Magi Legend

by Andrew Dobell

  Liz stopped backing away and dropped into a fighting stance, bending her knees and balling her fists, hoping she wouldn’t forget what Amanda had taught her. She watched the thing carefully, looking for clues as to its choice of attack. As it closed the gap, it suddenly leapt through the air, its mouth wide in a roar, its claws splayed and ready for the attack.

  Liz dropped and rolled under the creature. It landed beyond where she’d been standing moments before and skidded as it tried to reorient itself to its prey.

  Liz crouched with one hand and one knee on the floor. She watched it look round in bewilderment, having lost her for a moment. She could see Gentle Water across the room. His fight looked more like a dance as he subdued his opponents calmly and, from Liz’s perspective, easily.

  On finding her, the creature stalked Liz, padding forward, its claws clicking on the stone floor as it growled through gritted teeth. Liz moved, rising from her crouch and readying herself for the coming attack. The thing charged at her. This time it stayed close to the floor and slashed with its front paws. Liz dodged the attack, spinning away. But she hadn’t been quite quick enough and on its third slash, the creature’s claws caught on her jumper and ripped it open. Liz tried to back away, but the woollen fabric stretched from her body to the nearest front paw of the creature as it landed back on all fours. The downward pull as it landed yanked Liz off her feet. She landed hard on her bum and yelped.

  The creature turned and looked at her, then noticed the fabric caught on its claw before returning its even hungrier gaze back to Liz.

  Panic rose within Liz’s chest as she tried to pull the jumper from her body and release herself. Sitting just a couple of meters away, effectively tied to the thing, it suddenly looked much bigger.

  She got an arm out, but she couldn’t get the damn top over her head. The creature eyed the threads that were caught on its claws and pulled its paw with the wool attached, back as hard as it could. It yanked at her waist, tipping Liz onto her back as she skidded towards the open maw of the thing.

  Reacting rather than thinking, she kicked out, her booted foot connecting powerfully with the creature's jaw, which shut hard on its tongue, the end of which dropped off in a spurt of blood.

  The creature backed away, whining as it reeled from the kick, its paws scrambling to keep it from falling over.

  Liz jumped to her feet and took hold of the stretched length of fabric in both hands, and with a swift pull, she ripped it from the creature’s claw.

  A second later, the thing regained its balance and turned to Liz, blood pouring from its open mouth.

  Liz gulped and backed away. She looked over at Raven, and then Gentle Water, both of them preoccupied with their own fights and in no position to help her.

  Taking a breath, she looked back at the thing and made up her mind.

  She turned and ran.

  Shooting around the doorway, she sprinted back down the corridor the way they’d come, heading towards the stairwell. She glanced back once to see if it was following her. Not that she needed to, the sounds it made were not subtle.

  Reaching the stairs, she charged up them. She took several steps at once, concentrating hard on where her feet landed, so she didn’t fall and lose her lead.

  Halfway up the third flight of stairs, she realised she’d passed the level that Amanda, Maya, and Yoh were on, she slowed for half a second, debating whether to drop back down and find Amanda, but the sound of the creature bounding up the stairs behind her changed her mind. She continued on up to the next floor, where she exited into the corridor and sprinted along it, watching for clues that might lead her to Orion and Xain.

  ***

  Amanda crept along the corridor concentrating on the ebb and flow of Essentia around her, looking for any clue as to Lucian’s whereabouts.

  They passed through a few passageways, all of them mostly bare and with little character to them. The rooms they saw were all empty and varied in décor and usage, but were not really useful to them.

  In the stillness, Amanda started to make out voices, and as she concentrated, she could feel Magical energy ahead.

  Stopping, she listened hard. She couldn’t make out too much, but it sounded like a group of people. As she listened, she realised she recognised one of them.

  “He’s here,” she said.

  “Lucian?” Yoh whispered.

  “I believe he’s just up ahead. Are you ready?”

  Maya nodded.

