Contractor (45 page)

There were even more extractors than last

time. Dozens more. Teams of magicians

fought them at intersections, cycling their

squad members to the front so those in back

could rest.

Daniel drummed his mattress with his

fingers. He tried taking long breaths. His

heart pounded in his ears.

He’d learned from Rachel that

conventional weapons were useless against

the Vorid. It wasn’t that magic was

invincible to guns and bombs, but mundanes

couldn’t see the time-bubble. If they entered

it, they froze along with everything else, and

restarted only when the dome was lifted.

Only things that magicians interacted with

could move. Guns couldn’t fire because the

bullets stopped a millimeter from the

chamber. Bombs could go off only if a mage

was touching them, which defeated the

purpose. It was something they were working

on, but at the moment, all the armies of the

world were useless.

But he wasn’t. And here he was, sitting

in his bed while people risked their lives.

He grabbed his mace.
Sorry Rachel.

Daniel was out of the dorm in a half a

second. He stopped outside the door.

Something was different. Seriously different.

At the top of the dome was the jagged

fissure in the sky, that entrance into another

dimension. Lowered through it was an

opaque black column. The massive pillar

stretched all the way to the ground, as tall as

a skyscraper, but more like a radio tower

than an actual building. The dome was

almost twice the size of the last.

He focused on his senses and tried to get

a feel for what was happening. The streets

near where the column should be touching

the ground were riddled with extractors. The

mage teams were carving through waves of

the automatons to reach the source.

Daniel opened his eyes and took off

across the rooftops. In an instant, he found

his own route. Extractors were everywhere.

The glowing machines were breaking

through the walls of houses and ripping car

doors off their hinges to get at people.

Everyone they grabbed had their soul

siphoned off. The hazy white of their souls

drained away like water, leaving them with

only a thin shell of existence, soon to be

forgotten. No more playing with spawn.

Daniel charged in at full speed. The first

extractor was crushed from head to foot by

the power of his blow. It rattled to the

ground like a smashed soda can. The rest

stopped their activity and gathered around

him.

He didn’t have to hit and run anymore.

With his sigil, he bounced through the air,

smashing in heads and arms faster than they

could track him. In a few moments, they were

smoking wrecks. They disintegrated to black

dust. He absorbed every last speck of it.

Another wave of extractors arrived.

They filled the street from sidewalk to

sidewalk, a troop of machine soldiers

marching forward. He raised his mace and

exploded off his feet, filling himself with

energy.

He transformed into a white missile. He

carved back and forward, blowing them in

half, taking off limbs, or sweeping them off

their feet, always moving, one step ahead of

reaching arms and crushing fists.

The more Daniel killed, the more came.

They flooded the road and the alleyways

around him. He slammed his mace through

one, two, then a third, blasting them back into

the crowd. Three shockwaves of energy

roared out where he hit. The ones behind fell

back like dominoes, clearing a space in the

sea of robots.

"Is that all you got!?" He jumped them

while they were down, swinging his weapon

back and forward like a wrecking ball. His

mace smashed their casings, ruining the

enchanted lines that powered them along.

Even as he shredded steel, the black fog

of their sapped energy sank into his skin. He

could feel himself getting faster, striking

harder, all with less effort. He worked his

way through the rows of the machines,

annihilating them faster than they could rush

him.

Two lasers shot out from the side. On

instinct, Daniel raised his hand to shield

himself. His white power flared on his

fingers like a catcher’s mitt, taking the black

lasers head-on.

The attack ended. Daniel raised his

palm to his face. The metal plate protecting

his hand was scratched and blackened, but

nowhere near as damaged as it had been the

first time he’d taken that kind of attack—and

this was two with one hand.

More lasers came, but Daniel was

already behind the offenders. His mace

stabbed through a steel chest. Its magic

fizzled and died. Using his newly formed

extractor-popsicle, Daniel lifted it into the

air, smashing it into its partner.

Each kill gave him more power. Each

kill healed his scrapes and gave him another

burst of stamina. He slowly worked toward

the black column in the center of the city,

zigzagging through their ranks, purposely

taking the time to take out every single one.

That’s right, you idiots. Bring on the buffet.

****

"Elly! Two, left!"

Eleanor bent her brow in concentration.

Two extractors that had burst out of a shop

window were frozen in blocks of ice.

Rachel’s asphalt golem raised a hand. It

morphed into a hammer, then slammed down.

The ice and the extractors shattered into

pieces.

Rachel was only using three golems at

the moment. That would help keep her

stamina up, and asphalt was a lot more useful

than the dirt she’d been reduced to when she

fought Jack. She’d torn up the sidewalk for

material, but at least she could make a dent

in an extractor’s armor.

"Switch!" came a voice from behind

them.

Eleanor threw up her hands. A wall of

ice dropped in front of the extractor line. She

and Rachel fell back while another four of

their team took the front. Eleanor let the wall

drop when their formation moved up.

They were quickly surrounded by their

allies. Rachel plopped down and fell back

on her hands. Her golems collapsed into

piles of asphalt, though her sigils still

hummed on them. She took a long breath and

wiped the sweat away. "Anyone got water?"

