The rough growth of shrubbery and stunted trees on the south side of the river parted in a dozen places. A group of what looked like horses leapt from the bank to the riverbed. As they neared, I realized what I had assumed were horses were six-legged, green, and resembled praying mantises, except they were at least eight feet tall and had ape-like creatures riding them.
Frak!
Rafe released my hand. His shield morphed from a hemisphere above us to a wall between our attackers and us. The wall was just low enough for me to fire over. I raised the crossbow to my shoulder and sighted in on the right-most ape thingy. As the line of attackers reached the center of the riverbed some thirty yards from us, they hit the shallow river, and their charge slowed.
I fired.
My bolt flew almost straight, but I had undercompensated for the downhill drop, and the bolt struck the mantis creature in the throat. The creature crashed head first into the water, spilling its rider. I dropped the front of the crossbow to the ground, braced my right foot in the stirrup, and pulled hard on the cocking lever.
Lightning tore from the sky and highlighted the two left-most attackers. As I slipped another bolt from the quiver and notched it, I saw Rafe still holding his left fist overhead. For a moment, his lightning tattoo faded, then it glowed golden again, and another lightning bolt tore into two more of the creatures in the water.
Raising my crossbow, I sighted on another target and allowed a little more adjustment for drop. My second target was just reaching dry ground when my bolt smacked into the center of its chest. Crossbow bolts normally don’t have the knockdown power of a rifle bullet, but that creature fell back off his ride as if it had taken a fifty cal to the chest.
Bolts of energy lanced out from four of the apes and struck Rafe’s shield. I felt him strain as he pushed more power into it. There were at least five of the creatures still riding up the riverbank toward us, and all five were casting some kind of magic our way.
I cocked the crossbow again and loaded another bolt. I wondered if Rafe was using this as another training exercise for me or if he were really trying his best. I’d learned that he’s not the type to–in military jargon–go nuke early. If he can best a foe with a baton, he won’t use a grenade. Not me, given everything I’d been through, I’m more likely to use the grenade first.
The sky brightened as Rafe’s meteor flashed down to impact in the midst of the riders, now not twenty yards from us.
The earth heaved beneath us, and I almost lost my balance. The explosion threw dirt, body parts, gore, and ichor over the top of Rafe’s shield. I felt myself trembling. It was too many explosions. I dropped the crossbow and sat down hard. My hands shook too badly to hold onto anything. I told myself to get up and fight, but my limbs refused to respond.
Chapter 2
Raphael
My jim-dandy little meteor did the trick at taking out most of our remaining attackers. A few of the creatures, I’ve never encountered anything quite like either the four-armed apes or their praying mantis mounts, still moved, but none were rising. I bent and drew my knife from its boot sheath. I focused a little energy, and it flashed from a tantō shape into its original katana form. I started down the riverbank to put the surviving creatures out of their misery.
I’d taken about a dozen steps when one of the apes leapt from the brush on my right with some kind of blunt weapon raised over its head. In my enhanced vision, the weapon glowed with a strong red light. Whatever it was, it held powerful magic. I moved my shield to intercept its swing and pulled the shield’s shape into a tight circle to concentrate its energy. At the same time, I triggered an energy blast at the ape’s legs.
Its weapon rang my shield like a giant bell, but my shield held. My energy blast cut the creature’s legs out from under it. Before it could rise, I closed the distance and drove my sword through its chest. It screeched in pain and released its own weapon to grip my sword’s blade in two of its hands. At the same time, its other pair of hands reached for me. I triggered my chiller tat and then focused on the amplification spell etched into the sword’s tang. In an instant, frost formed along the blade and spread down the ape’s arms and chest. I held my focus on the tat until the creature was frozen solid.
When I tried to pull my sword free, I found I couldn’t break the creature’s frozen grip.
Frowning, I triggered my energy blast tat again. The ape’s body shattered into shards, and the blade came free in my hands.
Turning from the rather gross remains, I made quick work of dispatching the few apes that still survived.
I was wiping my blade clean on the last of the apes when I stopped.
Something was wrong with my apprentice. She had dropped out of our meshing. I glanced up the riverbank toward our campsite and saw Tess sitting on the ground. I put my sword back into tantō shape and sheathed it. I applied energy to my levitation tat and to my muscles and leapt up the bank. Landing beside her, I knelt. Tess’s eyes were wild, and her body shook as if someone had hit her with a Taser.
“Tess?” I asked, hesitantly.
She didn’t reply or even acknowledge my presence.
Ah, hell. It must be a reaction to the explosions. Her first death on the battlefields of Afghanistan a few weeks ago was due to an explosive device. I knew little about PTSD and
