RoR 3 -Ch10- (Patreon)

Looking down at Fort Carson below, Warner was very confused. He could see a great number of soldiers facing a lesser number opposing them.

They were spread out amongst buildings, in them, behind cars, spread out across roads, and generally taking cover anywhere they could. It looked like something out of a world war two movie.

The larger army looked to be all dressed in an unfamiliar uniform to Warner. They were also all of Asian heritage. Warner couldn’t discern which specific country or locale from this distance, though.

“It would seem War is attempting to start a fight between China and the United States!” yelled Ylva from next to Warner.

Warner wasn’t sure if those were indeed Chinese soldiers and uniforms, but he honestly wouldn’t put it past War to do such a thing. She seemed entirely bent on the idea on plunging the entirety of the world into fighting itself and each other.

On top of everything else, Warner could feel a distinct magical shell that encompassed the entirety of the base. The only location that the shell didn’t reach to was perhaps ten or twenty feet off the ground itself.

She doesn’t want there to be any possibility of assistance by the airbases. Considering there’s a number of them in Colorado that’s not an unfounded concern.

That explains why we don’t see any helicopters or jets making runs on the enemy for close-air assistance.

“Let’s go lend a hand!” Warner replied to Ylva, then tipped his wings and bent his body to the side. Instantly he began diving out of the air toward the largest concentration of soldiers

It seemed like a perfectly reasonable location to start at.

Pulling up just before he struck the ground Warner extended his wings and landed perfectly.

With Warin’s memories and experience Warner had gained a great deal of control over his ability to fly. The improvements hadn’t been only limited to combat for Warner.

Holding his hand out and to the right he summoned up his power into the form of a sword. It was the most comfortable to him.

Once he got in and amongst the enemies he could pick up a rifle and start taking shots on others as well.

Warner charged forward toward the enemy forces.

Directly in front of him appeared War. As if she’d been there the entire time and had only just now deigned to show herself. There was a wide and skittering smile across her face as Warner came ever closer.

A shining sword appeared in her hand and came down in a blazing arc. It was clearly aimed for Warner’s shoulder. If it connected it would likely take his head and right shoulder from his torso entirely.

From the moment she’d flashed into existence Warner had been trying to halt his forward charge. Up to this point he’d been trying to do so without an extreme measure.

He no longer had the luxury of even a fraction of time.

Stomping his right foot down at an angle Warner started to skid across the grass. Still moving toward War, but no longer in an uncontrolled way.

Bringing his weapon around in an counter-slash aimed at War’s sword, Warner had no idea what would happen. Her power was likely greater than his own, but that didn’t mean his combat power was less than hers.

Though it was likely given she was the incarnation of War.

The two weapons came together in a clash of steel that had an odd muffled tone to it. As if someone were playing it from a speaker than was under-powered.

War and Warner were both knocked backward from one another, each of their swords being flung away from the point of contact. Warner had to take a number of stutter step to keep himself from falling over from the force of the impact. While War only had to take two steps back, though her sword looked a great deal worse for wear.

Smoke was rising from it and there looked to be a large and visible notch taken out of the blade.

“Ahahahah! Oooooh, sweetheart, that was wonderful. I wish—”

Before War could finish speaking Ylva was on her. A golden spear flashing toward the incarnation.

War didn’t even look to Ylva as her sword intersected the spear point. Catching it head on she then twisted her blade around, parrying the thrust off to one side.

Ylva didn’t appear to be phased by that however and looked like she’d expected it. Her feet were firmly planted and all War accomplished was batting the spear off to the side. There was no further action she could take.

“Now, now,” War said in a hiss, slowly turning her head toward Ylva. “You didn’t have to be so rude. I was clearly talking to my beloved partner, you know. I set this entirely up for him and you being here is somewhat spoiling it for us.

“How are we supposed to fight then fuck on our battlefield with you here? I should just eliminate you first.”

“You’re welcome to try,” Ylva said, her spear point aimed directly toward War once again.

Warner hadn’t been idle during this period either, moving around to the other side of War. Putting her between himself and Ylva.

War took notice of that, looking to Warner, then Ylva, and back to Warner.

“Honey, if you wanted to have a three way with me and another woman, all you had to do was ask,” purred War, her tongue tip running over her upper lip. It reminded him how eerily she looked like a mish-mash between Aelia, Daria, and Bodil. “I’m yours to please and use. If you win. If I win, we can do a six way. You and all your women can take a turn on me. I can handle you all.”

Gritting his teeth, Warner shook his head and positioned himself so that he could thrust forward. He needed to be swift and precise if he had the opportunity.

Incarnation or not, putting a sword through her heart would kill her.

Warner decided to take that moment to launch an attack. She was looking right at him. Keeping her attention on him would give Ylva a chance to run her through.

Stepping forward, he extended his arm out in a straight line. Pushing his weapon forward in a lightning like flash of power in front of himself.

