Renegade Reprisal (The Renegade Series)

by J. C. Fiske

  Still, even after spreading his power to everyone, Gisbo’s Boon form did not seem to dwindle. With every strike and kill, Gisbo grew more and more powerful when, suddenly, he felt his legs freeze in place. Fao was taking over again. It seemed he had reached his power limit. Suddenly, words came to his mind and, together, he and Fao spoke a chant while his weapons vibrated with power to the point he almost dropped them.

  “My blades, I call upon thee! My eyes are ablaze, and now I do see, may the power of fire . . . let it flow through me!”

  With that, Gisbo spent the rest of his stored energy and his Boon form disappeared. Gisbo was suddenly surrounded by over a dozen ghostly white spirit wolves that seemed to shimmer in and out of existence with a sparkling, radiance-like starlight over a pond at night. One of them made its way to Gisbo and bowed its head.

  “Gisbo Falcon, I am known as Jeshua. You have spent your essence wisely this day by summoning the pack of the glimmering moon to aid you. Centuries we have existed both in and out of various spirit worlds. One day, your wolf will join our ranks to help the next generation and the one worthy enough to call the pack to his or her aid. Now, what do you wish from us? Choose. Will we attack? Or will we protect?” The white wolf spoke in a distant, wisened voice. Deep with power, yet gentle in tone.

  “I . . . this is, this is so weird,” Gisbo said as his Boon form disappeared and Fao reappeared beside him. He looked down at Fao for answers, but she only looked back at him. Gisbo then turned back to Jeshua. “Help my friends, protect them! Save them all!”

  “It shall be done,” Jeshua spoke. With that, every one of the spirit wolves from planes unknown separated and formed a protective triangle around each of his Renegade friends. One unlucky cultist stabbed a wolf from behind with a spear, only to cause the spirit wolf to explode with energy, harming all foes around him and empowering all friendly targets. With their help, Gisbo knew the battle would truly be theirs.

  He then felt it, his heart tugging. He knew where he needed to go. It was time to save his father, his family, Jackobi, and all of Heaven’s Shelter. It was time to face Narsissa. He looked down at Fao.

  “Here we go again, girl,” Gisbo said. Then he heard a voice behind him.

  “But this time, you’re not going in alone,” Rolce said as he joined him by his side.

  “Rolce, I . . . he’s my father. They need you out here,” Gisbo said.

  “They have Nina to heal them. She is trained well enough for the job at hand. And Gisbo, Falcon means a lot to me, too. I’ve sat around for all of his speeches just like you, and he’s not the only one in trouble; Jackobi is in there, too. Both are family. And . . . I don’t know what you just did, my friend, but I saw it. I don’t know if it’s the Phoenix helping you out or that came from your own pure will and skill, but either way, amazing. I sent my wolves away to protect the others so I could, in turn, protect you. No way I’m letting you in there alone. Not this time. Now let’s go,” Rolce said, running ahead of Gisbo. Gisbo shrugged and caught up to him.

  Together, Gisbo and Rolce charged through the few remaining cultists and made their way to the church steps, with their Boons following close behind. Midway up the steps, three cultists burst through the church doors and attacked. Rolce stretched out his staff and caught the first oncoming attacker in the gut, causing the man to double over. Rolce followed it with an upward strike to the chin, felling the man unconscious. Harpie, for good measure, flew and recovered the fallen cultist’s spear, grabbed it in her huge talons, and flew off over the battlefield and let it drop upon an unfortunate cultist, killing her instantly.

  Gisbo didn’t even bother striking with his weapons. He saw the huge oak and metal doorframe latched tight and ignited his essence in a massive fireball around him, compressed it, then slowly released it so he was encased in a smaller fireball. In a rush of his now powered body, Gisbo flew straight at the two charging men and right through the doorway in an explosion of fire. Wood burned and metal smoldered as the two men flew back through the gaping hole within the door and slid across the polished marble floor into some tapestries, dead. Rolce walked up silently beside Gisbo to see the quiet, abandoned church, then looked back at the door with the massive hole big enough for an elephant to fit through.

  “Jeesh, I’m reminded of our treehouse suddenly,” Rolce said.

  “I’m good at opening doors, remember?” Gisbo said, smirking.

  “Hah, I suppose . . .” Rolce said as they both walked calmly to the secret entranceway behind the curtain.

