Skrew was also doing his part. With four arms, he was able to pick up and throw things at passersby. He took particular interest in harassing, harming, and, sometimes, killing vendors. His brutality was only limited by what he could find. He even managed a kill using a small, yellow gourd.
I leaned back in my seat as I drew my sword. With my right arm fully extended, I flicked my wrist and used Ebon to neatly bisect a guard’s frown, top to bottom.
Enemy hoverbikes joined the pursuit, but they were still too far away to worry me much. I could make a shot from that range, but I doubted they could. So far, I hadn’t seen anything even resembling marksmanship from Brazud’s finest. The guard on the back of a dual-mounted hoverbike lifted a three-foot-long cylinder from his back.
A rocket launcher.
Well, that was one way to offset an inability to aim.
The guard shouldered the weapon and aimed it in my direction.
I steered my bike around a stall, cornered, and tried to shake off our pursuers. We emerged from a peaceful-looking street, knocking things over, causing people to scatter, and blowing wares off tables.
I needed to keep the enemy from getting a bead on me. But that would just invite the rocket to lock onto Reaver’s hoverbike. She wouldn’t even see it coming. I cursed and glanced behind me again. The soldier was grinning with a mouthful of broken teeth as he prepared the rocket launcher to fire.
I snatched a clay pot from a fuzzy vendor’s hand as he scrambled out of the way. I tossed the pot over my shoulder, and I heard it crash against a hoverbike. A string of curses followed. Then, I used Ebon to cut every guyline along our path. A few tarps and sunshades got in the hoverbikes’ way.
When I checked over my shoulder again, the guard holding the rocket launcher was leaning to one side, trying to make sure his shot was clear of the pilot. I glanced forward once more, took note of the environment, the turns I’d need to make, and the obstacles in my way. I sheathed Ebon before I turned back to the guard.
My first turn was coming up. First, hard to the left, then a gentle arc to the right, before another hard left. A plume of fire erupted from the tube’s far end. The missile left the barrel, and time slowed. I was still getting used to being able to think much faster than a normal human, but my mind was racing as I examined the rocket launcher in detail.
The device was crude and rusted, but the missile was still accurate. It turned and looped to maintain course to its target—me. At the last possible moment, I reached out, taking care not to get my hand anywhere near the front propellor,. I spun my body around while keeping the rocket far away to help maintain its airspeed. Then I threw it behind me.
I didn’t aim for the guard. Nor did I aim for his hoverbike. Instead, I aimed for a spot just in front of them. The hoverbrikes had nowhere to go, though one tried to outmaneuver the missile. The vehicle ended up running headlong into a stone building in an explosion of acrid smoke.
I turned my attention forward with just enough time to veer away from a stone arch between two buildings.
“Close one!” Beatrix said. “Do not lose your head, or the king will have nothing to hang you by!”
“The king can try,” I shot back, “but if I get the chance, I’ll hang him from his balls!”
She laughed as she smashed another ambushing guard’s head who’d gotten too close.
A second later, we passed three guards in terrible shape. They’d been torn to pieces in a pool of acid and graying blood. One moaned and held a bone that punched straight out of his eviscerated leg. The third scraped at his face and screamed desperately he tried to drag off the acid.
The tail of a black dragon disappearing around a nearby corner gave me a clue as to what had just happened.
I caught sight of Gold and Silver fighting a few guards. The enemies were backing away in an organized line as they lanced the dragons with red energy projectiles. Gold kept fighting, kept driving herself toward her enemy. Silver tore at guards with teeth and claws.
Good to see the dragons were getting their own share of the action.
I drew Ebon, searching for targets, but as the rest of my team was in front of me, there weren’t a lot to choose from. I slowed myself to pick off the stragglers and watch our backs. I couldn't allow another guard with a rocket launcher to come up behind us undetected.
Skrew got a scare when he threw a food storage canister at a vendor's stall and saw an explosion. Yaltu reached back and held onto him to keep him from falling. He quit picking things up after that and looked back to me, obviously shaken. He’d done his part, and I’d thank him later.
Reaver’s hoverbike pitched around the corners, and I noticed she’d learned something. The art of drifting. Occasionally, she’d swing the ass-end of her hoverbike out far enough to clip an unaware guard with the sharp bits of the bike near the engines. She managed to snag an enemy soldier and drag him several hundred feet before he tore free. I finished him off by shoving my hoverbike down as I passed over him, grinding his body into the dirt.
It was teamwork at its finest, and I was glad to have her back.
Beatrix fought like she had in the arena—like everything in the universe depended on her savagery. She smashed heads with her warhammer, drove straight through unarmored opponents, and wiped blood and viscera from her face.
We hauled ass around another corner, and I found that we were almost at the gates. Smashing
