Retreating wasn’t much of an option. Even if they started running now, the only way to go was out along the back road. Running out the front of the building would pinch her between Arachne’s main force and her current attackers. Along the back road, they’d be forced to run and find a hiding place in some other building. And her dullahan-bears were not faster than the bugs out in the open.
“You,” Eva said, pointing towards the scout, “you’re in charge of the goblins.”
The female vampire-cat grimaced, but nodded. That was understandable. The goblins were menaces.
“Gather them up and loop them around the side. Keep them quiet and out of sight until they’re fully engaged with us. Then start taking them out, one by one, starting with the ones furthest in the back. If any go off on their own, take them out.” Eva paused to take a breath. “Can you do all that?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said with a salute. Before her hand touched her forehead, she was already sprinting off towards the goblins.
Eva sighed. The vampires were easily the more intelligent of her soldiers. Yet she had so few.
She turned towards the third vampire-cat. “You get the bears into cover, ready to charge out and intercept the enemy. Once they’re in place, return to my side.”
“Including the injured one, ma’am?”
Hesitating for just a moment, Eva nodded. If there were eight of the things coming for her, she’d need her full force. Even if that meant fighting while injured. “Him as well.”
The third vampire-cat nodded and ran off without so much as a salute.
Eva would berate him if he survived.
“And us, commander?”
Eva glanced around the burnt building. Other than a few tipped over wooden desks on the ground floor–most of which had large holes in them from the acid spitting bug things–there wasn’t much in the way of cover. With a quick thought, she stepped straight to the second floor balcony.
At least, it looked like a balcony. The way the fire ate away some of the wood made it look like it a balcony, but the wall ran right up along the edge of the floor. Another series of desks was piled in one, mostly unburnt corner.
After looking around for a moment, her lieutenant spotted her. He jumped, gripped the side of the pillar, and bounced off straight up and landed on the edge.
Some of the charcoal cracked and fell beneath one of his paws. With feline grace, he caught himself and casually brushed himself off.
“We’ll have to watch out. They might try to collapse the floor.”
“True,” Eva admitted. It wasn’t ideal–nowhere was–but it could be made better. “If we pile up some of those desks along the walls, they’ll be a lot better than anything on the ground floor.”
“I suppose.”
“You’ll be a lot happier with more stuff between us and any globs of acid coming our way,” Eva said as she started moving one of the desks against the wall. “Trust me.”
“You’re the commander,” the lieutenant said in a tone that very clearly implied that he was only following orders.
“Alright then.” Eva finished piling a desk on top of the first before turning to the vampire. “What would you do instead?”
The lieutenant kicked one desk against the opposite side of the burnt-out opening in the wall with a grunt. “I don’t mean to counter your orders,” he hedged, “but between your teleportation and our natural graces, we are highly mobile.”
Eva gave a quick aside glance to the ground floor of the building. The place was a mess. Pockmarks of melted wood and earth dotted the entire landscape. And they had taken out all the acid spitters in the initial ambush. Only one managed to get more than one volley of the corrosive gunk out before one of the vampires managed to shove some fire down its throat.
Her bears were almost assembled by the looks of things. Two were well concealed behind a stack of boxes near the edge of the building. The vampire-cat assigned to the task appeared to be directing a third to a spot.
“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 yanked him behind cover just as the first drops of acid started landing. A few droplets splattered against the carapace covering her hands, but it fizzled out before penetrating the tough chitin.
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 world answered her in another manner.
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 will collapse our building, commander.”
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.