“You can manipulate blessed steel?” The guard captain goggled, sounding incredulous.
“Yeah, at this point it’s like any other metal, just more expensive. You just need to convince each part to either join or leave the larger portion. It’s all about making it fun for them.”
“Fun, Sir Henry?” asked Tanushree. “Actually, never mind. I should know better than to ask about what you do. Now,” she mused, “did you really use your ability to turn boxes of spoons and blessed steel scrap into... machine parts instead of swords or armor?”
Henry eyed the young noblewoman sideways. “You think it would be better to create a few sharp weapons instead of flying vehicles that nobody else has? You’d rather arm a few soldiers with normal weapons, albeit slightly more effective ones, than traveling faster and avoiding most monsters? That’s fucking retarded.”
Gavra looked like he was thinking about just jumping off the Mosquito. Aodh understood the man’s reaction a bit better than he might have a few weeks before. In Berber, the nobility was a serious part of the country’s culture. People didn’t usually talk to their betters the way Henry was speaking to Tanushree. Then again, most Berber nobles were powerful ‘Bonded.
In Henry’s case, Tanushree was betting her future position as head of the Bobrik family on the Terran man’s ideas and abilities, a fact she’d explained to Aodh before she’d kissed him and everything got weird. Henry was also individually more powerful than Tanushree, even with all her armswomen, a fact that was not lost on the beautiful blonde noblewoman.
She really was beautiful. Aodh could still remember what her lips had felt like. What had he done wrong? Now he was so worried about messing up again that he had ended up not even approaching her to talk anymore. She kept acting so cold to him. He just didn’t understand it. The more he tried to avoid making her angry, the angrier she got.
Aodh’s attention snapped back to the present when Tanushree said, “What I meant, Sir Henry, is you could be one of the wealthiest people on Ludus with the ability to manufacture blessed steel weapons from junk. You could just go off on your own and make plenty of wealth without me. I’m also at least somewhat surprised that you didn’t create a few weapons to sell later on.”
“Oh, well, I guess you have a point about making money later. As for taking off and getting rich, that wouldn’t help my friends, or my mother. Plus, that asshole Dolos wouldn’t let me live a nice, comfy, peaceful life. Hell no. He’s all but said he has plans for me. God, I hate that cocksucker.”
At Henry’s offhanded comment about speaking to Dolos, every person on the Mosquito had a moment of silence as they digested what the Delvers leader had just said. Even Tanushree was visibly shocked. With nobody saying anything more, Henry shrugged and went back to polishing the tops of his gun emplacement while he scanned the ground below, piloting the Mosquito to follow the general direction of the road.
Aodh wasn’t sure this was the best time for the rest of their group to know about Henry’s special relationship with Dolos. He searched for something to say and narrowed his eyes as he noticed a change in Henry’s clothing and gear. “You didn’t make any new exoguns, Henry?” he asked.
Henry shook his head. “I don’t really need to anymore. Exoguns are still just a tube for me to use magic to fire a bullet. I’ve been tired of running out of bullets all the fucking time, so now I carry these,” Henry said, pointing to a belt and crossed bandoliers full of gold projectiles. He also had several pouches. Aodh could only imagine what was in those.
“But what are you going to shoot them with?” Aodh was lost.
“Well, I have my sniper rifle,” Henry said, pointing to his long, sleek rifle in the corner made of several different types of metal. “I can also do this now.” The Asian man grinned and formed a fist. A darksteel gauntlet covered his hand and arm. Then above the armor, a multibarrel exogun formed, made of the same magic metal as the gauntlet.
Henry winked and quickly fit a gold bullet from one of his bandoliers into each tube of the darksteel exogun. “These darksteel versions are weightless, and they’re basically just tubes, so it’s easy for me to create them.” Henry held his other hand behind the magic exogun, then dispelled the construct, catching the bullets as they fell; the magic vanished like dark smoke. He quickly put the bullets back where they belonged in his bandolier.
