There. Several shapes like large, man-sized beetles scuttled through the dense foliage. Glissa waved to the others to slow their approach, and placed a hand over Geth’s mouth, the signal that told him the elf girl would gladly let him drop this instant if he didn’t keep quiet.
The nim hadn’t given any indication it had seen them. Fighting the urge to retch at the fetid smell, she lifted Geth’s ear to her mouth and whispered, “Are they going back to Yert? Or is this the trap?”
“That’s just a patrol,” Geth whispered. “Most of his soldiers are on the front lines. I’d say that’s why you haven’t seen any until now. Lucky you. Those fellows look to be headed back to the Vault, if you ask me.”
“We can follow them,” Glissa said.
“And they say I’m the one with all the brains,” Geth’s head cackled. “Just be sure you get in before the last of them. Those doors don’t dawdle.”
“Then I’ll just make sure the last one never makes it through the door,” Glissa said.
Glissa stuck Geth back onto the pommel and waved Ellasha, Tahk, and Darlosh into whispering range. Half of the day Yert had given them was gone, and it was time to finalize the plan.
Ellasha argued for complete stealth, slipping in with the nim and staying in the shadows. But while Glissa had no doubt the skyhunter commandos had the agility and skill to pull off such a task, as did the elf girl herself, she still didn’t trust Geth. It would be ridiculously easy for the severed head to alert the nim they’d be hiding from. No, they’d best approach stealthily, then surprise the nim and take them out while the doors to the Vault-whatever was left of it after Glissa’s last visit-were still open. That seemed to satisfy everyone’s concerns, though it would not be easy.
They had to set the pterons loose for now, Ellasha insisted. She could always call them back later, and if they kept flying they might overtake the nim. The team had to proceed on foot from here on out.
After another hour of much slower travel, the lead nim finally halted. Glissa heard an alien chittering noise-was that what nim language sounded like? — and saw the wide trunk of the blackened, rust-covered swamp tree in front of the nim split open. An archway big enough for two nim to enter side-by-side took shape, glowing with the light of necrogen lamps mounted on the inner walls of a long tunnel.
“All right,” she whispered, and the leonin turned to her as one. “Let’s go in hard and fast, but don’t take any stupid chances. The important thing is getting through that door. Remember, go for the necrogen tubes. It won’t kill them right away, but they won’t last long without that green stuff pumping into them.”
“We know their vulnerabilities. We have been fighting nim since before you were born,” Ellasha said.
“I doubt it,” Glissa said, stuffing Geth unceremoniously into the pack. “Everyone ready?” she whispered she drew her sword.
Six muzzles nodded in unison, and six silver longblades flashed in the night.
“Go,” Glissa said.
The elf girl reached the nim first, charging in with a wide sweep of her blade that met the hideous creature’s neck just above its armored carapace, slicing neatly through and out the other side. The remaining nim whirled with supernatural speed Glissa had learned to respect and emitted a cacophony of chittering shrieks. Green necrogen tubes glowed as the nim entered the fray, reflexively attacking their attackers. It seemed like odd behavior for the nim, who would follow whatever order they had last been given until they were dead, or received new directives. Apparently, these had been given the order to patrol and retaliate.
Green necrogen glinted on the silver blade of her Glissa’s sword. She wheeled in the tight enclosure near the entrance to the Vault and hacked off another nim head, spraying green necrogen and black ichor onto the tunnel walls.
Ellasha slipped ahead of Glissa and nearly bisected another nim with her silver longknife. The broken nim toppled out of the entrance and slid into the muck, still twitching.
Glissa continued her charge, catching the next nim down the line. Or trying to, anyway. Her blade came down hard on the iron carapace of the scuttling monster and bounced off with a painful clang that made her entire arm numb. The nim, swung around with a massive claw that caught Glissa full in the chest, knocking her back through the doors and into the swamp. The next thing she knew, she was tumbling head over heels through the green mist. She landed head first with an oily splash in the viscous mud.
Something brushed her leg and Glissa scrambled to her feet before whatever it was could take a bite. She still had her sword in her hand somehow, and lashed out at the nearest nim with a cruel uppercut that slit the insectoid nim open like a fish. Greenish-black gore poured out of its open abdominal cavity before the shift in weight sent the nim tumbling onto its heavy back.
Glissa quickly took stock. The leonin were in trouble, and this surprise attack was in danger of turning into a debacle. Ellash, Darlosh, and Tahk were still moving, but the other three skyhunters were being driven steadily back into the Dross. One of the leonin sliced through a necrogen tube with a clawed kick, sending green liquid spouting into the air. The nim attached to the tube swung its vicious arms wildly, and one clean swipe to the leonin’s torso cut the female clean in two. Bright red blood mixed with bilious necrogen as the two foes collapsed into the oily mud.
“No!” Glissa screamed and clambered through the swamp to help her remaining allies. A nim came at her from the side, and she whirled with a low cut that should have taken the creature’s legs off at the knees. Instead, the nim raised an iron claw and effortlessly blocked the strike, then backhanded her across the face. Glissa staggered, the world spinning crazily around her as she struggled to keep her sword and her balance at the same time. She bumped hard into Ellasha, who steadied the elf with one hand without looking.
The two remaining leonin warriors dispatched two more nim simultaneously with wicked slashes of their longknives, but were almost immediately felled under the blows of heavy nim claws. Within seconds, the two were dead, reduced to wet sacks of broken bone.
Glissa saw Tahk and Darlosh, keeping the other nim busy at the Vault entrance, making sure the door didn’t swing shut unexpectedly. And now there were four. Glissa spared a glance at Ellasha. The skyhunter commander nodded in return.
“Charge!” Glissa shouted.
Elf and leonin launched themselves at the undead horrors with all their remaining strength. Glissa found herself facing the same creature that had nearly taken off her head a few seconds earlier. Not the most innovative tactician, the nim again took a swing with one huge claw. The elf girl was ready this time and ducked while bringing her blade down hard on the soft tissue of at the arm’s joint, severing the limb. Before the nim could bring down its other claw, Glissa twirled the blade wide and jammed it upward into the nim’s torso, gratified by the scrape of metal on metal as the blade emerged from the zombie’s iron shell.
Glissa jerked the blade free and rolled to escape the creature’s collapsing corpse, colliding violently with the armored legs of another zombie that had been trying to take her unawares. The nim tumbled forward as the elf girl bowled through its legs. Before the heavy, clumsy monster could regain its footing, Glissa had driven her blade through the back of its head.
Glissa turned to the leonin in time to watch in horror as one of the nim grasped Darlosh’s leg in one lobster claw and swung the commando violently into Tahk, who had been coming in for a strike from the opposite side. Darlosh’s sword impaled Tahk through the soft tissue under her chin and emerged at the top of her head, killing her instantly. A second nim grasped Darlosh, still dazed but alive, by the other leg.
With a sickening series of loud snaps, Darlosh was ripped apart like a wishbone. Her torn corpse showered scarlet gore and leonine guts across the swamp.