Future Mage

by R H Nolan

Then a bloodied club wrapped in barbed wire hurtled through the air and grazed Max’s cheek below his goggles. He thought he felt it scrape his ear too, and he jerked his head aside before continuing his alternating pattern of disintegrating and sending more energy blasts searing toward his remaining assailants.

  They must not have picked up on the fact that closing the distance between him and them made it easier for him to aim. His next blast caught the man who’d thrown the club square in the face. Teeth and blood and bone splattered the sand. More glowing orbs entered Max’s body.

  He had to center his focus on the Chaotik now only a few yards away. One blast caught the man in the belly, but just to be sure, Max sent a second into his chest when the Scavenger doubled over beneath the impact. Then he dropped.

  When Max looked up from the body, the last Chaotik was gone. Then a hand shot out from around the corner of the hut at Max’s back and grabbed his throat.

  The man jerked Max away from the wall, his grip like a steel trap, and snarled. Yellow spit and flecks of someone else’s dried blood flew from his lips as his fingers tightened around Max’s neck. Before Max had the chance to touch the Scavenger at all, he was shoved backward by the throat and fell hard on his back. Wheezing, he scrambled backward on his hands, his eyes fixed on another wickedly spiked club the Chaotik now raised overhead.

  For whatever a cannibal’s assumptions were worth, the man must have thought Max got his powers from the huts’ metal walls. He chuckled, the pieces of metal in his mouth like steel teeth glinting in the sunlight, probably thinking Max powerless.

  When Max disintegrated the sand beside him and fell on his back to raise both yellow, glowing hands, the Chaotik didn’t even have time to register how wrong he’d been. A gaping hole appeared in the center of his chest, and the second energy blast took off his club-wielding arm at the shoulder. They thumped into the sand together, and Max rolled over to push himself back to his feet. Two more spheres of soft light streaked through the air and into his body, but he just gritted his teeth and tried to ignore them.

  He raised a hand to rub at his throat, where he still felt the man’s fingers digging painfully into his flesh. His chest heaved with each breath, like he’d just run back from Neo Angeles without his skates—which, unfortunately, he’d forgotten to use during all this. That would have been helpful.

  The sight of so many bodies strewn across this open ground between the huts made him sick, but it was better than the sight of those Peacewinds he’d saved being cut open as just another Chaotik meal—or Max himself.

  For the first time since his life stats had reset into what his implant had decided to call Level 2, Max gave himself a minute to look at them.

  HEALTH: 882/1100 (80%)

  STRENGTH: 95/105

  STAMINA: 207/230

  AGILITY: 100/112

  ENHANCEMENTS: Level 2

  Energy Reserves: 0/2500

  Disintegration

  Efficiency: 21 units per cc

  Energy Blast

  Intensity: 2500

  Base Range: 25 feet

  Accuracy: 29%

  Lightwave

  Intensity: 150

  Focus: 10

  Electrical Current

  Intensity: 200 volts

  Base Range:1 inch

  Accuracy:100%

  [§々ｳ ]: 350

  Yeah, he pretty much felt exactly like the low numbers said he should. Max swallowed and pressed his fingers gingerly against his temple where the Chaotik club had nearly split it. He felt a sticky wetness there, but then the rising screams from so many throats tore him away from thinking about himself at all.

  He took off through the maze of Peacewinds shacks, activating his skates now because he knew he couldn’t move fast enough on his own. All he had to do was follow the screams.

  After a few seconds of winding his way down narrow alleys and skirting in between the buildings, he caught a glimpse of the other side of the settlement where it opened up into the sprawling desert. People were still running everywhere, and that was where Max needed to be.

  He didn’t see the massive Bloodletter barreling toward him from an intersecting alleyway. The man slammed into Max and knocked him clean off his feet. Max’s shoulder crashed into the hut on the other side of him, followed by his head, and he dropped to the sand. With his ears ringing, he lifted himself up and saw the Bloodletter’s boot swing back before connecting with his ribs.

