Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 20
Boyd shifted Hope around so he could look over his shoulder and confirm that Silver had blurred in to deliver an uppercut to its open lower jaw as it roared, its head tracking towards him and Hope. She zipped back out in another silver blur and took up a boxer’s fighting stance, hopping from foot to foot in mid-air to display the footwork she had picked up to augment her A-Ranked abilities. The style worked well with her version of energy manipulation, so she’d practiced it to near mastery.
She displayed that skill now by blurring forward to deliver jabs and hooks in rapid sequences, always zipping back before the dragon could think to react. Her strongest blows were barely enough to shift the massive beast’s head, despite the fact that she was both stronger and faster than she’d been the day before. It proved enough to piss the dragon off and distract it.
Boyd looked back down into Hope’s smiling face as he let Silvie do her thing.
Hope had followed his eyes and saw Silver’s efforts to distract the dragon while Boyd pulled her to safety. The propulsion packs slowed as the program that controlled them ended and they returned to following his mental cues via the circlet.
“You came!” Hope cheered as one arm reached up to wrap around his neck and pulled his face closer. It was a brief hug that ended with her laying one hand to his cheek and giving him a brief and—mostly—chaste kiss.
Her full soft lips felt warm and consuming, despite the brief contact. Boyd felt his other self stir, rising out of its comfortable bed. This was good, because Boyd would need his help soon, but less than helpful because he wasn’t exactly focused on the fight. He only had eyes for the angel in Boyd’s arms and he pushed Boyd to deepen the kiss.
Fortunately, Hope pulled away before excitedly brushing her fingers across his cheeks and over his face, as if to confirm he really was there. Her long, dark gold eyelashes fluttered in the wind over wide blue eyes that positively brimmed with excitement.
“I never doubted you would come, but thank you anyway,” she sang happily, bright smile firmly in place. “Now, how do we save New Eden?”
Boyd shifted his hands to her hips, putting a little space between them as his propulsion packs tapered down their power, creating an apex to their trajectory. He put a confident smile on his face that was as much for the cameras that surrounded them as it was for Hope, though he kept his eye locked onto her face.
“My team, The Devoted, are going to slay the Last Dragon,” he stated with absolute conviction. “Would you like to join us as a temporary member of The Devoted to avert this crisis?”
Boyd’s phrasing had been carefully crafted. It was partially for the civilians watching through the drones’ cameras and partially to give her the legal wiggle room to come under his command. This would enable her to—at least temporarily—ignore any other orders than his.
“Yes!” Hopewing knew the rules almost as well as he did, “I would like to temporarily join The Devoted as they attempt to prevent the destruction of my city, New Eden.”
“Good,” Boyd grinned down at her before turning to where Silver continued to distract the dragon with her aerial boxing, blurring in to deliver blows and then away before the dragon could respond. She stayed close enough to the beast that it wasn’t able to use its beam attacks, but Boyd knew the dragon was intelligent enough that Silver wouldn’t be able to keep the distraction up for much longer.
Eventually, it would learn to predict her movements and his Silvie would end up splattered across its snout like so many other S-Ranked Powered that had attempted exactly what she was doing now. It was time to flip the script on the beast.
“Your help will make this much easier,” Boyd continued after confirming that Silver had the dragon turned to the correct trajectory. “First, we need to pull the Last Dragon off Silver so that she can finish setting up the kill zone. Then, we’re going to kite it towards that kill zone.”
Hope nodded, suddenly all business—though Boyd didn’t miss the twinkle in her eyes that indicated how excited she was to be working with him and Silvie again.
“With your help,” Boyd continued, “I’m going to try to wound it on the way to the kill zone. All I need you to do is to tether to me and shield, heal, or buff on my callouts.”
As he spoke, he raised his tail up and presented it to her with a section curled into a handle shape roughly five feet down his tail. This would leave her hanging on less than two feet behind him, tucked in tight to take advantage of staying within his slipstream.
