Athena, Vernex, and the dragon that Amira rode all swooped back into the fray, Athena in the lead. They flew in a wedge formation, with Athena taking the brunt of the ranged attacks that were thrown at them. Each arrow, spell, and rock glanced off her invisible barrier without leaving a dent, and she pelted towards the ground, diving faster than any of the dragons or other beasts. Several yards from making contact with the ground monsters, she pulled up sharply, her talons raking through eight or nine of them. Jerik threw two grenades behind them as she regained altitude, and glancing back, saw the blast take out another few dozen.
The twin dragons caused even further devastation with their breath, practically carpet bombing a wide swath of monsters. It suited their cause that the enemy was so tightly packed together, with no chance to avoid it. They could take out huge numbers with each pass, and flit away before any retaliation could reach them. At least, for now, they could. Soon enough, more flying monsters would come to reinforce them, and then Jerik and the others would be in trouble.
Amira, Jerik now understood, was also a Tek user like himself. She had a massive shotgun in both of her hands. It released wide blasts of bright blue energy that vaporized any monster it touched, and she could fire it four times with each pass of her dragon before having to reload. Like Jerik, she also threw grenades freely, though hers released long bolts of electricity that shot through dozens of enemies at once, tearing open great holes in their bodies and blinding those lucky enough to survive.
“You like?” She called, as the three of them pulled out of yet another pass, and she came within easier speaking range. By some kind of silent agreement, the three flying beasts decided to hover where they were for a moment, to take stock. “They’re reusable too. Return after they’re done. Here, have a few.”
Jerik caught the small sack she threw at him uncertainly, peering inside to see five of the grenades there. They were the size of billiard balls, he saw, but had an incredible charge. He let out a dull laugh, realizing just how prepared the Menoran Army was for this conflict, compared to them. “Thanks.”
They’re putting us to shame. Athena seemed amused at the interchange and wanted to put in. We can’t have them showing us up, can we?
“I suppose not,” he said, tucking the grenades into his belt pouch. “What do you have in mind?”
Dismount, and let me do my thing.
Jerik did as she suggested, and no sooner had he disconnected than she let out a piercing, ringing screech. He clapped his hands to his ears to protect against the sound, his eyes screwed up to partially block out the light that emitted from her body. Every light in her feathers glowed bright violet, and purple electricity bounced across them as she dove again. She aimed straight down, instead of at an angle, like she was going to divebomb them.
It turned out that was exactly what she did. Coursing with that violent electricity, she slammed into the monsters below her, releasing a huge shockwave of the stuff. Dozens, easily over fifty monsters, were vaporized by the blast, and even more were sent flying, to crash into their allies further away. That single move created a thirty-foot gap in the body of monsters. Max let out a shout of surprise at the attack, and Amira whistled.
“Damn,” Amira said, an awestruck note in her voice. “She’s got some power! I thought she was about speed.”
“She’s got a few tricks up her sleeve,” Jerik replied, trying not to look as though this was news to him. But inside, even he was in awe at the sheer destruction Athena was causing. “Just wait, she’s not done.”
And indeed, Athena was already moving. Barely fazed by her high-speed impact with the hard earth, she jumped back into the air, hanging a few feet above the ground, while more of that electricity flickered across her form. Then she spun in place, her wings adding extra momentum and speed, shooting her forward like a massive arrow. She carved another swath of monsters in a straight line before pulling out of the maneuver and flying straight up. It hadn’t killed as many as the first maneuver, but it was still clearly felt.
At the end of her spinning dash, Athena released another massive attack, letting the electricity on her body flash off and strike its way through the army, hundreds of tiny little bolts punching through the monsters, killing each one easily. Only then did she break away, flying straight back to Jerik, who met her and regained his seat with ease.
“Well done,” he told her. “That took out quite a lot of them.”
“Indeed,” Max said, his voice slightly shaky. “Let’s hope that got Kan-Menora’s attention.”
“I’m pretty sure it did,” Jerik commented, pointing over Max’s shoulder to the far distant mouth of the valley. The two siblings turned to follow his gaze, and their jaws dropped with the shock of what they saw. A new figure was clearly visible, towering over the heads of the monster army. Hundreds of feet tall. Jerik’s first thought was that it was some kind of turtle. But no, it was something even more dangerous. It did have a shell, sure, with huge boney spikes that would have easily measured another eighty feet on their own.
“What in the hell is that?” Max exclaimed. Jerik wasn’t looking at him, but he knew what Max was thinking. That monster, who lumbered forward at a casual pace on four long, powerful, jointed legs, was nothing that the three of them could ever hope to handle. Even from thousands of feet away, the monster was excessively large. If it stood on its hind legs, it could rest its claws on the top of the smaller mountain beside it.
“Jerik!” Hearing his name shouted was enough to jerk his attention away from the terrifying apparition in front of him. He glanced around in the empty air for several seconds, wondering who’d called him before he realized the voice was coming to him through his earpiece. A half second later, he recognized it as Nicholas’ voice.
