I ducked behind a tall marble statue as bullets whizzed past me. It was the only thing in the yard big enough to easily provide proper cover for me. It helped as well, that our opponents were such lousy shots.

Moments later Claws slid into cover behind a massive flower through a few steps away from me. He was our front line fighter. There was barely anything human left in his body. With his cybernetic augmentations he should, in theory, be able to get in close to the religious zealots pinning us down, even if he had to eat a few bullets along the way.

The problem was, there were more than just a few bullets filling the air all around us.

He flashed me a grin.

“A nice and easy extraction, eh?”

I returned the grin.

“Easy as pie!”

I glanced to the left and the right, where our two other companions pressed themselves close to the columns of the colonnade surrounding the yard. They were pinned down just like us.

“Maybe you could work some magic for us Legs. A little something to distract them maybe?”

I looked back over at Claws. He was one of the very few people who could call me by that nickname and get away with it.

“Oh, sure. Just let me check my magic wand real quick.”

I didn't actually have to check the gun in my hands. I knew that the safety was off, that it was set to burst mode and that the drum magazine was full. I only clipped it into place moments ago, while sprinting here, after all. I raised it and came around the statue providing me cover. I didn't waste much time aiming. I just gripped the gun firmly, pressing it against my shoulder, pointed it in the general direction of the enemy shooters, squeezed the trigger and kept it squeezed.

The thunderous report of the three round burst fired by my assault shotgun easily drowned out the noise generated by the enemy's light assault rifles. It put more projectiles into the air than all of them together as well.

I released the trigger and retreated behind the statue again. Not for long though. The next moment I came around it on the other side to fire another burst.

My companions didn't need any further prompting. As screams of terror and pain filled the air, they abandoned their cover and added their own, much better aimed fire to the mix.

It was already over as I sunk back into cover behind the crumbling remains of the statue that once depicted some kind of wrathful angel.

I needed a moment to calm down. I needed that moment to work past the pain in my shoulder as well. My little magic wand kicked like a mule. I would have a nasty bruise in a few hours.

As I looked up again, Claws stood in front of me, offering me a hand.

I accepted it.

He pulled me back up to my feet easily thanks to his cybernetic augmentations, although I stood head and shoulders taller than him. He grinned again. He did that a lot during shootouts like this one.

“You know, I was hoping for some actual magic. But this was fine too.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I'll safe that for later. This is a compound of the Church of Radiance after all and we haven't encountered any mages yet.”

He nodded. He knew I was right. In a compound of this size there was sure to be at least one priest who knew how to work magic.

We joined Roadkill, our driver and drone operator, and Face at the door to the chapel on the far side of yard and the colonnade.

We had to step across the bodies of several zealots in robes that were white once.

I scrunched up my face as I saw their eyes and teeth.

They looked nasty. Sure signs of long term substance abuse. Well, at least that would explain their lousy aim. Stark raving mad junkies with cheap guns made for lousy security.

The guys outside the compound had been a lot tougher. They probably had been hired guns. They hadn't gotten any of us either, but they had taken down Roadkill's drones. That was bad enough already.

He and Face were pressed against the stone wall next to the door on either side of it, keeping a safe distance.

Claws took up position using one of the ornate columns for cover, wile aiming directly at the door.

I did as well one column over. I toggled the fire selector to single shot and aimed at the hinges of the door.

Face gave me a silent countdown.

As she reached zero I fired, first at one hinge, then at the other and finally at the lock. The hinges and the lock were iron. At this distance my shots tore through them just as easily as they would through the wood of the door itself.

Bereft of any support and shaken by the three shots the door fell outward, where it landed on the tiled floor in a clattering heap.

For a moment silence reigned supreme.

Then we started moving again as no bullets or other nasty surprises came flying our way. Claws moved into the chapel first, followed by Face. Then it was my turn and Roadkill brought up the rear.

The interior of the chapel was a mess.

I gagged as the smell of blood hit me. It was pretty darn dark in here so it took me a moment to get my bearings, even as I took up position behind one of the numerous benches.

The only light came from the candles spread around the room. It wasn't much and the way the damned things flickered, they painted plenty of dancing shadows on the walls that had me on edge.

