Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness

by Andrew Dobell

  She walked forward and rounded the corner, through the double door entrance and looked over the room.

  Huge and well-appointed with sofas and rugs, she’d found the communal area of the Coven where they could all relax together.

  Amanda stopped in the doorway, flanked with Yoh and Maya and quickly picked out Lucian from the ten people that were sat in here, relaxing on the sofas.

  Lucian looked up and cocked his head to one side, causing his Dreadlocks to shift and a couple of them to fall across his face.

  Beside him sat the Tattooed man in black and on the other side sat the voodoo woman with the strange runic script tattooed onto her face, the same three Magi who had appeared on her doorstep not all that long ago.

  Sat nearby were numerous Initiated Humans, two of them were fairly close to the female Magus, the rest looked part of a group and all sat together.

  Everyone sat in silence now and looked at Amanda.

  ‘I knew you’d come mon, sooner or later,’ Lucian said. ‘How’s Liz?’

  ‘You’re a depraved dick Lucian, a poxy little gobshite that has had his own way for far too long,’ she answered.

  ‘I’ll take that as “she doing fine” then shall I?’

  ‘Take it however you like,’ she answered.

  ‘So you’re what, here to kill me?’

  ‘If that’s what it takes,’ she said.

  She noted that the Initiated Gang members had started to stand and make themselves ready.

  She stepped down to a raised area just inside the room that then dropped down a few more steps to the room proper below her.

  At that moment, feint gunfire echoed through the complex. Just a couple of bursts that made everyone listen for a moment.

  ‘Friends of yours?’ Lucian asked.

  ‘This ends today Lucian. I’ve seen what you do, what your organisation does to young girls and children. It has to stop, and were here to make it stop.’

  ‘Stop? Ha! It’ll never stop mon. You take me out, another Qwenga will take my place.’

  ‘Not in New York.’

  ‘You think you can take New York from us? Nymira will hunt you down.’

  ‘Maybe. But we both know that Yasmin will have a say in all this, don’t we.’

  Lucian’s face darkened at the mention of her name.

  ‘Kill them,’ he said to his men.

  She knew she’d pissed him off, but that’s exactly what she wanted to happen, and now the game began.

  The gang of five Initiated raised their guns and opened fire. The entrance way where Amanda and her friends stood exploded in debris and dust as the bullets ripped the walls apart, ricocheting off of the Force Shields that Amanda, Maya and Yoh had on them. Emptying their clips, the gang dropped their weapons and moved quickly, stepping and jumping over the furniture to head straight for Amanda and her two allies, pulling knives and more guns as they came.

  With a mental link already open to Yoh and Maya, Amanda sent them a quick thought. Deal with them, Lucian’s mine, she thought to them as she waited for the Initiated to get close enough. The Voodoo woman also approached with her two initiated assistants with her, but Lucian and his tattooed bodyguard didn’t approach, but they did stand up.

  ‘Hay babe, we gon fuck you up now,’ one of the gang members said to her, a wicked smile on his face. She felt sorry for him, he had no idea what he was about to get into.

  Waiting a second or two more, until the Initiated approached the base of the raised area she stood on, Amanda ran forward and jumped. Taking advantage of the high ceiling in here, she boosted over the top of the approaching initiated, landing behind them on top of a table a few meters away from Lucian.

  Behind her, Yoh and Maya immediately started to attack the gang, she could hear the fighting start with movement and gunfire from the gang members to mix in with the fairly constant distant gunshots echoing from other parts of the complex. Gunfire probably meant that Xain and Orion were having some fun.

  Amanda knew Maya and Yoh would be fine, they were both competent fighters, they both had enhanced Force Shields cast on them, meaning that between them they should easily handle these mortals.

  ‘You and me Lucian, let’s go.’ Amanda said from her new vantage point.

  Lucian cocked his head to one side and raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Really? You expect a fair fight from me?’ He said.

