As I incant, I feel a power from...somewhere flow into me. It is as hot as fire as it fills my veins like molten lead. I open my eyes, and the world is red. Everything but the beating of my heart is muffled. I grip my wand in my left hand and draw my sword with my other. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill them all. The apostle. The Efrans. Shawn. Monica. William. Ortega. Janet. All those who had caused this.

I rush up the stairs onto the walls.

“I see you didn’t die, oh apostle of Earth!” The apostle cries out in a mocking voice.

I respond with a roar as I leap from the walls and onto the pile of bodies on the ground beyond.

I’ll kill him.

I cast Lightning Step and rocket forward before the apostle’s Earthen Spikes had time to erupt from the corpses to skewer me.

“Intercept him!” The apostle calls to his army, and they move.

Twenty of them rush toward me. A wall of spikes burst from the ground and meet their head, as I cast lightning steps once more to gain ground. The rest of the force moves out.

Geysers of air burst from the ground all around me as the quick casts of Earthen Spikes are countered by the apostle. He tosses a large ball of flames at me. I cast lightning step again and burst through it in pursuit. Pain? What was pain? All I feel is a hot rage.

“I’ll kill you.” I roar.

“Monster!” The apostle calls, “Whoever brings me his ugly head will get a promotion!”

He retreats, and a group of Efrans finally catch up and surround me.

“Get him, Private!”

The General’s voice calls out as the remaining units of his forces rush out of the nearby woods and flanks the forces currently trying to overwhelm me. My blade makes large, crimson arcs as they slice flesh and sinew. A spike of earth juts out of the ground and slams into my side. One of my ribs breaks, but it doesn’t pierce me. It doesn’t kill me.

I push through the crowd of Efrans striking me with their weapons. A spear runs through my shoulder, and a blade cuts me across the face, but I heal all of the wounds as they come. I clamp down on the throats of the closet one with my teeth and tear it out with a hard yank. I don’t even know if it was a ratman or a dogman, all I know is that it fell away from me screaming in mortal terror. Still, the others hold onto me, as the apostle retreats further and further down the path.

Pain? What is pain? All I feel is this earth-shaking rage flowing through me like water out of a broken pipe.

I draw in earth mana into my feet as I’m pressed and crushed in between dozens of bodies all vying for my head, and with a heavy breath I draw in a heavy flow of wind mana through my nostrils.

Boom.

The Efrans around me are blown away at the force of the explosion caused by the two counteracting manas in my body. I feel the snapping as a few of the bones in my legs fracture. Pain, what is pain? Pain is what my father went through seeing me fail at life. Pain is what my mother went through when I yelled at her. Pain is what I had caused them for my entire goddamned life. Pain is what he inflicted on them, and pain is what I’ll inflict on him. I spit out the chunk of flesh and wiry fir still in my teeth and cast Lightning Step again.

A few more Efrans try to stop me, but they die quickly or are intercepted by members of the General’s small detachment. I hear a shout behind me in the direction of the fort. Those that had survived the apostle’s spell had followed my lead and pushed out into the fort and were charging into the field. Only about 50 people — both Efran and Human, all injured heavily and on the verge of collapse, make one last desperate charge to hold the forces of Roki at bay long enough so that I might strike down the apostle.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Spells fly at me from the retreating apostle. I either take them head-on or deflect them with a spell of my own. Water spouts and fireballs become mist, and earth spikes become new injuries. Almost there. He has a spell that propels him forward, too, but his was a wind spell, so whenever he used an earth spell, it fell away and I could catch up to him, little by little. Like this, we circled the battlefield, and little by little, I close the distance. Soon he was within my reach. He backs away once more, and I feel the subtle shifting of earth mana beneath me as the apostle’s feet touch the ground.

“By the order of Gob, king of the spirits of the earth, I order you, oh gnomes, seize my enemies.”

I speak as quickly as I can.

A spike of earth juts out and clips me on the shoulder as I step out of the way of a fatal wound. A hand of compact earth grabs hold of his leg at the knee. He raises his staff to break it apart, so he could retreat. As he swings it down, I raise my long sword above my head.

“Oh, you ruler of Olympus, lend thy power for my steps.”

In a flash of light, a loud boom, and the cracking earth, my shadow towers over him, and I swing down with all the force I could. The very earth shakes as my blade makes contact with the apostle’s left shoulder. It screams in pain and tries to escape as I push down. A quick cast of Earthen Spike through its leg stops that notion, however. It seems that it had set up a series of small magic shields just as my sword made contact with it. Such an incredible control of mana, but it’s not enough. Not enough. I push down with all of my might.

The earthen hand holding him down crumbles at the force of my assault, and the earth itself cracks and splinters. I push past the joint of his shoulder, and through his clavicle, and keep going. All the pain he has inflicted on the people here. All the pain he had inflicted on my mother and father. All the pain I felt now...now it would be his turn.

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

The apostle’s ribs burst one by one as my blade pushes through them. I keep pushing, past its soft gut until the dulled blade snags and shatters against the apostle's hip bone. The apostle stares up at me in shock for a moment before the left half of its body falls away, and it collapses onto the ground. I pick up its staff, and stomp on its head to make sure it was really dead. It bursts open in a spray of pink, white, and red.

The whole battlefield stands still for a moment; everyone staring on in disbelief. A cheer erupts from what little remained of my forces. I take a step forward toward the back ranks of the enemy and the apostle’s forces break off and flee in the direction of the lodge.

“Where the FUCK do you think you’re going?”

I cast Lightning Step and push through into the center of the retreating mass.

“You killed my Mother!”

My voice booms, and they let out a cry of despair.

The amount of mana I can control at this moment, with both the rage flooding into my body, and the staff I hold gives me access to a world I hadn’t even thought possible. I raise a wall of Earthen Spikes into the front ranks, stopping their retreat. They begin to head toward the woods.

“You killed my father!” Another wall of Earthen Spikes stops them in that direction.

They begin to back up, to retreat toward the fort. A few of them try attacking me, but I push them away with a circle of earthen spikes.

“Do you really think?” Another wall of spikes presses them further toward me, and they try to retreat toward the cliffs.

“I’d let a single ONE OF YOU MOTHER FUCKERS,” Another wall of spikes boxes them in completely. “LIVE?” My declaration shakes the very air itself.

“Dance for me, o' djinn.”

I bring in as much mana as I could. A typhoon of flame and wind bursts forth. Ash and smoke fill the sky as those immediately surrounding me are consumed by the heat of the flames. I make it bigger. Hotter. As hot as the rage thrumming through my body. As hot as the fires of hell that I had called upon. As hot as the very bowels of the earth.

Were the Efrans screaming in terror and pain as the ever-growing inferno tossed them into the air, and off the cliffs? Or was that the howling of the wind, and the screaming of the moisture in the air evaporates? I don’t know, and I don’t care. More, and more mana. Hotter and hotter fire. Until I feel blood trickle down my nose. Until the knot in my headlocks my brain. Only then does my rage fade, and all the pain that it had been keeping at bay floods into me all at once. I collapse and slip into black sleep.

End of Book 2