by TR Cameron
She called, “Damn, these things are strong,” and stabbed her dagger through to slash at the wrist of the shield hand. He dropped it as she scored a line of blood on his flesh. She’d planned to give the one on the floor a kick to the head, but he was already spinning to try to take her legs out, and she wanted no part of ground fighting with either of the pair. A blind jump backward took her out of range, and she cringed until her boots hit the surface again.
She discharged a cone of flame large enough to encompass both of her enemies. The one she’d knocked down interposed a shield that drank some of the power and caused the rest to flow around him. The other wasn’t so quick, and his organic portions blistered from the heat. He collapsed with a scream of pain, and it reminded Ruby why fire seemed almost as much a punishment as a weapon. A scrape and a whistle entered her consciousness from her right side, and she immediately fell and tumbled into a backward somersault, feeling the heavy chain catch at her hair as she moved.
Ruby rolled up and sidestepped another slash from the metal links, this one a diagonal that would’ve struck her at the joint of shoulder and neck. She blasted him with force, and where the magic crossed the path of the chain, the weapon soaked it in. She turned, ran toward her teacher’s sole remaining opponent, and thrust her sword through him from behind before he knew she was there. “The chain absorbs magic, too.”
Keshalla shook her head. “A formidable defense indeed. Why did you leave the ambusher alive?”
Ruby scowled at her. “Oh, I thought it would be more fun. Tell you what, you deal with the big guy and I’ll go take the other one out.” Unfortunately, Keshalla was already in motion toward the last ambusher, who had gained his feet and was rushing to engage, leaving the one with the chain for Ruby. She muttered, “Fine, be that way,” then raised her voice and shouted, “Hey, ugly. Bring it on.”
Her taunt had zero effect, and his progress toward her had the same fits and starts as his plodding walk. I wonder if he’s broken, or maybe whatever passes for his mind has been damaged by the monotony of wandering the room. The chain came down at a diagonal, and she sidestepped it, then the figure circled it up and tried the same attack again. “Okay, so you have a big weapon, but you’re not very bright. I get it.”
She layered her left arm in force magic several inches thick and charged him with a yell. Predictably, he whipped the chain at her, and she caught the blow on her arm, letting the tip wrap around it. It buzzed as it chewed on the power that protected her, and the pain of that assault radiated through her skeleton. She grabbed the chain and yanked it, which hurt even more but pulled him a step off balance. It provided the room she needed to slip forward and drive her sword through the side of his neck that was metal-free. He fell without a sound, like a robot with its electricity cut, and blood seeped from the wound.
She sensed an approach and turned, raising her blade to block, but it was only her teacher. Ruby sighed. “Well. That was fun. Can we head home now?”
Keshalla shook her head. “You don’t want to disappoint the mystics, do you?”
“Jury’s out.”
Her mentor laughed and pointed at one of the alcoves. “There’s another passage behind that opening. Looks dangerous. You go first.” Ruby sheathed her sword, pulled out her dagger, and obeyed her mentor’s instruction.
Chapter Eight
The passage led downward for only a dozen or so revolutions before opening into a new room. Several feet inside the entrance lay three separate openings to different corridors. Ruby groaned. “Decisions. I hate decisions.”
“That explains a lot about you.”
“Yeah, yeah. How about the middle?”
“Lead on.”
As soon as she stepped across the threshold, a barrier appeared behind her, sizzling into place with a burst of magic. She spun and pushed against it, receiving a shock in return. “Ow, damn hell damn. Force and lightning? Kind of overkill, if you ask me.”
The magical wall didn’t block sound. Keshalla replied, “Looks like we’re on our own for the moment. I’ll take the left one. Call out whenever you make a turn so we can keep track of each other.”
She nodded. “Sorry I got you into this.”
Her teacher laughed. “I got myself into this, as you might recall,” and stepped out of view. Ruby called out when she made a right turn, then again when she made a left, but no reply sounded in return. She pushed worry to the back of her mind, knowing that if anyone was capable of making it through to the other end, it was Keshalla. Probably more likely to survive this than I am, to be honest.
