Mundane Magic, page 23
It wasn’t long until the distinctive thump-thump-thump of a helicopter in flight grew louder. Looking up, Ma saw the chopper covering the news. The pilot and reporter couldn’t escape the expanding radius of the crystal’s viral effects, and Fogle had commanded the two zombie fans through the crystal.
The news reporter motioned for Fogle and his party to climb on board.
“Where do you want to go?” the pilot inquired.
“Take us toward the museum,” Fogle ordered. His voice resembled a general’s, and Gustav beamed from ear to ear.
After they had all climbed aboard, the helicopter rose. Fogle frantically glanced around and gripped a support bar. To let him know she had his back, Ma wrapped two wind hands gently over his shoulders. He nodded appreciatively and luckily didn’t puke as the helicopter swooped toward the museum.
“Still no sign of her yet,” Ma yelled over the noise.
They hovered outside the museum, high enough to have a wide view of the surrounding area. Without the pulsing blue glow, they didn’t have an easy way to locate the encantado.
“Our foe is quite elusive,” Gustav observed as he kept a close eye on the ground far below.
Ma leaned close to Fogle’s ear. “Can you sense if she’s here through the crystal?” Hopefully, the encantado hadn’t fled when she realized Fogle had depowered her magic.
Fogle shut his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. “I can feel her and Shafer. They’re close, but I can’t pinpoint their location.”
This part of the city had experienced the worst damage. Below them, life-sized clay warriors stalked the street, attacking any stragglers with their fists. Groups of zombie fans armed with makeshift weapons rushed up to a clay warrior from behind. The warrior turned, but it was too late. The mob had already started beating it into clay shards.
Wow, Ma thought. Fogle’s zombie fans might be able to turn the tide against the clay warriors. Not because they were skilled fighters but because there were so many of them.
Poly cheered. “Yay for warfare!” Gustav gave her a strange look, then Poly cried, “Dinosaur alert!”
Ma refocused on a giant dinosaur skull protruding from the museum’s front entrance. The front wall crumbled and a massive stegosaurus skeleton rampaged outside. The vertical plates running along its back swayed as it lumbered over a partially filled parking lot, crushing cars beneath its bony feet. Car alarms no doubt sounded, but thankfully they couldn’t hear them.
“Ooh,” Poly squealed. “There goes a pack of cavemen.”
Trailing the stegosaurus skeleton was a group of upright-walking hairy humanoids wielding misshapen clubs. They headed toward a group of angry zombie fans.
Gustav gave Poly a severe look. “I know my history. Those are not cavemen. Their name is homo erectus.”
“Homo erectus?” Poly repeated. “I feel like there’s a joke somewhere in there.”
“History is not to be made fun of,” Gustav chided.
Poly shrugged. “Gustavus, has anyone ever told you that you’re too serious?”
Gustav’s eyebrows raised. “Something is different about you, Poly. It’s like I’m seeing you in a new light.”
Oh brother, Ma thought, but Poly’s response thrilled her.
“Sorry, buddy. That ship has sailed. Oh look, there’s an army of Alux.”
They poured out of one of the museum’s side exits. Ma estimated there were around three hundred short minions, some wielding spears, others short recurve bows.
Walking in their center were the encantado and Shafer.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The encantado turned her gaze to the helicopter and shook her fist with rage. At the same time, Fogle clutched his chest and lost his balance. He might have fallen out with the crystal gripped in one hand if Ma hadn’t held him.
Fogle winced and glanced at Ma. “She’s pissed.”
“Good. Everyone remember their part? Everyone ready?”
Her companions shouted over the noise. Gustav put a hand on Ma’s shoulder as if giving orders to a soldier. “Is my wind parachute ready?”
Ma nodded. Part of the plan was for Gustav to turn transparent and slip through the floor. Ma would attach a summoned parachute to his back, and he’d glide to the ground where he would lead the zombie fans against the terracotta warriors and anything else that had escaped the museum.
