by N. P. Martin
LeBron waited, still smiling at me as the portal continued to open.
When I got to within six feet of him, I threw the knife as hard as I could, with a shout of rage-filled aggression. I had practiced the same throwing technique thousands of times at the Sanctum, so there was no doubt in my mind that the knife would find its target in LeBron’s chest.
And it would have done, had LeBron not been standing inside a protection circle that completely shielded him from outside forces. The knife seemed to halt in mid-air as it came into contact with the virtual forcefield LeBron was standing behind. The forcefield sparked slightly as the knife hit it, and then the knife itself fell harmlessly to the ground. "Motherfucker!" I cursed as LeBron laughed and shook his head.
Time to try a different tact, I thought, as I concentrated on welding my magic. I tried the brute force option first, to see if I could simply tear a hole in LeBron’s forcefield, but it resisted the violence of my magic. Sparks of energy shot out all around LeBron, as I continued to batter at the forcefield to no avail.
"You’ll never break through, Creed," LeBron goaded. "Your magic isn’t strong enough."
"Maybe not," Ray said, now standing beside me. "But mine is."
LeBron didn’t seem overly concerned by Ray’s threat. "Do your worst, old man. My money is on the shield."
Ray’s face set into a serious scowl as he pointed his staff in LeBron’s direction, sending bolts of blue energy from out of the staff, to try and blast right through the forcefield. He even brought down a blast of lightning from the sky, but to no effect. After several more high-powered blasts, it was clear that he wasn’t making a dent. "Brute force isn’t working," Ray said.
"No shit," I said, barely able to contain my frustration, not to mention my ever growing hatred for the smug bastard currently grinning at us like the cat who got the fucking cream.
Ray and I spent the next five minutes throwing every spell we could think of at LeBron and his protective shield, but we got nowhere. In the end, I was reduced to walking right up to it, and battering on the invisible wall with my fist, like some pathetic drunk who’d been locked out of the house by his wife. "I’m going to fucking kill you, LeBron!" I screamed.
"I think that should be the other way around," the smug bastard hit back. "I’m the one who is going to kill you…and everyone else."
I let out another scream of frustration as Ray came up next to me, his concerned face not exactly filling me with confidence that we we’re going to stop this crazy bastard.
"I must say, Creed," LeBron said, putting his face right next to mine. "I’m surprised to even see you here. I didn’t think you’d have the balls to leave your family to die…for good that is," he finished with a chuckle.
My anger wanted to boil up again, but I managed to keep it under control. All the energy I had expended in trying to break the forcefield had left me feeling a little calmer. I still hated LeBron with every fibre of my being; I just didn’t show it as much. Thus, LeBron got the dead-eyed stare, instead of the rage-filled glare. "Tell me again that you weren’t bluffing about that," I said.
"I wasn’t bluffing," he said straight away. "Your family is no more. Is that clear enough for you?"
"Crystal," I said nodding, even though it was gut wrenching to see that he was obviously telling the truth.
"Good." He stepped back into the center of his protection circle. "Now if you don’t mind, I have souls to harvest."
"Where’s the bomb, LeBron?" I asked.
LeBron laughed hard, and did so to the point where I felt like screaming. "The bomb? Please tell me you are not that stupid, Creed."
Just then, a torrent of bluish-white energy burst out of the portal above LeBron’s head, and all the energy began to pour into him as he rapturously received it with open arms.
Then I understood.
There was no physical bomb, no contraption with wires and a detonator button.
LeBron was the fucking bomb.
33
Stranglehold
Ray and I could only watch as the soul energy kept pouring from the portal and into LeBron. "Can he even hold that much energy without…"
"Exploding?" Ray said. "We’ll soon see, although I think exploding is the point."
"Yeah, but not until he has enough to…"
"Blow up the whole damn world?"
"Exactly."
Ray looked grimly on as megaton after megaton of magical energy somehow managed to enter LeBron’s body and stay there without imploding within him. "What the hell are we going to do, August?"
My head turned slowly to look at Ray, as if he had just told me he had slept with my mother. "You’re asking me? You’re the master sorcerer here…"
"So what the fuck are you, son? Some second year apprentice? Think!"
I’d never seen Ray so rattled, not even when we stood up against Gordon Grayson, which already seemed like a lifetime ago. I’ll be honest, him being so rattled, it rattled me as well.
But he was also right. It was my show. Mine and LeBron’s. It was up to me to finish it. The question was how, though. LeBron was too powerful, as all these power hungry bastards seem to be in the end.
Though that hasn’t stopped me before.
It was an empowering thought, and one which got me to thinking: how did I manage to beat the other psychopathic assholes I stood up against in recent times? How did I ultimately beat my father, Baal, Gordon Grayson and all the rest over the years? They all had one weakness: their ego. These guys were so arrogant they thought they couldn’t be beat, and that always tripped them up in the end, because they inevitably ended up underestimating me.
I just needed LeBron to do the same.
Walking to the forcefield, I stopped just in front of it as LeBron soaked up the last of the soul energy coming through the portal. He practically glowed with all the energy he had contained inside of him. Hard to believe the man standing in front of me held the explosive capacity of a thousand nuclear bombs, but with a far greater reach than any ordinary bomb. A reach that would stretch around the whole planet.
