THE TJAO CHRONICLES: CHAPTER ONE
Bitter Introductions
Hate. That was all Tim felt for the men before him. The soldiers fired at him fruitlessly, his incantation turned their bullets to water and a single wave of his hand caused spikes of ice to erupt from the floor and tear through their flesh. The narrow concrete corridor of blinking emergency lights was already dripping in the blood of their comrades as they continued their futile resistance. He floated it above it and killed a few more with a torrent of green faerie flame with nary a thought.
The killing had long lost its satisfaction. His anger burned but it was not satisfied in the slightest by the continued outpouring of his grief upon these…
Ants. He thought to himself. Fucking ants. They don’t even know why I’m killing them. Why I burned their White House. I hate them, but they’re just doing their jobs. There’s no satisfaction in this.
A man whimpered in the corner for mercy.
“Do you have the slightest idea what your pissant nation did to deserve this?”
The man wept.
“This is a fucking waste.” Tim scowled. Vengeance was no longer enough. It was just monotonous as this point. He could only destroy so many of their military bases, so many of the BETSA facilities, kill so many of their leaders, before it just became a drag. A job. A slog.
“But what else is there to do!” He cried out to no one.
They had destroyed everything. Everything he cared about. Gone. He wanted it back, he wanted it all back so much, but all he had left was revenge, and the harrowing possibility of starting again.
“What else is there to do? I think you’ve done quite enough already.”
Tim turned and saw a familiar face standing in front of the vault doors before him.
Agent Cade had no weapon, all he wore was a black suit and sunglasses. He knew any weapon he carried would be a waste.
“You think you can stop me with words I gather? Go on, speak. If you think whatever it is you have to say can keep me from banishing you to one of the nastier hells then I’m interested.”
Tim’s curiosity was piqued but he couldn’t imagine anything Cade could tell him that would be sufficient to keep him from delivering the agent to a ghastly undeath.
“Your son is alive for one.”
Tim’s fists clenched.
“I can tell when people lie Cade.”
Cade chuckled. His disturbingly featureless face contorted into what almost seemed to be a smile.
“Then you know I’m telling you the truth.”
Tim grimaced. “Not necessarily. They could have made it to where you totally believe a lie.”
Cade’s smile grew wider showing teeth as white as ivory and much too angular.
“But they didn’t. Scry it out yourself. We killed your wife; we took the boy. We made you think someone else killed them both hoping you wouldn’t look for him. Turns out there were flaws in that plan.”
“Flaws? Flaws like me draping the Wilkinson Memorial with the corpses of senators? Flaws like me turning the Octagon into cursed ash? Those flaws?” Tim raised an eyebrow getting meager joy from watching Cade squirm at the mention of his own failure.
Cade grimaced. “Yeah, those flaws. The big one was thinking you’d be dumb enough to think it wasn’t us that killed your wife. Or at least not pulling off the lie well enough. But that’s in the past now. We want to make a deal.”
“What deal could you possibly offer me that isn’t giving my son back immediately in return for me not hunting down everyone in the military industrial complex with a rank above private?”
“Neutrality. We give the kid up, we don’t raise him to be a brainwashed American super soldier as a child, you leave this universe.”
“Why the hell would I do that?” Tim asked, almost more curious than angry.
“Because we could still kill him. But we were afraid that if we tried to coerce you into letting us keep him…that you might think that that was worse than him just dying, and that you might decide to speak the unspeakable names in the middle of every American city just to give us our “just desserts.” This way your plan stays…available. And so does ours.”
Tim made his face impassive while he thought.
“Twenty-one years. When he is twenty-one, I will return and if he refuses to go with me after living in your society for his youth…I will have failed.”
Cade’s face grew stiff. “So, we only have three years to try and get him to love apple pie and the stars and stripes huh?”
Tim nodded sagely. “And when I come back and see your failure I will kill every single person in your government with a position above village dogcatcher, just like I promised.”
Cade nodded and Tim could feel his fear.
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Ahiga stared blankly at the meeting room slideshow in utter boredom as Agent Cade droned on and one over the exact route of the Ottoman prince through Centennial City.
“Now, as you can see here the royal yacht will be coming up the Mississippi at a leisurely pace, this is a sightseeing visit as much as it’s a diplomatic one and the prince wants to see Tanjat Aljadida and make a big deal about the “his fellow Muslims across the Atlantic” before heading north to the capital. Our intel has indicated that the Crimson Knights are planning on attacking the boat before he reaches the capital somewhere on the lower Mississippi. You will be charged with ensuring that they fail. Any questions?”
