I threw up my hands. “I didn’t do anything! Why is she yelling at me and not you? You’re the one she’s salty with. Didn’t you reject her daughters?”
Aga started laughing, leaning on his sword for support, one arm held across his armored stomach.
The whoosh of wings taking to the air had me looking up in time to see a plasma rifle being pointed at me before the burning blue orb exploded out of the barrel and hurtled towards me.
“Shit!” I yelled, diving out of the way, I rolled into the dive, thankful for the hardy nature of the golden armor covering my body, as the stone floor was cracked all to hell and covered in debris from the blown apart doors.
“Why the hell are you shooting at me?” I said, springing to my feet to sprint full out across the Great Hall, my shoulder hitting the wall on the far side as I squeezed myself behind a greatsquare column built into the wall. Peeking around it, I saw Rema on the other side behind another column, his face alight with fury.
He jerked his rifle up as Sythia dipped to circle back around to come for me again. I fired at the same time Rema did, the rifle kicking into my shoulder with a warbling bark.
Sythia’s four wings flapped in opposing directions, her body twisting in a sharp pivot, and the plasma shots flew past her to burn into the wall above where Aga was pressed behind cover.
“Fuck!” he yelled, ducking his head and rolling along the wall to the next column to avoid the melted rock falling over him.
“Sorry!” I called, wincing as I jerked forward to crouch behind a large chunk of the fallen door, the pale stone pocketed with damage and burn marks.
I threw myself backwards as Sythia landed with a screeching scream on top of the stone, her pale reddish pink wings flared wide.
I landed on my back with a grunt, my helmet clicking over my face as I pulled the trigger.
The super heated blue gas ball of hate hit her square in the chest, blowing her backwards.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, my heart trying to fight its way past my ribs as I got to my feet. Sythia had slammed into the wall where our wayward shots had melted, dust and pebbled pieces of the wall billowing out from her impact, obscuring the sight of her so I wasn’t sure if she was dead or not. Her lower left wing was a charred, twisted clump of melted feathers and bone. I frowned at it. I hadn’t hit her wing.
“Think she’s dead?” I asked, retracting my helmet and moving forward cautiously.
Rema stepped in close next to me, his own helmet still in place, the faceless gold reflecting my wild eyed face back at me. “I don’t know. She won’t be flying again, though.”
His rifle was smoking, so he must have been the one to tag her in the side, burning her wing to a crispy char.
“Aga, go check.”
“I’m not checking. You check,” he said, walking around the debris of fallen stone to stand on my other side.
I looked up at him, my hands clutching my rifle like a lifeline. “Don’t be a little bitch. Go check.”
His helmet retracted, gifting me with a clear sight of his dry look.
“Iwill check. Patty isn’t going anywhere near her.”
I gave Rema a smile as he started towards the body, before turning my gaze to Aga with a glare locked and loaded.
“Pussy,” I whispered to him.
Aga’s orange crocodile eyes narrowed on me.“I will end you,”he whispered back. We took a step closer to each other, about to get into the middle of a slap fight, when rocks shifted, stones falling from the wall to the ground in a shower of deadly hail, and a shriek of rage pierced into my ears like nails.
“Patty!Move!”Rema yelled at me, but a massive force hit me around my middle like a freight train, knocking the wind out of me and whipping my head back hard enough to make my vision go blurry and my teeth clack together. The hall rushed by in a confusing mess of rapidly moving colors and blood flooded my mouth as momentum hurtled me backwards across the hall. Light suddenly stabbed into my eyes, and the sense of being outdoors hit me right as my stomach dropped like a stone as the sky flipped.
I pried my eyes open by sheer force of will, my lungs screaming in burning agony for a breath that I desperately tried sucking in, but my ribs were being compressed in a vice-like grip. I looked down at myself, the wind rushing over me, and saw pink wings and a badly shorn head.
My mind struggled to understand what the fuck was happening, and it wasn’t until I saw the pale blur of the sheer rockface in front of me that it clicked.
Sythia had tackled me, and pitched us over the cliffside. We were now plummeting to our deaths.
Panic clawed at my throat, my heart squeezing and thudding in my chest as I struggled to breathe.
I brought my fists down on her head and shoulders, but her arms just tightened around me until I screamed as something snapped inside me. Piercing agony erupted along my back and right side, and I doubled my effort of trying to smash her fucking head in.
