Now, Las Vegas
“I can help!” Prim pleaded.
Hayden shook her head. The girl’s guts were in the right place, but she didn’t have the power required for what they were going to do.
The Furies had forgotten a few things so they had returned to the motel the Golden Eagles were using as a base.
Cal had taken Elliot and the bulk of the company in that Quest to claim a different resort casino.
Hayden had been surprised to see the motel base so sparsely populated. Her understanding was that Elliot had left the Dread Paladin, Tyson and a few squads behind just in case.
She didn’t care where the first one had gone, but the rest being absent was a problem. It wasn’t hers, but she was a curious sort so she asked around.
One of the Cooks had overheard the plan to go to the bat people encounter challenge and try to get something out of it.
It didn’t take a genius to realize that involved a whole lot of killing on both sides.
Now, again, she didn’t care if the Dread Paladin bit it. Sure, she’d rather it by her hands, but if the bat people did it, then great.
She was more charitable toward the Golden Eagles. Tyson was a dick, but he didn’t deserve death, nor did most of the others, as far as she knew.
The wheels started turning when she realized that there was an opportunity in front of her.
The Dread Paladin was going to be weakened regardless of the results of their little expedition.
The Furies couldn’t take him at full strength, but what if the bat people mauled him a bit first?
And thus, she stood outside Nila’s door.
She had to make sure that Prim wouldn’t try to do something as stupid as secretly following them. It was a long dangerous trip to the encounter challenge.
“Hi, sorry, can you keep an eye on Prim we’ve got something to do?” Hayden said as soon as Nila opened the door.
Nila blinked.
The baby in her arms reached out with a happy gurgle toward Prim.
“What are you going to do?” Nila’s eyes narrowed.
“No time to explain. Have to hurry,” Hayden turned to leave and suddenly felt a vise-like grip around her upper arm. The air around her crackled with static, but she forced it back inside. “Please, don’t touch me.”
“I’ve had plenty of experience with young people doing dangerous and reckless things. You’re tripping all those flags,” Nila said.
“They’re—” Prim began.
Hayden hissed at her for silence.
“Do you really want to leave Prim like this?” Nila said.
“Fine,” Hayden grumbled. She explained the situation.
Nila’s eyes grew flintier through the explanation.
By the end of it, Hayden had the impression that Nila could’ve cut flesh with her gaze alone.
“Of all the stupid…” Nila shook her head. “Why don’t you just wait for them to return to the city instead of traveling all the way there? You can’t deal with all the monsters and mutant animals without Cal.”
“We were just going to drive really fast,” Hayden shrugged.
“The hike?”
“Run fast…”
“You didn’t plan this out. By the time you get to the cave you’ll be spent from all the fighting. There’s one road leading up into the mountains. Wait there.”
“What about the rest of the Golden Eagles? They’ll probably be in terrible shape after fighting the bat people. You think the Dread Paladin will help them get back?” Hayden tried a different track. Sure, it was disingenuous, though it wasn’t entirely true that she didn’t care about Tyson and the rest.
“Then we wait for Cal and the others to finish their Quest.”
“That’ll take half a day at best.”
Nila mulled it over for agonizing minutes, at least to Hayden.
The grip around her arm was uncomfortable.
“What kind of car are you taking?” Nila said.
“Truck with a caged bed,” Hayden said.
“I’ll meet you out front. Don’t leave without me.” Nila let her go and Hayden patted Prim on the head before rushing to the elevator.
She caught Nila giving Prim a rapid-fire list of instructions as the small, yet apparently very strong woman handed the baby to the teenage girl.
Minutes that seemed like hours later found Hayden and the rest of the Furies in the truck out in front of Caesar’s Palace.
Nila dropped out of the sky with a thud that cracked the concrete beneath her armored boots.
“That’s not knight armor,” Dayana said in hushed tones.
The woman’s matte gray armor covered her entire body. Form-fitting and futuristic, a blend of flexible metal that moved like fabric with slightly thicker plates that covered most of her body. She had the handle of what appeared to be a solid metal baseball bat peeking over one shoulder and a M249 SAW in one hand. She tossed a large duffel bag into the bed with ease. The weight of it noticeably depressed the suspension as did Nila’s when she jumped up right after.
