Simani’s eyes flitted across the darkened meadow, taking stock. Of the human combatants, two had been killed by Ashwin. Ruban had killed one of the gangsters and had watched another get stabbed in the gut by Simani.
“Three, I think,” she said, confirming his calculations. “They’ve scattered, though. Won’t be easy to find in the darkness.”
“We have to find them. We need to capture at least one of the gangsters alive, preferably more. That was the whole point of—”
A shot rang out, and a bullet whizzed past his ear.
Before he could react, Simani fired off two shots in the direction from which the gunshot had originated. Lowering her weapon, she sprinted into the darkness, followed closely by Ruban.
Moments later, the roar of a powerful engine reached his ears. A large black SUV — the kind typically used by the Hunter Corps — swept into view, screeching to a halt a few feet ahead. A team of four leapt out of the vehicle and were quickly briefed by Simani.
Ruban smiled. At long last, they outnumbered their enemies.
A brief gunfight ensued, and the remaining gangsters were soon rounded up. Overhead, the battle between the two Aeriels raged on. Ruban squinted at the sky through the smoke and dust that now covered the meadow. Ashwin’s current opponent wasn’t even an X-class. He wondered if Ashwin was dragging it out because he really wanted to maintain his cover, or if he simply didn’t want to kill another Aeriel.
The captured thugs were handcuffed and trussed into the two SUVs. The backup team took one of them, while the other two were forced into the car in which Ruban and Simani had arrived.
The black SUV roared to life and began inching forward through the debris.
Simani placed a hand on the hood of their car and glanced back at the scorched meadow. “One of them is going to survive the night.”
The Aeriels. Ruban closed his eyes. “And we’ll Hunt down the one that does. No point wasting our energy when they’re killing each other for us. It’s not like they’re going to hurt any civilians out here.”
“And the wings?”
He shrugged. “Not worth getting ourselves killed over. We’ve gotten what we need. The sooner we can make them talk, the sooner this whole operation can be dismantled, once and for all.”
“Yes, but—”
A blazing energy shell streaked through the air and hit the black SUV, which had just reached the edges of the meadow.
The explosion nearly knocked Ruban off his feet. The stench of burned flesh and scorched metal assailed his nostrils. He gripped Simani’s shoulder to keep himself upright, his other hand unsheathing the sifblade at his belt.
“My God,” Simani whispered, her eyes fixed on the destroyed SUV. “There’s another.”
The next few minutes were a blur of shells, sifblades, and bullets. After destroying the black SUV, the new Aeriel attacked the remaining Hunters and their vehicle. The Aeriel was fast, and it was all Ruban and Simani could do to avoid its energy shells. There was barely any opening for a counterattack.
They moved away from the car, hoping to keep it from being blown to smithereens by distracting the Aeriel. The only two gangsters still alive were inside that car. The third had been with the backup team in the black SUV, and had died with them.
Soon, Ruban and Simani stood back to back a few meters from their car. The Aeriel circled them overhead, the air crackling with energy. Ruban gripped his sifblade and felt Simani tense behind him. If they failed, there wouldn’t be a second chance.
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Ephemeral light flickered atop the Aeriel’s outstretched hand, as the shell took shape. Ruban sucked in a deep breath and adjusted his stance, preparing for the attack. Behind him, Simani mirrored his movements.
As the shell solidified, the Aeriel raised its arm, lips twisted in a sneer. Ruban feinted to the left, hoping to draw the creature away from Simani. Once she was in the clear—
The Aeriel’s eyes widened and it jerked forward, the light dissipating from around its fingers. Ruban leapt back, glancing at Simani to ensure that she’d done the same. An energy shell had hit the Aeriel in the back; not strong enough to kill it, but nonetheless a staggering blow.
Behind it, Ashwin glided forward, one hand outstretched. He’d attacked the Aeriel before it could release its shell.
The Aeriel whirled on Ashwin with a snarl. Pulling its injured wings closer, it barreled towards him, leaving Ruban and Simani behind.