There had to have been dozens of religious nutcases in here. Now only two of them remained standing. One was the kid we were supposed to get out of here. The other was the priest of this so called church. The rest lay scattered all around the chapel.

Their bodies were torn to shreds, bone quite often showing through the deep gashes covering them. And apparently these wounds were self inflicted. The hands of many still clutched the lashes they had used to mutilate themselves or each other.

As I got up to approach the two still standing figures I finally realized that the floor was slick with blood. I gulped heavily. I was used to violence but this particular flavor of it was something I had hoped to never ever encounter again.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Damn. No rest for the wicked.

Memories of my childhood reared their ugly heads. I bared my teeth and growled.

Claws and Face took up position to either side of me while Roadkill kept an eye on the door.

The hair at the base of my neck rose, standing on end uncomfortable. The smell of ozone tickled my nose and I stopped dead in my tracks.

Claws and Face stopped their advance as well. No words needed to be spoken.

Shit was about to hit the fan and they could tell without me rubbing their nose into it.

In theory Claws was just about completely blind to anything magical since he was a full conversion cyborg but even he must have noticed the smell of ozone.

Face on the other hand wasn't blind but due to all the altered, cloned fake meat she called a body she perceived it differently. Her perception of magic was as warped as her oh so perfect body. In a way it was worse for her than for the rest of us.

The kid raised its head to look us in the eyes and what I saw there chilled me to the bone.

In a few years the girl would have probably turned plenty of heads. Now though her angelic face was twisted into a furious snarl. The worst part though were the eyes.

I had her picture memorized and that made it all the worse.

She should have had the most beautiful blue eyes. All that now remained were bloody holes. Bloody holes from which a painfully bright light seeped. As if on cue a single wing, apparently consisting of the same white light, burst from her back, accompanied by the laughter of the priest.

One wing. That was something I could deal with. I had dealt with more powerful spirits of radiance before.

I ignored the maddened priest for now. I didn't dare take my eyes of the possessed girl though.

“Claws? Face? Could you keep the clown in the priestly robes off my back for a moment or two. I'm about to be a bit busy.”

Face looked like she wanted to scream or cry. What had been done to the girl was nasty in my eyes. What Face saw was probably much much worse. She nodded anyway.

Claws nodded as well, shifting his aim to the priest.

“Will the girl be okay?”

He sounded worried. Well, he had any right to be. If we didn't get her back alive and mostly in one piece we wouldn't get payed after all.

I shrugged.

“Probably. Mostly. Once I have dealt with that parasite squatting in her body. I'm sure mommy and daddy will buy her pretty new eyes.”

Oh, now that got me the attention of the spirit pretending to be an angel!

It bared its teeth and snarled at me even harder.

“You would dare, you filthy animal!”

I switched on the safety on my gun and let go of it. The smart material of my shoulder strap noticed the lack of resistance and moved it around to my back.

I in turn clenched my fists and adjusted my feet, moving into a ready position.

“Bring it, birdbrain.”

The radiant spirit let out a screech that hurt my ears, and probably those of everyone else as well, and charged at me only to come to a stumbling stop before it could even cover half of the distance between us.

I was dimly aware of gunfire. Claws and Face were taking care of the priest. I couldn't really pay attention to any of that though. I was busy focusing on other things.

The smell of ozone intensified.

The play pretend angel looked at me again, now slightly wary.

“So you are a mage?”

It tilted its head slightly before flashing me a nasty grin.

“But you can't stop me. Not without damaging this body and you can't do that. Right? You already would have, if you could. Oh, this will be so much fun!”

It took another step towards me, its fingers now clenched like claws. The poor misguided girl's face twisted into a visage of malicious glee.

I barely moved at all, only shifting my stance ever so slightly. I allowed myself a grin though as she was almost within striking range.

Well the thing was almost within range of my fists. It had been within range of what I had planned for it for quite some time.

“Gruul. Time to play.”

The smell of ozone became almost unbearable as thick tentacles started to rise from an expanding sea of darkness that was spreading from my feet.

I didn't let it distract me. I kept channeling power to another spell, even as my patron spirit manifested a fraction of its true self bit by bit.

Hopefully that make belief angel wouldn't notice it or at least not right away anyway.

The damn thing stopped dead in its tracks and started backpedaling as Gruul's midnight black tentacles started reaching for it. The next moment it turned to outright run. It didn't get far though. Instead it slammed face first into the kinetic barrier I had surrounded us with.

