by Eric Vall
“It’s being controlled!” Aurora exclaimed, and I caught a whiff of evergreen as she stretched out her arms. Suddenly, a wall of flame leapt up between us and the giant scorpion. “I can feel someone pushing against me when I try to extinguish it. I can hold it off, but you need to be far from here! Get the other mages to safety!”
Like hell I’d run.
I waited until the giant fire scorpion had struck the shield and been held back so I knew Aurora would be safe. Then I took a very deep breath and tried something new. I held my arms stiffly by my sides and connected with my element beneath my boots.
First, there was the sucking sound, and then the earth collapsed beneath me. I was pulled under the earth feet first and stone melted around me like butter on a hot knife. I shut my eyes, but I felt the drag of being underground, touched by roots and worms and stones. Just before I was out of breath, I burst out of the ground like some sort of super hero mole man.
I was in a trench and as I looked around me, I saw two Terra Mages and Bagnera, the Ignis Mage other than Aurora. They stared at me as I dusted off my clothes and pulled myself over the trench.
I could see the giant fire scorpion from my new vantage point as it hammered on Aurora’s fire shield. My first move was to turn to Bagnera.
“You need to form a circuit with Aurora and intensify that shield,” I ordered quickly.
Bagnera nodded, and her brows furrowed as she concentrated. As she did so, the shield grew larger and stronger before our eyes. It stretched nearly thirty feet up into the air and was at least fifteen feet wide. No way that fucking monster was getting through.
Still, I had to tear my eyes away from my half-elf lover as I turned to the Terra Mages next. They were a middle-aged couple, a husband and wife named Jovion and Zerla. I hadn’t spoken with them much, but I hoped they could hold their own.
“Come on, let’s bury it,” I said as I summoned my power to the surface again.
The three of us knelt, held our hands to the ground, and joined our focus together. We then sent a wave of power out, and we picked up the dust, mud, and pebbles out and let them swirl around the beast. Most of the debris melted and fell to the ground like a waterfall, but some seemed to have an effect. As we doused the creature in dirt and soil, the flames surrounding its body began to flicker and lower.
Suddenly, I saw movement close to the monster, and the scorpion seemed to noticed it as well.
My heart leapt into my throat when I realized it was Pindor.
He had his back to the scorpion as he ran for cover further away, so he didn’t see it was now locked on to him. With an awful chittering, clacking noise, it scurried after him on its eight legs and quickly gained on the young Terra Mage.
“Pindor! Behind you!” I shouted as I tried to summon up my magic quick enough and send it hurtling toward the beast.
Aurora must have noticed too because she sent her own wall of flame roaring across the ground, but we were both a second too slow.
Pindor whirled around, and my heart skipped a beat as he appeared to freeze in terror at the creature as it came upon him. Just before it was in striking distance, however, a wall of stone erupted up from the ground between them, and the scorpion, unable to stop its momentum, crashed into it in an explosion of fire.
I realized it wasn’t terror that caused Pindor to pause but concentration on his Terra magecraft.
“Way to go, kid,” I murmured to myself.
The scorpion recovered from its collision and backed up away from the wall in front of it. I knew what it was going to do, and I put my hand to the ground to try to counter it. Just as I felt the pulse of my power surge through the ground to build up and strengthen Pindor’s wall, I saw the scorpion’s tail stab forward and break through the stone.
There was an agonizing scream as the wall broke away, and I knew the boy had been hit.
No one hurt my mages.
“Hey!” I shouted as I stepped out from my cover. Rage bubbled through my blood like magma, and I raised my hands in front of me as I faced the fire-beast. “Come and get me, motherfucker!”
I suddenly remembered what Aurora said about the creature being controlled. If that were true, and it wasn’t purely acting on instinct, then it would recognize I was a bigger threat than Pindor and I was exposed.
It seemed the half-elf’s analysis was correct, because the giant fire scorpion quickly turned and barreled toward me. The train had been the primary target, and me, the train-builder, was the next best one.
