Trust in Oneself, CH 28 (Patreon)

Chima had been right. Even before he reached the top of the closest tree, Paul saw the blue light further along the beach. It was large, enough that while he couldn’t make out details because of the distance and the daylight back lighting them on the other side of the portal, he made out a military-like vehicle rolling through with people walking alongside. 

He hurried down and joined the others as they prepared the assault.

“It is not wise for you to take part, Grant,” the seal told the kangaroo, making his name sound like a title. “We are needed for the reforging.”

“We don’t even know where that’s got to be. And I’m not sitting here doing nothing until Donal figures that out.”

Wassa’s reply was lost as Paul continued on, heading for hi men.

“Keep you head against my chest,” Chima told the squirrel in his arms. “I the speed I run, whiplash is a real problem.”

“I got it the previous three times,” Donal replied. “I have a talisman that can take the inertia, but don’t worry, I will keep my head against those strong pecs of your.” Then they were no longer there, soil and leaves flying up in the hyena’s wake.

“And I’m telling you we need more people,” the buffalo told the raccoon, as Paul reached them.

“And where are you getting those people? You royal pains in ass have suddenly discovered how to shit some? Our two teleporters aren’t going to be able to just pop over there and back with them, no matter how many cocks you suck.”

The buffalo stepped into Raoul’s space. “Listen here, you weak ass—”

“That’s enough,” Paul snapped. “I swear, I’ve had grad students who didn’t bicker as much as you two, and if one of you even thinks of saying ‘he started it,’ I’m going to fucking ground both of you for the next year!”

The two trained security officers looked at one another, then Paul as they straightened to attention, and said in unison, “Yes, sir.”

“We’re joining those who have some idea of what’s we’re going to face and letting them decide how this will go. And Raoul’s right. Whoever’s here is who we have to work with, so that’s what we’re dealing with.”

“Listen up, people!” Grant yelled. “I don’t care what or who you’re doing. Drop it! We need to move before the Chamber gets anymore people on that beach and before they pinpoint this location! We currently have the element of surprise, so we’re going to make use of it.”

Paul ran with the others to gather around the kangaroo as he continued to give orders.

“Thomas, you and Firmin are the fastest we have. Get in there and disrupt things. If you find whoever’s performing the ritual powering that thing, stop them however you can. Yahui, Yating, follow them since you don’t have to worry about anything in your way, but keep your distances once there and keep out of sight as much as you can. They’ll have staves, and there’s no way to know what they’ll do before you get hit by their effects. Do not make yourselves targets! Everyone else, get moving! The longer we take to reach that portal, the harder it’s going to be to take it down.”

“You heard the man,” Raoul yelled. “Move it!”

Paul followed the raccoon and buffalo, the rest of the men in tow, as he checked his gun was active and unlocked.

* * * * *

Mishaps from running in the dark, with nothing more than flashlight to see where they went, were surprisingly low. Paul tripped twice, but barely staggered before regaining his footing. He caught sight of Wuhan in the moving lights, and the red panda moved as if she knew where every tree was, ducking and weaving around them without slowing.

The beach was already chaos when they reached it; men and women looking around for targets. Behind them, the portal was a large cat-like pupil in the center of blue lightning, through which poured daylight along with the line of vehicle and people.

A fireball flew through the air and exploded against trees, informing them of at least one type of staves they’d have to face, but most of the people Paul saw were armed with machine guns…pointed in their direction.

The wall of ice formed as Paul ran, then it cracked under the gunfire. He returned fire once he cleared the wall, running for the cover of an SUV. On the other side of the ice barricade, a wall of water met one of sand and exploded up.

Cleaning all the much out of his fur was going to—

A body impacted him, and he kicked her off before impacting the ground, then rolled to his feet, ducking under her punch. He raised his gun, and she kicked it out of his hand.

“You bitch!” He swung as hard as he could as repayment. She caught his arm and, with a smirk, pulled him off balance. He moved with it, turned and planted his elbow in her side, then he kept moving even if she’d released him to strike again, but he stayed a step out of her reach.

Her attacks were more like how Arnold fought than Aaron, and the more he watched and avoided her, the easier it became to understand what she was doing and what she was planning to do. He dodged the punch, grabbed her arm, and punched the armpit as hard as he could.

She kicked him and he rolled to his feet, ignoring the pain that was lesser than he’d expected. Her left arm hung at her side. She snarled as she took a step in his direction, then the side of her head exploded.

“You okay, boss?” the wolf asked, and Paul buried the flash of anger at someone else taking down his opponent. He’d deal with that later.

“Yeah, I am.”

Motion beyond the SUV made him turn, then stare.

