Elemental Courage

by M. W. McDonald

Brian had run to Ren’s room. Dyaina had asked him to once it appeared to her that her son might kill Alex. Now he was standing over her, covering her body with his own as shockwaves from the brawl in the training chamber brought flurries of pebbles and debris cascading from the ceiling and bouncing off of his back. Brian had felt two tremendous energies from the training chamber. Neither of them had loosed their full potential yet, and in fact, one of them felt like he was doing everything he could to restrain himself. The other energy was beginning to ramp up, and blossom outward. A powerful throb of energy radiated from this person. Brian’s eyes rolled to the back of his skull as he let his mind see what his senses had felt.

  He saw it dimly at first. The training chamber was a disaster the crystalline guardians of this magnificent home where strewn in large broken pieces. Their own unique glows contributed to the waning light in the room. Huge amounts of crystalline rubble were strewn all about the room, the brilliant eyes of some of the broken constructs still pulsed with a frustration of being unable to find the missing body parts required to move and partake in the battle once more.

  Brian saw the Reaper. Its shadow seeped into the room from cracks and fissures in the ceiling made by William’s attacks. The shadows were thick and viscous, they poured and stretched as they expanded across the chamber like a living tar.

  “We see you…” The shadows spoke in echoed unison, acknowledging the presence of Brian’s consciousness. The shadows flexed liquidly towards the location of Brian’s mind. The shadows spoke in his mind sharply and clearly. “You shall not interfere!” The voices were a unified hiss. “We see you…” The voices repeated.

  Brain saw William hold back a massive blast of other-worldly energies as David was trying to get through the rift. Before he could he could see more, the black miasma of the reaper leaped at him forcing him to withdraw back to his own body. He was wrenched back to reality by Renai’s voice.

  “Excuse me?” Ren said repeating herself. Brian had covered her body from another shower of debris caused by the immense impacts of the battle at hand. The debris bounced off his back.

  “Brian, I’m not that kind of girl!” Brian blushed realizing that as he had fallen over he supported himself by one hand being on the mattress next to her head and the other on her left breast.

  “I …Uh…It’s not what it looks like!” He blushed defensively as he righted himself and removed his hand from the soft flesh quickly putting that hand behind him.

  “Relax Brian I’m only kidding.” Renai’s voice was groggy as she surveyed the room and saw the fissures in the walls and rubble on the floor. ”Damn…” She rubbed her eyes. “What did I miss?!”

  “The reaper is here,” Brian said quickly hoping that the gravity of their present situation would help wake her up more quickly. It worked. Renai’s eyes shot wide open.

  “Owen?” She asked quietly in a near whisper. Brian nodded that he was in fact alright. “Safe, William is making sure they get out. Michael …wasn’t so lucky.” Renai put a hand to her mouth and sharply took in a breath as her eyes became watery.

  “Wait, you said William is making sure they are getting out?” Brian smiled as she asked incredulously.

  “Yep, apparently the training you and Owen had provided gave him the confidence to stand toe-to-toe with the Reaper.” Her eyes spoke of disbelief and her mouth parted as she was about to speak. Brian cut her off as another shockwave shook the room dusting their heads with small pebbles. “You are just going to have to trust me. Can you stand?” Renai tested her legs and then stood slowly. “Good, we have to get out of here, now!” A stronger shockwave rattled the room, its impossibly heavy door swung open easily. The blasts felt closer now for some reason. Renai nodded quickly, covered her head with her hand to shield from any larger debris and crossed the room. Ren promptly put her shoes on and they both dashed down the hall. Brian stopped at Irys’ door.

  “Wait, Ren!” Brian waved at her as he stopped and went inside for a brief moment. He returned quickly with a dark-haired woman in tow. She was dressed in one of Ren’s T-shirts and jeans that didn’t quite fit her.

  “Who—nevermind tell me later.” Renai turned and continued her jaunt down the debris-strewn hall.

  “Listen to me,” Brian told the dark-haired, pale-faced woman. “We have to get out of here!” Irys couldn’t seem to focus, her eyes rolled in her head like two loose marbles. Brian steadied her as another impact shook the earth around them. He slapped her across the face sharply and grabbed her shoulders roughly. “Irys look at me!” The sting of the slap had brought some semblance of focus back to her face. Brian held her hand in both of his and locked eyes with her.

