Love Among the Gifted - A Pride & Prejudice Alternative

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Darcy landed beside Richard and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Well done."

"What are you going to do with the carcass? I doubt it's good eating. Though it looks like it could feed a whole village."

"If Miss Elizabeth were here I would ask her if it was tainted or ..."

"Ah! The ineffable Miss Elizabeth," Richard smiled. "Her's is becoming a familiar name. You really must tell me more about this paragon sometime soon."

"There is nothing to tell."

"And this is not the time to not tell it. What are we going to do with the beast?"

"I suppose we should transport it to Pemberley, perhaps even to London."

"But not just yet." The military man looked at the sky, his hand rubbing his chin. "The weather should remain cold enough that the beast will keep for a while yet. If you will levitate it back to Pemberley, I'll remain and see to the tenants."

"But they are my tenants. The responsibility is mine."

"Indeed, it is, but they may be more comfortable talking to me rather than the Squire. Not to mention, there is no way I am carrying that carcass back to the house." He made a shooing motion with his hands. "Off you go!"

Darcy realized his cousin was correct in his division of labor. With a grimace he floated himself and the carcass into the air and began his return to his home. Upon his arrival at Pemberley, he found a battle underway. Four gifted assailants were being repulsed by Georgianna and the household staff. There were several figures already on the ground, either dead or wounded. Facing Darcy's family and staff was a giant woman, at least 15 feet tall, wielding a tree trunk as a club. With her was a man who appeared to be formed from molten rock or metal. A second man, wearing a bright red driving coat, was standing back from the melee shooting jets of water at the defenders. The final attacker almost surprised Darcy by attacking him in midair.

A young man surrounded by a corona of crackling energy soared past Darcy, leaving a wake of comet-like sparkling luminescence. "Should've stayed away, squire. Might've survived to mourn your dear sister," the attacker shouted as he passed by.

Darcy snarled and lashed out with a gravity pulse that missed the speeding flyer, dropping the carcass in the meanwhile. Below, he saw Georgiana unleash a sonic blast that rocked the giant on her heels and sent the molten man tumbling backwards. The third assailant managed to score with a cascade of water on a group of footmen preparing to fire a volley with fowling pieces from the Pemberley gunroom. His attention returned to his aerial opponent as the flier made a series of tight turns taking full advantage of the three-dimensional space and came at Darcy from below. The landowner used his gravity control to brace himself in the air as he brought down both fists in an overhand plow to smash into his charging opponent. The concussion of the impact sounded like thunder in the clear winter sky.

The meteoritic attacker plummeted towards the hillside below. Darcy sent a pulse to increase the pull of the Earth, speeding him on his way. A scream of panic reverberated through the valley as Georgiana narrowly dodged a blast of molten magma from the fiery invader. An assemblage of gardeners and grounds men began to pump water from the lake through a hose trying to dowse the burning enemy. A group of grooms, mounted on the stock from Pemberley's stables, were harrying the giantess with pitchforks and boar spears. One was swept from the saddle when she swung her makeshift bludgeon. The red-coated man seemed to open a circle in the air through which the human cannonball fell, crashing insensate into the grass at his savior's feet.

"Stop this!" Darcy bellowed. Several of his staff looked up at him, but the attackers ignored his call and took advantage of the defender's momentary distraction. The giantess managed to bowl over several riders and the molten man sent a jet of magma that encircled Georgiana, setting the grass ablaze. She let out a cry that pushed everything in a circle around her back at tremendous speed, pelting the man with his own ejecta and extinguishing the flames. Darcy cursed to himself.