Metal Mage 9

by Eric Vall

  The woman screeched and held on for dear life as she barreled back through the city, and I pulled a wall up just before an Ignis Mage could burn me to a crisp. He let out a wild laugh as the massive flames peeled around my wall, and I dropped the ground beneath me so I could run along the trench and out of range. I circled to the side of the library before another Ignis Mage saw me, and just as his flames began filling the trench, I pulled up a pillar to send myself flying up to higher ground.

  Then I tore the steps open to crush the two Ignis Mages in stone, and I came to a rolling stop at the doors of the library. That’s when the sound of breaking glass pierced my ears, and I flipped around to see the entire multi-colored dome collapsing in on itself. The force of the shattering glass blasted the doors open on impact, and I shielded myself just in time as the thick shards came flying across the steps.

  Flames were already coming my way again by the time the onslaught ended, though, and I dropped to my knees to drive both of my fists into the stonework.

  My Terra Magic billowed out to tear two massive walls up on either side of me, but then I recognized Pindor’s magic joining with mine, and the walls burst open to send giant slabs spiraling into four Ignis Mages on either side.

  Their backs snapped as the stones hit their marks at full force, and one of them was bent clean in half as he laid dead upon the shattered ground.

  “What took you so long?” Pindor yelled as he came sprinting up the steps. “I told you to get here days ago!”

  “I was in Jagruel,” I told him, and I pulled up a shield to block the next attack as Pindor sent another slab of stone flying. “Didn’t Jenik tell you?”

  “No, he didn’t tell me,” the kid spat. “I told him I needed that note to you right away, and he told me to go fuck myself!”

  “Godsdamnit,” I growled as I sent my Terra powers seeping through the steps, and I swallowed up another Ignis Mage before he had time to get away.

  Fucking squire drama.

  “There’s about ten Ignis Mages making their way around the cavern!” Pindor told me. “I saw them split off into two groups.”

  “Go left, I’ll go right,” I ordered, and we slammed our fists into the steps to send a heavy tremor through the ground around us.

  The last two Ignis Mages surrounding the library were thrown down the steps as rocks and glass tumbled after them, and they had flames still shooting from their palms as they fought fiendishly to send them our way. Before the mages came to a stop, though, Pindor tore the ground open and crushed them eight feet under, and we broke off to avoid the residual flames as I reformed the steps behind me.

  We bolted in the direction of the Ignis Mages now circling the city, and I tracked Pindor’s progress on the other side of the cavern until I got a visual on the five mages up ahead. Then I dropped hard to my knees once more and used the force of both fists to send my Terra Magic through the ground, and Pindor connected with my circuit as a jagged wall shot up thirty feet to cut the entire city in half.

  I was focused on sending all of my strength through the stones to raise the wall higher when the circuit suddenly surged, and an image flashed to the forefront of my mind in a vibrant red. It was only there for few brief seconds before it was wrenched from my thoughts, though, and I stayed frozen on my knees as I tried to figure out what the fuck had just happened.

  I thought I’d imagined it for a second, but Pindor’s circuit today felt more powerful than it ever had when we raised the wall, and there was a good chance he was caught off guard by this and couldn’t control his powers.

  Either way, his half of the wall was collapsing now and sending perilous sheets of stone into the streets, and the Ignis Mages had scattered to disappear into the winding city.

  “Shit!” I cursed as I jumped to my feet.

  They’d stopped using their flames, so I couldn’t tell which way they went, but after I bolted down a few alleyways, I came crashing into Hulsan as he caught a falling slab of stone and redirected it toward one of the Ignis Mages.

  “Two more went to the right!” he bellowed as sweat poured down his wrinkled cheek, and I threw my arms out to stop a sheet of stone the size of Bobbie from crushing the Falmount mages below.

  Then Hulsan dodged a flame spurt and ran after the culprit, and I scaled a heap of rubble to leap over a jagged trench. When I landed, I used the impact to send a tremor ahead of me, and while two Ignis Mages tumbled from a roof, I let them drop into a bottomless pit as flames shot up from the depths.

