Apocalypse game, p.46
Apocalypse Game, page 46
Julia didn’t move, so I looked around for a reflective surface and settled on the side-view mirror of a Dodge truck that was dangling precariously close to the crater we’d made in the road. With a snap, I tore the mirror free and looked at myself.
The face of a demon stared back.
I’d made a drastic change. My face had elongated. It was thinner and more angular now, with sharp cheekbones and a slightly pointed chin. The same with my ears. They’d stretched and ended in a tapered point.
Though it was still my face underneath it all, the rest of my features were decidedly not my own. My black, shaggy hair that always fell in my face was gone, replaced by fine, snow-white hair that fell past my shoulders, and my pale blue eyes were erased. I had no pupils at all. My eyes were a stark white, without any hint of color in them at all. The only color lay outside my eyes. Thick black veins branched out around my eyes before fading back under my skin near my cheeks.
I didn’t recognize the man standing before me. It was the face of a monster. But I couldn’t stop and reflect on these changes, not in the middle of a fight.
I dropped the car mirror, and the glass shattered as it struck the concrete. Julia dropped the broken pieces of her weapon and lost her look of fear, her battle instincts returned, and she clapped her hands together, preparing to summon another weapon.
I didn’t let her.
Faster than she could react, I moved, slamming into her with my shoulder and sending her crashing to the ground.
Julia absorbed the charge and rolled back before landing in a crouch. “You’re a hell of a lot faster now, stronger too.”
“Looks like it. Let’s see if it’s enough,” I said and kicked her.
Julia couldn’t dodge it, so she tried to absorb it, but it was too much, and the kick knocked her back to the café behind her, sending her sprawling over the patio furniture.
It spoke to her own strength that she could hold up against my new power. I had absolutely no idea how strong I’d become. But even with my new strength, she wasn’t going down easy.
I’d made a mistake and given her distance and put obstacles in between myself and her, so she had time to form a new weapon, and she crafted a golden sword and unfurled her angelic wings.
I can’t let her take to the skies.
I held out my hand and cast Void Bullet.
A single dark sphere the size of a marble appeared in my hand and launched as if fired out of a cannon toward Julia.
It struck her in the shoulder and exploded in a shower of dark mist. Flecks of her golden armor cascaded from the impact and were eaten as the obsidian wisps swirled and coalesced into a miniature black hole next to her.
Before she could react, it ripped a section from her wings, tearing out her white feathers and devouring them.
Julia jumped away, bright red blood dripping down her once pristine feathers. She darted to the left, moving instinctively away from the Void Bullet. I didn’t blame her after seeing the results, but it made her easy to predict.
As she moved, I angled my hand to where she was going to be and fired off another bullet.
This one struck her hip and sheared off a thick groove from her plate mail. As the Void Bullet struck and dispersed, more of her armor dissolved, and Julia panicked as she was caught between growing black holes.
I used her panic to my advantage and struck. I rushed in and lashed out with Rend.
They struck her weakened chestplate and cut deep, drawing thick spurts of blood. Ruby-red arced from Julia as the impact of Rend flung her back, tendrils of black eating away at her wounds as Blight took hold.
She hit the side of a handrail, and the metal buckled as she slammed into it, crumpling around her as it was ripped from the concrete. Sparks jumped from the metal as it skidded along the concrete and stopped when Julia crashed into the side of a building.
The first round went to her, but I had her on the ropes, and I needed to press my advantage. But I needed to temper my sudden surge of power.
I had to be cautious.
Julia has reached at least level twenty-five and unlocked her second form, so she should be just as dangerous as I am. And I haven’t seen her entire arsenal of tricks yet. I shouldn’t rush in.
I approached her slowly, another Rend on the tips of my fingers, along with a Void Bullet in my off-hand.
Julia jumped up quickly, a golden aura billowing off her skin. She held her hand out, and a brilliant light filled my vision before condensing into a single point in the center of her palm.
Oh shit!
I launched Void Bullet as she fired off her spell.
The ever-consuming abyss met her golden light and collided.
For a second, they hung suspended in the air, both vying for dominance, and then Void Bullet dispersed, and there was a blinding flash of light as a wave of pressure slammed into me.
My ears rang too loud as the roar of the ocean deafened me. I was weightless, and then I slammed into something hard, and there was a crack as I broke something.
I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear for a long moment as I worked out how to stand, and I rubbed at my eyes and blinked to clear them.
The world came back to me slowly, and I gaped when I could see again.
We’d made another huge crater.
The bank and restaurant entrances were nothing but a blasted wasteland of obliterated and blackened concrete and metal. A glassy sheen covered the blast zone, and I winced as it hurt to breathe.
What the hell did we just do? Did Julia do that, or was it something else?
I didn’t see her, but I knew that if the blast hadn’t killed me, it wouldn’t have killed her either. I walked forward, trying to keep my eyes peeled for a sneak attack, but there was nothing.
A burst of light from above me drew my gaze, and I found Julia on the second floor of the bank. She stood in front of a blasted-out window. Blood ran from numerous cuts on her body, and the feathers on her wings were singed.
