Chapter Thirty

Amber gasped, foot backing up and catching on one of the many roots crawling over the ground. The black-clad monster’s sword came closer and closer, glinting in the sun with murderous intent.

Then Morgan stepped up before them. “It’s a magical,” Morgan warned, her rapier sliced out and banged against the enemy’s sword.

The clash of metal on metal wasn’t like in the movies, no weak ‘clink’ or a pretty ring. It sounded more like someone had dropped a pair of H-beams atop a scrap heap, a bang-clang that made Amber flinch back.

The black-robed magical bounced back, robes shifting to reveal a very human body beneath. Her hood, deep and dark, cast shade over a featureless black oval that served as a mask. “You should not have come here,” they said. He said. The voice was deep, masculine, and yet still young.

“Get bent!” Cassy yelled as she gestured forwards, then up.

The magical flew into the air, spinning as they did so. Chains shot out from under their robes and stabbed into the ground, turning their upward flight into a downwards swing even as the metal jangled.

Morgan swore and jumped backwards, trying to place herself between the magical and Cassy who stared, wide-eyed, at the approaching specter.

The magical’s sword stabbed out, and Cassy screamed as it struck her.

Blood splashed, and soon Jade was screaming too.

Amber hissed and flicked magic into her magical core.

“Get bent!” Cassy yelled as she gestured forwards, then up.

“They have magic chains!” Amber screamed.

The magical spun in mid-air, chains sliding out of their robes, then stabbing into the ground to halt their upwards motion and turn it into a downward swing.

Amber tugged knives out from under her jacket and threw them as hard as she could in between the magical and Cassy.

Morgan swore and jumped to place herself between Cassy and the magical, but it wasn’t necessary, their new enemy twisted out of the path of Amber’s first volley of knives, then swore as Amber tugged on her magic and had the knives race back into her hands.

“Form up!” Morgan called.

“How?” Cassy shot right back.

Amber looked to the other teams, expecting to see them rushing in to help, instead what she saw had her stomach sinking.

Another figure in black was attacking team Helskor. They had a large sword in hand, with an end that was thicker than its middle. Every swing shifted the vegetation around them, and they swung with a speed and ferocity that Amber had a hard time following.

Emilia and Jess were there, flinging bolts of eye-searing magic and stabbing at the enemy with icy spears while team Helskor backed up and regrouped.

Ahead, Cecilia and Oli were fighting a girl in black wraps with a halberd, the heavy weapon slicing and swinging through the air so fast it was a blur, whenever it touched the rocky platform they were on, it would send showers of chipped rock flying.

Another figure stepped out from the stone building and raised a rocket launcher.

Amber screamed a wordless warning as it turned towards her team and the figure fired.

Then Cecilia shifted, a burst of wind propelling her in the path of the rocket. Her sword swung around lightning-fast, and the projectile was sliced apart down the middle. Amber expected an explosion, but the two halves just thumped and rolled across the grassy ground.

“This is Glasir!” Cecilia shouted. “We need immediate reinforcements on my position. Encountered four tangos, threat level four. Repeat, four tangos, level four, requesting immediate evac!”

Amber refocused on the chain-wielding enemy. He had landed a little ways away and was shifting his shoulders as he looked over their team. He raised his sword, pointing it towards Morgan. “I didn’t want to have to fight any of you, sisters.” He shifted. “You can still leave.”

“Like hell,” Morgan said.

“Then you’re going down first.”

Amber moved closer, knives in hand. Her legs trembled a bit, and she saw Jade breathing hard, but Morgan stood before her, back straight, brows knit. Amber took a bit of strength from the taller girl’s confidence. As long as Morgan thinks we have a chance, then it’s likely that we do. It’s four on one.

The fight over with team Helskor didn’t look too bad either. They were pressing hard against the black figure with the falchion, using the shadows to try and grab them while Jess and Emilia flung magic and ice-y darts at their opponent.

As soon as they win, it’ll be ten on one for this guy. “Surrender,” Amber said. There was a faint tremble in her voice, and she cleared it with a cough. “Surrender, and we won’t have to fight.”

The man shook his head. “Don’t act like you’re the good guys in this. As misinformed and lied to as you have been, you still serve on the wrong side. The future will reveal the deceit you’re living under soon enough.”

“Wow, are you going to monologue?” Cassy asked. “You’ve already got the outfit from Cults-R-Us. Do you sacrifice babies sometimes, or is that too edgy for you?”

The man sighed. “You don’t seem to understand.”

“Oh, oh crap,” Cassy said with a terribly false gasp. “You’re so deep. So mysterious. I couldn’t begin to dig into your deep, dark past. Are you wearing mascara under that mask? Do you listen to emo pop?”

“Your insults are a bit petty,” the man said. Then he flashed forwards.

Amber flung a knife out, the reflex catching her off-guard, but it didn’t stop the black-clad man at all. He merely flicked the blade out of the air with the tip of his sword a moment before Morgan crashed into it.

The two traded a pair of quick blows, then parted, but only for as long as it took for a pair of chains to whip out from under his robes and spear towards Morgan.

Amber shook her head. Think! No, don’t think, act!

