The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (31 page)

“I’d say we are getting closer,” Cody said, as they started to make their way toward the door again.

Ryan blew the door off its hinges with a blast from Reaper, allowing the access to the inside and a large room with another staircase on the other side. Darkling’s came boiling out of the staircase, rushing toward the intruders, armed with a variety of melee weapons. The Guardian’s didn’t waste any time in opening fire, cutting down most before they even got close.

“We must be getting close!” Cody yelled.

One of the Darklings had made it past the barrage of rounds and leapt toward Cody, only to have its neck broken as Cody slammed his bow into him the moment that he landed. Ryan still had Reaper out but both Ethan and Gabriel had switched to not only their pistols but their melee weapons as well.

More movement on the stairwell presented a new set of targets, heavily armed Unkari. The room didn’t offer much in the way of projection, causing the Guardians to dive behind a half wall near the door. Bullets ripped into the stone, sending chips flying off in all directions.

“Suggestions?” Gabriel asked.

Ryan aimed Reaper over the edge and fired blindly a few times, discouraging any of the Darklings from getting closer, though it wouldn’t do much to deter the Unkari from approaching. Cody popped up and fired off another explosive arrow, blowing apart several more Darklings.

“They’ve got us pinned,” Gabriel snapped.

“Thank you captain obvious!” Ethan snapped, firing blinding again.

“Rush them?” Ryan offered. He fired off another series of shots with Reaper. “Our armor will protect us from any body shots as long as they don’t hit us in the head...”

“Well, that’s an encouraging thought,” Gabriel grumbled.

“I’m all ears if you have any better ideas,” Ethan responded.

Gabriel shook his head; he knew that they had to get moving. The other team wouldn’t be able to keep up the pressure for long, especially since it appeared that a lot of the Darklings were surging toward their position at an alarming rate. They needed to find Sainte-Pierre and get him out of there before things got too out of hand.

“Ready?” Ethan asked.

They all nodded and vaulted over the wall, charging toward the Unkari and the Darklings on the other side of the room. The Unkari were good but the Guardians were better, two dropped as Cody’s blessed metal arrows found their targets. Most of the Darklings that had rushed forward never got a chance to bring their melee weapons to bear; they were blasted apart by Reaper and the glowing bullets pouring out of Gabriel’s and Ethan’s pistols.

The remaining Unkari surged forward, closing the distance between the charging Guardians and themselves in a manner of seconds. Instantly the fight was joined as immortal blades were unsheathed, throwing off sparks as they encountered the blessed metal weapons.

Gabriel ducked under a slash, whirling Aequitas around he cleaved through two Darkling’s before blasting another in the head with his pistol. Ryan had since replaced Reaper with his daggers and was gliding through attacks, building on his momentum before unleashing a powerful killing blow. A flash of silver flew by Gabriel’s head, imbedding its self in the forehead of a charging Unkari; Ethan was hacking his way through the thickening mass of Darkling’s and Unkari, still occasionally firing his pistol.

“They’re slowing us down!” Ryan yelled, he caught a blow to the face and responded by bringing his knee slamming up into the Unkari’s stomach. The demon doubled over and Ryan used his daggers to slam them down through the Unkari’s neck.

“He’s right!” Cody shouted, he fired another arrow and took down a Darkling a mere three feet from him. He whipped around, grabbing an arrow from his quiver and stabbed an approaching Unkari in the heart. He kicked the dead demon off the arrow, notched it and buried it in another approaching demon.

“Bloody wankers won’t stop until we’re all dead!”

“Speak freaking English,” Ethan snapped. He knocked sent an Unkari sprawling with a powerful kick before spinning around to stab through the chest of an attacking Darkling.

“He’s right,” Ryan snapped upper cutting another Unkari. The Unkari responded by lashing out with a series of vicious strikes that Ryan blocked before shattering the demon’s knee with a well-placed kick. The Unkari went down, Ryan dragging Daylighter across the demon’s throat as it fell.

