“What is that?”
“The history of the Hydro-Mages and why my family is the last of them.”
“You should share this story out loud so Izzz can hear. I think it will go a long way toward earning her trust.”
“The history of the mages, as I kow it, goes like this,” Scarlett said gaining Izzy’s attention. “There was a time when mages were ruled by a group of Mages that considered themselves to be above all the rest. That group ran our society like a cast system. All like them were nobles and rulers. The rest were minor nobles and surfs, with the majority being surfs.”
Scarlett took a deep breath, then continued. “Those who thought themselves to be above the rest ruled with an iron fist. Any who opposed them were put down vuolently and publicly.”
She took another deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. “The ruling class were all Hydro-Mages. Our power over the body and our sheer strength gave us an edge. It wasn’t until the Mages of all the other schools banded together and made a deal with a Mage Hunter that the rule of the Hydros ended. It’s one of the reasons We remaining Hydros fear Mage Hunters so much. It is the reason there are only three Hydro-Mages left.”
Chapter 19
The rest of the trip was uneventful and quiet. We arrived at Lassiter Securities headquarters and parked in the front. We were done playing it safe.
The front doors opened into a large reception area. One man sat behind the desk looking straight ahead and not moving. His chest didn’t expand and contract and he was too still.
“Zombie,” I said.
The thing’s mouth fell open and Lassiters southern draw fell out. “I prefer to think of my reanimated men as flesh golems. They have no will or desires, where zombies desire flesh. I’m sure you can grasp the distinction.”
“Come out and face us,” I said. “We have a few questions for you.”
“I bet you do, Terry. I tell you what…” doors on both sides of the room burst open and dozens of zombie golem troops marched out. Their mouths were open and Lassiter’s voice came from them all. “...you defat my army, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Deal?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. The horde rushed forward. I activated shell and was pleasantly surprised by a layer of ice that covered the keratin shell on my arms. A whip of water lashed out hitting several troops and knocking them back. Izzy dove into the press of bodies back first letting her sharp plated do damage.
Following my turtle’s example I leapt high using my enhanced jumping ability. Thank you Werekangaroo. I landed on several heads near the center of the cluster like a wrecking ball. Bodies collapsed under me with tier heads crushed in. jumping I I went in for some more.
My fist lashed out as I upped my pull to forty percent. My movements became quicker, deadlier. More zombies fell with their roten brains spilling on the ground.
I heard a gunt and cry of pain to my left. I spared glance and saw my turtle in hybrid Tua form. She screamed in rage and pain while she struck out with fists hardened by her Clubbed Fists skill. Every second she knocked another zombie down for the count.
Lassiter took advantage of my distraction and hit me with three zombies bent low like football lineman. They knocked me ot the ground and knocked the wind out of me. The zombies stomped down on me with vicious kicks. Lassiter laughed through them while they did their gruesome work.
I pulled another ten percent. A kick booted heal dropping toward my face slowed to a crawl. I grabbed the foot and twisted sending the leg on a new trajectory. Then I swept the legs the other two and smashed their skulls as they hit the ground. I jumped up meeting the first one as hit foot hit the ground. LAssiter still laughed. I grabbed the zombie’s head with both hands and twisted so hard he head faced backwards. That stopped him from laughing. My hands were still holding his head so I yanked up pulling the melon sized head free of he body. I heafted it up and roared.
“That is so dark,” Lassiter said through a zombie to my right. Using the head in my hands I swung it down into the skull of te Zombie that spoke. Letting the ruined head fall I moved to the next target.
A scream and the feeling of great fear ht me at the same instant. Both the scream and fear came from Scarlett. I leapt gong in the direction my Tua was. My feet touched down behind a group of zombies too busy beating on something with their fists to notice me. My Hydro-Mage was on the other side of the wall of dead meat. She was what they were hitting over and over.
