Tor dismounted and Salem stood vigil beside us, using his huge body to cut off access at the front of the rock and I watched in shock as Salem took out a low-flying vickrant with a nasty chomp of his horse teeth.
Uh… whoa!
Then Noc shouted at me, “Clip!”
I transferred one dagger to the other hand, pulled a clip out of my back pocket and handed it to him. He took it, instantly released the used clip, it fell with a thud into the sand and he shoved the next one in. Taking aim around the rock, he fired at the legged creatures, not missing though, it had to be said, they would be hard to miss seeing as there were so freaking many of them.
“Talk to me,” he bit out to Tor who was standing, legs planted, just out from under the cover of the rock and striking vickrants down with every mighty swing.
“The winged creatures, vickrants, the legged monsters, toilroys,” Tor explained, then grunted through another swing that took out three vickrants at once. Then he went on, “The good, anything pierces their skin, they perish.” Another swing, another grunt, another two vickrants exploding in blue. “The other good, they have no brain, they are programmed only with the mission so they aren’t tactical and are unable to adjust their advance, for instance, if they are confronted with terrain that is difficult to maneuver.”
“And the bad?” Noc asked, aiming and firing at toilroys as another vickrant flew low, around Salem, toward me and I slashed out with my knife, catching it under its belly and blue flashes flew.
“There are a lot of them,” Tor answered Noc.
“Fuckin’ great,” Noc muttered, aimed, fired and another toilroy bit the dust. “I’m almost out of ammunition, man, got a clip and a half left,” Noc went on to inform Tor.
“Salem!” Tor bellowed, the horse turned around and Tor stopped swinging just long enough to pull a lethal- looking axe out of a holder on the saddle, he turned and tossed it, head up, to Noc who caught it by the handle left-handed.
Well, the other good was, my man was a warrior and he came heavily armed.
“Terrific,” Noc muttered, not feeling my positive vibe but keeping hold on the axe and turning back to aim and shoot, taking down another toilroy, “I run outta ammo, I gotta get close to those fuckers to take them out.”
“It takes an extraordinary amount of magic for Minerva to conjure this many creatures and I would assume an incomparable amount to send them to another world,” Tor stated as he kept swinging, the air rife with blue flashes where he connected, another vickrant came low, clawed feet first, aiming at me. I lunged forward and planted a dagger in his belly as another one came to the side and I swung wide with my other hand, catching it at its gullet. “We have learned in the past that if we’re able to reduce their number by half,” Tor went on, grunted with another swing and concluded, “they’ve orders to retreat.”
“That’s good news, right?” I asked, plunging my dagger into another low-flying vickrant as two came flying in at my other side. I pivoted and swung wide again, catching them both with my other dagger.
“Babe, there’s fuckin’ thousands of these fuckin’ things,” Noc growled, aimed, fired then released the clip and it fell to the sand under our feet. “Clip!” I pulled it out of my back pocket, turned and tossed it to him, he caught it then shouted, “Cora!”
I felt them, talons in my shirt, starting to drag me back. I whirled quickly, the claws lost hold, I slashed out, my dagger tearing through the vickrant that had me and it exploded in blue just as another one came in and I threw out my other arm, catching it too.
“Fuck!” Noc thundered, shoving the new clip in his gun.
“Bloody hell!” Tor roared and both men moved closer to me.
We carried on swinging, stabbing and firing.
“You got any ideas?” Noc asked Tor as the creatures kept at us in an increasing wave.
“Don’t give up,” Tor answered Noc.
“Shit,” Noc muttered, aimed, fired and another toilroy collapsed in a ball of sparks.
They kept coming at us, we kept fighting, my arms were getting tired but my body was singing from the adrenalin surging through my system.
Salem screamed and shook his massive body. Noc moved out from under cover, I saw his hand wielding the axe swoop up then down and blue flashes flew out. Salem shuffled further under the cover, closer to Tor and me.
“Noc!” I shrieked. “Get back here!”
He rounded the horse, a vickrant flew low, legs aimed at Noc’s back. They connected, Noc started to fly back but Tor charged forward and with a powerful upward swing, the vickrant exploded.
Both men moved back under cover, Noc finished his clip, dropped his gun and advanced, both hands on the axe, he swung back and forth, tearing through the stream of advancing toilroys.
“This is not,” he grunted on a swing, a toilroy disappeared, “goin’,” another grunt, another swing, another toilroy vanishing, “our way, man,” another grunt, another toilroy gone.
Then the vickrants stopped swooping but this was because the toilroys had surrounded us, closing in from all sides. Salem shifted, pressing me to the rock face as Noc and Tor moved around the horse, Tor at his head, Noc at his flank and they kept fighting. They did this without word and I was cut off from the action.
“Let me help!” I shouted over the horse as I watched them battle on.
“Stay safe!” Tor shouted back.
“Tor! I can help!”
“Safe!” he bellowed.
The toilroys pressed closer, blue sparks flew, dancing around, lighting the surface of the rock but where one evaporated, three more were there, pressing in.
“Gods!” Tor exploded on a mighty swing that took out four toilroys but four more were instantly in their place.
“God damn it!” Noc roared, slashing two toilroys with an axe but three surged in to fill their emptied space.
I watched the advance over Salem’s back as my man, his horse and his twin were forced to close ranks as the toilroys relentlessly pressed in.
We were losing. Losing.
Shit!
I closed my eyes, rested my forehead against Salem’s glossy fur, he pressed closer, pushing my back into the rock and I whispered, “Please, please, please, please, please.”
I heard Tor grunt and then I heard Noc growl.
Then I heard an almighty shriek pierce the air or, I should say, what sounded like about thousands of simultaneous almighty shrieks. I automatically dropped the daggers so I could cover my ears against the loud, hideous, ear-splitting sound, my head snapping back, my eyes shooting open and I saw a pink wave of light washing toward us, blue sparks blazing in its path, so many, the sky lit bright with blue and pink, illuminating everything all around us, saturating it with color so bright, I winced.
Then, suddenly, all went dark and there was nothing. No vickrants, no toilroys, no nothing but the sounds of the sea washing on the shore and our heavy breathing.
“By the Gods,” Tor muttered.
“Holy fuck,” Noc whispered.
I fought to catch my breath as the darkness and silence permeated my consciousness.
Then I ducked under Salem’s neck and cautiously approached Tor. As I did, his body went alert (or, more alert), his arm shot out, caught me at the waist and he yanked me behind him.
“Who’s there?” he called into the darkness.
For several seconds, there was no answer.
“Show yourself!” Tor commanded.
I put my hands to his hips and peered around his large frame.
Then my body froze as Tor’s froze under my hands and I felt Noc and Salem go still when a soft, pink light illuminated the space in front of us. The light came from a glowing orb that hung suspended over a woman’s upturned hand.
My mouth dropped open.
