Mage Slayer

by Dante King

  “Well, there’s a first time for everything.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “We can still catch up with Kalazar if we move fast.”

  Lillian looked out over the city nervously. We could still see the little speck of Barlin’s prized airship in the distance.

  “He has your father’s body and powers,” I said. “That doesn’t mean he knows how to use them.”

  Lillian nodded, and I saw the steely resolve that cemented itself across her beautiful features.

  “Okay,” she said, breathing out heavily. “Here goes nothing.”

  She moved towards the forecastle of the ship and raised her arms. She looked like an angel without wings. Her obsidian hair flowed behind her in tangled waves, and her skirt lapped around her trousers with impatient tugs. Slowly but surely, the ship creaked into use and took off.

  Lillian looked back over her shoulder. “I’ll need a pilot. I can power the ship, but I need one of you to steer it.”

  Yarina walked over to the helm and nodded. “I’ve got this.”

  Lillian’s magic pushed the ship over the Spire’s many towers until we were finally clear of the precarious rooftops.

  Kalazar’s ship was about a league away. I could tell from the strange lurches and stalls in the ship’s progress that he was unfamiliar with air sailing. I felt a surge of adrenaline as we began to close the distance. He was sadly mistaken if he thought I would be so easy to get rid of.

  “We’re making progress,” Yarina said, excitement bursting from her eyes.

  “Our ship may be smaller and less grand,” I said, “but that just makes it faster.”

  I moved past Lillian and Yarina on the forecastle and jumped up onto the ship’s jibboom. I glanced down at the city below us. I could make out roofs, both simple and grand. I could see tall towers and neat spirals. I could see floating bridges high above the city, and the smaller ones on the ground, with humbler purposes and their own kind of beauty.

  On another day, I might have taken the time to enjoy the view, but today I had only one thing on my mind. We were catching up with Kalazar, and before long I could make out his dark silhouette. He turned suddenly; we were close enough for me to read frustration in his eyes. There was a nervous edge to his magic, too.

  “That’s the third time you’ve run from me,” I called out. “I knew you were evil from the moment I laid eyes on you—but I didn’t take you for a coward.”

  Immediately, he stretched out his arms, and fire came darting from his hands.

  I glanced back. “Incoming,” I said.

  But Yarina was a brilliant pilot. She steered with the ease and precision of someone born to the art. She steered the ship left and avoided the hit neatly. Lillian and Winnie stumbled to the side but remained on their feet. I held fast to the jibboom and roared with laughter. The rushing air at these heights did get to you, I felt it fill my chest and my head.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” I taunted Kalazar.

  His face contorted with anger as another fireball came to life in his palm.

  “Get ready,” I called, craning my head backward.

  This time Kalazar’s aim was more precise, and the ball of mage fire he sent toward us was stronger, but Yarina still managed to duck out of its path. No easy feat, considering she was moving a massive flying object, but she made it look simple.

  “We’re coming up on Waygate Center Station,” Winnie said, pointing toward the large rock face ahead of us. Its protrusions had been turned into docking hubs.

  Waygate Center Station was meant specifically for the elites. They brought their ships to dock and then used the Waygate to take them to far-off places within seconds. I had never been up this high before, and certainly never this close to the Waygate itself.

  There was a large water mill that churned slowly and precisely, creating a man-made waterfall that flowed right into the Longscale River. Beside the water mill lay a layered colony of floors, windows, and doorways that climbed ever higher until they reached the massive steps that led to the magical orb of the Waygate.

  There were several ships docked at the ports. They made for an absurdly extravagant ad-hoc terrace complex, the decks making up the terraces while the sails and masts serving as willowy steps. Barlin’s ship was traveling straight for the docking hub. If he made it there, he could easily disappear into the station, and we would risk losing the seal for good. I plucked out my stoneheart crossbow and aimed for one of the ship’s masts.

  “What are you doing?” Winnie asked.