I tossed bodies like they were weightless. More than one hit the wall hard enough to break something making them useless. In a few seconds I cleared out the dead and found my Tua curled up in the fetal position on the floor. Her ice armor was cracked and had large chunks missing. I lifted her up in my arms.
“Scarlett?”
“Terry?” He moved her arms away from her face letting me see the bruises she suffered on her left eyes and right cheek.
“Terry!” She threw her arms around my neck and wept.
“Are you alright?” I asked. Rage flooded me. Anger from seeing my Tua hurt and anger ather for having been hurt. It took a couple seconds to remind myself that she wasn’t used to fighting like this.
“Can you cover us in blades?” I asked.
“I’m out of power. I sued it all trying to stop them from killing. Me,” Scarlett said.
I pulled upping my draw to eighty percent. I then routed fourty of it to Izzy and Scarlett. My Hydro-Mage took on the blue glow from before. Her back arched almost causing me to drop her. She threw her arms out and gathered tendrils of water. They tore through the building answering Scarlett’s call.
The water slammed into me forming long curved blades making me look like a porcupine ice sculpture. Holding my Tua tight to my chest I ran into the still growing mass of zombies. The power flowing through me, and the strength granted my legs from the Werekangaroo leaping ability allowed me to blow through the zombies leaving chopped up zombies in my wake. I stopped when I reached a surprised looking Izzy.
“Hold her,” I said while holding Scarlett out. My turtle took Scarlett from me.without a word. “Scarlett, can you keep the blades on me from a distance?”
“I think so.”
“Good. It’s time to end this shit.”
I spun and ran headlong into the closest group. The blades sprouting from me tore into their flesh pinning them to me. My forward movement tore pieces from them, too many pieces for them to function. Body parts hit the ground behind me and black blood rained down like a rainstorm from hell was overhead.
I ran back and forth tearing zombies to pieces. A steady stream of water chased me constantly replacing the water lost when the blades broke of shattered.I don’t know how much time passed, all I knew was run, stop, turn, and run.
“Terry!” Izzy shouted. I stopped and looked over at her. The blades fell from my body to shatter on the floor. “It’s over, Terry. They are all dead.”
I looked around and saw nothing but the sliced up chunks of people mixed with black fabric. All the zombies were nothing more than chum for the sharks now. Assuming the sharks could stomach the nasty black goo oozing from the rotting flesh.
“Let’s get out of this room and find Lassier,” I said.
“Let’s do that,” Izzy said. I’m going to be sick if I have to stay in here any longer.”
Scarlett did get sick. Leaning forward while still in Izzy’s grasp she hurled.
“Oh damn it!” Izzy shouted. She set the Hydro-Mage down and turned away emptying her stomach as well. The sight and sound of my Tua emptying their stomachs coupled with the smell was…
I bent retching. “We gotta get outa here,” I said between dry heaves.
The three of us walked hunched over as our bodies randomly tried expelling their contents. We finally made it out of the room and managed to straighten. The smell was still awful in the side room, but not as pungent.
“We need to go up,” I said.
Scarlett smiled. She opened her hand and water rushed to her f
rom a sink in the corner of what turned out to be a break room. When the tendril reached her hand it changed directions going straight up. The tendril narrowed and the end froze over becoming a blade. It slammed into the ceiling and moved in a wide circle. Once the tendril reached the starting point it yanked the ceiling and part of the second floor down. Scarlett. Redirected the stream again to the floor below the hole. She sprayed it back and forth building up the ice until we had a spiral staircase.
“That is a neat trick,” Izzy said.
“Yeah, good job,” I added.
The room on the second floor was an office complete with a desk, chair, and filing cabinet. That was all though. The office was not and a layer of dust testified to that assumption.
“His office is on this floor,” Scarlett said.
“Good, let's go find Lassiter and fucking murder him,” I snarled.
The man himself was in the office seated behind a large desk. Two large men wearing overcoats that went to their knees and hats pulled low to cover most of their faces stood with the desk sandwiched between them. Lassiter smiled as we walked.
