Free Champions Battle for the Fate of the Future!: The Wild Finale of (Swords Versus Tanks Book 5) by M Harold Page Page A

with a creak, the twin-headed dragonship rose from its chocks to float above the library floor.
    The Invaders turned towards the sudden movement.
    Jasmine eyes flashed in the lamplight and Ranulph remembered them wide and triumphant as her muscular body undulated under him.
    In an instant, he saw how things would be under the Invaders. True, there would be shameless, fearless women who rutted and fought like men, and were all the more magnificent for it, but nobody would embrace Chivalry because the only individuals who would count would be the schemers and smooth talkers like the Archbishop. Yes, the West was already on the path to becoming the grey-liveried Egality.
    Ranulph hurled the lantern directly at the face of the bookshelves.
    Glass shattered, flame whooshed, and heat seared his cheek.
    Something invisible buffeted Jasmine and twisted the great gun out of her hands.
    Ranulph launched himself at his enemies.
    They raised their weapons. Bullets plucked his sleeve, creased his hair, but none struck home — Ragnar's arrow charm now worked.
    Ranulph's target greeted him with a bayonet thrust.
    He slid past the tip, grabbed the hot barrel and slammed his free hand's heel into the soldier's chin.
    A second bayonet slashed Ranulph's right bicep. Even as the pain blazed, he elbowed the gun aside and drove his left fist into the face of the next soldier — a petite blond girl who tumbled like an acrobat.
    Just as an empty-handed Jasmine turned back to the fray, the third levelled his gun.
    Ranulph slid past and palmed the barrel to the side. It went off with a thunderclap. He pivoted in, kneed the soldier in the belly and stepped over the groaning man.
    The last soldier abandoned her weapon and ran.
    Ranulph let her go.
    Jasmine’s hand dropped to her dagger. Behind her, the defeated soldiers crawled or limped away. There was no sign of Maud, but the flames now licked at the stone vault. Books on the fringe of the flames hissed and steamed, and the fire spread.
    "So, you are tough without the tin cans," she said. "Do we have to fight?"
    Ranulph shook his head. "Duty would force me to draw Steelcutter. You would have the honour, but I the victory."
    Jasmine stepped closer, the firelight dancing in her big eyes. She cocked her head at the burning books. "This is going to fuck up your world. Let me have the fire put out."
    Ranulph put his hands on her hips, and remembered the scent of her perspiration-drenched skin. He laughed. Maud must be watching from somewhere. "I have seen your future." The smoke clawed his throat and he coughed. "I prefer mine."
    "But you don’t know what it holds."
    Ranulph laughed. "I trust to God and steel." And Maud.
    She laughed. "Fucking knights!"
    He kissed her on the lips and slipped his hands under her grey liveried tunic to find the soft skin of her waist.
    Jasmine threw her muscular arms around him and clamped her body to his. "I have more people coming," she said.
    He kissed her again. This time she kissed him back and they stood, smoke swirling around, the heat from the burning books warming their bodies.
    A crash reverberated through the library from the doors. The draft from the open doors whipped the flames into an inferno. Shouts and footfalls told Ranulph that reinforcements had arrived. Ragnar's arrow charm would not help if all these new soldiers took the time to aim properly.
    Ranulph disentangled himself. "Go home Jasmine. You cannot win now."
    "I —" She coughed and waved aside the smoke. "Come on Big Guy. Give me your parole. Let me look after Steelcutter."
    "Ranulph — Now!" Maud’s voice, from the Dragon Twins . The legendary longship slid between the shelves of burning books. It picked up speed towards the entrance, pitching and rolling as if wallowing in the shallows of an exposed beach.
    Ranulph grinned at Jasmine then sprinted after the Dragon Twins , mailed boots feeling like bricks.
    Bullets whined past and he took longer strides, leaping over fallen books. Heart