Yekaterina’s hand shot up and Cade audibly sighed causing Yekaterina to smile. Yekaterina was tall, slimly built, fair with short white hair, and had vaguely elfin facial features despite her claim to have 100% human ancestry.
“Yeah, I just wanted to ask why the Crimson Knights want to kill the Ottoman prince and not, say, his father? Wouldn’t that make more sense.” She shrugged.
“We know that the Crimson Knights want to start a war-”
“You don’t say.” Ricky interjected.
“Shut the fuck up Ricky!” Cade snapped.
Ahiga was both annoyed and amused. Annoyed that Ricky was dragging out the meeting, and amused at Ricky’s ability to infuriate the usually emotionless Cade with his very existence.
Ricky showed no shame as he leaned back in his chair and continued to take a long drag on his cigarette. Ricky was tall and lean like Yekaterina, but his frame was more bulked out by muscle, his skin was a light brown, his chin was lined by light stubble, and his hair and eyes were dark. Ricky got away with stuff, no one else in the squad quite knew why since no one really knew what Ricky did exactly even though everyone else had their talent listed on their badge.
Cade inhaled and exhaled and wrang his hands before continuing. “Now, as I was saying, the Crimson Knights want to start a war, but we assume that they figure the Sultan has a hotter temper than his son. So, we hypothesize that they think killing the prince will trigger an emotional reaction in his father and cause him to drive his nation into war with whoever they choose to pin the blame on.”
Cade ran a hand across his pale forehead and through his black hair before looking at Liban and continuing. “Liban I expect you to keep everyone in line for this mission. I don’t want any incidents, this is a new squad, you all have to prove yourselves. Especially you Ahiga, BETSA has high hopes for you.”
Ahiga shot up ramrod straight. “I’ll get the job done sir; you can count on it.”
Finally, a chance to prove myself on a real mission! Not killing some pissant demon in Salem!
Liban just nodded stoically. Ahiga looked at him with slight jealousy.
Everyone takes him so seriously, he’s so…experienced. Ahiga told himself the feeling swelling in his chest was jealousy, or perhaps respect.
Liban even looked more professional than everyone else. Yekaterina was wearing casual jeans and a jacket, Ricky was wearing a suit that looked like it hadn’t been ironed in a few years, and Liban had on the grey and black military fatigues of a BETSA commander. Even his body looked refined. He was taller than Ricky with more musculature, darker skin, bold facial features, and close-cropped curly black hair that was pleated in the back.
Not like Ricky. Ahiga thought glancing over to the other man who had somehow donned sunglasses and acquired chewing gum in the thirty seconds that Ahiga had looked away. Ricky pulled down his sunglasses and gave Ahiga a wink before turning back towards Cade. Ahiga snapped his head back towards Cade as quickly as could.
“Now…you all need to learn to make your skills complement each other, this isn’t a training mission, this is important. You will be going up against powerful Crimson Knight fighters and they are brutal. We assembled this team because we thought that your skills would mesh well, and you impressed the brass with previous training-wheel missions and exam scores. Do. Not. Disappoint. Us.”
“No need to worry Mr. Cade, I ken we can bash some cultists lickity split.” Kobold smiled behind his great red beard and Cade nodded soberly before leaving the room.
Liban stood up and strode into his former position.
“Let’s get to work everyone. Today we kick ass.”
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“Your clothes don’t look very spec-ops.” Yekaterina said looking Ahiga over.
Ahiga looked down at himself and had trouble disagreeing when he was wearing jeans, leather work boots, a jean vest, his turquoise and silver necklace, and a red t-shirt.
“Good thing we aren’t spec-ops then, we aren’t supposed to look too military.” He said sternly.
Yekaterina snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yes honey, we all went to the mandatory classes. Why are you so serious about everything? Wait let me guess, you were a boy scout when you were little.”
Ahiga narrowed his eyes. “Nah, the foster families tended not to put out that kind of cash.”
“Huh. Well, you got me beat, I’m uncomfortable now. At least you’re not a pushover like Kobold.”
“Go shag yourself lassie, you’re all wee babes to me.” The short, squat, flannel-wearing, red-headed man’s heel turn, and huff of indignity would have impressed an English heiress.
“Well then it’s pretty damn embarrassing that you ended up being stuck with a bunch of rookies now isn’t it Kobold?”
Kobold’s face turned red at the rebuke from Liban and he muttered to himself as he stormed off across the hangar floor. Liban turned towards them.
“Kobold’s a good fighter, you kids try not to bust his balls too much ok?”
