by Frank Morin
Connor crashed into the ground in the center of the arena. Fine earth erupted around him, the fine powder triggering an enormous sneeze that Hamish would have been proud of. Protected by enhanced granite, he shook off the impact and rose to stare up at the hole he'd just made.
The elfonnel's angry bellow echoed down from above. He'd escaped for a moment, but it wouldn't take the monster long to follow. So he ran across the soft earth of the arena, imagining how it must have looked centuries ago with all those benches filled with shouting spectators.
They'd never witnessed a death battle against an elfonnel. Lucky them.
Taking shelter in a tunnel-like exit, he tried to calm his breathing. With an effort, he connected with slate, but made sure not to extend his earth senses beyond his own feet. Even then, he felt the elfonnel's influence pounding against the ground in every direction, like a storm surge.
Then the earth around the little hole he'd made erupted up and away, flowing aside like an inverted waterfall. Light spilled through the hole for the first time in who knew how many decades, illuminating the ruins.
Then something immense blotted out the light.
The elfonnel was coming down after him.
* * *
Verena screamed in despair as the elfonnel leaped a hundred feet and crashed to the ground over Connor, ripping up tons of earth in a gigantic bite. It chomped a hole nearly ten feet deep in the ground and swallowed it in a bobbing, gulping move.
It just swallowed Connor.
With tears streaming down her face, Verena descended lower, barely able to control the Swift through her grief. It was impossible. He couldn't have died, not when she was so close.
Instead of turning in triumph away from its latest kill, the elfonnel dug at the ground with its front legs and bellowed again. It sounded angry, howling the kind of rage that only Connor could generate.
She soared two hundred feet over its head and spotted a hole in the ground. It looked like some kind of cave. Hope ignited in her heart, driving back the crippling despair, but the ground flowed up and away, forming a much wider hole.
Connor had somehow escaped the monster, but that didn't mean he was safe yet. It looked like the elfonnel was preparing to follow him into the cave.
"You're not getting him that easily," she growled, pivoting the Swift and taking aim at two of the monster's great, silver eyes.
The speedslings spun up in record time, and Verena opened fire. Thousands of hornets ripped the air between her and the cursed monster that dared attack her Connor. One in ten of the hardened little hornets burned with angry, crimson flames, tracing the route the projectiles took and helping her fine-tune the aim.
She guided the deadly little hornets into the monster's eyes, and they tore into the soft targets with wonderful savagery. The granite plunged deep, and one out of every dozen exploded with embedded diorite.
The elfonnel reared back, its cry of pain shaking the air and upsetting Verena's aim. Grimly determined, she reset and fired on the second eye. It too exploded in a wave of silver liquid and the monster shuddered from the pain.
Verena shouted defiance at the monstrosity as she fired. Her speedslings wouldn't last long, and couldn't kill it, but she'd distract the monster as long as possible.
The monster turned to face her, and she slid sideways in the air to track with it.
That's all that saved her life.
Spears of earth erupted from the ground, shooting into the air like they were driven by marble thrusters. The first wave missed by a few feet, hissing as they passed close by her. Verena threw the Swift into a sideways roll, avoiding a dozen more earthen missiles.
When she gained some altitude and turned back toward the elfonnel, she cursed to see its eyes already healed. It was a being of pure element. Superficial damage couldn't hurt it for long.
The elfonnel opened its huge, crag-toothed maw and bellowed at her, creating a gale-force wind that rocked the Swift. Its breath smelled of fresh-turned earth and windswept mountains.
"Eat this," Verena shouted, aiming the Swift at the monster's mouth and triggering her latest invention, inspired after witnessing Kilian's elfonnel lose control.
A slender, quartzite-powered missile strapped under the Swift erupted from its mount. Its flight stabilized by little fins set along its length, it leaped the distance between her and the elfonnel and plunged into that open mouth. The chunk of diorite mounted inside the steel cone at the front of the missile exploded, shredding the monster's mouth with steel and fire.
