A couple of buildings for military and communications officers sat on either side of the bridge. While an adjoining garage housed a handful of armored vehicles, there was also one building dedicated to the needs of ordinary travelers. The troops assigned to protect the bridge were a company of Veplar Marines, denoted by their blue and gray armor, and none of them were particularly happy to have this assignment.

The bridge itself was rather utilitarian and was considered an eyesore by many. This was made worse by the large signals array that sat in the bridge’s center. Security checkpoints on either side ensured that none of the passing vehicles carried anything that would damage this vital piece of infrastructure. Since the bridge lay in between the cities of Viersier and Chamont, not too much thought was put into providing it additional defensive capabilities despite its importance. After all, other than heavier than normal monster activity, the area had been relatively quiet for a long time.

Ten brightly colored harpies flew silently towards the signals bridge.

Having taken flight off the deck of the camouflaged freighter not too long before, they flew somewhat slowly towards their intended target. Six of them carried the rockets that had been prepared earlier, while the other four carried the equivalent of assault rifles armed with physical bullets. For them, there was a self-imposed ban on mana-weaponry.

Despite having flown and trained with the equipment before, the blue and green feathered Mirella grumbled to herself. She wished that the weaponry had been designed to be lighter. Damn them. However, after taking a glance at two of her male comrades carrying a black and red arachne between them, she decided to stop griping about it.

With dark blue eyes, and shoulder length hair to match her feathers, Mirella and the others flew as close to the river as possible. Water gradually accumulated on her visor, which also doubled as a heads-up display connected to the launcher that she was carrying. She wiped the water off with one of her free hands as the bridge came into closer view.

“Target sighted. Commencing attack,” a voice declared in her ear.

The group broke formation and gained altitude. Mirella focused her attention on the east side of the bridge. Her heads up display highlighted the east garage and surrounding buildings with a light tone. Not a moment later, the highlight changed colors.

“Open fire.”

Four rockets blasted out of Mirella’s launcher in tandem, momentarily interrupting her hearing and her ability to fly straight. She flipped a switch and the launcher on her shoulders fell towards the river. With the exception of two of the harpies, the others also ejected the load off their backs.

A total of 16 rockets blasted towards the bridge and other targets. One of them cutout before reaching its target, falling towards the water with a splash.

Mirella bit her lip.

A siren started to blare.

The male voice that had been conversing with our undead driver said, “What the-?!”

One second later, I heard the sound of explosions nearby, and before I could decide on how to react, I felt my body jolt and intense pain rippled throughout . The sound of shattering glass was the last thing I remembered before the world blacked out around me.

As chaos erupted all around, Ethan grabbed an assault rifle from the passenger side of their truck, and exited at the same time as the three minotaurs in the back. The quicker reacting people closest to them had already left their vehicles, but many still remained motionless. It didn’t take long for that to change and the screaming to start.

Ethan looked towards the bridge, curious to see if the west side had collapsed as planned. But all he was able to see was a bunch of twisted metal and thick smoke blanketing the structure’s center. He felt a large hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t get distracted. Let’s go,” the gray minotaur named Dakhus said. Nodding in reply, the group, except the minotaur Brazak, made their way towards the left hand side of the bridge.

Armed with a large rotary cannon, the tall and black Brazak headed towards the smoldering eastern Marine buildings, spooling up his weapon along the way. Marines started to rush out from the building, only to drop like flies as Brazak mowed them down, the noise of the cannon drowning out his hearing like a jackhammer despite wearing hearing protection. He stopped his shooting for a moment and ducked behind an abandoned cargo vehicle upon seeing a Lynx-walker trying to leave the collapsed remains of the garage. As it struggled to leave, a rocket came in from above and struck the surviving piece of armor, its fiery wreck toppling over with a crash. The half bull gave an unseemly grin and accompanying wave to the red and gold harpy that flew past overhead.

While Brazak and supporting harpies kept some of the Marines at bay, the others on the ground crouched behind the divider. Periodically standing up, they exchanged shots with a handful of surviving Marines and the security forces of the slave convoy.

A well placed rocket had forced the lead vehicle to pivot too quickly, causing it to come to a crash on its side. Technically the other two trucks could have pushed the wreck aside and pressed forward, but they were reluctant to push the truck full of precious slaves through the large crater. So rather than open themselves to enemy fire from above, the leader of the convoy ordered his men to use the trucks full of slaves as a shield.

