Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch9

A duel? Vince hadn’t the slightest clue what century this annoyingly well-dressed fox had walked out of, and didn’t care to waste time pondering it.

Every second he wasted in a fight against four five-tailed foxes pushed him closer to certain death. As hits went, this was a strange one, but it would be effective. He definitely questioned Houou’s sense of honor. Apparently it aligned closer to that of gangbangers than Vince had thought, if it could be restored by jumping him in a four-to-one fight.

Seizing the initiative, Vince drew his sword from his cane and focused a flame laser in a single smooth motion. An oddly smooth lance of white flames shot forward, encasing the blade and lighting the air ablaze in an instant.

A solid white barrier appeared around Goro just before the flame laser blew a hole in his head. One of his rings glittered, indicating it had activated the barrier even as the other suited foxes rushed to cast spells of their own.

The laser blasted apart against the barrier. It shattered into a million pieces, sending prismatic jewels of light fluttering into the air.

Goro blinked. The tips of his tails danced, flickering with the white light of telekinesis. A bright smile lit up his face.

“I take it you accept,” he said.

All the while, he’d been pointing at Vince like some sort of pop star. A surge of magic surrounded the fox with another barrier, except this one looked and felt ten times stronger. Easily a match for Vince’s.

That wasn’t a compliment Vince gave easily. He took pride in his abnormally strong barriers, and feeling the raw, unyielding power rippling off Goro sent unease down his spine.

“Don’t panic,” Daji said in his mind. “Ranged combatants like you typically use stronger barriers. Survival of the fittest. Or else he’s a fool and spent more time on his barrier than his CQC. Given he’s a Miura, that’s highly likely. I ran into them in Edo centuries ago and the muscle-brains helped seal me away.”

Vince tried not to focus too much on Daji’s impromptu history lesson. Edo was Tokyo, but that told him very little. He wasn’t a history buff. Although he recognized the name “Miura” for some reason.

Goro’s tails flashed with amber light, and he clapped his hands. Pillars erupted from the ground beside Vince.

Familiarity with Nina’s spells and fighting style from their month of training allowed him to avoid the attack with ease. He jumped backward. The pillars slammed shut with a crash, sending shards of concrete and dust flying everywhere.

More magic tickled Vince’s senses. He ignored it and instead hurled a massive fireball through the cloud.

The blast sent screams through the small crowd gathering around the edges. When Goro issued his challenge, most bystanders fled to nearby stores or a short distance away. Vince saw the faces of eager observers turn to fear as they saw the raw power being used. A few people recognized him, before turning to run. Security shutters jumped into motion in a nearby café. They were soon joined by others in the strip mall while shoppers slid beneath them.

Dense blades of wind flew through the dust cloud, clearing it and lopping off the umbrellas of the café. A curse escaped one of the suited foxes.

“Sir! Try to avoid collateral damage,” a female fox with golden tails said.

She stood a good foot shorter than Goro and had an impressive bust. A dense white barrier surrounded her and her fingers twitched. She stood a few feet from Goro, as if uncertain if she should stand between him and Vince.

“I can handle the expense afterward,” Goro said.

“That’s not the problem,” the woman snapped. “This duel is one thing, but the police will arrest you if you cause damage to private property.”

Goro’s eyes widened to almost comical proportions. He looked between Vince, the damaged umbrellas, and what Vince presumed to be his minder or bodyguard. The rich fox’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.

Despite his earlier concern, Vince found himself at a loss. Was this actually a duel rather than a hit? Or some extended comedy act to lower his guard? He scanned his surroundings, searching for a second team preparing to take him out.

“Arrest…” Goro paused, then cleared his throat. “Thank you, Cora. I’ll keep the duel between us.  I assume you have no wish to be arrested as well, Vincent?”

“Call me Vince,” Vince said automatically. “And, uh, yeah. The fines are nasty. Last one I got was six figures. I bet it will go up.”

Despite his presumed wealth, Goro’s face paled. Cora glared at him. Presumably, Goro’s allowance didn’t cover fines that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. At least not without some serious chiding from his parents.

For his part, Vince worried he’d land the fine no matter what. Downtown was crawling with REAT officers at the moment. Hell, he wondered where they were already. Was a duel actually allowed so long as they didn’t blow up any storefronts?

“Now then—” Goro began to say.

Clattering interrupted him, as Nina rushed out of the clothing store while knocking down a stand. A clerk stood by the door with her hand over the button that controlled the security shutter. The stands would block it from coming down, but she appeared to be paralyzed. Nina knocked several aside to help. Behind her, Nicki grabbed a few others and waved at the clerk, who finally hit the button.

“Shit,” Cora muttered.

As if Vince was the sideshow, the three bodyguard foxes shot across the pavement. They sped up with each step as violet magic coursed through their bodies—empowerment magic.

Nina grimaced and slammed a foot into the ground. She’d thrown her gauntlet on, as she presumably kept it in her storage bracelets, and summoned a trio of huge concrete spikes.

Without slowing, the foxes batted them aside. Nina parried one blow while pointing glowing fingers downward. The ground shook while rumbling ran through Vince’s feet, throwing him off-balance. A crater opened up beneath the lioness. Punches and palm-strikes moving fast enough to create shockwaves blasted over her head as she dropped downward.

Her gauntlet shot forward, and a column of concrete burst forth. One of the bodyguards flew across the strip mall. Another dashed to the side as Nina shot out of her crater, while Cora’s tails glowed bright white. A series of spikes shattered against an telekinetic orb that surrounded the female fox.

