Chapter 32

Xeno Warriors

The next morning we woke, ate, and had everyone on the move again. The Murids scurrying up ahead of everyone else, the Bovine and Ursine lagging behind, while the Dryads, myself, and anyone else who could, hitched a ride on the Equine. The Aves soared above, circling and watching, every now and then one dropping down to give weather warnings and advice on flatter ground.

It looked ominous, a band of warriors traveling through the fields while a flock of Aves clouded the sky. I felt like I was marching to my death, at least that’s what it felt like, a battle no one knows which way fate will take us. I still hoped for the best.

Hours later, we stopped to have lunch, let the larger Xenos rest their feet, and the rest of us walk around a bit. Though I did jump off and try to wade through the tall grass, I had no luck seeing where I was going.

We were on our way again very soon, just enough to let the Bovine and Ursine to catch up and eat, then we were off.

After more trudging, arriving at dusk, and more or less as far south that we would go, we found the river.

The Pisces ran and jumped in, nearly forgetting how cold water really is, and enjoyed it either way. A few joined in or washed up, letting the warm breeze dry them off.

The Equine told us stories, great elaborate tellings where the Equine saves the day, the Equine settled peace for all, or the Equine, strongest of them all defeats evil and the good rules once again.

All I got out of it is that since they’re on our side, there’s no way we’ll loose. I sure hope so, I know we would kill the Ancients as we are, if the Ancients have sufficient backup, we’re doomed.

I tried to sleep, but hardly. I kept tossing and turning about never getting any real sleep. The imminent battle constantly on my mind. Imminent death or success. Fighting the Ancients again, I’ve done it before. Imagining kicking and dodging and slicing into the bones of the abomination of an elk, Dyzo, or Dakur.

About midday the Aves had spotted something. “Ancients are ahead,” was all I got while the rest of the flock went further East to get a better view.

I yelled and made sure everyone was prepared. The Dryads all holding their bows with arrows knocked, weapons out, started spreading out.

A few minutes later a handful of Aves came back, dive-bombing towards my location. “They have back up.” One managed to get out between huffing and puffing.

“How much?” I asked.

“An army of Canines by the looks of it. They’ve got guns.”

Just then a few Aves fell out of the sky, the rest shifted in flight and scrambled throughout the air, a ship flew overhead. Enemy ship.

I messaged Clyde, thinking he was right behind us.

Where are you? I hope your guns are working, they’ve got a ship as well.

Right behind you. I can see everything that’s happening.

Then do something.

Before I had a chance to get really angry Clyde flew over, circling around and engaging the enemy ship, now flying north to get out from above us.

The enemy ship flew overhead once more and ripped us apart with its machine guns and dropped a handful of grenades. I could see the Equine going down, brays of pain from them and a Bovine.

Fortunately Clyde’s plan of lure and attack came through and the enemy ship followed after him.

Stay safe, we’ll meet after this is over.

Same to you.

Riding on the back of Roland, I kept focused, readying myself for the fight. I’ll give the command and we all charge. I think the Bovine and Ursine should catch up first.

Unexpectedly the Equine all charged towards the enemy. I hadn’t given the order. This isn’t a fair fight, we’ll loose. We’re out numbered.

Since when was I ever not?

I got over it, now reading myself.

By sheer surprise and ever building suspense, I yelled a war cry at the top of my lungs. The rest joined in, even the Dryads. We were now a band of screaming Xeno warriors, maniacs, racing to kill our fear.

The Ancients were coming closer to view. I held on tight while Roland pushed on. Everyone was running, the Equine galloped on. The Ursine and Bovine behind us ran with heads and arms flailing. Murids somewhere infront. Reptiles pushing their way through the grass. The Aves already engaged and dropping their weapons on the enemy.

I could see now the Ancients were distracted, not just from above, but from below. It must have been the Murids crawling around their feet.

Dakur was front and center. Dyzo floating above him, the messenger taking off and ripping the Aves apart slowly, one by one, he was at last falling with two Aves immobilizing his black bat wings, another one opening up his stomach, while he spit fire into the air and across the fields.