The wraith saluted her and turned transparent, immediately slipping through the helicopter’s floor. Ma conjured a wind parachute and magically attached it to Gustav after he was through.
Fogle gestured for the helicopter’s pilot to land. Everything was going according to plan.
The helicopter dipped and descended. When it dipped even further, alarms went off in Ma’s head.
Fogle was frantic and wide-eyed. “The encantado. She’s fighting me. Ordering the pilot to crash us.”
Poly and Mini cried out as they held on.
A sick feeling struck Ma in the gut, but she fought it and composed herself. She didn’t know the first thing about flying a helicopter, but she knew wind and aerodynamics.
Normally, she couldn’t stop something as large and heavy as a helicopter. Still, there was a lot of wind rushing past. Furthermore, the rotors generated additional wind that Ma could borrow and use to manipulate the helicopter’s descent.
It wouldn’t be easy, though.
She strained every muscle as she fought to right the helicopter from its nosedive. The helicopter’s angle of descent straightened somewhat, but they were still dropping dangerously fast.
“Fogle!” she yelled. “Do your thing.”
“I’m trying! She’s trying to kill me now. She says she can pick the crystal off my dead body!”
Ma winced under the forces she was trying to resist. She was making progress, but they were still dropping too fast. Who had she thought she was to try to pull off this feat? Supergirl?
Fogle gasped. “I did it.”
Ma perceived a definite change in the helicopter’s descent. The pilot was now actively trying to prevent them from crashing.
It wouldn’t be enough, though.
The ground quickly approached. It was time to consider their other options. The only thing that might save them would be if they all jumped out and Ma cushioned all their landings with a giant cloud.
Ma didn’t like her chances of pulling that off with a hundred percent success. Not only did she have to account for herself and all her friends, but she also had to ensure the pilot and reporter made it safely out and to the ground.
She let all her current wind magic dissipate to save energy. She’d expended more of her magic reserves than she had wanted in trying to save the helicopter and would use up a lot more when she executed her wind cushion escape plan. Once they reached the ground, they’d still have to face off with the encantado and destroy the energy source infecting and empowering the crystal.
First things first, she thought. If they were going to survive this helicopter crash, it was now or never.
Someone screamed. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was everyone. The next moment, she formed two giant hands above the chopper. She jerked them into the rotor while applying upward pressure. Now for the hard part.
The helicopter twisted sideways. Now the side door was up. Ma collected everyone inside in a giant net. The helicopter fell beneath them.
Had she pulled everyone out? She didn’t know.
She was falling. They all were. The ground rose to meet them. The helicopter struck with a numbing metal screech.
Time seemed to freeze.
The world spun. The ground was up. The sky was down. Wind whipped her hair into her eyes. She conjured a giant cushion. Would it be enough?
She struck a soft updraft. Then she was on the ground. Pain entered her body.
The ground trembled. The helicopter. Had she saved everyone?
Ma blacked out.
When she came to about a minute later, someone was slapping her cheek. It took her a moment to realize it was Poly.
“Wake up! It’s about to blow!”
That sent a jolt of alarm coursing through Ma. Her lower back was sore, and she was pretty sure she had a couple of cracked ribs. She was still alive, though. Glancing around, she saw that everyone else had survived the crash, including the pilot and reporter. None had sustained more than a scratch, which exhilarated her. Her cushion must have caught them but only partially broke her fall. Oh well, it was worth it.
The helicopter lay about ten yards away from them. It was a twisted chunk of deformed metal and broken glass. A puddle of fuel had bled out beneath it, and some sparking electrical wires dangled out of the helicopter’s tail, dangerously close to the fuel. A tiny flame slowly ate away at the wire. When it fell to the fuel puddle below, the helicopter would go up in an explosion that would kill them all.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Condensing the air around the sparking wires into a tight bubble, Ma promptly extinguished the flame. With a wind hand, she tucked the wires back into the broken helicopter where they belonged and scanned the aircraft for any other possible dangers that might make it go boom.
