by Tom Larcombe
Since Merlin knew what the ball contained, he continued walking forward. He checked his shields and made sure they were strong enough to hold out both flames and debris. When this fireball struck him, it burst asunder. Tiny bits of flaming debris flew all over the place, except for within Merlin's shield against physical objects.
“That's better student, but you should know that if a defender can combine both a magical and physical shield then your efforts will still fail,” Merlin taunted.
The taunting was having its intended effect. Manfred was red with rage and Merlin saw him start to step forward, then stop. Karl said something to Manfred but it didn't seem to make a difference. Manfred drew heavily on the ambient magic and then raised his hands and tried again.
This time the asphalt just in front of Merlin burst into flames. He could feel the intense heat as the flames spread. The flames made it through his shields, being neither magic nor physical in a sense that the shield would register. His clothes began to steam but an act of willpower on his part kept them from bursting into flames. His biggest problem was the lack of oxygen. The fire was so hot that it was burning all the oxygen up before Merlin could breathe. A solution was evident but Merlin was loathe to try to apport clean air directly into his lungs.
Less than a minute passed before Merlin gave in to the inevitable. He dropped his shields and filled his lungs with clean air taken from far enough away that it wasn't heated. Then he stepped through the flames again. This time his boots were coated in molten asphalt. As he walked away from the fire, he left burning footprints behind him. When he reached a spot where the air was cooler, he used a touch of magic to force the asphalt from his shoes, leaving burning piles of it on the road.
“Now that's better,” Merlin called, a false smile on his face. “But this is how you should do it.”
Before Merlin could follow through on his plan, a burst of gunfire caught his attention.
Gunter must be engaging the guards, he thought. I can't spare any of my attention for him yet though.
Merlin called forth the tightest flame lance he could manage and poured his power into it. Karl grimaced as it struck his shield and he began drawing in the death magic from the air around him. Merlin poured more power into the lance. Karl's lip began to bleed as he bit it to enhance his concentration. Finally, Merlin split his awareness and used the small fragment he'd split off to send another simple burst spell at Karl's shield.
The shield ruptured and Karl fell to the ground, struck senseless by the backlash. Merlin's flame lance finally struck its target, taking Manfred in the forehead just over his eyes. Manfred stayed standing for a moment, blinking. Then he toppled.
Merlin watched with his Sight as Manfred's power, along with a portion of his spirit, was drawn into the vortex of ambient magic circling the area.
A quick glance showed Merlin that Karl was still unconscious. Merlin was moving to restrain the senseless wizard when Gunter's pain-filled yell distracted him. There were no words to it, it was simply an expression of intense pain. Merlin saw Gunter come crashing to the ground, his concealment shield broken. His eyes followed Gunter's flight path backwards, finding the third wizard at its start.
“Conrad, I see you've been demoted out of the wizard ranks? Slumming with the SS soldiers now are you?” Merlin called.
“It won't work Merlin. I'm not slumming, they're my own troops. She was so impressed by my physical prowess that I was put in charge of her personal guard,” Conrad said.
“Or she thought that her safety would never be an issue so she tucked you someplace where you couldn't screw up and tarnish the image of the wizards.”
“I'm guessing that this traitor is one of your troops? Since he left with you and all. He's taken my troops from me so now I'll take him from you.”
Conrad took the last few steps towards Gunter, who lay on the ground groaning. The comparison in size shocked Merlin. Conrad was a foot taller and maybe a hundred and fifty pounds heavier than Merlin remembered.
{Gunter, shield pin.} Merlin sent.
Conrad jumped into the air and came plummeting down towards Gunter, both hands closed together to strike a hammer blow. Gunter raised a single arm as though attempting to put up an ineffective defense. Just before Conrad struck his arm Gunter called out.
“Contego!”
A shimmering shield, the size of a medieval knight's, came into being atop Gunter's arm. Conrad struck it with a sickening crunch. Gunter bounced from the impact but Conrad's hands were a bloody mess and he howled in pain.
