The MP stared down in horror at the body of the strange witch. She'd said she was going off to do something, then had just sat down in the snow and slush at the side of the building and become comatose. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, but had no idea how long she was going to stay there, or quite what she was doing. He'd watched for perhaps twenty seconds, and was just leaning forwards to shake her by the shoulder, when she'd lurched suddenly and arched her back, her lips pulling back to reveal a grimace.
He pulled out his service pistol in one hand and grabbed the radio in the other – he wasn't sure what to do with this, he normally dealt with petty thefts, fights and troopers going AWOL. As he looked down and considered, blood erupted from the woman's mouth, a torrent of crimson spilling down her front like a waterfall of pain. A high pitched keening noise emerged from her body, a lonely sound of pain, tinged with a little fear. He pressed the button and radioed in.
"Vostok! I am with the woman, she was walking around the buildings, but then said she had to go look for a magical threat and sat down. Now her face is bleeding – lots! She is dying! I need a medic unit immediately to building 47, south side."
"Acknowledged. Keep calm, and maintain her airway. Dispatching the response team now. Backup is on the way, too." Steadied by the words of his commanding officer, the MP gingerly reached down and pulled the head forwards, making sure the blood didn't pool in her mouth and block her throat. He watched as steam rose in wisps from the hot blood into the cool night air and looked at her – but for the life of him, he didn't know what he could do to help. There weren't even any wounds…
"Kai, I need my rifle – stat. Heading into the woods now to try and reach that scream." Kai was about to respond when the team's commlink activated again.
"And my dagger as well, oh and Aswon wants his spear – we're heading down the treeline now to try and catch up with Hunter and find Tads – she's got to be somewhere down there." Kai could hear the sound of pounding feet and the slightly breathy edge to Shimazu's voice indicated that he was already running. Kai looked around and grabbed the Ares rifle and the two melee weapons, then clambered down the steps from the truck and turned to the east, breaking into a jog with the three weapons clasped to his chest. As he looked across the base, he saw the forest edge in the distance and tried to pick up the pace a little – maybe he should have started to go on the morning runs with the rest, but it was a little late for that now.
"Kai…. You need to warn the medics that she's magical. Be careful with the drugs and what they do to her – in fact, do the bare minimum to keep her stable until we get there. Or they can mess up her body and she'll lose talent." Kai clicked the button on his transmitter twice, then keyed up the MPs radio.
"Sergeant Vostok, please pass on to the medical team…."
Marius dropped the arm full of spare parts on the counter, then pushed them back over towards the storesman with a frown. He'd only just managed to wheedle them all out of him to repair and replace the broken bits in the KA-60.
"Sorry, we have to go. One of our team members is under attack." He didn't say anything further, and ignored the query from the storesman, turning swiftly and striding over towards the door with Nadia scurrying along behind him. He opened up the comm link to Hunter, using their private side channel. "Report?"
"Bearing 031 mark 2, range 321.9m, sighting of large para-critter, Tads went to investigate, then a few seconds later there was a scream that only just reached me, from a bearing just under a degree further east. Moving to intercept and assess now." Marius nodded as Hunter gave the concise brief, striding swiftly towards the woods. He didn't run – he knew he just wasn't up for a run like that and he needed to be combat capable at the end of the journey – so he walked. Fast.
In the woodland, Hunter had just dropped the last few metres to the ground, landing on the soft and spongy bed of pine needles, when Tads appeared in front of him. Her form coalesced out of thin air, but he could spot the paleness of her face and the winces of pain easily enough.
"There's an owl shapeshifter, it's a spellcaster for sure, and they regenerate. And something else – also magical. I didn't get a good look at it. I'm going back to keep them spotted." And with that, she was gone – before Hunter could say anything to her. He adjusted his radio to the team channel instead, and relayed her message to the rest of them.
Kai jogged across the snow covered tarmac, listening as the chatter intensified over the radio, voices becoming clipped and direct with the stress. He reached the decision quickly enough.
"Vostok? This is Kai. We have confirmed enemy activity in the woods, and one of my team is under attack. I have people moving to intercept, but the enemy have magical protection and backup. I request assistance – mortars, infantry, an air strike – whatever you have. All of my team are moving in now, but let us know when we need to duck."
"Acknowledged, Kai. Higher has been notified and is aware of the situation. Stand by." Vostoks voice was cool and unruffled, though there were the sounds of more excitable voices in the background. "Response medics are heading for your woman now, and backup is spooling up."
Marius was nearly to the path leading into the forest when he heard his name yelled. Turning, he saw Anton – the pilot that had flown them to Sochi - waving frantically at him, then making a chopping motion at a nearby chopper. As Marius watched, he headed for the pilot's door, and made another beckoning motion to them.
