Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 23
His heart hammered in his chest with the nervous energy the situation filled him with. The risks didn’t get much higher than this, but the reward would be permanently ending a threat to humanity that had plagued every generation born on this hostile planet. Boyd used the energy to focus his mind and keep him sharp.
A wireframe outline of the dragon appeared in Boyd’s HUD. The beast was still hidden from view by the dust and debris its continued thrashing and Sinoe’s attacks kicked up. Another flash of blue-white energy cut through the air and sliced into their mountain, though it was well away and below any of his team’s positions. More details were added to the wireframe model as the seconds passed until he had a clear idea of its location and movements.
“Okay, ease off,” Boyd rumbled as he laid a hand on the obsidian plate he would use to charge the deadly little missiles.
Sinoe dropped the pace of her assault to about a fifth of what it had been. Instead of a pillar dropping on the dragon every second, she waited five seconds before dropping the next one.
Boyd needed that dust cloud cleared for the next stage of his plan. It took some time, but the wireframe model of the dragon was able to gain its feet and began unleashing its beam on the opposite mountain in wide arcs. As they’d hoped, she thought that’s where her attackers were.
Sinoe dropped another ten pillars on the dragon over the course of the next fifty seconds. The dust slowly faded until Boyd could just make out the beast—which also allowed the dragon to start making out the pillars and blasting them apart as they fell.
“Alright, hold for now,” Boyd ordered.
The wireframe model picked up little red dots and lines as Tinker remotely locked in targets for each drone. The drones themselves were fairly dumb, at least according to Tinker’s description. They could only fly a programmed route after launching.
She said they did that very well, though, and Boyd was inclined to believe her after witnessing a few test firings. Those red dots gathered in crisscrossing lines clustered on its remaining wing—their intended target.
“Targeting complete,” Tinker said clearly, managing to avoid sounding nervous as she reported the device’s status. A few seconds later, her voice came across their comms again. “Programming complete, ready to receive charge and fire as soon as we have a shot.”
“Cease attack,” Boyd ordered, and watched the footage as the Last Dragon blasted the last of the falling pillars into vapor with a burst of its breath. Its remaining eye to scan the slope, looking for its attacker and waiting for the next pillar.
Boyd held his breath, hoping the mythical beast behaved as expected. After a moment, when the next attack failed to come, she raised her head towards the mountain and opened her massive maw to roar a challenge at her attackers.
“One more,” Boyd rumbled over the comms, raising his voice to be heard over the tremendous roar. “Give her a big one.”
A stone pillar about seventy feet long and ten feet in diameter shot out from about halfway up the tall mountain before arcing down on the Last Dragon. Her mighty roar cut off as she unleashed a burst of her actinic breath that reduced the large pillar to vapor, the resulting shards glowing white hot as they rained down on her harmlessly.
As Boyd had hoped she would, the Last Dragon decided her first display of dominance obviously hadn’t gotten her point across. She raised her head to roar and, as she did, he pushed his Black Flame into the plate to charge the drones. They continued charging as she began to spread her remaining wing to display her size.
He watched the strange dark fire spread from drone to drone until each flickered with the shadowy flames. As soon as the massive, hundred-and-fifty-foot-long wing opened about halfway and he was certain she would spread it to its full extension, Boyd growled, “Fire.”
“Firing in three, two, one, launch,” Tinker’s voice counted down as a high electronic whine filled the outcropping as the small drones powered up their tiny grav drives.
At the word launch, they zipped away in a complex sequence over the course of another two seconds. The sound they emitted as they cut through the air at insane speeds resembled the screams of a flock of small, predatory birds.
They spent the four seconds their onboard power lasted screaming through the air faster than even his Changed eyes could follow. Over the course of those four seconds, the drones shredded the Last Dragon’s remaining wing. You couldn’t see the leaf-shaped drones on the footage provided by the camera drones, but the disintegrating wing membrane and spray of blood made their effect clear.
The dragon let out a startled snort, followed by another cry of pain that rattled Boyd’s bones.
The unit in front of Boyd wasn’t inactive during that time. With a sharp ping, the first rack ejected from the giant pink egg in several pieces, which clattered to the floor of the valley. Then a second rack of the tiny and terrifying drones raised up to replace it, complete with its own charging plate.
Boyd wasted no time, immediately planting his hand on it and charging the second round of missiles.
“Three, two, one, launch,” Tinker repeated her countdown before the second round of drones went screaming away to begin their grizzly butchery right as the first round ran out of power and exploded, sending shards of themselves and the obsidian razors that lined them into the air and dragon.
Boyd had insisted on the small charge that caused the explosions, so no one could retrieve them after use.
The dragon tried to pull its wing back in after the first volley of missiles shredded it, but the drones had sliced into the bones near the wing’s joints, severing enough tendons and muscles to at least slow its ability to retract its wing. The next four seconds involved more pained screaming as the terrible little drones finished the job of severing the final wing, chewing through bone near the shoulder like a school of screaming piranhas.
