Domas pulled up to the maintenance house of the bridge as four pemalion sprang down the hill toward them.

  Elion leaped from Domas, firing his rifle. With each press of the trigger, his gun clicked a half dozen times, no lasers firing. He’d grabbed a gun that wasn’t fully charged. Discarding this, he summoned his knife, and stood his ground as the Pemalion charged.

  Black, glossy fur shimmered over rippling muscles. Six black eyes of the lead beast locked onto Elion, and the creature pounced, antennae quivering.

  Laser blasts from the dismounted biker took two of the beasts, then his gun also clicked the out of charge signal.

  Elion stood his ground, squaring up and raising his blade toward the charging pemalion. The first crashed into him. Elion had fought a pemalion before, but this time he was stronger. His newly leveled Ascended state lent him strength and protection. He staggered backwards but stayed on his feet, grappling with the creature as he rammed his blade into its shoulders and neck.

  The pemalion’s claws and teeth tore at Elion’s clothes, but his Aurelian strengthened ‘armor’ did not tear. A scratch across his upper arm did not draw blood, but with each blow he felt strength going out of him. How long could his abilities turn the claws of this monster?

  His injured shoulder throbbed with a dull pain.

  A weight struck Elion from the side and he went down, the other pemalion snapping at his throat. Elion rolled, slashing his knife blindly, stabbing at the creature’s underbelly.

  Both pemalion pounced, tearing at Elion, who thrust frantically with his blade, black blood and gore spilling over him as he struggled.

  One pemalion bit at his face, and Elion thrust the blade through the roof of its mouth, releasing the knife and tossing the cat aside, staggering to his feet. The other pemalion slumped on the ground nearby, dead already. Elion shook ichor from his hands.

  A muscular infected scavenger rounded the corner, leading the charge of scavengers swarming down the road. The scavenger’s inky black eyes glared, threatening. He hefted a metal rod, vicious spikes welded onto one end.

  Tharnen worked at the lock on the door of the bridge house.

  “Hurry!” Elion yelled, scrambling back away from the scavenger.

  “I need a sec,” Tharnen called back.

  Elion stopped backing up, squaring up with the incoming scavenger, hoping he might be able to stall the man without engaging. The man smiled, raised his weapon, and charged.

  Elion recalled his blade to his hand.

  Feinting to the right, Elion tried to duck beneath the man’s swinging mace. Elion ducked too early, and the man adjusted his swing, bringing it down on Elion’s arm. The powerful strike reverberated through Elion’s bones, his arm numbing.

  The rush of strength pouring out of him nearly brought him to his knees; if not for his Aurelian abilities, the blow would have snapped his arm like a toothpick.

  A snarl from the scavenger warned Elion as the man swung again. Elion managed to dance out of range of the swipe. The scavenger was taking Elion more seriously now, as his attempt to brush him aside failed.

  Scavengers swarmed down the road toward him. Bullets smashed into the stony ground nearby. Elion backed into the relative shelter beneath the pylons of the bridge, his magically reinforced clothing hanging from him in rags, pemalion gore dripping from his arms and face.

  His opponent charged after him, club flailing furiously. Elion raised his knife and deflected a blow, slicing one of the spikes from the end of the club. His smaller weapon allowed him to move more quickly, and as the man brought the club down over his head in a two handed swing, Elion caught the club handle on the blade of his knife.

  The force of the blow caused the sharp knife blade to cut clean through the metal pole. The spiky head flew free, landing in the dirt behind Elion.

  Stumbling, the scavenger tried to adjust to the sudden weight difference in his weapon. Elion twisted, bringing the knife up under the scavenger’s rib cage. He stabbed the man twice, then stopped, staring at the blood running down his arm and dripping from his elbow. Elion was overcome with the mental image of Gorman pulling a heart out of a dead scavenger’s chest.

  The scavenger took advantage of Elion’s faltering and shoved him to the ground. Elion tripped, landing on his shoulders and striking his head on a rock. The blow nearly knocked him out, as his armor sapped his strength.

  Elion’s earlier blows proved too much for the scavenger. The man staggered forward two steps. A bullet from behind caught him in one shoulder, and he collapsed. Scavengers charged toward Elion as he scrambled to his feet. Bullets snapped past him in the air.

  “It’s open!” Tharnen yelled, behind him.

  A bullet struck the ground nearby, and Elion realized that if his armor took another hit, it would probably knock him out.

  He stumbled through the door. Gritting his teeth, he deactivated his armor. The weight of ability fatigue bearing down on him suddenly lifted, but he became painfully aware of his lack of protection. Pain from his wounds roared back into the forefront of his mind, momentarily blinding him.

  Tharnen was closing the larger bay door, already having admitted Domas.

  “What are we going to do?” Elion shouted as the other man finished unlocking the door.

  “Move the bomb,” the man said, slamming the door shut as bullets punctured holes in it.

  Gorman’s bomb sat near the loading bay, ready to be transported to the crystal Shard. Outside small arms fire pinged on the metal of the bridge.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Do you know how to lower the bridge?” Tharnen asked.

  Elion looked at Domas, then understood the plan. “Domas can’t do it! The distortion field will kill him!”

  Tharnen grunted. “Fine, I’ll lower the bridge.” He headed for the stairs to start operating the controls.

  “I can do it, Elion,” Domas said. “I may not be the fastest vehicle, but we need to do this.”

