Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch34

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

“Do you think Kigenai chose her plan based on the weather forecast?” Vince asked.

Even though his barrier kept the rain off his face, he still covered his eyes with one hand for better vision. The droplets falling down his barrier were annoying. Flashes of lightning and explosions continued to echo from blocks to the south, growing closer and closer each time.

“She is a lightning horse,” Nina said. “Or whatever Qilin count as.”

Kiyoko shifted her wings, which appeared impervious to the rain. Droplets sheeted off her feathers as if buffeted by tiny gusts of wind.

“Qilin are associated with numerous animals,” she said. “While humans eventually associated them with giraffes, their depictions are closer to that of deer, goats, or horses with draconic features. Kigenai is Korean, and therefore more deer-like. It’s for similar reasons that she uses lightning magic.”

“I assumed she used lightning because she carries Hwanin’s gifts,” Vince said.

“Spirits exist even without the blessing of deities. Or else Kigenai would have left us long ago. It is more accurate to say that Qilin use Hwanin’s gifts because they are lightning spirits. Each of Korea’s divine spirits aligns with a common element. Water for dragons, fire for the phoenix, and earth for the turtle. Yet only the Qilin bear Hwanin’s magic.”

Leaving aside why dragons used water magic, Vince vaguely understood Kiyoko’s point. It married up with what he’d heard from others recently.

“You’ve never spoken of a god, Kiyoko,” he said. “The foxes worship Amaterasu, and have Inari, for whatever she counts as. Kigenai has Hwanin. The wolffolk have La Lupa. You sound colder about the topic than I expected.”

Kiyoko’s lips twitched downward as she stared out over the industrial district. The roar of thunder washed over them, and bikes ripped through streets only a couple of blocks away. Kigenai approached at rapid speed. Gaby and her cartel bikers were moving to cut off her Yakuza, which meant Fia would be directing the mafia enforcers to do the same.

Hopefully Frost didn’t screw them over and intervene. Vince had faith in Anzu to uphold her end of the bargain at least.

“Tengu have never borne the protection of a deity,” Kiyoko said. “At least, not in whole. Some of us have sworn our service to various demigods, much like Inari. Watching the world change has convinced me that our isolation was the right decision. Even Amaterasu has… gone dormant. What is a servant without a master?”

Her face appeared to be expressionless, yet her eyes shined like blue steel. Anger brimmed within her.

“Kigenai will be stuck like this forever, won’t she?” Vince asked. “Even if we kill her tonight, she’s a spirit. Like Zaira, she won’t die.”

Kiyoko glanced at him and inclined her head ever so slightly. “Indeed. I will seal her after we are done, so that she can face judgment.” Her eyes closed. “Knightsgate will surely deny her another vessel, leaving her sealed away. Even so, she deserves to be interred in her homeland.”

Somehow, Vince doubted Kigenai held the power to escape the seals Knightsgate would place her in. Soul eggs were known for containing demigods, but that was because those were the greatest beings they jailed. Daji scared even Wagner. A maximum security prison for her was the equivalent to being sealed in concrete in the center of the Earth for anyone else.

Knowing that combat approached, he tried to change the subject. “What happened to Zaira? I assume you found her after the heist.”

“Yes, despite the chaos of the night,” Kiyoko said. “She is weaker than I expected and I have taken her into my personal care. Something about Aulfair saps the magic of unbound spirits. But she will return as expected once I find a suitable vessel.”

Vince’s phone buzzed at the same time a colossal sheet of ice snapped into existence a half-dozen blocks away. Frost’s work, he assumed. The ground shook from a thunderclap that resounded from street level nearby.

He answered his phone without checking caller ID and flicked on speakerphone. As they planned to knock out communications during the fight and were working with multiple factions, they hadn’t set up the usual radio comms over his earpiece. Preplanning relied on phones, and everything after that used physical signals.

Gaby spoke through his phone the instant it connected. “They’re charging ahead, V. Yakuza are peeling off to stop us, but there’s an advance team sticking to the lightning deer. Juliet’s with them. Dunno if they spotted you, but they’re veering toward Immanuel territory a couple blocks away.”

“Wasn’t that a huge loading dock and truck yard?” he asked.

