W
ith chunks of rock being busted up all around him, Abraham shouted, “Good lord, where is my Fenix when I need him?”
Overhead, dragon riders dropped bombardments of grenades. The Henchmen scrambled over the rocks. Bullets ricocheted off metal armor. Men cried out and cursed.
On his elbows, Abraham crawled behind the lip of the rocky ledges and hunkered down in a crack. The chopper hovered only fifty feet away from them. Its machine-gun bullets pounded the mountainside.
“Take cover! Take cover!” he shouted.
Dust and debris blossomed all over. The more the bullets and grenades chewed up the rocks, the more smoke arose.
Having had little wartime experience, he finally remembered that the Henchmen had their own guns and shouted, “Return fire! Return fire!”
Nearby, the sound of machine guns rattled away. A zillon rider fell from his dragon and fell to a jagged death below.
Melris moved out to the end of the ledge with his purple robes billowing in the wind. He held out the Rod of Devastation. A bolt of scintillating purple energy blasted from the top of the rod and tore into the chopper’s body. The chopper veered hard left and spun in circles before crashing and exploding below.
The Henchmen let out a triumphant chorus of cheers.
A grenade fell from the sky landed and beside Melris. The explosion blew his legs out from underneath his robes. He lay dashed against the rocks and bleeding.
“Melris!” Iris called out and rushed to his aid.
Horace walled off the mystic and the Elderling. He screamed at the dragon riders in the sky. “Fight like men, you cowards!”
With the chopper out of the way, Abraham moved out of his cover and scanned the surrounding scene. The armies in the trenches moved like a swarm of ants. Hundreds of enemy soldiers were in the rocks, climbing quickly up the steep banks. They fired their assault rifles and howled for blood.
Tark and Skitts lay on the ledge, firing downward at the swarming foot troops.
The tank guns turned and pointed toward the Henchmen.
“Devil’s donuts! We’re going to get blown to bits! Everybody move! Everybody move!” Abraham led them away from the gunfire.
“Come on, Iris!” Horace said. “There is nothing you can do for Melris now. Let the Elders take care of him.”
Above, the dragon riders made another pass. They closed in quickly with grenades poised to drop from their bony white hands.
Like a black bolt of lightning shot from the sky, Simon the Fenix slammed into the dragon riders. His great jaws clamped down on zillon and dragon. The other dragon riders veered away and scattered.
Down below, Sticks, Tark, and Dominga shot three more dragon riders out of the air. Simon chased away the others.
A tank gun fired. The rocks two dozen feet behind Abraham’s head exploded. Rocks started to slide down the mountain.
“Keep moving! Keep moving!” Abraham yelled.
“I’m tired of running. I want to start fighting!” Horace said.
With a glance at the barbarians and soldiers scrabbling up the slopes, Abraham said, “You’ll get your chance.”
They were outnumbered at least thirty to one, which didn’t include the tanks and the other scores of soldiers guarding the tunnel entrance that had yet to move. A bullet whizzed by his face and ricocheted off the rocks behind him.
“Keep moving!” he shouted. “They can’t keep shooting at us once we are engaged.”
The Gond raced up to the higher ledges in a flanking move. They moved like squirrels over the rocks and positioned themselves in the rocks above the Henchmen, rapidly sealing them in, shutting off their escape from all directions. The Henchmen were trapped.
“Well isn’t this a dung heap of fun!” Abraham led them to a small plateau on the mountainside that gave them a good view of the activity below and above.
Sticks, Shades, Tark, and Dominga scrambled up to the spot. They had nowhere else to go. They shot at the enemies aboveground and below. The savages and soldiers fell, only to have three more overtake their positions for each one fallen.
Abraham gripped Black Bane in hand and said, “Well, Horace, you wanted a fight. Now, you’re going to get it.”
Horace spat juice on the ground and said, “We can kill them.”
Simon soared overhead in a black streak. A dragon and rider were crushed in his mouth. Behind him, two more choppers gave chase with machine guns firing.
“Devil’s donuts! They have more of those things!” Abraham’s heart sank as he watched Simon’s tail end take a barrage of bullets.
The Fenix tucked his tail and curled away before disappearing over the ridges. He’d hoped the Elder Spawn would have taken out the tanks and ground troops.
“Run, Simon, run,” he muttered.
Bearclaw spun his double-bladed axe. Eyeing the enemy, he said, “It will be a great fight.”
Prospero and Apollo drew their pairs of swords.
Vern filled his hands with sword and dagger.
Cudgel readied his two-handed mace.
The advancing enemy stopped. The gunfire ceased. A silence fell over the chasm.
Abraham scanned the faces of their enemies. High and low, the soldiers had halted, poised to attack. He sought out why and quickly discovered the reason. Two of the tanks on the road below had their tank guns pointed right at them. His jaw dropped. The tank guns fired.
The shells rocketed into the small cliff beneath the Henchmen. The shelf gave way as the company was tossed from their feet and dropped into the rocky carnage below.
