War by Ino Lee

Author:Ino Lee [Lee, Ino]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-01-10T22:00:00+00:00

Lu-feng carried a giant spear across the rooftops, running swiftly with a gang of Shaolin warriors in tow. The tip of his weapon was sharp and barbed, with ten separate rope lines tied near the bottom. He draped two rope bundles over each shoulder, careful not to get tripped up by the cordage; one misstep could cause him to tumble off the rooftops, or worse yet, throw off the timing of their well-coordinated attack.

The view up high was vastly different than the one on the ground: this was a sea of tile and wood, both flat and angled, red, gray, and the color of earth.

The Shaolin warriors bounced onto a final building before facing their greatest obstacle—a gap across the street. Lu-feng waited for the warriors to fall within proper spacing before turning them loose.

“Together.”

They raced to their fullest, then powered through a leap. Air passed beneath their feet, the sun hit their backs, and time seemed to slow. The rooftop of the offending building loomed large. Somewhere on the ground below, a procession of invaders was mobilizing.

Lu-feng was the first to land. He raced toward the center of the building and leapt again with greater height than distance, thrusting his spear down upon landing. He made sure the barbed end stuck solidly before letting the other Shaolin warriors gather around and grab a line.

They fanned out in separate directions, aiming for a spot directly above a second-floor window, then propelled their bodies off the rooftop, hanging onto rope and using their momentum to swing around and crash through the shutters. The room flooded with afternoon sun.

Inside, ninjas scrambled. A second round of Shaolin warriors came through the windows to join the raid as several unan rallied with tonkaijas.

Crashes could be heard below as assault forces stormed in from the lower floor. The entire building shook with activity, and soon after, smoke bombs ignited to shroud everything in a cloud of chaos.

Shian sheered through the haze with her gleaming staff and spotted the Koon Gee pulling back into a staircase.

“Where are they going? Pursue them!”

The warriors rushed down the steps to a lower level, but when they landed, the Koon Gee were nowhere to be seen. The small room was barren except for a locked door, which the soldiers attempted to knock down.

“Stand back!” Shian said.

She came running through with a charged staff and pummeled the door off its hinges, revealing the entrance to a tunnel.

“A tunnel?” she said incredulously. “There is a tunnel!”

She cast light and then started cautiously moving down the path. Rough wooden support beams held up the earth and looked like they could buckle at any moment. She wondered how far the tunnel went and how the Koon Gee were able to secure such an escape, when a rumbling noise permeated the enclosure. Dirt fell from the ceilings.

“Turn back,” she mentally projected.

Word of the tunnel passed up through the building to Riyon on the street, who was made to administer the assault from afar because of his elder status.

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