"Can you feel it, Creed?" LeBron boasted, so fucking high he looked like he had just snorted a whole kilo of cocaine in one huge line. "Can you feel the power coming off me. It’s…glorious!"
"I’m sure it is," I said. "Maybe if you stopped hiding behind this forcefield and step out of that circle, I might be able to feel it. I mean, it’s not like I can stop you now, is it? I doubt anyone can."
LeBron smiled widely. "You are right, no one can stop me now…and no one will."
"At least let me feel all that power before you blow us all to hell."
"You want to feel my power?" He chuckled to himself. "Are you coming on to me, Creed?"
"Not likely. I just want to know what all that soul energy feels like."
LeBron cocked his head to one side. "I see what you are doing, Creed. You are trying to lure me out, aren’t you?" He shook his head. "You still think you have a chance at stopping me, don’t you?"
"Of course not, I—"
"Don’t lie!" He took a few steps forward, and I realized with almost nervous excitement that he had finally dropped his forcefield. "The hero in you thinks he can still save the day. Well, come on, Creed." He beckoned me toward him. "Come on! Try to stop me, Creed!"
For the first time, LeBron was now vulnerable, though it was questionable just how vulnerable a man of his current power could actually be, even without protection around him.
Let’s fucking see then.
In an instant, I conjured the strongest energy ball that I could, and hurled it at LeBron with all my might. The power of the blast would have been enough to take down whoever stood in its path, or at least knock them on their ass.
But not LeBron, who merely splayed his arms as if he welcomed the energy I threw at him, absorbing it into himself as if it was just more grist for the mill. Then he laughed. "Is that all you’ve got?" he asked. "This isn’t going to be a very fair fight at all."
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"Who said anything about fair?" Ray said, who had slyly positioned himself to the side of LeBron. Then, before LeBron knew what was happening, Ray used his staff to cast an Encasement Spell, which effectively trapped LeBron in a bubble of yellowish energy. As LeBron shook his head and began to push against the energy surrounding him, Ray looked at me. "It won’t last long. Drain him, August!"
I didn’t need to be told twice. It took me just a few seconds to work up the magic needed to begin draining LeBron of the soul energy he had within him. Both my hands were out facing LeBron as I directed my magic toward him. When I had connected with his stolen energy, I started to pull it out of him, and then send it back through the portal from whence it came.
LeBron flew into a rage at that point, and needless to say resisted me all the way. But by the time he was able to free himself, I had siphoned off at least half of the soul energy that was in him.
But it still wasn’t enough. LeBron still had more power than either me or Ray could contend with. He was so angry now that his skin began to glow a hot reddish color, as if the energy left in him was heating up, the atoms becoming agitated along with his emotions. He then shot out a hand toward Ray and hit him with a blast of energy that lifted Ray off his feet, shooting him back into the air as surely as if he had been hit by a cannon ball. I could only watch in horror as Ray’s body was flung several hundred yards, eventually disappearing into the darkness and landing at the far end of the playing fields.
"No!" I shouted, feeling sure that there was no way Ray could survive such a great fall intact. In my anger, I went to attack LeBron again, but before I could, he held me in an invisible grip that was as strong as any vice.
"I suppose you think that little stunt was clever," LeBron said as he came toward me. "All you’ve done is delay the inevitable. I’ll get every drop of that energy back, but not before I kill you, Creed, which I should have done long before now."
I struggled against the power he was using on me, trying to break it with my own. But even with half his power gone, LeBron was still much stronger than me. "Come on then, motherfucker!" I screamed in frustration, knowing in my gut that the game was up. It was over, and LeBron had won. "Fucking kill me then! Come on!"
He ran at me, and slammed his fist into my face, shattering my nose and knocking me to the ground where I lay choking on my own blood. "With pleasure," he said as he sat on top of me, like a cage fighter about to finish his opponent with a burst of ground and pound.
"Fuck you!" I said, spitting blood at him.
Wiping the blood from his face, LeBron stared down at me. "You know what? With all this magic around, sometimes I forget about the unique satisfaction that comes from using your bare hands to do a job. In this case, that job would be beating you to death, Creed."
His fist came down on my face again, smashing my already busted nose. Then another fist swung down into my jaw, and then another and another until I felt my mandible crack.
"Oh yes!" LeBron said. "That feels good…"
The hits kept coming as his fists pounded at my face, each punch coming with a roar of effort as he put everything he had into every punch. In no time, my face and neck were wet with blood, and I lay half conscious, totally unable to fight back. It’s hard to think about defensive magic when you’re getting the face pounded off you.
Then I felt LeBron’s large hands wrap themselves around my throat, and begin to squeeze.
"Once upon a time," he said, breathing hard, having tired himself out throwing all those punches. "I used to kill people exactly like I’m about to kill you now. I would wrap my hands around their throat, and then I would squeeze until all the life was squeezed out of them, like air from an old tire…"
I tried to say, "Fuck you," as I lay looking up at him through eyes that stung with blood, but nothing came out because of the pressure he was putting on my throat, his thumbs sinking deep as they pressed on my windpipe.
