by Simon Archer
The third and fourth lunged from the front, and I pushed one thrusting spear into the other, forcing the Elites to crash into each other as they rushed past me. As those two fell over each other, the last three tried to get me from behind, but I spun around in time to duck underneath the three spears. I sliced at one of their exposed legs, pushing them to the ground. Before they could pull back from their spear lunge, I shoved my blade under the chin of the second of the three, killing him almost instantly. That was two down, seven to go.
One was still behind me and tried to grab me while I wasn’t looking. As soon as he reached his arms around me, I grabbed back, pulling on his armor. With a solid grip, I then threw myself forward, carrying him over myself and into the two Elites in front of me. He managed to catch on one of their spears, plunging through his neck as he fell over on top of them.
Three of seven, though that one was pure luck.
You’d think that they’d have better armor protecting their joints. Although, once I thought about it, it made sense that they wouldn’t have anything like honeysteel chainmail. If it’s only workable by dwarves, imagine those guys trying to mold over a couple of thousand tiny rings with their hands to make one chainmail shirt. It’d be impossible. And that joint vulnerability would be my saving grace.
The two who had tumbled over themselves earlier got back up, whipping their weapons back to face me. I flipped over the Elite kneeling on the ground and landed behind him to strike at the two as I slid down the side of one of their spears. As I came to his hand, I sliced at it, forcing him to drop his weapon. When he stepped back as he writhed in pain, the other tried to swing his spear at my head like a club. I parried it and dragged my sword across his throat in the same motion, ending his life.
Four of seven.
The one still standing from before threw himself at me, his hands stretched out to grab at whatever they could. It was so telegraphed that I could easily sidestep it as I took his head clean off, making five of seven Elites down.
That’s when the kneeling one stood back to his feet, propping himself on his spear. In one final, desperate act, he took his spear-crutch in two hands and swung out at me. I ducked easily, if you could call it that, as he flew wide, falling over himself as he tried to stand on his wounded leg. When he fell to the ground, I put a boot to his back and stuck the back of his neck with my sword.
Six of seven.
The last one actually managed to catch me off guard. I had spent too much time killing the sixth one, giving him time to grab both my arms from behind me. As he lifted me up. I threw my legs forward, pulling myself down with the momentum as I landed on my feet. In the same motion, I dropped my head toward the floor and took the Elite with me. With his huge size, he cracked his head against the stone floor, and his neck snapped with the violent impact. He released me as he died, falling onto his back as he lay limp.
Seven of seven complete.
I turned to face the Baroness who was still at her throne. She gasped and yelped as she clawed at her own face, her black fingernails dragging her cheeks down. She would bring her Brand up, its purple aura swelling as if it were preparing for something, but then she’d just swing it back down, still raving and twitching in place.
The look in her eyes almost scared me, but not out of fear of her. Just from that, I could tell that she was in a lot of pain, more excruciating than I could possibly conceive of. The savage curse had crippled everyone’s ability to speak miles away, but she was smackdab in the center of it. I couldn’t imagine the intensity of it, and more so, she was fighting it with every fiber of her being. That’s why she didn’t join the attacks before.
“We’re going to be nice and calm, okay?” I said, slowly approaching her with my hands out. “We're calm and quiet, and we’re not going to fight.”
“William Tyler,” she said, her head jerking from side to side like a metronome. “William Tyler. William Tyler.”
“Everything’s going to be okay, Baroness.” I took the first step on the stairs to her throne. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
“Hurt me.” The Baroness’s hands shook violently. “Hurt me. No. No.”
“As long as I’m around, you will never be hurt,” I said as I reached the throne itself. “You’ll be safe.”
“William Tyler.” Her arms lowered, hanging by her sides as she leaned forward. Swirls of black and yellow hair streamed across her face, covering her eyes. Keeping as steady and subtle as possible, I reached for the Brand she held. If everything went well, we could leave here without any problems.
Not that I expected that, but it’s nice to hope every once in a while.
