“Roger that,” comes Marduk’s reply.
We put our earpieces in, watching the militia in their vehicles, gathering along the perimeter of the academy wall. The guards in the towers have their guns angled and ready, but a single Jeep rolls towards the driveway.
A serpent general hops out of the back of it with two beasts holding heavy black riot shields. The three of them hunch behind the shields and survey the new protection. They set something down on the ground and hurry backwards into their vehicles.
“How long will it take for them to get in?” I ask.
“We’re not going to wait to find out,” Scythe says. “It was never made to withstand a modern military assault like this.”
“North and west guard towers,” Xander commands, “open fire.”
Chapter 103
Savage
Idon’t like guns. I never have. But I have to admit they’ve had their uses in the last few weeks. And when your enemy carries a whole heap of venom-loaded guns, the best thing to do is shoot first.
When the guards next to me open fire on the enemy, I cover Eugene’s ears and get ready. He shivers under me, adrenaline and coke pumping through his little feathery body.
“Get ready,”I telepathise to him, hefting up my Nerf gun as our bullets bounce off the armoured vehicles. The pipe bomb they laid at the entrance has an obsidian case around it so none of the felines can toss it back unless?—
Marduk, as nuts as he ever is, leaps down to the front gate, grabs the bomb in his bare hand and tosses it back to the waiting vehicles. It goes off when it hits the first vehicle, but only makes the surface of the strong metal black.
The guards next to me stop to reload, and the enemy doubles down. Two more helicopters shoot over the dome, hammering at the protection with gunners on open sides, covered in black chains that make them feline-proof.
“Shit,” I mutter, sending the image to the group chat in case they miss it. “They’re not taking any chances.”
A lone truck at the back of the convoy rolls slowly towards the centre of the back lines. I’ve had my eye on it, moving slowly like it doesn’t want to be noticed. It’s covered in serpents, shifted ones, big anacondas and smaller venomous, writhing ones. It’s like they’re working together to make a living, breathing serpent shield around their baddest general.
At the front lines, three other trucks reverse up to the front of the gate and stop. Their back doors open and ramps slam down.
“Hold fire!” Xander shouts over the comms. The gunners next to me straighten from their places and move their fingers off the triggers, swearing under their breaths.
Young children spill out of the trucks like spiders. They are short, their round, cherub faces clear for us to see. My teeth clench together as they roll out cannonball machines and set them up in a line. There’s ten of them and three children to a machine, lined up in neat rows like a dance they’ve practiced for a primary school talent show. They all wear normal sports clothes, shorts and T-shirts, as if Mace Naga wanted to make sure we didn’t miss that they’re children. One of them has a blue puppy on his shirt. They also have guns strapped to them, so I’m guessing that once the balls run out, they’ll start shooting at us.
The leader, a taller boy of maybe ten or eleven, shouts at the front. They work together to press levers on the machines. With a bang, ten heavy feline-resistant obsidian cannonballs shoot out of the machines and slam into the shield. The entire blue dome shakes, but it holds still.
Nasty Mace has sent the children to lead his attack. Rat bastard. No offense to rats. But he’s also decided to hit us on all sides at once. Spreading out along the sides of the children are military trucks with adults.
“We’re going to have to get past all of that to get to Ghoul,”I say into the group chat.
“Let me worry about that,”my regina replies. “But I’ll need cover.”
“The dome will be down within minutes,”Scythe says. So we have minutes to figure out our strategy. That’s plenty of time.
“Team Pink to take care of the tanks,” Minnie pipes. “Or whatever is not covered in obsidian.”
“Leave the serpents to us, Team Assassin and Team Cotton Ball,” Sabrina says over the walkie-talkie. “We’ll make sure your path is clear, Lia.”
“I don’t want you guys so close to the vortex,” my regina says. “It’s not safe.”
“There’s too many of them,” Lyle says. “We’ll need assistance there, regina.”
Lia is silent. She’s not happy about this, but I don’t think she gets a choice. The sound of the bullets hitting the dome is getting louder, which I think means they’re breaking through.
“Does anybody know where Mace is?”I ask. Nobody answers for a second, and the only thing I hear is the sound of the cannonballs hitting us again.
“What if he didn’t even come?” Minnie says. “Coward that he is.”
