Chapter 8
Whisper silent, like a shadow flitting on moonlight, a youth melted through the trees to arrive at the small clearing in the second training forest where he’d been ordered to appear. Appear at the location, he’d been told. Await further instructions.
Honestly, Graves didn’t expect much. He knew his grades were nothing stellar with his only real strong points being marksmanship, stealth, and some degree of martial prowess. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t exactly the traits marshal squads were clamoring to recruit. A marshal needed to be a well-rounded super star, as adept in battle tactics and military theory as well as in all forms of practical combat. For him, lean of body and not even into his sixteenth year, he’d be lucky to get recruited at all.
A loud rustling accompanied by even louder voices gave the grey-eyed boy more than enough warning. Darting up a nearby tree, Graves pulled together a thick cluster of branches and melted into the leaves like ice into water. Just because he’d been given an assignment didn’t mean he had to blindly wait out and exposed. He’d do his job, but he’d do smart and start with some good old fashioned observation.
With a mighty roar, the underbrush exploded as the largest, wildest looking man Graves had ever seen tore into the clearing. He was huge, no two ways about it, standing at least two spans tall and more solidly built than Haydrian’s Wall. With a heavy, double-headed axe in one hand and an even heavier plate shield in the other, it was clear that this was a man who enjoyed getting up close and personal with his work.
“Confound it, Nova!” he roared, an act that sent a ripple through his fiery red mane of hair and a flock of birds to flight nearby. “I told you that wasn’t a shortcut! This is the last time I ever – and I mean ever – trust your sense of directions again!”
“Aw, come on you big old grumpy bear, you,” a young woman – probably the aforementioned Nova – said with a cheeky grin as she emerged from behind. “It’s not every day we get to find a nest full of pixies!”
With twin braids of electric blue that dangled to her waist, the lithe young lady moved along with a spring in her step that belied the very large firearm strapped to her back. Graves had studied them in class, but he’d never had the opportunity to actually see a tri-barreled mana cannon before, especially when wielded by one with a physique more lynx than lion.
“I hate pixies,” the big man growled. “Blasted little buggers, always dancing around, scattering blighted poof dust everywhere, fit to piss the bile out of a bastadon.”
“Well I for one had a lovely time,” Nova retorted with a flash of her merry green eyes. “And I do believe my lovely sister here enjoyed herself as well, didn’t you, my dear Terra?”
It wasn’t often that Graves was surprised, but this was one of those moments as for a second, he saw double. It wasn’t till he took a second look and noted the short, shoulder-length hair of dark purple that he realized they were in fact two separate people.
Twins. Of course. That made much more sense.
“Come on sis, tell him,” Nova laughed as she draped herself across her double’s shoulder. “Tell Hot Streak here how wonderful pixies are and what a lovely time we had.”
Terra, a woman who positively radiated calm to the point of drowsy, turned her gaze to the red-haired man and appraised him through heavy eyelids for a slow moment. Then, she simply raised a hand and gave him a small thumbs up.
“There, you see?” the merry gunner laughed. “It’s official, pixies are nice.”
“Well of course she’d agree with you,” he grumbled. “She always agrees with you.”
“That’s not true!” Nova gasped, hugging her twin closer in shock. “We disagree all the time!”
“Oh really?” Hot Streak said with eyebrow raised. “Name one time.”
“How about right now?” she replied. “I mean, Terra thinks we should wait and see what happens, but I think we should give the spying little kitty a warm welcome. See? Different.”
Graves froze, breath catching in his chest as grey eyes widened in alarm. No, they couldn’t know. He’d hidden himself perfectly. There was no way–
“As surprising as it is, I find myself agreeing with you,” the massive man said with an equally massive sigh. “We’re late as it is, and I want to get this all done with before dinner.”
Hefting his axe over one giant shoulder, Hot Streak turned around and locked his golden eyes on the precise spot where Graves had hid. The young boy knew they couldn’t actually see him through the cover of leaves, but that piercing, golden stare made it clear they knew of his presence.
