by Eric Vall
Gawain yelled with wild abandon as he swung away from us, and then he pulled at his gun’s trigger. Bullets pinged across the street in flashes of elemental discharge, but anybody who could take cover had already done so. His aim was terrible, and it was clear Phi was the one responsible for the poor gunmanship.
I was relieved I didn’t see a single person out in the street except for us.
“Hey, asshole!” Layla called across the market plaza.
Gawain swung around and snapped his gaze to our group.
“Humans!” the fire mage bellowed in rage as he spotted us. Then his gun arm went slack as he stumbled toward our group in strange, jerky movements.
I’d been prepared with a handful of wallerdons, but maybe a fight wouldn’t be necessary. Talking was worth a shot.
“It’s me, Phi,” I yelled back across the plaza. “It’s over. Just let go of Gawain and go back to the realm you belong in.”
Gawain giggled unsteadily. “I’m just getting started on my fun, Gryff. You can’t ruin things for me this time.”
“This time?” I asked cautiously. “What do you want with the ciphers, Phi?”
Gawain smirked and stuck his tongue out like a child. “Nice try, but I’m not playing.”
“I never want to see that expression on him again,” Layla said with a disgusted shudder.
“How about you leave this outpost of nice people alone?” I asked Phi resolutely.
Gawain gave a large, unnerving grin. “I don’t think so. They should know how it feels to have so much taken from them. So much lost and gone. So much. So much.”
After the second repetition, he swung his arm up and fired a round of air bullets at me.
He wasn’t fast enough, though, since I’d thrown my wallerdons before he’d even finished speaking. They sprouted up in a shield wall in front of us like a dutiful line of soldiers and absorbed the air bullets effortlessly.
I had to keep this fight from advancing like the last one did, so I threw out my trump card right off the bat.
As it emerged from my essence crystal, the vingehund stretched like a dog waking up from a nap and lolled its pink tongue out happily.
I smirked as I regarded the monster I’d taken from the Shadowscape. “Miss your precious little dog? I think you were willing to let me take it since you were getting Gawain, but it sure looks like I got the better side of the deal.”
“No,” Gawain snarled as his face contorted in anger. “She’s mine.”
I commanded the vingehund to growl and advance on the fire mage. Her arched horns glinted in the red light of the fire surrounding us, and she rustled her blue feathers as she clasped her wings tight to her back.
“If she’s yours, why is she ready to attack you?” I asked with a curious tilt to my head.
Gawain shrieked and ran for me with one of his hands coated in blue-hot fire. It elongated into a blade of solid flame, and its brilliance hurt my eyes just to look at it.
I didn’t know how to actually use the vingehund in combat without either killing Gawain or hurting the ears of my comrades with its shrieks, but luckily, I didn’t have to.
As Gawain brandished his flaming sword and came for me, a wall of solid rock suddenly sprouted from the ground between us.
The towering wall rumbled the earth as it emerged, and the vibrations travelled up my legs to rattle my teeth. Clumps of dirt flaked from the sides of the wall, and underneath, I even noticed a few crystal formations glittering from within.
The show was impressive, to say the least, but that was standard earth magic for you.
“Wow,” I said dryly in a raised voice. “Just in time.”
“Almost like we planned it,” Erin shouted back as Varleth and the mimic joined us on our side of the market plaza.
Of course, I’d seen the two of them coming and known I just had to stall a little longer to keep the fight from escalating.
“Now that Erin has Almasy’s earth powers, we’ll be unstoppable,” Layla announced gleefully.
“I sure hope so,” I replied to temper her expectations, but my grin was just as large.
I was confident we could stop the fire mage with the addition of earth magic. We’d nearly caught Gawain the first time, but we didn’t have any way to make the final capture without fatally wounding him. His flames were strong, but we could have matched him with our strongest monsters easily if we’d used them.
Luckily, earth magic was much more flexible. Almasy’s kind of magic didn’t have a ton of offensive punch, but it was perfectly suited to holding a target like Gawain still and giving us protection from bullets.
