by T. J. Hunter
Chapter 23
I heard more shuffling sounds to my left and pointed my staff ready to blast anything with fur or yellow eyes. Instead of lycanthropes, there was a man and a woman chained together and gagged. The woman began screaming, but her gag only let muffled sounds escape. I raised my finger to my lips telling them to be quiet and they stopped making noise.
“Can you understand me?” I asked as quietly as possible and they both nodded. “I’m here to help you. I’m going to take you somewhere you’ll be safe.”
The tension in their bodies relaxed, obviously relived to see something that wasn’t going to eat them. I tapped my staff on the lock holding their chains and it melted to the ground. I didn’t try to remove the wrist shackles because the man and women would get burned. I also left their gags on in case they got frightened and made more noise.
Moon’s countdown ended several minutes ago and I sensed that something dark was nearby. I could feel it, and it was more dangerous than solider wolfs. The young girl must also be nearby – alive I hope.
I thought now would be a good time to see if Alura could hear my thoughts, so I spoke to her in my mind.
The hostages and I walked quietly to the barn door and stopped. I opened it a few inches and saw Alura running out of the cottage to the well. Guess she heard me. Once I opened the barn door all the way, the three of us ran as fast as we could toward the well where Alura was waiting.
Maybe we were going to get out of here alive after all.
Out of nowhere, Moon appeared standing next to the cottage still in human form, but his eyes were glowing bright yellow, and he was growling at us. We froze in our steps and the women began screaming through her gag.
Alura and I exchanged looks and her chin and eyes moved to the well. I was still new at being a wizard and my mind was not yet able to hear Alura’s thoughts. She repeated the gesture and I looked at the well.
It was the water – she wanted me to see the water.
Kyiel and Alura taught me how to manipulate water during my training on Keob. I had only cast a few water spells working with small puddles, but the volume shouldn’t matter. If there was enough water in the well, and because fur balls can’t cross moving water, I might be able to make a barrier between us and Moon.
I pointed my staff at the top of the well and shouted, “Hydlama.” My staff amulet glowed with intense blue-white swirls of light and a small spurt of water burst out of the well. A few seconds later water came roaring out and up into the sky. I slid my hand to the bottom of my staff and began swinging it around my head. The water followed my motion like a hurricane, and in one quick move, I pointed my staff at Moon and said, “Aktum,” and the water raced forward enclosing Moon in a swirling 30 foot tall liquid prison.
Moon made a ferocious howl and turned into his natural wolf self almost instantly. He was huge standing eight feet tall and probably weighed 500 pounds. He panicked at first, being caught off guard by the swirling water, and then turned several times in full circles before fully realizing what just happened. When he stopped turning, and he glared at me and narrowed his eyes while making a vicious snarl.
The fur ball was trapped and he knew it, but not for long. Keeping my mind focused on moving the water was draining my strength and magical energy. A minute or two longer and the wall of water would fall to the ground, and then there would be no magic left to fight him. I had to think of something fast.
Moon lifted his head and let out a series of ear piercing howls. He was calling out to his partners and any other wolves still alive to come to his aid. Yellow eyes began appearing along the tree line behind him and howling sounded out from all directions. Moon glared at me again and smirked in a way that tells someone they’re screwed.
My options were limited. I could swamp Moon in water, but not much more given the drain on my magic. Hopefully I’d catch him off guard again and be able to summon some lightening. If I failed … well, I don’t even want to think about what might happen if I failed.
I moved my staff downward and the water surrounding Moon collapsed with enough force to knock him off his feet. He trashed his arms and feet as the water flowed over him, but it didn’t last long, and he got up on all fours coughing and spitting out water. That was when Alura sprinted into action and leaped over Moon dragging both her swords across his back. Moon arched his back and howled in pain.
I focused my mind on all the magic I had left to summon lighting from the sky and shouted, “Aknor stellara.” Clouds formed near the arena ceiling with thunder and flashes of light, but no lightening bolts. I could barely stand from being drained both physically and magically.
Alura was about to attack Moon a second time when I again shouted, “Aknor stellara.” I then pointed my staff at Moon just before he leapt at Alura and bolts of lightening rained down from the sky. The first bolt hit Moon and tossed him up in the air. A second bolt pushed him back on the ground yelping in pain, and to my surprise, took his arm off. This gave Alura a few seconds to ran back near the well and raise her swords to continue fighting.
Moon was hurt badly with his arm completely severed from its shoulder. He hobbled into the barn and the wolves along the tree line disappeared after seeing their alpha take such a beating.
I took my last green coin from my wizard bag and crushed it under my foot, then said, “Relesa.” Green mist once again swirled up from the ground covering me from head to toe and magic flowed back into my body. My staff amulet glowed blue-white and the exhaustion I felt was gone.
