Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

LAYLA CASSIDY

Washington, DC, United States, Earth Realm

"That is a lot of very angry psychopaths," Judgement said from the roof of the apartment building as more and more people could be seen heading their way.

The horde of pro-Avalon forces was two blocks away. Layla could hear their shouts and the screams of war that accompanied them, see the flames leaping from the buildings they torched. There were a few thousand of them, and more and more people had fled their homes and taken temporary residence inside the three residential buildings that Layla and her team had sworn to protect.

"How long before reinforcements arrive?" Layla asked Jinayca in her ear comm.

"Not long," she said, sounding rattled.

"Not long isn't quick enough," Layla said.

She looked over the edge of the roof. The APC had been moved to sit at the far edge of the walkway between two of the buildings. As the three buildings formed a horseshoe, it was imperative that they funneled everyone down between them. The APC's positioning was designed to help do just that, putting the incoming horde into a kill zone they couldn't escape from.

At least, that was the plan.

Chloe lay on the rooftop beside Judgement with a scoped rifle, aiming at the group heading their way. It was their only rifle—while the APC was chock full of weaponry, no one had seen the need to be sniping people from hundreds of meters away.

"How are things your end?" Layla asked Piper.

"We're keeping the residents as calm as possible," Piper said. "Tarron is doing most of it. He has a way with people. The driver and passenger of the APC have helped arm anyone who has shooting experience and a few who just wanted to help. Tego has growled at anyone who steps out of line. Turns out people don't like that."

"You used Tego as a way to keep people in line?" Chloe asked, and Layla knew she was smirking.

"I am shocked and appalled," Layla said with a slight smile. She looked over the edge again at the members of her team who were on the other roofs. Piper waved.

"Where'd you put the residents who can't help?" Layla asked.

"They're in their homes," she said. "There were a few off-duty cops who live here, so we've let them keep people from doing anything stupid. Also, you know, we told them that Tego would be about."

"Layla, you need to see this," Chloe said.

She looked over at the approaching horde, but they were still a few hundred meters up the road. There was an explosion in the distance as another set of apartments was set aflame. Layla wanted to do something to help, but doing so would leave the now hundreds of people inside the apartment blocks with even less protection.

Chloe passed Layla a pair of binoculars without getting up, and Layla knelt down beside her and used them to watch the rabble as they marched ever closer. They stopped periodically to slaughter anyone in their path, leaving their bodies on the sidewalk before continuing on. They were in the middle of torching cars when someone inside an apartment four floors up crashed through a window and landed on the railings below to the cheers of the horde.

A man poked his head out of the broken window and raised his arm in victory, receiving more cheers.

"Do it," Layla said.

Chloe pulled the trigger, and Layla watched as the bullet smashed into the man's skull. He toppled out of the apartment block onto the same railings as his victim. The group below fell silent.

"First person who steps forward," Layla said.

It took six seconds for the first of them to step forward, a large man with a huge beard and an ax in one hand. He crumpled to the floor a second later, a hole where his forehead used to be.

Layla turned back to Judgement. "War's coming."

Judgement smiled and hit herself on the chest with one fist. She was ready.

"Anyone who moves first, take them out," Layla said.

"I have twelve rounds left," Chloe said. "It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel."

Layla walked away as shot after shot rang out over the night. She ignored it, walking to the far end of the apartment building and stepping over the makeshift ramp to the building beside it, where Piper greeted her.

"How's Chloe?" Piper asked.

"Taking out her frustrations on mass murderers," Layla said.

"She's good at that," Piper said. "We're as ready as we'll ever be."

Layla took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'll go make a big wall, then." She ran to the far edge of the building opposite and looked down over the APC in the middle of the road. It wasn't much of a hindrance, if she was honest, even with cars on either side of it. That would soon change, though.

Layla reached out with her power and took control of the metal in the car directly beneath where she stood. She concentrated and twisted her hands, and the car tore apart. It took her a few seconds to do the same to two more cars, by which time the horde had full on charged toward their position. Layla worked quickly and moved all the metal into a sizable structure, wrapping it around lampposts and other cars to make a wall that stretched across the street. It wasn't going to stop anyone who was determined, but it was seven feet high, sharp, and unpleasant and would hopefully ensure that their attackers didn't continue further into the city.

"Jinayca," Layla said, touching her earpiece. "When those reinforcements get here, there's a metal wall just beyond us. They're going to need me to move it."

"I'll let them know," Jinayca said. "Layla, be careful."

"I'm always careful, Jinayca," Layla said. "It's why I'm still alive."

The first part of the horde arrived, with the rest not far behind. They stopped next to the APC and looked at the wall. Several Molotovs were thrown, and they opened fire on everything around them, but the structure held, and to Layla's eyes, they were just making a dangerous climb even more so.

Layla walked away from the edge of the roof, back toward Piper, who dumped four large bags in front of her. "Shrapnel," she said.

"Thank you," Layla said.

Piper placed a hand on Layla's shoulder. "We will be waiting for you."

