There were dozens of problems with any plan I thought up. And I was running out of time.
“Come on,” I said as the ground began to rumble harder. I started kicking bug bodies out of the way so that Yaltu wouldn’t have to step on or over them. She held my hand to keep her balance.
The streets were a mess of scattered corpses, thorned insect limbs, and thick gore that had splattered itself over the boarded-up stalls, storage crates, and the dirt of the main road.
I pointed to an open, abandoned stall. “You two, go hide in there. I’ll deal with this Skald, whoever he is. Then we’ll get back on the road.”
Yaltu only shrugged. She looked exhausted. It struck me that she wasn’t much of a fighter, but there was an inner strength about her.
“Skrew, take her to that stall and lock yourselves in,” I ordered. “Don’t open it for anyone but me. No matter what you hear, keep it closed. Do you understand?”
Skrew glanced at the ground. The vibration was growing stronger. “Skrew understands. Take ugly lady to stall. Hide. No come out except for Jacob. No open. No listen. Hide.”
“That’s right,” I said. “Now, go!”
Skrew caught hold of Yaltu’s arms with two of his hands and marched her into the stall. Then he reached out with one long, skinny arm, and pulled the rod holding the side of the place open, sealing them both inside. Strangely, the crowded street was now completely empty. I noticed a few heads poke above stalls or look out through windows, but no one was standing in the street except me.
I could have hidden away along with the rest, but I figured facing this Skald would mean dealing with him earlier rather than later.
I turned to the sound and waited. A cloud of dust had begun to develop in the distance. I raised Ebon, expecting to find it slathered in bug-juice, but it was completely clean. I couldn’t say the same for my leather clothing, though.
Whoever this Skald was, I’d find a way to make him leave Yaltu alone. I’d adapt and overcome. It was how I was trained, and it was how I trained others.
I’d been made into a superhuman with the help of the Lakunae. Nothing I’d faced on this planet so far had even put a dent in me. Sure, they’d tried, but they hadn’t come close.
This new enemy had no idea what he was in for.
Chapter Nineteen
A huge hovertank appeared at the end of the road. The vibration it produced wasn’t from tracks, legs, or treads beating against the ground. It was from the vehicle’s antigrav thrusters. The only machines I’d seen with that kind of thruster had all been military. By pulsing the thrust and increasing the number of individual thrusters, the loss of up to half of them could be compensated for, and the machine moving toward me had a lot of thrusters.
The hovertank was over 30 yards wide and at least another 20 long. It plowed through stalls and merchant storage boxes without any care for the people or goods inside them. Though the vehicle wasn’t from the Federation, I recognized the design, style, and low profile of a main battle tank.
Yaltu must have been in very high demand to warrant a battle-tank appearing.
On the top of the machine sat its turret. The dome had a three-part rod extending from it, each section smaller than the last. A barrel on the end looked suspiciously like a particle cannon. The odds weren’t looking good.
My sword and the Lakunae’s gifts vs. a small armada of machines with enough firepower to obliterate a small city.
Then the reinforcements appeared.
From the path the tank had made, two smaller hovercraft ground support fighters took flanking positions in the rear. Another pair of hovercrafts hung back another 40 yards or so. All five bore a blue stripe as wide as my hand that ran down the middle and ended at a grinning skull with big fangs jutting from the bottom jaw. They had to be the smaller units on cleanup duty. The tactics were obvious enough. The main tank would punch through the biggest obstacles while the smaller vehicles chopped down any stragglers.
I recognized the high-pitched whine of the approaching vehicles long before they screamed overhead. The hovercrafts were moving far too fast to deliver accurate fire against ground targets, so I figured it was just an intimidation tactic.
I wasn’t intimidated.
My opponents probably thought I was another weak, frightened sentient, and all they had to do was make some noise, and I’d run off. If this Skald creature was looking for an easy fight, then he was in for a surprise. If I was reading this situation right, the vehicles were an effective scare tactic.
The High Lord had no reason to destroy a busy trading hub like this. But it did beg the question of why he’d decided to show up in person.
The vibration lessened a few moments later as the hovertank slowed to a halt in a cloud of thick dust. A concealed hatch at the painted skull popped open, and a furry alien lifted his head out and sniffed the air before climbing halfway out. He placed his little fists on his weasel-like hips and surveyed the scene through a pair of dark goggles.
“Where is Yaltu?” he demanded as he looked over the coagulating lakes of bug custard lining both sides of the street. “Who killed my bounty hunters?”
I guessed this weasel was Skald. He’d come here too soon, so I figured some of the insect aliens had gotten away and carried a message over to Skald. He’d come here expecting the scaled woman tied up and ready to be handed over. Instead, all he had was an abandoned street and a single
