Sixty-Two

Heat suffused the room as red light blinded Kon. He blinked his eyes quickly as he tried to recover, looking back toward the console. The shuttle cannons, meant to fire at other spacecraft or heavily fortified positions, had just vaporized a channel into the forest.

Small bushfires were starting on the edge and the ground glowed with the heat, steam rising as rain fell to hit the burning ground. Kon could watch as the Knights led the charge, rushing out of the camp and into the remnants of the horde. Within moments they had cleared the area around the gates and made a safe passage to the burning area.

A crack of lightning lit the area with green-white light, everything frozen for a split second. Then the rain fell in a deluge, pouring down like a waterfall. Knights and Squires ran, hitting the burned open channel and not slowing as they raced away from the doomed camp.

Above him, motors whirred as the gun changed targets, angling itself slightly. McGuire was the last Knight to retreat, recognizable by the massive warhammer he wielded. Kon looked at other views and saw the horde rushing the walls, leaping through the charred remnants of the fallen wall or scaling up the sides in a wave of talons and teeth.

"THEY COME!" Bosch roared down to him. Kon turned his gaze to the lone door on the bottom of the tower, barred with a thick steel bar. It wouldn't give them much time, but he needed to hold until the second cannon blast. After that, they could retreat to the top of the tower. Kon lifted his rifle and aimed at the door, his hands shaking, as he waited.

Lighting flashed so close and powerful that his hair rose as the interior of the room lit white. The pounding of the rainn was a rattle against the walls, a constant assault on his nerves. Each breath was loud in his helmet, reflected, amplified by the metal. His heart beat, increasing in speed as the seconds stretched out, every moment lasting longer than the last.

The wall next to the door exploded open. An insect pushed through the broken wall, eight legs skittering on broken wood and metal as it looked up at Kon with multi-faceted eyes.

Kon shot it in the head.

Flesh didn't do well against intense light and heat. Flesh exploded as the water inside of it vaporized, bits of chitin and brain matter flying around as it slumped to the ground. Kon stared for a second as his nerves settled, the frantic heartbeat slowing into a steady rhythm, the trembling in his hands ceasing.

Another of the ruddy brown insects climbed over the dead one and Kon shot that one as well. Then another portion of the wall collapsed to the creatures a new front opening. Kon pivoted back and forth, firing as fast as his finger could squeeze the trigger. Corpses piled up on the ground level but more and more holes were opened as the rift beasts pushed their way in.

"FIRING!" Bosch yelled down to him and the world turned red again. Kon swapped out battery packs, the heat of the rifle's barrel singing his fingers even through his gloves. Kon kept firing, hardly slowing as he swept the rifle back and forth.

Not every shot killed one of the weak rift beasts, but they did leave gaping wounds as the monsters tried to climb higher toward him. Long segmented legs grabbed onto the ladder or crawled up the sides of the tower, using the machinery to hoist themselves up further.

"KON!" Bosch yelled down to him and he risked a glance upward to the cannon. Bosch stood on a rung waving him up as a series of small, rune fragments slowly materialized around her fingertips.

"Shit!" Kon spat as he turned and ran across the catwalk and toward the ladder. Swapping out the battery was becoming second nature as he slapped in a fresh battery, slinging the rifle on his shoulder as he threw himself at the ladder.

Bosch's runes activated and blasts of force and fire ripped across the catwalk. The tower rumbled as the entire lower area became a halestorm of death, machinery exploding, bugs dying, and more of the walls blasting outward. Kon looked on, awe washing over him as Bosch quickly fled back up the ladder without a second glance at the destruction she'd wrought.

He clambered up the ladder quickly, turning to look down into the murky darkness for a moment. Things were moving down there, hardly more than the outlines of monsters as they raced around. Kon went to close the trapdoor when Bosch grabbed his shoulder and pressed a small, heavy, cylindrical object into his hand.

"Pull the pin and toss it in." Bosch disappeared as Kon grabbed at the long pin at the top of the grenade. It was the first time he'd used a grenade and the explosive in his hand made him nervous as he pulled the pin with a flick of his wrist. He let it fall, slamming the trapdoor shut and latching it shut.

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The tower rumbled again, shaking under his feet when he was only a few feet away from the heavy wheel to spin the turret. Bosch sat firmly in the crude gunner's seat as Kon got to the wheel.