There was a lot of splashing blood and shards of bone, scales, and flesh scattered into the air by the invisibly fast missiles.
“Holy shi-oot,” Raev adjusted her muttered response to the grizzly sight to account for the children listening to their comms.
“Good hit… I can confirm that the remaining wing has been severed,” Tinker reported a moment later, sounding a little ill.
The people watching would likely start cheering once the stunned silence was over, which was good from a PR mindset.
Boyd never wanted to use such a weapon again. He had considered what using such a weapon on a person or group of people might do, and had imposed his conclusions on his team.
“Another excellent design, Tinker,” Boyd rumbled, keeping his true feelings about the terrifying device from his voice.
Boyd leaped into the air and kicked his main propulsion pack to high as the dragon rolled and thrashed to escape the screaming things that were dismantling her. She might be half-blinded, but the myths that surrounded her all insisted that the creature had excellent hearing. If there was any truth to those myths, she could track the source of her pain by sound alone.
Sure enough, the Last Dragon thrashed to the ground, rolled over, and came back to her massive legs facing his direction. Blue-white energy washed the outcropping where Boyd had been, erasing the sacrificial base of the unit from existence three seconds after he left. Fortunately, he made it around a bend cliff that made on this wall of the mountain before she caught sight of him.
Boyd monitored the footage in his lower left vision as he used the mountain to hide while moving to his next position.
“Three rocks, quick succession,” Boyd rumbled as the dragon prepared to lumber toward the source of the screaming, shredding, tiny creatures. It likely wanted to make sure whatever had sent them was dead, or that it killed them all at the source.
But that would move it out of their pocket.
Sinoe pulled three more pillars of stone from the opposite mountain and sent them arcing down onto the dragon. They smashed into the dragon’s back and hips before crumbling into rubble. It stumbled under the impact and weight as the shattered stone tumbled down its sides. With another roar, it turned its head and blasted the opposite mountain at random once again. Rock exploded or melted, likely killing what limited life made its home on the rocky face—though nothing anyone would miss.
The Last Dragon lumbered around, screaming its rage at the empty mountain. While he couldn’t be sure, Boyd thought he detected a note of fear in the sound that made his lips apart in a grin. Boyd swooped in to drop down over a larger outcropping further along their mountain where Hope, Mindy, and Raev waited in their starting positions.
Raev straddled her sleek, little grav bike, floating at a conversational level beside the taller women who stood next to her. Mindy’s onyx hair and long purple skirt blew in the constant wind that flowed past the outcropping at this altitude. The morning sun made her pale skin glow especially bright compared to the deep black material that clad her already exaggerated hourglass figure.
Mindy’s Hero suit leaned into her name, aiming for what she called her ‘battle witch’ look. A set of purple leather pauldrons and gorget protected her upper chest, neck, and shoulders, while black leather sleeves and vambraces covered her arms. As far as Boyd could tell, that’s where the battle portion ended.
Her waist was cinched in what she insisted was a comfortable amount to further accentuate her figure in a black corset with silver accents. More black leather cupped her breasts, leaving an eye-popping portion of her sizable cleavage exposed. The bottom of the suit was cut like Silvie’s—it covered none of her legs.
Instead, the tops of thigh-high boots that were specifically designed to be a smidge too tight so as to cause her splendidly thick thighs to bulge around them just the right amount covered most of her shapely lower limbs. She paired the boots—with their four-inch wedge heels—with a purple half skirt that didn’t cover the front of her legs but fell to the mid-calf behind her. Boyd had made her prove she could still run the obstacle course to his standards in those boots.
While the materials that made Mind Witch’s Hero suit looked like fabric and leather, Tinker had made it all in her weaver. Like Boyd’s suit, each portion was a blend of metals that had been ‘tricked’ into actively imitating leather and cloth. While it left weak spots, Boyd had to admit that those weak spots looked damned good.
Boyd hadn’t noticed until the pair were standing next to each other, but since Mindy got in better shape, she had even more attention-grabbing curves than the fertility-goddess-figured Hope. Although the outfit likely helped.
‘Kuh-he. Oh, do I?’ Mindy’s mental voice was light and innocent when it entered his mind. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’
Boyd was quite certain Raev would at least have noticed and thought about it, if not openly pointed it out, so he very much doubted that.
‘She thought about it, but was worried about hurting Hope’s feelings. Hope wouldn’t care, of course, but it seemed like something to address another time.’
Boyd chuckled as he landed a few yards away to walk over to them.
Hope was on him before he could take a second step. She leaped at him, throwing her arms around his neck while laughing with a big, shining grin on her face that made her blue eyes look especially deep and bright. She hugged him tight for a moment before loosening her grip and stepping back—though she left her hands gently clasped around the back of his neck.
She looked up into his eyes, joy and pride filling her deep blue gaze. “You’re really going to slay the Last Dragon!” Her cheer contained exuberant joy. “I dared hope that you might slow it enough to get all the people out, or even drive it away… but to actually kill it?”
