My Path to Magic 2: A Combat Alchemist (35 page)

Pete
Breno worked for the army intelligence for seven years, but nothing he had experienced before was comparable to his suffering now…He had to spend day after day in a tiny hut at the cemetery in the company of NZAMIPS stormtroopers. There were five of the lower ranks, one white, and one combat mage, and the white magician became a source of trouble. The reason was funny: Mr. Darsino feared corpses in graves. His phobia was childish and totally irrational. The panicking mage constantly nagged: "Please let's go to any other place."

The
combat magician, introduced to all as "Master Dan", neither quarreled nor swore, nor did anything that people subconsciously expected from a dark. He slept all day and walked around the cemetery at night. Pete sensed his pent-up aggression and felt sick from it. Klyamski was also eyeing the combat mage all the time - Pete wondered if the captain was able to control his formal subordinate.

A
long and intense waiting period for the right moment to intervene was a nerve-racking experience for all; no wonder the white started showing signs of mental disorder: his eyes shone feverishly, his hands shook, and he didn't sleep at all.

"Do you w
ant me to make you a protective amulet?" the combat mage generously offered to Mr. Darsino.

"Will it work
?"

"
A top notch dark magic spell against corpses? Of course, it will!"

"
We must not alert local NZAMIPS," Klyamski reminded.

"
It won't be a problem. I found one crypt, which is out of reach for the instrumental control."

Pete doubted
that there was such a crypt, but something had to be done, the dark was right. Master Dan brought Darsino to an old crypt, and half an hour later the white mage came back happy and radiant, wearing around his neck a chain from a copper wire. Later Pete found a handful of matches stripped of sulfur behind one of the graves: the dark seemed to cheat the white in a most vulgar manner. Nonetheless, he achieved the intended result!

"
Thanks!" Klyamski said when the appeased white fell asleep.

"No problem
!" Master Dan replied. "I don't have much experience in fighting white mages, so Darsino will come in handy."

Pete
recalled that lately the army intelligence raised the issue of counterattacking white magic. Was it possible to train such a skill in the dark?

Meanwhile, the denouement was approaching.
A rumor about the nearing opening of the textile factory began circulating around town. The stormtroopers around Pete were readying for battle, and he decided to participate in it, too, though it wasn't in the scouts' original plan.  No doubts remained where and when the forbidden ritual would take place. Pete was glad that the group didn't bring an extra armor set, so without a twinge of conscience Pete decided to stay in the rear, helping to carry ammunition.

"
What am I supposed to do with this?" Pete squeezed a rustling bag. "To chew? Sniff?"

"Don't you dare!"
Darsino snapped.

Klyamski smile
d rapaciously. "This is a new weapon. Especially suited for storming buildings with no hostages. It should be dispersed in the air. If you eat it, you'll kick the bucket. Be careful - our masks don't fully protect from the potion. Drop the bomb and wait for a while before entering the place."

Now
Pete understood the ground for the group's self-confidence in a fight against hundreds of people. It made sense: the dark and the white together were able to remove any defense perimeters, the bulk of the enemies would be neutralized by the potion, and the troopers would apprehend the rest still remaining on their feet. Pete pondered on the enemies' most likely counter-tactics and decided that the dark traitor and artisan crossbowmen would try to shoot out the troopers. And if the traitor was on par with Master Dan, they would succeed.  An hour before dawn their group approached the factory fence, just in time to see a van driving out of the gate.

"We
have to finish our operation before they come back. They are heading to the orphanage, for victims for their bloody ritual," the captain clenched his teeth. "We don't want to mess around with innocent victims!"

Pete nodded and
let the fighters go forward. He finally came to his senses: six fools (including him) against the artisans' mages and a crowd of fanatics! He feared most of the hostile dark mages; he had seen the results of combat curses, and these memories made him feel depressed.

F
or an outsider, civil stormtroopers in action probably looked funny: seven gloomy men with broadswords and crossbows stealthily climbed the rotten fence and crawled on all fours into the bushes. The outsider wouldn't see the huge effort it took from the group to break through the artisans' defense spells unnoticed.

Pete w
ondered if they made a mistake and there were no artisans, but honest businessmen trying to make the factory profitable. He almost said it out loud, but a wave of shivers, which suddenly pierced his body, saved him from embarrassment.

The magicians
looked at each other.

"The p
erimeter is off!" Darsino sighed. "They have started."

Pete
envisioned that bewitched migrants, pulled out of their beds by a powerful call, would begin gathering at the gate of the factory in half an hour, as the blazing sensors of instrumental controls would awaken local "cleaners" and make them rush to their trucks. The artisans acted openly, signifying that they came up with a way to block local law enforcement.

"Wiggle your
hoofs, goats!" the captain whispered. "You two go round the building. Neutralize everything that breathes! We'll meet at the boiler room."

The men
disappeared in the darkness. Master Dan went ahead of the others, smiling unkindly. Pete walked in the footsteps of Master Dan; the scout's task was to guard Darsino, who followed him.

T
he captain's reliance on modern alchemical weaponry proved to be effective: the powdered bomb struck down both ordinary people and white mages, driving them into a deep sleep. Pete looked around: nearly the entire building was occupied by huge construction of unknown functionality. Its fragments, covered with magic symbols, lay on the floor, hung on slender strings, and were mounted on the walls; air trembled from the abundance of white magic - the construction performed some work. In a rainbow haze Pete discerned the frames of iron beds screwed to the floor and winced.