I tapped into my power and pulled up stone wall after stone wall between us. I could no longer see it, but from the sound, it crashed through them almost as soon as I put them up. It would be on me in a minute.
This thing really was a pain in the ass. Give me a goddamn drake anyday.
I gritted my teeth, and my mind churned to find a different plan, but then I heard another sound.
A roar in the distance that got louder as it approached.
A roar that was very familiar.
“Haragh!” I heard Pindor shout from across the field, and I snapped my head up as my heart hammered in my chest.
It was more than Haragh. It was Cayla, Shoshanne, and Haragh aboard Bobbie 2.0. The motorcycle leaped over the rocky landscape at full speed, a cloud of dust behind it, and they barreled straight toward me. The scorpion must have seen them too, because I didn’t hear it crash through any more of my walls.
My connection with Bobbie was as strong as ever, and without words, I knew she was on a direct path to me. Through this connection, I told her to stop and let out her passengers. It was a calculated risk, but I thought it a safe one.
As safe as this situation warranted at any rate.
I could immediately hear Bobbie’s riders as they objected to her sudden lack of movement.
“What are you doing, ya stupid metal steed?” Haragh shouted. “Go!”
“What’s happening?” Cayla cried out. “Mason!”
I stepped out so they could see me and shouted, “Run to me! Bobbie will distract it!”
The moment I was visible to the scorpion, it came at me just as I had expected. I sent a pulse through the ground, and a pit of quicksand opened up beneath the monster. The beast of flame sank for a moment, but the heat around it almost immediately solidified the ground, so the overheated sand only stopped the scorpion’s charge and slowed it down a moment.
I retreated behind the wall, but I could see Cayla, Haragh, and Shoshanne rush toward me over the rocky ground. I ripped up some boulders from the ground and let them hover in the air around them to give them a little more extra cover.
Bobbie and I “talked” to one another, and I explained to her that she needed to do her best to keep the giant fire scorpion distracted. She got it right away, and I heard the roar of her engine as she blasted forward toward the monster.
“What were you thinking?” Haragh growled as he reached me, and there was genuine anger in his voice when he grabbed my shoulder. “All night, we drive to you, and you drop us off right in front of a giant fire scorpion?”
“I knew you’d be okay,” I explained calmly. “The creature wanted the train, and now it wants me. It didn’t give two fucks about you.”
“What can we do?” asked Cayla earnestly. Her blue eyes were wide, and there was a smudge of dirt across her porcelain cheekbone.
“I’m all out of ideas,” I replied, frustrated. “The damn thing is burning too hot for my Terra and metal powers, and Aurora said her Ignis magic was being thwarted by some outside force that’s controlling the scorpion. I wish I could pump the fucking thing full of lead, but the bullets would melt before they’d do any harm. It’s like someone knew how to specifically counteract my magic. All I know is the goddess Nemris said we needed Haragh here at this moment.”
“Goddess? Me?” Haragh asked as he released his tight grip on my shoulder. His green face was twisted in a bewildered expression. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
Despite his size and
general bravado, the eight-foot tall Terra Mage clearly lacked confidence. I had to remind myself that this was probably his first battle, like with all my other mages. Fighting monsters and magically manipulated men was normal for me, but it did take some getting used to.
I gave Haragh a moment while I watched Bobbie run circles around the scorpion. It was a delicate dance to get close enough and then pull back. The beast tried to catch the motorcycle in its claws, but Bobbie skirted away at the last second and threw up dust, which at least momentarily paused the scorpion’s assault.
That gave me an idea. I licked my finger, touched the rock in front of me, and brought the dust to my mouth. Then I turned to Haragh.
“You have a particular skill at controlling gems and crystals, right?” I asked quickly. “Salt is a crystal, and the baroness told us there are salt mines in the area. I taste salt in the dust. Is that something you can tap into?”
“Maybe, but how would that help?” the half-ogre questioned with a furrowed brow.
“Salt is one of the best things to use to put out a fire,” I explained, “assuming you can get enough of it.”