"Come on, Nadia!" Now he broke into a run – after all, if he was in the chopper, it didn't matter how out of breath his body was, his mind would be razor sharp. They raced across the tarmac, skidding and sliding on the ice and slush. Anton had the door propped open and was jacking in, the engine whine rising as he ran through his emergency checklist. Behind, two more choppers were also spooling up, their own pilots following suit. As they got close, Anton leant out of the door and shouted.
"You in the front with me, you in the back, get in the jump seat and strap in tight!" Marius didn't need to be told twice and circled round the nose of the aircraft, ducking slightly as the rotors started to turn lazily. Nadia climbed into the back, pulling her submachine gun out from under her coat and then fiddling with the restraint harness as she struggled to buckle in.
"May I?" Marius gestured at the co-pilot's rigger interface jack. Anton stared him in the eye for a split second then deliberately turned away, concentrating on the checklist that was flickering up one of the multi-function displays. Marius understood the unspoken message – he hadn't said yes, but was "not noticing" officially. He pulled out the fibre optic cable from the concealed reel and jacked in, feeling the real world fade away and his metal and composite body shudder around him as his engine RPMs came up. As he examined the systems, he discovered the weapons systems – the two missile packs on the short stubby wings were disappointingly unloaded – but the nose-mounted minigun was not. He took control of the gun, pitching and yawing it in the mount and checking the diagnostics. The six barrelled rotary gun span up briefly in response to his test commands, and flicked from side to side, sixty degrees left and right of the centre line and with thirty degrees of vertical travel each way. Marius felt a round travelling from the ammo bin into the chamber as he armed the weapon, and the heavy ponderous weight of another 1999 rounds behind it made him mentally smile. Someone was going to get some…
To the south, Aswon and Shimazu started to diverge – Aswon continuing down the tree line, looking for Hunter and the path into the forest. Shimazu meanwhile headed for the buildings, searching around for Tads and the MP that had better be looking after her. Shimazu found his target first – the MP standing with his torch out and waving it in an arc above his head. He pointed mutely to the side of the building, but remained where he was, continuing to flash his light back and forth. Shimazu realised he could hear the sounds of an engine approaching at high speed, and hoped it was backup and not more trouble.
He looked down at Tads and blanched – no wonder the MP had seemed flummoxed. There was a lot of blood here, and Tads was drenched in it – under the faint moonlight she looked ashen and grey. He checked around and as the MP had discovered earlier, found no obvious external wounds and nothing much to treat. A few seconds later, he realised he wasn't going to get anywhere fast while she was laid out in the darkness of the cold night, lying on blood stained snow. He crouched and lifted her almost effortlessly, her head and limbs flopping down like a rag doll, and blood trickling down her to drip to the snow below.
"You, door. You, medkit. Follow." His Russian might not be up to much, but it didn't need to be, and accent or not, his tone of voice told them all they needed to know. He carried her inside and turned right, straight into the shower block. It might not be comfortable, but it had hot, clean, running water and was actually likely to be in a decent state. He set her down and the medics pulled out their large backpack medkits, ripping open the seals on fresh pads and trying to find the source of the blood. "Magic woman, blood from inside. Careful drugs." Dammit, his Russian wasn't up to this – but he saw them nod.
One of the medics pulled out a bag and ran an IV line into her – he was about to stop him when he saw the bag was labelled in a bunch of languages and he caught sight of the English – 'Blood Expander' Ok, that was cool – that would keep her system going, give her something to work with, but wouldn't pollute her body. They connected up a second bag and started to squeeze them, forcing the liquid into her body as fast as they dared. One turned on the shower, rinsing away the blood as best he could, and the other pulled open her clothes. Neither of them blinked or missed a beat when her burned and scarred flesh was revealed, concentrating instead on checking for wounds, foreign objects or other pertinent details.
They checked her blood pressure and vitals, and they were still worryingly low – Shimazu couldn't understand the labels, but could see clearly how bad things were. One of them pulled out a vial of drugs, and pointed at the results of the medkit sensors, and all he could do was close his eyes and nod. Better to be alive with loss, than dead.
As the drugs were pumped into her system, the vitals rose a little, then steadied – and remained steady.
Outside in the darkness, Aswon skidded to a halt and readied his telescopic staff as his senses tingled. He couldn't see, but he could feel something watching him. He made ready to spring and strike, then relaxed a little as the hulking form of Hunter formed out of the darkness.
"Where's Kai?"
"Still coming. Not here yet."
"Dammit – we can't wait. Let's go!" Hunter broke into a run, and Aswon was hot on his heels, racing down the winding path into the forest. The faint moonlight lit up the topmost limbs of the trees, but under the canopy it was a dark and confusing nightmare. Trees swaying slightly in the wind gave the darkness shape and movement, making it seem as though enemies lay in wait around every corner. They pushed on, Hunter sticking to the right of the path and Aswon to the left.