Ahiga found Liban’s smile endearing, and Ricky raised an eyebrow.
“You’re not much older than us Liban, actually I’m pretty sure that you are younger than me.”
“And you’re still working for me Ricky, mostly because the bosses don’t trust you anymore than they can throw you.”
Ricky chuckled. “Yeah, I was too busy getting my nose in pussy instead of the bosses ass.”
Yekaterina gagged. “Fuckin’ gross Ricky.”
Ricky stuck his tongue out at her while Liban smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand
“Inshallah! Just get in the helicopter you infants.”
Ahiga walked across the garage and was the first in the helicopter, or so he thought until he saw a small Asian woman wearing what looked like an oversized hoodie in the cockpit.
“Sup’ you air force or BETSA-”
The woman shushed him and went back to closing her eyes and waving her hands over the cockpit while Ahiga turned towards the recently arrived Liban.
“That’s Ae-Cha, she’s our psionics expert.”
Ahiga nodded. “So, what’s she doing with the copter?”
“I have no idea honestly.” Liban said with a shrug.
Ae-Cha got up and walked back towards the seats.
“I am finished, we should be shielded from psionic or memetic assaults while we are in the helicopter. Outside of it I will due my utmost to shield us from the enemy if they choose to wield such weapons. The spirit of the helicopter is also appeased.”
“The helicopter has a spirit?” Ricky said with a quizzical look as he walked up the stairs.
“All things have some spirit given enough age and emotional attachment. Someone loved this helicopter very much at one time and I have a knack for helping machine spirits gain better control over their faculties. Think of it as a cheat cut to primitive AI.”
Ricky looked horrified. “Oh God I’m going to have to apologize to all those socks from high school! And my pillow! And that watermel-”
“Shut the fuck up Ricky!” Yekaterina, Kobold, Ahiga, and Liban yelled in unison while Ae-Cha’s face grew crimson.
The helicopter took off on its own as the hanger doors opened. Ahiga looked out at the ground disappearing below and felt a brief quibble in his knees. He didn’t like heights, but he would never show or tell that to anyone.
I’m not weak. He thought to himself. I didn’t get here by being weak.
He took his eyes away from the window and looked at everyone else. Ricky was typing on a PA of unknown origins while Yekaterina and Kobold traded jibes, Ae-Cha read a book, and Liban looked out at the night sky.
“We’re approaching Centennial City everyone; the yacht will be in the Mississippi to the south and we’ll be landing on its helipad. You are to blend in with the crowds across the ship and be weary for any suspicious behavior. Ricky, I want you to stay near the prince and watch for any suspicious activity, keep him safe. If a guest asks any of you directly if you are a member of a mag-squad you are obligated by international law to say yes. However, if the person is really suspicious…you may come down with temporary amnesia. Understood?”
Everyone nodded at Liban’s insinuation. The treaty rules were the rules, but some were to be treated as sacred taboos and others…others got bent in extraneous circumstances. Ahiga could understand that even if the…uncertainty made him uneasy.
The helicopter began to descend towards the prince’s yacht. Ahiga wasn’t sure he had ever seen such opulence in his life; the yacht was like a glowing jewel on the water. A shallow draft made up for by wide bulk that accommodated an enormous swimming pool that made up much of the back pf the ship’s surface area. The turquoise blue pool was ringed by mingling party goers while others staid further up the boat on the dance floor, and presumably even more were in the spacious building taking up the front half of the boat’s deck area.
His thoughts were scrambled as the helicopter jolted from hitting the helipad and proceeded to roll slightly as the river rocked the ship. Ahiga fought the urge to throw up even as he exited the helicopter. Ahiga was surprised no one seemed to be interested in the new arrivals until he saw that his group were all much more simply dressed than the party goers who seemed to be engaged in an arms race of gaudiness as men walked around in suits of pure silk and women wore dresses decorated with gold thread and diamonds.
Ahiga began to feel a slight tingle in the back of his head.
It’s Ae-Cha, Ahiga. May I enter your mind so I can establish a psychic connection? It will allow all of us to know roughly where the other is, and if they have encountered trouble.
Ahiga shook his head. He had received telepathic communication before, but he would never find it normal.
Go ahead Ae-Cha.
Thank you Ahiga.
He noticed no new feeling in his mind at first but as the group spread out he could feel a…connection between himself and the others. As if invisible strings stretched out between them.
Meh, I don’t think I like this. He thought to himself.
He walked on despite his unease. The pool was filled with mingling people, a lot of older men and younger women, a similar picture was repeated in the Jacuzzis and Ahiga felt slightly disturbed. He walked up to a nearby shrimp bar and tried to appear casual as he grabbed a glass of obese shrimp decorated to look as if they were diving into cocktail sauce.
