Light of Epertase 01: Legends Reborn (30 page)

I’m coming, my love.

Rasi crashed through the door, leaving little but its hinges.

The one they called Blog stood at the bottom of the staircase. Rasi’s chest heaved in anger. Blog glanced to one of the others, probably his master and the one Rasi would kill last. That freak nodded his approval. Blog withdrew his sword.

The female crept from across the room.

“I got him, Cyn,” the lummox said.

From atop the stairs, Rasi scanned the enemies and the room.

Elijah lie in a bloody mess in the corner. Rasi wouldn’t have been able to tell if he lived or not except for his agonal gasps of air.
Why is he here?
That was a mystery that would have to wait.

And that’s when he saw her. She was emaciated and sickly, lying on a table like a sacrifice. Rasi couldn’t hold back the rage.
I will kill you all!

He marched down the stairs, darting his eyes from Blog to Cyn to Scorne then back to Blog again.

The lummox backed away to let Rasi advance. Maybe he saw something in Rasi he hadn’t seen when first they met at the Forest of Concore, and maybe it gave him pause, but whatever made Blog back away, it didn’t matter, Nothing would help him now.

Rasi leaped from the middle of the staircase. Blog swung his sword like a lumberjack might an axe but Rasi’s straps entangled his arms, shunting his swing. They twisted until his sword fell from his hands. Rasi’s momentum slammed him against Blog’s chest but the monster didn’t move.

It was at that moment that Rasi realized his mistake. Damn him for letting his rage take control. He pushed away but Blog wrapped his vice-like arms around him. Rasi’s straps engulfed the villain’s powerful upper body and constricted. One of them slithered around his throat but his metal skin hardened beneath it.

Cyn leaped from behind. A strap crashed against her chest, flinging her into the staircase with a thump. Rasi glanced at Scorne, who still stood at Alina’s side. For the moment, the murderous freak appeared more concerned with Rasi than with her. That was all Rasi could ask for.

Just keep watching, bastard.

Blog squeezed, strong.

Rasi worried his back was about to snap. He tried to take a breath but there was no room for his chest to expand. The straps tightened around Blog’s chest but Blog was too powerful and Rasi too weakened by his squeeze.

Rasi drew his arms back and clapped them against Blog’s ears but the behemoth hardly flinched. Unable to catch his breath, Rasi dropped his exhausted chin onto Blog’s bulky shoulder. He scanned the room for an advantage until he found one resting behind his enemy. It was Blog’s glistening sword waiting on the floor like a gift from the gods.

Rasi concentrated on his straps, praying they would listen. He closed his eyes and envisioned his straps grabbing the weapon from the floor.
Concentrate!

By some miracle of the gods, they listened, or at least one of them heard his pleas because it unraveled and reached toward the blade, which lay just out of reach. Rasi wheezed as he tried to inhale. The strap strained and stretched to no avail. Rasi struggled to lift his head. It was no use.

But then another strap realized his plight and struck the stone wall, stiffening as it met the wall. Blog stumbled backward, making way for Rasi’s strap to curl around the sword’s blade.

Blog continued to squeeze. Rasi’s arms collapsed, exhausted, to his side. His body went limp against his mind’s every command.

He heard Cyn giggle from her new spectator perch on the stairs.

Rasi summoned his last bit of strength. He knew what he was about to do was going to hurt … a lot. He jerked his head back and then hurled it forward. His strap swung the sword’s hilt toward the back of Blog’s skull. Metal from Blog’s head liquefied and scrambled to defend his forehead. Rasi’s head collided with the metal, ripping a gash across his own brow. The strap bashed the sword’s unforgiving hilt into the back of Blog’s unprotected skull. His cocky grin changed into painful surprise. His arms dropped to his side. Rasi fell onto his back. Blog staggered while shaking his head like he was trying to jar the confusion loose.

Cyn didn’t hesitate and dove from the stairs. She was good, a trained killer. The metal from her shoulder slid down her arm and pooled into a razor sharp edge from her elbow to her wrist. Blog dropped to his knees with the force of a dying dragon.

Cyn was fast, too fast, and before Rasi could react, she whipped past, slicing across his back.

Rasi grunted and heaved his chest outward, his back stinging like it was on fire. Cyn circled around for another lightning pass. His straps lunged blindly, entangling her legs, and crashing her head-first into the stairs.

Rasi turned back to Blog, who swayed on his knees. Cyn bounced to her feet. Three of Rasi’s straps hovered and hissed while she stalked side to side. The straps mirrored her movements. Instead of pouncing, she waited to attack.

This was Rasi’s chance.

Blog stared past him with blank eyes at the blank wall.

Rasi clenched his hand along his side. Two of his straps twisted around his arm and fist and hung loosely to his knees. They twisted together like a towel being rung out until they formed a dull point. Then they hardened.

Rasi drew back. Blog wavered on his knees, ready to fall at any moment. He rubbed the back of his head and then stared at his blood-soaked hand.

“Bloooooog,” Cyn shrieked. She leaped blindly into the defending straps.

They enveloped her like a spider’s web, holding her at bay. She thrashed to free herself.

Blog’s metal skin scurried over his body as if unsure of where to defend.

Rasi’s strap that held the sword swung around and slammed against Blog’s side. The metal deflected the blow but left his chest exposed. Rasi plunged his arm and the hardened strap forward.

The hulking monster let out a wail.

Cyn froze in her struggle against the web of straps. Rasi glared over his shoulder at her while Blog hung lifelessly from the end of his arm. His other straps hurled Cyn through the air.

