by Aaron DeMott
“Save this. We’ll need it for the next vessel,” she said.
The figure bowed low, accepted the stake with both hands, and stepped back.
The girl stretched and looked around the room. Onin ducked back around the cave and flattened himself against the wall.
“We have visitors.” Her mouth curved up into a cruel smile. “They’re powerful. Bring them to me.”
Footsteps sounded in the cave. Onin stood. His legs shook so much he almost fell over. He took a shaky breath and ran for the exit. Onryo grabbed his hand and they ran together. Onin held out his other hand and generated a servitor. The servitor blinked, and sped back into the depths of the cave.
They burst out into the sunlight and Onin threw up into a bush. He’d never be able to get that scene out of his head. That poor girl… He bent over again.
When his stomach was finally empty, he stood up and looked back at the cave. Their pursuers hadn’t emerged yet, but who know how long one servitor could occupy them. Onryo stood at the mouth of the cave, her body wrapped in flames. Tannin, Cerina, and Saija were each bent over a different bush.
“Please tell me this is just a nightmare.” Cerina wiped her mouth on her sleeve and coughed. “I really don’t want that to be real.”
“It’s real.” Onryo faced the cave and raised her fists. “And it’s coming for us.”
Four black-robed figures burst out of the cave. Onryo extended her hand and sent a giant blast of blue flame at them. The two in front were incinerated. The other two dropped to the ground and rolled around, shedding their robes and revealing black clothes underneath. They were up in seconds, and had knives in their hands.
Onin generated two servitors and sent them after the men. The servitors engulfed them and rose up out of the way. Laughter rang out from the cave.
The girl from the cave sauntered out, and Onin got his first real look at her. Her hair was brown and hung down almost to her shoulders. Rivulets of blood still ran down her body; but if she had any wounds, they had already healed. She wore nothing but two star shaped boxes on her chest, and another one between her legs. Onin didn’t want to know what held them on.
“Wow, the Natas have a type, don’t they?”
“Shut-up.” Onin smacked the back of Tannin’s head. “Quit your ogling and help us keep her from killing everyone.”
“Shanay?” Onin called out.
“I’m more than that now,” Shanay purred. She narrowed her eyes and smiled. “Come on back in the cave, and you can have more power than you’ve ever dreamed of.”
“No thanks.” Saija backed up a step or two. “Been there. Done that. Won’t buy again.”
“Ah, Saija, the failure.” Shanay smirked. “We’re surprised you’re still alive.”
“If that’s supposed to convince her to come back, you really need to work on your witty banter,” Tannin said.
Shanay sneered and thrust her hand forward. A blast of yellow energy shot out from her palm. Tannin knocked it away with the sleeve of his coat.
“You want to do it the hard way? All right.” She thrust her hands down, and they started to glow yellow. She spun on her heel, and energy blasts seemed to be everywhere.
Onin dropped to the dirt and rolled left. He popped out a servitor and rolled to a crouch. Tannin had knocked away two of the blasts. Onryo jumped into the air, somersaulted over Shanay and blasted her with fire. An energy blast streaked at Saija. A portal opened just in front of Saija and swallowed up the whip. A second later, a portal opened behind Shanay and the blast shot out of it and into her back.
Shanay just smiled and absorbed the yellow blast. “I can’t be hurt by my own power. You’ll have to do better than that.”
Onin generated another two servitors and looked around for Cerina. She was nowhere in sight—wait, there, a blond lock of hair stuck out from behind a boulder. Good, she should be safe there. Hopefully she’d remember to give them some support.
The three servitors lined up into a triangle formation.
“Oh, no, not that again,” Shanay said.
She raised a finger and sent a beam of energy at one of the servitors. It made contact, and the servitor exploded. Onin gulped. This could be a problem.
“How does she know what we can do?” Onin said.
“The Natas are… connected.” Saija bit her lower lip. “They can share information. I also have a nasty feeling that this might be the same one that possessed me.”
“Great.” Tannin shook a few flakes of ash from his coat sleeve. “Anyone got any ideas?”
“Run like crazy?” Cerina said.
“Works for me.” Saija glanced at Shanay. “If we can get away.”
Onryo shook her head. “We have to take it out now. Before it hurts anyone else.”
She flew straight at Shanay and let loose twin jets of blue flame. Shanay took a single step backward, braced herself, and held up her right hand. A shaft of ice formed and extended out, slamming into the flame. Fog filled the air, obscuring Onin’s view. Onin generated another servitor. It sent out a tendril of energy and sucked up the fog.
Shanay stood facing Onryo, a smirk on her face. “What now, fire giftling?”
“I crank up the heat.” Onryo put both palms out in front of her, one on top of the other. She took a deep breath, and a jet of white flame shot out of her palms and enveloped Shanay. “Let’s see if you can take a few hundred thousand Kelvin.”
Onryo was breathing heavy with effort. Sweat started to pour down Onin’s body. A servitor came over to him. Onin took a step forward. His skin tingled as he passed through the glowing energy field that was the body of the servitor. It was still hot inside the servitor, but bearable. He sent servitors out to Tannin and Cerina. Saija had disappeared. Probably through a portal to avoid being barbecued.
