by Eric Vall
Urn raised his blade a bit higher, though. “Hulsan, what you’re accusing Defender Flynt of is--”
“Enough!” Hulsan suddenly growled as he kept his gaze locked on me. “You may have done a damn good job of hiding it from this so-called army of yours, but you brought a pretty package of deceit back with you, and none of them can fathom what you’ve started. By the time they catch on, they’ll be so devoted to you, they’ll gladly take over the whole Elven nation in your name, and you’re not gonna stop there. No, a man like you keeps moving ahead, isn’t that right? So, go on, tell ‘em. What’s that woman of yours really worth? How many armies would invade Illaria if they knew you’d taken her?”
“Taken her?” Kurna asked with concern, and I ground my jaw as all eyes fell on me.
“Probably about five armies, give or take,” I admitted with a shrug. “Depends how pissed her dad is about it.”
The Defenders’ shifted uneasily on their feet, and their swords wavered.
I could hardly believe the old man would try to turn them against me, but we had him shackled and outnumbered with proof of his dealings, and I worked to remain calm based on this despite the looks I was getting from the twelve armed Defenders surrounding us.
“That’s right,” Hulsan snorted. “A man with his own army, an entire nation of ogres, and every man from Cedis to Orebane on his side decides to break a centuries old law. Then he strolls in with a weapon like that, but all of you believe he’s got your best interests in mind?”
I glanced around to see the Defenders studying me carefully, and Hulsan chuckled.
“Sure … hold me prisoner for following a different Master, which is my right,” he seethed. “I’ll remind you, though, that Mason’s been pointing at the Master for months as the greatest threat to the regions, but you’re looking at a pretty powerful man who’s made it his job to gather as many followers as he can to his cause. A man who openly admits he acknowledges no man as his king. So, tell me … is he against what the Master’s trying to achieve, or is he trying to beat him to it?”
“Defender Flynt--” Urn growled with a warning look, but I held up my hand.
“Alright,” I decided as I looked down on the old man. “You wanna stall on getting your ass killed, that’s just fine. Let’s talk about me, since you can’t seem to shut the fuck up about my potential. Yes, I broke a centuries year old law when I took Deya out of Nalnora, but I didn’t do it because of how coveted she is, and I’m not keeping her in Illaria to overthrow the Elven hierarchy. If I was gonna take over the world, I sure as hell wouldn’t start with the jungles. I brought Deya with me because she loves me, and the elves would’ve destroyed her if she stayed, plain and simple. So, regardless of this potential you see in me, I’ve gotta say, you’re pretty fucking stupid to overlook the obvious: I’m in love with her.”
Hulsan’s nostrils flared as he narrowed his eyes, but I just grinned carelessly.
“I don’t give a shit about any of this, old man,” I informed him. “Hierarchies, kingdoms, armies, power … none of that’s actually at the top of my to do list. Maybe with my potential, they should be, but I just came to kick ass and fuck my women right while I’ve got the time. This so-called army of mine can either get with that, or not. It doesn’t really matter, because here you are telling me my qualities that prove I’m ready to rise above the rest, but all I hear is a list of reasons you and the Master want me on your side.”
Hulsan’s eye began to twitch as he flushed with rage, and he stared me down before growling. “Idiot, think of what you’re doing. You’re moments away from achieving the most this world can offer, and without the Master to guide you, you can’t even realize the ultimate goal. You’re wasting your potential, and you’ll get every one of your followers killed before they can be of any genuine use to you.”
“Maybe,” I allowed, “but if all that’s true, then I’m your greatest adversary, and if I can overthrow the regions, I can damn sure overthrow your Master. So, I’m gonna have to turn down the offer. Like you said, I only ally for my own good, right?”
