The two combatants, Olivia and Reiko, tumbled from the cliff, plunging straight down towards the thicket of trees far below, the young Cryomancer gripping the General's body as tightly as she could. She was helpless now to do anything but contemplate the wisdom of dragging an immortal over the edge of a sheer drop-off when she herself was not immortal. But it was too late for that now, nothing to do except ride it out to the end. And even if by some chance his divinity shielded her from harm, she expected this was going to hurt. A lot.
Tree branches snapped and leaves blew everywhere as the pair crashed through them. More than a few lashed out and ripped open Olivia's skin, but she didn't really think about the sharp flashes of pain for very long because only moments afterwards, they hit the ground. The grassy earth shattered beneath their meteoric impact. Dirt and debris exploded in a rich black cloud all around them, slowly mushrooming out in the growing daylight, peppered by the shredded green tree foliage that now gently snowed upon their heads.
Reiko, who'd blessedly landed on the bottom, sprawled on his back inside the small crater, his hand still curled around his scythe, his other hand curled over the rim of the depression in the ground. Any injuries he sustained when they plummeted through the canopy were already gone. Even still, though a god, he groaned as if the wind had been knocked out of him, for a moment unable to move.
Olivia felt similarly. From a fall like that, even protected as she was by his body, she was in excruciating pain. Agony ripped through her back and her innards, and she might've screamed if not for the scorching fire burning inside of her lungs. Unlike him, blood wept from her injuries, staining her arms and face red, dribbling onto Reiko, staining his skin as well. Unable to move for the longest moment, she stayed sprawled on top of him as if he were a cushion, their breaths oddly synchronized. Her vision blurred as she tried to push herself to her feet, trying to focus past the pain and the deep ringing in her head. But weakened, she collapsed onto his chest once again.
"That was most unwise of you, Olivia," he finally croaked before he wrapped his arms around her and then flipped her onto her back and pinned her down. "Mutually assured destruction only works when both parties can be destroyed."
She struggled to push him back, but her body still thrummed in pain so she couldn't help but give up. "It got you away from the others, though," she grimaced, not even trying to resist him.
"For now," he wolfishly smiled and then smoothed back her hair from her forehead. "But at what cost? You've only harmed yourself and I will still suck their life forces from them when I am done with you. I'm hungry, Olivia. Oh, how I'm hungry. I've never felt such hunger in my life. I feel like I'll never be sated."
His intense green eyes met hers, breathing truth to his words; he looked at her like a starving man would look at a juicy steak. For a moment, he even bared his teeth and moved in to bite her neck like a vampire, but then balked and sensually traced up the length of her throat with his tongue, lapping up her blood, cleaning her skin. From reflex more than anything, Olivia gasped and curled her toes as goosebumps spread across her skin, a point not lost on him. He chuckled and then playfully nipped at her ear and then her jaw before planting a tender kiss on her lips.
"Why do you resist me, Olivia?" he murmured. "Especially since we both know that there is a part of you greatly tempted by me and what I have to offer you. I saw it in your eyes up there before your meddling uncle told you not to listen to me."
"Better to die standing on my feet than kneeling before a god I don't love," she whispered back.
"I will take your soul anyway, and then you will be a part of me forever regardless," he reminded her.
"If that is my destiny, then so be it," she replied, still struggling to move, wondering if she was dying inside. "But you'll have to take me by force. I'm not giving myself to you. Not now, not ever."
Reiko pulled his face back, his face a red storm cloud. Olivia suspected he hadn't been rejected much in his lifetime. "That is very disappointing," he told her. "But so be it."
