“Do you remember the plan?” Jax asked.
“Yeah,” Enrique answered, rounding a bend with the man and his jackal-eared partner. They were at the head of a group of humans and Anima. “We ambush the gang as the first team and then our second team goes in from the back to finish them off.”
“That’s right,” the adventurer replied, skirting concrete walls and the edges of a paved street. “Remember, our aim should be to capture their leader and drive them away from cities.”
Jax’s partner Nefri added, “If we can find their commander and capture him, we have leverage to threaten them and can also learn more about their troop movements. We’ll expel the invaders out of the kingdom.”
“Where are they coming from?” Enrique asked, pointing his gun as they swept through a set of empty shops. He had his white communicator earpiece, but Jax had manually set it to talk to Jax’s partner Nefri instead. The fact it was supposed to be pairing him with Vi made Enrique feel a twinge of guilt, but he ignored it.
“The Unplaced kingdoms, but you don’t need to hold back,” Nefri assured him. “The ones that come here illegally are the scum of their own society.” The distaste was evident in her voice.
In answer to Enrique’s questioning look, Jax clarified. “The Unplaced are allies of the Anima, as far as I’m aware, but based on our findings these gangs betrayed their own kind to the Saukallians back in their own kingdoms.”
The man’s communicator beeped and his black cloak shifted slightly as he swiped through it. “Some good news. Our League took down the leaders of the Lion’s Head gang, so we’re tracking the main members of the Dire Wolves this time. I think you were with us when we last met them. Just our luck, huh? But we’ve got an uptick in monster sightings. Careful.”
He aimed his rifle out towards some roofs, watching for snipers, so Nefri continued for him. “A lot of gangs start out from far-off smaller kingdoms, trying to escape to other nations.”
Jax crept forwards and motioned for them to follow. Nefri spoke very quietly.
“The Kingdom used to be very strict about immigration, but after the war the current King and Queen wanted to open the borders more to be more welcoming to the other races. Unfortunately we have to deal with this riffraff now.”
“I’m detecting movement,” Jax said sharply. “Sending in estimated positions. Everybody can see them on the screens, right?”
Nefri nodded affirmative.
“Yeah,” Enrique confirmed, viewing clusters of red dots appearing on the live map from his communicator.
“Like we discussed. We’ll target the front left and right, then break out and drive them towards our second team. On my signal, fire,” Jax told them. Enrique scrambled to point his gun towards the general direction of the dots as the group of adventurers raised their various weapons.
“We can’t even see them though,” Enrique noted, squinting in the distance. All he could make out were buildings and the street ahead.
At that moment, extra screens appeared from his communicator showing top-down, aerial views of black-cloaked figures carrying shields and swords. They marched in loose formations, their boots tramping on the ground.
“That’s the point,” Jax replied bluntly. “They can’t see us either. We have air superiority. Use the distance and surveillance to our advantage. Three. Two. One. Fire!”
Enrique pressed the trigger of his pistol and his fiery orange projectiles joined the others’ beams in a colorful barrage of energy, soaring in long arcs like comets.
The beams smashed into the ground and exploded, pummeling armored bodies and blowing up pieces of the street into shrapnel, causing gang members to be flattened, hurled away, or scattered. As the gang shouted amongst themselves and tried to regroup, holding up their shields, their clusters on the left and right jostled against their forces in the middle in a confused hubbub.
Still, a man at their front shouted to the other members in a rough and harsh voice. “Don’t let those s***y adventurers distract you! After we take over the city, everything in it is ours!”
Their leader who had spoken was large and muscular, with a set of black tattoos on his arms, oily black hair, and glittering brown eyes. He had a black cloak, which was fashioned with ornate black armor.
The cloak had a design of a black, red-eyed, monstrous wolf on the back. Pinned on the side was a round badge with three black claw marks. Dangling from the man’s neck was a gold amulet with a spinning purple diamond inside. The leader of the Dire Wolves lowered the shield he’d used to defend himself and raised a golden-bladed sword. “Get them! Kill their healers first!”
