Ruthless V6Ch9-Shock and Awe

“Wait, James!” Mina exclaimed.

Her husband was taking off after having given her the gear he had Pillaged from the possum Ruler—a fur coat that he said would repel most physical attacks. She hadn’t taken the time to examine the item more closely. It was too warm for fur here, and the battle was all but over, anyway.

But he was leaving much too soon—and leaving her in charge of what could be a fairly delicate process.

“What is it, Mina?” he asked, already hovering inches off the ground.

“Where—where are you even going?” Mina asked. “You didn’t tell us in the announcement. What do I tell people who ask?”

She tried not to mention that other people might be a little miffed that their leader was leaving in the middle of a battle—James had certainly considered that, and he was right that this fight was drawing near to the conclusion anyway. No one could ever say that the Fisher King had done anything less than his part, considering that he had personally killed four of the six Rulers present on the other side of the battle.

The truth was, she didn’t feel entirely comfortable stepping in for James here. Not when there were thousands of people around who might expect orders or ask questions.

“Oh, you’re right,” James said. “I’m going to rescue Alan and the others, so I’ll be fighting a bunch of dinosaurs. I think they were supposed to be velociraptors, but there might be others present.”

“Right,” Mina said slowly.

Well, that is important, she thought.

—

Luna, can you get me more information on the apartment complex where the velociraptors are holed up? James sent telepathically. I’m on my way, and based on the vision you showed me, I don’t think they’re going to hand over their hostages easily. Probably best to force my will rather than asking, if that’s an option.

Yes, my King, Luna replied. Cerber, Anu, what do you two have on the other buildings?

It is an honor to be called upon to serve the Ruler, replied a male voice that James only vaguely recognized from among the pack.

We will provide the most accurate information we can, chimed in another.

Thanks, guys, James sent.

They began relaying a detailed description of both the apartment complex’s layout and where various landmarks were.

There was a central building, the leasing office, that was used as an egg storage location; a gymnasium where they kept some of their food stored; a building that they used as the human housing, with the bottom story used as the infirmary, while the upper floors were largely empty; and six buildings full of Vorpal Velociraptors.

James got even more details from the reconnaissance wolves as he flew closer to the complex, and he formulated a semblance of a plan.

Alongside him flew the two wyverns and Doppelganger, who had sprouted wings for the occasion.

He relayed his final pre-confrontation instructions to the wolf pack, he made some last preparations for himself and Doppelganger, and then he and the monsters descended upon the complex.

The wyverns split off from James and Doppelganger as they entered the air space above the buildings. The first group of Vorpal Velociraptors responded to the invasion only seconds later, a dozen streaming out of the closest building.

James and Doppelganger ignored them and kept flying, while the Great Venom Wyvern and Great Berserk Wyvern engaged the group of velociraptors that had emerged to fight the intruders.

The two in the sky attracted no attention, because they were using Invisibility. Of all James’s creations, only Doppelganger shared that Skill with him. Doppelganger being almost a perfect copy of James, he was the only one who could be of real help in the decapitation strike that James wanted to attempt.

The two flew to a position directly over one of the buildings where the velociraptors made their home.

James hoped the intelligence from the wolves was good.

He and Doppelganger positioned themselves at perpendicular walls, and then, on James’s signal, they fired two simultaneous Solar Rays, fanning them across the top floor of the building—the prestigious place where the elites of the velociraptor faction lived.

James and Doppelganger had been flying under the strong Florida sunlight the whole way here, and Doppelganger still had built up solar power from dawn onwards.

Their combined Solar Rays destroyed everything they touched, shattering the glass windows, smashing through metal and stone, and disintegrating the fleshly things that lay beyond. James could feel that he was getting System notifications with dozens of deaths, but his focus was sufficient to keep those alerts suppressed for later examination—should he be interested in examining them later.

The air filled with dust as the top floor of the building turned to debris.

Then James and Doppelganger made a second pass with a much weaker pair of Solar Rays. James didn’t feel anything coming from the System that time, but he still thought that he’d sensed his beam of energy hit something.

And there was also a strange piercing sound that washed over him—so high pitched, James barely detected it, and it almost felt as if he’d imagined it—but it was definitely real.

The airborne particles were too thick for him to actually see whether anything still stood in the wrecked space of the structure, but he had a bad feeling.

A sudden large gust of wind, emanating from within the space they had just blasted, scattered most of the dust—and confirmed James’s worries.

There was a shape standing inside of the building, he saw now. It looked monstrously large—not like the giant spider Ruler who James had recently allied with, more like a personal plane. It had wings, too.

Just from the shape of it, James could tell this creature was more like a real wyvern than anything he’d ever created.

“You just made your last mistake, humans,” a voice growled from within the dust cloud.

Shit.

Somehow, this thing could see him—and Doppelganger. At the very least, it knew he was human and that it was facing enemies, plural. James’s backup plan, if Invisibility hadn’t been feasible, had been to use Shapechange to assume another form. I should have just done that, I guess.

The only problem with being recognized as human was that this Ruler would likely understand that James was here to do something for the humans who were in raptor captivity. That didn’t even require much intelligence on its part.

