Rend Hope (27 page)

             
Tightening his grip on his knife, Ebrim thrust his right hand forward, seeking to bury the blade in the girl's ribcage.  His progress was halted though when a kite shield sprouted from the outside of Marie's left forearm, the knife glanced off the shield in a shower of sparks.  The necromancer's surprise was betrayed by the slight widening of his eyes.

             
Marie brought her sword down in a fierce vertical arc, intending to cleave Ebrim in half, but the necromancer managed to leap backwards and away from the blade.  While he was in mid-air he opened his mouth and spat out more of that green slime he had used to temporarily immobilize Markus and ruin his flannel jacket.  She was prepared for it, making another vertical cut from the ground up and slicing the slimy projectile in half.  The slime passed by her closely on either side, but didn't make contact with her body.

             
"A rather impressive display of swordsmanship and sorcery for a novice." Ebrim complimented, Marie didn't care one bit about what he thought of her.

             
"Keep your fucking comments to yourself!  How the hell did a bastard like you kill Markus anyway?!" She demanded, Ebrim's seemed to be absolutely glowing at the mention of the fallen aeromancer.

             
"How?  Why very easily my dear, I just sunk the blade into his heart.  Humans tend to die when you do that.  Such fragile creatures."  Extending his right hand, what looked like a mound of grey flesh wrapped around his arm.

             
Marie braced herself, trying to figure out what the crazy dark-haired man was up to when suddenly the lump of flesh sprang forward from his arm.  The flesh remolded itself into the vague shape of a human head.  The fleshy head opened its jaw to reveal rows of dagger-like teeth. 

             
The magi-apprentice was barely able to get her shield up in time, the flesh-like skull bit down on the top part of her kite-shield.  Its strength was so great that it actually shoved Marie out of the building through the very same hole she had entered earlier. The fleshy head was shaking its head back and forth violently, trying to wrest the shield away from her.

             
Tightening her grip on her sword.  Marie began slamming the pommel into the thing's left temple in an attempt to pry it loose.  The fleshy head was too close for her to get a good angle for a stab or slash, it snarled and exerted itself, pushing the teenage girl back with even greater speed.  The sudden exertion caught Marie by surprise and she lost her balance, falling onto her back.  Her sword tumbled from her fingers, sliding across the dirt ground to rest just out of her reach.

             
The fleshy skull continued to try to wrest her shield away.  Swiftly, Marie conjured a short dagger through the palm of her hand.  Not wasting any time, the teenage girl sunk the dagger right into the hideous thing's left temple, just as it finally succeeded in ripping her shield away.  The ugly creature's dead weight fell on top of her and it took Marie a few moments to pull herself out from under it.

             
As Marie scrambled to her knees, she looked frantically around the spot she had last seen her sword, but it was nowhere to be found. 

             
"Looking for this?" Ebrim's voice said from behind her, the teenage girl hastily twisted around to face him, but she wasn't fast enough.  The tall necromancer had her sword in his right hand and he executed a vicious vertical slash.  Fiery pain exploded across Marie's chest.  She saw her own blood spray out in front of her before falling forward.  Somehow she was able to catch herself with her hands to keep from falling on her face.  Blood continued to pour from the diagonal gash that went from her left collarbone, between her breasts and all the way to the right side of her abdomen.

             
Ebrim held the sword in front of him, dripping with Marie's blood.  He nodded at it approvingly "A novice like you crafting a sword of this caliber through her own sorcery.  I must admit, I'm surprised." He complimented, Marie was too busy trying not to pass out from blood loss to reply.  Seeing this, the dark-haired man reversed his grip on the sword, preparing to plunge it into the wounded girl's spine.  "Time to free you from your weak mortal shell." He said with a grin and a wink, "I won't lie, it's going to hurt...a lot, but your screams of agony will be sure to entertain me."

             
Marie tried to move, but her trembling arms were barely able to keep her from taking a dirtnap, much less move to dodge Ebrim's finishing blow.  She couldn't believe it, she was really going to die here.  The teenage girl thoughts drifted to all of the people who had helped her survive to this point, somehow she felt she was letting them down.  There was nothing she could do to stop this madman from ending her life.  However, she wasn't going to go quietly.

             
Ebrim suddenly felt a wet sensation on his right cheek, wiping it away with his left hand, he realized that it was saliva from the girl.  His smile faded as his stare turned very angry.  Marie glared defiantly at him.