If nothing else happens this night I have at least acquired shrimp. He thought to himself while slurping down the largest sea bug he had ever seen. Goddamn rich people they get the best food.
He saw a kitschy sushi bar serving sturgeon rolls wrapped in ultra-thin gold leaf with foie gras and veal and suddenly felt slightly less jealous of the wealthy’s eating habits even as he guzzled down more succulent shrimp soaked in richly spiced Chinese cocktail sauce.
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“Excuse me waiter!”
Ahiga turned around to see a tall, lanky, white man in a tight pink polo shirt and khaki shorts beckoning him.
“I asked for heavy ice in my drink and hardly got enough to chill it! No one has ever wanted warm champagne so why would you people assume I would like it!?”
Ahiga shrugged and turned away. “Not my problem.”
The man gaped. “I’ll tell the staff about this.”
Ahiga turned around again and smiled slightly. “Go ahead, I doubt they’ll care since I don’t work here.”
“Then what the hell are you doing here! You don’t look like a guest.”
Ahiga thought about what Liban said earlier.
“I’m here for the shrimp.”
He walked into the main building on the deck content that there was no threat yet. The party inside had decidedly different vibe as people gathered around the interior bar and dance floor in various states of inebriation and. Ahiga’s sense of smell was stronger than a normal human, a fact he had never disclosed with the BETSA not thinking it important and being afraid that it would lead to him not being considered Atlas class. Nothing he had read had ever suggested Atlas class mags had enhanced olfactory senses, he sometimes wondered if he had a non-human ancestor in the woodpile. Regardless of how he got it he was not grateful for it now as he had to take in far too many sweaty bodies, perfumes, sex hormones, and the stink of vomit.
He briefly pinched his nose by the bridge and remembered why he didn’t like crowded places as he skirted his way through the crushing crowd of American and Ottoman elites. He almost struck one party guest for tugging on his left hair braid but reminded himself he probably shouldn’t cripple a billionaire. He slowly wormed his way around the stripper’s stage awkwardly keeping his eyes off of what was happening up on the stage and tried using his sense of smell and hearing to eavesdrop on various conversation only to get bad pick-up lines from socially impaired tech magnates, snippets of corporate politics, and inane verbal dick measuring contests between oil and arms manufacturing CEOs. He shook his head and tried to close out some of the sensory noise.
This is useless. Are the Crimson Knights even here? Maybe it was misinformation or somebody freaking out over radicalized teens talking shit on the internet again. Fuck, I need a drink.
He wasn’t afraid of getting drunk, alcohol always affected him less than normal humans, and he reasoned that the drink would let him blend in better. As he headed towards the bar however a hand grabbed his shoulder and he spun around ready to attack any manner of monstrosity only to see a skinny blonde woman with bloodshot eyes draped in a glittery dress.
“Are you one of the Arab princes? I like your costume.”
Ahiga could tell she was inebriated and decided to try and shake her off as quickly as possible figuring this an utter waste of his time in every conceivable direction.
“No, I’m not Arab and I’m not a prince, I’m native and I’m just trying to get a drink if you’ll excuse me.”
She responded with a giggle and grabbed his hand as he turned around. “Ooh Native! Exotic! You know I went to Lakota on a business trip once when my father was trying to buy out the tribe’s rights to the shale. Beuuutiful country, I wanted to buy one of their ponies, but they wouldn’t let me! Rude much! So, how’d you get enough money to get in here?”
Ahiga felt his blood pressure rise and gritted his teeth. “I’m here on a job ma’am, now if you’ll excuse me, I must be going.”
He began to pull away, but she grabbed his jean vest and pulled on his ID badge causing it to clatter to the floor. As he bent down to pick it up in a hurry, he saw her stagger back and disappear into the crowd. He forgot the drink he wanted and stormed down the hallway in anger before thinking back on what happened and putting the picture together in his brain. He began to run down the hallway towards the nearest connection.
Ricky.
Ahiga pushed aside Senators, sheikhs, and superfund managers as he reached the door to the prince’s room and just before he put his hand of the doorknob he was knocked back by an unknown force sending him careening across the pink carpet of the hallway.
He looked up to see a blue skinned androgynous humanoid in a white gown holding a rectangular sword blade to his throat.
A Sri Jayan. He thought to himself as he lifted his eyes to his assailant’s face and saw his suspicion confirmed by the two small horns on their head directly above two gold-colored primary eyes. Their primary eyes bored into him while the third eye in the middle of their forehead lay mercifully hidden.