Varleth nodded to me as he and Erin took their battle stances. The banisher stayed on the outside with his sword out, but he would have to hang back unless things went very wrong.
The orange-haired mimic took the center position before she jabbed a confused finger at our opponent. “Hey, guys? Why does Gawain have giant bird wings?”
“It’s probably the result of Phi’s possession,” Varleth explained to her, “but I wouldn’t rule out a nasty fight with a pigeon either.”
“It wasn’t a pigeon,” I clarified. “Phi is an Archon, which is some kind of ancient monster goddess. She hates humans, which I know because her sister has half-possessed my body. I’ll get into it later.”
Erin rocked back on her heels and raised her eyebrows so high they nearly hit her hairline. “Okay then, sure, that’s very understandable and not a crazy mess of gibberish at all.”
Layla patted the mimic gently on the back. “Just go with it, it’s okay.”
Erin shook her head with a smile. “I’m gone for two days and this happens? You guys are nuts.”
The five of us laughed, then a fireball exploded in a flurry of sparks against the wall over our heads.
“Time to fight,” I advised. “Erin takes point, everybody else follows her lead. Cyra, I want you putting out fires with your wetweavers unless I ask you for something specific.”
We leapt into the fray with the orange-haired mimic at the front of our team. The ground roiled like water in a bath as she pulled and pushed furrows of earth and rock around us.
Gawain fired off his pistol and lashed out with gouts of flame as he tore damaged rock walls to pieces. He couldn’t hope to keep up, though, since Erin threw up new walls as soon as the old ones came down.
That was the unyielding beauty of earth magic, but Erin would need all the help she could get. So, I concocted a plan as we dodged circles around Gawain.
“Cyra!” I yelled “I need your petripede. Just throw it down behind the building over there.”
“It’ll blind us all if you don’t use it precisely,” the chocolate-eyed summoner called back in confusion. “Plus, it’s so hard to control, I can’t even direct Kalon when I’m using it.”
“Don’t worry about it!” I assured her.
She complied, and I grinned at the thought of my plan coming to fruition.
I threw out my pyrewyrm, and then I directed my eyeless monster to clutch the petripede in its grasp. The massive insectoid had a huge, serpentine body, and it wouldn’t be easy to lift, but I now understood from watching Kalon that monsters could carry more than they seemed capable of.
My shadowy pyrewyrm grumbled as it obeyed my commands, since it was unhappy with having to carry a stranger’s monster. The petripede twisted its blind head to the side as my monster’s talons folded carefully around its smooth, white hide.
Perfect. Both monsters were eyeless and navigated by some sense unknown to me. What better combination could I possibly use? The petripede’s blinding power was potent, but my pyrwyrm could withstand it perfectly.
To top the monster duo off, I gave the two of them a bullet bass to cover some potential damage with its metal coating, and then I left them like that.
I rejoined my comrades as Layla, Varleth, and Erin danced in and out of direct combat with Gawain. They tried to encapsulate the fire mage in stone or incapacitate him with small a
ttacks, but he shook them off with little effort. While my teammates struggled not to harm him, Gawain himself sent off bullets and fireballs without pulling a single punch.
“Make a wall,” I instructed Erin hurriedly. “It needs to be large, and it needs to block the light, but don’t worry about it withstanding any attacks.”
“Got it,” the orange-haired mage said agreeably.
I commanded my pyrewyrm to lift off with a heavy beat of wings, and my fell beast lifted itself and the petripede into the air with considerable effort. As soon as my pyrewyrm was up and soaring, the two of them glided effortlessly overhead.
“Now!” I said as my monsters reached the peak of their ascent far above Gawain’s position.
Erin gestured sharply, and a thin shelf of flaky, yellow rock jutted from the ground. Despite its thin width, the height of it was tremendous, and soon it blocked my eyes from even the sight of my pyrewyrm up above.
