Immortal Swordslinger 3

by Dante King

  The next guard had his spear up by the time I got close. He jabbed to keep me back while his comrades struggled free. I knocked the attack aside, stepped in close, and cut his head off. Blood fountained from his severed neck and bathed his comrades in its crimson stain.

  By now, panic had taken hold of the two remaining guards. They struggled and strained against the mud, even put their hands in to try to give them more leverage to get clear. Instead, that drew them deeper in and left their hands coated with ooze. As the third one raised his warhammer, it slipped through his fingers. He tried to catch it but was too late. The weapon sank into the mud as I ran him through.

  The last guard raised a club. “Hells-spawned foreigners. Coming to our valley and taking over, ruining what we have.”

  “I’m not the one who ruined this,” I said. “But as long as you support the people who did, I’ll bring you all the hells you can face.”

  He swung his club, but I jumped over the blow and kicked the weapon aside as I went. I sent Vigor into the Sundered Heart, and it burst into flame. My sword cleaved his armor and cut through bone while his flesh sizzled and cauterized.

  All four guards lay dead in the mud.

  “A good start,” Nydarth said. “But killing a handful of guards is hardly going to make a difference in this city.”

  “Of course not. But they were asking for trouble. So much for an espionage mission. Still, I have to find Mahrai before reinforcements come.”

  I figured more guards would arrive at some point to take the next watch, so I snuck through the gate and moved through the back streets. The place was too quiet for my liking, and I didn’t see any sign of citizens. I figured there must be some kind of curfew in place. I heard something patter on the rooftop of a nearby building and heard a familiar voice.

  “Swordslinger,” she said.

  I looked up and saw Mahrai standing on a rooftop with her staff in her hand and a scowl on her face. The flicker of torchlight cast strange shadows across her clothing and gave her hair a fiery glow.

  “I’m going to rip your fucking head off and bury it in the sand,” she continued. “Cockroaches and dung beetles will feast on what passes for your brains.”

  “Of course you are,” I said. “After all, you have to follow the orders of the Cult of Unswerving Shadows.”

  “Fuck the Unswerving Shadows. I make my own choices.”

  “Then maybe you should reconsider them. Right now, you’re siding with the monsters that are destroying Hyng’ohr.”

  “I know the choice I’ve made, Swordslinger. There are monsters on all sides of the empire’s disputes. If I have to ally with one group to get at another, so be it. And if, in the meantime, I end up close to my own monsters, well, that’s an opportunity I just might have to take.”

  “Think about what you’re doing in the meantime. By supporting the cult, you’re bringing on the ruin that has left this valley parched and starving. Is that really what you want?”

  She pointed at me with her staff. “You don’t know shit about what I want, Swordslinger.”

  “There’s another way, Mahrai. You could leave the cult and return to the Wandering Path. You can do some good for Hyng’ohr while you pursue your monsters. Do you really want to tie your fate to Saruqin’s?”

  Mahrai looked down with a frown. When she looked up at me again, some of her fiery indignation was gone. I felt sorry for her. Something had driven her down this path, something she cared deeply about. But now, she was divided, torn between a dark but familiar option and one filled with uncertainty alongside the possibility of hope.

  “I’m going to bring Saruqin down,” I said. “Do you want to fall with him?”

  Indecision was written clear as day across Mahrai’s face. I’d gotten to her. Perhaps this madness could end now, before any more destruction came to Hyng’ohr.

  Mahrai sighed deeply, then slammed her staff into the ground. Cobbles shook as her golem rose, inch by inch, from the ground in front of me, showering the place with dirt.

  “This time, I’m not going to spare any Vigor,” she said. “The spirits have smiled on you today; you get to see my golem’s most powerful form."

  The stone monster towered over me, its face devoid of all expression, vast fists dangling by its sides.

  “We’ve each chosen our paths,” Mahrai said. “Now, we have to face the consequences.”

  “No choice has to be forever,” I said.