Satisfied when she found none, she picked herself up.
A shrill laugh sounded.
Ma turned as the encantado and Shafer sauntered up to her, surrounded by her army of Alux.
“That was quite an impressive feat, elf,” the encantado remarked. “Judging by how you’re carrying yourself, it didn’t come without a cost.”
Ma gritted away the pain in her ribs and lower back. A little pain was all right if she had saved her friends. Fogle and Poly helped steady Ma, and she soon stood on her own to face the encantado and her entourage. Ma motioned for Mini to carry the pilot and reporter to safety.
“It’s over,” Ma told the encantado. “No more love and adoration for you. You’re not becoming a goddess.”
“That’s what you think.” The woman flashed a seductive grin. Behind her, a mummy carrying two golden staffs and wearing a golden headpiece stumbled down the museum steps. It looked around as if lost. A handful of the Alux guarding the encantado broke off and chased the mummy, shouting, “Gold! Gold!”
“Those guys are kinda cute when they’re not trying to stab us,” Poly commented.
In response, multiple Alux nocked arrows in their bows.
“Dammit,” Ma muttered. She would have to use more wind magic.
Her reserves were half-full, and her ribs ached as she tested her magic. She’d have to fight through the pain somehow.
The encantado raised an arm as a signal. The Alux sighted down the shafts of their arrows, targeting Ma and her group.
Ma prepared to unleash her wind magic. This was going to hurt. Before the encantado could give the order to fire, the ground shook, and a group of terracotta warriors crashed their way.
Ma was glad for the interruption but didn’t think the clay soldiers were heavy enough to shake the ground like that. Plus the haphazard way they ran was as though something chased them.
A moment later, Ma understood. The stegosaurus skeleton was pursuing the terracotta warriors. Even more surprising, Gustav rode atop its bony neck. The ghost general raised a fist to salute Ma.
The Alux scattered as the terracotta warriors crossed into their ranks. Some lashed out with spears, but their weapons barely chipped the clay bodies. Alux were batted and kicked away, and arrows sang through the air in a disordered fashion.
It was turning into a chaotic warzone.
As Gustav had said, they could use chaos to their advantage. Which meant it was time to destroy the encantado’s energy source.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“I shall take care of the Alux problem!” Gustav shouted as he smacked the side of the stegosaurus’ head to turn for another pass.
“I’ll keep the clay warriors busy.” Mini grunted and slammed his fist into the back of a terracotta warrior threatening a zombie fan.
Poly took cover behind a dumpster, leaving Ma and Fogle to face off with the encantado and Shafer.
Shafer punched his fist into an open palm. “Brother!”
Fogle drew a deep breath to steady himself and rolled his neck to loosen it. He caught Ma’s attention. “Shafer is all mine. Can you handle her?”
With her aching ribs and sore back, Ma would much rather lie behind a rubble heap and sleep for a week. Still, she was probably the only one who could match the encantado’s speed and magic. Besides, she had to see this through to the end.
While Fogle and Shafer moved well off to the side for their battle, the encantado stood in place. She waved in front of her face and suddenly wore different and very beautiful facial features with new eye and hair colors.
“Do you like this one better?” the encantado purred as if asking for Ma’s opinion on a new dress. She passed her hand in front of her face a second time and morphed again. “Or how about this one?”
Ma assumed a defensive stance with her arms raised. She was wounded but wouldn’t let the encantado land a sneak attack. The woman was playing with her. Instead of paying attention to the encantado’s changing features, Ma focused on finding the energy source she needed to destroy. A thin silver chain hung around the encantado’s neck. That had to be it. It hung over her heart under her shirt.
“How many more faces do you have to choose from?” Ma taunted.