"Hunter, these creatures. They're likely to be magical. If you shoot – no matter how good the shot, be ready. It may still get up!" Hunter snorted in response, but his fingers gripped tighter on the polymer grip of his Ares Predator, his large hands wrapped around the pistol tightly. His cyber-eyes scanned the darkness, overlaying information from different senses over his normal vision, while his estimated distance counter fell rapidly. As they reached a more open part of the forest, his radio squawked in his head.
"Hunter, we're airborne. If you spot targets, lase them for me, and I will bring the rain."
"Copy that, Aswon with me, we're about 100m short of target point, slowing to close."
The path continued ahead, but the forest on either side of them was less dense than before – not a clearing, but the space between trees was enough that you could no longer touch two trees at once, even with outstretched hands. Above them they could see the high clouds skidding through the air on the stiff breeze, illuminated by the pale moonlight. There was a sudden crash in the forest ahead – the sound of something large and angry. By instinct, they spread out a little further, Hunter moving to the right, while Aswon tracked left.
Marius released the transmit button as the chopper rose swiftly, engines hovering just under the redline. He felt the nose go down and they started to pick up speed – but then they turned east, away from the fight – away from the forest. He sent a query to Anton, and almost instantly the response came back, their two minds almost melding in the machine. 'More passengers to collect.'
Barely fifteen metres high, the chopper accelerated hard, heading towards the admin building. With a deft touch of the rudder, they swung around, missing the corner of the building by scant metres, and roaring down the front of the large concrete structure. Well, no matter what, none of the officers were sleeping through this noise. Seconds later, the nose rose and Anton dumped the collective, the chopper dropping like a stone towards the ground, and Marius spotted a dozen or so troops racing towards them. Examining them through the low-light cameras he saw them wearing their uniform trousers and blouses, but not their combat smocks – it looks like they'd scrambled from the barracks or their station with whatever they could grab. But each of them held the distinct form of a rifle – he wasn't sure if it was a member of the AK family, but they seemed pretty big, with long barrels.
Anton ramped the power back up, and their descent stopped just short of the surface, the chopper almost bouncing on the cushion of air trapped under the rotor blades. The troops dived aboard, quickly attaching safety lines and belts to themselves and checking each other – not that Marius cared. He felt the chopper rise and bank hard, and then they were heading towards the forest. Anton was good – probably as good as he was, Marius thought – but clearly he had hundreds if not thousands of hours in type, making him acutely aware of how much performance he could wring out of the helicopter and just how much he could push it. They drew away from the trailing choppers whose pilots were either not as good – or not as fearless – as Anton, made a beeline for the combat zone.
Hunter raised his pistol, grabbing it in a two-handed grip as he feet turned slightly into the shooting stance – his body working on the muscle memory he'd been drilling into it recently. 'What I wouldn't give for my rifle'. The thought crossed his mind, but before he could do anything more, the forest erupted. The dark shape roared and sped towards him, closing at a frightening rate, a grim mass of claws and teeth and primordial fury as five hundred kilos of bear burst from the undergrowth and charged towards him. He sidestepped, putting a pine tree between him and the onrushing target, resting his outstretched arms on the side of the trunk.
Hunter waited, twisting his hands ever so slightly right, then up, just a little. In his vision, the features of the bear were rendered as a wireframe rendering as his ultrasound emitters painted the target with sonar-like pulses, while the low-light sensors added depth and colour to the picture. His advanced analytics unit crunched the numbers, displaying a closing speed that was frighteningly high for a creature that size. More importantly though, the shape of the bear had a cursor overlaid, as the cybernetic link from his Ares Predator fed precise aiming information through the induction pad in his palm and into his cybernetic systems.
He saw the tiny set of chevrons he favoured as his SmartLink-II designator go from red, through amber to green. They worked in, until they bracketed the eye of the bear as his own eye zoomed out in response to the creature's movement, tracking the motion and compensating, helping him keep his aim rock-steady. As the brackets met, forming a box, there was a moment of pureness, and with a thought, the gun fired. The heavy 12mm round punched out of the pistol and slammed into the bear, penetrating the right eye and starting to tumble. It blew through the back of the optic cavity, spinning and tearing through the bear before distorting the fur on the back of the head. The roar stopped midway, turning into a noise of agony, and the massive legs crumpled, the body driving forwards another two metres purely on momentum as it carved a trail like a meteor through the forest floor.
Aswon started to circle, hoping to hell that Hunter remembered his warning. With his staff extended, he moved to flank the massive bear, ready in case it twitched again. He never knew what alerted him. Maybe it was a fleeting shadow, maybe a tiny smell on the air, maybe a raise in the air pressure. All he knew was that he suddenly dropped to his left knee, his right leg extended outwards from him in a straight line. As he collapsed downwards, the staff moved to jam into the floor, wedged in place by his right foot and his hands slipped down to grasp the lower non-conductive area, fumbling for the button.
