Arcane Dropout 4

by Edmund Hughes

  “That’s a big variable,” muttered Toma.

  “We have to take what we can get. Are all of you ready?”

  Every single one of the initiates nodded. Eliza stepped forward, demonstrating how they should hold their hands up to sell the fiction of their surrender. Lee stepped in close to Tess, who was cringing and pulling at the bottom of Bryan’s Hawaiian shirt.

  “You okay?” he whispered.

  “No!” she hissed. “Not only do I have to pretend to be evil, but I also now know what it feels like to have a penis. And I hate it!”

  “It’s not so bad. Also, gross.”

  “That’s exactly my point!”

  Lee patted her on the shoulder. “Just do your best, okay?”

  She let out a slow sigh and nodded as she moved to lead the group outside and onto the beach. Lee was first in line behind her, his hands up and behind his head, expression neutral.

  It wasn’t until they were a good distance from the beach house that the rest of the lycanthropes in the area finally chose to reveal themselves. There were several dozen of them in total, close to fifty, by Lee’s count. More than he’d expected, to be honest.

  They were all in good shape, lean men and women of varying age and ethnicity. About half of them wore loose comfortable clothing, shorts and tank tops, attire suitable for hard exercise. The rest wore outfits seemingly picked at random, jeans and t-shirts, one woman in a pantsuit, a few younger men in shabby and ill-fitting clothes. Lee suspected that those men had been recruited locally, perhaps from the nearby criminal or homeless population.

  All of the members of the Melting Pack had hard expressions and serious eyes of a wide range of unusual colors. They were poised for action, and they appeared to be taking their commands from the two members standing at the front of their group.

  One of those two was Mattis, still clad in her vacation sundress. The man who stood beside her was tanned and handsome, sporting a ponytail and a sleeveless shirt. Her husband, Lee guessed, from the proximity and familiarity they shared.

  “Bryan,” said the man with the ponytail, furrowing his brow. “You actually did it? They surrendered?”

  “Ahaha, yeah,” said Tess. “It’s totally fine. There’s no need for a fight now. They’ve been very cooperative.”

  Her acting job made Eliza’s imitation of Harper seem borderline Oscar-worthy. It didn’t help that her slight English accent had also carried over into Bryan’s body.

  “What did you say to them?” asked the man with the ponytail.

  “Oh, you know,” said Tess. “This and that.”

  “Are you alright? Bryan, are they coercing you somehow?”

  “What?” Tess let out a nervous laugh. “What kind of question is that?”

  “Ben…” Mattis set a hand on the shoulder of the man with the ponytail. “I’m sure Bryan will explain everything as soon we finish resolving this.”

  Mattis’s expression was one of open concern, one of an ally amidst enemies. It was a sharp contrast to that of her husband, Ben, whose cold, calculating gaze seemed to see right through their ruse.

  “Search them for weapons,” said Ben.

  “I already disarmed them,” said Tess. “There’s no need. I promise!”

  Lee almost groaned out loud at the wooden nature of her current performance. He got an idea and ran with it, hoping to take some of the heat off her.

  “We’ve only agreed to hear you out!” he shouted, stepping forward and nudging Tess with his shoulder. “Our surrender isn’t unconditional.”

  He stared straight at Tess, blinking furiously, hoping she’d take the hint.

  “Oh!” she said. “I… told you all to be quiet!”

  She gave him a halfhearted slap across the face. Lee fell to his knees, gasping with exaggerated pain to sell the blow. It worked a bit too well, and he heard Tess take a sharp, worried inhale.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” muttered Ben. “No. We do this the hard way, just to make sure. They all need to be turned through our bites, right here, right now.”

  “No!” It was Mattis who spoke, seizing Ben by the arm and squeezing his shoulder. “They’re just teenagers, Ben. This isn’t right.”

  “You already said your piece earlier,” said Ben. “We don’t have a choice.”

  “Ben!” said Mattis. “No.”

  Her voice was the same one that she used so often on unruly students, but it didn’t have the same effect on her husband. He was glancing back and forth between her and “Bryan”, eyes suspicious, as though he’d caught both in the midst of an affair.

