“And we want to see you smite a monster,” added Red Cap, rocking back and forth so fervently on his feet that I thought he might burst from excitement.
“Scram, kiddos, or I’ll smite you.” I forced a burst of silver magic to flash inside my eyes.
Red Cap grinned from ear to ear. “Will you really? Oh, please! I’ve never been smited by an angel before.”
“It’s ‘never been smitten’, not ‘smited’,” the Legion card collector told him.
“You are the one smitten with Leda Pandora.” Red Cap took on a high-pitched squeak, what I could only guess was supposed to be reminiscent of his friend’s voice. “Oh, Angel of Chaos, will you sign my playing car? Oh, Angel of Chaos, I looove you always.”
I dropped my rocks and grabbed the boys by their collars. I lifted them over my head. I was tempted to clunk their heads together too, but they were human and I was worried I might give them a concussion.
“Ok, here’s how this is going to play out,” I told them coolly. “When I put you down, you’re going to run straight home as fast as your legs can carry you. Otherwise, I’m going to use you as bait to lure the monster out of hiding. And then, if you miraculously survive that, I’m going to charge you with impeding an official Legion investigation. Got it?”
“Got it,” Red Cap said meekly.
The Legion card collector nodded vigorously. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.”
I put the boys down. Thankfully, they didn’t call my bluff. As soon as their feet hit the ground, they were off.
“I can’t believe she threatened to feed us to the monster!” Red Cap shouted to his friend.
“I know!” replied the Legion card collector. “This is so cool! We were threatened by the Angel of Chaos!”
“But no one will ever believe us! We should have taken a video!”
“Wanna turn back and see if she’ll threaten us again?!”
I launched a fire ball in their direction, aiming it just close enough to make them think twice about coming back. The boys yelped, then ran away faster.
Leila watched them go. “Leda, you sure have a way with children.”
I sighed.
“I think the monster ran off too,” she said.
I turned in a slow circle. “It went that way.” I pointed deeper into the supply yard.
“How do you know?”
“Just following the stench of burning oil.”
“The monster smells like burning oil?”
“Yeah.” I grabbed some more rocks. “Can’t you smell it?”
“No.”
“Well, then I guess I’m just crazy.”
Leila laughed. “Basanti is right. There’s never a dull moment with you.”
“I wish I could believe that’s a compliment.”
She laughed again. “Let’s just take care of this monster before any more of your fans find you.”
We walked until the monster’s scent trail stopped outside a pair of wooden outhouses. I wasn’t sure if the monster was really here. The odors wafting out of numerous cracks in the outhouse walls were interfering with my nose. I threw around a few rocks just to be sure.
An enraged snarl told me I’d hit something other than construction materials. Paws pounded across the ground, and a pile of crates toppled over. I aimed my next rock at the spilled crates, soliciting another snarl from the invisible monster. We were close. As I moved in, Leila circled around to approach it from behind.
I signaled Leila. She fired off a stream of fire. It hit the monster, lighting it up for a moment. That gave me a good look at what we were dealing with, and the sight wasn’t pretty. The yellow-eyed monster looked like a behemoth panther coated in massive metal plates.
I grabbed a metal pole and whacked it over the head. Or at least that was the part I’d been aiming for. The beast dodged so fast that my pole hit one of the outhouses instead—and took out a chunk of the wall instead.
The monster charged at Leila, tackling her into a stack of bricks. I shot off a telekinetic blast that knocked it off of her. The beast shook itself, then it went invisible again. I couldn’t see it anymore, but I could feel the ground quaking under my feet as it charged at me. I braced to meet its advance.
“Hit it with fire again, Leila!” I shouted.
This time when she lit up the monster, I knew what to expect. The moment it went visible, I threw an explosive potion at it. The resulting explosion knocked off several of its armor plates. I launched three more potions in quick succession. Two of them hit the beast, but one missed. Instead, the potion bottle shattered against a digger, blowing the vehicle’s door clear off.
The monster spun around and jumped at me. It wasn’t invisible anymore. Our attacks must have damaged it enough to neutralize that ability. Thank goodness. It was much easier to fight something when you could actually see it coming.
But this fight wasn’t over yet. The monster launched a swarm of magic discs at us. They exploded like firebombs on impact. Metal poles, bricks, and heavy machinery shrapnel shot in every direction. The outhouses exploded. Leila and I ducked for cover behind what remained of the digger.
The monster kept moving. It launched its catlike body high in the air and body-slammed Leila to the ground. I grabbed its tail and gave it a hard heave. That got its attention. It turned away from Leila and came at me now. When it launched itself in the air, I knew what was coming. I drew my sword and hoped it would be enough. As the monster slammed into me, I thrust my blade into a gap between two armor plates. The beast landed on top of me.
I must have killed it because it wasn’t moving at all anymore. But neither was I. The monster was so heavy that not even my supernatural strength was enough to free myself.
“Leda?” Leila’s voice called out from beyond the dead monster.
“Here.”
“You’re alive?”
I chuckled. “Try not to sound so disappointed.”
Psychic energy rippled across the monster’s body. It rose a few inches off the ground—then hammered back down. I groaned in pain.
“Are you all right?” Leila asked me.
“Not really.”
“The monster is too heavy to lift with telekinesis. I’m going to try something else.”
In the end, Leila had to use a massive construction crane to get the monster off of me.
“Not the most spectacular end to the fight,” I commented when I was finally on my feet again.
“The monster is dead, and the Earth is safe again. That’s what matters.”
I glanced down at the metal-plated panther. “I wonder how it was able to survive on this side of the barrier.”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “But when I get it back to my lab, I’m going to find out.”
“You might need to rethink that plan, Leila. I doubt that gigantic monster would fit in your lab. And I have no idea how you’re going to get it all the way back to Storm Castle and up the mountain.”
“You’re right.” She glanced up at the crane. “But I can get it to the Desert Rose base. I hope Major Horn doesn’t mind my turning one of his storage facilities into a laboratory.”
I left Leila and the dead monster behind at Desert Rose and boarded my airship. As I flew back toward Purgatory, Leila’s voice echoed in my mind.