The gang retaliated with their own yellow beams shooting from enchanted steel.
“Shields! Run to the next position!” Jax shouted. The adventurers and Enrique threw up colorful energy shields over their heads and around their sides, combining like a layered, patchwork rainbow dome, and rushed towards a set of buildings as the yellow streaks impacted the ground.
Some thudded against the barriers. The attack wasn’t as coordinated and well-aimed as the adventurers’, but patches of the street around them exploded into rubble. Sharp debris and bursts of energy pinged against their defenses. Human mages and Anima lurched back, stumbled, or paused to summon extra shields for nearby guild members.
“Blast them!” Jax commanded. “Let’s show them what we’re made of!”
He emitted red beams from his rifle, while his partner sent out gold arcs with her curved sword. Other adventurers fired near them. Among them was Yongmi, a woman with hair in a black bun, releasing green arrows of energy from her bow, and her partner Ifrit with black panther ears summoning explosive red orbs from a scepter. Enrique followed suit, pointing his pistol and sending out orange streams of fire.
The gang leader shouted to his subordinates as the various projectiles rained down. “Get a hold of yourselves! Regroup!” As the ground shuddered and brightly colored explosions smashed against the gang’s ranks, the adventurers closed in on the invaders in a pincer formation.
The hail of missiles were doing damage, but some gang members still held, their shields interlocking in a glowing wall formation as they tried to fire back at the adventurers. The leader shouted, “Form up, d*** it!” They arranged themselves in short ragged lines, shifting as a constant stream of blasts plowed through armored men and interrupted their movements.
Enrique saw they managed to form concentric rings with the leader at the very center. Jax’s mouth formed in a grim line at the sight. “D*** that Yecna, making his own men a barrier. He knows we’re after him.”
The man with the scarlet rifle spoke into his communicator. “Army squads, Luna Guild needs an airstrike. Sending coordinates.”
A cool female voice spoke from the earpiece. “Roger that. Commander Rea and Team 7 coming your way.”
There was a blur of silver and three fighter ships with gleaming hulls and shining wings streaked overhead. Several black torpedo-like shapes whizzed down, accompanied by a stream of orange beams and spiraling yellow missiles.
The leader of the Dire Wolves shouted, “Shield wall! Advance!” and the amulet on his neck glowed. The purple diamond inside spun and flashed with green light. A flurry of explosions lit the earth. Bodies vaporized or burst in mists of blood. When they cleared, several gang members lay dead, scattered at the edges or blown apart in the middle, but the leader and formations around him remained standing. They were glowing with green light, expressions of fury and contempt on their faces.
Enrique’s eyes widened.
The ships flew over the gang and sent another barrage of torpedo bombs down, sending up black explosions, then circled around to fly back. Still, the leader and his company held, racing towards the city. The pilot who had spoken communicated to Jax. “Luna Guild, you need to engage. The army’s too busy supporting surveillance and evac.”
“What the h***? How’re they alive?” Jax asked in shock. “The other gangs aren’t nearly that strong.”
“Something’s wrong,” his partner murmured.
“I guess we don’t have a choice. We’re closing in,” he ordered. “Charge!”
If the ranged attacks had been effective, the close-combat of the adventurers was even more so as they slammed against the clusters of gangsters. Blades and projectiles hammered against armor, sliced through skin and bone, dented shields, and sent bodies hurling through the air.
Jax summoned a barrage of fiery red beams while Nefri swung her sword and a wave of water swept out, crashing against gang members. Meanwhile, Yongmi’s green arrows struck boots and sword arms, forming white ice and freezing them in place.
“Aaargh!”
“Aaaah!”
As gang members cried out and yelled in pain, some adventurers like Yongmi’s panther partner produced colored shields as the gang attempted to strike back. Sparks from clanging metal and yellow explosions lit the air.
