Path of Possession

by Harmon Cooper

  It wasted no time in charging forward.

  Saruul dove for Lhandon just in time, saving the monk from being gored to death.

  The demon bull didn’t stop.

  It smashed into the mob, bodies flying into the air. Hugo went for his spear. “Nick, we have to do something!” he said.

  “Hugo?” I asked, noticing something different about him, something familiar.

  “Come on,” he said, his voice haggard. “We can’t let it kill all these people, my people.” Hugo turned to me, his eyes narrowing. “Are you with me?”

  I glanced at Saruul and Lhandon, both of them with cautious looks on their faces. “I’m with you.”

  “Let’s go then.” Saruul quickly morphing into a lion as she took off after the demon.

  “I’m with the lioness,” Roger said, flapping into the air.

  “This should help some.” I quickly traced Bah-Mo, the heavily armored monkey taking shape. He glanced at both his scimitars, shook his hands out once, and jumped into the air, bolting toward the bull.

  “You have a monkey that fights for you?” Hugo asked.

  “It has been a weird month.”

  “Tell me about it,” he said as he started jogging toward the bull.

  I could still see people being flung up into the air, a trail of blood and trampled bodies in the demon bull’s wake.

  “Later, and my sword should help too,” I called to Hugo as I tried to keep up with him. As if it had heard what I just said, a white flame cascaded from the tip of the sword down to its hilt, fizzling out and merging with the rest of the flames.

  The demon bull turned and started heading in our direction.

  As soon as I caught sight of it, I triggered my time switch, Hugo still moving at his normal pace.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Lhandon frozen, a determined look on the monk’s face, his hands rimmed in electric blue sparks. Saruul was ahead of us, the lioness just about to shift to the right to avoid the bull. Roger was overhead, his talons extended in front of him as if he planned to land on the bull’s head.

  I took a step to the left, Hugo still moving at his normal pace as time sped up.

  Hugo leaped into the air, and rather than meet certain death at the end of the bull’s horns, he kicked off the bull’s forehead and landed on the demonic beast, steering it straight to the ground.

  Hugo and the demon bull came to a sliding stop.

  I took the opportunity to jab my sword into the bull’s side, the creature letting out an ear-piercing roar that overpowered the terrified cries of the crowd as they continued fleeing the scene.

  Bah-Mo dropped to the ground, immediately going on the attack and slicing at the demon bull’s body as it managed to buck Hugo off.

  The bull reared back onto its two hind legs and came down hard, a ripple of energy shooting forward and knocking all of us off our feet.

  All of us except Bah-Mo, who still hacked away.

  I needed the bull in a vulnerable position, and rather than charge at it with my Flaming Thunderbolt again, I went with the Cooling Fan of Broken Whispers, shouting for everyone who could hear me to get out of the way as I batted at the air with the fan.

  Hugo rolled to the right, Roger swooping away from the action.

  The wind smashed into the demon bull, the beast letting out an angry cry.

  The monster was able to hold strong, banners and discarded bits of food spinning in the air around the demon as it turned to face me.

  Bah-Mo continued to hack away at it, but his strikes only seemed to do surface damage, none of them able to actually stop the monstrosity.

  “Harder, Nick!” Lhandon shouted.

  I doubled down on the energy I was putting into the fan; it wasn’t long before the demon bull was knocked onto its side.

  “Nick, your sword!” Hugo cried as he abandoned his spear.

  I didn’t even have a moment to think twice about his request; I could always go back in time if Hugo betrayed us.

  And since Hugo was too far away to actually toss my sword to him, I merely threw my sword into the air, the wind catching it, Hugo jumping further than I’d ever seen someone jump before in pursuit of my weapon.

  He grabbed the sword by its hilt, and landed with a roll, immediately advancing on the bull.

  He climbed its body, was blown to its other side, and quickly stabbed his sword into the demon bull’s ribs, which allowed him to stabilize himself as I slowly lowered my fan.

