Leviathan (Fist of Light Series) (8 page)

“
Of course, my liege.”
A distracted response, he still managed to drown it in sarcasm.
“However, be warned, this is no easy task. If the wrong strand is pulled loose, it would mean death for both of us. The process cannot be rushed.”

“Great. Just try and finish before I get killed, would you?” My head snapped to the right and left as I felt a disturbance among the sands.

The ogres’ bodies were nowhere to be seen. The arena was clean of residual blood. I was determined not to dwell on their fate too much; it wouldn’t do me any good. After taking up a defensive position and calling to Air, I waited as my newest challenge was revealed. Commanding Water from the air was more difficult than the last time, but soon two swords of ice gleamed potently in my hands nonetheless. Reinforcing the blades with Air reassured me that the katanas would last longer than they normally would under pressure. Likely, there was less water to work with, therefore, molecules of water had to be moved farther to create the weapons. My attention was focused back on the great rumbling and I resisted the urge to scratch my head in confusion, relying on my sixth sense to ascertain the threat. Immediately, my mind was confronted with a mass of Earth, animated from within.

No further thought could be spared, however, as my chances at progressing to the next round rapidly deteriorated. Burrowing up from underneath the sands were critters of unknown origin, their existence confusing in the extreme. They weren't skin and bone, but rather a curious combination of various earthen components.

“
They're elementals, dimwit,”
Jeeves' strained voice relayed.

With that nugget of information, everything clicked into place. The way they radiated the essence of Earth, their grinding appendages composed entirely of the stuff. Although they varied in size, most were under three feet. Their tiny legs and arms might look harmless if they weren't topped with wickedly sharp claws. As more and more elementals dug themselves out of the ground, the gravity of my plight was revealed to me. I didn't even know how to kill the things, let alone know what they were capable of. With Jeeves out of the picture, it would make this matchup particularly challenging. Grunting, I hefted my swords and started forward, moving toward a still-emerging elemental. The rest of the buggers were still moving slowly, which bought me some time to probe for weaknesses before the elementals found their bearings.

Slashing at the vulnerable being before me, I struck its head from its shoulders, the rolling bits of rock dissembling when they hit the ground. My luck had run out; this brought the wrath of the whole pack down upon me. With disturbing agility and speed, the assembled elementals rushed my position as I called frantically to Air, slowing down the assaulting party by speeding my own actions. I moved forward with tenacity, my swords lashing out on their own accord and hacking at limbs indiscriminately. By the time I made it through the assembled mass with my charge, a number of slashes had been accumulated, stinging pains that were pinging distractedly all about my body, but mostly evident in arms and legs.

The head-on maneuver was ill-advised, even with my increased speed. There were just so
many
of the damn buggers. Walling off the pain and turning around once more to confront the elementals, I realized a disturbing trend that had been unnoticeable due to my previous distraction. Those that had lost limbs and heads were slowly reassembling into an even larger whole, the small pieces of animated Earth rolling slowly towards an enlarged conglomerate. The crowd was hooting and hollering; it seemed they were much amused with the development. In growing apprehension I watched as history repeated itself for the first time since an earlier run-in with fire elementals in the Dreamscape. Unfortunately, the lesson hadn't ingrained itself properly, because this elemental was reforming before my eyes into an even more powerful entity.

“
Uh, Jeeves. I know you're busy, but—”
I blurred to the right and struck reactively with a sword, avoiding spiked claws from one of the smaller elementals.

Unexpectedly, the sword stuck fast within the earthen being and was torn from my grip. I forced my attention on retrieving the weapon before the monolithic monster came and bludgeoned me into submission. The body of the elemental was quickly located, the sword protruding from its chest. I pulled the katana out of the unmoving stone. Although it went against my better judgment, I kicked at the pile of rocks, but I didn’t notice any reaction. Curiously, I nudged the rocky body a few more times before it was finally deemed dead. It looked like there
was
a way to kill these forces of nature— if you stabbed them through their rocky hearts.