The attack came out of nowhere as a panel slid aside unexpectedly to reveal another of the flesh-and-metal amalgams. This version wore only a strange faded green loincloth, thankfully in better shape than the trousers the last had worn. Both of his arms ended in the wicked spikes, and they stabbed out at her in tandem. She intercepted one with the force shield and caught the other on the dagger’s crosspiece, circling the weapon out and away. She slammed a kick into his stomach, but the metal there proved to be unyielding.
The thing’s only fleshy parts were one leg, the other thigh, and part of his upper arm. He snapped his forehead at her in a head butt, and she threw herself backward to avoid it. No more broken noses, thanks. The move left her pressed back against the wall, and he took advantage of the situation and pinned her there. She tried to wriggle out to her right, and the spike on that side slammed into the wall, blocking her way. Trying to do the same in the opposite direction met the same result.
She snapped her dagger up at his face, and he jerked his head to the side to avoid the point. It was weird seeing his body react without any change to the expression on his metallic features. She took advantage of the distraction to smash her knee into his groin. His reaction suggested the loincloth covered flesh rather than metal as his breath shot out and he staggered backward. She followed up with a slice to his upper arm and blasted flame at the living portion of his leg. He screamed in pain and threw himself bodily at her, smashing her back against the wall. Her skull cracked against the rock, sending stars through her vision, and a trickle of blood from her scalp slipped onto her neck and made her shiver.
Ruby growled, “Okay, scumbag, enough of that.” She took an extra moment to gather her power and blasted it out in a force wave. Unlike the previous room's enemies, this one didn’t have much capacity for magic absorption. He flew backward and crashed into the wall behind him. She threw another focused blast at his face, slamming his skull back off the rock. You did it to me. Now I did it to you. Fair play. The way he sank to the ground, clearly dazed, suggested living matter inside his metal skull, too. She stepped forward and kicked it, smashing his head into the stone again. He fell flat on his face and stopped moving.
Ruby reached a hand back to check her damage, and it returned covered in blood. She pulled the healing flask from her belt and drank a quarter of it, stiffening momentarily in discomfort as the wound sealed itself. She stored the vial, drew a deep breath, then continued forward, looking for her next challenge.
Keshalla stalked through the passageway, calling out each directional decision she made, not at all convinced her voice was carrying to her student. She wasn’t afraid for Ruby, was confident she could handle whatever she might encounter as long as she kept her wits about her. Hopefully, I’ve trained her well enough that she can and will.
She heard her foe coming before he appeared, the slight scrape of metal on stone from the right angle ahead all the alert she needed. She charged forward and rounded the corner with a dagger before her in defense, and the other chambered to stab at whatever she encountered. Another of the metal-and-flesh beings stood before her, this one a woman wearing a torn and tattered dress. The metal had consumed her in a strange diagonal, leaving her head, right arm, and part of her chest flesh, as well as portions of both legs. Her living hand gripped a wand. The other ended in a spike similar to the ones they’d seen already, with the addition of four wicked barbs a few inches back from
the tip.
Keshalla stabbed low, attempting to cut into the artery that ran along the flesh leg, but the woman brought her metal arm down to block. The wand snapped forward and discharged a wash of flame. Keshalla calmly summoned a tall barrier of force to deflect the fire past her, then pushed that shield ahead at her opponent. It knocked the witch backward a step. The flames faltered, and Keshalla's defense failed as the woman’s wand drank in its power. She stepped ahead and slashed with her left dagger, aiming for the arm, but a force shield intercepted her blow. “You’re good. Makes me think our final enemy might be someone to be reckoned with.”
