Soulguard (27 page)

Chapter 57

              I opened a hole up high in my shield dome and began lobbing Soulbombs out into the horde of demons. Sam had stabilized Jacobs as best he could and began doing the same.

              “When the shield goes down, diamond formation. The Elites are the target. We join forces, now that I think they’re definitely focused on us,” My voice boomed, “Rednecks to the front rank! I’m on point!”

              I looked at Sam Keller with a savage grin, “Fire in the hole!”

              I cut the tethers on thirty Soulbombs, He had made twenty-seven more and he cut the tethers to them.

              The explosion was deafening. Demons and parts of Demons exploded in every direction. I dropped the shield and shot forward with the Guard in perfect formation. My eyes stayed focused on the Elites as they began closing the distance toward us as well.

              I could see the individual Souls now and relief flooded through my as I saw both Kharl and Kyra were still alive. I could also see Paige’s aura and Darrel’s. But I didn’t see Nora’s and I knew what that explosion must have been, earlier. Gregor was still there so it had to be Nora.

              As we hit the horde of Demons again I Danced once more and the rage was fed Demon blood. I saw the Wraith coming head on at me and I opened up with the disks again. It made short work of the beast and I kept dancing. I glanced left to see Ric with a smile of pure happiness on his face. He’s never happier than when he is fighting.

              I love frigging Marines.

              I kept my eyes on the other group. Kharl’s soul was burning like a furnace over to the left side of the group and Kyra was moving so fast her soul looked like a firefly off to the right. They were each leading a group of Guards on the flanks.

              Suddenly, the firefly stopped and her Soul flickered. A great pit opened in my chest, I heard a horrible wail and I realized it was me. I saw the vision of my birth mother in the midst of the bloody massacre where she’d died. I saw my friends ripped apart in a cavern. I saw all the dead at Morndel and all the losses we had already taken here, but the one person I knew I couldn’t bear to lose was my mom.

              The rage wasn’t just peaking through the surface any more, it flowed like a tidal wave across my consciousness and I embraced that flood.

              I went berserk.

              I screamed in fury and began Pulling with all my might. My disk launchers spewed fiery death and my swords launched arcs of power into the horde between me and my mom. I surged forward across heaps of dead Demons, slamming arc after arc into the masses in front of me. My disk launchers spewed fire through Demon after Demon. My swords melted and I dropped them to sling arcs from my fists instead.

              I saw another Wraith and leaped to its back, before it knew what was happening. I reached down and ripped its head off with my bare hands. Then I jumped from its back into another packed group of Soldiers. I never slowed down, screaming in fury, I ripped them apart with my bare hands.

              Suddenly, I was in an open area and there were no Demons around me. I was still screaming in rage and looking for more. Then my eyes connected with those of Paige Turner and I realized I was there. I looked back to see my Guard was right behind me and I slammed my shields back up around us all.

              The fire was dangerously high in me but my first act was to leap to Kyra’s side. Kharl closed in from the left flank and when he saw Kyra laying in front of me he ripped the soldier he was fighting in half with a roar and went airborne. He landed right beside us to fall to his knees and pull Kyra to his chest. He cradled her head in his arm and tears were flowing freely down his face. Kyra was barely alive and I did the only thing I could think of.

              I reached down into her Soulstream and Pulled gently. I didn’t know whether it would work or not but I had to try. The Source flowed up her stream and the horrible gash in her side stopped bleeding. Her soul began to stabilize itself and I noticed that the fire that had built up in me was noticeably less.

              “Told you he’d get here,” She mumbled to Kharl.

              He looked at her with love flowing across his aura. They’d been together for close to thirty years and he had finally realized he loved the woman.

              I knelt beside her and kissed her forehead, “You’ll be ok now, Mom, I love you.”

              Kharl looked at me, “Thank you, Son.”

              I nodded at him and stood up, turning to find Rictor and Daphne waiting patiently for me.

              Sam Keller stood behind them with awe flowing across his aura.

