Shadowmancer (The Circle Book 1)

by Lee Isserow

  The magickians picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and drew their weapons. An unspoken knowing between the six of them that now was the time to strike, before the creature could recover, heal and attack them at full strength. They were well aware that these things healed all too quickly. Jules stood back as Leopold and Jacobian leaped at the monster with swords drawn, slicing with schoolgirlish glee at the many tentacles that whipped through the air towards them. They enjoyed this, the wanton violence, the balletic ducking and diving as the appendages came for them. And the 'thulhu had many tentacles to send their way, and keep them busy

  Faith stood back, observing its patterns. It was using the fifteen or so human hosts it was currently violating as additional eyes to see where its two sword-wielding attackers were standing, keeping track of their flustered movements and parries. His hands arced out, settling on either side of his head, middle fingers raised above the others. He caught sight of all the creature's hosts, pictured them in his mind's eye. Pictured their eyes in his mind's eye, and brought his hands down. The whites of their eyes began to bulge, moving and shifting around the cornea, bubbling over the iris and sealing up the lens, making them completely blind.

  The creature's roar echoed through their lips. Their mouths frothing, hands shooting up in clawing motions. They had seen him before their sight was taken, knew where he was standing, and ran towards him with a vicious, unconstrained rage, tentacles trailing behind them along the ground. He leaped backwards, dodged and ducked their lunges and attacks.

  “Little help here!” he shouted over to Sabre, who was in the midst of casting a complicated sigil that was intended to result in a large, explosive light show.

  Jules sighed. He put his hands out in front of his chest and pulled the shadows from beneath the 'thulhu, forming tentacles of his own that wound around the host's arms and legs, knotting them up and tying them behind their backs, leaving them lying on the ground, just snapping away impotently.

  “Cheers!” Faith said, giving Jules an appreciative nod over his shoulder. He would soon regret being quite so jovial, as he turned back and felt a sharp spike of pain shooting through his body. His eyes caught sight of a thin tentacle trailing along the ground from the gigantic beast, turning at a right angle beneath him, pointing straight up, its tip nestling deep between his legs.

  “Oh bloody hell... “ A fire burned in his rectum as the demonic colossus deposited its seed deep in the rear entrance to his digestive tract. He tried to hold in the scream, reaching to the air and casting a sigil to summon his weapon forth. A thin pole of light appeared in his hand, three foot long above and below where he gripped it. At the head, the light twisted and turned, forming the sharp tip of an axe. The magickal glows dissipated and he was left holding a halberd that whistled as it flew through the air, the sharp blade slicing through the demithulhu's phallus. He grabbed hold of the piece that was still deep in his nether regions, hanging out like a tail, and gritted his teeth, grunting as he tugged it out from his anal passage. He threw it to the ground and stamped defiantly on the damn thing, over and over again. “Sabre,” he shouted. “Kill this damn thing!”

  “Whatever you say, boss.”

  Electricity sparked through her veins as her fingers danced through the air, drawing power from within her, and combining it with raw elements from her surroundings. The road under her was becoming cracked and black, the trees in her vicinity were turning brown and old, life sapped from them as the force between her hands grew and grew, an ever-expanding bubble of pressure, containing glimmers of fire and light, lightning and darkness, some sections seemed solid and sharp, others slick and liquid. She let a smile crawl up her cheeks and inhaled on the last three words of her casting, before throwing her arms out at the thirty foot tall beast. The blast was only visible in the Natural World for a blink of an eye, but in that blink, every part of its multifaceted form was crystal clear. It made contact with the demithulhu, burning its skin to a crisp, before tearing through it with sharp shards of ice. The electricity travelled through the solid water, burrowing deep into the creature's body, where a razor tipped shadow sliced through into its gut. Once the blast had reached the inner fathoms of the great fiend, the elements started to combine, sapping hydrogen from the sea creature's own mass, turning it into helium, fusion at its core burning it from the inside out.

  “Better stand back!” Sabre warned her teammates.

  A blinding glow started emanating from the tear she made in the demithulhu's hide, getting brighter, but also smaller with every passing moment. The massive creature was healing, its skin covering over the wound, growing flesh from the outside, and repairing deeper. This was its natural method of healing, but unbeknownst to it, this process was sealing a baby sun in the monster's belly. It stumbled on its legs, groaned and gargled as it fell to the floor, moaning at the fusion reaction occurring in its gut.

  “You sure that's gonna do it?” Shana asked.

  Sabre smiled smugly. “Isn't much that can survive fusion...”

  The 'thulhu grunted, a loud grumble in its belly, a visible ripple under the thick hide of its skin. It turned its tentacled head, looking over its shoulder right at the magickians standing behind it. Its eyes narrowed, tentacles over its mouth folding up and out, forming what looked like a waxed moustache around raw, fish-like lips that opened revealing a thousand daggers of teeth in a circular mouth. The teeth came together, a grating squeal as they met, then they parted, and a great, guttural belch sounded from deep within the creature's elephantine frame. A pilot light glimmered at the back of its cavernous throat. Sabre's face fell, as a liquid flame erupted from the beast's jaws, cascading out directly towards them all.

