we kill her.”
Tilting his head Tor asked something that he'd wondered before. It was mainly to buy time, but that was such an odd phrase, probably Austran he realized. They were, so why not?
“Kitten-flower? What does that even mean anyway? Is it Austran for something?”
“Cunt.” They all said definitively.
Maria winced.
Yeah, it was pretty rude. Her lover had been calling her a cunt the whole time? Eek. Well, that relationship had already ended at least. It would have been worse if she'd still been seeing the guy, right?
“Alright, how about this. You see the glow around me, you know what it means? Or are your spies that bad…” They didn't get he wasn't with their captive after all, he might have to explain a few things.
“Truth.”
“Good. So I'm not lying, you'll see it instantly if I try. Let her go now, let everyone else leave here and I'll meet you in battle. Alone. Just me against all of you.”
“No. Humbling, but your shield and weapons make it too likely you'll defeat us or escape. Meet us without your shield or weapons, with no magic devices to aid you, then we'll agree to your terms. We'll kill you, but your friends will have a chance to escape. Your love here goes free and lives to die another day. Last offer. Take it or we kill her now.” Only one spoke this time, one with a knife to her neck. He sliced her again, missing the veins on her neck, but only just barely.
“Agreed. You have my word. We'll have our little duel here then. Me against you. All of you. No one will interfere if it's a duel. That's the law after all.” The glow stayed steady. From the side Trice yelled at him and Sara whimpered.
“Tor no! They'll kill you…” It came out hoarse and harsh, like she'd been screaming.
If so he hadn't noticed.
“Do you think I don't know that? Everybody dies. One life isn't worth more than many. Ever. No matter who's it is. When they let Maria go, take her and get everyone away as fast and far as you can before they come for you. Trice, promise me, you'll take the shield and weapons I give you and get everyone to safety. Marvin? They're going to hand Maria to you now, collect her please and get her away. I don't disarm until everyone is safe, then I hand the one armed girl my stuff and she flies away, then we fight. Acceptable?”
“That'll do.” The creepoids said in unison, sounding pleasant about the whole thing suddenly. Conversational.
It was the eyes that freaked him out most, that and the killing people thing, but he'd never liked any of the Larvals. Just a personal bias probably. Maria thought their eyes were pretty, hadn't she said that? Maybe it was a girl thing?
Things moved with a sickening slowness. He was buying time, but everyone needed more. Too many people could die if he didn't come up with something. What could he do though? Cutter? He could try, but they'd take him down without regard for their own lives. Tor probably wouldn't get more than one or two strikes in before they got him. If that. He had to hit them all at once…
Explosive?
One with him in the center.
He'd die, but so would they. Maybe. They were strong. But even if only hurt, it might be worth it. It could slow them down enough for everyone to flee at least and give them a small chance to live. Eyes open he drove himself deep, almost not noticing Trice, dark brown roots showing under the bleached blond of her very short hair. It looked cute on her, but he preferred her as a brunette. She had tears in her eyes so he forced a small smile to his lips and spoke just before he turned the shield off, almost not knowing what he said.
“I love you.” He handed her the truth amulet then, passing the glow to her, which she wisely turned off.
Tor leaned in to whisper, not certain how well the Larval heard, but figuring it was better not to take any chances.
“This shield is better than yours, they can't touch you in it. Sigil five and six on the weapon. Kill them all if they come for you. With these you can stop them. Say goodbye for me?”
Nodding she took all the amulets and flew straight up without pausing. Embarrassingly it left him naked, since she had his magical clothing too. He blocked it out though, no time for that, embarrassment, was there?
Only enough time to focus on one thing now.
The Larvals didn't hesitate, bright knives out they moved on him faster than he'd thought possible. At least twice as fast as a human being should be. When he felt the first knife, a slash of white pain, hot and cold that turned red to his mind, he triggered the field he'd been building. The world went white then. Painfully white.
It wasn't a chemical explosive, it was a wave of force that tore through the world in all directions, but, he found, canceled out in the direct center. Where he was.
After a fashion.
A really painful and hurty kind of balance in the middle. His eyes were pulped to destruction and his ears stopped working. He thought warm fluid ran from them but he didn't know for certain. Tor was on the ground, dying, crippled and broken, but so were the assassins. Except for one… of course.
There was always one in every group, wasn't there?
Stupid jerk, being all tough like that.
Tor figured it out when a blade bit into the side of his neck. Oops. He forced himself into calm and did what little he could, trying to feel the man with his mind. He couldn't focus enough to build, that time had passed. Now he had to hang on and fight, no matter how feeble his efforts. Tor weakly stabbed his shattered left hand into the man’s face, hitting nothing and getting a slash across the forearm for his trouble. But… while killing him the freak wasn't going after anyone else.
The razors edge started to bite his neck again, multiple slashes, over and over. It was done then, he realized. No way to live through that… Except for one thing. This man might still kill someone if he got free. His friends. Innocent people. That wasn't going to happen. Fight, he told himself.
Fight.
Right, Tor thought quickly, shield and cutter, basic things, make it happen, die later, fight now. Stop being so stupid. Just do it already. He didn't have to dive into dark and silence now, that made it easier, cut after cut hit him, then stopped. The man still swung, but when he hit the blade stopped hovering. Now, a weapon… It took time, and he didn't have it, he knew he was failing. Dying. There wasn't anything left.
Tor tackled the man and struck with his broken arms flapping uselessly, weakly, no strength in it at all. If he'd been in a combat rage he'd have the strength. Even he was stronger then, nearly twice as strong. But he wasn't even mad any more, much less raging. As he thought that, the knife caught between the small bones in his forearm. His shield was gone then. The left arm too, functionally, already pretty useless being broken. Pain lanced through him, reminding him of something.
Embrace the knife.
It was a fighter… well, legend was wrong, it was a real enough thing, the ultimate desperation move in combat, when you had no hope of winning or even living anymore, but couldn't let the other person simply triumph for some reason. Let them run you through and strike, killing them with one blow. Or take their weapon from them. Kolb had told him a story like that once, back at school, as Tor had pounded weakly at a pell with a practice blade.
Had the giant combat instructor known even then? Understood that if attacked, weak little Tor might need something that foolish and lethal? Or that he might reach a place where running away wouldn't work, and he had to protect someone else with his own life? Like his roommate, the heir to the realm?
Heh, that made a little bit of sense then, didn't it?
Tor twisted, fighting through the pain of the wound, locking the blade in place. The man let go in shock. Right hand barely working, Tor grasped the blade and freed it, gasping as it burned and seared. Then he stabbed wildly, barely able to find the man with his mind any more. He though he hit something. Maybe. Once, after a few seconds again, then a third time.
Then there was nothing.
That was nice. It was sort of peaceful. Empty, dark and… fuzzy, like being embraced by ephemeral velvet. For a moment Tor recognized it. He'd been here before. The bottom of the universe. Past the end of it. It was…
