by Ramy Vance
He waved his staff, vanishing for a moment and reappearing behind Anabelle. He swung his staff at her and she ducked as she landed, swiping at his legs with a spinning kick.
The cyclops jumped out of the way, flipping backward, moving remarkably gracefully for someone so large. Anabelle figured he must be using magic to augment his movements. That didn't matter. As long as she put him down fast, he wasn't going to be a problem.
Abby and Terra watched from the sidelines as Anabelle and the cyclops circled each other.
The elf surged forward and burst into a cloud of smoke, then reappeared behind the cyclops. He leaned back and blocked her attack with his staff, then kicked at Anabelle, forcing her to move back. He slammed his staff into the ground, causing jagged chunks of rock to shoot in her direction.
It only took a small effort to deflect the attacks. "Are you two going to stand there, or are you going to help me?" Anabelle shouted.
Terra and Abby pointed at each other. "Oh, you mean us?" Terra asked. "You walked out there like you had all of this taken care of. We thought you were—"
"Get your asses over here."
Abby's armor flowed over her body, and she lunged at the cyclops as Terra stomped her foot, breaking up the ground, and pulling a reasonably sized rock out of it. She hurled it at the cyclops as Abby flew above him and fired.
The cyclops melted into the sand, re-forming next to the trees that encroached on the open space they fought in. He tapped the tree with his staff, knocking down a few coconuts that floated around him. The coconuts caught fire, and he tossed them in front of Terra.
The coconuts exploded in front of Terra, sending her flying through the air, screaming.
She hit the ground and rolled as she desperately tried to put out the fire. Small cyclopes walked out of the cracked coconuts. They ran after Terra and threw a rope around her, rushing to pin her to the ground. "What the ever-loving fuck is this?" she shouted.
The cyclops was laughing. In the brief time Anabelle and Abby had taken their eyes off of him, he had gathered more coconuts. "I'm just nuts for these things!"
Abby groaned as Terra screamed for help. "Ugh. Is he one of those kinds of bad guys?"
Coconuts sailed through the air. Abby wasn't going to risk any more surprises. She auto-targeted the coconuts and fired, blowing apart all ten of them.
As the coconuts split, drakes the size of small cats flew from the wreckage. They went straight for Abby, who tossed up an energy shield to block the fire spewing from their mouths.
One of the drakes didn't bother turning away from the shield, instead crashing into it and exploding into flower petals. Then the flower petals vaporized into green gas.
Abby stumbled back, holding her breath and waving her hand in front of her to scan the cloud of gas. "Don't inhale it! It's poisonous."
Using the distraction to its advantage, a drake managed to get behind Abby. It grew larger, contorting and shifting into the cyclops. Once he was fully formed, he cracked Abby across the head with his staff.
Anabelle let out a roar, slamming her hands together and launching a jet of fire at the cyclops. He whirled his staff in front of him like the blades of a helicopter, repelling her fire.
"Ah, magic, the ever-versatile tool." The cyclops laughed. "Looks like that might be where you draw all of your strength. Did you think we hadn't been watching your techniques? A one-trick-pony, I'm afraid, using magic to make you strong. The human is just strong, and the little girl likes fancy toys that go boom. Too easy."
The cyclops slammed his staff on the ground, causing a hole to open beneath Anabelle. She flipped out of the way and took cover in the trees.
Terra was still struggling with the small cyclopes, which had split into doubles of each other. Some were walking on top of her, shocking her with their staffs as others hurried to finish pinning Terra down.
Abby was flying ahead, trying to shoot the drakes speeding after her.
Anabelle watched, assessing what she could use to her advantage. She hadn't fought a wizard one-on-one before. Anytime the team had come across one, they’d had a magical heavy hitter with them.
The war elf’s magical understanding wasn't very detailed. She could manipulate the energy and elements around her, but that was about it.
Still, that said, all she needed was one good punch, and he'd go down.
“Everyone has a plan until they’re punched in the face,” Anabelle muttered to herself. And only a stupid warrior relied on one technique. She concentrated on the shadows of the ropes holding down Terra.