“I will try,” Haragh said, and he raised his arms and began to concentrate.
“What do we do?” Cayla asked as she placed a hand on my elbow.
I couldn’t see Bobbie behind my wall, but I felt her circling back in my direction. I reached out through my connection with the motorcycle and asked her to come to me.
“See if you can keep me from getting myself killed,” I instructed as I stepped out from behind the wall. “I’m going to try to buy Haragh some more time!”
Cayla shouted after me, but I was already gone.
Bobbie slowed down just a bit as she roared past me, long enough for me to jump on. We turned sharply to avoid the scorpion’s stinger, and then popped around the creature to make it spin. I took off down into the maze of rocks and could hear it behind me, the scuttle of its feet and the crash as it knocked into the formations and boulders. The scorpion was fast and very nimble for a monster of its size.
I made a fast turn into a low valley with the beast right behind me, close enough that I could feel its heat. Bobbie accelerated to full speed as we wove around the corners and under natural bridges. We finally had put some distance between us when we made a quick turn and found ourselves at a dead end, a sheer wall of stone.
Bobbie braked and spun to avoid a crash. The giant fire scorpion rounded the corner, and it filled up the entire space of the valley.
I was trapped.
But I wasn’t going down without a hell of a fight. As Bobbie and I squared off with the flame-beast, I raised my right arm and summoned up as much power as I could muster. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it yet, but I was going to give this bastard all I got.
Right as the creature raised its stinger up, a shot echoed through the valley with a sharp crack, and the scorpion reacted with a hiss of surprise.
I whipped my head up and could just see Cayla standing on top of one of my walls at least a couple hundred yards away, a smoking rifle in her arms.
Way to go, Princess Crackshot.
However, my celebration was short lived.
As I watched, the molten remains of the bullet dropped to the ground with a sizzling sound. It had melted before it struck the creature, so obviously the scorpion was just surprised, not hurt.
I knew I had to take advantage of its distraction because it wouldn’t last long.
With a quick pulse of my power, I spun the bike around, turned the wall at our backs into a ramp, and revved up Bobbie. Then we shot up and out of the small valley with a deafening roar of the engine. I tried to collapse the ramp as soon as I jumped, but the scorpion was too fast and scrambled up the ramp to wind up right next to us. I spun again, wheels churning in the dust, and started heading back where we came from.
Cayla still stood on the wall and fired at the scorpion, but this time, it didn’t react or slow down when it was hit.
“Don’t waste the bullets, they just melt!” I shouted.
Haragh suddenly stepped out from behind the wall ahead of us, a ball of white crystals in the air in front of him. I knew I would have to get the scorpion to stop to allow the half-ogre to use his ball of crystalline salt, which meant I would have to stop myself.
The trick was how to do that without ending up dead.
I circled the area with the beast behind me, and as I did it, I reached out with my power and lifted up a stone wall in the center. With each pass, I added more to the structure, another wall and another. By my fourth circle, I had completed a hut with one entrance. The scorpion was nearly on me when I made a quick turn to head into the hut.
“Haragh!” I shouted. “The target is ready!”
I tapped into my power and lifted a wall behind me, so I was sealed within the small structure just before the monster reached me. Bobbie skidded to a halt, and the walls trembled as the scorpion beat on them with its claws and stinger. I sent a pulse of power to support the stone, but I knew it wouldn’t hold up for long under the beast’s ravaging flames.
Cracks and fissures began to form in the walls faster than I could reinforce them. A chunk of the ceiling burst inward, followed by a claw. Then another claw broke through, and the rest of the structure began to crumble. I worried I hadn’t given Haragh enough time, and this was the end. The heat of the scorpion was so close, it felt like an oven in the hut.
I was just about to summon another burst of power to suck Bobbie and I into the earth again when the scorpion’s stinger crashed into the wall, and it crumbled away completely. Then I was face to face with the monster, but it wasn’t the same beast I had seen before. It was white now, crusted with salt, and it was smaller than before.
