Chapter 25: The Promise
Wroff felt the sudden burst of heat from Flare's conjured fire wall, as it erupted between him and the sorcerer. Having been born in a land of ice and snow Wroff was far more accustomed to the other extreme of temperatures. The first time he had traveled to the eastern Volcanoes where the reptites lived had been a shock to his senses. His parents' generation had once lived in a world of heat and warmth, before the great snows came and blanketed the planet. Wroff could hardly imagine living in a world of constant warmth. The few weeks he had spent traveling to other eras of time had opened his eyes to how different life could be if the threat of freezing wasn't constant.
That threat was what he and his people had to live with daily. It was like how his mother and father had lived with the threat of the reptites everyday of their lives. These threats made you strong. They had made Wroff strong, and a little extra warmth would not stop him from helping his friends. Shrugging off the wave of intense heat the large man continued to charge at full speed toward the first girl. Her long ash blonde hair marked her as Gina, the young woman Flare and Tai had been trying to rescue, the young woman who Flare planned on taking as a mate.
Because Flare was a strong man it stood to reason that Gina was a strong woman, so Wroff was not surprised to find her very much alive and breathing strong. Whatever had been done to her had rendered her unconscious, but had not been enough to kill her. With haste as his priority he scooped her up under his powerful left arm and dashed off to the next girl. A direction that luckily carried him and Gina away from the explosive battle Flare was now conducting with Xavius.
The blonde girl was somewhere between coconsciousness and the blissful void of the unconscious, but by the sound of her pained crying it was apparent that she was not nearly as close to the void as she'd have liked. Her features were an exact copy of her twin, Paige, if not for the length of her hair Wroff would not have been able to distinguish between the two sisters. As gingerly as he could manage he lifted Penelope with his free arm, careful not to place any pressure against her twisted and broken limb. She cried out in protest as he swiftly started his run toward cover.
The white haired girl, who Wroff instantly knew as the assassin's sister, had been placed against the trunk of a large tree. Stepping around the unmoving bodies of the assassin himself and an older well-muscled bald man who Wroff did not recognize, Wroff lay both girls next to the base of the trunk opposite of the fighting. Glancing at the white haired girl, Wroff made the decision to move her on the sheltered side of the tree before again running off to return only moments later with the last of the kidnapped girls, the raven haired daughter of the wizard Veemoli.
With his task done, the caveman stood, a powerful wooden club in each hand as he surveyed the battlefield. Tai and Paige stood at the far end of the field against a mass of skeletal warriors, fire and ice magic working in unison to hold the line preventing Wroff and the others from being overwhelmed. Flare's own battle against Xavius was a spectacle unlike any the caveman had seen. The air around the combatants was alive with explosive gouts of flame as Flare launched a one man assault against their greatest enemy, but as much as Wroff wanted to go to his friend's aid, he knew that he could not. In a contest of magic Wroff was a non-contender. No, he would not be of any help in the particular battle, but the foe which Randall fought with was an altogether separate matter.
Gripping the Masamune in both hands Randall pointed the sword at his foe as electricity arced across its polished blade. From the distance of thirty feet a brilliant bolt of white hot lightning lanced out of the sword and slammed into the crimson beast, staggering it backwards with a clap of thunder, but Xavius had spoken the truth, magic did little, if any, noticeable damage to the monster, even so it howled in fury, a horribly alien noise that set the big man's teeth on edge. No man, beast, or reptite had ever made a sound to resemble it that Wroff had ever heard. The beast rushed forward, much quicker than he'd expect from something its size. The large reptites were powerful foes, but they could not move their bulk at the same speeds that the smaller creatures could. Xavius's crimson beast seemed to ignore its own weight as it attacked with the speed of a much smaller, lighter creature, but with all of the deadly strength one could expect from such a giant.
Randall sidestepped a lethal swipe of the beast's clawed right hand, bringing down a counter stroke that rang out like a bell, on its scaled arm. Unharmed the beast spun to face Randall. The warrior avoided swing after swing of the beast's lethal claws, following each attack with a counter. The Masamune clashed against the scaly red armor, ringing out with an oddly harmonious tone with each blow. Randall struck between separate scales with every attack, systematically searching for a weak point, yet so far finding none.