              “You take us to the greatest places, Boss,” Rictor said with a grin. The sad part is he meant it.

              “What are our losses?” I asked with dread.

              “Thirty two dead, seven critically injured and forty three wounded.”

              “God, I’m sorry. I lost it back there.”

              “Lost it?” Ric snorted, “Most of those losses were from before you did that, I’m on fire and I’m gonna kill everything move.”

              Daphne chuckled, “Accurate description but it needs to be shortened a bit. I’d hate to try to remember all that every time I wanted to order it done.”

              “We were right behind you on the way in,” Ric said.

              I sighed and turned to look for the wounded. I saw the small group that Paige was tending and headed that way. As I passed the critically injured I stopped and Pulled through their streams as I had done with Kyra. By the time I reached Jacobs I was Pulling from the Source to power myself as I Pulled through his stream. His Soul stabilized and his eyes opened.

              “Did I get the bastard?” he groaned.

              “Hell yeah you did,” I answered, “Only Guard dumb enough to tackle a Wraith by himself. They’ll sing songs about it.”

              “God I hope it’s a better song than Rocketman,” He muttered as his eyes closed again.

              I turned to find Paige standing behind me with a haunted look in her eyes. I stepped forward and placed my hands on her shoulders.

              “Are you ok?” I asked softly.

              “I was ten feet from her when it came through,” she said and I watched her memory as she saw it in her mind.

              Wraith warnings sounded from everywhere and Nora had opened fire with disk launchers. She killed three of them but the fourth came in from behind. Nora didn’t have an Ivan Jacobs and she managed to turn, half facing the beast as its claws ripped through her side. Incredibly fast, she’d latched onto the creatures arm. You could tell that her spine was severed as she dragged herself around to latch onto the Wraith.

              It had happened so fast, Paige hadn’t even gotten her fireballer charged all the way before it was already too late.

              It surged through the Guards and out into the horde outside the perimeter. It began trying to dislodge Nora but she held tight. Paige was looking straight into her eyes when Nora Kestril Pulled the world inside out.

              Gregor barely got the shield up before the blast wave rolled over them. And the last look on Nora’s face was burned into Paige’s memory. She had a sad look of acceptance just before she screamed as the Source consumed her and Left a crater where the Wraith and close to four hundred demons had been.

              “Damn,” I said softly, “I’m sorry Paige. I have to go, just stay strong.”

              She nodded with a sadness filling her Soul. She and Nora had become very good friends over the last ten years.

              I made my way over to Gregor who gave me a strange look, “What the Hell did you just do? Those Guards Pulled from the Source.”

              “It must be one of those Soullord skills,” I answered, “I’ve never done that before but I couldn’t just watch her die.”

              “Amazing.”

              I looked out at the horde of screaming Demons pounding on my shield and an idea began to form. Something else caught my eye and I poured power into my eyesight to see a group of helicopters on their way toward us.

              “I think we have reinforcements incoming,” I said with my voice amplified, “Clear a spot in the center of the shield.”

              I opened the top of the shield and pushed the edges high enough that the Demons couldn’t get in and with a little push I made the whole thing glow brightly so the choppers could avoid it.

              I looked again at the horde outside, “Mages,” My voice boomed again, “Soulbombs out the top of the shield all the way around us. Let’s clear out the perimeter so I can expand the shield.”

              We began forming the Soulbombs and lobbing them outside.

              “Fire in the hole!”

              We cut the tethers on a hundred and thirty Soulbombs and there was a tremendous roar outside of the shield as the blast wave destroyed everything within a hundred feet around the shield.

              Immediately, I pushed the shield out to that point and began crafting two twelve inch tendrils, One was at the end of the weave I’d used for my shield and the other was ten feet out along the tendril I used to feed it.

              I stopped, inches above the ground with my tendrils and motioned to Gregor. I lit up an arch at the north end of the shield and one at the south.

