The man looked at Zack with cool and collected eyes, a gaze completely devoid of passion.
Anger boiled inside Zack. But it wasn't the relentless beast of a hunger he had grown used it, the hate and primal malice that desired to destroy everything in its path. This rage was balanced, both hot as a smith's fire and cool as a windless night.
Spikes shot out from the walls of the ice tower at Zack and his remaining friends. With his combined heightened reflexes and sight, Zack clawed or dodged all the ice spikes. Astrid and Fabiola were doing the same, but seemed to be having a little trouble.
The Adjutant's voice boomed around the tower, but he didn't open his mouth at all. "You are the slave who refuses to know his place. Everyone must learn their place."
A few spears of ice cut Zack. He still wove through them well enough to make a swipe at the Adjutant. But the Adjutant moved backward like a ghost with inhuman speed and without strain or effort. Five blocks with the women inside them formed a wall between him and Zack.
"You coward!" Zack screamed, pulling back his attack.
The Adjutant's passionless voice boomed throughout the tower once again. But something in it sounded more annoyed than before. "Words from a slave mean nothing. Your passion is your undoing. I will teach you this lesson."
Astrid and Fabiola managed to land next to Zack. They were cut up pretty bad but still standing and out of breath.
Then, to Zack's horror, all the guards and rebels who had been encased in ice began to shudder. Their shudders quickly turned to larger, more fluid movements, and Zack could see the widening fear of the men and women inside their ice-armor.
"He's moving them," gasped Astrid in disbelief.
Surprisingly, it was Fabiola who chuckled. "Did I ever mention how much I hate the snow?"
Somehow, the desert woman's comment snapped Zack out of his shock as six hundred people began to mechanically attack at Zack and his friends. They didn't move with the grace of the seasoned fighters, but six hundred of anything was nothing to scoff at.
Fabiola and Astrid were defending themselves well against the steadily incoming stream of frozen golems. But they weren't trying to kill them either.
There was something incredibly wrong about fighting people who were trying to kill you against their will. Zack even let a few cut him so he wouldn't kill the fighters frozen in the ice.
He raged at Lagrand. "You will have us face our own men?!"
The voice reverberated again. "Once again, passion is the undoing of all men."
He needed to kill the Adjutant. But how? The man moved faster than Zack and his friends were having trouble with the ice golems.
"Think!" He shouted to himself.
They were in a tower of ice through which the Adjutant could witness everything as long as there was light. He had even killed one of Leyna's sons through that sight alone. His tower gave him supreme power.
Was this the real strength of an Elementalist in their second state? Something about that didn't sit right with Zack. Desperately dodging the attacks of the living golems, he realized he and his friends would be exhausted sooner than later. He needed to act now.
But what did he know to help them get out of the situation? They were completely surrounded by ice.
"Ice," Zack repeated to himself, tasting the word on his tongue. An ice blade swung at his head and he caught it.
When the realization struck him, he let out a laugh. Astrid and Fabiola whipped their heads around, clearly disturbed by the sound. Zack pointed the ax at Lagrand, and then he waved it all around the tower before dropping it.
He spoke calmly and without shouting. There was no need to shout across the distance of the room. Lagrand could hear him from where he was just fine.
Zack said, "You gave into your insanity completely. With me, I have to be careful by giving into the instincts of the flesh I absorb. But for you? You're ice. It is a cold and unfeeling thing."
Zack paused and grasped at a straw. "You know, I heard your wife died before you were exiled from the capitol."
The ice golems slowed, and Zack knew he had struck well. His grandpa had taught him, after all. While all the other slaves had hammered heavily with their picks at the ice in the Demon's Prospect, Zack had learned how to look at the ice and strike with careful precision.
He smiled a predator's smile. "You were right, Adjutant. I should know my place. I was a slave born in the Demon's Prospect. I spent day in and day out breaking ice. In a way, there is no one better than me to break you."
Zack turned to Fabiola and Astrid and said, "Keep yourselves alive! But try to buy me some time! Astrid, cut the lights!"
"What? Are you crazy?" She shouted back.
"Just do what he says!" Screamed Fabiola.
Instead of leaping at the Adjutant again, Zack sprang toward the walls of the ice tower. The torches in the room began to blink out one by one with the wind from Astrid's power.
With his heightened reflex and superior vision, Zack analyzed the ice tower, taking in its structure completely on instinct formed by a lifetime of mining the Demon's Prospect. He needed no pick this time. His claws were a hundred times more powerful than any pick.