“What business have you with the young prince sapien? Speak soon or I will take your off your head quicker than your neurons can fire!”
“You’re the prince’s bodyguard?” Ahiga blurted out.
The Sri Jayan nodded.
“Then you need to let me in his room.” He pulled out his BETSA id card. “The prince is in imminent danger! There are agents of the Crimson Knights onboard this yacht right now!”
The Sri Jayan stayed stalk still for a heartbeat before tucking away their iztar blade.
“Very well. You may enter the prince’s room but-” Ahiga was already upright and swinging the door open before the bodyguard completed their sentence. “-they are busy.”
Ahiga saw the prince’s clothes strewn across the floor and the prince laying naked under the silk covers of his bed cuddling with Ricky.
“What. The. Fuck.” Was he all he managed to blurt out.
The prince pulled up the sheets up to his nose and let out a squeak while Ricky just looked at him, took a drag on his cigarette, and raised an eyebrow.
“Ricky who is this man! Is he a vengeful for lover? You said you were single!” The prince protested.
Ricky made placating gestures at the prince. “Nah babe this is just a friend from work, don’t sweat it.” Ricky turned towards Ahiga. “Kinda’ crushing my vibe here brotato salad.”
Ahiga recoiled in shock once more.
“Why!? How!?”
Ricky hopped out of bed naked and began to dress as he spoke. “The why is pretty simple; I was horny. The how is that because I was horny, I flirted with a person who I found attractive and they reciprocated so we agreed to have sex. Any questions?”
“Fuck’s sake, you know what, were moving on from this topic even though you might have just caused an international incident. I think I found a Crimson Knight member on the ship so get your ass in gear.”
Ricky finished buttoning his tuxedo and prepared to leave the room when the Ottoman prince grabbed his hand.
“Wait! Do you think we can text some time?”
Ricky exhaled loudly. “Look, Mustafa, you’re a great guy and all but I think our lives are in very different places right now what with you being a prince and me being a BETSA contractor and it just seems like it wouldn’t work ya’ know?”
Mustafa’s face fell. “Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”
“You are still a great guy and everything and you should totes stand up to your father and all that! I don’t want this to drag down your self-worth or anything.”
Mustafa nodded. “Yeah, I get it, I’m glad your being honest with me about your feelings because you know a lot of guys would drag things out-”
“People are trying to kill you your highness I think we can do the emotional honesty thing later!” Ahiga shouted stomping his feet.
Ricky ran out of the room as Ahiga headed ran down the hallway and the two rushed towards the dance floor while the Sri Jayan bounded ahead of them on their long-footed legs. Ahiga was momentarily disoriented as he reentered the interior dance floor but quickly picked up the scent of the woman who had checked his card and followed it to the exterior dance floor despite being slowed down by the need to push aside or run around the crush of people. As he dashed out into the outside dance floor and noticed the skinny blonde woman from earlier talking to an elderly tycoon of some sort.
“That’s her. That’s the crimsonite!” He yelled as he swiftly oriented himself for a lunge.
The blonde woman smiled. “Oh honey, your much too late.”
Blades of bone erupted from her fingertips and before Ahiga could lunge she had already spun around and sliced the throat of the elderly tycoon in front of her and the spinal cord of a younger Turkish oil magnate behind her. Ahiga and the Sri Jayan lunged at the woman, but she leaped into the air inhumanly fast and high and as they passed below her and the yacht erupted into screams she continued her transformation in the air.
Ahiga turned around and planted himself on the ground as quickly as he could while knocking several party guests ass-over-kettle and saw that the woman’s muscles were already expanding at a massive rate with her skin splitting at the seams to accommodate them. Curved bone blades the size of bowie knives projected from her fingers and her arms stretched out in length to be more like those of an ape’s while her posture became more hunched to accommodate the change. She smiled as her teeth doubled in length and grew jagged while her cheeks split to make her maw stretch from ear-to-ear. Her black eyes still betrayed mirth as she spoke through a mouth dripping crimsonite ichor redder than true blood.
“You should always check behind you.”
Ahiga turned to see the Sri Jayan bodyguard leaping in the path of a more muscular crimsonite charging towards him with outstretched arms ending in barbed bone spears. The Sri Jayan gracefully hacked the tips of the bone spears off eliciting a growl of anger from the brute while Ahiga turned to see the crimsonite woman pounce at him even as her body continued to twist into a more quadrupedal form. He was able to jump out of her path, but she grabbed onto the boat railing to stop her momentum and twisted around to kick Ahiga over twenty feet sideways into the pool.
