Turesobei scooted away. A thick tendril of shadow was wrapped around the kippukagi-ga’s throat. He traced it back to the cloaked woman. The tendril extended from her hand. She was pulling the monster backward. How? As slender as she was and with it made of rock, the kippukagi-ga had to outweigh her by a factor of ten.
Along with her companion, she had slain several of the kippukagi. Others lay cocooned in more of her shadow tendrils. He didn’t recognize the magic and had no idea what the tendrils were made of. For all he knew they were solidified shadows.
The woman’s stocky companion reared back and launched his spear through the air. It struck the kippukagi-ga in the neck. Howling, it reeled back, sending the woman skidding forward.
She regained control. He couldn’t see her face, but her body trembled. The shadows on the smaller kippukagi she had cocooned faded.
She passed the white-steel sword, definitely Sumada, to her companion and grabbed her tendrils with both hands.
“Go!” she told him.
He took off toward Turesobei, not the kippukagi-ga.
The scepter. Turesobei had to break the crystal. He glanced back. Having recovered, Zaiporo shoved Awasa aside and picked up the scepter. He struck it against the ground. The crystal shattered. Clear thought rushed back into Turesobei’s mind.
The stocky zaboko man reached him … Hakamoro! The tracker from Ibintai, the one he had ditched.
“You! What—”
“No time. Here!”
Hakamoro tossed him his spell pouch. Hakamoro’s lips peeled back into a savage smile, revealing fangs that Turesobei hadn’t seen before. His pupils had turned to slits. His muscles seemed even larger.
“Mind if I borrow the sword?”
Turesobei backed away. “Not a problem.”
Zaiporo pulled Enashoma up to her feet. “You okay?”
“I will be.”
Zhura reached zenith. The kippukagi-ga bellowed. All the kagi still pinned by tendrils disappeared. Taking in their kenja, the ga swelled in size. The eyes of dozens more kippukagi glittered in the direction Hakamoro had come from. Not good.
Turesobei drew a strip for the spell of banishing entities and chanted. It wouldn’t banish a nature spirit like it would a demon. There was nowhere else for them to go. But it could repel them for a short time.
Hakamoro advanced with the sword. The kippukagi-ga grabbed the tendrils and yanked them. Hakamoro’s companion let go. She took off into a sprint and danced around the ga.
She was a baojendari woman, nearly as tall as Turesobei. She wore the black bodysuit of an Okonuji assassin but with a hardened leather breastplate and reinforcements. Her cloak and the scarf across her face were night-blue. Her face above the mask was red — painted … he hoped. Her eyes were bright amber — the same shade as Lu Bei’s.
She stopped, as if she’d run into a wall. Her eyes locked onto his kavaru. Both the stone and her eyes flashed. He kept his focus and continued chanting, but it took all his willpower.
“We …” She shook her head and awoke as if from a spell. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
The kippukagi-ga loped toward them. Its minions raced to join it.
Hakamoro backed away, holding Sumada at the ready. “Too bad I threw the spear.”
“I told you to stop doing that.” She glanced at Turesobei. “You’re taking way too long with that spell!”
Turesobei was walking backward like the others. He flashed his eyes at her, incredulously. If she knew magic, she should know that one didn’t quick-cast the spell of banishing entities and expect to be conscious long enough to complete it. And it was not a spell he could put storm energies into, not without opening a straight channel to the storm sigil. No way he would risk that on this spell. The exchange would be poor anyway. Only a fraction of the energy would do any good.
The woman sighed and swiped her hands out in front of her body. An enormous web of shadows sprang up between her and the kagi. She started to swoon but caught herself.
Hakamoro grabbed Awasa, who still hadn’t moved, and shoved her along.
“What’s wrong with you girl? Go!” He pointed at Enashoma. “You, too. Run.”
Turesobei completed the spell. The ga stopped tearing at the web and staggered back. The lesser kippukagi retreated. A few fled. He reached into his spell pouch. He could boost his speed or strength, or leap away, but he couldn’t quickly extend the effects of those onto the others.
He drew the spell of heaven’s wrath.
