The Willbreaker (Book 1) (33 page)

              It tilted its head towards him and roared, a mix between a deep humanoid voice and a lion. The tip of Brandon’s sword vibrated from his trembling arms. It lunged at him again, arms open and wide, as if to capture him. Brandon backed up again, moving backwards and twisting his body in attempt to avoid the creatures open hands. As his momentum carried him, Brandon realized he moved to the wrong place. The thick and powerful fingers of the monster wrapped around his waist, lifting him in the air as they engulfed his body. Instinctually, he brought his right arm downward, hitting the Guardian in the wrist with his magical blade.

              The air filled with deep rumbling as Brandon fell back to the earth. The over-sized fingers of the Kella’Dune still wrapped around his body, but his swipe had cleanly severed its hand from the rest of its arm. The Guardian clutched the stump, screaming in pain towards the sky above. Brandon pried the fingers open and quickly got to his feet. He resumed his defensive stance, sword in both hands, pointing it towards the wailing beast.

              Donald shook his head, trying to regain his bearings. As he stood, he looked up to see both of the Guardians on their feet, en route to his position. He glanced around, unable to see the rest of his group.
I have to get rid of these monsters. I have to help the others.

              Donald pushed with his leg, thrusting him forward towards the approaching Guardians. As he ran, he leaned into his shield and tightened his muscles. The Kella’Dune on the right stopped and roared, waiting for him. Just before he reached the open arms of the Guardian, Donald crouched and sprung into the air, connecting his shoulder into the chest of the gigantic monster. Its body felt like granite, solid and unforgiving, but Donald felt its lungs restrict as it blew out its breath from the impact. Donald’s tucked his head tightly, shield still close, as the beast landed backwards on its back. Donald leapt to his feet and with both hands on the outer edge of his shield, he raised it above his head and brought the bottom point of it into the face of the Guardian. He heard a thick and deep crack as the shield busted the skull of the mighty beast. Repeatedly, with every ounce of might he could muster, he bashed the shield bottom into the beasts face. Blood flung and splattered all over his arms, chest, and legs, and on the ground and trees around him as he mashed its face into a broken pile of bones and brain matter. He raised the shield again, bringing it down one last time when the fingers of the second Guardian wrapped around him, squeezing his arms together tightly around his body. The shield fell to the ground and he gasped for air. Like a bag of sand, the Guardian raised his powerful arm in the air, and with Donald in his grasp, he threw him straight into the ground. Donald hit with tremendous force. The might of the blow crushed Donald’s chest plate, and the loose dirt around him quickly soaked up blood.

After a moment of screaming, the Guardian in front of Brandon turned his glare to him, face soaked in rage and hatred; a truly terrifying sight. As it had done before, it took a deep breath, extended its arms, and focused its outcry on Brandon. The sound wave exploded in a cone towards Brandon, flattening shrubs and weeds and knocking over small trees.

              As the wave collided with Brandon’s extended sword, it sheared the blast wave in two like putting a finger in the middle of falling water. The wind whipped the tuffs of Brandon’s hair around and fluttered his clothes, but he stood his ground, solid and defiant. As it past him, Brandon raised his brow in surprise.

              “Awesome…” He stood with his feet spread apart, still shocked that he withstood the blast.

              Searing heat and the thunderous crackling of burning rock and ore flashed from above Brandon. He hastily looked upward, where a flaming ball, the size of a carriage, split the treetops and headed towards him. Brandon bolted away as the heat cooked his skin. He ran as fast as he could, but the weight of the burning meteor brought it to the earth almost immediately. The earth shook and broke apart, churning huge mounds of dirt and rock and tossing everything in the area upward. The sound deafened him, an awesome sound, so immersive and bottomless that all other senses shut down in attempt to translate it through his brain. Brandon lost his sense of direction in the aftermath of the impact. All looked black. He did not know or understand if he rested on solid ground or floated through the air. He could not feel anything, and heard nothing after the collision but a deep ringing in his ears.

