by Jared Teer
Impressive, Kagan said to himself, though he doubted that it would pose any significant threat and dove for its chest with his fists extended. Silly toy, he thought with a grin as his fists neared impact. “Whaaat!”
The golem suddenly became permeable, phasing into electromagnetic radiation. When Kagan passed through it, the urban golem transitioned back to solid and violently emitted a blast of repulsive force, sending Kagan crashing down for miles into the earth.
Sky and Rocky were watching from the ledge of a skyscraper. “Whoa!” came Ray’s voice from behind.
“Ray!” Sky said as he turned. “I thought you got sucked into the pocket universe?”
“No,” said Ray, “I was just unexpectedly impaled by Takeya’s piercing hands that were meant to be a finishing blow for Kagan. That’s all—we’re getting our butts kicked!”
Kagan flew through the earth and exploded from a sidewalk, rocketing up and coming to a halt at eye level with the golem. The golem extended its right palm toward Kagan. Kagan’s eyes narrowed.
Vwoommm!
Kagan was caught in a focused beam of sound waves, causing him to cover his ears, at which time the tips of the golem’s fingers glowed red and began to shoot repeating laser fire in his direction. Staying true to his word, Kagan erected no force in defense and was riddled by the laser blasts. The golem’s hand then blasted away from its wrist and seized Kagan in its grip. Kagan struggled to break free, but it was useless.
Darion hovered high above the city, squeezing his right fist with all his might—augmenting the golem’s strength with his own.
“Now!” Darion shouted, his voice resonating through the vast metropolis.
Darion extended his left palm toward Kagan and a black hole fifty feet in diameter appeared before it.
Sky, Ray, and Rocky suddenly materialized beside him with their palms extended as well and followed suit. Concreted extraterrestrial stone and debris from the asteroid belt shot from the mouths of his friends’ black holes with astounding velocity, but Darion’s portal opened to a different place: his mind.
His friend needed his help and Kagan was impeding his effort. He thought of Jacob burning in the Stryker, and then envisioned nothing but flames—an all-encompassing, all-consuming inferno. He created the intake black hole there.
The inferno blasted forth from the exit hole in a cylindrical blast of the Righteous Inferno—its heat more intense even than that of stellar plasma—being imagined by Darion to be all consuming.
The Asteroid Torrents and Darion’s Righteous Inferno blasted Kagan, converging at the same spot, but only the Righteous Inferno continued indefinitely into the horizon and beyond the atmosphere. Where the attacks converged, the steady streams of asteroids traveling at speeds exceeding 50,000 miles per hour were incinerated on contact.
It was this righteous flame that got Kagan’s attention; he was prepared to resist any conventional material attack (Asteroid Torrents included) but not one augmented by such conviction as the inferno washing over him. Sure, his Essence worked to repel the effects of the blast, but the fire was too intense, and he was on the verge of molecular dispersal. He had to make a choice.
Darion closed the black holes, ceasing the inferno. The others closed theirs as well. Kagan was nowhere to be seen, apparently destroyed. The urban golem stood motionless with its arm still extended.
CHAPTER 19
The Student’s Pupil
Darion and the others touched down on the roof of a forty-story building to recuperate.
“Good job, Darion,” said Sky. “I think we got him.”
“Yeah,” said Darion. “I don’t think anything could have survi—”
The urban golem suddenly exploded, showering the city in concrete and debris.
“An impressive construct, my young friend,” said Kagan, hovering above the air in the spot where the urban golem had been standing. “Quite innovative.”
“Impossible!” said Darion.
“Don’t tell me we’re finished?” Kagan said. “It was just getting fun.”
“I think we need a new strategy,” said Sky, motioning the others to join him in a huddle.
“Strategy?” asked Ray. “I think all of our working together is tearing us apart, literally.”
“I was thinking that too,” said Darion. “We all assumed that it would be to our advantage to fight him together using whatever we wanted against just his fighting skills, but I’m beginning to think that the only way to beat him is in a one-on-one, handto-hand battle.”
