I watched his Soulstream closely as it stretched wider. His focus was staying steady, so I Pulled harder. People began to step back from us, and there was a bit of fear now flowing with the nervousness in them. I knew it would come, it always comes out. But, as I had told Paige, I've accepted the fact that everyone fears me.
Somewhere along the way I felt that I shouldn't go any wider than I had it, and I eased off. I'm not sure where the feeling came from, but I seemed to sense how much his stream could take before stressing it too far. Perhaps part of it was the squeeze of my right shoulder that Lyrica had given almost at the same instant I had sensed the limit.
Regardless, I stopped Pulling and the fire spewing into the sky ceased. I looked at Jacobs to find his Soulstream had gone from about three and a half inches to close to fifteen inches. It was as large as my stream without a doubt.
I placed my hand on his shoulder, "Welcome to the ranks of the Mageguard. Don't play with it till you get some classes in or you'll go blind."
There was amazement rolling through his aura as he felt the massive increase in pure Lifeforce entering his body from the larger stream.
"This is amazing, Boss," he said. "This is what you feel all the time?"
"You get used to it after a bit, and I'm serious, don't play around with it till you get some classes in."
"Yes Sir, and thank you for this," he said with a huge amount of gratitude rolling through his aura, "you have no idea what this means to me."
"As a matter of fact, I do, Ivan," I said and smiled.
I turned away to find Lennox Flynn standing there in what seemed to be shock, "Ye did that wit two hundred Guards at one time?"
His thick Scottish brogue couldn't disguise the awe that filled his voice or his aura. "I had read the reports, but the bloody scale of it had na really registered on me brain till now."
"It scares the shit outta me," I said quietly so that no one but Lennox could hear me. "I'm not sure how much I can handle with enough Supports. The Supports gave out long before I could even tell a strain on me physically. Perhaps, with enough Supports, there is no limit. I have no idea and that scares the hell outta me. Cause I have to find out."
He looked at me with confusion rolling through him, "Why?"
"Because if I don't use everything I have, and more of my Guards die because I didn't, I can't live with that."
"I see."
I nodded, "So as soon as we get the problem with our government support taken care of, I have to begin the tests of my power."
"’Tis anythin’ I can do?"
"Actually, there is," I said as we started walking toward the Academy, "I'm gonna need a sort of squad of Mages and Guards to work directly with me. I'm thinkin’ multiple Nationalities cause we're gonna be workin’ all over the world before this is over, if I don't miss my guess. And sadly, English is the only language I can understand."
He was nodding and there was great interest in his aura, "Would tere be any problem if I was part of tis force?"
"Absolutely not, that’s why I'm bringing it to you. I want you as one of the members. I also want Rictor and Andrea, here to be part of this group. But I don't know anyone from the other Academies except Len Yueh, who I would also like to have on this, if he's willing."
"I'm sure ‘e will be," Flynn said.
"I only want volunteers, as well," I said. "One thing I can guarantee is that we will be in the thickest of the fighting, because that's where I'll be. And I can also guarantee that there will be a lot of unorthodox ways of doing things going on so I need open minds, too. The more I learn about my skills, the more it flies in the face of tradition."
Flynn looked back at a still dazed Jacobs, "Tis a fact, that."
He turned back toward me, "And do ye intend to do this wit more of the Guards?"
"Absolutely," I answered, "Think of it. Every veteran Guard ascended to a Mage, and all the new recruits brought in as a Guard."
"Recruits?" he asked.
"Oh yes," I said. "Soon there'll be many recruits. They'll flood in, and I want them trained as quickly as we can train them. The Academies in Scotland and China will be flooded soon too, I think, and Russia as well. Once people really understand what is happening, our ranks will swell like you wouldn't believe."
He was looking at me with a great deal of respect rolling through his aura. "We old timers just are’na used to de tings ye expect. I suspect we will all have some changes in our expectations, Lad."
"If I could manage it, I would have the whole human race with Soulguard knots. Let the bastards try to make victims of humans after that."
After hearing the fierceness of that statement he looked at me strangely, "Ye actually mean that, don't ye?"
"Damn straight, I do."
Chapter 9
"I kept goin’ at it wrong, Boss," Jacobs said, "But I didn’t really get the right results till after you juiced me up to Mage status."
"So what do you have on it now?" I asked. I could see the excitement rolling through his stream.
"Well at first I kept havin’ to push the Soulfire from my hand into the gun. It always seemed to get the bullets when I did that. That's the reason we always assumed that bullets couldn’t be imbued. But after I got the new abilities, I could look at it from another perspective."
He began to concentrate, and a tendril formed that ran from his stream to the end of the barrel. He kept his focus quite well. The tendril enveloped just the end of the barrel and Jacobs stopped. I could see the tiny anchors in the tendril latched on to the gun. He then opened the portal at the base of the tendril just a little, and the end of the barrel glowed with Soulfire.
I smiled as he aimed the .45 toward a target with a thick wood surface behind it. Behind that was a concrete wall and an earth bank behind that. The pistol boomed and the bullet slammed into the target with an explosive reaction. The concrete wall cracked as the imbued bullet slammed through it, and a gout of earth exploded into the air behind the wall.