She grinned up at him as he allowed his arms to encircle her shoulders, enjoying the feel of her soft white feathers against his hands. She glowed with a golden light while she spoke and the burns he’d suffered before slicing off the dragon’s wing healed in moments.
“Of course,” Hope continued, “I should have known better—especially after what Raev told me back in Glorith City. She’s so sweet.” Hope ended with a pure smile that radiated innocence.
“What did she say?” Boyd asked out of general curiosity, glancing in the direction of his fox-featured love.
She and Mindy were watching them with patient smiles, obviously having agreed that Hope deserved the brief moment of conversation that could be taken in the middle of a desperate fight.
“Nothing important,” Hope smiled and stepped back, releasing his neck as she turned to return to the others—or she tried to.
Boyd found himself fighting with his other self to let her go. When she tried the second time, he forced his fingers to let her slide out of them. While that was going on, he saw Mindy’s amethyst eyes widen in surprise and her head sharply turn to look at Raev.
Which made him believe that whatever that was about, was likely more important than Hope wanted him to believe. He didn’t really have the time to press for details, though.
“Tinker, is the net ready?” he asked as he approached the others.
“The targeting computer is constantly updating in real-time,” Tinker reported promptly from her position in the Osprey. Which was far, far away from the deadly dragon. “I’m ready to deploy on your mark.”
“Mind Witch, are you ready?” Boyd asked as he waved his soon-to-be lover to where the tip of the outcropping should grant them a view of the Last Dragon in the valley below.
He’d been keeping an eye on it in the footage projected directly onto his retina. The Last Dragon was turning her half-ruined head back and forth, using her remaining eye to search for the source of the repetitive and varied attacks.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Mindy replied calmly, face almost completely devoid of expression.
He knew she was nervous behind the unfeeling mask she presented to the world. This was the part of their plan that had the lowest expectation of success. While it wasn’t necessary, and they could continue if it failed, if it worked, the effects of the succeeding steps would be greatly amplified.
Mindy didn’t let her uncertainty show as she walked out to her position on the edge of the overlook with her skirt and hair catching the wind. Boyd had stopped noticing them, but the small pink camera drones still dotted the sky at varying distances. They wouldn’t get too close to avoid distracting his team, and they were scattered all over the place to avoid drawing the Last Dragon’s attention to their positions.
He was sure they still got a great shot of her confident yet feminine sway as she marched out to her position. At the very least, the camera in his circlet did.
“Alright Silver, light her up,” Boyd growled as he strode up behind Mindy, making sure his shoulders were set right, with his chin high and his eyes up.
As he walked up behind Mindy, he kept an eye on the footage in his HUD of the Last Dragon in the valley below. Though the bright morning sun didn’t reach it down there, its metallic scales still glittered. Even more of them were stained a rich crimson after Tinker’s devastating assault.
Silver blurred out and started darting around in the air in the opposite direction from where their outcropping lay. She unleashed a rain of her silver energy balls into its head, neck, and shoulders. Even the already wounded eye socket suffered no additional damage when her blasts impacted, but they only needed her to get its attention.
Boyd judged it to be successful, as Silvie had to dodge a volley of the Last Dragon’s much larger and more destructive bursts of blue-white energy. She gracefully avoided them without slowing her onslaught, but Boyd didn’t want her to have to do so for long.
He stepped in behind Mindy, curling his left arm around her middle as he leaned in and pressed into her back in their practiced pose. His tail even got in on the action, wrapping around her right calf several times. They’d even run a fully suited rehearsal, although he suspected they were both just looking for an excuse to be in close contact at that point.
Mindy’s arms came up around his neck as she languidly draped herself back against him, pressing her head back into his neck and shoulder. Boyd didn’t let himself look down, but he knew she would be posed to accentuate her splendid figure to those with a better vantage. It was all completely for show, of course. They could achieve the required effect by holding hands—not that he was complaining.
Boyd enjoyed the familiar jasmine smell of her hair. It helped center him. It also got the attention of his other self. Which was good, seeing as this was the part that he’d need some help from that side of himself for.
Chapter 24
Boyd glared down at the dragon with Mindy plastered against his front as she established a solid link to his mind. While she did that, he reached into the wood slat room that contained his other self and coaxed him out, tempting him with the feeling of Mindy pressed against him. A trick he picked up to augment Mindy’s smoky cloak construct. He could have used anything related to his lovers, as he had learned, but he figured he might as well use the active stimulus.
He pulled the dark smoke that made up his other self up over his shoulder like a cloak and communicated what he wanted him to do. His other self seemed to consider the situation and their goal while he—that is Boyd’s other self—wrapped his right arm up around Mindy upper chest and pulled her a little more snuggly against him, tilting his head and breathing in the pleasant scent of her hair in more deeply.
Only then did Boyd feel that his other self was ready to do what he needed him to.
Boyd took control of his right arm back and raised it to point at the dragon well below them as Silvie continued to distract it. The heat from the molten stone the Last Dragon’s beam had created on the opposite mountain heated the air of the valley below, creating an updraft that carried a charnel smell to his nose and caused Mindy’s skirt to rustle against his bare legs.