"Don’t worry, Creed," LeBron said as the world started to fade around me, the blackness of death swallowing it up slowly but surely. "I’ll see you on the other side, where I’ll subject you to more pain and punishment than you could ever dream of…"
34
Fucking Die You Cunt
I was on the verge of slipping away into oblivion when I felt the pressure on my neck suddenly stop, and the weight of LeBron no longer on me. I was still basically unconscious though, so I couldn’t really figure out what was going on. All I could do was lie there as my lungs took in oxygen again, and my mouth filled up with blood. It wasn’t until I heard a voice that my mind started thinking straight again.
"All right, Creed, time to get up now. Let’s go!"
It was Max’s voice inside me. "What…why…" I barely said back to him.
"I just saved your life. You can thank me later. Now get the hell up before he’s on you again!"
I felt a jolt of pain in my chest, as if someone had just zapped me with forty volts. I couldn’t help but gasp and sit bolt upright, the world suddenly spinning into dizzying view again. "What the…"
"I put him down for you," Max said. "He won’t stay down for long, though. In fact…"
As I looked straight ahead, I saw LeBron pick himself up from off the ground and shake his head, as if someone had clocked him on the jaw. Our eyes met for a second. "I see your stinking demon has come to your rescue," he said as he stood up. "For all the good it will do you."
Almost in slow motion, I saw him raise his palm, as a sphere of swirling red energy formed in it. Then he drew his arm back slightly as he prepared to send the destruction magic my way. My instincts took over at that point, thank God…if I’d been waiting on my mind to protect me, I’d be dead.
As the blast magic came speeding towards me, I raised one arm and formed a magic shield in front of myself, formed from a thin layer of bluish magical energy. The blast magic hit the shield and got absorbed into it, the impact almost knocking me back.
A surge of adrenaline went through me then, enough for me to get to my feet and face LeBron. My focus was laser sighted. The only thing I could see in front of me was LeBron and his grinning face as he realized I wasn’t ready to go down yet. Not by a fucking long shot, and certainly not because of him.
"You looking for round two now?" he asked me, then shook his head as if he couldn’t be bothered. "You’ve wasted enough of my time, Creed. I think I’ll just go ahead and set the world on fire now, if that’s all right with you."
"Aren’t you forgetting something? You only have half the energy you need. You’ll have to siphon it out of the portal again. You think I’m going to let you do that?" I focused hard on him as the rage built up inside me once more. "You’ll have to fucking kill me first, asshole."
LeBron made a snarling sound as he realized I was right. "You can be most fucking infuriating, you know that?"
"I do."
"So be it." He conjured another ball of blast magic in his hand and threw it at me, which I blocked with my shield. Then, before he could get another blast off, I conjured my own and fired it at him, catching him on the head and knocking him back on his ass.
He looked surprised for a second that I was able to knock him over, but his surprise soon turned to anger and aggression as he brought up his own shield, and then used his other hand to direct a continuous steam of blast magic at me. My shield absorbed most of the blast, but I could begin to feel it weaken under the strain, especially because I now had to counter with my own stream of blast magic, which LeBron’s shield also absorbed.
As LeBron jumped to his feet, and we continued to blast each other with our respective magic, I realized it had now come down to a battle of wills…and power.
It was just a question of whose power would give out first, and after a few moments, I soon realized it would most likely be mine.
As did LeBron.
"You are not strong enough to defeat me!" he shouted as he started to push me back, further weakening my shield and the stream of blast magic.
Then suddenly my shield gave in completely, and the blast magic it had been protecting me against got through and hit me square on the chest, slamming me into the ground as surely as a ten ton hammer would.
"Where has your heroics gotten you now, Creed?" LeBron said as he stood over me. "I’ll tell you where…soon to be dead like everyone else on this planet."
"Did I save you just so you could die?" Max asked bluntly.
It was a fair question, and one which stuck in my craw. "No," I said aloud.
"No what?" LeBron asked.
I focused on his face, noticing with satisfaction the glimmer of shocked fear in his eyes when he looked into mine. "No one is dying tonight…except you."
As LeBron shook his head in mock boredom, I gathered within myself every ounce of magic I had left, which wasn’t much at all by that point…which is why I had to try a different tact.
"What…what are you doing, Creed?" Max asked.
The truth is, I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. I didn’t have enough magic left to attack LeBron with, so I borrowed some of Max’s power instead. Don’t ask me how I did it. All I know is, I couldn’t die without avenging my family. In my mind, I had already failed them when I didn’t get them safely out of the Realm of the Dead. I wasn’t going to fail them again by letting the man who wiped them out of existence go on living.
No fucking way.
So in the process of digging deep to scrape up my remaining magic, Max got pulled into the fray, and I was able to tap into his considerable power, despite his protestations.
"Creed, I don’t like this," Max said, for the first time ever sounding afraid of something. "You’re stealing my power…invading me…"
"Now you know how it feels, Max," I said as a massive surge of power traveled around my body, which I then focused into a single sphere of blast magic.