Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 19
As Archangel entered the Last Dragon’s field of view, the great beast unleashed a torrent of its actinic energy breath. The beam split the air, which made the bright morning sunlight look dim in comparison. Archangel vanished out from the path of its breath weapon and reappeared well above the beam. At least he was smart enough to lead the beam higher into the sky, as opposed to strafing it sideways or down where it was more likely to remove something or someone from existence.
Archangel glided forward, his wings still as stiff as Boyd had noticed in the footage he had reviewed. They were energy constructs and behaved like them—not shifting or adjusting to catch the wind. The dragon’s beam tracked upwards to where he had reappeared, and he flashed forward again, covering about half the distance between him and the dragon.
The blue-white beam of semi-solid energy cut off at that point and the dragon switched to the rapidly fired short bursts and began filling the sky with them. Archangel flashed and flew about, dodging the bursts of super-heated energy but clearly having a hard time closing in on the dragon. The drone that was capturing the footage was a good distance away, so viewers couldn’t see his facial expression, but Boyd was sure the fool was starting to question his ability to slay the beast.
The blonde energy sword-wielding Hero got smart after a few moments—well, smart-ish.
He appeared in a flash of golden light behind and above the Last Dragon, taking advantage of its blind spot. From there he flashed forward, right to the base of the dragon’s neck, and slashed at it with his golden-fire-filled energy blade. It did nothing but skitter across the thick, energy-shell-protected, white-blue scales of the massive beast. It didn’t even seem to notice the attack.
Archangel flashed away and back into the dragon’s blind spot as it scanned the ground and the air ahead of it for its prey. Boyd was sure Archangel was glad the camera was too far away to capture his face and expression. If he wasn’t smart enough to question his ability to damage the mythical threat before him, he couldn’t possibly be dumb enough to think he could kill it after failing to even hurt it with his attack.
Based on the information he had read on Archangel, the man should just about be ready to turn tail and run. He would be shamed for it, given how much he had talked himself up over the last few days, but he would likely convince himself that whatever the aftermath, it was better than the alternative.
Boyd was moderately surprised when Archangel flashed back in to try for another attack. This one was much riskier than the neck slash. He went for the hole Boyd’s spear had torn in the membrane of the dragon’s wing, near the large joint that connected its large limb to the massive dragon’s torso. He flashed in and delivered a slash at the weakened section, only to once again discover the futility of his attempt.
His golden energy sword didn’t cut the thin membrane, but he got the Last Dragon’s attention—so maybe it had stung the beast. The great monster’s head snapped around and it released another beam of its energy breath. Seeing the actinic breath weapon flow along its body and injured wing without damaging them further was good information to know. At least the fool’s attacks had been good for something.
Archangel flashed away, moving further down the wing and aiming for the bone Boyd had already broken. Once again, a swift slash with his S-Ranked energy blade just bounced off the energy barrier that covered the ancient reptile.
The Last Dragon revealed that, while it would rather not do so, it could still extend its right wing all the way, snapping the limb forward into Archangel’s legs and sending him tumbling through the air. Archangel then experienced the secondary effect of the energy barrier that covered the beast firsthand.
While the dragon certainly looked strong and was deceptively fast, the energy that surrounded it had a multiplicative effect on its physical strikes that made them truly devastating.
Boyd would guess by the way Archangel’s legs were flopping about as he tumbled through the air that they were at least badly broken—either at the knee or the femur. There was a fairly solid chance that his legs had been completely severed, despite his S-ranked energy-based resistance, and the only thing holding them on was the advanced material of his white, full-body suit.
He flashed away before another beam of blue-white sun-dimming energy erased his tumbling body from existence. Boyd tried not to let himself be disappointed. It wasn’t all that hard, though. He had plans for Archangel that didn’t include the Last Dragon killing him.
There was no audio from Raev’s display because she was a professional who paid more attention to the tactical display than the news, so Boyd couldn’t hear the man’s scream.
