Deadly Wands (33 page)

The realization horrified and elated Billy.
Of all the world’s perversions, why did this have to be his? No
wonder he risked his life so often. It made so much more sense
now.

The dragonfly landed on his penis, which sunk
on its own below water to get the damn thing off. Billy gulped down
more cold water, careful to wait until his ejaculate floated
downstream. The cold water in his stomach made his entire body
numb. The odd sensations put him in a weird trance. Like meditation
after someone whacks your head.

Then the shaking started. This wasn’t the
first time he got the shakes, after barely escaping death, but this
was the worst. His whole body shook as if a demon wanted to get
out. Something warmed his bowels and Billy naturally feared
bleeding in his private parts, then sighed in relief that he had
just involuntarily peed himself. You know you’re in bad shape when
you take pissing yourself as good news.

William liked to take Billy to the beach on
their vacations. One time, Billy tried to take a wave in, only it
tumbled him head over heels, smashing him against sharp rocks.
Thankfully, his dad had told him what to do. Billy relaxed his
breathing to avoid panic and assured himself it’d be over soon. The
more he slowed his breathing, the sooner the shakes subsided.

Billy laid there, not asleep, but not really
awake. Exhaustion took a new form. He had no energy, but the
freezing stream running over his body numbed his burnt nerves. His
eyes mostly closed, he drifted in and out of consciousness, as
unconcerned as those Buddhist monks he once meditated with. He
hummed a song he used to sing with his parents, which brought back
fond memories. He sometimes got so involved watching wand memories
that it felt like he was reliving the moment.

“Thank you for getting Tamerlane for me,
Billy. That was sweet enough to give justice a cavity.”

He looked up and saw his parents, floating
above him, looking good for dead people. “Mama?”

“You’ve been such a good son, Billy. You put
my father on the thrown, helped my family through the dark years,
and avenged our deaths. I’m so proud of you.”

The boy started crying. “I miss you,
mama.”

“We miss you, too, Billy. One day we’ll be
together again. It won’t be the same as before, but it’ll still be
wonderful. But please don’t rush it. I know you’ve been trying to
get killed since my death, but I want you to promise me that you’ll
live longer than Genghis.”

“I promise, mama!”

“I could not have asked for a better son,”
William said, smiling down on him. “You’ve made me the proudest dad
ever. Every day you honor us more. Few children do what they’re
told, but you’ve done even more than we have asked.”

“I’ll never be half the man you are,
papa.”

Dad laughed. “You’re everything I’ve ever
wanted in a son. You even gave us grandchildren. My soul can now
rest in peace, knowing those murderers have not exterminated our
line.”

“Papa, I thought I was gonna die. I don’t
know how I survived.”

“You have a destiny, Billy. One day you’ll
kill the Great Immortal and bring peace and prosperity to the
world. By then everyone will have allied against the Mongols and
it’ll be up to you to stop their extinction as a people.”

“I’m not suppose to kill them all, papa?”

“Their defeat does not require extermination.
Leave a million non-quads to endure a subsistence existence so
foreigners can visit them like depressed lions in a zoo.”

“So I’m not dead? Because I don’t feel so
good.”

Mommy and daddy laughed. “No, Billy. In fact,
you have to go now. The Mongols are energized and your team
demoralized because they believe you’re dead. That girl you like is
gonna get herself killed unless she sees you soon.”

“I love you both so much.”

“We love you, son. Now wake up and go!”

Billy’s eyes were already open, but he had to
blink again to see. Like a drunk after a hangover, he struggled to
lift his weighty bones from the water. He ached everywhere. He felt
really hot and really cold at the same time, what the Spanish call
calor-frio.

The fires around the lake had died out, which
made Billy wonder how long he napped. He felt a cord around his
neck and discovered that he didn’t lose his leather mask. His soggy
boots held his wands, so he took to the air, naked as a bird
without feathers.

