Her gaze was drawn to the muzzle flash of gunfire. Her team, having successfully navigated Filothei Hill, now engaged in a firefight with an Onikuma in a thick copes of trees just beyond the congested freeway that separated them from the residential area and the stadium.
‘They’re almost there.’ Leta nodded and turned back to the incoming Harpies that had performed a sharp bank her way, their diamond formation slowly gaining altitude so as to dive bomb her form above. Despite the drag they were surely feeling, she could tell they were gaining speed and would be above her soon.
[Five minutes.]
Licking her dry lips, she visualized jet engines attached to her back as she threw herself forward.
‘Holy!’ Leta couldn’t even get the words out of her mouth she was suddenly moving so fast. She had clench her her entire body to keep her head from whipping backwards as she reached speeds that only a aircraft could achieve. It felt like her organs were being pushed into her spine as her vision went from blurry to clear and back again as Gada informed her she was damaging her eyes without protection.
“Fuck. C’mon!” Leta clenched her jaw as she flew up at a steep sixty-degree angle, black hovering at the edges of her vision from the forces pushing against her body. She could feel blood beginning to pool in her feet as her nanites tried desperately to keep blood flow moving as normal despite the trauma she was putting her body through.
Biting down hard, she tasted blood and clenched her body, trying to maintain blood flow to her brain. ‘Breathe. In and out. C’mon, Black. C’mon.’
She couldn’t hear the screams of the Harpies over the roaring in her ears as they dived downward, tucking their wings in close like birds of prey coming in for the strike.
They were coming towards each other fast.
Leta was waiting for them to pull the breaks and extend their claws for the attack, something she needed them to do if this was going to be successful.
‘C’mon, you fuckers. Commit to it.’
A heartbeat later, they did just that.
Black wings snapped open, catching the wind like a parachute, their momentum dragging their talons forward as their claws opened wide.
‘Not today, Satan!’ With a mental scream, she twisted mid-air and banked right before releasing her hold on Magician’s Hand.
For a split second, she was a meter away from the outstretched talons of a harpy, its hollow cheeks stretched wide in a screech as its large golden eyes widened at her sudden move. She could see its enlarged pupil tracking her, but it had no ability to twist towards her.
‘Gotcha!’
Opening her arms wide, Leta unleashed a thick rope of lightning between her hand and spear, the crackling arch over-charged to the point that fingers of electricity spider webbed outward forming a fifteen-meter wide net of blue-white energy.
[The Host has learned the skill Lightning Net.]
The Harpy’s stood no chance.
As Leta’s momentum carried her towards the clouds, the Harpies were unable to roll away before being caught in her web.
Tendrils of lightning tore through the diving mass of bodies as black feathers singed and burned on contact.
Leta barely managed to ensure all of the creatures were struck when her momentum started to get the better of her, her heavier head and chest cavity coming down as her feet flew upwards, sending her somersaulting into the sky and then leveling out as gravity started to pull her back towards the ground again.
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“Oh, crap!” Leta released the hold she had on her lightning, allowing it to tether itself to the storm clouds above before wrapping herself in Magician’s Hand once again. With a grunt, she righted her body and banked downwards, flipping back onto her belly and slowly pulling herself back into a neutral position.
“Oh, my god.” Taking deep, gulping breaths, she watched as the harpies plummet to the ground below, their eyes wide as they saw their death rushing up to meet them but were powerless to stop it.
Leta watched their forms get smaller and smaller as their cries of fear faded away until she heard a soft ‘thump, thump, thump, thump’ of bodies hitting the ground.
Leta threw her fist in the air, brandishing her spear like a conquering hero as she whooped with triumph. “Yes!”
[Two minutes.]
“Shit!” Hissing, Leta glanced around to get her bearings, scanning for a patch of darkness between the glow of the residential area that indicated the church and its grounds.
***
[Ten minutes have elapsed.]
[The Host is strongly advised to land to prevent damage to the brain.]
“We’re so close!”
The migraine that had been coming on since she’d finished off the last Harpy felt like someone was taking John’s pick axe to her skull. Leta could feel a hot drip coming from her mouth and knew from the metallic taste coating her tongue that her nose was bleeding.
Ahead, the bright lights illuminating the church made it look almost like a specter against the haze of smoke that blanketed the city.
he streets leading up to the church, lined with tall apartment buildings and businesses—most still miraculously intact—were scenes of utter pandemonium. People ran in a frenzy, cars careened through intersections, heedless of traffic signals, in a desperate attempt to escape the city. Several collisions had only exacerbated the chaos, creating further bottlenecks. One vehicle had plowed through the front of a restaurant, black smoke pouring from the wreckage, though the building itself had so far escaped the flames.
It wasn’t hard to figure out which building the Chosen were in.
Leta guessed that the person dressed in futuristic armor using some sort of rope as a weapon against a lone Harpy was not some human circus performer.
The green spots dotting her vision threatening to obscure her view entirely. She was just a few meters above the rooftops and nearly blind when Stefana, the Weaver from earlier, executed a swift twist and launched her rope. The sickle at its end wrapped around the beast’s legs, yanking them out from under it.
It squawked and tried to flap away before being impaled by Leta’s spear as she dropped to the roof.
Even with the beast to cushion her fall, She still felt a jarring pain run up her legs as she stumbled forward, her grip on her spear the only thing keeping her from falling on her behind.
“Your Majesty!”
“Ow, hi.” Leta groaned as she stood back up as she whipped away the blood dripping from her nose, “Are you all that’s up here?”
Stefana shook her head and pointed to an adjacent building as she clicked a radio attached to her shoulder.
Leta turned to see Hayato scanning the city from the other building, his keen eyes missing nothing.
“Lead Two to Command. Her Majesty has arrived.” Stefana spoke into her radio as she ushered Leta towards the roof entrance.
“Get you both down here. We have twelve minutes till evac.”
The lights in the stairwell flickered as they descended to the ground floor and Kaviah’s forge.
The air reeked of charcoal and earth, clinging to the soot-covered concrete walls. Despite earlier evacuation by Kaviah’s human assistants, three of the five forges still burned fiercely, making the air blisteringly hot.
A large, less impressive vault than the one in the museum stood open, the Chosen grabbing ammunition and clipping it onto vests, belts, and other carrying compartments.
Their heads lifted from their task as Leta and Stefana entered, their heads bowing in respect.
The two generals strode out of the vault with military-grade rifles in their hands, surveying the street.
Atreus greeted her with a rare half grin. “Your Majesty. I’m glad to see you made it in one piece.”
“Likewise. Everyone okay?”
His smile fell. “We lost one of Mic’s team to an Onikuma. We now number twenty-six total.”
“We will mourn our fallen later.” Mic grated as he shoved a cartridge into his rifle. “We have a kilometer sprint between us and our evacuation site with many obstacles in our way.”
“Let’s go!” John ushered the team out of the forge and onto the street.
“After you, Valkyrie.” Allister smirked, one hand gesturing for her to go first as Bonnie ran in front of them, her ears swiveling about her head as she tried to detect any threats.
“Valkyrie?” Leta questioned as they dodged an abandoned car parked on the curb.
“Aye, lass.” He chuckled, “Some of the Warriors said you looked like a Valkyrie descending from on high. John isn’t much help in keeping those musings to a minimum.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Leta grumbled before she heard someone in the front of their group shout.
“Contact! Three Loupgarou and two Hellhounds baring east!”
“Here we go again.” She heard Allister sigh under his breath as they ran towards the gunfire and whatever chaos came next.