Flight

by Jason Cheek

  A golden ray of light lit up the night’s sky sounding like a laser beam slicing the air as its light shined down upon me. The light slowly condensed into the blade of my weapon as the grongor jumped into the parking lot. My Katana began glowing with a golden light as I focused my Will charging forward. Timing the distance, I leapt into the air with my blade held high above my head in a two handed grip screaming my prayer to Ukko.

  “Kanskje!”

  Crashing into the creature’s head, I released the pent up divine power with my Will as I slammed my blade deep into the grongor’s skull, smiting the giant creature dead with one blow. I held onto my blade as the force of the grongor’s dead body crashing into the ground at eighty miles per hour catapulted the blacked cloaked rider and the Scourge over my head like a head-on collision. Surprised screeches rang out behind me as the enemy ate asphalt.

  Waiting to attack, I scanned either side of the grongor for the barbed horror that should have been racing by. Seeing nothing, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. Whipping the Katana out of the skull, I swung blindly overhead somersaulting off the grongor’s head.

  I felt my blade bite into something hard as I dropped to the parking lot below. Landing, I saw a clawed arm go flying as the demon jumped down after me, not even slowed down by the injury. Swinging again, I sliced off the other arm flipping over the creature’s head as it tried to crush me with the barbs sticking out of its broad chest.

  Landing behind the demon, I spun around calling forth Ukko’s name once more.

  “Ukko gi meg styrke!” (Ukko give me strength!)

  I felt my holy energy flowing through me into the Katana in my hands as the demon turned to face me once again. The blade glowed with a brilliant blue light as I swung with all of my strength screaming out my prayer.

  “Kanskje!”

  Stepping back with my Katana held before me, the demon stopped with a confused look on its evil face as its head toppled from its massive shoulders plunking onto the asphalt, severing the magical link that had attached the construct to its otherworldly life force. A second later, the body collapsed next to the head as the dark energy dissipated into nothing.

  The sudden silence was almost deafening. Looking beyond the demon’s corpse, I saw the Scourge scattered around the parking lot turn to look at me fearfully as the black cloaked rider pointed a white scaled hand in my direction. Clawing the air, the rider hissed loudly.

  “Coruscum!“

  The runes inscribed into my Katana glowed bright blue as the purple lightning sizzled across the distance between us. Focusing my Will, I brought my blade up in front of me ‘engarde’ as the metal sucked the flashing bolts from the air. I saw the cowed head jerk backwards incredulously as the rider lowered its clawed hand. As the lightning died out, a hissing feminine voice spoke from deep within the cowl.

  “Ita veras opiniones. Bestiam puer cogitat suus Paladin de Ukko.” (So the rumors are true. The beast child thinks it’s a Paladin of Ukko.)

  Hearing the rider’s words, I instantly realized what stood before me, a Priestess of Loviatar! Even now, I distinctly remembered the white scaled reptiles from the day my parents were murdered. With their true nature hidden under magical veils, they betrayed the Paladin’s of Ukko at the peace conference, killing all but my father with their first strike!

  With a howl of rage, I charged the priestess as she raised her arms towards me once again. As a green glowing ball of flame formed in the air between her clawed hands, she continued taunting me.

  “Nec contra vires Loviatar verum credis? Bestiam errore viæ tuæ, quam monstrabo tibi!” (You truly believe you can stand against the might of Loviatar? I will show you the error of your ways beastling!)

  I had barely crossed half the distance when the green fireball shot from the priestess’s hands as she hissed in anger.

  “IGNIS PERCUSSERIT!“

  * * *

  “Take a look at that shit!”

  Beth looked up from watching Susan drawing the circle of power just in time to see Startüm catching purple lightning on his Katana as it blasted from the robe figure’s hands in the parking lot.

  “We need to help him now! Susan, are you ready?”

  Just finished drawing out her last rune, Susan met Beth’s steady gaze.

  “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Susan caught the amused look the three men gave each other. Normally, they would have had a terrific time making fun of some crazy inscribing magical scribbles on the ground to protect them, but everything they’d seen over the last few minutes was crazy enough to keep even Murphy quiet for a change. Ignoring the exchange, she continued.

