Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  The white golem interposed itself between the black onyx golem and the prisoner and said in a beatific voice, “No, Yin, if we kill these innocents, then the ones killing us all will be free to hunt us at leisure. We need to make an example and kill just a single one. Bring me the boy who was skulking around with food for these dirty sacks of blood.”

  First off, they can starfishing talk?! Second, if that’s Yin and Yang, isn’t the white one supposed to be good?!

  Killing one boy was better than killing all of the prisoners, but that was like comparing Stalin to Hitler. They were both brain-twistingly evil, and it didn’t matter which one destroyed more or committed greater atrocities. They both were tyrants who left tears and destruction in their wake.

  Frowning deeply, Rocky motioned for Sela and Azoth to surround the group of golems. Then he whispered, “Find a way to get those survivors out!” Rocky took his own advice and began strafing from cover to cover, approaching the last remaining golems of Pembroke.

  Alright, statue stones, it’s time to return to Gaia.

  A lesser golem carried the captive, a crying, teenage boy, forward to shouts, cries, and yells of a woman in the survivor's cluster. She was physically being held back by a large man so she couldn’t attack the golems ringing them. The woman broke free, and her flying, open handed slaps weren’t effective against the hard surfaces of a house style golem.

  Instead of having any effect, she was also grabbed by the lesser golem, and it carried her up to the leaders as well. The woman tried and failed to reach for the boy, who could only have been her son. The boy also tried to make contact but was unable to touch her outstretched hand.

  “So, little nuisances,” the serene voice of Yang intoned and turned to face the boy, “do either of you know who is killing–” It was cut off by a silence so loud it seemed to blanket the entire world, a silence that began with a massive pop and forced every head to turn towards the noise.

  Every living eye came under the thrall of the silence’s horrible grip. The body of the boy flew through the air lifeless. All that remained in the area of the boy was staining the hand of the dark golem and the grass of the school field. Rocky felt something boiling inside him.

  The silence stretched, and he could see the shock on everyone’s face begin to melt away, replaced by anger and hurt. Their rage was a small torch compared to what raged in Rocky.

  A growl formed deep in Rocky’s chest because he was going to save these people, but they hadn’t even let the boy answer.

  This was a world that Rocky suddenly hated. He felt helpless, unable to control anything. This world was a still just a dream, and he would wake back to the world he knew a week ago. Then he saw the woman’s body sail through the air, and he felt the metaphorical cage inside him swing open.

  The cage had been placed there by Rocky because he feared the piece of him it contained. The metal didn’t break, but it opened on long rusted and disused hinges. The portion of him stretched, focused, and hardened his resolve into a diamond.

  That was when a dark fog began rolling out of his hands.

  Congratulations! You have specialized your class. Dark Specialization acquired!

  Skill gained. Congratulations! You have learned Dark Cloak!

  A moment later, it was overflowing out of his entire body, an ethereal black smoke. It billowed from a snarling Rocky, smoke so black it shone blue as the waning sunlight struck it. Smoke that soon consumed a face contorted by hate.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rocky felt his anger focus, the roiling ceased, and he was left with a torrent of cold, liquid magma. His whole body vibrated like there was electricity running through his veins just under his skin. The last vestiges of sun left the sky, yet he could see with near perfect clarity in the dark, through whatever shroud he wore.

  The first to meet Dark Tidings’ edge was a small house turned golem and was unceremoniously hacked in half. The top half began tumbling when Dark Tidings pierced the chest of a boat golem which collapsed to its knees. Two more wild blows later, the boat became still.

  Once the remaining lesser golems realized that they were being struck down by a shadow in the night, their tactics changed. The remaining ten golems near the school got into a tight circle which centered around Yin and Yang. Strangely, the two leaders were just staring at each other, one with narrowed, black eyes and the other with wide, white eyes.