              The flood of his waking senses hit him all simultaneously, as blurry light flooded his vision. He could feel the soft earth beneath his hands. A flaming crater of blackened earth smoked to his left, fire spitting up from its unseen center. Trees toppled around it, leafless and wind struck. Fire danced in random areas throughout the whole area. Brandon swatted furiously as he extinguished his burning pant leg. His sword rested a few feet over from him, in the tall grass. He reached over and grabbed it, shakily standing to his feet.

              Through the heat-rippled air, across the crater, he saw Ivy. A motionless and handless body of the Kella’Dune lay at her feet, face first into the ground. She smiled at him wickedly as she moved around the crater.. Fear struck at him, bursting his confidence, as he realized that Ivy summoned that meteor. He tried to remember if Edward told him about her or her power, but his mind went blank. She moved around the edge of the crater and had a line of sight to Brandon.

              With outstretched fingers, she pointed her hand towards him. Liquid fire shot in a thick beam at him, dripping burning oil along the pathway. Brandon jolted to the right, but as he moved, so did her stream of burning death. The fire hit an aspen and splashed the flame around like water spit from a child’s mouth. The splashing flame caught the grasses and Brandon’s jacket on fire. He ripped his jacket off as he darted deeper into the trees. Heat flashed by him, igniting leaves and bark, splashing more flame across his pathway. He dove head first behind a robust trunk.

              A calm, soft voice came from behind him. “We do not have to do this. You have shown surprising competence and savvy. I like that, it is… pleasing. You know, my sister hates all men, but I cannot say that I always agree with her. Men have their purposes, and in certain situations, I feel that men have the opportunity to shine. What do you say; shall we lower the tension here, and talk?”

              Brandon tried to zone in on Ivy’s location as she spoke, but it proved more difficult that he thought. Her voice seemed to come from one direction, then in the next moment, it came from somewhere else. As Brandon sat for moment, he realized the extent of his injuries. Scrapping with the Kella’Dune and weaving in and out of the trees took a quick hold on Brandon’s muscles. For a brief second, he closed his eyes and let the serenity and calmness wash over his body like a cool breeze. Instantly, he felt refreshed. A twig snapped underneath Ivy’s feet.
She is right behind me.

              In the distance, the roar of another Guardian rang out. Brandon looked around. He needed to get back with the others. Brandon clenched his grip on the handle of his sword and with his right hand, he shoveled his fingers in the ground and filled it with dirt and rocks. As he waited, nervous, he heard Ivy place her foot down in the ground on the other side of the stump. He jumped to his feet, and as the two looked at each other in surprise, he chucked the dirt right into her face. Brandon turned and sprinted as fast as he could back towards the river, as Ivy spit the dirt from her mouth and wiped her eyes clear.

              Ivy became furious and searched for Brandon as she cursed and muttered. She saw him in the distance, glimpses of his back as he darted in and out of the trees away from her. Gritting her teeth, Ivy grabbed her robes and ran after him.

              Brandon could see the shape of one of the Guardians through the trees. It moved swiftly towards something, or someone, that Brandon could not see. It raised one of its right arms and seemed to slap at something in front of it. Brandon slowed. He did not think the beast saw him, but Ivy closed in somewhere behind him; the dirt he threw in her face would not slow her for long. He positioned himself close to a tree and peered around the edge of it, holding tight onto his sword.

              The Kella’Dune raised its right arm high in the air. It gripped something in its hefty hand; a man.
Donald!
Brandon’s heart skipped a beat as he watched what happened next. The beast raised his hand up high, and like a child might do if trying to break something on the ground, it twisted its hips and back and drove Donald straight down into the ground with all its strength. A billow of dirt and dust blew away from its feet when Donald hit. The sound of metal crunching and bones breaking hit Brandon like a canon. Brandon staggered backwards, terrified at what he just saw.
Did that really happen? Donald?