The ropes had to be magical if they were strong enough to hold down the gladiator, but even magical ropes still had a tangible existence.
Anabelle hit her comm. "Abby, I'm going for Terra. Can you cover me?"
"Got it!" Abby answered, turning in midair and releasing an electric shockwave that gave her some room to breathe before heading back down toward the cyclops.
Anabelle leaped out of the trees, looking as if she were going to attack the cyclops. Even though she had no intention of following through, she watched him closely and noticed he looked much more frightened by her approach than before. She couldn’t worry about that now. She needed to focus.
Her body turned into mist and passed straight through the cyclops, who yelped loudly. She floated over to Terra, converted to water, and fell to the ground in a mini-tidal wave that swept away the small cyclopes.
With the little bastards gone, Anabelle re-formed and reached for the magical ropes binding the gladiator, then she snapped the ropes shadows. With the magical tether gone, the ropes disappeared.
Terra leaped to her feet. “I'm going to kill that fucker."
She ran at the cyclops, pulling her axe from her back. She swung at him, but he managed to step back at the perfect time, dodging her attack.
There was no way the attack wouldn't have landed. Anabelle had seen it. Terra's blade had barely missed him. The cyclops could not have managed to move back so slightly and avoid being hit by a fraction.
Terra attacked again, undeterred. The cyclops dodged that attack as well. Terra continued to swing her axe, stepping closer to the cyclops, who smiled smugly, effortlessly dodging Terra's blade.
That can't be right, Anabelle thought.
The cyclops leaped back and pressed his hand to his ears. "Do you hear that?"
There was a loud oinking coming from the forest. "My children have returned."
A herd of wild boar came running out and encircled the cyclops, whose staff was held high. "Kill, my piggish children, kill!"
The boars reared back on their hind legs, grunting loudly, their eyes full of blood lust and foam coming from their mouths. Three of them rushed Anabelle, who was so caught off-guard that she slashed in front of her, creating a wall of fire to give herself a few moments to figure out what the hell was going on.
There wasn't a whole lot of time to think. Coconuts were flying through the air.
A boar stepped through the flames. As it approached Anabelle, it grew larger and more human-like. Some of the tiny cyclopes were climbing up the boar man's dense fur, holding staffs and creating magical fireballs.
More of the boar men were stepping across the flames, undeterred by the fire.
Anabelle saw Abby trying to outrun a few of the boar men who had sprouted obscene fleshy wings.
She turned to Terra, who was behind her, and asked, "Do you think you can take care of these guys? I'm going to try to get that staff out of that asshole's hands."
Terra pulled another axe from her back and spun both in her hands. "We’re eating pig tonight, baby!" she shouted as she ran into the throng of boar men, slashing in a hurricane of blades and cutting through whatever she could. Abby flew above, raining down small plasma mines that exploded anytime one of the boar men got close to her.
Anabelle leaped over the wall of fire. The cyclops gave her an infuriatingly smug smile.
"I'm going to beat that smile off of your face." She ran at the
cyclops and slid under him. Before the cyclops could turn around, Anabelle kicked his wrist, sending the magic staff into the air.
He backed away, eyes wide, as Anabelle caught the staff. "And I'm going to use this."
Anabelle swung at the cyclops’ head, throwing everything into the attack. She was going to take his head clear off.
Somehow, the cyclops was able to move out of the way. Anabelle screamed in rage as she set fire to the staff. She swung it at his head again, narrowly missing, then at his legs, which he nimbly sidestepped. Anabelle slashed and lunged at the cyclops repeatedly, yet he stayed narrowly out of reach, smiling as he did.
It made no sense. She had managed to kick the cyclops’ staff from his hand effortlessly, yet here he was, dodging her attacks. She was fast, but the cyclops was faster. She’d never faced anyone as fast as him. He was faster than Grok.
"Make way!" Terra shouted.
Anabelle turned just in time to move out of the way as Terra flew back, propelled by one of the boar men.