Layla nodded and opened the bag. Hundreds of screws, nuts, pieces of random metal, and what appeared to be knives and forks. Each bag probably weighed fifty pounds. That was a whole lot of shrapnel. She looked over at Chloe, who had taken up position with an MP5 at the edge of the roof, looking down over the kill zone. On the opposite side were the soldiers from the APC, both with identical weapons. Several windows on the top two floors of the apartment buildings were open, and Layla knew that more of her team were inside, waiting for action.

Layla took control of dozens of the pieces of metal and lifted them out of the bags, content to keep them hovering beside her as more and more of the gang arrived. Several of the group were already pointing at the apartment blocks and shouting obscenities; Layla ignored them.

The mass below—emboldened by numbers—turned toward the three apartment buildings and began lobbing Molotovs at them. The exposed walls caught fire, and a few hit the windows of the lower levels, but Layla had spent time going from room to room of the lowest floor, covering the windows in sheets of metal she'd removed from the hoods of cars at the front of the building. She hoped it would be enough. The last thing they needed was a fire.

When it became apparent that the buildings were not about to burst into uncontrolled flames, the crowd charged between the three buildings toward the front entrance, which, like all three other entrances, was now blocked with furniture. It would take them a while to get through.

It wasn't a smart plan of attack, Layla thought as the screaming mass filled the gap between the buildings. But then a crowd of people baying for blood who had killed countless others without worrying about it was running on bloodlust, not brainpower.

Layla fired the pieces of metal at those charging through, using enough force to make them as deadly as bullets. They struck a half dozen targets as the defenders with weapons opened fire.

It was the bloodbath Layla had known it would be. Bullets and metal tore through the crowd below like it was paper, leaving corpses all across the space between the three buildings. Two dozen were dead in under a minute, nearly double that by the time the horde outside the kill zone decided to stop charging in.

Layla had all but emptied one bag when she spotted several newcomers at the edge of the apartment. One wore chain mail armor that glistened golden and a long black cape. Layla tapped her ear. "We've got problems."

"Oh fuck," Chloe said as one of the newcomers created a ball of air the size of a basketball and flung it at the building, detonating the magic and tearing apart a large chunk of the wall.

"Fifty dead," Judgement said. "Only a few thousand to go. I'm going to go remove the stragglers. The last thing we need for them is cavalry. Be back soon."

There was no point in telling Judgement what to do; she was her own person and wasn't someone who took orders easily.

Layla picked up a screw and began to rotate it in the air, spinning it faster and faster until it was a blur. She flung it at the sorcerer with every bit of power she had at her disposal. The sorcerer wrapped himself in a shield of air before the screw ever hit. And a second later, he flung it back toward Layla with enough magical power that she had to move aside as it smashed into the wall behind her.

"We have a really big problem," Layla said. "That's not some two-bit sorcerer."

"Ladies and gentlemen of Washington," the sorcerer said, his arms wide open, his air magic pushing his words far enough that Layla could hear him as if he were standing beside her.

"My name is Sir Lamorak," he said. "I am one of the Knights of the Round Table and a paladin in the employ of Arthur Pendragon, your king and ruler. I was tasked with the destruction of this filthy city, and I am to carry out my king's command. You are in the way of those orders, you have killed the king's men, and I will take time out of my day to show you the error of your ways."

"What a pompous ass," Chloe said in Layla's ear.

Layla sighed. "Shit, wasn't he supposed to be one of the greatest warriors the world had ever known?"

"You have but one chance to ensure you do not taste my wrath," Sir Lamorak continued.

"I can hear him through your comms, and he sounds like a giant dick to me," said Judgement. "I'm a bit busy with these idiots, but I'll come kill him in a minute."

"You will kneel before me and beg forgiveness, and I will allow you a quick and ... relatively painless death. A death with honor. But if you continue to stand against me, I will have your souls torn from your bodies as I rip you to pieces."

"That's vivid," Piper said.

"There is no escape this day," Sir Lamorak said. "There is no tomorrow for you people. There is a good, clean death or agony the likes of which you have never even considered. You have sixty seconds to decide."

"Have we decided?" Tarron asked immediately.

"Does anyone want to take him up on his offer?" Layla asked.

"He's going to butcher everyone," the APC driver said. "Fuck him and his fancy cape."

"I like her," Judgement said.

"Anyone think otherwise?" Layla asked.

"Death or death?" Piper asked. "No one down here is mad keen on those options."

"So I'll give him our answer, okay?" Layla asked.

"Go ahead," Chloe said.

Layla collected enough metal to turn into a baseball-size weapon and threw it at Sir Lamorak. The paladin watched the ball hurtle toward him, his hands aflame, until he caught it out of the air as if it were nothing. He crushed the ball in one hand, the individual pieces of metal dropping over the ground at his feet, and looked up at Layla with hatred in his eyes.

Layla flipped him off with both hands.

"How fucking dare you," Sir Lamorak screamed. "I offer you honor, and you spit in my face. I will have your head for this. You have made your bed—die in it."

He flung balls of air at the two closest walls and tore huge chunks of them down as Layla grabbed a handful of metal and sprinted across the roof to the edge closest to the mass of attackers below, opposite where Chloe stood, her rifle aimed at Sir Lamorak.

"Do it," Layla shouted.

