Chapter 57 - Tower Defense

  The devastation was epic. Of the tower itself, there was nothing left. The few Karabos forces still alive didn’t look like they’d be back in the fight anytime soon, either. I swung back over to the building where I'd left Alex and picked him up.

  "Last one," I said.

  "Right. Let's try to make sure this one goes smoothly?" Alex replied.

  "I think the last two went okay."

  "Sure, if you count being almost blown up by the explosion of the first tower and having both of us almost electrocuted on our approach to the second tower as okay," Alex shot back. When I opened my mouth to reply, he held up both hands in a placating gesture. “Listen, it was fine. We're all learning as we go, here. But let's play it smart and safe, this time."

  "I get it. That's why I attacked the second tower with the SUV."

  "That was smart," Alex replied. "I'm not saying we screwed up. I'm just saying that there's too much on the line for us to be giving this anything but our best. I don't know how much you've thought about this, Cameron, but we can afford to lose the entire city of Boston more than we can afford to lose you. You get that, right?"

  I blinked, staring at him like he'd said something in a language I didn't understand. "What are you talking about?"

  "Seriously?" Alex asked. He looked me dead in the eye and went on. "You are far and away the strongest and most magically endowed human in the city. You're probably one of the strongest in the world, right now. The sort of head start you had? Most of us didn't get that. I'm probably the second strongest person we have, and I'm not even close to where you are. We cannot afford to lose you in this fight. Not if humanity is going to have a shot at surviving this.”

  I heard him and wanted to push back. I wasn't used to thinking that way. All my life, I'd tried to be helpful to people. I'd tried to be useful and do the right thing, whenever I could. But I had always been a very small player in what I recognized was a very big game.

  What Alex was saying was, that had all changed, now. He was right about how strong I was compared to everyone else here. None of the police defending the city could hold a candle to either of us, and of the two of us, Alex was the weak one. I'd done some incredible things over the last couple days and saved a whole lot of people in the process. All of that was good, and I wasn't going to stop taking risks if doing so would help others.

  But Alex was right, too. If I went down in this fight, Boston was doomed. I was our only chance at taking down those towers, and I was probably our only chance at fighting whatever the Karabos came at us with next, too.

  "I hear you," I told him. "Now hear me, too. You're right. I agree. If I die out there, then probably the whole city goes down with me. I'm not stupid, Alex. But I'm not going to stop fighting for people, either."

  "I'm not asking you to. I know you wouldn't, even if I did, so I won't try. But…" Alex added, "I have a few ideas that might help you stay in one piece through this next phase of the mission."

  I grinned at him. “Now that is what I like to hear. I'm all ears!”

  Soon, we lifted off and were on our way again. The third tower stood in the little green space slotted between Congress and Pearl Streets. I couldn't remember the name of the place, but I'd watched people doing yoga there in the mornings enough times as I walked past. Now, everything had changed. The once beautiful park was entirely underwater. It was only a couple of feet deep, but at the rate the tower there was putting out more fluid, I knew that wouldn't last long.

  This time, we followed Alex's plan to the letter. Instead of coming in from a high angle, Alex suggested we drop to almost ground level a couple of blocks out. Flying low was more difficult. I had to pay a lot more attention to where we were going so that we didn't smack into a lamppost or a sign. But it also made us much less visible.

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  As we came in on our final approach toward the park, we stayed low, and got fast. I poured on every ounce of speed I had, turning the wind into a shrill, shrieking sound as we streaked forward just half a dozen feet above the ground.

  There was a little building on the south end of the park. Before all this, it housed a tiny coffee shop, but Alex was confident it was far enough from where the tower had been constructed that he would be safe there, so that was our destination. We stayed low and fast, and I dropped him on top of the roof before rocketing my way back skyward again.

  Of course, that got the attention of every Karabos in the park. They all came running, several of them firing off spells my way without effect. That let Alex see precisely which of them had long-range attacks, so he could target them with his own spells. His first Ice Blast struck a Karabos spellcaster directly in the chest, taking him down.

  They reacted fast to his attack. Every enemy in sight rushed Alex's position. I watched the Peristera who’d come with us move to harass the Karabos platoon as it advanced, but they weren't going to be enough to stop all of them on their own. Fortunately, they didn't have to. They were the distraction. I was the real attack.

  I darted back down to street level. And picked up the biggest car I could find. It was a big BMW something-or-other, heavy and full of steel. With a grunt, I got the thing hefted above my head, and seconds later I was airborne with the heavy load.

  I flew the car up to about the same height as the nearby buildings, then straight forward until I was directly above their Karabos tower. As I looked below, I realized not all of the enemy troops had been drawn off by Alex's ruse. Most of them were trying to assault the little shack he was defending, but four of them had remained behind. Those four now circled the tower, and they were chanting something. I was new to this whole magic thing, but I knew it when I saw it.

  As I got the car directly above them, I spotted something that looked like a translucent blue bubble appear around the tower and the four spellcasters guarding it. I didn't know what I was looking at, but I knew that couldn't be good. Was it some sort of shield?

  I decided it just didn't matter. If it was a shield, I needed to find a way to punch through it, and dropping the car on it was as good a first attack as any. Once I was positioned just right, I let the BMW go.

  It tumbled end over end, finally striking front first against the flickering blue bubble. There was a bright flash of light as it hit. The front of the car compressed like an accordion, its weight driving it down into what was definitely a powerful shield spell. What was left of the car slid down the side of the bubble and crashed into the ground in a heap of shattered metal.

  "Not good," I said.

  What would Alex do? There had to be a way to get through that thing. Should I try hitting it with something bigger and heavier? The trouble with that was, the BMW had been closing on the maximum weight I could carry for any decent distance. Beyond that, all the flying and lifting I'd been doing was starting to put some strain on my mana pool. I could manage a few more lifts, but even if I could find something sufficiently large, it might be difficult to get it to the right spot.

  Besides, the Karabos force going after Alex had already surrounded his shack. He still had the Peristera helping defend him, but he was clearly in trouble and needed more backup. I wanted to end this as quickly as possible, and there was only one way I could see to do that.

  The Karabos spellcasters below braced themselves for my next attack. They figured I'd come at them again, maybe drop something else heavy on them. Instead, I did the opposite. I flew directly upward as fast as I could.

  Higher I soared, pushing myself to gain more altitude than I'd ever attempted before. In seconds, the city had fallen away below me. The combatants fighting in the park were smaller than ants in my vision. In half a minute, I was soaring so high that I shot directly through a cloud. Finally, I figured this had to be enough. The air was thinning, making me suck in big lungfuls in attempts to get enough of it. At that point, I turned around, aimed my head and fists toward the ground, and poured on the speed again.

  Just like I'd never gone so high before, I'd never even approached the speed that I hit on the descent. By minimizing my air resistance and using Earth's gravity as an assist, I vastly increased my velocity. The wind whistled past me, then shrieked, and finally howled.

  I shot back through the clouds, falling faster than any meteorite. The wind buffeted me, trying vainly to pull me off course. I remained fixed on my destination, locked in on my target as it grew ever larger below me.

  This wasn't what Alex and I had discussed at all. I was taking a serious chance. If my Natural Armor wasn't strong enough to resist the impact, if the shield was stronger than the magics protecting me, then I would end up a crumpled ruin just like the BMW. But I couldn't think of another way. Not one that would break the shield and let me save Alex before the Karabos overran his position and killed him.

  The shimmering shield was directly in front of me. I doubled down, pushing every ounce of energy I could into flying just a little bit faster. Then I closed my eyes just before I connected with the shield, praying that everything I had would be enough.