by Jesse Wilson
“What is it?” she responded. “Can I bite you again, I mean, I could find a random but that might seem a little bit weird,” he replied to her and she shrugged. “Okay, just don't take too much,” she said and held out her right arm. Tayne sighed he didn't want to do this again but it was his best option right now. He walked up to her thick, green arm and sunk his fangs into it. Nymie winced in pain as she felt her blood being drained. Boz winced and had mixed emotions about seeing this and decided to stop watching. Tayne's eyes widened.
Tayne forced himself off Nymie's arm and stepped away. She looked as the bite marks closed at once, still under the effects of the regeneration spell, she didn't feel drained this time.
“Troll blood is addictive, it's used in the Morgland black markets by all kinds of evil people. You're worth, literally, billions of in all kinds of currency to the right buyer,” Tayne said and Nymie had no idea. She'd never really been worth anything beyond being a Unicorn hunter.
“Well anyone who wants to get a hold on her is going to have to go through me first,” Boz said and grunted. Drask and Nymie laughed at him, but Boz kept his serious tone.
“I trust you, little elf,” Nymie said and Rex suddenly stopped because Unie did. “Our target has stopped, he is standing near Nyrad Tower, the school for mages,” the machine said to them and both Evie and Caliban's eyes went wide. “It makes sense he'd be here, it's on an energy node one of several in the city,” Caliban said, worried at what this might mean.
“This is the best spot for what we need to do,” Grayson said as he stood in front of Nyrad Tower, and in front of the tower mages dressed in various, bright colored robes stood to protect their school. “You are not welcome here,” the Elroxian mage said in a loud voice as he stood his ground and continued.
“Leave now and you will not be harmed,” he finished and Grayson tilted his head.
“You are amusing, but I don't think you or anyone else can stop me, you can try but I should warn you. I have the power of a god, literally,” Grayson replied and started walking forward. The mages lifted their staffs in unison and fired bright rays of light, fire and various other destructive magic spells in his direction. Grayson raised his right hand as they impacted him.
##
The intruder was engulfed in burning light that blotted him out. The mages raised their weapons, their energies increased as the rays grew stronger. To their surprise, the tangled mess of magic began to move towards them.
“The ages haven't been kind to you. I remember the days when a single elf mage could fight me to a draw, but it appears numbers are no substitute for true power,” Grayson said in a voice that seemed to come from all directions at once, and soon after there was a shockwave that blasted out sending the energy out in all directions knocking all the mages straight to the ground.
“No please, don't get up on my account,” he said and raised his hands. Black beams of energy blasted the fallen, would be protectors. On impact their bodies crumbled away to ash that was quickly blown away.
“Good, now, I need to do one last thing. No one gets in. Surround the building and keep it safe until I am finished,” Grayson said to them and the unicorns began to surround the building. Grayson walked up the steps and the doors opened for him as he approached.
“Excellent, now it's time to return to the good old days,” he said as he walked inside the building.
“Well, he just took out a good number of very skilled mages in one shot, does anyone have any good ideas of what to do next or is the bar idea still a thing we can do?” Drask asked, more than ready to let this come to an end.
“Will you shut up about that already, I imagine he needs protection because he's going to be weak. The amount of energy to bridge the worlds is insane, even if you're a god, and if we can get to him during that time I think we can win this,” Evie said and Rex narrowed his eyes. Calibri was nodding. “I was just going to say that myself, the fish mage is catching on,” she said sarcastically.
“How are we getting past the unicorns, then, anyone have any great ideas?” Drask asked, knowing full well that you couldn't just teleport into a mage school and get away with it.
“We can fly,” Rex said to them and Calibri nodded. “That could actually work. Mage schools are protected against magical intrusions, I don't see why we couldn't just fly to the top,” she said and Nymie sighed. “I wonder why mister unicorn god didn't just fly?” Boz asked Evie just glared at him. “Didn't you listen to me?” she asked.
“I hate flying, but if it's the only way I guess that'll be what we need to do,” she said and Evie knew just the spell that would work. “This is the point of no return. You can turn back now if you want to but if we live know that I will make sure everyone knows you gave up at the end,” Rex said with a smile.
“Nothing like a little blackmail to get the morale up,” Boz replied and took a deep breath. “I thought so, now we need to make sure that we have no plan, if we are predictable that thing up there will know it, Evie, get us up there,” Rex said and his logic didn't make sense to anyone right now.
“Hulota” she said in her native language and at once all of them were flying off the ground. Evie was controlling the direction and for this Nymie shut her eyes. She hated magical flight and the others were grateful, flying on your own power if you've never done it was extremely difficult. The group, in mere seconds were already over the building they were using for cover. The unicorns never even bothered to look up.
The group sailed right over their heads in complete silence and quickly rose up the side of the tower, close to the side so they could blend in with the dark. They didn't need some onlooker gawking and drawing attention to them either.
They landed on the top of the building as Evie killed the spell. Grayson, surprisingly had not arrived yet. “Alright, everyone let's get behind the access door so he doesn't see us standing here like idiots,” Tayne said and started running towards the door, the others followed his lead.
