Death Cloud: The Senturians of Terraunum Series (Book 2)

by R. J. Batla

  I thought Spur knew it, and I expected him to yield.

  But he didn’t.

  Corbman’s lava covered fist smashed into his head. No blood spilt, but a sickening crack echoed through the stadium.

  The crowd erupted again, and Corbman stood. For a second, his face was stoic, but the expression disappeared and the showman returned. Breathing hard, Corbman let the lava drop and raised his hands to the crowd, shouting, “Oh yeah! Who’s the man?”

  “You’re the man!” came back to him.

  “Who’s the man?”

  “You’re the man! Lava Man, Lava Man!”

  “Awe, come on, you’re too much! Thank you, thank you!” Corbman said, making some crazy bows as he exited, stage left.

  Chapter 21 – Jayton Baird

  A COUPLE HOURS LATER, back in my prep room, I was getting antsy – my fight was coming up fast. I had a little trouble when we simulated this particular opponent back when we were training on the East Side, but I was still able to win those simulations. Katy, Anton, Leona, and Royn were in various stages of tension, standing and sitting, but not still, the others having already went to their seats.

  Leona was a necessity in the room – I didn’t want her to come at first, as she was still mad at me, but Royn insisted since she had spied on this opponent and could give me the best information and strategies. Since I didn’t have a choice, and it actually made sense, I didn’t say anything, though the tension between us was evident.

  We had just finished going through the checklist one more time when the guard stuck his head in. “Ten minutes, sir.”

  Royn, Katy, and Anton turned to gather their stuff, and Leona started to stand as well. I grabbed her arm. “Leona, I need to apologize to you,” I said, suddenly serious and looking directly at her. She stopped but looked intrigued and pissed at the same time. Didn’t really know that was possible.

  “Well?”

  I took a deep breath, my face heating up and turning red I’m sure. I found it hard to look her in the eyes, but I forced myself to do it. “I’m sorry for my rude comment. I was being very insensitive. I don’t like the fact that everyone is risking their necks for me, especially the girls, and especially since I can’t protect them or you when I’m stuck in this damn stadium. It frustrates me to no end, and I took that out on you. I flat don’t like it. Can you forgive me?”

  A few seconds went by as she stared at me, then slightly nodded and walked away and sat down. Good enough for me.

  Royn walked over and started in on me. “Jay, you’d better not let –”

  “I know, sir.”

  “Then if he tries the next one you’ll have to –”

  “I know, sir.”

  “And then if that doesn’t work, you’ll...”

  “Royn. Royn, I get it! I get it! I know the plan!” I shouted, maybe a little louder than I’d meant.

  He put a hand on my shoulder. “Jayton, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to look out for you. You’ve got this, son.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just –”

  “Five minutes, sir. Guests, you need to be in your seats in three minutes.”

  Damnit. Time. Time, time, time. It moved too fast at times like these. Royn and Anton shook my hand and patted my shoulder, and Katy gave me a hug while they exited.

  Leona was the last to leave. For the first time that day, she looked me right in the eye. “Good luck, Jayton Baird.” She single-armed hugged me and floated out the door without looking back.

  Chapter 22 – Jayton Baird

  “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,” the announcer boomed, “we are well into the third round, and we’ve got another doozy lined up for you. Standing on the left triangle, it’s a newcomer who’s making waves in a big way – Jayton Baird!” I waved enthusiastically as I entered the arena, and set off a few fire blasts, receiving the best reaction I’d gotten yet.

  Then he introduced my opponent. “Rotan Vitor!” He proceeded to make four copies of himself, who all bowed, and got a much bigger reaction than I did. There was a loud pop and the copies disappeared. I rolled my eyes and put my goggles on.

  Showoff.

  Dropping into a ready stance, I drew my sword – but he just stood there.

  Okay.

  “Fight!”

  Per our strategy, I waited for him to make the first move.

  But instead of Rotan splitting into four and attacking, he strolled toward me, not even drawing his mace. He kept his hand on it, but didn’t draw it.