Jacobs turned to me with a huge smile on his face, "And we have Soul rounds!"
"That's great, Ivan." I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"But a Mage for each gun probably isn't feasible.." He stopped as he saw the picture on the folded piece of paper. A smile spread across his face, and I saw even more excitement roll through his aura, "That is freakin’ awesome Boss."
What we were looking at was the picture of an AC-130. An assault version of the C-130 we had ridden in to Kansas. This plane had two 20mm cannons, one 40mm auto cannon, and a 105mm howitzer jutting from the side of the plane.
"See, if we can have the Mages imbue these guns, we will have a real crowd pleaser," I said.
"No shit," he said. "You don't think small Boss."
"As soon as we get our government backing, I intend to put you inside one of these to see what ideas you can come up with. You can work out details when we get authority to work with the National Guard on this. Until then, work on your Mage training. I hear you're doing quite well with the training."
It had been close to a month since Jacobs had made his ascension.
"I'm doin’ alright," he said. "I have a good imagination and that helps."
"I have something else that might interest you, too," I said.
"What's that?" Ivan asked.
"I was watching one of the techs play a video game the other day. It was one of the Star Wars games, and one of the characters intrigued me. He had a force field about right here," I pointed to my forearm, "connecting his arm to his hand. The first thing I thought of was a shield prosthesis tied directly to your stream that would give you at least some more movement in..."
"Son of a Gun!" he exclaimed as what I said registered. "That never even occurred to me!"
"I can help with that whenever you're ready," I said, "I can light up your stream for long enough for you to build the shield you need. That way you can put as much detail as you want into it."
"Really?!"
"Just let me know when you want to get started, Ivan."
He was silent for a moment, "I don't even know how to respond Boss. You can really light up someone else's Stream?"
"Yeah, I discovered that when I was in the Academy," I said. "Just let me know when you're ready."
He nodded, "Let me work on a design, and I'll get back with you. Thank you Boss."
"Any time Ivan," I said. "Now figure out how many barrels you can imbue at the same time. I wanna know how many Mages we gotta put in one of those planes."
"You got it Boss."
***
"That’s the ticket!" I yelled as I watched disks of Soulfire slam across the Dome into the targets. I had strengthened the shields around the targets so that the new weapons didn't destroy them as easily.
Rictor grinned from ear to ear as his disks spewed forth, "Hot damn! Now that's a fire!"
This was his first time using the disks. We'd spent a great deal of time just practicing the Pulls themselves. He and Prada were both doing quite well with channeling enough power to run the disk launcher.
"Always remember to let enough power through to keep your shields strong," I said. "Your shield is what keeps you alive."
I saw several of the Mages who were watching our session. They seemed a little confused to me about the necessity of keeping the shield at full power. It seemed that every time I ran a training session with Ric and Prada, we ended up with an audience.
"That's how we lost one of the most powerful Mages who went to Kansas," I explained. "Nora Kestril was a great one for focus. She was too good at it. When she was firing her disks at multiple targets, she kept the overflow from herself. But she kept too much from reaching the shield, and the Wraith that hit her from behind got through it. It's a fine line to have to walk, and experience will be the best teacher."
"Oh crap," Rictor said as he saw the smile on my face.
"Mattie," I said turning around where Lyrica and her two shadows stood at the back of the crowd.
"Oh no," Ric muttered.
"How ‘bout you come, and make sure Ric focuses like he should."
There were chuckles from the crowd of Mages and Guards nearby.
As Mattie stepped close to Ric I said, "Start on the left side, Ric. Work your way to the right. I want every target hit ten times, then reverse and work back to the left side. Every time she gets into your shield, stop, and start again at the beginning."
"This should be interesting," Prada said and chuckled.
"Don't get too happy about it Andrea, you're next," I said.
She winced as Ric started, and didn't even get ten shots into the first target before he grunted as Mattie's fist landed in his left Kidney. He stopped and turned to see Mattie smiling.
"You're enjoying this way too much," He mumbled.
She shrugged, "What can I say? I love my job."
Experience is truly the best teacher, and by the time he completed his run, I know he was bruised all over. But the last run across the targets was flawless.
Prada fared a little worse, but I think they both did quite well. I doubt I could do anywhere near as close with the focus. My shield stays strong because I don't stop enough power. My body just has a huge tolerance for power overload, and I can bleed it off with healing, or throw some of it back out through my attacks. If my body didn't have this high tolerance, I'd have been dead long ago, back when I Pulled for the first time at Morndel.
Chapter 10
It was so hot in Kansas. Nearly a hundred degrees. The pavilion kept the Senators and Generals shaded, but it really didn't do much for the heat itself.
Senator Samuel Deacons was seated near the front, and smiled as he saw me approaching. He knew what the Soulguard could do, and he was actually enjoying himself immensely. The last few months he had been hammering at the committee to back us. Naturally, he would be here for this.
I also saw General Gasper sitting next to Senator Losner, the most vocal of the Senators speaking against giving support to us.