  “Just make sure that you stay within the circle, or I won’t be able to shield you.”

  Beth stepped into the center of the circle looking back at the rest of her team.

  “Let’s do it. Chief, can you coordinate with the SWAT and APC teams?” Seeing his nod, she lifted her bow taking aim.

  “I’m targeting the black robe. Johnson, Murphy, you guys get the bogies on the right. Rawlings, you take the first one on the left.”

  KAAABBBOOOOOMMMMMMM!

  “Holy Smokes!” Murphy exclaimed in his heavy country drawl as a cloud of fire exploded from the black robe figure’s out stretched arms. Beth watched in horror as Startüm was blasted across the parking lot, before crashing to a stop in a pool of liquid fire.

  “I don’t think that fan-cy Sam-u-ri of yours could have survived that, Detective!”

  Sharing a look of concern with Susan, she focused on her targets.

  “Murphy, you’d better start praying that he did, or we’re next on the list.” Hearing Murphy’s gulp, Beth focused on the head of the black cloak figure standing in the parking lot.

  Every year her team made it to the State finals, which was not easy in a state like Florida with its high number of bow hunters. She was an excellent shot, but she always felt uneasy using any bow other than her own. Unlike guns, a slight change in a bow’s construction, the weight of the draw or the material it was constructed from, could severely affect the accuracy of a shot. Unlike her high quality hunter’s scope, Startüm’s bow just had a simple iron site for distance and wind direction. Lining the cowled head in her sites, she called out to her team.

  “Fire!”

  The bow twanged as the black cloak figure staggered forward clutching its shoulder a second later. The arrow had punched entirely through the creature! Reaching for another arrow, Beth saw all three Scourge targeted by her team drop to the ground unmoving.

  “Great shooting guys, now…”

  Beth words were cut off as the black robe spun around stabbing its hands in their direction.

  “QUOMODO AUDES!”

  Beth didn’t need to understand the loud hissing words to know they were in deep shit as the Chief’s radio crackled as he signaled to Sergeant O’Reilly.

  “Okay Sergeant, light them up!”

  BRRRRAAAAPPPPPTTTTT

  The sharp cracks of automatic gunfire rang out across the parking lot as Team Charlie began laying down covering fire for Team Alpha as green bolts of energy shot from the robed arm pointing in their direction.

  “Ahhhh”

  Beth dropped to the ground as Susan screamed in agony holding her arms stretched out before her. As if touching a live electric wire, her body shook while the air around Alpha Team crackled with a blue energy as green bolts slammed again and again into the coruscating barrier surrounding them.

  “Aaaaaaiiiiiieeeee!”

  Looking around at Johnson’s cut off scream, Beth saw him burst into green flames as one of the bolts slammed into his chest. She swore, realizing he hadn’t entered the circle as she’d ordered.

  KKKAAABBBOOOOOMMMM!

  Susan keeled over bleeding from her eyes and nose as the air around them immediately exploded. Beth ducked her head letting the worst of the blast pass overhead. Climbing back to her feet, she saw Rawlings and the Chief unconscious on the ground as Murphy slowly cr
awled to his hands and knees.

  Meeting her eyes, Murphy swore loudly.

  “What the hell just happened?”

  Looking back out over the parking lot, Beth saw the battle in full swing as the black robe figure pointed its clawed hand at the nearest APC zooming across the parking lot with several Scourge clinging on top.

  KKKAAABBBOOOOOMMMM!

  Watching the fireball rise over the parking lot where the APC had just been a second before, Beth looked back at Murphy in shock.

  “I don’t know what happened, but Susan must have saved our asses from whatever that thing hit us with.”

  The radio crackled suddenly as SWAT Officers began screaming into their mikes.

  “Oh my God, it’s coming for me! Somebody get it off of me!”

  “Thomas! It has Thomas!”

  “Ahhhhhh!”