  “Do it,” he said, waving a hand to the lycanthropes assembled behind him.

  “No!” cried Mattis.

  She lunged forward, tackling him. Lee saw then that she had something in her hand. A small switchblade. He felt a twinge in his chest as he considered the impossible position she’d been placed in, but it was a fleeting emotion in the midst of the swelling chaos.

  “Raaaaggghhh!” Bryan let out a guttural roar, spittle flying from his mouth. He thrashed and threw himself to the ground, pulling loose from Tess’s control. She fell backward, landing on her butt with a small, startled squeak.

  The rest of the lycanthropes hesitated as they watched two of their leaders fighting each other, and a third on all fours, fighting to catch his breath. Lee waved a hand to the initiates, urging them back toward the beach house.

  “Block their escape!” screamed Bryan. “Keep them on the beach.”

  A few of his followers transformed, and four shaggy wild dogs took off at a sprint, circling around to cut off the path from the way they’d come. Lee drew his kris dagger, which served as a cue for the rest of the initiates to do the same, pulling whatever makeshift weapons they had out of sleeves and pantlegs.

  “Stay close together!” shouted Lee. “Don’t let them split us apart.”

  His heart pounded in his chest, more out of anxiety for his friends, than for himself. He had no idea what the lycanthropes were capable of. Bryan had once been a member of the Order of Chaldea and had magic in addition to his shapeshifting abilities. If there were others like him sprinkled amidst their enemies, they might not even stand a chance.

  A gout of flame erupted from Lee’s right, engulfing two lycanthropes who’d been in the process of turning into animals. He glanced over to see Kristoff smirking, elbows bent in the elemental casting stance, already eyeing a new target to unleash his pyromancy upon.

  Toma was also leading the charge, in a literal sense. Lee watched his friend cross his forearms in the x-shape of the alteration casting stance as several green shimmers of attribute buffing spells danced over his body. Lee had never seen him cast anything like it before, and couldn’t help but bark a laugh as he watched Toma punch a man twice his size with enough force to fling him back twenty feet.

  Eliza was casting defensively, creating copies of the main clump of initiates to distract the wolves and panthers rushing forward to maul them. She was still maintaining her illusion veil of Harper, perhaps for the benefit of morale, if nothing else.

  Most of Lee’s classmates were coordinating basic spells; pink missiles of magical energy for distant enemies, glowing green alteration barriers to cut off the lycanthropes as they came in close. A few used basic elemental spells, blasts of fire and wind, whenever the opportunity arose to get off a clear shot without risking friendly fire.

  They were capable. Lee was in the midst of the fight himself, but seeing them fight and realizing that they could hold their own took a tremendous amount of pressure off his shoulders. He knocked back a tall, narrow-faced woman with one of his force spells. She quite literally flew through the air, shifting forms and becoming a hawk as her feet left the ground.

  An animal shifted in the corner of his vision. He slashed with his kris dagger, catching a muscular leopard with a cut across the flank. The hawk dove at him again, shifting forms in an attempt to surprise him with a drop kick. Lee dodged to the side, rolling across the sand and com
ing back to his feet.

  Ophelia had joined the fray as well, the lamia slithering with remarkable speed and demanding the attention of half a dozen lycanthropes at once. Her opponents seemed torn between fighting her and fleeing, which was no surprise, given her monstrous appearance.

  “You little bastard,” snarled Bryan from behind him.

  Lee spun around in time to perfectly place himself in the way of a punch. Bryan’s fist slammed into his stomach, winding him and forcing him to one knee.

  “It was a cute trick, little brother, however it was you accomplished it, but that’s all it was.” Bryan clasped his wrist, assuming the conjuration casting stance. “I wanted to spare you, Eldon, but it looks like it’s too late for that.”

  “Lee!” shouted Tess. “Look out!”

  Her warning was appreciated, but unnecessary. Lee slammed his forearms into an x-shape, drawing from Tess’s essence and casting a spell shield not a moment too soon. A barrage of conjured arrows that gave off an intense indigo glow slammed into his barrier, which only barely withstood the assault.

