by J. P. Rice
I sat down next to Burn. “I want you to come with me, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately.”
“That’s dangerous,” she joked.
The levity broke the tense situation for a moment. “I’ve been thinking about my mortality lately and what would happen if things don’t work out one day. I have Dante to worry about now.”
“We,” Burn reminded me. “We have Dante. I don’t need to be in a romantic relationship with you, but I could really help out with Dante. And you know I can handle myself in a magic brawl.”
“That makes me so happy to hear. I want Dante to have a normal upbringing, but I can’t ignore the fact that my job is ultra-dangerous. If we both go to fight these sorcerers, you know how it goes. We could both die. And where would that leave Dante?”
Burn poked me in the ribs and said, “Why don’t we split up the duties between parenting and protecting the city from dark magic?”
“Not to state the obvious, but you’re pregnant right now too. You can’t be recklessly running around causing mayhem. One good shot to the stomach, and that’s that. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened. You need to take it easy,” I recommended.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head, “It’s so early in the process, I’ll be just fine. But, you do make a few good points. At least tell me where you are going. Just so I know.”
“No way. I don’t mean to be rude, but you will never stay here if I give you the address.”
We fought over the address for about a half-hour until a car horn beeped. It was time. Game time. I hugged Burn and walked out to Felix’s purple hearse. I turned back and stared at my house, hoping to return to my new family in one piece.
Glenda was sitting shotgun, so I got in the back seat of the converted hearse. Felix pulled out onto the road and I stared out the window next to my door. I made momentary eye contact with Burn, who was peeking through the blinds.
Felix stepped on the gas and she was gone. Glenda was smoking without taking the Newport from her lips to keep her hands free to tend to her guns and magazines. Felix filled the car with a hit from his vape pen. I didn’t have any addictions to feed so I went over the upcoming battle in my head.
Our plan was simple. Bust in, save the victims and get out of dodge. We were going to leave the Goblet in Felix’s car for safekeeping. No reason to over-plan. KISS. Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.
As I drifted off, reminiscing about the past, I rubbed my fingers on the circlet around my calf. I hoped it would work to shut down the demon implant. Focusing on the task at hand, I noticed we were close to the house. I bobbed my head and started to get jacked up for the brawl.
We pulled into a gravel driveway that quickly turned into a dirt path. It looped around a giant pine tree and the red house appeared in front of us. A few barns behind the house came into view as we coasted to a stop in front of the house.
We weren’t sneaking up on anyone, so we jumped out and stormed toward the house. Felix screamed, “Wait. I’m sensing Fukutama over here.” He pointed at one of the barns behind the house.
“I thought you said there was a poster on the wall,” I reminded the mage.
He shook his head and kept pointing at the red barn behind the house. “They must have moved them. Trust me on this one. I know these things.”
His phrasing made me a bit worried he was in cahoots with the sorcerers. Nah, he was just a little weird sometimes. I followed him behind the house. As we approached the big barn door, I prepared my magic, Glenda raised her Barrett and Felix took a deep breath.
Chapter 29
He lifted the latch on the door and I pulled it open. Sakai spun around to face us. The short barefoot man with a long ponytail was wearing only blue robes.
Cyclone Woman and Fukutama were tied up right behind him. As I charged into the barn, I searched for the other two sorcerers. All I saw were bales of hay in the one corner and a few torches in stands around the shadowy barn.
Glenda’s Barret was rendered useless because Sakai was standing too close to the victims. She threw the weapon down and started to shake. She howled, more in the form of a grunt, and her clothes frayed, shredded and then exploded off her body.
The burgundy fur started at the top of her newly formed fox head and trailed down her body, leaving white spots in various places. Glenda leaned down on all fours and pounced into the shadows of the barn, disappearing from my sight.
Felix stepped to his right and I moved to the left so that Sakai couldn’t focus on both of us at the same time. I hoped that Sakai would move away from Cyclone Woman and Fukutama, but he held his ground wisely.
The werefox jumped out of the shadows to the right of Sakai, who turned in reaction. As the sorcerer turned his head, I noticed Felix’s arm moving out of my peripheral. The mage launched a blue fireball, sparked with silver electricity, at our enemy.
