Resolving that the slaver was awake enough to answer his questions and distracted enough to keep him from using his powers, he used the spike that had been hovering in front of his eye to pin the slaver to the deck.
As Cade thinned and lengthened the spike to a foot long he used the ones embedded in Drake to lay the slaver face up on the deck.
Ignoring the pained screams and healing the tears in Drake's skin from the rough handling he drove his extended spike into the slaver's left arm, pinning him to the deck.
With a small usage of power, Cade grew a few sharp barbs on the spike to keep the slaver from just pulling his arm off of it.
"Ok that should be enough, I don't think you will be going anywhere before we finish our chat," he told the wolfman before dropping back into the slaver's mind amid Drake's pained moans.
Cade created a flat shield below him a split second after he reappeared in Drake's mind.
A smile grew on his face as several of the rocky spikes drove into the shield and shattered in a spray of stone bits, not making a dent in his magical foot protection.
Taking a step forward his foot was almost impaled as he almost walked right of his shield.
Windmilling his arms in terror he fell back onto the safety of the mental shield and landed flat on his backside.
As his heart rate slowed Cade imagined the sight of his big ass comically waving his arms around and landing flat on his ass would have pulled a chuckle out of him, if not for the fresh memory of spikes just like the ones that had sprung from the ground having been in his flesh not a half-hour ago.
Doing some mental acrobatics as he maintained his seat on the shield Cade tried to move his little oasis of safety.
A scream left his mouth as he found out that trying to force the platform to float forward led to him almost dropped to the ground as the shield shifted quickly in his direction of choice, just without taking him along for the ride.
Cade hastily formed another shield a few inches above the dangerous ground just his first zoomed off towards the mountains in the distance.
As another round of spikes shattered against his hastily built shield, his heart raced in his chest once more at the close call.
Blowing out a shaky breath he took a few minutes to collect himself before trying to move the finicky shield again.
After he couldn't taste his heart in his throat Cade tried and failed several times to get his new mode of transportation to not shoot off into the distance without him.
Frustration ate at him as the last failed experiment flew off.
His position had improved though, he had gotten pretty good at jumping at just the right time to keep from losing altitude during his little trial by fire.
Still, he found as hard as he tried, even with a small bit of power, the shield at best inched along without taking him along with it, and at worst shot off as all the others had.
"Wouldn't make a bad projectile," he said before he tried another tactic.
Visualizing a disk that would float with him on it, not trying to fix the platform as just protection in his mind he again formed the frustrating implement.
As his intent for an armored mode of transportation settled in his mind, he felt what he could only explain as a rubber band snap as the shield anchored itself to him instead of the ground.
Cade felt a little seasick as the small shifts in motion that the shields had been making during his attempts to make his floating platform work suddenly included him in their little dance.
He was thankful for his years at sea as the motion sickness passed in a few moments.
An anxious grimace made its way to his face as he widened his stance and visualized the shield floating forward.
With a child-like expression of glee, he was almost pitched backward off the thing as it shot forward.
"Oh, this is going to change everything."
As he recovered his balance visions of his new floating home flying through the air exploded in his mind with him at the helm.
Bringing himself back to the task at hand, Cade threw a worried glance around the plateau looking for Drake or any attacks the mage might throw his way.
He barked a laugh when he found the mage writhing on the ground a few hundred feet away.
"Let us go have that chat shall we."
Turning his mobile shield towards his target, Cade flew over to the prone mage his grin growing as the mage's defensive spikes kept smashing into the shield with no effect.
He was almost disappointed at the lack of effect the spikes were having, almost, the idea of the stone that kept smashing against the bottom of his floating platform making contact with his body caused him to shiver involuntarily.
Increasing the speed of his transport and protection, Cade ate up the distance between him and Drake in a few seconds.
Arriving beside the mage he gripped the now still Drake and brought him to eye level a few feet away.
Looking into his eyes Cade realized the reason Drake had gone still with a glassy-eyed stare.
"Idiot went into shock on me."