  Lee retaliated with his force spell, flinging his palm forward. It knocked Bryan backward, but he still managed to land on his feet. It wasn’t enough. Even with the spell chain Harper had given him, he only had two spells left. It was a fact which made him hesitate rather than seize the advantage. He needed to pick his attacks carefully, given such a low margin of error.

  Bryan surged forward, aided by a spell that enhanced his speed that Lee didn’t recognize. Lee took another punch, this one to the side of the head, but spun with it. He still had his kris dagger in hand and he managed a wild, retaliatory strike. Bryan snarled in pain as the blade slashed a crimson line across his Hawaiian shirt.

  They exchanged a few furious strikes, Lee missing a quick stab and Bryan landing a glancing kick across his shin. Lee started to use his force spell again, but he shifted to cast another spell shield as Bryan unleashed another salvo of conjured arrows.

  He only had one spell left, and he thought furiously as he tried to decide which one it should be. It felt like a game of speed chess, poring over different moves while knowing that he only had seconds left in his turn. One spell fueled by the essence Tess had taken from Ophelia and Harper. What sort of spell did their particular flavor of essence lend itself to?

  Lee cast his conjuration binding spell, exhaling through his teeth as he thrust his palm forward and formed the tethered indigo chains. They didn’t seize Bryan by the wrists and ankles as they normally would have, instead tying him like the wrappings of a mummy. Or rather, the death hug of a hungry boa constrictor.

  Bryan gasped. His body began to flash with light. He was trying to shapeshift, which was clever, as there would be no way for the bindings to keep as tight of a hold of him if he took the form of a wolf. Lee wasn’t interested in giving him the chance.

  He leapt forward, gripping his kris dagger tight and stabbing Bryan in the leg. He’d aimed for the chest, at least at the start. He couldn’t say what it was that stayed his hand and redirected the point of his weapon. He had no love for his fake brother, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to kill the man, even if Bryan would have done so in reverse.

  “It’s… already too late,” said Bryan, the pain evident in his voice. “Look around, Eldon. You might have beaten me, but your friends are about to be overwhelmed.”

  Lee twisted his dagger as he pulled it loose from Bryan’s leg. He couldn’t deny the truth in his words, however. Eliza was already down, pinned by the hawk shifter Lee had been fighting earlier. Kristoff was surrounded, with only the threat of his flamethrower spell staying his imminent defeat. Toma was at the bottom of a pile of wolves and dogs, only avoiding their infectious bites through the use of his defensive alteration spells.

  The rest of the initiates had fared even worse, overall. Several had been bitten. Lee wasn’t sure what, if anything, could be done about that. Four or five had been given no other choice than to surrender. The last remaining group of holdouts fought with their makeshift weapons and no spells.

  Lee heard a hiss and caught sight of Ophelia out of the corner of his eye. A panther and two other large cats were tearing into her with teeth and claws. Lee shouted and took a step toward the lamia, but before he could close the distance, the telltale violet glow of conjuration magic flashed around her body. Just like that, she disappeared, leaving no trace. He’d wondered before what happened when a summoned monster took too much damage.

  Mattis was there, too, still with her husband. The same husband she’d betrayed Primhaven for. The same husband she’d fought against, and apparently grievously wounded. She was crouched at his side, silent tears streaming down her cheeks, with two members of the Melting Pack standing guard over her.

  Lee blinked in surprise as he saw the ethereal blue outline of a ghost rise up from Ben. If it had happened earlier in the fight, Lee might have found a way to take advantage of the rare occurrence. Too late. Far too late.

  “You never had a chance,” laughed Bryan. “Are you happy? Was all this violence worth it?”

  He couldn’t deny it. In the end, they’d simply been outnumbered. All of the skill, strategy, and trickery in the world hadn’t been enough to turn the nearly three-to-one matchup in their favor.

  Two men seized Lee by the shoulders from behind. He struggled, but he could feel how pointless it was. He was out of spells and out of ideas.

  “Make an example of him,” said Bryan. “Slit his throat with that dagger he loves so much.”

  “No!” screamed Tess. “Get away from him!”