“I suppose it is almost boss battle time. You do realize that there is always another challenge to face right before the boss, righ?” Lassiter asked.
“Who hired you to to attack us?” I asked. “Was it Arnold?”
“Hm, who indeed? I’m sure you can guess that there are confidentialities signed and agreed upon when my services are employed? Yes? Well, that means I can not, in good conscious divulge that information.” He leaned forward and placed his hands on the desk. “I am willing to play a little game, however, since you will probably not survive the next hour. Let’s call it, twenty questions with a twist.”
“How about I pound the answers out of you?” I asked.
Izzy stepped up next to me and raised her hands up showing her Clubbed Fists skill active. Scarlett took her place on my other side with her hands glowing and tendrils of water circling her closed fists.
Lassiter’s smile widened. He stood and tore open his shirt. A network of scare and fresh wounds covered the majority of his exposed torso. “Necromancy is demanding discipline. I have grown to enjoy the subtle pleasure of pain, and doubt you could harm me enough to make me talk. Now,” he sat as he spoke, “if you play along, I may divulge the information you desire without you beating me. Though I doubt you will survive, if you do, you will have what you came for. What do you say?”
The man’s voice, face, calm manner, and existence pissed me off. I wanted nothing more than to tear him apart. A growl built in my throat and took a step forward. Red tinted everything I saw. Lassiter was going to feel the wrath of…
Izzy’s fingers wrapped around my forearm. “Let’s play along for now. We get what we came for, then deal with him,” She sent me through our mental link.
My Tua was correct. We needed this information. I relaxed my clenched fists and took a couple deep breaths.
“We’re game,” Izz said. “Let’s play.”
“I see wisdom in your choice of companions. I am plagued with the problem of not having any good counsel. Kudos, Terry. Now for the rules. You have twenty questions. I will answer yes or no, nothing else. I suggest you think hard about what you want to ask.”
“Did Arnold send you to destroy our home?” I asked.
“No.”
“You lie!” I stepped forward.
“Wile I do admit to not having said I wouldn’t lie, I didn’t say I would either. Tell you what, lies are not a part of the game. You may start over at one.”
“Did Arnold hire you to attack us,” Izzy asked.
“No,” Lassiter said with a big smile.
I opened my mouth to ask another question and tell him where to go stick the proverbial it.
“Were you hired to attack us?” Izzy asked interrupting me. She shot me a nasty glare.
“No.”
“Did Acashia hire you?” I asked.
“No.”
That answer stumped me. If not Arnold or Acashia, who would be attacking us?
“Was it someone working for Arnold?” Izzy asked. Not for the first time I was glad to have her around.
“No.”
And the answer still confused me.
“Was it someone that worked for Acashia?” Izzy asked.
“No.”
As far as I knew, those were my enemies. No one else knew what I was, or had any ill will toward me and my pack. I thought back to all of my adventures and the events leading up to gaining my Tua. They all involved Arnold, and to some small degree Acashia. Except…
“Was it my father that hired you?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Chapter 20
“No way!” Scarlett said. “Your dad? Really?”
“Long story, but the short of it is that he is a real asshole,” I said.
“Well, I guess twenty questions os over,” Lassiter said. As he spoke the two brutes dropped their coats to the floor and their hats followed.
They were a patchwork of human parts. Their faces sported and extra set of eyes above the originals, but spread farther apart. Two extra sets of arms were wrapped around their torsos. They spread the additional appendages wide showing off four long knives in each hand. In unison, they opened their mouths showing off rows of sharp teeth and let out a raspy scream.
“Time for the complications before facing the boss fight,” Lassiter said.
The brutes dashed forward slashing knives like crazed Ginsu knife salesman. I activated shell allowing the ice covered turtle shell to cover my skin then met the charge of the closest one.