Onin couldn’t see anything of either Shanay or Onryo now, except a bright glare that was distorted by heat waves. The glare faded away. Pools of red-hot liquid rock covered the landscape. Onryo was on her hands and knees, her chest heaved as she sucked in each breath.
Shanay was encased in an ice crystal. It melted down, then shattered. Shanay stepped out.
“Is that all you’ve got, half-breed?” Shanay took a step toward Onryo. Liquid rock cooled and solidified with each step. “I’m going to enjoy bringing you into my master’s service.”
She lifted her hand. Fear lanced through Onin. He waved a finger at one of the servitors. It let loose a blast of lighting at Shanay that lifted her up and slammed her into the rock wall. She rose to her feet and cracked her neck.
“Just for that, I’m going to make it slow and painful.”
Shanay flung her hand out at Onin, and an energy blast streaked toward him. The servitor moved to intercept, and popped when the blast impacted it. Shanay grinned and fired off two more blasts.
The servitors protecting Tannin and Cerina dropped them and moved between Shanay and Onin.
“Hey.” Tannin took a few steps closer to Onin. “Can you make those things cover my hands?”
“I can, but you won’t be able to control them.”
“Just put them in mitten mode or whatever. I just need something protecting my hands.”
“Got it.”
Onin generated two more small servitors and sent them over to Tannin. He shoved his hands into them, and they shrank down to just cover them.
“What?” Shanay laughed. “Are you going to hit me?”
“Yup.” Tannin took a step forward. “That’s the plan.”
Shanay laughed again and fired at Tannin. He swung and punched the energy beam, defecting it. Onin stared at Tannin. The blast didn’t pop the servitor. Of course! Tannin was reinforcing it. So, he could use that brain of his once in a while. Onin grinned and generated another servitor.
The newest servitor floated over to Onryo and ran a healing beam over her. She jumped to her feet and ignited her hands.
“Okay, Tannin. Let’s bring it,” Onryo said.
She and Tanni
n both ran at Shanay from either side, fists raised. Shanay raised her arms apart and fired yellow energy blasts at them. Tannin and Onryo punched at the same time, knocking the blasts away. They both spun around and landed a punch with the opposite hand. At the same time, the two servitors in the air struck Shanay with twin lightning bolts.
Shanay raised her hands and deflected the lighting bolts with some sort of weird purple fire. Ice formed around her waist where Onryo and Tannin’s punches had landed. Her head snapped up. A frown spread over her face. She raised her hands, and they started to glow with building energy. Purple fire arched and criss-crossed over the increasing energy ball.
Fire flared up and covered Onryo in a protective wall.
“That won’t help, half-breed,” Shanay snarled. “You’re coming with me.”
“I thought your master didn’t think I was worth the effort,” Onryo said.
“He changed his mind.” Shanay shrugged. “You and your friends have become something of a nuisance. So he’s going to take you in front of their eyes, then kill them.”
Onryo threw another blast of white fire at Shanay, who swung her fist to block it. The fire bounced off, hit the rock wall and melted a hole into it.
Onin jumped when something touched his shoulder. He spun around, raised a fist, and generated a servitor. Saija and Cerina stood behind him. He blew out his breath and lowered his fist.
“You scared the crap out of me. Where’d you go, anyway, Saija?”
“She was with me.” Cerina wiped sweat from her forehead. “You were so busy fighting the Natas you didn’t notice the seven other guys sneak up behind us.”
“Oh. Sorry. Thanks for keeping them off us. Anything you can do here?”
Saija nodded.
“Yeah,” Cerina hummed, and the fire around Shanay flickered in sync with the sonic distortion.
Onryo grinned and launched another blast of fire at Shanay. A portal opened and swallowed the fire. Seconds later another portal opened beneath Shanay.
Shanay gasped, bent down, and blasted at the fireball—a fraction too slowly. The fire slammed into her chest. Ice formed around the wound, but Shanay stumbled. Tannin stepped in and slammed a servitor covered hand into her head. She collapsed into the rock and the energy around her hands disappeared.
“Well done.”
They all turned at the sound of the unfamiliar bass voice. The speaker was a heavily muscled man dressed in a black robe. Onin gulped. Must be one of the Natas from the cave.
“But unfortunately for you, it won’t be enough,” the man said.
He flicked a finger and Shanay jerked to her feet. Her eyes opened and she shook her head.
“Come. We’re leaving,” the man said.
“But,” Shanay looked around. “We’re not finished here yet.”
“We are now. You were dumb enough to let yourself become injured, and the master isn’t done with you yet.”
“But—”
“Shut-up. These insignificant vermin can wait.”
Onin started to shiver. The temperature was dropping fast, and the strange man—it had to be another Natas—hadn’t even lifted a finger. Onryo’s fire flared again. The man looked over at her and sneered. He grabbed Shanay’s arm and the two of them rose into the air.
“Let’s go after them!” Onryo yelled.
Onin shook his head. “We can’t. It’s getting colder real fast. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“I can still stay and fight,” Onryo said.