“The Master has seen what you could become!” Hulsan suddenly bellowed, and his words echoed around the cavern as the Defenders tightened their grips on their hilts. “He’s the only one who understands the true potential of your powers, and mark my words, he can and will destroy you, Mason Flynt! He will devour every creature close to you and punish those who follow in your steps. Every fool who serves your cause will be made to suffer endlessly at the hands of the Master who wields the darkest forces of nature … unless you choose to ally yourself with us, for your own good.”
I could sense Hulsan’s Terra powers pressing in around me as he called them back to himself now, and the Defenders sparked their own powers, too. The strength of his magery made my veins tingle as the voices of my rune began to swell, and while the presence built, it occured to me no man with his level of experience would rely on walls and boulders like the rest of us.
He’d been holding out on us all this time, and when I considered the many times over the last few days that he’d stood aside until it was absolutely necessary to intervene, I realized he’d only been there to keep me alive. He’d delivered the bare minimum, and all the time, he was waiting to sway me into the Master’s reign. Hulsan had gauged my every advance and added each one to his proof of my potential, and every victory in Jagruel only made me more valuable to the Master.
“No deal, old man,” I growled as I raised my pistol. “Last chance. Tell me how you got those mages in here.”
Hulsan flashed a toothy grin as he peered up at me from beneath his bushy brows, and the fact he suddenly looked more alert than I’d ever seen him sent a shiver down my spine.
“Same way they’re getting in and out of that fortress,” the old man replied, and then the ground beneath me blasted apart with a force so powerful, all of us went flying thirty feet in every direction.
I scrambled to soften the ground for as many of the Defenders as I could, but my eyes were locked on Hulsan as he broke his shackles from the stone and slammed his fists against the building at his back.
The shackles broke as the entire building exploded into dust, and as I crashed into the ground, he bellowed my name across the cavern.
“Flynt!” Hulsan roared once more. “Do you think you can hide from me?”
I felt the ground beneath me give way the second the words left his mouth, and I lunged onto a pile of rubble as my rune swelled so loud, I could hardly hear Hulsan’s deranged taunts.
He was tracking me through the stonework, though, and the rubble rose up to come crashing down on top of me next.
I braced myself as I only managed to soften half the boulders before they hit me, and as I threw them off my back and bolted down the street, my rune began healing the welts all over my limbs.
But the ground was giving way just behind my heels now, and I locked my jaw as I tore Hulsan’s path apart with my own Terra powers. Down the side streets, I could see the Defenders who’d been thrown as they all attempted to follow me, but as a building collapsed right in front of me, I stumbled and changed course as I called out to them.
“Get off the stone!” I ordered as another crumbling building derailed my path. “Find somewhere he can’t track you!”
The Defenders looked determined to stay their course, but then the ground beneath them bucked wildly, and they went flying into the air once more.
I softened their landings as I blasted the rubble in front of me apart, and I sent every boulder flying in the direction of Hulsan’s echoing voice.
Then I dove into the waterway and kicked as hard as I could, and I came up for air downstream near the steps of the Great Library. I kept my limbs from touching any of the stonework in the canal, and as I treaded water, I could see more buildings being obliterated to dust as Hulsan made his way through the Oculus.
“Now would be a good time to reconsider the offer!” Hulsan bellowed as a chunk of the cavern broke loose, and I foug
ht the urge to spark my magic and catch it.
I already knew he could read the presence of magery through his element, and when the block of stone crashed into the city, the sight of the entire blacksmith’s quarters crumbling beneath it made fury well up in my chest.
The longer he hunted me down, the less there would be left of the ancient city, and considering centuries of effort that had gone into building it, letting one asshole tear it all to shreds on my account was out of the question.
So, I took one last steadying breath as I looked around the extensive cavern, and then I let my boot knock against the base of the canal.
Within a second, the water shot up as the sides of the waterway slammed in on me, but I’d already anticipated the attack, and I was waiting to let my Terra powers connect with Hulsan’s.
