Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2) by Kal Aaron (ebook reader for manga .txt) 📗

with her first battle, the monsters didn’t react to their heavy losses as they continued their relentless surge toward the invader. In some cases, they tripped and stumbled over the bodies of other snake-roaches, oblivious to the deaths of their allies.

Lyssa emptied her regular magazine before aiming her other pistol and squeezing off three quick shots spread out along the closing monster line. The thunderous blasts from the explosive rounds shredded the monsters and blasted bits, slime, and sludge all over.

The horde stopped and began moving back and forth as if confused. She didn’t think it was fear, but she’d take any distraction to reload while trying to not worry about them demonstrating another more aggressive charging behavior.

Lyssa tossed her other pistol in the air and yanked out another standard magazine before catching the falling pistol with the mag. She slammed them both against her leg to force the magazine into the weapon.

The click from the gun snapped the horde out of their daze. They returned to their mad charge, but she was ready for them.

“Eat this,” she shouted.

Lyssa carved a path through the chamber by emptying half her explosive magazine into the monsters. The thunderous echo assaulted her ears. Hot chunks blasted from the rocks at the center of the mounds, cutting into the snake-roaches like shrapnel, wounding some and killing others. The enemies' numbers were plummeting rapidly.

The horde slowed but didn’t stop. After a moment, they scurried toward the opposite end of the chamber, forming a writhing, angry mass. She growled in irritation. This encounter was starting to lose its charm.

Lyssa stepped forward so she’d have more room to maneuver. She peppered the chamber with shots, concentrating on small snake-roaches. The larger ones had yet to move toward her, but her explosive rampage hadn’t yet damaged any of the eggs in the center of the chamber.

With the cessation of the blasts, the swarm surged toward her again. She emptied the rest of her explosive magazine to disrupt their front lines. This time her attack also blew apart two of the eggs. A group of large snake-roaches leaped off the mounds to join the attack.

Every creature had its limits. It was bittersweet being right about their trigger.

“Fine!” Lyssa shouted. “Let’s do this. Join the party, you freaks.”

Although they were bigger, the new threats were slower, and to Lyssa’s surprise, their opened mouths combined with that same size made them not much harder to put them down than their smaller cousins. It took two bullets down the gullet instead of one to send them to their twitching demise, but the first at least slowed them. Their size interfered with them lining up for easy combos.

Lyssa’s gun went dry, and she loaded her pistols with her last two explosive magazines. She waited for a moment as the snake-roaches rushed toward her, their angry fangs waiting to chomp on a new meal.

Their numbers were dwindling, and they’d not gotten a nip on her. This battle was hers.

“Come on,” she shouted. “Get closer together, you slimy bastards. Make it worth it. This is getting expensive, and I’m going to have to air my regalia out for a week!”

Lyssa moved toward one of the few sections of the wall without tunnels. No more monsters had poured into the cave after the start of the battle, but she didn’t want to take the chance of an ambush from behind. A controlled defensive position was key to her current strategy.

Large and small snake-roaches rushed toward her side by side, all but crawling over one another. They’d lost their fear of the explosions from earlier, but she had enough ammo to take them down. It was time to finish this cleaning job.

Lyssa pointed her pistols toward the center of the horde and fired. The large blast born of both rounds incinerated a group of monsters and knocked over those nearby. The first blasts had barely finished before she added new ones. She drew an arc with both pistols, taking a shot every few yards. The entire chamber rattled from the near-constant explosions. It’d been a long time since she’d used this level of force.

Flames ripped through the creatures, leaving crispy, twitching monster chunks on the ground. Shockwaves and fire tore into the eggs, blasted them apart, and splattered their milky contents over the remainder of the monster horde.

Smoldering rocks rained down all over, some smacking into Lyssa and stinging but not doing much damage to her regalia. She completed her first arcs and swept her guns back toward the center, continuing to fire.

Scorched, half-burned monsters tried to move forward. Their undamaged brethren surged over them, pressing them into the ground as they tried to close on the source of their doom.

The percussive drumbeat of death continued until her gun ran dry. The final fall of rubble striking the chamber offered a clear coda. Her ears rang.

Acrid smoke filled the area. Lyssa coughed and waved it out of her face. She ejected her magazines and slapped in fresh standard magazines, believing it was over but unsure.

She peered into the chamber through the smoke, looking for any sign of movement. On the off-chance the enemy couldn’t see her or was trying to surprise her, she decided to lure them out.

“I don’t like this new smell, but I do think it’s an improvement over the one before,” she shouted. “Anyone who’s still hungry should come get a taste while you still can. Tasty Sorceress! I probably taste just like chicken.”

“Is this wise?” Jofi replied. “And do they know what chicken tastes like?”

“Probably not wise, and they probably don’t know what chicken tastes like. Even if they do, maybe they don’t like it.” Lyssa shrugged. “But I think that might be all of them. That wasn’t as hard as I thought. Expensive and obnoxious, but not hard.”

“Didn’t you say that before?” Jofi asked. “Only to find a much larger number of enemies?”

Lyssa groaned. “No one likes a smart ass or someone who says ‘I told you so.’”

She kicked the smoking decapitated