“Yes, but Tannin, Cerina, and Saija can’t.” Onin turned to Saija. “Can you portal us out of here?”
Saija nodded and opened a portal large enough to step through. Tannin and Cerina ran through.
“Come on,” Onin said. “We’ve got to stay together. None of us are strong enough to take them on by ourselves. You first.”
Onryo growled and jumped through the portal. Onin jumped through right after her.
Chapter 12
School's Out Forever?
Onin sighed and collapsed onto his couch in the common area of he and Tannin’s dorm room. He hurt all over. He yawned and struggled to keep his eyes open.
Onryo took a few deep breaths and sat on the edge of the couch. She closed her eyes. Her wings and tail shrank in size until they disappeared into her back. Her hair faded from red to brown, and Kasai now sat there. She flung herself into Onin’s arms, sobbing.
“It’s okay.” Onin put one arm around her, and patted her on the back. “Um, do you remember anything?”
“Yeah.” Kasai nodded. “It’s kinda like a dream, but I remember it all. Can’t we do anything to help Shanay?”
“Not to my knowledge.” Saija’s voice came from somewhere behind the couch. “We tried our best, then that other Natas showed up. He was a lot stronger.”
“So we take him out first?” Tannin cracked open an eye, and looked up from where the chair across from the couch that he was sprawled across.
“How?” Cerina slouched in the other chair next to Tannin. “They’re just going to double-team us again.”
“We could get some help…” Tannin didn’t sound so sure.
“Who?” Kasai asked. “The Dabrath police have their hands full with the attacks here. Have you forgotten about them?”
Onin stroked her back. “I think Tannin’s point is that the attacks would cease if we took out the source.”
“Yeah.” Tannin slouched into the couch, then he sat back up. “Ooo! What about the military?”
“No good.” Saija waved her hand dismissively. “Their job is foreign gesaran threats. The giftlings have never been large enough in number to pose a national threat—a small, local force of other giftlings can keep most troublemakers in line. Also, you need another chair in here.”
“Yeah, ‘cause that’s working.” Cerina rolled her eyes.
Onin chose to ignore her comment. “ABG is probably the largest gathering of giftlings on the planet. We’ve got people from every nation here, I believe—”
“—We can’t ask them to fight,” Kasai said.
“No, we can’t. Most giftlings aren’t combat oriented, and most people at ABG, ourselves included, are really just kids,” Onin said.
“Hey, I’m twenty!” Tannin jerked upright in his chair.
Onin’s eyelid twitched. “My point was that if you told the army that you wanted to fight a full-out war with the Natas, they’d call you a kid and tell you to go home. None of us, well, except possibly Saija, have the training for this.”
“Why not just give up, then?” Cerina said, her face weary.
Onin opened his mouth to reply, but Kasai beat him to it.
“Really? You saw what they did to Shanay. Do you want to just sit here and hope someone else can stop it? All while the Natas are taking everyone on campus, until they come to make us their vessels.”
Cerina shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “No. But what can we do?”
No one said anything. What could they do? If they could get the Natas to fight them one at a time, they might be able to win. But what kind of idiot would fight five-to-one willingly? After that last fight with what used to be Shanay, they’d fight with at least two to one, so trying to ambush a Natas when they attacked another giftling wasn’t going to work.
“Maybe Professor Jekao has an idea?” Onin said.
“Eh,” Cerina waved her hand in front of her. “He’ll just tell us to leave it to the professionals.”
“Who we already know aren’t powerful enough to stop them,” Saija said.
“What about the Matari?” Kasai said.
Everyone turned to stare at her. Saija lifted herself up on one arm from behind the couch.
“Are you insane?” Saija’s eyes were open wide. “The Matari! They’ll probably just possess you for themselves and use you against the Natas.”
“We don’t know if they can even do that,” Onin said.
“Actually, we don’t know much about them” Cerina frowned. “
Even after all that research we did. I say we sneak into their compound and poke around.”
“That might be a good idea.” Onin leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand. “But what if we get caught? Let’s keep that as Plan B. For now, we should work on teamwork and combat skills.”
“Yeah.” Tannin rubbed his shoulder. “We did pretty good when we were all working together. If we get better at that, the ‘surprise a Natas’ plan might work.”
“Especially if they think we’ve run away scared,” Saija said.
“I still think we should tell Professor Jekao.” Kasai twirled her hair around her index finger. “The police and military might be too big, and each of us might not be able to do anything on our own, but if we all work together…”
“What are you going to do when he tells you to sit down and leave it to the pros?” Cerina said.
Onin sighed. “If that happens, we tell him the truth. I’m not going to sit here in terror, jumping at every shadow and squeaky door hoping it isn’t a Natas come to violate me in ways I don’t want to think about.”
“All right!” Tannin jumped to his feet. “Let’s go!”
“After a nap,” Onin said, “I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can make it to my room.”
“And then possibly some food,” Saija said.
Professor Jekao had covered his mouth and nose with his hand part way through the recitation of what had happened. His face grew a sickly shade of gray as they continued. Onin looked around. Good, a trashcan was at the end of the desk. The professor might need it. Professor Jekao shuddered and leaned forward, resting his head in his hands.