Blackjack Villain

by Ben Bequer

  “Be careful, Dale,” she said finally.

  I smiled, loving that she had called me by my real name and paddled out to deeper water. My skin was tough, but nerve endings still registered the cold. Silty residue, a mixture of fish shit and the metabolism of various fungi clung to my clothes, skin, and hair. I shuddered in disgust and put the hose in my mouth, unscrewing the tanks release valve. Rubber tasting air filled my mouth, and for an unsettling five seconds, I got used to breathing that way. It was like someone blowing air down your throat mid-kiss. I chanced one look back to shore. Apogee stood there, statuesque. Before she could acknowledge me, I submerged wondering if I’d ever see her again.

  * * *

  Our jury-rigged SCUBA system was an absolute failure. The tank had several leaks, and would soon be nothing but a well-strapped weight around my back.

  I was still in the shallows, but visibility was poor as long kelp-like algae forests rose up from the bottom and intertwined in the surface. I sped up and soon cleared the area, finding much deeper waters where I could look for this huge beast.

  And there were certainly big creatures submerged beneath the calm waves of the vast lake. In the distance, a few giant marine apex predators saw me and moved closer for a look. The enormous fish were slow, armored swimmers, some as large as fifty feet.

  I headed straight for the nearest nasty, figuring to establish my dominance one way or another. The most likely scenario was it would eat me, and I would domineer it’s intestines for the better part of a few days. But there was the off chance that I could tear it apart from the insides. Sometimes, the odds weren’t in your favor and you still had to roll the dice.

  Besides, I’m pretty nasty too.

  I studied the fish that was so intent on eating me, and from a first look, there was no way it could possibly swallow my form. Its mouth was tiny, and teeth non-existent, a maw more suited to grazing on the long seaweed that covered the lake floor. It had two long tentacles where its pelvic fins should be, and they reached out to me, like antennae probing for a blind termite. It reminded me of fish from the early Carboniferous period, with heavy bony plates around their heads and shoulders and long muscular hindquarters. Then I realized the fish, if it was that, had no eyes, and had a toothed funnel mouth like that of a lamprey. It didn’t mean to swallow me, bore a hole in my side and suck my blood.

  But it wasn’t ready for what I did, swimming right at it.

  Its sensory antennae retracted and the creature retreated, lowering its tail and turning sideways for an easy escape. I kept going, sensing weakness, powering my legs towards the huge fish. It panicked and splashed away despite being almost ten times larger than I was.

  Once I got to open water and dove deeper, visibility was marvelous and the water crystal clear if a bit tinged with a purplish glaze. The light from above shone through brightly, but the greater source of illumination was from below, a bioluminescence from various sources I had yet to explore.

  The monstrous creature I was searching for was larger than even the huge fish around me, and had to hide in the deepest water. I surfaced and gauged my location before diving again and heading towards the middle of the lake before diving again.

  A school of gargantuan jellyfish avoided me, even though one tentacle in the smallest of the specimens was easily three times as wide as I was. Yet the whole school raced away.

  Below was a kaleidoscope of light from the entire spectrum. As I dove, things grew brighter and more visible, illuminated by a forest of bioluminescent waterborne fungus that lit a forest teeming with life, including ammonite mollusks, trilobites, and mollusk-like brachiopods. My tank was dangerously low in air, every breath becoming more and more forced, when I noticed a reddish glow that reflected off a school of discus-shaped silver fish as they sped away from me.

  I sank deeper, searching amongst a thick layer of moss and weed underbrush and coming closer to the red hue that dominated the depths. The area was lit almost exclusively by this source, and streams of crimson slashed through the rippling kelp-like forest. I ripped foliage aside and swam deeper, revealing the rocky lake bottom, and a six-sided crimson prism, almost as tall as a man. A crystal I had been looking for.

  Dr. Retcon’s gem.

  It was in its raw form, tall pillar of rough quartz-like rock, but with Haha’s veritable arsenal of weapons and near endless ability to create tools, I was certain we could whittle it down to the exact size.