  As the creature tried to shake Hugo off, its face contorting and eyes burning red, the former Marine held strong.

  The demon bull let out a final gasp; Hugo began butchering the creature, bringing my sword in and out so rapidly that I could barely see his movement. Using his foot to stabilize himself, Hugo stabbed my blade into the bull’s throat, his muscles pulsing as he sawed its head off.

  Still holding my sword, Hugo lifted the bull’s head by its horn, a grave expression on his face.

  He dropped the bull’s head and turned to me.

  “Nick… I’m…”

  “Emperor Hugo!” A trio of guards came forward, all of them dropping to their knees.

  I got the sense that they had been waiting to see how this played out, but didn’t say anything as he one who called out Hugo’s name stood, his head slightly bowed. “Our port is under siege!”

  “Under siege? By who?”

  The guard swallowed hard. “It appears to be the Kingdom of Lhasa.”

  Just as the soldier finished speaking, a seagull fell from the sky and smacked to the ground, clearly dead.

  A black pearl popped out of its mouth, rolling for a moment and stopping.

  “You can’t make this shit up,” Roger said as he landed on my shoulder. “Fucking seagulls.”

  “The Kingdom of Lhasa?” Hugo asked, not skipping a beat.

  “That may be because of us,” Lhandon said as he joined me, huffing and puffing. “It seems like Sona and Evan finally caught up to us.”

  “You think Evan is there?” Hugo asked, turning in the direction of the coast.

  “It would make sense,” I said.

  “Then we must go there. Now.”

  “What about all this?” I asked, waving my hand over the battle and stopping on the stage, where Sukhbat stood, awaiting his fate.

  “We can deal with this later. Sukhbat,” Hugo called to the heavyset monk, his voice suddenly amplified again, “you are free to go. We can meet later to discuss what has happened here. Tell your people to get to safety. Anyone with runic powers or combat skills should make their way to the port. We will send for reinforcements from Sor, but they will take twelve hours to get here. We must hurry. We must defend our country!”

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Fighting through the Crowd

  I ran alongside Hugo toward his palace, the sound of explosions on the horizon.

  There was no time to catch up, no time to unpack what had happened between us, or how the item that Hugo had been wearing had possessed him.

  “Emperor Hugo!” a soldier shouted. He was with a group that was helping civilians vacate their homes. “General Toshin has set up a planning outpost in a secure location near the palace. The other generals have begun moving heavy artillery out of the palace. Most of our siege defenses have fallen. General Thupten has led a charge to address the forces that have already landed.”

  “How did they do it?” Hugo asked.

  “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t have the answer to that question.”

  “We will proceed to the outpost,” Hugo said just as Lhandon caught up to us.

  Hugo motioned us toward his left, changing his trajectory to the side streets that ran in front of the palace, where the palatial homes were located. He came to a particular home surrounded by a white wall, two guards out front.

  They saw Hugo immediately and stepped aside.

  “I haven’t even begun to unpack all of this,” Roger said as he returned to my shoulder.

  “What did you see?”

/>   “Ships, and lots of them, Nick. I don’t know how they made it to the port. We were just there.”

  “It must have been a rune,” Lhandon said, no one paying much attention to his statement as we made our way through an arched doorway, the door made of wood that was easily a foot thick.

  “General Toshin,” Hugo said once we reached a large room on the second floor. There were maps laid out on a table and men on a balcony watching the battle through telescopes.

  “Emperor Hugo,” the general said as he looked up from his maps. He was an older man with a mole just above his lip, an absolutely stern expression on his face. “How much do you already know?”

  “Update me on the most pertinent details.”

  “The Kingdom of Lhasa began their attack twenty minutes ago,” the general said. “Their ships appeared out of nowhere, as if they were dropped from the sky. We believe it was runic magic.”

  “Okay.”

  “There are twelve ships, two of which are Immortal Brigs armed with long-range artillery.”

