Magi Saga 2: Shadows of Darkness (28 page)

Amanda looked at him for a moment, waiting for something inside her to change, waiting for the massive guilt or horror at what she’d just done. Instead, she felt a sense of relief. She knew she had moved a step closer to stopping further innocent deaths and the suffering of parents.

Lucian looked up and saw Raal on the floor before Amanda, the hole in the top of his head leaking blood.

The scowl on Lucian’s face darkened and she could see his fists ball up tighter. Amanda slowly rose from the slight crouch she had held Raal in, watching for Lucian’s next move.

Magic flared suddenly and launched her violently through the air as if a car had hit her at eighty miles an hour from behind. She flew over Lucian and hit the makeshift wooden wall behind him, braking straight through it in a shower of splinters and pain all through her body. Had it not been for her force shield she would have broken several bones or worse. She landed halfway through the next room, tumbling and forcing herself to slow and eventually stop the momentum of the kinetic throw, coming to a stop in a crouch after skidding a few meters.

Looking up, the rest of the wooden partition wall exploded out into the room as Lucian leaped through the flying debris, landing a few meters from her.

‘It’s all been fun and games so far bitch, but you goin’ down now. Let me show you what we do to Arcadian scum like you,’ He scowled.

Amanda pulled herself up to her feet. Lucian’s throw had been a shock and knocked the wind out of her, but apart from a few minor cuts and her clothes looking worse for wear now, she wasn’t actually seriously hurt.

‘Bring it!’ Amanda said, as she stood up, preparing herself for the fight to come.

She lowered herself into a fighting stance, her feet apart for balance, her knees bent, her fists ready, she watched as Lucian drew a knife from his belt as he walked.

A few feet from her he went in for the first stab. She closed the gap, getting in closer to him and used her forearms to block his swings, knocking his attacks away from her and countering with an attack of her own. The whole time they fought Amanda’s Aegis flared with golden energy as Lucians Multitasking mind sent attack after magical attack at her, wanting to break down her mystical defences.

Amanda had both her extra minds working double time to bolster her shield and keep Lucian’s magical attacks at bay. Amanda felt she could hold her own against him quiet well, and if he would just make a mistake she could take advantage of it, but he suddenly changed tactics and hit her with another Kinetic force attack, knocking her backwards and for a moment, off balance.

She wondered then, where she might be going with this. This fight could go on for a while if all she did was defend herself. But that might work to her advantage. Her Coven mates had seen her leave the room, it wouldn’t take much investigation to find her.

She didn’t want to be saved though, she wanted to be able to deal with this depraved monster herself, to prove to herself that she could do it.

So as she closed the gap between them once more and went in with a kick, she watched him closely, looking for a weakness, a hesitation, something she could use to turn the tide of the fight.

‘You’re good at this Amanda, a regular Bruce Lee, you should consider joining us, we could use you girl,’ he said.

‘Thanks for the offer, but I’m afraid I have issues with torturing children so…’ she said in disgust.

Lucian punched as he listened, and let his arm hesitate a moment too long. Amanda saw it and hoped she had an opportunity. She grabbed his arm and with as much leverage as she could muster, and twisted it into a lock. Both their shields flared as they came into contact, throwing multi-coloured lights out as they reacted to each other.

For the briefest of moments, Amanda thought she had taken the upper hand in the fight, until another of Lucian’s Kinetic Force blasts hit her in the chest and threw her backwards. She hit the floor on her back and skidded over the old worn concrete to a stop, surrounded by the dust she had kicked up. She could feel several cuts through the shredded back of her top.

For crucial seconds she sat there winded, fighting for air until she finally caught her breath and sucked in a lung full.

Lucian turned and took a few steps towards her, stopping a few meters away.

‘I have you now,’ he said as he reached up and grasped at nothing, and then swung his fist down as his Magic surged once more, bringing another Force Blast down upon her.

Amanda raised her arm to protect herself, flooding her Shield with energy as the attack stuck home, hitting her and the ground around her.

The old weak floor couldn’t take such punishment though and with that latest hit, the whole floor gave suddenly way in a violent disintegration, taking Amanda and Lucian with it.

Amanda had that sudden feeling of weightlessness until gravity took hold of her and pulled her down, the stone breaking apart all around her and pelting her with stones and rocks while dry bitter particles of stone floating on the air filled her nose and mouth.

She landed on the pile of stone that had fallen away beneath her. Jagged edges stabbed into her back making her wince with pain. She rolled off onto her front and climbed down the rubble, dodging the occasional falling rock as she peered through the dust cloud wondering where Lucian might be. She didn’t want to get caught off guard so she made her way towards where she thought he had landed.

The rocks made the going difficult, she had to pick her away over them on all fours using her hands for balance to keep from twisting her ankle on the way.

She suddenly made out movement through the haze and headed towards it, quickly seeing that Lucian had been making his way off the rock pile too.

She jumped the last few meters and landed on a more even surface and walked with purpose towards the Nomad, refuelling her Aegis and Force shield the whole time. The fall must have broken Lucian’s concentration as he’d stopped attacking her Aegis during the fall.

The dust cloud faded and Amanda slowed as she saw Lucian looking around, eventually his gaze fixing on her. Except that it didn’t. She’d seen Lucian a few times now and every time she’d seen him, he’d been wearing his sunglasses. They were deep black wrap around shades and she’d taken it for granted this time, not even really noticing them.

But the fall had knocked them off him. Seeing his face without them might have been interesting enough under normal circumstances, but seeing what they were hiding changed everything.

Lucian didn’t have any eyes. The insides of his eye sockets were sunken and scarred, and his eyelids were sewn shut.

She’d noticed the hint of scarification on his skin around his shades before, but hadn’t thought much about it.

