046 – They Burned My Cereals

Day 3

Up until the mannequin stumbled in behind us, the library assault had been a remarkably smooth operation.

Sure, there was a goddamn polycule of Anne Rice extras guarding the entrance, but even their charm magic wasn’t much use against Power Through and four hundred pounds of dire hyena. We were just stepping into the grand foyer, ready to find out what kind of loot this place held.

Then Claire’s mannequin stumbled through the entrance and stopped us cold.

[“The fire station is under attack.”]

“What do you mean by under attack?” Ash asked.

[“Kobolds snuck past my perimeter and started firebombing the building. There are demons approaching from the Mammon tower. Do not return, this is a trap. I’m going out to attack the kobolds. Hopefully they won’t find my apartment and the whiteboard.”]

I was already halfway out the main entrance, when I read the rest of her message.

I shifted out of my hyena shape.

“We can’t just let them burn down our base of operations!”

The others followed me outside.

[“I suppose you did when you failed to leave someone behind to guard the place. Though, depending on whom you left, they might have been burned alive by this.”]

“Fuck!” I paced. “How much water can you conjure, Ash?”

[“Not enough for this.”] Claire replied in his stead.

“Fuck.” I looked at the others. “What do we do?”

The others exchanged glances. They were exactly as stumped by this as I was.

[“Eve. There might be a situation you can do something about.”]

“What?”

[“I spotted a smaller group of kobolds. They aren’t carrying the same fire bombs, but garbage bags of something squishy. And they are handling those with great care. My guess would be that it might be poisoned meat.”]

“Why would—” And then I knew. This wasn’t just an attack on Blessed. This was a punishment. We had ambushed Mammon’s men and this was retaliation.

[“They are headed toward the junkyard.”]

My eyes met Jamie’s, who just nodded. He knew I had to go on my own.

“Eve,” he said. “Mind your hubris. If this is another trap, run. Okay?”

I nodded. “Okay. The hyenas aren’t worth dying for. But they are damn well worth killing for.”

I took a running start and took off as the hawk. I needed speed.

#

Full control of drag and inertia. In the brief minutes of flight I hadn’t even begun to grasp the consequences of this. But I learned enough to make an entrance. Like the fact that my 20% increased acceleration worked for gravity—when I wanted to go faster. Flying in waves meant I got more speed on the downswing than I lost on the upswing.

I spotted them about half a mile away from the junkyard. Four little bastards in suits—one caster, two assholes carrying the bags and one with a crossbow. I shed all my height and dove into their midst. Right over their heads I flared my wings and willed drag back into the equation, even increasing its effect on me.

Final kinetic energy: ~70,000 Joules.

The air in front of me compressed into a shockwave. Not enough to shatter limbs or toss the kobolds around. But enough to mimic Stephen’s Volatile Potion.

And primarily, I had shed speed. Enough to safely transform into a demon right in front of the caster in her oh-so-fancy suit. She had enough time to open her eyes again, before I tore her throat out with a swipe of my clawed hand.

Behind me the two carriers dropped the bags and attempted to run. With a swipe of my tail I sent them tumbling to the ground, earning me my first ranks in the Tail skill.

The first I crushed under my feet. The other I picked up from the ground.

Then there was the one with the crossbow. In a truly uncharacteristically valiant effort for his species, he had picked his weapon up, which had miraculously not misfired, and aimed at me.

“Let him go!” he squeaked.

I kicked his dead buddy at him. This time he did misfire. I lunged after him and picked him up in my free hand. I pressed both of them against the brick wall of a nearby building.

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“The first one to tell me how you knew about the junkyard gets to live.”

They both stumbled over their words. They tried to tell me they didn’t know. They were just sent on a mission. No one ever told them anything. I pushed harder.

“There—there are the spooky demons,” one squeaked.

I eased the pressure.

“Yes?”

“We don’t see much of them! They are hard to see! They look like they wear cloaks, but it’s wings, and they never make a noise! Those are Mammon’s eyes and ears.”

I grinned. “Well done.” I pressed his friend harder against the wall, crushing his throat. “Now watch, and tell the others what happens when Mammon sends you here.”

Slowly I squeezed the life out of the kobold. I could see the life force in his body dimming.

“Eve.”

The single word by Gabriel cut through my mind like a sword.