With that, that wicked red miasma formed in his palms as he pushed himself onto his knees, still straddling her, and held them to her face. Olivia winced and looked away, bracing for the horrible death she was about to endure, trembling as tears leaked from her eyes. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad - she couldn't quite remember her near-death experience at Reiko's hands before, but it seemed like it wouldn't be so bad. The worst part, she quickly told herself, would be the life she never got to have, to never seeing the places and things in the world she hadn't gotten around to yet, to never seeing her students grow up and undergo their Rites of Ascension, to the goodbyes she never got to make to her family, to never knowing...to never knowing what it felt like to find and love her soulmate. For a fleeting moment, she thought of Jiayi, who'd implied on the battlefield only a short time before that he cared about her and didn't want to lose her. With a weird sort of clear certainty realized at the most inopportune time, she understood that she felt the same.
The ghastly fog began to move towards her, and now she couldn't help but look at it directly. And then it unexpectedly blew apart by a cold gust of wind as a blade exploded through his chest. Reiko's eyes rolled up at the sky in surprise as he clawed at the icy weapon sawing through his middle, gurgling as if unable to speak. And then a pale hand buried itself in his wolf's tail, yanking his head and body back with a violent jerk before a kori dagger was slicing open his throat, spilling ichor down his body. Shocked, Olivia looked up and saw her Aunt Miyuki there, her blue eyes maniacal, her long white hair wild and loose.
"Ah-ah-ah, Reiko," she snarled in an oddly sing-song voice "That's my niece, you pig," she hissed into his ear as he tried to speak but only succeeded in gasping. "And I told you what I would do to you if you ever touched her again."
The moment Livy and Reiko went over the edge, Kuai Liang screamed his daughter's name but could only watch in stunned horror as she disappeared through the trees. What had she been thinking? She knew the General was immortal now, and this action, no matter how valiant, would only delay him. And worse, had she survived? His heart tore him in two directions as he struggled with which daughter to go help now. Sam was screaming for Livy and Jamie to rescue her, and when the Cryomancer dared to look over his shoulder, he spotted Rain dragging her down the main road towards the city. He knew he should chase after them, but what if Livy needed him to save her from Reiko? Tears prickled at his eyes as he roared in frustration.
"Grandmaster!" a voice now yelled at him from behind, and he whirled around to see the Crown Prince dashing towards him, still restrained by a cobalt collar and cuffs. "Set me free and I will go after Olivia so you can save your other daughter!"
He angrily glared at the Prince. "How do I know you can be trusted?" he demanded to know. "Your brother fought for Reiko, maybe you do too."
"You fought for Reiko as his slave," the other Cryomancer shot back almost breathlessly. "You would know if I was his minion too. And I wouldn't have been lined up to be executed with the others."
"Maybe you're smarter and sneakier than your brother," he accused.
Jiayi looked like he would've liked to say something rude in response to that, but instead, he calmly said, "Grandmaster, I swear to you on all I hold dear that I am not in league with Reiko. He destroyed my family. I could never serve him, not now or ever."
Kuai Liang thought about it and realized that the Crown Prince had made some very valid points. He nodded and set Jiayi loose, but before he could run off after Livy, he grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him. "If I find out that you hurt my daughter rather than helped her, you will wish I did to you what I did to Reiko the last time I killed him," he threatened.
The other Cryomancer solemnly nodded and then clutched his forearm. "Grandmaster, I vowed to Lord Himavat to protect Lady Olivia from harm, and I do not mean to fail in my duty."
"Then go," he said, his thoughts turning to Sam once again.
While Jiayi nodded and then conjured a thick white fog of ice around him to teleport to the land below, Sub-Zero sprinted through the bedlam, freezing any enemy forces that got too close. He turned entire swaths of Reiko's forces into statues watching the chaos unfold with cold, dead eyes. Sam's shrill voice pierced the noise of battle, still wailing for her family, for anyone to come save her. But everyone else was currently preoccupied with their own fights to worry about one Hydromancer girl being kidnapped by the most despicable villain Sub-Zero ever had to face in his life. Taking a cue from Jiayi in order to close the distance more quickly, the Cryomancer dove headfirst into an icy portal that teleported him to the road only a short distance behind Rain.
