Sir unsheathed his sword as he walked to Mag’s motionless body.
“Wake up, Mag!” I shouted. “Dammit, wake up!”
Mag pulled herself up to her hands and knees. However, she was dazed and unaware of the trouble she was in. I tried to cast a protective spell on her, but the Rings of Fire prevented me from using my magic.
The situation was dire, but at least Sir’s weapon was a double-edged sword. Therefore, as it helped him in one way, it would surely hinder him in another. That’s how double-edged swords worked according to the metaphor I’d heard people use.
Sir reached Mag, raised his sword and swung at her neck, but she rolled out of the way, barely avoiding death. Or I suppose a more accurate description would be to say she flopped out of the way, like a fish out of water. It was a surprise that Sir had missed his easy target.
The sword created a massive crack in the stone tile where Mag’s neck had been a half-second earlier. Sir, however, hadn’t been harmed at all. That’s when I realized that his sword being double-edged was of no disadvantage to him whatsoever. It turns out a sword can have as many edges as it wants, but it won’t hurt you unless you swing it at yourself, and why the hell would anyone ever do that?
“No!” Sir exclaimed, but in a voice that was closer to my dad’s than the devil’s. “I won’t murder another child!” A slice of my dad’s soul remained somewhere in that cold, steel suit of armor, and he still had some control over his actions. That’s why he had missed Mag’s neck a second ago. However, my dad could only slow down and slightly redirect his movements. He couldn’t stop or change them.
Mag, now aware that her life was at risk, sprung to her feet. I called to her to untie me so I could help her, but the spell was fully upgraded and unbreakable; it wouldn’t be lifted until one of us ran out of HP.
Sir took another swing at Mag, but she saw this one coming and ducked. Sir released his grip on the sword mid-swing, and the weapon sailed to the opposite corner of the room.
“You’ll never make me kill again!” he said. Although he couldn’t prevent Vulgra from making him go to retrieve his blade, he moved with sluggish steps.
As Sir trudged toward his weapon, Mag saw an opportunity. She grabbed the ladder and quickly slid it under a table into the square they formed in the center of the room. She then cast Blaze, not to attack Sir, but for the boost of speed. She zipped over the table and took the ladder directly underneath the chandelier.
However, Sir had noticed what Mag was up to. Without retrieving his sword, he leaped onto a table and jumped off it toward Mag.
His impressive leap was over twenty feet long, which allowed Mag to see him hurtling toward her and reposition the ladder, using it as a shield. Sir crashed into it and dropped to the ground.
But he sprung to his feet an instant later, as if the collision hadn’t taken a single HP from him. Mag now held the ladder like it was a battering ram and tried to plunge the top of it into Sir’s head. But he put his hands up and clutched the ladder. He ripped it away from Mag and tossed it to the ground.
“Inferno Fist!” Mag shouted as her hand became engulfed in a dazzling, fully upgraded flame. Its light turned the whole room red, and it toasted me from across the room.
But when she threw the punch, Sir caught her fist in his hand. He held it for several seconds, just to intimidate her. Then he kicked her in the stomach. She stooped forward as her Blaze and Inferno Fist spells wore off. Sir then punched her in the gut a dozen times before pulling back to deliver a knock-out blow to the head.
But Mag ducked the punch, snuck behind Sir, and jumped on his back. She held one arm around his neck and then reignited her free hand and unleashed a fusillade of Inferno Fists to the back of his head. The blows were powerful enough to drop Sir to a knee.
However, with a surge of strength, Sir returned to his feet and ran backward into the table behind him. Mag was crushed between the solid table and Sir’s hard metal armor, and that ended her onslaught as she slid to the floor. She had to have at least one broken rib from that.
Sir lifted Mag up and slung her over his shoulder, her head facing forward. He turned so they were facing me. Vulgra wanted to make sure I was watching. It wanted me to see this, to fuel my anger, to enhance the Destruction Rod’s power. Sir threw Mag like a javelin clear over the table. Her face smacked against the wall a few feet from me. She landed in a motionless heap.
“Dammit, that’s enough!” I shouted at Sir. “That’s a human being, for God’s sake!”
But Sir ignored me and took this opportunity to collect his sword. He then came to us and propped Mag’s body against the wall next to me. He took several large steps back and held his sword out in front of him, the tip aimed straight at Mag’s heart.
Sir charged at Mag, but before he reached her, my dad’s voice yelled, “Mag! Watch out!” Mag opened her eyes but was too disoriented to realize the danger she was in. Fortunately, Sir stumbled when he was three strides away from Mag, which gave her the extra half-second she needed to snap out of her stupor. As Sir reached her, she dropkicked him in the knee, avoiding his blade and sending him into the wall.