Jax’s communicator pinged and Enrique heard a female voice in his own communicator. “Aerial Team 7 here. We’ve got a situation. Giant boars from the west forests are approaching. Counting forty-seven at least. More concerning is a sudden rush of people towards Morin. They don’t have armor or badges, but they’re armed. Could be plainclothes from the gang. We’re already enacting a city-wide evacuation.”
“Morin? S***. That’s right behind us,” Jax muttered, ducking and dodging some enemy beams. He wanted to glance back in the direction of the city but he needed to focus on the danger already around him.
Nefri gritted her teeth, her white robe flowing and golden earrings dangling beneath her jackal ears. “We need to end this now!” she called to Jax next to her, as she plunged her golden khopesh through a gang member’s chest, the opponent spouting blood. Her partner merely nodded assent and charged up his rifle, which formed an orange energy ring and then shot out a concentrated red beam razed with yellow electricity, pummeling a wave of black-armored opponents and sending them flying.
Jax scanned the battlefield with hard blue eyes and stopped at a spot near the center. The assault had opened up the enemy line enough to glimpse a muscular, oily-haired, black-tattooed man in the center. Jax shouted. “Yecna, leader of the Dire Wolves gang! You are surrounded and stand no chance against us! Surrender if you want to live!”
Yecna, the leader, sneered. He stepped towards Jax and his partner. “You adventurers, always getting in our way. First you take out Kyaros at Helmsgate, and then you mess up my deal with the Nocturnes. Think you’re f***ing tough? You’re a bunch of softies.”
The man slashed the air with his golden blade as the amulet on his black outfit glowed. The purple diamond inside the amulet spun, casting a spell which made his body flash with red light.
A yellow arc with a scarlet outline flew from his blade. “You want to send us back to our kingdoms? Where the Saukallians are always raiding our homes and dragging away our people? You don’t know what it’s like back there! We’d rather die!”
The arc hit the red shield of a panther man and blew up violently, causing the shield to fade and the panther man to stumble. Two yellow beams soared out and caught him in the chest, and he fell. His partner cried out, “Ifrit!” and knelt at his side.
“I’m on it!” a nearby wolf woman said, raising a scepter and emitting green light. The injured Anima began to glow with matching light, and his partner, a panicked expression on her face, sent out a shield and a volley of arrows to intercept several incoming beams.
A wave of adventurers charged towards the middle and fired at Yecna, but he strode towards them with four accompanying gang members and slashed with his sword. The leader’s body flashed with red light and suddenly six adventurers were flying through the air from vicious arcs.
“Healer!” A young mage shouted as he hurried to an injured pair.
“Healer! We need a healer!” another pair hollered, fending off five gang members who had advanced towards the wounded and were trying to surround them.
“What the h***?” Jax fired a nonstop stream of red bullet-like beams at Yecna, a look of concerned concentration on his face.
The beams struck the leader’s armor but Yecna glowed with green light and continued to gain ground with his men. He slashed with his weapon and a male mage fell with a cry, and two gang members next to him blasted a pair wielding two bows and arrows, sending them crumpling onto the dirt.
Jax’s face darkened. “I get it now. That was an attack boost from that amulet. He must have a defensive spell too.”
The jackal woman next to him was pouring out a stream of gold arcs from her curved blade, cutting down three gang members in spurts of blood. “That scum! I don’t know where he got that item, but we need to get it off him.”
The ground rumbled and a series of loud grunting sounds suddenly brought both groups’ attention. A stampeding herd of brown boars rushed in their direction. They were each twice the size of a man, with gleaming white tusks and hooves that dug craters in the dirt. A large cloud of dust trailed behind them. Their scarlet eyes were wild and unfocused, making screeching and grunting noises.
“Reeeeet!”
