by Charley Case
The Dark Star had fled to the Gjallarhorn, and where there should have been another enemy, Danica stood there with Penny in her arms.
Finn snapped his head to the side and saw Hellena taking a deep breath, preparing to blow the horn at him and take Danica and Penny out in the process. Finn let the rage take him, but instead of listening to it as it demanded him to go after the Dark Star, he turned to Danica and wrapped her and Penny up in his arms and forced them to the ground so Danica was sitting between his legs, her body curled down against him so that none of her was in line with the horn.
“What?” Was all Danica got out before the note sounded, and Finn roared his defiant reply. A pain unlike anything Finn had ever felt tore into his back, but he could tell that for every bit of magic that took hold and tried to rip him from the world, there was an ocean's worth he was able to ignore.
Danica was screaming, but that meant she was still alive, so Finn reveled in that scream as he endured the Gjallarhorn’s ministrations. It felt like an eternity, even knowing the blast was only a fraction of a second long, but it did eventually stop. He felt the cold winter air slam into his bloody and raw back like a pick to stone. And he gasped in pain.
“What the hell was that?” Danica said, shakily lifting her head and looking at him.
“You made it,” he said drunkenly. “ I think there’s something wrong with my back.”
Danica took a quick look and came back with a pale drawn look on her face. She swallowed. “Where are your healing potions?”
Finn reached for the potions on his holster, but all that was left were a few scraps of leather in his lap. “Gone.”
Holding out a hand Danica focused her magic, imbuing him with healing power, but the machine was still on, and the spell came out as a green slime that coated his chest.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
On one shaky knee, Finn turned toward the cackle, keeping Danica behind him.
The Dark Star stood behind the horn, laughing like a maniac. “I can't believe you survived that, dwarf! You are truly an aberration. No matter, all I have to do is keep hitting you. You’re not immune, just exasperatingly persistent.”
Hellena took a deep breath to blow a death knell when a flash drew her attention. She looked to the side as a white-hot bolt from Mila’s gun came from the left. The Dark Star’s magic countered the blast, and she sent a spear of black energy back.
Finn struggled to get to his feet but failed. His back, a mess of shredded bone and gristle exposed through flesh, kept him down. He roared in pain and rage, but all he could do is watch as the lance of blackness rushed towards Mila.
“Nooo!”
In a truly Mila move, she didn't dodge. Instead, she fired the Ivar again. The two bolts met in the air, and with a thunderous, sizzling crack they canceled each other out.
Finn seethed and struggled to his feet.
“Finn, careful!” Danica said, grabbing at his arm.
“She needs me,” he yelled.
A scream from more than a dozen yards away caught everyone’s attention, and Finn saw one of Hellena’s soldiers fall from a bloody wound to the leg. Then another went down, and another.
Finn laughed aloud, catching Hellena’s attention. Beside him, Danica smiled, understanding why Finn had turned joyous.
The Dark Star bared her teeth at him and lowered her brows over her blood-filled eyes. “What are you laughing at, you pathetic creature?”
Finn pointed. “Reinforcements.”
A group of soldiers seemed to fight off an invisible enemy. Then, a beefy, male goblin popped into view when his inherent ability to turn invisible timed out and needed to reset. Another goblin appeared, followed by a dozen more. All of them were dressed in variations of street clothes, but with armor pieces strapped to them and holding long curved knives that gleamed wickedly in the lightning storm.
“We’re here, Boss,” Remmy said in his earpiece. “We have your back, now take the Star bitch out.”
More shouting from behind made Finn and Hellena shift focus to the other side of the park as a hail of bullets tore from the wall of the raging blizzard. It cut down a confused group of orcs and elves that had been running to help with the new goblin threat.
Coming out of the snow, dressed in full tactical gear and moving in coordinated cover, Preston’s G.A.E.L. teams arrived in four groups of heavily armed and armored men and women from all races. They moved from the raging storm, firing on targets.