  “We have to leave, but I cannot carry you.” Irys nodded quickly. Her eyes focused beyond Brian. He thought she had spaced out again but suddenly realized the error as the color drained from her pretty face.

  “Too late…” She whispered. A burst of laughter erupted from the end of the hallway closest to the training chamber. Brian turned and saw the other end of the hall blacken and vibrate. Renai was about 20 yards ahead of him, and she skidded to a stop about 30 feet from the black coagulation. Her body’s reaction was to backpedal, but she found that she couldn’t move. She froze in place, her limbs were unable to move.

  “Ren!” Brian shouted at her as he put himself between the monster and Irys never letting go of her his hand. The shadows rippled violently with a liquid life.

  “Can’t move…” Ren struggled to conjure some type of counter to her binding, but panic had set in and everything she tried to conjure sputtered and died when weighed against the power of the Reaper’s hold. Her focus dissolved. The last burst of laughter buffeted the stone hall as it rippled the liquid black. The pulsing shadow launched sharp spears down the corridor, they would only take only a few seconds to skewer Ren. Three: she closed her eyes, forcing her welled up tears of fear down her cheek. Two: the spears groaned in hunger spiraling at their next victim. One: a rift tore the air and devoured the spears. David barely made it out of the rift before he had time enough to duck his head between Renai’s legs and heft her on top of his back. It was all Ren could do to find a handful of fur to hold onto as her muscles began to work again. David’s massive lupine muscles rippled as he gave everything he had as he dodged a straggling spear and opened another rift a few yards past the first and disappeared with his passenger. David’s secondary fissure had absorbed a few more projectiles before it snapped shut.

  The shadows erupted with an angry fury. Multitudes of angry voices echoed their need for blood. Orbs of shadowy fire erupted from the blackness and careened at Brian. As the evil spheres got closer, Brian noticed they were in fact faces of tormented souls that had been transformed into weapons of evil lit ablaze with a black hatred. He shielded himself and Irys in a blue cocoon of his own life energy. He bent the shield enough to ricochet the orbs passed them. The shadow howled in pure hatred, it hurled its shapeless form forward. Another rift tore the air between the darkness and Brian about 10 feet away this was the last chance; there wasn’t room for another run. The shadow recoiled as a few tendrils were eaten hungrily by the crackling energy. Brian turned to face Irys, I wish we had more time. Everything will be ok…” Brian smiled at her, kissed her hand and stepped aside as David burst from the rift and lowered his massive head. Irys, like Ren, was hefted easily onto David’s back. There wasn’t enough time to ensure they both made it and Brian made the difficult choice for her.

  “Goodbye.” Brian waved half-heartedly at Irys and David. “At least she will know some kind of life.” The large wolf glanced back; a tremendous amount of respect and sadness completely visible in his large amber eyes. The majestic silver-blue wolf was gone in a snapping of the rift. The hopeful light of the rift vanished leaving behind the growing shadow of despair emanating from the Reaper. The shadow recovered quickly making even more groans than before. Brain turned to face it. He cracked his neck and knuckles. His body wreathed in his blue cocoon.

  �
��Let’s do this ugly.” Brian spat out. The liquid shadow split into a fang-filled grin that encompassed the entire width of the hallway. Tar-like tentacles shot out of the mass and latched onto the walls like multi-clawed fingers they began propelling the mass forward. It traversed the remaining few feet quickly as it lashed out at Brian. It attacked slowly, savoring the moment. A glinting spiked tentacle burst from the center of the malevolent grin. Brian ducked quickly avoiding his potential skewer as it plunged into the rock. Brian stood back up.

  “I never said I was going to go quietly.” He clenched both hands as a lash of water whipped from his forearms and slashed the shadows. “Never used my water scalpels for this but I might start!” Brian smiled as more bright blue ribbons of water radiated from his forearms slashing at the blackened mass. The shadow recoiled and hissed in surprise. “Not smiling now are ya?” Brian chided. The shadow regained its composure in a flash and began launching larger and more extensive attacks at the water shaman. For a few briefs moments, the space between the two was filled with colliding energies of shadow and water neither entity was making forward progress.

