Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“Yeah,” he said, standing ready. “Don’t screw up.”
I laughed, the thrill of battle beating through me. Time to earn my keep.
“Leave your people here,” Austin told Drex. “We’ve got this. They’d just get in the way and possibly get killed. If you want to come along to see how we handle mages and to see what mages can do, you’ll need to follow orders from me and my beta.”
“Understood,” Drex said.
“Keep those mages in that house,” I told Drex. “Do not let them out. If they run, it might be into the hands of the enemy. Right now, they have a fighting chance of explaining their situation. If the Guild gets them, they’ll have no hope of salvation.”
He nodded. “Got it.”
Edgar had already taken off, always with Nessa in battles. Everyone else stood ready, muumuus on the ground and anticipation sparkling in their eyes.
“You heard what Niamh said,” I told them. “No killing.” I pointed directly at Cyra before I swung my finger to Dave. “Did you hear that?”
Through Her’s connection, I could feel the mercenaries getting closer. The mages were behind them. They weren’t moving fast, so they must be walking. Two others, these on four legs, were running for all they were worth toward the town. Sentries, probably, coming to alert Drex.
“Heavily maim, but no killing,” I told my people.
Dave’s brow sank low. “It must’ve been them loitering in the woods, planning their violence, that made the mountain uneasy. The mountain asks that we exterminate—“
“No killing,” I interrupted. “The mountain will get plenty of blood. It’ll be fine with that.” Probably. It was a mountain, since when did they give orders?
“How about burning off a limb?” Cyra asked hopefully.
“Just don’t kill,” I reiterated. “Or start a forest fire. I don’t want to spend a bunch of energy sucking away your flames.”
The number of times I had to repeat stuff like that.
I shifted and took to the sky. Tristan was right behind me, blasting up faster and grabbing me as he went. Cyra shot up, following the others, except for Hollace, who needed more space before he shifted into his mighty Thunderbird form. Thunder rolled as he rose into the sky, which was thankfully still overcast. The mercenaries walking up the last bit of the hill to the shifter town wouldn’t think anything of it.
A large gargoyle grabbed a newly clothed Sebastian, our weird mage wearing black sweats and runners. It was time for him to fight in a way Elliot Graves never could.
If Tristan guided the gargoyles with wing movements, the sound would reverberate down the mountain, so I sent the command to prepare for battle through our connection, and the gargoyles wasted no time. My crew fit into their positions.
Our people below had all shifted and fallen into their own formation, Austin was in the lead with Broken Sue coming up behind. Despite his issue with dominance when he’d first met Austin, Drex had no trouble falling back, a huge bear fitting into the other shifters as they started forward at a fast pace. The basajaunak briefly flanked them, before disappearing into the trees.
I sent directives to push them faster, instructing them to remain invisible and slip past the mercenaries so they could then crowd around the mages. When we struck, they would, too.
We kept pace with the shifters, flying above the trees. More thunder rolled around us. I could feel the location of the enemy advancing; not far now. They moved steadily, no doubt their magical blaster guns drawn. The more expensive of those guns could rip through magical defenses and then flesh and bone. However, these mages didn’t expect much in the way of a magical defense. They would be worried about the shifters, so I doubted the blasters they carried would be high-tech. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be a problem for us.
Hopefully being the operative word. You just never knew with mages, especially with the unknowns of this attack.
The trees blurred as Tristan put on a burst of speed. The mercenaries should be just ahead.
Anticipation hit me. The basajaunak had sighted something. They didn’t slow, splitting instead to curve around what I surmised was the enemy. I pointed in that direction and Tristan veered right.
He started to dive. Here we go.
My heart picked up pace. I couldn’t just flap around on my own this time. I had a team and a flight plan to navigate. My wingman would be trying to lead and anticipate me at the same time. This was real-life training and getting it wrong could mean death.
With a deep breath I wiggled, and he let me go. I dove, magic at the ready. I could feel Sebastian’s ride diving with me. Near the top of the trees, I saw the first mercenary. He sensed something and slowed, looking to his right and left, but not up.