Hayden could only stare as Nila regarded her through her helmet’s clear faceplate.
“Where—” Hayden began.
“Cal got it for me from another world. Less talk, more driving. People need saving,” Nila pounded the truck’s roof.
Hayden could only nod as she hurried into the cab.
They made it up to the winding mountain roads before encountering trouble.
“What was that?” Jayde said. “Did you see that?”
A great shadow flashed over them for a brief moment.
Then again and again.
Like a plane flying overhead.
“I saw it,” Dayana said.
“Keep your eyes on the road,” Hayden warned. She stuck her head out of the cab’s rear window and saw Nila aiming the SAW to the sky.
“It’s a giant bird circling us,” Nila said.
“Got it,” Hayden ducked back inside. “Dayana, giant bird, maybe go faster.”
Dayana tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “I don’t drive that often, but if you say so. Tell Nila to hold on.”
The truck lurched forward.
White-knuckled was one way to describe it as Dayana drove them on the edge of disaster as she barely kept the truck from spinning out of control as she skidded around the tight turns.
Nila held on to one of the metal bars that comprised the makeshift cage around sides and rear of the truck bed. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to keep her gun pointed in the general vicinity of the giant bird as it flew above them.
It was hard to judge the true size of flying things without anything in the surrounding environment to provide a sense of scale. The Threnosh-made helmet eliminated that problem. The readout was clear. The bird had a wingspan nearing fifty feet with a body only a little shorter than the truck’s length.
A giant bird the size of a small plane.
“Thunderbird,” Nila muttered.
Native American myth said those things brought storms.
She eyed the sky.
Clear and bright.
She hoped that it stayed that way. That this giant bird didn’t have magical powers.
“Just stay away, big bird,” Nila said.
Hayden was trying to keep her eyes on a fixed point outside the windshield. The swerving around wasn’t doing good things to her stomach. She was so focused on not puking that she was the last to notice that it had darkened noticeably.
Jayde rolled down the window and stuck her head, shoulders and one arm out to aim to the sky.
Gun fire erupted a split-second later.
“Go faster!” Nila bellowed from the truck bed in between bursts.
“Get back in here!” Hayden struggled to drag Jayde back inside the cab. “The fuck do you think you’re going to do?”
“I’m going to punch it with a fireball!” Jayde argued as she slapped at Hayden’s hands.
Bullet casings plinked off the bed in what sounded like a steady stream as Dayana floored the pedal throwing the truck into a skidding turn that had Hayden falling to the driver’s side along with Jayde.
“Fuck! Stupid bitch! Get off!” Dayana shoved Jayde back with one arm while desperately turning the wheel with the other.
A strong gust of wind shook the truck.
The SAW barked a steady retort in response.
The dark shadow cleared and they were driving under bright sun a moment later.
Hayden stuck her head back out to the truck bed.
Nila was reloading her gun with a large, round drum magazine.
Hayden saw that there were two empty ones rattling around Nila’s feet.
The woman had already gone through that many rounds?
That didn’t seem right.
It had felt like only seconds had passed.
“It’s flying away. I think I hit,” Nila said. “Tell Dayana she can ease up on the gas.”
They made it to the end of the road without further trouble.
The hike up to the encounter challenge was less trouble free depending on who one asked.
For the Furies it was easy, but nerve wracking. It was hard to keep from using their abilities when the mutant animals attacked.
For Nila it was work, perhaps not difficult, but work nonetheless. She shot the giant mutated rattlesnakes that attacked out of the dry brush. She bashed the fanged mutant hares that sprang out of their large burrows dug into the dirt.
By the time they reached the enormous black circle in the side of the mountain, Nila was out of ammunition.
“Uh… thanks,” Dayana said.
“You didn’t need to do all that. We could’ve fought and still had enough left over to deal with the Dread Paladin,” Hayden said.
“One,” Nila held up a finger after she placed the SAW on the ground, “We’re here to save those Golden Eagles. Two,” she held up another, “don’t underestimate the Dread Paladin. I have it on good authority that he’s possibly more than the four of us combined.”
“Yo, you haven’t seen him in action. We have,” Jayde scoffed. “We know what he can do. We can take him.”