“Alright,” Boyd rumbled into the comms, “plan A is still on. Tinker, prepare the drones and Kayla’s bypass. Silver, are you in position?”
“Yes, Darling,” Silvie replied sweetly.
Kayla had said that her use of the affectionate name would play well with their audience, although everyone else should use his Hero name for now, and Boyd should stick with Silver in the field. He planned to do that anyway, and he was fairly certain letting Silvie use ‘Darling’ was either something Silvie had coerced the reporter into asking for or was the result of Kayla feeling bad when she’d learned he didn’t like the name she had inadvertently given him.
“Personal drones: ready,” Tinker said tightly as eight fist-sized pink camera drones floated up around him.
She was the most nervous of his Bonds but was managing it well enough… with his assistance. Boyd was glad he had trained for this fight while also learning to maintain the drip feed of his love and confidence to his Devoted.
“Drone deployment missiles: ready. Feed override: Ready. All ready,” the little genius reported.
“Kitsune, set us up.”
Boyd kept a calm and confident expression on his face with his shoulders squared as he stood at the center of the eight drones that now recorded him from all angles. They were fast enough to keep up with him, would transmit video back to the ship and Kayla until they were destroyed, and should give her some excellent footage during the early stages of the fight. He doubted they would last long, but Tinker had said they took next to nothing to produce, so was willing to sacrifice them on the altar of public relations.
“The Last Dragon’s final approach has been calculated,” Raev replied from her console. “Intercept course is set. I’ll get you right into its face.” She lied for the benefit of the cameras—all part of plan A.
News5 footage showed the crippled Archangel had reached Hopewing, who promptly healed his limply dangling lower legs. The fabric was either liquid tight or the skin hadn’t been severed, because there was no sign of crimson blood. Archangel’s legs were soon whole once more, after the golden energy Hopewing radiated from her hands enveloped them.
The drone that captured them was a good distance away, so he doubted anyone had audio, but the body language the two displayed as they talked was confrontational. Boyd recognized the stubborn set of Hope’s shoulders. As shy as she usually was, she could be downright tenacious when it came to doing the right thing.
If Boyd had to guess, she was refusing to retreat because Archangel had promised to die rather than let anything destroy New Eden. Hope didn’t break her promises—if she made one, you could damn well bet she would follow through on it.
Archangel, however, was a classic narcissist. It was even in his psyche profile. Making grandiose promises to garner attention and the admiration of others was just a part of that. Another part, though, was a complete lack of empathy—which allowed him to break the promises he made to people. He likely didn’t even understand the emotional impact breaking that promise would have on the people he betrayed.
Boyd wasn’t surprised in the least when, after a moment of arguing with Hope, Archangel vanished in another flash of golden light.
Hope looked surprised. He was sure there were plenty of shocked expressions back in New Eden, too. Archangel didn’t care about any of them; he was too concerned with his own desire to stay alive to consider the psychological impact his fleeing the field of battle would have on those who believed him to be a Hero.
After a momentary flicker of despair crossed her features, Hope waved the drone forward. Other than that momentary lapse, she kept a calm and resolute expression on her face. Once the drone was close enough to pick up her voice, she spoke.
Her flute-like voice was calm and compassionate, and evidenced not a single trace of fear. “Citizens of New Eden, please remain calm, but it is time to evacuate. Archangel’s attempt to kill the Last Dragon has failed and he is retreating to the city to assist with evacuations.”
She took a deep breath. “I will remain here and attempt to stall the Last Dragon for a few moments longer. Please, cooperate with The Authority’s officers and board the grav-transports, but do not lose hope for our New Eden.”
Her smile bloomed into something warmer, her deep cerulean eyes dancing with her namesake. “I feel it in my heart, that another Hero will come in our time of need. He will be one both worthy and powerful enough to slay this most ancient evil. He will come… and I will hold the creature here until he does.”