As soon as I touched the Brand, the Baroness screamed at the top of her lungs, swinging it up above her head. With only enough time for me to bring my sword to bear, she slammed against me and knocked me down the steps to the floor below. Luckily, I managed to stay on my feet and keep my blade in front of me. The Baroness twirled the Brand violently around herself.
“William Tyler is my enemy!” she shouted. “William Tyler is trying to kill me! William Tyler is not welcome.”
That seemed a little too rehearsed to just be run-of-the-mill magical paranoia. She was brainwashed. Like most situations I found myself in, I’d have to fight my way out.
Her wings buzzing to life, she rose up into the air and launched herself at me. Twirling the Brand wildly in front of her, she thrashed about as she made her way across the throne room. That Brand was leagues faster than the spears, and I didn’t trust the purple ooze coming off it. I had to block every random strike she flung out at me if I wanted to keep the Brand from touching me. I also couldn’t hurt her, since she was being controlled, and I promised Solannus I’d try to help her.
You know, enemies you can’t hurt are one thing, but enemies you’re not allowed to hurt are my least favorite by far. The Baroness didn’t even have a Brand on her for the easy release I gave the other girls. I’d have to separate her from her own Brand if I were to free her. Which meant touching that nasty purple goopy aura.
The Baroness pushed me back to the balcony with her wild swings, where I could hear the clashing of swords and spears down below, the sound of Tharnox crashing into a building or two just by existing in such a confined space, and the occasional explosion. It sounded like my allies had the situation perfectly under control, save for the collateral damage to the architecture that we’d inevitably have to fix, but that was a worry for later. For now…
I ducked underneath a wild two-handed swing from the Baroness and gave her a pommel strike to the stomach. She floated down as she wrapped her arms around her waist, falling to the ground. I turned to face her, keeping my guard as ready as possible.
This anthophilan was persistent, I’d give her that. Without a second of hesitation, she twisted her whole body around to try another wild swing. If I hadn’t had my sword in front of me, I’d have been blindsided. I barely had enough time to turn her backward Brand around on itself, allowing me to come in and pin her arm under mine. As she struggled, I kept her in place behind me as I raised my blade hilt to slam against her wrist, forcing her hand to open.
But, before I could land the blow, I felt the pinching jaws of a manic insect royal on my shoulder, aiming to take a chunk of meat and bone back with her. Surprised and pained, I loosened my grip on my own weapon. Thankfully, I didn’t let it go entirely. As it fell forward, I regained my composure enough to flip the blade downward, plunging it into the heel of the Baroness’s boot. I moved my arm underneath hers to pull on the Brand itself. Putting my other hand on it, holding both the Brand and my sword, I wrenched it forward in an attempt to either pull it from her hand or flip her over myself. She’d be letting it go either way.
She opted for the latter, as she flew over my back, leaving her boot behind. As she landed on her ass, she still maintained her iron grip on the Brand’s shaft. I dragged her across the floor of the throne room, twisting and turning the Brand over as I whipped it back and forth. It
was like trying to wrestle a bone from a yellow-striped dog.
Her wings started buzzing, and I knew she would try to get herself back up. I twirled myself in circles as fast as I could, throwing her around me. The two of us spun around like a giant top as we drifted further towards the throne. I could feel my own grip tighten around the Brand, even as it pulled away from me… and I wasn’t the one tightening it.
“Oh, my. What are you?” a voice called out from inside my head. It was a smoker’s voice, well, if they smoked since World War One. With that, the Baroness let go, soaring through the air aways before landing in a crumpled heap behind a pillar.
My mind flooded with noise. My heart beat almost too fast for me to count, and my hands burned with a fiery pain as I held onto this Brand. Thoughts flooded into me, burning through my brain and into my muscles themselves, telling me to run, run around and kill things, chew on things, bludgeon things to death.
