Standing on a rooftop nearby, a dark robed man began to build rune-script out of the air.
Not far from where Felix stood, bright blue runes popped into being.
Evan stood there, his hands making sharp gestures as perfect, clean runes formed. Rapidly formed.
He was clearly proceeding with his spell in a much quicker fashion than the other man.
No sooner had the rune closed the pattern, than Evan clapped his hands together and shoved them forward. The rune formed a gigantic icicle and sped off towards the black robed man. And went through him.
Crumpling where he stood, the enemy magician tumbled off the roof and disappeared.
Evan wasted no time and started up another spell, the runes coming almost as fast as Lily’s did before he upgraded her.
A rumbling crunch to the left got Felix’s attention as an armored car with a turret mounted on it came into view. It started to fire into the ranks of his people.
Only one round got through before a wall of glowing red runes appeared. It was sloped to force rounds to glance upwards and away, Lily standing at the center of the formation.
Kit stood beside her, and wherever she looked, enemies fell in twitching heaps.
All around him, the forces of Legion battled and held their ground. There was no getting around the fact that Legion were outnumbered.
While everything Legion had had indeed been mobilized, that didn’t mean everyone had already made it here.
And even if it was, Felix and his forces were fighting against multiple enemies. Holding out was a definite, and winning was almost guaranteed.
But it wasn’t assured.
There was a chance it could all fail and fall apart. Most of this entire situation was because of Skipper.
She viewed him as a problem. A hurdle.
He was a rival for Tilen and Skipper City.
But what if he wasn’t?
Hobbling back into the building, Felix wondered if this ploy would work, or doom them.
Yanking off the helmet he tossed it into a corner. With a hop and a graceless flop, he landed back in the computer desk’s chair. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the speaker that was perched in front of the stand of monitors, and thumbed the button to turn it on.
“This is Felix Campbell, head and CEO of Legion. I’d like to parley with Skipper,” Felix said. He could hear his voice amplified over the loudspeakers outside. More than likely it’d be passed back to Skipper.
“If she’d prefer to meet in a virtual space, I’ll be on—” Felix paused to look at the radio nearby to read off what it was set to. “Two-seventy MHz. I’ll be waiting for ten minutes, then assume you want to continue wasting your resources here. I’m sure the federal government is just watching and waiting to make their move. I know I would be.”
Felix let go of the button and picked up the headset, pulling it over his head.
Before he’d even sat there waiting for a minute, Kit entered the room, her helmet clutched under one hand.
“What are you doing?” she asked immediately.
“Hopefully, I’m getting us out of here quickly. I mean, loss of life isn’t a concern for us, but I’d rather not waste resources if we don’t have to. Do you have any idea how much gold it’d cost us if this kept going?” Felix shook his head at thought of it. “No, if I can get us out quickly and easily, that’d be ideal.”
“We’re winning out there. Completely.”
“Of that I have no doubt, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t the possibility of defeat. In this case, I’m going to be risk averse,” Felix said, shrugging his shoulders. “Sit your pretty ass down and keep me company. Maybe you can block her from reading the future. Oh, and here, this’ll catch you up. Also let you listen in technically if she decides to respond.”
With his left hand, Felix opened up the command to allow Kit to read his thoughts.
“Felix,” said a voice over his headset. “What the fuck do you want. Before my army crushes you and your peasants.”
“Not much,” Felix said, pressing down the microphone button. “Though I’m not so sure about you crushing anything. Have you taken a look at your losses yet? I have. Not looking so good. You lose too much more and you won’t be able to fight when they roll over your forces in Tilen and swing to Skipper City.”
“Hmph,” Skipper said, and went silent.
Letting go of the button, Felix laughed. “She’s so obvious. She relies on her power too much. Without it she can barely function. Right now she’s probably trying to get reports on what’s happening here. But your presence might be making it harder or impossible to do it with her power.”
Shaking his head, he laughed again.
“I mean, we already know her infrastructure is garbage. If—”
“Well?” Skipper asked.
“Ah, to be continued, Kit my dear,” Felix said.
He paused for a moment at that comment. His head felt funny, and the pain hadn’t come back yet. Things weren’t feeling quite normal.
Painkillers?
Except right now wasn’t the time to worry about it.
“I was hoping to make you an offer to end this early. I don’t want to sit here murdering your entire army just to pack up and leave when you finally figure it out. So I’ll make you an offer. I have nothing I want in Tilen or Skipper City. I’ll retreat, remove, and release all matters pertaining to Tilen and Skipper City for at least five years. This goes for everyone in my employ as well,” Felix said, dragging a wrist across his brow.
“Un. And what do you want from me. Hm?” Skipper asked.
“I want the same from you that I’m offering. That you’ll have no interest in Legion in any way for five years, and you’ll withdraw from this fight. I want to leave, and the sooner you call your pets off, the sooner I can do so,” Felix said.
Skipper didn’t respond. The line went dead.
Outside, Felix could hear his people continuing their grim work. They’d been able to prep a position that they could hold from.
He wasn’t in a rush. For now, his people held the upper hand.
Silence was his ally.
Always.
“Deal,” Skipper said. It was clear she was frustrated and angry.
“Great. Go ahead and pull your forces back. We’ll be on our way as soon as we can. Legion won’t be your problem by the end of today. Though I recommend not sending people into our buildings. I’m going to demo them,” Felix said. “Signing off.”
Letting go of the button, Felix dropped the headset on the desk. Spinning in the chair, he turned to face Kit. “And there we have it,” he said.
Kit was watching him intently. Her eyes were narrowed as she stared.
Lifting his eyebrows, he waited a beat. “Yes?”
“Nothing,” she said, visibly relaxing. “Should I tell the troops to lay off as they retreat?”
“No. I don’t want to give Skipper a chance to change her mind. We’ll remain vigilant, aggressive, and ready. Though you can go ahead and tell everyone what’s going on,” Felix said.
“Done,” Kit said, still watching him, though not as intensely. “I think when we have some time later, I’d like to sit down and discuss what all happened.”
“We can do that. Definitely,” Felix said, smiling. His head felt light and he wanted to lay down.
Sitting in a room with Kit and watching her as she dissected him didn’t seem like a bad idea down the road. Maybe she’d even wear something fun. He just had to remember to make sure she couldn’t read his thoughts. His minded tended to wander at the best of times.
Wait. Can she read them right now?
Did we turn it on? Or off?
Closing his eyes, Felix pressed his hands to his face and tried to collect himself. He felt like his control was unraveling.
Leaning forward in his chair, he took in a deep breath, and could only smell blood.
His blood.
His leg was soaked in it.