Life

by Rosie Scott

  Many of the assassins who had been part of our infiltration mission were dead, but those who were alive were making their way to the outskirts of battle. Some of them were trailed by small armies of corpses from previous skirmishes.

  We'd managed to stay out of the sights of Tyrus and Heartha, but as my eyes darted through the streets of Olympia, I realized that went both ways. I had no idea where the gods were, and the thought that they could devastate entire segments of our unsuspecting armies did not sit well with me.

  “Azazel, where are the gods?” I asked, slowing him with a hand on his arm.

  “They were moving northwest last I saw them,” he replied, nodding toward the armies of Altan, Kirek, Zephyr, and Leura. “The elite army follows them.”

  “They saw the giants,” I surmised. “Decided to avoid them.” My eyes scanned over the land where the Vhiri mages were spread like a virus just inside the wall. Most of it was open farmland with fields of crops. Not only were Tyrus and Heartha smart enough to avoid the giants, but they knew they could cause massive damage in such an area where there were few places to avoid cannonballs and calcint. “They will demolish the Vhiri in open land.”

  “Then let's warn them,” Azazel said.

  “How?”

  Azazel did not reply verbally, instead pointing to the skies to the east, where the edge of the city was quiet with the aftermath of a bloody battle. Soaring over the wreckage was Holter in his beast form, his large head tilting to the side as he flew along the streets as if searching for familiar faces amongst the corpses.

  “Oh, thank the gods,” I murmured. “Calder sent him to search for us.”

  “You told him to use Holter as a scout,” Nyx pointed out.

  “Yes, but...” I trailed off, unwilling to speak my mind.

  “You weren't sure how well Calder would follow or remember directions,” Azazel said, finishing my thought for me.

  “Right.”

  “I'm glad we were separate from Calder in this fight,” Azazel commented.

  “So you didn't have to put up with him?” Nyx asked with a smirk.

  “No,” Azazel replied. “It gave Kai and I a chance to see how well he could lead armies on his own. Calder left leading soldiers up to me in Quellden. I wasn't sure he was capable. He has impressed me many times in this fight.”

  “Tell him that,” I prodded.

  “Not a chance,” Azazel said with a chuckle.

  Holter turned to face west, flapping his massive wings a few times to maintain speed before coasting past the main street we'd left long ago. The river of lava was now black and hardened igneous rock settled in the cracks of cobblestone where the decline of the city hadn't encouraged further travel. Perhaps Holter thought the lava was mine because he circled the area a few times, desperate to find us.

  Nyx stood up straight in the midst of the roof we were moving across, raising both arms and waving them wildly in the air. With the gods farther away from us now, we could risk the movement. After another circle of the intersection, Holter started to head south, but Nyx's movement caught his eye.

  The oozlum-kin immediately hurried to us, soaring quickly through the skies. He landed on the edge of a nearby rooftop, watching us with relief and curiosity.

  “It's so good to see you, Holter,” I said, to which the huge bird nodded once. “I am assuming you have no urgent news for us, since you are not transforming?” Holter moved his head to the side, indicating no. “I have urgent intel I need you to take to the armies in the northwest,” I informed him, pointing in the direction as his eyes followed. “There are two gods on their way there. Tyrus and Heartha. Their armor is unable to be penetrated by the elements. I have tried everything. Tyrus has a penchant for lava and wields fire, earth, and two devastating weapons. One is a cannon he wears on his arm, and the other uses an alchemical accelerant to shoot summoned magical flames into crowds of men. Heartha is an earth mage and creates ammo for the cannons and has the ability to move earthen materials. These gods will devastate those armies in open land. My plan was to get the giants to break their armor apart so I could use my magic on them, but the gods are avoiding the giants entirely.” I paused to take a breath in my explanation. “Please. Go and see Cerin, Altan, Zephyr, or Leura. Tell them what to expect. These gods have a small army of elites with them. Their armor needs to be disabled before they can be killed.”

  Holter nodded once, though he hesitated to leave.