It didn’t take a genius to see what the terrorists were after.

Back in the skies, Mirella weaved through the air, dodging the occasional gunfire but otherwise was doing…pretty much nothing. What the now unarmed harpies were doing was pretty much just to be a distraction, but to Mirella that meant pretty much nothing. Granted they were allowed to take opportunities as they saw fit - maybe snatching a Marine off the bridge and dropping them into the water for example.

Except it was made clear to each of them, and especially clear to the blue and green harpy, that they still had an important part to play. A part that didn’t involve getting into harm’s way.

Pain. Pain all over.

Ringing in my ears. How annoying.

Wait, something happened. I can’t seem to remember. Concentrate. Ignore everything else for a moment.

Glass shattering.

Being jolted.

A siren.

Multiple explosions.

An explosion…which means… a blast? My eyes flew open at that realization.

I found myself lying on my side and I made the effort to raise my head. Regardless of what happened, I knew that I was going to be alright. Maybe not emotionally. But what about the girls?

Our vehicle no longer was straight, its front cab and rear area now coming together at a weird angle. Still it was basically in one piece. And somehow the boxes and supplies had remained secured in their respective spots - thanks to Lukas’ handiwork. Meanwhile the demtroopers in the back were trying to sort themselves out from the heap they found themselves in, and if it weren’t for the serious nature of the situation, watching them try to get out of that pile would have been comical. More importantly, that meant only a short time had passed.

That was everything I took in while I focused on the four girls in the truck. I quickly forgot about my physical pain as it was replaced by a feeling of numbness and of dread. The ringing in my ears started to fade and the sound of gunfire and the occasional explosion replaced it.

Helia lay on her side on the floor, her black wings bent at an odd angle. I couldn’t tell whether she was conscious or not but I could see the rise and fall of her breathing. Close by, the twins had ended up in an awkward position on the bench seat and they almost looked like they could have been asleep if it weren’t for the way their bodies were positioned.

One look at Lily…and I wanted to take my anger out on the world. I could feel my body shake as I punched the side of the truck, letting in a little more light than there was before.

I spread my wings a little, ready to do whatever was necessary to quell whatever I was feeling. Except I didn’t forget what I had told Helia. What she had asked of me. For her, I had to keep my emotions in check. Not just for her, but for all of our sakes.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes for a moment and retracted my wings. Then I went over to check on the twins. To some it would have made more sense to check on my daughter first, but if those two had even a remote chance of recovering…

Shallow, irregular breathing from both of them. Not conscious. The breath I was holding escaped from me.

An explosion resonated not too far away. If they weren’t after us, what were they after?

“Mistress, your orders?”

“Sit tight for now,” I snapped back. Now wasn’t the time for this; we didn’t need to draw attention if the undead were to do anything right now.

Placing my hands on Helia’s shoulders, I turned her over and called out her name. No response. I lifted her up into my lap and tried again. Why wasn’t she waking up? I could see her regenerative abilities working so why wasn’t she waking up? Damn!

Do I need to study medicine after this?!

Having no other ideas, I electrified my hand a little and muttered an apology. A moment later, Helia opened her eyes, blinking rapidly and said, “What happened?”

“An explosive blast. Doesn’t look like we were the targets,” I said calmly as I could. “Look, I know you’re hurting but can you heal Tania and Luiza? Please.”

She winced as she leaned upwards. Not hesitating one moment after seeing the unconscious twins, she fell forward and began working her magic, the back of the truck lighting up in a warm blue color.

“I-I think I’m going to try doing them both at once…,” Helia said.

“Can you do that?”

“They’re…physically identical. I think it should work,” she faltered. “What about Lily?”

“Gone.”

Black smoke billowed out from where the signals array had been. Bits of asphalt and concrete on the western side crumbled into the water, a significant part of the bridge having been replaced by empty air. Two of the harpies with assault rifles peppered the handful of Marines that attempted to fight back with their mana-weapons. A functioning Jaguar tank sat idle, waiting for the opportune moment to counter-attack - the Marine officer in charge was aware of the threat from the sky.

Back on the eastern side, one of the harpies carrying Aranea with his talons yelled out, “Are you sure about this?”

“She’s heavy! Just let her do this!,” yelled the other.

