The storm moved at a frustratingly slow pace.
Wind howled while needle-like raindrops stung the barn’s aluminum roofing.
Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the surrounding farm land as thunder rattled the sky in pursuit.
The clock was ticking down to midnight, which meant that the reset wasn’t far behind.
Spicy glanced at the other rangers.
All three napped alongside the two drakes.
Vermillion had his long neck curled around Jenius while Maverick stared out into the storm with eyes that shined in the darkness.
“You better not be too tired to fly,” Spicy said.
She settled back into the hay bale and continued her vigil.
The sky cleared slowly, but surely. Enough that she roused the others with minutes to spare.
“Wazzat—” Valentine jolted at the staff poke to his side.
“Wake up. We’re leaving.”
“Huh?” he wiped at the drool on his cheek.
“C’mon, Jenius, Wriggles. We should get in the air before the reset.”
“Your danger sense?” Wriggles said.
“Low grade buzzing. I know it’s not from the monsters in this farm. So, it’s probably the storm, which is moving south.”
They climbed into the night sky to continue their journey.
It was about an hour in that the familiar buzzing in Spicy’s head started to pick up again.
She looked back and used her HUD to see that the storm had changed direction.
Natural storms didn’t tend to do that.
“Head’s up, guys, it’s back,” she said.
“Confirmed,” Wriggles said.
“No towns or farms to land and hide,” Jenius said.
“No idea what kind of monsters we might find down there. It’s open land. Could be easy shit like squirrel monsters or bad stuff like those ooze dinosaurs,” Valentine said.
“Can we get over Atlanta before it catches up to us?” Wriggles said.
That sounded like their best option.
The original plan didn’t include a stop in Atlanta for secrecy’s sake, but as everyone knew, plans changed.
“They don’t know we’re coming. They might take shots at us,” Valentine said.
A valid concern since they didn’t have a way to call ahead.
“It might be good enough to just fly over. Depending on how strong the city is overall, the monster could give it a wide berth. So, we just need to get high enough that they can’t get a good shot,” Jenius said.
“Do we use Skills?” Valentine said.
“No. The storm’s still twenty-five kilometers behind us. We’ll keep an eye on it and reassess if it starts gaining on us,” she said.
The night flight became even more tense than it already had been.
Multiple threats pinged in her HUD as she split her time between checking on the chasing storm and scanning the distant ground.
Various winged monsters and mutant animals all made their bids to get a taste of that sweet, sweet ranger blood.
All failed. They were either too slow, incapable of reaching their altitude or scared off by the storm.
“Shit. Do we even know for sure that it’s a thunderbird?” Valentine said.
“It’s the only thing we have confirmation on that can create storms and fly at this height.”
“Yeah, that we know of. Could be all sorts of other things,” he continued.
“Like what?” Jenius chimed.
“An Articuno?”
“Nah, more like a Zapdos judging by the lightning in it,” Wriggle said.
Spicy didn’t remember those names from the ranger bestiary.
“Those aren’t real monsters,” Jenius said.
“That we know of,” Valentine retorted.
“You motherfucking dorks! I swear if an ice bird monster appears and you get it named ‘Articuno’, I’ll punch each and every one of you in the junk!” Jenius snapped. “Besides… a storm means it’s Lugia…”
“I already regret this, but someone explain,” she said.
“In my defense I only know of them because of watching those cartoons with my little brother,” Wriggles said.
Between Valentine and Wriggles they managed to explain in fairly succinct terms while she continued to track the speed at which the storm was gaining on them.
She was correct.
There was regret.
Though not nearly as much as the realization that the storm had picked up speed.
“We need to move faster. It’s catching up.”
“Um… like, how much faster?” Valentine said.
Spicy did a quick mental calculation using their current speed, the storm’s and their distance to the city.
“Fifty percent or it’ll catch up to us before we reach the city.”
“Uh… that’s… gonna be hard.”
“No way Vermillion can fly that fast for long,” Jenius agreed with Valentine.
“You guys keep heading straight for the city. We’ll draw it off,” Valentine said. “Er… is that okay, Spicy?”