Chapter 20
Hope smiled sweetly into the camera, a serene expression given the situation and the content of her brief speech, and waved the camera away. Boyd sighed and shook his head for the benefit of the camera. “How long until the Last Dragon is in range of Hopewing?” He knew it would go this way. It was all part of plan A, but it wouldn’t look very good if he looked like it was part of the plan, so he put his handsomely grumpy face on. Silvie had named that one.
“Thirty seconds,” Raev reported calmly, “we don’t have time to intercept.”
“Get me right under her, I’ll have to pull her out. We are moving to plan E,” Boyd lied smoothly. Plan E didn’t exist. Boyd didn’t like to use the E designation because it sounded too much like D. They would use a phonetic alphabet instead, but studies had shown civilians preferred simple letters. “Silver, confirm understanding.”
“Confirmed, Darling,” Silver replied brightly over the comm channel that Kayla had access to record and broadcast, “I’ll distract the big lizard while you extract Hopewing, it’ll be just like old times.” Only if you reversed the roles, Silvie was historically in charge of extracting Hope. Boyd didn’t like the change, but this arrangement would have the biggest impact.
“Correction calculated and course set, it’ll be tight, she’ll have to dodge or defend against at least one beam, fifty seconds until deployment,” Raev reported.
“Deploying drone missiles,” Tinker added, which would scatter hundreds of drones just like the ones surrounding him into the airspace Boyd would be engaging the dragon in. They would give Tinker god-like oversight of the air engagement as well as provide Kayla with all the footage she could possibly want.
Boyd turned to look over his shoulder, finding a very grumpy-looking Laura seated on the curved couch with her arms crossed over her chest. He gave her his reassuring smile, knowing that Kayla could leave this part out, and reminded her, “I have promised to be careful this time.”
Laura blinked her pale green eyes at him, but then they narrowed in a glare that told him promises meant nothing to her. They were just words. Hot air. Boyd decided he would just have to make her understand that they were so much more to him. “The Last Dragon has entered attack range of Hopewing,” Tinker’s voice drew his eyes back to Raev’s display.
The camera drone that remained on her captured a great shot of her throwing up one of her golden walls of light just before the blue-white pillar of energy the Last Dragon spewed at her impacted it. Boyd’s throat went dry. All the numbers said she could hold against at least two similar assaults, and she would only have to hold once, but it was still nerve-wracking. The dragon kept flying towards her as the beam impacted the large golden wall that appeared about fifteen feet ahead of her. It had apparently decided to play a game of chicken with the energy construct, exactly as planned.
The beam of sun-dimming energy shortened as the distance between the dragon and the angel shrank. “It’s going to be real tight, twelve seconds.” They’d timed it perfectly. The dragon’s first beam cut off as the first signs of cracks in Hope’s golden wall appeared. She dropped the wall and glared at the approaching dragon as she panted in deep breaths. It was close enough now that it had decided to eat or ram her, not pulling its head back for another beam. Hope’s shield would not hold against its mass, although she was clearly intent on trying, anyway.
Boyd dropped into the crouch Tinker had shown him. It was a little odd, but allowed the propulsion pack on his lower back and the two mounted to his wing joints to fire in the correct direction.
“Patch me into her comms,” Boyd said, again for the camera’s benefit.
“You’re in,” Tinker replied promptly.
His deployment would actually be computer-controlled. There was no way he would trust leaping at a signal to be precise enough considering the speeds involved. The crouch was just to make it look like he heroically leaped from the ship at the exact right moment to save Hope. Gravitics built into the floor before his chair and the propulsion packs Tinker made him would handle his actual movement.
He ran his hands over the various weapons mounted to his person during the last ten seconds and was ready when Raev started her countdown. “seven, six, five…” Tinker handled the countdown.
“Hey, sweetness,” Boyd drawled into the comms, “I need you to tuck your wings for me and get in position for a Silver special.”
