Warsinger James Baldwin (read this if TXT) 📖

forward in a blur of boiling red heat that bowled five men over and set another three on fire. Teeth bared, eyes blank with rage, she waded through the injured and slammed her sword down onto a witchhunter’s neck like a guillotine. Three more set onto her from behind: their swords bounced off her armor, but one of them had a mace that crackled with lightning. He swung and connected. Suri bellowed in sudden pain, stumbling forward.

[Suri takes 190 electrical damage!]

[Suri is burned!]

[Suri’s Rage builds as she is injured! Damage reduction and attack power drastically increases!]

“Eat a bag of dicks!” I recalled the energy and discharged it a second time. A massive crown of thorns spun up around my weapon, then shattered into splinters of black ice that hailed down. Rain of Glass obliterated two of the men on Suri’s back and crippled four others. She reached around, grabbed the remaining man by the top of his head, and threw him at the fence. He flew by Vash and smashed limply into the bars. I dropped to the ground behind Suri and faced off with the remaining guards. Swords and rifle barrels flashed as I darted in, a blur of speed and shadow, and cut a swathe through them.

[You use Whirlwind Butcher!]

[You killed Witch Hunter!]

[Suri is Level 25!]

Suri, her flesh smoking through the plates of her armor, discharged a rolling shockwave that knocked down the nearest ten soldiers attacking her and cleared the space around us. When fighting with a polearm, every foot of space I had put me at an advantage. I smashed the blade down against a witch hunter’s scimitar, knocking the woman back, then gave it a tricky twirl, hooked the sword, and flipped it out of her hands. In the moment of shock, Vash flew past me in a blur, a flying kick that hit her in the side of the face, snapped her neck to the side, and pitched her to the ground in a heap. He bounced off her, wove under a firing rifle, and pushed it up into the grenadier’s face as they fired off another couple of rounds.

“The Sultir’s soldiers are on the way!” he snarled, pulling the gun back past his head with one hand and smashing his other fist into the man’s nose. “We need to wrap this up, Dragozin!”

I scanned the area, searching for a way out. Having Karalti change back out of human form was not an option. Bridges, paths, and canals crowded the sky like a net, many of the gaps too small for a dragon to pass between. Worse, the cavalry was here: quazi, smaller winged creatures the size of griffons, were streaking toward us from the north.

“Back around the compound, to the alleyway! There’s a sewer grate there!” I Shadow Danced out of the way of a big guard who came in swinging, then swung low and tripped him. “We can get to the undercity from there, right? Suri?”

“Should be able to, yeah!” She headbutted another guard, then shoved him aside. “Out of my way, ya cunts!”

We let Suri bulldoze through the remaining pack, waving Karalti in as we ran by. She fled after us, Mehkhet trailing along in a billowing cloud of shadow, and cut around the fence line. The two Sandstrider guards formed a wall, blocking the exit into the road. The mechs pivoted toward us, scythe-like limbs raised.

“Karalti! Watch out for those lanterns!” Suri slammed the visor of her helmet down as the guards up top opened fire on us. Arrows did as much damage as bullets, but didn’t damage armor the same way musket rounds did. Archers could load and shoot about twice as fast, though, and while Suri could deflect most of them, neither Vash nor Karalti wore much protection.

[Critical hit! Karalti takes 260 damage!]

[Sandstrider Elite uses Focused Shot! Vash takes 390 damage!]

“Find cover!” I charged up and shot forward in a plume of red-black haze as Suri stomped a foot, shook her head, and ran at the legs of the Sandstrider like a quarterback. She dragged the tip of her sword along the ground, sending up sparks, but I struck first. Blood Sprint accelerated my hits to lightning speed, letting me level ten solid blows against the mech’s legs. Sparks rained off the metal, but it was Suri’s attack that sent the machine staggering. Crimson tendrils of energy leaped up around the Berserker as she smashed into the leg and knocked the Artifact’s knee out from under it. It managed to stay upright, but pitched the archer off its back onto the street. Vash and Karalti ran over to pummel the second Sandstrider while we focused on the first. The machine could fight independently, limping at Suri and bringing its bladed arms down. She caught them on the edge of her sword with a grunt, pushing back. It left the machine wide open from the flank.

“Suck on this!” The air around me shrieked in protest as it condensed around the Spear. The blade struck home, and black ice erupted from the Artifact’s knee, jamming the gears before they wrenched apart. It crumpled to the ground, fizzing and spitting. The lantern was crushed beneath its weight, sending a cloud of ozone into the air. The archer gave a cry of fear and scrambled back, fleeing the battle.

“Hey! You cocksucking-URRRGH!” his buddy called out, lurching toward us. Suri wasn’t ready this time. The sword arm struck her over the back, bodyslamming her onto the ground. I Jumped straight into the air, vaulting to land on the deck of the Sandstrider. The sniper was too surprised to react to the sudden appearance of a man who’d just leaped twenty feet into the air. I rammed the hilt of the Spear into his belly, spun it around as he doubled over, and then uppercut him under the jaw with it. The man gave a piercing shout, arms windmilling. I kicked him in the chest and sent him flying over the side, then turned