I took a deep breath and forced my mana back into my body, flooding myself with strength and vitality. Slamming my back against the stone that held me in place, I heaved, straining. I could feel it shifting upwards, slowly, oh so slowly.
This was draining my health and mana with every second of use, and I needed more. I still wasn’t strong enough. I gritted my teeth and remembered Tommy standing over me, his hand held out to me as a gang of lads surrounded us. His nose was broken, his shirt ruined with blood, his tooth chipped. I’d been hit from behind with something, then they’d all moved out to surround us. Seven on two. All of them carrying something, a length of wood, a broken bottle, a brick, and Tommy and I had been out on the lash all day, drunk as rats, barely able to stand, we were that wasted.
He looked down at me, holding his hand out to help me upright, and said the words.
“Go hard or go home…” I whispered, then screamed as I forced my mana channels to flood my body even further, doubling the rate of use and the effect, my health dropping even faster.
“LEEEEEEROY JENKIIIIIINS!” I screamed, surging up through the stone; slabs that a normal human couldn’t have budged, flung aside like cardboard.
I saw my rapidly plunging health; mana that was leaking out of me like beer from a shattered bottle, and I moved, pushing upright and lunging forward. Staggering across the uneven ground, I locked my fingers on a section of rock the size of a desk, and I heaved!
I lifted it above my head and looked down to see the suddenly uncovered Drider glaring back up at me, her face a mess of scrapes, blood and bruises, her fangs chipped and broken, her hair matted with blood.
I’d skewered her through the lower chest with my naginata, but missed most of her organs, and she floundered, trying to get to me, hatred clear on her face.
I slammed the slab down hard, driving it edge-first into the space I’d uncovered. The rock smashed her humanoid form and made her spider thorax burst.
I stepped back, the skull symbol I’d managed to hardwire into my HUD somehow floating up before me in unequivocal proof of death, and I screamed down at the body of the creature that had tried to take Oracle from me, that had tried to kill my people, that had managed to kill Cam.
“BOOYAH, BITCH!”
Then I turned to the cavern, seeing my team circled out around me, Bane and Barrett sitting up, the prisoners gaping at me in shock.
“WHO’S YA DADDY!” I roared at them all, grinning and flexing my insanely big muscles that were even now bulging through the torn remnants of my top, like Schwarzenegger flexing as Conan…before my mana bottomed out and I fell forward, the world going black, my health dropping back to single digits that were ticking away like a gas pump’s counter…
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Jax!” I opened my eyes. The world tilted and swam as I tried to focus, my Health, Mana and Stamina bars all pulsing a deep, warning red. I blinked and felt hands lifting me and setting me down on something hard.
Shapes were moving above me, and I looked up, seeing them resolve into faces, faces I knew I should know, but as fast as they swam in and out of focus, I just couldn’t get my brain into gear.
“JAX!” I blinked again, focusing on a face that hovered over my own, emerald green eyes holding my gaze. I tried to make sense of what she was saying. I knew her, knew she was a woman, and important to me…but…
“Argggggh!” I roared, thrashing, as pain ripped through me.
“Jax!” The voice came again, those eyes holding my own. “We need to set your leg. It’s going to hurt. I’m so sorry…this is all my fault…” she said, reaching out to stroke my cheek. I felt soft fingers caress my skin.
They felt cool, and strangely familiar, even as I saw my Mana bar blare another warning, the migraine that depleting my mana always caused flaring again.
“I’m sorry!” The voice said, and this time, I recognized it. “I shouldn’t have used our mana…I just needed to touch you, to…”
“Oracle…” I whispered, and with that one word, the dam seemed to burst. Everything that had happened suddenly seemed to catch up in one go, and the noises around me finally started to make sense.
“Yes! It’s me. I’m so sorry, Jax…” she said, and I forced myself to shake my head, as I remembered everything.
“It wasn’t your fault. I asked you to scout, I sent you out there, Oracle. It was my fault,” I whispered to her, closing my eyes, and trying to breathe through the pain as my leg was fully straightened and someone braced it in place.
“No, I…”
“I could tell you it’s both your faults and neither, if that would help?” Came a croak from my side, and I turned my head to find Bane watching me.
“Well, don’t you look like hammered shit,” I said to him, forcing a smile as Oracle disappeared off to the side.
“I hope I look better than you,” Bane said, and I snorted.
“Never gonna happen, dude.” I muttered. “Hate to break it to you, but you’re not exactly a pretty sight… more of a Picasso.”
“I’m not going to bother to answer a man who shits himself when he sleeps,” replied Bane, and I sat up quickly, the sudden movement making the world spin.
“Seriously?” I asked, my mood plummeting, until I saw my pants and I felt…normal. No unexpected additional space taken up down there…so…. “You asshole,” I growled, looking over at Bane, who let loose with a subsonic ‘thrummm’ of amusement.
“You’re such a dick, Bane…” I told him, shuffling myself upright and wincing as