  HEALTH: 675/1100 (61%)

  Core: 505/550

  Secondary: 0/350

  Nourishment: 85/100

  Sleep: 85/100

  Max’s side flared with pain, and he tried to stand, but the man kicked him again. Then, with a growl, the Bloodletter drew a jagged knife from his belt and raised it for what would have been a deadly strike.

  Max’s stats flashed quickly in his vision, blinking in alarm now because his Health had dropped dangerously low, along with most everything else. His Core Health still remained intact, but he had no desire to have the Bloodletter start chipping away at it.

  He lifted both hands in an attempt to shield himself—and most likely his neck—from the Bloodletter’s dagger. The blade came down and sliced through his hand instead of his windpipe, sticking there between the bones of his fingers and lodged in his flesh.

  HEALTH: 560/1100 (51%)

  Core: 420/500

  Secondary: 0/300

  Max cried out in pain and determination, his own blood dripping onto his face, and grasped the Bloodletter’s knife hand and his wrist just to keep the guy from pushing that dagger tip any closer. When he looked into the man’s face—contorted with rage and a seething desire to finish the job—he realized this was the same Scavenger who’d turned him away from the Heap and tried to jump him for his skates.

  Tightening his grip, he disintegrated the blade through his hand, the handle in his grip, and the Bloodletter’s fist around it.

  The man’s wrist disappeared beneath Max’s touch, and his face visibly paled, even beneath so much black greasepaint.

  Then Max released the crackling energy around his fists, one glowing an orange-yellow beneath his own blood.

  He jerked his wounded hand toward the man’s chest and brought his other fist cracking into the Bloodletter’s jaw. The impact of his released energy blasts forced the man off of him in at least two different pieces, then Max slumped back to the ground.

  He couldn’t feel his left hand anymore after the knife wound. His ribs screamed at him, and he wondered if he’d even be able to stand. How would he be able to help his people?

  Slowly, he turned his head to look at the dead man’s body, following the two floating orbs that lifted from the shattered chest and spiraled toward him. Whatever that was, he didn’t think it could help him with his broken ribs and the huge, bloody mess of his hand.

  When the lights entered his chest, that overwhelming tingle on the verge of pain coursed through his entire body. The blinding white light returned, drowning out everything else. A split-second later, both the pain and the light were gone.

  Either he was dying, he thought, or he was just too weak to feel his own body anymore. Because he really didn’t feel much of anything but the sand beneath his cheek. Then his life stats flashed.

  HEALTH: 1200/1200 (100%)

  Core: 600/600

  Secondary: 400/400

  Nourishment: 100/100

  Sleep: 100/100

  STRENGTH: 110/110

  STAMINA: 240/240

  AGILITY: 114/114

  ENHANCEMENTS: Level 3

  Energy Reserves: 0/3000

  Disintegration

  Efficiency: 22 units per cc

  Energy Blast

  Intensity: 3000

  Base Range: 40 feet

  Accuracy: 22%

  Rapidfire

  Intensity: 5 rounds of 600

  Lightwave

  Intensity: 300

  Focus: 20

  Electrical Current

  Intensity:
300 volts

  Base Range: 2 feet

  Accuracy: 50%

  [§々ｳ ]: 0

  Level 3 and a new ability were the last things he’d expected.

  Even less expected was that he was entirely healed.

  Max raised his injured hand just enough above the sand to peer at it. It was still covered in blood, but it definitely wasn’t injured anymore. He gave his fingers an experimental flex and realized the new Level had healed him as completely as Zryk’s energy chamber. Slowly, he pushed himself up to his knees and leaned sideways to test his ribs. They felt great.

  “Max!”

  The scream shattered his momentary sense of ebullience, and he leapt to his feet. Even over the other voices shouting and the sounds of the Scavenger raid from every part of the settlement, there was no mistaking his mother’s voice.

  10

  Max was just about to activate his skates when a muffled whimper made him pause.

  A child was crying, and then came a low, rumbling voice coming from inside the hut in front of him.