One Ancient down, fields ablaze.

The three monstrous Rodents came out into the lead to take the Equine head on. A cascade of arrows slowed them down, but we came in fast, swords out.

I swallowed my fear as we passed them and came closer to my target, Dakur. One of the Rodents had been writhing, bleeding out with five or so Dryads slicing into every inch of fur.

“They even smell like Talpas.” I heard one shout.

Behind Dakur were the Canines. To the right, the abomination of an elk. To the left was Dyzo floating twenty feet off the ground, and somewhere in the plains I knew a giant snake was slithering around.

The frontline of Canines started shooting, I held up my shield, so did Roland, and he took cover in front of Dakur.

The enemy ship came back, tearing up the handful of us left.

Clyde what happened?

No response.

The Abomination charged through the Equine, Dakur charged me. Roland sidestepped while I jumped off and hit the side of the snake! He slithered around and his head whistled past, fangs outstretched. As I rolled forward, keeping safe within an inch of his own skin. I tore down his belly with my Dryad sword, wounding him badly. He hissed and writhed. He didn’t like it and got into position, winding himself up. So did I. I backed up, ready for the attack while everything became foggy and dark. Dyzo. He was above me. The snake lunged and caught me off guard. I narrowly missed the fangs, got jabbed by his razor sharp teeth, and now I was caught in his mouth.

Luckily, the suit took most of the damage. But I held his mouth open and his tongue depressed, to keep him from swallowing. Crouching in his mouth at a weird angle, I managed to get some movement. Ungu flashed out and I swung my feet, severing the tendons of his jaws while I climbed out, shoving the sword once more into his skull. His head fell limp while the rest of him writhed in pain. I didn’t have time to notice the last tremors before death. Dyzo had found I escaped.

Dyzo, with his fog and darkness enclosed us and the surrounding grass in a nebula, I could hardly see anything, much less see him floating above me. He started dropping knives on my head. None had been fatal, beside some good cuts due to the suit’s capabilities, still I nearly went out from the pain. But one knife had ripped through my sleeve, pinning me to the grassy grounds. I took it out and in one swift movement sent it soaring towards him. I didn’t like how this was going, he easily dodged my counter attack.

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Dyzo was hard last time, I hardly escaped, somehow.

This time I threw the sword straight at him, but it came back at me instantly. Keeping an eye on it I dodged, rolling to the side and picking it back up. I had enough of these games, but just as I thought it, a band of Dryads came through on a Equine and started shooting arrows, Dyzo was distracted, I threw one of his summoned knives back at him and ran.

Hopefully I was running away from where the Canines were, I couldn’t hear their shots coming from anywhere, I couldn’t hear anything, until I got closer to the edge of the bubble. The shots diminished and I ran, finally the fog cleared up and I saw Dyzo and his dark orb beneath him, searching for me, dodging arrows and finally taking an arrow and falling from his height at the top of the bubble. I found an Ursine and brought him into Dyzo’s bubble to help out.

Dyzo had gotten back up after his fall and was managing to confuse the Dryads even more with knives, swords and arrows flying about. The Ursine picked up a Dryad that was still conscious and threw him into the air. Dyzo caught on and redirected the Dryad, but he was smart and shot another arrow, nailing Dyzo in the chest.

They both fell, Dryad and Dyzo. The Ursine caught the Dryad and I pounced on Dyzo as he hit the ground, depressing the grass beneath him. He was already out cold, but Ungu made sure he was gone, tearing through his throat.

The fog dissipated and I looked around once more.

We were nearly finished, by this time the Ursine and Bovine had found the abominable elk, it was lifting one and throwing one of the massive Bovine through the air, not a pleasant sight, seeing how monstrous it actually was. But the throw had left his chest open as I saw another Bovine ram into him, a few Lizards jump and land on top of him brandishing swords. Moments later I heard his disgusting bellow above all the rest. The two Ursine had clobbered him to the floor, cut and wrenched off all of his legs and left him wailing. Savage, so savage. The bellowing continued.