  Something about that comment and a flick of his eyes made Amanda quickly glance behind her to see one of the two Initiated with the Voodoo woman sneaking up behind her, knife in hand. Amanda span, kicking out behind her. The female Initiated took the kick pretty hard to the side of the face which slammed her head onto the table top Amanda stood on. Twisting round at the same time, Amanda couched and punched her hard in the head once. The woman collapsed to the floor, no longer a worry for Amanda. She stood up, turned slightly sideways and looked at Lucian and at the Voodoo woman and her other initiated who hesitated, looking to Lucian for instruction.

  Lucian gave her a dismissive movement with his hand, so that she went back to the fight with Maya and Yoh. Amanda turned her head back to Lucian and his friend and watched as the tattooed man in black pulled out two daggers from the back of his belt.

  Lucian backed off as his friend approached her.

  ‘And what do I call you?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘The name is Raal, I’m looking forward to this,’ he said.

  ‘I bet you are pretty boy,’ she said as she raised her hand and with a swift working of Magic conjured and directed a huge blast of lightning at Raal.

  The blast hit home in Raal’s chest, knocking him off his feet and causing him to drop the daggers as he landed. The Electrical energy played over his body as his Force Shield did it’s best to deflect it in a shower of pyrotechnics.

  She wasn’t sure how much damage that had done to him, she’d taken a gamble on which protective shields Raal might have cast on him currently, as an Aegis, which most Magi cast on themselves as a matter of course, only stopped magic itself, not the results of Magic. Amanda’s lightning bolt may have been created with Magic and Essentia, but the electrical blast that resulted from the conjuring wasn’t magic, but rather a wholly mundane, but very dangerous phenomena.

  An Aegis would not stop such an attack, but a Force Shield would.

  Raal jumped back to his feet right away, smoking, but not really suffering as a result of Amanda’s attack. Amanda dropped down off the table and set one of her multitasking minds to hammering his Aegis with Essentia, blasting it hard in an attempt to break it down. At the same time she pulled down another blast of electricity from the nearest light fitting that caused him to stumble. She went in for a punch as he recoiled from the Electrical blast but he caught her fist, blocking the attack and spinning away, getting in a quick Essentia strike as he moved, punching her in the gut making her Magical Shields flicker with light as they deflected it.

  She didn’t need this fight, Raal no doubt wanted to prove something to Lucian, but to Amanda, he was little more than a hurdle. The real opponent stood a few meters away, watching. She didn’t like being distracted like this, and she had no illusions that Lucian would let this fight play out fairly, she expected an attack by him any moment.

  Amanda spun and elbowed Raal in the face, following it up with a punch and more attacks against his Aegis while bolstering her own back up from Raal’s attacks.

  Raal blocked her next strike and delivered his own that hit home hard.

  Then she sensed the flare of Magical Energy from Lucian and in the next moment the familiar feel of a Magical attack against her Aegis. She went with the momentum from Raal’s punch and gained some distance from him. A couple of meters away from Raal now, she refocused all her Magical might to defending against Raal and Lucians attacks against her Aegis, flooding her shields with power to keep them from collapsing and leaving her defenceless.

  Blood trickled down from her nose into her mouth, Raal’s punch had hit home all right.
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br />   ‘By the end of this, I’ll be prettier than you I think,’ Raal taunted.

  Amanda looked up from under her eyebrows, she spat the blood out of her mouth. It splattered to the floor at her feet as she rose back to her full height once more.

  Amanda didn’t answer, she let her body language do the talking for her as she moved back towards Raal and attacked once more. But he blocked her again and hit a quick one two into her gut, making her Aegis flare again as it strained to resist the attacks. He followed that up with an uppercut that struck her jaw like a freight train and knocked her to the ground while Lucian blasted her with magical energy again. She landed on her side and quickly rolled away. She got her feet beneath her again and rose into a crouch, looking up at Raal once more.

  She wiped her mouth with her back of her hand and saw the blood that now smeared her forearm before looking back up at Raal. That didn’t exactly go according to plan she thought as Raal let out a gloating laugh.