Fuck that hurt. He thought to himself as he descended to the bottom. She’s more agile than me, faster too, but I think I’m still stronger. I just need to get her into an enclosed space. Wait, why isn’t she in here yet? Oh yeah, they can’t swim. Can I use that?
The crimsonite leaped into the pool after him after hesitating for a moment and barely missed the opportunity to crush him against the pool floor as he rolled, crouched, and leaped out of the pool like a rocket landing ungracefully in front of the sushi bar. He turned to see her landing behind him and leaped back far enough to where the lunge of her claws only made five small puncture marks on his stomach as he was thrown through the sushi stand. He expected an immediate attack but noticed the crimsonite distracted for the briefest of moments as her eyes independently followed flying pieces of raw meat before refocusing on him.
She’s a predator. He thought to himself before kicking a wad of fugu across the deck and using her split second of disorientation to turn around and seize two of the sushi chef’s cooking blades. As she reoriented to face him and raised a paw to strike, he thrusted the blade of an 18-inch slicing knife straight through her palm causing her to hiss in agony before he then used a heavy chopping knife to hack off two of her finger-swords at the base.
She leaped back and crouched as he saw the wounds already beginning to heal and quickly jumped to bring the blade of his cleaver down on her skull only for her to roll to the left. He quickly turned to face her, but she dodged another attack with the cleaver by once again jumping to the side, this time into the interior dance hall. He leapt in to follow her only for her to roll onto her back while he was poised above her and kick him in the abdomen hard enough to send him flying thirty feet into the air where he spun around to land on his feet on the main dance floor directly in front of the cocktail bar.
She was moving on all fours now having completely lost her human skin and taken up a more feline shape with backwards-facing knees and a body of dense muscle and surface cartilage plates.
“You’re strong boy, I’ll give you that. But an ordinary human trained in Atlas magic would be nothing compared to a crimsonite. And a natural born mag? Well, they’d be a challenge, but the fight’s victor is preordained. You are strong, but I am a weapon. It is my job to bring war upon this earth.”
Ahiga sniffed contemptuously, ignoring the horrible bruises on his abdomen and the pain in his feet, he noticed the crimsonite continuing to grow in size until she was the able to stare him in the eyes on all fours, and he also noted she moved less fluidly than before.
“Yeah, you’re an unnatural born killer alright, but you seem to forget who won when clever humans faced natural-born killers long ago.”
He taunted her with a smile, and she growled before launching at him once more. He dodged the swipe of her finger-blades, but she caught him with a strong backhand sending him careening thought the cocktail bar reducing it to splinters and smashing a section of the wall of bottles against his back. He gritted through the pain and rolled out of the way of her second leap causing her to smash against the wall behind the bar and sending an avalanche of bottles tumbling down on her from above while Ahiga grabbed a bottle by the neck and launched it down her mouth as she ran forward in a biting attack. As she coughed to try and force the bottle out he ran towards her, slid under her body on the wet wood floor, punched her in the throat from below eliciting a strong crunching sound, and slid out from under her to jump over the bar and back onto the dance floor.
She pounced onto the bar and hacked up pieces of glass mixed with ichor and liquor even she once again hopped high into the air, this time at a higher angle so she could seize the side of a chandelier on the ceiling before attempting to drop atop him only for a strong bolt of wind to knock her across the room where she fell and crushed a glass table beneath her.
Ahiga turned and saw Yekaterina entering the room covered in blood with shallow cuts across her abdomen and arms.
“Fuck, are you alright Yekaterina?”
Yekaterina blinked in surprise at his comment. “Am I alright? I just saved your ass! I should be asking you if you’re alright!”
Ahiga winced. “I had it handled.”
He turned around as he heard the crimsonite get up and begin to run after him. Yekaterina began to hit it with an intense funnel of wind but the crimsonite dug its claws into the ground and ran crouched low to reduce the effect.
“Fuck shit damnit! I used up most of my qi killing the one that attacked me!” Yekaterina yelled as the wind funnel gradually grew less intense.
Ahiga saw the crimsonite was still inconvenienced and ran forward jumping into Yekaterina’s wind blast to give extra strength to a flying kick that he felt smash the beast’s face bones and knock his ankle out of socket simultaneously. Both he and the creature were sent sprawling across the dance floor. He quickly locked his ankle back into place despite the pain and briefly thanked the gods that he healed faster than an ordinary human, although the crimsonite was healing even faster than him.