“It is my understanding that you’ve never faced anyone or anything more powerful than yourself and possessing a human or human-like level of intelligence. I have and it’s very different from a monster or an animal,” Nila said.
“Thank you for only being slightly condescending,” Jayde nodded.
“Got it,” Hayden said. They were just wasting time. She’d say whatever it took to get going. The Dread Paladin was in her grasp. Kath was going to get her revenge. “Let’s go.” She strode into the encounter challenge.
Glowing crystalline formations cast dim light on the smooth, polished stone surfaces in the large entry cavern.
“Wow… this is awesomely creepy,” Jayde whispered.
“Told you,” Dayana said. “I think the beginning part is worse, since it’s all nicely done. Like, I’m picturing little spire gremlins laying down and polishing all these stone tiles. The rest of the place looks more like you’d expect a cave to look.”
“I’ve been in a place like this once. Except that one gave off a definite sense of wrongness when you looked at any of the carvings and sculptures,” Nila said. “This isn’t bad at all.”
“Dayana, you remember the way to the bat people city, right?” Hayden said.
The dark-skinned young woman pulled out a folded up sheet of paper. “I wrote and drew as much as I could remember on the drive back. Scale’s off though.”
“Better than nothing,” Jayde said.
“Don’t worry about a map,” Nila tapped her helmet. “I’ve got an extensive one.”
“Yeah, let’s follow her,” Dayana nodded quickly.
Nila led the way into the dark and dimly-lit tunnels.
Smooth stone gave way to jagged rocks after around twenty minutes.
Since Nila had a map they moved at a quick pace.
The tunnel split several times, but Nila didn’t hesitate at each junction until they reached a large cavern with multiple tunnels, some in the ceiling and floor.
“Those are new,” Nila pointed them out.
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“Bat people dug them. That’s what they were doing. Digging tunnels. Xiba… dick boss, apparently,” Dayana said.
“Since when aren’t they dicks,” Jayde said.
“So what if they’re new? You know the way, so let’s go,” Hayden urged. She couldn’t fight the impatience in her. The anger, the rage was boiling over after months of suppression.
“I don’t want to get attacked by bat people coming up behind us,” Nila said. She regarded Dayana. “You wouldn’t happen to be sensing anything?”
“Danger Sense has been at like a 7 this whole time.”
Nila took that in and gestured for the Furies to follow as she continued down the left most tunnel.
More walking led to another junction.
This one was about half the size of a basketball court, roughly shaped the same way too, with a ceiling that rose to the height of a three story building.
“Oh shit! 8… 9… 10…” Dayana said.
“I hear something coming,” Nila pointed her baseball bat-like club down the central tunnel on the other side of the cavern. “I guess I’ll be the tank. Try not to hit me in the back,” she strode toward the dark opening.
The Furies spread out.
Hayden and Jayde flanked Nila from a few feet behind, while Dayana vanished as she circled to the right of everyone.
They heard what Nila had caught first.
Frantic footsteps and breathing heralded two people bursting out of the darkness.
Nila relaxed and rushed forward.
“Sam, Joe,” Hayden’s eyes narrowed.
The latter was half carrying, half dragging the former.
Sam’s chainmail was shredded and stained with blood. Her left leg hung limp, dragging behind her. Her pant leg was soaked in red.
Joe was little better. His helmet was gone and a curtain of red poured down his face from a ghastly gash across his forehead. His armor was battered and covered in blood.
“Help,” Joe croaked.
Sam’s head lolled.
Nila stuck her bat to her back and grabbed Sam and Joe, carrying them both toward the way they had come. “Let’s go.”
“The Dread Paladin—” Hayden snapped.
“Rescue first,” Nila regarded Joe as he hung underneath her one arm, “is it just you two?”
“I don’t know. We got separated. We need to get out of here. He went crazy,” Joe babbled.
Hayden knew who he meant. Her gut was certain of it.
“He attacked us. We thought he was going to be our way out, but he attacked us too. Tyson told us all to run, so I ran,” Joe continued.
“It’s at an 11!” Dayana popped out of air next to them.
Hayden felt it then.
A familiar feeling.
One that had been a constant companion on their journey from Texas to Vegas.
Fear.
Terror.
Dread.
Nila stopped. She gently laid Sam and Joe on the ground. “Take them back,” she said.