Boyd grinned to himself. They’d had to scoop the beautiful angel out of harm’s way so many times back at the PAC that they started calling such extractions a ‘Silver special’ because Silvie was the one who normally snatched Hope away at high speed. For such extractions, she had to pull her wings in tight while holding her arms straight out to the sides and her chin tucked to her chest.
A Boyd-sized hole opened in the overhead, the propulsion packs fired at full power, and the gravitic plates in the floor pushed him upwards.
“Boyd!?”
He heard Hope’s voice over his comms as Boyd hit the open sky with enough force that he was glad to be a bit tougher after Tinker’s devotion. The experience hurt less than it had during his training attempts.
Tinker’s math had been perfect. She calculated a precise trajectory for the Astral Osprey’s approach as well as Boyd’s propulsion pack and gravitic plate-assisted delivery into the engagement to provide him with truly dynamic entry. It was as awesome as it was fucking terrifying. Close calls were always like that, but it would look amazing to the civilians he was trying to win over.
The ship made its approach from behind and below the Last Dragon, dropping its optical camouflage as it passed underneath it. Boyd wouldn’t be able to see it, but the plan was for the ship to eject him and then kick its boosters on as it veered sharply to the left and got out of range. Silver would pop out another exit hatch as it accelerated away to distract the dragon while he rescued Hope. His silver-haired love was in the most danger in this phase of the operation, but Boyd trusted her to do what she had to and stay safe.
He had his own task to focus on—namely, pulling the angelic Hopewing from the path of the dragon’s jaws in a display of heroic gallantry. Which was why Tinker’s math was so important.
There was a surprising amount of math behind gallantry when it involved shooting a demon from a ship and that ship was flying at close to three hundred miles per hour. Especially when the demon needed to be fired with enough accuracy to not quite hit an angel-sized target without splatting against the massive dragon closing in on her.
Despite her surprise at hearing Boyd’s voice over her comms, Hope obeyed his request to tuck her wings in instead of throwing up a last-second wall to try to stop the beast. This was good, because if she’d kept those wings spread and tried to shield herself, she would become a hell of a lot harder to move.
Hopewing didn’t really hover in the air. Her wings became stationary objects that acted like anchors, fixing her in one place. If anyone, including Boyd, tried to move her, it would be painful for both of them.
Instead, Boyd caught her under her arms and wrapped his arms around her torso as she began to fall in a bear hug. Pulling up and away to the right at roughly eighty-five miles an hour was a real strain on his wings and joints, but he knew he could do it. Heavens knew he’d practiced the maneuver using Silvie as a stand-in enough times to make Raev bored with flying the maneuver and Tinker sick of running the math.
Silvie never tired of it, though, squealing and giggling each time he suddenly appeared, enveloped her in his arms, and pulled her away into the sky.
For the first time in a long time, Boyd found himself hugging Hope as his propulsion packs continued to drive them up and to the right. Much like Boyd, Hope benefited from an increased density-based resistance—which helped her absorb the impact against Boyd’s chest as she went from 0 to 85 in an instant.
She was rightfully tense, but felt gloriously soft against him. Her bountiful chest pressed into his ribs and her head nestled into his neck with the way his arms wrapped around under her arms and clenched her exceptionally soft feathered wings to her back.
“Eeep!” Hope squealed with more fright than Silvie, who had known what was coming and didn’t have the gaping maw of a dragon flying right at her during Boyd’s training runs.
Hope’s head came up from where she’d pressed it into his shoulder and her deep blue eyes widened in shock as she looked up into Boyd’s grinning face. Her lips split into a blinding smile that literally lit up everything around her. It was a subtle effect, especially in the morning sun, but the angelic woman literally brightened the world around her with her warm glow.
The Last Dragon roared its displeasure into the sky after them as it passed through the space where Hope had been moments before. Boyd knew it would be craning its neck around to try to sweep them from the sky with one of its beams—which only caused his grin to solidify as he heard the roar cut off with a loud CLOMP.
