Author's Note: This chapter has some somewhat graphic descriptions of physical violence. Just thought I'd give a warning. This chapter is a bit 'darker' than what most Slayers fans are used to
Chapter 5 – No Pain, No…Pain.
"Look out!" Lucia cried as she brought her sword around in a frantic attempt to deflect the incoming obsidian shard as it sailed at the two women. As the shard struck her sword, there was an explosive concussion of energy, the blast sending Lucia's sword flying from her hand and sending her tumbling across the stone floor. The shadowy creature before them let out a hissing sound not unlike a laugh.
"Well, that's a neat trick you have Mr. Mazoku, but you're not the first of your kind I've ever faced." Naga announced, using a haughty toss of her hair to hide the glance she'd thrown Lucia's way to ensure that the swordswoman was okay. After all, she would probably need her help in this fight. She noticed Lucia getting to her feet and continued to keep the monster's attention. "I hope you know who you're messing with."
"Oh, yes. I know exactly who you are, Naga the Serpent." the monster replied in its hissing voice. "I know much about you and your spunky little companion." he added, letting out another laughing sound. "I know that both of you run from painful pasts, for example."
Lucia finally got to her feet and retrieved her sword, moving to stand next to Naga. "Then it seems you have us at a disadvantage, because we don't know who you are." she said, holding her sword firmly in front of her. I know my sword can block those shards of his, but damn it hurts when I do, she thought to herself.
"Ah, yes. Where are my manners?" the Mazoku hissed sarcastically. "I am Ghedrial, and some know me as the 'Keeper of Secrets'. I have a gift, you see. I feast upon the pain and fear of mortals."
"All Mazoku feed on negative emotions. What makes you so special?" Naga asked, feeling more than a little unnerved that this creature claimed to know about her past.
"Ah, you see, I can feed upon past pains, past fears. I can see deep into the spirit of mortals. I can enhance their past terrors, and as a result, enhance the delectable flavor of their suffering!" the demonic creature howled with delight, firing another shard at Naga. The sorceress barely managed to roll out of the way, the shard tearing a chunk out of her cape as she dropped to a knee.
"Freeze Arrow!" Naga shouted, firing an icy shard of magic at the creature, who retaliated by firing another of his seemingly endless obsidian shards. The two projectiles collided in midair in an explosion of black glass and ice. Meanwhile, Lucia charged forward with her sword, only to be driven behind a pillar with Ghedrial fired another shard from his opposite hand in her direction, narrowly missing her. Naga then launched a Vibration Blast at the creature. This attack landed, but other than a hiss of anger from the creature there was no indication that her attack had any effect on the monster. She circled around and moved closer to Lucia, avoiding another shard on her way.
"What are we going to do now?" Lucia asked. She hated fighting magic users because they had so many ranged attacks, but at least when the chips were down she could use her sword to render most direct magic projectiles harmless. This time, however, that tactic only resulted in ringing ears and stinging hands.
"I don't think normal magic is going to work on him." Naga said. "I have a spell that might work, but I haven't used it in a long time." the sorceress explained. "I need you to distract him."
"I'll do my best." Lucia said, moving from behind the stone pillar and into the creature's line of sight. The creature snickered at her in its hissing rasp.
"So, come out of hiding? I'm starting to get bored!" Ghedrial shouted, lifting a hand and firing obsidian shards at Lucia. The swordswoman ran frantically across the room, ducking, diving and rolling to avoid the shards, each of which she felt missing her so narrowly that the magical roar of their essence and the wind whistling off of them was almost deafening. Meanwhile, Naga had waited until the creature turned to step out from behind the pillar.
"Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and infinite..." Naga began, her eyes closed as she focused her energy into the spell. The act of calling out a spell's name as one cast it improved its power by allowing the caster to recall the words of power that gave the spell its strength, but verbally chanting them, and concentrating fully on the spell, improved that power even more. The distraction caught, Ghedrial suddenly turned his head back towards Naga.
"What do you think you're doing?" he rasped out.
"Everlasting flame of blue, let the power hidden in my soul be called forth from the Infinite..." the sorceress continued, the blue aura that enveloped her hands suddenly growing very bright. The Mazoku's eyes suddenly widened as he turned quickly, bringing up a hand to fire a shard at the sorceress, but only a split second later realizing his attack would come too late.
"RA-TILT!" Naga cried out, the blue aura instantly forming into a coherent, solid beam as it fired directly into Ghedrial's form, the impact causing a bright blue flash that filled the great hall with shimmering light. Ghedrial could be heard emitting a loud howl of pain as Naga's spell, the most powerful shamanistic attack spell and one that attacked the target's spirit energy from which Mazoku were almost entirely made, tore through his spirit body, inflicting tremendous damage. In desperation, he began firing shards of obsidian in every direction as his form started to dissolve, but neither woman remained in the path of the deadly projectiles, and after a moment the attacks ceased as the creature evaporated into nothingness.