Most of the Dark Star’s people hadn't been in the fight up to this point, having been ordered to keep anyone out, and therefore not all charging in when Finn and Mila started fighting. The Dark Star’s army, with over a hundred soldiers, now found themselves in for a real fight.
The G.A.E.L. squads and Remmy’s tribe helped even the odds, though still in the Dark Star’s favor in terms of numbers. Finn had to remind himself this battle was far from won. That didn't mean he wouldn't stall for time by talking crazy amounts of shit.
“Oh, look,” Finn said, gesturing towards the G.A.E.L. troopers. “I guess you missed a few people when you tried to sneak attack Preston’s place. Sloppy work, Hellena.”
A smile slowly spread across her face, the bloody tears and black eyes making the expression a twisted parody. “Don’t you get it? This is what I want. Here I thought I would have to bring the war to them, but they came to me. How considerate.” The smile dropped from her face. “Now, I just take care of you, and I’m free to tear the city down around us. The damage will be far more than a little blizzard can hide. Within a day, every news channel on Earth will be showing magicals fighting in the streets with Peabrains. At that point, all I have to do is sit back and watch. Once the magical community knows they don't have to hide anymore, forming our own nation is the next logical step. We will be the new world superpower and every country will bend the knee!”
Movement out of the corner of Finn's eye caught his attention. At a glance, he felt his heart leap for joy. The tiny blue form of Penny hunkered in the shadow of the machine. She had an almost glossy sheen that covered her from head to toe. It let off tiny wisps of blue and red vapor that vanished within inches of leaving her body.
Penny had her eyes on Hellena, making sure she wasn't seen, but she was slowly unscrewing a panel on the black cube, trying to get access to the guts of the machine. Penny caught him glancing at her, and she smiled.
Danica also noticed Penny. “Finn…”
“I know. Keep behind me,” he said.
Finn gave Penny a barely perceptible nod, and the dragon knew he was going to keep Hellena busy for her. She turned her attention to opening the panel, and the work went faster.
“That’s your great plan?” Finn called out in a mocking tone. “Just start a war and hope for the best? You sound like my father.”
“You’ve seen the way the magicals are forced to be second-hand citizens out of fear of discovery. Always afraid that they’ll be found out, and ruin it for the rest of our secret society. Who cares if they find out. We have fucking magic on our side. The foolish Peabrains should lick our boots out of gratitude we didn't subjugate them after Alexandria. Such pathetic creatures! Our place is not behind concealment spells and living in sewers. Our place is at the top. We will win this war, and when a new nation is formed, one that can stand against all, people like you will thank me for the sacrifices I made. Why do you insist on fighting me when you know I’m right?”
Finn grinned, but it turned to a grimace as a wave of pain washed over his back. “You’re right. It’s not fair how magicals are repressed. You’re also right that in a stand-up fight, the Peabrains would lose. But those are not reasons to kill a billion people in a globe-spanning war. I’ve struggled with you and your idea from the beginning. I value freedom, especially my own, above most things, and on paper what you want to accomplish, I agree with.”
Hellena smiled a triumphant smile at that admission.
“However,” Finn added, holding up a finger, “there is one ma
jor problem with your plan. While you might be right, that doesn't make you a leader. Being right isn’t good enough; you have to be just. You can't say you want to give people freedom then throw lives at the problem and hope for the best. You have to fight tooth and nail to be sure the highest number of your people get to enjoy that freedom too.”
Finn waved a hand around the battlefield as her soldiers died or killed in her name. “You don't care about them. If you did, you wouldn't have been standing by while they were being killed, you would have been in the fight. These people who follow you because you sold them the dream of freedom, will never get to know its embrace because you’re using them as meat shields.”
