Mob Sorcery 2 - Ch11

Chapter 11

“Is something wrong?” Luscarne asked, her lion ears twitching as she no doubt eavesdropped on Vince’s call with Ronin. “Do you need to be somewhere—”

Vince’s dragon roared and a flame laser created a new hole in her stomach. Luscarne tried to scream, but blood gurgled up in place of the noise she tried to make as she doubled over in pain.

The wound might have instantly cauterized, but with a hole that big in so many organs, she’d need a healing infusion within minutes or be dead.

Vince glared at her as his knuckles whitened around his phone. The other lions arced up and threw spells at him, but his dragon intercepted them.

For a long moment, he considered vaporizing every single one of them. It would be so easy.

“Enough!” he snapped, and a dozen pillars of fire burst from the ground around the enforcers.

They froze. Ronin spoke over the phone, but Vince didn’t hear him.

“Give me a second,” he told Ronin, then muted his phone. Turning to talk to the enforcers, he pointed at Luscarne and said, “Take her, get the fuck out, and don’t come back. If I see any of you again tonight, you’re dead. Anyone from Kaziern steps near this place and I’ll incinerate them. I’m done with these games. Leave.”

Seconds passed amid the crackling of the flames burning the fallen contents of the shelving. When none of the lions moved, he turned and pointed his cane at Luscarne.

“We’ll go,” one of the lions shouted, and rushed toward her.

“Idiot,” Luscarne gasped out around the blood pooling down her chin. “Stop him!”

As if they could, Vince thought. The lions trooped over to their fallen commander and one forced a healing infusion down her throat before hefting her over one shoulder. They began to leave without a glance back.

He placed his phone against his ear and unmuted it while watching.

“Sorry about that. Needed to finish things here,” he said.

“I take it you were dealing with Kaziern,” Ronin said. “This is their ploy, then. Hit the sisters while you’re busy with their enforcers.”

“Smarter than I took them for,” Vince admitted. “Thanks for the heads up. Do you know if the police are deploying to assist Kaziern with any of their other facilities?”

“We’re not. A couple of Lionetti enforcers got arrested for some fighting they caused near that shopping mall. Rare for corporate enforcers to get hit, and I doubt any charges will stick, but it will make the mayor happy.”

That might be Vanna. At least Vince knew he wouldn’t leave and find the place crawling with police.

“I take it you’re not coming up north,” he said.

“No.”

Right before he hung up, a sudden thought occurred to Vince. Something he’d forgotten to tell Ronin.

“Shit. Remind me to talk to you about an incident at the fast food place Daryl works at. A rogue enforcer beat him up. It’s not important now, but stuff is slipping my mind with all this shit going down.” Vince ran a hand through his hair. “Again, thanks for the help. I need to go blow shit up.”

“Don’t get blown up yourself, Vince. Be careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

Ronin snorted, then hung up.

Vince’s hand shook as he lowered his phone. He wondered why. This was just a job, after all.

Sure, his paycheck depended on Alessia surviving, but sometimes shit happened in this line of work.

Ironically, he realized why Fia had been wrong to tell him to press harder about a proper bonus for helping Alessia. When push came to shove, two things came to mind.

First, if Alessia died, the job didn’t matter. Vince’s pay depended on her surviving. Pola would tear him to pieces if he refused to assist the Lionettis in their time of need, no matter what excuse he gave, assuming she even survived the night.

Second, the thought of Alessia or Fia dying made him feel sick. Both of them were caught in whatever this attack was and his mind thought of nothing but ways to get back to the tower as fast as possible.

Acting on those thoughts, his fingers tapped out a message to Nicki.

Get back to the building right now. Forget everything else. I need you to pick me up ASAP and get me to Lionetti Tower, he messaged her.

Then he rang Pola. They’d exchanged contacts yesterday as part of the briefing, just in case they needed to contact one another. He’d half expected her to spam him with weird sexual messages, but had received nothing.