             
"Lousy brat, for that I'll skin you alive!" he shouted, raising the sword in his right hand to deliver the final blow.  He stabbed downwards and plunged the sword deep...into the dirt.  The tall necromancer raised his eyebrows in surprise.  Movement to his right drew his attention, where a woman with chin-length blonde hair and bright blue eyes, dressed in a long-sleeve dark red shirt, black leggings and military boots that were worn and torn was carrying the teenage girl.  The blonde woman's left arm was wrapped around the girl's waist, she gently laid the girl down on her back.

             
"R-Rosalind...you came..." Marie gasped out, Rosalind took a quick glance at Ebrim to make sure he hadn't made a move toward her.  With a gesture of her hand, white magic energy wrapped around Marie's torso.  The teenage girl winced as the energy tightened.

             
"Of course I did, I wasn't about to let my apprentice die." Rosalind said softly, "It's going to hurt, but this spell should keep you from losing any more blood.  It'll have to do for now."  The blonde woman turned to focus her attention on Ebrim, who was glaring at her.  "I've got to take care of this bastard first."

             
"Another magi?  I thought Sahiron would've taken care of you.  Good help is so hard to find these days." Ebrim mildly complained.  Rosalind allowed herself a small grim smile as she glared at the dark-haired man.

             
"He was just another one of the many who have fallen before me." The blonde woman replied, spreading her arms wide and gathering her power.  "You'll be another necromancer added to that list."

             
"Will I now?" Ebrim questioned, a dark smile returning to his face.  "This should be interesting, I have a list too.  A long list of magi that I've cut down, your blonde friend was the latest one."  Rosalind's eyes widened as she quickly deduced who Ebrim was talking about.

             
"You beat Markus?!" She asked incredulously.  Seeing her surprised look caused Ebrim's smile to widen.

             
"I wouldn't say I 'Beat' him, more like stabbed him to death.  You should have seen the look on his face, it was priceless." Ebrim informed her, his sinister laughter filling her ears.  He watched as the woman lowered her head slightly, the shadows hid her blue eyes.  He couldn't be sure, but he thought that she was trembling.

             
The news of Markus' death hit Rosalind like a sledgehammer.  She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it.  She had wanted Markus dead for so long now that she thought she'd be happy to hear about his demise, but she wasn't. 

             
Perhaps she was mad that she wasn't the one to kill him?  To avenge the lives of her parents and brother?  Rosalind wanted to believe that was the case, wanted to believe it with all her heart.  The blonde woman clenched her teeth so tight she thought they would break apart.  Why wasn't she feeling more anger?  What was wrong with her?

             
Why did she feel like crying?

             
Power surged through Rosalind as she lifted her left hand, light lanced out from her palm to shoot forward and strike Ebrim in his right wrist.  The dark-haired necromancer felt the fingers of his right hand go numb as Marie's sword tumbled from his fingers.  Rosalind raised her head to glare at Ebrim once more.  The promise of murder in her eyes.

             
"You will suffer the pain of a hundred deaths before I'm finished with you necromancer." Rosalind vowed.

Chapter 24

              They stood facing each other silently, a short petite blonde woman and a tall, lean, dark-haired man.  A man battling a woman, a necromancer battling a magi, a destroyer battling a protector.  For more than a century these beings gifted with sorcery have battled like this, fighting to determine the fate of a humanity that had forgotten its original identity since it was ravaged by the Great Purge long ago.

             
Rosalind took a deep breath to steady herself and focus, Ebrim mirrored her action with a smirk on his face and a gleam in his eye.  The petite woman knew that if this necromancer was strong enough to take down Markus, then she should take him very seriously.  She had to be ready for anything.

             
It was quiet, unusually so, Rosalind could hear nothing but the sound of her breathing.  Ebrim kept smirking at her, his eyes like a vulture eyeing its prey.  She weighed her options, there seemed to be no openings she could exploit, Ebrim was completely on guard.  Also she wasn't exactly sure what he was capable of, getting in close could be a mistake.  It would probably be best to keep her distance for the time being until she better gauged his abilities.

             
As fast as she could, Rosalind thrust her hands forward and shot a blast of ivory-colored energy.  Ebrim reacted by throwing his own hands forward, except for him, gray putrid flesh shot forth from his hands.  Necrotic skin met magic energy as both spells collided.

             
The colliding sorcery cancelled each other out in an explosion of magical power.  Rosalind instantly conjured up her wings and took to the sky, seeking to bombard Ebrim from the air with her spells.  As she searched the spot where Ebrim was standing, she was quite shocked to not see him there.

             
Out of the corner of her eye, the co-founder of Midas City spotted something fast coming in from her left.  With a wave of her left hand, she created a wall of white energy that absorbed Ebrim's incoming kick.  The wall disappeared at her mental command and Rosalind immediately followed through with a right hook to the dark-haired man's jaw, putting some of her sorcery in the punch for some extra strength.

