Chapter 39: Iron

The hotel bar was unattended; an air of controlled panic was in the air and turning in a slow circle James saw few hotel employees in evidence. The front desk was swamped, and a couple of valet guys out front were running themselves ragged trying to keep up with demand.

But soothing background music still played, the AC was on, and everything looked pristine and as it should.

Was this how it would end? A hollowing out of systems as people ceased showing up for work, asking themselves the critical question of why the fuck they should spend their last days on Earth checking bags and helping rich fucks to an extra set of plush towels?

“Time for some initiative,” said Serenity, and lithely ducked under the bar, ghosted down the row of fancy liquor bottles, and selected a stubby bottle of Bulleit. “One for you…” She pulled down a gorgeous, fluted bottle of tequila James had never heard of. “And one for me. What? For later. Celebratory drinks. Don’t worry, jeez, you think I’m going to get trashed before a fight? With Arete as high as I’ve got?”

“Never know,” said James, taking his bottle. “But sure. For when we have a moment to celebrate.”

They made their way back into the ballroom. Everybody had moved to the left side of the ballroom, still in their groups, people cleaning out their guns, discussing their weapons, munching on left-over pizza.

James stopped behind the huge crowd, which as one turned to gaze right back.

“Well all right,” he smiled. “Let’s go round up the crew handling the first site and head on over to the second.”

Nods, grunts of affirmation, and in each set of eyes James saw burning determination.

It took almost two hours to get the next strike set up, however. Collecting the three hundred DRC members who’d been extracting the victims and debating how many to leave behind to guard the comatose took far longer than it should have, and then simply marching to their target took half an hour, their army swarming down the street like some kind of hoodlum procession, Nemesis 1’s fleeing before them, people leaning out of windows to cheer or cry for help.

For the Second Wave was sweeping through the city, unleashing a massive torrent of Nemesis 2’s upon them all. The insectile demons emerged from windows, left urban basketball courts where their summoners had gathered, made their way with unnerving grace along rooftops or down streets.

And wherever the DRC saw them, they opened fire and destroyed them.

There had to be several hundred Deadeyes in their group, most of whom sported rifles or guns accurate to a range of hundreds of yards, which pretty meant line of sight in the city. It became something of a competition, seeing whom could spot and open fire first on a demon before the others.

But it slowed shit down. James wanted to move at a jog, but screams and pleas for help tore at their hearts even as they all recognized that they couldn’t stop and provide assistance. Doing so would have diffused their force across all of Brooklyn, so instead here and there a squad - a ka-tet? - would peel off and enter a building or rush down an alleyway only to hustle and catch up when they were done.

Richard guided them at the last as the demon symbol came into view, burning with its purple fire over another residential block, five hundred feet up. Each Crimson team leader was told which street to approach through, and their massive army slowly fragmented, groups branching away, the main core growing ever smaller as they approached.

But it wasn’t smooth as before.

Thousands upon thousands of Nemesis 2’s were closing in on the target as well, and with so many people in the street there was no way to avoid conflict.

James walked down the center of the avenue, fire-axe held in both hands, lips pursed, not even looking any more each time Serenity or Becca opened fire on a new target. The Ebon and Ivory Hydra teams came behind, each sporting their own Deadeye, and the gunfire was almost constant.

Concern was growing in his heart. The dead zone was only three blocks ahead, but already they’d killed scores of Nemesis 2’s, which meant burning through magazines.

“Serenity, how much ammo you got left?”

Serenity lowered her Tavor to tap her army vest. “Shit, down to six. I thought I’d brought… fuck. I’m going through them quicker than I thought.”

She’d had to scrounge for her mags back at the first site, then spent fifteen minutes of downtime thumbing NATO rounds into them all. Even so, keeping supplied was going to be a problem.

“Becca?”

The black-haired merc drilled another Nemesis 2 with a three-round burst, her scowl intent, and didn’t even look down to check. “Four mags left.” And hers carried 40 rounds.

Quick math: a Nemesis took about a half dozen Smite rounds to the head to drop. Serenity had 240, Becca had 160. Four hundred rounds, which meant with perfect accuracy they could kill around sixty or so demons.

James raised a hand and turned to stare back the way they’d come. Nemesis 2’s were filling the street, a sparse crowd for now, but they were drawn here from who knew how many miles around, thousands of them.

