I ducked out from under Noc, raced swiftly to Tor, took the dagger from him and he reached around his other side and pulled out another one. I took that one too.

“Rocks!” Noc yelled at Tor, his arm snaking around me, he tucked me back into him and we raced off the road, through some scrub and into the sand toward some huge rocks. The whole time, Tor and Salem followed us, continuing to provide cover overhead as Noc aimed his gun at the legged creatures advancing on us from behind.

He pulled the trigger and one of the creatures howled, dropped to his back and exploded in blue sparks.

“Jesus f**kin’ Christ,” Noc muttered, but didn’t hesitate, aimed again and pulled the trigger. Another creature howled, collapsed and exploded in blue sparks.

The rest kept advancing as we kept going toward cover, not an easy thing to do through sand.

A vickrant flew low, sailing under Salem’s neck, the horse whinnied but I swung my arm down across my body, yanked it back up and I sliced through the vickrant’s chest, blue sparks shot into my face and the vickrant disappeared. Another instantly followed and I did the same with the other dagger, catching the thing at its throat, it vanished in a shock of blue embers. I did all of this as Noc kept shooting and moving us, me in the middle, Salem and Tor close to my side.

I took down another vickrant before we made it around the tall rock the underneath of which the sea had eroded away, giving us an overhang and cover from the vickrants who, unable to get to us but coming just the same, flew straight into the top of the rock in their kamikaze mission, exploding themselves.

Whoa.

Tor dismounted and Salem stood vigil beside us, using his huge body to cut off access at the front of the rock and I watched in shock as Salem took out a low-flying vickrant with a nasty chomp of his horse teeth.

Uh… whoa!

Then Noc shouted at me, “Clip!”

I transferred one dagger to the other hand, pulled a clip out of my back pocket and handed it to him. He took it, instantly released the used clip, it fell with a thud into the sand and he shoved the next one in. Taking aim around the rock, he fired at the legged creatures, not missing though, it had to be said, they would be hard to miss seeing as there were so freaking many of them.

“Talk to me,” he bit out to Tor who was standing, legs planted, just out from under the cover of the rock and striking vickrants down with every mighty swing.

“The winged creatures, vickrants, the legged monsters, toilroys,” Tor explained, then grunted through another swing that took out three vickrants at once. Then he went on, “The good, anything pierces their skin, they perish.” Another swing, another grunt, another two vickrants exploding in blue. “The other good, they have no brain, they are programmed only with the mission so they aren’t tactical and are unable to adjust their advance, for instance, if they are confronted with terrain that is difficult to maneuver.”

“And the bad?” Noc asked, aiming and firing at toilroys as another vickrant flew low, around Salem, toward me and I slashed out with my knife, catching it under its belly and blue flashes flew.

“There are a lot of them,” Tor answered Noc.

“Fuckin’ great,” Noc muttered, aimed, fired and another toilroy bit the dust. “I’m almost out of ammunition, man, got a clip and a half left,” Noc went on to inform Tor.

“Salem!” Tor bellowed, the horse turned around and Tor stopped swinging just long enough to pull a lethal-looking axe out of a holder on the saddle, he turned and tossed it, head up, to Noc who caught it by the handle left-handed.

Well, the other good was, my man was a warrior and he came heavily armed.

“Terrific,” Noc muttered, not feeling my positive vibe but keeping hold on the axe and turning back to aim and shoot, taking down another toilroy, “I run outta ammo, I gotta get close to those f**kers to take them out.”

“It takes an extraordinary amount of magic for Minerva to conjure this many creatures and I would assume an incomparable amount to send them to another world,” Tor stated as he kept swinging, the air rife with blue flashes where he connected, another vickrant came low, clawed feet first, aiming at me. I lunged forward and planted a dagger in his belly as another one came to the side and I swung wide with my other hand, catching it at its gullet. “We have learned in the past that if we’re able to reduce their number by half,” Tor went on, grunted with another swing and concluded, “they’ve orders to retreat.”

“That’s good news, right?” I asked, plunging my dagger into another low-flying vickrant as two came flying in at my other side. I pivoted and swung wide again, catching them both with my other dagger.

“Babe, there’s f**kin’ thousands of these f**kin’ things,” Noc growled, aimed, fired then released the clip and it fell to the sand under our feet. “Clip!” I pulled it out of my back pocket, turned and tossed it to him, he caught it then shouted, “Cora!”

I felt them, talons in my shirt, starting to drag me back. I whirled quickly, the claws lost hold, I slashed out, my dagger tearing through the vickrant that had me and it exploded in blue just as another one came in and I threw out my other arm, catching it too.

“Fuck!” Noc thundered, shoving the new clip in his gun.

“Bloody hell!” Tor roared and both men moved closer to me.

We carried on swinging, stabbing and firing.

“You got any ideas?” Noc asked Tor as the creatures kept at us in an increasing wave.

“Don’t give up,” Tor answered Noc.

“Shit,” Noc muttered, aimed, fired and another toilroy collapsed in a ball of sparks.

They kept coming at us, we kept fighting, my arms were getting tired but my body was singing from the adrenalin surging through my system.

Salem screamed and shook his massive body. Noc moved out from under cover, I saw his hand wielding the axe swoop up then down and blue flashes flew out. Salem shuffled further under the cover, closer to Tor and me.

“Noc!” I shrieked. “Get back here!”

He rounded the horse, a vickrant flew low, legs aimed at Noc’s back. They connected, Noc started to fly back but Tor charged forward and with a powerful upward swing, the vickrant exploded.

Both men moved back under cover, Noc finished his clip, dropped his gun and advanced, both hands on the axe, he swung back and forth, tearing through the stream of advancing toilroys.

“This is not,” he grunted on a swing, a toilroy disappeared, “goin’,” another grunt, another swing, another toilroy vanishing, “our way, man,” another grunt, another toilroy gone.