Meta Gods War 3 by B. Miles (the ebook reader txt) 📕

threw up a barrier of ice and held it as the division continued to run. He held off as much of the power as he could, but the energy sloughing off the two fighting goddesses was unlike anything he’d ever imagined.

“Cam!” He turned and saw Brice standing nearby. Her gauntlets were off, half her breastplate hung from her chest.

“Run!” he yelled, walking backwards, holding the magic in the air.

“Not without you.” She stepped toward him.

And lightning smashed into the ground near her, sending her tumbling along the ground like a leaf caught in the wind.

“Brice!” Cam ran toward her, leaving his barrier in the air. His mind felt like it would tear into pieces. He ran to her limp body. She was jammed up against a jagged piece of rock jutting from the ground. He dropped to his knees and unbuckled her armor as fast as he could then pulled her helmet from her head.

Her eyes were closed. Blood trickled from a wound in her head.

“Brice,” he said. “Brice, damn it.” He reached down, touched her neck, and leaned his face near her mouth.

She was breathing. Her heart was beating.

He finished pulling her armor off, stripped her down to her tunic and trousers, then lifted her into his arms.

Green and silver swirled, clashed, exploded above them.

Cam turned and ran.

His magic fell apart behind him, and he didn’t have the strength to call it back. He clutched at Brice and dodged over the broken earth. Ahead of him, the army pulled back as far as it could away from the fighting goddesses. Cam nearly stumbled and fell more than once. He ripped up his knees and shoulders and arms on jagged rocks, but he kept Brice pressed tightly against him, her arms wrapped around his neck. She stirred and seemed to hold on as he kept going, his breath coming ragged, his chest and arms and body burning, his mind twisted with Need.

But nothing could stop him, not with Brice in his arms.

The further he got from the fighting goddesses, the calmer the landscape became. Fewer rocks fell, fewer lightning strikes sent shards of earth careening through the air. Cam caught up with Brice’s division as they filed past the camp’s trenches and took shelter beneath the trees and the tents.

“We can take her, shaman,” one of the armored men said.

But Cam waved them off. He shouldered through the throngs, limping forward, sweat pouring from his body. He felt like he might collapse at any moment as more and more men streamed in around him. The camp was in a panic, and he noticed more than a few men packing their tents and shoving their belongings into bags.

He knew he had to do something to stop the army from dissolving. But the thunder claps of the two goddesses kept booming through the air and he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Brice’s chest rose and fell in steady rhythms and her eyes fluttered open several times, but she only groaned and pressed herself tighter against Cam’s chest.

The rise overlooking the camp and the battlefield jutted out ahead of him. He stomped forward, jaw clenched, determined. He made it halfway before he heard someone shout his name. He turned to find Arter coming toward him with Key just behind.

Relief flooded over him so hard he dropped to one knee. Key ran forward past Arter and supported Cam’s arm, taking some of Brice’s weight.

“Is she okay?” Key asked. “Are you hurt?”

“I don’t know,” Cam said, his head spinning. “I mean, I’m not hurt. But she might be.”

“I’ll take her,” Arter said. “There’s a man in your guard that can help. He was a doctor, back before this all happened.”

Cam stared up at Arter. He didn’t want to let Brice go.

But Key’s fingers gently pried his arms back.

“Let her go,” Key said softly. “You saved her. You got her this far. Let Arter take her.”

Cam grunted and let Key gently move Brice away from him. Arter stepped forward and took Brice into his arms. He turned and waded back into the mass of men.

Cam stayed on his knees, hands on his thighs, breathing hard. Sweat dripped from his brow.

Key kneeled in front of him and threw her arms around his neck. She was covered in her own sweat and blood. Cam touched her face and brushed her matted hair back from her eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said. “As soon as Lycanica started throwing lightning, we began to retreat. We got halfway back toward the camp before Danua intervened.”

“Fuck,” Cam said. “Danua. Lycanica. Those are… those are goddesses fighting in the air.” A particularly loud percussive boom rocked the camp. Tents bent sideways and men covered their heads.

Cam gritted his teeth.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Key said. “If they keep going like that—”

“Can a goddess even die?” Cam asked. “I don’t know how either one can win.”

“We can’t stay,” Key said. “We need to retreat.”

“I think they’re already retreating,” Cam said, pointing at the chaos. “Look at them. I don’t think we can get them under control.”

“Where are the others, then?” Key asked. “Miuri and Felin. Where are they?”

“Last I saw, they were up there.” Cam pointed back toward the slope. “I left them with the flag bearers.”

“Come on.” Key took his hand and helped him up. “I know you’re suffering. But we need to find them first.”

Cam grunted and let Key lead him forward, up the slope, toward where the flags still fluttered in the air.

40

Key led the way and Cam struggled to keep up. He felt like every muscle in his body was snapped and sore. His bones ached and his head spun from the Need. He wanted to claw his own eyes out just to make the noise in his skull stop screaming, at least for a little while.

But the thought of Felin and Miuri kept him going.

They reached the midway point. Cam could see some of the flag bearers still standing in a loose clump,