“Richard, this is Kelly. Give the command to all teams: we’re not entering the dead zone. Instead, we’re going to turn and hold our positions in a perimeter just outside it and try to kill as many Nemesis 2’s as we can as they try to enter.”

“Kelly, this is Star Boy, order received. Telling the other teams now.”

“Listen up!” roared James, moving through his own team so that Ebon and Ivory Hydra saw him, and the Golem triad beyond could hear as well. “Change of plans! We don’t have the ammo to handle the hive and the Second Wave, so we’re setting up shop here. Get some cover, stand together, and prepare to hold the line. We should be seeing hundreds if not more Nemesis 2’s coming this way, and we’re going to stop them.”

“What about the hive?” demanded Bjørn, tone cool, brows lowered.

“That’ll be round two. We’ll come back with tons of ammo and clean house. All right folks, get in place. Sarah, we’re the tip of the spear with your circle. Hold it in reserve till we need it. Hydra, we’re staking out this block. Golem, you’re moving a block closer to the hive to pick off any Nemeses that make it past us along the rooftops.”

People nodded, responding to the authority he projected, even if he wasn’t quite sure of his plan. Sarah rolled up her flannel sleeves and moved to stand front and center in the middle of the avenue, her forearms tanned and sinewy.

“Bless Green,” said James, kicking the siege off officially, and his stats bumped up by +6, an intoxicating sensation that he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to.

“Shields, you’re doing crowd control. If the onslaught gets too thick, you’re too slow them down to manageable levels. Becca, Serenity, make each bullet count. Once you run dry, our time here will be limited.”

Sarah evoked her Circle of Protection, and its white perimeter blazing to life, radius at three yards, and then let it drop.

“Now you know where to stand,” she said, eyes trained down the avenue.

Becca and Serenity took 10 and 2 o’clock while James took 12. Shields were at the 3 and 9, while the Blessers with their regular guns stood clustered around their 6. Ebon took the left sidewalk so they could watch the right rooftops, and Ivory did the opposite.

And the Nemesis 2’s advanced on them.

Gunfire was perfunctory and efficient. Serenity was able to target demons two, three blocks away, her aim immaculate, her Tavor spitting death, while Becca worked on targets that came into view just above them.

At first it was a manageable, clusters drifting into range, but then Serenity put up her gun. “There’s a big wave coming down the street. Looks like the bulk of Wave 2.”

“How many you figure?” asked James.

“I mean…” Serenity sighted down her gun again. “Forty? A hundred? Hard to tell.”

“Start dropping ‘em,” said James, and both women complied.

Gunfire raged from blocks over in both directions. James raised his radio. “Richard, this is Kelly. We got the main wave approaching, two blocks and closing, over.”

“Kelly, this is Star Boy. Looks like everybody’s about to get hit. I’ll let you know if the situation calls for an exit, out.”

James took a deep steadying breath. His pool of 50 Arete had reset over the past few hours; thank God it didn’t take 24 hours like Aeviternum. That meant Denzel had a couple of Healing Grace’s in the tank, and everybody had at least one revive.

Not a lot of room for error.

The guns chattered, the demons dropped, but more kept coming.

“Level,” said Denzel, not nearly as excited as earlier that day.

“Same,” said Joanna.

“Me too,” called Bjørn.

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James wiped his palm on his hip, gripped his axe, fought the urge to ignite Smite. Becca and Serenity had endless targets, and occasionally would swivel to shoot a Nemesis off the rooftop. James watched them drop mags with a sinking feeling.

Your rank is now Supplicant 5

You have 5 unspent points.

“Level,” he whispered, and placed the five points in Arete, bringing him to 55. But it wasn’t just his Aura Strength that went up; his Aura type also changed:

Aura: Iron

Aura Strength: 1

“Holy shit,” he whispered. “Hey, I got Iron Aura.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” called Serenity. “New type?”

“Yeah.” James inhaled deeply, felt a new certainty suffuse him, a quiet confidence that washed away his doubts. “Focus fire on the rooftops. Let’s see what it can do. Ready, Sarah?”

“Always,” said the homeless lady, and from her it didn’t sound like a boastful claim, but a quiet, bleak truth.

Serenity and Becca each took a side of the rooftops to focus on, and the Nemesis 2’s in the avenue came scuttling quickly toward them, no longer pushed back by gunfire.