She crashed into the cyclops and the two of them tumbled together, scrambling to get away from each other.
"Wait!" Anabelle shouted. "Abby, get over here."
Abby, who had finished dealing with the boars that had been chasing her, hovered a few feet away. "Yeah?"
"Shoot him in the foot."
"What?"
"Go for it."
Abby took aim and fired, and a plasma bolt blasted through the cyclops' foot.
He yowled in pain.
Terra scratched her head. "I don't get it. How come we couldn't hit him before?"
Anabelle ran up to the cyclops, stopping a few inches from him, and punched him in the shoulder. "Magic." She grabbed the cyclops by his neck and lifted him into the air. "Care to explain to my friends before I make a carefully curated selection of which bones to break?"
The cyclops threw up his hands. "Okay, okay, I surrender. I didn't think you would figure it out. It's a spell, a precog that lets me see how I'm going to die."
“Pretty ingenious. In a field where everyone's trying to kill you, it would pretty much nullify any real threats. And that’s how we beat you. We stopped trying to kill you, and with that threat gone, your little precog spell was useless.” Anabelle headbutted the cyclops, knocking him out.
She knelt and handcuffed him. "Let's get out of here. We have some information to get."
Terra pointed over her shoulder at the boar men. "Shouldn't we take care of those?"
Anabelle glanced at them and flexed, sending a blast of mana from her body. "All right, but let's make it quick."
Chapter Nine
The cyclops was escorted beneath HQ, where a labyrinth of dungeons held captured warlords, double agents, and high-level military.
As Terra prepped to go down to the lower level to interrogate the captured cyclops, she received a message from Cire. It simply read: I'm coming. Can we speak?
One thing Terra had needed to get used to over the last year was the personality change that had come over Cire since he had taken over the role of shaman. Part of the ritual had been absorbing all of the memories of past shamans, as well as having his soul stored in Terra's body.
The result was a surprisingly serious demeanor. Granted, Cire had always been fairly serious, but he had also been a shy, lovable goofball. That was gone now.
Yeah, Terra responded. I have to interrogate some loser, but I'm free after that.
There was a loud knock on Terra's door. She sighed as she walked over to open it.
When Terra flung the door open, she gasped loudly.
Cire was standing in the threshold, holding a bouquet of flowers wrapped around a battle-axe. "Are you surprised?"
Terra jumped onto him, knocking him to the ground, and covered his face in kisses before rolling off and admiring the axe. She pulled the flowers off and put them in a vase that held the flowers Cire sent on a regular basis.
The axe had a good balance to it, better than either of the two Terra was using at the moment. "Where did you get it?"
Cire reached for the axe, turning it over in his hand until the inscription on its pommel was visible. "This was crafted by the dwarven lords of Mototh. They haven't smelted an axe for an orc in hundreds of years. It was sent as a sign of goodwill between our people. I thought you would have more use for it than I do."
Terra took the axe back and sliced the air with it. "I love it. You're getting your soul fucked out of you tonight." She attached the axe to her back. "How did you manage to get away?"
Cire walked farther into the room, admiring Terra’s orcish decorations. "The council is ancient. They must remember that. They must remember they have wisdom. They must then remember to rely on that wisdom. My departure will, hopefully, help those memories surface."
Terra leaned over Cire and kissed his forehead. She had missed him, and it felt good to have him so close and be able to feel his body beneath hers. "It's about time you came to visit me. I don't know the next time I'll be able to make it back to sleep here. Do you have royal beds?"
Cire shook his head as he smiled. "No, the shaman has only a cot in a poorly insulated hut. It is to remind us of our fragility and strength. But the Hand, well, he has an entire wing dedicated to him."
"We're going to have to take advantage of that sometime soon, but for now, I have work to take care of."
"Do you mind if I join you? It has been too long since I've seen Anabelle and Abby."
Terra was already heading toward the door. "Of course, come on."
As they walked down the halls, Cire talked about what had been happening on the orc world in her absence. Their homeworld was still being flooded by emissaries from other realms. At times, it was difficult to tell who was coming to the council with genuine interest and who was planning on exploiting the orcish people.
