Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2) Kal Aaron (read along books txt) 📖

suggest you expedite the rest of this verification process if you’re not going to rearm.”

“If it comes down to it, I can use the showstoppers to cover my retreat,” Lyssa replied. “I need to inspect this place as well as possible to make sure the immediate threat is gone. It’s not like I want to be in a rank cave filled with dead monsters.”

She wrinkled her nose as the unpleasant smell of the room reasserted itself. That was what she got for thinking about it. She kept getting used to it and being able to ignore it, but then her mind drifted, and it came back in all its torturous glory. Killing the queen hadn’t helped.

She did her best to breathe through her mouth. Her entire regalia was coated with polluted monster blood. The only way things could have been worse was if she didn’t have a mask. Somewhere out there, a Sorceress with a cleanness essence was laughing to herself.

Lyssa wasn’t surprised Jofi wanted to make a quick exit. Everything she knew about his true nature pointed toward him wanting to fight intelligent creatures, or at least something with souls, not mindless monsters. This outing was only a little more diverting for him than a trip to the range.

“We’ll be smart about this since they can’t see through my sorcery, but I need to make sure there’s no hidden sorcery or shards left around,” Lyssa said. “I don’t want to find out at the end of this that the whole point was to distract us while a freaking sorcery bomb goes off and blows up everything for three miles.”

“That seems like an outlandish and unlikely scenario,” Jofi replied. “From what I’ve observed, no individual Sorcerer is capable of such a feat.”

“Why assume a single rogue is involved?” Lyssa pulled out and expanded a baton.

“You suspect more?”

“I don’t know,” Lyssa replied. “But ignore things, and the next thing you know, boom!” She traced an explosion in the air with her hands. “I’m doubting these monsters ended up here by accident, but I don’t see the plan.”

“Would the destruction of an abandoned mine be a particular concern?”

Lyssa shook her head. “Terrorism isn’t always about killing people. It’s right there in the name. The point is to terrorize people. Monsters can do that by looking weird and poisoning people.”

“You think someone is attempting to scare the Shadows with these monsters?” Jofi asked.

“It’s occurred to me. Abandoned mines in the desert aren’t exactly the places to begin a great world-conquering plan.” Lyssa poked open the mouth of a large snake-roach with her baton. “I only had to crack out the good stuff because there were so many of these things. Adams and Ortiz could have taken out a small pack without too much trouble. Get the National Guard and some rocket launchers, and they’d have a good chance of taking down the queen if they could keep calm.”

“You’re saying you’re roughly equivalent to a military unit with heavy weapons?” Jofi asked.

Lyssa snickered. “Yeah, actually, I am. Just call me the Lyssa Squad.” She moved on from the body. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t have brought me in. If these things left the mine and got near a town, they could hurt a lot of people. I had the advantage of them being all clustered together in close quarters.”

“Do you think the goal was breeding a large army?” Jofi asked.

“It’s possible,” Lyssa said. “The thing is, I’ve fought tougher monsters, and the ones I usually hear about are created to be more dangerous than normal animals. Otherwise, there’s no point in wasting time and energy on sorcery versus grabbing a bunch of javelinas and jamming them in the back of a truck, where you torture them with T-Pain songs on a constant loop before releasing them in the middle of a city to bite people.”

“I don’t know who T-Pain is,” Jofi replied. “But I would suggest your alternative plot appears overly elaborate and questionable. I don’t know if javelinas would be effective terror weapons.”

“The point is any monster that doesn’t have a good chance of killing an armed Shadow isn’t worth the trouble,” Lyssa said. “It’s not the tenth century. Sorcerers have to up their game.” She looked around. “There’s a good chance I’ve cleared everything out, but nothing says we can’t check things out with me hiding. No shame in surprise attacks against monsters.”

“You’re sure about this?”

“Hell, no, but I’m sure I want to minimize the chance of loose ends.” Lyssa leaned over one of the corpses. “I have a bad feeling I’m going to be back here anyway.”

“Next time, I’d suggest you bring more ammunition,” Jofi said.

“That’s probably a good idea.”

Lyssa allowed the shadows to swallow her. Her heart had long since stopped pounding from the fierce series of fights, and she’d not used much sorcery, meaning she’d be able to maintain her cloak while inspecting the rest of the mine without it being a struggle.

That was one advantage of merging technology with sorcery, despite what some Illuminated thought. Aisha could pull off flashier stunts, but Lyssa could deal death for a longer period.

“You know, I just thought of something,” Lyssa said, heading toward the queen’s chamber. “I’ve never actually been in a mine before.”

“Does it impress you?” Jofi asked.

“The monsters kind of ruined the whole atmosphere.”

She walked along the edge of the pool before wading in again. The queen’s body took up most of the space, and Lyssa risked hopping up and walking down the length of the huge corpse for more clues. It wasn’t like she expected a QR code, but anything could help.

“All that fighting, and I didn’t feel any sorcery,” Lyssa said. “I’m even more convinced our guy’s a wimp. I don’t think it’s crazy to assume a potential rogue at the other end of this might not be much of a combat Sorcerer, hence the big army of monsters.”

“Terror requiring regalia would ensure Eclipses are sent,” Jofi replied.

“That’s a strong point.” Lyssa nodded. “And you’re right. It