Two Masters (epic progression fantasy)

Chapter 26: Death and Death Again

A bullet zipped past and hit Revin's gallimai, knocking it down. Pain tore through the gallimai's body and Revin's mind. It died beneath him, and he hit the ground hard. He curled up and covered his head. Agony tenfold ricocheted in his head. He screamed, his throat scratching at the effort.

Revin blinked. Mind broken. A spear had pierced his gut. He looked down. No wound. Was it a saurian that had felt the spear? He looked up. Smoke hung in the air. Men screamed. Explosions sounded. Saurians bellowed. Pain flowered in his ribs...

Metal monsters walked through the circles of floored men and beasts, unhindered by the fell sorcery of the cannonballs, slashing and stomping the struggling forms beneath them. Swarms of gears and blades overran saurians, leaving them moaning and gushing rivers of blood.

Blackfire.

He trembled. He fell to his knees. He rubbed his eyes until he saw flashes of painful light to drive the images out. Ismander's lifeless face as he dragged her into a shallow grave. His tears mixing and freezing with blood. He shook his head violently, pain throbbing.

Death and death again.

He looked up. Way out. Must run. Corpses. A retreating army of men and saurians. Revin was struck by a single clear thought.

Follow that army or die.

He stumbled over broken and dying men, the sight of which made him sick. It was all chaos. Soldiers ran in different directions. Some screamed in agony. Others screamed in rage. Metal monsters interspersed among the ranks.

Revin tripped again, his hands landing in a mixture of blood and dirt. He looked up from the torn earth. A metal monster stomped forward; its spear held in both hands. It thrust the spear right through an ateyan soldier, solid metal breastplate and all. The man grunted, dropping his weapon, the tendons on his neck tightening.

Without a glance the metal monster flicked the man off the end, dropping him in a spray of blood, and moved on to other targets.

Revin looked around, frantically. Which way was forward? Which way was safe? Men screamed, and a dozen metal monsters burst through a line of Ateyan soldiers. They bore guns, sighted down on him.

"You should have taken your last chance." Narazoth's voice said in his head.

Revin was frozen again. He screamed at himself in his mind to move. Not a single muscle responded. Those weapons would tear him to bloody strips. And he was going to feel every single rip.

Something huge smashed into the automatons and Revin stumbled backward in reflex. It thrashed its three horns with a furious bellow. Crushing the metal monsters. One metal monster struck with a sword, breaking a horn and piercing its headshield.

Metal monsters with spears were on it in a moment, one went through its gut, another through the eye, the shoulder, the leg. It thrashed and honked, only tearing its wounds wider. A spray of blood shot from its neck, coating Revin in crimson ink.

Omrai jumped off its back, leaping forward and thrusting his spear into a metal warrior's shoulder. The gears snapped and broke, and he pulled it back out rapidly. He jumped to his feet and turned to Revin.

"I told you to run!" he shouted, grabbing Revin by the collar and shoving him away from the fight. Without another glance, Omrai turned back to the metal monsters, breaking two more.

Revin nodded. He knew where to go now. He looked at his hands.

They were brown and red.

He ran.

✦✦✦

Shifra and Qadi stood on a hill with a few other camp followers, watching the battle, hearing the din of shouting voices and the rumbling of saurians and gunfire.