CHAPTER 39

Billy flew towards Madrid, but soon noticed a
small firefight below him. It took him a while to figure it out
because it made no sense. Quads were blasting a Spanish military
base, although fireballs are not effective against stone buildings.
Then he noticed how few flew over the base, and how powerful their
blasts echoed. Maybe they weren’t Mongols after all. Well, he
better find out before he started killing people in the dark.
Although it made him feel silly, Billy screamed. The harassment
stopped and fliers shot straight up.

I hope they’re not coming to kill me, Billy
told himself, not yet over his trembling. Then Princess flashed her
signal and his relief nearly choked his wands. He followed her to a
hill overlooking the air base. Quads from several companies looked
incredibly relieved to see him. She hugged him fiercely as soon as
his feet brushed the ground and he yelped like a kicked puppy.
Somewhere behind him he could hear Prince laughing.

“Where the hell have you been?” his
girlfriend demanded. “We saw them dive after you hours ago.”

“It took a while before the shaking
stopped.”

“What’s with the X on your chest? Did some
dude brand you his bitch?” she teased him.

“Very funny. That’s where the fire burned
through my chest plate.”

“They burn your clothes off or are you
messing around on me?” she asked, looking him over from head to
toe, trying to hide how worried she was. “About time you burned
your pubes. Girls should be bushier than boys. Wish you didn’t
scorch my favorite wand, though.”

“I thought I died. My entire body feels both
numb and super-sensitive. What’s going on here?”

“I think they landed to decide what to do.
You apparently killed the commander and the second in command. We
sent for our super-quads near Madrid, in case the bastards run.
They certainly can’t stay or every militiaman in the country will
be here by noon.”

Billy closed his eyes to see the tactical
situation from their viewpoint: “Crap. They’re gonna go home and
drop their bombs on the first big city they fly over.”

Something hit him in the back of the head. He
picked up a very smelly shirt.

“You’re welcome,” Prince shouted.

Billy put on the shirt and walked to his
team, hoping the shirt covered his privates and The General. He
called his penis The General because it liked giving out
orders.

“They’re gonna fly home, so let’s leave them
alone and hope they rest a little longer so our troops have more
time to catch up. We’ll hide ourselves to the east and hit them
when they’ve gotten their hopes up. What’s the next biggest city on
their way to Mongol lines?”

“Cuenca.”

“Princess, bring our super-quads near
Valencia to Cuenca. Mali, get our guys from Madrid. I’m gonna warn
Cuenca’s militia.”

Team Red left, which must have bewildered the
Mongols. Everyone in Cuenca looked awake and in a panic. They found
the mayor’s beautiful wife eagerly bathing the Baron’s body in
lotions and creams in the mayor’s bed while he soaked up his wands
in his sleep. It took Blade three kicks to wake Billy from his
slumber.

“I just dreamed you were queen-regent of
Switzerland after we won the war,” Billy said, trying to shake his
head awake. “Our six children are so beautiful.”

Blade couldn’t believe how instantly wet that
made her, and changed the subject to not dwell on it. “They’re
flying here at maximum altitude in a stacked formation. Our guys
just arrived, but no one knows what to do and we let you sleep as
long as we dared.”

Billy smiled, because he’d have done the same
thing. Bombers spread out in order to drop their munitions, but
most of their troops no longer had bombs to drop, so they put the
few thousand with bombs under them, while everyone else flew over
them in a protective cocoon.

Now Billy stopped smiling, because that was a
tough nut to crack. Seven battalions flying on top of each other.
He had to hit the bombers, or else they’d firebomb an innocent
city. The entire country would then fear the same thing happening
to them, and demand the government pull front line troops back in
useless static defense positions.

“What are we gonna do, genius?” Prince asked
sarcastically. “They expect us to whittle them down from the top.
They’ve probably put their highest fliers in the second row to
surprise us when we hit the top layer. We just don’t have enough
time to get to the actual bombers. If the Spanish blame us, we’ll
look like pariahs instead of heroes.”

“I’ll think of something.”

