Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse

The men looked around them at anything that was flying. There were butterflies, dragonflies, mosquitoes and birds.

A flock of swallows dove and flew about using their acrobatic flying skills to catch insects.

"I think it's the swallows," said Han. "They're flying very close to us."

"Fuck," cursed Baer. "Yep, one just cut me on the wrist."

"Alright men, let's get out of here," called their commander. "Use your shields to protect yourself."

"They must be tubiàn," said Han. "Has anyone ever heard of them?"

"I read that they had altered some swooping birds. Some of them were given poison spurs and others were given hardened wing tips for cutting," replied the commander. "Let's hope these are the wing tips, not the poison spurs."

Bo nocked an arrow and lined up one of the swallows. They were flying so quickly they were going to be incredibly hard to hit. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, concentrating his mind to time the complex shot. The arrow flew, aimed a few metres ahead of the bird he had set his sights on. It was a direct hit, shooting the bird out of the air. It dropped to float in the water for a few seconds, before sinking out of sight.

All hell broke loose as the flock of swallows turned their attentions onto the men and their horses and started deliberately swooping them, their sharp wings outstretched like little living ninja stars.

"Fucking hell! Bo, was that you? Don't bloody provoke tubiàn without my order."

"Apologies Sir. My mistake," Bo ducked as a bird swooped within centimetres of his ear.

Han and Bo on their shared horse were actually faring better than the other men. They had a shield for each side of the horse and the two men were efficiently batting the birds off themselves and their brumby. As the swallows hit their shields at speed, they would instantly break their necks and drop to the ground on the levee. The sound was like popcorn exploding in a hot pan.

The other guards were having difficulty covering both sides of the horse and their bodies. The whinnies of horses rang out across the swamp as the birds scored direct hits on their haunches.

Commander Meyer kicked his stallion into a gallop and his men streamed after him. Trying to ride at pace and defend themselves at the same time was not a straightforward exercise.

Magnus rode directly in front of Niko. He was busy protecting his face, leaving his horse open to attack, and the poor beast had been hit two or three times now.

"Magnus, you need to move your shield around," shouted Niko. "Don't just cover your pretty face."

"I can get another horse, but I can't get another face!"

Cormac, similarly, covered his face and upper body with the shield, leaving the horse exposed.

"Fucking pretty boys," Niko raged, as Magnus's horse kicked his horse in the chest in its pain and panic.

He rode up closer to the man so he could cover Magnus's horse as well as his own.

The Commander had the advantage of riding in the lead, so he had a clear view of the incoming birds before they hit. He was everywhere with his shield and hadn't taken a hit yet. He was also clearing most of the birds before they reached Baer who was right behind him.

Wolf, who rode behind Bo and Han, was faring the worst. As he tried to shield his horse, he was taking cuts to his legs and his exposed arm. He cursed and swore as slices opened up across his limbs.

"Bo! Han!" shouted the commander. "Provide some cover for Wolf. Wolf, ride up closer to Bo's horse."

They fared slightly better with the three men working together as a defensive team.

"Nearly clear of the flock," shouted the commander as the birds started to thin out ahead of him.

Niko looked behind them and saw that natural croc's were already climbing the levee bank and starting to feast on the dead swallows.

The commander slowed his horse to a trot and waited for the men to catch up to him. Wolf looked pretty ragged.

"Alright, let's stop and get some first aid onto those cuts. That's the last time we take a shortcut through a swamp…"

The boys not only didn't get ahead of the girls with their shortcut, they fell further behind.

With the time taken to apply first aid to men and horses, and then to get out of the swamp after their directionless bolt to escape the tubiàn swallows, they emerged at midday, picking up the trail and following it north.

With eight horses and no rain, the trail wasn't at all difficult to follow, and the girls hadn't tried to engage in any tactics to disguise their tracks as they had at Stockyard Point.

The men arrived at Lake Wendouree just as the sun was setting over the lake, and the tracks became too hard to see.

"We'll sleep here tonight," the commander indicated an old brick house that had weathered the test of time better than most. It had a six-foot-high brick fence so the horses could graze in the long grass in the yard.

"Cormac, head out and grab us a few of those black swans for dinner."

"Swans, Commander, really, we're going to eat them?" asked Cormac. "Aren't they too pretty to eat?"

"You'll be thanking me when you have a bellyful of delicious meat. If you bring back swamp hens, we'll need twenty of them and we'll be picking bones out of our teeth."

"Alright, Commander," said Cormac doubtfully as he turned his horse and headed back to the lake.

"Swans," he muttered to himself grumpily as he passed a thick copse of willows, riding in the direction of a jetty he had seen on the way through. "Don't they mate for life? I'll have to shoot them in pairs!"

When he reached the jetty, he did a doubletake.

Silhouetted against the sunset riding in the shallow water at the end of the jetty, was a naked woman.