  Rocky, in his anger-fueled state, ran straight towards the group. The only indication that this was possibly a bad idea was a loud growl that barely registered across his senses. He entered combat regardless, starting with a mighty overhand swing that sliced halfway into a brick-coated golem.

  As soon as his blade struck, the remaining golems charged the blotch of deeper blackness moving in the night. A booted foot later and Rocky was sliding along the ground on his back, the blow having been somewhat glancing—but still extremely powerful.

  As soon as the ground finished arresting the motion of his body, Rocky sprung back to his feet, growling and charging once again. This time, he momentarily saw the white form of Sela dart into the golems, breaking apart their formation. Her intervention gave Rocky an opening, and he seized it with a cross slash to bring down a concrete golem.

  Once again, as soon as his blade struck, five golems converged upon him, and Rocky found himself careening out of battle from a house golem’s backhand. Luckily for him, both of the strikes—while strong—hadn’t struck him straight on.

  Getting to his feet, Rocky spit out a mouthful of blood and used his Mend skill, which took longer this time, the ability somehow triggering slower, but as he struggled to a standing position, Rocky’s thought was interrupted. “What did you do?”

  It was said in the calm, serene voice of Yang, the white golem. Yang finally moved, falling to her knees, almost seeming to plead. “It was a ploy to capture him and stop the destruction of our brothers, Yin!”

  Yin snorted and spoke, “You’ve never had the stomach for violence, Yang, but it was a necessity. If the man doesn’t stop, I am going to kill all of the survivors that are left.” With his last words, he gestured to a now empty field and the retreating back of Azoth.

  Luckily, due to their paradoxical nature, they had been at odds for long enough that Sela had been able to order Azoth into action. The second piece of good fortune was that the survivors hadn’t hesitated when seeing his deadly pet make strange gestures that clearly meant ‘follow’.

  Yang screamed in anger as he realized his captives were gone, and a mental command went out; all the remaining lesser golems interposed themselves again around Yin and Yang. Just before the golems followed the command, one of the lesser golems finally scored a hit on Sela and knocked her to the ground and bouncing away.

  The remaining seven golems stood vigil as the two allies looked on. Sela had only managed to down one enemy in this fight due to their increased organization and tactics. While Rocky had managed to down four of the creatures, their new formation meant it would be tough to get any more. Even those first five had cost the two heavily in sustained damage. Considering his damage, he cast Mend on Sela and felt the same strain activating the skill.

  He glanced at his Ether bar and noticed it was falling slowly from the halfway mark. As Sela and Rocky watched, the onyx and marble Yin-Yang golems clasped hands and began to slide over each other. Then the stone shifted and bubbled together. Soon, the two allies were staring at a four-legged, four-armed black and white golem. The newly formed amalgam stood as a single entity in the same place where moments ago had been two individuals.

  A new, multi-toned voice belled into the silence, “Just because we can’t see you doesn’t mean we can’t kill you!”

  The strangely artistic looking golem began to stomp and pound the ground, creating undulating waves of the earth under its feet and hands. Each strike sent shockwaves out from the epicenter and threw everything it passed under into the air. The ring of vigilant golems who moments ago had solid footing were
now nothing more than bowling pins to the new power of Yin-Yang.

  The waves of earth bucked a helpless Rocky skyward, and the timing of the powerful ability made each wave coincide with his landing. The motions that were forced upon him was like being bacon fat in a frying pan. From the peak of his flight, it was clear each wave only reached up to a diameter of approximately fifty meters around the epicenter.

  A few bounces later, Sela snarled and proved she still had her wits by kicking off a tumbling, deceased torso of an enemy that was airborne near her. The makeshift material ballistic struck Yin-Yang in the head. The collision caused it to cease its strange tantrum and howl in rage.

  In a fast motion, the lead golem lifted the same piece of its crumbling ally and heaved it into the darkness. Blinking, Rocky who was still airborne watched the object sail away in a direction entirely separate from Sela.

