The mega-gremlin roared again. The mezzanine swayed. Could its chaos magic cause a structural failure? I pushed the thought away.
I funneled more mana into my spell. The mega-gremlin stiffened, then a stream of water sprayed me full in the face. I sputtered, blinking and lost the spell.
“Hee-hee!” the manifestation boomed. Behind it, the escalators whirred and ground faster, followed by more screams. I flinched at the noise.
Something made a loud zap nearby, and then the floor shook. Blinking through the water, I glimpsed Tully, fist forward, ring shining with silver light. Tully had slammed gremlin granddaddy with a force spell from his ring. I blinked through the sprays from the ceiling and the cherubs off to my left.
I needed to see better. But the chaos and water made it so hard.
Then it hit me. I had a second pair of eyes available to me.
Shady. The manifestation’s sight, that could aid me.
I need your vision, little guy, I told the shadow slug. Which meant I needed to link to it.
Okay, it said in a small voice. This would be a touch spell. I put my hand on my hip.
“Link to me,” I said, casting in English.
The shadow slug trembled. I closed my eyes. The world shifted and suddenly I saw what it saw, a distorted fish eye-lens view of things, with mana flowing around. Not the sharp view Tully could give me, but it was better than not being able to see it all.
Then I had an idea. “Float behind it,” I told Shady. “Please. That will help.”
My view moved, as the shadow slug floated past the momentarily stunned mega-gremlin. I urged Shady to float up until it hovered behind the massive pointed head. I needed more mana to make this work.
At your service, the mana snake said.
“Fine,” I whispered. “Help away.”
Thank you.
Why was it thanking me?
Every atom of my being suddenly burned with hunger for mana, and I felt myself opening up, mana pouring in. So much mana, like a dam bursting, mana cascading into me.
I shook from the force of it. I thought I heard Tully shout my name, but it disappeared in the torrent of sensation that overcame me.
I reached through Shady and into the giant of a gremlin, where the chaos magic hissed and sparked like wild power lines. I directed the magic forward, took control of chaos.
“Get Rudy Gott,” I said.
The mega-gremlin took off at a thundering run, and I sprinted to follow. The escalators fell silent, and the spraying ceased. The gremlin’s magic was mine, for the moment. The mana snake funneled mana through me at a ferocious rate. I wasn’t sure how long it could do that, or I could take it.
“Marquez!” Tully shouted behind me.
“Not stopping,” I shouted back, over my shoulder. “Try and keep up!”
We reached the ballroom. The air was clear of mana. Partygoers cowered on the floor, a hundred or more. Riley lay near the stage, smoke rising from his suit. Dara crouched on one knee. She wore blue wrap-arounds—magic goggles with sapphire lenses. It was an artifact, like all magic items. I gasped. The edges of it were on fire.
Her wand was blackened.
On the stage, Rudy Gott stood gloating, grasping his serpent staff, which blazed with silver fire. Gremlins stood like statues before the stage, spewing the migraine fortress like stars and crescents of chaos magic.
The staff harvested the chaos magic. Gott casually flung bolts of energy at Dara, who deflected with her wand, but her arm shook and even from here, I could see she was exhausted.
Beside Gott stood the outlines of a drop-dead gorgeous woman. Her blonde hair gleamed like gold, and her high breasts and hips would have launched a thousand ships.
Fire or no fire, Dara’s artifact goggles must have shown her the mega-gremlin lumbering into the room, and me right behind it.
“It’s nearly day!” she shouted.
Dawn wasn’t just a visual shift. It was a magical one, too. The amount of energy pouring into Gott’s staff was incredible, enough to spawn a host of dragons. It would explode across the diurnal boundary.
I had to stop it. I twirled the wand in my right hand and sent the mega-gremlin crashing toward the stage, chaos energy roiling inside it.
Gott saw me. “You’re just in time to see my glory.” He smiled at the super-nymph glowing like a sun beside him. Her full lips curved back in a lascivious smile and I began to feel the stirrings of lust in me. Curse it. I saw Tully run up alongside me, and suddenly I wanted him.
Focus, I ordered myself. I wobbled on my feet. My muscles ached, and my body wanted to crumple to the floor and curl up in a ball of exhaustion. Somehow, I managed to stay on my feet. Lust, fear, desire all whirled inside me. I gritted my teeth. I would not give in.
The mega-gremlin lumbered toward the stage. Fear flashed across Gott’s face.
He leveled his staff at the mega-gremlin and loosed a blast of raw silver energy at it. I could see through the mega-gremlin now; a huge round hole had opened up in its chest and back. Chaos magic poured from it, toward Gott’s staff. It still moved forward, but in slow motion now. I staggered from the blow, feeling it through the binding spell that linked the mega-gremlin to me. Exhaustion pulled at me, and I struggled to keep fueling the spell with mana, but there was so little nearby now for me to funnel into the spell.
I had one option left to restore me, and give me enough mana to fuel my magic. I reached into my biker jacket and grabbed at the blood amulet.
No! The mana snake shouted in my mind. Do not do that.
Use me instead, it sang. I thirst to eat chaos.
It thrashed in my stomach. Chaos, I long to eat chaos! It sang.
How? I asked it.
Bind me, to open up to me, it sang.
“I can’t,” I muttered.
You can. You