Her phone rang. Three rings. Then five. At ten, he cancelled the call and swore.

“Fucking hell, Pola. If you know something’s wrong, fucking tell me,” he snapped at the air and paced. One of his hands ran through his hair.

Maybe he was racing to conclusions. If Alessia was under attack, Kaziern might be attacking Pola at the same time.

He called Ronin back. His friend answered instantly.

“Do you know if there are any other communications black spots?” Vince asked.

“There aren’t any.”

“You sure?”

“Blocking any communication bandwidth is super illegal, Vince, because it can interfere with emergency services and other critical infrastructure,” Ronin explained “The mage colleges have to get permits to block them in some of their facilities. That’s why I know about the attack and why we’re locking the place down. Whoever is attacking Lionetti Tower is committing a crime as well. They’re an independent enforcer.”

Shit. Vince had a bad feeling who might be behind this.

“Thanks again. Just wanted to check,” he said.

That suggested Pola wasn’t likely under attack at the transport depot. Well, she might be, but likely not so bad she couldn’t answer her phone or tell him about an attack on Alessia.

Nicki had replied by now.

Gotcha, she said.

Short and sweet.

Vince tossed the teleport beacon amid the wreckage of the warehouse shelving. Then he quickly ran over and checked behind the walled area. He found a maze of rooms and decided not to waste his time further.

If Kaziern kept some enforcers here, then the Lionettis would need to clear them out later. Protecting Alessia took priority. With any luck, he’d be able to teleport back using the beacon and finish the job.

Stepping outside, he looked up and down the street. Not a soul remained. The warmth of the streetlights lit up portions of the road, but he didn’t need them. His dragon ensured Nicki would find him.

Right now, he made a tantalizing target. His dragon burned in the night. Realizing how much magic he burned each minute, Vince downed another infusion.

This time, no afterglow struck him. His magic reserves had run low and he hadn’t even realized. He checked. Still three more of the good ones, plus two cheap ones. Plenty for the night.

He knew he might be regretting things in the morning. But he also knew if he dismissed his dragon, he might not get the opportunity to cast it upon arriving at Lionetti Tower. Who knew how bad things were there. The police might attack him on sight.

Nicki descended from above, but didn’t land or pick him up. She hovered above him, biting her lip.

“What’s up?” she asked. “Fia didn’t reply when you messaged me, and the enforcer with me panicked when I told her. I also noticed that the big Lionetti building is lit up like a Christmas Tree.”

“Lionetti Tower is under attack,” Vince said flatly.

Nicki’s face paled.

“I need to get there right now,” he continued. “Fly as fast as you can. Just like when you got me away from the cops the other night.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that,” she mumbled.

Unlike usual, she swooped away and got a flying start before clamping down on him. They shot off into the air before turning toward their destination.

As Nicki had said, Lionetti Tower was indeed lit up. Given the size of Albion, it couldn’t be seen from that far away, but up in the sky it stood out like a sore thumb.

The entire structure glowed a vivid purple and it lit up the surrounding towers like a beacon in the night. Alessia had activated the tower’s defensive wards and barriers, which prevented entry and direct assault. They likely accompanied internal defensive measures.

“Is… is somebody trying to take the whole tower down?” Nicki asked over the roar of the wind around them. “I only see barriers go up like this in movies and disasters.”

“They’re probably tied to internal wards and anti-teleportation measures,” Vince shouted back. “Alessia’s office has windows. The external barriers would prevent somebody from shattering them to get in instead of forcing their way through from the inside.”

And, yes, he admitted to himself that protecting the entire building was necessary in this situation. Building an impenetrable bunker-like room meant nothing if an attacker could bring down the entire building or collapse a floor. Earth magic users specialized in tricks like that. Nina had a few stories like that, although she’d never taken out a skyscraper.

Mostly because of the expense. The city took a dim view of massive property damage and finding an employer willing to pay for the wholesale destruction of multi-billion dollar buildings proved difficult. Only untouchable criminals might attempt it, and enforcers like Nina stuck to lower profile attacks.