The massive Siberian tiger leapt through the air, aiming for where he'd been, powerful muscles sending it leaping from the branch where it had lain in wait with deadly silence in a shallow arc. As Aswon moved though, the tiger discovered that annoying factor of physics – with no contact with any object, it was unable to adjust its trajectory in any meaningful way. Instead it slammed into the top of the staff, just as Aswon's fingers found the discharge stud, and thousands of volts surged through its body like coruscating wildfire. Aswon pushed, and the tiger continued its arc, riding the top of the staff like a pole-vaulter – but instead of a comfortable and planned landing, it was flipped into a solid pine tree, landing with a messy thud and bouncing off to fall backwards to the ground, limbs still twitching and trembling from the massive electrical discharge. Aswon was stunned with the rapid assault, and glad that his years of combat training had let him react without thought, working on reflex alone. He pushed up, with his left leg, rising from the low stance as Hunter stepped around the tree, pistol still extended outwards towards his target.
Before either of them got a chance to say anything, both creatures flexed and roared, moving to attack again. Hunter laid the cursor back over the bear's head, concentrating and aiming carefully as it started to build up speed towards him. A tiny part of his mind struggled, clearly looking at the bear's face and seeing no trace of the wound, no sign that the eye and skull had been blown open only a moment ago. Another round exited the barrel, burrowing once more into the face and blowing open an equally large hole, dropping the bear once more.
Aswon found himself just as busy, as the tiger twisted and leapt again. It was quick, easily two metres long and a metre high, rippling muscle and massive teeth highlighted in the streaks of moonlight that made it down through the trees. It leapt for his face, and only the trembles from the taser let Aswon avoid the swipes of the enormous claws, and jab at it with his staff, discharging again and hitting it with a further zap. It howled and twisted, throwing itself over its own back in apparent rage as traitor muscles misfired, making it twist and shake.
Above them, Tads saw the movement in the trees, the flash of creatures and the roar of gunfire. She swept down, trying to get a better view, but then suddenly banking and jinking to the side, checking her own surroundings – aware that there were at least two more magical creatures, both of which could fly, it seemed.
She circled the area, one eye on the combat below, one eye out over the forest. Unheard to her, Aswon spoke and triggered his throat microphone.
"Baggsy the pelt of the fracking huge magical tiger attacking me!" There was a moment of silence as the rest of the team digested this, before Shimazu's response came back, in-between pants.
"Baggsy your stuff when it rips you a new one!" Despite trying to keep his response lighthearted, he understood the intent of the message. With one last look at the body of Tads, he turned and burst through the door, leaving the two medics to look after her and ran through the outside door, almost knocking Kai off his feet.
Kai gasped for breath, unable to speak as his lungs rebelled and demanded significant increases in delivered oxygen before they would allow anything as mundane as speech. He managed to hold his arms up for a moment, the weapons catching the light from the yellow lamp over the barracks door.
"Nice work Kai, come on, follow me!" Shimazu grabbed the dagger and spear from his arms, then exploded into motion and charging into the forest along the same path that Hunter and Aswon had taken.
"Whaaa, *gasp* *gasp* seriously?" Kai struggled for breath, holding the assault rifle in both hands as his body folded over his knees a little, but then he managed to struggle upright and follow in Shimazu's footsteps, jogging after him while tiny little stars formed at the sides of his vision.
In the clearing, the bear and the tiger leapt again, their wounds healing with supernatural quickness, driving towards their foes. Aswon parried and struck again, energy driving the tiger to the ground and the stick slamming down across its spine with a sickening thud. Hunter fired again, the bear falling to the ground barely a metre from him. He started to back up, keeping the pistol raised and held rock steady on the target, his back leg questing behind him for a clear place to stand. To trip now would be death…
"Hurry up will you, these fuckers won't die!" As Hunter snarled over the radio, another shot rang out, smoke curling from the end of the gun barrel and curling upwards through a moonbeam. Tads found herself in perfect position – clearly behind the Tiger which had all its attention focussed on Aswon who looked to be flat-footed after his last attack. She swept down and used her hands to tear at the creatures astral energies, raking it with her anger and fury. Despite her wounds, her blindsided attack was devastating, and the tiger flopped once more, struck down by its wounds – but as she swooped up and away from the combat, she saw the flicker of life suddenly burst into full blown flame, its energies renewed. At another time she would have been fascinated by the magical creature and its ability to pull in raw mana to repair its form – but now was not the time.
