CHAPTER 7

Daniel stood, and the same group which had previously braved the floor. Toby threw the door open, and they paused for a moment.

There wasn’t a single fly to be seen.

“Shit.” Alex cursed. “They have learned.”

He jogged forward, with the rest of them following. They all knew the mathematics. If there was a queen, they needed to finish this quickly. Alex made a beeline to where Daniel had unleashed his lightning strike, peeked over the barrier, and then he yanked his head back. His finger was at his lips. Then he gestured for Daniel to join him to see the room.

Daniel cautiously snuck a quick look before yanking back fast enough to give him whiplash. His mind struggled to comprehend what he had witnessed. All of Alex’s apprehension made sense.

The first time they got this far he’d been so busily shooting the flies that he had not registered what he was seeing. The normal kindergarten floor was gone and instead it was like the entire inside of the building had been hollowed out. While he had observed that fact, he hadn’t understood the scope. He stole another glance. When he looked up, he could see upwards to the seventh floor. The interior renovations were not what was making sweat bead on his forehead. The space was filled with thousands of the flies and the pattern they were moving at had changed. Rather than senseless swarming, the flies were travelling in lines. Intricate deliberate patterns that had them spinning to the outside of the room and then inwards. There were multiple hubs where they concentrated and spread out from.

While they were doing anything overtly hostile, the difference between random chaos and this controlled motion was chilling. Before raw numbers and the strength of each bee, had threatened to overwhelm them, but now that strength was organised. A horde of barbarians versus a roman legion. The same numbers, an identical individual threat on per solider basis, but the legion were many orders of magnitude more deadly because of the coordination they had amongst their members. Ten working together could be overwhelmed, but when they reached the thousands, the threat kept increasing.

“We’re fucked.” Alex whispered. “Kill as many as you can. We won’t get another chance.”

With the spinning patterns in front of him, Daniel agreed. What he was witnessing scared him far more than the previous view. Hel focused his electricity and went back to basic. The club was, of course recharged and crackled with energy, but because the organised flies hadn’t spotted him he had a moment to prepare the spell field before touching that intense energy around the club. Daniel knew the moment he interacted with that he would be on a timer as while Blood Drinker could contain it once Daniel’s mind got controlled it would repel or at least that is what it felt like. Once he touched it, the stored energy was mere moments away from release.

Daniel focused on what he needed to do. He had to prepare everything before engaging the seething pot of potential that wrapped around his club. His lightning sense let him connect to a to a spot on the other side of the room. His mana flexed and just like his club was a ball of positive ions the opposite negatives ones formed at the point he was focusing on. As that power built, he planned out how the lightning would spread. Routing the main beam to run through multiple hubs.

The negative pressure grew sufficiently to attract the potential gathered on Blood Drinker. Daniel was drawn into mentally wrestling with it.

Time was up.

That was fine. Everything was in place. All he had to do was to enhance the energy with a final flood of mana and cover his eyes.

Then relax.

Boom!

This time because he was crouched down instead of standing the wave of air did not knock him off his feet through his hair was ruffled. Daniel did not know how many he had killed, but he was confident it would be an increase. Both because of the way they were concentrated and the extra time that had let him boost the efficiency of what he was attempting. Daniel stood and turned to run back to where they had come from and the safety of the fire escape.

Something was wrong.

Last time when they had retreated even dazed as he was Daniel had recognised that the buzzing had stopped. This time, the buzz paused and then built immediately to be more intense than ever within a blink.

He glanced back to see a thick, almost solid stream of the flies entering the small reception from the hollowed-out space. A coordinated approach.

“Full Defence.” Alex screamed.

Daniel was forced to a halt as all the tanks simultaneously stopped running and raised their shields up like they were facing an arrow volley falling from the side.

Energy crackled, and glimmering force entombed them. A near perfect dome.

The closest swarm of flies slammed into the energy and bounced away.

For a moment, a stalemate occurred, and it felt almost felt like they didn’t want to engage. The coils rotating back into the main room with every individual fly that left being replaced by one from the hive itself.

“Do we keep going?” Tamara asked.

“I’m not sure.” Alex said. “We’ll drop it and put it back up if they come for us.”

The shield dropped, and they stepped forward were hurried. The flies reacted immediately swept toward.