"Silence, you little cur!" the demigod snapped at Sam as he dug his fingers into her hair and ripped her head back, prompting her to squeal in pain. "You're mine now!"
"Like hell she is!" Sub-Zero yelled as he furiously plowed into him from behind, tackling him like a linebacker.
The three of them tumbled to the ground with loud grunts of pain and startled oomphs. Sam recovered first and screamed, "Daddy!" as the Cryomancer pounced on Rain's middle and started pummeling his face.
"You just never learn!" he roared at his enemy as he drilled punch after punch into his cheeks and nose. Blood sprayed from the demigod's nostrils, smearing on Sub-Zero's knuckles and splattering his blue, battle-beaten armor.
Rain was clearly surprised by the attack and somewhat weakened, but he had lost little of his cleverness and potency, so he only tolerated the assault for a moment before he pulled his knee towards him and struck the Cryomancer in the groin from the rear. For a split second there was sharp, blinding pain, and he was certain his testicles had just been shoved up his ass. But then his stomach turned inside out like a glove and he struggled not to vomit as the demigod pushed him off. While Sub-Zero strained to catch his breath, it was Rain's turn to pounce on him.
The Grandmaster was still in pain as the two warriors began to wrestle in the dirt while Samantha watched in horror, uncertain what to do. She tried spraying the other Hydromancer in the face with a jet of water, but as a Healer, she was not nearly as powerful on that front as her Warrior family members. It had little effect on the demigod and only served to make the ground slick with mud. For a brief moment, Sub-Zero flashed back to the time when he was fighting with Noob Saibot and Anya had tried to help, but only made things worse when she also sprayed a jet of water at the enemy. Now as it was then, it made gaining a grip on Rain nearly impossible, and within seconds, the Hydromancer had rolled on top and wrapped his hands around the Cryomancer's throat like a vise.
He well and thoroughly clamped down on Sub-Zero's neck, his eyes bulging in evil mania and delight as he giggled and grunted and fought with his long-time enemy. The Grandmaster clawed at his hands, fighting to pull them up and offer him release, but Rain was just too strong. He felt his head begin to throb over the absence of air, his lungs burning with longing for oxygen but gaining no satisfaction. He squirmed beneath the Hydromancer as Sam began to scream again somewhere close by, flailing his body around in a desperate attempt to get free. Gradually, he felt himself weakening.
And then, to his surprise, spindly little arms wrapped around Rain's neck as Sam swiped her longish fingernails through the skin of his face with all the ferocity of a bobcat. The demigod wailed as she ripped open his flesh, even scratching his cornea, and finally removed his hands from Sub-Zero's throat in order to grab her. He reached far over his shoulder to grab her shirt and then heaved her over his head, slamming her small body onto the ground. He lunged at her and swung his fist at her in an overhead punch like a hammer, but Sam - who was quite fast and strong in spite of her size - cross-blocked him before she folded her body in half to kick him directly in the face with her tabi boot.
Rain toppled backwards, stunned, and before he even landed on his back, Sub-Zero had already swiped a kori knife deep through his chest. A spurt of blood sprayed out. With lightning reflexes, he froze the red gore as it squirted out into a new kori knife that he promptly drilled into his enemy's stomach. The Hydromancer howled as the force of the impact slammed him to the ground, but with quick reflexes of his own, he threw a bloody hand to the air and summoned a bolt of lightning from the dawning sky. The Grandmaster recognized the attack before it came and, with the speed of a cheetah, he grabbed Sam and pulled her from its path.
Though it didn't directly hit them, the crash still shattered their eardrums while the brilliant white flash blinded them. It careened into the ground so closely to them that it knocked them back even further. Sub-Zero held his youngest daughter tightly to him as she clutched her ears and whimpered in pain. Somewhere in the midst of this, Rain managed to climb to his feet and stagger away, trying to escape. When the lightning bolt receded, the Cryomancer pushed himself up as well and began to chase after the coward only to have Sam catch his arm.