  Brian began breathing heavy, and the shadow smiled again. Brian only had so much water to pull from in his location, and he had to overexert himself now to survive. It was just a matter of time. He slowed. He got slower and slower until he couldn’t evade every attack. He dodged what he could until finally, one attack got through. A lash of thin black sliced across his arms and chest, cutting him deeply across the arms but shallow across his chest piercing his blue cocoon of protection. The cocoon dissolved from around his body as he clutched his chest. The shadow opened its giant maw and leaped forward, satisfied to have its meal.

  “So many teeth…” Brian thought. He closed his eyes.

  49

  Brian closed his eyes and prepared for the end. His body was wracked by a loud, seethingly angry scream. He was surprised, no gnashing teeth on his tender bits, no claws tearing his essence from his body. “Damn, who turned on the light??” A blinding light separated Brian and the Reaper’s shadow. The shadow roared mightily; the wall cracked and groaned. Brian’s eyes struggled with the tremendous feat of compensating for the light. William stood between him and the angry mass of midnight black and the tormented faces that bubbled to its surface echoing rage, hunger, and frustration.

  The Reaper had tried to distract William with its corporeal form as the black mass seeped through the cracks in search of his remaining companions. William had felt the shadows attack almost too late. He merely imagined himself in the hallway, and he was there in a flash and boom of thunder. He now stood holding back the shadow with his left hand, a crackling pulse of lighting creating a dome spanning the width of the hall like a force field. He helped Brian up with the other. The sizeable tar-like mass banged against the wall of energy that William created. It attacked furious and erratic. Small bursts of whispy energy crackled down across the surface of the barrier as it was struck.

  William helped the bleary-eyed man to his feet. Brian held his chest with one hand as blood trickled from his wounds. He steadied himself against the wall. He turned to his left and saw William as a being of pure energy. He saw no clothing, no nudity either; simply the outline of a man barely containing the radiant shamanic energies. His eyes saw the light as bright white, but his sensitivity saw every shamanic hue. William’s eyes were aflame in electrical fire as he stared down the Reaper’s shadow.

  Brian turned his gaze back to the shadow vainly attempting to break through William’s barrier. “You’re lucky William showed up, I would have choked the life out of you!” Brian postured. “From the inside out but that is beside the point!”

  “You need to leave Brian.” William’s voice was eerily powerful.

  “Where do you want me to go?” Brian asked, confused as he tapped the wall at the dead-end hallway. William maintained the barrier with one hand and raised another towards the dead-end. The earth obeyed his call immediately and split open in a narrow chasm that rose to the surface. After a short distance, Brian could see moonlight.

  “Oh right, why didn’t I think of that?” Brian said as he trotted as quickly as he could manage down the hall. The shadows reared up even more furiously against the barrier. William waited for Brian to be clear of the chasm then closed the opening as abruptly as it was created. The shadows collided with the barrier again drawing William’s attention back to the situation at hand. He tilted his head slightly and spoke. “No more.” William held up a palm to the barrier. Energy coalesced around that palm and formed a small orb of blazing white energy no bigger than a baseball. He released it, and ball floated through his barrier colliding with the shadow. A massive explosion ripped through the hall. The remnants of the menacing mass cling to the wall as a splattering of black goo and inky sinewy chunks as a dark reminder of its existence. William pictured himself back in the training chamber and he was there followed by a loud boom as reality itself tried to explain how he could travel so quickly.

  William didn’t see the shade, but he reached out with his mind to feel for its presence. He felt that it was close, Brian was nearly far enough now. He should be safe. William walked slowly towards the center of the now ruined chamber. He kept a watchful eye feeling out every corner; every recess of the room. He stopped once he reached the middle of the room.

  “I know you’re still here. I can feel your essence,” William’s voice boomed through the room. A soft laugh reverberated through the cavernous emptiness of the room. Its volume faded in and out, so William was unable to locate its origin.