An aggrieved sigh left him before he drove the slavers mind to flood his physical body with pain-blocking hormones.
He smiled at the mage as Drake's eyes came back into focus slowly as the chemicals did their work.
"How did you resist my power, answer and I will kill you quick, don't and my treatment of your body will seem like a vacation next to what I will do to get it out of you by force."
His irritation at the mage grew as the barley cognizant Drake's eyes tried and failed a few times to focus on him.
Repeating his question a few times Cade was almost ready to break the figurative and literal screws before Drake's eyes focused on him.
"Sure, whatever you need."
Cade gave the slaver a curious look as his glassy-eyed stare shifted into a goofy expression after his response.
"He's fucking high as a kite," he thought to himself as he stifled a laugh.
"Ok let's start with some easy questions, what kind of mage are you?" He began, trying valiantly to keep a menacing face on as Drake started to drool.
"Earth mage," the mage replied, the same goofy look plastered on his face.
"But you control metal as well as the earth," Cade asked, his menacing look falling further as Drake began to look at his hands as if they were the most interesting things he had ever seen.
"So can all earth mages."
Drake's sing-song voice eroded Cade's facade of intimidation further as the slaver continued to inspect his hands, opening and closing his palms and examining his black claws.
"Why was it so hard for me to take control of the spikes you put in me?" Cade asked, his menacing look falling completely.
Giving up the battle to look scary he fought a new losing battle to keep from guffawing at the slaver's new interest.
"One would have to be extro... extrroord...very very very powerful to break one's hold on their given element,"
Drake finished his statement before his train of thought was derailed once again as he realized his leather jerkin was malleable.
As the slaver began to explore his black clothing with childlike wonder, Cade thought about what he had just heard as he dosed up the earth mage once more to keep him pliant.
"If the issue of the spikes was trying to break them from Drake's power then maybe the atoms are just aligned with his personal frequency while he interacts with them," he said to himself.
Murmuring to himself, he tried to make sense of the vague explanation, the frequency thing a shot in the dark as far as he was concerned, atomic physicist he was not.
"Maybe some sort of quantum entanglement," he said aloud with a shrug.
"Draaake...Drakeiee you still with us. I want you to make a spike for me and hold it still, try not to let me move it ok?"
Cade stifled a snort as he made his request to the delusional earth mage who was amid a fit of giggles at the popping sound he was making with his mouth.
"I....can...do...thaaaat," he answered slowly as Cade watched him almost physically pull the words out of his mouth.
Cade's battle with his mirth lost another battle as a snort of amusement escaped him.
Drake completed his end of the request as he created a stone spike and brought the shakily lofted spike up to hover between them.
Cade was pleasantly surprised at the continued resistance he was met with when he tried and failed to move the levitating spike.
Placing a hand on his chin, he thought the problem through, trying to move the spike wasn't happening with only brute force.
The amount of power required even to shift it a little was staggering, the power source on the back of his skull was just barely up to the task, any more "juice" and he was close to repeating his little explosion on a level even his healing probably wasn't up to dealing with.
Shivering at the destructive power he had melted to his skull Cade threw out just throwing more power at the problem.
Having to carry that block that powered his home was out of the question.
Even if the weight was negligible with his improved body, the chance of losing it and putting him and his mates in jeopardy was too high a risk for him to take.
Trying out a wild thought brought on by the modifications he had made to Drake's spikes in the physical world, he attempted to lengthen the spike by a small amount and pull it from Drake's grip at the same time.
The spike shot out like a stone bullet to his left as Drake lost his grip on the sliver of stone.
Bringing the price of stone back between them Cade was elated at his success, but only for a second as the simplicity of the change hit him.
The modification of the spike were not unique to him, Drake had created the spike he was holding, so anyone should be able to do what he just did.
His contemplation on the implications of the small change and how it affected the battle of wills he assumed was the go-to for fights between mages ended as he saw the look of shock on Drake's face.
"H..how did you do that?" The mage asked as he shook his head and blinked his low lidded gaze away to look in shock at the spike that had been torn from his grip.
