Metal Mage 11

by Eric Vall

  I quickly followed the Baroness while several of the mages began debating whether I would abandon the battle over the mysterious woman, and even though a surprising number of them seemed to respect the inclination, I shook my head to their thumbs-ups as I passed.

  Nulena was fuming when I caught up and grabbed her elbow, and I half-expected a slap to the face, but she just ground her jaw and swiped the tears from her eyes.

  “Look, I know this is hard for you,” I murmured as I held her against me, “but this is what I do. You know that, and I think there’s a part of you that appreciates it, too.”

  “Fine!” the Baroness growled. “It’s admirable, and I hate that I like it! But Mason, you’re infinitely superior to these imbeciles, and their lives aren’t worth it. You’re smart enough to see that, so I don’t understand why you go ahead and do it anyways. You could come home and make love to me instead. Please? It’s so much better when we’re naked and not arguing over the lives of peasants. Just come home, and we’ll all strip for you and do anything you like, please?”

  I couldn’t help grinning over her rant, but I did my best to respond gently while she clung desperately to my shirt.

  “I can’t do that,” I admitted. “This is too important. Illaria relies on the mages for protection at times like this, and I’m leading them. I wouldn’t abandon that for anything.”

  “Then I have nothing to say to you,” Nulena scoffed, and she yanked herself out of my hold as she crossed her arms.

  “That’s alright, too,” I sighed. “We don’t have to see eye to eye on everything.”

  I turned to leave, but as a smirk twitched at the corner of my lips, I couldn’t resist the opportunity, so I ended up backtracking.

  “Oh, hey, that reminds me,” I muttered. Then I pulled the Baroness close and brought my lips to her ear, and as she melted against me, I murmured, “I love you, Nulena.”

  I could feel the Baroness’ body go rigid the moment the words left my mouth, and her breath caught like she was actually choking on shock. Her entire face and chest were shimmering when I looked at her, and she stubbornly blinked away her tears in a state of furious confusion.

  So, I chuckled as I tipped her chin up to me, and I left a light kiss on her ebony lips since she was too flustered to do much of anything.

  “I’ll be right back,” I promised her, and then I turned to jog back to the ridge where Kurna and my women were waiting for me.

  “Everything sorted out?” the brawny mage asked me with a grin.

  I cleared my throat. “How much of that did you all hear?”

  “None of it,” Kurna lied. “Although, it’s sweet this new woman of yours thinks so little of us. She’s charming.”

  “Hey, she is charming,” Deya informed the man hotly, and she came within an inch of him with a firm scowl on her face. “So what if she’s a murderer and doesn’t understand the value of others’ lives? She likes Mason, and Mason likes her, so that’s all that matters! You would be lucky to gain the affection of a woman as scary as her, and I bet you wouldn’t even know what to do with yourself if you did. You would be confused and turned on all at once, and--”

  “Okay, Deya,” Cayla muttered under her breath. “That’s enough of that, I think.”

  Deya tipped her nose up in defiance as she let Cayla tug her away from the general, and a few mages snorted at the look the Defenders were sending me.

  I just grinned and adjusted my gun belt, though, and I nodded to Kurna without a scrap of remorse.

  “We should move out.”

  “Yes, sir,” the brawny mage chuckled, and Urn motioned for the troops to mount up as I led my women back to the Mustang.

  “You good?” I asked Deya.

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that.” Deya blushed. “I don’t know what came over me. I just love Nulena, and all at once, I felt very defensive.”

  “Uh-huh,” I chuckled as I unsealed the doors for the women. “Maybe you should avoid mentioning the murder thing, though.”

  “Yes, Mason,” the beautiful elf replied. “By the way, I am so happy you told Nulena how you feel just now. I think it will be good for her.”

  Shoshanne hid her smile as she looked out the passenger window, but within a few seconds, her giggles escaped, and I nodded as the others began giggling, too. Then Cayla slid across the backseat to loop her arm in Deya’s, and the princess tucked a kiss in the elf’s pink hair while I watched the horses ahead of us pound their way down the hillside and toward the giants.