  “It’s very intriguing; watching you wield your power.” The Reaper’s voice hissed. “There is no rhyme or reason to do what you do. Why protect mankind when destroying them is so much more fun.” A maniacal burst of laughter shredded the blackness with insanity.

  “Do you refuse to fight an 18-year-old boy?” William chided. “Or do you know that you will lose? Is the Reaper afraid of me?” William laughed louder.

  “I will feast on your essence as I bathe the earth in darkness and hate, and when I’m done and bored with this world I will move to the next!” The hooded specter appeared behind William swinging his massive scythe. Sweeping swathes of air seemed to bleed from the strikes that missed their mark. William teleported a few feet away in an instant and hurled bolts of lightning at the robed-figure. Pieces of the scythe melted away as the Reaper used its weapon to block the attacks. William stopped his onslaught—he had an idea. He felt for Brian quickly, he hoped he was far enough away by now. The Reaper lowered his scythe as its unnatural grin split his head in half horizontally.

  “Oh is that all?” The Reaper’s tone was rich with sarcasm. William braced himself planting his feet firmly. The Reaper scowled as it saw the boy’s preparations.

  “You want to see everything that I can do?” William’s eyes ignited to an even more chaotic maelstrom as raw energy went from his chest down his arms in a brilliant spiraling display of power to collect in his right hand. The ground buckled under the pressure of his concentration. William was laying it all out. In his mind, he enveloped his consciousness in his core—pictured himself grasping his source of energy in his bare hands. The air around William crackled and popped. The shade glanced to either side feeling the chamber buckle. William threw his head back and roared with raw, pained anger as all of the memories of the last few months filled his mind. His mother’s death and rebirth, the training with Owen, the sparring with Alex, instruction with Brian and the stabbing pain of Michael’s death—all of them were held tightly to his chest as he knew what they needed him to do and he would do it for them—his family, his friends.

  The grin of the Reaper faded quickly as it receded further beneath the cowl. Its body language grew tenser, as William opened up his mind to his power. The Reaper hurled a large mass of screaming souls at William. The collection of tormented souls dissolved around William. The Archmage held his arm up and supported it with his left hand grasping his forearm.

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nbsp; “Wait! You know that won’t work!” The Reaper’s voice cracked in desperation. William paid no attention to him. Energy from the area fed into William’s right hand. He beckoned to all of the elements—like his mother said he could. The glow of the ruined statues gave him their blue-ish light in shimmering strands, the limiter crystals gave him their power as small orbs of every color, the earth itself fed his fists small pebbles of yellow energy. The Reaper began to sink into his shadow—trying to make a hasty exit. It found itself unable to move.

  “You can do it Will.” The voice was a whisper in the air. The Reaper lurched forward in agony. Its shadowy tail boiled and rotated taking the form of a woman. She walked up behind the Reaper. The Reaper swung its scythe quickly cutting her in half, but to no avail, the shadows that made her shape reknit together until she stood once more; whole. She stood behind the Reaper binding him down with what was left of the energy she still claimed as her own. Once again the Reaper tried to exit but couldn’t. It struggled mightily beneath the iron grip of the woman, its scythe clanked against the floor heavily. William thought it was his mother for a moment and faltered.

  “Stay focused William. Make it count, you won’t get another chance. I can’t hold him forever. Do it NOW!” She yelled at him as she slowly began to fade from sight. Her hold began to wane, and the scythe flew back into his hands as the massive beam of William’s collected energy smashed into the Reaper’s chest and head. The concussion from the blast ripped open the rock and caused a massive shockwave of earth that nearby states registered as a freak earthquake. The scythe clattered to the ground once again before shattered into a million obsidian shards. A great vortex of light erupted from the cowl of the damaged Reaper, its clawed hands tried in vain to grasp at the escaping energy. The robes crumpled to the ground as thousands upon thousands of brilliant orbs of shamanic hues spiraled outwards growing in size as they got further the monster that housed them. Each soul glowed with an elemental life of their own. A sense of peace took over the destroyed rock that was once a magnificent home and training chamber. William slumped forward, exhausted. An ethereal mist swirled around him before solidifying into the woman who had held the Reaper.