  “You never did admit that, without me, all your planning would have been for nothing if we never got through that door for our second band. Hell, I never even got a ‘thank you,’ jerk,” Gisbo said.

  “Nor will you get one,” Rolce said, smirking.

  “What if we die here? Are you willing to go to the grave knowing you never thanked your poor buddy, Gisbo?” Gisbo asked.

  “Yup,” Rolce said.

  “Bastard . . .” Gisbo said, smiling, and opened the secret entrance. Both Renegades stood at the foot of the stairs, looking down its darkened steps. Rolce let out a huge sigh.

  “Well, here we go, pal. After you,” Rolce said.

  “Fine, I figured you wanted to look at my ass one final time,” Gisbo said.

  “Yeah, that’s it. That’s the last thing I want to see before I die. I’ve both smelled and seen it quite enough for a lifetime,” Rolce said, rolling his eyes, but laughing.

  “I’d rather see a pair of giant boobs before I go. I’d be satisfied, life complete,” Gisbo said.

  “You think they know we’re coming?” Rolce asked.

  “Yeah,” Gisbo said.

  “Okay, here’s what we are going to do, then. As soon as we get a view down there, I’m going to activate mind link on you. That way, we can scout the area out before we attack, freezing ourselves in place and allowing us to make a plan,” Rolce said.

  “Sounds good. How many times do you think you can activate that?” Gisbo asked.

  “Maybe three, so, in other words, when I see three killing blows come my way or yours, I’m activating it,” Rolce said.

  “Three chances are better than nothing,” Gisbo said.

  “That’s right,” Rolce said.

  They walked in silence down the long flight of stairs.

  “Feel free to crack some more jokes about boobs or something. The silence and anticipation are killing me,” Rolce said.

  “I would, but we are almost there. See the light?” Gisbo asked.

  “Yeah . . . okay, I’ve had enough. Run for it?” Rolce asked.

  “Yeah,” Gisbo said.

  Both Gisbo and Rolce ran for the light and reached the bottom and, just as promised, Rolce activated the mind link to take in their surroundings. Gisbo and Rolce walked around silently, where time did not exist.

  “They aren’t in this room,” Rolce said.

  “No, Falcon was in a different area of this place. He was in that contraption there in the holograph, but he’s not there anymore. They’ve taken him somewhere, and wherever he is, I bet Jackobi’s with him,” Gisbo said. He looked out the skylit window and saw the underground mining facility, completely empty, save for a lone figure. There Narsissa stood, her mask off, looking like a reanimated corpse. That’s all she was, after all. A vessel containing overwhelming power.

  “She’s waiting for us. She knew we’d come, that cocky . . .” Gisbo said. Rolce joined him at his side and shook his head.

  “She’s not alone, Gisbo, look . . .” Rolce said squeamishly. There, upon the floor, Falcon’s body was stretched out, held in place by shackles, his head hung low, a beard down to his neck, and mangled hair that went over his eyes. Gisbo saw his ribs or, better put, saw skin thinly stretched over ribs. He was but one of three people chained to the floor. Jackobi and his Aunt Barb were part of a sick, blackish design painted across the floor, resembling a crude triangle with inward markings. He immediately saw his aunt’s side bleeding. The sight of his
proud, strong father in this state, his friend, his guardian, and his loving, sweet aunt boiled a fury inside Gisbo he couldn’t quite comprehend. As it came, the rattling door came to the front of his mind, and he had a strong, nearly uncontrollable desire to unleash his fury form, as hazardous as it was.

  “Gisbo, are you okay?” Rolce asked.

  “Do it now, Rolce, drop the link,” Gisbo said.

  “We need to formulate some kind of plan. We can’t just rush in, that’s what she wants from us, we have . . .” Rolce started. Gisbo spun on him with snarling fury Rolce had never witnessed.

  “I SAID, DROP IT NOW!” Gisbo snapped. Rolce quickly, on impulse, lost control of it and, before he could stop him, Gisbo shattered the glass window with a blast of fire and flew at Narsissa. He heard a cackling fit of glee as three black tentacles snaked their way out of her black shroud and soared straight toward Gisbo.