"Watch out, there's two more about – both flyers." She manifested as a ghostly form, just long enough to shout out an audible warning, before letting her body image fade away and return purely to the astral plane, rising on diaphanous wings of magic to examine the top of the forest canopy. There! Swooping towards her was the owl, and a huge raven, flying almost wingtip to wingtip as they sped across the trees towards the sounds of fighting below. She rose higher, trying to clear their attention – she knew she was in no condition to fight either, never mind them both.
The tiger and Aswon continued to circle – Aswon weaving the staff around him in a complex pattern, ready to strike while the tiger tried to outflank him, still shuddering from muscle spasms. It struck again, and was rewarded with another zap, along with a two-handed strike to the side of the face, hard enough to snap off one of the mighty incisors and send it spinning into the darkness, driving the beast to the ground.
On the other side of the clearing, Hunter ran out of time and space – the bear lurched forwards and there was just nothing he could do. One paw struck his gun hand, forcing it wide just as he was about to fire. In his vision the SmartLink system flashed an angry red as it lost target lock, refusing to fire. The other massive paw raked down his body, from shoulder to waist. Claws fully 7cm long ripped at the armour, rucking and pulling at the combat vest with the massive power of the enormous beast. But the armour was strong – the very best synthetic fibres available on the open market, and though the armour sagged and ripped, it wasn't defeated – not utterly. It absorbed much of the impact, ameliorating the damage and Hunter's enormous physique did the rest. He was hurt – he could feel the wound bleeding under the vest – but he was still functional.
He chopped with one hand, bringing the knife edge of his massive hand down on the bear's outstretched limb, striking with the butt of his gun onto the skull of the creature. Over and over he struck – not hard, but rapidly, swaying his body from side to side and bellowing it its face. He wasn't fighting to win – he was just trying to confuse and distract it now, hoping to hell that reinforcements would arrive soon.
On the forest path, Shimazu sprinted through the darkness. He felt a faint touch on his face, and his brain thought 'branch'. A split second later, he twisted, years of martial arts training coming to his rescue as he ploughed into the tree at full speed. He didn't try to stop though, but instead rolled, pirouetting on his feet and letting his momentum roll him around the tree, snapping branches and spinning on the moist forest floor, before stepping back onto the path and continuing his headlong run through the dark. How he envied the others with their night vision now!
Aswon continued to pummel the tiger, taking the offensive now. Again and again he struck, zapping the creature with shock after shock. While the physical damage he did seemed to vanish as soon as he caused it, the lingering effects of the taser made it slower and slower, and he started to push the pace – eventually he'd get lucky, and hit something hard enough or magical in nature that it couldn't repair the damage. He was worried though – Tads had disappeared again, and it sounded like the bear was eating Hunter. Turning his back on the tiger, muscle spasms or not though, was not on the cards.
Across the clearing, the unusual tactic had in fact confused the bear, and it paused for a moment, shaking its massive shaggy head to remove the effects of the slaps and pokes it had received. Hunter jumped up and let his arm rise, then as he fell it scythed down, fist clenched into a massive overhead hammerstrike. It landed painfully on the top of the bear's head, sending pain lancing through his arm from the shock – the bear roared, but in anger, not in pain, and didn't seem to care one bit. For the first time, Hunter started to feel really worried – he just couldn't hit this thing hard enough, at least not in unarmed combat.
As she circled above, watching the Owl and the Raven close in, Tads extended her magical protection over Aswon and Hunter, protecting them both with her magical shielding. Her bottom lip quivered and shook, but her resolve was firm… not on her watch! She saw the bear claw at Hunter again, catching him across the ribs and saw the blood spurt from his side, little droplets of his limited essence spraying out into the forest and fading, life fading into death, and felt frustration rising. This was not her kind of fight.
There was a burst of motion at the edge of the clearing, and for a moment Aswon too felt fear and doubt – then he made out the shape of Shimazu, his arms and legs pumping as he erupted out of the darkness. In his right hand was the long and slender spear found in the depths of the darkened temple, the broad leaf blade glinting in the moonlight.
"Aswon, spear, catch!" Shimazu flung the spear underarm, trying to pitch it up and across Aswon's side, rather than at him. He knew he wasn't the most accurate at throwing, but prayed that he'd get lucky. As soon as the spear was on its way though, he put it from his mind – he could make out the huge bear clawing and biting at Hunter, clearly driving him backwards – and the tangle of trees that were about to trip or catch Hunter and stop him dead in his tracks. As he ran he swapped the punch dagger to his right hand and charged. It might not have the same reach as his katana, and he certainly felt clumsier with it – but it was a magical weapon. Granted, not one intrinsically bound to him and his life force, where he would truly be a master in its use – but from what Aswon had said, he had a better chance of killing these creatures and keeping them dead with that.