"Wow. What was that?" Lucia asked as she returned to the sorceress' side, still staring at the remains of the shattered vase. Naga brushed her hair aside and released a loud, drawn-out laugh in victory.
"Ohhhhhh ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. That, dear Lucia, is what happens when you cross Naga the Serpent!" she said triumphantly. Lucia peered at the shattered pottery for several more moments, surprised that such a being could be destroyed by a single spell short of a Dragon Slave.
"Ra-Tilt? I've never heard of it." Lucia said after a moment. Of course, she wasn't a master of magic by any means, but she'd heard about a fair share of spells in her travels. This one was new to her.
"The Ra-Tilt is the most powerful attack in shamanistic magic. It attacks the target's spirit directly. Since a true Mazoku is a being of pure spirit energy, it was only logical that such a spell would deal tremendous damage to him." Naga explained in a knowing tone. Lucia pondered her words for a moment, then smiled a little.
"Well, then! I'm glad you knew that spell!" Lucia said finally, sheathing her sword. "But you know, we have a bigger problem now." the swordswoman said slowly. Naga looked at her cryptically. "What are we going to do about Lord Bennet?"
"Hey, you're right! Hmmm." Naga said, thinking for a moment as the two of them returned downstairs. "Lord Korto said that it was Bennet that took the pledge, but since we killed the Mazoku he took the pledge with, that probably nullifies the whole agreement." Naga added.
"Do you think he knows Ghedrial is dead?" Lucia asked, wondering if there were some sort of link between the two that made the Mazoku's death obvious to Bennet.
"Well, I say we assume he doesn't and see if we can get our reward! What's the worst that could happen, he gets mad and kicks us out? He's probably harmless without his little pet monster!" Naga said gleefully as she pressed her fingertips together.
An hour later, the two women were once more on the road en route to Bennet's manor. Naga seemed reluctant to go near Korto's body, but Lucia had insisted that they give him a proper burial. After all, he did try to kill them, but he had also thought they were working to free the Mazoku and didn't know their true purpose until it had been too late. In the meantime, they had another two hours of walking to look forward to.
"So, when are you going to tell me about that sword of yours, hmm?" Naga said, breaking the silence after several minutes of walking. Lucia turned and glanced down at her sheathed sword, then shrugged a little.
"I don't know much about it, really. It was a gift from a golden dragon that I found shackled in some old ruins several years ago." Lucia explained. "All I know is that it's magical, and that the core is made of orihalcon." The swordswoman added.
"Orihalcon? Really?" Naga asked, honestly intrigued now. "I've never heard of making a sword from orihalcon."
"Well, it's only the core of the blade. Orihalcon by itself is too brittle to use for weapons or armor, so they normally use an alloy, but that weakens its anti-magic effects."
"So the core is orihalcon. What about the blade?"
"That's just normal steel enchanted with your typical weapon enchantments, and one that lets magic pass through it to the core. I think that's what lets me reflect spells, but I'm honestly not totally sure." Lucia explained, wishing she knew more about the sword's true abilities.
"I bet that sword is priceless." Naga said, briefly trying to calculate how much selling such a thing would bring her, but brushing the notion aside. She remembered hearing something from passing rumors about Lina traveling with the Swordsman of Light and mused to herself over the interesting parallel between she and the younger sorceress.
"It is if you know what it's made of. You're actually the first person I've ever told about it, but I figure a famous traveler and adventurer like you wouldn't have any reason to steal it from me." Lucia explained, smiling up at the sorceress as the two rounded a bend in the road and came within view of Bennet's manor.
"Well, Lucia? How do you want to handle this one?" Naga asked, putting her hands on her hips and getting that usual look of confidence as she gazed at the manor. Lucia thought for a moment, then replied.
"Walk in and ask for our payment as if nothing's wrong?"
"What if he calls our bluff?"
Lucia let out a short giggle. "Then we make him pay us what he owes us." The swordswoman said, grasping the hilt of her sword for emphasis. Naga let out a low laugh and nodded as both women headed off towards the manor. The distance between them and the structure only took a few minutes to cross, and as they neared the outer wall, something appeared amiss.
"Where are all the servants?" Lucia asked softly as the two walked into the manor's large courtyard. On their first visit, there had been several servants tending the gardens, and it was hard to imagine that there wouldn't be someone out here working this time of day. "This place seems sort of deserted."