The ball raced toward Sakai’s kneecaps. Glenda retreated back into the shadows and the sorcerer turned back to us. His eyes looked down and widened in fear. The sorcerer deftly slid his bare feet to the side, kicked up some dust from the dry dirt ground and avoided the blue fireball.
The orb of electric power zoomed between Cyclone Woman and Fukutama. The old wizard groaned in pain as the ball skimmed his left bicep, ripping open his flesh and spraying blood on Cyclone Woman. The intense orb punctured a hole in the back of the barn and flew out of sight.
Fucking stupid Felix. What the fuck was he thinking? That was not the way to impress your sensei.
I couldn’t assess the damage from so far away, but it didn’t appear life threatening. From my vantage point, it had barely hit him, but Fukutama’s grunting and groaning told another story. Sakai smiled, exposing his brown teeth with several missing.
Glenda appeared to the right of Sakai. She did two quick cartwheels that placed her directly behind the sorcerer. Her hand stretched out and grabbed his pony tail. She leaned down, jerked her hips and shoulders, and Sakai’s feet lifted off the ground.
Using her raw power, Glenda tossed the smaller man off to the side with the same ease I’d seen her flick away a cigarette butt. The graceful sorcerer rolled from his back to his stomach and instantly got back to his feet, shifting his weight back and forth, arms extended, ready for more action.
Glenda leaned down on all fours and darted away toward the bales of hay in the dark corner of the barn. The sorcerer peeked over his left shoulder, then his right one, his eyes landing on me. Felix drifted further to the right to create more distance between us.
Sakai spun around. His dark eyes jumped from me to Felix, me to Felix and then back over each shoulder. We had him confused and right where we wanted him. Hopefully.
Glenda appeared again, right in front of Sakai. She swiped her right paw, claws extended, at his face. The sorcerer ducked the attempt and with his body lowered, spun around Glenda, landing right behind her. His hand reached up and got lost in Glenda’s wild hair.
Sakai turned to his left and used his hip to help lift Glenda off the ground. Once her feet were off the ground, he whipped his hand around and launched Glenda at the wall of the barn. Her body rotated around, perpendicular to the ground, like a ceiling fan.
With a heavy smack, she collided with the wall and fell to the ground in a heap. I wanted to race over and check on her, but that would play right into Sakai’s plan. The best I could do was hope she was all right.
Sakai extended his hands toward Felix, and a moment later, the mage flew backwards, screaming in pain. He landed in the dirt, moaning and rolling around. I didn’t even see the attack.
Sakai turned to me and extended his arms again, fingertips moving up and down. His lips moved, but no words came out, which meant he was casting a spell. I shifted my vision to a different dimension and saw a big block of heavy air coming at me. My feet slid backward and my open hands thrust forward as I hit the deck to avoid the pain.
I could feel the rippling pressure above me as the rectangular block of super heavy air passed.
Sakai’s eyes widened in what seemed like fear, and I couldn’t understand why. I heard someone calling out in Japanese, but Sakai’s mouth wasn’t moving.
I knew it wasn’t Fukutama either since the man didn’t have a tongue. The crunch of wood filled my ears and Sakai screamed. What the hell was going on? The sorcerer raced past me en route to the exit door. He was trying to make a run for it.
I did a quick push up, and scrambling to my knees, I turned my head toward the barn door. Lying next to the entrance were Kobayashi and Tamamo no Mae, motionless. Sakai spoke in Japanese and I didn’t need a translator to tell me that his words were soaked in desperation and sorrow.
I rapidly pieced together that the pocket of air that had missed me, had crashed into Sakai’s associates. Calling on a fireball, I wanted to end this right now. It wasn’t exactly honorable to hit someone from behind while they were distracted, but this game wasn’t always fair. Sorry.
With Sakai kneeling over the body of Kobayashi, I unleashed a fastball. It hummed through the air, steaming toward the left side of Sakai’s back. The sorcerer could sense something as his head perked up and his neck jerked back and forth.
