Champions

Ducking a sword strike aimed at his head as he tried to rise, and throwing his body into a backwards roll to avoid a horizontal axe swipe that just missed his neck, David had more important concerns at the moment than their magical defenses. Dropping his NODs from his left hand he drew his new enchanted blade from its sheath on his vest, and prepared for an opening to either use it or the 9mm in his right hand. The two men were attacking him furiously, enraged at how quickly he had downed their compatriots. Unfortunately, fighting angry is often the same as fighting stupid, and when the swordsman missed again, his friend with the axe had to jump back to avoid the follow-through of the swing. That was all the opening David needed. Shooting from the hip, he pumped two rounds into swordsman, one chest and one hip, and then shifted to fire two more rounds at the axe wielder. The man hopped to the right, away from his mortally wounded ally, so the first hit him in the left thigh and the second grazed his left side. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his thigh and screaming in agony.

Unconcerned with the downed adversary, David scooped up his NODs from the ground and tried to reacquire the location of the archers on the building tops. He spotted them, and not a moment too soon. They were kneeling on the edges of the rooftops nearest the trio, and were already drawing back their bowstrings.

Turning he ran to Sapphire and half pushed, half carried her to the doorway as four arrows landing near where she had just been standing. He hadn't even made it a third of the way to the door before he heard Laurena's scream in fear from the arrows that had struck not far from her.

"Fuck!" he cursed. Holstering his pistol he shifted the knife in his left hand to his right, not having the time to try to stow it safely, pocketed his NODs, and then pulled a frag grenade from his vest. He hated to use one of the three he had left for this, but he needed to incapacitate or distract four archers, at night, in the next few seconds, or Laurena was going to end up re-classing as a pincushion.

Pulling the pin with his teeth hurt, but he figured if he fucked up any of his dental work he could deal with it later. Lobbing it to the top of the roof nearest his location, he dove into a roll hoping that these archers hadn't learned to draw and fire an arrow more accurately than he could. His best time was six seconds, and their last shots had been about eight seconds ago. Fortune smiled on him, because all four had assessed Laurena's cowering form as a non-threat, and had decided to shift their aim to him. As he dove into the roll all four fired within two seconds of each other, and only one of them adjusted his aim enough to account for the soldier's movements. The arrow struck the back of his IOTV after he had finished the roll and gone prone, awaiting the blast of the M67, but he had put his ceramic plates back in yesterday morning so it didn't penetrate. As the mental timer in David's head counted down from five, he began to lament the fact that the best the Army could do was a grenade with a fuse that was 'about 3-5 seconds'. When he hit zero, he got worried, but before he could count further...

BOOM!

It didn't matter how many times shit blew up around him, that crap was still LOUD! Shaking his head he counted to three to allow the airborne debris to land, then jumped up and ran over to Laurena. Grabbing her upper arm he dragged her up and hauled her toward the doorway where Sapphire was waiting. He heard shouting, cursing, and painful screaming coming from the rooftops, but no more arrows came his way before he made it inside the building.

Pushing Laurena inside David swapped his knife back over to his left hand, sheathed it, and then drew his M9 from his thigh holster and swept the room. It was clear. Loading a fresh clip into his pistol, and pocketing the half empty one, he started looking for a different way out.

"Over there," Sapphire said, pointing to a door that led further into the building.

Nodding he moved to it, and tried the handle. It opened easily, and he swept the new room, making sure there were no threats as he moved inside. Seeing another door that probably led to an adjacent alley, he made a quick decision.

"Both of you get in here," he ordered the women, closing and locking the door behind them. Looking into their eyes, he conveyed the seriousness of the situation with both his tone and his expression. "We need to get to the temple. I have no idea what the hell these people want or why, but I damn sure intent to ask them later. Right now I just need to get you two dropped off, and grab my heavy lumber from my room."

"What do you need me to do?" Sapphire asked him.

He cursed the fact that he had never bothered to teach her how to use one of his pistols. He could really use an extra shooter right now. Hell, he would love to have an entire Ranger battalion right now. "Do you know how to use a knife?" he asked her.

