Anger of the Angels

by Thomas Duder

  Grunting, finding her defenses tested to their utmost, Mallory nevertheless kept up as best as possible, realizing he had left only a few cuts where her armors couldn’t protect, his own enchanted knives cutting through her magical defenses as if they weren’t there. Recognizing the enchantments themselves and, immediately, who Artificed them, she kept up as best as she could, her magical powers focused on reinforcing her own healing factor and defenses wherever they were slashed apart.

  Giving her a moment to drop to the ground, Andy’s laughter rang out as he commented, “Hey, you’re pretty good! I’m glad this ain’t a deathmatch - I dig your so-called style. You live up to your reputation, lady. One question though - why don’t you try some fire magic or something flashy, try to dispel my Shadow World?”

  Mallory growled, “I recognize this spell.”

  “Spell?”

  Mallory nodded, “Indeed. Frank Todd himself once cast this upon me, though his was a bit different.”

  “I’d say,” Andrew chuckled good-naturedly, “Especially since his is actually based on magic. This ain’t.”

  Mallory arched an eyebrow at that, “Explain, if you will.”

  Melting out of the shadows, tendrils of darkness clinging to his edges, Andrew knelt out of her blade’s expansive range and nodded, locking eyes with her as he did so, “Easy. I ain’t using magic, and it’s not really just magic in origin. It’s just a weird part of me.”

  Mallory blinked, “That’s all? Seriously?”

  Andrew got up to his feet and dusted his apron off, shrugging, “That’s it. This is more like ki energy than anything. Not too many people really live this long against it since so few people know about it…and, well, we’re BOTH acquaintances of the Bounty Hunter board, if anything. Just ‘cuz I haven’t taken on missions in a while I’ve slipped down to Top 20, but eh - I know you won’t talk a lot. I can sense that kinda thing about people, and it’s like I said earlier, I dig your style.”

  Mallory frowned at that but nodded, accepting it, “Alright, so you now have me as a hostage to your honor. Why HAVEN’T you killed me, anyway?”

  Andrew smiled, “Because. I want that extra ten grand.”

  Mallory’s eyes widened as Andrew laughed, fading back into the shadows. Since step one he had never meant to fight to kill, but to simply hold here there for the full fifteen minutes! Despite how obvious it was, she had lost sight of that in her desire to fight.

  Well then.

  She smiled, thinking to herself, “Time to make him regret that decision.”

  Outside the mini-mart, Jimmy brushed his shoulders off and held his arms out wide, grinning amiably at the wary hunter.

  Hissing at the obvious trap, Devin drew a rapier from his hip-sheath and ran a finger against the flat of the blade, the weapon beginning to glow as he imbued it with magical power, his mouth moving as he murmured the spell aloud.

  “Y’know, I find it funny,” Jimmy noted, letting his hands drop to his sides as he watched the hunter, never moving from his position, “I’ve gotten so used to magic users of such intense ability that I honestly forgot you types usually need to say stuff or use hand gestures.”

  Jimmy cackled and suddenly doubled over, causing the hunter to back up in a startled manner only to realize the Driver was mocking him, moving his hands about in exaggerated mystical movements, clasping his hands and entwining his thick, yet dexterous, fingers in various formations before holding his palms out towards the hunter, shaking his head from side to side and yelling out, “MASERATI RAVIOLI RAVIOLI BANANNA FANNA FO FANNA NO BLEACH JUTSU!”

  “Wh-what?!” Devin asked, completely confused by Jimmy’s tomfoolery.

  “HA HA, GOT YOUR NOSE!” Jimmy yelled. In blink of an eye Jimmy had crossed the notable distance between the two, intent on surprising the spellsword with his speed only to find himself surprised and impressed. Even as he reared back a fist behind him, reaching out to the small hunter with his free hand, Devin had instinctively launched his own counter attack, stepping into Jimmy’s opened guard and launching a close-range elbow strike for his solar plexus, rapier aimed for his foot.

