couple of caver demons perching on them like the ugliest of birds with their long tongue sticking out and gesticulating wildly with their arms to conjure up more stuff from the ground. Those bastards were mages, and quite high-level at that.

  After ten seconds of sprinting, I was more than halfway there already. I could clearly see one of Riaret’s captains impaled on the ground, the other one trying to fend off all sorts of spikes coming at him, directed by a caver. I was glad to see Riaret hadn’t gone at it alone, but by the look of it they were still outclassed. I still saw no sign of her, but I was close enough now to take the black, slick-skinned weirdo-demon out. I took aim as I kept running; the closest caver squatting on top of his wall was in my crosshairs.

  ‘Eat this!’ I growled as I pulled the trigger.

  Boom! The three-round burst hit instantly, knocking the horrid creature off the wall, its blood splattering. I quickly found the next caver; even if it saw or sensed what had happened to its confederate, it was busy conjuring up the spikes to keep the fire-demon captain at bay from his perch on top of another wall, presenting itself nicely. Boom and boom; another two bursts, and the hideous Third Ringer was no more.

  I reached the battered but still alive captain in the next five seconds; I recognised him and his large sword, but I couldn’t remember his name. And it didn’t matter.

  ‘Where is she?’ I yelled as I screeched to a halt next to him. He pointed at the hastily erected magical walls. ‘Right! Keep the other cavers busy! I’m going in.’

  ‘Aw, shit. Yes, Lord.’ He panted his enthusiastic reply and ran off to circle around the miniature earthen fort.

  I quickly found a gap between two wall segments; that was my way in.

  ‘Reinos, send a squad to my location for medevac. Make it quick!’ I ordered my other general.

  [Right away, Lord.]

  His reply came, and I was glad he didn’t waste time asking me what a medevac was — I was sure he’d figure it out.

  I slipped through the gap, turning rapidly to check all corners, ready to fire at anything that moved, but all I found was more wall panels some ten metres ahead. I ran to the new set of walls, straight to one of the gaps between segments and went in, and … minotaur right in my face, almost bumping into me. Luckily, he was as surprised to see me first thing as I was to see him. The enemy general — if he was the enemy general at all — was surprisingly small, only a head taller than me, and for a brief moment we just stared at each other, his beady eyes widening as much as mine were behind my helmet.

  I wasn’t as good as sensing Hell-Mana as demons were, but as the moment passed, I felt an obscene amount of the magical substance suddenly moving. Without thinking, I elbowed him in the neck. He stumbled back, and I would have brought my rifle to bear and embed a large number of flechettes into his body, but the spikes were coming from the wall behind me already. I jumped and ducked at the same time, doing my best to get out of the way — one of them got me in the back as I arrived a couple of metres away, rolling on the ground, losing almost a hundred points from my SAC’s durability.

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

  Mickey jumped out of my storage, surprising me even further, landing next to me in his translucent, immaterial form. I saw two things as I scrambled to my feet: my cat lunging at the minotaur mage, vanishing into his chest and eliciting a roar from the guy, and I saw Riaret’s helmeted head sticking out of the ground as if she had been buried up to her neck in something that looked more like wet sand than the dry and cracked ground I was used to.

  The minotaur general got his bearings after Mickey’s intrusive vanishing act, and I was overcome with the strongest sensation of Hell-Mana movement I had ever experienced. Oh, this was not good!

  ‘Not the time for a mud bath, Riri! Get out of there and help, for god’s sake!’ I yelled at Riaret the Thoroughly Trapped Strike, but I wasn’t sure she could do it at all.

  But I didn’t have the time to ponder her predicament on account of having my own; several of the walls around us broke apart, and even the ground under us began to stir and move, becoming hundreds of rocks and compressed earth pieces, rising into the air and hovering for a moment. I used that moment to aim my rifle at the mage, and just as he gestured with his hand to launch everything he had at me, I pulled the trigger. Pure chaos erupted; the sound of my gunshot got lost in a tornado of rocks hitting me from all directions. I didn’t even know if I hit the damned earth mage; I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything, all I knew I was suddenly in the middle of a stone-storm I couldn’t dodge, hit or shoot. Ten points from my SAC’s durability. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred. Two hundred. All in the two seconds it took to throw myself on the ground, hoping to provide as little surface as possible for the mage’s attack. The damned minotaur was not only still alive, but he could also see me or sense me and he had some other tricks to try. The ground on which I lay moved once again, shoving me back up into the air, so fast and violent I felt some serious g-forces, and to make it worse, my rifle flew out of my hand, landing somewhere I couldn’t see. Shit! What I could see was Riaret crawling away from our fight in the wake of all the earth-shattering, which had freed her from being buried. Good: she had at least a little bit of her self-preservation instinct left somewhere in there.