"So, you've returned!" a voice suddenly called out from the second level. Bennet stood on the upper ledge approaching the manor, looking down across the courtyard at the two women. "I have to admit, I hadn't expected this level of success from the likes of you two!"
"You were a fool to underestimate me, Lord Bennet!" Naga replied. "The great Naga the Serpent cannot be-oof!" Naga suddenly grunted, interrupted as Lucia nudged her with her elbow. "Oww…what was that for?" she whined.
"I don't think he's buying it, Naga. This is a trap." Lucia replied lowly, spotting movement in the windows of the lower level leading into the courtyard. Almost as if on cue, three of the service doors opened and several beastmen exited, all armed with weapons varying from axes to swords to crudely-fashioned clubs. Naga took a look around, then laughed loudly.
"Ohhhhh ho-ho-ho-ho…so cheap that you can't even outfit your hired thugs with decent equipment, Bennet? So typical!" the sorceress called out as she surveyed the dozen or so attackers that began to try and flank the two. Lucia's sword was already out of its sheath as she carefully began watching the nearer of the group.
"Did you honestly think I wouldn't be able to detect Ghedrial's destruction?" Bennet called out angrily. "You have no idea how much time and effort went into my plans, of which the Mazoku was only a small part!" the nobleman shouted, nearly foaming at the mouth he was so enraged. "But no matter. I will take care of you two myself!"
"I'll take care of the beastmen. You focus on Bennet." Lucia said softly to Naga. Naga glanced at Lucia's sword and realized that the swordswoman would not hold back, and there'd likely be a lot of blood, and she didn't want to be anywhere near the blood.
"Of course. He still owes us two-hundred gold pieces, after all." Naga said, smirking. "Raywing!" the sorceress called out, enacting a flight spell to carry her up to the 15-foot second level of the courtyard. Meanwhile, the beastmen closed in on Lucia and began their attack.
"You'll find me more difficult to deal with than you expect, dear woman." Bennet said, cocking his hand back. "Fireball!" the nobleman chanted, a burning ball of magical energy appearing in his hand before he hurled it at the sorceress. Naga dodged to the side as the ball sailed past her, exploding against a wall on the opposite side of the courtyard.
"Freeze arrow!" Naga called out, responding to Bennet's fireball attack with an icy shard of magic that caught the nobleman in the arm, encasing it in ice. With a growl, the man slammed his arm against the nearest wall, shattering the ice into pieces.
"Vibration Blast!" Bennet shouted, firing bolts of sonic energy at the sorceress which caught her in the leg and knocked her to the ground. Naga managed to roll aside as Bennet followed up with a Flare Arrow, narrowly avoiding being burned to a crisp.
Meanwhile, down on the ground level of the courtyard, several beastmen lie dead or dying on the ground as Lucia parried a flurry of attacks from two more. Individually, the beastmen were untrained thugs and lacked any battle discipline, but they made up for it with ferocity and numbers, and Lucia was starting to get tired despite still having half a dozen opponents left. It was times like this she wished she was more skilled with magic. There was also the issue of a nagging sensation in the back of her head, like a beast slamming its claws against the bars of its cage, howling to be released and only barely being contained. A sudden combination of attacks from one of the beastmen drove her backwards, her boot catching on the fallen body of another of her enemies, causing her to fall backwards, her sword knocked from her grip in the same flurry of attacks. As she looked up, the beastman raised his axe over his head in preparation of the final blow, and Lucia desperately brought her hands up, intending to catch the weapon on its downward stroke despite knowing that such a defense was extremely unlikely to work.
"Lucia!" Naga cried, a sideways glance informing her of the swordswoman's peril. She spun quickly, facing the swordswoman from across the courtyard. Lucia gritted her teeth and awaited the final blow, shocked by a flash of blue light and a rush of cold air as the beastman was suddenly encased in ice and frozen firmly in position. Lucia took the opportunity to roll out from under the frozen creature and retrieve her sword just as he fell forward, the icy statue shattering into hundreds of morbid fragments. Back on her feet and armed once more, Lucia moved to engage the few remaining beasts.
"Fireball!" Bennet shouted, taking advantage of Naga's distraction to launch another sphere of flame at the sorceress. Naga narrowly avoided the attack, but it struck the wall beside her, spraying her with stinging stone fragments and dazing her from the concussion. Naga shook the impact off and glared at Bennet.
