Shenzhen
The war plan was simple in design while complicated in execution, which Kayla thought was probably something Sun Tzu warned against.
She really needed to memorize the book.
To wit, while the eidolons pushed the poor bull-horse-men into a suicidal all out charge on Phoenix Dynasty positions as distraction from their real forces coming through the spires, the dynasty army would bypass the charge to assault those spires and contest ownership.
This would allow them to throttle the flow of troops from the other world into a trickle.
Just like funneling troops into a narrow canyon pass or a gatehouse.
Two things she had no actual experience with aside from mock battles back in Richellia.
Not that she’d get any here if all went according to plan.
She was still embedded with the general’s command staff.
The same fancy office tower she had been in the whole time.
Except, now that there was the chance of combat she’d donned her dragonscale armor and had her dragon weapons within reach.
She tried to pay attention to everything as she continued to take notes.
Reports were starting to pour in through radios and magic crystals when the former failed or were jammed and the former when the latter failed or were jammed.
It was a good lesson.
Sometimes old technology worked when magic didn’t or vice versa.
The problem was that there wasn’t anything obvious about why it was one or the other or sometimes both or neither.
Her conclusion was that she probably wanted all the redundancy for her troops.
The Phoenix Princess glared hot daggers at her.
She had no idea why.
They had shared the same spaces for almost a month and the princess hadn’t said a single word to her, no introductions, nothing.
She figured that the princess was probably jealous of her cool gear.
The chatter on the various communications devices seemed routine judging by the demeanor of the general, his officers and the comms people.
That was until on radio crackled with urgency.
“Suspected eidolon sighted…”
“Which one?” the general snapped a finger at the comms guy.
“This is command, please verify eidolon ident. Repeat, verify ID, over.”
“Sword—”
The general’s eyes narrowed.
“Get him back, now!”
The comms guy calmly tried to raise the special forces team on the other end.
“Primitive communications technology… and magical communication crystals… the danger of both is that their links are easily chased if one has the means. Surrender. Prove yourself worthy. Find a place greater than that you have now. We’ve seen your best and it is no better than mediocre in our domains.”
Laughter.
“Or don’t, but at least send more worthy warriors. These were lacking.”
The other reason she was in the command room.
“Er… excuse me,” she raised a finger, “what’re the coordinates of that one?”
They looked at her with unconcealed disdain, but remembered their orders straight from the empress.
The general gave permission with a curt nod.
The comms guy relayed them in an equally curt tone.
She thought the coordinates in her head really hard.
Mr. Cruces’ voice popped into her head, which was super weird and she’d never get used to it.
But, she dutifully relayed his words.
Elsewhere, a few miles from the command tower lay a nondescript warehouse.
“You have the coordinates.”
“Yeah, Mr. Cruces,” Cammi said with a look of annoyance flickering across her furrowed brow.
Rupert looked scandalized.
Fortunately, their boss waved it off.
“The link is good through my eyes?”
“Yes, sir!” Rupert cut in before Cammi could make them look bad.
Ms. Teacher had said respect was necessary for those with greater power than you.
Antagonize only with purpose, but accept the risks insolence brought.
As a rule, powerful entities didn’t tend toward good-natured magnanimity.
They shared vision, though how Cal saw the sword-wielding eidolon picking his way through rubble and the strewn remains of a Phoenix Dynasty special operations strike team from many miles away was something that the young wizards knew was going to remain unanswered.
“It’s your call, Camster.”
Rupert cringed at the codename.
It was funny when Emma and Rand had shared the names they’d gotten from Jayde.
Less so when it was their turn.
“I have a good lock. Teddy Bear, confirm?” Cammi said.
Rupert focused on the glowing, rotating spell array between them.
The floating orb radiated with explosive power contained by chains of arcane script.
It was a better version of the artillery spell that ranger mages had ‘discovered’.
Ms. Teacher always found it humorous when one of her students thought they had invented a spell, a new casting method or anything magic related really.
It was annoying, though it was worth it to here her laugh.
Like angels singing with a full orchestral backup.
“Lock confirmed. Spell containment stable. All green. Go for fire.”
“I have control. Firing. Now!” Cammi’s triumphant voice chased the spell as it rocketed to the ceiling and into the portal.
They had cast the portals earlier and it was a wonder why the sword-wielding eidolon had missed the open one about fifty feet… er… fifteen meters above his head.
Somehow the eidolon noticed the streaking spell.
He turned and slashed with his over-sized sword.