“Oy! You there!” the big man called upwards in a booming voice that scattered all animals for a hundred paces. “I’m not exactly in the mood for climbing trees, so why don’t you come down from there and let’s get this all squared away?”
From his perch on high, the boy’s mind furiously ran through his options. He had no idea who these people were and didn’t known one from Adam. But they knew he was there, and that meant they were good. If he did go down and they turned out to be dangerous, well… that would probably be it. Of course, the element of surprise had already been blown, so his chances were bad to begin with…
“Looks like he’s not coming down,” Hot Streak sighed once more. “Nova, you think you could send a few shots his way? Maybe scare him out?”
“You got it, Papa Bear!” the gunner smiled as she unslung the miniature cannon from her back.
Grey eyes went wide in alarm.
Unslinging the tri-barreled blaster from her back, a faint mechanical hum as it began spinning was all the warning anyone had before she fired. In an instant, the air blazed blue as a stream of electric blue flames burst forth and torched the treetop with a torrent of hundreds of fiery darts.
“Confound it woman! I said scare him, not barbeque him!” Hot Streak cried out over the gatling roar.
“Hey, death is scary!” Nova grinned. “And besides, he’s not gonna go down from a little suppressive fire; this kitty’s too quick for that.”
And she’d be right. Had the young soldier been one whit slower, things would have been very, very bad. Fortunately, the young soldier had not been one whit slower and managed to leap from his perch just as it was blown apart by a fusillade of flame. Tucking into a tight roll, Graves hit the ground and launched himself behind a nearby boulder, heart pounding almost as fast as the number of fiery shots.
Okay. At this point, Graves still had no idea what these people wanted, nor frankly did he really care. They’d opened fire on him, which was more than enough incentive for him to retaliate with extreme prejudice.
Taking a deep breath, he relaxed the grip on his spell gun as he gathered mana and channeled it into the weapon. The process was still a bit rough, but smooth enough that he managed to charge a strong shot in a reasonable amount of time. Satisfied with the rifle’s faint silver glow, the young man took a quick peak around the rock, steadied his nerves, then opened fire.
A fast movement. A quick stand, trigger pull, and drop. But the shot was good, and the crackling bolt of electric fury flew towards the gunner, dead center on her thin chest. It was definitely a good shot, save for one, fatal flaw. It never made it.
Moving far faster than a man his size had any business moving, Hot Streak threw himself between the two and caught the arc blast full on his steel shield. The lightning flared and hissed, crackling over the barricade that now glowed with its own arcane light before finally fading into the ether.
The outpouring of blue fire stopped as the trio of strangers stared in surprise.
“Hey, did I just think what I thought I saw?” Nova asked. “Because I think I just saw the little kitty pull out some tiger claws.”
“You can say that again!” Hot Streak hooted as he burst out into laughter far louder and stronger than anyone who’d been shot at had business laughing. “Buck it, if that don’t just beat all! To think, a little chickadee like him would be bringing out the thunder! You were right, Nova; this is a very good day indeed!”
Okay, so Graves had to admit that these people might not be bad, or evil, or anything like that. But there was no denying that they were grade A, organic, harvested-straight-from-the-tree nuts. And that’s why another lightning blast crackled against the heavy metal shield. They might not be bad, but crazy could be just as troublesome, if not a whole lot worse.
“Whoa there,” Hot Streak called out as he caught the next bolt. “Looks like we done spooked the munchkin but good. Terra, you think you can knock him out of his hidey hole? Get him into the open?”
The boy couldn’t see the silent nod of assent, nor could he see the quiet woman unsling the large cannon from her back and brace it against the ground. He could hear, however, and the first thing he heard was a soft, heavy whumph. This prompted him to look up, which allowed him to see a large sphere glowing red between shifting black spots sail through the air right towards where he hid.
Another dive, another close shave because no sooner had the ball struck ground then it exploded into a fountain of dirt and debris and red hot magma. Scampering behind a close by tree, Graves turned his wide grey eyes towards the three foot crater that sat exactly where he’d been only moments before.
“What is with you two?!” Hot Streak roared as he rounded on the quiet bombardier. “I said scare him out, not blow him to kingdom come! Honestly, do neither of you know the meaning of restraint?”