Cire was blunt about the issue with humans. Generally speaking, most of the other races were trying to mend the ties that had been broken with orcs. Even the elves were putting forth effort, though they weren't ready to issue a formal apology. The humans who had come to the planet were problematic, however. Recently, as anti-orc sentiment had increased on Earth, there had been an alarming number of terrorist attacks.
Terra was embarrassed. Even though she had nothing to do with the attacks, she felt somewhat responsible.
As if he could read Terra's mind, Cire said, "You needn't worry. You have not lost the support or love of the orcish people because of the humans. None question your loyalty. You and Abby will never be forgotten for what you've done for the orcs."
"What about Anabelle?"
"Old grudges die hard. Perhaps that will change with the decisions of the elves."
As the two of them stood in the elevator descending into the prison, Terra and Cire switched roles. She told Cire about the recent change to human crime. Too many people had gotten their hands on the leftovers of the Dark One's tech, and there were enough people smart enough to figure out how to use it. That didn't even touch on the sudden introduction of magical items.
"For the most part, you know, people don't see it," Terra said. "They see the gnomes and elves walking around and all the small, cool stuff. But wrong people are getting their hands on this shit. Governments and armies are buying it up, and there's nothing we can do about it. Myrddin's taken a pretty strong stance on not interfering in global politics. We're handling the integration aspect and trying to help things move along smoothly. We also put down anything that gets out of hand."
Cire nodded solemnly. "So, humans are doing what everyone was afraid they would?"
"Who knows if that's what's going to happen? We have our fingers crossed. I would have thought this would unite everyone, but we'll see."
"It is the cruel fate of mortals to consume each other."
Terra pointed a finger at Cire. "Hey, what did we talk about? No ominous lich-like phrases."
Cire smiled as he relaxed, reminding Terra that he was nothing like Rasputina. "Sorry. Existence i
s a complete and utter pleasure."
They turned the corner and spotted Abby and Anabelle waiting outside the cyclops' cell. Terra smiled back as she turned to face Cire. "That's what I'm talking about. Pure, unreasonable positivity."
Abby jerked her thumb at the door. "It's your turn to get answers."
Terra groaned loudly as she banged her head against the cell door. "Ugh, really? I hate doing this. I'm not good at being mean."
"Terra, you head-butt and decapitate people all the time."
"That's not mean, that's war! It's not like I walk around cutting people's heads off."
Anabelle, who was looking through the glass portal on the door, turned to face Terra. "Okay, we have a job. This is part of it."
Terra whined as she leaned against the wall. "Are you sure you don't want to do it? You love being stern and mean to people."
Anabelle crossed her arms and glared at her, the same look Terra remembered receiving from teachers. "I do not enjoy being stern or mean, and you are going to get in there and beat that cyclops to a bloody pulp if you need to."
Terra stood up, muttering under her breath, "Fine, but I'm only going to enjoy it a little bit." Secretly, she hoped the cyclops gave up the information quickly. She hated interrogations. If Sarah had been there, Terra would have pawned it off on her.
She opened the cell door and stepped inside.
The cyclops was sitting on his bed. The cell was comfortable-looking. There was a desk with a few flowers and one of Myrddin's conjuration pads for food or other things.
Terra sat in one of the extra chairs as the cyclops looked up at her. "So, we can do this the easy way, which is the one both of us would probably prefer. Or we can do this the hard way, which I know for a fact you won't like. It involves my fists."
The cyclops sighed, his face drooping and heavy. He didn't look like he was willing to put up a fight. "What do you want to know?"
"Uh, really? Just like that?"
The cyclops leaned farther into the light, showing his black eye. "I haven't been punched in the face for a long time. Can't say I'm a fan. Why do you think I stick with the magic? The way I figure it, you guys won, and as long as I cooperate, no one is going to hurt me in here. Maybe I can work out a plea deal or something. Heard you guys ain't that bad. Especially you."
