Page 80 of Battle Fluke
The first cry she heard blended in with the sounds of the battle. But soon, more strange sounds filled the spaces around her.
Blinking, she shook her head and turned in a circle as the metal monstrosities disappeared from view. They weren’t retreating and parts were being cut and left to drift down to the deep soundings.
Honour blinked again, trying to get her eyes and brain to meet in understanding of what she saw happening in front of her.
Creatures of the sea. All manner of creatures had come and joined in the battle. They swarmed over the krakens, and for a moment, the battling mers were frozen into confusion.
No one had expected this.
Kyree had never mentioned it as a possibility.
Did that mean…?
Honour stopped and flipped toward her troops.
“They’re for the world. Join them and fight our enemies!” Honour screamed as the truth of the situation registered in all its power within her. The hope she had held bloomed again in a strength she didn’t know she still possessed. It overflowed her, and she drove directly toward an open space of metal shining through the beautiful colors of her home creatures.
“Don’t kill our own.” She screamed out even as she slashed her sword down toward another tentacle that had wormed its way free of the squid that had wrapped around the kraken.
The cries were taken up. Echoes of her words. And tones of hope in the war cries that continued to ripple on the waves of the water.
The krakens fell. Not the parts that had been sliced and beat off of the whole, but the creatures themselves. Some were still wrapped up in the deadly embrace of sea creatures, while others were let go. The sea creatures moving onto the next one who dared to come into their home and destroy the lives they lived and the ones they cared about.
“They’re falling back.” The call came down the lines.
Honour watched as the the call gained momentum, and the cheers roared into her ears, a wonderful change from the clashing and clanging of metal.
“The war isn’t over!” She screamed over the crowd.
The call of winning died down as her own words rippled through the mers that remained. Floating bodies were stark reminders of the cost. They drifted between debris of the metal enemy.
“Collect the dead. They deserve the respect and honor of their sacrifice. Those still able will follow me. We’ll follow these monsters until they’re gone from our waters and our world.”
“Yes, Honour!” The call came up, and while several mers peeled away to take care of the dead, the majority lined up at attention waiting Honour’s orders.
As a formidable force, they followed the ripples of the fleeing kraken.
Twice they were stopped as the krakens attempted another line of battle. But each time, creatures of Honour’s world came in and showed these aliens the price of attacking their home.
Mers and creatures fought side by side.
Each time the krakens retreated, their forces became fewer.
Exhaustion weighed upon Honour’s shoulders.
But the war wasn’t over.
She watched as a tentacle faded into the distance. A mechanical nightmare that would haunt the rest of her life. The touch on her arm made her spin, sword ready to dispatch whatever fool approached a general in the middle of battle with a touch and not a word.
“Honour,” Kyree squeaked out.
Honour’s blade stopped mere ripples from Kyree’s body.
“Kyree.” Honour’s blade dropped from her hands, and she wrapped her arms around Kyree’s back.
“Hey now, do I get some of that?” Hudson fake-whined and drew closer.
“Hudson.” Honour’s arms were now around Hudson’s tight body.