The Heartstone Saga by Archibald Bradford (short novels in english .TXT) 📕

sprinting down the road towards them, quickly catching up.

“Never a good sign.” Miranda sighed.

Five minutes later they passed the medics and reached the command group, the Myrmidons protecting it parting to let them through.

“I felt your distress, what is it? Where is Nina?” Volka demanded, eyes wide with worry.

Nameless’s heart was pounding in his ears from the desperate flight from the Tenebrae; through their bond he could feel Nina’s battle rage, but little else.

“Nina’s fighting a whole bunch of Ogres!” Milly explained while he fought to catch his breath.

“Trap! It was a trap! The dead Ogre was bait.” Erica added unhappily; “To draw her away.”

“Then it worked.” Xalanth rumbled unhappily; “Dominar, look to the village.”

At the Dragon’s direction, Volka turned from her bond-mates and looked down the gentle slope towards Wayfelt; at first dozens, and then hundreds, of Tenebrae began to emerge from within the ruined buildings and the trees beyond them.

“Longinus! Form ranks!” Queen Julia ordered immediately, her daughters echoing her; “Hold the high ground at all cost!”

The sound of marching Antlions came from everywhere as the perfectly ordered legions did as their queens directed, placing their shields together to form a barrier between the Tenebrae and those they wanted to kill.

“By my goddess’s very breath, there are so many of them.” Volka mumbled as she took stalk of the horde.

“Aegis! Form up behind the Antlions, support them!” Booker ordered; “Kavanaugh! Get them moving!”

The instructor nodded and quickly repeated his orders, until a mass of white and grey uniforms, accompanied by an even larger mass of assorted monster girls, moved quickly into position.

Volka’s concern for Nina weighed on her heavily as the Tenebrae fanned out to mirror the Longinus’s formations, but she had to push it to the side.

Nameless felt her do it, and even though he understood why, it still broke his heart.

“We can do nothing but trust in Nina now. Paul! Get the volunteers back to support the medics!” She looked then to the three hundred monsters that had answered her call, already divided into three groups; “Tiana, Lilly! Safeguard the right and left flanks! Alcaia, support the middle!”

“Your will be done Dominar!” The warleader called.

Soon more shouts went down the line as people and monsters got themselves where they were supposed to be.

“How are they so in control?” Dawn Morrow demanded, the host of Tenebrae still forming; “It’s like they are waiting for something.”

Gripping his crutch tight, Booker’s good eye narrowed as he scanned over the challenge laid before them.

“Or someone. Evadne seems a likely suspect.”

Nameless was far too preoccupied worrying about his Gigas to add anything to the discussion, so Ophelia put her arm around him and whispered in his ear.

“I have to go and join the medics now dearheart. I’m afraid for her too, but we need to focus on what is in front of us. And let’s be honest, if there is anyone in the world we shouldn’t be worrying about right now, it’s Nina!”

__________

They should have been worried about Nina, because Nina was getting her ass kicked.

If the Ogres in the city had all attacked Xalanth like this even she would have been in trouble; the Dragon was able to stop so many only because the city wasn’t so open and her prey were too distracted trying to change that.

Plus she could fly.

Nina was flying too, but only because an enormous blue foot had just struck her in the chest, sending her into the air with enough force to topple a number of trees before she set down again.

The fighting had spilled back into the woods that the Ogres had come from, partially by design, partially by luck.

Nina needed the trees: they were the only cover she had, though the Ogres were finding them useful too.

After recovering from the kick, Nina brought her hammer up to block a projectile ripped from the forest and cast at her from one side.

Somewhere in her mind she wondered if Milly would find it amusing watching her dodging chunks of the surrounding trees, just as the Gigas once had her do.

The fleeting thought didn’t stick around long, the giant too focused on using the momentum of her latest dodge to spin and bring her hammer with unyielding force against the ankle of the Ogre currently trying to pound her massive fist through her back.

The creature howled in agony and toppled off of her useless leg but the reprieve was short lived as another came from the other side and swung a log up and into her ribs and gut, driving the wind from her lungs with a grunt and sending her into the air again.

Though the Gigas maintained an unyielding grip on her weapon, it still hurt like a motherfucker.

“Good hit.” She wheezed as she regained her feet and brought her hammer back up with two hands despite the pain in her side.

It was a good hit: she felt the crackle of a couple of ribs yielding to the blow and had most of her breath knocked out of her.

Her face was bruised and covered in blood, too much of it her own, as she scanned her remaining opponents.

The once idyllic woods next to the field were now fraught with destruction; eight blue-skinned bodies were strewn about, along with dozens of fallen trees and deep divots in the land where the angry Gigas had brought her hammer down with all of her strength.

Each Ogre that she felled was a weight on her soul that she already knew she would never recover from. It was one thing to kill someone in a fair fight, or who had really pissed her off, but these poor girls were not to blame for their shadowy state.

Tears brought about by an equal measure of rage and grief streamed down her