“How do you figure?” asked Sky. “He’s been owning us whenever one of us tries to touch him.”
“But, anytime someone has managed to take him one-onone, they’ve done better against him. I think when we all attack, he is able to concentrate on the initial attack, and is then manipulating the initial attacker against the rest of us. He hasn’t had to concern himself with follow-up attacks from one determined foe, but only with positioning us against each other. I have an idea, a crazy idea, but an idea … I’m going to challenge him to a one-on-one fight.”
“What?!” said Sky. “That’s insane.”
“I don’t think so,” said Darion. “In a one-on-one fight, it’s man versus man. Whoever has the strongest will will be the victor. Kagan isn’t the only one who has suffered greatly, or who has loved ones who were tormented by the forces of the Enemy.” Darion envisioned Jacob in the burn ward. “If I fight him one on one, I know I can beat him. I have to.”
“Will you now?” came Kagan’s voice as he slowly descended and touched down on the roof. “I can see that you truly believe this. Your confidence has piqued my interest as well. No one knows better than I the role determination plays in the effectiveness of our powers. The offer is the same: defeat me, and your friends go free, and I will acquiesce to your demands.”
“I got this, guys,” said Darion. “Please, leave us.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, man,” said Sky. Darion’s friends dematerialized and appeared on the roof of a tall skyscraper for a bird’s eye view.
“I think there’s something you should know before we begin,” said Kagan. “That attack of yours very well would have finished me off given the conditions we’d set. I admit, I bent the rules and teleported away.”
“What?!” yelled Sky.
“Yes, I’m guilty,” said Kagan. “Your friend Darion here possesses a great strength—his determination being fortified by his unshakeable dedication to his loved ones. You see, I wasn’t expecting to encounter such a power and thought a contest with you young ones would give my plans the time they required to come to fruition. I must say, I’m quite impressed. My plans need but a little longer to be realized, after which I will release our comrades.”
“What plans?” Darion asked.
“Shortly, shortly. You must learn patience. Rushing off nearly got your particles dispersed by Zadadach when you tried to help your friend Jacob. Which brings us to the next topic I wish to discuss with you.
“You said that you know who I am. I’m sure that Hughes mentioned my supposed transgressions, as well as told you the circumstances of my death. But, I’m sure he didn’t inform you of the manner in which I died. He would consider it, ‘telling someone else’s business,’ beholden to Southern hospitality as he is.
“I was forced to fight for the Nazis in the 1936 Olympic Games. They had my wife and daughter. They said, ‘Win the gold and your family lives. Anything less, you all die.’ I would have won the final match, which was against the Russian Sergie Destrov. I knew Sergie and had trained with him on several occasions and knew his abilities simply weren’t up to my own.
“But, it wasn’t to be. I was poisoned by a Nazi, one being demonically incensed and instigated by the vilest hatred from the pits of hell. This man found out that I was Jewish, but being unaware of my bargain with the Nazis, decided that I was a traitorous Jew looking to undermine Nazi ideology and prove the strength of my people by winning Olympic gold. He couldn�
��t let that happen, but believing that he might encounter opposition for such accusations against an Olympian, he decided to carry out his duty to the party personally. Posing as a fan trying to be helpful, he managed to spike my water bottle with a small amount of debilitating poison. Needless to say, I was defeated in the final round.
“I was barely alive, and the Nazis took me away as soon as I got back to the dressing room. I attempted to resist, but I was too weakened by the poison. They beat me soundly and carted me off. I drifted in and out of consciousness and woke up in a barn in the countryside. My wrists and ankles were bound with rope, and I was on my knees. Two Nazis were holding me up at the shoulders. My wife and daughter were bound about fifteen feet in front of me with two Nazis standing over them. I begged the Nazis to let them go—they shot them both in the head.