              “I need a shield about six inches inside of those spots but don’t let them touch my shield.”

              “What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

              “We need this shield to stand without a Mage, I’m tying it to the Source.”

              “God Damn it, Colin,” he exclaimed, “It took twenty five Mages to make the Dome. You’re gonna do this by yourself?”

              “You gotta point,” I said, “Sam, Darrel, Paige, I may need support. Be ready if I do.”

              “You got it,” Darrel said and Sam nodded. Paige walked over and stood at my right shoulder, prepared.

              “Thank you,” I turned to Gregor, who just shook his head and placed the shields where I had asked. I opened the areas in my shield on the other side of his shields.

              “It’s a matter of timing, you see...”

              I slammed the end tendril into the Source. Power surged up the shield and quickly flowed toward me. Just before it reached me I slammed the second tendril in and severed my link. I was a tiny bit slow and the power recoil slammed into me, throwing me backwards twenty feet. But the power had not entered me, so I was fine.

              The shield flowed with power from a twelve inch stream. Nothing was piercing that.

              “Crazy bastard,” Sam was muttering as he picked himself up. Apparently he had been right behind me.

              The helicopters got closer and I could see the Souls of Guards and one Soul I recognized the moment I saw it.

              I was smiling when Rictor walked up, “You blew yourself up again?”

              I shrugged, “Hadn’t done it in a while, thought it was time.”

              He chuckled, “So who you think is in the choppers?”

              I grinned, “You’ll see.”

              The choppers began hovering and Guards started dropping from them, down into the shielded area. Rictor’s eyes widened and surprise rolled across his aura as he heard a familiar scream as one of the forms jumped from the helicopter.

              “I’d know that screech anywhere!” I heard Jacobs yelling, “Somebody help me sit up, Damnit!”

              Paige headed back over and tried to get the man to calm down.

              “You don’t understand, darlin, that’s the Kid!” he kept trying to sit up, “If the Boss is turning the Kid loose out there, I gotta see it! Lean me on Lewis, there, he’s big enough to prop against!”

              As the small man landed, his scream stopped and he stepped forward with a sheepish look. He was still the wiry little guy we knew and loved. But there was a sadness in him as well.

              He looked at me and gave a little smile, “Boss.”

              “Hey Kid, glad you could come to the party,” I said with a grin, “Where’d you get all these Guards?”

              “Denver and Sacramento. Olliver and Sanders are both on the last chopper, there.”

              “Good,” I nodded to him, “The more, the merrier.”

              All told, they brought a hundred and fifty more Guards with the three Mages.

              I heard Paige still talking to Jacobs, “That’s just Kevin, what are you talking about?”

              “That’s a good question,” Gregor said to me, “You said Kevin had improved a lot but everyone seems to be jumping for joy here.”

              “Just give it a few minutes and you’ll see why,” I said with a laugh.

Chapter 58

              “This is what I want,” I said with my voice amped, “Kid, you’ll have the Denver guys and I need a Mage for backup.”

              Sanders stepped forward, “I’ll back him.”

              “Ok take twenty five of the Sacramento guys as well. I want about twenty or so around the backup Mage and the rest in diamond formation on the Kid.”

              “I want to send out three waves of us, You guys get the first run. Then I go with the Rednecks. Sam, you want to do support on this one?”

              “You got it.”

              “Bring ten of your Guards to finish out my numbers, Ramirez!” I yelled, turning to him, “Get fifteen guys for the backup group’s defense.”

              “Got it Boss.”

              “Third wave is Gregor and the Elites with Daphne’s troops as well. Olliver, you ready for the Backup spot there?”

              “Yes Sir.”

              “Darrel, you and Paige are the Gatekeepers. Darrel on the north and Paige on the South.”

              They both nodded.

              “Everyone get set, work out your positions, first wave goes in two minutes.”

              I nodded to the Kid and pointed with both arms, “This area, all the way out and back. Anything in that area is crispy. How’re you feeling?”