“Only one of us needs to make the pick-up and finish the delivery. Do it,” Spicy said.
Under Valentine’s direction, Maverick tilted to the left dipping one wing to bank away from Vermillion.
Spicy’s hands instinctively tightened around the handlebars on the front of her saddle. The chains and straps kept her attached firmly to the saddle, but it took a very experienced flier to fully trust in those.
They cut to the west, perpendicular to their original flight path.
“Is it following us or them?” Valentine said.
“I can’t tell yet.”
“We should probably get its attention.”
It was too far to shoot.
Flares might work, but some monsters possessed human-level intelligence.
Would it take the obvious bait when it could likely tell that one of the drakes was slower than the other?
Spicy struggled with the spell staff for a moment before pulling it out of its secure holster on the saddle. She made sure to fix the strap to her wrist before doing anything else with it. Last thing she wanted was to have to explain losing it because of the wind and her butterfingers.
Thunderbirds did storms. Rain, thunder and lightning.
How would it react to a lightning bolt fired in its direction?
Maybe it’d see it as a challenge?
She raised the staff toward the dark, roiling clouds in the distance.
An act of will to inject her mana into the wood, into the thin gold wire set inside that ran all the way up to coil at the base of the small diamond set at the tip within an artfully carved raptor claw.
The bang, crack of the lightning bolt lit up the night sky and momentarily darkened her faceplate.
“Did it work?” Valentine said.
“Hold on. The helmet’s calculating its track… and… it’s moving toward us—” she spat a curse, “really, really fast! I made it mad!”
“Faster, girl! Up! Up!” Valentine’s voice took on a higher pitch.
Spicy’s stomach lurched as a smooth, leveled flight turned into a painful, violent climb as the drake’s wings beat frantically. She struggled to keep her upper body from falling backward with only one hand on the handlebar, while the other squeezed around the spell staff.
“We’re slowing down!”
“Can’t be helped. We’re in the danger zone. Need to gain as much altitude as possible before it catches up.”
“Why? Thunderbirds can almost touch space.”
“Only way to get speed later for when we turn back north. They should have enough of a lead to make it by then. Don’t worry. This isn’t the first time me and Maverick have had to get away from a huge flying monster.”
Every ranger knew that story thanks to how often Valentine had told it.
“You didn’t get away from that dragon. Rayna saved you!” she snapped.
“We could’ve totally gotten away. Maverick’s quick and sleek… like a leaf in the wind.”
“That’s— never mind. Just do your best.”
Her HUD blared warnings as they reached Maverick’s flight ceiling.
She kept eyes on the chasing storm as it loomed larger and angrier by the minute.
The drake reached her peak at the same time that the leading edge of the storm enveloped them.
Visibility instant plummeted to zero while powerful winds lashed them with rain. Yellow lightning flashed, followed by thunder that rattled them to the core.
Spicy’s HUD struggled to get a lock on anything physical in the deep, dark storm clouds.
“We need to get out of this!”
“I know!” Valentine said. “You ready, girl? Hold on and tuck forward, Spicy! We’ve got to help her be as aerodynamic as fuck!”
Spicy leaned forward tightening her grip on the bar, like she was riding a motorcycle. She tucked the staff under her under arm like a couched lance, except she pointed the business end behind her.
“Okay, hold on to your shit! Maverick… Supersonic Dive!”
The drake beat her wings once, tucking her wings close to her sides and diving like a missile.
Wind washed over them like a crashing wave.
Something big and fast had just missed them.
Spicy grit her teeth. She wanted to look back and finally get eyes on the thunderbird, if it was that, but she couldn’t fight the forces exerted by the drake’s impossibly fast dive.
A loud boom was muffled by her helmet.
That wasn’t thunder.
The altimeter in her HUD dropped frighteningly quick.
She had left her stomach thousands of meters up in the sky.
Her vision darkened around the edges despite the protections of the Threnosh-made suit.
The drake and her riders streaked across the night sky like a meteorite headed for earth.
Their sudden descent brought them clear out of the storm cloud.
“Strengthen Wings!”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Maverick’s wings shot open to bring them out of the dive with a few hundred meters to spare.