Gigantic teeth burst asunder and rained out of the elfonnel's maw, along with five of the serpentlike tongues. The entire elfonnel rocked back from the impact, and for a moment she looked down into the hole it had created. Impossibly, she caught sight of rows of stone bleachers. They looked old, as if an ancient stadium had been buried under the plain. How had Connor known about that?
The elfonnel planted its eight thick legs and crouched. Instead of jumping at her, the ground all around it erupted into the air in sheets of earth she couldn't hope to avoid.
With a cry of fear, Verena maxed the thrusters and opened wide the Puking Dooms, rocketing the Swift higher. The earth struck, tossing her higher still and spinning the Swift wildly away.
By the time she recovered and turned back to face the monster, it had disappeared into the cave after Connor.
Chapter 72
"Anika! Erich!"
Hamish swooped down toward the island where the sibling Petralists were facing a large group of approaching soldiers, led by leather-clad Fast Rollers. Dietmar and Margrit stood behind the siblings, and they looked ready for battle.
Hamish grinned. Who better to test his suit against than the very best of Dougal's fighters? He landed in front of Erich, surprising the huge Rumbler so much, he nearly punched Hamish before recognizing him.
Anika gripped Hamish's hand. "Good Builder boy, mine friend. Come in time for many big fight to death."
"I've been taking lessons," he responded in Grandurian, grateful he'd been studying the language. He didn't think he could endure trying to piece together what was going on from their broken Obrioner.
"Good," Erich said, clapping him on the shoulder. "I like the suit."
Hamish grinned, but glanced at the Fast Rollers, who had paused about thirty feet away when he landed. "What's going on here?"
"We're supposed to be waiting for Connor so we can kill him," Anika said.
"The coward hasn't shown," Erich growled. "Sent those soldiers instead."
"He's busy playing tag with an elfonnel," Hamish explained, realizing they might not have seen the monster yet.
Erich frowned. "Is many great fool play game with such monster."
Hamish couldn't argue with that. He yearned to race after Verena and help Connor, but had to do something about those soldiers first.
"No killing Connor," Hamish ordered. "Not until we figure this out."
Erich grinned. "You've grown strong in recent months, Builder, but are you ready to give me orders?"
"I'm here to help. Just follow my lead." Hamish turned to face the Fast Rollers, who were advancing again.
The two in the front, who he vaguely remembered from Alasdair, stopped ten feet away. "You're Connor's friend," one of them said when Hamish removed his goggles. "The Builder from Alasdair, right?"
"You planning to collect the bounty?" Hamish asked, preparing to unleash his arsenal if the soldiers drew any closer.
The man's brutish companion grinned. "Maybe later. Right now we've got orders to bring this lot to Captain Rory. You should probably come along too."
Erich growled. "Fight Rory. Is good first die."
"Duel's off for now," the first man said. Hamish recalled that his name was Tomas. "A giant monster just crashed into the Carraig. We're all joining forces to fight it. Your Captain Ilse is with Rory and they've reached a peace accord for now. So either join us, or we beat you into submission right now."
Erich looked ready to take
up the challenge, but Anika placed a restraining hand on his arm. "If Machtig Riesen is come, is many best fight."
"What did you call it?" Hamish asked.
"Machtig Riesen," she repeated. "Is elfonnel."
"I hope you know how to beat that thing," Tomas said.
"Have ideas," Erich said.
"You can't punch an elfonnel to death," Hamish said. "I've seen them before."
"Then you're the expert," Tomas said. "Come on. Rory will want to speak with you."
As the groups merged in uneasy truce, Hamish fell into step beside Tomas. The Fast Roller said, "You've got to tell me about that suit, Builder."
"It's kind of a secret weapon."
Tomas grunted. "Well, I hope you've got a lot more secret weapons. I think we're going to need them."
Chapter 73
It sounded like someone was fighting the elfonnel. Connor hoped none of his friends did anything exceptionally stupid, but he couldn't help them if he was dead. The extra seconds helped him formulate a plan of escape.