While she waited for her opponent’s reply, she had an idea. What if she used a scant amount of wind magic to brace her ribs and lower back? Would it help the pain? Ma did so and was surprised when the impromptu brace enabled her to stand straighter. It was such a small bleed on her reserves that she figured she could use it for the rest of the fight.
Or until her magic gave out completely.
Instead of replying, the encantado shifted her face five, six, seven times in quick succession, each different from the last. “Oh, I have thousands of faces to choose from. One face for each victim I’ve consumed over the years.”
That was unsettling.
The encantado shifted again, and instead of a beautiful lady, she was a handsome shirtless hunk in boxer briefs. He looked like a model. Dangling from his neck on the silver chain was a small glass vial containing glittery ashes—the energy source.
“Do you like?” The encantado smirked. She dashed up to Ma with eerie speed and lashed out with alternating fists. Ma glided backward out of range and threw a blast at the encantado. The creature evaded and rushed forward again, but Ma evaded with a similar tactic.
Ma tried to bring the glass vial to her with wind magic, but it resisted like the infected security guards and police officers at the theater. Magical resistance must be a property of the energy source.
Ma considered trying to dash in and grab the vial, but one punch from the encantado’s man form could end her with her weakened ribs and back. She had to devise another plan that allowed her enough time to grab the energy source and figure out how to destroy it. She remembered Al’s words of warning. She might have only one chance at this and couldn’t mess it up.
The encantado’s man form was fast but not as quick as her woman form. Ma continued to evade with ease, content to let the encantado expend her energy. Ducking under a blow, Ma swiveled around the encantado and blasted the back of the encantado’s head.
The encantado stumbled forward. When she next shifted, she turned into a medium-sized gray wolf with snapping teeth and a glass vial dangling from her shaggy neck.
Ma hadn’t expected a wolf form and nearly lost a chunk of her leg. She hopped back, winced as her ribs ached, and sent a powerful wind fist at the wolf’s head. The wolf bayed and prepared to pounce.
The elf readied herself and crouched as the wolf leapt. She raised a shield, catching the wolf under the chin. It squealed as its jaws chomped together and gracelessly fell backward. It was Ma’s turn to pounce and grab the energy source.
Before she could, the encantado shifted back into her original blonde-haired self with the glass vial hidden beneath her blouse. A trickle of blood ran down the corner of her mouth, and she wiped it away, then popped her neck.
Ma danced from foot to foot to stay lithe and ready for the next attack. The brace hugging her ribs and back worked great. She barely felt any pain when she moved. “If you can take the shape of your victims, how could you take Mini’s form in the warehouse?”
“My shapeshifting isn’t limited to only my victims. That would be too boring.” The encantado shifted again, and this time, Ma’s gut tightened. Now her opponent looked like her. She had copied Ma’s outfit down to the finest detail, except for the silver chain around her neck. Ma faced a doppelgänger in the truest sense.
Ma didn’t wait for the encantado to strike first. Instead, she rushed forward to meet her twin. At first, they each evaded the other’s attacks. Then their forearms clashed. They parried, spun, and swept low to knock the other to the ground. Their feet connected and they took a step back to rethink their strategies.
At least, Ma was rethinking it. She had been the one to make all the moves first by a fraction of a second. The encantado had mirrored her so their attacks canceled each other out. Her opponent’s speed and perception were off the charts.
She internally scanned her ribs and lower back. They were holding up well. Luckily her core hadn’t taken any damage yet during the fight. She needed to end this fast, and to do that she would have to get creative. Winning the fight didn’t mean she had to beat the encantado, only destroy the energy source.
As she prepared for the encantado’s next attack, she checked on her friends in her peripheral vision.
Gustav was corralling helpless Alux while straddling the stegosaurus skeleton’s neck, and Mini was engaging a group of terracotta warriors. Judging by the chips and scratches on the clay warriors, the minotaur had already done some damage. Fogle and Shafer were blasting orbs of glowing magic at each other, and Poly was out of range of the fighting, cheering everyone on from her hiding spot behind a dumpster. It looked like Poly was wielding a cast iron skillet as a makeshift weapon in case someone attacked her.