Hope’s eyes sparkled in the morning sunlight as she took hold of his tail. “It has been a long time since I last tethered to anyone, but I’m sure I’ll manage.”
Once Hope had a firm grip on his tail, he coiled it twice around her wrists. Losing her grip at the wrong time could lead to her death, but Boyd wouldn’t risk it.
“I’m much faster now,” he warned her, “so all you have to do is stabilize your own flight and try to stay tucked in tight behind me and as aerodynamic as you can.”
Boyd smiled reassuringly back at her. “I’ll take care of the rest. Are you ready?” he asked as he watched Silver dart in to deliver a left cross to the dragon’s snout. It was already reacting quicker to her movements, which meant it was time to get moving.
“Yes,” Hope replied promptly.
Boyd didn’t waste another moment, releasing her and turning into a dive that dragged her behind him. He left his wings partially open to stabilize their flight and to align the propulsion packs mounted to his wings. Hope let just enough of her wingtips out to keep from spinning yet remain aerodynamic.
The HUD his new circlet projected onto his retinas came on, and a line that represented his recommended trajectory came on in a deep red to indicate Boyd was going too slow. Turned out the nose guard was a projection point, not a response to his impression of a jackhammer. He curled his neck down to look under him and checked that Hope was being pulled along a couple of feet beyond his toes with her wing tips partially extended to stabilize their dive.
Seeing she was where he needed her, Boyd kicked all three propulsion packs onto high to raise their speed until the line he was following turned a happy green color.
“Oh, my… you’ve gotten much faster,” he heard Hope’s words over their comms, though the rushing wind carried them away from his ears.
“Tinker makes awesome equipment,” Boyd replied smoothly.
The calm banter over their comms would play out well for their intended audience, but now wasn’t really the time. “Focus please,” he growled. “We’re coming in hot, Silver.”
“I see you, Darling,” Silver called back brightly. “I’m prepared to disengage.”
She shot forward to deliver one last right hook to the Last Dragon’s snout as Boyd cut through the air to close the distance between them. He and Hope now approached the dragon from above and behind it on a trajectory that would have them passing just over its head to replace Silver as the beast’s focus.
“Time to find out if she remembers me,” Boyd rumbled jovially into his comms as the distance between them shrank and the dragon’s massive bulk rapidly grew in his perception.
“I’m going to flair, but keep your wings tucked,” Boyd instructed Hope as they flashed over their target, less than fifteen feet above it.
As they passed over its head to drop in about forty feet ahead of the beast, Boyd flared his wings to their maximum extension to make himself as big as possible. He augmented the effect by reversing his hold on his aura, pushing it out instead of repressing it. This increased both its range and its intensity.
When the dragon turned away from Silver to follow him, he got an excellent glimpse of one of its glowing blue eyes narrowed in rage and hate. Boyd was fairly certain she remembered their previous encounter. He pulled his wings in and dove.
The way its jaw dropped open to end his existence with a stream of coherent energy removed any lingering shreds of doubt. Fortunately, they’d expected this reaction—despite being inside the range the beast normally used its energy attack. Just then, Silver blurred through the air and delivered a dynamic uppercut to the dragon’s open lower jaw, snapping it shut with another CLOMP.
Boyd acted in that moment. He’d already pulled out one of the collapsible javelins mounted to the straps that crossed his chest and flicked its shaft to an extended position. Now, he charged the obsidian spike that capped it with his Black Flame, and curved his wings to raise and spin him around before snapping them closed.
Boyd’s flexible tail curled and twisted to keep Hope below him and facing their original trajectory while he shifted the javelin into a throwing grip.
The way the dragon’s head was positioned didn’t give him a line on anything important, so he targeted the dragon’s center of mass for his throw. The shining metal of the javelin flashed through the air before the eight-inch obsidian dart that capped it drove deep into the not-quite impervious scales of the Last Dragon’s massive chest. Only about a foot of the shining metal shaft of the javelin remained visible protruding from a cracked, glittering scale.