  33

  From midday sun to blackest night

  Jules was fast to act, pulled shadows up from beneath the creature and formed a thick wall in front of them.

  “This ain't gonna last...” he said, holding the barricade in place whilst tugging shadows from all across the street to reinforce it.

  Shana stood by his side, fingers pirouetting through the air as she cast a barrier to take over as soon as the shadows failed. Sweat was pouring down Jules's brow, it was taking everything he had to keep the shadows in place against the light and might of the fire. Shana rested a hand on his shoulder, nodded to him, and he let the fire consume the shadows. Her barrier held, the six of them hiding behind it as they regrouped.

  “That should have worked!” Sabre insisted.

  “Well it didn't. If anything, it made things worse turning him into a bloody dragon... What else we got?” Faith asked.

  “More stabbing.” Leopold suggested.

  “And more thrusting.” Jacobian added.

  “More lunging.”

  “And more slashing!”

  Faith raised his first finger and thumb to his lips tracing out a sigil en route, he made a zipping motion from the left corner of his mouth to the right. As he pulled his hand from his lips, Leopold and Jacobian were no longer able to open their mouths. “You two are no longer allowed to offer suggestions,” he said. They frowned melodramatically in unison.

  The liquid flames began to let up as the fusion deep within the beast's belly came to an end. Shana began to let down the barrier, and the six of them stood opposite the creature, both sides waiting, ready for the other to strike.

  “I could try again,” Sabre said. “Maybe the next blast will do the job...

  “Stick to fire.” Faith said. “Dry the bastard out. Leo, Jac, we're going to take its limbs out. Shana, Jules, get any stray tentacles that come our way.“

  There were no disagreements from the team, because there were no better ideas. Sabre began casting, and the remaining five launched into attack. Jules ripped shadows from beneath the monster, sending them out as blades that cut through any tentacles that attempted to launch themselves at Faith and the silent brothers. Shana cast great cracks in reality that swallowed up any appendages that Jules missed, the fractures between realms closed as qu
ickly as they opened, severing the tentacles, leaving their other halves trapped in the Mirror Realm.

  As Faith and the twins came close to the 'thulhu's legs, Sabre fired off a mighty blast of fire that tore through its hide, skin cracking and peeling, the smell of grilled fish filling the air. Faith raised his halberd and struck at the closest leg. The blade tore into the creature, a thick black sludge bursting out of the wound. He tugged at the pole and ripped it out of the beast's shank, tearing a massive gash that pulsated yet more foul smelling gunk on to the road beneath them. Jacobian and Leopold took turns in slashing and stabbing at the other leg, alternating strikes that were so coordinated they looked almost choreographed. Jules was half sure that they were, picturing the brothers practising this routine in the mirror over and over to get it note perfect.

  Watching the brothers and taking down tentacles served as a distraction, and a fist sent Jules to the floor. He had had to take the shadows that bound the hosts, to reinforce the wall that protected them from the flames. Now they were free, and angry. A foot met with his gut, followed by one that struck his kidneys.

  He curled into a ball, feeling the shadows growing beneath him as he did so. He wrapped the darkness around their legs, and pulled their feet from under them, sending them cascading on to their backs. The darkness crawled up them, shackling their wrists and ankles to the ground. He heard a scream, looked around to the others. Shana was on the ground, a light enveloping her. He searched the street for the source of the glare – it was one of the hosts, holding the Karmec Rune, directing it straight at her. He reached out to the shadows under the host pulled the shadows from the ground, dark fingers reaching up to take the stone from its hand. Before the fingers could reach it, the host tossed the rock in the air, another host catching it, sending the light in Jules's direction. He ripped shadows from under his feet to protect himself. The light fled instantly, and found a home in Sabre. The fire she had been casting erupted around her, a thick black smoke filling the air as the stone's beam sapped her magicks.

  Jules turned his protective barrier into a fist that flew through the air towards the host attacking Sabre, but before it made contact, the rock was once again tossed into the air to another host. They were coordinated. Not by the 'thulhu, it seemed like it was nothing more than just a dumb creature following its instincts. There was a greater puppet master at play, the same person who was responsible for releasing and controlling the djinn.

  “Tali,” he said. “You there?”

  'Always.'

  “How does trapping things in objects work...?“ The new host holding the Rune sent a beam to sap Faith. Jules threw up a shadow to block the stone's light, and the host turned the stone on Jacobian and Leopold. ”Is it like the story of the djinn, whoever has the lamp commands whatever lived inside it?”

  He tore shadows from under the 'thulhu to encompass the host. Another grabbed the stone from its hand before the darkness could take it.

  'Basically, yeah.'

  “So it's the same with this guy... he's being manipulated, like the hosts here.”

  The host that took the Rune ran behind the beast's leg, hiding from Jules's line of sight, sapping Faith again.

  'Yeah, but... I mean, as far as we know, nobody has ever been used by a 'thulhu like this before... I'm not sure if they'll ever, y'know, be normal again.'

  “What if the Circle' does its thing, undoes everything that happens?'

  'Maybe? I guess.'

