"J. Robert King - Invasion Cycle 01 - Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Robert J)

goatee skyward. "Enough observation. We had best wade in
ourselves."
"Yes," Barrin replied.



30
J. Robert King

The two rose into battle. Azure crystals embedded in
their power armor lifted them with the silent alacrity of
bubbles through water. This was not so much flight as
levitation, keyed directly to the minds of the suits' wearers.
Soon the wind set up complaint at their passage. It tore at
shoulders and wrung cloaks. No one was supposed to rise
this quickly, not even a mage master and a planeswalker.
They had planned greater affronts to nature.
Barrin swept his battle staff through three arcs. Blue
energy formed a sphere of protection around him. It was
barely complete when a great tarry fist of black mana struck
the shield. Dark energy spattered the sphere and crawled
around it.
Pressing his lips together in irritation, Barrin whirled
his staff again. It peeled back the shield as though it were
an orange rind. He gathered the black-dripping shards of
blue energy, mixing the colors. Swinging the staff in a final
wide arc, he flung the glittering ball up to impact the belly
of the third cruiser.
The ball tore through plates of metal to rip open a
barrack. Out tumbled Phyrexians, cockroaches from a
rotten log.
Urza meanwhile dodged red blasts from a ray cannon as
he approached the cruiser.
The shots grew more precise. The gunners worked with
frantic fury. One gunner had once been a human. Now it
was a tortured thing of crisscrossed cables and gearwork
implants. It caught Urza in its sights and fired. Red fury
belched from the smoldering barrel of the cannon.
Urza lifted leathery gauntlets and deflected the hot
plasma as if flinging away globs of wax. Heedless, he
neared. Another volley spewed from the machine. This
time, Urza caught the killing stuff and hurled it back at the
gunner.


31
Invasion

Gaseous plasma struck its tortured face. Its head
collapsed like a balloon. It slumped in the straps of the