But it was too late. Upon contact, a red explosion fountained out of Sakai’s back. He didn’t scream. He didn’t move. He was already dead. He just didn’t know it yet. The limp body crumpled, his left arm laying on Kobayashi’s stomach and only feet away from the final sorcerer.
I turned to Felix. “Let’s get the fuck out of here. I’ll get Glenda up and you can get Fukutama loose first, since he is hurt.”
Felix rushed over to the kidnapped victims and attended to Fukutama first. I made a bee-line for Glenda and found her near the wall. As I approached, I noticed her foxy chest heaving in and out and breathed a sigh of relief.
I grabbed her shoulder and shook her. Glenda’s eyelids fluttered open, confused. She sprang up on all fours. “Where’d he go? I’ll kill that son of a bitch.”
I said, “Relax. The battle’s over. It’s time to go.”
The groggy fox stood up straight and stumbled over to Felix. I walked next to her because her wobbly movements weren’t making me confident she wouldn’t fall down. As I neared Fukutama, I realized the wound was much worse than I’d initially thought. He needed medical attention. Bad.
I wasn’t confident enough in my healing magic to take a stab at that cut. Felix cut away the ropes around Fukutama’s ankles and helped the old man to his feet. With that under control, I moved in closer to release Cyclone Woman from her bonds.
Shifting my vision again, I noticed that complex wards had been set on the rope around her wrists and ankles. This could take a while. “Felix. You’ve got to get Glenda and Fukutama out of here. Get Fukutama to the hospital stat. It’ll take me a little while to get Cyclone Woman loose.”
Felix hooked Fukutama’s arm up over his shoulder. “But how are you going to get out of here. I drove.”
“I have connections. I can call someone to pick me up.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, stopping momentarily.
I said, “He needs help and Glenda’s brain is still rattled. The sorcerers are dead. I’ll be just fine.”
“All right.” Felix helped Fukutama get pointed in the right direction. They walked slowly toward the exit with Glenda following them in a staggering, zigzag pattern, her tail wagging left and right.
Back to the wards. It was almost as if something was grounding her. As the coding for the spells rolled by, I noticed a disturbing pattern I’d seen before. Much like the Blood Goblet, Cyclone Woman was being held in place by the trees. The roots specifically.
Hidden underground, they still projected a powerful hold on Cyclone Woman. Studying the ward coding, I couldn’t find any inconsistencies. Whoever set this ward knew what they were doing. I remembered the Battle of the Trees from the Maginobian.
They produced an army of trees that complemented each other for battle. They didn’t take all the big trees because they were too slow. As the coding kept rolling by, I noticed that the roots used were all big ones, not supplemented by any smaller roots.
Instead of going with finesse, this solution would involve power. I took a deep breath and called for the Dagda to lend me some of his amazing power. Normally, I would find a break in the pattern or an inconsistency that I could manipulate. Different battles called for different methods.
This time, I cast my own spell on the defense wards, using the power of the mighty oak tree and the lessons I’d learned over the past few years. I could see the struggle as my spell tried to pervade the defense ward. The bonds caused Cyclone Woman’s body to shake, and with a mighty rumble beneath the earth, the wards finally busted.
I grabbed a knife off my hip and cut the coarse, thick brown rope from her wrists and ankles. Helping her up, we turned for the barn door to get the hell out of there. We took a few steps, I looked up and stopped dead in my tracks.
Chapter 30
Kobayashi and Tamamo no Mae were standing in the doorway. Kobayashi rolled his fingers and thumb along his jawline as he opened and closed his mouth. They were beat up, bloodied, battered and covered in dirt. But also alive, which meant they were still extremely dangerous.
I gestured for Cyclone Woman to get away from me and she nodded and hobbled away. This was my fight.
Aiming for intimidation, I widened my eyes and smiled like a crazy man as I stared at the two sorcerers. Standing in a golden shaft of sunlight, they moved toward me. As they walked into the dim barn, the glowing glaze disappeared from around their bodies. Kobayashi still had a blue aura surrounding him as he paced toward me with his wife by his side.