  With a hollow crunch, the mages were crushed beneath the city, and I seeped into the streets with my Terra Magic to scan for the others. Hulsan was just burying three more, and Pindor crushed two before three revolvers began firing in rapid succession, and as the last of the flames flickered out, the gun shots ceased.

  There was a brief beat of silence before cheers began to rise up around the Oculus, and I let out a deep, ragged breath as I clutched at my knees.

  I let my relief wash over me for a minute as the cheers grew louder, and my rune finally started to quiet down with the realization that it was finally over.

  Somehow, we fucking won, and even though a third of the city was rubble and the dome was destroyed, the bulk of the damage had been countered by the Defenders during the fight. What remained could be recovered with little alteration to the original design of the ancient city, and a broad grin came to my face as I wiped the sweat from my brow.

  Then I lowered the last of the wall, and by the time I finished rebuilding the structures I’d uprooted in forming it, my four women were rushing through the crowd to get to me.

  “You all did a great job,” I gasped as I worked to catch my breath.

  “Fifty-eight,” Cayla sighed. “I wished we could have saved more of them.”

  “I got thirty-six,” Aurora whispered. “I wish would could have saved them too. This isn’t our fault though. This blame lays at the foot of the Master, and if we hadn’t gotten here when we did, they would have killed or branded everyone.”

  “You are right,” Cayla said as she gave a half smile to the beautiful half-elf. “We saved the day, after all.”

  I shook my head while the two lethal women exchanged competitive grins and slid their arms around my waist, and Deya let out a silvery giggle as she hopped up to tuck a few kisses on my neck.

  “I’m glad you are safe,” the beautiful elf purred.

  “How many?” Aurora asked.

  “Uhh, forty-one,” my pink-haired lover said with a small shrug.

  I burst out laughing at the look on the half-elf’s face while Deya blushed proudly, and Cayla smirked like she was mentally taking the credit for Deya’s numbers since she’d taught her how to shoot.

  “What about you?” I chuckled as Shoshanne joined us.

  “I don’t count how many people I kill,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I’m a healer, I count how many I save. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

  Shoshanne tipped herself onto her toes to leave a kiss on my cheek, and then she sauntered into the crowd on her way to get her healing staff while she took stock of the injured mages around her.

  “She probably killed more than any of us,” Aurora snorted. “I was only fifteen feet from her, and I know she suffocated a group of twenty mages all at once because I recognized her powers in the air.”

  I raised my brows as I admired the last glimpse of Shoshanne’s ass swaying through the crowd.

  “She’s still an angel in my book,” I said with a shrug.

  “A deadly one,” Cayla purred.

  I headed toward the entrance with my women on my arms while mages helped each other onto their horses, and I could see Big Red whirring steadily through the masses ahead. He gathered tranquilized bodies from the ground as he went, and the mages began helping him by locating the ones with darts in them. Then they started loading the unconscious mages up in his net, and I smirked as they did their best not to shrink away from his ominous gaze.

  Talk
of a victory celebration in Falmount was making its way through the crowd now, and when I mentioned to a few Defenders that we had some Rosh to break into, it took less than five minutes for everyone in the Oculus to find out.

  I was just chuckling over a pair of squeals this new info brought out from two Flumen Mages when a hair-cut a lot like my own came around the corner, and I left my women as I headed over with a broad grin.

  “There he is,” I chuckled as I clapped Pindor on the shoulder, and he clutched his broken arm against him while he managed a lopsided grin. “I was beginning to worry you got crushed by your own wall.”

  “Almost did,” Pindor snorted.

  “Well, thanks for helping me out back there,” I told him earnestly. “I owe you one.”

  I didn’t miss the few arched brows this brought from the younger mages near us, and Pindor clearly didn’t either, because he suddenly straightened up a bit with a shadow of a cocky grin on his face.

  “No problem,” Pindor said with a shrug, and I did my best not to snort too loudly.