  Okay...

  As he walked, he said, “So this is the man who’s causing all the stir. Making people talk and do things they wouldn’t normally do.”

  Say what?

  Rotan stuck out his hand.

  I stared him down and saw no dishonesty there. So being the southern gentleman that I am, I switched my sword to my left hand and shook his.

  “Good to meet you, Jayton. Heard so much about you. That Leona, she couldn’t stop talking about you.”

  I may or may not have growled and tightened my grip on my sword.

  His eyebrows shot up. “Oh ho! So it works both ways, then, eh? Hehe, well, I’ll be sad to disappoint her when I win. Oh, by the way, she’s a great kisser.”

  Without thinking, I unleashed a blast of telekinetic energy, blowing him back to his starting triangle with sheer force. Rotan recovered quickly and landed on his feet. His smile evaporated and turned into a sneer. “So...he wants to play, does he? That was bad form, Jayton, bad form indeed.” He drew his mace.

  I might or might not have growled again rather loudly and pulsed my energy around me.

  We both closed in at the same time and the blows rained between us, each looking for an advantage. He was pretty good with that mace, able to keep up with me at my reduced speed, until suddenly the shots were coming from two sides. The son of a bitch had made a copy of himself and I’d totally missed it.

  Now defending against two opponents, I gave ground but quickly gained it back. Rotan wasn’t as skilled with a weapon as I was, relying on numbers to fight. And Rotan knew it. And he knew that I knew it.

  Suddenly there were four of him. Just like he’d done in every other fight we’d seen. Even though I expected it, I could not allow myself to get surrounded. At least not yet. “Earth Shift!” I said, sliding two of the copies backward by moving the ground underneath them, maintaining my position. Hell, I didn’t even have to use the Ignis.

  I laughed. “That all you got, Rotan? Four on one seems like pretty good odds...for me. I’m not even breathing hard!”

  Rotan snarled. “Not even close.” I saw the split this time. It looked like an unseen force pulled each arm of the Rotans facing me, and they stretched until they split in two, each a perfect image of the other. It happened very fast, and, I hated to admit, it looked pretty cool.

  So now there were eight of the buggers. This was going to get a bit hairy. They all attacked me with their maces in a synchronized fashion. A large sweeping arc of my sword parried all their attacks, and moving fast, I managed to stab two in the heart with two quick strikes.

  They fell but no blood came from the wounds. And then they got up.

  Crap.

  Somehow one got behind me and took out my legs, sending me crashing to the ground. Which was the worst place to be during a fight with multiple opponents. With a blast of energy, the Rotans were sent back a step while I rolled out of the middle of the group and stood up. Fire erupted right where I’d been only a second ago, and the Rotans turned to me and advanced again.

  Keep moving, Jay, keep moving.

  So you couldn’t kill the copies. That meant there is only one way to beat him – kill the real one.

  Except now there were sixteen copies coming at me. Which one was the real Rotan?

  There, that one that wasn’t attacking! Spinning, I said, “Energy Blast!” and punched outward. A massive bolt of energy tore into Rotan, severing him in half...with no blood. Damnit, wrong one!

  But the copy didn�
��t get up, instead flopped on the ground, clearly not in a fighting mood. Maybe they could be taken out of the fight. I parried two mace blows, then yelled, “Energy Scythe!”

  My arm swung in a semicircle, and a huge arc of yellow energy swung outward, slicing six more in half, giving me space and incapacitating more. Take that!

  In a flash, there were thirty-two, and I was thrown back by the sheer number of attackers, expanding my shield to protect a full three hundred sixty degrees while I retreated. Mostly I was on the defensive, but would occasionally drop the yellow energy shield in sections, leaving narrow slots through which to strike, and snapped them closed before one of the Rotans could sneak an attack through.

  With a bump my back hit the wall of the arena. Damn. I was out of space.