              “Scared shitless.”

              “Good. What do you see out there?”

              “A target rich environment, Sir,” he answered with grin.

              “Ready?”

              He nodded and I pointed to the north gate, “On my mark, open the gate!”

              The Kid stepped to the middle of his group. I could see the fear spike.

              “Mark!”

              The gate dropped and the Guards poured out, slaughtering anything in the immediate area. Then the Kid screamed in terror and shot forward. As soon as he passed the lead Guard, I felt him Pull so hard it made my teeth hurt. He exploded with power and everything within a fifty foot area in front of him was incinerated. He never even slowed down as he shot forward, and his Pull never decreased.

              When I fight, there are times when I’m Pulling hard and others when I’m not. It fluctuates some but the Kid doesn’t.

              “Dear God,” Gregor muttered beside me, “I could do that for maybe three minutes. Won’t he burn out?”

              “He’s a frigging machine, Greg,” I answered, “He goes till he does what he sets out to do.”

              He shook his head sadly, “Nora told me this would happen.”

              “What’s that?”

              “She said, after you left the Academy, that we’d be support Mages before this was done. I laughed at her because I’ve bought into my own reputation of being the second most powerful Mage in the US. I wish she was here to say I told you so.”

              “Me too, Greg,” I said softly.

              The Kid reached the outer edge of the horde and the whole formation turned and swept back toward us. Sanders burned a Wraith that was coming from the side.

              “Looks like it’s our turn,” I said, “After the Kid calms down a minute, tell him he did great for me, I’m gonna be a bit busy.”

              I headed to the front of the Rednecks. Ric stood to my left and Prada to the right.

              I drew two swords I had gotten from Lewis. He was wounded and he knew I’d melted mine. I looked out at the horde of Demons and let the Rage wash over me.

              “Friggin growling...” I heard from off toward the Guards I hadn’t worked with before.

              “That’s a good sign,” I heard Daphne chuckling.

              Then the Kid and his group were inside and I let the beast out of its cage. With a howl of fury I shot out the opening with a hundred Guards and Sam Keller right behind me. We ripped into the Demons and I reveled in the slaughter.

              This is what I’m made for. This is what I’m good at and I could actually let the rage out completely. We ripped through the horde of Demons, straight toward the outer limits of the horde. I saw a Wraith but Sam burned it down, so I continued forward.

              As soon as we broke through, we turned left and headed back in. We were about halfway back when a Wraith hit our line right beside me. Prada and Ramirez both were grabbed and thrown out into the horde about fifty feet ahead of us. My rage spiked and I hit the focus point the Kid had told me about.

              The world slowed to a crawl, and my blade removed the Wraith’s head. I leapt to where Prada and Ramirez landed. The soldiers around them were inches from the downed Guards. I grasped the back of their armor and hurled them both back into our Guards’ ranks.

              It seemed like I had infinite time as I leapt out of the group of Demons. I surveyed the field around us to see a wedge of ten Wraiths heading straight for us. Before I even landed, I opened up with all six launchers at six different targets. My Soullance slammed into a seventh. And two fireballers hammered two more.

              They were right in front of the shield and I charged the last Wraith with my fists glowing with Soulfire.

              I passed on the right side of the beast and my left arm ripped through the bastard’s midsection, tearing the Wraith almost in half.

              Then we were inside and I was standing there with my chest heaving as I beat the rage down.

              “Keeping that?” Kharl asked as he went by me, toward the door. I looked down and found the spine of the last Wraith dangling from my left hand.

              “Hmm,” I shook my head, trying to clear some of the rage and turned to find all of my Guards with rage slowly subsiding from their auras. They had bloodshot eyes and veins standing out on them. Apparently, I’d projected much more than just my movements to them this time.

              “Damn, Boss,” Ric muttered as he got his rampaging emotions under control.

              “Thought I was a goner,” Prada said as she walked up. She looked at me for a second and kissed me, “Thanks.”