“Then, it was time to give me a boxing lesson on how to hit the heavy bag properly. I was the bag. They strung me up with my hands extended over my head and stretched me and secured the rope around my ankles to a hook on the floor. They took turns beating me for three-minute rounds. When I lost consciousness, they splashed water on my face or used smelling salts to wake me up, and then beat me unconscious again.
“Finally, mercifully, I didn’t wake up, and ascended.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Darion asked.
“I figured you should know that the determination that drives me from those circumstances is an all-consuming force, one that you simply cannot overcome. That is … perhaps … if you didn’t know what I’ve done to your friend.”
“What do you mean?” Darion asked through gritted teeth.
“I paid your friend Jacob a little visit in the burn ward. You know, some believe that United States soldiers, representing the crusade of the conservative administration, are no better than the radical Islamic terrorists whom they oppose. Jacob will never be the same after what I’ve done to him.” Kagan laughed.
“You son of a … ” Darion exploded toward Kagan with a right cross. Kagan slipped inside the punch but caught an uppercut underneath the chin from Darion’s cocked left with a boom that surely shattered any windows remaining in the vicinity.
The uppercut exposed Darion’s left side and Kagan’s right knee rose into his floating ribs. The impact folded Darion forward, but in leaning from the blow he advanced with a series of repeating left roundhouse elbows for Kagan’s head. Kagan was forced back as he shielded his face with a high guard and then shifted to the right and turned counterclockwise and lifted another right knee into Darion’s exposed side. Darion shrank from the blow and crunched to his left, lowering his guard to shield against any subsequent body blows. Kagan’s knee rose again and Darion bent to shield his side, but the strike was meant for his head and impacted on the left side of his face. The blow sent Darion ascending back into an office building across the street, smashing up through the fifty-second floor ceiling and impacting with the metal elevator door on the fifty-third.
Darion freed himself from the bent-in door and fell to his hands and knees. Kagan flew through the windowless wall and touched down in the fifty-third floor office, walking casually toward Darion between rows of cubicles. Darion regarded his approach from his hands and knees and then suddenly extended his right palm and shot a ball of plasma for Kagan’s face. Kagan slipped the ball and then broke into a sprint. Darion rose to meet the charge as Kagan drove his shoulder into his chest, sending him smashing backward through the elevator door and crashing down the shaft. He fell over fifty stories and crashed on the ground level with an impact that blew out the elevator door in a blast of dust and debris.
He attempted to rise, but Kagan was there. He lifted Darion by the throat and hurled him into the bull statue in the wide fountain of the first floor lobby. Darion attempted to push himself up, but Kagan shifted forward and smashed his instep into his side. Darion sailed from the punt into the side of an armored car in front of the building.
“This is disappointing,” said Kagan as he sauntered forward. “Where’s the determination? Where’s that indignation that so piqued my interest? Perhaps I’ve overestimated you.”
As Darion rose, Kagan struck a straight right to his chest that sent him through the side of the armored car as if it was thin aluminum and deposited him in the concrete face of a building across the street. There was the sound of screeching metal as Kagan gripped the armored car by the underside of its frame and hoisted it above his head, preparing to hurl it at Darion.
“What?!” A thirty- foot wide ball of plasma descended upon Kagan, burning through the armored car and exploding its gas tank, forcing Kagan to shield his head as the plasma pressed down. His face contorted in a grimace as the plasma orb descended, pressing him down as it burned into the earth.
Sky and Rocky hovered high above the street, Sky’s left hand holding Rocky’s right, with their opposite palms extended downward. They’d formed the plasma orb together—a swirling conflagration formed and augmented by their united determination. A devastating attack to even one of Kagan’s might.
Ray hovered in front of Darion and helped him from the crater in the building’s facade.
The plasma orb continued to bore as its golden light shined from the wide circular chasm in the street. “Move!” Sky shouted, and they all teleported as the orb detonated in a spherical blast deep beneath the streets—the explosion so great that its blast radius rose from below in a massive, white hot dome, incinerating the city blocks caught within its circumference.
The young warriors materialized on a rooftop well away from the blast.