Immanuel or Houou might cover up the collapse of a small office building or even an entire floor of an apartment complex, so long as casualties were minimized.

In this case, Vince knew that if Lionetti Tower went down, a lot of innocent people went down with it. The high flyers in the casino, namely.

Which explained the dozens of red and blue lights flashing in the aerial perimeters around the tower on police birdfolk and the police helicopter. Vince gulped as they approached.

“Vince,” Nicki said as she saw the police.

“Fly lower,” he said.

No dice. One of the cops saw them and shot over like a hawk.

Turned out, they were a hawk. He carried a shell-like shield on one arm and wore black and white lycra over his entire body with police markings.

Nicki came to an abrupt stop when the police enforcer cut her off. Vince’s dragon raced through the air around them. Other police enforcers in the air began moving toward them. They hovered only a few dozen feet apart.

The enforcer took one look at Vince, but his expression remained hidden behind a helmet. “You’re working for the Lionettis, right?”

“Is that important?”

“Orders are to stay out of the company conflict. If you’re on the clock, you can go through. Otherwise, this is an active enforcement zone and I’ll have to fine you if you try to proceed.”

“I’m working for them,” Vince said.

“Figured. Good luck. You’ll need it, but maybe you’ll limit how much wrap up we’ll need to do.” The hawk snapped off a salute and shot off, resuming his perimeter patrol.

Nicki hovered there, staring. “Uh, what?”

“You heard him. The cops have no interest in getting involved in a fight between Kaziern and the Lionettis. Whatever bribes Gawlik threw around fall short of dealing with this mess, now he’s gone this far. Take me down,” Vince said.

They soared toward the base of the tower. Over thirty police SUVs and cruisers formed a cordon along the streets a good two blocks back, but they kept an opening clear. Vince watched as a black SUV rolled up to the cordon and was let in.

Right before flashes of light snatched his attention away, toward the atrium entrances of the tower. Eight wolfgirls crowded behind the stone garden walls that lined the exterior. Strange, translucent figures shifted near the closest entrance.

Beams of light shot forth from the translucent figures and blew chunks of stone and dirt into the air. The wolfgirls responded with a variety of spells, but to little avail. Little by little, they moved toward the street, pushed back from their own headquarters.

Several bodies lined the pavement. Most wore suits. The building security that Vince had briefly tangoed with on his first visit, he realized.

“Drop me on the street, then get clear,” Vince said. “Don’t get too close. Those are hostiles.”

“Got it. I’ll stay in the air and—”

“No! They might shoot you out of the air. Either get out or stick close to the police. I doubt they’ll touch you, so long as you don’t actually leave,” he pressed. “Bail entirely if they do. I don’t want you getting hurt. This is far worse than any enforcer fight I’ve been in.”

Nina had talked about all-out war once. This felt like that, with Kaziern attempting to outright destroy the Lionettis. He regretted underestimating Gawlik.

His feet felt pavement as Nicki dropped him off, then she wheeled in the air and shot toward the police cordon. He wasted no time and sprinted toward the wolfgirls, who spotted him and took cover rather than retreat.

His dragon roared and shot forth. Flames consumed those mysterious figures around the entrance. No more beams of light assaulted the wolves.

“Holy shit, you’re here,” a Lionetti caposaid, her tail wagging. She’d been the same one that greeted him when he’d retreated here after fending off Kaziern the other night. “I haven’t been able to get through to fucking anyone.”

“There’s a communications blackout,” Vince said as he crouched down next to her behind this row of stone edging. “I got word through my police contact. Where the hell is Pola? I can’t reach her and figured she’d be here already.”

“She hasn’t gotten here. Some others have turned up.” The capo’s eyes tracked something behind Vince.

He turned and saw the black SUV from earlier pull up and disgorge a half-dozen wolfgirl enforcers, including another capo. Beams of light immediately struck the vehicle. The girls raced toward them.