"What a dirty trick! It'll take more than low-blows to bring down Naga…the…" the sorceress began taunting, only to stop when she realized that her arms stung. Looking down on a whim, her eyes widened with terror as she saw thick rivulets of blood running down her arms from the deeply-imbeded shards of stone, dripping off of her hands. Suddenly, she was paralyzed, the blood staining her gloved hands so familiar. Nightmarish visions of her mother lying dead on the floor, blood everywhere, on the floor, the walls, and even on her hands, flooded her mind. She stood rooted in place, trembling.
"Naga?" Lucia whispered softly, having taken down the last of the beastmen. She'd looked up to see how Naga was faring when she spotted the sorceress frozen in place.
"Now I've got you! Dil Brand!" Bennet shouted, the ground under Naga's feet exploding violently and sending her slamming hard into the stone wall behind her. Lucia cringed as she heard the thick 'thud' sound even from over fifty yards away, watching as the sorceress slumped into a limp heap out of her line of sight. Bennet cackled darkly. Then, something snapped in Lucia's mind.
The beast was free.
Everything seemed to turn red, the sky, the stone, even the grass in the courtyard, or at least that which wasn't stained with beastman blood. Blood….Bennet's blood. She needed to spill it. Lucia heard a deep-throated growl, human and yet so feral, only to realize that it was her own.
"Now, to take care of the other one." Bennet said, laughing down at the fallen sorceress before turning to face Lucia. He was shocked to notice that the girl was no longer in the courtyard, and moreso to see all of his beastmen lying dead on the ground. Oh well, that's what you get for hiring cheap help. At least they'd been a good diversion. Bennet was more shocked as he turned and saw the swordswoman sprinting up the stairs that circled the courtyard and rose to the upper level. She was moving fast, too. "Too easy" Bennet said with a grin as he lifted his hand. "Flare Arrow!"
Lucia didn't even notice the searing bolt as it homed in on her, slamming into her shoulder. Bennet grinned and laughed to himself, a thick, hearty sound that suddenly cut off with confusion as the swordswoman charged through the flames and kept coming, smoke whisping off of her singed shoulder as she moved towards him at alarming speed. Frantically, he fired another flaming arrow at the woman. This time, Lucia had anticipated the attack even through her rage and lifted her sword, deflecting the arrow into a nearby stone wall.
"That's impossible!" Bennet cried. He raised his hand once more. "Fireba-acccckkk!" he spat out. Bennet became aware of two sensations almost simultaneously as the woman closed the remaining distance between them. The was the sharp feeling of the woman's blade piercing through his expensive clothes and the flesh beneath them, and almost immediately followed by the sudden thudding impact of the weapon's crossguard as it slammed into his gut. Lucia had run the sword completely through him in a single, powerful charge, and her momentum was such that she continued forward several steps, carrying him solidly into a stone wall, the blade's tip burying itself several inches into the stone, effectively pinning him against it. "Im…possible!" Bennet gasped out again. Even in his dying moments, for he knew he wouldn't survive such a grievous wound, he found himself horrified by Lucia's expression. The girl's normally cheerful, innocent expression was twisted in a guise of absolute rage. Her teeth were clenched as she breathed out labored breaths through them, saliva dripping from her lips, her eyes wild like a berserk animal, though tempered with a focused, determined hatred that only a human could possess, as they bored into his own. Bennet let out a loud grunt of pain as Lucia suddenly twisted her sword, then uttered one command.
"Die…" she growled lowly, tightening her grip on her sword. "Digger Volt!" Lucia said lowly, unleasing a powerful electrical spell through her sword and into Bennet's pinned body. The nobleman released a guttural howl as lightning coursed over his form, his body jerking for several seconds before dropping limp, held up only by Lucia's blade. Lucia glared at his charred body for several more seconds before yanking her sword out of him, letting him fall unceremoniously to the ground.
"Lu…Lucia…". The weak voice pulled Lucia out of her enraged haze almost immediately, and she turned frantically back towards the source of the sound. Lucia rushed over to the fallen sorceress.
"Naga! Hold on, okay?" Lucia said, swallowing as she tried to assess the woman's injuries. She had several deep cuts from the explosion of stone that had hit her, as well as singes from the fireball itself. What was worse, however, was the blunt force trauma that had clearly left her with several broken bones. Her arm was twisted badly, and the bruising and lumps around her torso indicated at least two or three broken ribs. Weakly, Naga tried to enact a healing spell on herself, but the extend of her injuries prevented her from concentrating long enough to pull it off.
"I…can't…" Naga began. She was so short of breath, and it felt like even her hair hurt. Lucia shushed her. Lucia was kneeling over her, but Naga wasn't sure if Lucia even knew how to use any healing spells, and it was getting so hard to stay awake. Blurred blackness began to creep into the edges of her vision, which started to get blurry.
Naga let herself fall into the soothing, numbing darkness.