Battle Mage Chapter 16

The Raid on the Museum turns into a battle of three battle mages and an Archdemon. Jules, Jessica, Laurence, and a scared apprentice, Lucy fight the evil Succor. Nothing will be the same.

Chapter 16

 

The museum was alive. It had given itself to the will of the demon who controlled it no different than it could control any other part of its body. What started as a trap for the two apprentices quickly was becoming a rescue operation. The creature, now unbound, was looking to feed on a fair maiden. The fair maiden it had targeted was of some strange descent that even it could not recall the scent of. However this Lucy was going to be an exotic flavor that made it hunger for all the more.

It could sense her bond to one outside, now drawing closer. The demon however was not too happy to watch its many children die in agony nearby. The thought of more of them coming to potentially destroy it also did not appeal.

 

Anna told Carlos to sit on his butt. Carlos knew better than to argue with the woman when she was this determined. His suit would be ruined by the fresh grass. He cursed himself knowing that he would need to move heaven and earth to get the coming stains out of his pants. A look to her face and he knew what fate was worse. He bent his knees, a painful experience, and sat down.

He didn’t know when he got this old that sitting down was a chore. He remembered how as a child he could jump to his knees like it was no big deal. Even in the heat of battle, he never seemed scared to fall on his back or anything. Reaching his chest down to his lower torso and getting small like a huddle was a long and despair inducing process.

He let out a slight whimper, then moved to the second and last position, sitting down altogether. He felt the grass and the ground beneath offer resistence. All he was worried about was his pants. Glorious, now no doubt ruined. Thanks a lot Anna.

“Okay. Now, I am going to place my hand on your shoulder, that should pool our energy.” She walked up to him and placed a slender wrist on the lower neck muscle connecting to the shoulder. The more intimate the touch, the stronger the bond in their signature energy. This was the process in which they were going to act as an anchor.

Three minutes had passed since Jessica, Jules, and Laurence last ran in and they hadn’t heard from them. It was too early for any of them to be dead at this point but time was definitely a factor going into this strange Plan B.

“Now, I need you to concentrate, try to project your spirit to the people inside.” Anna spoke like she was trying to help a client relax and reach nirvana. It quickly backfired as Carlos turned to her and gave a look.

“I know how bonds work. We have been doing this since gradeschool. I know how to project. I know how to seek. And I know, without any problem, how to get in touch with a friend who is separated by a magical or spiritual boundary.”

Carlos resat himself and focused on Anna slowly move her hand partially under his collar towards his neck. He waited for a second and almost wondered if she would do something minor or miniscule. Would she simply move the tip of a finger, or add a bit of pressure more. He made sure not to betray any of this. Nothing happened and a mental note in his mind sighed.  

Well, he guessed, it was time to save his foolish friends.

The bonds people build over time can echo spiritually. These spiritual bonds make it easy for souls to connect and furthermore, they allow magic to run through and even be shared. Another strength, they cannot be overcome by magic and in this case, a demon’s domain cannot override the link when properly anchored and shared between people.

“Jules, can you hear me?”

Jules slammed a blade through an armored knight. The demonic energy could animate a shell but it could not stop the harsh strength and durability of a magic blade. Light eminiated through the armored air and then it collapsed all together.

Two little minion demons ran through the side of his field of vision. They were small little red things with little spines sticking from their back. They crawled on all four and their eyes had no pupils, just the depths of an unimaginable dimension. The strange orange lips opened on one of them revealing two sets of sharp jagged teeth.

The battle mage that dared oppose them was weak, his kidneys were aching. The weight in his eye asked him to keep them closed and enjoy some rest. His right hand holding the smaller sword wanted to retract and rest in a constricted way. But Jules had fought worse in worse a state.

“Magic…this one has magic coursing through him.” The minion who had not been gaping had tried to warn the other with its mouth open.

The enraged minion saw a man with a generic sword. Not a man, a pathetic human who was barely wearing any clothes but pajama pants and a gown. It was laughable that the master told them the threat was coming from this one. Then it saw a brief flash of white light surrounding the hospital issued clothes. The light instantly disappeared and the intended victim was still wearing its proof of being a weakling.