             
Ebrim sailed backwards over one building, managing to right himself and land on the edge of the next one.  Rebalancing himself on the edge of the rooftop, the dark-haired necromancer grunted in satisfaction and pulled backwards with some sort of fleshy rope in his right hand.  Rosalind noticed too late that something was wrapped around her left ankle. 

             
The former Havenway magi was suddenly pulled towards the wall of the building in front of her at alarmingly fast speeds.  Realizing his intention was to slam her through the wall, Rosalind concentrated, phasing through the wall instead.  She phased through the entire building in fact.

             
Ebrim couldn't believe his eyes when not only did he not hear the satisfying sound of a person hitting a wall at high-speed, but that very same person had went through the walls like a ghost.  The petite blonde woman was coming at him fast, thanks in part to his pulling her to him with the rope of sinew tied around her ankle.  The air rushed out of his lungs as she planted both booted feet into his chest.

             
The Tall slightly bearded necromancer slammed spine-first into the floor of the roof.  Rosalind's kick was strong enough to send him sliding across to the other side.  Ebrim growled and grabbed the handle of his knife with his right hand.  He attempted to stab Rosalind in her left thigh, but she leapt forward, avoiding the lethal attack.

             
As soon as Rosalind's feet hit solid ground again she placed her palms forward, facing Ebrim.  A white glyph, about two meters in diameter appeared in front of her.  Massive amounts of magic energy burst forth from the glyph, engulfing Ebrim who could do nothing more than try to shield himself with his arms.

             
Eventually Rosalind's spell expired, smoke and dust surrounded the area where Ebrim was standing.  The blonde-haired woman's icy gaze never wavered from that spot.

             
"Was that painful Necromancer?" Rosalind questioned, her voice dripping with hostility.  "That is only the beginning, I will make you suffer pain a thousand times worse before I let you die."

             
The dust cleared, revealing a banged up Ebrim.  His long brown gloves were ripped in several places, revealing part of his fingers and hands underneath.  The left knee of his worn jeans was torn off and pieces of his blue scarf were whisked away by the wind.

             
"This pain?" Ebrim's voice drifted towards her.  "Even if you magnify this pain a thousand times it still wouldn't be enough to make me suffer!"  The necromancer suddenly conjured up two skulls in his hands and flung them at Rosalind.

             
The blonde-haired woman almost felt insulted on the weak amount of sorcery she sensed in the skulls.  Her lip contorted in contempt as she swatted the skulls away with her right hand.  As soon as she made contact with them though, they came to life and began to glow a dark purplish color.  One skull flew above and to her right, the other one mirrored its twin on her left side.

             
Before Rosalind could even express her surprise or confusion, the skulls opened their jaws, firing purple beams of magic energy at her.  Instinct and reflexes saved Rosalind as she used her sorcery to erect a dome-shaped barrier around herself.  The force of the blasts were strong enough to cave in the roof she was standing on and she fell into the room below.

             
Luckily her barrier held and she quickly scanned her surroundings.  There was destroyed furniture and collapsed pieces of the roof everywhere.  Light from the moon poured in from the hole she had made.

             
"Do you want to know what real suffering is?" Ebrim's voice sounded from behind her, quickly Rosalind turned around, but she wasn't fast enough.  Ropes of gray sinewy flesh burst forth from the floor directly beneath her feet, the only area her barrier didn't cover.  The ropes wrapped around her before she could make a move and constricted.

             
Rosalind struggled to draw breath as the ropes slowly began crushing her.  Stars danced across her vision and black edges appeared at the edge of her sight, threatening to engulf her.  The co-founder of Midas City attempted to free herself, but the ropes were just too strong.  Her barrier disappeared as she lost concentration and Ebrim slowly walked towards her, the smirk was lost on his face.

             
"Real suffering is watching your loved ones die before you." The necromancer stated, Rosalind fixed him with a glare.

             
"Do you really think in this savage world we live in now that you are the only one who has lost loved ones?" She inquired through clenched teeth, Ebrim stood as still as a statue as he waited for her to draw a few more breaths.  "Everyone I know has experienced some form of loss, don't think for a second you are the only one to have this happen to you!"  Ebrim considered her words for a moment before replying.

             
"You're right.  I am definitely not the only one to feel the pain of loss, but you want to know the difference between me and everyone else?" His eyebrows furrowed slightly and his hands clenched into fists.  "I see the loss for what it really is, the fragility of the human body.  My wife killed by disease, my best friend murdered by dehydration, my son forever lost to me.  In the grand scope of things the mortality of humans is really sickening."