Sir crashed into the next room, leaving a hole in the wall in the shape of his body, like in a cartoon. I listened for any sign of movement from him. There was none.
Now was Mag’s chance. She rose to her feet and cast Blaze again. However, with all the damage she had taken, triple speed was not nearly as fast as usual. I reckon I could have beaten her in a race.
As Mag set up the ladder, I kept my eye on the hole in the wall. As Mag stepped onto the first rung, Sir still hadn’t moved, but who knew how long that would last?
Desperate to help Mag in some way, I began cheering for her. “Come on, Mag! You can do it!”
It felt odd to cheer on my best friend as she climbed toward her death. But she was going to die no matter what I did: Either she’d be slaughtered by Sir and die for no reason, or she would die from touching the Hero’s Medallion, thus aiding my mission to defeat Vulgra while keeping my dad’s soul out of the Abyss. And for her good deed, she would be reunited with Archie. She had to die this way. Hence my cheering.
Mag was halfway to the talisman when Sir re-emerged, his sword still in hand. He leapfrogged over a table and rushed at Mag.
As he reached her, Mag, using every ounce of power that her Blaze spell gave her, backflipped off the ladder. She cleared Sir’s head and landed on her feet behind him. Sir barreled into the ladder, knocking it down. However, Mag’s spell had ended before her feet hit the ground, and the landing jarred her body, preventing her from attacking.
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As Mag held her ribs, wincing, Sir darted at her and swung his sword at her neck. Out of desperation, Mag used an Inferno Fist to punch the sword out of Sir’s hand.
Mag’s strength dumbfounded Sir, and she took the opportunity to deliver another Inferno Fist, this one hitting Sir in the face. Adrenaline was coursing through her now, and she staggered Sir with another massive right hand to the jaw. She lit her left hand ablaze and stung him with a blow from the other side. Then another right. Another left. A right. A left. A right. It was like Sir was Glass Joe and Mag was Little Mac.
But then Sir found the wherewithal to sink his knee into Mag’s gut, knocking the wind out of her. He bent her body forward and drove his elbow into the back of her neck, and she went down easily.
Sir now moved with a frighteningly calm gait, as though his face hadn’t just been scorched. He palmed the back of Mag’s head with his hand and slowly lifted her to her feet. He dragged her to the fallen ladder and stood on it with her, bending her body forward and squeezing her head between his knees, forcing her to look straight down at the hard steel rungs. Then, he hooked Mag’s arms behind her back.
“No! Not this!” my dad pleaded through Vulgra. “Anything but this!” But Vulgra made him jump, lifting Mag up with him. He landed on his knees, yelling “Dammit!” as he slammed Mag’s face into the ladder. The sound of face smacking steel made my stomach churn.
Sir rose to his feet and cracked his neck in a way that was far more intimidating than such a thing had any business being. As he did, I sensed the last trace of my dad was gone. He couldn’t bear causing such pain to another human being, and so he finally surrendered to Vulgra.
And Sir still wasn’t done with Mag. Not by a long shot. He wouldn’t be satisfied until she stopped breathing. He propped the fallen ladder open and laid Mag on her back, positioning her neck on the bottom rung. Then he closed the ladder, sandwiching Mag’s neck, before climbing onto the nearest table.
“Stop! Don’t do it!” I cried out. “There’s no need for this!”
It didn’t matter how much I begged Sir not to do it; my dad’s will had been vanquished. Sir jumped from the table and double foot stomped the ladder right where Mag’s neck was. Her torso and legs convulsed, and she coughed up a lot of blood. I expected the fire chains to release me at that point, as I was sure she was out of HP. But somehow she survived.
Sir removed Mag from the ladder and punished her for several more minutes, tossing her body across those gorgeous tables, smashing those lovely vases on her skull, breaking those delightful chairs over her back, and bending and twisting her body in all sorts of disturbing ways, as if he were religious and she were the truth.
Still Mag refused to die. Every time Sir tried to end her by decapitating her, she got out of the way just in time, and Sir’s blade would crack one of the floor tiles. Mag must have escaped death a dozen times in this way. She was determined to do her part to save the world, but it was obvious that she was no match for Vulgra.
Every blow she absorbed strengthened my resolve to fight Vulgra. I didn’t care that Mag wasn’t going to collect the Hero’s Medallion. I didn’t care that I wouldn’t have the Butterfly Rod. It didn’t matter that Vulgra wanted to use me to end all human life on Earth. I would destroy Vulgra. The death of sweet, brave Mag couldn’t be for nothing.