“You…dumbasses…war…is how humans…advance! We are doing the world…a favor!” She spoke around a broken jaw and a partially severed tongue spraying ichor across the floor as facial bones reconstructed themselves.
She stood up and prepared to attack despite her face’s ongoing regeneration as Ahiga glanced back to see Yekaterina on the brink of collapsing and knew he was on his own with the crimsonite.
Remember what Jack taught you…breathe. Feel your qi. Make your two selves one.
The crimsonite came at him again attempting to leap above him and come down front-claws-first but he moved forwards and managed to grip her under her arms before he swung her down against the floor hard enough to splinter the wooden boards. He then threw her against the doorway where her back made a cracking sound as it splintered the wooden door frame. Ahiga refused to let her get reoriented and delivered a upwards kick to her jaw which tossed her whole frame into the air before she spun around and managed to land back to her feet in front of the pool only to be knocked backwards again as he tackled her into the water.
Submersion. The water turned pink and scarlet with his blood, the blood of several butchered humans who had ended up in the same place, and her crimson ichor. She hit the floor of the pool hard, and he swiftly gripped his fingers into the tiles below to pull himself against the bottom while his knees held her elbows down. Her claws lacked flexibility and she managed only a few minor cuts on his back and arms as her jagged teeth gnashed. She grew smart to what he was trying to do and swung her legs forward to cut his back, desperately fighting against impending oxygen death.
The struggle continued but eventually her black eyes quit moving and she grew limp and finally stopped kicking just as his vision began to fade out. He was barely able to gather the strength to kick to the surface where he immediately massive gulp of warm night air desperate for oxygen as his head rang with the pain of nearly drowning.
After several breaths he grew cognizant enough to look around and see the ongoing battle aboard the deck. The first thing he saw was the huge crimsonite with the spear arms continuing to clash with the Sri Jayan while several human bodyguards of the Ottoman prince were fighting a losing fight with a crimsonite who looked akin to an 800-pound skinless gorilla with claws and saber teeth. He gathered the strength to pull himself out of the water and just noticed a sleek bipedal crimsonite running at him on clawed feet with bone-sword arms ready to strike when several shots hit it in the side and sent it flying into the pool. It tried to resurface only for a fiery wave to wash over its head and carbonize the meat causing it to sink below for good.
Ahiga lifted his gaze to see Ricky with an Ottoman issue assault rifle and Liban with smoke emerging from his outstretched hands. As he coughed up water, he managed to get a mangled “thanks” out.
“Don’t mention it kid. Turns out the Crimson Knights put a lot of their members on the boat by disguising them as escorts. No one thought to check the escorts.” Liban shook his head at the lack of professionalism shown by Ottoman security.
“I checked out the prince if you know what I mean baybee!” Ricky said giving Liban an elbow nudge only to receive a smack on the back of the head as a reward.
Ahiga looked over to see the human bodyguards suddenly free from attack as various sharp objects had made their crimsonite attacker look more like a pincushion than a gorilla. Ae-Cha approached the still struggling crimsonite and swung a decorative katana through the air to finally decapitate him. The Sri Jayan meanwhile had hamstrung their attacker and kobold came in from behind and smashed in his head with the swing of a large decorative aluminum art piece he transmuted into titanium at the last minute. The Sri Jayan turned around and ran straight across the water and into the interior of the boat after seeing all the crimsonites dispatched.
Ahiga turned back towards Liban. “Did you ever figure out what nation they hoped to frame for the attack?”
Liban nodded. “They like to talk. They kept on loudly claiming that the Egyptian Worker’s Republic had put them up to it while we were fighting so I think it’s obvious who they hoped to frame. Hopefully the sultan believes us when we tell him it was just a plot to cause war because another Egypto-Ottoman War would be…unpleasant considering all the relics both nations have. Not to mention fission bombs.”
Liban shuddered and Ahiga nodded. That would be nasty. He thought to himself. And based on everything I read it wouldn’t have ended well for the Ottoman’s, not while the Egyptians have the Ship of Ra.
Ahiga heard the unmistakable footsteps of a Sri Jayan coming back out onto the exterior dance floor and looked up to see they had returned. “The prince is safe. The other surviving party guests and servers are also safe in the below deck although the other guests are…ungrateful towards the…efficacy of your efforts. Regardless of others’ opinions however the Ottoman Confederation owes BETSA and the United Commonwealths of America its gratitude.”
They bent at the knees while keeping their back ramrod straight and putting their arms straight out to the side. A gesture of respect from Riri!tyr-wa Ahiga assumed.