“The repulsion won’t last long.”
“Maybe if you had cast it better,” the woman told him.
Who was she?! If she knew magic so well, why wasn’t she using any, other than those shadow tendrils? Turesobei and his companions fled from the circle of standing stones and plunged into the forest. The kippukagi-ga roared.
A twitch of energy told him his repulsion spell had ended.
“My spell is done.”
“Already?” the woman said in derisive tone. “My shadow webbing is gone, too. I don’t have that much range.”
They kept running. The beasts pounded through the brush, closing in on them. The forest gave way to a gully. They paused.
“Could be a dead end,” Zaiporo said.
A small kippukagi, faster than the others, broke out of the forest. Hakamoro sliced through it with Sumada. More of the kagi closed on them. The ga snapped trees and limbs as it went.
“No time to find another route,” said Hakamoro, “they’re encircling us. Keep going!”
They ran into a bluff at the end of the gully. A dead end. Too high to leap out of, even by spell. No time to climb it. The monsters poured into the gully and rushed toward them.
“We’ll have to stand our ground,” the cloaked woman said.
Turesobei lifted the spell strip. “Stay behind me. I’ll take care of it.”
“You sure you can handle it?” the woman sniped. “You don’t seem yourself.”
“What’s wrong with you? Yes, I can handle it. And you don’t know me.”
She shrugged and backed off.
“Sobei,” Shoma said. “Don’t lose yourself.”
He nodded and walked forward far enough that he hoped he wouldn’t accidentally hit his companions if he lost control of the blast. The ga came fully into view. Turesobei chanted the quick-casting. A mass of kippukagi appeared. He unleashed the spell, opening the channel to the storm sigil three-quarters of the way.
A lightning bolt streamed out from the spell strip. The tremendous burst struck the ga, tore through its minions, and blasted a crater in the gully. The shockwave knocked Turesobei and his companions back against the wall of the bluff.
He collapsed … into the clouds. He soared overhead as the Storm Dragon, delighting in the power and the dizzying heights he reached. Then he was ripped back into reality. Pain throbbed through his arm. Hakamoro leaned over him, Sumada in hand, blood dripping from the tip.
A thin line of blood streaked down Turesobei’s arm. The cut was shallow, but it hurt.
“Did you just cut me?! With my own sword?!”
“It worked,” Hakamoro said. His wolf-like features had faded. He was once again just an ugly, scarred young man.
He passed Sumada back to Turesobei. He must have found it on the ground. The kagi wouldn’t have dared to even touch white-steel. He was going to have to go back as soon as they recovered and search for Lu Bei.
“Of course, it worked,” the woman panted. She could barely stand.
“The pain from the cut … to draw me out of the dream?”
“The white-steel to disrupt the energies,” she replied, “though I’m sure the pain helped. Pain always helps.”
Okay. That’s … that’s weird.
Hakamoro squeezed Turesobei’s shoulder. “Well done, lad. You killed all but a few, and they ran away.”
The scorched ga twitched in the crater. Not dead, even after that blast? “It’s still alive.”
“Not … for much … longe
r …” The woman stumbled.
Zaiporo caught her. “You okay, lady?”
She pulled back her hood revealing bone-white hair. She lowered her face scarf. Her entire face was crimson, either tattooed or naturally. Her lips drew back into an open smile. Slender fangs lowered down from her gums.
“Moro, I must feed now.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Zaiporo shoved her away. “Back off! You are not going to eat me.”
She laughed as Hakamoro caught her. “I’m sure your … spirit would taste … good, but I favor more … substantial prey.”
Hakamoro led her to the kippukagi-ga. He drew his white-steel spear from the base of the beast’s neck. The woman locked her hand against its throat. Her eyes glowed. Her fangs extended further. She opened her mouth, lifted her head, and took in a deep breath. She hesitated and smiled, as if savoring the moment.
“She — she can’t be a vampire,” Enashoma muttered.
“Looks like,” Turesobei replied.
“But those are just legends … right?”
“Apparently not.”
“How can she bite through stone and turf?” Zaiporo asked.