Thanks to keen eyesight adapted to flying, Boyd saw the spiderweb of cracks that spread from the hole where it had penetrated. He grinned at the thought of all the shocked expressions of those who were witnessing the Last Dragon be injured for the first time in recorded history—only Silvie had seen when he’d injured it before.
Hundreds of Tinker’s camera drones had to of give those watching an excellent view. They would have no trouble picking up the audio of the Last Dragon’s thunderous roar of pain that caused both Boyd and Hope to wince. Hell, it was only a bit less painful to experience than before, thanks to the increased durability he’d gained from Tinker’s Devotion.
Boyd faced forward, leaning into his dive and extended his wings about a quarter of the way in the position he’d learned led to maximum acceleration over their days of training. He kicked all three grav units up to their maximum power. The two anchored to the bones of his wings strained the joints that connected them to his back, but his increased durability kept even this to a tolerable—if uncomfortable—level instead of crossing into pain that he needed to lock away with his Mental Domination.
Boyd pulled Hopewing behind him as he rocketed through the air. As he changed the angle of his wings to cause them to dart back to the right, he glanced back to see Silver split off and blur away. The dragon was well and truly focused on them. Hopewing was looking forward, a massive grin still on her face. She looked to be having a grand time.
“Now that we’ve got her attention, we’ve just got to avoid becoming turned into vapor—”
Boyd’s explanation was cut short as the Last Dragon unleashed the first of its beams, which was obviously meant to eliminate the small creature that had hurt it. Boyd’s three propulsion packs combined gave to him the agility he needed to shift them safely from the beam’s path as Boyd began the evasive maneuvers he had practiced.
Chapter 21
Daisy had set herself up on the big couch in the great room with a bowl of popcorn and a big glass cola. Their freaking kitchen had a soda dispenser—because Heroes apparently wouldn’t settle for cans or bottles at home, like everyone else. It even let her mix in vanilla and cherry flavoring, just the way she liked.
She’d gotten the smart bed to configure itself into something like an Adirondack Chair. It even had a little table that stretched over from the side of the bed. It was designed for eating in bed and everything. It was nice having the place to herself, although it was a little lonely in the big base. She’d brought out her softest, coziest blanket from her room—which just so happened to be crimson.
She had the news5 broadcast out of New Eden on to watch the attempt on the Last Dragon by that pompous ass Archangel on the ridiculously sized screen that loomed over the huge couch. Daisy’s new pocket viewscreen, which she’d picked up with her first paycheck when she went to help Laura collect Kayla, lay on the table beside her bowl of popcorn.
She was expecting a call from Connor shortly after Boyd made his big appearance. Apparently, the whole school was gathering to watch Archangel’s foolhardy attempt on the Last Dragon. Keeping the fact that Boyd planned to upstage the pompous ass from her brother had been difficult. She knew the payout in the form of an exuberant call from Connor would be well worth it, though, assuming the big idiot survived.
They hadn’t exactly included her in any of their planning, but they hadn’t tried to keep her out of it, either. Meals seemed to be a common time to discuss the many plans and individual steps involved in them and eating with the team had become an unofficial requirement—as in, Boyd had said she didn’t have to, but Silvie pouted at her if she skipped out on them.
Silvie was a master at pouting, so Daisy just sat near the end of the table and kept quiet. As base support, she didn’t feel it was her place to intrude. They always seemed to make sure to discuss varied topics, so as to include the non-Heroes, not just their upcoming plans. Either way, Daisy had picked up enough to get the gist of what to expect.
Which was more than enough to think they were all a bunch of damned fools—fools who were going to get one or more of the team killed. It would most likely be Boyd. Daisy frowned, then took a sip of her soda. If it was Boyd, that would suck, because she’d also realized that the team would be broken up and would likely dissolve without him.