The cut traveled through the air, slicing the spell in half.
The containment was of superior conception and creation.
Instead of prematurely detonating the spell, the eidolon had successfully created two where there had been one.
The halves crashed into the ground on either side of him.
The subsequent explosion rattled the earth and shook the sky, concealing the eidolon in a great cloud of dust and debris that was visible for miles.
“That won’t do it, but it’ll bring you closer to parity,” Mr. Cruces said.
“More than good enough,” the Sword of Freedom said.
Ms. Gozen had a cool code name.
Rupert sighed as he cast another portal for her to leap into.
“Recover your mana,” Mr. Cruces said. “We’re going to need more portals soon.”
One step took Hanna from a warehouse safe behind the battle lines to deep inside enemy controlled territory.
Her Threnosh-made helmet’s visual enhancements cut through the obscuring debris cloud.
The eidolon climbed out of small crater with a ridiculous slab of metal he wielded like a sword.
It was very anime.
She remembered many a giant sword-wielding protagonist from the viewing habits of her youth.
Unlike many anime heroes, the eidolon wore real armor.
Plate and chain. Once gleaming brightly, now battered and charred by the young wizards’ little artillery spell.
Enchanted armor.
Had to be to survive a magical explosion strong enough to demolish a small building.
Hopefully, taking the blast had weakened the armor’s enchantments.
He straightened and lay glowing eyes on her.
He gave her the uncanny valley feeling.
Human at first glance.
Until she realized that his features didn’t fit the skin tone and his long hair shined metallic brass.
No helmet.
So, he was still partially an idiot.
“Eidolon of Suiteonem, you’re not welcome on our world. Leave or die,” she proclaimed.
Cal’s psychological profile of the eidolon suggested that he embodied arrogance and responded to anything challenging that with rashness, tending toward violence.
Apparently, he took after his so-called god.
“Beautiful woman, you shouldn’t hide behind a mask,” he preened, “come, reveal yourself to me.”
She saw faint chains flowing from the eidolon out to the bull-horse-men.
They weren’t the marks of true slavery, but it was close enough for her.
“You’re a slaver in all but name. There’s no place for you and your ways on our world. Leave or die.”
“Come now. You wield the sword like I do. Wouldn’t you rather fight by my side? Prove worthy and my God will grant you anything you wish.”
“Then let them go.”
He quirked a brow.
“The people you’re forcing to fight and die ahead of your real army. Do the men know that you’re faithless? That while they fight for you on other worlds you’re murdering their elders and children? Their women?”
“You know more than you should,” his voice grew cold.
“We know everything. The Eidolon of Sunothi was… informative… before the disgusting parasite paid for its crimes.”
The Eidolon of Suiteonem snorted.
“You have nothing. The younger ones didn’t have all our information.”
Good job, Hanna. Him thinking about it was enough to give me an opening through the mental shield around its location.
“Yeah. We figured that the original would compartmentalize and thanks to you. We now know were it is.”
“Mere words meant to put me off-balance. I’ve fought for centuries. You are less than a child to me.”
“No. I’ve played you like an instrument. An old, half-broken instrument that was mediocre at best when it was whole. I see a man that’s clearly compensating for a lack with his choice in weapon. That isn’t sword. It’s a lump of metal. I see no elegance. No skill or technique in its wielding.”
“Woman, your lack of respect means that I’m no longer obligated to show you respect.” He thrust his enormous sword at her. “I will defeat you and make you one of my auxiliary wives.”
She struck with her aura as an opener.
A hundred foot distance was well-within her range.
She aimed for his face and neck.
That’s what he got for not wearing a helmet.
“Sword aura,” he snorted, “it’s a surprise to finally find one that passes the minimum requirement among you primitives.”
His aura flared in response.
A hundred blades clashed in the air around them.
Cut and thrust.
Parry and riposte.
The sounds of steel ringing against steel filled the air as sparks flew.
Her move was a feint.
While he defended his exposed head she slipped into the gaps of his armor, hunting for the straps.
Weakened enchantments meant they had been reduced to normal leather and cord.
In the blink of an eye his plate and chain fell off.
His eyes flashed.
“Eager for our matrimonial bed, are we?”
She replied by carving the ground from beneath his boots.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He stumbled forward.
She dashed.
Threnosh-made longsword thrusting.
He blocked it with the flat of his blade.
The ridiculous thing was almost as wide as as heater-style shield.
Before he could transition into an attack she jammed him up by ramming into his chest with her round shield.