              There were several whistles and jeers as she walked back to her previous spot.

              “Thanks, Boss,” Ramirez said, “I’ll kiss you if you want but I’d rather not.”

              “Nah, that’s ok, Luis,” I said with raised hands.

              I turned around to see the third wave head out the opening. I heard Gregor mumbling as he went out.

              “I’m retiring, I swear it. I’m a frigging dinosaur.”

              “I think we all are, Greg,” Kharl answered.

              Kharl was at the point position and he charged into the horde of Demons to do what he’s always been a master of. The others followed him flawlessly and Greg burned several Wraiths as they made their pass.

              There was a bit of power built up inside me so I headed for the wounded to heal them and get rid of any excess power. If there is one group I’m not worried about it’s the Elites and Greg. They’ve been fighting Demons for over a hundred years.

              The thing that bothered me the most about them was the fact that Jack Riordan and Tien Yueh weren’t present and I dreaded asking the questions I would have to later.

              As I neared them I heard Jacobs talking to Paige, “That’s what I was talking bout. I couldn’t miss that, now, could I?”

              As I finished stabilizing the new wounded Guards, Rictor approached.

              “How many did we lose?”

              “Three dead, seven wounded.” He said, “Would have been more if you hadn’t projected that rage. I mentioned it to the others and it was like it gave us more speed and focus. Definitely a new way to do things.”

              I turned to the door as the Elites re-entered our shield.

              “All right, Kid, South door this time,” My voice boomed and the Kid’s group hit the south door to do much the same as they’d done to the north.

              We each made three trips out into that horde and their numbers just seemed endless. More and more were flooding from the giant gateway.

              “They’ll bleed us dry,” I said to Kharl and Gregor, “We can’t keep doing this as long as that gate is spewing Demons.”

              “We don’t have many choices, here, Son.”

              “I know,” I answered, “I have to get a look at that Gate. If we can shut that thing down we can work on killing the rest of em then.”

              “Next runs will be west then,” Kharl said, “That’ll give you a chance to look it over.”

              “Kid!” I yelled and Kevin headed our way.

              “Boss?”

              “I’m shadowing your next run, I want a look at that gate aver there. When we get there I need a shield and we’ll pause long enough for me to look at it. Have Sanders do the shield.”

              “Yes Sir,” He turned and started giving orders. A large swell of pride surged through me as I watched him.

              I turned back to Kharl and Greg, “Hold down the fort till we get back and we’ll see what’s what then.”

              “Ric! I need ten with me. We’re shadowing the Kid to look at this gate.”

              “Gotcha, Boss,” He turned and barked out names. There was no point in asking for volunteers, we were all volunteers already.

              In a few moments we were all ready, “Hit it, Kid!”

              The Guards shot out the north door and turned west. The kid screamed and shot forward, exploding with firepower.

              I beat down my rage and held to the back of the group. I poured disks into a Wraith that tried to hit us from the side and it stumbled and fell in a flaming heap.

              After a bit, we were right up beside the Gate and it was huge when you’re standing right beside it.

              “Shield!”

              Sanders pushed a shield out and opened his portal to solidify it. The Guards made short work of the Demons inside of the perimeter.

              My eyes were on the giant portal. There were twenty huge cable-like tendrils that seemed to flow from inside of it and join the outer ring of the portal. Maybe if I could cut those the portal would collapse. I opened up my Soullance and fired into one of the tendrils. A small fray showed where I shot but that was all, so I Pulled hard and poured the power to the lance. The fray grew a tiny bit but there was no way I had enough power to cut it.

              I felt that cutting the cables would be the only way of shutting the thing down. I’m not sure all the Mages we had here could combine and cut the things.

              “Ok, men, we can fall back to the shield.”

              The Kid nodded and Sanders dropped the shield. The Kid screamed once more and exploded out to the front again.

              “I can’t help it, I love to see that boy work,” Rictor said, running beside me.

              “It’s like a work of art,” I returned.