“Alura, I’ll go after Moon. You stay here and protect these people.”
“Be careful Azul. The beast you chase will not die easily, wounded or not.”
I ran into the barn where Moon had gone and saw drops of blood along the way. The blood trail led to a bale of hay that was turned over exposing an opening in the floor – it was a tunnel. I looked down and saw a closed metal door with an electronic keypad.
Damn it. Moon escaped … again.
“That son of a mangy dog,” I muttered. “Well, you won’t be coming back this way fur ball.”
I pointed my staff toward the tunnel and said, “Aknor stellara,” sending a bolt of lightening into the opening that destroyed the tunnel entrance, and the recoil from the blast knocked me on the ground.
I already hated Moon and now I hated him more. He was cleaver, no doubt, which is why he has survived so long. Chasing him in the tunnel was my fist thought, but I had a better way to find him. I had his blood, and as Kyiel pointed out earlier, blood was a great source for casting a tracking spell.
Wherever Moon escaped to, I was going to find him and finish the job. I gathered some of his blood drops and placed them in a small container inside my wizard bag.
“Catch you later fur ball,” I muttered while looking back at the destroyed tunnel.
Alura had freed the hostages from their shackles and gags by the time I got back to the well. The women was crying and pleading to find her child.
“My baby girl, where’s my baby girl?”
“We will find her, I promise” Alura said.
I couldn’t hide the frown on my face because Moon’s countdown expired 20 minutes ago. The girl may have already been killed or bitten. Most of the arena remained unexplored and she could be anywhere.
Alura looked up at me. I knew she wanted me to confirm her promise, as did both parents. I hesitated for a moment, feeling such a promise would not likely be kept.
“Of course we’re going to find your daughter,” I said.
Alura smiled and continued comforting the women.
It was late and Moon’s partners were still roaming the arena. For now, we had to head back to the clearing to meet up with Thyzil as planned. Hopefully, we would find the girl unharmed along the way.
A couple hours later we arrived at the clearing. There was a small camp fire where Thyzil and the young girl were sitting and singing songs. You’ve got to be kidding me. Alura beamed with a big smile and the mother ran to h
er daughter, her arms spread out in the air, shouting, “Baby, my baby girl.”
“Thyzil, you son of a gun. How in the world did you find the girl,” I asked.
“Well,” Thyzil said, uneasy about answering my question. “You see, I found two big doggies, then lightening fell from sky. Was that you wizard?”
“Yes, it was me. I put a couple bolts into Moon and tore one of his arms off.”
“This is good, yes?” Thyzil asked, but didn’t answer my question, so I repeated it.
“How did you find the girl?”
“When doggies saw lightening, they ran toward it. Did you see them?”
“No, but I know where they went. Moon escaped through a tunnel. Bet you my last dollar his partners escaped through another hidden tunnel.”
“So … Thyzil, how did you find the girl?” I asked, knowing he was intentionally delaying a response.
The young girl giggled. “I sneezed and he tripped over a log into the bushes where I was hiding.”
Thyzil’s blushed. I never thought I’d see the day when the great Zeshtune warrior would be embarrassed.
I grinned. “Do tell,” I said, trying not to burst into laughing.
“Old warrior trick wizard,” Thyzil said. “Fake falling to make enemy think they won.”
“Poor baby,” Alura said, also trying her best not to laugh.
“Do not worry my princess. I am not injured.”
Alura rolled her eyes. “Not you knucklehead. I was talking to the girl.”
Everyone bust into laughter, including Thyzil, and for a moment we forgot about the horror inside this arena.
It felt good to know we saved three human beings from a horrible outcome and lived to talk about it. As a special bonus, I could now track Moon any time using his blood, which pleased me to no end. I kept grinning thinking about Moon hiding in a hole somewhere licking his wounds. All things taken into account, today turned out to be a very good day.
We all walked up the path to the ledge where the elevator was located. It was too small for all of us to ride up together, so Thyzil and I stayed behind while Alura and the happy family rode up to the surface.
“Don’t forget to send the elevator back for us,” I said in a joking manner.
Alura arched an eyebrow and shrugged.
“Oh, you’re real funny Alura. Just don’t forget to send it down for us.”
The elevator door closed and Thyzil and I sat down with our backs leaning against a large boulder.
“Not fair wizard. You and Alura killed most doggies today. I think you both owe me.”
“Sure, next time you take the lead Thyzil. You know that I’d be more than happy to watch you deal with the bad guys.”
Thyzil smiled. “We have deal wizard.”
It wasn’t long before the elevator door opened. I stood up and brushed dirt off my pants while Thyzil looked back out at the arena.
“I will miss this place wizard,” he said.