He laughed as he pushed her away like a grown man would a child.
Eidolons kept nearly everything from their previous classes to add to the new ones they could obtain.
Their so-called gods added a portion of their energy to strengthen them further.
She flicked her blade.
I Cut What I See.
Even with superhuman levels of durability the eyes were always more vulnerable.
The eidolon screamed as a spray of golden blood arced between them.
He cursed, raising his over-sized blade and bringing it down in a slash with speed that made the massive hunk of metal look like a thin stick.
She raised her shield against the cut she sensed.
The impact rang and knocked her back a dozen feet.
It had struck the shield, but had gone above and below it.
Damage alerts beeped in her helmet.
It had cut across her torso on the diagonal.
Her ribs hurt and her breath eluded her.
A shadow descend.
She rolled out of the way.
The eidolon carved a trench into the debris-strewn street.
The over-sized sword loomed, covering her in shadow.
“The mountains crumble beneath my strike!”
She raised her shield and longsword.
“Strength of the Free, so long as there are those in chains, I endure.”
She combined it with Shield Block: Disperse Impact.
The massive sword fell on her like a tree.
Her bones groaned and her muscles screamed in protest.
Perhaps, it was time to upgrade her armor with strength assists.
The street cracked beneath her boots.
“You’d never be my wife,” the eidolon said sadly. “What a waste.”
She placed the edge of her longsword up against the edge of his so-called sword.
Sword Skill: Energy Field.
She confidently pit her Skill against the enchantments that made the eidolon’s ridiculous sword possible.
Her dull gray blade grew bright with a glowing corona of energy surrounding it.
It started with a tiny chip in the wedge-like edge of the over-sized sword.
A prudent man would’ve pulled away, but the eidolon was arrogant, rash and violent.
There was only one path for him and he never went backwards.
He leaned harder, pushing down with greater force.
His face twisted into a snarl.
The tiny chip grew.
Hanna’s sword went deeper, like a knife into a frozen stick of butter.
It was slow, but as things heated up it went quicker.
She cleaved through the over-sized sword with a triumphant shout.
Her cause was just and right.
The eidolon was a slaver in all but name.
He tossed his broken blade aside and drew another.
This one was a proper sword.
Single-edged, slightly curved, almost like a katana.
Its hilt and guard resembled a saber’s.
The blade glowed with a blue twinkle.
“Congratulations!” he smiled. “You’ve forced me to draw my true blade. Now, let us see if this world’s swordsmanship is worth speaking of.”
“I have no pride. I have no arrogance. I don’t care what others think about my swordsmanship. People. They are the only things that matter to me,” she saluted with her sword. “I’ve been keeping you occupied so you wouldn’t run away.”
A dozen portals opened up around the eidolon.
Solid metal spears tied to chains and metal wires struck like missiles.
Some bounced off the eidolon’s tough skin.
Most dug into the ground, burying him in a tangled web.
“What is this?” the eidolon struggled from beneath the trap.
Hanna was on him in a flash.
“Cheating.”
She separated his head from his shoulders.
Bright light darkened her faceplate.
She ran away then turned and crouched behind her shield when the voice in her head told her to.
The eidolon’s death explosion rivaled that of the young wizard’s earlier spell.
She wasn’t above dirty tactics when it meant freedom for the downtrodden.
Human or not, she found that it didn’t matter to her.
“Was that unexpected?” she said into the comms.
“It was partially directed. He wanted to take you with him,” Cal said.
“Portal me to the next one, if you have the location.”
“No. We’re still working on the others and you used your best Skill. You’re on rest and recovery unless an emergency situation happens.”
Another portal opened up.
The young wizards were being put to work.
She stepped back into the warehouse.
“Where’s Cal?”
“Going to kill the Eidolon of Sunothi,” Rupert said.
Teddy Bear looked a little pale and a lot sweaty as he sipped from a bottle of glowing blue-purple liquid.
Camster was doing a bit better.
The girl was peering intently into a viewing orb.
Both wizards had taken their pointy, wide-brimmed hats off.
That’s when you knew they weren’t having a good time.
“Mana supply issues?”
They shook their heads unable to muster the energy to use words.
“If you can’t, say so, don’t force it and cause a bigger problem by which I mean you dying from going over your limits. Nod if you understand.”
Nods.
The warehouse was emptier than she had expected.
Howard and the cultivators were gone, except for two of the ones Grandmother had brought from Manila.
A pit grew in her stomach.