In the darkness above the trees, the chopper flew in a straight line. The sensors picked up the forms of two targets, birds, and the system started to filter them out until Marius overrode the software and painted them as Bandit-1 and Bandit-2. He sent a mental command, and felt the minigun start to spin, building up speed ready to spit automatic death at his enemy.
His VCR linked him to the machine, and through that his own SmartLink interfaced with the gun. The Russians favoured the default 'skin' for their system it appears, a series of concentric boxes that strobed inwards as his sensors locked onto the target and calculated the optimum lead he had to give them to send a dozen 7.62mm bullets ripping through their bodies with a squeeze of the trigger. As he watched the targeting box grow tighter and the lock noise rise in pitch and duration, he saw the icon climbing, rising higher and higher in his field of view. What was going on?
He pulled out of the gunsight, looking at the chopper and realising that not only were they losing altitude rapidly, they were only a metre or two above the trees. A glance to his left and he saw Anton staring forwards, unblinking, a moronic grin on his face while his hands rubbed back and forth on his thighs, stroking the material of his flight suit apparently with glee. Marius had time for a muttered expletive, before he dived back into the interface and wrested control of the craft from the pilot's station, putting in more power and gaining altitude before they struck the trees, flipped and ended up in a fiery ball of death.
He heard a noise from the back of the craft, and then the command over the intercom. "Turn us, get us eyes onto the target!" Cursing again, he mentally jammed his foot down, and the tail rotor whipped the craft sideways. He angled the controls, manipulated the collective like a concert musician, and the chopper hurtled sideways through the air, barely losing any forward momentum while the troops in the back raised their rifles towards the enemy.
Back in the forest, Kai followed the path, the bright spots swimming around his vision now, the rifle feeling like a lump of lead in his hands. Snow, mud and foliage tore at this feet and he staggered forwards, wondering when this pain would ever end. But, he drove on – one foot after another, into the darkness. Further along the path, towards the screaming and shouting.
Aswon dropped his staff – it was probably almost drained of power now anyway, and danced two steps over to intercept the spear in mid-air. He caught it on the move, and spun, thrusting outwards with the tip and aiming to impale the tiger through the mouth as it leapt at him. For the first time, the trembling muscles worked for it, and instead of the impale attack he sought, he instead opened up a massive gash down the tiger's side as it stumbled towards him.
Up above, the Raven soared up for a moment, then folded its wings, beginning a dive like a bird of prey, aiming directly at Aswon's back as he fenced with the tiger. The owl didn't rise up – instead it just swooped down, taking the shortest path towards Shimazu that it could. As it plummeted towards him, strange guttural noises echoed through the air, and a moment later the bird was engulfed in fire, the orange flame trailing out behind it as it flew. Shimazu took one look at the approaching comet.
"Fuck this noise." He dropped the punch dagger, and his sword materialised in his hand, the motion so swift it looked like a movie trick. As the owl swept in, the sword rose, wielder and weapon in perfect harmony. The razor sharp blade, crafted by Japanese swordsmiths by hand, hundreds of years ago using techniques honed and handed down from master to apprentice proved their worth. Driven by his physique, optimised by training, the sword cut through the body of the owl as if it was butter, severing it into two parts. The body slammed into Shimazu, driving him back a step or two, and fell to either side of him, a fine mist of entrails and blood exploding over him. A few flames caught on his clothing, wicking for a moment before being starved of fuel by the modern fabric and petering out.
The bear swung again, catching Hunter once more, opening up a gash on his leg and driving him to one knee, while he desperately tried to fend it off – but the mounting pain and effects of his wounds slowed him and reduced his chances, moment by moment.
The raven swooped down, expecting to rake Aswon in the back – but the wily mercenary had born Tads' warning in mind, and was ready. He sidestepped neatly, rolling out of the way as he used the momentum from the attack on the tiger to clear the range of the raven's massive claws. There was a flash behind it as Tads swooped down on its back, clawing at its essence as she had before and ripping chunks of its body off, before swooping to the side.
The chopper slid into view, four troopers leaning out on their harnesses, trusting the slender belts to stop them from plummeting to their death. Each of them swung their rifles up, aiming at the raven as it staggered in midair from the attack, momentarily flying a steady path as it tried to recover. Each of them aimed, and had their fingers depressed on the trigger guards, waiting for their SmartLinks to lock onto the target and fire. But between the motion of the bird, the velocity of the chopper, the darkness – first one, then another, then the third saw their targeting carets swing over the target, not getting enough of a lock to send the round. There was a sudden Ker-ACK! The fourth trooper found his target, and muzzle flash illuminated the front of his rifle. The raven was hit, sent tumbling to the ground its wings flapping and scrawks of agony bursting from its beak.