  He ran around the creature to get a better view of the host, slicing through tentacles that came for him as he did so. “Doesn't sound very positive...” he grunted, sending shadows to knock the Rune from the host's hand. He was faster this time, a shadow grabbing hold of the Rune and pinning it to the ground under a thick, impenetrable layer of darkness.

  'If they're giving you that much trouble, there might only be one way to, y'know, deal with them...' Tali said, knowing it wasn't what Jules wanted to hear.

  The host growled and fell to his hands and knees, joined by others, all clawing at the shadow. Jules glanced around. The rest of his team had been sapped and was low on energy, huffing and holding in the pain the stone had inflicted. The 'thulhu lifted itself up from the ground and turned towards him, hosts that weren't preoccupied with the shadow-encased rock bearing down on him. He knew what needed to be done.

  Taking a deep breath, Jules reached out to all the shadows in Honolulu. They rocketed across the city at his command, as the hosts came closer with every step, mouths frothing, teeth gnashing, lusting for his flesh. A darkness fell across the street, the hosts too driven by their commanded desire to rip him apart to notice. The 'thulhu noticed, its massive head arcing up to see the sky above get darker, colour fading as the shadows encased them, blocking out the light as shadows from across the city coalesced in the heavens, turning an entire city block from midday sun to blackest night. The street lamps, confused by the change in ambient light, flickered on one by one. Just in time to see a massive shard of darkness cascade down from the sky above, skewering the 'thulhu through its massive belly, pinning it to the ground.

  A host lunged, its nails scratching across Jules's face. He sent a shadow from the black dome above that smashed through its skull, burst down through their rib cage and exploded their genitals across the street as it hit the ground. Others continued to encroach upon him, and he did the same to them too, taking them down one by one – but only when they got too close.

  Another spike came down, tearing through the 'thulhu's neck, its thick, black blood dribbling down the ebony crystal that nailed it to the road. Further spears rained down, ripping through and pegging its legs and arms, tentacles and upper body to the street.

  The massive beast was still twitching, fighting, trying to pull itself up from the stakes holding it to the ground, its body squeaking against the shadows slick with its blood as it tried to rise to its feet. Jules looked over to Shana, she was back on her feet, psyching herself up. He shot her a reassuring smile, telling her without words that he knew she could do this. Her hands danced through the air, whipping back and forth in front of her. At the centre of the creature, there was a crack in reality, as if someone had hit it with a hammer. Another crack formed, and another, splintering out, encompassing the thing completely. There was a fluctuation, an undulation between the cracks, and with a swift movement of her hands, the fractures repaired themselves. She was out of breath, but the creature was still breathing too, even though massive chunks of it had been torn into other realms. Inhaling deeply, she threw her hands out and ripped a hole in reality right in the centre of the creature's mass, an explosive window into the Fire Realm. The gargantuan beast roared with what was left of its mouth as it was burned alive from the inside out. Shana closed the rift before it could expand beyond her control, collapsing to her knees as she caught her breath.

  The 'thulhu stood momentarily, then a great flood of black ooze gushed to the ground, washing across the street as singed and burned organs slopped and slid out of the massive chunks of its body that had been taken into the Mirror Realm. The creature fell to the floor with a horrendous splatter. Jules let the shadows above them go back to where they came from, sunlight once again returning to the street, slowly cooking the 'thulhu, a stench of rotting seafood wafting across to Jules. The remaining hosts were still clawing at the shadow that held the Rune.

  “Everyone okay?” Faith asked, picking himself up off the floor, catching his breath, trying to shake the 'thulhu blood from his tactical gear.

  There were grunts from the others intended to relay the affirmative.

  Jules threw shadows at the last few hosts, sending them flying across the road. He withdrew that shadows from the Rune, just as glimmers of a teleportation licked on its surface. He reached for it, knowing there wasn't enough time to grab hold before it was taken from them. A shadow jumped from under his boot, wrapped around it, and in an instant, Jules was blinded by a white light, so bright, it was if he was staring directly into a sun.r />
  34

  All too familiar surroundings

  The teleport wasn't as elegant as the ones Jules had experienced via Three. It sent a nasty wave though his body, shaking the very bones under his skin, making his stomach turn worse than any flip through realms or translocation via door. When the light finally fled from his vision, Jules looked around, finding himself in all too familiar surroundings; plush carpet under his feet, wood panelled walls lined with art, and a dark wooden desk opposite him, behind which Beryn Comstock stood, looking all too pleased with himself. With a wave of his fingers, the shadows clutching the Karmec Rune dissipated, the rock flying across the room into his hand. His thumb navigated the archaic writing that had been carved into its surface as it cascaded through the atmosphere millions of years previous.

  “It was you,” Jules grunted, gritting his teeth with disdain as he manoeuvred a hand behind his back. “All along, you've been corrupting the Circle. Stole all those artefacts, blamed Kahgo, all for what? So you can amass power?”

  “Oh come now, do you think this is solely about power?” The rock in his hands burst to life, filling Comstock with all the magicks it had siphoned from the magickians that faced off against the demithulhu. Comstock's face distorted under the light of the stone, his smile rippling wide on his face, eyes bulging and wild, glowing with energy as he sucked up all the magicks stolen by the Rune.