Kaern grimaced. Ahhh…this is going to hurt.
He ducked the first blow, slashed the demon’s leg with his blade, then twisted clear of the second. The third caught him, glancing off a rib in a shallow furrow, but he managed to evade the next couple.
By that time, Kaern was surrounded, and luckily there just wasn’t enough room for all of them to take swings at him at the same time. The demons closed the range enough to make it harder for him to swing his blade, however, so he choked up on the grip with his right hand and half bladed the weapon with his left.
“Come on, then.” He grinned as the lightning danced around him. “Let’s see if any of you can stand up to a traitor.”
*****
“We’re through!”
Simone twisted to see the guardsmen at what was now their front lines cheer as the hole broke in the demon line. They pushed through the hole, widening it with their bodies and blades, and behind them the refugees followed.
“That’s it!” she called. “Through the gap! Guardsmen, cover the retreat or we’ll lose everyone here and now!”
The fighting was redirected as much as possible to opening up the gap wide enough to force the refugees through as Simone cast a look over her shoulder.
She could no longer see the fighters up on the hill, though occasional blasts of magical energy and blue lightning told her that Kaern was still in the fight. There was nothing she could do for him, however, and as much as it galled her, Simone was going to have to leave him to his fate.
Anything else would be wasting the time he’d bought them.
She wrenched herself back around to focus on the objective that had to be completed, lifted her blade, and charged into the line herself.
Blades and claws, arrows and vile demonic magic and weapons—all those and more met as Simone and the guardsmen slowly pushed open the line and held the hole as the refugees broke through and began to rush back downriver.
“Hold the line!” she ordered as she swung her blade. “Do not falter!”
She saw men go down in her peripheral vision, covered an instant later by demons and other defenders rushing to fill the hole, and Simone despaired at how many they must lose just to buy a little more time.
They would escape, of that she was confident, but while it was a victory, she knew that they could ill afford, or survive, many more such victories.
A roar from above them sank her confidence, however, as she looked up from the fight to see demonic reinforcements pour over the banks and begin to flood down toward them.
A victory so costly as to nearly break them was bad, but a defeat would end them here and now. In that moment…Simone saw defeat coming for them, and with it despair rode alongside.
*****
Oh no, Elan thought as she skidded to a stop and looked over the riverbed that lay down the slope from her. Too late. Too damn late.
She hadn’t realized just how many of the demons there were, but they were swarming down over the banks toward the people below in numbers that would overwhelm anyone, she could imagine. She glanced up and over and saw a fierce fight tearing across a nearby hilltop, Kaern at the center of it. He didn’t seem to be doing all that well, if the blood and bruising were any sign, but he was doing better than the people below her would be in a short moment.
She tensed, gripping her blade tightly as she prepared to jump down and do what she could.
“There are too many,” Merlin’s voice rang in her ears. “You are not fast enough to make a difference.”
“I can see that,” she hissed, “but I have try.”
“Use the weapons I gave you,” he ordered. “That sidearm is far more than a blade.”
“What?” Elan hesitated, lifting her hand to examine the black blade she was holding. “Really?”
“Just think the word blaster.”
When she did as he bade, Elan almost jumped out of her second skin as the blade in her hand dismantled itself and then rebuilt into a much shorter, and incredibly useless-looking, club.
“This is a joke, right? We don’t have time for that,” she growled.
The tone of exasperation in Merlin’s voice was palpable. “Point it down at the demons.”
She growled, but did it. Elan was mildly surprised to see the colors of the demons change in her vision as she swept the “blaster” around.
Stupid name.
“When the red demon signal changes to green, simply squeeze the blaster,” Merlin ordered. “I’ve adjusted the firing weight a little high, so squeeze firmly.”
Elan frowned but did as she was bade. She picked out a demon from the crowd and gestured until the harsh red was replaced with a flickering green that steadied as she focused on it. Then, with a firm squeeze of the weapon, Elan jumped in place as it let out a barking chirp that she couldn’t really describe and bucked lightly in her hand.
A white pulse of power seemed to connect her to the demon for a second, most of that time just being the afterimage, and the demon screamed and fell forward in a tunnel.
“What is that!?” she yelped, shocked to the core.
“Standard issue responsive sidearm,” Merlin told her. “It would take too long to describe right now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it could do that?” she hissed.
“Right.” Merlin’s voice was incredibly dry. “Because I hadn’t already put enough weapon power into the hands of an untrained child. I felt it better for you to use something you were at least marginally familiar with until you needed more. You’re still far from ready, but needs must, I suppose. Now, I suggest you do something.”
Elan buried her questions and started marching down the hill instead of running, sweeping her blaster ahead of her. When a demon flickered from red to green, she would squeeze the weapon firmly.
Flashes of white light strobed the battlefield, attracting every eye in the area as the slim figure made her march of death.
******
Merlin monitored the scene through the sensors built into the subatomic fabric of the armor he had issued to Elanthielle, examining every face, every expression, and every factor of the battle he could.
The looks of awe and fear struck him, both from the demons and the humans, as they looked up at the armored form of Elanthielle as she slowly marched while spitting magnetically contained micro-pellets of negatively charged metallic hydrogen.
Of course, none of the observers had any idea she was doing that.
At the height of civilization, her actions would not have raised much of a response. She was a combatant, doing what combatants do.
Merlin realized nearly instantly, however, that did not hold true in the here and the now.
The list of emotions he was seeing appeared in front of his vision as a list.
Fear, terror, hate, shock, awe…hope.
“If we are to do this,” he said softly as he observed, “then perhaps it is time to play all the cards…”
He tilted his head slightly, an affectation that meant nothing to the EI but was the result of old habits.
“If I set this in motion…there is no going back,” Merlin mused. “Best make sure it isn’t wasted, then.”
He reached out to the armor he had issued to Elan and keyed in a single command.
*****
Elan barely noticed it when her head covering—it couldn’t really be called a helmet—retracted. The fabric of the armor left enough over her eyes to continue providing her with the information she had begun to grow used to, but now the hot air blew against her skin and her blonde hair flowed out behind her as she strode through the battle and continued to strike down demons like a character from an epic myth.