"Of course. You put the pointy end into the other person," she replied sarcastically.

"Close enough," he sighed, moving to hand her his non-enchanted knife.

"I'd rather take a few of the throwing knives," she requested with a smirk.

Not having the time to wonder about the request, he pulled three out and handed them to her. She stowed one in her belt, and held the last two in either hand, testing their weight and balance.

Turning to Laurena, he could see her fear was still significant, but was no longer paralyzing her. "I need you to stay between us," he told her. "I'll lead, you will stay two steps behind me, and Sapphire will be two steps behind you. Don't slow down, don't get distracted, and do everything I tell you to. Clear?"

She just looked at him for a few heartbeats, clearly overcome by the seriousness of their situation. Finally she slowly nodded in agreement, and he just sighed. That was probably the best he was going to get. Turning to Sapphire he nodded, and she nodded back, then he went to the door and cracked it open, peering out. He didn't see anyone in the alley, in either direction, so he stepped out and moved quickly towards the temple, drawing his enchanted knife from its sheath. He walked in a smooth heel-to-toe manner pistol raised and steady (he had never been good at walking in the quieter toe-to-heel method, so when he used it his weapon swayed too much). He scanned everything from his nine o'clock to his three o'clock, both rooftops and street level, while his knife hand supported his shooting hand. Behind him Laurena and Sapphire followed along.

*** Chapter 30: Pursuit ***

252048MAR13 DW

Back Alleys, Exitibus, Erosius

The ambush had been an abysmal failure. Claudius, a.k.a. Shadowmaster Whisper, wanted to blame his people, but he knew the fault lay elsewhere. The information he had received indicated that the major threat would be the sorceress, and they had taken steps to protect the ground team with the best enchantments they could. That part of the plan had worked, and she would have stood no chance against the four man team; especially with the archers in support. But the man, David, was far more powerful than he had been told. The man had killed four of his best enforcers in a handful of seconds. The Shadowmaster didn't know what kind of magic the man possessed, but he was damn sure that none of his people were prepared for it.

Resigned to the fact that this endeavor was going to be more costly than he anticipated, he cast a spell of light forty feet into the air. The improvised flare alerted his back-up teams to move in along the path near the temple. He had been instructed to use two teams, and avoid taking any action near the temple, but his guidance had been open to interpretation. So he had stationed two additional teams between the ambush location and the temple, in case the trio took a different route or managed to break through the ambush. His people thought his preparations were beyond overkill, but he had learned over the last year that you could never really be over-prepared.

As the current Shadowmaster Whisper, his dominion was extortion and enforcement. His predecessor, the last Whisper, had been an over-confidant fool. The man's failure to plan ahead for every contingency had resulted in a number of failed assignments, and had eventually risked the exposure of the entire organization. The Night Lord's 'termination' of his employee had been an object lesson for his replacement. Claudius had never failed an assignment for his Lord since taking over, and more than a few of his successes were the result of refusing to underestimate a target. His information on tonight's assignment had been less than useful, but he would not let that break his streak.

Moving to support his remaining teams Claudius thought about the damage David had done in such a short time, and resolved to search the man's body himself after he was dead. He wanted that power for himself.

***

Moving along the alley, David tried to look everywhere and listen to everything all at once. He knew it would be safer if he only had to worry about a single sector of fire, but the reality was that he couldn't trust either of his companions to spot danger in time. He needed to get them off the streets and stashed in the temple pronto.

They were traveling at a good pace, and had made it to within a few blocks of the temple when the next attack came. A door to David's left opened, and he spun quickly to sight in on it. He realized there was no one standing inside the doorway in the same second that he caught motion in his peripheral vision from his right (the direction they were traveling). Turning his head, he had just enough time to recognize the posture of a man standing roughly twenty paces away throwing something at him. Gambling, pulled his nearside (pistol carrying) arm up and tucked his head behind it. He realized it was the right move when he felt the throwing knife pierce his deltoid, the upraised arm preventing the attacker from burying the knife in the man's intended target, David's jugular.