The giant boars plowed between the two sides, causing adventurers and the criminals alike to scatter. Some weren’t fast enough. Several gangsters were impaled by ivory tusks and hurled into the air. Five members were outright trampled under the hooves of the stampeding horde, screaming in pain and surprise. Anima and humans were thrown to the side or yanked their partners away as their shields were smashed by the rushing bodies of monsters. Enrique managed to leap away with Jax and his partner as a cloud of dirt billowed in the herd’s wake, obscuring his vision with thick dust.
Yecna grit his teeth, but did not look surprised. Instead, he took advantage of the chaos to put a hand on his amulet. The diamond in the artifact spun faster and glowed with green light. “Now!” he shouted to his men. Tendrils of green energy flowed to them.
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The leader ran with the members closest to him, suddenly black-armored blurs, moving with ridiculous speed and dodging stray boars and surprised adventurers. Some adventurers closest to their path tried to intercept, hastily aiming their weapons, but the gang was too quick. Yecna and his men slashed and stabbed with inhuman speed, striking pairs down with cries and sending others lurching away.
“They’re heading into the city!” Nefri shouted.
Jax cursed. “Change of plans. B Team, take out those boars. The rest of A Team and I will go after the Dire Wolves.”
“Let’s go!” Enrique dashed after the fleeing gang members. Jax and Nefri followed hot on his heels.
He fired a series of red beams at Yecna and his men as they reached the edge of the city, where a cluster of houses stood. He could see up ahead a crowd of fleeing Anima citizens and their partners, and a large set of silver ships on streets or circling overhead. The gang members ducked and dodged his projectiles, then slipped between the walls of buildings and took shots back at him.
Enrique narrowly avoided a red-yellow beam which blew a hole into a nearby house. Chunks of concrete sailed towards him. On instinct, he threw up his hands and a round shield of red energy appeared. The debris struck his barrier with stunning force, shattering it and causing it to fade. White-hot pain shot through his right arm as pieces struck the sleeve of his cloak.
“Aaaah! S***!” He winced and stumbled. Blood trickled from the fabric. A gang member aimed a glowing blade at Enrique’s chest, but was forced to dive to the side as red and gold beams thudded against his position.
“Be careful!” Nefri called out to him as she engaged the nearest two opponents.
“Are you okay?” Jax asked, taking cover by a sidewall as Yecna countered with his own flood of beams. Explosions hit three houses in a flash of wind and fire. Glass shattered and walls erupted.
“I’m fine,” Enrique gasped. He tried to lift his arm, but pain pulsed through it. A few shots from his gun sailed low and struck the ground, setting patches alight with a brief orange flame.
“Team A, aid the evacuation and protect the citizens at all costs,” Jax commanded with his communicator. “If anyone’s free nearby—” He exchanged a brief flurry of attacks between three members, all weaving in and out of standing structures and debris. “—help take out Yecna.”
The gang members spread out, flitting between the walls of homes. Black-armored men darted from the side and attacked from behind the three. Nefri summoned a shield to absorb energy blasts and Jax held off a rear assault with repeated rifle fire. Enrique summoned a pair of writhing flames to distract gang members in front, but aiming his gun made his arm hurt with sharp pangs.
A hail of yellow beams struck the doors and entrances of six houses behind Enrique. Wood splintered and panicked shouts came from somewhere within.
His eyes widened and he turned towards the sound. “There’s people still in there!”
Jax hurried to one of the houses and knocked the door down, followed by Nefri and Enrique. The three found themselves in a damaged living room with sofas and chipped tables in disarray, and heard a crash as gang members broke in somewhere as well.
There were shrill screams above them.
“They’re upstairs!” Jax said to Enrique, racing up a set of spiraling marble steps.
As the three ran, the heavy thump of boots signaled the gangsters were running up too. Enrique ducked as the wall beside him was suddenly shredded apart by beams. More blasts shot out across the stairway behind and in front of them, blowing holes in concrete, causing them to pause, lurch, and awkwardly huddle together to bring up shields or avoid being hit.
“Urban combat is the worst,” Jax muttered. “Let’s hope they don’t break the stairs.”