"Daddy, let him go," she whined. "We don't have time to deal with him-"
"Let go of me, Samantha!" he sternly barked at her as he ripped his arm from her grasp. "Rain is too dangerous to let walk free."
She stamped her foot like a toddler. "Daddy, it's Tommy!" she screeched at him as he stalked after the Hydromancer, her voice dissolving into tears.
Kuai Liang slowly turned around and looked at her in puzzlement. "What about him?" he replied. She started to cry harder and then shook her head, looking at the ground. When she didn't answer him, a hard knot of fear jumped into his throat, fear for his son. "Samantha, where is Tommy?" he demanded to know.
She shook her head again before she ran into his arms, sobbing. "He was hurt, Daddy. Really bad. There was nothing I could do for him, I-" Her voice collapsed once again as she shook her head. "He was in the Great Hall with the other wounded when Rain destroyed it."
Tears prickled at his own eyes now, and he swallowed hard as something slowly rose inside of him. How long before the parts of his body realized, independently, that something was wrong and arrived at panic? He'd felt it before: each nerve coming into extreme alert unrelated to any other, ready for action, but who knew what action, as there was no action that could help here. He'd last felt it when Livy had died. And now, here under the Seidan sky, it was an unwelcome guest worming its way in once more.
Kuai Liang cast his gaze after Rain, who was rapidly putting distance between them before trembling, he grabbed Sam by her hand and pulled her back towards the palace. "Come on," he told her, "we need to help your brother."
Only a moment after leaving the Grandmaster on the precipice above, Jiayi emerged beneath the canopy in time to see Miyuki attack Reiko from behind and slit his throat. Not surprisingly, it did nothing but make him angry, and with a furious shout he turned into her and blasted her with a thick, radiating beam of crimson red Blood Magik. For the time being, he'd forgotten all about Olivia, who was lying dazed on the ground in a shallow depression, and he stormed after the older Cryomancer to murder her. Miyuki had no intention of going down without a fight, however, and she lunged at him and struck him in the jaw, prompting a good old-fashioned fist-fight between them.
This distraction left Jiayi free to help Olivia, though he was greatly annoyed with her for so foolishly endangering her life, and he said as much. "Tell me, Lady," he began as he knelt by her side and helped her sit up, "what was your grand plan of dealing with Reiko once you pushed him over the cliff's edge?"
She groaned and leaned against his chest woozily, swaying as if she'd drunk too much Shokan ale. "I didn't think that far ahead, to be honest," she confessed as she pressed her palms to her forehead while he held her close to steady her. "I was probably just gonna wing it."
"You are, without a doubt, the single most reckless woman I have ever met in my life," he lectured her, fuming. When Himavat had initially approached Jiayi in the Lin Kuei Temple and commanded him to protect the young Cryomancer woman, he'd thought his task would be simple, but clearly the Elder God was really just having a good laugh at his expense. The Earthrealmer was quite the handful. "You are lucky you aren't dead from that fall."
Olivia scoffed. "Well, Reiko kind of broke my fall, so-"
"You are unbelievable," he frowned. "I do not know how your father puts up with you. It is no wonder you need someone to constantly watch over you as if you were a child. If I had a daughter like his, I'd lock her in a cage and never let her out."
She coldly swiveled her head around and narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, right, because God forbid a girl has a mind of her own and - gasp! - walks free in the world," she shot back at him. "We all know how the Cryomancers just love independent women."
"It is not because you are a woman that I say that," the Crown Prince retorted, bristling at her implied accusation of sexism. "It is because you are crazy. And you are impetuous to a fault. And someday, both qualities will be the death of you. I would not want my daughter to suffer such a fate."
"Hey," she indignantly replied, "I got Reiko away from everyone, so it wasn't a complete failure."
"Yes, but for how long?" he retorted, pulling her to her feet before quickly examining her. "Someday, Lady Olivia, Duōwén Tiānwáng will no longer bless you with luck in battle. You must learn to have patience and wisdom. Valor and fearlessness will only serve you so much." He frowned and looked at the bloody wounds peppering her skin, noting that most seemed superficial. "Are you hurt?" he now asked her in concern.
