Chapter 59: Strange Places (Patreon)

Abed held himself up, supporting himself by the handle of his weapon. The great cleaver was broken and barely resembled the weapon that it once was. He bled from cuts and bruises, and while he could feel his mage body healing slowly from the mana he still had in his core, it moved far too slow. That was the problem with fighting a fellow mage or monster, injuries they inflicted always seemed immune to a mage’s healing factor.

Should I use it now? He asked himself as he stared at the monster in the distance.

Its feline body was cut up and bruised, courtesy of Abed and Big Man Desolate. It bore burn marks and was missing its fur in different places, too. Bullet wounds riddled its body and its movement was a crawl, a distant shadow of the speed it had displayed in the beginning. Even now, as the sun rose on a new day, they still fought for their lives, Rukh rank mages gathered together to pull down one Bishop rank monster.

Abed contemplated on his decision as Big Man Desolate’s skeletal body took a massive paw, flattening him to the ground. It had happened enough times that Abed already knew the outcome as blasts of fire and lava and air pushed the monster from him, blasting against the monster’s hulking size.

It was only a matter of time before the flattened mage would get up again and rush back into the fray.

For Abed, he worried about using his trump card. Every mage of Rukh rank and higher had one. At least any reasonable one. Their core sequestered a portion of their mana reserves specifically for it. It filtered their mana in a concentration of their specialization that birthed a different skill. It was always an extremely powerful spellform, one designed to win a fight that should be unwinnable. It was one last go at success, a spellform known as an Overdrive, and Abed worried at using his. If he wasn’t going to, then anymore fighting that involved mana would tap into those mana reserves and render the spellform obsolete, unusable.

Abed was beginning to think he might actually need it for this fight, but none of the powers had seen each other’s Overdrive. Revealing his now would be a crucial piece of information that could be used against him.

Not if I kill them all, first, he thought, considering the feasibility. Unfortunately, he knew he could not take the monster and the others.

Worry gnawed at him as he knew sometimes to win the unwinnable, sacrifices had to be made. Besides, he still had hope that the VHF would take him up on his offer and bequeath Hillview to him.

Things I do for Hillview, he thought with a sigh as he tapped into his mana reserves. It better be worth it.

Abed stood straight and raised his cleaver in front of him, the blade reforming itself as he channeled mana into the spellform.

He activated his core, summoning a massive spell, lips moving as he cast it, chanting slow and painful words that turned his core and drew on it with a force so great the mana around him roared. Wisps of brown smoke rose from him, excess ambient mana glued to his skin reacting to the force of his aura. The ground beneath him shook violently as his weight doubled and he made a crater with the force of his will. Chunks of the ground beneath him, rock and concrete, rose about him, levitating like some magician’s trick.

Abed was bringing the spellform to its conclusion when the monster turned its full attention on him and its action shocked Abed to stupor. It swiped savagely at a mana spell of lava and darted into a wall. It broke through the wall and disappeared into the morning sun.

Abed’s mouth hung open as he cancelled his spellform. The ambient mana around him settled and the rocks fell back down. He watched the creature dart of into the outside world, racing off with the grace of a wounded feline. He knew they should stop it now, knew it as well as every living mage still in the auditorium. If they didn’t, it would heal over time and regain its strength.

It doesn’t matter, he thought.

There was nothing any of them could do about it. Chase down a fleeing monster? No matter how wounded it was, it remained a Bishop rank, and hunting it down in their current state was a definite no. No amount of money in the world would motivate them to do so.

“Who knows when round two’s coming?” Big Man Desolate asked, dusting off his mangled hat.

“Hopefully when you grow some flesh on those bones,” Madam Shaggy answered, sagging, then sitting on the ground. “Until then, I need to catch my breath.”

“Uh,” Eitri said, looking up. “I don’t think you get that chance, lady. We’ve got to get out of here!”

The auditorium shook around them and the rest of it came crumbling down. Abed rushed past Madam Shaggy, taking her from under the arm and pulling her along. He might have plans to overthrow them, but for now, he still needed them to keep control over Hillview.

They fled the auditorium as it crumbled, the little left of the roof coming down while the walls fell around it. They left, far fewer mages than when they’d gone in.

None of them were willing to say it yet, but their network of mages willing to trust them had just taken a heavy blow.

…………………………………………

“Ollie, you’ve got to come out,” Ash said softly.

“I know,” Oliver said.