The walls strained around my ribs as they tried to crush me, and I channeled the man’s own powers with my own as the image of the fortress flashed into my mind again. I let our combined magery build in my veins as I willed myself to memorize every detail of the image, and when Hulsan abruptly broke the connection, I slammed my fists down on the canal walls that locked me in place.
A crater blasted open around me as I went flying into the air, and I crashed down on the roof of a building before I drew my 1911 and leapt from the ridge of the roof.
The building burst into dust at my back, and the second I landed on the next one, I lunged once more before Hulsan could bring me crashing to the ground. I let the power of my rune feed into my limbs as I barreled across rooftops, and when my eyesight finally caught a glimpse of Hulsan, I fired straight at his deranged grin.
The man blocked the bullet, though, and the shield he’d formed was engulfed in the flames instead. Three more times I took my aim as I dodged rubble and dust billowing around me, but the old man only cackled as he blocked my every shot.
He was clearly enjoying himself now, but I rapidly fired three more bullets anyway, and when he shielded himself entirely, I swiftly dropped down the edge of a building rather than jump to the next roof.
I landed on a barrel of ale stacked with ten others behind a pub, and I caught my balance just before I could fall onto the cobblestone street. Then I braced myself on the barrels around me as I fought to catch my breath, and I tried not to let the panic in my chest overwhelm me.
Hulsan couldn’t sense me through the wood of the barrels, but it would only be a matter of time before he tracked me down again. I couldn’t use my magery, I couldn’t flee, and the old man’s senses were too keen for me to get a shot in.
The chances of me surviving this were suddenly becoming pretty slim, but I just hoped none of the other Defenders would attempt to help me. Any movement on their part would be the end for them, and as I thought this, I realized Hulsan hadn’t actually tried to kill me yet.
He’d tried to maim me and capture me, sure, but none of those attacks were something that would end my life, especially from a man with his experience. They were a power trip. By destroying the Oculus, he was baiting me and trying to terrify me, but he wasn’t trying to kill me, and this changed everything.
Because if Hulsan still wasn’t trying to kill me, then the Master didn’t just want me on his side.
He needed me there.
Without me fighting for him, he couldn’t accomplish what he had in mind for this world. Hulsan could rage and tear this whole Oculus to the ground, but the only way he could let this end wasn’t actually with my death. It was with me walking away with him to join the Master’s side.
And that just wasn’t about to happen.
So, I grinned, and as the notion that my powers were so valuable in this realm coursed through my veins, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the lightning magazine.
I didn’t know what had changed, but something about my abilities set me so above the rest the Master absolutely needed me on his side now, and as I secured the magazine in my pistol, I decided I wasn’t nearly done inventing epic shit in this realm.
This 1911 was only the beginning.
In fact, it’d be my fucking pleasure to show these idiots exactly how much more I was capable of, and all I needed to do was keep kicking ass and moving ahead as I had always done.
Which was ironic to me, because every movement I made now was easily registered by the asshole stalking me through the Oculus, and while I sensed Hulsan’s magic drawing closer around me, I racked my brain for a solution.
That’s when I noticed a pair of two-toned eyes watching me from the shadows across the street.
The Baroness met my gaze as her lips curled into an eerie grin, and I was suddenly seized with a crippling fear as I saw Pindor beside her. The kid was ashen and trembling while he clutched his broken arm, and my heart pounded in my ears as I realized this could actually be the end.
The Baroness could blind me right here, and if she made me deaf, too, I’d be unable to get away no matter what I did. Everything I’d accomplished in this realm would come to a crashing halt with a wave of her hand, and I’d be branded by the Master’s rune within the hour.
Then the Baroness raised an ebony hand out of the shadows, and I locked my jaw as I raised my 1911.
But a familiar presence washed over me just as I slid my finger to the trigger, and I froze.
I wasn’t blind, and I wasn’t deaf, but I was wrapped in a silky veil of the Baroness’ powers, and the sensation was one I’d experienced before.