“What the hell was that?” she asked.
“So that wasn’t you?”
She shook her head.
Damn. That leaves only one option.
I rubbed the back of my head as I stared up at her. “Guess we shouldn’t try to counter each other’s magic like that again.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “That was…explosive.”
Julia floated down and stopped about thirty feet away. “I think we’re about evenly matched in speed and strength right now. But you have more offensive magic than I do.”
I smirked. “That sounds like a personal problem.”
She chuckled and drew her wings to their full length. “Too bad you still can’t fly, Killian,” Julia said and took to the skies.
She was faster during flight, and she swooped down quicker than I expected.
I tried to dodge, but she outpaced me and sliced a groove across my cheek. Her holy sword burned my flesh and caused warm blood to slither down my face.
Ailment: Minor Bleeding
-10 HP per Minute
My hand went to my cheek, and it came away as black as tar.
Black blood, but no wings? Damn it, why don’t I have wings?
And like I’d said the magic word, pain ripped open my back and split through my Kevlar and clothes with ease.
Two crimson wings tore through my skin and draped around me like a cloak. They were thin and vaguely draconic in appearance, but I knew instinctively that they would support me during flight.
Without considering how I knew, I took off and soared towards Julia.
I didn’t have time to marvel at the wind whipping past my face as we both ascended to the sky.
Julia looked back and saw me gaining on her. A look of utter disbelief flared across her face before she steeled her shock and cut her flight, folding her wings, and dropped fast on me.
I wasn’t expecting it, and she raised her sword to slice me in half.
My demonic claws came up and stopped her swing cold, the golden blade biting a few centimeters into my hand.
It hurt like hell. The blistering, purifying light of her holy weapon sizzled and blistered my skin where it touched, and it slid into my veins, burning me from the inside. The strength of my claws held under her attack, but it did nothing about the pain. I fought back a scream and twisted my wrist to clamp down on her sword. I stopped her blade and raked my other hand across her chest.
Just as her holy power wreaked havoc on me, so, too, did my demonic power infect her.
My claws sheared right through her golden armor and soft flesh. The armor mitigated the worst damage, so she only ended up with a couple of scratches, but some of my darkness bled away into her skin, and she screamed as tendrils of black writhed just under her skin. My Blight ate at her just as her power ate at me.
It didn’t spread any further than her chest, and while she was in pain, it wasn’t enough to stop her assault.
I’d snagged one of her buckles that held her chestplate, and it sagged, only holding on by a sliver of metal. With a snarl, she ripped it off and threw it away. It sailed under the wind and crashed into one of the skyscrapers next to us, shattering the corner office window and sending shards of glass raining to the street below.
As I took my eyes off her, she rushed me, folding her wings in and dropping faster than I could react, and slammed into me.
She shoved her sword toward my chest, and I just managed to stop it as she slid through what remained of my Kevlar.
I cried out as her steel pierced my flesh and began burning me, but I gripped her wrist tight enough to keep her from pushing in.
My claws dug into her flesh, puncturing through her skin to draw heavy drips of blood that were soon whisked away by the howling wind. It pounded loud in my ears, as loud as my beating heart in my throat as I fought for control against Julia.
With a thought, I cast Siphon, and the veins in my hands changed to a bright blue as a pulse spread from my fingertips and stole Julia’s mana.
She struggled against me, fighting to keep me from draining her like a juice box, but I had the greater Strength, so I snapped her wrist and held on as Siphon finished its work. When I was done, I forced her back. I pushed off her and flew away with her sword still stuck in my chest, still eating away at my flesh. I ripped it free and tossed it aside, letting it fall to the ground.
Julia followed her blade, but I tracked it and cast Displacement.
Her hands closed around the hilt as Displacement hit the blade and shattered it into pieces. They appeared at my feet above her and rained down, passing Julia once more as she snarled in rage.
She tossed her useless hilt away in anger. “That spell of yours is annoying.” She had to raise her voice to shout over the wind.
“So is your whole one-woman arsenal trick.”
She smiled wide. “Oh, I’m just getting started.”
Julia clapped her hands together again and pulled another small silver dagger from out of nowhere.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I muttered.
Neither of us could keep this up for long, though I’d taken a good chunk of her mana, giving me an advantage. Our fight had dragged on too long already, but neither of us would back down until the other was defeated.
Julia launched herself at me with her dagger in hand. I launched a dual Rend at her. As they arced toward her, I dropped my wings and followed them, intending to end this here and now.
She couldn’t dodge in time and took the brunt of Rend across her arms and shoulders. It sliced deep furrows into her skin and traveled to her once white wings, slashing them open.
It had done a good bit of damage, but it also did exactly what I was hoping and made her cover her face.
I held my palms up and blasted her with numerous Void Bullets, using most of my pilfered mana to keep her on the defensive. Blasts of concentrated abyss struck her armor and wings, snapping up small bites of her flesh as she tried to dodge them and backed away into one of the few openings I’d left her.
Right where I wanted her.
She didn’t see me coming.