  “Perhaps. But sometimes, we have to stop thinking and act.” She pointed at me. “Golem, that is the Swordslinger. Destroy him.”

  The ground trembled as the golem strode toward me. I flung up a Smothering Mist in its way, but it strode through the green haze with barely a touch of damage to its rough rock exterior. It swung its leg back, and I leaped clear as a foot like a bumper car kicked the air where I had been.

  I rolled across the cobble, sprang back to my feet, and dashed to the edge of the courtyard. The thud of footsteps and the trembling of the ground told me that the golem was in pursuit.

  “You’re slacking off,” I called out to Mahrai. “Letting your minion do all the fighting for you. Are you sure you’re committed to defending the Straight Path?”

  “You think this is easy?” Mahrai pointed down at the golem. “I’d like to see you try it, Swordslinger.”

  The golem picked up speed. With its long legs, it could easily outpace me if it wanted to, despite the body weight it carried around. At the edge of the courtyard, I stopped, turned, and raised my sword just in time to deflect a strike from one of its fists. The blow sent a shudder through my arms that left them aching. Another blow came down, too direct to be diverted by the sword, and I dodged away, then sprinted between its legs and across the courtyard.

  I tried to activate Hidden Burrow to buy me some time, but the ground was too rocky. It seemed that I needed loose earth for that particular technique.

  “Do you really believe this is the right path?” I shouted. “Or are you just here for the power, like the rest of them?”

  Mahrai gritted her teeth and made a gesture with her staff.

  The golem bent, thrust its hands into the ground, and lifted up a chunk of the cobbled road that ran through the courtyard. It raised the mass above its head, then flung it at me.

  I countered with a Magma Burst that blasted from my hand, its fiery heat lighting up the night. It hit the torn-up road as it hurtled toward me and reduced it to a rain of boiling slag that pattered down on the other cobbles.

  The golem roared and charged toward me. I dug into my reserves of Vigor again, but this time, I pulled out mud instead of magma. The ground in the center of the courtyard rippled, and the golem stepped into a Mud Entrapment.

  The golem’s weight immediately started dragging it down into the depths of the mud. It struggled against the cloying ooze and thrashed wildly at its surface. Then, it planted its hands in the ground beyond the mud, like a pair of spades digging into the dirt, and started dragging itself clear.

  I sheathed my sword and raised my hands together. This time, I held the magma back as it reached my hands, letting it build up inside me. It built and built while the golem strained against its entrapment and pulled itself, inch by oozing inch, out of the mud. At last, when the Vigor was almost too much to contain, I let fly.

  A Magma Burst shot from my hands and hurtled across the courtyard and hit the golem. There was a burst of melting rock that lit up the whole night like a firework. As its brightness faded, the last solid pieces of the golem fell into the mud and vanished from view.

  Gobbets of lava fell all across the courtyard. They melted into dirt, cobbles, and paving stones, bubbling and shining brightly. It was a spectacular sight, but also an intimidating one. I would have to be careful about using magma and hold it back for those moments when it was absolutely vital. Otherwise, I could end up destroying whole chunks of the city.

  My moment of triumph was cut short as Mahrai jumped from the rooftop toward me, her staff raised abov
e her head, hair flying as wild as a forest fire. I drew the Depthless Dream Trident just in time to parry her first blow, swung it around in a counter-attack, and was blocked in turn by Mahrai.

  The crack of metal on wood echoed around the courtyard as we battered at each other with a frantic series of blows, each parry followed by another immediate attack. She was fast and skillful, but her emotions were clearly starting to get the better of her, and she attacked without pause or consideration. Sweat poured down both our brows as we worked ourselves up into a frenzy of violence.

  I knew I could have killed her easily; her close combat fighting left a lot to be desired. But I wanted to give her more time to consider my words. Up close like this, the earthy herbal musk that hung around Mahrai was more intense than ever before. Its scent filled my senses, strangely alluring despite the flash of weapons through the air. The intensity of her gaze and the fine lines of her face drew me in despite myself.