The news reporter motioned for Fogle and his party to climb on board.
“Where do you want to go?” the pilot inquired.
“Take us toward the museum,” Fogle ordered. His voice resembled a general’s, and Gustav beamed from ear to ear.
After they had all climbed aboard, the helicopter rose. Fogle frantically glanced around and gripped a support bar. To let him know she had his back, Ma wrapped two wind hands gently over his shoulders. He nodded appreciatively and luckily didn’t puke as the helicopter swooped toward the museum.
“Still no sign of her yet,” Ma yelled over the noise.
They hovered outside the museum, high enough to have a wide view of the surrounding area. Without the pulsing blue glow, they didn’t have an easy way to locate the encantado.
“Our foe is quite elusive,” Gustav observed as he kept a close eye on the ground far below.
Ma leaned close to Fogle’s ear. “Can you sense if she’s here through the crystal?” Hopefully, the encantado hadn’t fled when she realized Fogle had depowered her magic.
Fogle shut his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. “I can feel her and Shafer. They’re close, but I can’t pinpoint their location.”
This part of the city had experienced the worst damage. Below them, life-sized clay warriors stalked the street, attacking any stragglers with their fists. Groups of zombie fans armed with makeshift weapons rushed up to a clay warrior from behind. The warrior turned, but it was too late. The mob had already started beating it into clay shards.
Wow, Ma thought. Fogle’s zombie fans might be able to turn the tide against the clay warriors. Not because they were skilled fighters but because there were so many of them.
Poly cheered. “Yay for warfare!” Gustav gave her a strange look, then Poly cried, “Dinosaur alert!”
Ma refocused on a giant dinosaur skull protruding from the museum’s front entrance. The front wall crumbled and a massive stegosaurus skeleton rampaged outside. The vertical plates running along its back swayed as it lumbered over a partially filled parking lot, crushing cars beneath its bony feet. Car alarms no doubt sounded, but thankfully they couldn’t hear them.
“Ooh,” Poly squealed. “There goes a pack of cavemen.”
Trailing the stegosaurus skeleton was a group of upright-walking hairy humanoids wielding misshapen clubs. They headed toward a group of angry zombie fans.
Gustav gave Poly a severe look. “I know my history. Those are not cavemen. Their name is homo erectus.”
“Homo erectus?” Poly repeated. “I feel like there’s a joke somewhere in there.”
“History is not to be made fun of,” Gustav chided.
Poly shrugged. “Gustavus, has anyone ever told you that you’re too serious?”
Gustav’s eyebrows raised. “Something is different about you, Poly. It’s like I’m seeing you in a new light.”
Oh brother, Ma thought, but Poly’s response thrilled her.
“Sorry, buddy. That ship has sailed. Oh look, there’s an army of Alux.”
They poured out of one of the museum’s side exits. Ma estimated there were around three hundred short minions, some wielding spears, others short recurve bows.
Walking in their center were the encantado and Shafer.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The encantado turned her gaze to the helicopter and shook her fist with rage. At the same time, Fogle clutched his chest and lost his balance. He might have fallen out with the crystal gripped in one hand if Ma hadn’t held him.
Fogle winced and glanced at Ma. “She’s pissed.”
“Good. Everyone remember their part? Everyone ready?”
Her companions shouted over the noise. Gustav put a hand on Ma’s shoulder as if giving orders to a soldier. “Is my wind parachute ready?”
Ma nodded. Part of the plan was for Gustav to turn transparent and slip through the floor. Ma would attach a summoned parachute to his back, and he’d glide to the ground where he would lead the zombie fans against the terracotta warriors and anything else that had escaped the museum.
The wraith saluted her and turned transparent, immediately slipping through the helicopter’s floor. Ma conjured a wind parachute and magically attached it to Gustav after he was through.
