by Bruce Sentar
She was really worried, wasn’t she?
Squeezing her hand again, he got up and slipped out of Margret’s manor with Cherry close behind him. Margret’s guards were mostly for ceremony in the city, making it easy for him to slip over a back wall and into an alley.
His feet knocked the cobblestones, and in the quiet alley, it sounded like a gunshot to him. He winced and looked around, but either nobody noticed or nobody cared. Everyone on the streets seemed more concerned with packing up their business for the day while there was still some light out.
Cherry landed far more softly next to him, small green vines supporting her under her arms to soften the landing.
“Cheater,” Dar teased, although he realized he should have asked her for the same treatment.
“If that’s how you feel, I look forward to seeing how you manage to get yourself over the city walls without a lift,” she teased right back.
Rolling his eyes, they set off down the street, making sure to keep to an easy pace. This wasn’t his first time sneaking. He had often found that when he was late to work that putting on a casual air was the best way to go unnoticed as he got where he needed to be.
Reminding himself he wasn’t actually doing anything wrong, he headed to the north gate.
There were still people flowing into the city covered in dirt and grime from a hard day’s work. He guessed some of them had been doing the work to move and bury the corpses.
“What are you doing? The gates are closing in the next bell,” a guard shouted at Dar as he went against the stream of people.
Dar huffed at the man, holding his chin up and glaring at the man like he’d seen some of the other wizards act. “Wizard business. I’m going to check on the state of the fallen and hopefully prevent this city from dying to disease.”
“We were instructed to get everyone back in the city after sundown,” the guard hedged, looking distressed.
Crossing his arms, Dar stared at the man. “Fine. You can be the one to explain when everyone starts getting ill. Nothing like rotting corpses to spread dysentery.”
That seemed to cause the man to pause. “Do you have an order to do this?” He was looking for a way out. Dysentery killed more people than devils here; Dar had scared the man.
“There hasn’t been time to get it written down. Will you stop me or let me go?” Dar looked down at the man.
He swallowed around a lump in his throat. “Go on ahead.”
“Great,” Dar said dryly, turning and heading out of the city once again.
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” he said to Cherry once they were out of ear shot.
“It was,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “I kind of think it was too easy.”
He didn’t really care. He had gotten outside, and he was going to use the corpses to make himself stronger.
Walking through ruined farmland coated in a layer of gore was disturbing. Watching his step, he tried to dodge the worst parts of it and keep his food down.
The excitement of possibly creating a new dao fruit was the only thing making the trek worth it. He focused on that, trying to ignore the stench surrounding them.
Large black birds, like crows the size of eagles, hopped around the fields picking at remnants of the battle. The remnants of men and women whom he’d been standing by earlier that day were scattered throughout.
The loss of life was a lot to take in, and it hadn’t seemed like it was a haphazard plan. The way the slums had dispersed at the sounding of the alarm was clear. The merchants had run for their lives.
“Is that how all cities fight devils or do some have better defenses?”
“I don’t think they’ve had that much experience, to be honest. The cities likely fought off the occasional monster wave or lone monster capable of damaging the city, but devils in this quantity haven’t been commonplace since Lilith started hunting them.”
“So, this is the cost of bringing me back?” He was obviously thankful to be alive, but part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it was worth it.
“You’re brooding again.” Cherry pulled on his hand. “Stop it. I’m glad you’re here, and we needed you. Lilith made a choice, and I trust she knew what she was doing.”
She paused, looking around. “I think we are almost there. I can’t believe they put them this close into the forest line.”
The wind shifted, and Dar felt the breeze on his face for a second before it carried with it a foul coppery scent. He gagged and covered his face. “I didn’t think it would be so bad. Not yet.”
“That’s what happens when there is so much of it.” She pinched her nose.
“Can you help sort through this?” Dar asked, the mounds of corpses became visible through the trees.
Without saying anything, Cherry waved her hands and large roots sprang from the ground. They started sifting through the corpses with ease, pulling the larger troll bodies out from the rest and stacking them together.
He stood still, not wanting to disturb her as her face twisted with concentration. Over a dozen different roots were out of the ground, each doing its part to go through the pile of corpses at the same time.
She possessed a grand dao, one he knew was related to plants. But even knowing that, it was impressive to see the control she had over her dao.
Knowing that most of the time she kept the use of her dao simple to hide her true strength, he wondered if she enjoyed being able to use it more fully here, or if it was draining for her. She was lifting six-hundred-pound monsters simultaneously without any issue.
He wondered what would happen if she focused on one or two limbs. Could she rip the city wall in two, tear down the duke’s keep?
He shook his head. Cherry was stronger than she let on, even to him.
“Done with this pile,” she announced breaking him from his thoughts.
“You’re going to make this quick.” He smiled.
She bit her lip and muttered something under her breath before she spoke up. “Yep. We’ll make this fast.”
Her hips swayed in the short, white dress as she moved onto the next pile. A new set of roots came out, doing the same exercise with the new set of bodies.