  “Now you just sit there and keep real quiet,” the man said. “Maybe you’ll live long enough to help me find your mama. I could use a few extra mutts for all the work we got at the Heap.”

  Max knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was a Bloodletter inside that hut, and he had to be holding a child inside it, waiting for the right moment to force the mother into enslaving both herself and the kid—just to keep them alive. No telling what his price would be to let them live.

  He needed to go help his mother, but he couldn’t stand by and let something happen to an innocent. Not like this.

  Fueled by the rage the Bloodletters’ brutality always brought on, Max stormed toward the hut and slammed his hands against the outer wall with a tinny echo. The entire ramshackle building shuddered and shot up a puff of sandy dust.

  “What the—hey!”

  A young girl maybe Kier’s age burst out of the hut. She screamed and pumped her legs so fast that she disappeared behind the other shacks in two seconds.

  Max disintegrated a portion of the metal wall and felt the energy absorbing into his hands with a far greater strength than it ever had before. The backs of his hands sparked and crackled, and the yellow light glowed brighter and far more intense. He was thinking about his new ability, Electrical Current, when the Bloodletter emerged from the hut and tackled Max.

  Thin streaks of yellow, electric energy shot from his fingertips into the Bloodletter’s body. The man screamed as the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Then it was over.

  Max rolled the dead Bloodletter off him and stared in disgust at the charred, smoking body. He was grateful the girl had had enough courage and awareness to run when she had the chance. The Bloodletter’s body released its two glowing spheres of the energy Max still didn’t understand, and he clenched his jaw as he absorbed them.

  He was pretty sure now he could end this raid—as long as he stayed alive long enough. The leveling up seemed to help with that.

  Max activated his skates and took off through the last few rows of huts toward the larger commotion. He broke through the edge of the shanty town and out into the open desert, where most of the Peacewinds were still scattering like wild animals in front of the Bloodletters and Chaotix chasing them down.

  Max pressed his hands against the last hut wall behind him, disintegrated some of it, and shouted, “Get the hell out of here!”

  The yellow energy coursing over his palms burst into multiple white strobes of his Lightwave, which was a lot brighter, lasted a few seconds longer, and was a lot more impressive. He hadn’t expected everyone out here to stop—including the Peacewinds—but they all turned to face him and ducked or blinked against the rapid flashes.

  When it died out, Max disintegrated more of the wall and stepped slowly toward the raiders with both crackling fists raised in warning. “NOW!”

  He didn’t know if he could take them all at once, but he definitely didn’t expect the Chaotix chief to be the first coward among them. Invok shoved his closest tribesman aside in his effort to flee first.

  After that, it only took a few more seconds for the other Chaotix to turn on their heels and follow their madman of an overlord.

  The Bloodletters apparently found this both confusing and alarming. Wherever they stood, each of them took a step away from Max, as if they knew what he could do. He hoped their imaginations brought them something a lot more terrifying than the truth, but so far, his act seemed pretty convincing.

  A woman’s sob rang out in the stunned silence, and Max turned to see the Bloodletter Chief Oryk holding a Peacewind woman hostage, his thick arm wrapped around her throat. He jerked her against him, pressing the knife in his other hand against her ribs, and she only cried out again. But the man’s wide eyes never left Max’s face.

  Max stepped toward him and lowered his left hand to take aim with his right. Now that half the raiders were gone, he really didn’t feel like killing anyone else. So he decided to see how his new power might work.

  His first attempt with the Rapidfire energy blast did exactly what he hoped it would. Much smaller rounds of yellow energy burst from his hand in quick succession, spattering the sand in wave after wave just in front of Oryk’s feet. He wasn’t trying to hit anyone, so he was perfectly fine with merely kicking up some dirt from the ground.

  Although it was a lot of dirt.

  “Let her go!” Max shouted as he dropped to the ground and disintegrated more sand.

  Oryk’s hands slid from around the woman’s body, and she staggered forward to run behind Max, along with the rest of the Peacewinds who had barely managed to avoid death.

  Max headed toward Oryk again, his left fist lifted now.