In another breath, all of the tower was completely dark, thanks to Astrid.
"No!" Reverberated the voice.
Zack could still see in the dark and noticed the walls of the ice tower were closing in. That meant his suspicions were right. He began to swipe with his claws at the ice walls, running in a circle around the sides of the large circular room as the walls tightened around him.
He focused all of his energies on the constantly changing structure of the ice. The one lesson his grandpa had taught him was to not rely on brute strength, but to rely on his mind. Grandpa had been right even nearly ten years later.
With a final swipe, the walls of the ice tower were so close that all the people trapped in the ice were huddled together. Zack watched in the darkness as his final cut in the ice tower caused sheets of ice to slough off the walls as if it were shedding skin.
He could have torn everything apart, but he needed to cut the ice in a way where it would collapse but not kill everyone inside. Zack was certain that no one in the world could have done what he did. No one had a lifetime of experience with ice like Zack Maecker.
Sounds of ice falling from the outside of the tower crashed through the narrow entry way. It sounded like the world was falling apart around them. Astrid screamed and Fabiola prayed to Morgoth.
No god came. Instead, the light of the moon broke through the ceiling of the breaking tower, revealing a night sky clearing itself of dark clouds. Astrid pushed the falling ice aside with her wind. It wasn't necessary because Zack had been precise in his cuts. She was just scared out of her mind.
As the final piece of the tower collapsed, the temperature around them began to warm. It was still freezing in the Astorian cold, but that alienating frigid air was quickly disappearing.
All the ice from the tower and the ice that surrounded the people and harem candidates melted away until everyone was standing in shock in a completely empty lot. Two small lights glowed at the center of the tower, box-shaped and white.
Fabiola and Astrid picked them up before anyone else could.
Adjutant Lagrand had been an Elementalist of the second state. He had not just given into his element. He had let it take over completely until he was nothing but ice himself. Lagrand had become the tower.
Zack had only known it was possible because he knew what it felt like to succumb to an element. After that, it was simply luck.
Both the guards and rebels alike cheered and hugged each other. They were all free of the oppression of the monstrous Elementalist. Zack didn't care about them.
He pushed through the crowd, his heart beating faster than it ever had before. There. A young woman stood in the crowd, the light of the silver moon falling on her pale skin. Her hair had grown long, down to half her back.
Yemiri.
Zack
stumbled to her, and he fell to his knees. He had never felt so weak.
Yemiri looked to him and gave him a smile. "I saw everything, Zack. What the Adjutant saw in the tower, he made us see too. We were apart of his ice. The man was broken and sad. I'm glad you ended his misery."
Even now after enduring the horrors of the Adjutant, Yemiri still had the heart to feel pity for the man who had terrorized a town. Zack held her in his arms. Fabiola and Astrid stood by him.
Zack had a thousand things he wanted to say, but he could only manage one, "I came for you."
Yemiri smiled. "I knew you would."
18
Zack had hoped the sun would come out on the day of their departure, but Astoria's Winter beat down with pellets of snow from above. He wouldn't miss the frigid climate and looked forward to only see the place in his memories.
Thousands had gathered at the small Bergen port that lead to the Frozen Sea to give their thanks and goodbyes to Zack and his friends. It had been only two days since the battle of the ice tower, and Zack had wanted to get out of Astoria to find the Farland as soon as possible.
The Wild Brigade had officially disbanded. The decree for the business to not be able to do any trades in Bergen had been completed in writing, and there wasn't anything to be done about that. Officially, only Zack, Fabiola, and Astrid were branded criminals.
Mannic and his brother Oslo had decided to stay in Bergen. It was all they had ever known.
Renton walked up in the most luxurious furs Zack had ever seen. A redheaded woman who seemed to be half his age walked arm in arm with him. Zack realized she was one of the harem candidates frozen by the Adjutant's ice. The former manager of the Rings held out his hand and Zack shook it. "I'm thankful for this more than you could ever know."
Zack looked at the redheaded woman. She was pretty, not on the same level as Yemiri, but she had a kindness to her that made her all the more attractive. She looked to be in her early twenties but held Renton as if they had known each other their whole lives, like lovers. Had her age frozen in time with the Adjutant's ice? Renton didn't seem to mind.
The woman said, "My name is Elicia. Thank you, Zack. Poor Ren was sent to the Rings after he tried storming the ice tower by himself upon hearing about me becoming a harem candidate. That was over thirty years ago. I couldn't imagine what it was like for him."
