Page 268 of Phoenix's Fire

A pop came from my right. My eyes jumped to the sound and my bow followed. I was behind the Moles. A pair of men were using a downed log as cover, so I quickly put a blue-fletched arrow in each one, hopefully hitting those fuckers in the heart. I was moving before they were completely dead.

Over logs, under branches, and around trees, I moved as fast as I could. Soon enough, I found the battle. It seemed Drozel and Kanik had shifted everything to the west and south, dragging them away from where Ayla would be meeting herinfiltrator and in the opposite direction of Lorsa. If we were lucky, they'd get lost out here and be eaten by the predators.

Then I saw the first Dragon. He'd ducked behind a tree, clearly tense. That was enough to make me stop behind a tree of my own. A second later, a Mole moved forward with his gun at the ready. The Dragon and I jumped out at the same time, both of us hitting him with arrows.

"Move!" I was told. "There's more coming!"

Together, we ran - but I heard it when it hit. Behind me, there was a soft thud that somehow carried through the chaos of combat. It was hard, maybe metallic, and I wasn't foolish enough to turn back to check. Pushing as hard as I could, I raced away from it - just as the thing exploded.

The rush of air knocked me from my feet. The guy in front of me fell too, but that was all. We'd been far enough away, but how many of those things did they have? I scrambled to my feet just as the other Dragon did the same, letting me see it was Omden. Clearly we'd pushed further west than I'd expected.

"How bad?" I demanded.

"Where's Ayla?" he shot back.

"Busy," I said. "Safe."

He nodded once, but pulled me away, making it clear we should keep moving. "Zasen, they have explosions."

"Grenades," I said, showing I knew that.

"About half of them work. Some lay there for a while before blowing - but at least they've taken out a few of their own."

"Fuck," I breathed. "But they could be out here, waiting to explode?"

He nodded. "Watch your fucking feet. Kill them before they throw. When they pull the thing out of it, that means it's deadly - or could be."

"Pull thething?" I asked.

So he demonstrated. "They yank something out and then throw them. They're wearing them, Zasen! That means they have to arm it somehow, and the pulling seems to be how."

"Fuck!" I groaned. "So let's find the rest and push them back to their damned compound if we have to!"

"This way," Omden said, taking off.

He was quick. In the mess of green around us, his verdant skin blended well, but I chased after his tail, running back towards the mass of fighting. We passed bodies and more gore. Destruction was everywhere, but soon enough the pair of us saw them. Without slowing, I pulled an arrow and loosed. Beside me, Omden did the same a second later.

Dragons were rushing in, then pulling back. Moles were taking stings, arrows, and cuts from our weapons. They weren't nearly as fast as us, and now I knew it was from the way they lived. Then I was on them. Rushing into a group, I dropped my bow across my chest and switched to my krael.

Slicing, stabbing, and stinging, I did my best to keep these men from getting their hands on those dark orbs they were carrying. I also didn't have time to look atwhat they were. I just had to do enough damage to make them retreat. There were too few of us, much less than what we'd started with. I didn't know if we'd been spread apart or cut down, and I couldn't think about it now.

So I killed, thrusting my stinger into a man's leg. Spinning around yanked the barb out and allowed me to cut another across the chest. I whipped my tail at him next and heaved my blades upwards into the man who was now before me. Three down, and I couldn't slow.

I rushed the next group, but they were ready. Someone fired. The moment I saw him lifting the gun, I dropped, turned, and clawed my way off in the other direction. Around me, the shots hit the ground so close that I could feel the impacts through my feet - and then they just stopped.

"Idiot!" Jeera screamed, drawing my eyes to her as she nocked arrow after arrow, loosing them so fast I couldn't keep up.

I ducked behind a massive tree and switched weapons again. Sadly, my quiver wasn't as full as I liked. Pulling two arrows, I nocked one and held the other. Waiting just long enough to slow my breathing, I listened, placing the enemy by sound, and then leaned around the tree to let both arrows fly, one after the other.

"Focus fire!" I roared. "Push them back and don't let them get close!"

"Push them!" someone down the line yelled, then I heard it further on.

Our bird calls wouldn't be audible in this mess, but that was. So I knelt, shifting my quiver around for easy access, and started shooting anything in black I could see. My arrows weren't the only ones hitting.

Heart, lungs, liver, spleen. I named the targets in my mind as my fingers let go of the string. Fatal. I wanted each shot to kill the enemy, making sure they wouldn't be able to hurt another woman, take another body, or torment anyone else.

This was my version of an extermination.