Fogle gestured for the helicopter’s pilot to land. Everything was going according to plan.
The helicopter dipped and descended. When it dipped even further, alarms went off in Ma’s head.
Fogle was frantic and wide-eyed. “The encantado. She’s fighting me. Ordering the pilot to crash us.”
Poly and Mini cried out as they held on.
A sick feeling struck Ma in the gut, but she fought it and composed herself. She didn’t know the first thing about flying a helicopter, but she knew wind and aerodynamics.
Normally, she couldn’t stop something as large and heavy as a helicopter. Still, there was a lot of wind rushing past. Furthermore, the rotors generated additional wind that Ma could borrow and use to manipulate the helicopter’s descent.
It wouldn’t be easy, though.
She strained every muscle as she fought to right the helicopter from its nosedive. The helicopter’s angle of descent straightened somewhat, but they were still dropping dangerously fast.
“Fogle!” she yelled. “Do your thing.”
“I’m trying! She’s trying to kill me now. She says she can pick the crystal off my dead body!”
Ma winced under the forces she was trying to resist. She was making progress, but they were still dropping too fast. Who had she thought she was to try to pull off this feat? Supergirl?
Fogle gasped. “I did it.”
Ma perceived a definite change in the helicopter’s descent. The pilot was now actively trying to prevent them from crashing.
It wouldn’t be enough, though.
The ground quickly approached. It was time to consider their other options. The only thing that might save them would be if they all jumped out and Ma cushioned all their landings with a giant cloud.
Ma didn’t like her chances of pulling that off with a hundred percent success. Not only did she have to account for herself and all her friends, but she also had to ensure the pilot and reporter made it safely out and to the ground.
She let all her current wind magic dissipate to save energy. She’d expended more of her magic reserves than she had wanted in trying to save the helicopter and would use up a lot more when she executed her wind cushion escape plan. Once they reached the ground, they’d still have to face off with the encantado and destroy the energy source infecting and empowering the crystal.
First things first, she thought. If they were going to survive this helicopter crash, it was now or never.
Someone screamed. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was everyone. The next moment, she formed two giant hands above the chopper. She jerked them into the rotor while applying upward pressure. Now for the hard part.
The helicopter twisted sideways. Now the side door was up. Ma collected everyone inside in a giant net. The helicopter fell beneath them.
Had she pulled everyone out? She didn’t know.
She was falling. They all were. The ground rose to meet them. The helicopter struck with a numbing metal screech.
Time seemed to freeze.
The world spun. The ground was up. The sky was down. Wind whipped her hair into her eyes. She conjured a giant cushion. Would it be enough?
She struck a soft updraft. Then she was on the ground. Pain entered her body.
The ground trembled. The helicopter. Had she saved everyone?
Ma blacked out.
When she came to about a minute later, someone was slapping her cheek. It took her a moment to realize it was Poly.
“Wake up! It’s about to blow!”
That sent a jolt of alarm coursing through Ma. Her lower back was sore, and she was pretty sure she had a couple of cracked ribs. She was still alive, though. Glancing around, she saw that everyone else had survived the crash, including the pilot and reporter. None had sustained more than a scratch, which exhilarated her. Her cushion must have caught them but only partially broke her fall. Oh well, it was worth it.
The helicopter lay about ten yards away from them. It was a twisted chunk of deformed metal and broken glass. A puddle of fuel had bled out beneath it, and some sparking electrical wires dangled out of the helicopter’s tail, dangerously close to the fuel. A tiny flame slowly ate away at the wire. When it fell to the fuel puddle below, the helicopter would go up in an explosion that would kill them all.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Condensing the air around the sparking wires into a tight bubble, Ma promptly extinguished the flame. With a wind hand, she tucked the wires back into the broken helicopter where they belonged and scanned the aircraft for any other possible dangers that might make it go boom.
Satisfied when she found none, she picked herself up.