  “That's all I have for you,” I told him, “but we are moving to reinforce them right now. We should be there to support them within the hour.”

  Holter nodded again, before he lifted his heavy body in the air, warm winds brushing by my face as his wings forced them our way. Then, the oozlum-kin flew northwest to deliver my warning. I hoped it would arrive in time.

  The skies over Olympia were dark with nightfall by the time we reached the edge of raging battle in the lowest tier of the city. Though the clouds were sparse, no stars were visible above us because the air was full of smoke.

  Once bountiful fields of crops were engulfed in angry flames. Vhiri soldiers were in lumps of melted yellow armor and flesh across the pastures. To our left at the edge of the raging fires, water mages desperately tried to put them out. They were succeeding, though the progress was slow given just how much land was affected. I saw no calcint. Because we had passed by sections of the city which were still on fire on our way here, I knew Tyrus had probably run out of the ammo which contained it. All he would have left were regular cannonballs given to him by Heartha, which meant—

  BOOM!

  The explosion came from our right, where shrapnel and multiple mages flew through the air over buildings and patches of flames. My eyes caught on one of the mages affected due to the life shield which still surrounded him. Tyrus's cannons shattered through most life shields on impact, so this mage had to be more powerful than the rest, for his protection still persisted. As he flew down the street in our direction, the curved blade of a scythe became visible at his side.

  Cerin.

  Cerin's scythe loosened from his grip as he hurtled through the air, and the weapon clattered over the flat roof of a farmhouse, just the tip of its blade shining cruelly from over the edge. The white magic still protecting my lover faded out once he finally landed along the edge of a field, rolling through a patch of flames from his thrown momentum. I ran to him, hard breaths burning my chest as my heart bullied my ribs until they felt bruised.

  Cerin pulled himself to sit up on the grass right after he landed, his face full of pain and annoyance as he ripped the armor covering his left arm up. The pale skin beneath sizzled and bubbled with recent burns, though it quickly calmed as he forced life energy into the wound. His silver eyes flicked up as I neared him, and he visibly relaxed.

  “Kai,” he breathed, my name only a tumble of relief. “I'm so thankful you're okay.”

  I held a hand out to help him up once his armor was replaced over his arm, and he took it. “I'd say the same to you if it were applicable.”

  Cerin laughed humorlessly, reaching out to take his scythe when Azazel offered him the weapon. I assumed he'd pulled it off the roof with his telekinesis. “I'm fine. My scythe's not making a dent in their armor. Zephyr asked me to cause a distraction, so that's what I'm doing.” He leaned over to kiss me on the cheek before stalking toward the battle again as we followed him.

  “A distraction?” I asked. “For the gods? Tyrus and Heartha?”

  “Yeah, those bastards,” Cerin grumbled, regenerating his life shield. “The giants are throwing their armored soldiers around like toys,” he informed me, pointing a finger to the east, where I could see the giants towering over the buildings in the midst of battle. “But as for the gods? We told most of the soldiers to move into the city to fight. The Sentinels, Maggie, and I have been fighting the two for hours, trying to get the upper hand. Zephyr and Altan think they can use their weapons to disable them long enough to break through their armor.”

&nb
sp; “Did Holter deliver my warning?” I asked him.

  “Yeah. He got here before they did, but we couldn't disperse in time.” Cerin jerked a thumb back to the fields of fire. “Most of our casualties are back there. I'm sure you saw them.”

  “We did.”

  “You must've had a hell of a fight with Tyrus earlier,” Cerin commented. “He won't shut up about you. Screaming for you to come out and fight him.” My lover glanced at me with one eyebrow raised. “Called you a coward.”

  “And you're telling me this so I get angry enough to fight him again,” I mused, “and so you can save yourself this trouble.” I motioned to the streets he'd been thrown over.

  Cerin chuckled. “That would be a benefit, sure.”

  I laughed as I generated a new life shield over myself. “Gods, I love you.”