Spicy’s stomach caught up with her.
She was thankful that she hadn’t eaten something heavy before.
The drake turned back toward the north under Valentine’s direction beating her wings for everything she was worth.
“I need eyes on it!” Valentine screamed.
Spicy craned her neck to look above and behind them.
The storm clouds continued to bear down on them like an angry wave, but they had managed to gain some distance.
“It’s—”
A bolt of lightning lanced out of the storm and scorched the air a few dozen meters off their left side.
“No worries, our suits can take lightning strikes. Same with Maverick thanks to our Skill,” Valentine’s tone suggested that he was worried.
She shared his concerns.
Their suits were rated up to a certain wattage, but that was in testing against non-magical lightning.
They didn’t know what kind of extra punch a thunderbird packed in its lightning.
Speak of the devil.
The dark clouds roiled like a frothing wave on a steep shore break.
A huge, winged shaped emerged.
It was shrouded in darkness, but was unmistakable.
Huge eyes flashed as another bolt of lightning struck a dozen meters off Maverick’s tail.
Spicy felt the wind from the thunderbird’s massive wings buffet her in the saddle.
Valentine cursed. “Stable Flight! The next one won’t get us, right, girl!” he patted the drake’s neck reassuringly.
She roared her defiance but kept her eyes fixed firmly straight ahead.
True enough, the thunderbird flapped again, but this time the mighty winds barely jostled the drake.
That wasn’t the case for Spicy.
She was thrown about in her saddle violently. The chains and straps straining to keep her in place pulled and pinched around her waist and shoulders.
The thunderbird opened its beak and sent forth a crack of thunder that exploded trees a dozen meters below them.
“Speed Boost! We can’t keep this up!”
“I know, Valentine!” she snapped.
What could she do?
It was difficult just holding on to the speeding drake, let alone trying to keep track of the giant bird monster above them. Her helmet helped some with that, highlighting it in red and providing measurement estimates.
Its size was shocking in person.
Maverick seemed huge with a body frame similar to one of those giant horses. Add a long neck, tail, plus the wings and it was intimidating to be in her close presence.
The wyverns were even bigger.
The thunderbird made Maverick look like a sparrow next to an eagle.
A single flap of its wings would’ve thrown them around as if they were flying in a tornado if not for Skills.
Huge eyes flashed bright lightning.
The crackling bolt lit up the night as it zipped meters off Maverick’s tail.
It was getting closer.
Spicy risked letting go of the handlebar to draw the flare gun from one of the small saddle compartments.
The chains and straps pulled taut as she rose from her leaning position in order to turn and locate the thunderbird.
“Aerodynamics!” Valentine said through grit teeth.
Enhanced Aim, she activated her Skill as she tried focused on the huge, dark shape lined in red by her HUD.
She squeezed the trigger.
The modified flare streaked toward the thunderbird.
It screeched ignoring the dim, flickering light that was too small and weak to pose a threat.
Until it exploded, sending a searingly bright light into those huge eyes gleaming in the darkness.
The thunderbird turned away instinctively as eyes that let it see in the dark were overwhelmed for a moment.
Spicy had no illusions that she had bought them more than that.
She reached into the compartment and struggled to load a second modified flare.
Valentine and Maverick used the moment to increase their lead.
It didn’t last long.
A screech of thunder heralded the thunderbird’s return, ripping into the forest trees below them.
Spicy turned, aimed and fired.
This time the flare canister erupted into thousands of reflective metal particles.
The chaff cloud proved useless as the thunderbird’s lightning bolt blew right through it.
“I’m out of ideas!” Spicy stowed the flare gun.
“The spell staff—”
“Even if it was in range it probably wouldn’t do shit. That thing flies in the middle the storms it makes.”
“It’s flat land all around us. There’s the forest, but we can’t fly down there even if there weren’t monsters that’d slow us down or worse. Can’t you just shoot it? With your gun?”
“Too hard to hit reliably and won’t do any real damage.”
Valentine didn’t respond.
They continued to flee northward from the thunderbird while barely dodging its attacks.