He yanked his arm and strap-weapon free from Blog’s chest.

The largest of all symbiots crumbled to the ground in a heap. His metal skin liquefied and pooled into a silver puddle on the floor. The glob released a high-pitched squeal as it flowed toward Rasi’s feet. He stepped away from the screeching glob and almost immediately the silver liquid hardened and corroded brown.

Scorne screamed for Cyn to keep Rasi back.

Cyn babbled some kind of heathen language. Her metal skin pooled along her arms and legs, rose from her skin, and melded into razor edges. Rasi’s straps met her attack. She sliced at his appendages but she was hesitant, not quite sure of how to strike. She hurled her reckless body into their web. Rasi backed away, his straps continuing their assault only to recoil with blood spraying from their ends.

Rasi heard the hate boil inside of her as she screamed in his mind.
I’ll rip out your throat, murderer.

Inside, Rasi grinned at the irony of her accusations that he was the murderer.

“Yaaaaaaaaahhhhhh,” she shrieked and leaped again.

She made it past his straps to connect her fist with his cheek. He felt like he’d been struck by a horseshoe. His ears rang and vibrated through the back of his head. His legs went limp momentarily and he tumbled backward. Two of his straps braced against the floor, stopping his fall before springing him back to his feet. Blood streamed from a fresh gash below his left eye.

Cyn swung again, this time with her other hand, but Rasi crouched beneath it. A strap curled around his knuckles and hardened as he made a fist. She was too focused on offense to see his attack coming. He thrust upward and struck her chin. She dropped. He wanted to finish her, but he didn’t have time, for Alina needed him. Cyn rolled to her belly, dazed, and spat blood along with a couple of teeth onto the cold floor.

Rasi turned to Alina.

Only moments before…

Alina wrenched her neck to see her father. His legs no longer quivered, his chest barely moved.

She turned her head toward Scorne.

The freak started to collapse but caught his elbows against the table at her waist. He clutched the bleeding wound on his back. Even his metal couldn’t slow its flow and she saw the concern in his eyes. “Your coward dad cut me deep,” he said. Unable to hold up his weight any longer, he wobbled and dropped to his knees.

She heard him gag and then what sounded like a bucket of water splash onto the floor. “I hope it hurts, murderer,” she said.

His hand shuffled beneath the table and he reemerged with Elijah’s blade. Fresh blood ran from his mouth. He asked, “Is that your savior? The one called Rasi?” He laughed, then coughed, then grimaced.

She turned away, but he kept talking. “You should be more p-p-p-particular with whom you associate.”

He leaned over her again to see her face. Her eyes must have shown her bewilderment because a surprised grin formed on his face. As Rasi battled Cyn across the room, Scorne whispered into her ear. “Oh, my dear Princess, you d-d-d-d … You d-d-do not know. The one you know as Rasi is no savior. In fact, he helped me when I killed your g-g-g-g.” He paused, took a frustrated breath, and then tried again. “Your g-g-grandparents.”

“I have little doubt that their murderers were you and your psychotic friends, fiend.”

“Oh yesssss. I do not d-d-deny my most b-brilliant work. I only feel it prudent that you know about your so-called savior’s part in it. He b-b-battled the guards while I slaughtered the King and Queen.”

You lie. Rasi would never.

“Ah, yes, Princess. You should ask him about that n-n-n-night. If your end wasn’t so near, that is.”

Tightness gripped her chest. She tried to fight back a tear but failed and was surprised she had any tears left at all. He raised his blade into the air and she no longer cared.

“Now I will be King,” he whispered with a laugh.

Rasi ran toward her. He’d never get there in time.

She turned her head back to her father’s broken body. He took one final gasp and she swore she saw his soul leave his body.

And with his final breath, the air sucked out of the room like a vacuum. Then, as suddenly as the air had left, it exploded back into the room with an inferno of blinding flames. The fire engulfed her and everyone else. She squinted away from the scorching pain that was sure to follow. But instead of burning, every nerve in her tired body tingled as the fire passed through her soul.

Scorne turned away from the blanketing flames.

R
asi fell to his knees in the engulfing flames. He covered his face with his arms. The fire smothered him, trapping him. He tried to turn away but the flames were everywhere. Every hair on his body stood on end. He opened his eyes to an exquisite wall of dancing orange and black. He should have burned, that much he knew, but he didn’t, which told him he was still alive. He held his breath, though he may not have needed to.

The exploding fire dissipated as quickly as it had begun, sucking into the dungeon walls. Rasi rubbed the blur from his eyes.

Rasi, get up,
Alina screamed in his head.

He focused on her table. He had a chance.

Scorne wobbled next to her, not yet having recovered his senses. He reached out with his knife hanging limply from his hand, feeling for something to balance himself against but grabbing only emptiness.

Rasi started to run again, though his head hadn’t cleared. He saw three of Scorne’s outstretched arms and grabbed the middle one. In a single fluid motion, Rasi pulled Scorne’s wrist downward while driving his other hand against his enemy’s elbow with a brutal snap. Scorne howled and pulled his mangled arm away. His knife clanged to the stone floor.

Rasi tackled him. A strap shot toward Scorne’s face. Though dazed, the symbiot jerked his head to the side and avoided the hardened strap’s blow. Stone fragments and dust shot into the air.

Scorne tried to sit up, but Rasi grabbed his ears and slammed the back of his head against the floor. Another strap attacked, this time striking the shifting metal on Scorne’s forehead, pounding his exposed head against the floor again.