He jumped over the remaining steps and came down in a crouch, twisting to look at the room. It was long, probably the length of the entire series of stores along the street, and wide open with only the occasional support column. Dozens of roach spirits of varying sizes were everywhere, rushing the besieged troopers, striking as they passed, then disappearing back into astral space, only to reappear elsewhere and attack again.

The racket was deafening, the sickening sound of roach legs skittering madly across the floor, the shouts and screams of the troopers, and always accompanied by that now unmistakable, disgusting smell.

There were other things in the room too, large, swollen shapes sitting on the floor at the far end of the basement. Kyle saw perhaps a score of them, with the two largest roach spirits standing guard over them, only their long antennae moving as they calmly observed the carnage their fellows were creating. A bundle seemed to move, to shudder, and one of the big roaches turned slightly, its long, thin feelers twitching in idle interest.

Another roach thing flashed by Kyle, barely centimeters from his head, but he twisted away in time. The troopers were holding their own, covering each other enough that the insect spirits couldn't swarm all over them, but they were taking plenty of punishment all the same. Unless they withdrew, it would be only a matter of time. And if the roach spirits pursued them there wouldn't be much hope.

Woodhouse's magic flashed again as a spinning disk of energy that sliced the legs clean off a leaping roach. It twisted in the air, and landed hard against one of its brethren, knocking them both down.

The insects and troopers were still too tightly packed for Kyle to risk a powerful area spell. He was thinking fast, trying to come up with something that might lure the insects into clusters that could be blasted. Perhaps an attack against whatever the large roaches were guarding? It was probably suicide, and he didn't know if Woodhouse had a spell powerful enough to deal with the spirits en masse. He also didn't know if the roach spirits, considering the size of the two guardians, would consider him a threat.

Linda Hayward's words suddenly filled his head. A threat. Kyle thought he knew one that might be enough to distract the roaches.

He pictured Hay ward in his mind, not clad in her green and black biker learner, but as she claimed she truly was. Two meters of deadly, insect-devouring mantid spirit.

He wove his spell, imprinting the energy of the magic with the image from his mind. He shaped it into her form, detailed it as best he could remember her, and then colored it in the same glistening greens, browns, and blacks.

Without warning, a giant screeching mantid came into existence halfway between the troopers and the huge guardian roaches. It screeched again, and the two guard spirits answered, immediately moving to protect their charges.

The remaining roach spirits wheeled, summoned by the battle call of the larger spirits. They surged forward, a mad, blind rush against the towering mantid. Clawed legs flashed and snapped as they smashed into each other where the mantid stood braced for the attack, but insubstantial. A few of the roaches passed straight through her to bounce and skitter near the larger bugs.

Kyle released his illusion of the mantid, which instantly began to fade. The mass of roach spirits tore into itself as Woodhouse's first spell struck, erupting in a huge fireball. Roaches squealed and began to scuttle away, some attempting to flee into astral space, but Kyle hit them again. The ruby ring on his finger and the amulet around his neck flashed as he released the spell, wincing in pain as the energy flowed through him. It exploded in a near-silent spray of white and green shards of energy that tore into the spirits, cutting them to pieces.

Troopers opened up on the bugs that remained, most of them maimed or burning. Still gasping from the strain the powerful spell had put on his body, Kyle slipped his perceptions into astral space, quickly bringing up his mystical knife to ward off any attacks now that he was present and vulnerable in that realm.

The astral echoed with the resonations of the power released in the room and the disruption of the insect spirits that had succumbed to that power. Kyle immediately saw that most of them had fled, escaped up and away through a patch of ceding mat looked different in the astral. The floors of most of the buildings were probably impassable wood, except for some space cleared for just such passage.

A handful of injured spirits lingered in astral space, darting around the still physically manifest and barely touched larger guardian roaches. Wincing again, Kyle tossed a low-powered ball of energy across the room. He centered it on one of the bug things present only in astral space. The spell struck it and exploded, sending searing energy into the group in astral space and cutting into the two larger bugs present in both realms. Three of the creatures dispersed, unable to maintain their existence.

A tremendous flash of magic filled that end of the room as another of Woodhouse's fireballs ignited. Waves of fire lashed out from its center over one of the huge guardians, and washed over the rows of now quivering bundles on the ground. The large bugs shrieked both in pain and apparent fear for their charges.

The bug on which the spell had been centered was badly injured and engulfed in flame. It leaped forward toward the nearest trooper, catching his arm and tearing it clean off in passing. The trooper spun, his assault rifle still tracking and firing at the burning spirit as he fell. The bug collided with the far brick wall and flipped onto its back, its huge, spiny legs flailing in the air.

Kyle turned as the second bug, its carapace smoking, leaped at Woodhouse. Its legs scraped against the magical barrier that surrounded him, sending sparks of black energy across the room. But it was getting through and into him; Kyle could see a tear deep into the armor on Woodhouse's side.

Kyle ran forward and leaped, his perceptions still in astral space, striking with his enchanted weapon. He drove it at the creature's middle back, the place on its body that seemed the most damaged. The knife dug in deep, flashing gold as it did, burying Kyle's hands up to his wrists inside the thing. The mystical shield around his body flashed azure against the bug as it screeched and reared back off Woodhouse, who instantly stepped away, and fell backward, all the while spraying the thing with a burst from his submachine gun. Jerked into the air by the bug's thrashing, Kyle felt a sharp pain across his right arm as one of the bullets sliced into him. That hand spasmed, and he let go of the blade and felt himself twist again, hanging on only by his left hand. His weight, now suspended off one side of the roach's back, dragged the knife down, pulling and cutting deep across the thing's back.

It turned in the direction of the pain as more bullets tore into it, then landed on its back across Kyle. He pushed upward with the knife as hard as he could, felt something give, and then his hand and knife cut into the air, bursting out of the roach's underside. The creature thrashed and immediately began to dissipate, its weight vanishing with its dissolving form.

Kyle wrenched his arm free and quickly rolled to his feet striking a leaping smaller roach as it passed. Its legs spark against the shield surrounding his head as it spun madly 0ff to one side, catching a hail of flechettes as it did.

Kyle turned to survey the room, and saw that the bug spirit he'd just inadvertently diverted was among the last left in the room. With the deaths of the big guardian roaches, the rest seemed to have fled. None remained solely in astral space, and the few that fought on manifest were being quickly dispatched by the remaining troopers. Within moments, it was over.