Cultivating Heroism

by Ray Torrens

  A swift punch to the guard at the right of him sent them flying backward and landing against the steel wall with a crunch. He didn’t have time to check whether she was dead or not because he was onto the next one, a huge muscled man swinging at him with a sword that was longer than others.

  He had to avoid the sword so he could get close enough to deal damage with just his fists. Then he remembered the move he’d learned from Jari earlier and fired an energy ball straight in the direction of the guard. It wasn’t powerful enough to do any real damage just yet, but threw the man off balance for a second; long enough for Mack to dash forward and deliver a powerful roundhouse kick to the man’s side which sent him careening off the walkway and down several floors to the garden area below with a cry of panic.

  Mack cried out as a sword slashed against his back, cutting him open but not hitting anything important or getting very deep. Warm blood immediately began to soak into the back of his outfit. He spun around to deliver a kick to the man’s side. He practically took that man’s head clean off in a vulgar display of power.

  “Fuck yeah!” Mack shouted as his adrenaline and testosterone pumped up. There were still half a dozen guards for him to take out, and he needed to make quick work of these assholes.

  He dealt another three lightning fast punches, choosing to rely on his most devastating and reliable technique. There was no place for showboating with so many swords aimed at him. That series of three punches caved in three different skulls, and their owners slumped into lifeless heaps where they had been standing.

  Mack was left exposed to a guard coming up from the rear, however. As he turned and readied himself to take a metal point to his side, Vekku jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the guard’s head. The man screamed as Vekku clawed at his eyes, blinding her. That gave Mack time to kick another oncoming guard in the chest, making a loud crunch sound and knocking them over the edge too.

  “Here!” Vekku shouted as he leaped off the other nearby guard just in time for Mack to take the cue and punch the blinded guard in the neck, snapping the spinal cord instantly. “Damn, I’m getting strong,” he remarked. He wondered what those bozos at his office, or the jocks at his Muay Thai group, would think of him now.

  That left four more advancing on him as Vekku returned to the safety of hanging from the upper level.

  Mack jumped forward and delivered a takedown to one guard who rushed ahead of his peers. He went straight from that guard to another, inflicting a forward kick, followed by a roundhouse on yet another. Each time his fists or feet collided with one of the bandit guards, there was a sickly thud or audible snap to indicate serious—most likely mortal—damage had been dealt out. Those three dropped to the floor and did not move again.

  Mack focused his attention on the last remaining guard and smirked as he saw Vekku rush out in front of the man, tripping him up as he ran and sending him careening over the railing and down to his likely death several stories below. None of the men who’d fallen while still alive seemed to be moving. It was likely some of them at least had survived the fall, but they sure as anything were not happy.

  The last man looked like he wanted to run, but stood his ground and accepted his fate with dignity when Mack jumped on him.

  “So,” Mack said, wiping sweat off his face. “Let’s get to the stairs.”

  Vekku showed him the way, and they got to the stairs before any more guards showed up. He figured there must have been more guards in the facility, he just hoped it took them longer to mobilize than it took him to kill the Lord.

  The stairs were somewhat hard going with the leg injury from the gun turret, but it was nothing too serious. It hadn’t made much difference while he’d been pulverizing those bandit assholes, anyway. They still made good time, coming across only two guards running down the stairs and dispatching of them easily.

  Vekku stopped him suddenly when he was about to turn a corner on the stairs. “This floor,” he said. “Next floor, Lord’s floor.”

  “He has to know I’m coming by now,” Mack said, talking to himself more than anything. “If he knows I’m coming he might not even be in there anymore. Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he thinks the guards will have already taken me out. Or maybe there’ll be a nasty trap waiting for me.” He ran his hands through his hair. He had no idea what the technology was actually like on Hauta. He’d seen sentry guns, some variation on a car, and security cameras. Did that mean there would be some kind of communication device that the guards could report to the Lord with? He hadn’t heard anyone speaking when he’d been fighting, but he could have been deaf to everything in that moment.

  “You should go somewhere safe until this is all over,” he said to Vekku. “It might be dangerous. You’ve done enough.”

  Vekku looked tempted to disagree, but Mack knew the gruk didn’t like fighting unless it was absolutely necessary. “Okay,” the miniscule creature said. “I go. Err … good luck.”

  “Thank you for your help, Vekku. I’m glad we didn’t let you die.”

  It seemed embarrassed about displaying sentiment, then it ran off and disappeared over the edge of the railing to the floor below.

  Mack took a moment to psych himself up, then turned the corner and walked toward the steel door that held the Lord behind it.

  This was the moment of truth, and he was determined not to fuck it up.

  Chapter Twenty

  Mack had expected the top floor to be lined with guards, all waiting with their weapons pointed at him and ready to attack as soon as he breached the room. Instead, he found another open courtyard area. There was a clear glass roof above that let light flood in. On the far end of the room was a large chair that resembled a throne, occupied by the man he’d seen driving away from Avalu earlier that day. The Lord of the region was a tall and muscular man. He was clad in nothing fancy, not like Mack would expect a tyrannical ruler to wear. He just had the simple clothes that his bandit minions wore, the kind of clothing a humble warrior would wear.