  “Are you ladies ready, or do you need a minute?” I asked with a smirk.

  “No, we’re ready,” Cayla laughed. “Let’s do this.”

  “Great,” I said as Bobbie gave a low growl of approval. “Deya, you brought those scales, right?”

  “I did,” the beautiful elf said with a nod. “Which would you like me to use?”

  I grinned in the rearview mirror. “Surprise me.”

  Chapter 18

  The Defenders reined in their mounts about four hundred yards from the three titans, but the heat was already blistering as the horses nickered anxiously and tried to back away. From this close, the giants looked taller than any skyscraper I’d seen in Chicago, and the masses of flames that billowed at their backs thrummed so loudly, I could feel it deep in my gut like a heavy bass. Their fire was redder than any I’d seen in this realm, and the flames lapped at the air in sheets as thick black smoke funneled into the sky. The ground trembled from the weight of the giants lumbering toward the capital, and with every step, the strange red flames dripped from their limbs to burn their way across the hills.

  In the distance to the far west, I could see Aurora and Kurna’s troops galloping into the fiery fray, and their own flames began searing the fields into a raging inferno that made my adrenaline spike just to watch.

  “Let’s hope this works,” I muttered as Shoshanne and I climbed out of the Mustang, and Cayla took my place in the driver’s seat.

  “Once the flames are extinguished, get out there and start firing,” I told the princess, “but if anything goes wrong with Deya, get her to Shoshanne as fast as you can.”

  “I will,” Cayla said with a curt nod.

  I paused to give the Mustang the same instructions in case Cayla was preoccupied, and once Bobbie understood how important it was that she kept Deya out of harm’s way, she let out a low growl as I patted her front fender.

  The Defenders were spreading the troops out when Shoshanne and I came to join them, and I was already having trouble filling my lungs from how stifling the heat and smoke were. My healing rune was louder than usual, too, but I pushed this notion to the back of my mind as Urn came over with sweat beading on his shaved head.

  “This distance isn’t going to work for a lot of these mages,” the Terra Defender informed me. “The closer we are, the better our chances will be of overpowering them.”

  “We’ll have to do what we can until it’s safe to get closer,” I replied. “As soon as the heat dies down, keep the mages moving ahead, and try to intercept the titans’ path if you can.”

  Urn nodded before he left to lead his troop, and I rolled up my sleeves and undid the top buttons on my shirt as the heat became more oppressive.

  “Shoshanne, find Defender Kin,” I ordered. “I want you two working together to lead the Aer Mages, and with the amount of experience she has, the two of you should be able to get the temperature dropping pretty quickly.”

  “Yes, Mason,” the healer said at once, and she hurried off to find the Aer Mage Kurna had brought into Falmount months ago to help us out.

  Within a couple minutes, I could hear the two women coordinating a series of circuits with the mages, and when I caught sight of Kin mounted on a dappled grey stallion, I sent her a nod.

  “Let’s go!” the Aer Mage hollered above the thrumming of the flames, and I could tell by the coarseness of her tone that she had years of experience in battle.

  Her mages raised their palms at her command as the a
ir surged with energy, and the heat began to ease up within seconds. I could hear Shoshanne guiding the others through their work while the rest of us waited with our tensions mounting, and as soon as the heat was manageable, the troops pressed forward to take their positions.

  Then the Flumen Mages joined in a circuit, and on their leader’s command, the ground began to shake from something other than the giants.

  “Get ready to shield them!” I ordered the Terra Mages while I kept my eyes glued on the hellish skulls of the titans.

  Haragh and Pindor quickly came forward with their troops, and I knelt a split second before dozens of geysers broke through the surface of the ground. They sprayed up to a hundred feet around the titans as steam began to plume from the ashen bodies, but I could see the water drying up in the air before it reached the inferno raging on the ground.

  Then the Aer Mages increased their powers as the sudden onslaught infuriated the giants.

  The titans’ ear-splitting shrieks brought more flames spewing from their mouths, and all at once, they turned to face our army.