  The clear miss of Sela made Rocky unsure whether the massive golem was targeting something Rocky couldn’t see or just randomly throwing things. When he hit the ground this time, he found it to be less painful than he had anticipated, the attack of Yin-Yang having disturbed the earth, making it perforated and spongy.

  The large golem continued to pick up objects, including allied golems, and throw them into the night at random intervals. Since it seemed that there was no immediate danger, Rocky analyzed it.

  Yin-Yang Golem

  Master- Paradox Level 23

  Enraged

  After Yin-Yang ran out of parts to throw, it went back to using its original attack, the recent combination having triggered something that put Yin-Yang beyond its capacity to think.

  The bucking earth, which on its first use gave Rocky trouble, was relatively simple to dodge the second time. After his initial shock, it turned out to be a simple task to time each incoming wave.

  The attack concentrated into a ripple that was about two feet wide, and with his level of Dexterity, it was effective to just jump over them. Sometimes, Rocky even rode a disoriented lesser golem into the air, using his sword to impale it. Then he would just jump off of the carcass before it hit the ground and was bucked skyward again.

  Due to the massive disturbance the wave attack had caused in the Yin-Yang’s allied golems, Rocky and Sela were finally able to finish off the stubbornly remaining ones. They did receive a few minor injuries in the process, but in comparison to attacking them as a unified defense, the two barely had to try.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sela motion for them to leave, but something inside Rocky, as well as the quest to kill the creature, wasn’t willing to allow this monster to live. It had just ruthlessly executed a child—a child, damnit!

  So he continued his reckless approach. Finally, he reached a point where he could attempt an attack against Yin-Yang. Committing to that strike, Rocky narrowed his eyes, leaping with all of his might and soared up into the air under his own Strength.

  As Rocky fell, he readied his sword in a two-handed grip and struck down with all his strength at the topmost right arm where it met the shoulder.

  His chopping strike sliced cleanly through the top right shoulder and continued towards the second arm. Unfortunately, most of Rocky’s momentum had been absorbed by the first appendage, and the Soul Blade lodged mid cut into the second shoulder joint.

  Yin-Yang let out a scream of pain and rage from his two-toned head above Rocky. The decibels of the bellow almost disoriented him, but through gritted teeth, he managed to hold on and fight to dislodge his entangled sword.

  Through the Dark Cloak, Rocky felt something approaching, like a sixth sense that stretched through the mist and surrounded him.

  Yin-Yang’s fist changed trajectory slightly as if some outside force was acting on it. The strike still hit Rocky, but the sensory warning of the mist had given him time to release the sword. Letting go of his weapon allowed him to place both of his arms in a cross guard between him and the incoming blow.

  Just before impact, Rocky understood what had caused the earlier two lesser golem’s strikes to glance off of him.

  For a third time, the actions of the cloak saved his life, but he felt both of his arms break and his shoulders dislocate. After the impact, a stunned Rocky was weightless, and he could feel the wind whipping at his body and ears.

  In the brief moment his neuron gates delayed the pain, he managed to cast his Mend skill. It was just in time because the nerve endings screamed in unison a second later with such intensity that his brain was paralyzed.

  He was saved again by the leaping form of Sela. She grunted as he hit her in the middle of her partially incorporeal body. Rocky phased partly through her but was significantly slowed, and his horizontal momentum was completely absorbed.

  When he fell through the other side of the ethereal white cat, he fell directly downwards on to the back of Azoth.

  The pain of hitting a solid object and the jolt to his broken and dislocated bones sent a raging storm of sensations through his body. The pain blacked out Rocky’s world, and his last thought came out an incoherent slur, “Les kijh… fuska”

  Azoth just grunted and followed Sela away from the raging Yin-Yang. Even the two cats and their extremely powerful hearing barely heard him as the man they carried faded into unconsciousness.

  ***

  Groggily, Rocky woke up in the hospital; he was looking around and was entirely alone. No one was smiling at him or assuring him that he would be okay.