She brought the right-hand knife around in a wide strike, and the metal arm again reached up to interpose itself. The move opened the woman’s leg, and Keshalla stamped her heel on the floor at the correct angle to extend the hidden blade beneath the toe. She kicked forward and stabbed it deep into her opponent’s thigh, then wrenched it to the side. The weapon did more damage coming out than it had going in, and she used the moment of her foe’s stunned disbelief at the injury to stab her in the neck with a dagger. The other woman fell, and Keshalla stepped over her without a second thought, flicking her knife to clean it and stomping her foot to retract the blade.
Ruby emerged from her passageway after fighting two more enemies, each almost identical to the first. She’d downed more of her healing potion after each fight and had made a dent in her energy potion to keep her moving. Keshalla stepped out from a different passage a moment afterward. Her teacher asked, “You okay?”
She nodded. “Never better. This is like a vacation. We should come here every year.”
Her teacher gestured ahead. “I guess that door is where we’re supposed to go.”
Ruby turned her head and saw the entrance in question, an ornate barrier of wooden planks and metal bands that looked as if it would fit perfectly in a medieval castle. It was covered with runes and possessed no obvious handle or lock. “Any of that graffiti mean anything to you?”
Her teacher sheathed her weapons. “It’s a defensive charm that makes the barrier stronger. It contains lots of threats and warnings as well.”
“Awesome. Do we have to decipher it? Some kind of test?”
“Doubtful. Shield yourself.” Ruby obeyed instantly, which was the right choice since the bolts of power Keshalla threw at the door reduced it to splinters. The shards inexplicably flew toward them rather than away, battering their defenses.
When the flying wood had completed its attempt to shred them, Ruby dropped the shield and shook her head. “Subtle. Aren’t you the one who always talks about finesse?”
Keshalla shrugged. “Sometimes, you have to overpower an opponent.”
“Even if it’s a door?”
“Especially if it’s a door.”
Ruby sighed. “I have this vague sense you’re trying to use this as some sort of educational experience. If you are, I’m missing it.”
Her mentor laughed. “That’s different than normal, how?”
Rather than reply, Ruby sheathed her dagger, drew her sword, and headed through the opening into the room beyond.
Chapter Nine
The chamber that lay through the doorway was different from any they’d seen so far. It was angular, with enough sides that Ruby didn’t know the correct prefix. Nonagon? Decagon? I think there are twelve. Each of the flat surfaces, aside from the one housing the entrance, was identically arranged with a waist-high work surface and bookshelves that rose above it to the ceiling twenty feet overhead. Tomes, devices, and abundant unrecognizable objects filled it. The scientist portion of her brain immediately wanted to stay there forever. She breathed, “This is the kind of place you can get some serious research done in.”
Keshalla nodded. “It’s big enough around that you could do combat training in here, too. Maybe I’ll move in when we finish.”
Ruby shook her head. “Maybe I’ll move in after. Speaking of which, doesn’t an empty room seem a little anticlimactic?”
Her mentor didn’t get the chance to respond. A scraping voice filled with arrogance asked, “Why have you invaded my workshop?”
Ruby turned a circle, seeking the source, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere. She exchanged glances with the other woman, who shrugged and declined to speak. “Okay, sure, fair question. We’re here for an artifact weapon. Perhaps you’d like to hand it over? It would save a lot of time and effort.”
Booming laughter echoed from the walls, and without transition, a third figure was suddenly in the room with them. He was completely metal but displayed a softness that hadn’t been present in the others they’d faced. His expression moved smoothly as it shifted from humor back to seriousness, making his skin's silver surface look as if it were another hue of flesh. “You mean this?” He gestured, and a sword appeared, a virtual twin to hers, hovering at ceiling height and slowly spinning in the center of the space.
Ruby said, “Aww, there’s only one. Guess since I can’t wield dual swords yet, it’ll have to be mine.”
Keshalla shrugged. “Just means I’ll have to find the other half of the pair if you fail. Sounds like an interesting quest.”
The man snarled, “Silence. You have come to take a sword, but you shall receive only death.” A whine entered his tone. “Why will no one listen to my warnings or leave me to my work? Why must you all think you know more than I do when such a thing is obviously impossible?”