“Fuck, they’re already back,” the security head said, as Vince decided to label her. She must be important to the tower’s defense, given she’d been deployed here both nights the Lionettis moved out.

He looked over the garden and saw the translucent figures had reappeared. They appeared to be people, but floated in the air and lacked distinguishable limbs or even faces. Beams of light burst forth from their chests as they hovered in the general direction of Vince and the Lionettis.

“Necromancy?” he asked, gobsmacked. “I think I’ve met one necromancer in my fucking life. It’s not forbidden, but it’s so arcane that I never hear of it outside of mage colleges and movies.”

“There’s some mousegirl in the atrium,” the security head said. “A whole team of enforcers swept through, blew through our security before we knew it, and then summoned an army of these phantoms. They’re immune to anything weaker than wizard-tier spells and use their own light spells. Even when we destroy them, they come back almost instantly.”

Vince stared at the mass of necromantic phantoms. He was fundamentally out of his depth.

Hell, even Nina hadn’t fought necromancers. Who the fuck was he fighting?

“Did you spot anything more about the necromancer?” he asked.

“Small girl. Solid black barrier. We tried taking her out, but couldn’t scratch her.”

He nodded. “I’ll try. If these are summons, I bet they’ll go down with the summoner, and I have a lot more power. And if all else fails, I want you to target her after I break her barrier. She might survive my attacks, but she won’t survive if her barrier goes down.”

The wolves nodded and grinned. Fifteen Lionetti soldiers stacked up behind the stone wall, all looking to him for the go ahead.

That gave him pause. Why the hell was he giving the orders to these enforcers?

Then a series of beams slammed into his dragon. They glanced off harmlessly, but reminded him of the danger they remained in. To hell with it.

“Stay behind the dragon. It’s immune to magic,” he said.

Then he stood. The phantoms swiveled to face him. Their forms evaporated as a massive fire net burst through their insubstantial forms. He’d hoped to prevent them from reforming, but they’d exploded upon contact with his spell instead. A shame.

“Let’s go,” he ordered, before rushing forward.

More phantoms appeared from the atrium. A roar of flames disintegrated the first wave before his dragon leaped onto the mass. Light spells ricocheted off the flaming scales of his dragon and burst harmlessly on the tower’s barrier. Every phantom focused on the closest target, which Vince ensured was the dragon.

The enforcers followed up far slower than he could, but with just as much force. Vicious explosions of earth, or thunderous bolts of lightning from above. They needed to use wizard-tier spells, whereas Vince’s dragon empowered even his initiate-tier spells as meister-tier strength. So even basic flames melted the phantoms.

Without slowing, he sent his dragon hurtling through the entrance. Glass and steel melted around its form and was left to agglomerate on the ground. Vince stepped carefully around it.

Hovering in the air dead center in the atrium was a tiny mousegirl, so small Vince almost thought she was a child. The tune of a flute filled the air, so high-pitched his aging ears barely made it out. Her eyes remained shut as she focused all her efforts on playing. Black smoke gathered below her, forming phantom after phantom with each passing second. A solid wall of black light obscured her features.

Not that they mattered. Vince’s dragon crashed to the ground atop twenty phantoms, banishing them to whence they came. The necromancer continued to play.

Flames exploded around her and fireballs hurtled forth and sent embers cascading across the tiles.

Then the dragon roared and a flame laser filled the space where the necromancer would be.

When the smoke cleared, she’d fallen to the ground. Unharmed.

Yet that wall of black light protecting her vanished. She glared thunderously at Vince, then raised her flute to her mouth again. Ready to play.

“Like hell,” the security head snapped.

Fifteen wizard-tier spells struck the necromancer at once. Vince didn’t need to describe them. Flame lasers, earth columns, lighting spears, water jets, ice explosions, and the like.

So much force that they hardly left a body.