“No. No. No. This is our revenge. Not yours!” Hayden snapped. Rage over dread.
The air around her crackled with static. Small arcs of electricity erupted along her plate and mail. She let the chains in her hands unwind.
Nila grabbed the steel around Hayden’s arm. “You’d let them die,” she gestured at Sam and Joe. “Cal wouldn’t like that.”
“Don’t care about the deal. Only his death matters,” Hayden only had eyes for the central tunnel.
The yawning darkness seemed to writhe and roil.
“You take them back. I’ll stay,” Hayden said.
“Then you’ll die and he’ll catch up, probably,” Nila snorted.
“Fine, Dayana. You know the way, take them to the entrance then come back,” Hayden said.
“I— I— Mental Map Skill,” Joe said. “I can get Sam there. As long as you can stop him. Just don’t let him have me… and Sam,” he hastily added.
“Okay… go.” Nila pulled her weapon from her back. “I’ll tank. When I engage, you three pick your shots, keep your distance. He’s strong enough to kill you in one hit if he lands clean. I’ve got the armor and the toughness to take the shots.”
Hayden nodded.
Her rage would be controlled. She could fight smartly. As long as it ended with the Dread Paladin dead and Kath avenged.
Dayana vanished once again.
Jayde circled to the far left of the cavern, seeking cover in a dark patch behind a small rock formation away from any glowing crystals.
Hayden moved a short distance away from Nila.
The Dread Paladin cut an imposing figure as he stalked out of the dark tunnel coming to a stop a dozen feet in front of Nila.
“Who are you?” he rasped.
Hayden fought the waves of dread that seemed to waft off the dark gray-armored monster. She focused on him as a threat to be killed. She tried to ignore the glowing eyes in the helmet’s slit. Knight’s shield in his left and a sword in his right, both black as night.
She’d dart in after Nila attacked.
Aim for his sword arm with one of her crackling chains when he blocked Nila’s metal club. Touch him anywhere else with her other chain. Metal armor was a good conductor. Even if his was magic he couldn’t just ignore thousands of volts of electricity.
“You attacked them… why?” Nila said.
“Because I needed their fear, their dread. Because I can’t die here. I made a Vow and I haven’t fulfilled it yet,” he rasped.
That was the most words Hayden had ever heard him utter at once.
She noticed it then.
Cracks ran through the armor.
He wasn’t standing tall. Not as imperious as he had always been.
His shoulders slumped slightly.
His arms hung low, as if the shield and blade were too heavy.
His feet dragged as he resumed moving forward.
“I can’t stop until I’ve avenged them,” he rasped. “You won’t stop me. You will give me your dread.”
He burst forward with sudden violence.
Hayden was caught off-guard.
So fast, she thought.
Nila reacted just as quickly.
Her bat lashed out.
High to low, right to left.
It clanged off the Dread Paladin’s shield like a gunshot.
The echo rang out through all the connected tunnels.
The black blade swept up.
Nila batted it aside with an armored forearm while striking again with her club.
The impact rang against the side of the Dread Paladin’s knee, buckling it.
Nila raised her club and brought it down.
The Dread Paladin caught it on his shield with a gasp of pain. He dropped his blade and thrust his hand toward Nila’s armored chest. “Shadow Blast.”
A pitch black bolt of energy blasted her back a dozen feet.
The exchange had lasted seconds.
Seconds in which Hayden had been too stunned to act.
She finally roused herself and charged forward, letting the electricity in her body build to a fever pitch. She lashed out with her chains. One wrapping around the Dread Paladin’s sword arm as he reached down to pick up his weapon. The other touched his helm.
Bright arcs traveled down the length of chains as she let it all free from her hands.
The Dread Paladin seized up with a grunt as thousands of volts coursed into his armor and his body underneath.
“This is for Kath and the Hearts,” Hayden growled.
“Dead…” the Dread Paladin said through grit teeth, “join… them… Summon: Dreadlings…” he ground out.
They came out of the shadows beneath Hayden’s feet.
Tiny black demons that clawed at her steel greaves with tiny claws and bit with a mouthful of teeth that occupied most of their eyeless and noseless faces.
Hayden shifted some of her power to the rest of her body to shock the dreadlings off her.