“I like this non plan we have going on here, I hope we can pull this madness off so we can let the rescue teams move in and go home,” Drask said and Rex punched her in the arm. “Quiet, suppress your inner moron for a few minutes, alright,” he said to her and she shot a glare in his direction, he didn't pay attention to her in the slightest.
##
The access door opened and he walked forward on to the roof.
“I really expected to be met up with a bunch of heroes up here for one last stand. I guess the unicorns actually did manage to fend them off, my lucky day,” he said and took a deep breath as he walked to the center and sighed.
“Okay, I know you're there, you can come out,” he said without turning around.
Nymie just about stood up to confront him when Rex immediately, and with strength she didn't know he had pulled her back down and shook his head. “Really, I mean, is there really nobody up here but me, this is usually the part the hero shows up,” Grayson said and shrugged. “Cool, I guess I can just get this over with,” he said and his hands began to burn with bright orange and black fire.
He lifted them into the air and fired two beams into the sky. Above him the biggest portal any of them had ever seen began to form. “The bridge will never be broken again, I will free all of you and together we will rule this world. Come out my friends, join me in paradise,” he screamed into the growing, spinning black cloud vortex above them.
“Attack now?” Tayne asked and Evie shook her head no. Tayne rolled his eyes he knew that if they waited much longer there wouldn't a world left to protect.
Grayson's human body began to glow bright orange, then a massive beam came out of him and flew into the portal only for a few seconds. He fell to his knees but out of the portal, streaks of fire started to fall to the earth.
“Now,” Evie said and Tayne was the first to react. He jumped out of the shadows and bashed Grayson in the back of the neck knocking him face first into the floor.
“What in the hell,” Grayson said as
he at once rolled over and kicked Tayne away from him. He was nowhere near his previous power but he lifted up straight up off the ground vertically to stand up and punched Tayne in the face, knocking him into the air and off the edge of the roof.
“Once my body gets here I'll kill all of you nice and slow, but I have all the time in the world and you'll never keep up with me!” Grayson screamed over the rising wind and ran for the edge of the roof and jumped. He jumped into the air and slammed into a shield and was knocked back at once into the roof.
“What is the meaning of this?” he asked as he picked himself up. Rex just shrugged, he didn't know either. “I figured you'd try to run so as soon as we got here I put up a shield,” Calibri said, Rex and Boz were impressed with her foresight.
“Well, what about Tayne then?” Drask asked. “Normal shields like this don't work so well with the undead, I'm sure he's already on his way back up,” Evie replied to her and focused back on the task at hand.
“Let's kill this bastard so we can get things back to normal,” Rex said, and fired his weapon at Grayson. The beam hit the thing in the chest and he staggered back two steps but didn't fall.
“We get it, save us the you're stronger than all of us together speech,” Boz said as he rushed forward. “Tyon,” Evie screamed and a replica of his old electric blade appeared in the elf's hand. Without thinking and with his electric blade in hand, he swung at his neck. Grayson raised his right arm and blocked the blade. The sparks were flying but he didn't get cut.
“Then you should have picked a better weapon that didn't make you have to get so close to me,” he replied and pushed against the blade flinging him away with ease.
Boz hadn't felt a strength like that in his life he and knew if he tried to resist it he'd be dead so he jumped at the same time and allowed the force to take him away from the battle. Nymie caught him before he could hit the shield.
“I owe you,” he said as she sat him down with one arm. She didn't respond as her and Drask moved in for the attack. She fired a green blast that hit him in the face. He was fast but not fast enough to avoid plasma. Pieces of his flesh were blown off on impact and he grabbed his face as smoke rose from the wounds.
Nymie rushed forward and sunk her axe deep into the left shoulder of the thing, she was aiming for the neck but he twisted at the last second. Grayson charged and grabbed her by her waist. He picked the eight foot woman straight up off the ground with one punch to the stomach to throw her away.
He pulled the axe out of his shoulder as she hit the ground and cracked the roof. “You troll, you'll die for that,” he said in a barely understandable voice due to most of his face being torn off.
He pulled the axe up but was stopped by a pair of hands. “What?” Albert asked, surprised. Unie had waited for the best time to attack and she decided it was now. She used the leverage to pull him on to his back with ease and put her foot on his wrists holding him on the ground. Tayne came crawling over the edge of the building finally as Nymie groaned and struggled to get up.
“My memory banks remember you. You made me open the shield, you made me responsible for killing all of the villagers, you must be punished,” she said, almost with a hint of anger in her voice.
“You're just a machine, not dead, not alive. Just wires meant to do what you are told,” Grayson snarled and twisted away from her to stand up only to be punched in the face by Rex just as he did so making him stagger back again.
“This machine has more right to exist than you do,” Rex said and nodded to Evie and Calibri. The two of them blasted the man with rays of bright yellow light. This time Grayson screamed as his human form began to dissolve where it stood. Drask took aim, switched her rifle to its kinetic mode and pulled the trigger sending a solid beam into Grayson. Grayson's body burst into yellow and purple fire as it fell to its knees, still screaming.