They were in danger of being overrun and Ethan was starting to think that this plan might have just been insane after all. He dodged another blow and then went back on the offensive, hacking through Darkling and Unkari alike.

Elise’s axes whistled through the air, cleaving through both Darklings and Unkari. Red lances of lead marked the paths of Heat rounds, smashing through the Darklings and knocking Unkari to the ground.

“Do you think that they got inside?” Everett asked, as he sent several Darklings hurtling backwards with a rippling sphere of telekinetic energy.

“I hope so!” Elise yelled, so that she could be heard over the din of battle. “Because I’m not sure how much longer we are going to be able to keep this up.”

As she spoke, another grenade blasted the air, hitting the tower to the nearest of their position. The tower exploded in a blast of green fire and smoke, sending debris raining down on the battlefield.

“Is he trying to kill us!”

“I think he’s just trying to keep the focus on this side,” Everett stated. His staff whirled around, slamming into several Darklings and sending them flying. “But you’re right about one thing, we can’t keep this up forever.”

A Darkling charging toward them dropped, a Heat round searing through its head. A few seconds later the sounds of Tony’s rifle could be heard, taking down a whole knot of newly arrived Darklings.

Everett created a glyph in the air in front of him and then sent it flying forward, instantly setting on fire everything that it touched. It exploded a few moments later, ripping apart a group of Darklings.

“Uh oh,” Everett said, slamming his staff into another Darkling. “Elise, we might have a tad bit of a problem developing here.”

“What are you talking about” Elise snapped, her axe slicing through an Unkari.

Everett pointed; lumbering through the hole in the wall that Tony blown earlier came a war golem.

“Where in the hell did he dig up one of those things?” Elise snapped. “I thought that they were all under our control?”

“Apparently not,” Everett shrugged.

The war golem was eleven feet tall and looked like some sort of ancient machine; it had thick mismatched metal plates, pistons, gears, and all sorts of odd looking components. Steam hissed from several seams and the glowing red eyes flickered occasionally. The Darklings and Unkari had retreated slightly, allowing the war golem a place to maneuver.

“It doesn’t look like it has any outside weaponry...”

Even as Everett spoke those words, Elise knew that it was a mistake. The golem raised his hands, sending blue lightning bolts arcing forward. Everett and Elise dove to the side, avoiding the incoming attack as the bolts tore into the ground. They left nothing but scorched earth behind.

“I’d say that qualifies as a weapon,” Elise snapped.

Sparks exploded over the golem as Tony and Marissa redirected their fire, sending a barrage of Heat rounds into the target. The rounds didn’t penetrate the armor, although it did a good job of leaving smoking dents behind. Everett and Elise took that as their cue to sprint back toward the ridge, as Tony and Marissa continued firing.

“Tony, do you have any of those grenades left?” Elise asked, over the com channel.

“Nope,” Tony responded. “I only brought three of them, heads up we’re coming down to you!”

Tony and Marissa leapt off the ridge and landed in a crouch, unloading another barrage of fire from their weapons. The golem reared back, bringing its arm up to block the incoming attack, even though the rounds did little to its armored skin.

“Get back!” Everett warned.

The young mage took a deep breath, using all his concentration and then let a series of powerful magical bolts fly. The glowing blue/black bolts of magical energy rapid fired from Everett’s outstretched hands, slamming into the golem. They blasted through parts of the armor, severing the golem’s left arm and leaving behind smoking, glowing holes on the rest of the golem. Everett stopped, breathing heavy and struggling to stay on his feet.

The golem groaned, metal creaking and steam hissing from its various joints and seams.

“Good work,” Elise sighed.

Everett took a deep breath. “Thanks, I don’t think that I could do that again...”

Everett was cut off as the golem lurched back into motion, albeit without his left arm.

“Oh hell,” Tony snapped.

There were so many bodies littering the floor that it was almost making hard to move.