  Then just as fast there was sixty-four, and then one hundred twenty-eight. I didn’t know the actual count, but I assumed he was doubling every time, and the arena was full of people. Power swirled all around me as I used everything I had to keep them back, sheathing my sword and firing spheres of wind, earth, and fire, with bursts of energy and water between them. I blasted the copies, bodies flying everywhere, trying to buy myself even a foot of space. I moved a yard out. Then two. Then three.

  The copies were all sweating now. Hard. Maybe Rotan finally hit his copy limit and was low on power – creating and sustaining that many clones had to be draining his energy. Good news. I punched out a fireball and took out a copy. I sliced another three in half with my sword, and in the same move, rolled an earth wave outward, knocking several down as I used my strength Quantum to increase my speed, moving quickly between copies and severing their heads.

  I’d disabled another three dozen in a matter of seconds. But this only seemed to infuriate the ones remaining, and I lost half the space I’d gained in a hail of energy and mace strikes. Now I was so busy defending myself that I couldn’t mount an attack, but still managed to get three more on the disabled list with a well-timed water spear.

  All right, let’s see what the good ol’ Ignis had to say. I flashed it for three seconds, risking the exposure if someone caught sight of the bright energy through the goggles.

  And I got nothing.

  How was that possible?

  What was I going to do? That was my secret weapon, the thing that wouldn’t fail, wouldn’t allow me to lose! Yet here I was, losing, and in a pretty profound manner. The attacks kept coming, some of the copies even picking up rocks with their bare hands and throwing them at me.

  “Tornado Sphere!” I shouted, spinning in a circle, calling up the wind around me.

  That got them back, at least where I could fight them off. Projectiles and fire attacks were blown away, so I only had to contend with the ones who tried to fight through the swirling vortex. Which was fewer than they wanted, but more than I did. Every few seconds, I swiped my arm, keeping the defense going. It was the only thing keeping them from me.

  After a minute, I tried the Ignis again. “Come on, work damnit,” I said, under my breath.

  I used it. Nothing.

  Piss!

  Another minute, and I felt myself getting slower. I was using too much power. I had to do something quick, I had to...wait a minute. I finally had an idea. Flashing the Ignis again, I said find the real Rotan Vitor! Instantly the rest of the world turned blue, and the real Rotan Vitor was outlined in red, behind all the others, his hand on a rock, leaning over and breathing hard, exertion clearly marked on his face. I was right – he was spending a lot of energy on this many clones.

  I’ve got you now. Turning off the Ignis, I had to concentrate – I couldn’t take my eyes off him, or it would be like looking for a needle in a stack of needles again.

  Now how to get to him? “Earth Wave!” I shouted, spinning on my heel as a ripple on the ground knocked all the clones off their feet.

  Without hesitation, I sprinted forward, yelling, “Fire Rollers!” I pushed my palms to each side. Boulders of fire launched from me, cutting down the clones too slow to get up from the earth wave and forcing the others to dodge. Rotan hadn’t moved, and I realized his eyes were closed in concentration, sweat pouring off him.

  “Ice Rockets!” I screamed, pulling water from the river and thrusting dozens of frozen spikes in front of me, impaling the clones that stood between me and the real thing.

  “Energy Whips!” I said, sending several tendrils of yellow energy out from my palms. Spinning them around me, I cleared even more space, slicing through a dozen more clones and clearing a path to the real Rotan.

  His eyes popped open; he’d realized the danger he was in, that I had identified him. He brought his hands together, and the remaining clones massed in front of him, but I was too close now.

  Thrusting my hands forward and parting them, telekinetic force threw the clones out of my way.

  That left me and the real Rotan alone, and suddenly he couldn’t move. The audience couldn’t see that I was holding him still with telekinesis, but he knew something was wrong. I ran right up to him and put my hand on his throat, lifting him all the way off the ground.

  A little concerned about the clones, I glanced around. I needn’t have worried. All the others reached their hands up to their throats as well, like they were being choked by an unseen assailant.