  “If you get too close, you’ll fall to pieces! The magic holding you together will dissolve, and—”

  “I know. I have lived a lot longer than I should have already. But let’s be honest, Elion. If I don’t do this, who else can? I have to do this for my sons.”

  Elion clenched his fists, shaking with frustration and rage.

  “You can drop the bomb. Get close to the distortion field, drop the bomb and let it roll to the Shard.”

  “Elion,” Domas said, his voice soft, concerned. “It’s okay. Overwatch’s position might be overrun. I need you up in the bridge tower with your rifle, clearing my path.”

  A siren started up, and the bridge began groaning as massive winches unspooled, lowering the span. Tharnen stumbled back down the stairs. “They’re coming,” he shouted, as bullets punctured the thin metal walls of the structure. “Help me load the bomb!”

  Elion ran to the bomb. A sphere, around four feet in diameter at the widest point, Elion and Tharnen had to lift together to get it off the ground. They shuffled over to Domas, setting the heavy orb down on the small cargo rack.

  Domas’s shocks compressed, the frame of the ATV nearly rubbing on its tires. Tharnen tossed Elion a strap, securing his end on the other side. Elion fumbled with the hook, feeling tears well up in his eyes.

  “What about your differential?” Elion asked.

  “It’s mostly downhill from here,” Domas said.

  Elion and Tharnen secured the bomb as the bridge completed its decent, the span booming down on the far side. Tharnen moved to the garage controls.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Elion, I know this isn’t your fight, but thank you for joining us,” Domas said, his voice crackling from the speaker on the dash. “Tharnen, look out for my sons.”

  “I’ll watch over them like my own,” Tharnen said, resting his hand gently on Domas’s hood for a moment.

  Then Tharnen pulled open the garage door, and Domas charged out across the bridge. Tharnen fired at a few scavengers lingering outside, then closed the garage door. A spray of bullets punctured a constellation of holes into it.

  Elion and Tharnen sprinted up the steps into the control room. Tharnen tossed Elion a laser rifle from the locker on the wall, and Elion started firing at the scavengers swarming down the hill toward them.

  “Not them!” Tharnen yelled. “Protect Domas!”

  Elion joined Tharnen on the other side of the tower. Domas crossed the bridge, rolling slowly as his load threatened to overturn him. A smattering of scavengers seemed to have noticed the incoming ATV. Some fired with rifles at him, others charged with clubs.

  Elion and Tharnen did their best to take out the threats. Occasional jabs of light from the Overwatch position and along the ridge behind them reassured Elion. They were not fighting alone. Where was Keyla? And Tael?

  Domas picked his way across the landscape, down the gentle incline toward the crystal Shard. Generally smooth terrain, with occasional boulders strewn about, the going was only limited by Domas’s mechanical issues. He had made it nearly halfway across the distance to the Shard.

  Wisps of smoke trailed behind the ATV.

  “Is he hit?” Elion asked, steadying his rifle and blasting a scavenger.

  “I think that’s his differential,” Tharnen said. “He’s losing power to his rear wheels.

  “Is he going to make it?”

  A tremendous crash shook the tower, and Elion leaned out the window far enough to see scavengers pounding on the door below, trying to get inside. He ignored these, and continued shooting at any possible threats to Domas.

  Across the field Elion heard a noise like a trumpet. Domas’s headlights blazed, even in the sunlight, and the vehicle surged forward, entering the disruption field.

  Elion’s bones tingled, and he watched as three scavengers dived onto the ATV, hacking at the straps with long blades. Elion fired. The laser started to dissipate as it entered the distortion field, but still stabbed through chest of one of the scavengers.

  Domas had nearly made it to the Shard. Parts began falling off of him, as the magic holding the ATV together crumbled. Domas swerved drunkenly, throwing a scavenger to the ground.

  A tire flew free, and, with one final blast on his horn, Domas rolled over. The bomb slipped from its restraints as the ATV collapsed, crumbling into pieces.

  The bomb continued to roll, coming to a stop at the base of the Shard. It sat quietly there for a moment as infected scavengers ran toward it. Tharnen lifted the detonation device in his hand, and thumbed the trigger.

  The explosion began as a brilliant flash of white light, instantly consumed by a rapidly expanding fireball. Sound rocked the tower, shaking the ground and causing the bridge to screech. Shockwaves kicked stones and dust into the air. Red flames swirled outwards, consuming the crystal in an explosion that stretched a thousand feet into the air.

  The crystal, and the bridge it had grown across to the island, shattered, splitting into twinkling splinters in the instant before being eaten by the flames. Everything within one-hundred yards of the crystal evaporated.

  A wave of heat rolled across the plains, dry tufts of grass igniting. Elion ducked down to avoid the scorching wind.

  Smoke billowed up into the clouds, joined by wisps of hundreds of small fires nearby, growing into a louring cloud. Debris rained down, small chunks of rock and earth not vaporized by the initial detonation beating like hailstones on the sheet metal overhead.

  The smoke began to clear. Elion and Tharnen cautiously peered across the gorge. The Shard was gone, a massive crater in its stead. The crater glowed red-hot, superheated stones melted by the blast now resolidifying into a glassy bowl.

  Beneath them, the scavengers had stopped their assault. They lay strewn across the ground as though dead. Some of them certainly were, their bodies or heads smashed open by debris from the explosion.

  Elion panted, clutching his laserarm to his chest. Fresh blood soaked his shoulder and his body trembled, overwhelmed with emotion.