Rend Hope (12 page)

             
Numbly, Benjamin exited the makeshift lab and made his way down the spiral stairs to the mansion's exit.  His mind still trying to process what just happened and what he had truly done.  Did he really just commit unnecessary murder?  Had he really blundered so greatly?  What kind of monster was he becoming?

             
As Benjamin stepped outside into the harsh sunlight, he felt his legs give out from under him.  He collapsed to his knees and proceeded to vomit up the contents of his breakfast.  Images of the people he had just murdered flashed through his mind, stopping on the girl that looked just like Rebecca.  Her innocent face, a face that didn't need to die.

             
Unable to bear it any longer, Benjamin reared up and let out a howl of anguish.  The terrible sound reached the ears of Ebrim in his lab and he smiled.

**********

Present Day

Ebrim’s hideout, The West Coast Ruins

              "He has a lot of potential if given the right 'encouragement' which I intend to give." Ebrim told his table companion.

             
"So what's he doing right now?" Sahiron asked.

             
"Taking care of a possible problem.  I’ve set up a trap for any pursuers of mine and I sent him to take care of it if it triggers.  He should be back by tonight."  Ebrim informed him.  Sahiron's curiosity was aroused, the dark-haired man talked as if his apprentice's survival was assured.

             
"And what if he's not?  What if whoever sets off the trap actually manages to kill him?" Sahiron inquired, to his slight surprise Ebrim shrugged.

             
"Then he wasn't fit to be my apprentice." The dark-haired man answered, adjusting the blue scarf around his neck to a more comfortable position.  The smirk remained on his face.  "I have a distinct feeling though that he won't let himself die just yet."

**********

              Janine was confused as she watched the crimson-haired youth begin to swing his over-sized bat.  While the weapon was large, it would never reach her from where he was.  Still, the look on his face said he knew what he was doing.  So she waited, preparing herself for his attack.

             
Benjamin smirked, the lady was on guard, but it wouldn't be enough.  With a mental command, the guardian pillar he was wielding, a gift passed down from his father, extended its range dramatically.  He swung the pillar in a horizontal arc from his right to his left.

             
The vice-sheriff was caught completely off-guard at the bat's sudden extension.  She expected some sort of magic blast from the weapon, not the weapon itself increasing its range.  Her giant bird took the brunt of the impact as the pillar slammed into it, destroying the bird.  The force of the blow sent Janine crashing into the ground, shooting up a column of sand and dust where she impacted.

             
The red-haired necromancer apprentice smiled at his handiwork.  He retracted the guardian pillar back to its normal length.  Gripping the handle with both hands, he pointed the top of the pillar at the spot the lady had landed at, extending it towards her once more.

             
Janine was barely picking herself off the ground when she saw the top end of the bat heading towards her at alarmingly fast speeds.  As fast as she could, she threw out a card in front of her that quickly grew about three meters.  The vice-sheriff was already planning her next move.  The only problem was the card wasn't holding the kid's bat at bay like she thought it would.

             
Several cracks spidered from the card.  Janine saw this and was forced to abandon her plan to counterattack.  She dove to her left a split-second before the card blocking the red-haired youth's bat shattered.  The bat slammed into the ground she was occupying just a few moments before.

             
Although Benjamin had missed the woman with his guardian pillar the force of the impact sent her tumbling across the sand.  As he retracted the pillar back to its original length once more he saw two points of light coming from the vice-sheriff's position.  He smiled, admiring her attempt to fight back and positioned the guardian pillar so that it was in front of him, ready to block whatever she threw at him.

             
Using two of her cards, Janine shot two blasts of white magic energy at the red-haired boy.  He responded by holding his bat in front of him vertically.  To her surprise, the bat absorbed the impact of her two blasts and emerged without a scratch.  The glyphs on the bat glowed brightly for a few moments before dimming.

             
Janine's right eye narrowed as she looked at what information her sorcery analyzer was giving her.  According to the analyzer, that bat the youth was wielding had dispelled the magic blasts when they came into contact with it.  That must be what the glyphs on the bat were for, powerful symbols meant to cancel out any strong sorcery that was targeting its user.  This complicated things, she was holding back so that she could take the kid alive, but she may have to abandon that plan with his new weapon.

             
The vice-sheriff drew two more cards with her left hand.  She placed one in front of her and threw the other one at the red-haired youth.  Almost casually he swung his bat at the card, while he missed, just being in close proximity to the swing caused the card to flit away from him.  It landed in some random spot in the sand to the right of him.

             
Once Benjamin knocked the card out of his way he raised his guardian pillar above his head, extending it.  He then brought it down towards the woman with a vertical swing, intending to crush her with it.  His pillar met resistance right before it hit her.  The unwilling apprentice took a closer look and realized that the lady had summoned another one of her creatures, this one an ape.  The beast was holding the pillar at bay, but already the glyphs on Benjamin's guardian pillar were deconstructing the ape, its arms disintegrating before the woman's disbelieving eyes.

             
Then the pillar crushed her.

             
He didn't retract the pillar right away, he didn't want to.  Benjamin was angry, angry at the woman who called herself Janine and wouldn't just run away.  Angry at Ebrim, for forcing him to do shit like this.  Most of all though, he was angry at himself, for being weak enough to be manipulated.  He hoped that someday when Rebecca was free that she would understand why he did these terrible things.  Finally after nearly a full minute, the red-haired youth brought the guardian pillar back to its original length.  He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the woman's corpse.