“What is it?” He asked, not at all surprised to find that his voice was shaky. His throat was strangely parched, despite his regular hydration. “I assume you’re seeing this monster?”
“Yes, we’re all seeing it,” Nick confirmed. At that moment, Jerik caught sight of the Menoran Army, with the Smoke Brigade at its head, hurrying towards the monster army. “I take it you don’t know what that is?”
“Of course, I don’t know what it is,” Jerik snapped back. “I’m a stranger to this world, as you very well-”
“It’s not just this world that has one!” Nick interrupted him. For a reason Jerik could never comprehend, the young man sounded excited, as if this was all he’d ever dreamt of. “Plenty of fantasy stories on Earth have this monster in them!”
“Earth has this monster too,” Jerik relayed to Max and Amira. Even with this new information, they seemed as nonplussed as him. Clearly, they didn’t know what the beast was. “Well, Nick, what’s it called?”
“It’s a tarrasque!” Nick said. He was breathing heavily, probably from his run. Jerik wouldn’t be surprised if he was also excited. “It’s about the most dangerous thing you can get in fantasy settings.”
“Well then,” Jerik said. “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
“Nope.” Jerik could picture Nick’s face in his mind’s eye. He knew, somehow, that Nick was grinning. “It’s terrifying, for sure. But it can’t fly, and it’s slow as hell. We just need to break its defense, and we’re good to go.”
“Oh,” Jerik felt a flutter of exhaustion run through his body as his muscles relaxed in relief. Then they tensed again as Nick finished his point.
“Only problem is that we’re gonna have trouble doing that. And we can’t use magic against him.”
“What?” Jerik spluttered, having just thought at that moment that several artillery mages would come in handy for breaking armor. “Why can’t we use magic?”
“He - I mean it - is totally immune to magic. Anything we throw at it will be reflected right back. Trying to disable him with magic will fail too. I’ve heard some rumors that runes work, but those are super rare in Menora. Even Morgan doesn’t have that ability.”
“Okay,” Jerik forced himself to take several deep breaths to calm himself. “What can punch through his shield?”
“By my best guess, about a thousand hits from something as powerful as your Paragon.”
“A thousand?” Jerik shouted, his calm instantly forgotten. “I don’t have that many bullets! And even if I did, he’d reach me before I could fire them all!”
“Right,” Nick said. He didn’t sound fazed at all. “Thankfully, the Menorans have something roughly that powerful. Jel-Kenna said you should return here at once, and they’ll explain it.”
“Fine by me,” Jerik replied shortly. He gave Max and Amira a quick hand signal to fall back, and Athena took off, leading the way as usual. “We’ve done enough delaying as it is.”
Below the three flying figures, the Menoran Army let out a massive battle cry and charged forward. Nearly a hundred figures rose into the air using flying spells or Tek suits, Giving themselves a clear line of sight with which to rain down spells and gunfire. The rest quickly diverged into several different groups, ranging from long-range to frontal assault, and began attacking the Monster army. Despite the overwhelming difference in numbers, they cut through the horde with ease, deleting entire sections of it at a time, far faster than Jerik and Amira could, even with the help of dragons.
They made it to the command point of the army in seconds, landing gently behind a group of tall, blue-skinned people who stood watching the fighting with intense focus. Jerik recognized the hunched, elder figure of Jel-Kenna, and beside her, the tall and graceful Sel-Kenna, who had given him Paragon all those months ago. The rest, however, were strangers to him.
“Elder,” Max said, sliding off of Vernex’s back and, in the same movement, dropping to one knee in a graceful bow. “It does us honor to fight alongside you in this final battle.”
“The honor is all mine, Guardian Maxari,” Jel-Kenna said. She indicated her great-granddaughter with one graceful gesture. “I trust you remember my heir.”
“Of course,” Max said, lowering his head again. “Greetings, Sel-Kenna. I am pleased to see you healthy.”
So no formal titles for the rank of Sel, Jerik thought. Or maybe as a Guardian himself, he was close enough in rank that he could afford to give this formal but not ingratiating greeting. If Sel-Kenna was off-put by the difference in treatment, she showed no sign of it on her face. “Greetings to you as well, Guardian Maxari. I thank you for your service to my great-grandmother.”
Sel-Kenna took several steps forward now, breaking away from the Menorans, to stand before Jerik. “Jerik Barr. It has been some time since our last meeting. I’m pleased to see that you’ve done as we’d hoped.”
“What, train an army?” Jerik asked. Unlike Max, he saw no reason to bow before any of the Menorans. According to them, he was essential, after all. “Or taking part in rituals and agreeing to things that I didn’t know were coming?”
A small smile curved across her mouth, which was nearly on a level with his own, even astride Athena. “Both. I understand you’ve gained quite the powerful ally in Athena here. I think your rewards have been sufficient thus far.”
“Well,” he said slowly, his argumentative tone fading, “That’s true, I suppose. So, what’s this weapon my man’s talking about? You have something that can punch through the tarrasque’s shell?”
“Straight to the point, it is,” She said, letting out a quiet, melodic laugh. She turned away, beckoning for him to follow. “Come and see.”
