Rend Hope (13 page)

             
Janine's right eye widened as she read what her sorcery analyzer was telling her.  The output of magic energy the kid was putting out was crazy.  Her analyzer quickly shorted out and she tossed the now useless device to the ground.  She was about to try a spell on the youth when the ground started to shake violently.  She was quick to notice the look of surprise on his face as well.  This was not his doing.

             
Benjamin was wondering what the hell was going on.  He was not using any geomancy to move the earth around him and yet it was shaking so bad that he was struggling to keep his balance.  One look at the bitch in front of him told him she had no idea what was happening either.

             
Both combatants could only watch helplessly as the ground was torn asunder below them.  The last thing either of them saw was a bright flash of light as they fell into what seemed like a bottomless abyss.

Chapter 10

              Marie was running as fast as she could towards the battle that Markus and Rosalind were waging.  She kept going over in her head what went wrong, seeing if there was something she missed.  Did Markus say something to his master that sent her into a rage?  No, he didn't.  He just greeted her.  Obviously, the two had some sort of history.

             
The teenage girl went over what Rosalind had said before she attacked Markus.  She had stated the flannel-clad magi had destroyed "Their" hometown.  For some reason Marie couldn't bring herself to believe Markus was some sort of maniacal killer.  Sure, he didn't like to talk about himself, but who didn't like to guard their secrets nowadays?

             
She only hoped she could arrive in time to stop them.  The young magi-apprentice wasn't sure what she could do exactly to get them to stop, but she had to at least try.  Otherwise not only could they end up killing each other they could end up taking a good chunk of the city with them as well.

**********

              He didn't move, he just kept staring at her with those cold green eyes of his.  Rosalind had seen that look on Markus before, but she had never seen it used against her.  She would never admit it to anyone, but that glare made her nervous.

             
The flannel-clad magi raised his right hand slowly, bending it so the elbow was parallel to the floor and his right hand was in front of his chest.  Rosalind tensed waiting for him to strike, but Markus ceased his movement.  After a moment he stretched his right arm out to its full length and made a sweeping motion with it horizontally from his right to his left.

             
Rosalind felt a sudden pressure slam into her torso, it was strong enough to send her through the wall of the building they were in and into the outer wall of another building.  She looked into the hole she had made and saw Markus rearing his right fist back.  Wind ripped and roared around him, gathering around his right arm in a light-grey swirling vortex.  Debris flew about wildly in the room he was in, but he ignored it, maintaining his stance and cold expression.

             
"You brought this on yourself." He said to her menacingly, bringing his right fist forward.  Rosalind swore, detached herself from the outer wall she landed in and threw up a quick barrier of white energy in front of her.  It might as well have been made from paper as the wind from Markus' attack ripped right through it.  The force hitting her in the abdomen so powerfully that Rosalind couldn't even cry out in pain.

             
The attack sent her flying through the air.  When she finally hit the ground she bounced twice before coming to a stop face-down on one of the many dirt roads of Midas City.  Innocent bystanders quickly scrambled to get out of the street, not wanting to get in the way of whatever their protector was fighting.

             
As the co-founder of Midas City struggled to her feet, she looked up and saw Markus coming at her, his right foot extended in a kick aimed at her face.  Rosalind cursed and engulfed herself in a white aura.  A white circle appeared on the ground below her and she submerged herself in it, Markus' kick passed through the air she had occupied less than half a second before.

             
The flannel-clad magi quickly planted his feet on the dirt road, skidding for about five meters before coming to a stop.  The shock of the impact when his feet touched the ground was so strong that whatever citizens that were still on the road were knocked down by the force of it.  Markus frowned, turning back around to face where Rosalind used to be.  This was exactly what he was afraid of when they started fighting seriously.  He was fine with fighting Rosalind to the fullest of his ability, but he didn't want to drag other people into it.

