The encampment was in confusion, thousands of dark, surging figures. Small, black beams swung at me, mingled with the fire-rings. A light-flare burst over my head. Shouts, a rush of dim figures to avoid me; one of my birds was struck. I cut it loose. It fell.
But I was not halted; a minute or two of swift flight, the barrage went dark as I sprayed it with the Frazier beam and the blue fire. I came to the giant projector of the black ray; it shriveled, fused. Its gunners vanished under my blast.
The air was acrid with metallic gases and the smell of burning human flesh. But Talon’s shoreline was dark, devastated. Another of my birds wavered; I urged them all upward. Fire-rings rocked my platform with their detonations. But I was rising. They fell away. The shouts of confusion lessened, melted beneath me.
I was over the water again, safe beyond the lines. The barrage was gone. The giant black beam was destroyed. I tried to tune in for Maxite, could not get him. But I got Jim.
“Forward! Attack now! Swiftly, Jim, with all you’ve got!”
Then I got Maxite. “Order the attack!”
I could not get his image. My controls were disabled, or the atmosphere was overcharged. But I heard his triumphant voice. “We’ll get them, Leonard, get them now!”
The storm from the north broke with fury; no rain, but a blast of wind, sizzling lightning bolts, and the roar of thunder.
Jim had evidently abandoned his windblast. His forces were dashing forward. A spray of the violet needle beams curved up before him.
Talon’s line was answering. Fire-rings were floating up. Black rays were waving. The two lines, came together as Jim’s army rushed forward; the rolling hills off there were a confusion of darting lights and crossing rays, myriad mid-air explosions.