It laughed. It wanted to feast on a magic user.

Jules saw it coming and focused on defensive energy. The creature of hell jumped and landed in mid air with its claws stretched out. All the claws found was air as it was suspended. The creature just floated there with fear. It did not comprehend the concept of invisible armor. Its claws had gotten stuck and then it saw its mistake. The flash was the temporary illusion giving out for but a split moment. It knew its would be victim would show no mercy and hoped its ally would help.

A bolt of electricity slammed the other minion against the wall. There would be no help.

The battle mage grabbed the demon by the head and focused on the element of light on his hand. Jules’s left hand glowed and the demon yelled in pain as its skin was melting off on contact. He then threw his victim at the one that wasn’t dead and began to run towards the survivor before it could recover from the lightning shock.

“Wait!” It pleaded as it made eye contact with its murderer. Its head was instantly severed in a golf swing like stroke from Jules’s blade.

“Jules, I know you can hear me a*****e.” Carlos appeared in spirit form behind Jules.

“We are linking up I take it?” Jules asked.

“Yes.”

“This is the third time I have walked into this room, and every time, these damn statues keep attacking me.”

“The demon has complete control over this entire building. Which is why we need to create a tether line. We do that, the demon cant shift his realm around you the rest.”

Jules closed his eyes. Anything tied to the room was in pieces. He felt a tug coming from a direction behind him. That was the literal direction Carlos and Anna were. He could see them. She had her hand on his shoulder as he was projecting. Jules’s spirit gathered the line sent his way. He met it with his own energy and could feel the shady clouds that separated him and his friends outside disappear.

“Okay, if you need to get out of there…”

“We are not leaving them.” Jules felt like scolding Carlos.

“I didn’t say that. We are going to save them. Try and link up with them and then we can pull everyone out.”

Anna’s voice then chimed in, “Should we then retreat and come up with a battle plan to kill the demon?”

Not a second after, Jules could feel Laurence’s aura come into the conversation. “We won’t get a second chance to kill this thing. Its been exposed, it will leave immediately and we wont see it again, or it is going to kill a lot of people when it gets the chance.”

Jules looked to the doorway. There was a familiar frame. Laurence was wearing his battle armor, dark leather jacket and pants, the same. It looked more like a one piece. Jules knew better that the leather could not be broken through by anything equivalent to a bullet or less. There was a time where Jules spent an entire afternoon punching him in that armor and not making any literal scratch. It wasn’t impervious, it blocked magic to a decent degree but it would take serious attack power to cause pain. When Jules would duel with Laurence, he would focus on attacking from ackward angles and adding elements to his sword attacks. Laurence and Jules never could decide of the two who was the better duelist or battle mage in general.

Jules tended to focus on illusions and mental games while Laurence was always direct path, each more successful than the other in their respective field.

“Okay, that is two of us. We just need three more.” Laurence communicated this thought to Carlos and Anna.

“Procede and be careful. Work together…” Carlos began to talk.

Laurence cut him off, “We got this. You are talking to the A-team.”

Anna interjected, “Jessica, two novices, and you two are hardly the A-team. In my opinion we are fucked.”

Jules laughed, sensing the slight humor in tone, “Well if we are fucked, I guess we shall see you in five minutes.”

“Can you sense Jessica or Luke and Lucy?” Carlos asked.

Jules closed his eyes. “Jessica is surrounded. She found Lucy! The two of them are together.”

Laurence patted his friend on the shoulder, “So this new strip club opened up about five miles from here, want to hit it up after we finish this?” His friend laughed and shook his head no.

“Sorry man. I…”

“Girls love a man injured. Trust me, you might get a discount on a lapdance.”

“Lets save the world first then you can spend the next five hours droning about useless strippers.”

“Tits are never useless.” Laurence joked as they made their way quickly out of the first floor room into the central hub.

“Jessica, Luke, Lucy!” Laurence shouted to the heavens.

The room looked normal, but then it turned into bleeding walls and fire. What was the greeting desk and the security post turned into table with a skeleton on it. Soon the sound of demons came from the stairs as minions and two Incubi descended.