“You two take the other one,” I told my Tua through our mental link.
I ducted the top set of blades and blocked the lower set with my forearms. Ice chips flew, but I remained unscathed. As I jumped up to strike the zombie in the head one of its lower blades bit ino my side. A moment of pain passed as the Vapor Effect activated and the blade passed through the majority of my with almost no damage done. The initial cut left a small mark on my skin.
I pulled sixty percent from my pack, and time slowed. The top knives were swung in to take my head off like a pair of scissors. Jumping back, I kicked out hitting one of the hands. I expected the blade to drop, but all that happened was the hand was knocked off course. It was a reminder that the enemy I faced was no longer a living being. Its nerve endings didn’t send the pain signals to its brain.
As soon as my feet hit the floor I bent my knees and pushed off flying forward like a rocket. The arms closed in too slow and I hit the monster in the chest with both fists. I fell back landing on it’s ass, and I bounced off landing on my feet.
A quick glance showed Izzy standing toe to toe with her opponent. She was sifted into her Wereturtle Tua hybrid form and a blade bounced of her side. A layer of ice covered her from the neck down. It took the form of overlapping plates that allowed a full range of motion while still protecting her. Scarlet stood a few feet behind sending shards of ice like projectiles at the monster. It was beginning to look like a porcupine. My help wasn’t needed.
“It would seem, my special troops need to step up their game,” Lassiter said.
My opponent stood while the other monster jumped back. Both reached behind their backs with their top sets of arms.They pulled out two submachine guns each. The kind I often saw used in first person shooters. If the games were right, these things were full auto and we were in trouble.
I was right, and I wish I hadn’t been. The goon pulled both triggers and sent a spraw of projectiles from each weapon. My response was to dash and put myself between my Tua and the Monsters. Shell was still active and there was a coat of ice covering the turtle shell on my skin. The bullets quickly ate away at the ice send chunks and tiny shards into the air.
“We need a plan,” I shouted over the loud thudding of the repeated fire of the weapons.
All four weapons clicked on empty chambers.
I let out a sigh of relief. Things were about to get bet
ter for us. It was time to pull more and end this thing. I wished I could use Dragonshift, but the cooldown for it was a long way from being ready. There was always brute force,and the power of my pack. I pulled until I was pulling ninety percent power from everyone except, Izzy and Scarlett. I kept them where they were and used the rest for myself.
The power of my pack flooded my system. Red rage followed it through my veins and I threw my head back and howled. When I looked back at my target it was loading fresh magazines into its weapons. I kicked off leaving the floor and flying at it.
The submachine guns fired two rounds each before I slammed into him. One round hit me in the left shoulder turning me slightly. My right shoulder hit him square in the center of his chest. The big guy fell back and his lowest set of arms wrapped around my waist.
As soon as its back hit the floor it flipped over binning me beneath the big zombie. I squirmed trying to get free and only managed to move my head out from under him enough to the two bladed on his right plunged into the floor. He shifted and something hard dug into my side.
“Terry!” Scarlet screamed just before the loudest boom I had ever heard. Then there was pain.
Fire erupted in my side where I had been poked and I knew what it was. One of the submachine guns was pressed to my side and now a bullet was in me. Something in me broke.
Another boom and impact to my side. Pain wormed its way into my core. I raised an arm fighting against the bulk pressing me down and planted my hand. Another boom and more pain causing me to cough up blood. I raised my other arm shifting the bulk then planted my hand. The gun snt a continuous stream of ammunition into my body. I heaved with all I had and roared.
Rage consumed me fed by pain and… and something I couldn’t figure out.
I lifted myself up taking the hulk of a zombie with me. I shrugged sending the thing off to the side and took my feet. Before it hit the floor I grabbed one of the arms holding the submachine guns and swung the beast up and over slamming it into the floor. Another boom sounded as the beast impacted with the ground. Another roar tore free from my mouth this one more primal.
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