Put to the sword, she’d have to say that it was from that group that losses were likely.
With that thought she pulled a chair closer to the viewing orb so she could watch.
She wanted to be ready to portal in if needed.
----------------------------------------
The smell of burning bull-horse-men flesh reminded Bei of the weekly barbecues back home.
There was no difference, which made it all the more sickening.
It was made doubly worse by the stench of piss and shit.
That was one thing she had never really understood despite all the older people warning her about it.
Sometimes scared people voided their bowels.
It turned out that the aliens from another world weren’t different in that regard.
Dead people, whether they walked on two legs or four, always pissed and shit themselves.
“That is the truth of war. Breathe it in.”
Grandmother had made them retract their faceplates.
Bei belatedly realized why Grandmother and Cal had that argument before he brought them to the front.
“One must risk hot oil on their hands when frying the pork belly,” Grandmother had said.
Bei had been confused.
She had seen pork belly fried many times.
One didn’t simply place the chunk into hot oil straight from washing it in the sink.
One punched holes in the skin, patted it dry and covered it with salt to sit in the fridge till the next day before frying.
One understood what happened when water was placed in hot oil.
Was that not why one sprinkled a few drops to test if the oil in the wok was hot enough?
“I’m going to show you why you shouldn’t be eager to go to war,” Grandmother had sighed when she had pestered for an explanation.
Well… Grandmother was right.
Bei didn’t like real war.
The challenge matches were nothing at all like it.
They perched on top of a five-story building. Crouched low behind the edge to stay out of sight.
The bull-horse-men wielded single shot rifles that made the human ones look like toys in the hands of children.
They had seen shots blow right through the old, rusted cars and buses that the Phoenix Dynasty soldiers used to block the streets.
“Are we going to fight?” Efren said.
A good question.
They had watched two failed assaults on the barricade below.
This street was the widest one and from what she remembered of the map that they had to memorize it ran all the way through the city right past the dynasty’s command building and staging area where the supplies were stored and the wounded taken to be triaged.
“They’re not the real bad guys,” Danilo said.
Sure, the real bad guys were the ones making the bull-horse-men fight, but what difference did that make to the ones fighting and dying down on the street?
“It doesn’t matter when they’re trying to kill you,” she said coldly.
“A valuable lesson. Your safety is paramount for one cannot live if they are dead,” Grandmother intoned.
Bei’s eyes narrowed.
Thankfully, the faceplate obscured her visage.
“Come, let’s fall back to a safer location. I sense the pot is soon to boil over.”
“Is it because of that, Grandmother?” Bei said flatly, pointing to the great dust cloud in the distance.
“No. I received a warning on the command channel,” Grandmother poked the side of her helmet. “Come, young ones—”
Boom!
The earth quaked.
The sky shattered.
The bull-horse-men revealed heretofore unknown magical ability.
Artillery spells bombarded several square city blocks centered on the barricade across the main street.
Their building was within that square.
“Don’t take to the sky, Bei!”
The strain and fear in Grandmother’s voice sent a chill up her back.
“Retreat! Find cover!”
Bei obeyed, but not without glancing back.
Grandmother stood on a crumbled bit of rooftop going through the forms.
Arms swirled, feet swept in a dance that kept most of the falling spells from impacting.
Bei led the Efren and Danilo down the stairwell as the building shook and crumbled around them.
They were halfway down when the whole thing started to collapse.
“Blazing Comet Fist!”
Bei punched through the wall with one powerful step.
Lightening carried her through multiple walls, desks and chairs as she carved a burning tunnel through the crumbling building.
Efren and Danilo trailed behind her on lightened steps, skipping across disintegrating chunks of floor while striking at the debris in their way.
“YAAA!” Danilo landed a flying kick on a desk before it struck Bei on the head.
Daylight!
Mindful of Grandmother’s warning, Bei smothered the instinct to take to the sky and took to the street.
Efren and Danilo followed.
They headed north away from the battle front on a parallel street several blocks from the main one.
The sound of thunder on the road heralded trouble.
They heard them before they saw them.
“In here!”
Bei opened the door with a flying kick.
The other two ducked into the small home after her.
“They’ve breached the barricade,” Efren said.
He and Danilo were breathing heavily.
They hadn’t managed their Qi reserves properly.
Granted, escaping a collapsing building was a reasonable excuse.
“You two get away and hide. I’ll go back for Grandmother.”
“She said—” Danilo began.
“She’s not the boss of me.”
