“Hey, asshole!” Lumil snarled. “Maybe leave something for the rest of us, huh?”
Thick black cables uncoiled from the ceiling and swung at Venga, sparking with charged bursts of magic as they lashed his scaled head and neck. The second he wrapped his giant hand around some of them and jerked them free of the ceiling, another swarm of tiny flying war machines fell from the rafters to join the fight.
Cheyenne ducked another spray of yellow attacks, then raised a translucent black shield on her other side against the second wave of incoming yellow pellets. They pinged off her shield and knocked several flying war machines out of the air.
Three metal wheels rolled toward them from a back room, stopped at the end of the hall, and unfolded before firing red and green bursts of magic in every direction.
“What the hell?” Ember shoved a wave of purple light at a hissing, magically-sparking cable snaking down from the ceiling toward her. Her magic caught the cable mid-swing and blocked its firing mechanism, and the thing lurched and exploded. She ducked beneath the flying fragments of metal cable and turned to the rolling war machines spewing lights in every direction.
Persh’al and Byrd fought off another spider-like crawler, dodging attacks from the flying metal orbs as the blue whip and bursts of green fire pummeled the rod on the top of the crawler and ripped it to pieces.
Corian and Maleshi darted around the building in streaks of silver light, their extended claws slicing through dangling cables and war-machine legs. Cheyenne raised a shield in front of her to ward off the bursts of green magic spewing from one of the rolling machines at the end of the hall that had apparently decided to focus on her. She pushed the shield, moving it forward step by step as the green bursts pinged off her magic and ricocheted around the room.
The back of her calf erupted in a sharp, burning sting, and it climbed up her leg. Snarling, she looked back and found two much smaller spider-machines moving up her legs, piercing her thick black pants and her flesh with every stab of their needle-like feet. She blasted them off with a crackling black energy sphere, then ducked under her shield and reached out to the rolling machine with her black tendrils. They coiled around its curved, segmented metal back and she stepped aside and pulled, flinging the thing through the air.
Venga roared and brought a fist down on top of the sailing war machine, which was still firing green bursts across the room. The roller slammed into the ground and jerked Cheyenne with it before she released her tendrils, stumbling to catch her balance. She snarled at Venga and blasted another trio of floating metal orbs out of the air. “Should we have let you come in here on your own instead?”
“Right?” Lumil dropped to one knee and brought a spinning red fist against the underside of a crawler scuttling toward her. It jerked when her fist pierced its undercarriage, then she pulled out a handful of gears and metal pieces and stood. “At least let the rest of us get in a few hits.” She kicked the shuddering, sparking hull of the crawler, and it sprawled on the floor.
L’zar stood to the side of the crumbling hole in the front wall and batted aside every flying orb darting his way, his hands moving in a blur of purple light.
Byrd shouted in surprise when the end of a dangling cable pierced the back of his jacket collar and lifted him off the floor. “What is it with picking me up by my fell-damn shirt?” Struggling and kicking his legs a foot off the floor, he reached up behind him, grabbed the cable with both hands, and sent a flare of green fire racing up it. The metal segments fell apart in a rain of hollow metal rings, and the rest of the tangled nest of cables dropped from the ceiling and buried the goblin man beneath their weight.
“What are these supposed to be, snakes?” Lumil grabbed fistfuls of cables and ripped them apart as bursts of green flames exploded from the mass on top of Byrd.
Persh’al’s blue whip cracked into the legs of a second roller that was spewing red magic across the room. The machine wobbled and tilted sideways but kept firing. Corian appeared behind it and sliced his claws through the segmented back. The roller shuddered and burst apart, sending shrapnel flying.
Cheyenne raised another shield in front of Ember, ducked beneath a flying metal back segment, and sent a black energy sphere at the third roller. The machine dodged her attack, curled in on itself, and rolled toward her. Four more flying orbs swooped at her head, and she swept them aside with a telekinetic burst. The roller stopped two feet in front of her, uncurled, and exploded in a burst of green light and metal shards when Venga stomped it into the ground with a clawed, scaly foot.
He snarled at the mess of war-machine parts beneath him, then turned glistening black eyes on Cheyenne.
She looked up at him and shrugged. “Okay. Thanks for that one.”
“Whoa, whoa! Easy!” Lumil reeled back as Byrd shouted and snarled, blasting green fire in every direction and twisting back and forth to free himself from the writhing mass of metal cables tightening around him. “If you blow my head off, you idiot, I can’t help you!”
“You’re not helping.” Byrd kicked the cables and extended both hands to shoot columns of green fire at the tangled nest around him.
A high-pitched squeal rose from the cables as they heated quickly under his magical attack.
Cheyenne frowned. “I