“Defence…”

The tanks stopped moving their shields were raised to the same position, and the energy dome snapped back in place. It was obviously a static defensive measure. While it was impressive coordination to get it up so quickly, Daniel was focused on the flies. They flicked from the attack lines back to the original course almost faster than he could think. They buzzed the shield, but did not crash into it again.

“Smart buggers.” Alex snapped. “Again.”

They made another hurried step.

The flies reacted quicker this time. It seemed like in half a step the flies had crossed the room to slam into them. There was a crackle as the glowing fixed shield defence popped into place.

Six flies were flying straight for him. Daniel ducked his head and engaged speed, expecting the flies to collide and then crack the barrier, but like the first time they retreated to their spot.

“Incoming.” Alex yelled.

Daniel looked up and recognised the threat. It was a strike force of about a hundred that had entered the room. They rushed at ceiling height and then changed direction to attack them. The tank’s tensed the shields glowed stronger.

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The flies swept down millimetres from the shield but not touching it and struck the thinly carpet floor in a near perfect oval around the group

It was like an anti-aircraft gun unleashing at close range into a wall. The noise was horrendous. Shards of concrete were blasted out from the floor. The spells the tanks had activated deflected the shrapnel before they drew blood.

“What?” Tamara asked.

A dust cloud had been blown up. More flies were sweeping the barrier and smashing into the weakened concrete.

“Fuck.” Alex cursed.

The ground shifted and then they were in free fall.

As a unit, they crashed into the third floor. Daniel bit his tongue, the rush of coppery tang barely noticeable in his state of alarm. His knees absorbed the force, his back wrenched. He bounced a little between the people around as they supported each other. Behind him, the two tanks and Libba were less successful, collapsing in the pile.

“What the?”

“They blew up the floor.”

“Shields up.” Alex yelled.

Daniel looked up at the newly created hole in the ceiling and the new cloud of flies that were coming at them.

The four tanks that were still standing raised their shields, and it was painfully obvious that the powerful protective enhancements that had protected them above were gone. Now their protection was flimsy wood and steel and standard defensive skills..

More of the flies streaming through the gap at them. Once more, they spread out into a circle.

“Shit.” Alex yelled.

There was the same explosive noise of the collision of the super-fast flies with the floor. Shards of concrete went through his armour like it wasn’t there. His legs were stinging from the pain.

Then they were falling again.

They crashed down onto floor two.

Ivey and the other healer were radiating healing magic, mitigating a small amount of the damage. The attempts reduced but did not prevent the consequences of falling through a floor. It felt like all of his joints up his leg and spine had been strained.

Dust was everywhere. He blinked the grit out of his eyes. This time, only Alex and Daniel were left standing. One tank that had fallen was screaming in absolute pain, clutching his ankle.

Speed and strength.

He engaged both skills. Without hesitation, he grabbed Tamara and Ivey and sprinted toward the fire stairs. He crossed the distance in moments, moving almost as fast as the spinning flies. Luckily, all the ones nearby had just ploughed through the solid concrete floors and looked battered and disorientated and were no longer focusing on the humans.

He threw open the door placed the two women down and then sprinted back to the others. Alex could only move at a fraction of his pace, but had seen what he was doing and was helping up the tanks around. Daniel grabbed the screaming tank and the companion to him and dashed back with Alex and the other close on their heels.

Flies came streaming in from the new hole in the floor and crashed down in a wider circle than previously. Daniel saw that one tank hadn’t run with Alex. He was still alive and the flies hit around him. He disappeared as an even larger section of floor than last time collapsed. Alex reached the fire door and Daniel slammed it behind him and released his boosts his chest heaving.

Screaming erupted from above.

“They’re destroying the fire escape.”

Alex looked up and a look of understanding crossed his face. “EVERY ONE DOWN TO THE BASEMENT.”

Tamara had stood and was supporting her weight with Mystic Explosion keeping weight off one leg. He grabbed her in a princess carry and ran down the stairs toward the basement. Light globes floated out from her staff to stick to the roof as he went. The stairs bottomed out to reveal a second fire door. He hesitated, not sure what to do, but the screaming from above was not decreasing and quieter but still hearable the sound of splintering wood and breaking concrete. It was pretty easy to imagine what was happening. The flies had effortlessly destroyed the floor, and it was clear they were now attacking the fire stairs that they had used to push so high into the building.

