Beware the Ills: Part 34
The machines reform their line and lower their chests to the ground. They’re living stones. They look awkward and clumsy. They hiss differently, and something wrinkles the empty air between our two riverbanks. Arrows, thousands of them, shot and sprayed into a continual stream from their centers. There are too many to knock away with my sword, or cloak. Whatever contraption spins in their chest, it really thrusts and fires their arrows. The trees split and sever under their cloud, like pillars of easy ice.
I roll backwards and start running into the deeper part of the forest, too far for the arrows to splinter the trees and stab me. I wave my sword behind the green-layered underbrush. Blue runs to meet me in a furry flourish. His man-wild body looks quick, bulky, and fearsome. I’m proud to have him here. He runs in front of me, and I jump onto his back leisurely. He puts his paws beneath my feet and runs back towards the green explosions, and chains of arrows. We get to the shore, and the white-water valley, and in one quick throw, I’m in the air and flying over the river.
The maneuver was too quick for the invaders to see our nonchalant piggy-back ride. The air above the river and trees feels quick and sharp. Below me are hundreds of troops. Brown line, after brown line of soldiers silhouetted. The snow whips my face and bashes my shoulders. Humorously enough, Blue quickly rolls into a ball and topples over the riverbank and onto the ice. He keeps momentum, so as not to shatter the ice beneath his bounces. His body has a muscular coarseness to it, along with that iron webbed fur, causing arrows to sprinkle off his bowling form as he moves. The invaders fire at him constantly, but that doesn’t slow his spinning.
None look upwards where I’m sailing across the empty space except the man with the spear.
I’ll have to land in the middle of them. At a long distance, Blue and I are a liability because of their ranged attacks. Up close, we’ll have the advantage. I whistle a piercing screech at the grunts below, from between my fingers. I want them to look up and fire, so their arrows fall back into them like pointed rain. Several of them look up and fire at me with their mechanical crossbows. Their clattering trails follow me up to the high and windy air. I knock a few away with my sword. The rest fall back towards the troops in screams, and punctured skin. They lose track of me in the sky, thanks to this deadly rain. The man with the spear screams at them under the inconsistent hail. A few arrows fall his way, and he spins his spear knocking them away.
He knows they fell for a very easy trap.
I play the wind for just a second as I fall. I need to land in line with Blue, who has almost reached their columns along the westward bank. I position myself just a quick jog away from Blue inside the swarm of troops. He won’t be too far away, while he’s thrashing and mangling on the edge of their encampment. A walking machine sits directly below me with a pilot who can’t seem to adjust his bulky range of fire. I check the location of the man with the spear before I land. I need some moments before I engage him in our final bout. He’s too far away to engage me right now, luckily.
I slash downward as I collapse onto the walker. I cut the man in half between his eyes. His halves curl and splash into the troops standing around the machine’s plated edges. They panic immediately; they’ve become less seasoned throughout their visit to the island.
Haukter might’ve had more of an effect than me.
I’m in the center of the infantry host. The machines are spread out far enough to not pose an immediate threat. The grunts don’t get their arrow guns around in time to point at me atop the machine. I slash downward in a whirling slash, cutting a few faces and throats. I slide into the cockpit of the machine and whirl the half eggshell around to point into the rest of the troops. I don’t really understand the whole sea of dials and levers at my fingertips, so I start to hit buttons randomly. The machine suddenly crouches down and fires a long stream of fluid arrows from its glowing chest into the horizontal columns. Men scream and fall gurgling blood. I can see the points plucking through their skin in bloody spots.
I smile.
I’ll be releasing my novel Beware the Ills in segments every Friday. You can find out more about the book right here, or check out Amazon’s info. I love this book. Happy to simply share it.
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