The Iron Pillars

Chapter 23

Brant hacked at the active bazooka squad and stood alongside Ace, who peppered them with bullets. Nonetheless, their efforts were rendered vain. As soon as one line of troops fell, another came to take its place. The men rarely bothered even to pay the pair any mind, choosing instead to sacrifice themselves to fire two or three rockets at the temple.

Wiping his sweaty brow, Brant beheaded another man. He glanced back at the crumbling wooden building behind them and wrinkled his forehead in distress. Hannah was still inside. At least last time he'd checked, she was.

He refocused his attention just in time to see a rocket headed straight for him. With widened eyes, he blocked with his shield, but the impact and resulting explosion hurled him back several yards. He watched helplessly as the shield crumbled in his hand and he flew into the nearest wall.

Brant grunted upon hitting the wall and peeled himself away from it with a groan. He picked himself up again with some effort. Then he lifted his left hand and tried to form a new shield. Nothing happened. Only a handful of metal specks appeared in his palm before rolling off into the grass below.

Brant jumped when Ace hit the wall beside him. With a sympathetic wince, he helped him to his feet. Ace massaged his ribcage and unsuccessfully tried to stand straight. He growled when another of the rockets hit the temple nearer the middle of the structure. Unpocketing a communicator, he tapped a button.

"Where are you, Aaron?" he spat into the device.

"Busy!" his voice crackled on the other end of the line.

"You'd better get busy over here! These guys are tearin' up the place!"

"Thought you guys had it handled."

Brant rolled his eyes and leaned near the speaker. "Clearly not! Drop whatever you're doing and get over here!"

"Gotta keep this god of endurance occupied!"

"He hasn't got half the destructive potential these guys have, Aaron! He's just extremely tough and a bit of a nuisance."

Brant and Ace waited for an answer from Aaron, but received none. The stealth operative clicked the button several times, but he didn't reconnect. They huffed in unison and rolled their eyes.

"Try Wendy?" Brant asked.

Ace glanced up and shook his head. "Wendy's actually being useful."

Brant's eyes widened. "Look out!"

He tackled Ace to the ground and rolled them in the dirt to evade a rocket. An earsplitting explosion emanated from where they'd been standing. Splinters flew everywhere, along with shrapnel from the rocket.

Ace's face was turned the other way, so most the fragments merely hit his jacket. However, several shards pierced Brant's face and caused him to hiss. He slowly glanced up in terror as an integral vertical beam groaned and slowly toppled over. An entire section of the roof followed it. The warrior buried his face in the ground. God help us.

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"You just gonna sit there like a statue, or are you gonna roll the window down and shoot?"

Baird gulped and eyed the Kemarian driver. He straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "I guess I don't have a choice."

After casting a glance back at Khemera, he mashed a button and watched the bulletproof pane of glass descend into the door. His cheeks warmed as the clamor of the battlefield rushed into the cabin. The cries of the injured, the barking of officers, and the odor of freshly-shed blood. Baird sickened.