Merlin yelled loud enough to be heard over the cries of pain.
“Much like your classmates I just dealt with, you didn't seem to learn your lesson last time Conrad.”
“Yes, I did,” Conrad growled.
He straightened his mangled hands, pulling his fingers back into their correct position. His face was a rictus of pain but as Merlin watched over the next few seconds, the blood stopped flowing and the fingers finished straightening on their own.
Conrad delivered a kick to Gunter's side, below the level of the shield. Gunter flew into the wall of a building with a thud, slid down, and settled into stillness.
“I learned to heal myself quickly enough that injury doesn't matter,” Conrad said. “Mastery of the body includes healing oneself.”
Merlin tore his eyes from Gunter's still body and locked them on Conrad.
“So, I guess I'll have to tear your body into small enough pieces that there's nothing left to master, won't I?” he asked.
Conrad threw his head back and laughed. Then he began to advance on Merlin.
“You? You're going to do that to me?” he said.
Merlin drew his Luger and shot Conrad twice in the chest. He stared in amazement as the bullets struck and bounced off.
“So, you've got shields now also?”
Conrad continued to walk towards Merlin
“No, my skin is simply strong enough to be impenetrable.”
Merlin raised a man-high circle of flame around him. The response was a jump so high that Conrad cleared the flames with several feet to spare. When he landed he was right in front of Merlin.
Conrad cocked his head to the side.
“So, tear me apart then,” he said with a smirk.
Merlin took a swing at him. His fist hit with a crunch and he held his hand, shaking his fingers to try to straighten them. Conrad had taken a pair of steps backward at the impact and now he looked at Merlin with a new respect.
“So I'm not the only one that gave himself a new body,” he said.
“You have no idea,” Merlin replied.
Conrad took two running steps and tackled Merlin at the waist. The two of them ended up on the ground with Conrad on top. He began to swing at Merlin's torso, trying to pummel him. The punches landed over and over, striking like a sledgehammer. Merlin squirmed beneath him trying to reposition himself. He was amazed that the punches hurt as little as they did but he feared for Anguis.
Merlin pushed at Conrad's lower body, driving his former student's legs out. There was less force behind the punches now and Merlin waited a moment. He wanted the timing just right. When Conrad had finally slid down far enough, Merlin brought his knee up with all the strength he could muster. Conrad's face turned ashen at the strike to his testicles and he lost his balance. Merlin pushed to one side forcefully and Conrad rolled off.
Conrad writhed on the ground, moaning in agony. Merlin stood again and looked down at him.
He'll be out of it for a bit, I can wait before dealing with him, Merlin thought. I need to check on Gunter, he may need healing.
He turned to Gunter and saw him sitting against the wall, his hand in his bag. There was a stream of red coming from his nose and touch of it dribbling from his lips but there was nothing that looked serious. Gunter saw him looking and waved towards Conrad.
Merlin turned around to find Conrad on his feet again already. He was unsteady and swaying, but standing. He shook his head once, twice, th
en focused on Merlin.
“You had your chance,” Conrad said, voice cracking. “But you don't have it in you to tear me apart and there's no other way you'll kill me.”
Merlin focused on Conrad and sent a flame lance at him. It sputtered out less than an inch from his skin. Conrad tried to grin, unsuccessfully, and pulled a crystal on a chain from under his shirt.
“I told you, there's no other way. She has me protected against such things.”
Conrad charged again, slightly slower this time. When Merlin tried to meet him with a punch, Conrad blocked it. He followed through with an uppercut that sent Merlin flying several feet back. When he landed, Merlin was on his back again and in pain. He stood as quickly as he could but was met by a kick when he was half-way to a standing position. Merlin flew backwards again. This time he hit the wall Gunter was sitting against.
“He's mine,” Gunter said.
“He's a wizard, I thought they were all closer to us.”
