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

she spoke, the bunny girl quickly checked herself over to make sure that she wasn’t lying.

Kavanaugh made a sound in his throat and nodded, then together they moved to check on the Ogres.

When the call had come into the academy that Garland was under attack, Becks was just leaving after finishing with the legacy induction process, terrified and excited to go through training with the next round of prospects in a couple weeks.

But as the students and faculty scrambled to arm themselves to deal with the threat, Rebecca’s doubts fell away; because while every person at the academy had more training or experience than her, not a one of them could run as fast as she could.

Miranda was in the city, training could wait.

“Oi! You dimwits! Get her legs!” Kavanaugh shouted suddenly; “Contain her movement!”

The Ogres had landed one on top of the other against the side of the damaged building, and the cadets had succeeded in securing the bottom one, the poor girl essentially glued to the broken stonework below her.

But the one on top was already back on her feet and raging with one arm stuck to her side and half of her face covered in the adhesive substance.

“Shit, fall back and regroup!” Kavanaugh ordered curtly.

To cover their retreat he expertly tossed a strobe right into the towering monster’s face, but luck wasn’t on his side: the adhesive goo held one of her eyes closed and the angle was wrong for the light to fully blind the other.

So all he did was piss her off even more.

Before anyone could comply with his order, the Tenebrae swung wildly downwards with her free arm, her fist clipping the shoulder of one of the cadets and sending him sprawling to the street.

With everyone scattering and the Ogre lumbering over to crush him, Becks didn’t even think, she just moved.

She took three powerful strides and then kicked off the ground hard to hop up and fly past the blue girl’s face, barely clearing her shoulder as her poofy tail tickled the Tenebrae’s nose.

“Over here dummy!” Becks squeaked in mid-air, feeling very foolish indeed when her eyes met the dark madness in the giant’s; “I’m the one you want!”

The half-blind Tenebrae turned away from the injured cadet and roared at the bunny’s back when she landed.

“Mister Kavanaugh! I’ll take her for another run around the blo-aah!”

Her words were cut off when the Ogre reached into the building and grabbed a heavy armchair to chuck at her, narrowly missing her as she tumbled to the ground.

The ground shook all around her as the giant stepped forwards to finally squish the irksome bunny, while Becks scrambled on all fours to get away.

Before she could regain her feet she felt an enormous hand grip her ankle and knew she was in trouble. The Ogre roared and yanked her off the ground, twisting her leg painfully as it lifted her high into the air and made to swing her like a club.

She heard Kavanaugh shouting orders, but couldn’t tell what he was saying as she rapidly kicked with her free leg at the Ogre’s knuckles.

But before things could get really serious for her, a green blur landed between the Ogre’s shoulders and the hulking monster girl was driven all the way down to the street.

Lucky Becks actually landed on the plush chair the Tenebrae had tried to kill her with, the damaged furniture tilting back slightly before settling with its startled occupant gripping both armrests tight.

Though her knee hurt from being twisted around, the Lapine was more or less alive.

There was a plaintive roar from the Ogre that helped her get her bearings again and she looked up in time to witness a clawed gauntlet of a fist grip the staggered Tenebrae by the back of the head and smash her face into the street again.

The big blue girl stopped moving after that.

Rebecca let out a little squeak as a Dragon’s glowing green eyes looked to her in her impromptu seat.

“I commend your efforts, brave Lapine. Would that they alone were enough to stop this insanity.”

Her clawed hand settled on Rebecca’s wrist and helped her out of the chair, though the raw power of it was making her knees shake.

The Ogres turned Tenebrae were terrifying, but this? It was a struggle just to stay upright in sudden the presence of the Dragon.

“Am good of well thanks.” She said nonsensically.

Xalanth chuckled in her throat and surprised the bunny by stroking her claws affectingly over her flattened ears before turning away to address Kavanaugh.

“I go to stretch my wings only to find my city under siege.” Xalanth spoke through a growl; “The Dominar’s forces are holding the west side, but a great many other Ogres came in from other directions. Two score at least remain to be dealt with.”

Rebecca shuddered, having seen up close what one of the dark girls was capable of.

“We were heading towards the Bastion when we encountered these two.” Kavanaugh remarked after making sure the Ogre Xalanth downed was still alive; “We’ll take them to the Bastion and link up with the Aegis response.”

Xalanth nodded.

“From what I have seen the streets are clear from here to there, though they may not remain so. And I fear the one who orchestrated this is here as well. I must ensure the safety of my lady. Then I will hunt for the Chimera. You and the Aegis must do what you can to keep the city out of the grip of the fallen girls she has enslaved.”

The Dragon nodded by way of farewell and took flight, a minor shockwave greeting her leap into the air as she did.

Standing just slightly too close to Xalanth when she took off, Rebecca was shoved backwards and ended up sitting on the broken, yet