“That might work for me,” Eva said as she added another desk to her barrier. “I can step straight to their opposite side, but even a cat can’t dodge raindrops.”
“Like I said, you’re the commander. I don’t presume–”
A cry cut-short interrupted their work.
Eva whipped her head down to the source. The vampire-cat directing the bears had routed. He ran at full speed back towards their balcony. In a single jump, he cleared the distance.
Feline instincts did not help his landing. He rolled. Hard. A chunk of floorboard fell away from the more charred area of his landing. As he came to a stop, it quickly became apparent why he failed to land.
His arm was slowly being eaten away from the elbow down. Glowing green acid dripped from his wounds.
“They’re here,” he ground out.
With a quick ‘I told you so’ glance towards the lieutenant, Eva threw herself against her makeshift barrier.
Four of the four-legged two-armed dog-kind-of things charged in. Each one sniffed the air once before charging at the two bears that had yet to make it to cover.
Three of the acid-spitters squirmed around the corner immediately after. The worms spotted Eva and her vampires in a split second. All three opened their flat maws. The dull pink gave way to rapidly brightening green.
Hundreds of droplets splayed out, momentarily bathing the entire building in a bright green glow.
Eva gripped her downed vampire by his good shoulder and
The lieutenant took advantage of the brief refractory period of the worms to fire off a handful of thaumaturgical fireballs.
After wasting most of the respite ensuring that the soon-to-be armless vampire was out of the way, Eva only managed to get off a single fireball. It left a nice blackened spot on the segmented skin of her target, but nothing more.
Practicing enough to get her fireballs to act like napalm and actually stick to the target might not be such a bad plan in the future. She was fairly confident in her ability these days to catch clothing on fire, but the bugs didn’t wear any.
The second volley of acid hit; most of it aimed at the wooden wall.
She couldn’t tell how much actually disintegrated. None of it got through the thick wooden desks. As she waited for the last of the droplets to land, Eva started to build up a large amount of fire between her claws.
Eva returned fire. Her first and largest ball of flames went straight down the wide-open gullet of one of the worms.
The worm coughed once, releasing a cloud of green-tinged smoke. It tried to spit, but most of the gunk merely dribbled out of its mouth and down its chest–not that the worms had actual chests.
It tried a second time, achieving the same results. Unfortunately, none of the acid dribbling out onto its chest appeared to do it any damage.
Unable to continue watching, Eva ducked behind cover for the next volley with a loud shout. “Where are my goblins!” It wasn’t a question directed at anyone so much as a simple cry of frustration.
Her lieutenant answered with a shrug.
The
A loud rumbling shook the already decrepit wood of her building. The floor and walls trembled.
An armored beetle the size of a school bus charged down the back road, running straight past the battlefield.
Her goblins were clinging to the back, futilely trying to stab through its armored plating.
They all crashed into an adjacent building, sending even more shockwaves through the floor.
“That thing
As she clipped the top of one of the worm’s head with a ball of fire, Eva shouted, “I know! Acid spitters first, then we can be mobile.”
With a grunt of acknowledgment, the lieutenant sent a constant stream of fire out of her raised hand. None of it actually reached the worms, but with it, he completely obstructed the next wave of acid.
Eva used the extra time granted to build up another large ball of fire. Twisting it and condensing it, a basketball sized handful of fire compressed to a baseball.
She took an extra moment aiming.
One worm opened its mouth to release another bucket of green goo. That is when Eva struck.
Her aim was true. The moment the ball of flames disappeared down the worm’s throat, Eva released all control of the fire.
The bits and pieces splattering over its comrades could have been art.
The other worms, unfortunately, shrugged off the scattered acid without the slightest scalding. The dog-type bugs had no such immunity. The bug closest to the exploded worm all but vanished in a cloud of green goop. Unfortunately, the dullahan-bear fighting it was right up in close melee.
It could fight without a head perfectly fine, but losing its upper body was apparently too much.
That extra moment had been a moment too long. A splattering of acid landed square on Eva’s shirt.