A shrill laugh sounded.
Ma turned as the encantado and Shafer sauntered up to her, surrounded by her army of Alux.
“That was quite an impressive feat, elf,” the encantado remarked. “Judging by how you’re carrying yourself, it didn’t come without a cost.”
Ma gritted away the pain in her ribs and lower back. A little pain was all right if she had saved her friends. Fogle and Poly helped steady Ma, and she soon stood on her own to face the encantado and her entourage. Ma motioned for Mini to carry the pilot and reporter to safety.
“It’s over,” Ma told the encantado. “No more love and adoration for you. You’re not becoming a goddess.”
“That’s what you think.” The woman flashed a seductive grin. Behind her, a mummy carrying two golden staffs and wearing a golden headpiece stumbled down the museum steps. It looked around as if lost. A handful of the Alux guarding the encantado broke off and chased the mummy, shouting, “Gold! Gold!”
“Those guys are kinda cute when they’re not trying to stab us,” Poly commented.
In response, multiple Alux nocked arrows in their bows.
“Dammit,” Ma muttered. She would have to use more wind magic.
Her reserves were half-full, and her ribs ached as she tested her magic. She’d have to fight through the pain somehow.
The encantado raised an arm as a signal. The Alux sighted down the shafts of their arrows, targeting Ma and her group.
Ma prepared to unleash her wind magic. This was going to hurt. Before the encantado could give the order to fire, the ground shook, and a group of terracotta warriors crashed their way.
Ma was glad for the interruption but didn’t think the clay soldiers were heavy enough to shake the ground like that. Plus the haphazard way they ran was as though something chased them.
A moment later, Ma understood. The stegosaurus skeleton was pursuing the terracotta warriors. Even more surprising, Gustav rode atop its bony neck. The ghost general raised a fist to salute Ma.
The Alux scattered as the terracotta warriors crossed into their ranks. Some lashed out with spears, but their weapons barely chipped the clay bodies. Alux were batted and kicked away, and arrows sang through the air in a disordered fashion.
It was turning into a chaotic warzone.
As Gustav had said, they could use chaos to their advantage. Which meant it was time to destroy the encantado’s energy source.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“I shall take care of the Alux problem!” Gustav shouted as he smacked the side of the stegosaurus’ head to turn for another pass.
“I’ll keep the clay warriors busy.” Mini grunted and slammed his fist into the back of a terracotta warrior threatening a zombie fan.
Poly took cover behind a dumpster, leaving Ma and Fogle to face off with the encantado and Shafer.
Shafer punched his fist into an open palm. “Brother!”
Fogle drew a deep breath to steady himself and rolled his neck to loosen it. He caught Ma’s attention. “Shafer is all mine. Can you handle her?”
With her aching ribs and sore back, Ma would much rather lie behind a rubble heap and sleep for a week. Still, she was probably the only one who could match the encantado’s speed and magic. Besides, she had to see this through to the end.
While Fogle and Shafer moved well off to the side for their battle, the encantado stood in place. She waved in front of her face and suddenly wore different and very beautiful facial features with new eye and hair colors.
“Do you like this one better?” the encantado purred as if asking for Ma’s opinion on a new dress. She passed her hand in front of her face a second time and morphed again. “Or how about this one?”
Ma assumed a defensive stance with her arms raised. She was wounded but wouldn’t let the encantado land a sneak attack. The woman was playing with her. Instead of paying attention to the encantado’s changing features, Ma focused on finding the energy source she needed to destroy. A thin silver chain hung around the encantado’s neck. That had to be it. It hung over her heart under her shirt.
“How many more faces do you have to choose from?” Ma taunted.
While she waited for her opponent’s reply, she had an idea. What if she used a scant amount of wind magic to brace her ribs and lower back? Would it help the pain? Ma did so and was surprised when the impromptu brace enabled her to stand straighter. It was such a small bleed on her reserves that she figured she could use it for the rest of the fight.