             
His thoughts were interrupted when a sudden white circle appeared to his left.  As he started to turn to face it, Rosalind leapt out of the white circle.  The blonde woman lashed out with her right foot, catching Markus right under his chin with her boot.  The kick sent him right through the window of a supply store.  He slammed into the store's counter, where a middle-aged bald man was currently cowering in fear behind it.

             
Markus heard the man's whimpering, he was about to tell him to run when the glow of Rosalind's sorcery caught his attention.  She had brought her hands together.  Fingers spread out with the index and thumb of each touching.  As Markus continued to watch in alarm, the glow in Rosalind's hands formed a huge circle in front of her, about three meters in diameter.  The flannel-clad magi cursed, this was bigger than any blast she had fired before.  He was about to try and dodge when he heard the whimpering of the man behind the counter once more.  He let out a curse.

             
"Wait Rosalind!  There's an old man in here!  You'll kill him if you fire that thing!" He shouted, but apparently his words did not reach her.  A huge beam propelled from the white circle, heading straight for Markus.  He brought both of his hands in front of him just as the light from the beam filled the entire store, shattering any remaining windows and cracking the entire front side of the building.

             
Rosalind smiled, there was no way Markus dodged that!  Finally the damned menace was dead!  However, her smile quickly disappeared when she watched her beam suddenly change direction and head straight up into the sky, taking the store's roof with it.  She quickly turned her attention back to the store and saw Markus standing tall, his hands stretched out in front of him.  He was glaring daggers at her.

             
"What the hell Rosalind!  Didn't you hear me shout my warning?" He yelled at her.  The co-founder of Midas City narrowed her eyes at him.

             
"No I didn't, but why should I heed your warnings anyway?" She shot back.  This seemed to only make Markus angrier.

             
"There's an old man in here!  If I wouldn't have deflected your blast it would have killed him!" He responded, pointing his left index finger behind him to the counter.  Rosalind's eyes widened with surprise as she saw a middle-aged bald man emerge from it, he looked scared out of his mind. 

             
"D-did you save me?" The old man asked Markus, but the flannel-clad Magi dismissed him, gesturing for him to leave.

             
"For now at least, but don't worry about that, get out of here.  This isn't the best place for an old timer like you at the moment." He replied.  The man needed no further encouragement as he ran out of the store via the hole Rosalind's blast had made.  She snorted in disgust.

             
"Trying to pretend to be a hero Markus?  It's a little late for that." She told him, there was fire in his eyes as he fixed his glare onto her.

             
"Are you delusional?  A man, a living being would have died and it would have been your fault!" He hissed, Rosalind stopped, blinking once.  His words rung true.  "You're a co-founder of this city and now you are tearing it apart! Threatening the very same lives you have tried to keep safe!  Is this worth getting your revenge for?" He continued.  Rosalind felt a sudden surge of anger within her.

             
"Don't you lecture me!  Who the hell do you think you are?!  You've barely been in this city for a day!" She shouted back, Markus shook his head.

             
"You don't get to pull the seniority bullshit.  Not with this.  A life could have been lost just now, not just my life or your life, but a man who has absolutely nothing to do with what's happened between us."  The flannel-clad magi stated, he had reigned his anger in, for now at least.  He lowered his head so Rosalind couldn't see his eyes.  "I'm all for ending the lives of bastards who deserve it.  I might even let you end my life, if I was sure it would bring you peace." He continued, raising his head once again and the fury on his face actually caused the blonde woman to take an unconscious step back.  "But to take an ordinary person's life.  One who has done nothing but try to survive.  That, I can't allow you to do.  It spits on everything a magi is." He finished.

             
Rosalind couldn't respond at first.  She had almost committed a terrible sin and Markus was calling her on it.  Her mind worked furiously trying to find some rational way to explain her reckless action, but it couldn't.  The hoodie-wearing magi had to say something though.

             
"What's one life if it means extinguishing a great evil?" Came her reply, mentally she winced, that sounded bad she had to admit.  Markus' eyes narrowed.