“Darion, are you okay?” Ray asked.
“I’m good, man, thanks,” Darion answered. “Did it finish him?” he asked Sky.
“I hope so,” said Sky, “because I’m done, I’m completely exhausted. Good job, runt,” he said to Rocky, who smiled in response.
Suddenly, a small black orb, the Pocket Universe, flew into Sky’s chest, lifting him high into the air. His friends watched helplessly as his Essence was sucked into the orb from within and he withered to a pale husk. His body plummeted to the streets below, with the orb still hovering high in the air. The orb then shot for Rocky and imbedded in his chest, similarly reducing him and he collapsed where he stood. Darion and Ray attempted to back away, and the orb shot for Ray, imbedding in his chest as he attempted to flee and inadvertently toppled over the ledge—reduced to a chalky shell as his body fell. The orb rose from the withered husk as Ray’s body continued its descent to the street below, and stopped at eye level with Darion. Darion backed away from the ledge, away from the orb.
“Now, where were we?” came Kagan’s voice from behind. Darion spun.
“I’d had enough of your friends’ meddling,” Kagan said. “Besides, a one-on-one fight was your suggestion, so I removed them in honor of your wishes. You could say that their current predicament is your fault. A pity that your friends always seem to suffer.”
Darion began to shake with rage. His eyes began to flicker and then erupted with golden flame. Though he’d been willing to fight Kagan, up until now he’d feared him as well—feared his reputation, feared his supposed invulnerability. No more. He was a monster, no better than Zadadach and his minions. Jacob was suffering, and Kagan was impeding him from helping his friend. Not only that, but Kagan implied that he had himself inflicted some wrong on Jacob. First Jacob, now Sky, Ray, Rocky, and Takeya; even Hughes had succumbed to this villain’s madness.
Darion walked forward briskly, arms rigid with fists clenched at his sides. His eyes blazed with golden flame, yet his face bore no emotion.
Kagan grinned, and as Darion approached he threw a right cross for the young warrior’s face … and hit nothing! Darion had ducked, dropping into a low squat, his butt inches off the ground. Kagan barely had time to register this as Darion leapt from the crouch and drove the crown of his head into the underside of his chin. Kagan’s eyes rolled back as he staggered, but the resilient master shifted to the left. Darion flew into a spin
with his fists extended to the side while shifting to the right, striking Kagan in the face with dozens of strikes in the blink of an eye. Kagan shifted straight up to avoid the rotating blows, but Darion followed, coming out of his spin and rocketing with one fist extended upward. Darion’s fist smashed into the underside of Kagan’s chin, sending him sailing backward. Darion halted his ascent, flew at Kagan in a prone position with his fists and legs extended, and started to roll—flying forward while spinning. Kagan overcame his backward inertia, but Darion was on him before he could react. Darion’s rotating fists bore into Kagan’s torso like a drill, grinding over his chest and ribs with bone-rending force. Darion jolted to a halt and Kagan sailed backward, spinning topsy-turvy as he smashed through buildings into the distance.
After slamming through dozens of buildings, Kagan’s backward inertia finally slowed and he came crashing down in an intersection. He crawled to his hands and knees and vomited golden-tinted blood. As he heaved, suddenly he found himself looking at Darion’s boots, for the young warrior was standing before him with his arms folded, regarding him with his eyes ablaze.
The master was hurting, but impressed—impressed that his student’s pupil could inflict such damage upon him. Impressed, but undaunted. Kagan leapt from the ground with an uppercut—again, he hit nothing. He lashed out with a barrage of various punches, but Darion shifted side to side to avoid every blow—with his arms still folded. Kagan shot out a straight right to Darion’s chest—a hit! No. Kagan watched in horror as his hand disintegrated on contact, burning completely away up to the wrist. Kagan backed away, clutching his stump cauterized with golden ember. Kagan augmented his natural regenerative abilities through will, and his hand suddenly reappeared—glowing white-hot before dimming to normal. Darion stalked forward.