The Dread Paladin reacted quickly to the lessened voltage sent into him. He pulled hard on the chain around his arm.
Hayden flew off her feet.
She was helpless as she saw the Dread Paladin wind back with his shield.
“Shield Ba—”
The Dread Paladin went flying to one side.
Hayden tumbled to the ground. She scrambled up despite the pain and frantically scanned the dim cavern.
Nila straddled the Dread Paladin. She pressed her club on his neck, while pinning his shield arm to his body with one knee.
The pair struggled. Pushing against each other.
Hayden saw Nila slowly, but steadily loosing the battle of strength despite her leverage.
The Dread Paladin created enough space to get a boot underneath Nila’s stomach to kick her up into the air.
He moved like a blur to Hayden’s eyes as he rose to his knees and bashed Nila with his shield into the jagged rocks dotting the ceiling.
A soft pop rocked the Dread Paladin’s helmeted head forward.
Dayana appeared a dozen feet behind him with her carbine.
At the same time Jayde punched the ground from a dozen feet in front of him. “Earth Wall.”
The ground rumbled.
A knee high wall emerged in front of the Dread Paladin, tripping him.
“Ground’s like solid rock. Not my fault for the dinky wall,” Jayde said.
“Jayde, watch out!” Hayden called.
The dreadlings had recovered from her electric shock and were scuttling across the rough ground toward her teammate.
Jayde spun. “Fireball!” she punched a tight hook.
The dreadlings were small, quick and low to the ground.
The Punch Mage whiffed just above the first dreadling’s head.
It latched onto her thigh and bit down with its disproportionately large mouth.
Jayde screamed a curse. She wasn’t as heavily armored as Hayden and the tough fabric of her pants was no match for the dreadling’s needle-sharp teeth.
A second dreadling leapt at her face.
This one she hit with an uppercut that sent a stone spike into its chest.
The third dreadling came on the heels of the second.
Jayde had a great view of a wide open mouth of teeth as it readied to clamp down on her face. She had cause to regret wearing an open-faced helmet.
“Flicker Movement.” Dayana appeared at her side and plunged a dagger straight down the dreadlings gullet. In one smooth motion she continued around Jayde’s right and slashed through the back of the dreadling on Jayde’s thigh.
Jayde pried the dead thing off with a grimace before slapping her bloody thigh with a healing spell.
While this was happening the Dread Paladin moved.
He covered the distance to the other two Furies with a lunge. Black spear thrusting for Dayana’s back.
Another blur appeared.
A clash of metal on metal rang out like a bell.
Nila smashed the spear to the ground, a foot away from Dayana’s feet.
The Dread Paladin swept the spear up forcing Nila to block and shuffle back to avoid the snaking point as it sought to pierce her defenses.
Hayden leapt after them. Lashing her chains at the Dread Paladin’s armored back, sending sparks flying as he briefly convulsed with each contact.
The Dread Paladin spun and thrust.
Hayden threw herself back on her butt as the sharp tip carved a thin slice into her plate.
A loud clang echoed as the Dread Paladin deflected Nila’s club with his shield.
“Shadow Grasp,” he pointed at her feet.
Black hands emerged grabbing tightly.
“Crap!” she struggled, but couldn’t move.
He thrust his spear at her head.
She managed to bat it aside.
“Shield Bash!” he charged forward.
She met it with a two-handed overhead smash.
The impact sent a wave of force through the cavern that knocked the Furies back several feet.
Her club went flying out of her hands, clattering into the darkness.
His shield split, disintegrating as it fell to the ground.
Nila was momentarily stunned.
A spear thrust sparked off her helmet.
She recovered quickly and grab the haft as he pulled it back for another thrust.
Two hands versus one.
The Dread Paladin slowly pulled Nila forward until he suddenly let go.
The spear vanished replaced by a warhammer with an over-sized spiked head.
“Power Strike!”
The blow caught her in the side of her left arm, pressing it against her body.
She would’ve gone flying had the shadowy hands not kept her fixed to the ground.
Hayden saw the pain flash across Nila’s features through the translucent faceplate.
The fact that the woman wasn’t dead was impressive. She had been right about the futuristic armor allowing her to take shots.