Wuhan moved among the Chamber, avoiding being touched, using her staff to strike, block, and even propel herself in the air by holding on to it as she threw it up. She landed and with a swiped of her staff, a dozen of the people running at her flew back. Then her staff hit the ground and sent her up toward another group with a somersault. She landed and sent more flying with kicks and punches.

Unlike with his attacker, he just couldn’t get a handle on the kind of fighting style she was using. It had to be martial art, maybe many of them, but there was a wrongness to them Aaron’s gift simply couldn’t grasp.

“Boss?” the wolf asked, sounding worried, just as Wuhan three herself in the air, away from the incoming fireball.

The pause in the martial fight let Paul look away. “We need to find Grant. He and Wassa have to be protected.”

The wolf pointed to the water whip smashing people by the shore. “I don’t think they’re the ones needing—”

Paul snatched the machine gun out of the wolf’s hand, had the butt to his shoulder, and gently pressed the trigger.

“—help.”

The ocelot sneaking closer to the seal dropped.

“How about we don’t get overconfident?” Paul said, handing the machine gun back to the stunned wolf. He ran toward the kangaroo and seal, grabbing a rifle off the ground and checking it was in good working order.

He threw himself to the side as something smoking appeared, flying through where he’d been standing and the shape of a rat registering as he stood and ran in that direction.

“Thomas!” He followed the furrow the crash had created in the sand. “Oh dear God.” He couldn’t look away, fighting the bile down as the badger at the end of the furrow smoked and bubbled, his skin gently sliding—

A hand pulled him away. “I know that’s rough,” the wolf said as the fact Firmin wasn’t burning, but melting registered, “but we don’t have the time.”

Paul swallowed more bile and nodded.

Ahead, fire fought ice. Balls after balls of angry red hitting calm blue. Paul felt the inferno in the time it took to make it behind the wall of ice. Kuno’s gaze was fixed on the water Wassa sent before him, adding it to the wall.

A rat appeared on hand and knees, panting. Then Paul pulled him up and into his arms. “Thomas! You’re okay!”

“I wouldn’t say that,” the rat replied.

The sand exploded, and Paul dropped Thomas to raise his rifle.

“I have it!” Donal exclaimed in the following shower, then coughed out sand as Chima lowered him to the ground. “But you aren’t going to like it.” He held on to the hyena.

“Where is it?” Grant asked, and the squirrel pointed at the lake.

Paul joined the others in scanning it.

“I don’t see anything there,” the kangaroo said. “Just water.”

“Yeah, it’s about a hundred few southward from the center of the lake, under it. It feels like there’s a cavern, and whatever the place you need is, it’s at the end of it.”

“I can easily more the water,” Wassa said, “but maintaining this much may be beyond me.”

“If someone can get that fire throwing bastard off me,” Kuno said, “I can help with that.”

“On it,” Yatin and Yahui said in unison, then ran through the ice wall before anyone could object.

“Hate to add to the problems,” Thomas said. “But there’s no one on this side powering that portal. I popped in front of the opening during a lull and saw something on the other side. I had to pop out before I made out details. Grant, if I get in front of it again, you think it’s still line of sight, even if the other side of the portal is another time zone?”

“I’ve got this,” Chima said before Grant was done opening his mouth, then the wall of sand his wake caused was falling.

“Doesn’t anyone ever wait to have help, anyone?” the kangaroo complained.

“When have you ever known kids to wait for help?” Donal demanded.

“Hey, old man,” Thomas replied. “Show respect for the younger generation here.”

“Fuck me, kid,” the squirrel smirked.

“Oh, when this is over, you can be sure I’m—”

“Can we focus?” Grant demanded. “Life and death situation here. Even if Chima closes the portal, there’s a lot of them on our side. I counted seven staff wielders. And what they’ve done put them at the top of the list when it comes to destructive capabilities. We need to—”

“You need to get down there and remake that sword,” Thomas ordered. “We’re dealing with everyone here. You have world saving shit to do.”

“Thomas,” Grant replied in exasperation. “This isn’t—”

“We’ve got to move!” Kuno yelled, turning away from the wall of ice. “I don’t know how long the twins will keep fire guy busy, but no one wants to be here when he starts blasting the wall without me and Wassa to maintain it.”

“The children speak reason, Grant,” the seal said. “This is greater than anyone of them.”

“Fuck!” the kangaroo stomped a foot in the sand. “I didn’t sign up to get them killed.”

“Hey, how about you show some faith?” a suddenly grown Roland said. “We might not all be big shots, but we didn’t come here thinking this was summer camp. You have your job, we have ours.” He made a shooing motion. “Get to it.”

Grant let out an exasperated sigh. “This isn’t—”

The portal’s light flickered. It failed and came back, then failed again.