Daniel was going to have nightmares about them streaming down around them and destroying the floor. That tank falling isolated from the rest of them. He shook his head. If the flies gained access to the stairwell and came sweeping down with that same level of violence that had blown holes in the floor. Then they would turn any of the humans in the way would be reduced to paste unless a tank with the appropriate skills intercepted. Even then he could see that tank getting driven down the stairs because if he got knocked back five centimetres on a stairwell, you were going to end up tumbling down no matter how good your shield work was. Gravity was gravity unless you had the right magic, Daniel guessed, but none of the tanks here would have it.

The garage might or might not be empty but if something was in there, it would not be as dangerous as those flies.

He threw open the door to the basement and stepped through.

Lights bubbled out from Tamara, spreading through what was a carpark and as much as it lit things up it turned other areas into deep impenetrable shadow. It was not a large space and contained about fifty car parks of which two-thirds were occupied.

Growls greeted them.

Daniel and Tamara walked forward freeing up the doorway even as whatever had made a home in the underground carpark was unidentified.

A shape flashed between two cars. All Daniel saw was a canine with striped patterns on its fur.

“Devil dogs.” Tamara whispered in horror. He could see she wanted to retreat, but retreat was impossible because more people were spilling out of the door.

There was a flash of movement. It was another dog. They only came up to his knee, and the stripes were purple, but in the brief glimpse he sensed strength and a lot of it. The way Tamara had said devil dogs made a lot more sense. She had sounded genuinely terrified. “Battle stations,” he snapped even while he continued to step forward to meet the first dog that made the mistake of coming for them.

There was another flash of movement, lots of them, but they were no longer chaotic instead they were being stalked. A pack spreading out to come and get them.

“There are monsters in the basement. Tanks to the front.” Even as he gave the order, Daniel continued to stalk forward. He did not need to be defended. Most of these fighters were not strong enough to fight whatever these creatures were. Daniel had seen the power in the glimpses he had got. He was confident that one on one he would be successful.

There were screams behind them. They were besieged on both sides. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see most of them had made their way into the basement and despite the chaos there was order in their fighting positions. It wasn’t perfect. Tanks were out of position in places, but if a tank hadn’t reached the front line, then a melee fighter had.

Growls erupted around them, freezing all movement.

They burst forward from multiple directions. Daniel spotted at least four, but there were more out of his sight lines based on the yips. Daniel ignored all the others and concentrated on the one charging him. The instructions from the club were simple. Hit it and as he swung Blood Drinker, there was a minor distortion in the club’s structure. Nothing major, the club only changed sufficiently to allow its spines to come out more prominently.

The dog he targeted saw him coming and did not want to take a club in the snout and spun on a dime to take the blow on its shoulder.

It was like hitting a rock, but when Blood Drinker bounced away; it did so with a sense of satisfaction and left flecks of blood. There was a scream next to him and he saw a blond tank go down. A dog had his foot and was dragging him out. The club blared a warning and instead of helping the man he swung his club to hold off the first dog he had hit who had darted back in.

Having learnt from the first engagement it danced away before Daniel connected with his blow. That caused disappointment to come from Blood Drinker.

For almost two seconds, they were in a standoff with each other. Daniel could not break eye contact or be exposed to its attack while the devil dog waited for the slightest mistake on his part.

He feinted forward, and it sprang away. Daniel glanced back and glimpsed the blond tank acting as a chew toy. He was caught in a tug of war between the dog latched to his foot and four men desperately trying to drag him to safety. The dog jerked backwards with the concrete cracking under its paws as the four men stumbled half a step forward.

Then Daniel’s attention was back on his opponent who was threatening to attack again. He smiled the dogs shoulder no longer had a few flecks of blood on it, instead there was a red patch the size of a saucer.

There was a sharp yelp and all dogs snappily retreated.

Between one second and the next, the first step of the engagement was over. Daniel was not sure what had happened, but there were no corpses.

On either side.

“Devil dogs.” Someone whispered.

Daniel, when he glanced back only saw white faces.

“Toby, hold the fire escape door.” He heard Alex order. “All other tanks to the front.” Their lines shifted as people rotated shocked expressions on their faces.

“We’re fucked.” The blond tank hissed, looking down at a foot that, while no longer bleeding had lost its original shape.