War brushed it off with her own weapon as if it were nothing. In the next instant, Ylva’s spear punched out from War’s abdomen. Coated in blood and dripping gore, her intestines were coiled around the weapon.

Grinning, War spun around. The weapon was jerked free from Ylva’s hands and the butt of it came around toward Warner.

It missed him by a few inches though War now faced Ylva. Her sword came down in a wicked slash. It was as if the spear that was sticking out of her meant nothing at all.

Ylva wasn’t fast enough in her attempt to scramble backward and away from War. Her head and torso were out of reach, but War’s sword flashed from a slash to a stab.

The weapon pierced down through Ylva’s thigh and out the other side. Sending the Valkyrja down to the grass.

War kicked out as she went down, though her foot was aimed at her own weapon. Breaking the blade off at the mid-point and leaving it stuck in the other woman.

Turning back to Warner, who had took this opportunity to jump forward with another slash, she neatly deflected his attack with the remains of her sword.

He didn’t hesitate and continued to slash, swipe, and lunge at her with his sword.

Except, even with little more than a few inches and a hilt she still managed to fend him off.

Reaching down with her free hand War jerked the spear the rest of the way through herself even as she kept Warner’s blade away.

“Damn, I wanted you to stir my guts up, but not like this,” complained War, stuffing her intestines back into the hole the spear had made even as she fought Warner to a standstill. Holding the spear in her left hand, War looked to be in the middle of a thought even as she fought with Warner.

Damnit, she’s not even trying, is she? She sacrificed a bit of herself to eliminate Ylva from the fight, then focus on me. This is going poorly.

“Now I think that you’re going to have to—”

There was a flash of a man running into view followed by War being punched in the face.

Standing in the place War had been was Seville.

He had oddly gray hair that was trimmed short. His brown eyes looked like they’d seen too much, and done even more.

Hard eyes that belonged to a man who’d fought the world and everyone in it.

A man who fought for the opposing side in the war between the Originator and the Silent One.

“Got you, you fucking rotten bitch,” said Seville with more than a little pleasure.

Looking around, Warner didn’t see the Elf who had accompanied Seville previously. Nor was the silver chain at his waist that’d been connected to said Elf.

“Hey, Seville,” Warner said, moving over to stand near Seville. Looking out to where War had gone he could see her body splayed out on the ground over fifty feet away.

“Warner,” replied Seville, glancing over at him. “Boss is busy with over shit so we don’t have to fight today. Next time we meet though, probably going to have to.”

“I get that,” Warner muttered, holding his sword up toward War. “You serve the Silent One after all and… and I guess I serve the Architect and the Originator.”

“Meh, it’s not like I have a choice. Kinda stuck, ya know?” Seville asked in a casual way, watching War.

“I do know. There is more injustice around Miles Campbell than you… Steven Brill. I see you for who you are,” remarked Warner.

Standing so close to the man, there was no way Warner couldn’t see the depth of his wrong doing. Even those wrongs that seemed to have been committed in a different world entirely. As if Seville, and his true name of Steven Brill, was from an entirely different universe.

“I… stop,” croaked out Seville. “I’m not him anymore. I’m… I’m not—”

“I think she would sing for you,” Warner said, his ability and power rapidly unfolding all the secrets that Seville held. “If only to force you to come back to her.”

“Leave,” Seville got out in a groaned whisper. “Leave, before I’m forced to fight you. Go. Now. I’ll take care of War. I can’t beat her, but she can’t beat me either. You’re no match for her. Not right now at least.”

War was getting to her feet now. She looked as if she were a little dazed, but unharmed. Even the wound in her stomach was completely healed it looked.

There was nothing left behind of her having her entrails pulled clean out.

Warner didn’t argue with Seville. He had another reason for escaping at the moment.

Spinning on his heel Warner marched off to Ylva.

She was knelt down on one knee, the blade that War had stuck in her had been removed from her leg. The wound looked quite terrible and she seemed to be bleeding a great deal.

Scooping her up in his arms, he held her close, then started to flap his wings. Rapidly carrying her up and away.

“We should stay and fight,” hissed Ylva, her hands clutching onto Warner’s clothes even as they flew away.

“It’s a fight we were never meant to be a part of,” countered Warner. “War is too much for you and I. Even together. Those soldiers down there will do their duty to their utmost and War didn’t seem personally interested in them. We’ll retreat for now and plan our next move.”

Ylva said nothing to that and instead hung onto him.

***

Warner pulled the car into the garage, hit the button to close it, then let out a long sigh.

The drive home had been insane to say the least.

Cars were fleeing in every direction. Going away from the city, going to the city, getting out of the way for emergency vehicles.

On top of that, there was a general sense that the world was coming apart at the seems. There would be no way to step back from how far the world had gone to anarchy without a lot of bloodshed.

“It’s… a madhouse,” said Ylva from the passenger seat. She was leaning back in her chair and doing her best to do nothing.