  Liz sprinted through the corridors making quick turns and doing everything she could think of to try and loose this nightmare creature behind her. She broke left, then turned right through a room into another corridor and sprinted along that before turning again.

  The rooms zipped past too fast for her to follow or see inside. She hoped she’d find Xain and Orion, but so far had no luck. She could hear gunfire, but it bounced around these corridors making it near impossible to tell where it came from.

  So instead she just ran.

  A few more turns and she started to think she might have lost the wolf creature. She slowed and came to a stop at a cross roads, leaning against the wall with her hand and fighting to get her breathing under control.

  She listened as best she could, but failed to hear any kind of noise that sounded like that thing. Instead, she could hear talking in a nearby room. It came from an open doorway just a short distance away and she felt sure she recognised the voice.

  Pulling off the remains of her jumper, leaving her in a white vest top and her cream leggings, she walked towards the sound and listened some more.

  ‘We need to head downstairs to Lucian, the others are down there now fighting for him,’ said the voice she knew. She felt sure it must be Jason, the guy she had taken a shine too at the Jade Palace, the same one who then helped kidnap her the other day.

  Other voices answered him, some in support, some not, but she didn’t take much notice what they were saying as she walked up to the door and looked inside. Jason and four or five others stood at another exit to this room and were moving through it, talking as they went. Jason went last, and as he walked through the doorway, he glanced back into the room and noticed Liz stood there staring at him.

  He paused, looking over the room to Liz, an expression of surprise and could that be guilt maybe on his face? She couldn’t be sure.

  He put his head out the door way and called to his mates. ‘I’ll be along shortly, this won’t take a moment,’ he said before turning back to the room and looking back at Liz.

  ‘Liz…’ he said, sounding like he was about to explain something, but she interrupted him.

  ‘Where do you get off doing that to me?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ll do what I damn well like to you and you will fuckin’ like it, bitch,’ he said.

  Liz raised her eyebrows in response, not quiet expecting that kind of language from him. ‘Is that right?’ she asked, after her moment of surprise.

  He started to saunter across the room towards her, slowly, without any urgency to his movements. ‘Babe, you think you’re the first dumb blonde I’ve seduced for the Harbingers? Lucian’s contacts need idiots like you for their business. Sure, it was a little different with you being a Magi and all, but you fell for it, just like all the other dumb fucks. You’re all the same,’ he smiled.

  Liz had backed out into the corridor now, Jason stood opposite her and leaned against the doorway. She noticed the gun in his hand, the way his thumb played with the feel of it. No doubt he felt powerful with that in his hand and he had probably underestimated her as well.

  ‘I don’t think you’ll be tricking any other girls with your lies after today, babe,’ she said, mocking his use of the word.

  ‘Is that right?’ he replied, mocking her back as he raised his gun as quick as he could.

  He moved fast, but Liz reacted quicker and kicked the gun from his hand before he pulled the trigger. It fell to the floor a short distance away as she kicked again and connected with his face this time while he stood there in mild bewilderment at losing his weapon. He fell back against the door frame, holding his mouth as blood poured from his nose.

  Liz stood tall and took a step towards him.

  ‘Damn right! I can take you down,’ she said.

  She went in for another punch, but he moved quickly and blocked the punch with his forearm before catching it in his other hand and twisting, forcing her into a crouch.

  ‘I think you broke my damn nose,’ Jason said in anger and shock. He kicked her in the stomach and let her fall to the floor, letting go of her hand in the process as he touched his nose gingerly once more. He winced as he did so and then returned his angry gaze back to Liz. ‘Come here,’ he said and quickly stepped forward, forcing her to stand up by grabbing her arm and lifting her.

  ‘I’m going to have some fun with you,’ he bellowed, but Liz didn’t look at Jason, she didn’t really even hear him as she saw the Scion wolf round the corner behind him slavering with blind rage and then leap forward. She’d started to try and pull away from him the moment she saw the wolf, and fought to release herself from his grip, pulling him forward between her and the wolf.