"Keep your eyes sharp!" Bosch barked out as Kon turned to look at the storm tossed lands. Lightning flashed with increasing frequency, jagged bolts splitting and splintering with every second to light the world. Thunder rumbled as sheets of freezing rain pelted him, sounding like metal pellets on his armor.

The forest all around the fort was nothing more than ruins of cracked and burnt land, thousands of shapes swarming toward them. Kon didn't care about them, he kept his eyes on the lookout for the pseudo C-Grade that had been hunting them for so long.

A minute passed and he could hear the thumping on the hatch, something pounding on it. Bosch stood off of the gunner's seat as she walked to the edge of the railing that held the cannon.

"I had hoped I wouldn't need to do this. It will exhaust me quickly, Kon. You will need to be ready. I will draw and hold the beast still. You will have to aim, fire, and kill it," Bosch said. Kon turned to say something but a rune was flickering into existence behind her.

A full rune that he didn't recognize.

He couldn't tear his eyes from it as it slowly formed around the Knight's body. Rain turned in mid air to fall on her, leaving Kon dry as bolts of lighting redirected themselves to strike her. Each bolt hit the massive rune and disappeared, all of its strength stolen as the rune fully came alive.

The second rune that she started to form was much more recognizable. Regrowth. Bosch leapt from the tower before he could say anything. She disappeared into the darkness for a second before bolts of lighting began to hit all around her. Each flash of light let him watches she ran towards the walls, all of the monsters following after her.

The thumping on the trapdoor stopped as the unknown rune on her back grew firmer, more real. Kon stood in silence, rain pulled in the direction of the Knight as even the wind howled toward her. Everything that touched the massive rune disappeared, strengthening it as it grew and grew.

"What the hell?" Kon muttered, forced to shake his head and turn back to look for the pseudo C-Grade. He swept his eyes back and forth across the destroyed hills, trying to not look at Knight Bosch as she stood atop of the walls, blasts of power from her as the sea of monsters rose up to consume her.

"There!" One of the hills moved. A giant creature rose amongst the hills and broken trees, hundreds of legs churning as it twisted and danced around the hills, a river of chitin and legs. Power washed over him, slamming him into the ground as the pseudo C-Grade announced its presence.

It was ugly, cloying, decay. Kon could taste it in his mouth, similar to when the Lupine packmaster had confronted them. It was death wormed into strength, the inevitable ruin growing more pronounced with every second. Yellow-black aura lunged from the beast, swallowing the entire camp. Kon struggled to his feet and toward the wheel that would spin the cannon.

The bug took its time, anticipation filling the aura as well as a thick bloodlust. Kon's heart hammered away, frantic, desperate to escape. Cold sweat washed down his back as he staggered, each step a feat of willpower under the crushing aura of the monster.

With a gasp he fell on the wheel, the solid steel under his hands giving him something sturdy to hold on to. He risked a look back to see the bug rear up and over the camp, its sickly aura strengthening as it towered above Bosch. Her runes were flickering, struggling to maintain themselves under the presence of the C-Grade.

Kon turned the wheel. It was easier than it should be, well greased and maintained. He hardly had to strain as the cannon slowly turned until it was roughly pointing at the beast.

"Hurry! Hurry!" Each second he urged himself to move faster, to get the cannon aligned before the creature struck. Looking at it and where it was pointed, Kon figured it was close. He slipped off the wheel, hand lashing out to grab the railing to hold himself up.

The trip back to the gunner's seat was as strenuous as his walk earlier. His body felt ready to collapse inward under the pressure as he flopped into the seat and looked down the gunsights. The cannon was too high and he took a few seconds to work out how the pedals at his feet could change the elevation of the gun.

With a hiss of escaping air the cannon lowered and Kon lined up the shot. The bug wasn't perfectly in the reticle, but he didn't have the strength to get back to the wheel. Adrenaline flooded him as he looked at defiant Evelyn Bosch standing there with the C-Grade towering above her.

Kon grabbed the firing lever.

The runes all around Bosch collapsed with a sputter.

The C-Grade tore its eyes away from her and looked directly at Kon.

A scream filled the air, shaking the tower and piercing into Kon's head as the beast screeched in rage.

A leg lashed out at Bosch.

Kon pulled the lever and the world turned red again.

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