It was the same strange enchantment she’d cast over Onym’s army the night we assassinated the head of House Syru, and as I realized what she’d done for me now, I slowly lowered my pistol.
The Baroness’ grin faded into a guarded, two-toned stare as she locked her hand on Pindor’s wrist, and both of them disappeared into the shadows at her back before I could blink.
I was left alone with my pistol in hand and Hulsan’s voice echoing furiously through the streets, except now, he couldn’t find me no matter what he tried.
I was a shadow, and that meant I could move without the stone registering my presence, so I slowly climbed down from the stack of barrels, and I shuffled my boot against a bit of rubble. No sound came back as the rocks rolled over each other, though, and while Hulsan’s voice grew more grating from his bellowing, I turned down the street.
I followed his voice as I silently moved through the Oculus, and I didn’t bother sneaking along the walls or ducking into shadows. I strolled calmly through the magical city as more buildings came crashing down up ahead, and when I turned down an alleyway and circled behind a half-destroyed structure, I saw Hulsan.
He looked furious as he scanned desperately for any sign of my presence in the cavern, and he had no idea he was fifteen yards from Kurna who was dangling from an iron sign and looking scared shitless.
The Ignis Mage was struggling to keep from falling down into the street, and I hoped he could hold out another minute, because that’s all I needed now.
I was within ten feet of Hulsan when I finally came to a stop, and I raised my pistol as I felt the veil around me begin to lift.
Kurna gasped at my sudden appearance, and I couldn’t help grinning as anticipation rushed through my arm to my trigger finger.
Then Hulsan whipped around with his palms raised at the ready, and I fired a copper bullet already sparking with blue bolts right into the old man’s chest.
His twisted expression jolted as his body began to convulse violently, but when deep blue bolts of lightning suddenly jetted from his eye sockets, I stumbled back. It was like Hulsan’s body was the center of a web as the lightning burst out like a firework, and it continued to surge outward to connect with everything in the vicinity.
Including me.
I swiftly pulled a shield over myself as I broke Kurna’s building open to block him as well, and as I huddled under the stone barrier I’d formed, lightning cracked and flashed a vibrant blue all across the street. I could hear the static energy eating its way to every rooftop in the Oculus, and sparks ruptured wit
h deafening blasts as the electrical current collided with spires.
Then my hair rose straight up in the air as my pistol heated up in my palm, and an angry bolt of lightning struck down to blast my cover open. I cursed and dove a few feet ahead, and I managed to reform another shield, but not before I caught a glimpse of the cavern above me.
Jagged white lightning bolts clung to the craterlike ceiling at what must have been a hundred different points, and they were all interwoven with each other like an electrical spider’s web that shook and flashed blindingly above the entire city.
“Holy shit,” I chuckled against the stone, and I couldn’t help laughing in earnest as the lighting continued wreaking havoc for another five minutes.
Eventually, it slowly died away like a storm running out of steam, and as the last few zaps shot between the spires of the buildings, I finally lowered my shield and looked around.
Hulsan’s body looked like a charred tree branch with gnarled limbs jutting out from four places, and what used to be his head was a blackened smudge of ash across the ground.
“What the hell was that?” Kurna hollered as he climbed out from behind the rubble, and the burly Ignis Mage was shaking so badly, he could hardly put one foot in front of the other.
“Uhh … ” I chuckled as I stood and eyed my pistol. “It’s a new weapon I’m working on. It definitely needs a few adjustments, though.”
I sent the man an apologetic grin as he gaped at the 1911, and then I heard Urn’s voice booming at my back.
“Flynt!” he growled, and I turned to see the large Terra Mage leading four other Defenders with wide eyes and furious scowls. “Fire that weapon in this Oculus one more time, and I’ll be forced to … to … ”
I tried not to smirk as the man failed to come up with anything by the time he reached me.
“Don’t worry, I’ll fix it,” I finally laughed. “This is just a prototype, and that was not what I expected to happen, but you have to admit, it was pretty fucking awesome.”