This obsession with satisfying myself churned inside my belly, hollowing me out. I forgot who I was and what I was doing. The only thing I felt I could care about was eating, or itching, or sleeping. My instincts were screaming at me, telling me to run out and start killing the soldiers outside. Everything else was a sludge of silent sound drowning out everything else.
But I was able to find a thought that I could hold on to: These feelings weren’t me. I was stronger than this. No one could control me. This impulse was the Brand’s doing.
By focusing on that, I managed to regain my composure. What I was doing, saving Etria, was more important than any pleasure I could find with this cursed thing. I drilled through the noise, found my thoughts again, and regained my identity. If the Brand of Savagery were going to take my mind, he’d have to do better.
“Oh, really?” Officium growled at me like an animal, his name popping into my brain as we shared a mindspace. “You would have been a great wielder. Your power is… intoxicating. I need it!”
The purple energy surrounding the Brand swelled, and blotches of dark light twirled around it. From my arms, rivers of white-gold light poured out of me, flowing into the sickly aura as it dissolved within. The aura shot out from the Brand, branching out into a thick amorphous shape onto the floor. The metal of the Brand broke into tiny pieces, flowing through the beam of energy to the blob before vanishing completely.
Soon, the whole Brand was gone, including what I held onto, and the energy left as well, returning to the blob on the ground. The blotches of light swirled into the aura, shaping it into a vortex. As the vortex tightened, it revealed the shape of a man standing like a vacuum bag forming around it. When that vortex disappeared, only the man was left.
Officium’s Avatar, as I could only assume this man was, was rather thin. When the vortex released him, he crouched down onto all fours, like an animal. The black iron on his claws crawled up his arms, stretching to the unearthly purple metal that made up his form at the elbows. He was covered in cracks and chips, from his toes to his bald head. His eyes were a dull white, like old marbles. His cheeks stretched to accommodate his jaw, far beyond human capacity as he showed his pointed teeth. Everything about him looked stretched or twisted, reshaped beyond what was supposed to be.
“Thank you so much, William,” he said as he rolled his shoulders like a tiger about to pounce. “The royal bitch would have died if I even attempted this, but with all of the energy you exude, I could make this form easily. Our brief bond was more than enough to cement a connection to your power. As a reward, I’ll eat your head first, so you don’t suffer.”
“You’re too kind.” I took a strike at him with my blade. He jumped back ten feet to dodge, like a show-off.
“And you’re too slow.” The rabid Brand backed away on his hands and knees, keeping his eyes on me. If this turned into some sort of dick-measuring power contest, I was going to be pissed.
As he rolled his shoulders again, a new purple aura surrounded him. He jumped to the side, bouncing off the pillar on the other side of the room about as fast as my eyes could follow him. At the same speed, he lunged at me, slicing at my side. His claws clanged against the honeysteel, but the aura passed into me. As it did, I felt every muscle lose the tiniest bit of steam. The bastard was stealing my energy as he passed me by.
Without a single half-second to rest, Officium bounced off the pillar behind me, jumped across the room to bounce against another pillar, and struck at me again. This time, my sword was ready to parry him away, and both his claws and aura missed me completely as he ricocheted off my sword. Another two bounces and he was again striking at me, but I managed to redirect him to the opposite pillar with a parry.
We continued this back-and-forth for a couple of minutes, but I couldn’t keep him from touching me each time. With each touch, I could feel my muscles slowly but surely draining, and he moved faster with every successful strike, laughing maniacally as he rushed past. The quicker I ended this, the more likely I’d make it out of here alive. I’d have to make a risky play, but it was my only option.
He got a deep wound into me, digging through a small opening in my armor by my stomach. But I expected that, as I let him get closer to place my blade into one of the cracks in his chest. The crack stretched into him, almost meeting with another on the other side as it slithered and splintered across him. He grunted as he flew past me, missing the pillar entirely as he crashed into the wall. Grabbing his side, he stood back up, trying to cover up his wound.
“Damn, that looks nasty,” I taunted him as I bit down on my own pain. “If you were faster, you might have been able to dodge that.”