They skidded to the second floor and almost ran straight into a brown-haired man wielding a straight sword and wearing a ragtag set of clothes. He had a white shirt and blue pants, with a scar on his cheek. They all froze in surprise for a moment. The stranger slashed at Enrique, who stood in puzzled shock. The blade whipped towards his face, but before it could reach a green shield flashed around his body. The steel whacked against his barrier in a shower of yellow sparks and sent him down hard on the ground.
“Argh!”
Nefri managed to recover and cut the man down with a swipe of her sword. “Hey! Watch out!”
Enrique lurched to his feet, wincing as he felt his bruised side. “Right. Yeah.” The shielding pendant he had almost forgotten about faded to a muted green color.
He stared at the body, dripping with red blood. “Why did you—”
“An enemy,” Nefri replied shortly. “Plainclothes. They’re trying to infiltrate the city. But I know this neighborhood. Used to live here.”
Other men shouted to one another from rooms to their left and right.
“Here, take the money!”
“Find those Anima! We need hostages!”
Enrique entered the room to their left and glimpsed two ordinary-looking gang members ransacking a set of cabinets beneath a shattered window, stuffing coins and items into a large brown sack.
He glowed with red aura and summoned streaks of fire at them, striking one in the leg. Gang members fired—but from the wall to his right. Surprised, he weaved to the side as yellow beams pierced holes in the concrete. One beam hit his cloak and sent him stumbling, feeling like someone had slammed a hammer against his gut. “Ack!” He clutched his stomach. Jax and Nefri fired from another room, striking the members on the other side.
The two barreled in as a gang member in front pointed a blade at his chest. Yellow beams flashed against his vision.
Nefri summoned a shield around herself and her partner, but Jax leaped and tackled Enrique, turning and landing with his back on the ground with a crash. The beams meant for the boy soared over their heads and hit the shield or pummeled the doorway to bits. Jax pulled out his rifle and fired, striking the attacker in the chest and blowing a hole through him.
“Ugh.” Jax winced from the impact and groaned as he tried to recover. “You alright?”
“Y—yeah. Thanks.” Darn it. This is harder than I thought. I’m dragging everyone down at this rate. Not really helping. Enrique felt increasingly useless as he felt the pain from his various injuries.
The three heard shuffling footsteps and soft crying noises. Through one of the doorways, Enrique saw a small family of bunny Anima. One was an older boy, brown-haired, in a white shirt and blue pants and carrying a knife. The other three were brunette girls in similar clothes. One was smaller than the others and sobbing.
“I’m scared!” she wailed. She clutched her sister tightly, refusing to budge.
One of the older girls tugged on her shoulder. She looked shaken, but was trying to keep her voice calm. “Come on, Mia, we need to go.”
The boy who was leading his three sisters glanced back, a worried expression on his face. “We need to find mom and dad. They probably think we’re with everyone else.”
Jax spoke up from his position on the ground as he started to prop himself up with an arm. “Did you get separated during the evacuation? We can help you find—”
Red-yellow beams burst through the floor and struck him on the back, sending him tumbling through the air.
“Jax!” Nefri shouted, running to kneel at his side. She dug through her robe and produced a small green vial, pouring the liquid out on his body, which glowed with green light. “I should have brought more of these. D*** it. Please be okay…”
She pointed her sword down at the first floor where the attack had come, firing back, but with a sudden thump of footsteps three beams shot straight at her face. She threw up a shield but they struck with tremendous force, and she crashed heavily against a wall.
Yecna, with his diamond amulet, and three of his black-armored men stepped forwards. The leader scanned the four Anima citizens behind Enrique with a cold gaze.
“Capture the smallest one,” he barked to his men. “Use her to make those adventurers surrender. Kill the rest. They’re useless.”
A surge of indignation went through Enrique. He raised his gun, the hand of his injured arm trembling, and formed a shield. He lurched towards the man’s amulet. “You’ll have to get through me first.”