James watched them come. Their scythe-arms, their huge abdomens, their rearing black thoraxes, their porcelain-white masks with their universal sneers.

“C’mon you fuckers. C’mon. Shields, funnel them up. Bring ‘em to me.”

“Wait, James, sir,” said Jason, alarmed. “There’s too many. Sarah’s circle -”

“Will hold for as long as it needs to,” said Sarah with grim determination. “Have fun, James.”

The white flames spread around them, forming the sacred perimeter, encompassing the median and two lanes on either side, and then James stepped forth over its edge.

The wise move would have been to wait for them to hit the perimeter and tested his aura from within, but there were so many. He’d seen what happened when Sarah got overwhelmed. The chaos, the bloodshed, the collapse of cohesion.

No. Best if he stepped forward, became the focal point, and kept Sarah from being tested too hard.

Plus he wanted the satisfaction of seeing what an Iron Aura could do.

The Nemesis 2’s rushed toward them, thirty, forty strong, a wave of clicking legs and scythes, and James readied his fire-axe, still striding forward, until with a roar he broke into a sprint and charged right at them.

His aura didn’t flare out.

His aura didn’t spread to its former radius, forming a bubble of protection.

Panic gripped his heart, his roar rose as he swung his axe, and he heard a scream from behind as several Nemeses closed on him, scythes slicing down at him.

His axe tore through the chest of the one right before him, Smite lighting up its length, crushing and collapsing the Nemesis 2’s chest.

But three other attacks got through, the wicked blades slashing down at his back and legs.

Laney.

But he felt nothing. He caught the axe on the through-swing, turned, and wherever he moved Nemeses ashed.

But only when they came within an inch of him. No aura encased him when they did, but a swathe of metal appeared exactly where they’d have touched him, and their bodies ashed where they tried to push through it, destroying their scythes till they reared back in confusion and alarm.

James stood still, panting for breath, and then let out a belly laugh. “C’mon, you bastards.” He spread his arms. “I’m right here! Come get me!”

The Nemesis 2’s didn’t seem to understand. With the insectile hunger of ants they swarmed him, slashing and cutting with their blades again and again, causing smears of metallic aura to appear before each assault and destroy them.

James threw himself at them, swing his axe for range, and wove drunkenly about, hacking and chopping with abandon. Gunfire rang out from further down the street, but here the Nemeses were focused on him, and almost he could sense their rage and bafflement as they swarmed him again and again, losing limbs until he hacked them apart altogether.

But it was a slow process. His previous aura had washed over several of them at once. Now he needed to actually come within touching range. He ran at the demons, burst through their ranks like a white-hot poke through a bank of snow, but they didn’t ash up completely, often lost a limb, a scythe, or sometimes a chunk of their side.

James slowed, expecting to be out of breath, but only lightly winded. He needed more speed. “Bless James!” he shouted.

His +6 jumped to +15.

His speed went from 8 to 23, his Strength to 26. The axe became weightless, a baton, and with one arm he began to swing it about as he raced back and forth, hurling himself again and again wherever the demons were clustered thickest.

There was no end to them, but the corpses didn’t trip him up; wherever he went the fallen ashed beneath his feet.

“Kelly, this is Star Boy.” James almost didn’t hear his radio where it was stuck to his chest. “We’ve got multiple triads withdrawing. The numbers are too high. Suggest you withdraw so you don’t get stranded, over.”

James came to a stop, still not out of breath. Hundreds more Nemesis 2’s were coming down the street. One leaped at him, dropped from the sky and ashed as his Iron Aura cut through its center.

Your rank is now Supplicant 6

You have 5 unspent points.

James looked back to his companions. They awaited within Sarah’s circle, Becca and Serenity picking off errant demons that chose not to engage him and try to reach the hive.

He made a decision.

“Listen up.” He strode back. “You guys are going to head out. There’s no sense in my running around like a headless chicken. Ask Richard for a rendezvous point, and I’ll meet you there when I’m done.”

“When you’re done?” Serenity’s alarm was immediate. “What the fuck you talking about?”

He felt his aura activate behind him as a Nemesis 2 charged him and ashed.

“I’m invulnerable to them now. They’ll keep coming till the hive is infested. So I’m going in solo. I’m going to find the Queen, kill it, and bring that gem out. And even if it takes me all night, I’ll going to kill them all.”

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