Elfhome

As Tommy mulled over his problem, the oni started to fuss with their prisoner. He couldn’t tell what they were doing to her, but the female, who had silently taken their rough treatment, started to scream in terror. Spot cowered, pressing close to Tommy, and looked pleadingly up at him. Obviously the boy expected him to do something. Oh, hell. He really wished he’d brought Bingo.

“Stay.” Tommy checked his pistol. “If something happens to me, go home.”

He worked his way down to the clearing, trying to remain calm. The silencer made his pistol wildly inaccurate, but he had no hope of keeping his true position secret without it. He would need ice coolness to pull this off. His oni father could have clouded the mind of all the warriors, walked through the clearing unseen, and killed them at leisure. But he didn’t have his father’s ability to mask a moving object from multiple beings. And his father wouldn’t be moved by the whimpers of a child.

“This is so stupid,” Tommy whispered to himself. He reached out with his ability and grabbed hold of the oni’s minds. It was like trying to hold a dozen large marbles in his hands, shifting around, nearly spilling out of control. Just trees, he fed the image into their thoughts, erasing himself from the landscape, nothing else.

Jewel Tear’s hands were bundled up with leather to keep her from casting spells. While Tommy had shifted positions, the oni stripped off the covering and now were tying Jewel Tear’s arms straight out, hands splayed, so they could amputate her fingers. A domana without fingers could do no magic, and she would be forever harmless. Apparently Kajo hadn’t trusted the lesser bloods that infiltrated Ginger Wine’s enclave to carefully maim the elf without killing her. Considering the carnage that the oni left behind, it’d been wise of Kajo. This new set of guards, though, could do the job right.

Fighting to stay focused, Tommy stood still and aimed at the oni holding the elf. He missed the first shot, making the oni flinch aside as the bullet whine past his ear. The second bullet caught the warrior behind the ear and he went down. The other oni holding Jewel Tear had been focused on the elf, and had missed any sign of the first shot. He looked over at his fallen leader with surprise and took the third bullet in the throat.

The oni started to react to Tommy’s attack, but they couldn’t tell where he was. Jewel Tear scrambled to her feet and bolted into the woods. Tommy locked down on a curse, which would have given away his position. He didn’t need her finding more trouble. He had enough here in the clearing. At least she served as a distraction, the oni were reacting as if they thought she must be running to their attacker. Three charged after her. He managed to kill two, but the third vanished into the trees.

“There’s just one.” The leader identified himself. He’d taken cover on the wrong side of a tree, shielding himself against attackers in the direction that Jewel Tear ran.

Tommy crouched down as they scanned the wrong direction and took careful aim.

“I don’t see any…” The second-in-command glanced to the leader as Tommy’s bullet sprayed blood and brains against the tree trunk. “Behind us!”

Tommy froze in place, trying to not even breathe, as the warriors whipped around, leveling guns in his direction. None were pointed directly at him.

Empty clearing. He held on as tight as he could to their minds. Six was easier than twelve, but they were still slick and unwieldy in his hold. Nothing to see.

“Where is he?” The nearest growled to the second-in-command.

They were clumped too close together. There were six tight around him and he only had four bullets left. They’d cut him to ribbons before he could change his clip.

Carefully, he fed them the image of someone darting through the trees, running from them.

“There!” One bayed and leapt after the phantom image. A second and third were quick on his heels.

“Idiots!” The second-in-command shouted. “There’s no…”

Tommy shot him. The first bullet hit the male in the left shoulder. The oni roared with pain, lifting up his machine gun and open fired blindly. The others aimed in Tommy’s general direction and fired.

Dust, lots of billowing dust, something staggering to the right as bullets slammed into it.

Tommy gritted his teeth, staying still as the bullets tore up the ground beside him, spraying him with dirty and bits of stones. He emptied his clip into the second-in-command, dropping him. After that, he could only wait until the other two warriors reached the end of their clip, hoping they didn’t hit him.

As he hoped, they both emptied their guns at the same time. For one moment, they lost their focus as they changed their clips. He ejected the clip from his pistol, slammed a fresh clip home, and gave them a new image.