  “Warships. Have they started firing yet?” Hugo asked.

  “No, they appear to be waiting. Once the ships appeared they were already in the process of landing. Most of the merchant and passenger vessels have been destroyed, which was their first target.”

  “And they destroyed them without heavy artillery?” Hugo asked.

  “The merchant's vessels were attacked at the same time the ships were appearing,” General Toshin said quickly. “If they were, we have yet to see the warships fire since that point.”

  “Saving artillery. And none of the wards we have set picked up on any of their activity?”

  “No,” the general said.

  “They must be working with someone quite powerful, perhaps a Divine Master,” Lhandon said as Hugo made his way to the balcony. “But I don’t know who would lower themselves to that level.”

  “We have already met a monk that did,” I said, reminding him of Gomchen.

  “Ah, yes,” Lhandon said, a dark look coming across his face. “How could I forget?”

  A soldier stepped aside and Hugo looked through one of the telescopes, a slight breeze lifting the ends of his cape, the jewels still on his body reflecting in the light of the sun.

  “It could be a sacred object that disguised them,” General Toshin suggested.

  “An entire fleet?” I asked.

  Roger snorted. “Of all the things you’ve seen in our world, a bunch of invisible ships is the most questionable?”

  “I didn’t say that…”

  Before I could finish my thought, Hugo returned, his eyes flaring with anger. “I’ve seen enough here. I’m going down there and handling this myself. General Toshin, prepare all defenses to take out their warships. I will deal with the frontline.”

  “Yes, Emperor, but if I may be so bold…”

  “You may not,” Hugo told him firmly. “There are things I’ve done recently that I am not…” he swallowed, glancing at another soldier in the room. “Things that I’m not proud about. I cannot redeem myself for these things, but I can at least try. An emperor must lead his people if he expects them to take charge in his absence. Nick, you and your party may stay here.”

  “You know that’s not happening,” I said as I placed my hand on the hilt of my weapon. “If Evan or Sona are down there, you’ll need my help.”

  “Sona?”

  “Don’t get me started on her,” Roger said with a groan.

  “She’s the leader of Madame Mabel’s elite guard,” Lhandon explained, “and the person responsible for razing the Monastery of the Exalted One to the ground.”

  “Then you may come with me,” Hugo said, turning to the door.

  I glanced at Lhandon and Saruul, both of them nodding, only Lhandon wearing a mask of apprehension.

  No one needed to make the suggestion to Roger, the bird already racing after Hugo, itching to join the battle. We passed soldiers at the front gate, both of them calling out to their Emperor with concern.

  Hugo ignored them, his sole focus on getting to the front of the battle, the man exuding determination.

  It was hard to keep up with him.

  He ran faster than any of us, and I had a feeling he wasn’t running at full capacity.

  “Nick, my blade,” Roger said as he swooped down in front of me.

  I crouched quickly and took his knife from my boot, holding it in the air. He grabbed it by its tassel, the blade weighing him down once he took off.

  “Do we even know what we’re doing?” Saruul asked, the lioness’ ears flitted back.

  “We’re stopping their invasion,” I told her.

  “I mean, yes, I understand that part, but have you thought any of this through? Hugo is charging into a battle that we may not be able to win, not with our numbers.”

  “I…”

  “Your point is taken, Saruul,” Lhandon said it, the monk sucking in deep gulps of air. “But we can’t let them ransack the city, and it is true, this is our karma.”

  “Our karma?”

  He nodded at her. “We’re the ones that brought them here. If we hadn’t come to this island, the Kingdom of Lhasa would have stayed put. So in a way, this is our doing. No, not in a way, this is our doing.”

  “You know I’m with you, Nick,” she said, “I just don’t want…”

  “Let’s wrap this up,” Roger called down to us.

  “I don’t want this to end here. If it’s going to end somewhere, then so be it, but I don’t want it to end here,” she said, the look on her face making it clear that she was trying to hold back. “Not on this island.”