  “Of course,” Yoh answered. She noticed he took a breath his body didn’t need. Old habits die hard, she supposed.

  Amanda turned back to face the direction of the voices.

  “You’re planning on killing him, right?” Yoh asked.

  Amanda sighed. She hadn’t thought about it too much, but she knew it might be her only option. She figured she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. Thinking ahead of time that she would kill him sounded too much like the thoughts of a psycho. Premeditated murder wasn’t something she’d ever planned on, but she had also seen just what Lucian and his coven were capable of. Letting him live to continue his depravity just didn’t sit well with her. She knew she’d be condemning more people, including kids, to death and worse if she did nothing.

  She also knew that Yasmin changed things, but only for a limited time. Lucian was vulnerable, now. But who knew how long that would last.

  “It’s the only way I can see of stopping this,” Amanda conceded.

  “You have no argument with me there,” Yoh agreed. “I just wanted it to be clear.”

  “So, are we?”

  “Crystal,” Yoh answered.

  Amanda nodded and walked on. Turning another corner she discovered an open set of double doors where the voices were much louder.

  Amanda paused for only a second to gather her courage before she walked purposefully towards a fight she didn’t know if she would walk away from. The previous meetings with Lucian, and the battle in Columbia last night made Amanda rethink her fear of facing a Nomad like Lucian. The legends that she’d heard before moving to New York and her previous experience with Angel on the train had dinted her confidence. She’d doubted her ability to fight and stand up to the Nomads. She’d built Lucian up in her mind into something not only horrific but also unbeatable, someone who could kill her so easily that she should avoid him as much as possible. But her meeting with Yasmin and her rash actions yesterday at the Mansion had changed her perspective. Now, she felt much more confident in herself and her abilities.

  Besides, there wasn’t any going back now.

  She rounded the corner, walked through the double doors and took in the room.

  Huge and well-appointed with sofas and rugs, they’d apparently found the coven’s communal area.

  Flanked by Yoh and Maya, Amanda quickly picked out Lucian from the ten people who were relaxing on various sofas which edged the room.

  Lucian looked up and cocked his head to one side, causing his dreadlocks to shift and a couple of them to fall across his face.

  On either side of him sat the tattooed man and the voodoo woman with the strange runic script tattooed onto her face—they were same Magi who had appeared on her doorstep not all that long ago.

  The rest were Initiated humans. Two sat near the female Magus, while the rest sat grouped together.

  They all stared at Amanda in stunned silence.

  “I knew you’d come, mon, sooner or later,” Lucian said, breaking the spell. “How’s Liz?”

  “You’re a depraved son of a bitch, so ye are. A poxy little gobshite that has had his way for far too long,” she answered.

  “I’ll take that as ‘she doing fine’ then, shall I?”

  “Take it however ye like,” she answered.

  “So, you’re what? Here to kill me?”

  “If that’s what it takes,” she said.

  She noted that a few of the Initiated had stood up and were just waiting for Lucian’s order.

  She walked down the steps into the
sunken room, watching the people before her. At that moment, feint gunfire echoed through the complex. Just a couple of bursts that made everyone pause and listen.

  “Friends of yours?” Lucian asked.

  “This ends today, Lucian. I’ve seen what you do, what your organisation does to young girls and children. It has to stop.”

  “Stop? Ha! It’ll never stop, mon. You take me out, another Qwenga will take my place.”

  “Not in New York.”

  “You think you can take New York from us? Nymira will hunt you down.”

  “Maybe. But we both know that Yasmin will have her say, don’t we?”

  Lucian’s face darkened at the mention of Yasmin’s name.

  “Kill them,” he said to his men.

  She knew she’d pissed him off, but that’s exactly what she’d wanted.

  The group of five Initiated humans raised their guns and opened fire. The entranceway where Amanda and her friends stood exploded in debris and dust as the bullets ripped the walls apart. They ricocheted off of their force shields, leaving them unharmed. Emptying their clips, the gang dropped their weapons and charged, stepping on and jumping over the furniture, pulling knives and more guns as they came.