Hakamoro walked back over. “Aikonshi will draw open its spirit vein. Every monster has one. She will bite into the vein and drink from it. Watch.” He bobbed his head, satisfied. “She’s in heaven tonight. She’s never feasted on a monster so large and powerful before. Not as long as I’ve been around her.”
A silvery rope of visible kenja formed on the outside of the kippukagi-ga’s neck. The woman, Aikonshi, plunged her fangs down into the vein and began to drink. The kenja turned to liquid, spilling down her chin as she sucked away at the vein. Liquid kenja? Turesobei had never seen or heard of anything like this before. But he’d never seen anything like those tendrils of solidified shadow, either.
Awasa turned away. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Turesobei stalked over to her. “You were useless tonight! I could have died! All you had to do was smash the crystal. You didn’t have to fight. Didn’t even have to defend yourself. It couldn’t have been any easier.”
“Turesobei. I — I’m—”
“Don’t bother.” He turned to Hakamoro. “You want to tell me what’s going on now?”
“We’ve been hunting Tikutasa for years. We’ve fought him several times, but he always escapes.”
“Did I get him with the blast?”
“He didn’t follow us in here. As soon as Aikonshi’s bindings left him, he vanished. He’s gone by now. We’ll have to track him down again.” Sighing, he sat down and leaned back against the bluff. “That’s actually the closest we’ve come to him in a while. About two weeks ago, Aikonshi had a premonition we’d find him in this region. Never seen her have one before, but she was convinced it was right. And it was. Tikutasa had teamed up with these kippukagi-ga and did what he always does. He made them stronger. We don’t know what his game is, but he’s been stirring up monsters, strengthening them, summoning new ones when he can. You just got unlucky, stumbled right into him on a rising night. He was going to double the number of kippukagi. By sacrificing the four of you, he could’ve made many more than that.”
Awasa sat by herself, away from the others, and cried. Turesobei plopped down next to Hakamoro and watched Aikonshi feed. How could he not? A wizard who wasn’t interested in magic wasn’t a good wizard. Enashoma and Zaiporo tried to avoid watching.
“So what is she?”
“Unique,” Hakamoro replied. “There’s nothing else like her. She feeds on monsters only — that’s what she was made to do.”
“What about you?”
“I was savaged by a hingukagi.” A creature that was half-wolf and half-ape — Turesobei had thought they were extinct. “The bite left a kenja taint. When my adrenaline surges, I take on some of the characteristics of the hingukagi.”
“You’re obviously not scouts …”
“We’re monster hunters. Aikonshi was remade for it, and I have a grudge against them. She rescued me from my … condition. We hunted down the creature that poisoned me. I kept on after that. We help people when we can. Kill as many monsters as possible. Keep trying to stop Tikutasa.”
“Monster hunter, seriously?” Zaiporo said with admiration. “That’s the coolest job I’ve ever heard of. I could do that!”
Hakamoro chuckled. “You could, but it’s best to have an edge. I’ve got the strength of several men, feral senses, and I heal fast. And my spear. White-steel helps a lot.”
“Where’d you get it?” Turesobei asked.
White-steel, even as little as it took to make a spear point, was incredibly valuable. That spear was worth a fortune.
“From a burial cave.”
“Why would someone get buried with such an important object?” Enashoma asked.
“Buried? Heavens no. Ages ago, someone went into the cave to kill the beast within but never came out. No one was willing to go in to retrieve it. Then it was forgotten. We went in and killed the monster. Got the treasure. Barely made it out of that one.”
“So if you’re a monster hunter and not a tracker, why did you offer to help me back at Ibintai?”
“Aikonshi told me to be on the lookout for wizards.”
“I had my kavaru tucked inside my outer robe.”
“I could feel it. Never felt one so powerful before, either. And I didn’t believe your cover story. Thought I should look into it. You made Aikonshi’s day, by the way. When she found me unconscious … I haven’t seen her laugh that hard in ages. Kept ribbing me about a teenager taking me out. But you’re not just any teenager, are you Chonda Turesobei?”