             
"That's dangerous thinking Ms. Hearth." He stated icily.  "I've heard enough." And with that the flannel-clad magi slammed his left palm into the floor.  Rosalind only had a moment to wonder what he was up to before she was shot high into the air by an invisible force.  She was well above the highest rooftops of the city.

             
Rosalind groaned in pain, her feet and legs had taken the brunt of the invisible force.  They were numb and she was having trouble moving them.  The blonde girl was about to summon her wings again when a hand grabbed her face, a hand wearing familiar fingerless black gloves.  Suddenly she found herself rocketing away.  She desperately tried to right herself in the air but it was no use.  Markus had thrown her with too much force.

             
Markus followed her, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.  Rosalind should land just outside the city wall if he estimated correctly.  This way they were free to fight without having to worry about any more people getting in the way.

**********

              "Whoa." Was all Marie could say in awe as she saw Rosalind go sailing through the sky.  From the looks of things it was not under her own power.  Judging from the number of smoke pillars rising up from the Northern residential district, the area that Rosalind and Markus were previously fighting at, things didn't look like they would be calming down anytime soon.

             
"Marie!" A familiar voice said from behind her, the young magi apprentice slowed her pace and turned her head to see David Watkins, mayor and one of two co-founders of Midas City, running up to her.  The middle-aged man was flanked by two deputies, both carrying pistols.  The mayor himself looked unarmed.

             
"Mayor Watkins!  I guess you heard the commotion as well?" Marie asked the older man.  He nodded as he and his deputies matched the girl's pace.

             
"By process of elimination I'm going to assume Lady Rosalind is battling with the new arrival, Markus right?" The mayor asked, Marie looked at him, a surprised look on her face.

             
"How did you figure that out?" She asked him.

             
"Sheriff Wallace is too lazy and I sent Vice-Sheriff Garlow on a mission.  He's the only one left who could be fighting Lady Rosalind in this way." He informed her, Marie quickly put his theory to the test in her brain.

             
"Yeah that sounds about right." She agreed, Mayor Watkins pointed towards Rosalind's falling form.

             
"Looks like she's going to land right outside the northern wall.  That's a stroke of luck for us, if they would have continued fighting here who knows how many casualties they would have caused." The middle-aged mayor stated.

             
She didn't know why, but Marie had a gut feeling that it wasn't a stroke of luck.  She got the feeling that Markus had thrown her master there on purpose.  The teenage magi-apprentice just could not bring herself to believe Markus was the bloodthirsty type.  She kept these thoughts to herself as the four of them began to head towards the north gate.

**********

              As Markus leapt over the large gate that allowed and denied access into Midas City, a strange sensation passed over him.  For a few moments his whole body went numb.  As he landed near the smoking crater that Rosalind had created on her impact the blonde-haired man looked to his right to get a better look at the metal wall he had just jumped over.  Glyphs etched into the steel glowed brightly over the part of the wall he had jumped over.

             
The "Ordinary" Magi frowned, so that's why he got the numbing sensation.  Defensive glyphs like those must be all over the City's walls.  They probably reacted to any sorcery cast against it, especially necromancy.  Markus put his right hand to his chest, did it detect "That." within him?  It would explain why he set it off and not Rosalind.

             
"I see you've noticed my handiwork on the walls." Rosalind's voice came from the crater.  There was a tear on the right shoulder of her hoodie and the left knee of her leggings.  Markus also noticed that the wounds he had given her earlier had stopped bleeding.

             
"It's what I'd expect from you really." Markus told her, the blonde-haired woman was just stepping out of the crater she had made.

             
"I created those glyphs to defend against all but the strongest sorcery.  I doubt even you could breach it Markus." She declared, he gave a slight shrug.

             
"Well I don't intend to try.  I threw you out here for a reason and I don't really have any intention on returning to your city." He informed her.