“Doesn't matter, he was one of the guards. He's mine.”
Conrad was closing in carefully. Merlin drew himself up, using the wall for support. When Conrad was in range, Merlin took another swing. He started the strike as though he were going for Conrad's jaw but changed direction and swung down and into Conrad's chest. The feint hit home and Conrad staggered back several steps.
Merlin prepared to close and try to follow up his advantage. Then he heard a click, followed by a clack, and Conrad glowed all over with a purple light for a moment. Merlin stared as a red stain spread across Conrad's shirt. For a moment the center of the stain showed the fletching of a crossbow bolt before the blood began flowing down, covering it. Conrad's body shrank, as though it were eating itself.
Merlin looked back at Gunter. Gunter shrugged and tossed the crossbow aside.
“That was the last bolt. I thought he must have magically enhanced himself from what he said.”
“You were right, and thank you. I thought I was going to have to best him in hand to hand to kill him and I don't know that I could've.”
“Is that all of them?” Gunter asked.
Merlin looked up quickly.
“No, I left one alive but unconscious. I don't see him any more though, so be on guard.”
He sank down against the wall to catch his breath. The two men watched as Conrad's body shrank in size. When it ended, he looked thin, nearly to the point of being scrawny. His muscle tone was almost non-existent and the clothes that hung from his corpse made him look like a boy playing dress-up with his father's clothing.
“I guess his physique was all from magic then?” Gunter asked.
“Yes. I warned him about doing that but it seems he never took my warning to heart.”
{Anguis, are you okay?} Merlin sent.
{I'm bruised and sore but otherwise fine. That guy's punch felt like an artillery shell hitting me. Fortunately it didn't explode like one.}
Merlin continued to scan the area, looking for Karl.
{Yes. Conrad's abilities had come a long way from when I was teaching him. It makes me wonder what Karl can do now.}
“Merlin,” Gunter said, “I think some of my ribs are cracked. Can you heal them?”
“Let me look,” Merlin replied.
Merlin splintered off a small piece of awareness and sent it into Gunter's body. He found three cracked ribs and some internal bruising. He ignored the bruises, those would leave Gunter stiff and sore but didn't pose any serious problem. He made sure the ribs were properly aligned and then started them healing far more quickly than they would otherwise.
“Yes, you cracked three ribs. There's also some minor damage that will heal on its own,” he said.
“I feel like he worked me over with a blacksmith's hammer,” Gunter said. “Even with the shields he was beating me to a pulp.”
Merlin stood and walked out into the road. He looked around but saw no sign of Karl. His ribs ached as he rubbed them, but none appeared broken. He wiggled his jaw and discovered a loose tooth but no worse damage.
“I know exactly what you mean. Can you stand yet or do you need some more ti—”
A loud cracking noise from the top of the building Gunter was sitting against interrupted Merlin. He glanced up curiously.
“Gunter, shield or move!” he called.
Merlin tried to throw his own shield over Gunter but found it rebuffed by something. The front facing of the building cascaded down towards the street. Merlin heard Gunter yell: “Contego!” and relaxed some.
Good, Gunter got a shield up in time, he thought. Now where is Karl?
Merlin searched again, this time including the tops of buildings in his search. He was astounded to find Karl sitting on a piece of wood that was floating in mid-air.
Evidently he's much better with both shields and remote manipulation now. But two can play at that game, Merlin thought.
The wood Karl was sitting on burst into flame at a thought from Merlin, who then surrounded Karl with a reversed shield against magic. One that was designed to keep any attempted magic inside of the shield.
He watched as the wood burned. Karl gestured and his lips moved as though he were speaking, but there was no result. He was moving away from the flames, at least until he discovered that another step would put him in open air.
Karl's pant leg caught on fire. Merlin continued to watch as Karl scanned the area. Not finding what he was after, he leaped from the board before he was burned alive. He passed through the shield and Merlin could tell he was still trying magic as he fell. Just before he hit the ground he slowed a bit and when his body struck it bounced in a fashion that indicated he'd gotten some sort of protection up before impact.