I laughed. “Really … well don’t worry my friend, they’ll be many more battles and little time for you to miss this hell-hole. Don’t forget, we still need to destroy Moon and his partners.”
Thyzil laughed and slapped me on my back.
“Yes wizard, many more battles. This is good.”
We rode up the elevator to the surface and shared our different versions of what happened along the way. It was like a telephone game where a person says something into the ear of another person and by the time what was said passed through a number of other people, the last person heard something completely different. Such is life I suppose.
When the elevator door opened, I saw Lieutenant Mack and Alura reviewing an architectural map of the building. The good lieutenant had made the tenth floor into a command station and his soldiers were already packing up the electronic equipment. Mack waived for us to come over.
“Glad to see you two made it out okay,” Mack said.
“Yea, me too. What’s all this?” I asked.
“Standard operating procedure sir. Sarila had us sweep the building for possible threats and now everything is clear.”
I looked around and saw Alura speaking to three Zeshtune men wearing familiar military style fatigues with a Keob insignia, and of course, they had brilliant blue eyes.
Interesting … these are the first male Zeshtunians I’ve seen, except for Thyzil. I wonder where these guys came from.
One of the Zeshtunians picked up a silver case and followed Thyzil into the elevator to return to the arena.
“I can guess what’s inside that case. Crystals, right?” I asked Alura.
“You are correct dear brother. The crystals will destroy any remaining wolves attempting to flee through tunnels that we don’t know about.”
“What about the three Zeshtune bodies?”
“Thyzil will retrieve them. Once everyone is back on the surface, he’ll set off the crystals in the area. Lieutenant Mack’s men will then setoff the C4 explosives to collapse everything and seal this place off forever.
“Does ‘everything’ include the building we are standing in?”
Alura winked. “That’s the idea Azul. We’re going to level this place to the ground.”
Having thousands of tons of rock and cement crash down on the arena would certainly make it disappear for good. I Hope Lieutenant Mack brought enough C4 because I’d hate to think any wolves might get loose in the city, which leads me back to finding Moon. The building was shielded, so Sarila wouldn’t be able to lock onto Moon’s DNA signature. No matter because I have his blood. If the fur ball was anywhere in the building, my tracking spell would lead me right to him.
I found my way to a small kitchen where there were packages of sugar next to a coffee machine. Perfect, powdered sugar will do just fine. I poured a half dozen of the sugar packs onto the counter and mixed in some of Moon’s dried blood. I then placed my hand over the sugar and said, “Trako, trako, trako.” The sugar began to sparkle and swirl on the counter until it gathered into a neat pile. I used a coffee cup to collect the sugar and blew away what little was left off the counter. Instead of spreading out and disappearing from sight, it coalesced and moved out of the kitchen to the unblocked stairway.
“Moon was here inside the building,” I muttered.
The tunnel Moon escaped through must lead back here and he slipped by Lieutenant Mack’s sweep to avoid detection.
Gotcha now fur ball.
Alura and Lieutenant Mack were still looking over the building schematics when I interrupted.
“Alura, we got a problem, or an opportunity depending how you see it. Moon … he’s here inside the building somewhere above this floor.”
Alura’s eyes widened and Mack went silent.
“What? How do you know?” she asked.
I poured a small amount of the sugar into my hand and blew into the air. Alura and Mack watched as the sparkling sugar moved across the room and up the stairway.
Alura grinned. “Alight, let’s go get him,” she said while pulling the slides back on her pistols to load each chamber. “I am fully loaded with a fresh supply of grenades and a desire for revenge.”
“Hold on,” I said. “I’m going after Moon alone this time while you and Lieutenant Mack stay here and guard the stairway. We can’t risk Moon getting away, not this time.”
Alura hesitantly agreed and told me I had 15 minutes before she would come looking for me. I was about to question the little amount of time, and she repeated it with emphasis before I could say another word.
“15 minutes brother, not a second longer. I mean it.”
I frowned a little, then reluctantly nodded and moved to the stairway entrance.
Alura is not accustomed to sitting on the sidelines, but this was now my fight. I wanted to be the one to dust Moon. It was personal.
“Good luck sir,” Mack said.
“Thanks Lieutenant. Hopefully this will be the last time any of us have to deal with Moon or his partners ever again.”
&n
bsp; I started walking up the stairs with my staff in one hand and the cup of sugar in the other. This was the first time I would be facing a lycanthrope entirely alone, and more than one if Moon’s partners were also in the building.
Once at the 11th floor door, I took some sugar from the coffee cup and blew it into the air. The sugar continued moving up the stairway and I followed, blowing more into the air at each floor. Upon reaching the 20th floor stairway, I was completely out of breath.
Perhaps an exercise routine might be a good idea. Then again, just getting through each day without being eaten alive was probably more than enough exercise for anyone.