It was also getting smaller by the second.
The scorpion thrashed about as it shrank, so I wanted to get out of the way. Bobbie and I shot out of the remains of the hut and raced over to the walls where Cayla and Haragh stood.
By the time I reached them and turned around, the scorpion had vanished entirely.
I collapsed forward onto Bobbie’s handlebars and sucked in a deep breath.
“That was too close,” I panted and clapped Haragh on the back. “Way to make it dramatic, buddy.”
Cayla jumped down from the wall and ran into my arms.
“I was really scared for you,” she gasped as she buried her face into my chest. “I was trying to help, but that thing just kept coming.”
“Shh, it’s alright,” I said to her soothingly as I stroked her raven black hair. “We’re all okay.” I held the beautiful princess as all around us, the mages came out from hiding. Then Aurora carreened around one of the walls and joined us in our embrace.
“Don’t do that,” the half-elf hissed as she buried her face in my neck. She smelled like sweat and soot, and I wanted nothing more than to kiss her forever. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop diving head first into danger?” She pulled back with a teary scowl and punched me in the shoulder.
“Ouch,” I chuckled as I rubbed the sore spot. The I flashed my worried blue-haired lover a cheeky grin. “Sorry to worry you, dear. I’ll be sure to not schedule giant flaming scorpions for our next vacation.”
“Good,” she huffed before she threw her arms around my neck and pressed her mouth to mine.
A few moments later, Pindor came over, and I could see the extent of his injuries. The shoulder of his white mage’s robe had been burned away and showed the ugly black and red scorch on his chest and arm.
Shoshanne, who I hadn’t greeted yet, noticed at the same time as I did, and she hurried over to him to tend to it. It just showed me how close I came to an even worse fate.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you,” I said to Shoshanne. “Your timing was as good as Haragh’s. You found someone to run the infirmary at Magehill, I guess?”
“Yes, you know him, Karoo,” Shoshanne replied as she began to bind Pindor’s burns with linen soaked in medicin
al herbs that she pulled from a satchel around her shoulder. “He’s the old guy who broke his leg in the mine. Turns out he has the temperament and a real knack for care. Of course, we don’t have giant fire scorpion attacks at Magehill.”
“Yeah, what the hell was that thing?” Cayla asked as her eyes darted to the carnage and damage all around us. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“No, no one has,” Aurora said grimly, and a dark look passed behind her emerald eyes. “It was created and controlled by an Ignis Mage. I could feel their magic push back against mine when I tried to extinguish the beast.”
“Would you be able to do it?” I asked. “Control the scorpion, I mean, given enough time?”
Aurora shook her head. “It would have to be someone very powerful.”
“And nearby,” I pointed out. “That’s not the kind of thing you create and send it out to wander on its own.”
My eyes found Bagnera among the crowd of mages, just one of the many frightened members of our group, but also the only other Ignis Mage beside Aurora.
The half-elf followed my gaze and shook her head.
“No,” Aurora whispered to answer my unspoken question. “She’s not powerful enough.”
“And she couldn’t be faking it?” I asked in a low voice.
“She could have up to the point when we shared our power with the circuit ritual,” the half-elf replied, “but there’s no faking it after that.”
“This is definitely the work of the Master,” I said grimly. “It was going after the train first and then me.”
“Where is the train by the way?” Cayla asked as she looked around. “Did the beast destroy it?”
“Hold on,” I said as I sent out my powers in a wave toward where my locomotive was buried. I softened the ground first, and then I let the bedrock underneath surge up and carry the locomotive with it. It rose in a cloud of dirt and pebbles, and it looked like a godsdamn mess.
It almost broke my heart to see my beautiful train caked with soil and muck.
Churchwell patted my back sympathetically. “We got this, Defender Flynt,”
Then he and the other Terra Mages walked out to the train with arms outstretched. The rocks and dirt that streaked the locomotive began to dissolve and float away at their command. Within a few minutes, the train was clean, and I joined them to inspect it.
