Chapter 62: Book 1: Chapter 23 (Part 4 of 6)

Torin Carter

Watching the Greater Fomorian slaughter Anastasia hadn’t been easy. I knew she would survive as long as I did, but she was mine and part of me railed against letting the monster have even this small victory.

We settled in then for the wait until dawn when we would make our move.

Before Anastasia sacrificed herself, we had searched the school top to bottom while Quixbix kept watch on our besiegers outside. We hadn’t found anything of use apart from a few teaching supplies. Which while useful for playing hangman to pass the time hadn’t unearthed anything of real use.

The only other thing of note was a lockable backroom we could use. That wouldn’t be any help against the Fomorian threat, but it did afford Shana and me some privacy to occasionally relieve the tension.

The room proved to be somewhat lacking in soundproofing if the red of Jackson’s face was any gauge to go by when we returned after our first relief session. We didn’t let that stop us from going back a few more times, though.

I had formulated a plan to seize the town from under the nose of the Greater Fomorian. Although he didn’t really have a nose it was more like a couple of holes with a nubbin above them.

The timing was the key issue for the plan. Preferably we needed to strike when the Greater Fomorian wasn’t present. He was a bit of a powerhouse, and his presence would definitely tip the scales in the Fomorians favour.

My assumption had been that the big guy came directly from the bay, which gave him twenty-four hours until he absolutely had to return to the lake.

Quixbix assured me they had intelligence.

Although that didn’t make them potential MENSA candidates, the Greater Fomorian would know that the settlement’s eradication could take up to thirty hours to complete. It should be under the mistaken belief that ten of those possible thirty hours had passed and that it would be able to remain on land long enough to wait out the fall of our protection field, not knowing I had reset the countdown.

Therefore, we sent Anastasia out shortly before nightfall, ten hours after we were trapped in the school. That ten, plus the seven it would take for her avatar to return and then another two or three to gather the necessary supplies from the town would add up to close to twenty and dawn.

Which would coincide with the point at which the Greater Fomorian would expect the settlement to be destroyed if it took the maximum of thirty hours.

It would be at that point my opponent would realise that something was up. With only four hours left of his land time left he would have to make a choice. Return to the bay and leave a new shift of Lesser Fomorians in place to pen us in or assault the school with the protection field in place.

Either way, Anastasia should be ready for both eventualities.

My guess, which was proved accurate thirty minutes before sunrise, was that if the beast hadn’t been willing to force its way in earlier it wouldn’t try it now. The settlement destruction was still underway, and the beast should belatedly figure out that we had restarted the countdown.

It sent a handful of its minions down to the bay and after a few minutes a fresh force of almost one hundred Lesser Fomorians surrounded the school and the Greater Fomorian and those with him departed the way the others had come.

Fortunately, the ship was moored several hundred metres further up the bay, so they wouldn’t pass by and see that, hopefully, Anastasia had despatched any guards on or around the ship.

A few minutes after the sun rose, I looked at the duo beside me.

“You both ready?” I asked.

Shana nodded and smiled approvingly.

Jackson yawned. “I didn’t sleep well, but potential death is like a triple jolt of coffee in the morning.”

I chuckled at him. “Don’t worry, when Ana gives the signal, it will all work out.”

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“How can you be sure?” Jackson asked nervously. “What if she couldn’t resurrect and it’s just us?”

I stepped up to the door and analysed the group hemming us in. There were ninety-six Lesser Fomorians.

I smiled at Jackson. “Even with just the three of us, the threat is only Very High. Not suicidal like before. If things don’t look to be going well, we just need to get close enough to the podium square to restart the timer and then get back into the school. This ain’t our Butch and Sundance moment, kid.”

The quizzical expression on his face informed me he hadn’t watched the classic Redford and Newman film. Then again, I probably wouldn’t have if film class hadn’t been so popular with the football players, for obvious reasons.

<No need to worry about that> Quixbix spoke unprompted. <Bunches just stepped within twenty-five metres, and I’ve re-added her to the party. She has a few choice words for you, Torin, but the plan appears to have been a success.>

I scanned the mini horde outside and confirmed the threat had dropped from Very High to High with Anastasia’s return to the fold.

“Choice words for me or for you? Seeing as you keep baiting her, Quix,” I quipped.

We readied ourselves for the fight ahead.

<Torin, Bunches appears to have improvised an interesting addition to the plan> Quixbix added.

Before I could question him further, the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic gunfire from half a dozen assault rifles rang out across the car park from behind the Fomorian line to the right-hand side of the front of the school.

This was followed by Anastasia’s wild cackling. “Take that you fish-fuckers.”

Shana half laughed, half snorted. “Not exactly the signal we agreed upon, but I suppose it’ll do.”

I grinned in return, unlocked the door, swung it open and launched myself out of the building, diving left away from the bay and towards the podium square. Resetting the counter was priority number one in case everything else went wrong.

I spared a glance back down towards the bay to take in Anastasia and see what addition Quixbix spoke of. I almost did a double take at what I saw before shaking my head and re-focusing on my own task.

Anastasia was standing at the back of a group moving up the road from the bay and she was laughing wildly.

The six figures at the front were what I expected to see, they were clothing store mannequins that Anastasia had turned into golems. As we agreed she had equipped them with the gear we have taken from Luca’s goons after their attack.

This included the six assault rifles the mannequins were armed with and should have been upskilled by Anastasia to use proficiently. Thankfully, once the inventories of our prisoners and the dead had been emptied into my coffers, they had been carrying a significant amount of ammunition for the rifles.

The mannequins were now firing in three-shot bursts at the encircling Fomorians. I knew from my own experience that each bullet, not being Mana infused, inflicted twenty Hit Points of damage to the unarmoured. Not a huge amount, but enough to wear the sea demons down and the shock factor of the unfamiliar weapons couldn’t be ignored.

What I hadn’t expected were our four prisoners, naked as the day they were born, except for dog collars around their throats and leashes attached to the collars being held by Anastasia. Held in her other hand, she had a bullwhip that she was cracking for judicious effect.

Where the fuck had she got a whip?

I could ask her that after the battle. First, I had to deal with what was in front of me. There were maybe a dozen Lesser Fomorians in the vicinity of the podium’s square and they reacted to our appearance from the building by shaking their spears, made from long fish bones, and charging towards the school.

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