  Hurtling himself to the side, Jimmy evaded both strikes and instead bounced from one foot to the other, chuckling as Devin caught himself and whirled to face him, preparing for another attack. Breaking the tension suddenly, Jimmy dusted off his expensive shoes and sighed, “I really REALLY don’t want to lose these puppies. Do you know how hard it is to fight in dress shoes, let alone how much it’ll cost when you fuck ‘em up?”

  Devin snarled, noting how his connection to his wife suddenly became severed. Trusting in her skill and fighting capability, he instead focused on his own battle as he hefted his rapier in a salute, “Tell me. How did you block my attack? How DID you make that crater, earlier?

  You move too fast for someone to make an indentation that big in the ground. While I hit you with a pretty heavy spell, it should not have done that.”

  Jimmy cackled with laughter, his beefy shoulders shaking visibly as he thoroughly enjoyed the bounty hunter’s frustrations, “Oh, OH! Oh man, I should be recording this for valuable fap material later on.

  C’mon, friendo,” the smartly-dressed businessman held his arms out wide once more, “You think I’m trying to trap you with this? I’m honestly inviting you to attack me from any angle, any quarter, however you wish.

  I’ve got your number, man. Hit me with your strongest and I’ll show you why I’d win this shindig even if I wasn’t intent on just keeping you held up.”

  Devin grunted, “Fine. Do not blame me after I’ve obliterated you from existence, ‘friendo.’”

  With that Devin lazily flipped the rapier through the air. Watching it as it arced overhead, flipping end over end, Jimmy frowned in confusion as it landed point-first in the street behind him.

  ”Well, that’s…interesting, but-”

  Stunned into silence, Jimmy’s eyes tore open wide as he smiled savagely at the spectacle that suddenly erupted behind him. Whirling to face Devin, Jimmy witnessed how a massive column of lightning tore through the cloudy sky up above - in their entire exchange, Jimmy had noticed tendrils of magical energy whirling from Devin, but it was only now that he realized that Devin had been cleverly coddling the weather in a prescribed area, just enough to increase the cloud cover overhead.

  Streams of lightning energy coursed through the spellsword as he drew himself to one knee, chanting swiftly:

  ”And that which stands before me

  Oh slayer slain, hunter hunted,

  Gravest and surest death swiftly strike

  Suffer my wrath, MEGA ARC!”

  Within one moment and the next Jimmy’s gaze became clouded as thunderous streamers of lightning surged from Devin to his embedded rapier and back again, tearing through the businessman over and over again, sending him bouncing this way and that from the magical attacks.

  Roaring, Devin rushed forward, causing the pressure and intensity of his attack to increase as he drew close to his target, slamming both palms into Jimmy’s broad chest to send him flying out of the circuit, smashing the rest of the powerful spell through him and send him spiraling him through the air. Without watching him land and ignoring the particles that flew through the air, the reek of ozone heavy in his nostrils, Devin withdrew his blade and sniffed the air again. Something was off, very…strange.

  Ozone and a smell he had only heard about, smelled before a long time ago.

  Ozone and jade.

  Devin did not startle, nor did he let his surprise show as Jimmy’s voice cut through the din of tinnitus that still rang in his elfin ears, “That’s a nice spell, friend. It’d be stronger if you applied Kind Harmonics to it, named it after a song or a band or something…but I guess this is the highest you can achieve on your own.”

  Devin chanted a calming mantra over and over again as he beheld a massive, mighty hand, jade-green flesh noticeable through the dust, wave through the dust clouds as the jade golem strode up to him. Several
times Jimmy’s size, the tatters of his clothes still clinging to himself here and there, his belt miraculously having survived the transformation, the golem-gene cracked his massive knuckles and sighed. Taller than a man and highly angular, as if cut from a single massive jade stone, the golem that was James Ong considered the small spellsword before continuing, “I think I might have to kill you now. In the very least, you’ll have to register with the Amerifed government now that you know my secret.”

  Devin, despite his outward calm, stuttered, “S-secret?”

  “Yeah, why do you think we have codenames?” Jimmy grunted, hiking a thumb towards the strangely silent mini-mart, “Why do you think we’re in a well-known Witness Protection Agency program through the Spook Squad? Golems aren’t rare, but I’m the only known successfully created Jade Golem in this entire planet. Some high muck-a-muck in Andy’s family made me as a love token to her husband, which is probably why I’m so romantically inclined and smooth. I mean, dig my pecs, man!”