Shimazu ran forward, shouting loudly and trying to draw attention from Hunter, offering himself up as a threat – or a target. The bear swung around angrily, distracted by the new threat and threw himself forward. Shimazu was stunned by the speed of the bear – nothing that big should move that fast! Little did he realise that people often thought the same thing about the like of Hunter and himself. He raised his sword, but the headlong rush of the bear bowled through his defence, and a swipe ripped across his flank. Fortunately, he had the same armour as Hunter, and it served him just as well. Aramid derivatives tore and shredded, but they blunted the attack. He was driven back a step, and the wound oozed blood through his armour – but he was still functional.
Tads continued her swoop, arcing away from where she had swung at the raven, and saw the bear clawing at Shimazu. Beyond it, the bloody and battered form of Hunter was struggling to his feet, ready to charge back into the fray. She could see the bear clearly, a shapeshifter for sure. Its magical nature made it straddle the divide between the magical realm and the physical – it was in both places, could not be anywhere other than both places – and that meant she could hurt it. She swooped in, trying to slow it down a little, to give Shimazu time to attack.
The bear saw her coming.
She flew in, reaching for its essence to claw and rip, but instead it rose up on hind legs, the massive paws engulfing her, pinning her into place for a moment, and the head struck down, engulfing her own and bit down with crushing force.
Shimazu saw her astral form wink out of existence with heart-stopping suddenness.
The world seemed to stop for a moment as horror leeched through him as he watched her disappear. He could see only one result from that attack. He knew how damaged her physical body had already been, how weak she was. A shame ripped through him, his mind rebelling as his team mate went down, while he stood so close. All his bodyguard training was for nought. Anger rose in him and with a scream he spun on the spot, both hands on his sword as his body twisted. Legs drove his hips around, his torso flexed and then the arms whipped around as his body uncoiled, driving the sword through the mass of the bear with ferocious rage, cutting through the massive sinewy neck until it burst from the other side. The body slumped one way, while the head fell next to it, mouth still slightly open.
Then the unthinkable happened. The head writhed and deformed, the body twisted with arcane energies, and slowly the two fused together, a deep grumbling growl forming in the massive chest cavity. Shimazu stared down at the beast in horror as the flesh knit back together before his eyes. He could barely imagine the force or power that would do such a thing.
Hovering above the fight, the soldiers hadn't seen any of this happen. All they knew was that the pilot had continued to move the helicopter around the clearing, and now they had good shots against a huge, angry bear. Four shots rang out, and four shots hit, penetrating the bear's hide.
After seeing the creature arise after being decapitated, both Shimazu and Hunter didn't expect some dinky little 7.62 rounds to be much of an inconvenience to the creature. They were wrong.
A moment later the bear bellowed. No – the bear screamed. It was a cry of pure anguish, ripping out across the forest. While the Raven was much larger than normal, it was still a bird, with most of its size being the wings – and the lungs having only so much air. The bear was another matter, and the huge bellows drove sound through the bear's throat to rival a megaphone. The bear twisted and writhed, flipping onto its back and deforming, legs straightening and then curling, one of them straining so much they heard the knee joint snap.
The snipers fired again, and the tiger went down, starting to convulse in much the same way. The creatures flexed and writhed so much they literally snapped their own spines in half, pink foam exploding out of their mouths and eyes bulging out of their sockets. It was the most awful thing any of them had ever seen.
With a wheezing noise, Kai staggered into the clearing, barely able to hang on to Hunter's rifle. He looked around at the scene of devastation – burning split corpses, tigers and bears and massive ravens contorted in death, Shimazu standing with his sword raised and a shocked expression on his face, Hunter limping towards him to collect his rifle, blood pouring down one side between the fingers held over his ribs. Aswon standing with his spear, frozen in place while his head scanned the area, looking for more foes and trying not to stare at the horrifically twisted corpses on the ground, and above them the trees bent outwards from the rotor wash as Marius held the chopper in place while the 4 snipers searched for more targets.
"Tads! The bear killed her spirit!" Shimazu broke the silence, turning on his team mates with a look of loss and sorrow on his face. Aswon ran over towards Kai and ripped the radio out of his pocket, as Kai continued to gasp for breath. He depressed the button, and pitched his voice carefully.
"Listen to me. Give her the drugs. Give her everything do whatever you have to do, and do it now."
"But we got told not to give her…"
"GIVE IT TO HER NOW. PATCH HER IF YOU HAVE TO! BUT DO IT NOW!"
The radio went silent, and they looked at each other.
"Shit. Back to the barracks!" Aswon grabbed Shimazu as he spoke, and started to drag him towards the path. Inside a pace or two, Shimazu's legs caught up with him, and he managed to match Aswon's pace – but Aswon didn't let go. He kept one hand on Shimazu's shoulder, guiding him through the darkness, his enhanced vision keeping him on the path. Aswon knew he wasn't a patch on Shimazu in medical terms, and he had to get him back to her body quickly – every second that passed lowered the odds.