He scoffed and blasted into another ricochet, moving faster than before. Maybe I underestimated how fast he would start moving, but the sloppier he fought, the better. I kept blocking, keeping him as far away from my body as possible. The metallic clanging of his claws against my sword rang almost four times a second as he zoomed through the throne room, landing more aura blows against me as he slashed against me.
Every time I could strike a blow against another of his cracks, his aura cut a deeper swathe of my energy. I could already feel my legs giving out from beneath me. If I could just land a solid hit to one of the fissures that I already made, they’d connect near his neck, and the savage nutjob’s head and arm would pop off. Even if he could still exist as two separate parts, I could throw his body off the side of the balcony and crush his head myself. I’d just have to hit first.
He was already headed towards me from bouncing off a pillar, but I was getting better at tracking his movement. I drew in for a slash at one of his sides, towards the fracture under his right arm. My sword slid between the crack, and I pulled hard on it. With a screech of tearing metal, I lifted both his arm and his head apart from the rest of him.
But before I could tear the Brand asunder, the claws of his right hand found my neck and gripped tight. Officium threw me to the ground, pinning me in place. My sword still stuck out from his side, wedged and ready to be pulled, and if I could get my hands on it, Officium would break in one good pull.
But I couldn’t do it. As Officium choked me, his vampiric aura coated me like Los Angeles smog, stealing my energy. It was as if I had just done a full-body workout, and every muscle struggled with the easiest strains. With every remaining fiber, I pushed down on the sword, trying to move it even the slightest inch. It wouldn’t even budge. My vision blurred as I could feel the life being drained from me, fading to black.
33
“You still think you are human,” I heard Libritas coo in my ear. “If you were only mortal, you’d already be dead.”
“Am I not?”
“Far from it, William,” she breathed into me. It felt like she was lying right next to me. “You may be more alive than any man in both worlds. Your human strength is gone. What will you do now?”
My eyes opened. Everything was in crystal clear view as if I had been in a fog until now. It was like before, on the rooftops in Hillrock. Life flowed through me, through every cell, until I coul
d feel my body like never before. I looked up at the Brand Avatar who held me down, who enslaved the minds of every citizen in the region to a mental numbness. His face was that of a child in a corner expecting his abusive father’s belt.
My gaze drifted down to the hand that he held me with, and the white-gold aura that surrounded me coated him as well, snuffing out the purple haze that previously coated me. As the strands of light curled around Officium, they created new cracks in the black iron. The cracks shined with the same light as my aura, and his arm shook violently as the light continued to wrap around the arm.
In pure terror, Officium fell back to escape the light I emitted. His hand exploded into fractured pieces, scattering to the far sides of the throne room. He screamed, pushing himself back with every other limb as he slid across the floor. I rose to my feet, elevated from the ground my ethereal wings of the same light of my aura.
“Please, mercy!” he said, groveling as he scrambled backward. “I was so hungry! Khaba, he did this to me! I didn’t want to do this! It’s not my fault.”
I had nothing to say. They were all just empty words of a scared little rat trying to squeak its way out of dying. I floated over to him. As I softly landed on his chest, I placed one foot on it and the other on the ground. Even with the least pressure from me, he was stuck in place, his limbs flailing as he tried to find the slightest bit of purchase. Golden cracks spread out from my foot, covering over the cracks that I had made and were already there.
“Please, kind master!” Officium bawled, the purple metal of his face contorting into the most disturbingly sad thing I’ve ever seen. If it could cry, I’m sure it would be shedding crocodile tears. “You are a gracious and powerful being. Surely you could spare the life of one lowly Brand?”
There’s that former Brand of Civilization showing. Trying to manipulate and lie his way into a good situation, like a true politician. I decided to show him as much mercy as I could reasonably allow. With a swift push, my foot pressed down to the floor, smashing through Officium’s chest. The golden cracks spread through the whole body like glass before he shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. The pieces swiftly crumbled away to black dust before disappearing entirely.