  Rocky remembered this moment; this was the moment he had chosen to stop playing sports overseas. This was the moment he realized how lonely of a life it was.

  Rocky frowned, looking around the room again and saw all the cards and flowers—remembering how hollow it all felt, how empty he was without family—with colleagues but no real friends.

  This moment changed his path and perhaps derailed his run at the NBA.

  After this, Rocky chose to return home to Canada and play a lower level of his sport. All because for that moment he felt empty. All because he refused to become the man that didn’t care.

  ***

  Rocky faded back to consciousness in a blind rage, partially in memory of the dead boy and Yin-Yang but mostly in self-frustration. That memory was one of his weakest, and he hated himself for it.

  He attempted to jump up and re-engage an enemy that was no longer near him.

  His spastic attempt did manage to remove Rocky’s broken form from Azoth’s back, and he promptly face planted on to a nearby rock.

  The impact combined with the pain of his two dislocated shoulders quickly returned him to the restless unconsciousness he had just barely exited.

  ***

  Rocky woke up after his surgery, and he was surrounded by strangers all in beds, alone again. The doctor came in and began speaking with him, and Rocky didn’t hear a word. He had come back to avoid this feeling; he had returned to be closer to the people that mattered, but maybe he was destined to be alone.

  When the doctor was finished speaking and Rocky nodded, acknowledging whatever the man had said, he was wheeled out of recovery and into a nearby hospital room.

  As the bed wheeled in, he heard his father Brad, mother Marilynn, sister Lilly and brother-in-law Benoit all exclaim in jubilation.

  Then they were rushing and surrounding him, not even letting the nurse fully wheel him into the room. Rocky felt tears well in his eyes.

  This feeling was what he loved, this feeling was worth living for, and this feeling was what he would always have.

  ***

  Again, he struggled into consciousness, and Rocky could make out some muted conversations of people in what seemed to be an echoing space.

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “Are you sure we should leave him to the two giant cats. What if they eat him?”

  “I think they are with him, and they saved us after all!”

  “I say we make a run for it.”

  Rocky must have faded back out of awareness because the next thing he heard was Sela’s voice
.

  “Okay, everyone, calm down, please! Azoth—yes, the flying cat has a name! He is going to lead you all back to Rocky’s Territory, Algonquin Valley—Shut up!” You could hear the frustration and irritation in her voice as individuals kept interrupting her. These people were too used to democracy and didn’t know how to act in times of emergency.

  A deep breath calmed the druid, and she continued, “It is probably the only safe place in the area. I have loaded him with an abundance of food for the journey, and I expect you all to do your best to keep up. Azoth will protect you, but if you have any weapons, keep them handy in case a large force engages your group.”

  The panic that ensued from her words took some time to be brought under control. In the end, Azoth roared, and everyone froze.

  Sela now completely over these imbeciles just said, “I suggest you make as quick as time as possible through the intervening land to the safety of Algonquin Valley. These are suggestions, not orders. Do as you wish. I must look after Rockland.”

  At Sela’s final word, he felt his arm yanked upwards sharply, and sudden pain blossomed in his right shoulder before his awareness was gone again. This happened multiple times as he faded into and out of consciousness.

  In time, he managed to come fully awake, and luckily, both of his arms were already put back in place. Before he could open his eyes, Sela was kneeling beside him, and she pressed a dented tin coffee mug into his limp hands. Her strong, semi corporeal hands wrapped around his, securing them around the mug.

  “It’s broth with some herbs in it to help you heal I need you to drink this, Rockland,” her voice wavered and cracked as if she had been crying. “Here, I will help you. Please stay with me. If you don’t get something into you, you will die.”

  Rocky couldn’t die and leave his family, leave Azoth and Sela, alone. With Sela’s help, he managed to take a sip of the liquid which was warm and tasted of boiled herbs and meat.