  “Shhhhit,” I cursed, and the titans’ eyes burned a blinding red as one of them raised a fiery whip. “Shield!”

  The Terra Mages connected in a circuit to raise a thirty-foot wall at my command, and it spanned the entire length of our troops within seconds. Then the crack of the fiery whip split the air, and it sliced straight through our wall like butter. The heat it brought with it made my eyes burn as my skin neared the point of blistering, but I hardly had time to register this because the strange red flames were already igniting our wall. The Terra Mages let the shield collapse as the other mages scattered to escape the inferno, but I could feel the temperature dropping once more thanks to the Aer Mages.

  Then the giant raised its whip again, and this time, it lashed out at a whole troop of my mages before we could retaliate. My gut dropped as their screams rent the air, and that’s when we all collectively lost our shit.

  The Defenders roared their orders while the Aer Mages doubled down, and the troops forged straight ahead as their battle cries rose up in a fury. Geysers broke the ground open all over the place as the titans stumbled and began to smoke even more, and Pindor’s horse came galloping straight for me while the rest of the mages pounded past.

  I’d never seen the kid look so fixated as he did in that moment, and for a second, he looked ten years older as sweat poured down his sooty face. Then I caught his outstretched arm to vault myself onto the back of his saddle, and we rode like hell into the fray as circuits connected all around us.

  The acrid stench of smoke grated in my lungs while I squinted through the sweat stinging my eyes, and I could sense the mages around me straining to keep their magic directed at the titans despite the heat. Pindor and I formed a ring of perilous spikes to block the giants in, and when Haragh’s crew lifted whole slabs of stone, they sent the rocks flying through the air to collide with the giants’ demonic faces.

  Mud and soot sloshed under the horse’s hooves as more red flames spewed from the titans’ mouths, and the smell of sulfur made me gag as the geysers mixed with the ash of the fields.

  “Flumen Mages, draw from the Asris River!” I hollered as loud as I could. “We’ve gotta end this, let’s make it rain!”

  Clouds began to gather in the smoky sky while the temperature continued to plummet, and just as the first drops began to fall, I heard a deafening roar overhead. Then a green dragon broke through the clouds, and I grabbed the reins from Pindor to steer us away from the titans.

  “What are you doing?” the kid yelped.

  “Get us out of range, I need to catch that dragon!” I shouted.

  “You what?” Pindor screamed, and when he saw the green dragon swooping right at us, he nearly jumped off the horse.

  I locked my hand on his shoulder to keep him in place, though, and as his horse began to gallop in wild zigzags through the flames and mud, I struggled to brace my boots on the back of the saddle.

  I was barely balanced in a crouch when Deya dove, and Pindor’s next scream was the only thing I heard as I jumped into the air. I caught the crook of the dragon’s wing just before I could drop into the flames, and she rolled through the air to shake me off and send me flying to her shoulder instead. I could see Pindor scrambling to get control of his horse while I clambered up onto Deya’s back, and once I was mounted, I sent the kid a broad grin and a salute to show my thanks.

  He definitely looked sixteen again as he gaped up at me, but then Deya brought us around to coast over the fields, and I turned my attention to the west. I could see Kurna and Aurora’s troops in the distance from up here, and my heart leapt as I realized their tactics were working. Amber flames overran the red at the forefront of their line of mages, and behind them, the fields smoldered with ash where the fires had already been doused.

  “Find Shoshanne!” I bellowed to Deya as rain pelted my face, and I squinted hard while I scanned the mayhem below.

  Beneath the smoke and steam, I could see the mages galloping in every direction, and the sheer chaos of it all made my adrenaline spike. They were coming dangerously close to the titans while they tore the ground apart, flooded the plains, and pulled out every stop, and their horses leapt over trenches and slid through the muddy, ashen fields. The generals barked out orders until they were hoarse to try and coordinate the most effective attack we could manage, but as the circumstances became more hectic, the titans shrieked and spewed more flames at the troops below.

  Then one jet of red came within yards of swallowing up a crew of Aer Mages led by Shoshanne.

