Page 68 of Elven Crown

The griybreki coming at him opened its mouth to expose several rows of disgustingly sharp teeth as it raised a wickedly curved dagger in one webbed hand and prepared to strike.

Rebecca regained her bearings, dropped to a pivot on one knee, and sent a magical round straight through the griybreki’schest. The thing toppled forward to land on its face with a muted gurgle at Leonard’s feet.

He blinked down at the dead creature, then scanned the dock until he found Rebecca with her weapon still raised.

He met her gaze, nodded once in thanks, then returned his attention to slamming a fist against the side of his augmented rifle until whatever had jammed it dislodged and the low whine of its re-powering mechanism rose with the rest of the battle noise.

Dammit. If they were going to depend on weapons, Shade needed new gear they could actually count on.

Then she was off again, ducking and dodging her way toward the end of the docks, blasting at screaming griybreki either with her magitek rifle or with hissing, sparking orbs of crimson battle magic and dropping bodies in her wake.

Scanning the docks between quick and efficient neutralizing of any griybreki who entered her path, she found the rest of the team. And she couldn’t have been prouder of what she saw.

Shade operatives working together for a common goal, communicating effectively and efficiently like they always had. But this time, there was no asshat of a leader sabotaging their efforts. No moron calling all the shots only to toss the plan and go off script just because he felt like it.

This team was doing what they’d trained and prepared to do, and it was working.

Rebecca even allowed herself a moment of pre-emptive celebration as she made her way across the docks, firing her rifle and lobbing orbs of crimson battle magic.

For once, it finally looked like Shade was going to bring in a major win. Like they could pull off this operation the way they were meant to and succeed without heinous consequences or avoidable casualties.

Although Rowan had jumped the gun on their original plan of getting a confirmed visual, he hadn’t ruined the team’s chances tonight after all. So maybe it wouldn’t turn out as badly as Rebecca had first feared.

She moved through the battle, dodged flying griybreki leaping at her face, dived beneath magical volleys and bright yellow lights fired toward her from all directions. She emptied her rifle’s clip into the oncoming enemy targets until her weapon stuck with a hollow click and the firearm’s high-pitched whine sputtered and died in her hands.

Damn.

She ejected the empty clip and reached into her back pocket for a replacement before remembering she’d left additional ammo in her hiding spot behind the shipping containers.

Rowan’s impatience had distracted her from basic common sense.

There was always something.

Another griybreki sprinted toward her, babbling in his throaty, gargling language with both webbed hands outstretched toward her, gnashing his razor-sharp teeth.

Rebecca abandoned her rifle on the ground and kept moving, spewing another volley of crimson battle magic from her hands, one after the other.

The oncoming griybreki hit the ground before she’d advanced more than a step, then she turned to the next target.

The constant chaos of battle like this was so familiar, she felt like she could see everything at once. She dodged a dart of glowing orange griybreki magic zipping past her head, then blasted the offending creature with more hissing red battle magic before two more griybreki emerged from the convoy vehicle in front of her.

They stopped when they saw her, crouched and looking for targets, then one of them let out a warbling battle cry and hefted a miniature trident in one hand before he charged.

She took him down in seconds with her next spell and sent him flying backward across the docks. Then she spun around to meet the next one.

Only when the second griybreki in her line of sight exploded in a burst of flame, setting fire to his clothing before he ran off in a blaze, screaming and flailing, did Rebecca realize she’d summoned a fireball for this fight too.

Why not? It had been a while.

She kept moving, filling the darkness with the glow of churning flames or sizzling red battle magic, and finally made it closer to her team.

A griybreki went down in a magical net of woven blue light from someone else’s attack, and Leonard spun around in the fray, looking for more.

Rebecca saw the griybreki inching up on him from behind before anyone else did. She summoned two enormous balls of flame, their raging light sending her shadow long and thick across the docks behind her, and launched both at the enemy behind Leonard.

The mage took note of the enormous flaming orbs hurtling toward him and ducked at the last second.

Her fireballs pummeled the creature, instantly setting it ablaze. The griybreki didn’t even have enough time to scream before the flames charred him to a crisp. Then the blackened husk of a corpse dropped in a pillar of sour black smoke, and Leonard popped up out of his crouch, his eyes wide.

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