He was concealed pretty well in the little tunnel exit, but the elfonnel would find him immediately once it focused on him again. He needed to buy a little more time.
So he tapped slate and formed a shield around his feet. Ilse had said that the best shields embodied what was not there, a weight with no weight, so he tried to imagine himself no more than a shadow in the darkness.
His little shield wouldn't survive active searching from the beast, but it might conceal him if the monster was too busy looking elsewhere. Concentrating on the summoning technique that Ilse had taught him, Connor formed an image in his mind, filling it with the power of elemental earth, then melding that concentrated power into a shell of granite.
The ground at his feet glowed with rainbow light, which coalesced in a miniature crack of thunder, and his summoning abruptly appeared.
Connor grinned down at a little squirrel with enormous feet.
Usually Connor liked squirrels, but he had to admit this one was remarkably ugly, with feet as big as a wick-rabbit. The little beast blinked up at him, and he could almost hear it grumbling at what he'd done to its feet.
The light from the opening in the roof extinguished as the gigantic elfonnel wormed through and stepped into the arena. It was too tall to fit in the cave, but it was made from the elements, so it changed size, shortening its legs and shrinking its torso enough to fit underground.
That gave Connor an idea. Luckily it wasn't a very complicated idea because some of his attention was consumed by controlling the little squirrel, and the rest barely held onto the little shield.
Before the elfonnel could shatter his shield and locate him, Connor sent the little squirrel scampering away, out the exit, and around the outside of the stadium toward another pile of rubble. As soon as it began moving, the elfonnel rotated in its direction and opened that hideous mouth. Its serpentlike tongues snapped the air, as if in anticipation, and it lunged.
It didn't bother with the exit tunnel, which was good since Connor still crouched there. Instead, it plowed right through the stadium after the little squirrel. Connor managed to get the squirrel around the next ruined building before the elfonnel caught sight of it, and the elfonnel gave chase, flattening everything in its path.
After it left, Connor began tiptoeing carefully away in the opposite direction, which he thought would lead him to areas of the ruin he had explored before and the distant tunnel back to the Carraig undercity. If he could lead the elfonnel around in useless circles for a while with the squirrel, he hoped to return to his friends and make a plan for dealing with it.
The squirrel wasn't quite as fast as a Strider, but it moved far faster than a natural animal could, scampering over rubble and through tiny openings the elfonnel couldn't follow. For its part, the elfonnel burst through ruined buildings and shrank its torso further when the ceiling grew too short. Nothing really slowed it down, and the squirrel barely kept ahead. Connor hoped to find a really tiny tunnel. If he could make the elfonnel small enough, maybe he could actually fight it.
The little squirrel possessed remarkably good senses, which surprised him. He'd summoned it, and his mind controlled it, so why wasn't it limited to what he could see or hear or smell?
He was just glad it was working.
As he moved at a slow jog down darkened streets that he didn't dare illuminate, he tapped quartzite. The light pouring into the stadium reached into the darkness enough to help his enhanced sight. He also applied quartzite to his nose and found he could smell the stone of the surrounding ruins, which helped him avoid running into any buildings.
Then he rounded a corner and entered a huge, flat-paved plaza with a gigantic fountain. Its many-tiered levels included fantastic animals and mighty warriors and melded right into the ceiling. The sight gave him hope. This was one of the streets he had explored.
Connor turned left and purged granite, then absorbed basalt. He would dare tapping a little speed to escape the darkness and the deadly elfonnel still shaking the ruins as it chased his little summoning.
Then his squirrel rounded another corner and the sight drew him up short, grabbing his full attention. The squirrel was looking at that same fountain he'd just passed. With a sinking feeling of dread, he turned its gaze a bit farther and spotted his own shape in the distance.
He was so grouted.
Somehow he'd gotten turned around and led the enraged elfonnel right back to himself. He wished he had time to play with the squirrel. From its perspective, he looked really imposing. The squirrel faltered as he tried to pick another direction to send it scurrying away.
Too late. The elfonnel burst right through the nearby building, spraying stone and dust across the plaza, and stomped the little squirrel flat.