“I’ve been working on this, too,” the Delvers leader said. He held up a hand, and a sleek shape started forming in his grip. Aodh recognized the fuzzy shape as some kind of weapon, like a shorter version of a rifle. It kept solidifying until it suddenly fell apart, the diffused darksteel magic moving towards the ground like water vapor before disappearing.
“I still haven’t completely figured it out,” admitted Henry. “I can’t make weapons out of this stuff, but I can make tools. Apparently, a gun doesn’t count as a weapon by itself, just the bullets do. This is obviously really fucking cool, but I can’t make anything better than exoguns yet. That’s why I made the sniper rifle for precision shots.” Henry pointed at his rifle again.
Tanushree shook her head. “But what—”
“I see the buildings! I see them!” Rekkla announced, bouncing on her toes. Aodh glanced over and sure enough, the Mosquito was approaching their destination.
Henry grunted and piloted the flying vehicle closer to the ruins, slowing the engines and peering through his cockpit windows. “I don’t see the monster. Do you?”
Rekkla and Trask moved to the little doors leading to the firing positions on either side of the Mosquito. After a few moments, Trask’s voice floated up over the wall between his position and the deck, “I can’t see anything over here.”
A growl came from Rekkla’s position. Henry leaned forward, moving his own gun emplacement around and absently placing a huge gold slug in the back of his largest cannon, twisting a knob to close the weapon up. Even with the presence of Henry’s huge, upgraded cannon, Aodh felt his nervousness rising.
Suddenly, the low-hanging cloud they were flying through parted, and a huge, reptilian head burst through the vapor, its jaws slamming shut. The enormous monster turned its rocky face and glared at the Mosquito with hate-filled, bestial eyes.
“Wyrm!” shouted Gavra, his voice shrill. “A giant rock crusher stony skinned wyrm demon! It can’t be anything else!”
As soon as he saw the gigantic, angular monster, Aodh immediately started channeling his magic. His fear was so great, he didn’t immediately notice the terrible stomach cramps resulting from the amount of magic he pushed at once.
The creature was gray, craggy, and was like a living mountain of angry destruction. Its long tail vanished into the cloud below, and its enormous snout puffed a blast of air, presumably from the exertion of jumping. Aodh thought the creature looked like an iguana he’d seen from an old Terran encyclopedia that George had owned.
Hanging in midair, almost in slow motion, the rock wyrm grumbled in displeasure that it had missed the Mosquito with its massive jaws. It took a lazy swipe with a front limb before its body fell back to the ground. Rekkla screamed in fear and excitement, and then fired her angry honeycomb. The weapon belched a cloud of razor sharp projectiles, and most of them hit the flank of the wyrm. Unfortunately, even with all their speed and sharp blades, most of them didn’t penetrate very far.
The young goblin shaman didn’t stop there. She quickly triggered a blast from her daysler, but the formidable laser weapon just wasn’t enough for the powerful wyrm. It was like attacking an elephant with a magnifying glass.
Tanushree fired her air rifle over the side of the vehicle. Gavra had been surprised, but he was still a fighting man. He’d run to the rear, elevated position in the back of the Mosquito and fired his air rifle as well. Neither weapon had a visible effect.
Henry’s vehicle-mounted weapons were oriented wrongly to target the beast. As soon as it had appeared, he’d scrambled back with everyone else, forming his large, multibarrel exoguns and loading them before firing at the fal
ling rock wyrm. Each golden slug was accelerated with a sharp crack, breaking the sound barrier and causing bloody divots to form on the rock wyrm’s hide. The creature roared in pain and irritation as it fell out of sight.
“I think we’re going to need a bigger boat,” said Henry, his voice deadpan.
“What was it?” shouted Trask over the wall. The fussy goblin had been the only one that had not seen the Rock Wyrm. Nobody answered him. They all just stared at Henry.
Henry’s eyes widened. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” he muttered, scurrying back to his controls. The weapon on his arm melted and reformed into one large tube, similar to his old exogun, but with a longer barrel. Henry slammed the throttle of the Mosquito forward and manipulated the lever that adjusted elevation. He loaded a massive, finned, gold projectile into the magic-formed cannon on his arm.
