Chapter 35 #2
“Alright, I need Eight to focus on evacuating the trainees. Get them off the fucking field,” Elsie commanded, immediately rewarded by the nine members of the squad changing trajectory.
“When Six shows up, they’re to establish a perimeter, this thing does not get past us. Three!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Third squad’s leader responded.
“Start immobilizing those legs, take the back half, and use your own discretion on what you think will work best. Keep the communication lines open, if you find an easier way to cut this thing down to size, let us know.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Third Squad broke away, automatically forming teams of three to systematically remove as many of the damned thing’s legs as possible.
“Squad Two, find something to pin her down and hold her in place. I don’t care what you use, ropes, chains, wires, whatever it takes.
We need her immobilized with the head closer to ground level.
While you guys are doing that, we’re taking on the head,” Elsie said, and her team cast worried looks in her direction.
They’d do what she asked, but for the first time in ages, she saw fear in her team’s eyes.
Taking out her earpiece, Elsie put on a little steam to draw even with her squad. Perrie had joined them, and Marley flanked her while the others ran around her in a pack, sensing she had something to say.
“There’s a reason we’re the first squad.
Time and again, we’re trusted with missions other squads would find impossible.
I hand-picked each and every one of you.
You are the best this generation of hunters has produced.
Put our differences aside and trust me to get us through one last mission as a squad. ”
They ran wide around a group of battered and broken recruits who were being herded out by Squad Eight. Elsie stifled an irritated groan as a tall redhead jogged by. Squad Eight had chosen Callum. With so many intelligent and capable options, they’d picked a jackass.
“Keep an eye on that one!” Elsie hollered, and her squad nodded as one, understanding immediately. Callum had a piss-poor reputation.
“Perrie, I need you to keep this thing as contained as possible, we need her attention on us so the others can do their jobs. Can you do that?” Elsie asked. She knew the request put a lot of responsibility on the witch’s shoulders, but Perrie was the best person for the job.
“I’ll do the best I can,” Perrie replied, more confidence in her voice than on her face.
“Elsie!” Morgan shouted, finally joining the rest. She turned and caught her sword. The sniper chucked Saint’s blade at him with a hard glare.
“Trisse, Trenton, Morgan, you’re my heavy hitters. I want you close to me. If you find an opening, take it,” she ordered.
“Got it,” Trenton answered for all of them.
“Banks, Grady, and Steve, you’re our second line. Provide as much support for the others as you can while causing as much damage as possible. This monster is not going down in one hit. Find her weak spots and report in once you do,” she said.
“Marley, you’re going to be pivotal today. Don’t waste your magic, you’ll be needed when all of this is over for healing. Stay behind the second line, heal any big injuries as they come, but leave the small stuff for later.” Elsie laid the biggest responsibility on their healer.
“Understood,” Marley replied, though she wasn’t as sly as she thought when her eyes slid toward Saint.
“Don’t worry about my demon’s role, he’ll be with me.” Elsie tapped the sword against her shoulder. It had been a long time since she’d needed to haul it out of the closet. “Stay out of our way, stay safe, stay strong. I expect to meet all of you on the other side of this. Got it?”
“Yes, Commander!” they shouted in unison.
Elsie put the earpiece back in, and a half-mad grin lit her face. “Let’s go kill ourselves a demon.”
“How are we supposed to draw her attention?” Saint asked once they’d split off from the rest of Elsie’s squad. They ran straight for her, but the centipede moved fast, and unless she was attacking someone, the human-shaped part of her body stayed several stories above them in relative safety.
“She doesn’t care about noise,” Elsie noted as the demon ignored two injured men who were screaming their damned heads off. To be fair, one of them had lost his leg below the knee, but the other one appeared completely intact. Whiner.
Elsie dodged a metal bench the demon had ripped from the ground and hurled through the air. Her eyes followed those stamping feet, covered in wiry hairs as thick as her arm. As she climbed higher, she formulated a plan.
“We have to–”
“No.”
“You didn’t even let me finish.”
“Climbing up there is not a plan, that’s suicide,” Saint countered. Elsie gave him a mischievous grin.
“Not if we’re the ones doing it.” She looked over her shoulder at the three men several paces behind them. “Trenton! I need a boost!”