Most of what Wroff knew of fighting reptites had come from his parents. Later he had put his knowledge to practice when he traveled to the volcanic lands where the reptites lived, and once again during their last desperate assault on mankind. Some of the larger reptites had scales so hard that they could not be penetrated by spears, not even the ones with stone tips. The only way to kill these was to beat them with rocks or clubs, using the powerful impacts to crush their insides while ignoring the impenetrable defense of their scales.
Focusing on Randall with its back to Wroff the beast left itself wide open to the huge man's charge. If Randall could not find a way past its scales Wroff would simply liquefy the beast's innards. Wroff swung the club in his right hand in a wide horizontal arc as he descended upon the beast like an avalanche from the Mystic Mountains. The wooden club met the crimson scales of the beast's middle back with an earsplitting crack. The club didn't break, but Wroff felt the jolt of the impact down to his bones. His left handed club came in at an upward angle slamming against its oddly elongated skull, producing similar results.
The beast whirled toward its new attacker. The caveman used his impressive reach to land a blow to its chest before throwing himself back, narrowly avoiding the clawed swipe of the furious monster. Hitting this creature was like hitting solid stone! Both of Wroff's arms still tingled from the jarring impact of his own attacks. It was as though there was nothing soft inside the beast to crush. Continuing to avoid its lethal clawed attacks Wroff countered each swing by bringing one of his clubs down on its arms, hoping to possibly to break or injure one of the deadly crimson limbs. To the caveman's dismay the beast's arms held as little give in them as its main body. Bone crushing blow after bone crushing blow was ignored as the seemingly unstoppable creature relentlessly pursued him.
Bright blue lines of electrical power danced across the Masamune's blade as Randall took the opportunity to launch his own assault against the beast's unguarded back. The magically charged sword moved with unnatural speed as Randall was able to forgo defense and focus exclusively on an all out offensive. Each attack landing on a different part of the creature's back, searching for, but never finding a weak point to exploit. The harmonious ringing from the Masamune's assault creating a stark counterpoint to the ear splitting cracks caused by Wroff's wooden clubs.
Sudden pain screamed through Wroff's chest as a set of razor sharp claws sliced through his flesh. Droplets of blood, a darker red than the claws that had caused them, fell through the air to the grass bellow. The wound was painful, but luckily not nearly as deep as it could have been. Ignoring the blaze of pain across his chest Wroff continued to avoid the unceasing attacks, and redoubled his effort in hitting back.
Unexpectedly the beast swung both arms at once at angles unlike its previous attacks. Instead of connecting with Wroff's body they slammed directly against his duel clubs knocking them from hands numb from the repeated impacts. Wroff stumbled backwards not able to get enough distance between him and the beast to avoid its savage lunge. In desperation he grabbed onto the beast's arms just below the deadly clawed hands. His powerful muscles strained with all the might he could summon, but the claws already stained a darker red from his blood moved down steadily to deliver what would be the killing blow.
With a howl of defiance Randall slipped his relatively smaller frame in between the two larger combatants and plunged the shining blade of the Masamune straight into the monster's snarling mouth. Lightning erupted from the blade snapping the beast's elongated head backwards. Taking full advantage of the opportunity Wroff pushed off against the beast's arms, moving to a safe distance. Pulling the blade of his sword back Randall followed suite.
For a moment the beast erratically shook its head. Then it steadied itself and let out another alien shriek. Without taking his eyes off the beast Randall asked, "Wroff, are you still able to fight?"
Wroff grunted as he cautiously moved backwards to reclaim his weapons. "Wroff strong. Randall strong too. But monster is most strong thing Wroff has seen. Maybe too strong to die?"
With an inaudible sigh Randall began to circle around the creature once again. "I'm starting to wonder that myself. If this thing, this beast is truly from the planet's bowls like Xavius has said, then we have no idea what kind of environment it lives in. It may well weather worse things than our joint assault as a matter of day to day life for all we know."
"Wroff keep fighting," the caveman announced in defiance. "All things die. Wroff find way to kill."
"Yes," Randall agreed grimly, "but we need to find the way quickly. Flare is rapidly losing his fight, and if he dies, then we all die."