This revelation stopped Amanda in her tracks and she stared at him for a moment, re-evaluating everything she thought she’d known about him.

So if he had no eyes, how did he see?

She took a quick step back as Lucian stepped forward, making his way towards her.

‘Getting scared are we?’ he taunted, but Amanda didn’t listen.

Quickly she scanned the Essentia around him, and easily found the Magical set of senses that hovered just in front of his face, and crucially outside his Aegis.

Of course, he used Magic to see, he didn’t need eyes. And now she thought about it, she’d seen this casting on him each time she’d met him, but thought nothing of it.

Magi often used additional sets of senses to see things, get a second view on things, look round corners and more. This ridiculously common effect nearly always went unnoticed when you met another Magus. Seeing things from an alternate view point could be useful, but Amanda had never thought of countering such an effect as it had always seemed inconsequential.

Lucian however needed those senses to see, without them he would be blind. But he had no need to worry because the commonality of the effect pretty much guaranteed that they were never counted, never dissipated because in a fight, they weren’t dangerous for an opponent.

Amanda smiled, this basic little effect that no one took any notice of meant the world to Lucian and allowed him to see. Amanda could counter the effect and blind Lucian in less than a second, but she waited, she wanted to do it just as she attacked him. Causing the most confusion that she could.

Suddenly she ran, bolted straight at him and roared at the same moment. She caught him slightly unprepared and landed her punch right on his Jaw and just as she did it, she put as much magical energy into blowing away the Magical senses Lucian had been using as she could.

The effect dissolved into nothing instantly.

Amanda noticed Lucian’s reaction right away as he stiffened and seemed suddenly surprised, but she had no time to waste. She gave him no quarter and followed up her punch with more kicks and punches. She wanted to keep him off balance and make the most of his confusion because she felt sure it wouldn’t last long.

At the same time, she used her multiple minds to hammer into his Aegis with her Magic as much as she could.

Lucian’s defences were strong, and held up against her attacks on them as he tried to cast his senses again, but Amanda had been waiting and the working looked far too hastily made, so she countered it easily, unravelling his Magic before it went anywhere.

‘Aaaagh, fuck off,’ he shouted and worked a swift combat casting sending out a wave of force energy in all directions. The kinetic shockwave hit Amanda and knocked her back, skidding and stumbling away from Lucian as she went.

Lucian stood tall, noticing the brief lull in her attacks, He pulled Essentia back into him, and started to work his Magic once more.

‘Clever girl, no one’s figured out that I’m blind before today. I respect that. But you should know that I can’t allow you to live now,’ he said.

‘No,’ yelped Amanda, seeing her chance to beat him slipping through her fingers as Lucian regained his control. She could see his Senses spell reappearing inside his defences as he started to repair the damage Amanda had done to his Aegis.

Gunfire rang out suddenly and Lucian’s Aegis lit up as Essentia bullets ripped into it, peppering his shields with tiny destructive little rounds of Essentia.

Amanda looked up and saw Liz stood there, holding a gun in both hands as she fired her clip empty as Lucian dropped to his knees with a roar.

‘Are you alright? She called.

Amanda jumped up and strode forwards, looking back at Lucian.

‘I’m fine,’ she called up as she brought her magic to bare, ripping apart his Aegis, while his confusion at the sudden attack caused him to fumble his senses casting at the last moment.

Amanda knew this would be it, this would be her last chance, so she pulled out all the stops, she threw everything she had at him, and screamed in anger and rage at the monster who kneeled before her.

Tears fell down her cheeks as she blasted him, the surging energy rushing through her body like a hurricane as golden energy like fire and lightning flew out of her and slammed into Lucian, his Aegis flaring black and blue from the attack until it fractured and fell with a pulse of light, scattering to the four winds.

Lucian’s body whipped backwards from the attack, and as her Essentia blast faded, he came back upright while he dropped to a sitting position.

Amanda didn’t stop there though. Catching her breath she stepped forward and pulled on Essentia again, unravelling his Multitasking effect and a few other little workings of Magic he had cast on himself, all without any resistance from him.

Moments later Amanda stood before the defeated Nomad where he knelt on the floor. He tilted his head back, as if looking up at Amanda from his empty eye sockets, his face filled with hatred.

She’d done it, she’d defeated him. She felt elated, tired but elated. She stood about six foot from him, a few more rips in her jeans and her dirty top barely hanging on it had been torn so many times during the fight. Lucian sat in the puddles and debris from the roof collapse, covered in dust and dirt like Amanda, his body scratched and bleeding with an air of defeat surrounding him, she’d not seen him like this before. He’d always looked strong, powerful, in control.

‘You’re powerful, very powerful for a Knight, it’s a shame you can’t see the truth,’ he said.

‘What truth?’

‘The truth that all Nomads realise, the knowledge that when the Archons return, only we will survive to rule by their side,’ he preached.

‘Is that right?’ she asked rhetorically, rolling her eyes.

‘You would have made a sublime Nomad,’ he continued, ignoring her.

Amanda sighed. ‘You brought this on yourself you realise? You had to know it would end this way one day,’ Amanda said.

‘Just get on with it, death would be a release from your self-righteous whining,’ he answered, hanging his head. ‘I go to the dark embrace of my master in dread Tartarus,’ he muttered to himself.

Amanda sighed. ‘Very well, this is for all the lives you have destroyed,’ she said as she closed her eyes and pulled on the threads of Magical energy once more.

It looked like Lucian’s body had been placed into a vacuum as his body suddenly pulled apart, ripped into shreds and splattered across the floor in front of Amanda.

Even though she had been the one to do it, the effects on Lucian’s body grossed Amanda out all the same. She looked away, up to Liz who stood above her on the edge of the hole looking down. Xain, Orion and Shaun had joined her now.