  “The ship is being powered by Kalazar’s magic—or rather, Barlin’s powers. If I can petrify some part of the ship, it might disrupt the magic.”

  “Will that really work?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  I took a deep breath and released my arrow. It zipped through the air in a curved trajectory and hit the top of the foremast. Several seconds passed and nothing happened. I was about to attempt one more hit when I heard the ship groan in front of us. I sensed the magic that powered the ship falter slightly before dying altogether as the petrification charm took effect.

  “Yes!” Winnie said, as the ship dropped almost a foot in the air.

  I could sense the necromancer struggle to keep his vessel afloat, but Barlin’s magic was new to him, and he was having a hard time maintaining its form.

  I fired another arrow into the ship’s deck and he looked up at me with darkness drowning out his features. His distraction worked in our favor this time. He lost complete control of the ship and it screeched downward, crashing past docking stations and landing nose-first on the roof of Waygate Center Station.

  Dust and debris floated up into the air, cocooning us in grey swirls of mist, and a second later, a streak of purple lightning screamed across the sky. Now the whole of Trysca would know that something serious was taking place. How would such an enormous city react to the eruption of chaos at its very heart?

  “You did it!” Yarina said, her face ablaze with triumph.

  I frowned. “What did I do exactly?”

  “You closed off the Waygate. At least for now.”

  I smiled. “If for now’s time enough for us to catch the bastard, for now’s good enough for me.”

  20

  “Where do I land?” Yarina asked, looking down below.

  Barlin’s ship had taken down several of the docking ports on its way down. Now there was nothing but the damaged ruins of the Waygate Center splayed out before us.

  “Land anywhere,” Lillian said, with some strain in her voice. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  Between Yarina’s technique and Lillian’s magical prowess, we landed smoothly close to where Barlin had crashed. I launched myself off the jibboom and landed on my feet amongst the rubble that had once been the Waygate’s roof.

  I fastened my stoneheart crossbow securely against my back and pulled out my axe. There was mayhem all around. Men and women scrambled to get themselves out of the station, others attempted to help those who had been caught underneath the roof; airship crewmembers and mechanics were attempting to figure out what exactly had happened, while nobles raced out of the Waygate Center as fast as they could. Dark magic clung to every nook and cranny of the station.

  A group of corrupt mages appeared as though from thin air. Their eyes were trained on me as they advanced with open hostility. I couldn’t see Kalazar, but I could sense his magic vibrating intensely through the air around me. I could hear the sounds of screams and the clash of metal on metal as hordes of people started congregating outside the Waygate Center. It seemed that a fight had already started out on the streets.

  I felt Winnie and Lillian at my back, but no trace of Yarina. I didn’t want to risk looking behind me to see. I kept my eyes fixed on the dark mages in front of us. The other mages around seemed to be realizing that the destruction of the station hadn’t been accidental.

  The dark mages and us started to collect an audience. The atmosphere changed slowly, becoming charged with panic
and more than a little fear.

  The civilian mages scattered out of the way until Winnie, Lillian, and I were standing on one side of the station’s floor and the tainted mages were on the opposite side. I counted six in total. I rolled my shoulders and cracked my knuckles. Six was fine. I could deal with six. After everything I had been through in the last two days, this would be a breeze.

  The line of tainted mages before us seemed to split down the middle as they allowed one more mage to approach. It was the elegant figure of Barlin; I was gratified to see that he no longer looked amused, nor did he look calm or confident. His face exuded only deep irritation and anger.

  He raised his arms, and I felt the deathly odor of his magic reanimate the corpses that lay beneath the rubble of the Waygate Center’s ceiling. They rose slowly to their feet, their expressions chillingly vacant and their mangled bodies popping into place from the force of Kalazar’s reanimation spell.

  I watched in horror as more dark mages joined the ranks alongside the greater summons. My determination stilled in my chest. I was not fool enough to think that just the four of us could take on all these creatures and live to tell the tale.

  Well, the three of us. Where was Yarina?