             
"Humans are more resilient than you think." Rosalind countered, Ebrim shook his head.

             
"Look around you, it's been centuries since the Great Purge.  What have we 'resilient humans' been doing this entire time?" His eyebrows furrowed deeper and a frown formed on his lips.  "We've been scavenging like buzzards, murdering each other like savages, selfishly hoarding resources while our fellow man withers away in front of us." The passion that glowed in Ebrim's eyes unnerved Rosalind, it was the passion of a fanatic.  "We are pathetic.  Humanity has done nothing more than cling to life like a wounded animal that should be put out of its misery.  Which is what I intend to do."

             
"You would wipe out the entire human race because you think we're fragile?" Rosalind asked incredulously.

             
"The human race is already extinct.  They're just too blind to notice, but I will make them see." Ebrim vowed, Rosalind renewed her efforts to break free of the ropes of sinew.  She was now fueled by something more than the desire to kill the necromancer scum that dared to try and destroy her city.  She was fueled by the fear of what would happen to everyone if she failed.

**********

              "Son of a bitch." Kendal said to no one in particular, he stared at the crack he had made in the wall as if that very action would open it.  The group waited for a few moments before one of the deputies spoke up.

             
"Should we maybe head back?  Try to find another way?" The deputy asked, Janine shook her head.

             
"It'd be useless, if my theory is correct, the tunnel we are in has probably moved to a different location altogether.  Might as well stay here, this slab of stone that's blocking us should move once the tunnel has completed its shuffling."  The vice-sheriff explained.

             
They didn't have to wait long.  Twenty seconds later, the slab of rock barring their path slid back into a hidden slot, allowing the group access to the next room.  Kendal was the first one through, his eyes taking in the new surroundings.  It looked like his girlfriend's theory was correct, the room was definitely not familiar to him.  It was a large circular room, the floor actually looked like it was paved at one time, but now it was cracked and shattered in most places.  The ceiling was surprisingly high, Kendal estimated about thirty meters in height.  The rest of the group filed in and Kendal turned to his girlfriend.

             
"I'm open to any ideas on getting out of here." He told her, Janine frowned as she tried to think of something, anything that would give them a chance at getting back home.  Her eyes fell on the binoculars that rested at Kendal's hip.

             
"Let me see those binocs." She said, Kendal wasted no time and gently tossed them to her, she caught the binoculars with her left hand and began examining it.  "It's a longshot, but I may be able to..."

             
She never got to finish as three circular doors in front of them suddenly rolled open, revealing huge statues with glowing lines of yellow magic energy that flowed through their arms, legs and bodies.  The statues were tall, about four meters in height and they were roughly humanoid in appearance though they were blocky and their arms were grossly over-sized, the hands and forearms especially.  Janine's jaw dropped when she caught sight of them.

             
"No way, golems? Here of all places!?" The vice-sheriff said in awe, Kendal turned to his girlfriend with a raised eyebrow.

             
"Uh explanation please?" He requested.

             
"They're statues animated by magic energy, it was a type of sorcery thought long lost." Janine quickly explained, looking through the sorcery-analyzing binoculars to get more information on the stone constructs.  Kendal turned back to look at the trio of golems and snorted.

             
"Apparently not." He commented.

             
"This is an excellent find!  If we can get one of these back to Midas City, the possibilities would be endless!" She gushed.  The group watched as the trio of golems swiveled their stone heads in their direction, the golems' eyes began to glow yellow as they gazed upon them.

             
"Intruders detected.  Neutralize immediately." The golems said in unison, their voices deep and robotic.  Kendal sighed and took aim with the revolver in his right hand.

             
"Great, now look what you've done Janine, you've pissed them off." The sheriff complained, Janine looked at him like he just grew two heads as she put the binoculars away.

             
"Me? They're all looking at you!  Probably don't like stupid cowboy hats!" She shot back.

             
"My cowboy hat is cool Janine!" Kendal growled sullenly.  Janine shook her head.

             
"You just keep telling yourself that sweetie." She replied, there was no more time for banter as the golems were getting within striking distance, their long slow strides covering lots of ground in a few steps.

**********

              Summoning every bit of her power, Rosalind formed an almost skin-tight barrier around her.  Slowly she began to expand it.  With the sinewy ropes now loosened, she could now breathe a little easier.  The blonde-haired magi crossed her arms in front of her and then stretched them out on either side of her, parallel to the ground. 

             
The barrier expanded exponentially, destroying the ropes and knocking Ebrim into the wall in front of her.  He was still on his knees recovering when Rosalind conjured her wings and leap into the air.  She pointed her palms at the tall necromancer, preparing to blast him to hell.