A hand picked me up. It was Roland, bleeding with scratches, somehow still alive, missed the bullets.

I could tell we were running out, so were the Ancients, though we outnumbered them. The Canines still outnumber us by a lot.

There were a handful of Aves up above trying to aim with their homemade bombs from-the-mountains. Trying not to hit Xenos, keeping away from the range of the Canines with their guns, the Aves were less and less advantageous.

I noticed something in the distance, behind the Canines. The Pisces had snuck up on them from the back and were now shooting at the Canines.

I hadn’t seen the Pisces this whole day! They must have swam through the river and snuck up behind them all.

I could see they had taken some Canines down and stolen their guns. Now, behind their own Dryad shields they shot and took out a good number of them, maybe twenty, until the rest had noticed and shot back. They held up for long enough, until one Pisces had taken a knee, obviously hit, the other one distracted, hit a few times and still, shooting on the way down, took out another five Canines. The Pisces were down and out. I felt remorse, though Poseidon would have given them medals and statues in their names. They did as much damage as any of us could, maybe more.

Between glances of left and right, making sure I was safe, a head popped out of the ground next to us, calling me from below. “Huntress, time to go, we are saving you now”

“Where are we going?”

“Underground. To safety. We’re taking everybody, don’t worry.”

I looked around, looked at him, glanced back at the battle. We were winning, but the Canines still ruled the field, and if we killed the Ancients we wouldn’t be able to handle the Canines.

“I’m not going,” I told the Talpa. “Not yet.” Though I did have an idea. “Can you capture the Canines? Put them under so they can’t climb up?”

He nodded without hesitation. “Yes Huntress, change of plan, but a good one if I do say so myself.” And he scurried down his hole.

I looked towards the encroaching Canines, we had been backing up while they had been advancing. Still, we had been taken care of by their bullets.

One or two of our larger Xenos were left standing.

The Dryads fruitlessly shot arrows into the air at the sound of a gun, the grass nearly three feet taller than them.

I could see the Murids working, taking down a lone Canine while the others didn’t notice.

Moments later, the Canines started to disappear, one fell, another and another. They were going down. Six feet down, hopefully further.

Dakur was still around, nearly motionless at times, batting away a few Xenos, running off into an open area, covered by his Canines. He wasn’t fighting. He was apparently looking for me as when he made eye contact he charged, fast. But Roland was faster.

We both verged and Dakur ended up chasing after us. Roland swerved and jumped, ran between the Ursine and Bovine to get some help, but Dakur could jump, swerve and dodge as well.

I told Roland to get away from the group, and we headed north, now alone, further than many could follow to come in less than a few minutes. I lost sight of the battle, now it’s just the frenzy of Roland and I being chased by Dakur.

I had something on my belt, unorthodox for my type of fighting, but with my training, and in the face of death, I’ll use it. I grabbed a grenade, pulled it’s pin and threw it at Dakur, timing it to go off under his belly.

Dakur had eyes and realized what it was, skidding to a halt, rolling sideways and laying down, only getting blasted with particles of dirt. The smoke settled and he got up again, charging once more.

He growled between breaths, “You won’t escape me Dawn. You’re the one who let me out, I let you go once, twice even, now you’re all mine.”

The chase continued.

I had a plan.

I whistled for an Aves, calling down Farrow. We did this before, but not with such urgency. He grabbed my shoulder with his talons, I grabbed his legs and I jumped off of Roland and into the air.

Dakur was right behind us, Farrow jolted trying to soar upwards with the heavy load, already he had a massive shield and I had grown since he last carried me.

Dakur leapt off the ground, getting high into the air that seemed impossible. His claws reached up. My claw reached down. In a moment of claw versus claw, Ungu flashed out and severed his fingers. He yelled, growled and swore midair. Landing in a roll, he stared at me, angry, but he knew I’d come back.

Do you have room? Pick me up, I’m in the air.

