Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness (27 page)

‘I think you broke my damn nose,’ Jason said in anger and shock. He kicked her in the stomach and let her fall to the floor, letting go of her hand in the process as he touched his nose gingerly once more. He winced as he did so and then returned his angry gaze back to Liz. ‘Come here,’ he said and quickly stepped forward, forcing her to stand up by grabbing her arm and lifting her.

‘I’m going to have some fun with you,’ he bellowed, but Liz didn’t look at Jason, she didn’t really even hear him as she saw the Scion wolf round the corner behind him slavering with blind rage and then leap forward. She’d started to try and pull away from him the moment she saw the wolf, and fought to release herself from his grip, pulling him forward between her and the wolf.

The wolf landed on Jason’s back, roaring madly and threw him forward. Liz fell alongside him, pulled to the floor by Jason’s grip, she rolled with the momentum and stopped a couple of meters in front of him. Jason had landed on his front, the beast on his back pinning him as it immediately bit him, sinking its teeth into his shoulder while raking his back with its claws.

Jason screamed in pain, his body thrashing about in utter panic trying in vain to dislodge the wolf.

Shuffling backwards on her bum, Liz’s hand knocked against something. She looked down and saw Jason’s gun. Picking it up she pointed it at the beast and wondered where to shoot it.

She called on her Magical sight, looked into the fates and where the best place to shoot the thing might be. A few options presented themselves, but the one place that seemed to call to her the most wasn’t actually on the creature at all. Next to them in the wall an electrical cable sat very close to a water main, their hidden location revealed by Liz’s Magical sight. She turned her gun to the wall and opened fire, and after the third bullet water started to seep from the pipe, but after the forth, it burst and drenched Jason and the wolf Scion in water.

The wolf flinched away from the water looking surprised, almost releasing Jason who started to try and pull himself free from the wolfs grip.

But Liz kept firing, altering her aim slightly to hit the electrical Cable above it. A few rapid fire shots later and the broken cable contacted the water, electrifying it and shocking Jason and the creature.

Both of them dropped to the floor in a spasm as Liz stopped firing.

She sat there for what seemed like forever, breathing hard and just looking at the pair of twitching wet bodies while keeping out of the water.

She couldn’t quite believe she’d taken out two people who were both quite intent on killing her. She couldn’t wait to tell Amanda about this.

She decided it might be best if she kept the gun with her. She really didn’t like firearms much, but she could see the appeal for dangerous missions like this. Even with Magical abilities, sometimes you just needed to blow them away.

Standing up she listened once more for the staccato gunfire and headed towards it.

Amanda threw a couple of punches at Raal followed by a swift kick to his ribs which knocked him sideways, her Essentia hits sparking flickering light and energy each time she connected.

Raal staggered to the side but stayed upright, brandishing his knife as he moved, trying to get in quick as Amanda brought her leg back down from the kick.

Amanda saw it coming and caught the attack without too much difficulty.

All the while her other minds, separate and whole and able to use Magic, did their best to shore up her Aegis and magical shields. Lucian and Raal’s Magical attacks threw more and more Essentia at her, hammering a spike of Magical energy into her defences in an attempt to break them down. Amanda’s powerful connection to Essentia meant she could bring a lot of strength to her Aegis very quickly and she found that she managed, just, to hold them both off together.

Feeling comfortable that her Aegis would hold for the time being, she concentrated on the fight at hand and used Raal’s own strength against him, twisting him around and into a hold with both hands pinned and his own knife to his throat. She pressed it in making its stored Essentia fizz and pop with light and energy as Raal’s Aegis fought the attack of the knife and the proximity of Amanda’s own Aegis.

Able to look around her now that Raal had been forced to kneel here under her control, she looked up at Lucian from her crouched position, who had now backed away even more.

‘This ends tonight Lucian,’ she said.

‘Actually no, it doesn’t,’ Lucian replied as she noticed the flare of Essentia from within him that Amanda recognised as a Porting, but just as suddenly there came another surge of energy from an unknown source that washed over Lucian’s casting and caused the build up to fizzle and die.

Amanda looked about her, as did Lucian and saw no obvious culprit, but Amanda had an idea who it might be.

‘Seems like someone doesn’t want you to leave Lucian,’ she said.

Lucian looked worried for a moment, before he scowled at Amanda again and after backing off a few steps, turned and ran, bursting through the far doors moments later and disappeared from sight.

‘Feck,’ said Amanda to herself. She couldn’t lose Lucian now, not after coming this far. With Lucian gone and his attacks on her Aegis no longer worrying her, she quickly refocused her own Magic use and dedicated her 3 minds to ripping Raal’s Aegis apart.

‘Give it up Raal, you’re done,’ she said.

‘Don’t count on it,’ he replied.

The extra power she could bring to bear overwhelmed Raal’s defensive shields in a matter of seconds, and they quickly faded to nothing.

Wasting no time, Amanda reached inside his head with her Magic and with a quick working, she knocked Raal unconscious and let his limp body drop to the floor.

‘Finally,’ she said as she sprang from the floor and bolted across the room, straight for the same door Lucian went through just seconds before. Crossing the room, she vaulted over a few sofas and managed to glance back at the fight in the doorway with Yoh and Maya, and noticed that Liz, with Xain and Orion had just arrived as well. They were winning, and within moments they’d be able to help, but she couldn’t afford to wait even a few seconds more.

On reflection, she understood now that Lucian had seen Liz and the boys arrive a few seconds ago, which had probably led to his swift exit.

Using her Magic, she looked back in time to when Lucian ran through the doors she followed him through them and turned left as he had.