I blew the rest of the sugar into the air. With nowhere to go but the rooftop, the sugar traveled under the door.
Thank goodness. Fighting a lycanthrope on a roof without walls to stop my body from falling 20 floors was about as bad as it could get.
“Okay guys,” I said, pushing the button on my com-link. “Looks like Moon is on the 20th floor. Stay put and keep an eye open for his partners – they could be anywhere – and I’ll let you know what I find up here.”
“Roger that,” Mack said.
“10 more minutes Azul. If I don’t hear back from you in 10 minutes, I coming up there.”
I smiled. “I made it up 10 flights of stairs in five minutes. Not too shabby, huh? What do you think about your big brother now?”
“Only 9 minutes now, so stop wasting time chatting.”
I didn’t have to see Alura to know she smirked and rolled her eyes. But hey, getting a reaction from her was half the fun even if I wasn’t able to see it first hand. The other half was to help me relax as best possible.
I opened the unlocked door and was surprised to see bright light everywhere. The exterior walls were all glass and daylight flooded in from all directions, which I considered a fighting advantage. Offices lined the walls and typical corporate furniture filled work areas in the middle of the floor. There were a lot of places to hide and I knew each office and cubicle I passed might be an ambush.
Moon was here somewhere and he had no place to run – so I kept telling myself while trying to forget he had escaped twice before. Sure, he could go up to the roof, but Lieutenant Mack’s snipers would pick him off as soon as he stepped out into the open. Unless he could grow wings, he’s trapped here and one of us was going to die today – hopefully not me.
Hold on, Moon is a shapeshifter. He probably could grow wings and fly away. I hope Mack is planning on shooting anything leaving this building, with wings or anything else.
Blood drops on the carpet – Moon’s I hope – provided a perfect tracking trail. Normally a blood trail is a fighting advantage, but being injured could make Moon more dangerous, which is a disadvantage.
Alura was right … I do think too much.
With each step I took, the smell of wolf got stronger, but the blood trail led further down the corridor. One or both of Moon’s partners had to be nearby.
Off to my right was a sitting area that had some chairs, a couch, tables, and vending machines with assorted junk food all neatly lined up along a wall. There was no one there, but I sensed increased danger and the wolf scent got much stronger. I turned to look out across the open office area to my left and didn’t see anything there either. A moment later a reflection on a computer monitor appeared, and when I turned around, the last vending machine was missing and in its place was a lycanthrope.
You have got to be kidding me … a vending machine? Alura did say that the older lycanthropes learned how to take on the form of inanimate objects, but I wasn’t sure if appearing as a vending machine was actually a transformation, or merely an illusion. This is the fur balls home turf and where their clamor would be strongest.
In either case, that was my last thought before the fur ball was on top of me. My defense shield kicked in, thank goodness, and surrounded my body with a green transparent field that didn’t bother the fur ball in the least. After trying to bite my head off, he lifted me up by my throat with one hand and moved me close to his teeth. Then, in one quick jerk, it threw me like a bag of feathers into a cement column which nearly knocked me unconscious.
Man, these fur balls are stronger than I had thought. The damn thing tossed me across the room like I was a rag doll.
Thankfully my defense shield kept my bones from breaking, but everything still hurt like heck nonetheless. It felt like I hit a brick wall while driving a car, and while the seat belts might protect your skull from being smashed like a Halloween pumpkin, stopping suddenly on solid cement takes your breath away in a big way. Nonetheless, I was still alive and happy to have a magical version of a seat belt.
I looked up as the fur ball was on top or me again wildly thrashing with its arms and trying to bite my face off. There wasn’t anything I could do to fight back while my defense shield was up, which was the downside of the shield – nothing gets in, and nothing gets out, not even magic.
The fur ball paused every few seconds to lift its head toward the ceiling and howl – this was my window to attack. When the fur ball lifted its head again, I gathered my magic energy, and as it lowered its head from a long howl, I pushed my staff through the defense shield into the fur balls mouth and shouted, “Raza zitum.” My defense shield collapsed as magic rush out as the fur ball went silent and stopped thrashing. Its eyes grew large from being surprised, and then it happened … blue-white saw discs began swirling around inside its head and exited in a number of directions. The fur ball was still staring at me with big yellow eyes as sections of its head slid onto the carpet. I pushed myself away using my feet and watched the lycanthrope burn into a pile of ashes.
“Wow, that was extreme,” I said, not entirely believing what happened, and checking myself for broken bones.
The fur ball I dusted had white markings on its ears and nose making it one of Moon’s partners. Moon was larger and had a solid black coat, and smelled worse.
One down, two to go.
I got up off the floor and thanked the stars above for still being alive. Despite feeling like a bus ran me over, I was good to go because I knew Moon was only steps away from getting dusted.