"Motherfuckers," he roared in pain. He was no pussy, but the damn knife buried two inches into his arm fucking HURT.

Turning to engage the knife thrower he was able to fire a single shot at him, but the pain in his arm threw his aim off enough that he missed his target. Shocked by the sound of the gunfire, the man dropped the second knife he was preparing to throw and jumped behind the side of the nearest building.

"David!" Sapphire yelled, trying to alert the Champion.

Turning back he saw that the previously empty doorway was now pouring out reinforcements, and there were a fuck-ton of them. They were also only a few feet away from him. Hastily David adjusted his position and snap-fired at the man charging him. He got off six shots before the nearest opponent reached him, and four of them went into the man's chest. His sword had slid from now nerveless fingers, but the man's momentum was too great to be overcome by four 9mm slugs. His mortally wounded body clipped David on the way down, knocking the Champion to the ground and bouncing the knife in his upper arm against the hard surface.

David screamed in pain as the knife twisted to the side and was driven deeper into his arm, the tip lodging in the bone. He lost his grip on the pistol, and didn't give a fuck. These assholes had severely pissed him off. Rolling away from the fallen man, he did a reverse somersault into a crouch, and then charged the nearest attacker. It was time to kick ass.

Meanwhile, Sapphire was facing a dilemma. David had told her to cover the rear, but he was injured, knocked down, and was being rapidly surrounded by the three attackers still standing. Turning to look behind her, the decision got a lot easier as two men charged her from the direction they had just traveled. Throwing one of her knives at the one on the right, and giving it a little extra help with her telekinesis magic, she felt vindictive satisfaction when the knife buried itself into the man's throat. He dropped to his knees, choking out his last breath. She drew the spare knife from her belt and faced off against the remaining adversary. She just hoped David could handle his fight alone.

Laurena was terrified. She had witnessed more violence in the mountains and here, than she had ever even heard of before. Now she was afraid of what would happen to her when the obviously overmatched warrior was killed before her eyes. She did not want to lose him, but she was more afraid of what they would do to her once he was dead. As the three attackers surrounded David, she watched, horrified by what she believed would be his final moments in this life. Instead, she had a front row seat to whirlwind of destruction, with David in the center.

The man in front of him didn't expect David to charge, so his axe swing was poorly timed and easy for the warrior to block. But David had no intention of fighting defensively this time. Striking out with his knife, the Champion sliced into, and then through, the elbow of the man. He had planned to sever the nerve cluster there, causing the man to drop the axe. Instead his enchanted blade cleanly severed the arm, and the man looked at the remaining stump in shock. Using this to his advantage, David stepped to his right and spun around the 'disarmed' attacker, placing the man between himself and the other two. As they split up to follow him, he reversed direction, moving in on one of them. He noticed the man carried a dagger, but didn't seem to have any idea about the proper way to use it. He was holding it out in front of himself, with his empty hand cocked back at his side. Fucking amateur. Changing to a reverse grip, he moved into striking range and baited the novice into a strike. Stepping to the side, he quickly countered with a series of lightning strikes, work up the man's dagger arm in an 'S'. First he sliced upward and outward, severing the arteries and tendons in the wrist. Next he came back down and in, striking the nerve cluster in the inside of the elbow. Then he completed the 'S' by slicing back up and out, cocking his wrist to catch the brachial artery and nerves near the armpit, finishing with his arm out past the attacker's right shoulder and the point of his knife inward, lined up just below the man's occipital lobe. Looking into his horrified eyes, he mercilessly drove his point home, burying his knife in the man's brainstem.