  So my search for the great beast had ended in failure, but I had found the missing item for the particle accelerator. My tank was almost empty and breathing was laborious. I had to force each breath of the remaining air into my lungs. I grasped the shaft of one and tried twisting it out, but it was deeply rooted, and I had to brace myself to rip it out of the rocky base.

  It shifted, and eager as I was to rip the whole thing off, I yanked harder. The ground gave, and shuddered, but the crystal did not move even an inch. I pulled again, exerting all my strength, and the rocky bottom quaked beneath me, rising a dozen feet or more, moving so violently that I could only hang on to the crystal in desperation. We rose higher and higher and I clutched to the crystal for dear life. On the way to the surface, the ground shook vigorously from side to side. The tube flew out of my mouth, but the tank was now voided, banging against the crystals as I bounced around.

  Up I went, not daring to let go, and a moment later I crashed through the surface, with falling water washing against me like a heaving wave. My grip almost faded, but I held long enough for water to rush off. I tried rising to my feet, but it was almost impossible, as the rock formation I was on continued moving higher pressing me down.

  Then the ground stopped rising, as abruptly as it had begun, and I was able to come to my feet and get a look around. I was five hundred feet in the air, riding a swell of lifted earth that was covered in dripping moss, kelp and dying fish of all sizes. I rode the mound like a tiny flea as it trounced along the crashing lake, rippling outwards with massive ten-foot waves. Moments later, there was a vibration below me, like another earthquake, followed by a harrowing cry that shook the land.

  I had found Zundergrub’s monster.

  * * *

  I hung from the top of the monster’s head, but I had a hard time understanding what it was, much less what it looked like. Frankly, my vantage point didn’t give me the best perspective. It wasn’t any one thing, and it had little similar with anything else. It wasn’t a gargantuan reptile like Godzilla, or like the enormous statue of Talos from Jason and the Argonauts. The beast was splayed out and from its gait I could tell it was four legged, with longer forelegs. It dragged a long powerful tail through the marshes, coming out of the lake churning up earth, tearing it asunder like a god-monster, and leaving behind a trail of devastation.

  The monster had a body structure much like a Komodo dragon, but it’s head was shorter, truncated and massive. It was covered with wet moss, vegetation and foliage which gave it a shaggy look, like the coat of an English sheepdog, messy and haphazard. Thousands of gallons of the purplish water still streamed off the creature, like rivers and brooks down a rocky mountainside, spilling back into the lake.

  I rode on the crown atop its head and the beast was oblivious to me like an elephant would be to an ant. Except, in that analogy, I was more like a bacteria on the carapace of the ant, that the elephant paid no attention to. If the beast was five hundred feet off the level of the water, it was easily five times as long, with each thrashing of its endless tail sending massive waves crashing over the banks at the sides of the lake.

  I could see the village to my left and ahead the approaching Mist Army battleship, so my job was easy, as the monster ambled out of the lake towards my intended target. I had to ride the thing and look good. Overhead, a flock of the mounted manta rays flew in formation.

  But to my shock, the huge creature’s head scanned to either side, and seeing the village as the nearer target, it ambled in that direction, intent on crushing everything underfoot. Zund
ergrub’s plan had gone terribly wrong, and there was nothing I could do to stop the monster from destroying and killing everyone in its path.

  I looked around for anything I could do, but all I could see were those red crystal clusters, sprouting here and there on the creature’s head. I moved towards the front of the crown to get a better look at the monster’s face and slipped onto my stomach. The top of its head was abnormally flat, but slick with moist plant growth. I crawled on my hands and knees and I looked down at the monster’s face, which was like nothing I could have expected. Instead of a mouth it had a furrowed bridge like the front of a locomotive, from where spewed a burning cloud of steam. Above that, it had many crystalline eyes the size of a Buick, glowing in scintillating colors, but the beast showed no signs of life. Far below, the hoofed forepaws churned the ground, dragging the torso, rear legs and tail like an unwilling partner.

