Excalibur ~ World from Ashes
Chapter 17

Alik made the first move as I was a slight bit fascinated with my hands that crackled white. However as he moved, my body reacted. I didn’t so much as see his move as I felt it. Pulling my hands up, I directed the energy that made the white light crackle so much toward my hands. Alik hissed as he backed away from me quickly. Briefly, I wondered why he did that, but then I remembered. He could be a few steps ahead of me. I frowned, which meant that he was concentrating solely on me. Fine, I could still win this fight.

Damn… aren’t I getting cocky? Jesus where did that come from… I wondered briefly, but I didn’t dwell on it. It just felt right. That was the best way I could describe it. My gaze watched Alik’s closely; those shining green eyes of his told me that he was using the power that Excalibur gave him, the enhancements. It also told me that there was a way to control all of that excess power, the abilities. Turning them off was difficult for me though, especially in the state I was in. I shrugged, not really wanting to turn off the power at that moment anyway. I needed it if I was going to take on Alik on equal footing.

His eyes narrowed and I felt a piercing pain through my stomach. Groaning, I slowly dropped to my knees before I recovered, channeling my energy toward my abdomen. The nerves were being attacked by him again. If I shut them off… I wouldn’t feel anything. With that in mind, I concentrated on making my nerves numb along my stomach. When I didn’t feel the pain anymore, I gave a slight grin. I spread the numbness along my body as I was sure Alik would try again to put me down on the ground. I wasn’t about to let that happen three times in a row.

As I stood back up, I rushed Alik who hissed in a deep breath. My fingers stretched out to touch the bastards chest and fry him to a fucking crisp. He backed away from me rapidly, trying to keep his distance because if I touched him… well it was game over for him, wasn’t it? I forced myself forward, trying to move faster to match his backward pace. I wanted this to be over with quickly because even though I was focused on my own bodies natural electricity and enhancing it, I could feel behind me Tristan’s own body, his pain as he struggled to keep awake.

His pain was driving me insane. I wanted to do something about it, to take it away and make it so that he wasn’t in pain anymore. I knew I couldn’t even with the strange addition to my body. However, what I did know was that Kilia was the person to do this. She could heal him of his wounds, take away his pain and make him comfortable again, and that was what I wanted so badly. My eyes narrowed at Alik as he hit the table behind him. I lurched forward, taking the chance as I closed in on him rapidly.

My fingers just barely brushed his arm and Alik gave a scream of pain as he reeled from my charged touch. I slammed into the table as he skirted away from me to the left. Grinding my teeth, everything on the table electrified and I felt my own enhancement come back at me, reigniting the nerves that I had numbed a moment before. Pushing away from the table as quickly as I could, I took from it a knife and hurled it at Alik without really aiming.

As the weapon flew handle over edge at him, I rushed him yet again. My hands outstretched and as I drew closer, the electrical charge suddenly leapt from my fingertips and snapped out at Alik like little white whips through the air. He shouted again as the tips of the electricity brushed across his chest. Following my attack, the knife buried itself in his shoulder and he stumbled backward even further.

“Son… of a bitch,” Alik cursed as he reached up and gripped his shoulder tightly.

I wasn’t quite finished with him yet though and I chased after him as he booked it for the door. The air that I had felt earlier dragged at my senses and I changed tactics rapidly. The electrical charge faded and as Alik pulled at the door handle, I concentrated on it to keep it shut with the air in the room, making it too heavy to move as if a storm were pushing against the metal. Alik struggled to pull it open. When he realized that it wasn’t going to budge and that I was getting closer, he released it and turned to face me.

I launched out a sharp kick to his body. My leg connected with his arm as he brought it up to protect himself. I twisted, threw another kick, this one assisted with the force of rushing air behind it. Alik shouted as the back of my leg hit him and he was tossed into the wall. I had gone full circle with those two kicks and when I replanted my feet, I lunged at him. My fists connected to his chest in three rapid punches. Alik stumbled backward, coughing hard after each hit landed.