  “Stand down, human,” Kalazar hissed. “You have tried, and you have failed.”

  I had thwarted his plans too many times for him not to consider me a serious threat. I felt viciously strong in that moment, and I pushed my mage slayer magic to the forefront of my being. I was armed with natural ability as well as the soul seal ring that Qilzid had crafted for me. All I needed to do was get close enough to suck out Kalazar’s soul and trap it forever.

  Perhaps we were not yet doomed. Perhaps there was enough magic left inside me for one last miracle.

  “I told you before, necromancer,” I said. “The only way this will end is with the death of one of the two of us.”

  “Then prepare to die.” Kalazar gave the signal for the tainted guild and his army of summons to attack.

  I pushed Lillian back instinctively. “Go back to the ship.”

  “I can’t leave you and Winnie here, they’re going to destroy you.”

  The dark mages were weaving their spells in a cacophony of putrid magic. Spells were being drawn to the surface, magic weapons conjured, shadow armor called forth. My confidence staggered. Kalazar may have been cowed for a moment, but it was inevitably short-lived in the face of the overwhelming odds.

  “Fuck,” I breathed, as three different spells raced toward us and my arm flew up instinctively, causing a shield to erupt from my nullifying gauntlet. The spells hit the shield and collapsed into useless sparks. I let my shield down long enough for Winnie to fire a few weakening rays at the approaching warlocks, but their shadow armor was more than protection enough against her spells.

  I was just about to force Winnie and Lillian back onto the ship, when there was an explosion not far off that left my ears ringing. Small bits of debris flew around us. I made use of the distraction and aimed my axe for one of the greater summons that flanked the corrupt mages. My aim was precise; it struck the undead creature in the side of its skull. It dropped immediately, and I called back my axe just as another explosion rattled the foundation walls of Waygate Center Station.

  From out of the dust and debris, I heard the sound of countless marching feet. They appeared in a brilliant display of unity, soldiers clad in the blues and whites of the city guard.

  The sea of city guard soldiers parted, and Yarina stepped out from their midst. She looked like a warrior princess standing at the head of the city guard army, her rapier drawn and her expression burning with furious passion and wild tenacity.

  “Attack,” she commanded, and the city guard converged on the tainted mages and the greater summons.

  And just like that, Waygate Center Station was transformed into a battlefield. I took the opportunity to push Lillian back into the safety of the ship’s partly destroyed hull.

  “Stay here and stay out of the line of fire,” I said.

  “But—”

  “You’re a doom mage, Lillian. You’re still valuable to them. Promise me?”

  Lillian’s piercing blue eyes were filled with uncertainty, but she nodded all the same, leaving me with a frail promise. I pushed her gently into the ship’s split hull and watched her take cover behind a large jagged wood edge.

  Satisfied that she was safe, at least for the moment, I jumped back into the fray, realizing that I had lost track of Winnie now. There was no time to try and find her, or Yarina for that matter. They were both somewhere in the battle, and I would just have to trust that they could hold their own against Kalazar’s minions.

  I smashed through the thick throng of greater undead, battering at their heads with my axe and using my Negation Aura to block attacks and blunt the force of their hits. My goal was simple. Get to the necromancer, retrieve the Terminus Seal, and then suck out his soul and trap it forever within my soul seal ring. It was a straightforward enough plan in my mind, but the execution left me feeling slightly light-headed.

  I had just taken down another greater summons, when a tainted mage swung his magic weapon at my head. It was a glittering black sword with a teal-blue shine to its blade. He tried to hack at me with it, but I jumped out of the way just in time and pinned his weapon down with my foot. I placed my hands around his neck and watched my magic start to nullify his.

  He looked at me in horror as his black sword burst into shivering dust. I butted my forehead into his and watched him fall back. I finished him off with my axe, and just as I had shattered the life out of him, I caught a gust of Kalazar’s deep and rancid scent. He was close. There were probably three or four mages between him and me.