“Did we get it?” asked Gavra. Aodh had to give the guard captain credit. He was clearly in a situation unlike any he’d ever encountered, the swarthy man was shell shocked, but his hands were still busy reloading his air rifle. Tanushree was doing the same, but Aodh was accustomed to the blonde woman always being impressive.
“I don’t think so,” said Henry. “I have no idea where that thing came from. We’re like six hundred feet up.”
“It might have jumped off a building,” offered Aodh, remembering the claw marks.
“Yeah, you’re right, kid. We fucked up. Well, I fucked up. I should have been more cautious. Anyway, the good news is that as long as the Mosquito is working, that big motherfucker won’t be able to pull us down. This sucker can carry any amount of weight. The bad thing is, if it can fit us all into its mouth, it doesn’t matter.
“We got lucky as hell that we started flying through this low hanging cloud. It won’t protect us for much longer, though.”
Almost as if on cue, the gigantic rock wyrm burst through the cloud again, its head swinging over and jaws snapping shut near the Mosquito. Aodh yelped and drew even more magic. He channeled so much power, it felt like his guts were being ripped apart.
Henry frowned and muttered something as he lowered his arm, sighted down his cannon, and fired the massive projectile he had loaded at the Rock Wyrm. This time, the resulting wound was not a divot, but a massive, gaping hole blown into the creature’s shoulder. The monster bellowed in rage. One massive, clawed hand flashed forward and barely reached the Mosquito, taking gouges out of the deck. The tip of one claw ripped open Aodh’s chest and stomach before mashing his foot into the deck, severing it. The impact spun the young man to the side and the momentum of the huge limb kept it moving forward, the claws sliding past Aodh.
For a split second, nothing existed in Aodh’s world other than his mortal wound. He wasn’t feeling any pain yet. He just felt cold. Cold and surprised. The surrealistic nature of the moment combined with the giant, scaly claw-hand surrounding him, the sensation of his entrails beginning to fall out all made him feel numb, tired.
In that moment, in the space between seconds, Aodh watched the approaching web of the rock wrym’s hand and almost gave up. He almost just stood there and accepted his fate.
After all, this was a giant rock crusher stony skinned wyrm demon. Rock wyrms were rare, dangerous, and sometimes entire armies were not enough to kill one. They weren’t as big or as powerful as a true dragon, but even Dolosbots were said to avoid dealing with rock wyrms. Other monsters gave their territories a wide berth, too.
Aodh’s magic thrummed, painfully pushing in on both sides of his brain. The moment stretched on and the young adventurer felt his life ebb away as his body fell apart. He watched certain, impending death approach him. The magic filling him pulsed and while the world seemed to slow down, he thought he heard a female voice say, “The time is now. Fight on, my host. Everything rests on this moment. The choice is yours.”
Vampiric Stabber felt like it weighed a ton in his hand. How he’d still hung on to the weapon while being eviscerated and spun around was a mystery, but Aodh’s eyes narrowed and he tightened his grip. He had too many things to do and he couldn’t leave this world yet, at least not without a struggle. It would have been nice to first lose his virginity before dying, too.
Now that he finally had some power of his own, he wanted to help his friends. He didn’t want to die without knowing that George had been avenged. If he had to perish, at least he could help the others move forward to reach justice for the kind, dark-skinned man who had helped Aodh become the adventurer he was today.
His resolved hardened into something huge, something new in his heart that might have always been there, but only came to life in that moment. As Aodh stared death in the face, he looked back and decided he had finally had enough of being scared of things. He was done being timid. It was time to truly be the adventurer he always wanted to be. The voice had been right; he had the tools, it was time to use them.
He might still die, but he wasn’t going to go out like livestock waiting for slaughter.
Aodh jumped as high as he could, ignoring the budding pain in his tattered ankle and ruined stomach. He barely got high enough to avoid being thrown off the Mosquito by the rock wyrm’s attack. Then before the creature’s claw-hand could start sliding off the Mosquito, pulled by the rest of its falling bulk, Aodh stabbed the hand. He ignored the shooting pain and his dizziness from blood loss, trying to pull himself higher up the scaly ridges of the beast’s body.