She recalled her knives, felt them smack into her hand, and threw them at the villain again a moment before she started running. She kept Morgan between herself and the man, even as she reached down and pulled out a pair of chakram from beneath her jacket.

She didn’t hold any illusions of being able to fight him head-on, not if Morgan was doing her best and only just holding him off. She could, on the other hand, help and try to tip the balance.

“Cassy, down is right!” Amber called.

“What? Oh, got it!”

The man groaned as Cassy turned in mid-air, and he was flung to their right. Amber threw one of her knives, well ahead of where he was, then flung the other chakram a moment later.

He batted the one coming for him head on... and completely failed to see the one returning to her from behind.

Not that it mattered.

Amber’s stomach fell as the returning chakram missed entirely.

The man landed on a tree, standing upright on its side as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Uh, going OOM,” Cassy said. She sighed, and her magic puttered out.

“Cassy, move!” Morgan yelled.

The man shot forward, past Amber and around Morgan on a direct route towards Cassy. “Oh, shit,” Cassy said.

Jade screamed, arm shooting forwards and casting her scarf ahead of her. The fabric stretched and grew and splayed itself out like the hood of a gigantic cobra.

The magical cursed and spun out of the way, and right towards Morgan who was ready to meet him with a downwards swing of her sword.

Metal clashed on metal, the forest rang with the twin blows, then the magical disengaged just as Amber fumbled out another knife and threw it where he’d been.

Leaping backwards, the man flicked his sword to the side and moved his head, scanning them and the woods around. “Damn,” he muttered.

There was a crash that had Amber almost jumping out of her skin. Something, someone, tore through the centre of a tree, hit the ground hard enough to make it shake, then rolled a few times, wooden chips flying all over the place.

The tree groaned and started to list to the side, the sections around the rather large gash in its trunk snapping as it bent, but it held.

Amber blinked as the form on the ground moaned, then started to rise. It was one of the black figures, the one with the falchion that had been harassing team Helskor.

“Got ya, bitch!” Jess cheered. She was standing some ways away. It didn’t take much for Amber to trace the straight line from her to where the injured magical was. The faint glimmer of magic in the air between them certainly helped.

The man swooped over to stand by his comrade. He looked around, then tapped her with the side of his foot. “Can you stand?”

Amber flung a brace of knives at them, but he sliced them out of the air with contemptible ease.

“I can,” the woman said. “Kids swarmed me.”

“Did you hear four?”

“Yeah.”

Morgan ran to Amber’s side and paused. Team Helskor, looking a bit windswept and ruffled, but alive, were gathering together too. A glance over her shoulder revealed Jade and Cassy coming over as well. Ten on one, if they discounted the injured, looked like very good odds to Amber.

Then the two figures in black dropped to the ground.

Morgan spun around. “Cover!” she screamed.

Jade’s scarf deployed, forming a wall, but not before something exploded nearby and a wash of heat raced over the group.

Amber ducked down as rocks, some as big around as her head, came raining down around them. An icy wall appeared over team Helskor, and Jade’s scarf grew wider and was soon absorbing the rocks that would have hit them.

“They’re running!” Morgan said.

The two magicals were, indeed, darting away. Soon, another two joined them, and one of their members picked up the injured woman.

Cecilia was on their tail for a bit, but she stopped and watched them go. “Hold!” she called back. “We’re regrouping before we do anything else.”

“Where’s Oli?” Jess called.

“She’s in that pile of rocks,” Cecilia said. “Go make sure she’s okay.”

Amber had a pair of knives in her hands again. She couldn’t recall grabbing them, but they were there. She looked around, searching for the next fight, the next enemy, but there wasn’t anything.

Morgan put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s done,” she said. “Let them disengage.”

“Morgan’s right,” Cecilia said as she walked over. Jess rushed to one of the piles of rock, located where that bunker had been, and was soon pulling a dirty but otherwise fine Oli out of the rubble. “Let them go. They’re pretty damned strong, and I wouldn’t want to get caught flat-footed in a chase. Besides, we don’t have time.”

Amber blinked. Her internal clock told her it was six twelve PM. A whole four minutes since they’d been able to see the bunker with their own eyes.

Morgan turned to the rest of the team, locking eyes with Amber for a bit. “We need to set up a watch. With team Helskor would be best.”

“Right,” Amber said. No allowing the enemy to sneak up on them. “Cassy, can you still fly?” A scout would be nice.

“Nope,” Cassy said. She was sweaty, and looked as though she’d just done an hour’s cardio. “I’m way out of magic.”

“Oh,” Amber said. “Alright, then, ah, let’s go wait by team Glasir. We probably shouldn’t all group up too much, but we need to stay near each other.”

“Evac is coming in hot,” Cecilia said. “You girls get ready, we’ll be lifted out of here in a minute.”

Amber could already hear the helicopters thumping closer.

She should have felt relieved, she knew. Instead, her anxiety only piled on. What the hell happened here?

It was the question at the top of her list, but it certainly wasn’t the only one.

She met Morgan’s eyes, and the taller girl shook her head. “Later.”

“Yeah, okay.”

***