The Kinetic Barrier spell was intended to protect its caster from bullets or other projectiles for a brief time. Very few people even knew that it worked both ways.

The radiant spirit turned back around, pressing the girl's body against the barrier in an attempt to get as much distance in between itself and Gruul's reaching appendages.

I grinned as I saw realization dawn upon the astral parasite.

“Looks like you are trapped in here with us.”

I didn't mention that it could get through the barrier just fine if it just left the poor girl's body. I wanted it to come to that realization by itself.

Spirits of this one's kind were about as dumb as they were full of themselves but it managed to figure out the obvious solution to its predicament pretty quickly anyway.

The girl slumped to the ground as if she were a puppet that just had its strings cut.

The spirit on the other hand turned on the spot to jump through the barrier spell now that it had shed the body.

It didn't get far. Just as it jumped off, spreading its radiant wing as it did so, one of Gruul's tentacles shot out like a whip, wrapping around the glowing angelic figure several times. With a mighty jerk Gruul pulled the damn poser back in.

The wannabe angel screeched, briefly at least, as it was reeled in by the black tentacle wrapped around it. Then, at last, it disappeared into the darkness at my feet, sending ripples out through it as it did so.

A single tentacle rose up, wrapping around my left leg, squeezing it gently, to the point where I could pet it affectionately.

“Thanks buddy. Good job.”

And with that it retreated again and the darkness started to recede. Within moments nothing remained to hint at the presence of either the radiant spirit or the tentacled terror.

Except for the girl. She was a whimpering wreck. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Smith probably could afford to get her some therapy on top of everything else.

The priest on the other hand screeched like the madman he was. He must have surrounded himself with a Kinetic Barrier spell as well, while I was busy. Bullets ricocheted from it in every direction.

It made me feel mighty glad that my own barrier was still up. Friendly fire was, after all, not very friendly at all.

He must have been a little slow casting the spell though. Several bleeding wounds gave testament to that fact. A few of them looked pretty nasty. That he was still standing at all was a small miracle. He probably was high on something nasty and simply hadn't realized yet that he was already dead. Stupid asshat!

He lunged towards me. Our barriers touched and canceled each other out with a mighty thunderclap. I winced at the sudden sound but he just kept going and almost tripped over the girl still writhing on the ground.

Claws and Face had stopped shooting. They didn't want to risk hitting either me, the girl or each other.

Still that damn crazy was coming at me fast with bared teeth and clenched fist.

I channeled power into one more spell. By now the smell of ozone was so strong it had me gagging. If it was that bad, the concentration had to be high enough that long term exposure would be lethal. Good thing that we would be getting out of here soon.

I had never abandoned my ready stance. Thus when the madman came at me, fists flailing, I smacked one of his arms out of the way and took the hit from the other, barely feeling it. In return I placed a single punch directly against his solar plexus.

Everything came together in that one punch, my impressive stature, years of training, my metal reinforced composite bones and the Auroch's Strength spell I had cast.

I could feel his ribs break as my fist connected. Every single last one of them.

His eyes bugged out of their sockets as every last bit of breath was driven from his lungs, together with a fine spray of blood as the shattered ribs pierced them. Then he was launched backwards and as he hit the wall behind the altar more bones shattered.

By the time he slumped to the ground he was dead and he knew it. At least for a brief moment. Then he was beyond things like that. Even combat drugs like Berserk or Zed had their limits after all.

Face moved in to pick up the girl from the ground. At the same time Claws pulled an ornate tapestry, that had until now miraculously remained mostly intact, from a wall, handing it to me.

I raised an eyebrow.

He pantomimed wiping his face.

“That guy … uh … he kind of got blood all over you when you punched the shit out of him.”

That earned us a laugh from Roadkill.

“You guys better all wash your shoes on the way out. I don't want to have to clean bloody prints out of the back of my van afterwards.”

I looked down. He was right. I wiped my face and dropped the piece of fine cloth.

“I think I saw a garden hose on the way in.”

That prompted Claws to laugh out loud and moments later Face and I joined in as we left this bloody mess behind with our extraction target secured in a partially closed, bullet resistant body bag. The air was much better out here in the garden as well.