In my distraction, I had all but forgotten about the giant conglomerate of rock forming behind me. It had actually begun sucking up its living brethren by this time, their small bodies scrabbling futilely for escape. Fortunately for me, that meant there were less of the little buggers to deal with. Unfortunately, that meant I had one super baddy on my hands that didn't look too happy with me. However, I'd rather deal with this hulking beast than the previous array of earthen beings. Those were famous last words, of course. The ground trembled uncertainly as the powerful elemental before me began to exert its dominance on the earthly realm.

It slammed its rocky fists into the ground. Sand swirled violently up them in the form of snaky appendages. With growing apprehension I watched as these vine-like constructions began latching themselves onto the back of the being before me. By the time the sands had stopped moving and glowing eyes were turned my way, the elemental looked like some sort of earthbound octopus that stretched over ten feet tall. Gulping, I figured things weren’t looking up for one Empowered teen right about now.

“Crap. This doesn't look good,” I said.

No helpful tidbits of information or sarcastic responses were evident from Jeeves, though not much was expected from his corner. This fight was my own, which meant that my head had to be in the game if I planned on making it out of this mess alive. Meticulously examining the construct before me, my eyes scanned for breaches, but none were found to be particularly vulnerable, especially with the new upgrades. The ground shook convulsively away from the elemental as it took a giant step forward, its writhing tentacles within range of my frail sack of skin and bone. From what had been gleaned from its smaller counterpart, I needed to stab the elemental in the heart to take it down. If Earth was one of my fortes, it would have been a less complicated to take the beast down. Alas, I had no such luck, and besides, demonstrating another element in front of this crowd would have some very unsavory side effects, likely including but not limited to gastrointestinal bleeding and other related complications.

I pulled my wandering mind back to reality and brought it to bear on figuring a way out of this mess. After calling Air, I swerved to the right, closely dodging a flailing appendage that sent a shockwave of power into the ground beside me. Taking advantage of the lull as the lumbering creature processed the futility of the attack, I struck powerfully with one katana at the thick tentacle. At first, it seemed I’d made some progress, but then the blade stuck fast in the thick appendage. Despite my violent protests to the contrary, my weapon had become lodged within the elemental. Muttering violently, I heated the design out of its frozen state and called a portion of the construction into a stiletto, which cohered perfectly to the palm of my hand. The same technique was used to provide extra strength to the construct.

I was so engrossed with the single part of the elemental that it was too late to respond to the being's next assault. A giant haymaker smashed into me from the side, its herculean power blunted only slightly by the fact the appendage was made of sand. My weapons were lost in the ensuing tumble, which flung me end over end across the coarse sands of the arena. The booming steps of a titanic creation led me to believe that the elemental wasn't yet through with games. Forcing myself painfully to my feet, I wobbled uncertainly before turning and facing the earthen construct.

“You hit like a girl,” I informed it woozily, slurring.

Spotting my weapons behind the being in question, I ransacked my shaken brain for any idea that might keep me from becoming road kill. In a moment of concussed revelation, it came to me. Grinning childishly and rubbing my hands together, I called Air and shot a cable at the giant, which was fast approaching within haymaker range. As it stuck satisfyingly into the legs of the elemental, I called to Air again to speed my headlong flight around the perimeter. My adoring fans booed and swore creatively at my cowardice, but I pushed the discordant sounds into the background. My thin purple tripwire wasn't noticed by my prey as one revolution went by in a dizzying blur, and the Air-fashioned rope constricted around beefy, rocky legs.

The confused elemental was no longer moving anywhere as it tried to ascertain my whereabouts and what my next move might be. Luckily, Rocky here wasn't too bright, so my plan unfolded without a hitch. Laughing, I pinned my makeshift rope to the wall, then proceeded to the opposite side of the elemental. A piercing whistle emanated from my mouth, daring Rocky to make another attempt. Happy to have an unmoving target once more, my prey fell naively into my crude trap while it attempted to advance upon me. Once the first move was made, gravity did the rest and the giant toppled to the sands. Grinning from ear to ear, I snatched up my stiletto while the crowd broke out into uncontrollable fits of laughter. Apparently even the subhuman entities that attended the bloody sport offered by the Dominus in this grungy underworld still retained some sense of humor.