  “It’s good to see you up close,” I said as I countered an attack. “Much better than when you were hiding behind a monstrous stone structure.”

  “You look good too,” she said, with a jab toward my ribs. “When you’re not playing dress up as one of the guards or talking shit.”

  I thrust the trident at her leg and dropped her. She scurried to her feet and snarled at me.

  “You’re playing games,” she said.

  “I’m enjoying our conversation,” I said. “Maybe we could take it somewhere else? Less clothes, a little mood lighting, and a bottle of shiraz?”

  “You talk nonsense.” She swung at my head, forcing me to duck. “Besides, you just minced my one method for staying alive in the world.”

  “Have you tried friends?”

  “I have no friends. Everyone who was anyone has left me behind.”

  Her next swing was even wilder than the ones that came before, an attack made up of pure fury. My feet touched the soft earth from where the golem had stripped the cobblestones, and I activated Hidden Burrow. The ground rushed up to meet me, and I was hidden beneath the sand. It took a lot of Vigor to maintain the position, but I felt like I had a few minutes at least.

  “You dare flee from me?” Mahrai spat.

  “You said you didn’t have any friends, so I thought I’d stay down here while I gave you a proposition.” I wasn’t sure whether my voice would carry above the earth surrounding me, but Mahrai must have heard me because she responded.

  “What foolish proposition could you give me that I would consider for even a minute?”

  “Friendship,” I said. “I figure you haven’t met the right kind of people. Hell, if you’re just looking for some friends and you’ll stop being such a bitch, then you could just become one of mine.”

  “What?” Mahrai faltered.

  I erupted from the ground and landed onto the cobblestones beside her. Before she could react, I stepped in, grabbed her staff, and ripped it from her hands. With my other hand, I let go of the trident, and it clanged to the ground. I reached out and gently caressed her cheek.

  Mahrai closed her eyes, and a single tear ran down her face. “Fine. You played with my emotions by not killing me when you easily could have. And now, you promised me the one thing I could never have. Only so you could catch me by surprise and disarm me. Now, do me a mercy and finish me off.”

  I dropped her staff and embraced her. She stood stiffly in my arms until I lowered my face and kissed her on the forehead. Then, she began to shake.

  “I’ve got your back,” I said. “If you’ll trust me.”

  Mahrai looked up, tears in her eyes. “I’m just so tired. Tired of death and destruction. Tired of fooling myself that I was doing the right thing. Saruqin is pure evil, and I’ve been helping him.”

  “That’s over now. You can leave all of this behind, or if you want, you can help me set it right.”

  “I’d like that.” Her expression had softened, revealing the scared young woman behind the act of defiance and psychopathy.

  A loud clang sounded across the city. Mahrai looked around in alarm.

  “That’s the gates of the clan palace,” she said. “They’re doing their nightly patrols.”

  We both picked up our weapons and readied ourselves, standing side by side in the square, with the puddles of magma still glowing all around us. But though I was ready to fight if I must, my reserves of Vigor were badly depleted from the intensity of that Magma Burst and my Hidden Burrow. Mahrai was also drained, both physically and emotionally, her staff shaking in her hands.

  Howling cries emerged from the streets on the far side of the square. I caught glimpses of shining weapons, blazing torches, and malevolent faces topped with horns.

  “What the fuck are they?” I’d seen non-human creatures before, but these were something else. Their forms were bloated and grotesque, covered in blood-red scales. They hunched over while they marched, but they were still at least seven feet tall.

  “Lesser demons,” Mahrai said. “Saruqin has been trying to open a gateway to the demonic realm for months. It seems he’s finally succeeded.”

  Well, that was an interesting—and terrifying—development. But then I should probably have known that cultists were trying to do something nasty like opening up a portal and letting an army of demons into this world.