Still, Nila couldn’t take too many of that. And Hayden had to admit that the Furies would already be dead without her.
The Dread Paladin drew back his enormous warhammer.
Dayana appeared behind him in a flicker of movement. “Bleed!” she screamed as she sliced and stabbed in a frenzy. She aimed for his joints. Places that the thick gray plate didn’t cover.
He swatted at her like a bothersome insect and forced her to retreat near Hayden.
“It doesn’t matter if I can’t even get through the padded cloth and chain!” Dayana said.
The Dread Paladin turned his attention back to Nila only to eat a punch to the helmet.
“Fireball!”
Jayde’s explosion lit up the dim cavern with bright orange light.
She backed away cradling her singed hand. “What the fuck! The backlash shouldn’t ha—”
A strong hand yanked her back away from the hammer that was inches away from turning her head into pulp.
“Get these hands off my feet!” Nila hissed as she released her hold on the back of Jayde’s chain shirt.
Jayde immediately got on her knees and started punching stone spikes into the black hands.
The Dread Paladin approached. “You can’t run from your fear… from my dread… Power Strike!” he rasped.
The black metal of the warhammer’s shaft clanged of the alien metal covering Nila’s arm.
She cried out in pain and wavered.
Hayden thought the woman would’ve fallen to her knees had the black hands allowed it.
The Dread Paladin drew his warhammer back again for another blow.
Dayana disappeared from her side and appeared at his, stabbing and slicing, only to vanish again as he tried to grab her.
Hayden dashed forward and jumped on his back. Arms wrapping tightly around his neck and head. “I’m not afraid of you,” she hissed in his ear.
“A lie,” he replied.
He grabbed her arm, crushing the metal of her gauntlet.
She bit back the pain and focused on the electricity inside of her.
“For Kath and everyone you’ve hurt,” she released it all in one explosive burst.
He let out a pained shout that was cut off as every muscle in his body seized up.
He collapsed to his knees when her power finally ran out.
She fell off his back, immobile.
“Good, but not enough. I can’t die here. Not while I have penance to complete,” he rasped as he staggered to his feet. He hefted his warhammer with heavy arms as he turned to face her.
She could only glare up with defiance as her limbs refused to move. “I’m not scared of you!” she spat.
“Die with a lie on your lips,” he raised the warhammer.
Strong, armored arms suddenly wrapped around his midsection.
Nila.
She suplexed him into the rocky ground with a thunderous crash that shook the cavern sending dust and debris raining down on them.
He tried to scramble, but she took him for another ride, then another, slamming his head and back into the ground repeatedly.
“Not here, not now,” he muttered. “Summon: Steed.”
Nila lifted him up for another slam when a great black monster emerged from her shadow and clamped fangs around her head.
The monstrous horse shook her from side to side freeing the Dread Paladin from her grip, before sending her crashing into the side of the cavern.
It took aim at Hayden, rearing up and aiming hooves the size of her chest.
Soft pops filled the cavern, driving it away from Hayden.
Dayana appeared with her carbine, showering it with three-round bursts.
“Stone Spike!” Jayde leapt in and punched it in the flank before diving away to avoid a kick.
The monstrous horse snorted contemptuously at the Furies and at Nila as she pulled herself free from the wall before it melted back into the shadows.
There was no sign of the Dread Paladin.
“No! He can’t get away!” Hayden screamed.
“We made him run like a little bitch. I’ll absolutely take that as a win,” Jayde said.
“We’d be dead if it wasn’t for her, Dayana said.
Eyes turned to Nila as she picked up her club and staggered over cradling her left arm close to her body. “I think my arm’s broken. You’re injured,” she eyed Jayde, “you’re not, but you used a lot of Skills, I’d bet your close to empty.”
Dayana nodded.
“And you,” she regarded Hayden, “can’t move. We need to get out of here before the bat people or anything else decides to attack and we need to catch up to those two Golden Eagles. If he finds them first…” she shook her head. “Carry her,” she gestured at Hayden, “I’ll bring up the rear.”
Battered, bloodied and beaten the four women headed back the way they had come.
Jayde had called it a win.
Hayden didn’t see it that way.
She gave it everything she had and he still walked away.
She promised herself that the next time would be different.
She’d do whatever it took to get stronger.