There went her cushy job she only needed to keep for five years to retire comfortably.
She watched Archangel’s failed attempt, which went exactly like everyone had predicted it would go. The team had nailed it—from the pompous, attention-seeking speech to his totally ineffectual attempts to attack the Last Dragon, followed by a prompt retreat with his tail tucked between his legs.
Then, it had looked like the angel Changed Hero everyone was so excited about was going to get eaten. Her golden energy wall held against the mythical beast’s beam attack that was known to level cities as it approached, so maybe all the team’s excitement wasn’t misplaced. Of course, the dragon was closing on her quickly, with its massive maw of very large and sharp-looking teeth gaping wide open.
Most people would be preparing to watch her die, but Daisy knew the plan. Right on time, Kayla’s voice replaced the audio of the news5 anchor’s voice that was urging everyone to evacuate the city.
“Citizens of New Eden,” Kayla said, “don’t lose hope yet. The Devil has come, and he is on your side.”
Just then, the team’s ship shimmered into view as it passed underneath the dragon—way too close to be anything approximating safe. The camera, or cameras, switched to show Boyd crouched down in his shining armor, a confident grin in place before he leaped from the ship to dramatically snatch Hope almost literally from the Last Dragon’s jaws. The moment was captured by a drone that flew along with him, broadcasting his heroism for all to see.
Daisy rolled her eyes and took another sip of her soda.
It also captured the rather tender kiss that Hope rewarded Boyd with, as their conversation was broadcast to the world. Kayla waited for Boyd to lead Hope through a dive before she spoke up again.
“This is Kayla Baily with News2 out of Glorith City. I’ve been embedded with The Devoted to document their attempt to slay the Last Dragon.”
The drone captured Boyd spinning around and throwing a spear into the dragon’s chest. Daisy was only a bit less surprised than everyone else, as its roar of pain shook the lens in the drone that captured the moment.
“As you can see,” Kayla continued with a bit of smugness in her tone, “Dashing Devil, the Captain of The Devoted, is able to hurt humanity’s ancient enemy.”
The demon shot forward, dragging the angel behind him as the dragon shot a torrent of blue-white energy after them. The Hero pair smoothly swooped through the air, avoiding the beam before dropping back in closer to the beast.
Daisy paused in taking a sip as Boyd pulled Hope up under his chest and engaged in what looked like a perilous game of cat and mouse. He stayed maybe thirty or forty feet ahead of the two-hundred-foot mass of teeth, scales, claws, and destruction—often spiraling to the left or the right before dropping back to let it snap at them before jetting ahead.
All of which was faithfully captured by drones that flew along with them.
“Right now, Dashing Devil is luring the beast into a kill zone. He has a multi-stage plan to finally and permanently remove the Last Dragon from the city killer list,” Kayla continued after a particularly fancy and unnecessarily risk-taking bit of flying.
“Oh my, you’re letting it get awfully close,” Hope’s sweet voice muttered, as clear as Kayla’s on the broadcast.
The drone captured her worried face as she glanced back at the beast as Boyd carried her, much as he had Raev back in Glorith. It was almost like Daisy had watched this happen a dozen times already—from how the angel had smoothly slid into the same position as Silver during their training for this maneuver, with her arms looped around his neck and everything, to how she held onto the tether Boyd had made with his tail.
As expected, he even pulled her up beneath him with his tail so that she was pressed up tight against his chest. He held her facing away from him to adjust his tail until it was wrapped securely around her legs.
Daisy had a hard time dispelling the image of the angel’s supple body snuggled up to Boyd’s muscular, bulky frame. They somehow complemented each other with how diametrically opposed their appearance seemed. She had to admit, it was downright sexy.
Daisy could just imagine the field day the fanboys and pervs were going to have with this footage. She also agreed with Hope’s comment that his flying seemed overly risky—especially when he’d already demonstrated he could fly much faster than their current speed.