Not that this was outside the scope of events James was prepared for. Elsewhere in the complex, the wolf pack should be evacuating the humans by now. The shock and awe approach James had taken was partly meant to lead to a quick victory, but also served as a distraction.

Maintain Invisibility, James instructed Doppelganger silently. Even if the Ruler can sense us, the others shouldn’t be able to. Either they stay out of the fight, or he’ll be forced to waste some of his focus on guiding them.

Understood, Progenitor, the monster replied instantly.

There was another great wingbeat from the remnants of the ruined floor, and the remnants of the dust cloud blew away in a great billow, revealing the shape of the monster James and Doppelganger confronted.

Identify.

—

“You said he went to fight who?” asked the giant green spider.

Mageddon’s whole body had gone stiff for a moment when Mina answered the question the first time.

“The dinosaurs,” Mina repeated. “He said velociraptors.”

“Oh.” The spider was silent for a few seconds as she processed the information.

Is there something about the dinosaurs the spider knows that James needs to? Mina wondered. But she waited for Mageddon to reveal her information in her own time.

“I would have advised against going alone, if he had asked,” Mageddon finally said. “I would have offered to help. Not that the Fisher King necessarily needs my help, he is clearly far more powerful than the average Ruler, but the velociraptors’ Ruler… he is one that others in the city do not test. All the border skirmishes we have in our little territories—no one has made a play for his territory since the anarchy of the first weeks here.”

“Interesting,” said Jeremiah Rotter from Mina’s right.

Several members of James’s Council had gathered around Mina in the few minutes that had passed since James departed, perhaps sensing that she might want some support as she unexpectedly took over the role of Fisher King for a while.

“Maybe we should send some of our more elite fighters to help,” suggested Angelina Zuccarini.

“If they’re fast enough to get there in time,” murmured Harry Luntz gloomily. “Our fearless leader is probably there by now.”

“How about we send me?” an unexpected voice broke in. Mina turned and saw the Panther Queen approaching from way off to the left. “I couldn’t help overhearing your predicament. Fisher King James is obviously very strong, but one can always use an extra pair of paws in a close fight.”

Mina found herself slowly nodding. She thought the Panther Queen was too honorable to go and join the fight, only to betray James in the open—especially when the Panther Army was still surrounded by the Royal Fisher Army, which substantially outnumbered them and included multiple people who might rival the Queen in power.

“Could you take me with you?” asked Rotter.

Everyone looked at him with varying degrees of surprise.

“Well, not to help fight, of course,” he said. “I’m far from the most suitable for that. But I can use my Skill and broadcast the fight to the rest of the city. If this raptor Ruler is as formidable as Queen Mageddon suggests, then maybe seeing James defeat it will inspire others to just surrender.”

“Let us go quickly, then,” said Mageddon urgently. “If he needs help, we will be there to provide it. If he is dominating the velociraptors’ Ruler—” She added these words in a somewhat skeptical tone—“then your Mage will be there to present the battle to the city as a whole.”

“I’m going, too,” said Damien Rousseau, still in Werewolf form from the battle. “In fact, I bet I can beat the Panther Queen there.”

“Fine, fine, race me while I’m carrying one of your comrades,” the Queen said, rolling her eyes. “Then boast about that victory, if you can manage to beat me.”

“If you lose to me, even while you’re carrying someone, it will mean you’re probably slower than Luna,” Damien retorted.

Mina was aware that some minor rivalry between the Werewolf, the Wolf Queen, and the Panther Queen had developed over the last few days as they waited and prepared to launch this attack. She guessed this exchange was to do with that.

“Please just hurry and get over there,” Mina said gently. “If James does need help, it doesn’t matter who gets there first. And if he needs Jeremiah to broadcast what’s happening, you don’t want to miss anything.”

“Right,” Damien said sheepishly, scratching at the back of his head with one shovel-sized paw.

“You heard the lady, climb on, human,” the Panther Queen said, looking at Rotter. She turned her back and bent slightly at the knees, positioning to give a piggy-back ride.

Rotter rushed over to her and awkwardly threw his arms around the Panther Queen’s neck and his legs around her waist.

Without saying anything further, the Panther Queen took off sprinting in the direction James had flown.

Damien chased after her a few seconds later. Mina thought, from the slight tension to his muzzle, that he was suppressing his desire to complain about the Panther Queen getting a head start. But she might have just been imagining things.

“Come, my children!” Mageddon called.

Dozens of smaller versions of the big, translucent spider dashed up and clambered up her long, tree-like legs onto her back. Then the giant spider took off after the Pantherwoman and the Werewolf, moving via giant leaps forward.

Mina shook her head.

Hopefully, if James needs help, those are the ones who can give it.

She felt a little uneasy about putting her husband’s fate in the hands of strangers—Rotter was as nearly powerless relative to the others as he had self-deprecatingly implied, so Damien was the only one who was a real asset of the Fisher Kingdom among this backup force.

But she was optimistic that James would be all right.

Mina couldn’t remember a time when James had actually needed a rescue from anyone, though there was a first time for everything.