“That’s the place. They might be trying to avoid ambushes.”

Like the one they had placed in the roads between warehouses. Vince bit back a curse.

“Thanks. Join us when you can and grab Fia,” he said before hanging up.

By the time he did so, Nina was already shouting out orders.

“Need a lift?” His lioness girlfriend grinned at him while holding her arms out, one leg braced against the lip of the roof.

Kiyoko rose into the air, and he had a choice to make. Not that there was much of a choice.

“Keep Ashley and Pola in check,” he said. “I can’t run with you girls.”

Nina clicked her tongue before leaping over the side of the roof.

“I assume you wish for a lift?” Kiyoko drifted toward him.

“You can use your other method—” he tried to say.

Kiyoko sped up and swept him into her arms, interrupting him. Her wings remained still as she shot into the air. Wind rippled around them thanks to her magic.

Far below them, a pickup truck rumbled through empty streets. Black tarp covered the truck bed, and Vince didn’t want to know what lay beneath it. Hamelin drove it. She’d turned up tonight with a pickup she didn’t own, lacked the license to drive, and with a secret weapon hidden away in the back. The fact she’d jury-rigged wooden blocks to let her reach the pedals meant everyone else kept well clear.

Shadows darted beneath the streetlights. Five in total, as Pola had brought two capos with her.

Vince hadn’t expected any of the capos to join them tonight. Even Nina went into the fight with the expectation of dying, and would likely be badly wounded. They each carried Ally’s best infusions and Alessia had provided magic tools that conjured powerful barriers, much like what Pola had used during the hit two weeks ago.

By contrast, the capos walked into a battle with a demigod like Kigenai half-naked and barely able to hurt her. For that reason, he’d ordered them to act as lookouts. Any Yakuza that got past the others would be their responsibility.

A streak of light tore through along the avenue leading up to the loading dock. Darkness appeared to follow in its wake. Gaby and Juliet, if Vince guessed correctly.

“We’ll need to keep Kigenai busy while the others set up the wards,” he told Kiyoko.

She said nothing, but they rocketed forward. The city blurred for a second.

Among the many warehouses, streets, alleys, and various small loading bays in this part of the industrial area, this massive loading dock stood out like a sore thumb. Vince hadn’t looked it up, but assumed it was a distribution hub of some sort.

Dozens of bays lined a long aluminum warehouse. Concrete stretched as far as the eye could see, with loaded semi-trailers stuffed on one side and an empty parking lot on the other. Behind the trucks were even more loaded trailers, but without tractor cabs hooked up to them. Presumably they’d be picked up in the morning. What was left of them, anyway. Vince didn’t want to think of the insurance bill that would result from tonight.

Gaby spun into the parking lot on her bike, a dense golden barrier around both herself and her ride.

Vince landed with a thud as Kiyoko dropped him in the center of the truck yard. Skidding to a stop beside him, Gaby flicked him a thumbs up.

“They’re right behind me,” she said. “I’ll stow my bike. Get your dragon up.”

“I know,” he said. “Cover me if they catch up. Kiyoko, Juliet will take the bait once she sees me, but Kigenai might not.”

“I will keep her contained,” the tengu said.

He grunted and began casting. His cane hummed with magic as he focused, and prismatic flames flickered around him.

Twenty to thirty seconds was plenty of time, even with Juliet and Kigenai in hot pursuit. He held his position. Kiyoko hovered above him, eyes peeled for attackers.

Halfway through, a familiar half-dressed vampire glided along the street. Her fashion remained as questionable as always. Particularly the choice of a miniskirt when Juliet liked to fly and wore panties. Tires screeched as a pair of electric bicycles tried to keep up with her. Suited Yakuza with masks and horns rode them.

Vince stared, and nearly lost concentration. Even Daji appeared to be lost for words.

Electric fucking bicycles? Even the newbie cartel bikers used actual motorbikes, even if they were shitty ones. Whacking someone while riding a bicycle would do the opposite of inspire fear in Aulfair. Everyone would blame the victim.

“I knew she’d lead me to you,” Juliet shouted, pointing at Vince.

Her cape expanded into a mass of darkness, billowing out dozens of feet in either direction. Masses of shadow in the form of tentacles shot across the parking lot. Vince gritted his teeth, expecting to absorb the impacts with his barrier.