Hellena’s face had gone from angry to happy to confused then ended back at angry. Finn had almost laughed watching the rollercoaster of emotion he had taken her on. He wasn't even sure what he had said, he was just trying to buy time for Penny.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you, Finnegan. You are so full of shit I almost believe you believe the shit you say. Power begets power. If you want to make it in this world, you better have the power to keep yourself moving, because time and again, Peabrains have chewed us up and spat us out.”
Hellena sucked in a breath and aimed the Gjallarhorn. Finn pushed Danica behind him as Hellena put her lips to the mouthpiece. Stephanie appeared and slid to a stop in front of Finn and Danica, her arms spread wide.
“Please, mom. Please stop. This is sick. There has to be a better way. Just come back to me.” She sniffed. “I need you to come back. I need my mom back.”
Hellena hesitated, and for a moment, Finn saw her eyes flash from black to blue, but then her face hardened and without a word, blew a long note.
Finn grimaced and wrapped his arms around Stephanie and Danica, expecting the worst, but the note ended, and nothing changed. Hellena looked confused and blew another blast on the instrument. Again, the flesh was not peeled from Finn's body—or anyone else’s.
Hellena’s head jerked to the side. She howled when she saw Penny backing out of an access panel in the cube, a circuit board in her hand, wires attached to it having been bitten through to separate it from its place in the machine.
Hellena, aided by her dark magic, was fast, and lunged for Penny, her hand outstretched and teeth snarling. Penny, even with her magic sealed away, was quick. The dragon darted around the cube, running halfway to Finn before throwing the vital part of the machine to him.
Finn caught the circuit board and crushed it in one hand, while Penny whirled around and gave double middle fingers to Hellena.
Throwing her head back, the Dark Star screamed into the night air. The black smoke surrounding her saw its opening to take more control, and seized upon it, wrapping her from head to toe in thick tendrils, allowing the barest outline of Hellena to show through.
Finn felt Danica’s hands slap against his back. Making him cry out as pain coursed through his damaged body. Just as he was about to pull away, he felt healing energy flow through him. Danica's hands became warm and soothing pools on his ravaged flesh, as he felt the muscle and skin close up.
Breathing deep, Finn endured the mix of pain and pleasure as he was healed, focusing on his breathing, and maintaining his heart rate as the rage fought for dominance in him.
As quickly as it had begun, it was over. Danica ran her hands over his newly healed back, checking for any malformations, then slumped to the ground, catching her breath.
Finn turned to see she was smiling and giving him a thumbs-up.
“Thank you,” he said, gently touching her cheek before rising to stand by Stephanie.
She backed into him, her hand over her mouth. “What is happening to her?” she whispered.
“The darkness is taking her, molding her to its purpose. I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do to save her.” He put his hand on her shoulder.
“I can do something,” Mila said, running to him, and throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing hard. “I thought you were a dead man.”
“Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick.” Finn rumbled, letting her slip to the ground.
“Sorry, ran into a pack of elves, and had to take care of business.” She smiled, then looked over at the changing body in the twisting smoke chrysalis. “I can save her.”
“It’s not possible. She’s far too gone,” Finn argued, watching as Hellena’s fingers grew in length, to form into talons.
“I can do it.” She put a hand on his cheek. “Trust me.”
“Always.” He looked to see Hellena had grown in height by six inches. “You better not be wrong.”
“I’m not.” Mila stepped back, giving his hand a squeeze before turning to Stephanie. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
Finn pulled Stephanie to where Danica was sitting up, still breathing hard. He watched as the love of his life took off at a jog towards the Dark Star—all alone.
“Penny? Can you fight?” Finn asked, looking at the small dragon.
She shook her head and made a sad noise.
“It’s okay, my friend. Stay with them, okay? I’m going to back Mila up. If she’s going to do what I think she is, she’s going to be vulnerable. You three get somewhere safe and keep your heads down.”
He didn't wait for an answer; instead, he jogged after Mila, ripping the tattered remains of his black teeshirt off as he went.