She could only hear his voice, soft and tired on the other side of the door. It was too resigned for the brother she had watched grow up. Too quiet.

“Ollie,” she said, trying to draw him in. “I know it’s hard but you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to pick yourself up and keep on going.”

Silence met her words and her worry grew.

“Ollie?”

“Do you know the funny part about all this?” Oliver asked with a bitter laugh. “I know these things happen. I know the risks. But what type of world are we living in where someone goes to a party and never comes back, Ash? There are monsters out in the world—fucking monsters—and that’s what we’re supposed to be killing—that’s what’s supposed to kill us. So what sense does it make when we kill each other; why do we kill each other?”

Ash rested against the wooden door, her forehead pressed against it. She sighed deeply. She was a mage strong enough to crush it but there was no point to it. The door wasn’t what kept Oliver inside the room. Oliver kept himself inside the room.

“People aren’t good,” she said. It was all the answer she could think of.

Oliver’s response cut her more than she was willing to admit.

“Zed was.”

“Yea,” Ash muttered to herself. “He was.”

“He always had a joke,” Oliver continued. “It was usually stupid and childish—and that’s saying a lot coming from me—but it was always happy. Always real. You know Cindy asked me where he was yesterday? She asked me when ‘Uncle Mel’ was coming back, and I had nothing to tell her. How do you tell a child that her new friend is dead?”

You don’t, Ash thought.

“How do you tell a child that you left him to die.”

“No!” Ash said forcefully. “You didn’t leave him to die, Ollie. He was killed and it wasn’t your fault. There was nothing anyone could’ve done about it. It was an unfortunate event with no one to blame but the person who pulled the trigger.”

Oliver barked a short derisory laugh.

“The person who pulled the trigger,” he scoffed. “Remember what mum liked to say about faith.”

Ash sighed.

“Faith,” she said, “is a word used by those too weak to believe in themselves.”

They’re mother was something of an atheist while their dad kept the spiritual aspect of their family together. Ash had often wondered how a strong Christian ever married an atheist. She had never gotten the answer to that because she had never asked.

She thought of the disc hidden in her room, the one that had kept her elsewhere while Zed had been shot to death. Maybe I’ll find out when I find them.

“Well, rejecting blame is much like faith,” Oliver said. “Zed died because we weren’t there when he needed us most. And I know we didn’t know him that long, and you guys didn’t really like him, but I knew him well enough to know he didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

“No one deserves to go out like that,” Ash said.

“No,” Oliver disagreed. “A lot of people deserve to go out like that, more people than I know. That’s why it’s so unfair. That’s why it makes no sense. We should’ve been there, Ash. But we weren’t.”

Ash opened her mouth to say something, to pull her brother from whatever road he was going down, when the door opened.

Oliver stood in front of her. His shoulders drooped and his eyes had none of the light she’d seen in them so many times before. Ash saw blame in Oliver’s eyes now, blame directed towards himself.

“We should’ve been there, Ash,” he said softly, quietly. “We should’ve been there.”

“But we weren’t. and it’s not our fault.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Ash frowned. “It’s not. Bad things happen to good people every day and the rest of us just have to keep moving on, to keep living. It’s been four days, Ollie. You can’t keep yourself locked up in your room. You haven’t eaten or drunk anything, I’m worried.”

“Mages don’t need to eat or drink… or sleep.”

“But we do it anyway because while it does little for our body, it keeps us sane.”

Oliver smiled sadly. “Sane. I guess it does.”

“So please come out of your room.”

“…Eventually.”

Oliver gave Ash one last smile then closed the door on her very gently. Ash watched the door close, unable to do anything about it.

She stared at the brown wood of the door for a while before she turned away.

As she turned to leave, Ash heard Oliver mutter from behind the door. His voice was so quiet that she almost thought she’d imagined it, but she knew it was only wishful thinking.

As she descended down the stairs, his words replayed in her mind.

“I hope whatever you got from your friend was worth Zed’s life.”

She thought about it for only a small moment, wondering if she was ever really a good person. Was the shot at a chance to find her parents worth the life of a man she’d known for a month or two?

Yes, she thought, sad. Yes, it was.

………………………………………….

“How is he?”

Ash slumped down on the couch with a sigh and turned to Chris.

“Still brooding,” she answered.

“You’d think he’d be crying over his disrespectful girlfriend,” Chris frowned, “but no, he’s crying over a dead guy.”

Ash shot her a dark look.

“That dead guy was his friend.”