Chloe took the shot, and once again Sir Lamorak stopped the attack with a shield of air. He whipped the shield up at the roof of the apartment and smashed it into the brick and concrete just below where Chloe stood, forcing her to throw herself back as part of the roof collapsed.

Layla threw the metal out in front of her, forcing it down with incredible speed onto the exposed horde, causing screams of pain as it found targets, but a moment later she heard a whir and tore metal from the roof to wrap around herself as a missile smashed into the edge closest to her. The shock wave threw her back; she collided with the wall of the entrance to the stairwell and all but obliterated it, leaving a hole in the roof.

"What the fuck was that?" Piper asked.

"They have a rocket launcher," Layla said, coughing and spitting blood onto the floor. "Of course they do. It's turning into one of those days." Metal wrapped around her or not, that had hurt.

"Do you understand now?" Sir Lamorak asked. "We have more firepower, more magical power, more determination, and we will not be stopped. Enjoy your deaths."

Layla crawled back over to the edge of the roof in time to watch the multitude below scramble up the brick and concrete that had once been the outer walls of two of the buildings and were now a ramp giving easy access to everyone inside.

Gunfire sounded soon after.

"Get everyone back to the center building," Layla yelled. "Do it now."

She rolled onto her back as Piper appeared beside her. She wordlessly helped Layla to her feet, and together they ran across the building to where Layla had hoped they would never have to defend from.

Layla looked back as gunfire and shouting broke out in the two buildings closest to them.

"The bastards are piling in like wasps to a beehive," one of the police officers said as Piper and Layla reached the top floor of the apartment block.

Layla looked around and saw a lot of frightened faces of civilians as they looked out of doorways before closing and locking them.

"You think that'll help?" Piper asked.

Layla shook her head. "Chloe, Judgement, how's it going?"

"I collapsed a pretty big part of the floor above me," Chloe said. "Should slow them down. They can't get to the hole we made in the wall unless they have a few dwarves with them."

"We could use some dwarves right about now," Judgement said. "There's a big group of assholes coming toward our position. I've killed a few of them and am heading back to the building. I'll kill anything that moves, but I can see several dead police outside. These thugs do not behave like humans."

"How so?" Layla asked, looking out of the window at Sir Lamorak, who hadn't moved. She spotted the man and woman sitting on the street behind him.

"There are empaths in the group. I suspect they're controlling the emotions of this group," Judgement said, sounding out of breath for the first time. "They're surrounded by guards, so I doubt we can get to them easily. I could kill one, maybe both, but I'd be swarmed pretty soon."

"Get back to the apartment building," Layla told Judgement. "We'll figure out a way."

"Already ahead of you," Judgement said, and a nearby window shattered, Judgement jumping through a moment later. "That was a bitch of a climb up."

"Glad you're okay," Layla told her.

"It's hard to scare people who don't feel anything," Judgement said.

"These humans aren't going to feel fear or pain, guilt or remorse," Piper said. "They're just going to keep coming until either we're dead or they are."

"Well, let's give them what they want," Layla said.

Judgement picked up a rifle from one of several positions manned by the police and civilians, aiming down it and measuring the shot. A few hundred meters. "Chloe, you got a shot on these empaths?"

Chloe arrived on the floor a few seconds later, looking out of breath. She said nothing but winked at Piper and stood beside Layla, peering through her riflescope at the sorcerer and empaths. "I can get them both," she said. "I'll take the man; you take the woman."

Judgement looked down the rifle. "On three."

"One," Piper said. "Two. Three."

Both fired simultaneously, and Judgement fired a second time almost immediately after. Layla watched as the sorcerer stopped the first bullet from hitting the female empath, but he had to adjust his shield in an instant to stop the second from hitting him, leaving him no time to stop the third from striking the male empath in the face, killing him instantly.

Sir Lamorak was incensed and began throwing balls of flame at the residential buildings, igniting the interior of the right building. Black smoke billowed up into the night sky.

"I think we pissed him off," Chloe said.

"Good," Layla said and continued watching as the sorcerer and dozens of his horde sprinted down the middle of the path between the buildings, his shield stopping any bullets that went his way, before he tore apart the entrance below where Layla and her people stood.

"I'm coming for you all," he screamed.

"I think we made a new friend," Piper said.

Layla looked back at the lone empath, now shielded by two dozen humans. "Judgement, how do you feel about going after that last empath? If we have to fight all of these bastards, let's even the odds a little."

Judgement smiled, her eyes almost sparking with intent. "That sounds like a plan to me."

Layla pointed to three civilians and told them to go with Judgement but made it clear who was in charge. "Tarron, Judgement is coming your way. You're going to go kill that empath."

"Good," Tarron said.

"So what are we going to do?" the APC driver asked.

"We're going to kill as many of those bastards as possible," Chloe said.

"And the sorcerer?" the APC passenger asked, and Layla saw the fear in those around her.

"We'll deal with him," Layla said. "I've killed sorcerers before."

"You think we can do it?" Chloe asked as Tego bounded onto the floor, her maw covered in blood.

"Hey," Layla said, stroking Tego behind the ear. "Yes, we can do it. Because if we don't, all of these people die."