“That’s exactly what she is!” Efren said.
“This isn’t a sect.”
“Yeah, but it’s a squad,” Efren pointed out.
Sure, Bei had vague memories of Cal designating them as such, but memory was an ephemeral thing prone to unreliability. Especially, during traumatic events. Like escaping a collapsing building.
They heard the roar of engines and squealing tires from the north.
“C’mon, lets get to the roof,” she said.
“How about we get away?” Danilo said.
A better vantage point gave them an overhead view of the battle.
The bull-horse-men thundered up the street.
Phoenix Dynasty soldiers halted their vehicles and opened fire.
Magic shields blocked bullets for both sides.
When those failed, armor and shields took over.
Bull-horse-men were big and strong with thick hides and dense muscles.
They wore thick steel that laughed off the standard dynasty rifle caliber.
Vehicle mounted machine guns did a little better, dropping a few.
The dynasty vehicles realized the precariousness of their position and reversed up the street.
They were too slow.
The bull-horse-men could hit highway speeds on the last burst on the charge.
Roars filled the air as they flipped trucks with their long, thick spears and trampled cars beneath their steel-shod hooves and massive bulk.
Bei wouldn’t be able to unseen what that did to squishy human bodies. It was like smashing a can of tomatoes with a hammer.
And to think, these bull-horse-men were the young ones.
A dynasty cultivator leapt from the rearmost vehicle, hopping from vehicle roof to vehicle roof like playing a child’s game.
The man’s robes fluttered in the wind as he flipped and spun in the air to land on the back of the lead bull-horse-man.
He grabbed a thick horn and twisted the head to one side, exposing the jugular for his jian.
Arterial spray filled the air.
“Brother! Noooo!” a bull-horse-man bellowed.
He stabbed with his spear but the cultivator used it to springboard above the buildings.
Bei locked eyes.
The cultivator frowned.
A thunderous bang turned the cultivator into a fine red mist.
Eyes drawn to the dead cultivator fell on Bei and her friends.
“Run!” she pulled them away from the edge of the building as a single shot blew a gaping hole from the upper floor to the roof.
Their Threnosh-made armor, though much lighter than standard steel plate, protected them from the jagged splinters.
They dashed across rooftops in a northeastern direction while the bull-horse-men gave chase.
From the thunder and the debris cloud it appeared that they were simply following them on a straight line by running through the buildings in their way.
“Impossible,” Danilo huffed.
“Nothing is impossible… spires world,” Efren gasped.
“Save your breath,” Bei said.
The buildings didn’t last forever.
An open stretch of ground lay before them.
“They’re going to run us down,” Efren said.
“Time to call for help, yeah?” Danilo said.
“Requesting extraction,” Bei said into the comms.
“Location noted,” Marisol replied.
She was at the warehouse with Rizel.
“Portal extraction in two minutes.”
“That’s too slow. They’ll be on us in one.”
“Can you, like, run more? Both wizards are doing other portals right now. They can’t stop.”
“Negative. Danilo and Efren will run. I will distract the enemy,” Bei took the sky without another word.
Thunder sent her spinning.
The shot hadn’t been that close, but the bullet was so huge that its passing knocked her out of control.
Fortunately, single shots meant plenty of time until the next one.
She righted her near-flight and sighted her targets.
Only five bull-horse-men had given chase.
She tried to forget that they were equivalent to her age or even younger.
Grandmother’s lesson.
They were trying to kill her and her friends.
Attempting to talk would get her head blown off and that’s assuming they’d even believe her in the first place when she told them that there was no reason to fight. That they were trying to help and that there was a home for them where they wouldn’t have to fight and die.
She decided that war sucked and she’d never do it again if she survived this.
Bei became a thing like unto a comet.
Her entire body blazed.
She had hit Level 30 after all the challenge matches she had won over the last month.
Level 30 before turning 18.
A rising young dragon.
Her fist struck the lead bull-horse-man in his armored face.
The impact sent the others stumbling, broke every window in the immediate area and damage her armor all the way up to her elbow.
Qi reserves low, she cloud-stepped before being forced to alight on a light pole a short distance away.
The bull-horse-man stood for a moment even thought his face was a gaping ruin.
Finality.
The sound of his fall was finality.
The clatter of his heavy armor.
The thud of his heavy body.
They were the sound of Bei’s killing of a young one, just like her.
She felt sick, but there was no time to do anything, but try to survive.
The others recovered quickly and were after her with surprising speed.