I slammed into her with as much force as gravity and my wings would allow and tackled her, sending us both flying towards the ground. We flew so fast that I barely had time to get my bearings before a giant, gray monolith loomed before us. I angled us to the right and covered my head as we crashed through a dark tinted pane of glass and into the skyscraper.
Glass shattered around us, and we hit the floor hard.
I had only half a second to glance at the room we’d landed in. It was an office, some wealthy middle managers from the extravagant décor and rich mahogany desk we’d landed next to.
Julia shifted under me, and I quickly wrapped my hand around her neck, digging my claws ever so slightly into her throat.
I stared into her azure eyes, ablaze with a slew of emotions, and squeezed harder.
“Checkmate.”
She flashed me a devilish grin, showing her perfect white teeth. “You might want to look down.”
Julia flicked her eyes to my chest, and I followed them to find her silver dagger, poised at my heart, waiting to take my life.
I can still rip her throat out before she kills me, but I can’t kill her and survive. But neither can she kill me and survive.
I matched her smile. “So, where does this leave us?”
We gazed into each other’s eyes for what seemed like a lifetime, each waiting for the other to make a move. But when neither of us did, she blinked, and time reasserted itself.
Julia sighed. “In check, I think.”
Chapter 31- Kings in Check
“So, where do we go from here?” I asked, staring down at Julia.
She paused for a long moment. Her eyes darted around, searching for a way out of this mess or leverage. But there was nothing but the two of us on a barely carpeted office floor holding each other dead to rights.
After scanning her surroundings and coming up empty, she slumped to the ground.
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice defeated. “We either both die here or…”
“Or we have a cease-fire,” I finished.
She stiffened under my hand. “I refuse!”
“Then I kill you.” I increased the pressure on her throat. “And you kill me.” Her knife dug into my flesh. “Then no one wins, and I don’t know what will happen after that. Do you really want to leave that up to chance?”
“What are you suggesting?”
My next action was a risk, but I thought I knew what kind of person Julia was, so it was at least a calculated one. I let go of her throat and backed off her, leaning against the back of the wooden desk, and let her sit up.
When she got into a kneeling position, she looked down at her dagger in her hand and back at me, conflict in her eyes.
“How about a temporary truce? Let’s sit down and actually have a conversation without trying to kill each other.”
“A truce?” She grumbled under her breath for a second before nodding. “Fine, just this once.”
“Good.” I stood and held out my hand to help her up.
She took it with some hesitation, and I pulled her to her feet. I half expected her to go for the kill when she was up, but I was right about her, and she instead stowed her dagger away.
“Alright, Killian. Let’s talk.”
I nodded and canceled the Void Bullet I’d hidden in my palm.
Glad I didn’t have to use it.
“Let’s, but not here.” I walked to the edge of the building and pointed down at a mom-and-pop bakery. “How about we sit down and get something hot to drink?”
She nodded and jumped out the window, falling to the pavement.
I followed suit. We were still several hundred feet up in the air. As I dropped, I folded my wings and fell back to earth. I didn’t know how I knew exactly how to angle my wings to achieve terminal velocity or how I knew just when to release them to avoid making Killian hamburger on the pavement below, but I did. I glided back to the ground and stopped, canceling my Demon Form as I landed.
A wall of fatigue slammed into me, and I nearly crumpled to the ground, but I kept myself standing as Julia landed next to me and canceled her Archangel Form.
I was right about Julia’s Archangel Form being the second level too, because when hers ended, away went her long silver hair and wings. She dropped back into her normal appearance, the same brown, curly hair and eyes of the girl I’d met back at the stadium. The wind picked up, and she shivered, folding her bare arms under her chest and rubbing them.
Our fight had left her with precious little clothing. My claws had shorn through her T-shirt and left ragged holes in it, showing her blue, lacy bra underneath that was only held together with prayer at this point.
She seemed a modest girl, and what I’d done to her outfit hardly left any modesty at all. I took off my ripped coat and held it out to her, which surprised her.
“Sorry about the holes in the back, but it has anti-tearing, so they should fix themselves soon.”
Julia took it, but just stared at me. “Why?”
I shrugged. “Because you’re cold. I told you, I’m not a heartless monster. I can’t just let you freeze while I stay warm.”
“Won’t you be cold, then?”
“There’s a clothing store on every corner here,” I said, thumbing behind me. “What’s a little looting during the apocalypse?”
As she pulled on the coat, she motioned towards the bakery, but I shook my head.
“You go on inside, I need to find my friends, and I’ll be right back.” I held up my hands. “I promise I’m not trying to pull anything. I just don’t want them out here while we’re chatting over tea.”
She nodded. “Don’t keep me waiting.”
I pulled out a few health and mana potions and tossed her one of each. “I don’t know about you, but you kicked the crap outta me. We should both heal up.”
“You did quite a bit of damage yourself.” She uncapped the health vial and downed it as I did the same.
The injuries and pain I’d been dealing with vanished as my health climbed back to high numbers. I wasn’t a hundred percent healed, but it was good enough to let the Mantle’s rapid regeneration handle the rest. I popped the mana potion next and switched to my second form.