With a click of her boot, Nina pulled herself across the mall to stand beside Vince. Goro grimaced at the sight.

“A duel is one-on-one,” the fox said. “I’d ask you to wait your turn.”

“Duel?” Nina scoffed. “Who the hell is this guy?”

“Goro Miura, the heir to the—” he began to say.

“Don’t care. Vince, back me up.”

Chuckling, Vince did exactly that when Nina exploded forward. She left a crack in the pavement with her raw strength.

A wall sprung up to stop her, but she burst through it. Vince hurled a trio of fire nets overhead.

Only for a blazing inferno to blast from Goro’s hands and incinerate his nets, and force Nina to dodge to the side. Vince grimaced as he met the incoming flamethrower with his raw fire manipulation magic.

Power met power. He felt the immense strength behind Goro’s magic as well as the skill, and knew he’d be crushed instantly only a few months ago. Daji’s training improved his raw manipulation of magic, which extended to his control of fire. Vince could have blasted Goro’s spell with his own. Fight fire with fire.

Instead, he pumped magic into the magical threads extending the flames toward him. Seizing control of the farthest tendrils was easy. He then pumped more power into the spell to keep it at bay. Goro fought him and they came to a swift standstill.

A wall of flames formed between them.

“I see my lessons aren’t wasted on you,” Daji purred. Her tails wrapped around his waist while she sank her head into his neck. “Applying my teachings of improved magical control and anti-disruption to your flame manipulation, so that you can disrupt other spellcaster’s fire magic? I’d call it majestic, but I worry I’d be giving out too much praise.

Vince grunted, his focus almost entirely on Goro’s spell. The sensation of Daji licking his neck and running her fingers over his crotch didn’t help his concentration.

“Really?” She giggled at his thoughts. “You should be able to handle something like this even while I suck your cock, you know? It’s trivial stuff. Maybe I should test you…”

Goro’s spell ended, saving him from Daji’s teasing. Nina reared up, gauntlet glowing, as she prepared to charge the fox again. His tails shimmered with both green and amber light, but he fixed his gaze squarely on Vince.

The lioness pounced. Magic surged through her.

Only for a purple blur of light to slam into her and send both of them tumbling across the strip mall and into a public garden lining the walkway. Plants collapsed around them and bark flew into the air as Cora grappled with Nina. The other two bodyguard foxes rushed over, content to ignore Vince.

“As I said, this is a duel,” Goro said. “Once I defeat you, perhaps the lionfolk can have her turn, but a demihuman is a different matter. No mere human could have defeated Teru Nanba.”

Teru? Was this about the six-tail fox he and the heist team had killed?

“I think there are a lot of humans who can hand you your tails on a silver platter,” Vince growled. “You’re lucky the cops aren’t here, or else…”

He trailed off when he saw the figures waiting further along the walkway. They pressed themselves against the wall, trying to hide in plain sight, but their uniforms and bulky armor gave them away. Not to mention the massive blonde ears of their leading officer.

REAT officers. Vince recognized Livia’s sister. Via, if he recalled her nickname. Her dark skin and satellite dish-like ears gave her away.

Even with the brawl between Nina and three foxes taking place and tearing up a public garden, the police did nothing. What the hell were they thinking? Vince had been threatened by cops for orders of magnitude less than this.

His paranoia spiked. No way in hell were the cops standing around like this for no reason. A trap was cooking. Commander Frost, one of the police elementals, had it in for him and might be looking for an excuse to take Vince down for real. Goro’s behavior didn’t exactly match an assassination.

This stunk like a trap. One that would go off and land Vince in jail, possibly beyond even the reach of Alessia and the governor. Had that warning about collateral damage been a reminder to Goro?

Vince needed to end this fight quickly, and without giving the cops an excuse to crack his skull open. That ruled out his shiny new spell, the fire tornado.

“I’m a registered enforcer, just like you,” Goro said, sounding almost boastful. “You don’t need to worry. We shall settle this duel like honorable samurai, despite the difference in cultures. I can see the power and skill that allowed you to overcome the Yakuza’s assassins, but true skill—”

Vince had heard enough. He snapped off a fireball, causing Goro to click his tongue.

“Is your true skill in talking too much?” Vince asked.

He shrugged off the wind blades that bounced off his barrier. The fox frowned.

Both men faced each other down. Their barriers shined with power.

Vince knew he needed something drastic to have a chance, though. Even though he’d held off Goro’s fire spell earlier, it had taken all of his effort. He doubted it was more than an initiate spell, like his fireballs, given it acted as little more than a huge flamethrower.

From what little Vince knew of mystic fox magic schools, Goro appeared to use telekinesis and elementalism. More than that, he was the first fox Vince had fought head-on that stood back and fought like a normal sorcerer.

Abruptly, Vince realized he’d never defeated a five-tail fox without his dragon. For all his bravado about taking on Goro, it came from experiences Vince had from using his best spell. He’d gone through the entire heist with his dragon out. The fight against Teru had been a team-effort, and the same went for downing the assassins.

Which meant he needed to create an opening to cast his dragon. Without Nina’s help.

With the police staring down at him from around corners and Goro preparing some sort of water spell, Vince tightened his grip on his cane. Duel or not, he wasn’t going down here.

- - - - -

Commentary: I'll post Ch10 tomorrow to keep the pacing tight.

Goro has longer-term role here, and isn't intended as a one-off villain or target practice. This is also a good chance (and reminder) for Vince to either reduce his reliance on his his dragon or continue to improve on his techniques so he can cast it mid-fight. The cast time remains his big weakness, even if I know some people don't like that.