The phantoms evaporated along with the existence of their master. Vince heard whoops in the distance. Clearly he’d only fought on one front of the tower, and enforcers rushed in from the other sides.

Yet no sign of Pola.

“We need to get you up there,” the security head said, pushing Vince toward the elevator. “They’re definitely heading for Alessia. There’s a whole team of elites still there with Fia, but you need to help them.”

Somebody hit the button to summon the elevators. They needed to wait for them to descend.

That spooked Vince. He looked around and saw the fire stairs.

“I don’t like this,” he said. “What’s stopping our attackers from blowing the cables while we ride up?”

“They’re reinforced.”

“Amazing. They have enough magic to threaten the entire building and left behind a single necromancer who likely used a meister-tier necromancy spell to hold off an army of enforcers.” Vince glared at the capo, who winced. “The elevators are death traps until we secure them from above. Plus, I can’t take my dragon up them.”

“The stairs will take too long,” another enforcer insisted.

“I know.”

The choice between arriving too late or not arriving at all might not be any choice at all. Especially as both choices amounted to the same, save that he’d be dead in one option.

An idea came to him. He pulled out his phone and tried to message Nicki. No reception.

Of course. The entire place had comms cut off. He cursed.

“Can somebody head out there and find Nicki?” he asked. “You know, the harpy girl—”

“We know her,” one of the enforcers said, then rushed outside.

With any luck, the police hadn’t chased Nicki out of the area.

While the enforcers and capos bickered and grew in numbers—yet Pola didn’t arrive—Vince waited. Nicki turned up after only a few minutes, racing across the atrium with an escort of two wolfgirls.

“Um, why is everybody down here?” Nicki asked, wide-eyed as a small army of Lionetti enforcers stared at her.

“I need a lift,” Vince said. “Do you think you can take me up those fire stairs?”

She blinked, then looked at the small emergency door. “Um, will it even open on the upper floor?”

“It’s not supposed to, but will that stop him?” An enforcer looked pointedly at Vince’s dragon.

“Depends how strong the internal defenses are,” he admitted.

“I don’t think we put barriers on the fire stairs. Individual rooms are warded, but it’s against the fire code to block off the emergency exits,” the security head said.

She truly was the building’s security head, he suspected. Why else would she know about fire codes?

“Nicki?” he asked.

She ignored him and pushed open the door to the fire stairs, then looked up them. After she turned back, she nodded. “They’re fine. There’s enough of a gap in the middle that I can safely fly up them. Some are so narrow that I’d say no, but this one is good. You’re lucky.”

He hadn’t thought of that. Turning back to the wolves, he said, “I’ll head up and…” He bit his lip.

An enforcer looked at the elevators, which remained open and inviting. “Summon an elevator. No, two of them, but not all of them. We have overrides to force them down here, but that will make a good signal that you’re up there and in control.”

“Good idea.”

Vince followed Nicki into the fire stairs and his dragon coiled along one bank of the concrete steps.

The birdgirl flapped her wings a few times, then eyed him. “Um, I’m going to need to carry you.”

“That’s how this usually works.”

“No, in my arms. If you’re dangling below me then you’ll throw my balance off. I can cope with that while flying forward, but you’ll move backward and forward if I’m just going up. In this tight a space, if you hit something, then I’ll lose balance and tumble. You’ll be fine with your barrier but I’ll break my wings. So I need to carry you properly.”

“Fine. Let’s go.” He didn’t have time for this.

Nicki nodded, then bent down and swept him up. Despite the fact he knew he weighed a fair bit and her arms lacked any visible muscle, she showed no signs of struggling.

“Do you work out?” he asked.

A laugh escaped her as her wings began to flap and she took off toward the upper floors. “No. But I am a demihuman. Our strength is in more than just our legs. We used to catch our prey and then rip them apart mid-flight. Or breed. We’re a nomadic species, you know.”

“Should I worry about that when using Wings?”