  With a mental link already open to Yoh and Maya, Amanda sent them a quick thought.

  ~Deal with them, Lucian’s mine.~

  ~Have at him,~ Yoh replied.

  ~He’s all yours,~ Maya agreed.

  “Hey bitch, we gon fuck you up now,” one of the gang members shouted at her, a wicked smile on his face. She felt sorry for him, he had no idea what he was getting into.

  Waiting a second or two more, until the Initiated were just where she wanted them, Amanda ran forward and jumped. Taking advantage of the high ceiling, she boosted over the top of the approaching group, landing behind them on top of a table a few meters away from Lucian.

  Behind her, Yoh and Maya immediately attacked the gang. They moved like lightning, cutting them down with little difficulty. In the distance, gunshots echoed through the complex. Amanda guessed that Orion and Xain were having fun.

  Focusing on the small group in front of her, Amanda stood tall. “You and me, Lucian, let’s go,” Amanda said from her vantage point.

  Lucian cocked his head to one side and raised his eyebrows. “Really? You expect a fair fight from me?”

  Something about his comment and a facial tick made Amanda glance behind her. One of the two Initiated who’d been with the voodoo woman was sneaking up behind her, knife in hand. Amanda spun and kicked out, landing a solid blow to the side of the woman’s face. The blow slammed her head onto a tabletop before she collapsed to the floor. Amanda turned and looked at Lucian with his two Magi allies, and the one remaining Initiated.

  The tattooed Magus beside Lucian pulled out two daggers from the back of his belt and took a step towards Amanda.

  “And what do I call you?” Amanda asked.

  “The name is Raal and I’ve been looking forward to this.”

  “I bet ye have, pretty boy,” she replied as she raised her hand. With a swift working of Magic, she blasted Raal with a massive lightning bolt.

  The blast hit Raal’s chest, knocking him off his feet and causing him to drop his daggers as he landed. Electrical energy played over his body as his Aegis did its best to protect him.

  The burn on his chest still smoking, Raal rolled with the fall and then leapt back to his feet. Her focus on Raal, Amanda hopped down off the table. She set one of her minds to sending constant Essentia strikes at him to take down his Aegis.

  At the same time, she pulled down another blast of electricity from the nearest light fixture and sent that at him, causing him to stumble. She stepped in and threw a punch as he recoiled from the electrical blast. He caught her fist, blocking the attack and spun away. He got in a quick Essentia strike as he moved, punching her in the gut, making her Aegis flicker as it deflected it.

  She didn’t need this fight. Raal no doubt wanted to prove something to Lucian, but to Amanda, he was little more than a hurdle or cross. The real opponent stood a few meters away, watching. She didn’t like being distracted like this. He was playing with her, wearing her down before he stepped in. She held no illusions that Lucian would let this fight play out fairly. She expected him to attack at any moment.

  Amanda spun and elbowed Raal in the face. She followed it up with a punch and more attacks against his Aegis while bolstering her own defences as much as she could.

  Raal blocked her next strike and delivered his own that hit home, hard.

  She sensed the flare of Magical energy from Lucian, and in the next moment, the familiar feel of a Magical attack against her Aegis. She went with the momentum from Raal’s punch and gained some distance from him. Standing a couple of meters away from Raal, she refocused all her Magical might to defending against Raal and Lucian’s attacks against her Aegis. She flooded her shields with power to keep them from collapsing and leaving her defenceless.

  Blood trickled down from her nose and into her mouth. Raal’s punch had hit home all right.

  “By the end of this, I’ll be prettier than you, I think,” Raal taunted.

  Amanda looked up from under her eyebrows and spat the blood out of her mouth. It hit the floor at her feet as she stood tall.

