Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch39

Note: Chapter 34-40 are being posted together. Be sure not to read them out of order. Commentary will be in Ch40.

“Pola!” Vince howled.

Red filled his vision. Uncontrollable anger pumped through his veins, overwhelmed every emotion he felt, and seared his nerves.

Something surged through his body and his magic as he watched Kigenai carve through Pola’s body. The blade ripped right through Pola. It even gouged holes several feet deep in the concrete.

A beam of solid black flames gushed forth from his dragon, directed right at Kigenai. She blinked backward, but it still clipped the edge of her fading sword.

Instantly, the entire sword burst into black flame. Pola’s body as well. Vince ignored the panic that should have caused. His flames would never hurt her.

But he sure as hell was going to hurt Kigenai.

Darkness swept over the area. His fire tornado turned into a blazing black inferno, emitting crimson embers that descended slowly.

Kiyoko looked around herself with wide eyes. Her blade sizzled whenever the embers touched it.

Not a single raindrop reached the ground. A cloud of steam gathered overhead, cutting off all moonlight.

Kigenai turned to face him, her violet eyes narrowed. She tilted her head at him. Almost her entire body had transformed into solid constructs of purple light, which resembled the form of a walking deer, or had thick veins of lightning running through it. Only her head remained untouched.

“So we face each other, our powers fully revealed,” Kigenai said. “There is no better way for a warrior to die.”

“The better way is to not die at all,” Vince roared, Daji’s voice intermingling with his own.

Pola lay only feet away from Kigenai, stretched out on the ground. She’d been carved open from her upper-right shoulder nearly to her stomach. The runes of her outfit shined like stars, stretched across her wound as if they’d been melted into her body. Her usually bright green eyes showed no life.

A sob wracked Fia as she darted across to Pola, and Gaby slammed into the concrete next to her. Without saying a word, Gaby threw both wolfgirls—dead or alive—over her shoulders and charged off.

His dragon coiled around Kigenai. A black inferno surged from its scales, erasing the Qilin beneath its fury.

She flipped over the dragon, toward Vince. Her bow extended from her stump while she drew arrows with her remaining hand.

The first and second arrows burst against his barrier before his dragon turned to fire on her with another black flame laser. A fire column caught Kigenai mid-leap.

Kigenai blinked to the side, but the black flames latched onto her lightning streamers and chased her. She hit the ground in a roll before exploding into a ball of lightning.

Unwilling to let up, Vince summoned a fire cage around her. His dragon rumbled across the parking lot to surround Kigenai while she blasted apart the cage with her lightning chains.

When her chains slammed into his dragon, they blew apart into prismatic puffs of smoke.

Kigenai grinned, and held her arm out, summoning her sword again.

His dragon tried to cut her off when she charged, but she teleported past it. Her sword, already a ten-foot-long monstrosity, came down toward him.

He summoned a wall of Daji’s flames between himself and Kigenai at the same time he rolled to the side. She paused mid-swing. Too late, as the flames caught onto the Sword of Dangun.

The resulting explosion sent him flying. His ears rang and he felt something warm spreading through his chest.

Something gripped him and forced a vial against his throat.

“Fucking hell, Vince,” Nina growled. “You’re not supposed to completely lose your mind and nearly die. Don’t fucking give up on us!”

He coughed, spilling some of the healing infusion. His memories of the last minute or so roared back into his mind and he pushed himself up.

His dragon remained active, along with his tornado. The parking lot burned. Much of it was thanks to his black flames. He lay maybe forty feet away from where he’d been, behind a large chunk of the loading dock that had been blown apart.

“Where is she?” he asked.

He needn’t have asked.

Kigenai’s towering violet figure stood out amid the inferno. She battled Gaby and Kiyoko, but staggered with each movement.

Gaby shot in with a lance of light, which sank into Kigenai’s torso before rupturing. With Kigenai’s barrier down, Kiyoko descended. Wind magic flew around her like a torrent.

Kigenai slammed a fist into the ground and ripped a chain of lightning from it, then swung at Kiyoko. Gaby dodged the chain as well, preparing to charge in again.

For the first time in a while, Kigenai brought back her crackling sphere barrier. Her horn arced magic into it while she summoned a mass of arrows outside it, as if preparing to bombard the entire area.

Snarling, Vince rained fireballs on the area. Both Kiyoko and Gaby darted away. The black flames consumed Kigenai’s lightning arrows and turned her into a flaming orb.

Nina grabbed him. “Don’t fucking lose it, Vince.”

“Pola’s dead!” he snapped.