Hunter checked the rifle over, plugged in his SmartLink and then with a wince broke into a jog, chasing after the other two. Kai looked around at the area, at the still writhing corpses.
"Nope. Nope, nope, nope." He turned and walked quickly down the path, leaving the devastation behind him. Overhead the chopper continued to circle. Marius pulled his attention back to the mundane world, and saw Anton still playing with his trousers – now examining his map pocket with great interest.
"Team, we have a problem. My pilot is still out of it. So, we still have active enemies – magical enemies." He stopped, and thought about it – it wasn't his area of expertise, but he'd heard Aswon and Tads talking about it often enough, and he was a child prodigy, after all. If the enemy couldn't see you, they couldn't hurt you. The windows of the chopper were polarised, so they couldn't see him. QED – the enemy was inside the chopper. Shit. "Team, I have a serious problem. I think there's a spirit, or some magical creature, in the chopper. It's in here. With me. Right now. It's probably looking at me."
He applied more power, taking the chopper up, and gently spinning it around. A moment later, he had a plan. Keying up the radio, he told the other two choppers to stay on station and look for more hostiles, hoping that they would hear his nigh-perfect Russian and assume he was Anton. Then he dropped the nose and headed for the barracks. If he timed it just right….
Aswon and Shimazu emerged from the path just as Marius dropped the chopper down to the ground and flung the door open. Aswon let go, leaving Shimazu to keep running on his own now he was in the light, heading for the barracks block. The four wheel drive response vehicle was still there, red and blue lights spinning and casting rotating strobes of illumination along the wall.
Aswon peeled off and ran towards the chopper, letting his vision expand to include the astral realm. As he did so, he saw the nature spirit, floating in the roof of the chopper with its attention focussed on the pilot. Aswon felt sort of bad – it was only doing what whoever had summoned had commanded, but it was still the enemy.
"Lean back, Marius!" As soon as the German was clear, he thrust the spear into the astral form, running it through. It wailed as it died, dissipating back into the ether, and a moment later Anton snapped to, doing a double take as he took in the situation around him, and wondering why there was a spear just in front of his face.
Inside the barracks, Shimazu burst through the door once more, and saw the medics working frantically on Tads. One was doing CPR, and the other was squeezing blood into her – the second bag by the looks of the discarded packet next to her. There were also a number of spent vials rolling around, but the tell-tales on the bio-scanner showed the news – no pulse, no respiration, minimal brain activity.
Hating himself for what it might do for her, he unzipped the map pocket on his combat jacket and pulled out the bright red foil package. With trembling fingers he ripped open the packet and grabbed the moist pad inside, pulling off the plastic seal. Pulling the medic off that was doing CPR, he reached over his shoulder and slapped it down onto her chest, hard, aiming for the spot in-between her breasts.
The pad made contact with the skin and the dimethyl sulfoxide soaked into the scar tissue, carrying the bonded chemicals through her epidermis and down into her blood stream. 5mg of Epinephrine acted like a gallon of ice water applied straight to her heart. 5 grams of amphetamine dumped into her system, spreading around the body and kicking her metabolism into overdrive. 50mg of Morphine was delivered to the top of her spinal column, made all the pain go away and welcomed her to a series of dreams that topped any experience she'd had in her life so far – including when her trainer had insisted she smoke a pipe full of moss. Her body trembled and quivered as the massive doses of drugs coursed through her system, and the bio-scanner went just a little bit crazy.
Shimazu watched the results – it wasn't a steady pulse by any stretch of the imagination, and the brain activity looked more like an angry child playing with an etch-a-sketch. But she was alive.
He slumped down onto the floor, his own hands trembling as the stresses bled off him, and he wondered what it would do to her – and if she'd forgive him. Inflicting those kinds of doses on combat soldiers often messed them up, leaving them with PTSD or issues that needed therapy to resolve. Mages – well, mages were more delicate. Mess with the body of a mage, and you could disrupt the flow of mana through it. Mess it up enough, and it was like burning out the resistors on a circuit board – the current just didn't flow any more. Unlike a circuit board though, if a mage had their body go out of whack, then whatever they lost was gone forever – it was a one-way road.
The door swung open, and the base medical officer, Dr Astirdar entered. She looked at the foil pack and the pad sitting over Tads' heart, the empty blood bags and the IV sticks, the vials of meds rolling around on the wet tiles.
"Stretcher, now. Get her in the vehicle, and to surgery. I've got to go scrub up. I want her there in five minutes."
The medics sprang into action, sliding the trembling, ravaged and failing body of the team's shaman onto their stretcher and carried her out into the vehicle, setting off towards the main building with sirens blaring.
One by one the others arrived, finding Shimazu sat amidst the debris, looking down at the foil pack, hoping he'd made the right decision.