"Can't everyone do that, it was stupidly simple?"
A confused look grew on his face as he asked the question, the modification was extremely slight maybe a micron or two of length had been stretched out of the four-inch spike.
"Not once I have created something out of metal or earth no one can take it from me, nor any mage with their element."
Mental clarity and rage, with a small amount of fear, slowly starting to make their way to his face as he finished his statement.
Seeing the mage beginning to get his wits back, Cade dosed him up once more hoping he wouldn't have to kill him just yet, he had a few more questions to ask before he did that.
Cade watch warily as Drake's face took on its goofy look once more, but uneasy about the slaver's resilience to his previous infusion of happy hormones he took the time to feel the undercurrents of Drake's feelings.
Smugness seeped out the slaver's figurative pores, their potency, and strength allowing Cade to see through the slaver's ruse of goofiness.
A spear of rock drove towards his head as Drake's smug look turned to glee, and just as suddenly to shocked surprise as he caught the spear in his power and making a small adjustment to its density and direction, and sent it back to its creator.
A grunt left Drake as he was impaled through the gut as the spear was driven into the ground leaving him propped up in a kneeling position.
"That was stupid Drake I just...MOTHER FUCKER." Cade began before another spear of rock impaled him through the chest.
Surrounding himself in a shield he dissolved the spear that was lodged in his chest, the wound healing quickly after a few moments of whistling air escaping his lungs.
"Fucker caught me monologing."
Chastizing himself he watched Drake's mental body grimace as he struggled to pull himself off the spear Cade still held in his mental grasp.
A feeling of someone tugging on his power was the only indication of the mage's actions, a simple force of will was all that was needed to retain his control.
"So the painful way it is, do make sure to answer my questions to your best ability or we are going to be here all night, ok?"
Finishing his smug request Cade watched as spears of rock and car-sized boulders smashed against his shield.
"See you back in the real world," he said as Drake let out a pained roar as he sent a house-sized portion of the plateau flying towards him.
As he left the slaver's mind Cade flipped the asshole the bird a second before the boulder connected.
Eve of Battle
Coming out of the soon-to-be-dead slaver's mind Cade smiled grimly into Drake's furious eyes as he immobilized the slaver in his grip.
He was still wary of flying projectiles, the looming boulder of stone fresh in his mind before he had an epiphany.
A cruel smile spread across his face before he implemented his plan.
"Now before you try anything stupid let me say this, I'm going to ask you questions and each time I have to repeat myself or stop you from trying to hurt me or my mates, I will paralyze a limb permanently, we clear." He told the incised slaver.
"Do your worst," Drake replied with an impudent grin.
"Oh I plan to," Cade said his cruel grin back in full force.
Reaching out with his power he followed the slaver's nervous system down from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.
Taking control of the spikes still lodged under the slaver's grey fur, he vibrated them quickly.
As Drake began to scream in pain again, he dove back into the slavers nervous system.
With the mage's nervous system laid out before him, its long twisted paths overlaying his view of Drake's furry body, he began to break the connections at each joint.
The connections broke one by one under his gaze until Drake stopped screaming.
He released the now still slaver from his mental grip as he started phase two.
The look in Drake's eyes at the sudden ending of the excruciating pain almost caused him to chuckle at the bewildered look.
"Try lifting any limb for me if you could," he asked the slaver in a polite tone.
Drake's face scrunched up as he sought to use the severed connections to move his body.
A petty feeling of pride grew in Cade's cheat as a look of horror bloomed on Drake's face as he realized the predicament he was in.
"Why, why not just kill me?" The mage asked once he got over the initial shock of being a quadriplegic.
"So I could do this," Cade answered with a humorless smile.
Drake began screaming as his body thrashed in pain as he healed the slavers spine allowing him to feel the sharp metal spikes stirring up his body.
Once again severing the man's spinal cord and removing the sensation of the pain caused by the spikes Cade began his questioning.
Atomic Mage Page 20