“Think faster.”

“How are we gonna stop them from dropping
bombs from high altitude on a city?” Prince wanted to know.

“I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”

“You mean you don’t know. Yet. But you’ll
think of something. If only to show off.”

CHAPTER 40

Billy dropped buck naked from the sky in
front of several thousand startled Mongols. Under less lethal
circumstances, it’d have looked hilarious. He flashed his four
wands and gave his signature scream to make sure he had their
attention.

Ten squads broke off to intercept him. He let
them come, before sprinting over them in an arc, which gave him a
controlled freefall to fire four-wand volleys into the mass of
enemies below him. As expected, more squads broke off to drive him
away. He made the most of every second: fire, adjust position,
fire, pop laterally or vertically, fire. He tore big holes in their
top layer as he avoided a few dozen squads chasing him.

A company leader broke off from his battalion
and positioned his hundred fliers to fire down on him. As they
fired, he dove between the top battalion and the one below it so
their fireballs consumed a hundred-square-meter hole in the stacked
formation. Blasts that missed one battalion struck the one
below.

Someone had to later point it out to Billy,
but no one had ever dived between two battalions before. Because it
was insane.

Several hundred quads, flying horizontally
just above him, shot at him. Expecting their fire, he popped
laterally every heartbeat while slicing enemies just below him. The
top battalion thus shot up the battalion below them. He did this
for as long as he could, which turned out to be only six
heartbeats, but it felt like a lifetime. It was like dancing on hot
coals. But he had to get out before the battalion above fell on
him.

His distraction worked beautifully. Red
Company #1 flew straight down fast and fired their first volley
while the top battalion focused on the Baron. His team not only
surprised the Mongols, but the second battalion was in no shape to
assist the top battalion. And probably not highly motivated after
they killed their teammates.

Billy flew out the opposite side of where he
entered and helped his team shoot up the top battalion, who broke
formation to deal with the threat. Team Red turned Mongols into
flaming balls that smashed into those beneath them like fiery
meteors.

Ox got hurt in an earlier fight and could
barely fly, so he found an ideal location to record the battle for
the publicity value. The video swayed the public so much that Billy
assigned people to record all their battles. Billy didn’t expect to
live long, so he wanted to fully document it for posterity.

The next two battalions, in the middle of the
stack, exited on either side and pulled up to confront them.
Billy’s company would soon face four battalions. Or what was left
of them.

Company #10 now flew up from the trees at the
bombers in the lowest level. The problem with attacking someone
from below is that their hand wands already point down. Sure,
alternating between propulsion and shooting messes up the
formation, but that’s a small price to pay for killing enemies who
fly in front of a wand. If the best place to attack someone is from
behind, the worst is from the front. Which is what Company #10 did
now.

The other two battalions carrying bombs then
banked to position themselves on either side of the lowest to
triple their firepower and because they’d soon over-fly their
target anyways. Usually, they would not spread out until just
before dropping their bombs, but the enemies below looked like such
easy targets.

Which was the whole point.

Company #10 spread out and stayed two hundred
meters below them, dodging incoming blasts like target practice.
The textbook counter-move was for the three battalions to drop
fast, enveloping the enemy below, but that’d ruin their bombing
run. They’d wipe out the brave fools below them once they dropped
their load.

But the other super-quads now dived out of
the clouds. Four companies attacked the upper Mongols from four
directions, while the other four companies surprised the bombers
below.

Billy’s gamble paid off. How he used several
hundred to destroy seven thousand would soon appear in battle
textbooks around the world, thanks to Ox’s video.

The three bombing battalions were getting
massacred. No one protected them from above, which was the whole
point of a stacked formation, and they couldn’t even defend
themselves. The middle battalion commander signaled “bomb release”
and “dive” to fall upon the quads below them. The units on either
side quickly followed. They had to rid themselves of their bombs to
defend themselves, which meant going into a controlled freefall, so
they may as well destroy the enemy below them in the same drop.