Ruby realized that whatever else the figure was, he was insane. Too much isolation, maybe. I have to remember he’s not likely to respond predictably to anything. Out loud, she replied, “I don’t suppose we could agree that you give us the sword, and we go on our merry way and leave you to your work?”
He extended his right hand. A sudden flash caused both Ruby and Keshalla to step back into defensive poses. When the illumination subsided, he held a large staff, taller than he was, curved and twisted into a strange and uncomfortable spiral. It appeared to be constructed of bone and metal. The former was polished to a blinding white, and the latter shone silver, considerably more brilliant than the dusky gray of his skin. Ruby summoned her force shield around her body and shook her head. “I’m going to skip the lewd joke here and merely say that his weapon looks more well-cared-for than any of the defenses we’ve seen so far.”
He waved his other hand in a lazy circle, and another burst of light filled the room. When it subsided, there were twelve of him present, one for each of the walls. Ruby said, “Dodecagon, that’s right.”
Keshalla snapped, “Focus,” and lurched into motion. All the other figures did as well, casting magic or stepping forward to strike with their staves. Ruby shouted, “Kagji,” and her pendant’s protective shadow barrier materialized around her. She leapt into a flying kick at the nearest version of their foe and almost lost her balance when she passed through without contact. The figure laughed from behind, and the others echoed the sound. Guess it was too much to hope the illusions would vanish when struck, right?
Keshalla whipped her blade through several false versions of the madman until a clang sounded as her sword struck the bone-and-metal staff. Another flash of light appeared immediately, and when it faded the figures were rearranged. Ruby yelled, “Not good.”
Her teacher replied, “Don’t trust vision. Push your senses.”
She nodded. It wasn’t one of her strongest areas of magic. She had found spare moments to practice, though, and no longer needed to close her eyes to significantly increase the focus of her other senses. The scent of metal came to her from off to her left, a definite clue. Sound was useless since all the figures were babbling, and she wasn’t interested in trying to lick any of them, so taste was out. So, she followed her nose and tested the theory with her sense of touch in the form of figure-eight slashes of her sword. Magic slammed off her shields as the man she’d identified blasted power from his staff, and she felt the pendant’s protection shred under the impact.
She figured the force shield an inch away from h
er skin would handle at least one attack, so she continued forward. He shifted the staff into two hands and swiped across at her. She leaned back to let it pass in front of her and took a blast of lightning in the face from the bottom tip. The energy cascaded over her magical defense, seeking a way in. She focused her power into the protective barrier, stabilizing the chips and divots, and moved with the figure as he tried to lose himself among the others in an odd shell game.
Keshalla came in from his backside and stabbed her sword forward in a blow that should have skewered him. He shot up toward the ceiling without warning, and her teacher barely retracted the blade before impaling her with it. The other woman observed, “Apparently being insane gives one interesting battle options. Maybe I’ve been too hard on you.”
Ruby replied, “Shut it.” She dipped a hand into her left boot and threw the magic-penetrating knife at the figure. He blocked it with a sweep of the staff and light blazed, obscuring vision. When it faded, there were again twelve cackling crazy people in the room. This is not going as well as I’d hoped. Her nose led her toward the real one, and she ignored attacks from all other quarters.
He cackled. “You are impressive, almost worthy. When you’re defeated and improved, you’ll serve as a useful deterrent to whatever fool follows you.”
Ruby said, “I don’t want to be improved. You’re like the magical version of the Borg.” Chris Pine was her Kirk, but she had a soft spot in her heart for The Next Generation. She blasted a cone of flame from the dagger she’d drawn after throwing the knife and ran forward under its protection, intending to stab him with her sword. He called up a conical shield, judging from the way the fire wrapped around it, but her power had no effect even where it touched him. She skittered to her right and stabbed past the edge of the barrier. Her sword skipped off his metal flesh as if it was the skin of a battleship. Ruby yelled in frustration, “He’s unstoppable,” and spun out of the path of the staff as it whipped around at her skull again.