With a mental command, my monster folded its wings, twisted itself around so its back faced the earth, and plummeted toward Gawain on the ground.
Of course, the fire mage noticed the metallic beast streaking for him right away, and he shot off a barrage of bullets in response. Though I couldn’t see my monster, I kept tabs on it through our bond to each other.
The first few bullets pinged harmlessly off the bullet bass coating, since the ice bullets he’d switched to earlier did little harm to the metal. When he spouted flame into the sky from his free hand, that too molded easily over the bodies of the monsters and left them untouched.
Finally, Gawain’s gun finished its scan and flipped over to earth bullets, but by that point, it was too late for him.
A few earth bullets struck my pyrewyrm’s back and folded wings, and it shrieked as they shattered and punctured the coating. The petripede clutched in its talons above it, however, was entirely safe.
Just as I’d planned.
At the last moment, my pyrewyrm flipped back over.
“It’s time!” I shouted to Cyra.
She directed the petripede to release its blinding light, and the sky lit up in pure, terrible white around the edges of the stone wall.
I blinked the spots out of my eyes, and Erin dropped the wall as quickly as she’d brought it up.
This was our chance to finally get Gawain.
I ran in with my eyes fixed on the fire mage’s prone form as he lay on the ground. His hands were over his eyes, and he wailed in pain as he rolled there.
I neared expecting this to be a simple grab, but despite his blindness, the possessed mage hadn’t given up the fight. He lashed out with a bloom of flame that I nearly didn’t stop in time, and my shirt caught on fire before my bullet bass coating kicked in. I stripped the burning cloth off and threw it to the ground with a few quick stomps for good measure.
“It’s over, Phi,” I growled as I snatched Gawain’s arms to pin them behind his back.
He lashed out with a kick and snarled as I tried to contain him. Then he whirled around with the gun brandished, and I had to stumble back a few steps to get away from the threat. It was still scanned to earth bullets, and I’d have to rely on Erin to save me if he shot me now.
“You’re in no condition to keep fighting,” I argued with him as I pitched my voice low. “You’ll collapse soon, and you’ll be in our hands either way.”
“I don’t think so,” Gawain growled as he tugged a thin vial blindly from his pocket.
Before any of us could stop him, he downed the purple liquid inside and threw away the glass. It took a moment to work, but the effects were clear. Gawain’s eyes stopped streaming tears, and he shook his head as his fatigue and pain cleared.
“Give it up, Gawain,” Varleth said as he stepped in closer. “No amount of healing or mana will keep you from burning out physically. You’re going to die if you keep going. It’s time to stop.”
“Never,” Gawain grunted out as he shied away from our advances. His gun wavered uncertainly in his grasp as he glared from face to face.
“C’mon,” I urged gently as I took a chance and moved in.
His face softened, and I wondered if I’d gotten through. Maybe I just had to keep reassuring him of our friendliness in his weakened state, and he’d give up the gun on his own.
“Look,” I said as I gestured toward Layla, “you know her. You two became friends during your last mission, didn’t you?”
Gawain furrowed his brow and regarded the petite summoner with dawning realization.
I kept going. “This is Varleth,” I said. “You love to rag on him because he makes such funny faces when he’s angry.”
Varleth frowned unhappily at my words, and Erin snorted in response.
“Look,” I said as I turned halfway around to point at the mimic behind us. “You know her, she-- ”
“You,” Gawain interrupted in stark horror.
I whipped back around, and I watched as he pointed a trembling finger toward my bare, left shoulder.
“You awoke her,” Gawain accused in a shaking voice. “Oh no, no. If she’s free, that means the end of us all. You, me, all of humanity.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked as I clapped a hand over my bare shoulder.
“Sera,” Gawain whispered. “I was sent here to keep her imprisoned, since we sensed her stir from where we trapped her.”
The strange double-speak phased in and out, and it gave me a glimpse of the tenuous state of Gawain’s mind during the possession.