“You suppose that's enough? If it is closing the portal should take place at any time because I think I see something at the end of this tunnel and it's not light,” Tayne said as he looked up into it. He could swear he saw what looked like a massive horse head in the darkness.
“Yeah we should bring this to an end,” Nymie said, agreeing with the vampire. Grayson was now just a pile of fire and human shaped ash and bones now. There was no sign of life from him anywhere.
“Ladies, it's up to you, I'll trust you but we should, you know. Make a choice because if we don't we're going to die,” Rex was getting nervous about this whole situation and the Mage and Necromancer cut off their attack.
“This is as good as over,” Evie said and Calibri nodded. The two of them turned their attention to the sky. The shield disappeared in an instant. “Just like before, we work together and take this thing out. We can do it,” Evie said to her unlikely partner and they both closed their eyes.
White and blue beams erupted from their fingertips and the top of her staff. Everyone watched as the lines of light began to swirl around the portal in the opposite direction and the whole thing began to flow in the direction of the light.
“Yeah, that's how you do it, lock this thing up,” Drask said with a smile, the first real smile she had in a long time.
The others watched the event unfold, the portal began to shrink down and the streams of fire stopped entirely now. “It won't be long now, this nightmare is going to be over,” Rex said with a smile and just then he realized that nobody was paying attention to Grayson, just because he appeared to be dead didn't mean he really was.
Rex turned around and found Grayson's skeletal, charred face standing inches away from his. His empty eye sockets burning with purple light.
“You think you can just undo everything I have done?” he said with an inhuman, horrifying voice that he didn't have before. Rex tried to jump back but Grayson reached out and grabbed his arms. Rex twisted away and kicked the burning skeleton away from him. Grayson hit the ground in a mangled pile of flame and bones, but quickly pulled himself back up.
Rex rushed the thing and shot it in the head blasting chunks of bone in every direction. Grayson didn't seem to notice and stood up again. “I'm going to peel the flesh off of your bones and make you watch as I eat you,” the charred thing screamed in a broken voice.
“Too bad for you I taste really bad, you're no God, you're just another dwip who needs to die,” Rex replied to him and lunged for the attack, shooting the false god in chest again. While the physical damage was clear, it was already regenerating. Rex knew that nothing he could do to the thing would be enough. Now there was only one other option.
“They are going to close that portal, and then we will find a way to put you down forever. And think about it, if the Black Unicorn's power is trapped here, away from its body. How do you think all the other unicorns are going to feel about you then?” he asked with a smile.
Grayson had been distracted from the mages work, the portal in the sky had been closed considerably and his connection to the source of the power was almost gone.
“Fine,” he said and torn up mouth turned into a smile.
“If I can't have this world back, I will at least have you to keep me company in mine,” he said and his skeletal jaws twisted into a smile. Albert ran forward and grabbed Rex by the neck, then he took off flying towards the portal.
Nymie was able to grab onto Grayson's leg seconds before it was too late. “Guys, help me,” she screamed and the others quickly rushed to her aid. They all grabbed onto Grayson and held him in place, but despite all of their strength, he was slowly pulling away.
“Guys. The portal is closing. I doubt any prison on earth can hold him once he's fully regenerated. You need to let me go, this needs to happen. I'll do my best to make sure he won't screw with anyone else ever again,” Rex yelled out to the others.
The portal was nearly closed.
“This is an order, let me go, now,” Rex yelled out and Grayson laughed at the order. “Damn you, Rex,” Drask said and let go. The others did too. “Blast us into the portal,” Rex
yelled as they did and twisted around in the air. With Grayson exposed, the team fired and hit their mark.
With the shield dropped, Grayson struggled to get free, but Rex held him fast as weapon's fire pushed them forward. Rex was doing everything he could to hold on to the struggling thing in his arms.
They were forced into the shrinking black mass in the sky just as the shield dropped. Seconds later it disappeared. As soon as it had begun, it was all over, at least this part of it. Evie and Calibri stopped their magic and nearly collapsed. Tayne and Drask were there to keep them from falling over.
“Do you suppose he's dead?” Boz asked, breaking the silence. “Don't you even think that, not for a minute,” Nymie replied, holding back the tears over what just happened.
Chapter 26
The others stood there, not knowing what to do next or where to go. Suddenly the sounds of gunfire and magic blasts came from the streets below. It attracted their attention so they walked to the edge of the tower and sat down.
“It looks like the King finally called in the army to deal with the rest of the unicorns,” Tayne said and the others watched as they could see war walkers blasting energy at the unicorns. They saw a horn shatter and could only smile as the thing did what it was supposed to and disappeared into nothing.
“I am glad things are back to the way they used to be,” Drask said and sighed.
“Woman, things won't ever be the same after this. Look at the city, its ruined. There is no telling how many people died in the attack,” Calibri replied, Drask groaned.
“Shut up, Necromancer,” she replied.
“One time I needed his help with a Flesh horn out in the Morglands. Rex, I swear it's true, he used a dead body as cover to literally walk right up to the thing and broke its horn off with his bare hands. Then he looked at me and said, what, are you okay, like it was no big deal,” Tayne laughed, sharing one of the stories he had with him to try and lighten the mood.