             
Suddenly, Benjamin felt himself lose his footing as the pillar he was on shattered.  He looked below him in surprise, but all he saw was dust and pieces of the pillar flying all over.  He heard an object whistling through the air to his right, looking in that direction he saw one of the woman's cards spinning toward him.  He twisted in the air to dodge, but the card came in too fast, cutting into his right bicep.  Blood flowed from the wound and Benjamin clenched his teeth to hide his response to the sudden pain.  His right hand's grip on the guardian pillar loosened.

             
How had she escaped his swing?  He didn't see her dodge and the direction that card had come from was not where she was last.  So then how was she still alive?

             
Benjamin had no further time to think about it as he felt something large and heavy collide with his right shoulderblade.  The impact wrenched the guardian pillar from his right hand and sent him twisting and turning in the air.  The red-haired youth ended up landing on something, but it wasn't the sandy ground like he was expecting.  He looked down and realized he had landed on one of the cards of that vice-sheriff's.  The center of the card began to glow red as he continued watching.

             
The flame-haired teen felt his stomach lurch as space and time warped around him.  Benjamin’s vision was all a blur and he saw only a mix of colors.  Finally, the terrible feeling he felt in his stomach vanished as well as the weird amalgamation of colors he was watching.  The card had finally transported him to its intended destination.

             
Once again Benjamin was lying on top of one of the lady's cards.  This one was rapidly turning to ash.  A trumpeting roar drew his attention behind him and he looked in that direction just in time to see a large elephant towering over him.  The giant animal raised its trunk and let out another roar, rising up on its hind legs.  The elephant brought its massive raised left foreleg down on top of the flame-haired youth.

             
The only thing that saved Benjamin was a hastily summoned rock armor that covered his back.  The rock armor absorbed the impact of the giant elephant's foreleg slamming into it.  While it saved his life, the force of the impact still sent Benjamin face down into the sand. 

             
Janine was watching a short distance from the elephant's left flank.  Glad to see her strategy had worked.  The first card she had thrown at the kid she was counting on to be swatted away, that card was her escape from his counterattack.  What the kid didn't know was that she had actually pulled out three cards.  The first was the one she threw at him, the second was the ape she had summoned to try and take the strike from his stone bat.  The last was a card that would teleport her to the first one.  Which she used to narrowly escape being smashed.

             
The mystery youth took the bait, believing he had killed her.  He had let his guard down and she had taken full advantage.  True, the elephant might have crushed him, but the kid was proving quite difficult to take down alive.  It sucked, killing someone who probably hasn't even reached their eighteenth birthday and had vital information on a potential threat to her home.  However, she wasn't about to put her life in serious jeopardy.  When it comes down to the survival of either herself or the red-haired boy, she would choose herself every time.

             
Then something unexpected happened, the red-haired kid was able to lift himself up to his hands and knees.  The elephant's left foreleg was still on his back, a hardened layer of rock was between his spine and the beast's foot.  How that layer of rock was keeping him from being crushed Janine had no clue.

             
Suddenly something flew through the air to strike the elephant right on its forehead.  It bellowed in agony before disintegrating right before the vice-sheriff's eyes.  Upon closer examination she realized that it was that damn kid's stone bat.  It was moving on its own, she watched as he rose to his knees and stretched out his right hand.  The bat flew neatly into his grasp and he used it to brace himself to his feet.  Janine had to give him credit, the kid didn't go down easily.

             
Benjamin was taking deep breaths to help deal with the pain he was feeling.  His right bicep was bleeding and right shoulder ached.  Even though the rock armor he had summoned on his back prevented the elephant from crushing him, it still hurt a lot.  The young necromancer-apprentice thought he may have cracked a few ribs or worse, as right now breathing hurt.  He let the rock armor fall away, choosing to conserve his magic energy a little.

             
"Crafty, very fucking crafty." Benjamin managed to wheeze out.  "It's not often where I've been mistaken in killing my opponent."  Janine pulled out a few more cards with her left hand.

             
"You're a kid, you haven't lived long enough to experience a lot of battles.  But I will give you credit for surviving this long." She complimented. 

             
"Keep your compliments to yourself lady." He growled.  "I would have had you if not for your stupid teleporting cards." Janine shook her head.

             
"Would have?  'What if' scenarios like that have no place in a fight.  The fact of the matter is you didn't get me.  And now I'm going to end this." The vice-sheriff declared.  Upon hearing this Benjamin glared at the woman, clenching his teeth tightly to try and contain his rage.

             
"You think you've won lady?" He replied in a hiss, groaning in pain and gripping the handle of his guardian pillar with both hands to keep himself upright.  "You really think you've beaten me!?  That you hold the outcome of this battle in your hands?  Fuck that!  I'm still standing!  You have not defeated me yet!" The red-haired youth raged, yelling at the top of his lungs.

             
"You are barely standing, without that bat of yours you would probably be face down on the ground again.  You are in no condition to continue this battle." She told him, her expression changed to one of pity.  "Stop struggling, don't waste your life here."

             
"Don't lecture me..." Benjamin started to say, but started coughing, each cough racking his body with pain.  He used that pain to fuel his anger.  "...Don't lecture me like you're my damn mother!" He shouted, raising the guardian pillar slightly in the air before slamming it back down into the ground.  The glyphs on the pillar began to glow brightly as he channeled his power into it.

             
The red-haired youth was angrily putting whatever magic energy he had left into his next spell.  No matter what he was going to show this arrogant bitch who she was messing with.  He wasn't just some bratty kid with an attitude problem.  She had no idea of the hardships he had been through, the questionable things he had done for the safety of the only family he had left.