"Can you s
hut it off?" Klyamski grimly asked Darsino.

"I'll need time," the
white magician sighed.

Darsino unpacked
his tool bag and started wandering among the artisans' creations, occasionally making written notes. Pete frowned: they were losing speed and switching to the defense. With so few people at their disposal it signified a defeat. It would be better to set the artisans' construction on fire, but nobody knew how it would react to heat - it could explode and kill everybody inside.

Captain Klyamski
painted the faces of the unconscious captives with a special marker and inspected conspirators' pockets. Master Dan busily rummaged through the sect's belongings. The sky in the windows brightened; the longest day of the year began. Traces of alchemical powder in the air affected Pete - he felt like falling asleep. The scout moved closer to the windows, perched on a windowsill, blinked, and, discerned through murky glass the gray board of the covered van.

"The
van is back!"

"
Hostages…" Klyamski hissed.

"
He won't dare to use boys now. Alive, they are unpredictable. Unless he will make them unconscious." Master Dan commented, partially relieving tension that had thickened between them after the news about the return of the van with children.

Pete
thought that at least one thing was good about dark kids - they weren't useful as hostages!

And then they
heard a bang - the dark traitor knocked the entrance door down. A figure in a long cloak with a barely glowing symbol of NZAMIPS came out of the pre-dawn shadows toward Master Dan. The scout realized that he was right between the combat magicians and darted aside. Darsino crouched into the corner; he shut his eyes tightly and covered his head with his hands. The Klyamski's fighters, with crossbows, lined up behind Master Dan.

A
ir started trembling from curses; dazzling crimson patterns blossomed, visibly manifesting the collision of dark Sources; crossbows sounded in Pete's direction: he cringed involuntarily, expecting a blow and instant pain. Instead, the bolts gracefully slowed their flight and disintegrated into small chips in front of his eyes - Master Dan formed two curses to protect his people from both: crossbow bolts and dark magic, and the fact he managed to combine heterogeneous weavings signified that he had reached the height of excellence for a dark mage.

Chips
flew in all directions; crushed metal creaked; a couple of shooters fell from the steam pipes' arch straight into the center of raging magic.

The
traitor-mage was defeated before their battle began; the skill level of his enemy was too high. Master Dan was vulgarly finishing off the other dark, hammering him with blows and forcing him to pump his power into his enemy's weavings. The traitor's fate was decided.

"
Follow me!" Klyamski roared and rushed to attack the artisans' crossbowmen.

With
shouts that were more frightened than raging, the troopers followed their commander; the captain's order gave them a chance to run from the deadly curses of Master Dan that dangerously glittered behind their backs. The artisans came to their senses and began a counter-attack - their homemade swords and clubs met with the enchanted armor and weapons of the stormtroopers. Pete lagged behind.

The van with
the children in it was left unguarded. Dark kids with all their childish enthusiasm pounded on the doors from inside the car. Klyamski rushed to free the children, but Pete didn't let him unlock the van. The scout was afraid that the kids would run around among the combatants.

Meanwhile t
he artisans received a reinforcement of three dozen enchanted folks from the migrants. Against five NZAMIPS troopers…Pete stepped forward with the leftovers of alchemical bombs, and the supporters quickly became useless for the artisans, except as a barricade of bodies.

The c
olored sparks of spells flew over the factory's fence from the outside: the local law enforcement unsuccessfully tried to break through the crowd, blocking approaches to the factory. Chaos grew stronger.

The end came swiftly: purple lightning
dabbed the sky, and a thunderclap drowned the cry of the overpowered traitor. Master Dan appeared from around the corner, dragging the unconscious body of his foe by the legs.  Passing by a fire safety barrel with water, he checked the level of liquid inside, and slashed the barrel in halves by a quick gesture, so that the water poured on the defeated mage and vaporized instantly. Seeing this, the artisans hurried to surrender. Klyamski laid them on the ground with hands behind their heads.

The
crowd at the factory gates quickly dissipated; policemen and gallant lads in the uniform of the "cleaners" climbed over the fence. Pete wandered among the defeated; the poor guys heavily vomited. Something didn't let him believe in the happy ending; the victory was achieved too…cheap, maybe. Suddenly he noticed Master Dan - the mage pulled off a silver ring from his enemy's finger. Healers carried away his half-dead foe.

"
My sixth duel!" the dark mage boasted.

"What
?"

"
The adversary's ring is a trophy for the duel's winner," he explained. "Axel has twelve, but he is older, and he won them during the Reformation."

"H
ow did they incite you to participate in this?" Pete was curious.

Master Dan's face
became gloomy, "These assholes kidnapped my sons."

Pete
nodded. Only artisans could dare to hurt the family of a combat mage.

Klyamski's
group slowly gathered around Pete, loudly dreaming of hot grub and normal beds. Darsino came last.

"
We are in situation 'Z,' " he whispered tragically to all.

"
What's this?" Pete started worrying - he had not seen Lavender yet.

"
A few leaders with important artifacts have escaped," the white politely explained.

After a moment
of silence people burst into curses.

"
We'll have to start all over!" Klyamski almost spat.

Master Dan grinned
, "Did anybody promise it would be easy to finish them off? Perhaps, Pete, your adventurous companion will be our only hook."

Lavender
Kilozo watched the assault from a safe distance and was in no hurry to get out of the bushes. She planned to reveal her presence when the stormtroopers put enchanted chains on all of the sectarians.