  “I won’t let that happen,” I assured her. “Remember, I set a marker; I can always go back.”

  “And relive all of that again?”

  “If it comes to one of you facing serious injury that I can’t heal, it’s definitely worth it. Let’s do this,” I told them, my hand coming to my sword. “And remember our main targets: Evan and Sona.”

  “And any monk they may have in their employ,” Lhandon said. “Whoever concealed those boats…”

  “Right,” I said, turning in Hugo’s direction.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the hill that led down to the port, where we found many of the buildings on fire, the merchant ships and passenger vessels mostly sunk, chaos in the air tuned to the sounds of clinking weapons and desperate bellows. I saw a handful of ships on the horizon, but most were close to the docks, soldiers continuing to file out of them.

  It only took me a second to locate Hugo, who had grabbed two swords from fallen soldiers, spinning as he wielded his blades. He cut his way through elite guard after elite guard, an absolutely savage look in the way that he moved, as arcs of blood spritzed the air, a grace to his combat that made it clear he was experienced.

  Two soldiers in snow lion armor charged at me. I launched into action, cutting one of them down with my Flaming Thunderbolt.

  The fire from my sword took a third man by surprise, the man stepping back, Saruul crashing into him. The lioness tore the man to the ground, her jaw clenched around his neck as she dragged him to the side.

  Roger spun forward with his blade, distracting a soldier who was running at us with a spear. Faster than ever, Hugo stepped in front of the man and cut his spear away, quickly sending one of his swords through an opening in the man’s armor.

  The soldier I was engaging came in for another swing that would have taken off my arm at the elbow had I not absorbed the blow.

  He swatted his sword at me again and I blocked it with my Flaming Thunderbolt, parrying his next attack, and feigning a strike of my own that sent him into a defensive posture, which allowed me to swing my sword to the side and deliver a fatal blow.

  I focused only on the soldiers we were engaging, too many now in the distance, everything surging toward us as a small squadron of Hugo’s reinforcements showed up.

  A fist cracked me the back of the head.

  I stumbled forward, tur
ning just in time to avoid another punch. It was one of Sona’s ninja-like warriors, the same type that had attacked me in my room back at the monastery in Lhasa.

  There were more of them now, running on some of the roofs that weren’t on fire as they prepared to join the battle.

  Lhandon shifted his hand forward, electrified ice energy rippling around his wrist just as one of the stealth fighters landed. The ninja cried out as ice spread over his body, the man looking up to the sky as his eyes hardened.

  I continued forward, Hugo and I now back to back, fighting enemies on either side. He wielded his two swords as if he had done it all his life; I swung my Flaming Thunderbolt as best I could, the fire licking off the blade forcing everyone back.

  It was a mess, the start of a massacre, and it was hard to tell the soldiers apart, especially as the mob thickened, carnage swelling in my periphery.

  Needing a moment to process all this, I activated my time switch, getting a better look at my surroundings.

  I was glad that I did.

  There was a man charging in my direction, easily three heads taller than me, his sword held over his shoulder like he was about to hit a home run.

  I stepped aside and did something I’d always wanted to do, yet never had a time ability nor the necessity to do.

  I stuck my foot out, everything returning to its normal pace, the man tripping and flying head first into the ground. He lost hold of his sword, which went twisting off to the side and cracked into an overturned cart that already had two dead soldiers leaning against it.

  Saruul leaped on top of the big swordsman a second later, ripping off his armor, finishing what I started.

  I pressed to the front of the fight, my sword going into its sheath as I went for my Cooling Fan of Broken Whispers.

  I stroked the air once, then twice, knocking a group of incoming guards backward.

  I got into the rhythm, doing it again, a great zephyr swelling forward and tearing through their ranks, the tornado of power also forcing some of their helmets off and causing many of them to lose their grips on their weapons.