  “There!” I hollered as I kicked Deya’s right side, and she veered off to fly low as a plume of smoke engulfed us.

  I was hacking and rubbing my burning eyes when we came out the other side, but we were only a few yards from Shoshanne now, and I raised my voice above the howling wind.

  “Freeze them out!” I bellowed. “We need it colder fast!”

  Shoshanne immediately relayed the orders to her crew as Defender Kin picked up the command, too, and within seconds, the rain became frigid as it pelted my skin.

  “Don’t ease up!” I called out to the Flumen Mages below. “Double down, we’ve almost got them!”

  The rains picked up as thunder rumbled through the clouds above us, and I could feel the winds shifting while the Aer Mages worked to direct everything right at the three giants.

  Their massive frames were more smoke than flames now, but the dense black in the air only made it more difficult for the mages to navigate. They shrieked as their horses threw them and bolted for the foothills, and I could see their comrades trying to pull them from the muddy trenches as more flames spewed out.

  “Shit,” I growled as I pulled out my pistol, and I took aim at one of the titans even though he was still radiating an incredible amount of heat.

  Then I sparked my metal magic and pulled the trigger, and I kept my powers locked on the bullet while I tried to gauge how far it got. The damn thing melted within twenty yards of the titan, though, and I ground my jaw as the frigid rain cut at my face and made my head ache with cold.

  “We’re on decoy duty for now,” I yelled to Deya. “Do whatever you can to piss those titans off, we can’t let them focus on the mages.”

  Deya’s roar vibrated through every inch of me as she swooped back around, and she let out a jet of flames while she coursed straight over a titan’s skull. I coughed and gasped as smoke charred my throat, but the maneuver worked to draw the attention of two titans toward us instead of my army.

  Then red flames shot at us from both sides, and Deya rolled to escape the blaze. I clung to her back with all of my strength as a stream of curses flew from my mouth, and the dragon plummeted toward the ground before she narrowly avoided a troop of Terra Mages.

  “Too close!” I hollered as I clung to Deya’s spines, but she was already gaining altitude to come at the titans again.

  This time, I was ready for the smoky onslaught, but the fl
aming red eyes of a giant locked onto me as we flew at them, and fear shot through me as I registered something familiar in the hollow gaze.

  It was more calculating than the other two, and I was bug-eyed and numb when Deya swooped over the titans, who had their fangs already parted.

  My first instinct was to take aim, but I knew they were still too hot for my bullets to reach them, and after seeing the look on the titan’s face, I didn’t want to betray the issue.

  So, I let the flames burst over us as Deya rolled and shielded me with her wings, and as we jetted toward the ground once more, I didn’t even register the plummeting of my organs or the howling wind in my ears.

  I just tightened my grip and tried to process what had just happened, and when we coasted out over a flaming field, I looked back to see the red eyes still following me.

  “Godsdamnit,” I growled. “That was him.”

  Deya let out a screech in confusion, and I nudged her with my boot.

  “Get us back to that fucker whose tracking us,” I ordered above the pounding of the rain against her scales. “The Master’s watching us through that titan, I can tell by his eyes. I’ve seen it before.”

  Deya slowed the beat of her wings like she didn’t want to obey the order, but I patted her shoulder as I kept my sights on the titan.

  “Do it!” I shouted. “If he wants to watch me work, I’ll give him a show he’ll never forget.”

  Deya reluctantly picked up speed as she soared straight at the giants, but before we made it there, the titan suddenly looked away, and my heart stopped as I saw his fangs part.

  Then a torrent of flames spewed out from his mouth, and Deya screeched in fury as a whole slew of mages were engulfed in red.

  “You son of a bitch,” I snarled, and as my healing rune roared in my ears, I let it take over and jumped from Deya’s back.

  My heart pounded heavy in my ears as screams rose up from below, and the freezing air rushed over me while I dropped into the fiery mayhem. My vision was red, and my jaw ached from how furiously I had it locked, and when I sparked my Terra powers and hit the ground, I channeled the added momentum of my fall.