  ‘Meow!’ I heard Mickey’s faint voice as I fell back to the ground with a thud and pain.

  ‘Good. Keep at it!’ I groaned, getting up as fast as I could.

  With my cat unobtrusively eating the enemy mage’s soul, he was bound to run out of Hell Mana. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, and for the noble purpose of staying alive, I had to use my own supply of the magical substance. In the swirling cloud of dust and earth I couldn’t see the magical bovine bastard, but I had to try.

  ‘Infernal Storm!’ I called the spell, willing Hell-Mana to conjure up as large a firestorm as the skill’s 3 levels allowed for.

  The world lit up with red and yellow light as the spell did its job; the air caught fire, dust and dirt igniting, earth and rock melting — hellfire was hot as … well, hot as hell.

  [Skill: Infernal Storm has reached level 4.]

  A notification popped up, and the painful shriek of the minotaur, coming from behind the veil of burning dust, informed me of the reason for this level-up. He wasn’t dead yet — no notification about that — but at least it seemed a new barrage of stones and spikes was no longer something he could do — thank you Mickey, you beautiful, soul eating feline! For a split second I got my hopes up when a new notification popped up, but it was something else, something unexpected.

  [JTEC S80 Assault Rifle: unauthorized user has attempted to fire your weapon.]

  What? Who?

  [Hyde? I’m doing what I’ve seen you do but your stupid trifle isn’t shooting!] Riaret’s RMS message gave me the answer.

  Oh! I didn’t see her at all as a spun around, not in all the burning and very earthy chaos; but she had found my rifle and picked it up, and I had no problem with that under the current circumstances.

  ‘Button! Authorize Riaret to use my rifle! Now!’

  [JTEC S80 Assault Rifle: Riaret the Severing Strike is now authorized to fire your weapon. Safety off. Magazine: 46 rounds remaining. Fire selector option: three-round bursts.]

  ‘Good to go Riaret! Aim and shoot!’ I yelled, hoping she had eyes on the enemy general.

  The reply was a boom, then another boom, then another. Oh, the sweet sound of the S80!

  [My Lord, the squad is arriving now to assist you. Also, the last of the Second Wave just left Camp Colosseum behind along with General Riaret’s soldiers. We’ve managed to keep the enemy forces away from them but now might be a good time for everyone to disengage and retreat to the rear-guard position.]

  Reinos reported, distracting me for a moment. But it seemed like no more earth spells were coming our way, and I could finally see the armoured silhouette of Riaret limping towards me with my rifle in her hand.

  ‘Do it, Reinos! Get everyone to the rear-guard garrison!’

  [Yes, Lord.]

  The air began to clear, and the dust cloud began to drift back down to the ground, letting me see Riaret properly. She looked like she’d ran into a train and somehow survived, which was quite close to the experience I’d just had myself.

  ‘Meow,’ Mickey said as he appeared out of nowhere.

  ‘Well done!’ I said to him.

  Almost half of the general’s soul? That should limit his ability to cast so many powerful earth spells.

  ‘Did you get him?’ I asked Riaret as she arrived to stand in front of me.

  ‘No. He’s fleeing. Let’s go kill that bastard!’ she hissed with pain and disappointment.

  Go after him? I didn’t think so. Even with his soul half-eaten, I had no desire whatsoever to tangle with that mage again anywhere in the near future. And as long as he wasn’t heading for Camp Colosseum, we didn’t need to chase him down. Luckily, no-one was reporting that the enemy general was about to cause problems there, so I made my decision.

  ‘We’re withdrawing. It’s time for phase three. Some of Reinos’ guys are here to help carry your captains. And you.’

  ‘I don’t need carrying,’ she protested, but she didn’t sound convincing or convinced.

  And then she coughed up some black blood, and it was clear it took all she had just to stay standing. She was in a bad shape; I’d have to look at her injuries once we had the time and opportunity. And her captains as well, if they were still alive.

  ‘Can I have my rifle back?’ I asked, reaching out to take my weapon.

  ‘What? No!’ she protested, her energy suddenly returning as she stepped away from me. ‘I like this thing. It has a good kick.’

  ‘That it does,’ I agreed. ‘And it’s my weapon. Where is your halberd?’

  ‘I saw those ugly cavers take it with them.’

  ‘Lord! General!’ A new voice came to me.

  One of Reinos’ captains, an ice-demon, appeared between the remnants of demolished walls along with a whole squad of at least ten soldiers.

  ‘Alright, I’ll let you hold on to it until we get to our new rear-guard garrison.’ I told Riaret, and we were ready to go.