  The only thing that came to mind was to drop in front of its face, maybe get its attention, but there was something dead about the array of glowing eyes, and something non-organic about their arrangement.

  That was it. The creature wasn’t alive, but a construct of some form. Then I recalled how the whole trouble had started.

  The crystals.

  I scampered back and also noted a strange configuration to them. Crystals were much more random in nature to be so evenly spaced, the same size and number. But they were in a pattern I couldn’t recognize. I hurled myself towards the nearest bunch and pushed them forward but nothing happened. The big bastard lumbered forward with the same devastating pace, slowly closing the distance to the village.

  Behind me, the Mist Army battleship was landing, along with dozens of smaller attendant ships. A score of manta riders kept up with me, watching for now. Their riders wore similar armor to the swordsman I had faced a day or two before, but these wielded long, bright lances with long banners that danced with the winds.

  The Mist Army would find this battle an easy one. Once the beast trounced the village, they would move in and kill everyone in the town, including me and the others. Our plan was a failure unless I could find a way to turn around this behemoth.

  But it made no sense, maybe it was something I could never understand, something far beyond my comprehension. I punched a crystal in frustration and stumbled back a few steps. This thing was moments away from destroying the village and I couldn’t figure it out.

  The crystals had something to do with it, that was for sure, but how and what? Moving them was near impossible, and I didn’t think that they were some sort of neural interface where I could just will the machine to move. No it had to be more complicated than that. Something I wasn’t thinking about.

  Or maybe it was simpler.

  This wasn’t a beast, it was a machine and something I did turned it on. What had I done originally? I banged on the crystal.

  I rushed back to one of the tall translucent structures and banged on it with all my might. The construct reacted instantly, increasing in speed. That was not at all what I wanted, so I ran to another and did the same, and it slowed down. The two crystals I had struck were beside each other, so they must be the accelerator and the break. A dozen others jutted from its head, so I went from one to the other; getting it to side-step right, then left, then finally I found a crystal that made the beast come about.

  It turned with more agility and speed that I had imagined, almost knocking me off altogether. In an instant, and a cloud of dirt and dust, the monster whirled around to face the enemy battleship. Once it was headed to our real foe, I ran to the gas crystal and pounded on it like a boxer on a heavy bag. The colossal construct took off with incredible speed, faster than I imagined, now using its rear legs and bounding towards the Mist Army battleship.

  For a few moments, as the gargantuan mechanical beast crossed the plain, I was the greatest rider ever, history’s finest knight, atop the most formidable mount of all time.

  * * *

  The ground thundered beneath, as the construct left a wake of devastation, a tear of exploded dirt and dust.

  In the distance, the Mist Army panicked. Scout riders rode forward on their undulating worms, firing with arrows at the behemoth to no avail. The remainder of the army hurried to setup their formation. They were gathered around a pair of enormous, beetle-like creatures, each over fifty feet tall and a hundred feet in length that acted as rolling fortresses. Each had a formidable stronghold constructed atop their carapaces, castle-like structures that teemed with activity as warriors prepared for my charge, loading cannon and other missile weapons.

  Around the two beetles the vast host of the Mist Army assembled, still spilling from the open maw of the battleship. There was no way to estimate their number, even with the benefit of how high I was, but they were many thousands. All of them eager to prove their mettle by defeating me.

  Before I had set off, Zundergrub mentioned the Mist Army was formed from the assembled warriors of those who arrived here. They were the apex predators of this place, that Cool Hand had dubbed Shard World. The Mist Army was led by a small number of lords, including the one I had defeated in single combat. These lords now came for their revenge, afraid of looking weak before their masters, something we hadn’t yet encountered called the Lightbringers.

  But I had come with a beast mighty enough to defeat their whole army, and it churned through the ground in their direction, speeding up as we approached. Behind me was a miles-long scar of black dirt that stretched all the way back to the lake.