  With a barrel roll in mid-air, Gisbo dodged them and landed upon his feet, slicing upward with his Tantos as he landed and severed a stray tentacle that nearly struck him, spraying black ooze everywhere. One hit Fao and sent the poor wolf spiraling into a sand pile with a blast of dust and clutter. Even so, Gisbo kept coming, firing off fire blast after fire blast and causing Narissa to retreat back a few steps.

  “SUCH FEROCITY! YOU ANIMAL! JUST LIKE YOUR TRAMP OF A MOTHER!” Narsissa cackled madly, gliding backward across the floor like an aparition, her twisted face and dead eyes always looking up to the ceiling from a craned, dislocated neck, her tongue hanging out and dangling hauntingly. Her voice was an echo with no mouth movement whatsoever.

  “You want to know what really happened that day, don’t you? Drakearon has seen your heart! He’s knows what’s behind the door! He knows! I know! I was there! You want to know why you are a monster? You want to know?” Narsissa said.

  “GRAH!!!” Gisbo yelled in a mad fury as he charged at Narsissa, now within striking distance. He propelled himself forward, directing a fire blast toward the lower half of her body, and swung wildly, slicing Narsissa cleanly in two with both weapons, dropping her top half to the floor as he wildly swung down, blow after blow, scream after scream, upon random body parts that would shoot up, spraying blackness and old, decayed blood and mucus everywhere. Narsissa screamed with terror.

  “DIE! DIE! DIE!” Gisbo screamed as he decimated her old, decrepit body way past its due date. “FEEL IT ALL! FEEL EVERYTHING!”

  Suddenly, a blob of massive blackness flew straight at Gisbo, knocking him off his feet, and, like a black octopus, several arms appeared, which picked up Gisbo and flung him into a charging Rolce, who managed to catch his friend cleanly enough, but due to the force, was lifted off his feet.

  “What the hell?” Gisbo mumbled through heavy breaths as both he and Rolce watched with disgust as Narsissa, now looking like a slaughtered doll with appendages everywhere, slowly pieced herself back together using the Drakeness to bind her form. Before long, she was finally together once again with six tendrils flying about, one through her gaping mouth, two out from the bottom of her cloak and three out the sides of her waist and shoulders. She used the tendrils to move toward them and, again, Gisbo heard the sickening echo of a laugh coming from somewhere within the black ooze that chained her soul to this realm.

  “PATHETIC, BOY PHOENIX! PATHETIC! Is this all your diety has to offer you? Is that all there is? Look at what my deity has done for me! I am immortal! With this form, I can never die! And as long as I can never die, the Renegades, everyone you know, will DIE!” Narsissa screamed, two tendrils shooting toward Gisbo and Rolce at that moment.

  “Gisbo . . . I . . . I can’t connect with you, look out!!!” Rolce said, pushing Gisbo out of the way as a tendril impaled him through his side. Rolce doubled over in pain as he fell to the ground, reliving the pain and sins of his life two times over as the Drakeness infected him.

  “Rolce! No!” Gisbo said as Rolce convulsed, screamed, and clawed at his own face in pain, drawing blood as he did so. Gisbo ran to his friend and embraced him.

  “Just hold on, Rolce. You’ve always been a good guy, it won’t affect you long!” Gisbo said. Then he turned his attention back to Narsissa.

  “Fine, you leave me no choice. Bring it on, BITCH!”

  Gisbo went to activate his Boon form, more wolf than man, but to no avail. Fao was unconscious, lying in the sandpile.

  “Damn it . . .” Gisbo said, cursing.

  “Die, son of a whore! Son of a home wrecker!” Narsissa screamed, sending several tendrils in Gisbo’s direction, but Gisbo was ready for them, snapping off two with precise swings with his Tantos and shielding himself with fire as the ends of the other tentacles disintegrated into black ash, only to float back to the source and rejoin with Narsissa.

  “I can do this all day, boy, but you can’t! When you die, Heaven’s Shelter will be sacrificed, everyone will pay the price, and, once again, Drakeron, my diety, will return to us! He will live again in this world! He will claim the empty throne of Heaven! And honor me! And Falcon and I will live happily forever, will have our own son!” Narsissa said.

  Gisbo stood silent for a moment, his brain racing for something, anything he could do. No matter what he tried, no matter how much he cut her, the Drakeness returned to its normal state . . . Then he had an idea; a costly one, but it was all he had. It was time he put his training to good use. While Narsissa prattled on, Gisbo powered up his essence all the way . . .