Standing there confused for a moment, he felt like he’d just missed something. Or maybe he’d been just a tad distracted by the sway of her hips. Either way, he got to work absorbing all the troll corpses. There was even a mantis among them that he hadn’t seen her pull from the pile.
A smirk spread on his face as he imagined all the dao fruits that these might end up nurturing. The gremlins might even add some value, but he wasn’t sure they’d be worth the work to bury at the dao tree. The space of loamy soil at the dao tree was limited, even if it digested the corpses quickly.
“You watching my ass? Seems to be taking you a while over there.” Cherry turned after her latest pile.
Feeling a flush on his cheeks, he realized his gazed had floated to her while he’d been thinking. “Maybe,” he chuckled; the quirk of her smile showed she was anything but offended.
Cherry gave it a little shake, revealing her curves through her dress.
She snapped to attention. “Dar!”
He didn’t know what was happening, but he trusted Cherry and jumped forward.
Shards of ice shattered in a spray of frost where he’d just been standing. The back of his neck was chilled as he stood tall and turned to see a man in robes at the edge of the forest, standing next to a young woman with light blue hair.
“Lucky,” the man spat as he raised a gnarled branch that glowed with mana.
Feeling the staff collect mana for another attack, Dar rushed forward to stop him. He recognized that spell from earlier; it was the same mage that had nearly killed him while he held the troll down.
“Kill him,” Henry shouted. The girl rushed forward, a look of reluctance on her elfin face.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she lashed out with a kick.
She was tiny, but Dar wasn’t about to underestima
te her based on her size. He’d learned from Cherry that spirits could be deceiving.
As he blocked the kick, it struck with the force he’d expect from a girl her size, but a rushing force followed her physical kick and sent Dar sliding back on the leafy forest floor.
“That’s new.” He frowned.
The spirit looked at him confused. “You really do have a lot of enchantments. You are freaking covered in them.”
Her eyes flickered over his face and then down to his hands. “How are there enchantments on your face. You aren’t wearing anything…”
Not good.
He didn’t let her finish that, closing the distance with a large stride and punching her in the gut. He didn’t want to kill her. He hoped that if he could deal with the wizard that they could help her.
But as soon as his hand connected with her stomach, her arm whipped out and punched him with far more force than her body suggested. It felt like someone had just hit him in the chest with a sledgehammer. He stumbled back, feeling his lungs struggle to suck in air.
She hadn’t moved an inch from his attack yet had returned his hit with almost equivalent force.
Did I just essentially hit myself? What kind of dao would give her that kind of ability?
“I’m so sorry; I have to kill you. My oaths don’t give me an option.” She grimaced, still keeping a defensive posture.
If she could return his force, he wasn’t sure how he was going to take her out of the fight without hurting her permanently. She might not be able to disrupt his heat, but he didn’t want to kill her.
She seemed to be waiting on his next move, keeping a defensive stance, and he wondered if that was how she managed to somewhat resist her oath to the wizard.
He looked over to Cherry, who was facing off against the wizard. Her hands were in the dirt, and she was using tree limbs to fight the icy blasts of the staff. Dar knew she could fight harder than that; she seemed to still be keeping up the weak persona.
Gritting his teeth, he dodged around the spirit and went for the wizard. The wizard’s hood snapped toward Dar, and he raised a medallion that sent a blast of wind that buffeted Dar to a stop.
“You miserable, bitch. I’m going to punish you when we are done. Do not let him attack me again.”
Dar was leaning into the wind when a wave of water crashed into him and took him off his feet, sending him tumbling into a tree.
Waves. He groaned as he sat back up watching the spirit come closer.
Of course, waves. Guess that makes her a wave spirit, a Nereid.
Shifting back onto his feet, Dar looked over the spirit, at the wizard and Cherry. The dryad was sheltering herself behind a wall of roots, while the wizard circled her. He was launching ice shards from his staff and also hitting her with a spell that was cutting any roots Cherry sent to strike him.
The two were in a deadlock. One that Dar needed to break.
“You are pretty sturdy,” the wave spirit commented, stepping closer. “Sorry, but I have to follow my oaths.”
Dar wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I don’t want to hurt you either. The fight is between me and the wizard.”
She bowed her head. “Yes, but he told me you fight with your fists. That’s why I’m here; you won’t be able to get past me, and you missed your opportunity to kill him.”
“So you did just stand there for me.”
She scoffed. “He didn’t say when to kill you. Told myself it would be easier if I let you turn your back on me.”
He looked at the spirit and then to the fight behind her. He could kill her and then help Cherry with the wizard, but he really didn’t want to kill her. “Do you think that your master can escape if she goes on the offensive?”
If Cherry could go all out, he was pretty sure she’d win and then this spirit would be free of her oaths. At least, he hoped that was true.
The spirit frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She let loose a grumpy groan from her. “Nope, can’t say much.”
Nodding, he considered his options. Drawing mana from his body, he started to cycle and pressurize it into his hands.
The spirit’s eyes widened as she watched him. “No… mana is moving inside your body. That’s…” She stopped before she continued to speak and looked over her shoulder at the wizard behind her. “He doesn’t know. If he gets a hold of you—”
She winced and her mouth snapped shut.