The two Aeriels clashed midair. Ashwin was thrown backwards but recovered quickly, zipping through the air until he’d managed to land a solid kick in his opponent’s abdomen. The Aeriel screeched and threw an energy shell, which grazed Ashwin’s left wing before detonating against a tree in the distance.
Ashwin didn’t reciprocate the attack. Instead, he simply circled his opponent, his movements both wary and curious. Ruban trudged forward, squinting through the murky night air to try and discern his intention. This was not the time for games.
As he watched, the two Aeriels exchanged a few more blows. The newcomer kicked Ashwin in the gut, then grabbed him by the throat and shouted something in his face. Ashwin twisted in his captor’s grip and landed a blow on the side of its head, shouting back as he freed himself.
The other Aeriel groaned, reeling backwards, then broke into sudden laughter and let loose another energy shell. As Ashwin scrambled to dodge it, the shell struck him in the shoulder. Still, he refused to retaliate, placidly circling his opponent and exchanging blows every few seconds. The shouting continued.
Ruban could make out some of the words, but not enough to make any sense of the conversation — if a conversation was what this was.
“Come on, we have to go!” Simani gripped his arm tight enough to leave a bruise. “We’ve to get out of here before they notice us again.”
Ruban nodded. They dashed over to the car and leapt in, Simani turning the key in the ignition even before the doors had closed behind them.
He wanted to shake Ashwin back to his senses, tell him to snap out of it and fight. But whatever game Ashwin was playing, he couldn’t allow Simani to get killed because of it. They’d suffered enough losses for one day.
The engine revved and Simani turned the steering wheel. The car raced out of the meadow. Ruban kept his eyes trained on the battling Aeriels, his sifblade in one hand and a pistol in the other. But the Aeriels seemed to neither notice nor care what was happening below them.
Soon, they’d left the meadow behind and were hurtling down a deserted highway. The car jerked and swayed, making the handcuffed gangsters in the backseat swear and groan. Ruban ignored them in favor of sheathing his blade and holstering his gun.
“Who’s Maya?”
Simani’s soft question made Ruban’s head jerk as he turned to look at her. “What?”
“The Aeriels kept saying that. Maya. What is that? A person? A place? A code of some kind? I couldn’t catch most of what they were saying. So I thought you might know.”
Ruban frowned. Maya... Amidst all the mayhem, that was the only word he’d heard the Aeriels repeat more than once. And Simani had picked up on it too. He’d heard that name before, but his mind drew a blank every time he tried to remember where and when.
“I don’t know. I heard as much as you did, probably less.” He smiled thinly. “Your hearing was always sharper than mine.”
“Yes, but you’re familiar with that Aeriel. The one that saved us.” Simani’s eyes were trained on the road ahead. “So I imagined you’d know more than me.”
“Familiar with—” Ruban glanced at the rearview mirror. The two thugs were too busy struggling with their bonds to spare any attention for the Hunters or their conversation. “What’re you talking about?”
Simani shrugged. “That Aeriel — the one the mafia were Hunting — it’s more powerful than it was letting on. And it was trying to protect us, you know it was. If it could overpower an X-class that easily, why hadn’t it done so until I was staring death in the face? It had been toying with the mafia and their Aeriels until we arrived. And it’s doing so with the new one right now. Come to think of it, the only time it used an energy shell on the newcomer was when we were about to get fried alive.”
“Perhaps because we were on the same side? The mafia clearly wanted to kill it; and those Aeriels were helping with the Hunt—”
“And you know this because?”
“Of course I don’t know it. It’s just—”
“You didn’t kill it when you had the chance, after it fought off the X-class. You didn’t even try. But it wasn’t just that. You knew it wouldn’t kill us, didn’t you? Hell, half the time I thought you were relying on it to help us. And for what — enemy of an enemy makes a friend?” Her lips curled into a sneer. “I’m not an idiot, Ruban. Do me the courtesy of not treating me like one. You know that Aeriel, don’t you? And more importantly, it knows you.”