  Tyrus and Heartha stood in the midst of a pasture, their backs almost together as they faced off against a number of people. Altan, Kirek, Zephyr, Leura, and Maggie were circling the two, and they all looked worn down. The energy in the air was fairly low. Most of it had been depleted by the mages during battle, and the only sources of it now were from the heat exuding from fires and living bodies in the area. Even the gods were fatigued. The two had been so quick to throw magic my way earlier, but they were using it sparingly now. They seemed to be relying on Tyrus's hand cannon and Heartha's ability to reload it. As I finally approached the edge of the field, I called out to them.

  “TYRUS!” I screamed, mocking his call of my own name from earlier in the battle. “Where is the coward who hides under metal?”

  The god spun to look in my direction. His thick armor was dented in many areas from where the Sentinels had damaged it, but it was not yet cracked. My magic would still be unable to reach him.

  “You are the coward!” Tyrus roared, his eyes sharp with anger from through the protective glass of his helmet. “Ya fled from battle because ya could not best me!”

  “I fled from battle because your stench was overwhelming!” I spat back. I didn't miss Altan's grin of amusement from across the field at the juvenile jab.

  “Says a half-breed!” Tyrus yelled back with disgust, angling his hand cannon toward me. I mentally noted that he faced it forward as if to shoot the cannonball straight through me rather than allowing it to arc down from the skies. We were close enough for such an angle now, after all. My eyes scanned the land between us and then the two gods themselves. They were both bulky between their stout statures and heavy armor, and the two were so close together it was as if they formed a wall.

  A plan formed in my head as I took all of this into consideration. El roc a blockad te risa. An earth spell swirled in my palm, but I did not yet direct it. I needed to time this perfectly.

  “This half-breed survived an assault by you both,” I retorted.

  “Ya won't survive the next one,” Tyrus threatened.

  I spread my arms out wide, leaving myself vulnerable. “Try me.”

  BOOM!

  The hand cannon jerked back as it expelled a ball straight toward me as I had anticipated. I heard the protests of my friends as they thought I'd made a mistake. I ignored them, instead paying attention to the distance of the ball. Most of my leeching high was gone, but my senses were still sharp. The whistle of the cannonball grew louder and louder, and then I thrust the prepared earth spell to the ground before my feet.

  A thick wall of stone burst forth from the ground, rising before me like a protective shield. I heard Heartha speak for the first time as she cursed, understanding my strategy. But it was too late.

  Cling! The cannonball ricocheted off of the wall made of its own element. Because its direction had been horizontal to the ground and straight, its altered path directed it right back to the god who'd shot it. I heard the ammo clash into metal armor, but I waited to emerge from behind the stone in case it came back in my direction. As the screams of the Sentinels rushing forward met my ears, I decided it was safe.

  Tyrus was sprawled over the grasses. The cannonball had left a huge dent in the bottom left side of his torso armor, and the god wheezed as he struggled to pull himself off the ground, the heavy weight of his protection working against him. Heartha still stood nearby, desperate to protect Tyrus's back. She threw her hands to the ground, and the earth trembled as it broke apart, a crevasse ripping the field between her and Altan, her nearest pursuer. Altan dodged to the side, and Kirek stalked forward, one boot on either side of the crevasse without a care in the world as she used her own earth magic to close it.

  Zephyr rushed forward in a blur of white and silver. Heartha decided not to take the Sentinel or her choice of weapon seriously, perhaps thinking that the chain-sickle would be unable to break through her armor. But that was not the weapon's only purpose.

  Zephyr grasped the sickle of her weapon in her left hand, and her right arm swung in a steady circle over her head, the chain and weight whipping around with a metallic whizzing. Heartha ignored the weapon and paid more attention to Maggie as she approached. A segment of earth rose before the goddess as it was torn from the ground.