Leaving his knife buried, he moved away from the last attacker and drew his second M9 from the thigh holster on his left side. At this range point shooting was perfect, so he merely pointed the index finger that ran along the trigger guard at the man's sternum, then lowered his finger to the trigger and fired off four rounds. As the man dropped to his knees, pouring his lifeblood onto the street from a cluster of bullet wounds in his chest, David turned 180 degrees to reacquire the knife thrower from earlier. Failing to see movement from that end of the alley, he turned back to see Sapphire, squared off against a man with a stout wooden club. Closer to him, the man with the severed arm had fallen to his knees in the middle of the alley, and was in silent shock. David leveled his pistol at the injured man's head and fired two rounds into his skull. Severed arm or not, in the soldier's mind he was a threat until he stopped breathing. Then he aimed down the alley way and carefully picked his target, firing one round into the kneecap of the club wielding assailant.

Sapphire was no knife fighter. She had learned how to throw knives as a hobby, just something that was fun and entertaining when she was younger. Now she was fighting for her life with a man that seemed to know what he was doing with that club, and she was quickly exhausting herself dodging his strikes. She lacked the knowledge and skill to use her shorter weapons and reach effectively in the fight, and her opponent refused to give her enough room to throw one at him. She had already tried to use her magic to push him away, and it had failed. These attackers were protected as well. Sapphire had heard David fire his weapon a few times, so she knew he was still fighting, and just hoped he could finish and help her out soon. This thought had barely passed through her mind when she heard his weapon fire again, and the assailant before her dropped to the ground, clutching his knee and screaming in agony.

"Keep an eye on him," she heard David say to her, and she looked over to see him already moving back down the alleyway that the first attack had come from. Between them lay the circle of devastation he had left behind.

His arm was killing him, but the adrenaline and his anger helped to block out the pain. Moving down the alley with his pistol leading he came to the edge of the building that the knife thrower had ducked behind, and he swept the corner. The man was nowhere to be seen. Scanning the area, he saw no additional places that attackers could easily approach from. Recalling the pattern of the previous attack, he also checked the adjacent rooftops for movement, but found them empty. Returning to Sapphire, he retrieved his fallen M9 and knife along the way. Moving up to stand next to his love, he checked to see if she had been injured.

"I'm fine," she assured him. "But you aren't," she said with concern, looking at the knife sticking out of his arm.

He ripped the knife from his arm, gasping at the pain, and poured his magic into healing the wound. In less time than it would take to explain it the wound was closed and the damage repaired. Moving and flexing his arm, he smiled at her. "See, good as new."

His expression hardening, he turned his gaze to the only attacker still breathing, and gave Sapphire instructions without even looking at her. "Check on Laurena, and get her moving to the side of the alley. I'll be with you in a moment." He wasn't sure how long they had, but it was time to get some answers. As she walked toward the acolyte David called out to her. "And Sapphire, no matter what you hear, don't look this way..."

***

Claudius was making his way along the rooftops towards the fighting. He recognized the sound of David's magic weapons. Given the number of the loud noises he heard, he assumed the fight was going badly for his people. As he raced along the tops of the buildings, jumping from roof peak to roof peak, he realized he might not make it there in time. What would happen if he arrived late, and he had to face down the trio alone? This thought caused him to slow his rush a few buildings away from the conflict. Pausing to listen, he no longer heard the sounds of David's power, or the clash of weapons. The only thing he heard was a single voice crying out in pain.

Crouching low, the Shadowmaster crept toward the noise. He was surprised when it peaked to a crescendo, a piercing howl of agony flying through the night. He recognized the voice now, and it was a very bad sign. Pulling his bow from across his shoulders, he prepped an arrow and crept to the edge of the building. Looking down into the alley, he saw the man, David, crouched next to one of his men. It was the voice he recognized, and after taking in all of the bodies scattered about the alley, he realized it might be the only one of his men still alive.

Only somewhat listening, he scanned the surrounding area to try and find the two women. If they were both dead then he could kill the man and complete his mission. He noticed the pair crouched further along the alley - in a doorway - at the same time he realized what his man was talking about. He was telling David everything! Turning back he drew his bow and sighted in his target. He couldn't allow their secrets out.

***

The wounded assailant had been belligerent when David asked his first question. So the soldier drew his knife and buried it into the man's uninjured knee. Once he finished howling in agony, David ripped the knife back out, and placed the tip against the man's crotch.