They’d managed to stop the bleeding with the first-aid kids that was in every car they used, but they hadn’t sewn the wound shut yet. Which would need to be done considering the depth and severity of the wound.

The only luck they had at all was that the sword had gone through in such a way that it lined up with the muscles of her leg. Otherwise there’d be a lot of near permanent damage.

Damage that they couldn’t repair without a great many years of her body working to regenerate the damage.

What was wrong with her now would eventually repair itself within several months.

“I mean it seems like she’s getting exactly what she wanted,” Warner said, staring at the red-head next to him. Daria, Dayine, and Inger, were all out at the moment. They’d been converging on where Warner had been going. Now they were all on their way back here.

Warner and Ylva were the first ones home.

“Yes. As this whole thing unfolds I imagine a great many countries won’t want to listen to the truth,” said Ylva. “They’ll take this as an opportunity to simply declare war. To justify what it wants to do with what happened.”

“If they survive,” murmured Warner. While the news was spotty at best at the moment, there were reports that several nations had already fallen. Nations without large standing armies and troops standing around at the ready. Or so they’d heard on the radio together. “I mean… apparently most of the United Kingdom’s government has no backing at all to stand on. Their military was wiped out almost entirely. There’s nothing between them and the invaders. Let alone their citizens

“War went a bit overkill on them. It wasn’t as if their standing army was really that large. Trained, great technology, and ready, but not high in number.”

Warner had been initially confused by the fact that the attackers had completely eliminated the military but did nothing to the government. Then he realized that if that War’s troops won, the war would be over.

“Greece and Spain as well,” Ylva said with a shake of her head. “It’s hard to believe but… after seeing what we did, it isn’t that surprising.”

A slow exhale preceded Warner nodding his head. Then he opened the car door and got out.

Moving over to Ylva’s side he opened the door and reached it.

Scooping her up once more he bumped the door shut with his hip and carried the woman into his home. Without a thought, Warner was heading straight for his living room.

He half expected Ylva to make a comment about carrying her through the threshold, yet no remark came. In fact she said nothing at all when he set her down on the couch.

Instead he closed her eyes, laid her head against the arm of the couch, and grunted.

“Problem?” Warner asked.

“I wasn’t supposed to get my ass kicked by War,” complained Ylva. “I was supposed to show off how I’m just as good as Laurel. That I’m her equal in combat and make you curious and interested in me. Now I’m just a casualty that’ll get in the way. One who needs to have someone sew her leg together.”

Warner smirked at that and then gently patted Ylva on the head, smoothing her head back with several passes of his fingers.

“Well, I can guarantee you I think no less of you. War was… very frightening,” Warner confessed. He knew she was strong, knew it from Warin’s memories.

Except the memory of her holding him back with nothing but a hilt and an inch or two of steel was terrifying. She’d looked bored with him in a way.

“We can’t play her game,” Ylva said and opened her eyes. Her pupils were a glowing gold color at the moment. It was obvious she was dipping into the power he’d given her. “We must find a way to battle her on our own terms. On whatever home field advantage we have.

“Going to where a battle was being fought was foolish on our part. We should have known better. Like trying to fight a bird in the air as a fish. Foolish.”

Now that she’d said it, he couldn’t deny it. It’d been rather slow witted of him to rush off to fight in a battle that War had clearly instigated.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” admitted Warner.

Ylva nodded her head, then reached up and grabbed the front of his shirt.

“By the way, thank you for engaging her as ferociously as you did,” whispered the Valkyrja. “You prevented her from simply turning around and finishing me. You kept her as busy as you possibly could and away from me. For that, you have more than just my loyalty.”

There was the sound of a key turning the lock of his front door in the silence that followed Ylva’s words.

Her eyes slowly bled away the gold color and returned to normal. At the same time she released his hold on him and gave him a warm smile.

Then she pointed to the recliner nearby.

Taking the hint, Warner sat himself down just as the door opened.

In came Inger and Dayine, the two of them immediately looking to Warner and finding him.

It was obvious to him that Dayine managed to somehow fight down the response she’d shown each time she laid eyes on him. Her wings remained right where they should be on her back.

“Daria here, yet?” asked Dayine.

“Nope, just us,” Warner replied.

“Let’s wait for her then,” Inger said and came over to sit down on the love seat. “By the way, Warner, I picked out some great outfits for Maya and I. I also got you some nice new shirts. You have so few polo’s that don’t look overly-worn.

“I’d love to show you everything later. If you have the time. Well, have the time and you don’t mind looking.”

Inger looked quite pleased with herself.

“Sure, why not,” Warner said. “While we wait, which of you has the steadier hand? Ylva needs some repair work that I honestly am not very good at.”

Dayine flopped down onto the love seat next to Inger and began glaring at Warner. Apparently she was mad at him for existing again.

Right. Gonna be a long wait.

Even if it’s only five minutes.

“I’ll do it,” offered Inger. “I think my wound-dressing isn’t that bad and certainly better than grumpy pants there.”