For some reason it was content to remain above them on their tail and not close with its huge talons or beak.
One by one, Valentine’s and Maverick’s Skills expired.
The drake slowed.
Spicy didn’t like the way Maverick’s head began to droop. The way the wing beats grew ponderous. The way she could feel and hear the drake’s lungs labor.
Valentine had taken them back on their original flight path over Atlanta.
“We’re not going to make it,” he said. “If we fly low enough you can jump off. We’ll lead the thunderbird away while you hide. Once we shake it we’ll double back for you.”
“No,” she said flatly.
One, there were monsters down there.
She’d rather deal with a single known monster rather than multiple unknown monsters.
Two— there was no two.
Rangers didn’t abandon rangers.
“C’mon… you’ll lighten Maverick’s load.”
“We both know that won’t make a difference. Besides, I outrank you and I say we stick together.”
“I can see the city, but we aren’t making it at this rate. So, unless you’ve got any other ideas…”
Spicy wracked her mind for anything, but came up empty.
Doom loomed over them growing bigger by the second as talons large enough to grab her, Valentine and Maverick grasped hungrily.
“Hang on and fly as fast as you can,” a voice filled her helmet.
Wriggles?
“You’re supposed to be in the city by now.”
“Was almost there… then saw the storm moving our way. Figured that meant you guys were alive and you know how it is, can’t leave a fellow ranger hanging,” Wriggles said.
“Almost changed our minds when we saw the big bird,” Jenius said. “Listen up, we’re going to get its attention while you head for the city.”
“What about you guys?” Valentine said.
“We’ll be right behind you.”
Spicy looked back and saw Vermillion outlined in green diving like a hunting hawk right for the thunderbird’s head.
The drake threw his leathery wings open at the last second.
Four clawed feet struck and raked across the back of the thunderbird’s head before the drake folded his wings again to dive for speed.
The thunderbird blasted lightning at the drake’s wake.
Unlike her, Wriggles was a full mage.
A magical shield manifested above his outstretched hand.
She heard his muffled curse over the comms as the shield shattered.
The remnants of the lightning fizzled harmlessly past Vermillion’s tail.
Free from the thunderbird’s attention, Valentine was able to steady Maverick’s flight.
The monster was too far for the spell staff, but not for her gun. She secured the former to the saddle and pulled the latter from her shoulder.
Steady Aim. Enhanced Aim. Taunting Fire, she activated her Skills.
She sighted through the scope and stitched a steady stream of bullets across the thunderbird’s flight path. She emptied the drum magazine in a handful of seconds.
She couldn’t tell if she had landed any hits but the thunderbird suddenly turned its head away from the others to fix her with a baleful stare from one massive eye.
It wavered in its pursuit of Vermillion, flapping its wings to re-orient itself toward her. Then back to Vermillion. As if caught in indecision.
She reloaded and emptied a second drum.
That did it.
The thunderbird screeched thunder in their wake.
“What?” Valentine said.
“I got it’s attention.”
“Why— okay, okay, I think we can beat it to the city.”
“Wriggles, do you copy?”
“Yeah, I copy.”
“I got it’s attention.”
“That wasn’t the plan.”
“There was no chance you were getting away from it. Now, we’ve both got a shot to make it to the city.”
“Fair enough. I thought I could block it’s lightning.”
“You did.”
“Barely… and some of it still got through. I’m tapped out and my head is killing me. Don’t let it catch you.”
“Same to you.”
The thunderbird dragged the storm behind it as it chased them all the way to the city limits before abruptly turning away with one last crack of lightning and thunder.
“Take us down.”
“Where? I don’t want Maverick to get shot?”
“Find a spot that’s far away from anyone. It don’t want to spook them. Give them time to see that we don’t mean no harm.”
“Yup, pass phrase isn’t going to be too useful if they shoot us first.”
----------------------------------------
Drake’s spear lashed out like a striking viper. It struck from multiple angles, from high to low and back.
His opponent blocked with a shield and patiently waited for an opening.
No Skills.
Not from Drake, nor his opponent.
Both sought to bait each other into committing first.
Drake decided to go for it.