  Amanda didn’t answer. She let her body language do the talking as she moved back towards Raal and attacked. He blocked her again and hit a quick one-two into her gut. Her Aegis flared as it strained to resist the attacks. He followed with an uppercut that struck her jaw like a freight train and knocked her to the ground as Lucian blasted her with magical energy. Landing on her side she quickly rolled away. She got her feet beneath her and rose into a crouch, looking up at Raal once more.

  She wiped her mouth with her back of her hand and saw the blood smeared along her forearm. That didn’t exactly go according to plan, she thought as Raal let out a gloating laugh.

  “You’re no match for us,” Lucian mocked her. “You’re going to die here tonight. You know that, right?”

  Amanda pressed her lips together in consternation. Was he right? Had she taken on too much this time?

  ***

  Liz sprinted through the corridors, making quick turns this way and that, doing everything she could think of to try and lose the nightmare creature behind her.

  She ran past the rooms on either side too fast for her to see inside. She hoped she’d find Xain and Orion, but so far, no such luck. She could hear gunfire, but it bounced around the corridors, making it impossible to tell where it came from.

  Instead, she just ran.

  A few more turns and she started to think she might have lost the wolf-creature. She slowed and came to a stop at a crossroads, leaning against the wall with her hand, fighting to get her breath.

  She listened as best she could, but failed to hear any kind of noise that sounded like that thing. Instead, she could hear talking in a nearby room. It came from an open doorway just a short distance away, and she felt sure she recognised the voice.

  Pulling off the remains of her jumper, leaving her in just a vest and leggings, she walked towards the sound and listened some more.

  “We need to head downstairs. We need to join the fight,” said the voice she thought she knew. Her heart plummeted into the pit of her stomach. It sounded like Jason. The guy she’d met at The Jade Palace and gone on a date with.

  Other voices answered him, some in support, some not, but she didn’t take much notice of what they were saying, as she walked up to the doorway and looked inside. Jason and four or five others were leaving through another door on the far side of the room, talking as they went. Jason was last, and just before he walked through the doorway, he glanced back.

  He paused, staring at her, an expression of surprise, and something else on his face. Guilt, maybe? She couldn’t be sure.

  He put his head out the doorway and called to his mates. “I’ll be along shortly, got something to take care of,” he said before turning ba
ck to the room.

  “Liz…”

  “What the hell Jason? You’re with Lucian?”

  He shrugged. “Well, obviously.”

  Liz’s mind raced as she thought back. She’d gone to meet him, to go on a date, but before she’d even gotten there she’d been jumped on the street and kidnapped. She’d been played. It wasn’t just chance that Lucian’s people had found her. Jason had lured her out.

  “You… You bastard. You did all of this on purpose, didn’t you? Where do you get off doing that to me?” she yelled.

  “I’ll do what I damn well like to you, and you’ll fuckin’ like it, bitch.”

  Liz raised her eyebrows in response, not quite expecting that kind of language from him. “Is that right?” she asked.

  He sauntered across the room towards her, slowly, without any urgency to his movements. “Babe, you think you’re the first dumb blonde I’ve seduced for the Harbingers? Lucian’s contacts need idiots like you for their business. Sure, it was a little different with you being a Magi and all, but you fell for it, just like all the other dumb fucks. You’re all the same.” He sneered.

  Liz backed out into the corridor and Jason followed, a cruel smile twisting his lips. He leant against the doorjamb and crossed his arms, looking all too pleased with himself. She noticed a gun in his hand, and the way his thumb played with the hammer. He probably felt powerful, like he was in control. Liz took a deep breath and pushed her fear away. She needed to take control of the situation, and show him she would not be intimidated.

  “I don’t think you’ll be tricking any other girls with your lies after today, babe,” she said, mocking his use of the word.

  “Is that right?” he replied, mocking her back as he raised his gun.

  He moved fast, but Liz reacted quicker kicking the gun from his hand before he could pull the trigger. It fell to the floor and skidded a short distance away. While he stood there bewildered at losing his gun, Liz kicked again and connected with his face this time. He fell back against the doorframe with a grunt, holding his mouth as blood poured from his nose.