  Climbing to her feet, Beth tried to follow the action happening below. She saw several Scourge chasing after the SWAT Team members as they ran away from the creatures screaming in terror. Picking up her bow, she slid an arrow in place. Taking aim, she fired at the creature that had just killed Thomas.

  Beth saw the creature go down with an arrow through its head just as another Officer ran screaming into the nearby field with a gray Scourge chasing after him. Before she could get a bead on the monster, it leapt at the officer’s back just as a bow twanged next to her. A second later, the creature dropped dead to the ground with an arrow sticking through its head. Looking around in surprise, she saw Murphy standing next to her with his bow already bent hunting for a new target.

  The last APC whipped across the parking lot at full speed, running over a handful of the creatures as Beth saw one of the Scourge start tearing at the armored door to the driver’s compartment with its long claws. Taking aim, she sent her shaft through the back of the Scourge’s head before it could rip through the door.

  Suddenly, she saw Startüm charging back into the fight, heading for the black robe figure as it pointed its robed arm towards the last APC.

  * * *

  I came to a jarring stop slamming against the grongor’s massive dead body. Whatever the spell was, it had hit me like a proverbial sledge hammer. Blinded by burning flames, I pushed myself to my knees as the smell of charred grongor meat filled my nostrils. Around me, the air itself seemed to burn as I gasped for breath.

  Looking through the green flames across the parking lot, I saw three Scourge suddenly pitch forward dead with arrows lodged in their skull carapaces as a fourth punched through the priestess’s shoulder. I could see the priestess’s face contorted in fury as she began blasting at the Officers with green bolts of energy as automatic fire erupted from the SWAT Teams surrounding the parking lot.

  My runic armor seemed to be holding the fire’s effects at bay. Except for feeling slightly dazed, I was otherwise unharmed. Jumping to my feet, I charged the priestess again as I saw Susan’s circle of protection flare bright blue before exploding in a blast of pure energy.

  Speeding across the parking lot, the two APCs crashed into the Scourge forces charging the SWAT Teams like bowling balls slamming into a rack of pins. The Scourge reeled from the impact of the heavy armor as the loud crunch of bones reverberated through the air. Suddenly, I heard the priestess’s hissing shriek as she pointed at the nearest APC.

  “FRAGOR!”

  The explosion was deafening as the APC disappeared in a green explosion of fire. Hot metal fragments shot through the air as a giant fireball rose high above the parking lot, where the armored vehicle had been a second earlier. Turning around, the priestess pointed her hand at the second APC as I closed the gap between us, before she could release the spell my Katana sliced through her upper arm.

  Grabbing her bleeding stump, the priestess’s cowed head swung in my direction in outrage.

  “Tu! Dedisti haec arescentes in siti Verbum Ukko!” (You! You have given these weaklings the Word of Ukko!)

  Pointing her clawed hand towards my breast plate, I felt the priestess’s rising power as she prepared another spell.

  “Fra…”

  My backhand stroke slashed through the priestess’s slender neck as she released her spell. Her head plopped to the asphalt as green flames started shooting out of her headless corpse, when suddenly the world exploded!

  KAAABBBOOOOMMMM!

  Chapter 13

  Location Earth / Florida present day:

  The first thing I became aware of was the tightness of the skin on my scorched face. Pushing myself up, I immediately regretted moving as I choked back a scream. Dropping to the ground in agony, I carefully cradled my right arm.

  Obviously it was broken.

  Looking down at my busted arm, I was surprised to see my Katana still clutched in my hand. My fingers were locked in a death grip around the handle, knuckles strained white from holding onto the weapon, but that didn’t matter. The years of rigorous training had paid off.

  I hadn’t dropped my blade!

  Glass crunched underneath me as I carefully levered myself into a sitting position. Even though I couldn’t bend my left leg, I still managed to prop myself up against the structural pillar behind me. Wiping the blood from my eyes, I slowly looked around.

  I was sitting before a shattered display window of what appeared to be the main floor of a recreational vehicle showroom, since I was surrounded by motorcycles and quad all terrain vehicles. On the tiled floor next to me was a smashed neon sign emblazoned with the words “Rivera Beach Motorcycles”. Confused, I gazed out the shattered window trying to remember what happened.