  There were no guards in the room.

  “So, you’re the boy who thought he could bring the temple back to life,” the Lord said. He had a large cleaver resting over his legs and was sharpening it with a whetstone. It would require two hands to lift, though it looked too unwieldy to be a practical weapon. “My condolences on the loss of your building.” His lip curled into a sinister grin as he said it. “You should have known better than to draw attention to a temple so weak. My men had told me it was abandoned. I appreciate you showing me that it needed to be destroyed.” He moved his neck side to side, cracking it. “And now I’m going to destroy you.”

  Mack clenched his fists and didn’t want to even dignify the Lord with a verbal response. As tempted as he was to scream and shout about what he’d done to Jakke, or to try and justify his saving of Kaarina that had alerted the bandits of his presence, he’d rather take out his anger with his fists.

  He was going to destroy this bastard, and that would express all the words that floated around in his head. A true hero didn’t need to use his words when there was action that would be better suited to the situation.

  The Lord heaved the cleaver up surprisingly nimbly with both hands. He strode out to the center of the room, so he was facing Mack and then grinned widely.

  It was so discerning that Mack had no idea what to expect. The Lord was so absolutely confident that he’d already won the fight that the doubts Mack had been feeling multiplied tenfold.

  The Lord dashed forward suddenly, swinging his cleaver in a huge arc in front of him. Mack only barely turned and jumped backward to avoid it. When he faced the Lord again, he could see where the move had charred the steel floor.

  He swallowed. That move was more powerful than anything Mack had in his arsenal. If he got caught by it, he might be killed in one shot. He was going to have to stay way back.

  But all his moves relied on him being in close quarters in order to get punches and kicks off.

  He dodged backward once
more as the Lord came in for another powerful swipe with his cleaver. This time Mack’s clothes ruffled in the pure heat coming from the ground when the cleaver smashed against it.

  There was barely any time to think, but he knew he had two options: either take the risk and get close to the Lord so he could use the moves he knew were powerful enough to at least do damage to him, or risk using the energy ball move he’d learned from Jari despite it still being weak.

  The Lord lunged forward and performed the same move once more. Mack dodged but there was even less space between him and the cleaver this time.

  He was going to get caught by it eventually. He had to do something proactive.

  It seemed like that move was the only one the Lord had in his arsenal, and while it was powerful, that meant maybe Mack had the opportunity to get behind him and deliver a crushing blow. This man had the power to use teho, but clearly lacked any sort of formal training. Despite that, he was much more experienced in bloodshed than Mack.

  He made up his mind and waited for the Lord to attack once more. He stayed as close to the blow as he could so there wasn’t too much distance, and then jumped from the ground with the intention of clearing the short Lord’s head while he was still recovering from the energy required to use the cleaving blow.

  Only—he’d underestimated the Lord’s power. He lifted the cleaver as though it weighed nothing and raised it above his head, bringing down a brutal hilt butt on Mack’s head and sending him flying against the wall.

  Mack groaned as his head smashed spun. He was sure his brain had turned to mush after a hit like that, and left wondering how he was even still breathing. He stood up and nearly toppled over immediately, the room around him spinning like he was drunk.

  The Lord laughed. “You really thought you’d walk in and take down a Lord? Pathetic…”

  Mack forced himself to his feet as the Lord charged, cleaver reading to swing and finish him off. He barely jumped out of the way, rolling sideways and aggravating his wounds further by landing awkwardly on his shoulder.

  He stumbled backward and fired off an energy ball toward the Lord. It just wasn’t powerful enough though. It hit the Lord in the chest and slowed him down for half a second, but it was nowhere near enough to win him the entire fight.

  So, he was stuck.

  He’d lost.

  With his injuries, he had lost his agility, and couldn’t get close enough to use the moves that were powerful enough to kill the Lord. The one move that might have been able to win him the fight from a distance was too underpowered to do the damage he needed it to.

  He went as far as doing a quick jog around in the room, keeping his distance from the Lord, to see if there was anything in the actual formation of this room that he’d missed when he first entered. Nothing. His mind raced as he tried to work out a useful strategy, while the Lord laughed at his obvious distress.

  The door he’d come through opened and another group of guards began to file through into the glass roofed room. It was all over. The Lord laughed deeply as he waited for his men to surround the intruder so he could come and make the final, killing blow.

  Then Mack figured it out.

  He felt the power flowing through him as he fired a quick succession of energy balls at the oncoming guards. They hit the men and seemed to have the effects of mediocre punches. At least—the first couple did. The third and fourth energy balls knocked their targets to the ground. Each one after that did more and more, until the last standing guard turned and ran for his life. Why? Because he’d just seen his friend get a hole blasted through his stomach by a ball of raging magical energy fired from the hands of Mack.

  He could feel the teho flowing through him now. It felt oddly peaceful. If this was his raw energy and he could understand it, manipulate it, maybe he could gain an advantage there too.