“This is insane!” Gabriel yelled, he blocked another blow and then thrust his blade forward, impaling the attacking Unkari before yanking the sword free and spinning it around to take out an approaching Darkling. “We aren’t going to ever get anywhere!”

“Cody, we need you to thin the herd, like now!”

“Thor?” Cody asked as his bow cracked across the face of another Darkling, sending it spinning to the floor. “You do realize that I haven’t ever tested the bloody thing!”

“No time like the present,” Ryan snapped, he spun around, ducking under another attack and coming up behind the Unkari to stab it through the back. “Now get your ass in gear!”

“What in the hell is he talking about?” Gabriel snapped.

“We need to move,” Ethan said, backing toward the door way.

“What in the hell is Thor?” Gabriel asked, yanking his pistol free and firing at several Darklings. “And I thought that we needed to go down the stairs?”

“We’ll have to find another way around,” Ryan snapped, as they backed out of the doorway. Cody was the last one out, wheeling around on his heel and firing off an arrow into the center of the room.

“Move your bloody arse!” Cody yelled.

A few seconds after they took off running a thunderous explosion shook through castle. The tower that they had been fighting to secure shuddered and then the room they were just in ripped apart in a fantastic explosion of flame, light, and noise. The whole top of the tower came apart in a symphony of sound and explosions, raining debris down all over the area. When the dust and smoke settled pretty much everything but the lower level was gone.

“What in the hell was that?” Gabriel demanded.

“Might have been a wee bit of a nuclear warhead,” Cody shrugged.

“You let him fire a nuclear warhead!” Gabriel snapped. “Why in the hell does he even have one of those?”

“For situations like that,” Ethan grunted, surveying the area. “We have to get moving, Sainte-Pierre totally knows we are here now.”

“Aye,” Cody nodded. “And I think that I found his ticket out of here.”

They all looked to were the young Irishmen was pointing, in the center courtyard of the castle, parked among the other vehicles, there was a single helicopter. Ethan smiled as Cody drew another arrow and let it fly, impacting on the tail rotor and blowing it off in a burst of flame. At almost the same time, Sainte-Pierre and a cadre of guards emerged from another entrance.

Cody didn’t waste any time, pulling out what was his last explosive arrow and letting it fly. It exploded behind Sainte-Pierre and his men, effectively cutting off any chance of escaping back inside. At the same time, the Guardians leapt off the wall and surged forward, covering the distance fairly easily.

Flashes of silver/blue light lit the night as Cody fired several arrows, downing the remaining Unkari. Ryan, Gabriel, and Ethan took care of mopping up the rest of the Darklings, leaving only Sainte-Pierre standing there.

“Well bravo,” Sainte-Pierre slow clapped. “I thought that you were supposed to be trained in the art of stealth and guile or did you think that using a micro nuclear device was being sneaky.”

“Don’t move,” Ethan ordered, his pistol leveled at Sainte-Pierre.

“Oh please we both know that Heat rounds don’t do anything but sting.”

Ethan fired once, hitting Sainte-Pierre in the shoulder, causing the demon to scream out in pain.

“Seems like it does something a little more than sting,” Ethan shrugged. “Now, come along nicely or I’ll sting the hell out of some other places.”

“Oh no, I don’t think so,” Sainte-Pierre sighed. “Look, you did a good job of breaching my security, I’ll give you that but you aren’t taking me anywhere. In fact, aside from Gabriel, the rest of you are going to be very dead very soon.”

“Not likely,” Ethan grunted. “You’re out of time Sainte-Pierre.”

And then Sainte-Pierre moved blindly fast, using an open palm strike that slammed into Ethan and sent him tumbling on the ground.

“You see, my dear Ethan,” Sainte-Pierre smiled. “You haven’t even a clue as to what I am capable of, I’ve had hundreds of years of practice.”

Gabriel and Ryan surged forward and both were sent spinning away as Sainte-Pierre countered their attacks.