“It would be better if you let me kill you,” she said with a snarl, suddenly seeming far more inclined to fight.
“What’s happening?” Dar asked.
“I’m bound for his lifetime, but if he gets his hands on you, I’m not so sure his life will be short.” She rushed forward, her hands cupped like small waves as she threw her palms at him.
This time she wasn’t pulling her punches, she was aiming to kill Dar. She’d made her stance clear, so he stopped holding back.
Slamming his hand into hers, he released a torrent of heat. Steam blew their hands apart as her dao of waves met his dao of heat.
She screamed, and he jumped back to avoid the rapidly expanding cloud of steam.
“What was that!” She cradled her arm, which was now bright red and glared back at him.
“Me getting serious. I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t want to hurt you, but you aren’t giving me much of a choice.” Dar brought his hands back up as he refilled the cycling mana, readying another blast.
The spirit had confirmed that if his secret got out, they would become a target like Cherry and Sasha feared. And while he would have rather spared the spirit, she’d made it clear she saw him as more of a threat to her than a potential ally.
“Cherry, the secret is out. Kill him,” Dar yelled over the sounds of them fighting.
“Shit,” Cherry swore, but he also felt a wave of mana as she embraced her power. Suddenly every tree around them groaned as they started shifting.
The wave spirit’s eyes went wide, “She isn’t touching them though.” Then her mouth formed a big O. “She’s a grand spirit.”
The wizard must have made the same connection because he was already yelling, “Stop both of them. Cover my retreat immediately at all costs!”
Chapter 24
The wave spirit turned to attack Cherry, but Dar was already closing the gap. He grabbed her with a burning hand. She screamed and tried to jerk away to get to Cherry. The oaths pulled on her to stop Cherry, even if at the cost of Dar destroying her arm.
Dar grabbed her by her clothes and threw her to the ground, pinning her with his own weight. He released the dao of heat he’d been using when he had her pinned.
“Get off!” she screamed, throwing a wave of water from her body while simultaneously tossing Dar a dozen feet away. She scrambled to her feet, once again moving to try to stop Cherry.
The roles between Cherry and the wizard had now shifted. Cherry was commanding four large roots, whipping them at the wizard while he used another enchantment to create walls of ice to ward off her attacks.
The ringing of ice shattering filled the forest as he made walls of ice almost as quickly as Cherry was shattering them.
Coming down from the spirit’s attack, Dar landed in a crouch and exploded towards the wizard. If the spirit was going to ignore him, then he was going to finish this.
He charged through one of the plates of ice, shattering it with the sheer force of his charge. The wizard looked at him over his shoulder, shock written on his face.
The wizard’s hands moved quickly, fumbling to shift to another medallion. He had a number of them tied to his wrists for quick access, but they’d become tangled throughout the battle. It took the wizard a moment longer to grab the correct one.
A delay Dar could take advantage of.
Dar’s fist was already descending, but in the nick of time, the wizard grabbed one that must have been tied to wind, as a gust started pushing back against Dar’s fist.
Cursing, Dar pushed harder, but the wind c
ontinued to pick up and push him back. Pointing a finger through the wind, he focused on the medallion. Dar was still working on precision, but he was pretty sure from this close he could hit his mark.
Releasing some of his heat, he sent it straight towards the medallion. The medallion warped and turned red with the heat, the smell of slightly burned flesh filling the air as the wizard screamed.
The wind died down, making Dar smile. He wasn’t quite sure how it all worked, but he had been hoping destroying the medallion would stop the wind.
Winding up, Dar slugged the wizard in the jaw, this time making sure to move before the other man could find something else to throw his way.
The wizard fell forwards, seemingly knocked out. At the same time, the panes of remaining ice shattered to the ground around them. Dar looked up, wanting to make sure Cherry was okay.
He found Cherry scowling towards the wave spirit, who was struggling in a cocoon of vines.
“What do you want me to do with her?” Cherry asked.
Dar hadn’t figured that out yet, so he turned first to check on the wizard. Kicking him onto his back, Dar confirmed he was knocked out.
The spirit struggled more with the kick, clearly still under her oaths. But when she tried to summon a wave, it just sloshed out of Cherry’s vines.
Cherry glared, and the vines creaked as they squeezed the spirit more. “Stop that.”
“She realized that I have a dao,” Dar said, looking at the spirit.
“Then she dies. She’s nothing to me, and you can’t risk her spreading the news.”
The spirit’s face went red, and her eyes started to bug out as the vines tightened around her. Even after the spirit had tried to kill him after learning his secret, Dar just couldn’t watch her die that way. “Stop. Stop that, Cherry.”
Gulping deep breaths, the wave spirit gave him pleading looks.
“Fine. Then at least kill the wizard so we can have a civil conversation with her where she’s not acting based on the oath.” Crossing her arms, Cherry harrumphed, clearly annoyed at how drawn out the end of battle had become.
Knowing Cherry was right, Dar built up his mana, wanting to make the wizard’s death quick. But as he finished preparing, his arm just stayed held in the air. It refused to fall and end the wizard.
