Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions (Death's Handmaiden Book 3) by Niall Teasdale (best summer reads txt) 📕

that was all Nobuyuki needed. The ninja’s hand almost seemed to slide past the soldier’s neck, but blood sprayed where it passed. The soldier made a choking noise and collapsed onto the grass. He was still breathing, for now, but he would be raising no alarms.

‘That’s an interesting spell,’ Courtney said.

‘Family secret,’ Nobuyuki replied.

‘Good thing Mel isn’t here,’ Mitsuko added as blood began to pool beside the fallen body.

‘Why–’ Melissa began. ‘No, don’t tell me. I’m better off not knowing.’

‘Let’s keep moving,’ Nobuyuki said. ‘The body isn’t obvious, but someone will find it eventually.’ Turning, he started away in the direction of the mercenaries’ tents.

~~~

Nava was listening to the chatter on her radio with half an ear. Most of her attention was on her surroundings and her targets. And her counters. She had two of them and they were keeping track of spell durations. A three-minute counter told her when Active Recovery and Armour needed recasting. A thirty-minute timer told her how long her Invisibility had to run. With all three spells active, she was fairly impervious to whatever the troops threw at her, even if they could work out where she was.

The camp was in utter chaos. Officers were trying to rally troops, but they were facing an unknown enemy who appeared to be able to hit them from all sides with massive firepower. It was an uphill struggle. People were firing at shadows and, more often than not, injuring their fellow fanatics.

She prepared another Fire Blast and launched at a point between two tents. She had been somewhat miffed to discover she did not quite have the capacity for a rank fifty Fire Blast, but her estimate of the explosive force she was generating came to about seven and a half kilos of TNT. Set off among tents which were not fireproof, the results were spectacular. Set off among people, the effects were deadly and more than a little horrific.

‘There! She’s there!’

Nava turned. Maybe twenty metres away, a man was pointing at her: one of the mercenaries. He seemed to be part of a squad; there were nine others with him and they were all carrying versions of the Belgique AR-705 assault rifle which had integral spell carbines. Ten magicians, eight male, two female, and all trained in combat. They represented a more significant threat than the Befreit troops.

Lifting her right hand, Nava aimed at the man who was pointing and launched another Magic Burst. He was wearing a hard clamshell chest plate, but that did not stop the penetrator from passing through. Light blossomed, killing him instantly as his internal organs dissolved. The two men beside him died as their faces were peeled back to the skull beneath. Others took less damage, but the burns would hurt.

Bullets streamed back at Nava. The AR-705 fired 5.45 mm bullets meant to kill unarmoured targets. Six of them hit and flattened against Nava’s Armour spell. Nothing penetrated. She cast again. Both of the women died along with another of the men. Another man passed out, probably from the pain of the burns. That was not going to be good enough for Nava; they all needed to die even if their counterfire was entirely ineffectual. She let loose another Magic Burst.

A grenade bounced across the grass on Nava’s left. Someone had thrown it from behind her, aiming at a target they had only a general area for, based on where the mercs were shooting. It landed some eight metres away, a fragmentation grenade from the design. She dropped sideways, rolling away from the explosion which happened a second later. The blast buffeted her magic barrier, not harming her in the least, and she sent another Magic Burst at the mercs just to make sure, before turning toward the grenadier.

He was, as she had suspected, getting ready to throw another grenade. He was one of the Befreit troops, wearing nothing in the way of armour because he had rushed out, unprepared, to look for whatever was attacking. He stood no chance at all and she watched as his chest vanished into the blast of quintessence.

Two seconds later, his grenade exploded, but by that time Nava was on her way and looking for her next target.

~~~

‘I am going to say we should take this one,’ Rochester said. The one in question was a contragrav transport about the size of a minibus. It was unarmoured, but it had plenty of seats and looked serviceable.

‘Why that one?’ Melissa asked.

‘The door’s open.’

‘That makes things easier. Are you sure you can hack the controls?’

‘Mel…’ Rochester sounded a little affronted.

‘Okay, okay. Better get started. We’ve got about fifteen minutes before the Invisibility spells wear off. I’ll keep watch.’

‘Getting started.’

~~~

‘Go.’

Nobuyuki’s voice came over the radio and Mitsuko fired. Fifteen metres away, a man’s head parted company with his body as her Slice spell, launched from her carbine, bisected his neck. She had, technically, killed people before. She had thrown a Fire Blast into a group of Befreit terrorists knowing that one of them was readying a grenade. It was hard to tell whether her spell or the following explosion had done more damage, but the men had been dead either way. This was different. This time she had been able to see the harm she had done and the inevitable result. She allowed herself a second to consider that before moving.

Courtney did not allow herself the same consideration. She had taken out the other guard on the tent. A little further away, Nobuyuki was dispatching two guards, by hand, solo, but… ninja. Ninja sorcerer, in fact. Courtney was on her feet and bolting for the tent flap almost before her target’s body was hitting the ground. It had taken them five minutes to carefully crawl into firing position and now Courtney could not wait to see who was inside. When she got inside, she came to a sudden stop.

The man inside spoke. ‘What do you want n– Who… Who the hell are you?’ Kyle was looking out of one eye;