  She tried to attack the men holding him, but her strikes did little more than trigger small flinches and shivers. She tried to possess Bryan again, but he wasn’t dazed enough for it to work. Even if it had, Lee doubted it would have accomplished anything. It was right then, on the cusp of giving up, when he heard the rumbling echo of what he’d been waiting for.

  “Hold on,” he said. “Don’t I get to say my last words?”

  Bryan smiled, still on the ground, clutching his bleeding leg. “Why not? I trust you’ll make them entertaining.”

  “Of course,” said Lee. “I’ll even phrase it as a question. Tell me… what kind of tires do you think you’d need to put on a bus to turn it into an all-terrain vehicle?”

  Bryan and the lycanthropes stared at Lee as though he’d just spoken in another language, right up until they started to hear what he did. The heavy purr of a diesel engine lumbering forward at high speed.

  The bus was one that Lee had previously seen in the lower level of Primhaven’s First Tower, just outside the Arcane Way. He’d thought the vehicle a bit garish and unnecessary then. Now, it may as well have been a chariot to heaven.

  It ran down four lycanthropes on its way toward the beach, skidding as it slowed to a stop just before the edge of the sand. The door opened with a squeal, and two familiar faces stepped out with slow, deliberate confidence.

  Harper fell into her elemental casting stance and began flinging fireballs. Gen pulled Savoire Solaire out of its scabbard and slashed left and right, felling a were-cheetah and scaring off half a dozen others with the sword’s mere presence.

  Bryan stood with his mouth agape, a fact which Lee took full advantage of. He slammed his knee forward, jumping in to strike. He still had two men holding his shoulders, but they were too caught off guard to retaliate. Bryan was still rendered low from his injury, and his attack caught him square in the temple, knocking him flat.

  “Hey!” barked one of the men. “Don’t think that this means—”

  Lee was left on the brink of suspense, as Gen’s blade rent the man nearly in two before he could finish his sentence. He spun away from his remaining guard. The lycanthropes were regrouping, werewolves and werecats joining men and women and forming a group where their superior numbers could be put to better use.

  “Start getting your classmates onto the bus,” said Gen.

  Lee nodded and hurried to do just that. Tess ra
n beside him, worried, borderline frantic, but incapable of doing much to help.

  Had the lycanthropes been thinking the situation through more clearly, had Bryan been awake, they might have used the students as hostages. In the end, the opposite seemed to have happened. As Lee joined Harper in helping the injured students onto the bus through the emergency door in back, Gen stood over Bryan’s crumpled form, near Mattis, who was still in an emotional heap across her dead husband.

  “What took you so long?” Lee asked Harper.

  “Gen was still in Romania,” said Harper. “Much has happened since we left. The Order’s resources are taxed elsewhere, and she was the only one who could potentially help us. So I had to travel to find her, along with someone to drive the bus.”

  Lee quirked an eyebrow at that. He realized what she meant as he helped Eliza through the bus’s back door. Nurse Practitioner Suzandra Cartier was already pulling out bandages and medical supplies. Her pink hair was done up in a quick, messy bun. She caught Lee’s eye for an instant amidst the chaos, and flashed one of the prettiest smiles he’d ever seen.

  The fight wasn’t over, but it was close. The lycanthropes were basically fighting Gen alone, and it was made even more clear to Lee why the Order’s Vice Magister had the reputation that she did. She didn’t bother casting spells, or even swinging her sword in full strikes. She fought them like a cavalry officer atop a horse might, simply placing her weapon into position, touching them with it, and letting the momentum of the sabre’s enchantment do the rest.

  “Are you quite finished?” shouted Gen, a note of exhilaration in her voice. “I seek no further quarrel with you tonight. Only one more must atone for their crimes.”

  She walked slowly over to Mattis, wiping a cloth across her blood-covered sabre as she came to stand behind the matronly druid. Mattis didn’t look up, tears still falling, face beyond the normal expression of grief.

  “No!” The shout was loud enough to make Lee clamp his hands over his ears, but he was the only one, other than Tess, who’d heard it. The ghost of Ben, Mattis’s husband and tragic love, stood with arms outstretched in a futile attempt to bar Gen’s way.