Someone threw her a bottle. She caught

it, downed about half, then had a couple bites

from a sandwich. Their earlier fights in

domes had taught them to bring provisions.

The time-slowing magic made it extremely

frustrating to prepare food.

But tonight wasn’t any normal picnic.

Boston was under siege, and it was the

biggest and strangest yet. They’d fought their

way through the city block by block. The

black column was now only a street away.

One of their scouts was scrying it out

from the top of a building. As far as they

could tell, it was making extractors. They

emerged from wide, cylindrical housing that

supported the base of the pillar; it had set

down right in the middle of an intersection.

There hadn’t been any changes since its

appearance. It was an assembly line

endlessly throwing cannon fodder at them.

The Vorid didn’t seem to care how many

machines it lost.

Eleanor, as usual, was unfazed by the

hour of combat. Not a single blonde hair was

out of place from her bun. Eleanor didn’t

have a lot of raw power, but she had

incredible stamina. Rachel still had no idea

how Daniel had managed to break her

prison. The contractor enchantment was

beyond any kind of magic she’d ever studied.

The Klide and the Vorid were far more

powerful than mankind.

Eleanor noticed her gaze. "Can you

continue?"

"I’m fine," Rachel said. She sat up.

"Something’s weird. The other nights felt

like probes. They came, we killed them, it

ended. This is different."

"Which means they have a new

strategy," Eleanor said. "But they aren’t

overwhelming us. We’re making good

progress."

"Switch!" Nickolas called. The third

squad swapped places with the second at the

five-minute mark. They moved up a few

yards through the space that had been

cleared.

"Wearing us down, maybe?" Rachel

asked.

"That’s what I was thinking. Keep your

guard -"

A wave of power made Rachel flinch.

Eleanor automatically shielded the group

with a thick wall of ice. A grey sphere

slammed into it, then vanished. Where it

contacted, the ice was eaten away in a

perfectly smooth, conical bore.

Rachel stared. Past the translucent wall,

one of their magicians had fallen to his

knees. A circular chunk was missing from his

shoulder. His right arm was completely

gone. He collapsed with a gurgling shriek,

clutching at his side as blood pooled under

him.

Another grey sphere rolled out at them

like a giant cannon ball. They scattered. It

passed through a fire hydrant, carving

through the iron without slowing, then hit the

side of a building, leaving a long gouge in

the brick before vanishing.

"Don’t touch that spell!" Eleanor

shouted. "Don’t try to block!"

Another ball fired. Rachel was at a safe

enough distance to watch it. It carved up a

section of the street and punctured a car, but

it didn’t pass all the way through the vehicle.

Eleanor’s wall had been enough to stop

it. Maybe if she put enough material between

it and her, she’d be safe. Rachel focused on

her spell and reanimated her golems. They

sprang up and jogged in front of her, ganging

up on an extractor that had closed in. It was

quickly pulverized.

She saw it, then. It matched the pictures.

The overseer’s skin was ink black. Its

arms and hands were delicate; its face was

angular, almost elfin. A white tattoo was

scrawled on its right cheek. It wore a simple

green robe. It stood on top of the extractor

housing, studying them.

Three sigils appeared in front of it, the

same slate grey as the spheres. It waved an

arm. The orbs materialized, then shot

forward.

They ducked for cover, but asphalt and

concrete couldn’t stand against the spell.

Rachel heard a scream from the alley

opposite her. One of her golems was sliced

clean in half. She dived behind a dumpster as

another orb flew in, barely avoiding a hole

through her head.

It was trying to keep them scattered,

huddled behind cover. They were going to be

picked apart. She had to buy time to work out

some sort of plan.

Rachel ran out and summoned all five

golems to her side. Asphalt ripped itself

from the ground and assembled into her

servants. They formed a wedge in front of

her and hammered forward through the wall

of extractors protecting the base of the

column.

She walked behind them, waiting for

them to brush the robots to the side. One of

the extractors slipped through, but a wall of

ice knocked it over. The golems pummeled it

into the street.
Thanks Elly.

A grey orb was fired straight for her.

She mentally ordered the golems to step into

a long line. The sphere sliced through the

first, the second, but stopped at the third.

They regenerated the wounds quickly.

The overseer was still firing off in every

direction, forming and shooting orbs at an

alarming rate. She could see her allies

jumping around, taking out extractors from

the rooftops as they dodged the shots.

Rachel’s stone warriors pressed closer to

the base of the column.

The overseer noticed her advance.

Three grey spheres were shot at her. One

went wide. The other two were stopped by

her shield of golems. She felt a bit of strain

as they regenerated, but there was plenty of

street to use as material.

The overseer frowned. It thrust its palms

out. A massive sigil appeared in front of it.

An orb the size of a car grew in seconds. It

burst forward.

Her first four golems were consumed

from neck to foot. She barely survived by

crouching behind the fifth, and it was half-

chewed away. She pressed her strength into

her five sigils, willing the golems back.

A whoosh of air snapped her head up.

As second massive orb was bearing down on

her. There was no time to dodge. She was

dead.

Suddenly, she was in the air, then in an

alley. Arms were curled under her legs and

back, carrying her. She was set on her feet.

"Are you alright?"

She spun around. "Daniel!? What the

hell are you doing here?!"