  “So, I was thinking you should come back out to Falmount,” I admitted. “Haragh’s house just opened up out there, and it’d probably be easier to train you if you weren’t in a different city.”

  Pindor’s ears went pink, and he grinned from ear to ear now. “Yeah, alright! I could do that.”

  I nodded as we turned to head back to my women, but then Pindor nudged me with his good arm.

  “Hey, what was that you showed me through the circuit, though?” he asked. “That fortress.”

  “I didn’t show you--”

  My feet came to an abrupt stop as I stared at the kid, and dawning slowly crept up my spine while he furrowed his brow in confusion.

  “What?” Pindor asked uneasily.

  “Defender Flynt!” Urn boomed, and I turned to find him with his hand outstretched as he approached.

  He had blood oozing from a gash in his neck, and his Defender gear was hardly recognizable from how singed it was, but he had a grin beneath his mustache that showed he’d changed his tune about my approach to handling the possessed mages.

  This should have been a relief, but I reached out to shake his hand in a still blank state, and when he chuckled and clasped his other hand over mine, I abruptly pulled him closer and lowered my voice.

  “Get these mages out of here,” I commanded. “This isn’t over.”

  “What?” he muttered tensely.

  “They’re in danger, send them to Falmount,” I told him. “Fast.”

  I released my hold on Urn’s hand as he immediately turned to the others, and he began sending every mage to the exit with bellowing orders to head to Falmount.

  The mages cheered as they began galloping from the Oculus, and when I got back to my women, I caught Aurora and Cayla by the elbows.

  “Get out of here,” I ordered. “Wait for me by Bobbie.”

  “No way,” Aurora scoffed, “Mason, what--”

  “He’ll use you to get me, go!” I growled, and the four women stumbled forward in complete confusion.

  Deya stared back over her shoulder with a worried crinkle between her pink brows, but Shoshanne kept dutifully pulling her along, and they disappeared into the sea of mages filing from the Oculus.

  The Defenders had gathered in the street to assess the remaining damage to the Oculus, and I didn’t send them away with the others when I spotted Hulsan among them and snorting pollen on a pile of rubble.

  Instead, I joined the twelve of them and nodded along with their assessments, and as Urn sealed the stone gates of the Oculus behind us, I turned to Kurna.

  “Can I see your sword?” I asked casually.

  “Sure,” he said with a broad grin. “I got this from the best blacksmith in Cedis. He was doing a demonstration last spring, and I managed to--”

  The impressively wrought sword melted the second I closed my hand around the hilt, and in seconds it was reformed into shackles.

  Kurna looked ready to throttle me, but I swiftly turned my back on him and sent the shackles to Hulsan’s wrists, and then I bolted them to the stone he was sitting on.

  Chapter 20

  Hulsan’s gaze darkened for a split second before he furrowed his bushy brows in confusion, and the Defenders looked at me like I was fucking nuts, but I held the old man’s gaze as I slowly approached him.

  “How’d you get them in here?” I demanded.

  Hulsan snorted. “What?”

  “Get who in here?” Kurna asked as he glanced uneasily between me and Hulsan.

  “The Master’s mages,” I replied.

  “The hell are you talking about?” Hulsan asked, and he suddenly looked ten years older as he shifted nervously in the shackles, but I narrowed my eyes.

  “Your knee isn’t injured,” I informed the man. “You ran as fast as me after those Ignis Mages, which means you didn’t need to see any healers here. You did need to be here in time for the attack, though, so how did you get them in here?”

  “Mason,” Urn said with some chagrin, “Defender Hulsan is one of the most talented mages the Oculus has ever had. He was a coveted instructor and--”

  “And an old friend of Abrus,” I interrupted. “He only left the Order because the position of plant for the Master was filled, and since then he’s been living below the radar, but you’ve been busy, haven’t you?”

  Hulsan didn’t respond as he eyed the Defenders all staring in disbelief, but then Kurna cleared his throat.

