Magical Engineering

“So, how exactly is this supposed to work with Grant anyway?” I asked as I took my seat near the front. I had been too busy with other matters to really hear Mel and Timon’s plans for what Grant would be doing during any potential fight.

“Grant’s gonna hit anything in front of us before it becomes a problem. He should have enough ordnance ta get us back,” Mel replied. I wasn’t sure how true that was, but I was glad to have the extra power right now. I had a bad feeling about what was coming. What we had fought to get the fleet in seemed too easy in hindsight, but it certainly seemed like good bait for a trap.

“Speaking of, time to see if these adjustments are going to work, because we’ve got something up ahead!” Timon yelled.

“I’m ready!” Grant called back as the seat that I only now realized he was heavily strapped into started to rise from the ground. A panel in the ceiling of the bus slid open, letting him pass through it.

And just as Grant cleared the top of the bus, a dozen of the earlier horrors came into view ahead. They had formed a wall blocking the road, each of them looking like they were charging up some sort of dark energy in the center of their chests. While I couldn’t see what Grant was doing up there, the multicolored explosions that rocketed from the top of the bus were obvious.

Several of the colored projectiles hit the creatures in front of us and exploded across their forms. The destruction of their bone bodies seemed to cause a cascading effect as the energies I had spotted within them imploded. The wall of horrors was reduced to a rain of bones across the windshield as the fleet sped through it. How many of those shots did Grant have left?

“Grab as many of those bones as you can!” Yorela yelled from near me.

“Why? I was under the impression they could regrow from them,” I said, worried about lugging around potential giant monsters.

“They can, but since they are all attached to their central source, each bone we keep under constant pressure will stop them from reforming here. Plus, the extras can make some great materials if we can find a way to break them down,” she replied. Whatever the fear she had felt before we entered had seemed to transform into an odd excitement. She reminded me of the kittens the moment before they struck.

“New problem coming up!” Timon yelled as a loud bleeping sound came from the console in front of him.

“Damn! This is exactly what I was afraid of!” Yorela yelled, leaping to her feet.

“Blow the roof!” Mel yelled at the same time.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is happening?” I screamed, my anger flared at being left in the dark. From the look on Elody’s face, she shared my feelings.

“The roof on the highway is entirely gone, and there’s something very big and very dangerous outside. And we sure as hell aren’t blowing the whole roof, I fixed it so we’d never have to do a stunt like that again!” Timon answered as he brought the bus to a halt, signaling everyone else behind to stop. We couldn’t stay stationary for long, or we’d attract more of the horrors from the rear, so we had to enact whatever Yorela had planned, fast.

A large part of the bus roof suddenly retracted into itself, in a way that both felt and looked like how a sunroof opens. But instead of the joy of experiencing a nice day, a feeling of dread washed over the inside of the bus. I couldn’t see what was out there just yet, but I didn’t remotely like what I already felt.

“Get in the space below the opening, and make sure to strap yourself down to the platform before I gun it,” Timon said, pointing to the spot below the exposed part of the bus.

“Remind me to actually learn what this bus can do in the future. That said, what are we actually supposed to do up there?” I asked, still lost on the plan here, and trying my best to ignore the feeling permeating from outside.

“Can’t answer that until we see it. Hell, even then I might not be able to. Do your best not to look it in the eyes. These things, let’s just say, it’s best to avoid giving them any opportunity to see into you,” Yorela said, as she pulled open a spot I hadn’t even noticed on the floor.

She then passed me a cable as the platform rose. I looked over at what she was doing with it. She just had it looped around her waist. So I did the same, and the moment the end reached back to itself, it formed a bond, hopefully strong enough to hold me up here. Yorela, Elody, Maud, Connie, and I had now joined Grant on top of the bus. I still didn’t know what we were planning to do.

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The bus lurched forward, slowly at first. Was Timon making sure we were all strapped down? While I appreciated it, I wished he would speed up, as the feeling had grown worse out here. The air seemed thick with a sense of doom. What the hell kind of thing could make the air feel like that?

I had my answer faster than I expected, as the moment the bus sped up, we turned a bend, and the roof of the tunnel was just gone. Cracks ran down the sides where it had broken or been torn free. That sight paled in comparison to the monstrosity lurking above us.

A face bigger than any creature I had ever seen rested outside the tunnel. Giant black horns seemed to drip a glowing red ooze, and its eyes burned. I had tried so hard to listen to Yorela as I saw it, but it felt like slimy tendrils had yanked my vision up to stare into those horrible fires. Even Gamma’s small voice was powerless to stop me. Had Yorela been yelling too? Or maybe Connie?

Its eyes were a window to something bigger. There was a feeling of completeness there. I just needed to let it see deeper into me, and I could join it. Its words were growing more audible now. They whispered of a deep beauty in the darkness beyond.

“YEAAAAAAAHHH” Connie’s voice screeched out, suddenly drowning out any of the whispers.

The creature blinked. It was enough for Gamma to rip my head away. I wasn’t the only one who had been stuck in its trance, though. Only Connie, it seemed, had managed to look away. She was shrouded in a bright white aura as a dozen instruments of the same color played behind her.

As her words shrieked on in what sounded like an alien heavy metal concert, I started working on knocking the others free. As I shook Yorela from the creature’s gaze, its mouth opened, and where its teeth should have been, it shot hundreds of long tendrils, covered in sharp incisors of their own. “What do we do?” I shouted to Yorela.

“It’s a colossal siren, I can’t believe we are even still alive! We need Elody!” she screamed back as she lifted her hands toward the monster. Fireball after fireball of different colors erupted from her hands, tearing through the whipping, chewing tendrils.

While she did that, I gave Elody a good shove, knocking her free long enough for Connie’s song to break the effect entirely. I followed up by quickly placing shields around each of us while Elody took a moment to get her bearings. All around us, Connie’s song broke for a split second, and the monster roared.

“As the creature’s horror became known through its screech, Elody’s radiant sword appeared in its mouth, severing its tongue and cutting off any chance of further such howls!” Elody screamed out in pain as she finished these words. The book in front of her was on fire, but the monster had stopped its wail.

“Go go go! Hit it with everything you have! Keep the tendrils off the vehicles! We can’t kill this thing, but we can hurt it! Elody gave us a chance!” Yorela yelled as Maud and Grant also snapped out of their trance, and Connie’s song blared back to life louder than before.

I wasted no time in listening to Yorela and started adding my own fireballs to hers. While I launched those, I went to work on analyzing the creature to see if I could get an idea of what made it up. The mana drain of the skill was incredible. I could only risk maintaining it for a second. Latest content publıshed on Nove1Fire.net