He looked over at Cyclone Woman and closed his eyes. He kept walking toward me with his eyes shut and snapped his hand like he was holding a whip.
A sudden burst of wind blew my hair back. Confusion set in. We were in an enclosed barn. I caught a blurry object out of my peripheral. Turning to my right, my eyes were filled with the sight of a tiny tornado. It was gaining steam, picking up dust and particles while maintaining the telltale circular wind pattern.
I looked around the room and saw that the twister wasn’t affecting anything else. Not even the bales of hay in the corner. Surely they would be affected by this wind storm. The mini tornado grew to about six feet tall and started toward me in a jagged path.
I got up on the front of my feet, ready to dodge the impromptu weather disaster. Leaning to the right, the twister shifted accordingly. When I bounced to the left, it adjusted its path again. The tornado got within two feet and I lunged to the right.
The crafty wind trap pulled me in, my feet sliding on the dirt floor of the barn. The tornado seemed to inhale me. The winds zipped me around in a circle. I threw up, but the vomit just plastered against my face because of the wind pressure.
I spun around like a washing machine until the tornado spit me out. My arms and legs flailed as I flew through the air. I tilted my head to the side to avoid first impact, and my shoulder crashed into the barn wall. The rest of my body weight followed, creating immense pressure on my spine.
I fell face first to the ground, smacking my forehead and knocking myself senseless. Shooting stars streaked through my closed eyes. The barn dirt covered the puke on my face and felt like mud as I wiped it off.
Delirious, I stood up and took seven uneven steps to my left before regaining my balance. I moved my head back and forth, stretching out my neck and getting ready for round two. What was that blurry object in the middle of the room?
I rubbed some dirt and vomit off my eyelids and stared at the storm cloud hovering four feet above ground. Sparking with electricity and emitting a light drizzle, the cloud floated toward me. It followed the same pattern as the tornado, bouncing from side to side.
I tried to find a pattern in the movements, but there was none. Totally random. As the cloud closed in on me, I ducked in an ill attempt to avoid it. The storm cloud pulled me in and I immediately felt the hot moisture. Electricity pulsed inside
the cloud, zapping me and causing my body to overheat, systems threatening to shut down.
The small cloud thrashed my body around and the tremendous pressure made my head feel like it was going to explode. Every so often, the cloud would fill with lightning and fry my body just a little bit more than the previous surge.
I’d heard of planes being stuck inside storm clouds and even a man in a parachute. They weren’t as bad as this. At least, not from my perspective. If the tornado was a washer, the storm cloud was a dryer, bouncing me from side to side, sometimes tumbling over.
I felt dizzy and sick and about to puke again. The only positive of the storm cloud experience was that it had washed all the grime off of me. I was soaking wet, but it was better than being covered in puke.
Just as the pressure ratcheted up again, the cloud expelled me, and I fell on my side into a mud puddle. Looking around the barn, the cloud had saturated all the dirt on the ground. I got to my knees and went to rise to my feet, but my shoe slipped in the mud.
Working slowly and carefully, I got back up. Kobayashi and Tamamo no Mae were laughing at me. If they would just stop using the weather against me, I would fuck them up. Fucking cheaters.
I didn’t see any more natural disasters lurking in the barn. I raised my fists, and said, “All right. I see what you got. Let’s fucking rock.”
I started to charge after the two sorcerers when a loud boom came from the entrance of the barn. Wood splintered and flew in every direction as a car crashed through the wooden structure. I turned and ran back toward the wall where Cyclone Woman had drifted off to.
The blurry flash zipped by on a collision course with the two sorcerers. Kobayashi darted to his left and Tamamo no Mae moved to her right. But the fox lady slipped in the mud, her right foot kicked back and her chest hit the ground. She tried to scramble to her feet only to fall again and muddy her furry chin.
The black car barreled right at Tamamo no Mae. The sorceress did a pushup as the vehicle closed in and gathered her feet underneath her. She slipped again and closed her eyes as the front bumper smashed into her forehead and face, causing a red explosion. The car jumped up and down as it ran over Tamamo no Mae’s body and the black Maxima crashed through the other side of the barn.