The Dark Star’s transformation sped up, and Finn felt a spike of panic.
Mila raced towards the smoke-shrouded figure, her arms outstretched ready to wrap the creature in an embrace. When Mila was three steps from the Dark Star, there was a ripping sound as the creature in the chrysalis tore free.
With a casual backhand, the Dark Star hit Mila in the chest, jettisoning her backward and over Finn's head to land beside Danica, her arms obviously broken and blood pouring from her mouth.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Finn's world turned red with rage. He launched himself at the thing and chopped down with Fragar. A black-taloned hand batted the blade to the side but had to back up a step or be sliced by the return swing.
They moved at incredible speed, attacking and parrying blow after blow. Finn's sheer manic energy was pushing him hard, and he was gaining ground, then two blades were formed from the remaining smoke and began to attack independently of the Dark Star, as they floated beside her, chopping and slashing at his exposed parts.
Finn was driven back, fighting what was essentially three opponents at once. He did his best, as the blades clanged and sparked off of Fragar, yet he continued to backpedal to keep out of reach of her talons.
Taking one more step backward, Finn half-stepped on a small curb around a planter and lost his balance. It was only for a moment, but it was enough for one of the blades to slice into his right arm.
Pain erupted in the wound like molten metal poured into his veins. He blocked another floating sword strike, but took a blow to the stomach that knocked the wind out of him, and dropped him onto his ass. He did his best to block the next hit, but the sword hooked itself in Fragar’s hooked tip and was able to pull the ax from his hands. He watched in dread as it tumbled through the air and landed twenty feet away.
He looked up and noticed that the Dark Star’s eyes had gone from black to red. It was a curious detail he hadn’t seen before. It gave her elongated face a devilish feel.
The two swords floated over her head and joined as one giant blade. She reached up, taking it in both hands and grinning. Blood dripped from her mouth and splattered on the ground between Finn's legs.
Screaming like a banshee, the Dark Star chopped down with all her might.
Mila slipped in between him and the Dark Star, like the last dancer between the curtains, and taking a knee, held her arm up in a defensive stance. Finn began to bellow in rage and despair, yet when the black sword smashed down on her arm, a shield of white and gold light appeared. It looked as though she were encased in a bubble, but only the part affected by the blade was visible at any given ti
me.
The Dark Star smashed the sword down again. The celestial shield rebuffed the attack.
Mila looked over her shoulder at him and smiled, tossing an empty healing potion to the ground.
“You need to get the hell out of here, Mila. That thing is way stronger than I thought.”
She shook her head, grunting as another blow rained down. “And leave my hero defenseless? I thought you knew me better than that.”
Unfortunately, he did know her better than that.
“Penny!” Mila called, “Get a healing potion to Finn. There's something wrong with his arm.”
Finn looked down and was shocked to see that his right arm was nothing but a withered husk from the bicep down. He stared in shock until Penny pressed a healing potion into his hand, and he gulped it down. The wither stopped, but the arm remained deformed.
Mila let out a pained grunt and had to use her free hand to steady her.
Finn was desperately trying to figure out a way to get Mila out of the way, but with the Dark Star’s blows coming so fast, he didn't see how it was possible.
That was when the ground behind the Dark Star shuddered and rose up.
“About fucking time,” Mila grunted.
The Dirt Elemental rose from the ground, his proportions much larger than before. He stopped when he was waist height and still towered fifteen feet into the air. He ponderously raised his arms, his hands splayed and overly large, even for their current overgrown size.
The Dark Star realized they were looking behind her. She stopped slamming the sword against Mila’s shield and turned to see the giant’s hands clapping together around her.
With a boom, Dirt’s hands slammed together, cutting off all view of the Dark Star.
Finn and Mila took a deep breath of relief. Then Dirt’s hand began to flex and strain.
“She’s digging out,” Dirt boomed.
Mila gave Finn a smile. “Love you, babe. Be back in a minute.”