He recovered, drew himself up and started redirecting my attacks. His arms swiped the air at every punch I threw at him. My eyes narrowed slightly and I charged my body again. I concentrated on keeping the charge along my arms. As I went to punch him again, he automatically redirected my attack however when he touched my skin, the air crackled and I unleashed as much electricity into that area as I possibly could. Alik shouted, his painful cries filling the air and fueling my energy to have him screaming again in payment.

I launched another attack, my fist landing into his chest and the charge flashing across my arm and his body. Alik crumpled to the ground then. His cries of pain filled the room and I loomed over him. My fingers flexed, curling into tight fists before relaxing several times over. I stared at him, wondering what I wanted to do next. How did I want to hear him scream? What would be the most painful? How much blood could I draw from his body before he simply… died? The longer I stared at him, the more my thoughts darkened. Until it finally hit me.

I took a deep breath and stumbled away from him. My eyes were wide in shock, my heart beat frantic in my chest. Had I really be standing there, mulling over the idea of tormenting him to such degrees? I couldn’t believe how much I had really wanted to take my time and make Alik suffer slowly, painfully. The realization made my stomach twist and I thought for sure I was going to be sick. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like how that felt at all.

Alik slowly looked up, recovering from the charge that I’d given him when I punched him. He coughed, a bit of blood spraying the floor from his lips. Pushing himself up, he stumbled to his feet. He must have known what it was I was thinking, the reason why I had pulled away from him. Alik grinned at me, a wild knowing grin that sent chills down my spine.

“I’ve unleashed the monster in you, haven’t I?”

My eyes narrowed, but I didn’t answer him. As he took a step forward, I moved to put myself in front of Tristan. Alik eyed me as I charged my body again, a threatening move that told him if he came at me, I wasn’t going to hesitate. We stared at each other for a long while. Alik was hunched over, his body battered from my attacks. He may have been thinking about coming at me again. I wasn’t sure, but I knew that if he did, I was prepared to take him.

Instead, he slowly edged away from me. I shifted my eyes to the door as he reached out for it. Holding the door closed again, I moved. I didn’t want him to get away, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with him next, but all I knew was that if I let him walk out that door, things would just get worse. As I got close to him, my electrical charge began to pulse along my body. I think my initial intention was to knock him out, put him down on the ground as quickly as possible. However, that didn’t pan out as I had originally wanted it to.

Instead, Alik turned to me with a grin on his lips and the room exploded with an immense amount of pressure. I felt my body flung backward. Everything was a blur the moment my feet left the ground. The wall impacted against my back so hard I thought I was going to break. After I hit, my body simply crumpled to the floor all of that energy that I’d had running through me sort of dissipated. Maybe it was because I’d lost the concentration on it. Whatever the case, I lay on the floor unable to move for quite some time.

When I looked up, I was surprised to see that Alik had left the room. I could hear rain pouring down outside and a flash of lightning lit up the room we were captured in. Slowly I heaved my body up, groaning as I went. Everything hurt again and I didn’t have the concentration to try to numb my limbs like I had before. With Alik gone, my blind rage was gone too; it had been the only thing that had kept me going the entire time.

I moved over to where Tristan was laying. As I knelt down next to him, his eyes were closed and his breathing shallow. My eyebrows knit together as I fought to keep from crying yet again. The last thing I needed was a damned break down right when Tristan needed me the most. I had to keep it together, I had to be strong and I had to get us out of there. I took several deep breaths as I reached out and ran my fingers through his caramel hair. The soft locks were tangled up slightly and bits of the hair were stiff as if there were mud or blood caking it.

As I brushed out his hair, he shifted slightly. A bit of a moan filled the space between us and I looked down at him in shock. Tristan’s hazel gaze opened slowly and locked on me briefly before he closed his eyes again. Biting my lip, I reached out and pulled his head into my lap as gently as possible. Off to my right, Zak moved suddenly and I was slightly shocked to see him sit up.

“Zak… A-are you all right?”

He gave a bit of a groan as he pulled himself up slowly and then winced heavily before he nodded at me, “Yeah… somehow.”

“Try not to move too much.”