  I swung my sword into a greater summons and watched the creature smash into a dark mage who had been fighting with a city guard soldier. He collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs, and I watched him die under the soldier’s naked blade. Between two separate fights, I caught sight of Yarina. She was riding the shoulders of a greater summons, her rapier swinging in graceful turns as she cut down two dark mages before catapulting off the minion and forcing her thin blade through its unbeating heart.

  I felt the whoosh of magic close to my head and ducked out of the way of a tainted mage’s spell. I raised my gauntlet and turned fast, stopping another spell in its tracks. The attacking mage narrowed his eyes at me and conjured a magical weapon, a beautiful silver lance with a sapphire blade at its edge. He swung it toward me but I held my ground and moved only my torso out of the way. I transferred my axe to my left hand and caught the shaft of the lance with my right.

  The dark mage’s eyes went wide as he watched me tighten my grip on the magic weapon just before it burst into beads of light that floated up into the ether. I leapt and punched him hard in the nose. I felt the crack of broken bone beneath my knuckles. Ignoring the sharp sting of pain in my bloody knuckles, I finished him off with my axe and turned around quickly, trying to catch sight of the possessed Barlin again.

  He had disappeared into the battlefield, and I found myself surrounded by dozens of smaller, contained battles that made up the whole. I split a path through the battleground, using my axe to slam minions out of the way. I took out as many tainted mages and greater summons as I could, but my primary focus was getting to Kalazar.

  I caught another glimpse of him through the legion of bodies that seemed to separate us. He was taking full advantage of Barlin’s powers as he took out three spellswords with a carefully aimed ball of mage fire. I narrowed my eyes and sprinted toward him, ducking any blows that came my way. I was so intent on getting to Kalazar that I didn’t see the thick magical blade that tried to cut through my chest armor.

  Thrown off balance, I fell back onto the ground, and for a second I saw swirls of candy cirrus clouds through the gaping hole in the Waygate’s ceiling. My hunter senses went ballistic as they warned me of an incoming assault, and I rolled to the side just in time. The glittering blade that had throw
n me on my back had nearly taken my head off.

  I jumped to my feet and turned to face the owner of the magic weapon. He was a dark mage about the same height as I was. He had a full-grown beard that he had dyed a dark blue and his eyes were almost exactly the same color. It made him look both sinister and comical.

  “Interesting color choice,” I said. “Really brings out your eyes.”

  The dark mage snarled at me like a rabid dog and raised his magic weapon. It was only then that I realized it was a bearded axe that was similar to mine.

  “Nice axe,” I said. “But there’s really no competition.”

  I flung mine straight at him, but he was ready, and he blocked my blade with the butt of his axe. I opened my palm and my weapon flew straight back.

  “Bet yours can’t do that,” I said smugly.

  The blue-bearded mage growled. “Mine will rip your body to shreds, how about that for a party trick?”

  “Well, now I’m scared. I guess I might as well just yield right now.”

  He roared as he ran at me with his axe poised for battle.

  I ducked out of the way and tripped him up with my foot. His face went straight to the ground, and I let a bubble of laughter escape my lips.

  “Oh, dear, is this your first battle?” I said. “I’m sorry. I’ll go easy on you.”

  There was an ambivalence to his magic, and a weariness. It was weighing him down and hindering his natural ability.

  “I will kill you before this fight is over,” the blue-bearded mage said, standing up.

  I shook my head. “You won’t live long enough to see the end of it.”

  I flung my axe at his head, but he managed to bend his head low enough for the blade to miss his face by a fraction. By the time he had straightened up, my axe was back in my hand, and I was only inches away from him. He raised his magical weapon, but I was way ahead of him. I reached out and grabbed the blade of his axe with my bare hand. His blue eyes went wide with shock as the weapon began to vibrate under pressure from my Negation Aura.

  I could feel him trying to rip it free from my grasp, but the magic that had created it was already dying. He didn’t have control over it anymore. I made eye contact with him and grinned as his axe burst into empty light. He looked at me helplessly.