Renton looked to the woman and frowned, concerned.
Zack knew instantly Renton had loved the woman with all his heart and had waited for her all these years. The cogs in his mind clicked together and Zack said, "I was told there was only one other person who was able to win one hundred consecutive battles to win their freedom. That was you, wasn't it?"
The man smiled sadly. "Yes. But I knew I could never win in a fight against the Elementalist. I didn't even know Elicia was alive. So I built a knew life, only dreaming of the right circumstance or person to come along and kill the Adjutant. I took charge of the Rings and made them fair, trying to give those who went through similar events as me another chance. Then you came along, like a whirlwind."
Renton turned to Zack's side. Yemiri had walked up and clasped Zack's elbow. Renton said, "Though, I guess you understand better than anyone what I've been through. But unlike me, you had the balls to do something about it."
Zack shook his head. "Well, it's not like you're in a bad spot right now. Your wife is half your age and you now run the entire town of Bergen. If anything, you sound like a greedy pig."
"You're damn right I am," grinned Renton.
Elicia laughed, and so did Yemiri. The sound of Yemiri's bell-like voice filled Zack with a warmth he realized had been missing in his life. He held her closer.
A dark skinned woman with long hair the color of chestnuts walked with a metal spear side by side with a short blonde haired Astorian girl. Astrid was floating on a small ball of hair, causing everyone around her to be amazed. Fabiola was clearly not impressed, and popped the air balloon Astrid had made, forcing Astrid on her butt.
Before they began a friendly tussle, Zack nodded to them. "Demon's Prospect?"
Fabiola returned the nod. "The overseers have been thrown in the Rings with the chance to fight for their freedom. Though, I had a little spat with this man named Denn. I had to cut him down."
Denn. That was a name he hadn't heard in a while. Zack looked to Yemiri, the same girl who showed concern for the Adjutant. She didn't looked concerned now. In fact, she looked resolute and angry. Zack understood. While the Adjutant had succumbed to his element, Denn was awilling monster.
"Cut down?" Zack asked.
Astrid chuckled. "She means she literally cut him in half. We didn't like the guy. Also, this overseer named Rissa is having a fun time fighting a baby snow leopard in the Rings right now. You wanna see it?"
Zack shook his head. If it had even been a few months earlier, the beast inside him would have taken the opportunity right away, to see the carnage before him. But now, he was calmer, and realized Rissa was just a name in his past. She didn't matter to him anymore.
The only thing that mattered was that the ship was fully manned and his friends were joining him to find the Farland, wherever it was. No one had heard about the place except for Yemiri and Zack.
Astrid poked the small golden circlet around Renton's head. The man swiped at her playfully and said, "Don't you go stealing my crown. This is a king's crown."
The girl replied. "But you're the mayor. Not the king."
Renton pointed a finger at her. "Just you wait. I will build a kingdom the likes of which you have never seen."
Elicia nodded proudly at her aged husband. "Don't underestimate my Ren's greed."
Zack turned to Fabiola and asked. "And the slaves?"
"They're free," she explained. "All of them."
"And what about the old one I told you about? Did you find him? He's like a walking skeleton, that man." Zack said.
He had hoped to go back to the Demon's Prospect himself to find the old man who had started him on his journey, but Zack did not want to leave Yemiri's side. They had spent every moment together since her release. He vowed to never leave her side again.
"We did find something at the bottom of the statue of Morgoth. It was a note labelled for you," said Fabiola. She handed Zack a piece of folded parchment.
It had his name on it, which he recognized. Luckily, Astrid and Fabiola had taken the time to teach him letters over the months. But he tucked it away, telling himself he would read it once their ship took off.
Zack looked to Renton, bowing his head slightly. "Thank you, old man. For everything."
Renton laughed. "I should be thanking you. Anyway, these men will take you anywhere in the world. They've been completely paid up for an entire year and are loyal. After that, you're on your own. Where are you off to? The world is a big place."
Zack looked to Yemiri and smiled. She smiled back. He answered, "The Farland."
Renton sighed. "No one I know has ever heard of that place. Maybe your grandfather made it up."
"It's real," Yemiri urged.
Astrid slapped Yemiri on the shoulder, and Yemiri jumped with a startled, "Yeep." Astrid said, "And if it isn't real, we'll make it real."
Zack looked to Fabiola. "Maybe we'll go to the Twisting Sands?"
The Flesh Elementalist Page 14