“That won’t be a problem,” the gang leader sneered. He pointed his sword and a red-yellow beam struck Enrique in the chest, shattering his defenses.
The boy slammed against the ground, gasping for breath. His eyes watered from the sudden pain that blossomed over his body.
“D—don’t come closer,” the bunny Anima with the knife cried, his hands shaking as he tried to block his sisters from view. He fired a green beam that hit the leader’s shoulder plate, but the man didn’t even flinch.
Enrique struggled to get to his feet.
Yecna kicked him dismissively. With a crunch, Enrique felt some of his ribs break. He audibly gasped and collapsed again. It suddenly hurt to breathe.
As he lay on the floor, staring up at the leader’s face, he had a sense of deja vu. Here he was again, like not long ago. Back home. There was Henricks, with his sneer and his two gold molars, not Yecna. There were the swaggering, leather jacket-wearing members of the Black Wolves instead of the Dire Wolves. Kicking him down because he was trying to protect a couple kids. Being tossed aside like he wasn’t even worth dealing with, like he was a little pest rather than a person.
He heard Henricks’ voice in his head. Little man thinks he’s something with all the other rats behind him?
I’m a rat.
I’m a puny, pathetic rat.
Move, d*** it. Move! He moved. Or tried to. His hands scrabbled against the tiled floor.
Yecna looked down and scoffed. “This stupid runt doesn’t get it, does he? You adventurers think you’re so great with your spells and other-world knowledge. But me and my men, we grew up with nothing. We do whatever it takes to survive.”
He slammed his boot down on Enrique’s right arm. There was a loud crack as the boy’s arm broke.
“Aaaaah!”
Enrique felt like his limb had been set on fire, sharp, blinding pain jamming into him like a knife. He blinked back tears, writhing in agony.
He saw the leader of the Dire Wolves grab the young bunny boy by the hair, hold up a glowing red blade, and slit his throat.
Enrique’s eyes widened. “You piece of s***!” he wanted to shout at Yecna, but it came out as a sequence of ragged, protesting squeaks. The pain was blinding. Stars swam in his vision. One of the sisters made a choked sob of shock and the smallest one wailed louder.
The gang leader chucked the body aside and his men strode towards the closest sister—
A blue beam outlined in green burst through the wall and struck his side. Yecna was sent hurtling through a wall and onto the floor below. His men, startled, whirled around to search through the hole for the sudden assailant. More blue beams soared out, piercing them straight through the head, sending them toppling.
Then everything fell silent, except for the wailing from the small child. One of the older sisters moved to the body of her brother, but another grabbed her shoulder. “We—we need to go.”
The pain was so immense, Enrique briefly blacked out. When he came to, he wasn’t sure how much time passed, but the remaining family was starting to move towards the stairway when Vi raced up the steps, breathing hard, a rifle strapped to her back. Two wolf-like Anima in armor followed behind her.
“Enrique! I’ve been everywhere…” Her voice faded as she met the eyes of the family.
“I’m so sorry. I wish I came sooner,” she told them quietly, dropping her gaze. There wasn’t much she could say to comfort them. She picked up the body, which had a small pool of blood around its neck. Even the most skilled healers couldn’t bring back the dead.
It was far too late. Her fox ears flattened as she stared at the little body. I failed. I’m always failing.
The two Anima who had arrived with her silently gathered around the family. One took the body, leading them towards an evacuation site. The other patted a sniffling sister on the shoulder.
Vi walked over and knelt at Enrique’s side. “You’re—you’re hurt.” Her voice shook as she put a hand over his arm.
“No s***,” he grumbled. He glowed with green light and he felt his pain ease slightly.
“You could have died. Do you understand that?”
Enrique didn’t know how to respond. Vi visibly trembled as she dug through her pouch and took out a blue potion. “Here. Drink.”