The Vampiric Stabber didn’t penetrate far into the massive, armored monster’s pebbly hide, but it was enough. A trickle of healing power rushed up Aodh’s arm. It wasn’t enough to save him, he still knew he was going to die. His chest cavity and stomach were open and his organs were starting to hang out of his body. He could feel parts of himself sliding around in a way they were never meant to move. However, the healing energy did allow him to think a little more clearly and dulled some of his blossoming pain.
Aodh was on top of the beast’s hand now, about to slide off the Mosquito into midair. The young man laughed. He thought wildly, Glory, what a hell of a way to die! For the first time in his life, Aodh truly felt like an adventurer. Maybe death wasn’t so bad. He’d never felt more alive!
Behind him, he heard Tanushree scream, “No!” Aodh smiled, showing his small fangs without any self-consciousness. For the first time ever, he truly liked who he was. He’d just faced the worst trial of his life. He knew his time was done, but at least he’d proved once and for all that he was not a coward. Aodh couldn’t deny the regrets that filled his heart—well, he wasn’t sure he had a physical heart anymore—but there were definitely some things he’d left unresolved.
But as Aodh raised Vampiric Stabber up high, he knew that life sometimes was about how you chose to react to things. He couldn’t control the world, he could only take responsibility for his place in it. With a feeling of absolute peace and contentment, Aodh slammed his enchanted spear down with all his fading strength.
The weapon suck solidly this time, and the combination of the anchor point and the life and strength running into his body from ‘Stabber allowed him to hold on. He fell through the air on top of the rock wyrm’s wrist, hanging on with everything he had, dedicated to draining as much of the monster’s life force as he could. He’d give his friends all the advantage he could before he died.
His magic pushed in on his temples again, painfully forcing him to keep thinking. Aodh grinned wildly as a crazy thought occurred to him. He let go of his spear with one hand and his body started to float up from the rock wyrm’s body. His hand snaked around to grab the hilt of his horse head dagger. As the blade came free of its sheath, he heard an excited voice echo around his mind. Use me!
Using the last of his strength, Aodh pulled himself down with his hand on Vampiric Stabber and slammed his mysterious dagger into the rock wyrm’s flesh. The entire world darkened and grew light at the same time. Lights flew across Aodh’s vision and he could feel his eyeballs exploding across his cheeks. Massive amounts of raw life force flowed up his
arm from his enchanted spear like a raging river of power.
The rock wyrm bellowed, rattling in agony as it died, and the black dagger throbbed in Aodh’s hand. Yesssss. The weapon’s satisfaction echoed.
Aodh clung to both weapons as massive amounts of conflicting energy rampaged through his torn, abused body. It would have been easy to give up, to let go, but he held on with everything he had. Aodh knew he was killing the rock wyrm, and his life may be over, but he could save everyone else. He could save Tanushree.
The sensation of the wind around him grew stronger as he fell, the seconds stretching into minutes, then into hours. Time seemed to crawl, but Aodh clenched his teeth and held on through sheer willpower. He was an adventurer. True adventurers like Aodh didn’t give up on their friends. They also didn’t give up on themselves.
After what felt like an eternity of agony, Aodh began to feel a terrible impact. The world exploded and then faded to black.
***
Aodh woke up on top of a massive, cooling corpse. Most of his shirt was missing, and one of his trouser legs. Astonished, he checked his face and his body. He was whole, and he could see. His ruined eyes were back in his head. Steam rolled off of his skin, and he felt different, but good. His body felt full of life, full of energy.
In the distance, he noticed the Mosquito had settled to the ground. One side of the craft had been mangled and a swath of claw marks had penetrated deeply into the hull. It was a miracle the vehicle hadn’t been destroyed. They’d all gotten lucky.
With a start, Aodh realized he was still holding Vampiric Stabber. Somehow, his dagger was back in its sheath at his back, too. He really needed to name his deadly weapon. Its background, what it did, what it even was, was still a mystery, but now it felt like a part of him. Time to accept what I am. All of it, he thought.
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