  Oryk didn’t move, even when Max stopped just ten feet away. From this distance he knew he could take the Bloodletter’s head off, no question about it. But he didn’t want to murder him in cold blood.

  “You’re done,” Max said, speaking slowly and clearly and hoping he sounded menacing enough. “I don’t want to see you anywhere near this settlement. And the kidnappings stop right now.”

  The man blinked a few times, then he scowled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, sand mouse.”

  “You’re working with the Chaotix. They’ve been taking Peacewinds for months just to murder them and loot the corpses. Tell them to stop. If it keeps happening, I swear I’ll come for you with this.” Max shook his glowing fist at the chief.

  For a second, Oryk stared at the crackling energy. Then he met Max’s gaze.

  “That would be a waste of whatever you call that,” Oryk said, nodding at Max’s fist. “And unless they’re lying to me—and there’s no reason they should, because I don’t give a damn about you Peacewinds—today was the first time the Chaotix tried to snatch anybody out of your tribe.”

  Trying to keep his own confusion from showing, Max just glared at the chief and tried to figure out what the man’s words meant. It sounded a lot like the Bloodletters had nothing to do with the missing Peacewinds, and maybe the same thing went for the Chaotix. The man might be lying… but he sounded like he wasn’t.

  “Max!” a woman’s voice called out.

  It was his mom again, shouting from behind him and sounding more surprised than afraid.

  Max glanced back to see her moving through the gathered Peacewinds. As he did, muffled stomps rose from where Oryk had stood.

  Looking back quickly to make sure he wasn’t being attacked, Max watched the Bloodletter chief taking off across the sand, fleeing while he still had the opportunity.

  The last few of his men sped off after him, leaving their intended victims behind. Max had wanted to question Oryk even more, but scaring off the rest of the raiders was more than he could have hoped to do.

  Then he saw Kier hobbling along behind their mom, his crutch under his arm and both robotic legs moving jerkily across the sand. Max met his brother’s gaze and offered a weak smile.

 
It was actually pretty amazing that they’d only lost ten Peacewinds of a few hundred during the raid. Still, Max wished they hadn’t lost anyone. At least he’d taken out just as many Chaotix and Bloodletters along the way.

  The Peacewinds came together to offer what little they could in a burial and ceremony for the victims. Despite the loss, the general mood filling the settlement wasn’t anything like he’d expected. Everyone smiled at him, a few came to slap him on the back and offer their thanks in person, and there was more relief, awe, and gratitude than mourning.

  Even Chief Havix came to have a word with Max just before the sun sank completely over the western horizon.

  “However you did it, Max,” he said, laying a huge hand on Max’s shoulder, “we owe you an incredible debt. You know how I feel about violence.”

  Max had to look away from the chief at those words, understanding full well that even fighting in self-defense and the defense of the entire settlement went against everything Havix—and those who followed him—believed. He hung his head.

  “But I have to say I wouldn’t be feeling anything right now if it weren’t for you,” the chief added. “It seems the Peacewinds now have a defender. So thank you.”

  That had taken him completely by surprise, and all he could do was nod before Havix left him to join the others.

  The Peacewinds had apparently found this the perfect time to celebrate their unlikely survival. For what little they all had, the bonfire just outside the gathering of huts was massive, and the tinny sound of metal drumbeats filled the air. The tribe danced and sang around the fire, laughing and talking with each other. The only thing needed to make it a real celebration was enough food for everyone, which would have been even more difficult than scaring off the raiders. But they made the most of what they had, and Max could only handle the first hour of it.

  Eventually, he excused himself, told Kier and their mom that he was turning in, and went back to their hut just a few rows down from the fire. Neither one of them tried to get him to stay, which he appreciated. Somehow, it still felt wrong to celebrate anything when he’d had to kill so many Bloodletters and Chaotix just to drive off the rest of them. Yes, he’d saved the Peacewinds—for now. But he almost hadn’t, and he never could have if he hadn’t gone to Zryk and the energy chamber in the Qirinian ship.