He did so, or rather Vi helped tilt the bottle into his mouth. An unpleasant sensation flowed through him, as if something was crawling its way through his body. His arm bones grew and morphed together, like solid to half-liquid, and began to slowly mend the large tears that had occurred. The same went for his ribs. He felt a hot prickling as the gash on his arm and his bruised side started to heal themselves.
It didn’t hurt on the level of the actual injuries, but it was definitely uncomfortable. If he wasn’t feeling its effects he could have mistaken it for an attack all on its own. He grit his teeth.
Vi headed over to Jax and Nefri. They stirred. She fed them each an additional potion.
“I’ll carry you. Don’t move.” Vi lifted Enrique up in her arms.
“I’m too d*** weak. I’m pathetic.” That was all he could say. He let his head loll and stared at the bloody spot where the bunny boy had been killed.
If Jax hadn’t saved Enrique and then been hit himself, maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe if Enrique hadn’t gotten himself hurt in the first place, they wouldn’t have screwed up.
Vi propped his head back up. “Don’t blame yourself. It won’t help anyone. You’re going to need a lot of rest at home. An injury like that takes time.”
She set off, looking for the leader, but he had vanished.
The streets were quiet now. Bodies of men littered the streets, riddled with holes, or torn and hacked apart. A large number were shot straight through the head with extreme precision, or had their head sliced clean off. Some were in black armor. Others weren’t, but from the way Vi’s eyes swept over them dispassionately, Enrique knew they were disguised gang members.
Vi came upon one gang member injured in the shoulder, bleeding profusely. He was moaning in pain and attempting to get off the ground. “Ahh…help…”
“Where’s your leader?” she asked as she approached.
The man simply groaned. “Help me.”
She gazed down at the bleeding man and let out a sympathetic sigh. Vi held out a hand and he glowed with green light. Enrique, a little shocked, watched the gang member’s skin heal and the wounds close up. The man’s labored breathing slowed.
“Why did you do that? Isn’t he an enemy? Didn’t you see what they did?”
She put a hand on the man. “That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care.”
The fox woman lifted him up in a single motion. A few strands of blue energy wrapped around him like ropes.
The fox woman walked until she saw a woman with black hair in a silver armored suit. She was ensuring some wounded gang members were tightly restrained in magi-steel rings, to be packed in a nearby ship. Interrogation, and then a publicly streamed execution. That was the official policy of King Malgus for these things.
She silently motioned the healed man to move in to a nearby ship. He complied, too exhausted to do much else, though he gave a quick glance in her direction with a mix of relief and disbelief on his face.
The woman straightened at her approach. “We have the city clear now. Could be worse. Seventeen casualties. Five civilians. We lost contact with Luna Guild too.”
“That’s far too many.” She looked somber. Vi pointed towards the house where she had picked up Enrique. “I believe two of their leaders are back there. They were injured, but they should be alright. Do you mind giving us a ride?”
“Sure. Be right back.” The woman hurried off.
Vi scrolled through her phone, a worried expression on her face. “This isn’t good. Tilly and De’Vorah are in danger. Something may have happened to Ali as well. Her phone isn’t moving. She doesn’t have my gemstone with her either.”
“What do you mean?” Enrique asked.
“I installed a tracking app on her phone,” Vi informed him in an offhand manner.
“You what? Isn’t that kind of against her privacy?” Enrique winced. His arm and ribs were still repairing, but it was very slow going.
Vi’s concerned eyes darted over her partner’s battered body, distracted by the sight. “It hasn’t changed position for a while now. Maybe she’s asleep?”
Enrique shifted in his position to look at Vi. “Maybe.” He sounded hesitant. “Cats like sleeping a lot, right?”
----------------------------------------
Alicia had found the very edge of the camp.
Problem. There were wards and spells all around the tents. Layers upon layers, criss-crossing each other like stacks of nets. There were thin green lines of energy as far as the eye could see, like glittering spiderwebs, and that was only the visible ones.
F***. I should’ve stayed home.