              He panicked, thoughts racing to Edward and Jasmine. He needed to act fast but his mind went numb.
No. Pull yourself together, Brandon.
The beast moved away, deeper into the woods. Brandon stood and slowly moved closer. He advanced a small distance and saw his nightmares come to life. In the distant background, a Guardian laid still on its back. Its head had been crushed in, a broken and jagged mound of bone, blood, and skin. Donald laid face first in the dirt in front of the beast, armor crushed and covered in blood. He did not move either. Brandon’s stomach jerked as the strength withdrew from his legs. They shook as he fell to his knee. He could not take his eyes from him, hoping and praying that he would move.

              “Donald…” he whispered. “Donald!”

              From Donald’s left walked the woman in the red robes, Ivy. She peered down at Donald, smiled crookedly and then looked towards Brandon from underneath her brow. The Kella’Dune walked behind her. Brandon could not see Edward or Jasmine.

              “See what happens when you resist us?” Her smile had gone, replaced with a look of disgust. “Do you see what happens when you stand against the power of the mighty? Although I have to say, that one had some fight in him,” she said as she poked at Donald’s body with her foot.              “My sister will not be pleased when I return with only one Guardian. This could have all been avoided. You see, I am not unmerciful. We could have worked this out, somehow. But now,” she screamed in rage, “now we are
both
going to be in deep water! This does not please me, you ingrate! Why do you men always feel the need to make everything a pissing contest! Why can you not accept that you are inferior to us?”                           

              Brandon had enough of her rambling. “What are you talking about? You are as mad as your sister is! I had heard rumors, but fires of hell, you are stark raving delirious! We were trying to run away from you! You had a clear path up the Paraline. You did not need to stop us! You asked for this fight, when all we wanted was to be left alone! All of this blood in on your hands!”

Edward covered up Jasmine with leaves and brush in a small dimple of earth next to a fallen tree. The horses had all scattered. Edward stayed with Jasmine, hidden, for quite some time, although he could not tell how long it had been. He heard the sounds of trees ripping apart, booming thuds of the Guardian’s footsteps, and a few other deep and earth-shaking noises. One in particular lifted him off the ground as the bellow of noise, like the earth breaking, shattered all other noises. The noise hit with such force that Edward thought they got caught in a terrible earthquake. He had never felt this much power in a single area before. He subdued his ability, tucked it deep, in attempt to quell the pounding in his head.

              Right after the earth shook, Edward caught view of the six remaining Blade Maidens. They retreated towards the Paraline in quite a rush. He carefully rose to his feet and peered around the woods. He saw a flash through the tree, then again. Brandon! Off to Edward’s left, he could hear fighting in the distance but did not have clear view. He needed to move. He quickly checked his surroundings and found a partially clear trail that he thought would take him back towards Brandon.

              Body bent at the hips, he scuttled on down the path. The path took him away from the area briefly then circled back around, taking him right into the backside of Ivy and one of the Kella’Dune Guardians. She screamed at Brandon, and after a moment, Brandon screamed back. Edward could not see Donald. He figured he must be off fighting another of the Guardians. Edward crouched behind the base of a tree as Ivy and Brandon argued. Looking around, he grabbed a fallen branch, about the thickness of his arm, and roughly three feet long.

              Ivy spoke. “This blood would not have been on my hands if you would have complied with my demands. I offered you sanctuary for your services. That girl that was with you, we would have put her into training. You could have had a good life of servitude, a meaningful life of purpose, but instead, your friends are now dead, and you are next in line to join them. You cannot resist my fury.”

              Ivy raised her right hand, as blue fire immediately engulfed it, throwing spectral shadows across her face as she gazed into its beauty. Too much distance spanned between them for Brandon to advance to her position, and he did not think we could run away from her. He stood up tall and defiant.
This is it. The prophecies were wrong. I knew it. I am sorry, Donald. I am sorry, Edward and Jasmine. I did not mean for this to happen.