He walked over to where Karl was lying. His ex-student was still alive and moaning in pain. Merlin drew his Luger and fired. The bullet went whizzing off somewhere when it ricocheted from a shield.
“The man you just tried to crush showed me how to get around this problem,” Merlin said.
He walked in close and pushed his gun through the shield slowly. When he was sure it was all the way through, he aimed again and fired. Karl convulsed for a moment and then went still. Merlin fired a second shot to be sure, then turned his back on Karl and raced to the pile of debris that covered the area Gunter was sitting in earlier.
* * *
Chapter 17
Merlin dug through the rubble, hurling aside chunks of concrete and metal in his haste.
I heard him trigger the shield pin, he thought. He's got to be in here someplace and I need to get him unburied.
The first sign he found of Gunter was a small stream of blood flowing along the ground beneath the rubble. The indication of additional injury added even more urgency to Merlin's search. When he found Gunter's left foot, crushed and mangled by the debris, Merlin lost his patience and began hurling the rest of the rubble out of the way with his magic.
Gunter had triggered the shield, but he hadn't positioned it well. His upper torso and head were completely undamaged but below the bottom of his ribs, his body had been crushed by the debris. Gunter was still breathing but he remained unmoving when he was finally freed from the rubble.
“Gunter?” Merlin said softly.
There was no response.
“Gunter!” Merlin yelled.
Gunter's eyes flickered open.
“Guess.. should've used.. other shield,” he said.
“Good, you're alive. Let me heal you,” Merlin replied.
Merlin quickly sent his awareness into Gunter and began to work. There was so much damage in the lower half of the body that he wasn't even sure where to start. First he blocked the pain centers in Gunter's brain, then he began to heal the areas that were bleeding and helped the blood circulate.
Merlin was snapped out of his trance by a yell from Gunter.
“Merlin!”
Merlin shook his head, disoriented from being forcefully drawn away from his work.
“What? I need to keep working on you. I can heal you,”
he said.
“No Merlin, you can't. What pain I felt is gone so I can think clearly again. But I can't feel anything from my waist down and from what I can see that's a blessing.”
“I can fix that, in my research I found that paralysis is frequently due to a spinal injury. I can heal that, I know I can,” Merlin said.
“At what cost? You've got a job to do and you'll need all your power to complete it. I killed all the guards other than Conrad before he got involved. Your path is clear. Don't risk the life of your daughter for me. Don't risk letting Ave escape, or even win, just to try to save me.”
“I can heal you Gunter. Don't you hear me? I can make you good as new.”
“Can you honestly tell me that doing so won't deplete your power?” Gunter asked.
Merlin looked away, unwilling to lie to his friend.
“I thought so,” Gunter said. “Besides, I can never return to Germany and anywhere else I go someone will recognize me as a German sooner or later. What kind of life do you think I'd be able to lead? You know me and you know people. What do you think would happen the first time someone made a disparaging comment about Germany?”
Merlin's eyes were damp but he fought back the tears that tried to form.
“A long, healthy one. You can stay with Nimue and myself, move wherever we do. The USO will grant you American citizenship as well, they already promised that to you,” Merlin said.
“We both know the Allies are winning. That they'll win eventually. You can go and make that happen sooner. You can save thousands of lives on both sides. Let me go Merlin, I can at least die in my homeland if I can't live in it.”
“No Gunter, I...”
“Listen! That sound you hear is soldiers coming to check out the disturbance. Go now while you're not under fire.”
Gunter reached into his bag and drew out his storm rifle.
“At least my gear was under the shield and I can still use my arms,” he said. “Go, finish your mission. Remove the madness that's infected my homeland. I've got your back.”
Merlin's throat was closing, choking him, making it hard to breathe. Tears ran down his face, cutting channels through the dirt and dust caked there.