Two pairs of green eyes met in a moment’s consideration. Two identical girls replied with equally cheeky shrugs.
In the meanwhile, Graves was considering his steadily diminishing list of options. It was clear these people wanted him for something, and the fact that they were trying to shoot him to get it wasn’t making him very receptive to their goals. So what to do? The big man clearly could put up an iron wall defense, especially since they knew his current position. Then, outgunned by spray-and-pray and overkill, it wouldn’t be long before their superior firepower pinned him down. That left only one option: get out and get out fast.
“Well, since it looks like you two can’t be trusted not to splatter the boy, I guess I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.” With a heavy sigh, Hot Streak hefted up the tools of his trade and proceeded to approach the tree. Metal shield raised before and axe held to the side, the big man approached on surprisingly soft steps, creeping forward closer and closer till he was right on the other side. Then, with a sharp jump, the red haired man rounded the tree and–
White light flared as Hot Streak caught a lightning bolt to the face. Or very nearly. With shield poised as it was, he’d managed to duck behind the steel barrier just in time. This was as expected, and using the moment of blindness, Graves dashed around the tree and made a break for it.
Straight towards the two gunners.
A moment’s hesitation was all he needed. Surprised that the boy would run at them and not away, Nova was a speck too slow in raising her howitzer. In that space, Graves managed to raise his rifle and launch a second blast at one of the blaster’s three barrels. It wasn’t much, mostly just light and noise with the minimal amount of mana available, but it was enough to blind the gunner, throw off her aim, and let Graves get in close. Swinging his rifle, the grey eyed boy aimed a sharp blow for the gunner’s jaw–
–but was intercepted by the silent Terra.
Catching the gun with her own hand cannon, the grenadier immediately retaliated with a darting blow to the face. Deflecting with his own hand, Graves lashed a foot out towards her abdomen in return, but this she parried with a knee before sending a crushing elbow towards his face. Barely managing to duck, the young soldier was forced to roll away, but not, however, before grabbing the strap of Terra’s cannon and giving it a forceful yank.
The tug plus the momentum of the roll was enough to unbalance Terra and send her bumping into Nova. The moment’s confusion gave Graves the precious opening needed to gain distance. Now behind the two gunners, he raised his rifle, the one he’d been charging ever since he’d dashed from the tree–
–but froze as Hot Streak loomed large in his sight.
Looking around, Graves saw that the brief distraction had given Nova enough time to extract herself from the tangle and train her tri-barrel on him, eyes lit up with excitement as if just daring him to try something. Terra now watched along, if not quite as enthusiastic, at least as ready now that her mortar system was back up and fully charged.
“Not bad, boy,” the burly man grinned in amusement. “But you’ll have to do better than that.”
There was no way he could hit any of them. Hot Streak was too close and cut off too many angles. There wasn’t a shot to make.
Unless…
Slowly raising his rifle, making clear that neither motion nor its angle were a threat, Graves pulled his trigger and released the energy charged within.
“Aw, he gave up,” Nova sighed, sounding audibly disappointed as the blast went wide. It was only then that the boy allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.
Indeed, he hadn’t, because his target had never been the three in the first place. Instead, it had been the tree, the one near torn in two by Nova’s intense barrage of flames. Slicing through the wood like a hot knife through butter, a cracking that sounded much like thunder arose as the tree, now pushed passed its structural limits, neatly toppled with a roaring crash. Right towards the four of them.
Everyone leaped aside, not wanting to be on the business end of probably ten tons of heavy, aged lumber. With a thunderous crash, the tree landed to raise up a tumultuous cloud of dust and dirt upon impact.
Terra was the first to react. Planting her cannon, she charged and released a small vortex bomb with just enough concussive force to clear the air and restore vision. Gun raised and axe poised, the others assumed formation, eyes training to catch sight of their prey.
They saw nothing.
“Hmph. Clever little squirt,” Hot Streak laughed, the booming sound hardly reaching the fleeing boy who by now, was long, long gone.
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