Flare had once seen a dog attack a cat, killing it before anyone had a chance to stop it from happening. Tired of the dog's harassment the cat clawed it across the nose. The simple attack could not have done any real harm to the dog, but the pain, or humiliation, or whatever emotion dogs feel set it off. Perhaps it was a simple knee-jerk fear against an entity capable in some way of doing it harm. Whatever the reason was, the outcome was the same. Overwhelmed by an enemy of superior size and strength the cat was ripped apart.
Flare felt a sudden empathetic kinship with that long dead cat.
It had been a losing battle from the start, but once Flare had adapted to the situation and gained enough control over his magic to more effectively attack and defend, Xavius had suddenly lashed out with such a torrent of power that Flare hadn't been able to anything but defend. Flare's brief moment of victory was the moment he clawed the dog's nose. Now he was being ripped apart, and there was nobody around to help him.
A franticly spinning orb of shadow magic tore through all three layers of Flare's shield, barely slowing it down enough for Flare to dodge before it blew a hole three feet deep into the ground. Streams of reddish lightning crackled above him, straining against another magical shield that gave out as soon he had to redirect power into a frontal shield that shattered against the weight of a dozen screeching fireballs. Xavius was hurling magic of all elements at him, and Flare had realized that the construction of a magical barrier could be varied slightly to create an optimal shield. Had he not figured this out and had continued to use his "all-purpose" shields he might very well have already been killed.
Still this revelation only further confirmed how disadvantaged he was. While he had to franticly switch between the best type of shield with barely a moment's warning, Xavius only had to make one. The shield best suited for fire. Of course Flare realized that this was a moot point, barely worth considering. If he didn't get a chance to attack what did it matter if he could use only one element? Even if Flare could use all four, could use a hundred elements nobody even knew about, it wouldn't make a difference. All he could do was defend and dodge and run and pray. And curse. Curse the fact that he'd been trained to excel with a sword. A sword that was now useless to him.
For the second time in the fight something clicked inside his head. He was standing in front of his master and mentor receiving a lecture along with Tai. Now I'll tell ye' this, Refla said, when ye start carryin' a katana, a real one with a real blade. That sword will be deadly. Deadly, but not near as much as the person carryin' it. Yer the weapon, not that hunk o' steel. No matter how finely made it may be, it is yerself that I've tempered and forged into a weapon. Everything I taught ye, every skill ye've learned from me and turned to be yer own. That is what makes ye a weapon, and if the time comes that that hunk o' steel in yer hand isn't enough, then ye remember these words, and if ye do, I know that ye'll realize how ta fight with everything that ye have.
A sudden understanding roared to life in his head. From the beginning he had no chance to win the fight, because he wasn't fighting with everything he had. He had discarded all of his other skills and relied solely on magic, forcing himself to go head to head with an experienced wizard. The truth was that magic was now only one of the tools he had. Even if it was a powerful tool, it was foolish to abandon the rest he had at his disposal. If he was to have any chance against Xavius he had to use everything. Everything. Anything less would be suicide. A cat picking a fight with a large dog would have a better chance.
The onslaught of spells ceased as Xavius leveled a curious look at Flare. "The look in your eyes has changed. Why pray tell is this."
"You sure you want to stop and chat? If you keep pressing me right now you might have a chance at winning," Flare said with mock cheerfulness, but if Xavius wanted to talk Flare would gladly jump at the chance to catch his breath and gather his thoughts.
"The warning is appreciated," Xavius said with cold sarcasm, "but while your tenacity is laudable, it has its limits, and these have been reached, even exceeded. Me finishing you and then your friends isn't just inevitable, it is imminent. So before I do I'd just like to know what that defiant look is for. You're intelligent enough to know that the game is up."
"You really wanna know?" Flare asked as the plan solidified in his mind.
"Humor me," Xavius said.
"I've just decided how I'm going to kill you."
Xavius's laugh was as harsh as it was cold. "I've always been amazed at how fools like you can make such grand claims when they know they're impossible. I've made it a point to know my limits, being an unfounded braggart serves no purpose."
"I'm not sure about my limits, but if you're going fight me, try and finish me off, there are a couple things you should know about me first."
"I hope it's not a long list. Your time is rapidly coming to an end." Xavius sneered.
"Not long," Flare said. "Just three things."