"Thank you for coming out here, ladies and gentlemen," I said. "Some of you have met Soulguards before, and some of you don't really know what to expect here today."
I saw nods at my statement. "General Gasper has been generous enough to provide a number of remote operated vehicles for this demonstration, and I hope to show you what the Guard is capable of accomplishing. I asked for remotes so that my men won't have to hold back."
I saw snickers from some of the military personnel around General Gasper. There were quite a few uniforms scattered through the crowd, and most of them were taking this quite serious. All I could do was show them, and see where it took us. One way or another, I would stop the Demons here in Kansas with or without the U.S. government’s help. But it would be so much more difficult without their assistance. We really needed this to work.
"The first thing I would like to show you is what a single Soulguard can do." I turned to the young man who was directing the vehicles. "Send one of the tanks out to meet my Guard. Use every weapon you can, and try to stop him."
He looked skeptical, but he nodded.
I turned to the assorted Guards and Mages standing in ranks and pointed toward the plain.
"Trent, take it!" I barked.
Trent was in full Soulguard body armor, and his shield was hot. I had worked with him on a shield that utilized the full strength of his stream. The feeder tendril was his whole stream. It was passive so it was always the same strength. It was as strong a shield as a Guard could raise, but the real weapon for him was his speed.
"Yes Sir!" his voice boomed, and he shot forward. He left his starting position hard, and earth flew skyward as his feet pushed him forward. Dirt and dust burst out behind him.
"Jesus Christ!" I heard from behind me and smiled. The operator of the remote tank gasped, and began running his hands across his controls frantically. The tank began firing, but Trent was on one side, then the other.
As the bullets neared him, he would surge to the other side, and throw it off. The main gun fired, and Trent launched himself up and then forward. The ground behind him exploded as the shell impacted where he had been.
Then he was next to the tank, and his weapons surged to life with Soulfire as he pushed Lifeforce from within himself into the blades. His swords impacted the treads on the left side of the tank and ripped through the hardened steel. The vehicle ground to a stop, and he proceeded to go from weapon to weapon, destroying its capability of firing the guns.
In a few moments, the tank was silent and still.
"Now, when we compare our Guards to our foes, I can say we are superior in power one to one. The Kresh, as they call themselves, have different levels of classes, you might call them. The lower level are called Kresh. For a thousand years we have called them Demons. Recently we found out what they call themselves, and I will use both terms as I describe them. The Kresh are not as powerful as a Guard. But they wreak havoc with normal humans. The next class is the Soldier Demon, or Kresh'Far. They are much closer to par with a Guard. Still not as powerful as a Guard but much closer. Three or four of them could do much the same as Trent did to that tank."
"Unbelievable," muttered someone. There was awe rolling through the crowd of observers after what Trent had just done. If they thought that was impressive, they'll really enjoy the next one, I thought.
I saw disbelief roll through the crowd, and it struck me a bit strangely. It seemed to start at one point and spread. Then I felt something that felt like a nudge at my own mind.
What the hell?
"The next class," I continued, "is the Wraith or the Kresh'Sor'An. A Wraith can kill Guards with ease, and has to be taken by Mages. My next demonstration is what a Mage strength Guard can do to a tank."
I turned to the man in charge of the tanks again, "If you would be so kind, send another out."
He nodded and once again I turned to the ranks of Guards and Mages.
"Kharl," I said, "Take it."
Kharl Jaegher is a big man, nearly six and a half feet tall, and four feet wide at the shoulders. Now his Soulstream is twenty inches in diameter, and his training as a Mage was still in progress, but for the purpose of this demonstration, he was perfect.
His shield flared to life, and it was similar to Trent's. But it was so much stronger then Trent's, there was no comparison.
He charged forward straight toward the tank. He didn't waver or dodge, he went right down its throat. That's Kharl's fighting style all the way to the bone. Bullets slammed into his shield, but he didn't slow down. He'd even added a sloped front to his shield to turn the projectiles as they impacted. The main gun fired, and the shell slammed into the front of Kharl's shield, and turned skyward as it exploded. He still didn't slow down.
"My God!" I heard from behind me. I swear it was General Gasper's voice.
Then Kharl was at the tank, and his shield dropped. He didn't draw blades, his whole body seemed to burst into fire as he used himself as a weapon. Another of Kharl's preferred methods of fighting.
I saw a movie a few years ago where they adapted the comic book "The Incredible Hulk" into a movie. The Hulk had went head to head with a tank, and I swear this was almost a reenactment. Kharl planted his feet, and began ripping the whole machine apart. At one point, he held the whole turret by the barrel, and swung it in a complete circle to send it flying away from him. I could actually see the complete joy he was feeling as it rolled through his aura.
He was going to be unbearable after this because he got to stick his whole fist in the gun barrel.
I turned back to the observers to see another wave of disbelief. This time I saw where it started, and I almost gasped as I saw the Senator in the back row-his Soul was disgusting.
But I recognized it immediately now that I knew what to look for. It looked a great deal like Regina Worthington's Soul had looked, and I realized why we had so much difficulty with getting support.
Soullord (Soulguard Book 2) Page 4