“He was our friend, too,” Jason said softly, forehead rested on clasped hands. “We just handle loss differently. Though, I won’t say we were the best of friends.”

“Yea,” Ash said. “Tell me about it.”

“So what happens now?” Chris asked after a stretched silence. “I mean we can’t go out hunting without him. There’s been a significant spike in monster activities since the party and I’m beginning to think we shouldn’t have given up on finding the mana surge.”

“We haven’t given up on it,” Jason said.

“We haven’t?” Chris replied, sarcastic. “Tell me this, then, when was the last time we considered heading off to look for it?”

“We were just taking a break,” Jason said, “that’s all. The plan was for Zed to get strong enough to really contribute to the team then we’d get back to it.”

“Well so much for that plan. I’m already hearing rumors that the surge might actually be around here somewhere. The rise in monster activities and monster ranks is proof enough of that. There’s even a rumor going around that Heimdall is considering making a deal with the VHF platoon at the shed. He plans on inviting them over for a talk before deciding on what will be done next.”

“It’s not a rumor.”

Ash and Chris turned to Jason at his words and Jason repeated himself.

“It’s not a rumor. The number of monster cases going up recently are becoming too much for the hunters to handle. I know a lot of people don’t know but we’ve already lost three Rukh rank hunters in the last three days. Anymore and we’ll have to start recruiting Rukh rank monsters to help us.”

“So Heimdall thinks it’s a good idea to work with the VHF?” Chris said, angry.

“Yes,” Jason said, shutting her down. “Everyone thinks it’s a good idea to get rid of the monsters so that everyone else gets a chance at living. They intend to have a talk and decide on how they’ll deal with it.”

“And what if there really is a mana surge?” Chris asked. “What if they want it?”

“THEN THEY CAN HAVE IT!” Jason shouted. “For the love of God, Chris, don’t you see what’s happening? Are you so blinded by your hate for the VHF that you don’t see that we need them? If they want the mana surge, if it’s out there and we find it, then they can have it. As long as they help us wipe out the monsters and keep the town safe they can have it all. Hate them all you want, but even Heimdall recognizes that we need them now.”

Jason got up from his seat and stormed out of the living room. He opened the door out of the house and paused at the sight before him. A frown marred his face and he fought it for control.

“Go home, Imani,” he said. “I don’t care why you’re here or how you feel but I have the best discipline of all my teammates and I want nothing more than to crush your skull right now. You cross this threshold and the girls in there will gut you like a trout.”

Imani’s arm was in a cast. Apparently, whatever injuries she’d suffered were taking long to heal. Still, she pulled off a feline smile like a girl who knew no one would dare touch her.

“And how will they explain the loss of another hunter to Heimdall?” she asked, smug.

Jason shook his head. He didn’t have the time for this.

“Simple,” he said. “They’ll say that you came in and asked Oliver to take you back. When he said no, you lost your shit and got violent. In your jealous rejected incubus rage, you attacked Ash and they all had to put you down.”

“Heimdall wouldn’t believe that,” Imani said.

“He will when I tell him I saw the whole thing happen. Maybe I’ll even put you down myself.”

Imani’s smug smile fell from her face.

“You wouldn’t do that,” she said, voice unsure. “Everyone knows you have principles and you’re honest.”

Jason took a step towards her and she staggered back.

“Try me,” he said, and a growl escaped his lips. “Cross that door and see what happens.”

Imani backed away from him, trembling, then hurried off in a quick walk. Jason watched her go, tempering the rage he felt inside him at the sight of her. He didn’t judge her for who she was and the games she was playing with Oliver. Oliver was a big boy and he was supposed to know better. But Jason blamed Imani’s decision to come here now, merely a few days since Zed’s death, knowing it was not her place. That, he could hold against her. In the face of the realization, it dawned on him just how right his words to Ash had been.

“I guess we really do handle loss differently.”

………………………………………..

In the cacophony of crumbled rocks and walls jagged and in disarray, the evening was hot and the air was full. Birds chirped despite no trees close by, harmonious dirges to a fallen building and lost mages.

From beneath the rubble a hand dragged along the ground, pulling free as another joined. They struggled until their owner was free of the rubble, weak and battered. Free of the confines of destruction, hair that looked red a complete mess, burned at odd places, the man turned over and gasped deeply, sucking in all the air his body could take. It was a dying evening and the world around him was new and unrecognizable, destruction littering it.

“I’ve really got to stop waking up in strange places,” Zed said.