  I noticed a flock of stork-like four-winged birds matching my speed, flying beside me and the construct, like dolphins riding a bow wave. They had multiple eyes, and upon closer inspection seemed to be more like rodents and not birds, for they lacked feathers altogether, and had thin leathery wings like those of a bat.

  Then they panicked, the whole flock scattering with a flutter of their wings, and I knew something was wrong. Looking around it took me only a second to spot them, the manta riders approaching for the kill. They had long silver lances and shields that glimmered with the light.

  One got close, a few dozen yards away, so close I saw myself reflected off his shining shield. In the reflection, I also saw a figure behind me. I hurled myself to the ground as a spear skewered the air above me. A manta rider attacked from the opposite side, flying past with a loud swoosh, using his partner to draw my attention.

  The first manta rider fired with a crossbow at me, but I used the crystals as cover. The quarrel slammed into the cluster of gems, clattering to the ground uselessly. I popped out and fired an arrow, using the bow I had captured from the scout which split open at my command. Instead of aiming for the heavily armored rider, I sank the arrow deep into the unprotected head area of the manta ray. The creature recoiled violently, tossing the rider down screaming to his death five-hundred feet below.

  I fired another arrow at the rider that had put a pass on me, but he was too far and the arrow sailed wide. He saw his companion fall to his death, and rode up to the other manta riders, perhaps a dozen in all. They conferred a few moments, before one of them, no doubt their leader as he had the most impressive set of armor and rode the largest manta, ordered the next attack.

  The came as one, and fired their fast repeating crossbows as soon as they came in range. Quarrels slammed all around me, but I stayed under cover until they passed by. Two broke off, coming around the far flank and closing sharply. While the others pinned me with crossbow fire, they neared with sharp spears ready to kill me.

  I readied a special arrow and fiddled with the settings display on the arrowhead. Just as they were too close to veer away, I fired. The arrow sailed between the two riders, who raised their shields, curbed their lances to continue their charge, content that their heavy armor would protect them from my feeble missile.

  But the arrow wasn’t aimed at them, and the small, inoffensive charge exploded into a cloud of gas. Once the gaseous charge was exposed to the air, it turned into a hyper-strong adhesive and dried in an ins
tant. A second after the explosion, both mantas were glued to each other, wingtip to wingtip.

  One of the mantas fought the inevitable, trying to veer off and pulling the second with it. The riders now knew something was wrong as well. Seeing his manta try to bank away, the first rider leaned into the maneuver, hoping to assist his mount, while the second rider yelled something at his companion.

  The banking turn of the first manta made the second lose attitude and flop backwards, emptying its saddle of the rider, who fell to a screaming death. The first manta spun around in a flat spin, as the second flapped out of control. Both slowly descended to the ground, the rider holding on to the bitter end.

  Three down, nine more to go, I thought, and then I got peppered with a hail of crossbow bolts. Two got me, digging into my leg. I circled the crystal to avoid further fire, but they had decided to kill me from range, rather than risk getting closer.

  That was fine by me. While they had the advantage of the crossbow’s increased range over that of my bow, my mount was moving over fifty miles an hour, making their shots harder. And they probably spent most of their time training with their swords, rather than in ranged combat. In a ranged fight, I had the advantage.

  The quarrels were stuck deep into my skin, meaning they were probably tipped with the same material as that axe I had captured from the pig-grilla warrior earlier, the same material as Shivver’s dagger. This material was strong enough to penetrate through my skin as if it was that of a normal human.

  I was tempted to tear the quarrels out, but several spent ones lay on the head of the beast, and I could see their heads were barbed. To pull one out was to tear half my leg off. Instead, I tried to forget about them, mentally dampening the pain while concentrating on my next shot.

  It was hard to focus while they kept peppering me with quarrels. They were clever and began to spread out in a wide circle around the crown of the beast. In moments, I wouldn’t be able to hide from them all.

  This was no time to be saving the firepower. I took three arrows out of my arrow bag, and fired one at a time, timing my shots to maximize the effect of the special arrows.