“Yes. So you should only ever hire me from now on.” She giggled. “But, really, harpies have way better food options these days than humans with shit diets.”

“Like fast food.”

“Exactly.”

The ridiculous banter helped take his mind off the seriousness of the situation. Thinking too hard about what might await him above caused his body to shudder.

“It’s fine,” Nicki muttered. “Fia’s strong.”

“I know.”

They said nothing more as they rose.

Eventually, they reached the correct floor and he called out for her to stop. She lowered a few floors after overshooting, then deposited him on the steps. His dragon shot up to join them, as it had raced up the fire stairs behind them to keep pace.

“Head back down,” he told her. “This might be dicey.”

“Got it.” Nicki left without another word.

He watched her descend. Then, as he’d done too many times tonight, he downed another infusion. He didn’t even feel this one. That boded poorly.

If he drank a fourth, he’d be lucky. Or unlucky. Ally’s infusions were incredibly powerful, but his body was testing its limits.

He held his arm out. The shakes might be from overusing his magic, the energy drink, or fear of what lay beyond the door. So he ignored them.

Instead, he tried to open the fire stair door. It wouldn’t budge. He blinked, then recalled he needed to force it open.

Given this was a literal fire safe door, anything less than a flame laser was unlikely to open it, barrier or no barrier. He backed up and let his dragon melt the hinges off. The door clattered to the ground, glowing red hot.

The corridor beyond lay in ruins. Furnishings blown to pieces, pictures on the floor, and scorch marks along the walls. No bodies, thankfully.

Vince had no clue where he was, relative to either the elevators or Alessia’s office. He heard explosions and shouting in the distance, echoing down the corridors.

So he raced toward them. If he found a familiar room or location, he could double back to the elevators and bring the others up. But his mind focused on Fia.

A wide open door lay in front of him. Multiple, in fact. He ran through one and found himself inside a conference room. The desk had been split open and the wall-mounted TVs destroyed. Doors on the far side hung open as well.

Unfortunately, the room wasn’t empty. A gigantic man loomed on the far side, his skin covered in solid steel. A hammer as big as he was crackled in his hands with orange light.

“Thought I heard something,” he rumbled, his voice as deep as Vince expected. “Looks like Hecate went down. This job is taking too fucking long.”

Vince ignored him. His dragon crashed through the other door and incinerated the remains of the table.

The intruder’s eyes widened, his hammer rising. “Wait, you’re—”

Whatever Vince was stayed a mystery. His dragon cast a flame laser and a headless corpse collapsed to the ground.

Vince blinked. “Huh. I guess the armor was for show. Wonder if he left his barrier off.”

He stepped out the far side of the room. Instantly, he knew where he was. The elevator lobby stood to his left, and he saw multiple bodies laying in it. Alessia’s office to the right, along with corridors that led further into the level.

Horror slammed into Vince, causing his stomach to lurch.

Alessia’s office door and the walls around it lay wide open, having been battered down. Gargantuan holes had been carved open by an attacker. The sounds of battle sounded from within.

- - - - -

Commentary: I had and still have mixed feelings about sparing Luscarne. The original plan was for Vince to get pissed off when she taunts him and kill her, but that causes a bunch of problems with how the scene leads up to this. He's made a deal with the lions, and while he can renege at any time, it's a moral choice to basically flip out and kill them all (because killing Luscarne will lead to a massacre). I feel that's not the choice Vince should make, even if I know it's what is expected given how cheap life is in most series. Definitely let me know your thoughts.

You also probably recognize the "a woman carries the MC up the fire stairs" scene. The reasoning here is very similar to Neural Wraith, so I tried to vary the scene up and avoid making the same jokes.

Finally, the enforcer at the end was intended to pose a serious threat. He originally showed up in the Juliet fight in Chapter 29, but I replaced him with the intention of using him here. Except the action is really dragging on and I don't really want to waste time before getting to the meat, so he just died. The necromancer already showed the power of the attackers.