His heavily armored opponent fought relying on tanking hits with his durability and outlasting opponents with his endurance.
The scouting report and video were clear.
He danced away to make space then threw his spear behind the warrior.
He made a show of thrusting his hand toward the spear.
“Spear teleport.”
The warrior turned to the spear.
He too had read scouting reports and watched replays.
Except, Drake hadn’t cast his spell.
He pulled one of his short throwing spears out and hurled it at the warrior’s armored back.
The throwing spear burst into flames before exploding against the warrior sending the stout man staggering forward. He turned and raised his shield.
“Spear Teleport.”
Drake blinked out of existence only to reappear with his hand around the shaft of his spear.
“Double Thrust,” he lanced into the back of his opponent’s knee.
The spearhead dripped red on the dirt.
The warrior turned.
“Stunning Shout!”
Drake’s body froze against his will.
He could do nothing for the few seconds it took his opponent to limp over and strike him with the hammer side of a poleaxe.
He heard the clang and the next thing he knew he was down on the ground with blurry vision, a pain in the side of his head and an urge to vomit.
He forced it all down and climbed to one knee.
A dark blob limped toward him.
“Mage Shield,” Drake spun his spear.
“Magic-breaker Strike.”
Drake blacked out again alongside his shattered magic shield.
When he came to split-second later, his spear was in two pieces.
Not a problem.
A spear was just a pointy stick after all.
This was a truism he had internalized just like the certainty he had in the knowledge that the sun rose in the east and set in the west.
“Mage Shield,” he spun the lower half of his spear in his left hand while throwing the upper half of it as far as he could.
“Magic-Breaker Strike.”
He thrust his free hand out at the same time that his opponent’s weapon descended.
Spear Teleport.
He blinked, dizzy and disoriented some 50 yards away with the upper half of his broken spear in his hand. He had left the lower half behind to be turned into so much kindling by the warrior’s strike.
The crowd’s cheers quickly turned into boos as Drake retreated from the limping warrior.
The man didn’t have a charge Skill, at least from what he had seen of the warrior’s previous matches. If the man had been saving it for a surprise then maybe the stab wound to the back of his knee disabled it.
Drake was still wobbly, definitely concussed, but he could play keep away just fine.
His problem was that he only had so many throwing spears to use and his main spear had been broken. It was still usable. It was just that being half as long removed all the advantages that a spear had.
He could try the same trick and take out his opponent’s other knee, but he judged that the man wouldn’t fall for it twice and getting in close range was asking to get clobbered again.
Outside of that he didn’t have any way to finish the fight within the distance.
His basic spells wouldn’t do anything beyond scuffing his opponent’s thick armor.
The spear was central to his best stuff.
Drake thought hard.
At this rate he’d lose the decision.
It was anyone’s guess which the judges would score higher. A double stab to the knee or a heavy hit to the head?
The warrior definitely had control. He kept moving forward while Drake kept backing away.
He could hit him with throwing spears but the warrior would just block them with his shield.
Ineffective attacks counted for nothing and might even be deductions depending on how pathetic and useless they appeared.
He had to do something substantial and impressive if he wanted to make the final match.
Drake threw his broken spear into the air.
The crowd’s booing hushed as if they sensed something was about to happen. Weeks of fights had given them an instinct for impending blood shed.
Spear Teleport.
He appeared with a hand on his spear falling in gravity’s grasp.
Fire Spear.
A red meteorite descended on the warrior.
Unnoticed by many in the arena, he had thrown a second spear.
The first exploded against the warrior’s shield.
The second pierced the earth.
He held his left hand out, readied the broken spear in his right.
Spear Teleport.
He blinked out of the air and reappeared a split-second later on the ground, behind the warrior.
“Triple Thrust!” he aimed at the back of the warrior’s good knee.
“Iron Skin!” the warrior said at the same time.
Instead of sinking into soft skin, Drake’s spear clanged off hard metal.
“Shield Crush.”
A huge, dark shadow descended over Drake.
There was weight, pressure, then nothing.
And that was how Sticksies was knocked out of the Silver Division one versus one tournament and a chance to fight for the championship.