Nina’s hand snapped back and froze there, shaking. Her purple eyes swam with anger and sorrow.

“That’s the risk of being an enforcer, Vince! We get hurt when we fight. Maybe she’ll bounce back with an infusion, but if you burn yourself out and let an insane fox take control of you, how many more do you think you’ll lose?” Nina stared at him, tears in her eyes. “I want to kill her as much as you do, Vince. But I don’t want to lose you for it.”

He paused. The anger in his mind continued to rage, even as he tried to reflect on it.

Slowly, over the course of the next couple of seconds, Daji’s voice finally reached him. The anger subsided.

“Calm down!” she snapped at him. “Master, you need to—”

“I’m calm.” He closed his eyes and gulped.

Remembering the sight of Pola’s body hurt. He pushed it aside. Nina’s raised hand fell back to his shoulder.

An infusion could heal it, he convinced himself. He’d bounced back from a hole in his stomach, right? Right?

A ragged breath escaped him and he opened his eyes. Somebody fluttered above him.

“Kiyoko, do you still need just one opening?’ he asked.

“I do, but she’s weak enough that I don’t know if it matters anymore,” Kiyoko said. Sadness permeated her tone. “We will lick our wounds later, Vince. This is the end.”

He took a deep breath and steeled himself.

Kigenai stood in a blazing crater, staring up at the sky. No rain reached her, and her blazing violet eyes held no emotion in them. Tears ran down her face.

His dragon moved, and she snapped back to attention. Lightning crackled in her remaining arm and she summoned her barrier.

“Witness me,” she said, her voice cracked and broken.

Vince walked toward her even as his dragon began its onslaught. Nina remained behind, slumped against the wreckage.

Fireballs met lightning chains. Kigenai responded to his flame lasers with half-summoned Swords of Dangun, each of which caused her body to collapse further. She barely staggered out of the way of his flame column, and blew apart his other spells with whatever lightning magic she could muster.

His dragon coiled around her and raised its head. A black inferno boiled forth and washed over Kigenai.

She teleported out of the way, only to stumble onto Vince.

Her fist slammed into his barrier, but barely cracked it. Before she struck him again, he placed his cane against her leg and pumped a flame laser through it.

Kigenai collapsed to one knee with a scream. Despite the pain, she raised her arm and summoned her lightning sword.

His dragon slammed her out of the way with a huge sweep. She’d weakened enough that he could knock her around with ease now, and she tumbled across the concrete.

Kiyoko plummeted to earth, and a thin tornado rose from where she landed. But when it vanished just as quickly, Vince knew she’d missed.

Lightning streamers rose toward him, and Kigenai pulled herself to her feet. She tried to summon her bow, but failed. Only the arrow appeared.

Desperate, she hurled it at him. It barely tickled his barrier.

His flame column erased her from view for a few seconds. He continued to walk up to her.

No lightning crackled. No bolt of lightning descended. Kigenai didn’t even summon another Sword of Dangun.

By the time he reached her, she lay on her back. Her limbs slowly burned away, as the magic sustaining them dissipated into prismatic light. She stared up at the stormy sky.

“I served,” she said, reaching up to the clouds with a half-disintegrated arm. “So where are you?”

Tears streamed from her eyes.

Despite everything tonight, despite Duilio, despite Pola… Vince hesitated. His dragon loomed nearby, a flame laser at the ready, and he pointed his cane at her head. He shook, fury mingling with pity.

He’d barely known Kigenai. But she’d treated him with nothing but respect. For all that enforcer battles were “just business,” this ended up being too personal.

Was this what it meant to fight out of loyalty, instead of for a job?

Blackness obscured his vision and something whooshed down in front of him. Kiyoko slammed her sword into Kigenai’s chest. The sword’s runes lit up again, and the veins of lightning crisscrossing Kigenai’s body began to lose their color.

Kigenai’s eyes lost their violet light, and her horn stopped arcing erratically. She blinked up at Kiyoko.

“Kiyo… ko?” Kigenai gasped.

“It is time to rest, Dal-Rae,” Kiyoko said. “Your service is complete and your duties rendered. Sleep. Now and forever, as spirits shall.”

“So… sentimental…” A smile graced Kigenai’s face. “Fight well… Mister Keys.”

All color left Kigenai’s body. No traces of magic shined within her, and her body was reduced to little more than a torso and head, complete with numerous gaping wounds. Her body returned to the state it had been in prior to using the mirror, restoring her silver hair and single, intact horn.

The Qilin known as Kigenai died.