The assassin narrowed his eyes as if he wanted to refuse, but he changed his mind and nodded. Crazy or not, there wasn’t time to stop and argue. If Elsie had already decided, there’d be no changing her mind. He sprinted to catch up with Elsie and her demon, then kept pace until they got closer.
“I’ll see you at the top,” she said to her demon as Trenton pulled ahead. Saint’s face was unreadable, but he shifted into his demon form as she placed a foot in Trenton’s hands. Trenton lifted as she jumped, throwing Elsie airborne.
Pulling one of her knives, Elsie shoved it between two of the demon’s armored plates to gain control of her footing.
Each plate was covered in sharp bumps like hazardous sandpaper, giving traction to what appeared to be a slippery surface.
She was more likely to accidentally shave a layer of skin off than fall.
The demon’s body lurched and rolled as the centipede searched for a solid target among the fragmented attacks coming from various angles.
It took several seconds to orient herself, but once she did, Elsie took her first uncertain steps.
The squads below raised a rowdy cheer when they spotted her, but she didn’t dare acknowledge them.
With traction, she gained momentum, and soon Elsie found her stride, running across the demon’s segmented body, Saint close behind her in his demon form.
“Squad six has joined us!” someone from Eight called out over the earpieces.
“Good! Six, get on the perimeter. All others, start pushing her back into the training grounds. We can’t let her get any further into the compound. If she breaks into the barn, we’re fucked,” Elsie ordered.
Instead of an answer over the comms, a resounding shout came from all directions. They’d heard and would carry out her orders.
From her vantage point, she saw everything.
The squads executed her orders perfectly.
Squad Two had already found three lengths of thick, heavy rope typically used for strength training the recruits with a higher fae blood content.
It was a good start, but judging from the size of the beast and the sharp serration of her plates, it wouldn’t hold her long.
If they timed their advance right, it might be long enough.
“Get under her,” the leader of squad three cut in once the clamor died down. “The joint attaching the legs to her body is the weak spot. Even if you can’t sever it, you can immobilize it!”
“Nice job, Captain,” Elsie praised. “Did you all hear that?”
Another cheer went up, and Elsie spotted Steve and Banks as they slipped under the demon’s belly.
The centipede shrieked and writhed, but Elsie and Saint kept running until they were climbing.
Using their daggers and claws like a mountain climber’s spikes, they made quick work of the nearly vertical trek.
“What do you think?” Elsie asked, pausing two segments below where the human part of the demon began. “Will we be able to sever her from the rest? Or at least take a crack at her spine?”
Saint shook his head, back in his human form so he could communicate. “The body is too thick, our swords would never be able to cut through.”
A scream of pain peeled through the air from below, but Elsie didn’t dare look to see which member of her squad it was. That scream sounded far too close to have come from any other squad. Her people would be okay; they had to be. Marley would make sure of it.
“Chantraine! The legs are growing back almost as quickly as we’re taking them off. We need new orders!” the squad leader of Three shouted.
“Nothing can ever be easy, can it?” Elsie complained. “Keep her busy for as long as you can, we’re going for her head.”
“Understood. Good luck, Commander.”
A series of well-wishes, prayers, and luck followed.
“Hey,” Saint called out, and she risked a glance over at him. “Use your magic to strengthen and sharpen your blades. We’re going to need it to pierce her skin.”
Elsie nodded once, then did as he suggested, pouring light magic into the metal itself, imbuing the sword with a strength no hunter-born blacksmith had ever attained. “Ready?”
His expression said he wasn’t, but Saint agreed. “I’ll follow you anywhere.”
Bracing her feet between two plates, Elsie prepared her assault, planning out every move in her mind, including counterattacks. There was no way the demon wouldn’t notice them once they were off the hard armor of her insect body.
“On three.”
She never got to one. Another shout came from below. Squad Two secured the first line. Their warriors had climbed onto the centipede and bolted the rope into the ground.
The demon twisted to face them, her horrid face contorted with rage as Squad Two’s leader ran forward, holding an explosive harpoon. He had to get enough distance from the first line for the second to make a difference.
While he was doing that, a pair of tanks rolled onto the field. Elsie huffed out a laugh. She’d asked them for a distraction, but this was genius. The demon’s body curled up like a snake about to strike, mandibles clicking almost as loud as the hundreds of legs stabbing into the ground.