  Taking up a bodybuilder’s pose, drawing his wrists together against one another while flexing his massive body, Jimmy continued with a chuckle, “Don’t hate me ‘cuz you ain’t me. I’m just built to be built, friend. Also, in five more minutes you’ll owe me ten grand…in case you forgot.”

  Devin roared, rivulets of electricity streaming about his form as his rage began to make itself manifest.

  James, watching the spellsword spindle mana from a nearby ley line, chuckled as he the elf’s power began to spike, “Hey, hey! You okay, friend? You look a little mad!”

  Screaming in utter rage, Devin reached a hand up towards the heavens. A similar scream of rage occurred from the mini-mart and, in a wave of shadows and ice-blue magical energy, Mallory erupted up towards the sky.

  “Oh SHIT!” Running towards the mini-mart at the sudden shift in seriousness, Jimmy grunted as Mallory hit him at high speed with an empowered rush with the flat side of her massive claymore. Bouncing the golem off of the ground, Mallory skidded to a halt and held her hands out, cupping them and giving Devin a boost as the enraged bounty hunter flashed from one spot to the other, appearing before her within an instant.

  Hurtling her husband towards the stunned golem, Mallory smashed the claymore point-first into the ground and began to chant to herself, her hands making mystical formations before her as a spell-circle erupted about her feet.

  Rising still in the air, Devin roared as he pounded strike after strike into the jade golem. Though jade was a material that was a natural inhibitor to magical forces, the Daggereds had ensured there was enough space between the golem and Mallory for her to start their combined magical attack.

  Punches and kicks bounced ineffectively against the golem’s stone hide before Devin leaped off of Jimmy’s carved pecs, hurling himself higher as the golem free-floated for a moment.

  Within one second and the next, Mallory and Devin both finished the mystical incantations and hand gestures, their synchronized voices bridging the distance between the two.

  “And woe betide our enemies

  Heaven and Hell, come undone,

  Caught in twisted rapture twixt

  Now die, fall, UNDER MY GUN!”

  A flash of lightning heralded Devin’s smooth landing as he retrieved his rapier, noting Mallory’s satisfied smile as she noted the massive column of magical energy that smashed from the stratosphere to the ground, pummeling the jade golem with one of their greatest Dualspell combined techniques. Though normal magical spells harbored intense power, when cast at the same time between two magic-users completely synchronized, the effects became exponential, growing with each synchronized magic-user performing at the same time.

  Chuckling at their victory, Devin turned to witness the column of strange, rainbow color beginning to dim and die down, the energy of their Dualspelled combination beginning to diminish. Opening up his mouth to speak, Devin, instead squeaked.

  Mallory blinked at the strange sound from her husband, “That…is a bit peculiar. Are you okay?”

  Devin squeaked again before dropping to his knees, his hands twitching as, from below him, Andy began to rise out of his shadow, his crotch gripped in one hard, horn-like hand.

  Mallory about to leap back, faltered slightly as her vision blurred. Jimmy’s laughter rang out from the new crater left behind by the Under My Gun dualspell. Andy continued to rise out of Devin’s shadow, placing a kitchen knife to the elf’s throat as Mallory fell to her knees, “It’s about freakin’ time. You must have the constitution of a freakin’ ox, lady, to withstand my poison like that. A pretty ox, but still!”

  “Poison?!” Mallory slurred, falling to hands and knees as she focused on the ground, focusing entirely on seeking out all impurities within her body.

  “Yeah, poison. You’re not only a real warrior type, but your magic is internal, whereas pretty-boy here is all about flashy external attacks. I knew you wouldn’t even consider that someone like me, one of the Cool Drive owners, would even balk to using such dirty” Devin squeaked harder as Andy fairly lifted him up by his clutched junk, “underHANDED tactics.”

  Jimmy rose from the crater, glaring at Andy who took a clear minute of silence, keeping his own glare on the Daggereds, before breaking his own serious look with laughter, sending Devin to crumple to the ground with a push.