  “That explains the curfew,” I said as the movement came closer to the square. I could see that there were dozens of the demons, if not hundreds, all howling and hammering their black-bladed weapons together.

  “We can’t take them on,” I said. “Not alone. Not now.”

  I hated running from a fight, but this was a whole new kind of enemy that I knew nothing about.

  “What else can we do?” Mahrai asked. “I have nowhere to go.”

  “Yeah, you do. You’re my friend now. But friends don’t betray each other. You show even one sign of betrayal, and I’ll finish what I started today.”

  “Understood,” Mahrai said, her eyes sparkling with sincerity.

  My reply was a single nod before I turned and started running back toward the city gates, Mahrai trailing behind me.

  Chapter Twenty

  “This way!” Mahrai grabbed my hand and dragged me down a side street. Behind us, demonic howling echoed around the torch lit city like a storm of pure animal aggression.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “The mountain gate,” she replied. “Better chance of getting out that way.”

  We dashed through the streets, our footsteps hammering against the cobblestones. My heart was racing, the breath raw in my throat. Brief as it had been, the battle with the stone golem had used up a lot of my physical and magical energy. I needed to rest, and instead, I was running full tilt on aching legs toward an uncertain hope of safety.

  “Ha, they’ll never catch us!” Mahrai grinned she ran and flashed occasional pleased glances at me. Though her movements still betrayed her weariness, there was a lightness to her spirit that hadn’t been there before.

  “How can you be sure?” I asked, the words broken by deep breaths.

  “I can’t. But what’s life without a little risk?”

  The howling was growing louder. Either more demons were being unleashed or they were getting closer to us. The timing of events seemed far too coincidental, so I could only assume that Saruqin had discovered I was inside the city and was sending these demons to hunt me down.

  The only thing that might stop the demons was the city walls, and even then, Saruqin might choose to let the beasts out after us.

  “Can you summon your stone golem again?” I asked. “That would be one hell of a distraction to cover our getaway.”

  “I can only do it once a day,” Mahrai said. “That means nothing until tomorrow.”

  “Shame,” I said.

  It was the first time I’d seen an Augmentation with that sort of limit, but I wasn’t surprised. If a golem burned up all of Mahrai’s Vigor, then a good night’s sleep would see it returned by morning. She didn�
��t seem like the meditative type, so she wouldn’t have the ability to regain her Vigor like I did.

  We were getting closer to the walls now. The baying of the demons continued. When I glanced down the streets we ran past, I caught glimpses of torches, horns, and gleaming weapons. Their giant forms cast long shadows over the walls and streets. They might not have worked out where we were going, but as they spread out through Hyng’ohr, they were bound to stumble across us sooner or later.

  A pair of towers rose from the walls ahead and to the left—the upper peaks of the gatehouse. The torches were packed in more tightly here, creating an area of bright light that would make it impossible for anyone to sneak out unseen. In that light stood a score of guards, all armored and carrying hefty weapons.

  “Looks like we’ll have to fight our way out,” I said.

  Mahrai grinned. “It’s the only way to leave.”

  “You have betrayed our cause, priestess,” the lead guard said. “Saruqin saw your fate in the sands. You will die tonight.”

  “Really? Because I think Saruqin is full of shit. You’ll be the one to die tonight. Not me.”

  I drew the Sundered Heart Sword and considered sending Vigor down the blade to create flames. It would be an impressive show of strength, something that might intimidate the men before us. But I had so little Vigor left and was so weary from running, burning through my remaining reserves didn’t seem like a good idea.

  “We’d better make this quick.” Mahrai glanced back toward the sound of approaching demons.

  Suddenly, there was a burst of sand and a commotion near the back of the guards. Someone shouted in alarm, and most of the group looked around.

  There was another burst of sand near the front of the group, and Tahlis erupted from the ground. His spear darted back and forth, and three guards fell. By the time the others turned to face him, the guildmaster had disappeared back into a Hidden Burrow.