That part of his mind recoiled back and sent Connor stumbling. The feeling of that little squirrel getting stomped was really unpleasant, as if part of his mind had been made of bread dough that got poked while it was still rising.
The elfonnel turned toward Connor and growled, the ominous sound echoing down the dark tunnels of the ruined city.
Connor ran.
All thought at shielding and pretense gone, he fracked and sprinted away as fast as if Anika had said she wanted to wrestle him instead of Rory. The elfonnel gave chase, and it barreled through the darkened corridors like a horizontal avalanche. The sound struck like a constant wave, pushing him faster. The ground shook with the promise of impending doom, and he felt the elfonnel grab the earth beneath his fast-moving feet.
Usually Connor couldn't establish much connection with earth while running with Strider speed, but impending death was a great motivator. He threw his will into blocking the elfonnel's control.
He delayed it for a fraction of a second, racing out of the danger just before the ground erupted up to the ceiling in a wave that would have crushed him flat. The elfonnel's overwhelming elemental influence shattered his earth senses a second later, and Connor felt the slate crumble in his left boot. He stumbled, but regained his footing before falling.
Leaning almost horizontal, he tore around a corner, sending streamers of marble along the ruined street ahead to make sure the path was clear. He was out of time, and out of ideas.
As the elfonnel barreled around the corner behind him, smashing a ruined palace flat to make the turn, Connor's flames illuminated something new.
Evander.
The giant Sentry was racing toward Connor on that incredible, half-reclined earthen craft he loved to ride. It was like a narrow, padded seat, with spokes for his legs, and branches extending forward for his hands. The ground behind him rippled upward into a solid wall, blocking the way.
Connor skidded to a stop, all hope gone. As Evander slowed to meet him, he shouted, "You realize you're trapping us down here with that thing, don't you?"
"Tranquil beats the heart in a home undefiled, but anger rules when intruders break through and destroy."
"I can't believe the last thing I'm goi
ng to hear before I die is another indecipherable riddle," Connor exclaimed.
The elfonnel rounded the last corner and spotted them a hundred feet away. A rolling wave of earth boiled out from it toward them. Solid walls of rubble hemmed them in, blocking any escape.
Connor snatched for another piece of slate, knowing he'd never get it into his boot in time, but refusing to just wait for death. He also purged basalt, but would never have time to absorb more granite.
Ten feet away from them, the earthen wave halted, as if frozen solid. Then it settled back, restoring the ruined street the way it had been.
Connor glanced at Evander, who was frowning at the elfonnel. The big man glanced at him. "The studious mind grasps every moment of learning, when the fool thinks of naught beyond terror."
"I hate you," Connor mumbled.
Evander winked, then his earth-craft leaped forward, bearing him toward the elfonnel with the speed of a Strider. Connor gaped, but could do nothing more than stare after Evander as he made his suicide charge.
The elfonnel seemed surprised for a single heartbeat, then bellowed and charged to meet Evander. The two crashed together in a mighty explosion of earth that swept back up the passage in a suffocating wave that blasted Connor off his feet.
He somersaulted in slow motion, his movements hampered by the earth filling the hall. His movements slowed, then stopped, leaving him suspended in soft earth, not knowing which way was up. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. He was surrounded by impenetrable darkness, completely trapped.
Connor realized he'd actually prefer dying a quick death while battling the elfonnel over a lingering expiration due to suffocation. It was even worse than the time he'd been hanged.
Fighting panic, and unable to wiggle his hand to his belt pouch to absorb granite, Connor tapped quartzite and screamed. That was all the air available to him, but it was enough. He seized it with quartzite senses and used it to batter the earth away, forming a little sphere of clear space.
Pushing the earth back freed him enough so he could fall on his head. At least he knew which way was up again. Connor gasped for breath, but there wasn't much. It tasted thin, as if all the earth had beaten it into submission. So he absorbed enhanced granite and max-tapped his enhanced curse, swelling his body to impossible size.