  Jimmy pointed at Andy as his partner fell to the ground, laughing at his own bad pun.

  ”NO! No! I refuse to accept that, that was fucking TERRIBLE bro! I gotta HAND it to you to mess around like this!”

  “H-how?” Devin groaned, glaring up at the two businessmen-warriors. Jimmy wandered over to Andy, about to light up a cigar only to realize, crest-fallen, that his clothes had been entirely obliterated. Devin shivered, barely able to draw breath before asking again, “How did you…survive ANY of that?!”

  ”Dude, y’see all this beef?” Andy reached over and knocked on Jimmy’s humongous shoulder, larger than his head, “Pure jade, friend. We’re talking about ten tons of jade here! Even as strong as that Lightning Column spell was, nice use of the Kind Harmonics by the by, it still wasn’t enough to take on THIS much anti-magical material.”

  Mallory passed out, slumping to the ground hard as Devin slowly crawled over, shielding her body from them with his own. Jimmy, noting this, picked up the explanation and continued on, “So Jade has natural anti-magic and magical dampening abilities, right? Most magic shields made from jade amulets and talismans only use, what, a few ounces?

  I’m one huge block of magically animated jade. Did I mention that Andy’s ancestor was REALLY, really good at this stuff?”

  Andy chuckled and slipped his chef’s hat back over his head as Devin glared up at them, “So…this is your victory. Kill me, so I may join Mal-”

  “Don’t worry, you idiot,” Andy grumbled, “The poison won’t kill her, just knock her the hell out. ‘Sedative’ is a better word for it but saying ‘poison’ made her seek out the wrong stuff…and she IS that straightforward. As for you, well-”

  “You owe us ten grand,” Jimmy grinned, leaning down to pat the top of Devin’s head gently, “You’re gonna hang out with us, pay me for my suit, order up some grub, then possibly consider joining our yearly membership. 25 grand for both of ya’s, but I think I’ll give you a small discount. 45 grand for both of ya, for one year.”

  “Wh…what?” Devin asked cautiously, unsure of the situation but glad he could feel Mallory breathing underneath him.

  Jimmy chuckled and stood up straight, calling out to Andy as he fired up his stove, “ANDY! This guy’s gonna want some Schezchuan and he said the lady’s gonna want ribs. Fire it up, bro. We got customers!”

  Devin watched, wondering at the turn of events as in the next moment Jimmy, inexplicably and without warning suddenly normal human-sized again (with that miraculous belt) extended a hand towards him.

  ”C’mon friend. Lemme help ya up, get yer lady sorted out, get some food in ya and let’s talk business! Besides, someone’s gotta eat t
hat them teriyaki steak strips Andy made earlier, and I might as well enjoy them since Dash wasn’t able to.”

  ****

  Final Round

  Williams snapped to alert the moment the elevator opened to reveal the sub-basement to him. Stepping lightly out of the elevator, he let his eyes adjust to the strange lighting even as his Mage Sight kicked on, ice-blue rivulets of energy cascading over his brown eyes as he took stock of himself. His spells were prepped, and he was ready.

  He knew of the obstacle to come, and thanks to Frank’s intuition he knew how to handle it.

  Mostly.

  Creeping down the hallway, he began to weave his way through the service tunnels that made up this particular sub-basement - piping of all types lined the walls, directing energy and more in the same way Control controlled the flow of such back at The Shop. Naturally, the Shop knew of such things since the Brownstone Group trusted them absolutely. It not only helped that they were Gervais St. Germain’s fallback champions, but he ran the only bank left in the world. Despite the precarious, possibly threatening nature of their relationship, they had been nothing but friendly, even supportive, of one another.

  It was yet another reason why Magus Williams had made the transition from the Order to the Shop. This was the world he had wanted, even as he crept as silently as he could through the reddish-orange lighting of a mad Angel’s sub-basement.

  Making his way quickly yet quietly, he noted the rare depressions that broke up the walls, sometimes containing machinery or simply regulating whatever flowed through the piping, and others with nothing whatsoever in them save those pipes. Keeping his Mage Sight tuned and turned up, he made his way without stumbling across any of the clones who patrolled the area, all without giving his own position away.