Jules smirked, “Looks like you lost all your daughters, do you want to send your sons to their deaths as well?”

The incubi looked like their sisters but with broad muscular shoulders and male frames. They however did not have the dark vinelike skin on the top part of their torso, their silver glistening skin making them look like body models from hell.

“Laurence, Ill draw them, you go on ahead. You can sense them right?”

Laurence nodded.  

Jules patted Laurence on the back and instantly, Laurence disappeared. The demons did not pay attention to the mysterious disappearance of the ally but continued to circle around the standing figure of the man in the pajamas.

They attacked all at once and the figure of Jules disappeared.

Invisibility is a heck of a skill. It requires the user to close his eyes. The illusion of invisibility is a different trait all together; no different than a protective aura one passes to their friend. It is highly temporary. Laurence ran up the stairs as quick as he could.

Jules had closed his eyes the moment he touched Laurence and held the energy to create a visual double where he once stood. The creatures, he could sense without the help of his eyes attacked the illusion behind him. Jules instantly reappeared behind the group and sliced down his first victim. The minion exploded in light.

The group of demons, now down one member turned around to look at their prey.

“I mean you could all try attacking at the same time,” he began to say. He then showed his blade, with demon blood sizzling off from the competing energy. “I more than welcome it.”

Jules drew a circle on the floor using all the speed he could. The pain was immense. His body wasn’t ready to be moving using his agility. Two minions instantly jumped towards him. When they floated over the circle, they froze in mid air.

He looked back at the allies of the minions, half smiled, then in one swipe, the two minions exploded in light.

The pain pulsated and he wanted to puke but he couldn’t let them know he was a second away from falling over. He hoped Laurence had made contact. The he sensed it. He heard it first. It was the noise of a figure jumping onto a wooden railing. From there the other sound came, the sound of a falling body.

Jules looked up and saw Jessica land right beside him.

“This might be the last of them?” She asked.

“The demon has been here awhile, he might keep summoning them if we don’t kill him now.”

“So we aren’t retreating?” Jessica asked.

“How is she?”

“She is…she is disturbed. When I first came in the demon tried to corner me by moving rooms, but when you two entered, it couldn’t divide its focus enough. Lucy was running trying to avoid them. It was bad.”

“And Luke?”

“Jules, Lucy said…he ditched her. He ran away.”

 

Carlos felt a pain when he heard that. Santa not being real didn’t hurt as much as losing confidence that a man he helped for this long had ran away. He would reflect on this pain after they had salvaged this horrible day.

Jules for the record, wanted to punch Luke in the face.

 

The Succor demon had grown not too weak from summoning its children. Moving the rooms around and sending the intruders in circles was a bit of fun. However it was their collective energy that was starting to rebel against his hold on his home. The bottom floor was starting to normalize and the skeletons and bleeding walls were becoming tables and stone.

It hated art. It hated being stuck in this room. It walked out.

It went to the stairs on the second floor. The girl in the glowing body armor ran towards to main balcony and yelled, “Its coming!”

 

Anna simply told Carlos, “The link has been established. We sure we want to fight this thing? We can pull out now.”

Carlos kept his eyes closed, “No. We kill this thing. There is no room to cast doubt.”

“Good,” was her response.

 

Jessica stabbed the last incubus with her katana as it tried to retreat screaming.

“You must be skilled magic users. Your fighting style is very versatile. I must commend you.” The creature was about ten feet tall. It had the same vine like black skin on its legs and its for arms. However like its incubi children, its chest was smooth, reflectively pale, and bare. It differed by having a scale of wings and a long snake like tale with a pointed edge to it. Its face had not a pretty feature on it and looked like its jaws were too big for its mouth. The demons horns did not curl but flowed from the sides of his head like pigtails to his shoulders where they stopped just above.

“Jules. How did you know this thing was an archdemon?” Jessica asked as she got her battle stance ready.

“That’s a secret. You all trust me?”

Laurence, “You buying a round after?”

“At some point.”

“Then hell yeah I trust you.”