  Zephyr threw the weighted end of her weapon at the goddess. The chain shot forward like an attacking snake, wrapping around Heartha's arm and immobilizing it. The weight lodged in the curve of the goddess's elbow, keeping it still even as she fought against it. The earth Heartha had planned to use to attack Maggie fell back to the ground in pieces of dirt and broken grass as her spell was interrupted.

  Heartha desperately grasped at the chain as Zephyr dug her boots in the ground, grunting as she fought to keep the goddess still. Altan threw his own chain forward from the opposite side, and the weapon constricted around the goddess's throat.

  Perhaps the Sentinels had already talked over this plan because they all appeared to be in agreement. As Altan and Zephyr kept the goddess in place, Maggie rose her giant hammer in the air over her head, before bringing it down over Heartha's thick helmet with a vengeance.

  Clink!

  After only one hit, Heartha fell forward. Zephyr and Altan loosened the grips on their weapons, letting her fall to the ground. The top of her helmet was bashed in so far that part of it surely had punctured her skull, but the goddess still twitched with sporadic life. Maggie hefted her war hammer up again, determined to end it.

  As the echoes of the hammer hits continued, I turned my attention to Tyrus. The dent in his own armor had clearly broken at least one of his ribs, and he backed away from me as I followed him over the grass like a predator. The bottom of the glass in his helmet was sprinkled with blood as if he'd coughed it up violently after being hit by his own cannonball. The god's wheezing echoed in his helmet as I finally stood above him.

  My eyes fell upon the dent in his armor, where thick blood was smeared over its metal. That meant the cannonball hit had finally broken it.

  Enflic le plague del fiers. A combination spell of death and fire swirled above my palm in flashes of black and deep reddish-orange. I found Tyrus's eyes from through his helmet.

  “You burned many of my soldiers alive today,” I told him. My voice seemed louder now that Maggie was no longer hitting the goddess behind me. I figured that meant Heartha was finally dead. “I find it fitting,” I continued. “You are the god of the forge, are you not? You found a way to combine your creations with your magic. I'm almost impressed.”

  “Fuck you,” Tyrus spat, though the words were weak as they whistled through gritted teeth.

  “No,” I retorted. “Fuck you. As I said, you burned my soldiers alive. Have you ever wondered what that feels like, god of the forge?” I glanced knowingly at the swirling magic in my palm. “I promise to show you.”

  Tyrus scrambled back farther, his breaths speeding up in his helmet. One armored hand covered the break in his armor protectively.

  “Cerin,” I called back to my lover. He came forward, throwing his scythe down over the god's arm to keep it from moving. Azazel hurried up as well, grabbing the god's other arm as Tyrus screamed prote
sts.

  I forced the spell into the break of the god's armor. The energy slipped through its cracks, and the god's screams rose in volume and urgency. My friends and I backed away as Tyrus started shaking in his suit of armor. The glass of his helmet fogged with heat, and his voice soon was drowned out by reverberations of sizzling and crackling as his body underwent spontaneous combustion.

  Smoke started to rise from Tyrus as the heat spread to his metal armor, his own creation helping to cook him within it. The god no longer suffered, dead of smoke inhalation. What little I could see of his face from through his helmet blackened and turned into ash.

  “Damn.” Altan's voice broke into my thoughts as the Sentinel came to stand beside me. “This god must've really pissed you off.”

  “He nearly killed Azazel and single-handedly killed hundreds of allied soldiers and dwarves alike with his damn fire,” I replied. “So, yes, I guess you're right.”

  Altan chuckled and nudged my shoulder with his own as we watched the god cook together. “When I first met you, I told you I would have watched Sera burn with you while roasting the finest cuts of meat.” He tapped Tyrus's metal armor with a boot. “I'd assume that gods make the finest cuts of them all.”

  I laughed at his joke. Perhaps Altan assumed I would express disgust at its crudeness, but I only replied, “They do, Altan, but we are far from Sera.”

  Altan chortled at that. “I've missed you these past weeks, woman.”

  “As I've missed you. But we'll have to catch up after the battle.” I finally tore my gaze from Tyrus's smoking armor to return to the fight.