Kiyoko’s wings beat exactly once.

A shockwave shook Vince’s ears and two lines carved themselves into the concrete ahead of him. Wind blades scythed through the tentacles, concrete, and probably everything buried for a dozen feet.

Kiyoko pointed at Juliet and a visible vortex wrapped around the vampire. Both Yakuza fired up their bicycles with a noisy whine to get away, while the wind spell shredded Juliet’s clothes and peeled away her skin, leaving behind inky blackness.

Undeterred, Juliet conjured an orb of darkness around herself before vanishing. A streak of light told Vince where she’d teleported to. Gaby crashed fist-first into the vampire, sending her flying into a truck. Juliet bounced off its cabin with a scream before teleporting again.

Small, icy scythes burst on Vince’s barrier, and he spotted the Yakuza circling him. One rode without hands while he threw the ice scythes at Vince repeatedly.

The other spun before charging Vince. A blue flame flickered in front of the goon’s mask, before bursting into a plume of blue flames as thick as a bus. It reminded Vince of a less focused flame laser.

Gaby shot past him, and her light magic ripped right through the inferno. Her fist tore apart the bike. Handlebars, aluminum, and plastic flew everywhere as the bicycle came apart, leaving the Yakuza the victim of inertia.

A glowing elbow met his ribs, cracking his barrier and stopping him dead. Flames crackled in front of the goon’s mask for a moment.

Gaby’s snap kick exploded upward with a vertical beam of light that reached the heavens. Wherever the Yakuza went, Vince doubted he reached whatever lay at the spiritual end of that light beam.

More ice scythes struck Vince, and he nearly dismissed them. Then he spotted the thick icy crust covering his chest. His barrier remained intact and he felt fine, so then how?

“Nothing stops spells from affecting the world around your barrier,” Daji said. “That’s how your teleportation ring works on foes.”

In only a couple of seconds, it wouldn’t matter. But he needed to take out the goon before he froze anything important.

Trucks fell apart nearby, and Juliet screeched. Kiyoko hovered over there, casually battling the far weaker vampire.

Violet light flashed in the distance, beyond the wall of the parking lot. Kiyoko’s head snapped around in a full one-eighty. A sonic boom echoed through the night as she jetted toward the source of lightning magic, eager to stop Kigenai’s teleportation.

A third Yakuza flew in. Not a tengu, but some other Japanese non-human with wings. Thin lances of light burst uselessly against Vince’s barrier as she came in like a bomber doing a strafing run.

Then her barrier shattered, her spells dissipated into prismatic light, and she fell to the ground. Her body separated into three equal pieces on the way down, before splattering against the concrete.

Kiyoko had casually torn apart the Yakuza with wind blades on her way out. Such was the gap between the goons and the elite.

One part of the corpse crashed in front of the remaining bicycle yakuza, forcing him to swerve. His scythes flew off into the night, transforming raindrops into icicles.

Before Gaby could deal with him, Juliet rose into the air fifty feet in front of Vince. A carpet of darkness stretched between the vampire and him.

She grinned. “You need to stop bringing so many bitches to distract me with. We still need to settle an old score.”

Unable to respond with a witty rejoinder, Vince instead spoke the final words of his dragon incantation. Juliet clicked her tongue.

A lance of light hurtled through the air where she once hovered, but Juliet sank into her shadowy carpet. Instantly, a shadowy shockwave blew toward Vince. Chunks of concrete flew through the air as she tore apart the ground.

His response was simple. He summoned his dragon.

A blanket of fire swept over the parking lot, most of it merely visual. But as his thirty-foot long behemoth wrapped itself around Vince, it pummeled Juliet’s path with fireballs. A molten flame laser disintegrated the concrete in front of him, cutting through the darkness spell.

Juliet erupted from the ground near the devastated trucks with a yell. “You can’t play keep away forever.” Magic roiled off her, dense enough for Vince to sense it without trying.

She had a meister-tier spell ready. But which one?

He fired volleys of fireballs at her and conjured columns of flame, forcing her to dance away. But he avoided using his flame laser.

Blowing a hole in his own chest once was enough for a single lifetime.