  He fought my telekinetic hold, still not understanding why he couldn’t move. Around me, I heard popping noises as the clones snapped together around me, finally melding back into the single Rotan. “Impossible, you could not have...” He was gagging, but he managed to eke out, “Y-you’ll kill me, boy?”

  Pulling him close to my face, I said, “You picked the wrong fighter to taunt, Rotan. And you picked the wrong way to do it.”

  His eyes went wide. With a last gasp of air, he managed to say, “I yield!” A loud alarm screeched across the arena as the ankle bracelets snapped off him.

  “Tsk.” I clicked my tongue and let him drop. He landed on his knees, his hands at his throat as he gasped for air. He looked up at me and I smiled, throwing my hands wide. “A shame, Rotan. But I guess the best man won, wouldn’t you say?”

  With a deep breath, I sheathed my sword and waved to the crowd. They were on their feet, stomping and cheering, by far the best reaction I’d gotten from them yet. I guess that happens when you pull off an upset, beating number eighty-seven in such a commanding fashion.

  As I continued waving, enjoying the moment, my new scoreboard popped up.

  Uh oh. Royn was going to be pissed. I’d shown too much of my powers. Healing remained at a six, but all the other elements jumped to an eight, including my fighting skills bar. The first Quantum power was now firmly marked with “Strength” and was also at an eight, with three of the remaining four “unknown” Quantum powers set to level four.

  Damnit. After that win, and with that new scoreboard, my days of flying under the radar were over.

  Chapter 23 – Jayton Baird

  JOSEY HEALED ME AFTER the fight. I’d gotten hit with those maces more than I felt. Apparently I’d also slightly strained a couple of ligaments. Fighting all those clones took more of a toll on me than I thought. After being healed up, I hit the sack and got a decent amount of sleep.

  Emerging from my bedroom into the once again expanded room – now with four bedrooms, a full bar, big kitchen, dining room, and living area, I ambled my way to the kitchen to rustle me up some grub. Everyone was there, lounging about. Making a sandwich, I glanced at Leona at the bar, then walked over and took a seat between her and Anton. “Hey, Leona, how are you?”

  “Good, Jay, how are you? I’m glad you won.”

  “Thanks. I’m doing fine.”

  “Good,” she said, then got up and went to the couch.

  I watched her walk away.

  “Hey,” Anton whispered, “at least she talked to you.” He was right. She had been short with me recently, but she’d talked at least, and even almost smiled. Baby steps, Jay.

  “Anton, help me remember not to make her mad ever again,”
I said.

  Bang!

  The door flew open and in walked someone I’d never met, though I’d seen him before somewhere. A faint buzz lit the room as everyone powered up and were in attack mode.

  To his credit, the man never flinched. He wore a dark cape and had a handsome face, though it wasn’t really memorable. Athletic build, maybe six foot two, he stood tall and straight, an air of authority surrounding him.

  “Calm down, people. Geez, you’re on edge,” Royn said, walking in behind the stranger with Hank. Royn closed the door. “Allow me to introduce Waller Munday, the Lord of Mertzen.”

  No one advanced, though hands crept closer to weapons.

  “Um, sir, aren’t the lords against us?” Katy asked, yellow energy cracking like a miniature lightning storm around her hands.

  Hank said, “For the most part, yes, you’re right, but not this one. And keeping that fact a secret is a big priority for this group. This man is the whole reason we’re here. He’s the one who secured Jay’s spot in the tourney.”

  “Doesn’t make him our friend,” Anton said, the ground vibrating at his feet.

  Hank moved to protest, but Waller Munday put a hand on his shoulder. “Hank, my friend, it’s a lot to take in so fast. I’d like to introduce myself to each of you,” he said, and started making his way around the room, shaking hands. After each handshake, my team visibly calmed down.

  I was last, and as I shook his hand, a feeling of ease washed over me. He had a nice, firm handshake, but that didn’t faze me as I flashed the Ignis. I figured if Hank said he got me in the tournament, he knew who I was, so it was worth the risk. “Cut the crap and cut the Calming Quantum. Why are you here?”