Sir now began toying with Mag. He even let her stagger to her feet as he mocked her. He slapped her in the face and shouted, “Come on! Fight back, you fat, pathetic dyke!”
He shouldn’t have called her that. That just made her angry. In an instant, Mag’s entire leg was engulfed in flames, and she cracked Sir on the side of the head with a lightning-quick roundhouse kick.
It didn’t knock him down, but he staggered back a couple steps, and he had to shake his head to get the cobwebs out. He then let out a fierce battle cry and dove at Mag, his blade raised above his head. But Mag let out an even fiercer battle cry and caught him under the jaw with a side thrust kick. This strike was powerful enough to knock Sir down.
Mag, however, had taken too much damage to stand. She stayed down for a full minute before slowly bringing herself to her feet. She wobbled as she grabbed the ladder and set it up beneath the Hero’s Medallion.
But before she could take that first step, Sir also got up and swung his blade at her.
Mag erected a Fire Shield. The spell stopped the sword from killing her, but it still knocked her unconscious.
Sir stood over Mag and shook his head, looking down at her in disgust. He laid her flat on her back, picked up his sword, and lined the blade up with her neck. He slowly raised his weapon. This time, he would not miss.
He swung down with full force, but at the last instant, Mag reached up and grabbed the blade with fiery hands, her irresistible spirit preventing the sword from slicing through them. Miraculously, she forced herself to her feet despite Sir’s best effort to hold her down.
I couldn’t believe it, and I could tell from Sir’s reaction that he couldn’t believe it, either. It was like Mag was defying the laws of physics. She was actually overpowering Sir. Overpowering Vulgra.
Mag reignited her leg and caught Sir in the most vulnerable spot on a man’s body (and we don’t have to go further in describing where the force of that blow went). The kick dented his armor and lifted him a foot into the air. He crumpled and dropped his sword, which Mag picked up.
She cast a spell that caused the blade to spontaneously combust. Then, she shouted, “DIE!!!” (of course, she didn’t actually want him to die because then who would tell me where the Butterfly Rod was?) And bashed the broad side of the sword against Sir’s skull. He went down like a bag of bricks. It was a knock-out shot if there ever was one.
Mag let down the weapon and began to climb the ladder. Sir did not move. Mag had done it! She had defeated Sir.
“Go for it, Mag!” I cheered as she took another step up the ladder. “Climb your ass off!” Another step. “Make yourself famous!” I’m not sure what I meant by that. I was just yelling stuff at this point.
Mag was now high enough to reach the Hero’s Medallion. Before touching it, she looked at me mournfully and waved goodbye.
It suddenly hit me that this was the last time I would ever see her. The excitement of her victory poured from my soul all at once, leaving a massive, empty pit in its place.
But I didn’t want my sad face to be the last thing she saw before dying. So, instead of crying like I wanted to, I waved back to her. “I will avenge you,” I told her. “I promise I will defeat Vulgra!”
She was going to say some final words of her own, but instead of words, a bunch of blood gushed from her mouth. Then I saw the tip of Sir’s sword emerge from her abdomen. Sir had recovered and skewered her.
I cursed myself for letting my emotions distract me. I shouldn’t have assumed that a fiery sword to the head was enough to incapacitate something as powerful as Vulgra. I could have warned Mag that Sir had regained consciousness if I had been paying attention instead of getting emotional.
But it wasn’t too late. Mag was still moving. She could still touch the medallion, and I encouraged her as Sir climbed the opposite side of the ladder. However, Mag couldn’t lift her head, and it took all her strength just to wave her extended arm in the air, hoping it would graze the talisman.
Sir climbed the ladder and clasped his hand around Mag’s neck. Still, Mag continued reaching for the Hero’s Medallion as it dangled only an inch from her outstretched fingertips.
If the butterflies really could help us in this world as Mag believed, this was the time for it. A slight draft was all we needed. Just enough to blow the medallion that last inch. I hoped with everything in my heart for the medallion to swing in Mag’s favor.
But before Mag’s finger and the medallion could touch, Sir chucked Mag off the ladder, sending her crashing through a table below. The rings of fire around my wrists and ankles were extinguished. Mag was out of HP.
Sir grasped the medallion and yanked it from the chandelier. The instant he did, my dad’s soul was disintegrated by the talisman’s death spell. His empty suit of armor fell and hit the floor with the hollowest of clangs.
My surroundings became much brighter and pleasanter, just like when we had collected the other talismans. But this time, I was far too depressed to care.