Gaby dashed up to him and flipped over his dragon. “What’s the plan? I can’t sense anything yet. Moving so far away caught us off-guard.”

He frowned. Lightning and wind tore apart the nearby street, but Vince noticed the tornado getting closer.

By now, he had hoped to have the wards up and be fighting alongside the entire team. Or at least most of them. Every second they left Kiyoko to fight Kigenai alone put them in danger of losing their most powerful combatant, and they’d need Kiyoko to stop Kigenai from using her meister-tier spells.

“Help Kiyoko,” he said. “It’s dangerous, but—”

“You’re the boss. Just give the orders, V.” Gaby initially gave him a stern look, before pecking him on the cheek. “Stay safe. Don’t do anything stupid.”

She leaped over his dragon and rocketed toward the natural disaster brewing just outside the truck yard.

Cackling filled the air, and darkness rippled around him. A multitude of shadowy tentacles spiraled up from the ground, as if forming a cage like the sorcerer’s virtuoso spell.

“So arrogant. So overconfident,” Juliet said. “I look forward to watching you beg and plead when you melt away like everyone else I’ve consumed.”

Vince grunted and unleashed an inferno around him, blocking his view as he burned away Juliet’s spell.

When it cleared, he saw her flying right at him. Fire balls burned bubbling holes in her that healed instantly. His flaming nets melted into her skin, while a flaming column briefly charred her completely black. Yet he held back on his flame laser. She might be provoking him.

Magic swelled from her, and darkness gushed from her cape like a flood. Vince cursed, and emptied a flame laser into her body. To no avail. Her head melted away into inky blackness, only to reappear with the same manic expression.

“You’re mine!” Juliet screamed, ready to envelop him in her bag of darkness.

Multiple wind spells tore through her body and threw the vampire off-balance. Juliet faltered in mid-air and her spell stopped growing for a second. Then she sneered and prepared to capture him.

At the last second, Vince activated his teleportation ring. He blinked thirty feet to the side. Juliet’s spell covered his dragon in magic.

The last two times she’d used it, he didn’t remember her needing to be so close. Had she changed something about it? Or was she worried it might be intercepted? He’d never seen the spell in effect from the outside before.

His dragon unleashed hell before her spell stabilized. No flames leaked out.

A second later, the entire mass winked out of existence and Juliet flounced in the air.

She pointed her finger at him, only to teleport away when Pola fired a vortex of wind at her. The wolfgirl grinned at Vince as she dashed forward. She wore a new jacket that hugged her body and glimmered with vaguely familiar runes he swore he’d seen somewhere relatively recently.

“Where are the others?” he asked while keeping the pressure on Juliet.

“Busy. Fia and Nina knew what they were talking about and I didn’t, so I came to help you,” Pola said.

Which meant they’d be without support for a little longer. He stopped himself from panicking. Kiyoko had flown him here damn fast, and setting up powerful wards took time. They’d known the first phase involved keeping both busy.

“Every. Fucking. Time,” Juliet wailed. “I always end up with some dullards who can’t deal with your goon squad. Didn’t they ban lead? Then how did everyone in this stupid city eat it by the tablespoon as babies?”

“Wow.” Pola blinked. “Can I kill her, Vince?”

“You can try,” he said drily.

Ironically, Juliet posed the greatest threat to him and Gaby, making her easy to keep busy. Her mirror spell needed something big enough to kill in a single strike, like the concentrated flame lasers of his dragon. While her anti-immortal spell might work on both Kiyoko and Gaby, only the unicorn might struggle to dodge it.

Both he and Pola prepared to attack Juliet again, when a tornado blasted apart the outer wall of the parking lot. Kiyoko shot high into the air, her body wreathed in both a solid green barrier and a whirling shield of wind. At this distance, Vince couldn’t tell if she’d been hurt.

A bolt of lightning struck the street. He shielded his eyes, then regretted it.

“Dodge!” Daji snapped.

His teleportation ring remained inert, as it needed a little bit of time to be used again. Or else he’d use it over and over to keep a foe away.

Instead, he coiled his dragon around himself and pumped out flames. Pola dashed away in confusion.

Violet light descended from above him, and he looked up to see death descending.

Kigenai hurtled toward him, a purple lightning bolt cascading down around her.