It felt like following a ghost as she sprinted along the corridor as fast as her legs could carry her and looking back in time to see where Lucian had run. She moved fast, running at speeds beyond those an Athlete could achieve. Amanda barely slowed down to tackle the corners, taking as wide a line through them as she could she still ended up using her hands to keep herself from slamming her shoulder into the wall.

As she watched, she knew she couldn’t see Lucian’s Magic use back in time, but she could see that he flickered for a moment, disappearing and reappearing with an angry and frustrated look on his face.

Amanda guessed he’d tried to Port out once more, but had been resisted once again. Amanda suspected the culprit to be Yasmin, stopping him making a quick and easy getaway. It also served as a nice little reminder from the Arch Master that although she might not be in the room, she was watching.

Amanda saw the indecision for a moment in Lucian’s face before he swore to himself and ran down another corridor, but maybe not the one he had wanted to take ideally.

Amanda careened off the walls and followed round the same corner she’d just watched him take brief moments before and saw the door at the end of the corridor that now stood ajar.

Unlike the other doors in here, this one had been made from metal and looked like it had seen better days.

As Amanda watched the vision of Lucian step through the door, she also noticed him fade from view and turn invisible.

Amanda cancelled the time magic effect and slowed down to a walk by the time she reached door. He’d only come through here maybe ten or twenty seconds ago at most, he didn’t have much of a lead, and he now needed to be much more careful and quiet if he wanted to get away from her.

Amanda stepped slowly through the doorway, her Aegis and Force Shield back to full strength. On the other side of the door Amanda found herself back in the sewers and subterranean passages beneath New York.

There were a few dim lights scattered about the place, but otherwise the tunnels were very dark. Amanda’s eyes had been enhanced by Magic permanently and were able to see in all but absolute darkness to a much better degree then a Riven human.

Before her a metal staircase descended from the steel mesh platform she stood on. Amanda looked around her, her vision looking into the magical realm and into other spectrums of light invisible to the average human eye, but saw nothing.

Lucian had moved on from here and into the tunnels beyond.

Amanda reached the top of the steep stairs and looked down. Rather than trust the structure she jumped and fell lightly to the floor below, her Magic making her landing gentle and silent.

Passageways led off into the darkness in several directions. Pipes lined the walls with the occasional pump or other bit of mechanical engineering jutting out into the walkways. Puddles covered the floor as mist and steam hung in the still air.

Amanda noticed the remains of a few eddies in the steam down one passage that looked like someone had recently walked through it. It seemed likely that he had passed this way.

Walking forward she could feel the Essentia she had built up inside her on her skin like a static electrical charge. The looming fight with Lucian both scared and excited her, causing the Essentia within her to feed off that emotion and produce that static feeling.

Amanda followed her instinct most of the time, letting fate take its course and following whatever clues she could find, but she didn’t need to go far before she rounded a corner and saw his silhouette ahead.

‘I should have you arrested for stalking me!’ he rumbled to her as Magic flared out of him and slammed home into her Aegis.

He wasn’t holding back anything now, and although Amanda threw up an effect to try and counter his Magic, it simply couldn’t resist him, his magic hitting Amanda hard. As suddenly as it had appeared, it stopped, and Lucian had gone with it.

Amanda span round, looking about her waiting for that next attack. She stalked forward and into a wider section of tunnel with passages and tunnels leading off from it. She dropped down onto the damp concrete, splashing a puddle as she landed.

Moments later she had a strong feeling of someone being behind her. The Magic that blasted her Aegis and Force Shield from the front both confirmed and confused the matter, but the kidney punch that Lucian drove into her back ended that confusion.

She staggered as she struggled to remain upright in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but the pain passed and on looking round, she appeared to be alone in this space once more.

Amanda got flashbacks to the fight in Columbia and had no desire to be taken by surprise again, so she quickly gathered her thoughts and looked about her once more, looking for any hint in the surrounding Essentia that might give away his position.

She couldn’t see anything, nothing at all. Lucian had this invisibility effect truly mastered.

Suddenly he appeared right beside her once more, the second he appeared, two things happened right away. Lucian cast a powerful kinetic blast that slammed into Amanda and knocked her forward. At exactly the same time, gunfire rang out ahead of her from the darkness of a nearby tunnel.

Amanda fell but used the momentum to roll, ending up on her feet once more. Quickly she looked about to take in the situation and saw that Shaun had appeared in the tunnel holding a gun that he pointed over Amanda’s head towards Lucian.

‘Shaun?’ she asked.

‘In the flesh,’ Shaun answered.

Looking across at Lucian she saw he’d dropped to one knee, the last remnants of magical energy from Shaun’s gunfire dying away as his Aegis fought the attack off.

Shaun had some Magic bullets.

She looked back to Shaun, about to thank him, only to see a bloodied Raal stood just behind him and looking very upset.

‘Shaun, move,’ Amanda yelled before Raal grabbed his wrist, swiftly disarmed him and magically shoved him from the tunnel like a rag doll. He landed on the damp stone floor not too far from Amanda and groaned in pain.

‘God damn it Shaun,’ she said.

Raal stepped towards Amanda and raised Shaun’s gun, pointing it at her, but Amanda had already moved. Stepping into Raal she caught his gun hand in hers and raised it up, pointing the weapon away from anyone it might harm. Twisting in the opposite direction she moved around Raal and once more secured him in a hold, using leverage and his strength against him.

By the time she’d finished, his gun ended pointing up beneath his jaw.

‘For what you and your coven did, you deserve much worse than this,’ she said, and pulled the trigger.

Blood splattered onto her face as the ear shattering noise of the gun made the other two people in here flinch.

She released him from her grip and let Raal fall to the floor, toppling onto his face.