Lucy, still shaken up by the horror did not say anything, she just looked at the man who had no fear at this moment. Actually, she could sense the fear. It was in all three of them. They could not protect her. Lucy turned that fear into a smile. Jules would protect her. He had done it once before and she was more scared that time than this.

“I will always have faith in you.” She whispered but did not let Jules hear it.

Jules lead the charge by reflecting a double of himself to start. The demon swiped at it but  instantly went on the defensive as it noticed the double was merely an illusion. Laurence came and attacked the right side. The demon responded with fire and shot in the direction.

Laurence absorbed the hit and was blown back.

Jules jumped in the air and yelled. The demon caught him, only to find out that this too was an illusion. The Succor felt a slight shiver run through itself as it realized it had left itself wide open. Jules was crouched underneath it and sliced a bit into the stomach before it jumped back.

It howled in pain. To Jules’ right, Laurence was struggling to get up.

The demon ran towards its rivals this time. It was going into a full rhino style charge and it delighted at observing Jules brace for impact. Jessica shoved Jules out of the way and took the impact and went flying five feet back. This time it was moving towards Lucy. It was right about to charge through the scared girl when there was a flash of light in front of it. It exploded and the demon couldn’t see. When its eyes readjusted, it noticed that Lucy wasn’t there and it had to force itself to stop.

Jules patted himself on the back for that light show. Lucy was struggling to stand after the shockwave had knocked her on her back. This time Jules relied on his silence and ran behind the creature and jumped. Jules stabbed the Succor in the arm as it turned around almost just in time to stop him. The blade went with the angle of the arm impaling it, but not making it through to the body.

The succor yelled an unholy sound and everyone had to cover there eats except Jules who was slapped, by a beast way stronger than he and his armor, off. Lucy twitched at the sight.

Laurence started spraying a cool blue gas from his hand covering the creature.

Jessica made eye contact with Laurence and did the same.

Lucy understood, it was an attempt to freeze the creature. The polar opposite of fire. The creature clenched its mass and then it started to burn with a fire aura. It aimed first for Laurence. Laurence got caught in the gaze of the creature as it came for him.

It made a mistake. It reached out with both its arms leaving its midsection wide open. Laurence channeled all of his energy, all the increased strength he had in him and flipped the demon by grabbing onto its torso and lifting. It landed awkwardly on its back.

There was a pause. Then a giant fist slammed right into Laurence and Lucy could not see where he fell to. The creature was getting up and the fire’s intensity just seemed to get more ferocious on the creatures skin. It then noticed her.

Jules and Jessica ran straight for the creature past Lucy.

“I am scared.” Lucy said.

Carlos’s voice came to her, “Do not worry, this isn’t the first arch demon we have fought.”

The creature sent out a shockwave of fire. Jessica and Jules braced and were sent to a knee each. Lucy seeing them fight on gave her resolve. She ran towards the danger as well.

It saw a figure garbed in a bright white light and armor come at it. It reached out an arm to grab at her for stupidity. Lucy saw her opening and flung her arm forward holding onto the rod. She let the spring unleash the length of staff and it pierced the good hand the demon had left to it. The staff instantly retracted.

It curled up and howled realizing it lost the use of both of its arms. The creature needed to create space. It figred an inferno that enveloped Jessica as he watched her disappear into a flaming pillar.

Jessica had to focus on her defensive. The heat was brutal and the fire, aggressive. It clung to her. She then saw it slowly disappear. Laurence had her in his arms. He was using his aura to help hers. The fire could not hold past that. The two of them looked as the Succor inhaled for another flame attack.

The two of them braced and held up a field protecting them from the breath of flame as them and the demon seemed to be at a stalemate.

Jules saw an opening and went in for what he felt would be the kill. He was welcomed by a giant clawed foot slamming against his center mass. His ability to breath fled. The pain from the fight earlier, it had finally added up. He had lost.

Jules fell to the floor. All he could do was cringe and try and move, like a child kicking while on the floor.

Lucy couldn’t believe it. Her hero fell. She looked at Laurence and Jessica. The forcefield they tried to keep up fell and Jessica tackled Laurence out of the way. The creature had spent most of what energy it had in that last attack. She could tell by the way it weakly walked towards Jules. Jules was trying to crawl. He couldn’t. His ability for anything magic related at this point was gone. He couldn’t summon the strength to stand up.