“I’m a spider! No need to worry!” she responded with a grin. “And don’t call me fat!!”

Both harpies flew directly through the thick smoke, and the black and red arachne released her grip. Already a handful of security officers had fallen prey to Ethan and the minotaurs but there wasn’t time to waste - she was going to be the coup de grace for this part of the operation.

With her long hair trailing behind her, she started to pull out two machine pistols from their holsters. As she relaxed her lower body preparing for impact, her eyes widened when she noticed an enemy in her peripheral vision ready a shoulder mounted missile launcher. The arache thought that that was the end for her but a moment later, she landed with a thud and a sickening crunch on one of the security troops. Fortunately for Aranea, the sound of her arrival was overshadowed by the sound of an explosion overhead. She just had to ignore the temptation to turn around and see what had just blown up.

Gotta celebrate the small victories, the leader of the convoy thought to himself as he watched the still vibrant remains of a harpy fall from the sky. Though it looks like this was going to be a loss for them regardless.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.

Turning around abruptly to the sound of automatic weapons fire and yelling, he cursed the heavens for his rotten luck. A black and red abomination had arrived from behind and he saw the large creature pin down one of his men with its pedipalps, spraying another man with its weapons a second later.

The leader of the group made an executive decision and knocked on the side of the middle truck. Without delay, the vehicle started to speed off, before ramming the fallen truck into the crater. A smirk formed on the man’s face when he heard the feminine scream from behind him.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.

“What the hell?!” Ethan yelled out.

“Fire!” Dakhus ordered.

The trio risked getting hit by managun fire as the three of them emptied their automatic weapons into the runaway truck. Bullets shattered the windshield and the body of the driver spasmed as it received multiple impacts, but the truck still continued forward, shoving the overturned vehicle in front of it into the crater with a screech. Still floating, the truck picked up speed and careened into the divider where the two minotaurs and Ethan were at.

“No,” Mirella breathed.

While she had no particular fondness for the harpy that just went down, she still felt the pain of losing a comrade. Plus it made everyone else’s jobs that much harder since they were now down a harpy. As she was about to dart in and avenge her teammate, she saw one of the vehicles ram the other and it fell through the hole in the bridge.

Time seemed to slow down for Mirella as she paused in midair, watching the lead vehicle fall towards the water. Originally they hadn’t been sure which of the vehicles were carrying the slaves but judging by what had just transpired, this one definitely was one of them. Yet this was not something that they had planned for. Meticulous planning and calculations had ensured that the rockets would not cause one of the vehicles to fall into the river or perish; timing it right had been a huge pain.

Regardless, elves and devils were highly sought after by slavers. They wouldn’t sacrifice them like this…

Thinking too much about the situation filled me with mind numbing rage. So yea, just don’t think about it right? Though that dam just may burst at any point, so don’t bet any money on what’ll end up happening. The thing is, now wasn’t the time to be losing control of myself - I didn’t know what the situation was and the objective was to get Tania and Luiza home.

All very logical, except the problem is I have emotions! Such a simple task, blown randomly to bits…With my eyes closed, I took a deep breath and dug my nails into my hands. Some drops of blood fell to the floor.

I was worried that I may end up giving into my rage before I felt the softness of Helia’s chest push up against me. She embraced me from the side and I was able to think a little clearer. Opening my eyes, I looked towards her and she had a grim look on her porcelain face, yet at the same time there was a fierce look in her clear blue eyes.

“You didn’t leave.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

The staccato of some type of fast firing weapon echoed in the background as another explosion occurred somewhere overhead. At that point, Tania leaned forward, her hand held to her forehead.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but aren’t we in the middle of a warzone?” she asked urgently. Her sister, who sat beside her, also looked uncomfortable. Probably for a different reason though, since Luiza was currently staring blankly at the now lifeless body of the princess.

“You’re not wrong. This bridge may just collapse at any moment for all I know,” I replied. “The question really just boils down to how we want to leave.”

“Are you really allowing us to decide together?” Tania asked hesitantly. “I figured you’d want to eliminate whoever upset this adventure of yours.” While Tania spoke, Luiza muttered something under her breath and I commanded her to repeat what she just said.

Still looking at Lily’s body, she said quietly, “I wanted to kill her with my own two hands...They robbed me of my chance at satisfaction.” Speaking louder and more confidently, she said, “Let’s rob them of theirs.”