  Seeing the burning wreckage of the Counter Terrorist Agency’s Headquarters on the other side of Blue Heron Boulevard, it all came flooding back to me in a rush. When the priestess exploded, I must have been blasted clear across the highway into the Motorcycle Dealership!

  Concentrating, I focused my Will croaking out a prayer to Ukko with my parched throat.

  “Helbrede!”

  The pain in my arm and leg instantly disappeared, along with various other aches and pains that I hadn’t even realized were there as the healing spell did its work. Whole once again, I sheathed my Katana before pushing myself to my feet. As soon as I stood up, I felt the room start to spin as I fell back against the pillar trying not to puke. Breathing slowly, I held my head until the worst of the dizziness passed.

  I needed food!

  As the room slowly leveled out, I made my way to the sales counter where an old box of donuts still sat. Finding two stale donuts in the bottom of the box, I quickly wolfed the food down in a matter of seconds. Feeling my shakes begin to fade, I staggered to the water cooler in the corner of the sales room. Holding my mouth under the spigot, I let the icy cold water run down my throat for a whole minute, before pushing myself once again to my feet.

  Already, I could feel my strength returning.

  The icy water trickled down my chest and inside my armor, from where the overflow had pooled in my helmet. Closing my eyes, I relished in the icy feeling as my mind began to wander. I’d purposely made the leather padding under my armor water resistant, which meant the water ran all the way down to my boots.

  During the time I learned the art of forging armor in Japan, the three primary elements that the Masters always strived to balance in their designs were the properties of weight, movement and strength. Too heavy and the Samurai couldn’t fight effectively due to the weight restricting his ability to move. Too weak and the armor wouldn’t protect the Samurai from battle damage. Surprisingly enough, many of Japan’s greatest generals, like Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, actually used European armor while on the battlefield, instead of the traditional Japanese armor of the time. Off the battlefield, Japanese armor was reserved for official ceremonies among the Warlords of Japan's upper class. To my knowledge, no one had ever bothered to combine the best of both armor techniques, that is, until I came along. My personal preference followed more on the lines of the Japanese style of armor, since it worked well with my fightin
g method, but, even so, I shamelessly combined the best concepts of both European and Japanese design philosophies into my own creations.

  Besides the actual forging of the armor, one of the biggest issues that were repeatedly discussed throughout the old stories had been about water weight. What happened to the armor when it became wet, or, more concisely stated, what happened to the padding underneath the armor when it became wet? Water weight alone could drastically affect a Samurai’s combat capability by adding another eighty to a hundred pounds to a suit of armor, so I had made my leather padding as waterproof as possible.

  Except for the slightly annoying squishy feeling in my boots, the water didn’t bother me as I strode out of the building the way I’d entered. Climbing through the shattered window frame, I could already feel my dizziness beginning to pass. The food and water were doing its magic as my body used the fuel to recover. In the distance, I heard Police sirens and the chop of helicopters closing in on the smoking building as I hurried across Blue Heron Boulevard.

  I had to help the wounded and get the hell out of here before I ran into any more problems!

  The place looked like a freaking war zone. Burned out hulks of cars were scattered across the parking lot, while the remaining APC laid upside down with its wheels still spinning at the far edge of the parking lot. There was nothing left of the two SWAT vans that had been parked outside the building’s entrance, except for their burnt out metal shells. The whole area was covered in an oily smoke cloud of haze. Looking around, I couldn’t see any signs of life as I ran up the steps where Beth and Susan had gone earlier.

  Seeing Susan first, I ran to her side focusing my Will. Reaching out with my energy, I could feel her injuries, and the life force flowing through her veins. Saying a quick prayer to Ukko, I healed the worst of her injuries with a touch of my hand. What was left over wasn’t serious, and she could heal the rest of her wounds once she awoke. I didn’t do my usual full heal, because it would make me burn through my energy reserves too quickly, and I didn’t know how many people might still need my help.