As Rocky face-planted comically, its tentacled appendages burst outward in a coordinated attack, forcing me to close more quickly than planned on the prone form. Dodging through a veritable forest of animated sand, I made my way determinedly to the center of it all. Currents of wind whooshed by my face with the uncountable near misses that stacked up as my forward rush came to its end. I rolled under a particularly low-flying appendage then stood up assuredly before my prey, twirling the stiletto expectantly. The trick here would be getting the dagger in deep enough that it would un-animate this force of nature, but there was little time for deliberation. Going with a gut feeling, I blurred forward, bringing my entire body into a downward thrust on the left side of Rocky's back. Even as the blade sank deeply into the earthen exterior of the elemental, it began to get its feet underneath it, prepared to stand. Obviously, the attack had done little real harm, probably because of the small size of the weapon.

Crossing mental fingers against failure, I attempted to navigate back out of the infuriated midst of multiple tentacled appendages. That was where my stream of luck petered out entirely, however, and a sandy tentacle bound itself painfully to my left forearm. Similarly, two more appendages attached firmly to my lower limbs, binding themselves to my body and pulling me toward the maw of a very angry elemental. My back scraped on the dusty sands of the arena as the now standing giant picked me off the ground to better examine the tiny being that had just attempted to kill it. Swinging back and forth in the grips of the monster, there was little I could do. My heartbeat pounded powerfully, super-oxygenating my blood and delivering yet more adrenaline. My heart was trying to get out an extra couple beats before it stopped entirely.

Even now, as I hung stupidly and blood rushed to my inverted head, a dark maw opened to admit my entrance. Cries for my blood and death abounded all across the arena, and I finally realized why Rocky hesitated. The Dominus presented a thumb’s down to the towering giant. Efficient as an assembly line, the extra limbs began to move me inexorably towards my ultimate destination. Rooting around frantically, I looked for a way out of the predicament, anything with a miniscule chance of success. Grinding my teeth together and looking at my solitary free hand, I stared impotently and clenched my fist in denial. Then, in dawning revelation, my hand was drawn backward, as if on its own accord. In a furious, Air-fueled strike, I punched forward with the unrestricted hand, sending a huge concussion at my opponent.

As Rocky rocked back on his heels, I prepared for an even more difficult task, straightening my hand out and pulling it back behind my head. There would have to be huge inertia and brute power behind the strike, despite its thin consistency and the relatively soft composition of my target. A staggering amount of energy had to be siphoned from the nexus before I was satisfied with the design. I chopped my hand forward while the elemental was still stunned. With it came a razor-thin blast of wind, one of the most finely controlled bits of Air that had ever been enacted by yours truly. Some resistance sought to keep me from my goal, but abruptly the tentacled appendages were sliced cleanly away, sand falling lifelessly, no longer constricting tightly around me.

As I fell back to the now-inviting looking sands below, I redirected the arcing trajectory of my design, bringing it around for another strike. Low to the ground, it flew true, aiming directly for what I considered to be knee height on the monolithic compilation of Earth. Even more power was necessary if my plan was to succeed, and so I siphoned more reluctantly as my remote-controlled boomerang sliced into Rocky once more. For a moment, the outcome was uncertain and my design dissipated harmlessly back to its natural tendencies. Then a great, grinding bellow of rage emanated from the black maw of the beast before me, and I cracked a smile at the sound of it. The walls practically shook with that roar, but there wasn't any time to dawdle and determine whether or not my eardrums had been blown.

Stretching out my hands, I called to the Air, bearing my discarded katana upon the winds and into my hands. Its reassuring weight comforted me as I dodged to make it to my goal. Rocky toppled forward, unable to stop its fall. With a forward blur, I stuck the weapon straight into the ground then commanded even more water to flash-freeze on its surface. When the deed was done, a spiked icicle looked as if it had grown out of the sand, a deadly gleam playing along its length. Realizing belatedly that I was currently standing on ground zero of the impact site, I directed a blast of Air before me with an outstretched hand, shooting myself swiftly backward. This time, there was minimal tumbling involved in the maneuver and my clothes only needed a little dusting.