It laughed. It had the audacidty to laugh at the man who fought so hard to save her.

Her hero was going to die. There was nothing she could do. If only she had the power. At this exact point in time, Jules was alive. No doubt in that brain of his, he had hopes and dreams. He had memories. He had lived what life he had and soon, if she didn’t stop the coming train, it would end. But all she could do was watch. He was still alive. In this moment, he is alive. Please don’t let this be the way it ends. Don’t let that moment come when it ends. In any miracle of miracle, could she stop the bullet that was in route to change her life?

The Succor demon lifted its foot. It was going to crush the fools head beneath its foot.

“Stop!” Lucy yelled.

The creature clenched its face as it measured up where to land the blow.

“Stop!” Lucy yelled again. She was foaming at the mouth with anger.

It didn’t matter, so the creature thought.

Lucy denied the reality that was going to happen with every fiber of her being. She went full on into whatever depth that came from. The depth in which she could will a world in which the creature stops. Her mind went blank and she yelled it, this time as a command from heaven.

A large aura of white enveloped the room.

The creature stopped in shock and pain. It was cold. It was more than cold, its flames were out! The entire room was a field of ice! She yelled for it to stop and now, the place was a complete tundra! The humans were protected but its foot was frozen to the floor. It inhaled and instantly disagreed with the freezing air that infected its lungs.

The frost air made the blood oozing from his stop. It was not a good thing. It couldn’t move at any level past super slow. That devil woman, she did this. Somehow she caused this. It looked at Lucy to curse her. She looked back stupefied, the last of her sanity, gone.

“What are you?” It asked shivering.

Jules, half awake, “No one must know…”

What did that mean?

Jessica was not frozen in place. It walked towards the demon with ill intent. The demon used its hip movement and shoulder movement to swing its arm towards her. With a look of a killer, she sliced off the right arm off at the elbow when she blocked. It swung with its other arm wildy. She grabbed it with a free hand!

There was a pause. The demon knew this was its last moments. She stabbed it in the sternum and it instantly slumped, ragdoll style.

“Time to leave us alone,” she whispered into its non-ear. The body was leaning  against her as the light from inside started to rise. The demons corpse then turned to liquid. The ooze slivered to the floor where it slowly became nothing all together.

Jessica and Lucy met eyes as confusion was still in the air.

“Did you do this?” Jessica asked.

Instead of allowing herself the insanity of understanding what happened, she tackled Jules. Lucy ran her hand on the back of his head. He just seemed to be sleeping. “We need to get him back to the hospital.”

The demon slayer looked to Laurence. He was slowly coming to.

“Kid,” Jessica started to talk to Lucy. Lucy tried not to look back. “Kid, this is what a win is. Now let me see a smile.”

“He will be alright? Right”

Jules barely awake just said in his state of mumbles, “I will be fine.”

Jessica patted Lucy on the shoulder, “He never was fine to begin with.” It was a joke. “Trust me, he is a nerd for days.”

 

The sound of glass shaking and the door to the museum opened. Jules could hear Carlos and Anna storm the place like parents who found out their children had been in a fight. He felt a body touch his shoulders and forhead. He wasn’t sure who. Anna had a concerned voice. Lucy had a tremble in her voice. What she was saying? He didn’t know. Laurence made a joke, there was one of his laughs. He was being lifted. His eyes wouldn’t open, but that was okay. He felt the cold around him leave. They must have left the building.

Did they find out about Lucy? He couldn’t worry about that now.

He wanted to fall asleep. His mind drifted further. First thing he would do when he woke up would be to thank Timothy for telling him the truth about the so called painting. That would be another secret that he would have to keep. His list of secrets were getting bigger every day it seemed like.

A female voice whispered, a voice no one but the two of them could hear. “My hero.” And then, one thing more. A nice soft kiss to his cheek. It was Lucy’s voice. He wanted to smile, but instead pretended to be asleep. This might be his favorite secret. 

Author's Note

This is the first major battle sequence in the book and I would love feedback and constructive thoughts.