"My curiosity has been piqued. I'll allow you to illuminate me with these things I should know as a final niceness before I kill you." Xavius's lip twisted in a sardonic smile that caused gooseflesh to break out across Flare's neck. "Hurry now."
"The first thing you need to know is that I never make a promise that I can't keep. The second is that when I do make a promise I always keep it. The third is that I promise to kill you. I will kill you and stop you from getting the power you're after. That is a promise."
"Ah, such sappy heroics always make me smile," Xavius said, his voice low. "A pity your tongue won't be able to regale me with such drivel when you're dead."
The charge of magic swelled up around the sorcerer as he prepared to renew the attack. Flare knew that if Xavius continued to assault him like before, that he'd last only minutes before wearing down and making a fatal mistake. As the first lethal spell started to take form Flare reached down to his side and drew the pistol Paige had given him. A weapon he'd all but forgotten in his vain attempt to match magic for magic. Before the spell could finish Flare squeezed the gun's trigger three times in rapid succession. The bullets were well aimed and all slammed into the barrier Xavius's magic had been reverted to, causing the offensive spell to fissile. Flare continued to squeeze the trigger, firing shot after shot into Xavius's barrier. Magic had a way of eroding magic and was far more effective at taking out magical shields, but the bullets from Paige's gun had enough force behind them to strain Xavius's shield to its max, forcing the wizard to withhold his assault.
"Fool!" Xavius said his tone frigid. "Do you think you can kill me with that toy from the future?"
Flare knew that he couldn't win by simply shooting Xavius. The pistol wasn't his weapon. It was only a distraction to keep Xavius from attacking while he finished what he had started during their conversation. Invisible to the sorcerer's eyes, Flare's magic aura had split itself into over two dozen long thin ropelike limbs. Each "limb" was grasping or trying to grasp a separate patch of dry summer grass.
This was just as hard as Flare had thought it'd be, not only was it taxing to split the source of his magic in so many directions at once, but he'd never tried to use magic like this before. During the fight he'd surmised that magic while split into elemental components, could be used in non-elemental ways. This was how Xavius had been able to turn invisible and take control of Gina's mind. It was also how they formed the magical shields that had served as their ultimate defenses throughout the fight. What Flare now tried to do was probably considered telekinetic magic, and he had a feeling the principle was highly similar to that of the shields he'd been making the whole fight.
One long limb grew substantial and gripped its tuft of dry grass. Flare smiled. He'd figured it out, now all he had to do was repeat the process a little more than twenty times, but the hard part was done.
With his left hand he quickly retrieved his spare ammo clip, slamming it into place before the first had hit the ground. Each trigger squeeze was deliberate and paced. Too fast and he'd run out of bullets before his magic as finished; too slow and Xavius could possibly spare enough magic to attack. Sweat slid down Flare's forehead as the clip emptied. Four bullets. Seven telekinetic limbs. Two bullets. Three limbs. One. One. With an unceremonious click the clip slid from the pistols handle and fell to the ground, joining its brother.
Xavius smiled, gathering his magic out of the shield and into an attack.
With an audible whoosh, grass dry from the summer heat was torn from the earth and thrust into the air around Flare and Xavius. The grass hovered in a staggered formation for an eternal split second, before Flare converted all of the telekinetic energy into pure heat. The grass was instantaneously devoured by the raw heat, flashing momentarily into fire, but ultimately into dark smoke.
As soon as the smoke cloud formed Flare dashed to the left. Trailing several feet behind him he concentrated his magical aura sending a constant stream of fireballs hurling toward Xavius. The sorcerer cursed as he coughed in the smoke and retaliated by sending a blind assault toward the direction of the incoming fireballs. With Xavius's attacks landing harmlessly behind him Flare made one final push of effort with his magic, causing the fireballs to spin in such a manner that they hit Xavius on his left side.
When Flare emerged from the smokescreen Xavius had a shield defending his left flank and was sending a burst of razor wind into the smoked where the fireball assault had been launched. The wind cut nothing, and when the smoke was blown away it revealed nothing.
Crimson Eon slashed into Xavius's right side cutting upward across the sorcerer's chest. His eyes widened in surprise as drops of scarlet blood sprayed outward from his black cloak into the smoke stained air.
Flare snarled in vicious triumph locking eyes with Xavius. "Promise kept."