  “Mason, you’re gonna have to bring me up to speed on this,” he muttered. “Turning on a Defender of the Order is a crime against the crown, and if this isn’t--”

  “Let me worry about the crown,” I interrupted, and I saw a flicker of disgust in Hulsan’s gaze. “More importantly, how many of you have ever joined in a circuit with Defender Hulsan?”

  I glanced around, and aside from a few confused looks, no one could respond.

  “That’s what I figured,” I said as I crossed my arms and considered the old man more closely. “He’s gone out of his way to make sure no one did, but he is definitely one of the most talented mages in the Oculus. Talented enough to send his magery miles and miles away from here. That’s how he’s expanding the Master’s fortress right now.”

  “What?” Defender Urn growled, and he turned his furious gaze on Hulsan.

  “I saw the schematics for the fortress when his circuit accidentally collided with mine and Pindor’s,” I continued. “He used his Terra Magic to build the whole thing, and he’s constantly altering it, too, which means he knows how to get in and out of it, and considering there’s only one entrance to this Oculus, I’d bet he knows how the Master’s mages got in here, too.”

  Now, the Defenders’ hands slid to their hilts as they turned at the old man with stern scowls, and Hulsan snorted indignantly as he looked down.

  Then he began to chuckle to himself, and when he met my gaze again, he didn’t look angry, he looked like he considered me an ungrateful little shit.

  “You were supposed to be gone for days longer,” the old man muttered in a low voice. “They could have handled his place once and for all if you’d been in Jagruel, and you’d have returned with no Oculus to waste your time defending. You would have been free to do as you should, and Illaria would have fallen at your feet.”

  “I don’t need Illaria at my feet,” I informed him flatly.

  “Horse shit! Look at that weapon you’re holding right now!” he spat as he wrenched his shackled arm toward my 1911. “That’s not the weapon of a hero, it’s the weapon of a leader. A man capable of forcing his will whichever way he wants. Take a look at that weapon and tell me Illaria’s worth your effort. None of these nations are! You could rise above the rest, Mason, and with the Master at your side, nothing would ever be the same. Your combined strength would redefine our very existence.”

  The Defenders finally drew their swords and leveled their blades at the man’s throat, but I just snorted.

  “I’m
not interested in combined strength.”

  “Oh yes, you are,” Hulsan challenged. “You preach complete alliance amongst the regions, and you travel to ungodly lengths to bend others to your will.”

  “I don’t bend others to my will,” I growled as the man’s words began to grate on my nerves.

  “Sure, you do,” he said with grim amusement. “You made those ogres like putty in the palm of your hand, and you knew what you were doing. You said the right things, behaved as you should, and made it impossible for them to ignore you.”

  “I treated them based on the standards they uphold,” I informed him. “I respected their ways of life, I didn’t--”

  “The same goes for the elves,” the old man cut in. “Every member of the Elven Houses now knows the name of Mason Flynt. Even those who would call you their enemy, but with the few alliances you gained there, you could overthrow the entire hierarchy of the nation. That’s no coincidence.”

  I couldn’t help smirking as I shook my head. “Yeah, well, as diabolical as you think I am, I can assure you I don’t give a shit about Elven hierarchy.”

  “No?” he scoffed. “Is that why you’ve got the most coveted woman in the nation in your bed these days?”

  I narrowed my eyes as my pulse quickened, and I chose not to say a damned word in case he was bluffing about Deya. No one in Illaria knew about the law that bound her to the Elven Houses, but the notion that Hulsan might have somehow found out made my stomach clench.

  Then the old man sent me an unnerving grin.

  “Did you think you were the only man in Illaria who knew her true worth?” he asked. “You knew what you did when you left Nalnora, and you played it off like the hero coming home to Serin, but a man with your abilities doesn’t just happen to ally himself with the only two Houses capable of enacting change in their nation before he pulls a stunt like that. You left the worthless at your heels and took the one thing from those jungles that would start an all-out war.”

  “Maybe I’ve just got good taste in women,” I said with a grin, and the gesture seemed to infuriate the man.