Liban straightened his back and lifted his chin. “It’s our job to prevent the misuse of magic and protect humanity. And trying to start a regional war as part of a pact with a demon lord is a pretty big misuse of magic in my opinion.”
Ahiga was still in a state of awe over Liban’s stoicism when Ricky cleared his throat loudly to get everyone’s attention.
“Excuse me everyone, especially Ahiga, but before we give ourselves congratulatory verbal hand jobs perhaps we should take notice of the fact that Ahiga killed a crimsonite in the pool. A pool holding human bodies. Human bodies now exposed to crimsonite ichor-”
The partially transformed crimsonite of a skinny tech magnate leaped out of the pool and plunged at Ricky with absurdly long teeth ready to bite at his throat. Liban knocked it off course with a flying spiral of flame causing it to fall back into the pool.
“Fuck! Ahiga have you never heard anything about crimsonites! Ichor touches people, people turn into crimsonites!” Liban yelled.
“I thought there was a whole ritual thing involved!” Ahiga protested.
Kobold pulled at his hair. “There’s a ritual to make sapient crimsonites you bloody numbskull! You don’t need the ritual to make mindless beasts!”
A crimsonite hand smacked the pool deck in front of Ahiga and he stood up and stomped it hard enough to shatter its bones. More crimsonites crawled out of the water all around the pool in various stages of development. Ricky opened fire on them alongside the surviving bodyguards while the Sri Jayan ran around the edge of the deck slicing at limbs before a multijointed arm reached out of the water to pull them in. Yekaterina managed to gently knock a single large crimsonite back into the water, Ae-Cha threw a decorative spear to Ahiga who thrust it through the skull of a large slobbering crimsonite whose muscles had only just begun to outgrow its skin, and kobold threw an abandoned blanket over another fresh crimsonite, transmuted it into lead, and pushed the beast back into the pool while it got its claws stuck in the sheet.
There were too many. Injured one’s healed and they only grew more powerful the longer they developed. A crimsonite with an enormous horn projecting from its forehead charged at Yekaterina on bulky legs, Ahiga threw the spear and lodged it through the monster’s neck just before Liban sent a wave of flame wafting over it. Ricky dropped his now empty assault rifle and picked up a shotgun from a dead human bodyguard before swiftly dispatching a horribly stretched out crimsonite approaching Yekaterina on the floor. Ae-Cha lifted various pieces of glass and surrounded a skinnier crimsonite with a tornado of shards, keeping up the eviscerating whirlwind even as it fell back into the pool. Kobold was able to tap a segment of railing an injured one was leaning on turning it into mercury and causing the predator to fall helplessly into the river below.
We’re growing weaker. Ahiga thought to himself. We’re running out of our energy, and they just keep mutating. This is all my fault.
He saw the Sri Jayan leap out of the pool and behead a crimsonite threatening Kobold. He saw Ricky shove his shotgun into the mouth of an emerging one and blast off the top of its head. He saw Liban’s flame growing weaker, hurting crimsonites but not killing them. He used the katana Ae-Cha had found before to slice the hands off of one threatening Yekaterina while she was unconscious and then sliced off its head.
This is all my fault. I need to fix this. I NEED to fix this. I NEED TO FIX THIS.
He reached out his hands without thinking and time stopped.
He saw everything in slow motion. A crimsonite beginning to enter the interior of the ship, a crimsonite swinging a mantis-like blade down on Kobold, a crimsonite preparing to disarm Ricky with a bite from its powerful jaws, and he saw his arms crackle with power. He felt all his power, he felt it more than he ever felt it before, he saw bolts of lighting, green lightning, pour out from his fingertips. He saw the green lightning rush outwards and bend towards all the crimsonites he saw, he saw their bodies light up and burn from the power within the bolts, as if they could not exist while it did.
It stopped. He blinked and saw the results of his work. Burned crimsonites littered the deck. They did not heal; their charred husks could hardly be called organic anymore. The air smelled like recently plowed soil and budding fruits and growing grass despite the charred flesh all around him. He blinked expecting it all to disappear every time he opened his eyes but it all stayed real. It was all still there.
“What the fuck was that!” Ae-Cha yelled.
The Sri Jayan muttered something to themself in their language and Liban moved to assist the injured bodyguards. Ricky pulled a damp cigarette out of his pocket and began to walk over to Liban to help while Kobold seemed to still think he was about to die and staid crouched in a ball praying for consolation.
“You can’t do that! You’re an Atlas! Atlas class mags can’t do that! I don’t even know what that was!” Ae-Cha continued to yell at Ahiga.
Ahiga opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was blood as he fell to the ground unconscious.