Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2), Kal Aaron [book recommendations based on other books .txt] 📗

down on Antoine’s leg. Its fangs bounced off after leaving a tear in the regalia. He slammed his staff into its head and blew it into bloody chunks.

“I’m glad I used those potions already.” Antoine laughed. “That could have seriously hurt, and I don’t want to get poisoned this week.”

A large group of acid-spitters charged through a pile of bodies near the entrance, knocking them out of the way and spraying wildly, as if desperate to kill at least one human. Lyssa shifted from one monster to the other with lethal determination, taking them down with single well-placed shots.

Aisha’s bright aura had dimmed but not disappeared. She thrust her palm forward and shot out a flame blast that flew right into the mouth of an acid-spitter. The creature fell forward, smoke drifting from its mouth. Lyssa didn’t want to think about what it might smell like without Antoine’s spell.

“This is endless!” Aisha shouted. “How many of these things can there be?”

“We’re winning. They made that big push, but fewer are getting through.” Lyssa loaded explosive mags into both guns and unleashed her version of explosive hell.

The overlapping blasts joined Aisha’s, sending monsters and their parts into the air. Thick smoke choked the area, but Lyssa kept her guns pointed toward the exit and continued firing. The squeals and shrieks of dying lizards resounded.

An acid glob flew from the smoke and hit Lyssa’s shoulder. She fired two explosive rounds in that direction. Scorched, flaming lizard chunks shot out of the smoke.

Ryan had advanced until he was on the front line between Aisha and Lyssa. He’d not escaped unscathed, having tears and acid holes all over his regalia, along with reddened skin and blood dripping from a claw wound in the front. He’d all but made a fort out of the dead monsters in front of him.

Lyssa had a lot of respect for melee specialists, especially in this kind of situation. She might like the batons on occasion, but she was a gun girl at heart.

“Most of the small ones are gone,” Antoine said. “But there are two large ones behind them.”

“Everyone back to the hatchery,” Lyssa shouted, unsure if Aisha would listen. “We need more room to maneuver and better visibility.”

Ryan jogged backward and decapitated a couple of snake-roaches who had mistaken their retreat as an opportunity. Though the heavy-breathing Aisha continued shoving out fire blasts for a moment longer, she shot backward, flames coming out of her palms and feet, and landed in the hatchery.

Lyssa ceased firing blindly into the thick cloud of smoke and dust swallowing half the queen’s chamber. She waited for lizards and snake-roaches to emerge from the water to put them down.

Aisha took a moment to catch her breath. Her flame shield had dissipated, though only minor tears marred her regalia. Constant sorcery had its costs.

Ryan pointed his hilt toward the roof of the queen’s chamber. Another whine preceded cracks shooting through the top. Large chunks of the cave roof fell into the diminished horde’s front line and crushed monsters.

“Don’t bury us,” Aisha cautioned.

“I know what I’m doing,” Ryan replied.

Antoine laughed. “Famous last words.”

The constant shrieks had dropped to a desperate few as the enemy continued trying to get to their tormentors. Lyssa downed the newer targets with deliberate slowness, more worried about whatever larger monsters Antoine sensed.

Dead monsters filled almost every spot in the pool not already filled by the dead queen. Lyssa took slow, deep breaths before swapping her empty magazines for penetrator rounds. She was doing all right this time for ammo, a combination of more consideration and the other Torches doing a good job of killing their targets.

A roar echoed throughout the connected chambers, and something crashed through the obscured entrance. Its huge shadow marked the creature in the cloud before it stepped into the pool, crushing its brethren beneath its feet.

Lyssa had been expecting a queen or a giant lizard, but the massive beast looked more like a tank-sized black panther covered in thick bony plates. An identical-looking partner joined the monsters. Like all other monsters they’d fought, they had no eyes.

“Why aren’t these things attacking one another?” Aisha asked.

“Who knows?” Lyssa pointed both guns at one panther. “Who cares? Antoine, is that it?”

He shook his head. “Now that we cleared out all those other monsters, I can sense more living things past the third chamber.”

“Damn it.” Lyssa took a deep breath. “This is beginning to get annoying.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Lyssa put two penetrators into the face of an armored panther. The creature roared and reared back on its hind legs. She would have preferred a quick death, but at least she now knew she could hurt it.

Aisha took the chance to launch two fire blasts into its stomach, but the thick armor there kept it from being a kill shot. The force of the blasts knocked the monster over, but it quickly hopped to its feet and roared again.

The second panther bounded toward Antoine. He clubbed the monster with his staff, but true to his prediction about armored foes, nothing happened. Another swing followed, causing no more damage than before.

With a loud growl, the panther batted him away. He flew backward and crashed into a rock mound with a loud grunt.

Lyssa ran toward the panther attacking Antoine and fired three rounds in rapid succession to draw its attention. It bounded toward her and swiped, but she ducked the blow and rolled beneath it.

She rapid-fired both pistols into the monster’s exposed stomach. The rounds knocked out chunks of armor, and blood streamed from the wounds. It let out a loud howl of pain and lurched away.

Lyssa rolled to her side and jumped to her feet. She thought she was clear until the panther kicked its back legs and launched her through the air. She snapped her guns toward the monster and emptied the rest of her magazines before landing with a splat in a group of mangled lizard corpses. The panther spun and let out a spittle-flecked roar.

“I’ll keep this one distracted,”