Or until her magic gave out completely.
Instead of replying, the encantado shifted her face five, six, seven times in quick succession, each different from the last. “Oh, I have thousands of faces to choose from. One face for each victim I’ve consumed over the years.”
That was unsettling.
The encantado shifted again, and instead of a beautiful lady, she was a handsome shirtless hunk in boxer briefs. He looked like a model. Dangling from his neck on the silver chain was a small glass vial containing glittery ashes—the energy source.
“Do you like?” The encantado smirked. She dashed up to Ma with eerie speed and lashed out with alternating fists. Ma glided backward out of range and threw a blast at the encantado. The creature evaded and rushed forward again, but Ma evaded with a similar tactic.
Ma tried to bring the glass vial to her with wind magic, but it resisted like the infected security guards and police officers at the theater. Magical resistance must be a property of the energy source.
Ma considered trying to dash in and grab the vial, but one punch from the encantado’s man form could end her with her weakened ribs and back. She had to devise another plan that allowed her enough time to grab the energy source and figure out how to destroy it. She remembered Al’s words of warning. She might have only one chance at this and couldn’t mess it up.
The encantado’s man form was fast but not as quick as her woman form. Ma continued to evade with ease, content to let the encantado expend her energy. Ducking under a blow, Ma swiveled around the encantado and blasted the back of the encantado’s head.
The encantado stumbled forward. When she next shifted, she turned into a medium-sized gray wolf with snapping teeth and a glass vial dangling from her shaggy neck.
Ma hadn’t expected a wolf form and nearly lost a chunk of her leg. She hopped back, winced as her ribs ached, and sent a powerful wind fist at the wolf’s head. The wolf bayed and prepared to pounce.
The elf readied herself and crouched as the wolf leapt. She raised a shield, catching the wolf under the chin. It squealed as its jaws chomped together and gracelessly fell backward. It was Ma’s turn to pounce and grab the energy source.
Before she could, the encantado shifted back into her original blonde-haired self with the glass vial hidden beneath her blouse. A trickle of blood ran down the corner of her mouth, and she wiped it away, then popped her neck.
Ma danced from foot to foot to stay lithe and ready for the next attack. The brace hugging her ribs and back worked great. She barely felt any pain when she moved. “If you can take the shape of your victims, how could you take Mini’s form in the warehouse?”
“My shapeshifting isn’t limited to only my victims. That would be too boring.” The encantado shifted again, and this time, Ma’s gut tightened. Now her opponent looked like her. She had copied Ma’s outfit down to the finest detail, except for the silver chain around her neck. Ma faced a doppelgänger in the truest sense.
Ma didn’t wait for the encantado to strike first. Instead, she rushed forward to meet her twin. At first, they each evaded the other’s attacks. Then their forearms clashed. They parried, spun, and swept low to knock the other to the ground. Their feet connected and they took a step back to rethink their strategies.
At least, Ma was rethinking it. She had been the one to make all the moves first by a fraction of a second. The encantado had mirrored her so their attacks canceled each other out. Her opponent’s speed and perception were off the charts.
She internally scanned her ribs and lower back. They were holding up well. Luckily her core hadn’t taken any damage yet during the fight. She needed to end this fast, and to do that she would have to get creative. Winning the fight didn’t mean she had to beat the encantado, only destroy the energy source.
As she prepared for the encantado’s next attack, she checked on her friends in her peripheral vision.
Gustav was corralling helpless Alux while straddling the stegosaurus skeleton’s neck, and Mini was engaging a group of terracotta warriors. Judging by the chips and scratches on the clay warriors, the minotaur had already done some damage. Fogle and Shafer were blasting orbs of glowing magic at each other, and Poly was out of range of the fighting, cheering everyone on from her hiding spot behind a dumpster. It looked like Poly was wielding a cast iron skillet as a makeshift weapon in case someone attacked her.