“Not really an option, Valkyrie,” he answered as he grimaced and started to stand. I watched him, my own chest aching as he slowly got to his feet. I was sure the broken and fractured ribs were not the greatest thing to feel at all. Reaching up he grasped the side of his head as he stumbled slightly. I stretched out a hand as if I were going to catch him, though I knew that was impossible, it was still a reaction.

“S-stop, don’t push too much!”

“Bastards hit me hard…” he muttered as he reached out and used the wall to help steady himself. After a moment, he turned and looked down at me and Tristan. He jerked his head slightly at Tristan who was unconscious again on my lap, “How is he?”

I shook my head, “Pretty bad. Alik… messed him up good,” my voice hiccupped as I held him.

“Damn it. Come on, I’ll help you with him. Are you all right, Valkyrie?” Zak moved as he spoke, coming over to Tristan and me.

“Y-yes. Just… shaken. Alik he… gave me the drug, Zak.”

Zak paused in his movements for a mere moment before he continued over to us and knelt down next to Tristan. He didn’t say anything as he reached out and took one of Tristan’s arms and attempted to put it up over his shoulder. He gave a sharp cry of pain and immediately released Tristan’s arm. I hissed in a breath and reached out to him.

“Stop. I… can handle this.”

“He’s twice your size, Valkyrie. Not to be mean, but you can’t carry him, he’s too heavy for you.”

“I-I know that,” I blushed a bit, feeling the heat course along my face. It was strange now to feel myself blushing. It was a bit more intense, the blood rush across my face. As strange as it was, it didn’t hurt, “I can handle it. The drug… I can… do things now.”

Zak tilted his head at me, utterly confused for a while, “You mean… like how Dane attacked us?”

I shook my head and then thought about it for a moment, “W-well… not really like how he did, but… kind of? I don’t know. It’s… hard to explain. I’ll try to explain later, let’s just go. Where’s the hummer?”

Zak shook his head as he stood up slowly, using the wall, “Somewhere along the border line. We were in the middle of a gun fight with a couple of Alik’s men when the ambush triggered. A lot of explosions and blasts took us off guard. The hummer got buried under some concrete. Tristan and I were lucky to get away from it fast enough. While we were retreating, we got caught by Alik and a couple of his men. I think all of them were on the drug because…” Zak sighed and shook his head, “Some of the things they did… not humanely possible.”

Not humanely possible… That’s one hell of an understatement, Zak. I grit my teeth. In light of that, I was now one of those ‘not humanely possible’ entities. I stared down at Tristan for a long while. How was he going to take it? He’d watched as I took in the drug, hadn’t he? I couldn’t really remember. Everything I was feeling at the time seemed like a blurred rush right then.

I shook my head a bit as I looked up at Zak, “All right. Well, we need to get going. We’ll go to the hummer. I can… unbury it.”

Zak lifted an eyebrow, “You sure about that?”

I didn’t look at him. He probably thought I was weird, or strange. Not human. My teeth ground together. Once again, I found myself cursing Alik and for everything he’d done. It was like he was out to ruin my life, make everything hell for me and to tear apart the one thing that I’d finally found for myself. Zak didn’t say anything as he leaned there. He probably didn’t want to say it, he didn’t want to acknowledge it. I didn’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to either.

Taking a deep breath, I concentrated for a moment and found that energy again. It spread through me and for the second time in a row, I found myself fascinated by it. Every fiber of my being was expanded. My mind worked a little bit faster, I comprehended things easier and everything just sort of clicked. Looking down at Tristan, I shifted and pulled him up with me as if he were nothing but a feather. The air around him helped me to bring him up against me.

Zak’s sharp breath almost startled my concentration. He was probably shocked, no… he was shocked. I could feel it. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. I was happy I couldn’t read thoughts at the moment because I didn’t want to know what he was thinking. I didn’t want to be told that I had changed into something that wasn’t human even though I knew it already. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle that kind of thing and for the moment I shoved it all aside.

I would think about it later. I would deal with all of that later. What was important was getting both Zak and Tristan back to the manor so that Kilia could heal them. I focused on that and nothing else. If I did…

I’d probably lose it.