“Calm down, Gawain,” I said slowly. “Whatever Phi is saying, she’s lying.”
“Soon, you’ll be possessed,” the fire mage murmured fearfully. “Soon, she’ll be free, and all our lives will come to an end.”
“Gawain, it’s fine--” I tried to say.
“It’s over,” he cut in fearfully. “Phi has told me. They imprisoned Sera because she … she … ”
Gawain shook his head fitfully as his green eyes widened. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers, and a shadowy portal opened up directly behind him.
Shit. I thought opening a rift like that was impossible.
“Stop him!” Cyra cried.
“Get his bag,” I barked.
Our monsters were too slow, but Varleth flicked out his sword as he leapt to action with characteristic quickness. I nearly missed him entirely as he swept his sword through one strap of Gawain’s bag.
Ciphers and potion bottles spilled from the interior as the satchel sagged open, but the fire mage clapped his hand over the opening and prevented more from falling out.
I lunged with my hands outstretched to grab him, but it was too late.
Gawain turned and leapt away with the bag still clutched in his grasp. He disappeared into the muddled darkness of the small portal, and it sealed shut directly behind him without a moment wasted.
The five of us stood stock still and panted as we stared at the space where he had vanished.
Gawain was gone again.
When my shock wore off, I strode forward to collect what had fallen out of his bag.
“Four ciphers,” I reported as I collected the ancient artifacts carefully. “The book and other research materials are here, too.”
“So, there are still two missing ones,” Varleth sighed as he knelt down next to me.
“At least we got most of them back,” Layla said optimistically.
“What about the potions?” Cyra asked as she drew near. Erin had taken our last elixir during the fight, and we were desperate for another to replace it.
“All empty,” I said grimly as I held up the glass containers to the light.
“That’s not a very good sign,” Erin replied with a worried frown.
“Nobody should take that many elixirs in so few days,” Varleth agreed.
“Shit,” I swore. “If he really took all these, he’s lucky to be alive. We need to go after him, not just for the ciphers, but also to keep Phi from working him to death.”
“We have to,” Layla agreed. “It’s not h
is fault Phi possessed him.”
Cyra nodded resolutely as she gave me a worried glance. “I couldn’t imagine having a monster in my head for weeks.”
Erin smiled. “I’d miss bothering him if we didn’t get him back.”
“I guess even assholes deserve saving,” Varleth sighed.
“Good,” I agreed with a grin. “We’re all decided.”
How touching, you’re all pitching in, Sera murmured through my mind. I suppose I agree with this decision, if you count me.
I definitely didn’t count her, and she chuckled as she sensed my irritation.
“At least for now, we have most of the research materials,” I allowed as I considered the events of the day. “Even if we didn’t come away with a complete victory, this is much better than before.”
“Plus, most of the outpost came away fine,” Cyra added.
“Uhhh … ” I turned to regard the smoking swaths of buildings that surrounded us. The wetweavers had done an incredible job extinguishing many of the fires, but many of the houses were scorched beyond repair or even collapsed.
It looked awful, to say the least.
“Well, maybe not fine,” Cyra admitted. “I forgot how small this place was. I guess most of it got a little burned.”
“I hope the people of this outpost fared better,” I said as I considered the absent townsfolk.
I’d have to check in later to figure out where everybody had gone. We’d certainly heard a few screams as we approached the outpost, but I didn’t see a single body or living person during the whole fight. Even with the battle clearly over and everything quieted down, nobody emerged to talk to us.
Maybe they’d evacuated somewhere safe. The mayor did seem like he’d taken us seriously when we’d warned him about Gawain.
“Cool,” Erin said as she placed her hands on her hips. “Now, can somebody tell me why Gryff said he’s possessed?”
Chapter 13
It took a while, but the four of us explained everything that had happened since Erin left on the airship to collect Almasy’s earth powers. When it was over, Erin’s eyes were wide in surprise.