I’m on my way, had a difficulty with some EMPs but I’m heading back now. Luckily I had secured myself, but the ship had a bit of a hard landing. Otherwise, in the air and on my way.

Farrow took me high into the he air. I could see the whole battle from above. The last of the Equine, the Bovine and Ursine had been taking turns at hitting the last, outnumbered Ancient. The Canines had been packed up and taken underground, the rest of the Ancients were dead.

I have one left. Dakur, and his determination scared me. I know he’s thought this through, battle tactics of his own. He lives to see me die, along with the rest of the Xenos. He was the last one standing, the one still alive to wreak havoc no matter what.

Dakur stood up and trotted at a good, limping pace, back to the field of battle, where only the Xenos stood. I could sense he had something up his sleeve.

I doubted the Talpas could dig a hole large enough for him.

Some of the other Aves noticed and swooped down, not able to get close, and dropped their bombs on him anyway. He seemed impervious to them and he coughed and kept going. Through the fire and onto my friends.

He was going to take them all on his own.

His determination.

I grew scared for my friends.

I wondered about the enemy ship. It hadn’t been around since it came back from chasing Clyde.

And Clyde flew beneath me now. The turbulence sucking Farrow and I down and onto the roof of the ship.

I found a place to hold and settle down. Clyde opened a hatch and let me in.

I tumbled down into the cramped passenger seat of the ship. Looking at the floor, I saw the blood I was loosing. With so much smeared around I wondered how I was still alive. I must have been loosing blood at least since the fight with the snake.

“Get yourself patched up,” Clyde said. He was now off the pilot’s seat and staring at me with his usual listen-to-me face. “We still have a monster to kill.”

I was still determined. Apparently I hadn’t budged from the floor and Clyde was now putting creams and bandages in places I needed and was inserting multiple needles of Gods knows what.

I closed my eyes for a second and saw Ares and Xeres with the rest of the Ancestors. They were behind the impending fight, just behind my Xenos, all facing Dakur. Few stood there, Equines dominated the number, just one to one. Hardly ten of us left.

The Ancestors stood behind their Xenos children and whispered in their ears. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could see the faces of the Xenos, courage building, tranced in their words, euphoric frenzy building on their faces.

Dakur came closer, building speed with his determination.

Clyde now hovered above the Xenos. “This is your stop,” he said. I opened my eyes. “It’s now or never, Ancient slayer.”

He lowered me down and I rolled back out of the hatch, landing on my feet in the grass, next to my last Xeno Warriors.

I said nothing, the Xenos didn’t look at me. Their eyes were closed in quiet peace. Hope.

We all know each other, we didn’t have to speak.

Dakur came running up over the last hill charging through us at full speed knocking most of us down with his arms spread wide.

I jumped out of the way. He turned and ripped apart the last Ursine. He barged through an array of arrows, some lodging into his face and ribs. The rest of us jumped towards him brandishing swords and axes. He was moving so fast no one could land a hit.

It was my luck to leap up and land on his back. I gripped his fur tightly and tried to position myself closest to his vitals.

He could sense it was me and darted off, taking me away. I tried to stop him, Ungu set into his lower back, he hardly stumbled but kept running. He stopped half a mile away and shook and scratched at his back until I flew off, he was on me before I could land. I fell to the floor. But even before rolling and getting my sense back he picked me up with both of his gigantic paws, one missing a few digits.

He grinned at me in a savage maniacal way. I could see the slight resemblance to a Canine in his face, maybe a ferocious hybrid wolf, like Cara, but doglike.

A ship flew fast low over the horizon, coming at us.

Dakur let out a sound, growling changing to laughing, “Rrrrrr-aaa-ha-hahaaaa.”

Ungu tired to slice into his forearms, but failing, as if his nerves were already severed, he couldn’t feel it.

“I have you in my hands and even if I die, the only one who could stop me would be dead. You. The war isn’t over. The secret, you probably know, is growing. Nobody can stop him.”

Missiles streaked towards us.

Dakur opened wide and brought me close.

Everything went black.