  The wolf landed on Jason’s back, roaring madly and threw him forward. Liz fell alongside him, pulled to the floor by Jason’s grip, she rolled with the momentum and stopped a couple of meters in front of him. Jason had landed on his front, the beast on his back pinning him as it immediately bit him, sinking its teeth into his shoulder while raking his back with its claws.

  Jason screamed in pain, his body thrashing about in utter panic trying in vain to dislodge the wolf.

  Shuffling backwards on her bum, Liz’s hand knocked against something. She looked down and saw Jason’s gun. Picking it up she pointed it at the beast and wondered where to shoot it.

  She called on her Magical sight, looked into the fates and where the best place to shoot the thing might be. A few options presented themselves, but the one place that seemed to call to her the most wasn’t actually on the creature at all. Next to them in the wall an electrical cable sat very close to a water main, their hidden location revealed by Liz’s Magical sight. She turned her gun to the wall and opened fire, and after the third bullet water started to seep from the pipe, but after the forth, it burst and drenched Jason and the wolf Scion in water.

  The wolf flinched away from the water looking surprised, almost releasing Jason who started to try and pull himself free from the wolfs grip.

  But Liz kept firing, altering her aim slightly to hit the electrical Cable above it. A few rapid fire shots later and the broken cable contacted the water, electrifying it and shocking Jason and the creature.

  Both of them dropped to the floor in a spasm as Liz stopped firing.

  She sat there for what seemed like forever, breathing hard and just looking at the pair of twitching wet bodies while keeping out of the water.

  She couldn’t quite believe she’d taken out two people who were both quite intent on killing her. She couldn’t wait to tell Amanda about this.

  She decided it might be best if she kept the gun with her. She really didn’t like firearms much, but she could see the appeal for dangerous missions like this. Even with Magical abilities, sometimes you just needed to blow them away.

  Standing up she listened once more for the staccato gunfire and headed towards it.

  Amanda threw a couple of punches at Raal followed by a swift kick to his ribs which knocked him sideways, her Essentia hits sparking flickering light and ene
rgy each time she connected.

  Raal staggered to the side but stayed upright, brandishing his knife as he moved, trying to get in quick as Amanda brought her leg back down from the kick.

  Amanda saw it coming and caught the attack without too much difficulty.

  All the while her other minds, separate and whole and able to use Magic, did their best to shore up her Aegis and magical shields. Lucian and Raal’s Magical attacks threw more and more Essentia at her, hammering a spike of Magical energy into her defences in an attempt to break them down. Amanda’s powerful connection to Essentia meant she could bring a lot of strength to her Aegis very quickly and she found that she managed, just, to hold them both off together.

  Feeling comfortable that her Aegis would hold for the time being, she concentrated on the fight at hand and used Raal’s own strength against him, twisting him around and into a hold with both hands pinned and his own knife to his throat. She pressed it in making its stored Essentia fizz and pop with light and energy as Raal’s Aegis fought the attack of the knife and the proximity of Amanda’s own Aegis.

  Able to look around her now that Raal had been forced to kneel here under her control, she looked up at Lucian from her crouched position, who had now backed away even more.

  ‘This ends tonight Lucian,’ she said.

  ‘Actually no, it doesn’t,’ Lucian replied as she noticed the flare of Essentia from within him that Amanda recognised as a Porting, but just as suddenly there came another surge of energy from an unknown source that washed over Lucian’s casting and caused the build up to fizzle and die.

  Amanda looked about her, as did Lucian and saw no obvious culprit, but Amanda had an idea who it might be.

  ‘Seems like someone doesn’t want you to leave Lucian,’ she said.

  Lucian looked worried for a moment, before he scowled at Amanda again and after backing off a few steps, turned and ran, bursting through the far doors moments later and disappeared from sight.

  ‘Feck,’ said Amanda to herself. She couldn’t lose Lucian now, not after coming this far. With Lucian gone and his attacks on her Aegis no longer worrying her, she quickly refocused her own Magic use and dedicated her 3 minds to ripping Raal’s Aegis apart.