“How — how do you know who I am?”
“Not every teenage wizard carries a white-steel sword and has an affinity for storm energy. Word spread far about your exploits a few months ago. You might want to hide that lightning bolt mark on your cheek.”
“I did cover it!”
“With a seeming? Oh. I see through those. So who are your companions?”
Turesobei introduced them. “I was supposed to be out here by myself. Didn’t work out that way, obviously. Could you lead me back to where we were ambushed? There’s something I’ve got to get.”
Hakamoro drew a book with a smooth amber cover out from his backpack. “You mean this? I found it next to your sword and spell pouch. Aikonshi said you’d want it. Though to be honest, she almost threw it away. She acted most strange about that book.”
Lu Bei! Why wasn’t he out? Why hadn’t he popped out during the battle? The cover was dull and didn’t have its usual sheen. Turesobei took the diary. As soon as it was in his hands, the sheen returned. Lu Bei blossomed into his fetch form.
Hakamoro jumped up and leveled his spear. Tears in his eyes, Lu Bei pounced on Turesobei and hugged him tight. Hakamoro moved to attack, but Turesobei lifted his hands.
“It’s okay. He’s my fetch.”
“Master. Master. Master. My connection to your kavaru was severed when that monster popped you with the ikasa crystal. I tried to come back out, but couldn’t. I couldn’t even know what was going on. I’ve never had something like that happen before. I was so scared. I thought maybe you had died.”
“I’m okay. We were rescued. What’s an ikasa crystal?”
“Rare, master. I thought they were all gone. I’ll explain later.”
Aikonshi swaggered up. The silver ichor stained her lips and dripped down her chin. She wiped it on her sleeve and it disappeared.
Lu Bei straightened suddenly, as if something had bitten into the back of his neck. His eyes turned into saucers. He spun around.
“You?!” Lu Bei shouted, followed by a string of curses in Old Tengba Ren.
Fangs retreating, Aikonshi grinned. “Hello, big brother. My, you’ve grown.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Scowling at her, Lu Bei tapped the storm sigil on his chest. “I’ve grown because of this. Like master, I have some of Naruwakiru’s power. So … you�
�d better watch it.”
Aikonshi suppressed a laugh. Her gaze flicked to Turesobei’s kavaru.
“Lu Bei is back from the dead, so I guess that means you’re not just a bearer of Lu’s kavaru. I’d heard about your Storm Dragon exploits, but I never imagined you were Lu’s—”
Lu Bei put a finger on his lips.
“He doesn’t know?” she said.
“Know what?” Turesobei asked.
“It’s no use trying to tell him,” Lu Bei said. “He’ll just pass out if we talk about it.”
“That’s one wicked enchantment. Lu did this, didn’t he?”
“Of course. Master was the greatest wizard ever.”
“It’s wrong.”
“Master knows best. You should trust Master.”
“Your master—”
“Our master.”
“Your master was a jerk. And still is, even beyond the grave. The kid should know. It’s wrong.”
“Can’t you tell us?” Enashoma asked. “I’d like to know.”
“Not happening,” Lu Bei replied.
“If he can’t know, neither should you,” Aikonshi said in agreement. “It’s better that way.”
“I thought you died, vampire,” said Lu Bei.
“I thought you ceased when your master passed, book.”
“Our master.”
“You keep saying that, but he wasn’t my master. Ever.”
“But—”
“Drop it, book. Where have you been?”
“Hibernation. You?”
Aikonshi chuckled. “The same. Until Hakamoro woke me by accident four years ago. Since then, we’ve been hunting monsters.” She shrugged. “I’d given up on hunting … on life. Went to sleep for a few centuries. Now here I am, at it again. You can’t change who you are, apparently.”
“But there aren’t many monsters anymore,” Turesobei said.
“More than you think. Enough for me to survive. And more every day. Something’s wrong in Okoro, but I’m not sure what it is. It hasn’t been this bad since we defeated Nazyraga.”
“The Lord of Monsters?” said Enashoma. “The Shogakami who went bad?”
Storm Phase Series: Books 1-3 Page 46