"Mostly just my pride," she told him, scowling at being upbraided like a small child.
"That is reassuring to hear because it would seem your Aunt Miyuki is in need of our assistance," he declared as he pointed to the other Cryomancer, who was currently being beaten down by Reiko.
She wrenched her eyes shut and threw her head back to the sky as if greatly annoyed. "Give me strength," she grumbled sarcastically before she looked at him again. "Come on, let's go help her."
"Kailyn!" Tomas howled as he and his youngest children, joined by Fujin, approached the smashed ruins of the Great Hall. "Tommy!"
Though day was slowly dawning and the sun was starting to peek over the horizon, the courtyard was still quite dim. Not that they needed the sunlight to discern the destruction around them. He smelled the char from the smoldering embers long before he even saw them glowing orange. The Great Hall had been flattened like a pancake, and part of it scorched and slowly burning from Rain's lightning bolt, the scent of it acrid and frightening as he waved his cybernetic gauntlet over the mess to find any signs of life. There were several in there, though most were fading fast, doomed to die if their vital signs were any indication. He saw with his infrared sensors where there was the greatest concentration of souls, and still calling for his beloved wife, he jumped into the debris and started digging to find them.
Fujin clearly sensed the same thing, and beside him, promptly began to use his powers to clear away the wreckage. Wind currents easily yanked heavy stone columns and pieces of the roof in the air and casually chucked the debris to the side. He, too, was also calling for Kailyn to answer him. Ordinarily, such a thing would've prompted annoyance and jealousy to flare through the Enenra's heart, but at the moment, he was too preoccupied to care. Besides, when he'd later reflect on the moment, he would realize he was relieved to have the Wind God's assistance right now. Fujin was making short work of something that might've taken hours - perhaps even days - to accomplish otherwise.
Connor and Danyka helped as well, both of them heaving lighter pieces than the god - or even their cyber-ninja father, for that matter - could, but they were making steady progress as well. In fact, his daughter was the first person to find someone, and with a frantic cry, she yelled, "I've found someone! Help me get her out!"
Tomas leapt to assist the young Hydromancer, hopeful that she'd found Kailyn right away, but his heart fell in disappointment when he saw she'd merely unearthed a Seidan doctor. Still, he lifted the heavy timber that was pinning the woman down long enough for Connor to wrap his arms around her and pull her out. The doctor, he quickly saw, was still breathing, though she was unconscious and bleeding profusely from a wound in her head. Danyka rushed to her side to Heal her, but the cyber-ninja immediately stopped her.
"No, Dcera, save your powers for your mother," he firmly commanded her. "Just apply pressure with your hand." She looked at him in confusion, but nodded and obeyed him.
Tomas returned to his work beside his son, and together with Fujin, the three of them kept working while Danyka administered old-fashioned first aid to anyone that they found. One soul saved became two, two became four, then five, and so on. But as they moved more and more of the debris but found no sign of Kailyn, his heart sank into his stomach as he began to fear the worst. At some point, tears began to stream down his face, but he didn't even notice. She was his confidante, his helpmate, his friend, his lover. She was everything the word 'wife' meant to him. In his soul, she was his. She just couldn't be gone yet. Not here. Not like this.
"Tomas!" a voice called, prompting the cyber-ninja to look up in time to see Kuai Liang and Samantha running towards them. "Have you found them?" the Cryomancer demanded to know.
The Enenra shook his head as the warm tears fell harder now. Strange how even now, at his most panicked, a heaviness instantly fell from his shoulders at the sight of his friend jumping into the wreckage to help them. A shuddering breath escaped him as a glimmering flash of joy and relief to see his přítel back to his normal self once again. But that happy feeling left him as quickly as it arrived, and his thoughts turned once again to his wife, and to a lesser extent his nephew, as he continued rummaging through the mess.