  “We could have had it all! Everything! The world! And then your tramp of a mother ruined everything, seduced my poor Falcon and had, had . . . YOU! YOU MONSTER CHILD! You want to know why I took your aunt? Do you? I could have used anyone to sacrifice, anyone! But I wanted to see the pain in your eyes, the eyes of your mother, those dark, gruesome, muddy eyes. I wanted to see them turn red with pain once more, to see the closest thing you had to a mother die violently before your eyes, because, well, I missed it the first time . . .”

  And with that, Gisbo fully unleashed his essence in a massive fireball that spread out in all directions. Narsissa sent out dozens of tendrils at him in that moment. The fire, however, was so hot none could reach Gisbo as they disintegrated upon contact.

  “TAKE ALL OF ME! TAKE IT ALL!” Gisbo screamed as he spent the last of his essence and sent it speeding, all of it, into a condensed ball of flame. There was no way for Narsissa to dodge it. She took it full-force and it exploded, but not all at once. Instead, it spread around until all of Narsissa’s body was soaked in unimaginable heat and torment. She gurgled and wailed and screamed, and Gisbo heard her voice echo in and out, as if her voice became weak, and garbled, as if she were screaming from beneath the bottom of a pond. Her soul was fading, leaving this world. Gisbo fell to his knees, and almost on his face, with the amount of power leaving him all at once, but he was caught by Rolce, who helped him down to a sitting postion.

  “Gisbo . . . it’s done . . .” Rolce said.

  “I’m completely spent; my essence is all gone . . . I can barely see, my vision’s so fadey, what’s happening?” Gisbo asked.

  “There’s nothing left of her, nothing at all, just splots of black upon the floor. You eradicated her entire body. Come on, let’s see to everyone and take care of cleanup duty,” Rolce said as he and Gisbo, arms across each other’s shoulders, limped toward the smoldering ground.

  “You went a little overboard, pal, but, wow, you did it,” Rolce said.

  “Yeah, just a bit. It’s finally over . . . Without her, Heaven’s Shelter’s safe now,” Gisbo said.

  “My father told me about this, based on the research with Jackobi this year. He said there was no way the Drakeness could recover a body without a beating heart to bind it to this world. You eradicated it,” Rolce said.

  “Still, those plops of black sludge splattered everywhere makes me nervous . . . maybe we should blast those away first before we see to the others,” Gisbo said.

  “Relax, they are harmless now. Eventually, they’ll evaporate without a proper
host. It’s over,” Rolce said. Gisbo sighed a huge breath of relief.

  “Thank IAM,” Gisbo said.

  “That’s new, coming from you,” Rolce said.

  “Everything worked out in the end, everything’s fine. I wasn’t about to tell you this, but I’ve been praying and praying for this moment, that’d it all be over and none of my friends or family would be hurt in this battle. The innocent weren’t made to suffer. IAM knew it. I knew he wouldn’t let this happen,” Gisbo said.

  “Agreed. Hey, Jackobi, come on, buddy, wake up,” Rolce said, shaking his friend, who was certainly worse for wear, but not as bad as Falcon or Barb. Jackobi’s eyes snapped awake.

  “I told you not to call me that . . .” Jackobi said as he leaned up and rubbed at his sore head. “This is déjà vu, huh?”

  “I don’t know how to thank you . . . again. Because of you, my dad’s alive,” Gisbo said.

  “It’s just my duty, and he is, but barely. He needs medical attention immediately. Rolce, go do what you can for him, and then make your way to Barb,” Jackobi said.

  “What about you?” Rolce asked.

  “Already my Drakeness is healing me. I feel great; just break me out of these cuffs,” Jackobi said. Rolce obliged with two small blasts of his essence.

  “Thanks. Is this all that’s left of her? What happened?” Jackobi asked, raising to his feet and dusting himself off.

  “Gisbo unleashed a fire bomb or something, eradicated her to pieces. There’s nothing left,” Rolce said. Jackobi turned to Gisbo.

  “Seems you’ve been working out, huh?” Jackobi asked, looking around at the carnage.

  “If that’s what you call it. I call it surviving your dad’s training,” Gisbo said. Jackobi smiled.