The beach became filled with expectant silence.

“I think he’s stuck on the other side,” Roland said in a hushed tone as the darkness remained.

“If he survived,” the wolf at Paul’s side said.

“Don’t even think that,” Thomas warned. “He’s Chima. It’s not just that he’s fast, he’s… you just have no idea.”

“Grant,” Kuno said. “I know this sucks, but we have to move now, while the fact they no longer have an escape route is sinking in.”

“Fine,” the kangaroo snapped. “Donal, you’re with us.”

“I think…” the squirrel trailed off.

“Oh, don’t even pretend you want to be out here when the fighting starts up. And I need you to guide us to wherever we need to be if I’m even going to have a hope of making this happen.”

“We need to find as many of the others as we can,” Paul told the wolf, as Kuno and the Practitioners walked to the lake, “and take down everyone we can, with or without a staff.” He didn’t wait for a response. He walked around the wall.

Kuno was right. They had minutes, if even that, to take advantage of the confusion. He didn’t have the margay’s years of remembered combat experience to judge the battlefield with, but he expected that without a way out, the Chamber was going to fight even hard to win.

He shot the first Chamber to turn in his direction without taking the time to check if they were arms or letting them say anything. He knew they were capable of killing without hesitation or remorse, and he wasn’t taking the chance someone at his side died because he hesitated. He’d deal with the trauma when he had the time. 

The gunshot snapped the others out of their stunned state, but also told his allies where he was, and Paul gathered people as he moved from cover to cover, shooting any of the enemy he saw.

When the red panda reached him, holding the body of his twin, the gunfire had gone on long enough Paul wasn’t sure his hearing would survive. He motioned for Joseph to take his place and hurried.

“Yat?”

The panda shook his head.

“Yahui…” he trailed off at the pain on the panda’s face and the way he clutched his brother. He looked around at the approaching Chamber and pushed his pain down. “Yahui, we need to move. There’s a lot more of them than us.”

“I’ve never been alone before.”

Paul squeezed his shoulder. “You aren’t alone, Yahui. We’re still here.”

“Not for long,” the wolf said, firing faster, “if we stay here.”

“Not helping.” The others were already scattering.

“Sorry, boss. Too interested in keeping us alive to spend time soothing—oh, shit!” The wolf draped himself over Paul, then a torrent of sand washed over them, sandblasting anything not under cover smooth.

Except them.

Paul raised a hand in surprise and watched as sand flew through it. He looked at the panda, who was looking into the storm, expression darkening. Neither brother had ever been able to phase someone along with them with the ease Yahui showed, let alone two of them.

When the sand storm abruptly stopped, a woman holding a pillar of sandstone blocks held together with thick woven cloth stared at them in shock.

“How are we still alive?” the wolf asked.

“Magic,” Paul answered as Yahui stood. He reached for the panda as he stepped toward the woman, but his hand passed through him. With a curse, he was up and following, firing at anyone aiming in their direction while trying to locate the others.

Yahui reached the woman while Paul was changing magazines and she blasted the panda with sand blast that were feeble imitation of her earlier storm. Each passed through the panda.

Paul didn’t see Yahui strike her, but when the panda pulled his fist away, a lot of blood flew off, and the golden tiger was certain there was something in that closed hand. Paul had enough to do survive to think too hard about what that might be.

“Boss, we need to—”

Thomas grabbed them

“—go.”

“Before you say anything,” the rat said. “We have to keep them from reaching the lake.” They were behind a line of pickup and SUVs turned on their side, with the lake behind them and the chamber on the other side of the barricade and others on either side of them. “Kuno had to leave their passage open, so they’d be able to breathe and then leave.”

“So we have to keep the Chamber from going in after them,” Paul said.

“Not sure either of you noticed,” the wolf said, “but that’s fucking big lake. They can get in it from anywhere.”

“Only if they have the right power on hand,” Roland said. “I didn’t see any of them using water, but this is why John pulled all of these here.” He motioned to a basset hound. “He’s telekinetic. But the plan is that we get them to tunnel vision on this big wall with all of us behind it shooting at all of them so that if they do have something that lets them go into the lake, they don’t think about it.”

“I have been around you magic folk too fucking much,” the wolf said with a shake of the head. “Because that didn’t sound outright bat shit crazy to me.” He located an opening and put his machine gun through it. “But that still a fuck load of bad guys,” he muttered. “And I don’t have a lot of ammo left.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Thomas said, then vanished.

Paul found a place with the clearance to let him use the sight, considered who he should address this to, and decided on the most obvious one.

How about you make sure we live through this so we can then celebrate by fucking like the followers we are?

He lined up his first shot and took it.