A few minutes later, Fujin finally yelled, "I found them!" as he easily hoisted a pillar into the air and threw it behind him.
Tomas didn't even notice. He ran to the bodies still half-buried, Kailyn's unmistakable golden curls sprawled out from beneath a wall, grayed with dust and dirt. Kuai Liang joined him, and both watched as Fujin now heaved the heavy wall to the side as well, unearthing both her and Tommy. They were unconscious, but his scanners revealed that they were alive, the Tetrach protectively curling her good arm around her wounded nephew as if to shield him from harm. She had been badly burned though; a large black char mark had blistered her skin in the shape of a spear down her neck. A strange crimson welt shaped like a tree with many extending branches rose from her skin through her arms and shoulders, wreathed in hazy black like sooty leaves. The odd pattern was called a lichtenberg figure, he knew, and only one thing could cause it: lightning. Clearly, Rain had called down more than one bolt before he was done with the Great Hall.
The cyber-ninja wasted no time hating the demigod and instead lunged at his wife, threading his arms beneath her armpits and gently sliding her from the ruins before Kuai Liang hoisted Tommy into his arms and followed him to where the other survivors had been kept. When clear of the ruins, they knelt on the ground with their respective loved ones in their arms, and Fujin crouched beside Tomas, slicking back Kailyn's filthy hair. The Enenra was too relieved to have found her to be annoyed with the Wind God.
"Help them," he barked at the Hydromancer children.
"No, help Tommy," Fujin corrected. "I'll take care of your mother."
Danyka and Connor exchanged a puzzled glance with their father, but when Tomas frowned and then nodded, they obeyed and tended to their cousin instead. Meanwhile, the Wind God immediately threaded his hand through her good one and closed his eyes as he slid a knife from inside his boot. It flashed golden, the cyber-ninja saw, and curiously he watched as Fujin used it to cut into the meaty side part of his palm. Immortal ichor trickled over his and Kailyn's hands, running down their arms, dribbling onto her breast. After sheathing his knife once more, he then used his free hand to collect some with his finger. When it was thoroughly coated in blood, he used it to paint her lips red, making sure a little dripped into her throat, and then he rocked back onto his heels, still holding her hand, and waited.
They didn't have to wait long. Within moments, the ugly lichtenberg figure marring her flesh faded away and the wounds she'd received in battle began to heal. Bloody scabs withered away and dead flesh flaked off like dandruff, revealing the new, healthy skin below. Even the ugly bruises stippling the arm she'd injured fled her. Tomas watched in curious revulsion as the broken bone snapped back into place and mended on the spot. As her body fixed itself, she suddenly tensed and, with a great heaving gasp, sat up like a shot as her eyes opened.
"Rain!" she breathed, clearly disoriented.
"He's gone now, mo grá," he said to her. "He got away."
She panted for a few more seconds before she looked at her nephew and unexpectedly lunged for him. "You must help him," she said to Fujin. "He is paralyzed from the waist down, and the children are not strong enough yet to help him."
"I will do what I can," the Wind God reassured her before he also joined Kuai Liang and Tommy's side. Immediately, he went to work on Tomas' nephew.
Praxus84, well, I'm glad it was satisfying :) And I'm glad you appreciate my penchant for dialogue. It just comes to me LOL
MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior, to answer your question, it'll be as long as it needs to be LOL I can't say for sure if it'll be 5 or 6 parts, but maybe around that. I don't know. Like I said, it'll be as long as it needs to be.
SpinoGuy, I'm glad you're finally caught up (for real this time LOL). Yeah, Frost wasn't as big of a player as I imagined when I first began this story, but I made due with what I had, you know? And I love that idea for a spinoff fan-fic - first up, pizza from a real pizzaria XD
ROCuevas, thanks, I agree!
alwaysdoubted, absolutely, but this time, Subby also has to worry about what will happen to his other children.
Luine Mercury LWG, I plead the Fifth LOL