  The Lord was not laughing anymore.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Mack. “You’re not out of underlings are you? It looks like you’ll have to go pick on innocent farmers and steal their food all by yourself now.” He spat blood onto the floor and chuckled.

  “There are always more where those came from. This is an evil world, and I am high up on the food chain. Remember that right before you die. It’s time to finish this.” His muscles rippled as he held up the cleaver, and he bared his teeth. He was getting ready to charge.

  Mack didn’t immediately respond. He just zeroed in on the teho flowing through his body and found the resolve to stand tall against the Lord who charged suddenly toward him.

  As the oversized cleaver bore down toward Mack’s skull, just before it made impact, the human released all the power he’d been holding onto. He’d hoped for a blast big enough to at least stun the powerful Lord—but the ball of light that exploded in front of him was much more than that.

  It sent both of them flying backward and was so hot he thought the front of his body was on fire for a second.

  A second was all he got to think about it, because he passed out almost immediately.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mack woke to someone shaking his shoulders violently.

  “Wake up!” they demanded while his brain rattled around inside his skull. “Wake up! Wake up!”

  “I’m trying,” he groaned out. “But you’re giving me a headache.”

  Arms were flung around him, and almost immediately his brain started functioning well enough again to realize they were Kaarina’s arms. She was healing him with her embrace, healing his body and warming his heart all at once. He hugged her back tightly, letting her bury her head against his shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” he promised, though he wasn’t sure if it was really true. He had no idea what had happened after he’d unleashed the energy blast on the Lord. All he knew right now was that he was alive. Alive and exhausted. He wasn’t sure he could have lifted an arm to deliver a punch even if his life depended on it.

  He forced himself to a sitting up position and looked around the room. They were on the upper floor of the headquarters, only the Lord was now gone. Kaarina kneeled beside him and rested a hand on his back. Against the opposite wall, there sat a heap of shouldering ash with grim, charred chunks of meat throughout it.

  His eyes widened when he realized that was all that remained of the Lord.

  “Holy shit,” Mack muttered. “I can’t believe I did that.”

  It had definitely taken a toll on his body. He was struggling to even sit up, and healing Kaarina’s hand on his back was more help than he was willing to admit.

  “I can’t believe you did either,” she replied. “I can’t believe he’s really dead. All that time living under his tyranny … you freed us, Mack!”

  “It wasn’t just me.”

  Some more of the villagers were poking around the room. One of them had climbed onto the throne and was getting a closer look at the thick glass that made up the ceiling.

  “I don’t know if there are any guards left in the building,” Mack said. “We might want to be careful about people wandering around for now.”

  “Let’s get a search party and make sure this place is clear of bandits,” said Kaarina so that Mack could save his breath. “Can you stand up?” she then asked him.

  “I’m not sure.” He allowed her to pull him to his feet, but he could only stand with an arm wrapped around her slender shoulders. “Tell me if I’m hurting you,” he made her promise.

  She nodded, but easily accepted the small amount of weight he was trying to put on her. “I’ve been working on healing you for a good fifteen minutes before you even came to. I don’t understand how you’re still so hurt. You saw me all but bring my father back to life when we fought the sonni.”

  “I assume it’s a different thing altogether when it comes to teho. I have much to learn. I wish I could have acted before so much damage was done.”

  “Me too … but now no more will ever have to die, not at the hand of this Lord. He won’t be chasing us anymore.”

  “And
this building is strong,” Mack said. “If you stayed here then bandits wouldn’t even be able to get in.”

  Her eyes widened. “We couldn’t…”

  “Why not?”

  Her brow wrinkled. “Yeah. I mean, I guess—” she was interrupted by a vent on the wall clattering to the floor abruptly.

  Vekku popped his head out and grinned at the room.

  “Vekku!” Kaarina grinned. “I can’t believe you got in here. How did you even manage that?”

  The gruk clambered down the wall so that he could come and perch on Kaarina’s shoulder, his favorite spot. “I hid in no-horse wagon to find way to get Lord. Hated Lord after attack on village. Got worried, scared, bad idea. Finally you came, I help you get in!”

  Kaarina gave him a pat on the head that made the gruk purr.

  “You did so well,” she cooed. “You really saved us.”

  “There’s no way we could have gotten inside this building without you, Vekku. Mack brought himself to give the creature a pat on the head too. “Thanks, bud.”

  The three of them managed to have a moment of peace just then, with smiles on all of their faces. It had been a victory. They’d achieved everything they’d set out to. The Lord was dead and the villagers had every reason to be safe in the future.

  But then the bubble burst, and the reality of how many people had been injured or died in the last couple of days came rushing back. None of the villagers in the building with them had smiles on their faces.

  It was a solemn victory, and Mack knew it was only the beginning. He still had a lot of training to go through, and a lot to understand about his teho and how it worked.

  He’d barely beaten this Lord, and he knew there were much tougher forces at play making this world a dangerous and unjust place. He was nothing compared to some of the people he was going to be up against in the future. There were also other Eniten out there somewhere, maybe all of them bad, and all of them would be more powerful at this point in time.