The Legend Of Black Eyes

There were at least twenty men outside. Wanda was at the front, walking slowly toward the house. They had all drawn their weapons. They were silently creeping toward us, using sign language to spread their forces. Three of them went around the house. Three more remained behind, while the rest advanced toward us.

"You know what to do," I whispered to Beatrix.

She nodded. She looked tense, but still angry at me. I knew she had never done something like this. She had abused her powers, which were great to be honest, but she never learned how to fight in this type of situations.

I took a deep breath then pushed the main door open. In front of me, fourteen people, including Wanda, stopped right in their tracks. Wanda shifted in her position. She recognized me and let out a faint "Tsk!"

"Here to finish the job you failed to complete?" I asked her.

"You"re one to talk," she retorted. "First you jeopardize my contract. Then you kidnap my sister. What do you want?"

"Your sister?" I asked, feigning ignorance. "I don"t know what you"re talking about."

"She"s inside," Wanda said. She sounded like an angry guard dog, growling, ready to attack. "Let"s cut to the chase. Tell me what you want, and I"ll carefully explain to you how you cannot have it."

I chuckled. "And here I was, thinking you were a sweet girl who cared for me," I said.

"Appearances can be deceiving, Mr. Darkstar," Wanda said.

She might have not known I could use my senses too. Or she ignored it. Wanda was obviously stalling for time. She thought I had kidnapped her sister for some ransom. The men she had sent around the house got inside from the backdoor. They were slowly approaching Beatrix.

"Are you ready?" I asked Nag.

"More than ever," he replied.

My lips curved into a warm smile. In that darkness, I don"t think Wanda had seen it. "My quarrel is with your father, and your father alone," I said. "Why did you have to get involved?"

"I don"t think you"re telling the truth Zedd," Wanda said. "You could have killed me back then, during Lady Vogel"s feast. I was surprised at how fast you could move. What do you really want from us?"

Painful screams reached us from the back of the house then. Wanda and her men immediately tensed. They knew their plan had gone horribly wrong. I wasn"t going to let them recover though. I quickly dashed toward Wanda and struck. My sword clashed with hers. Sparks illuminated the wet gra.s.s beneath us for a short while.

"Let the chaos begin," I thought as I swung once more.

For every swing I made, Wanda had a counter attack prepared. She was well trained in swordsmanship. Whoever taught her how to handle a sword must have been from a n.o.ble house, perhaps even a quartermaster from one castle or another. She was methodic, calm, and surprisingly strong.

The others joined in on the fight. I couldn"t stop time anymore. Despite my deeper affinity with the Fragment, I still couldn"t use the time stop spell more than thrice per day. I cursed inwardly as my side began pulsating.

Three men surrounded me. With the corner of my eye, I could see their swords approaching. Beatrix hadn"t made a single move yet. I knew I couldn"t trust her to join in, but I had my own alternative plans. The great thing about the Primordials and their gifts of powers, it"s that they could evolve, help you gain more mastery over the element you control.

Three swords were inches away from me when I willed my Essence to explode outwards. Mixed with the Fragment"s energy, I could create an area of effect where time slowed down. The downside was that anybody could guess what kind of power I had then.

The swords slowed down. Wanda, realizing I had used a spell with an area of effect, jumped back. The others were trapped though, and lost their heads for being eager to finish me off.

"Don"t rush him!" Wanda screamed. "He"s more dangerous than he lets on."

"d.a.m.n right you are!" I thought as I finished the third one.

"You think you"re the only one with superpowers?" Wanda asked as I turned to face her.

The next thing that happened took me aback. I knew Wanda had some strange ability. I just couldn"t cla.s.sify it yet. Her sword starting glowing, the same blinding light she used to get away from tight situations. She drew an illusionary arc with her sword then brought it down toward me.

I was ten feet away from her then. The hair at the back of my neck stood. I knew something big was coming my way, so I jumped aside. The dark night was no more. A shockwave shaped like a crescent moon and as tall as a two storey house whistled past me. The house behind me crumbled. The gra.s.s was no more, replaced by a deep crevice.

Cold sweat trickled down my temple. Wanda drew another arc with her sword and brought it down toward me again. I dodged once more, and the house suffered the consquences. I extended my senses toward Beatrix and Nag. They were both buried under the rubble, but they seemed to be unaffected by the attack.

My side throbbed, reminded me of the injury I stupidly sustained. Why didn"t I wear the chainmail Nag had offered me back when I defeated Lemien? I cursed inwardly and charged Wanda. A row of armed men came between me and the n.o.ble lady.

"You can"t win against us Zedd," Wanda shouted as I parried and countered the others. "You"ll die here. You"d wish those demons devoured you."

I struck with another time explosion and finished two more of Wanda"s men. The party of three that had stayed behind joined in on the battle then. I was surrounded. A dozen armed men and a freakishly strong woman wanted me dead. My only allies were lying unconscious underneath rubble. Things didn"t bode well.

Darkness dissipated once more as Wanda sent another shockwave toward me. This one was shaped like a giant sword rushing to penetrate my skull. I dodged, and got hit in the back of my head by one of her men. I managed to cause another time explosion to counter and finish off the man whose sword tip was inches away from my neck.

My arms began sagging under the weight of my sword then. Despite the fusion with the Fragment, I still didn"t have enough essence to keep casting spells. Wanda"s men didn"t allow me enough time to think of a way out of this though. They kept pummeling me, while I countered, jumped and dodged.

I was facing ten men then. More than I could handle if I ran out of essence. I could fight two, even three on a good day. But with a growing headache and a throbbing side, getting rid of them was going to be difficult.

"He"s getting tired," Wanda yelled at her men. "Don"t stop attacking. He"ll soon fall."

She was right. No matter how I thought about it, I was in a dire situation. I was surrounded, with no way out and little to no energy left. Ten swords flashed before my eye. My senses were getting blurrier by the second. I would no longer cover my blind side if things went on like this.

"Help is coming," Nag"s weak voice reverberated inside my head. He had just woken up, thank my stars! "Hold on for a little while, will you?"

That was more than I hoped to hear. I gritted my teeth and caused another time explosion. I got out of the circle of death and killed one of Wanda"s men. I kept retreating, making sure no one would go around me. I jumped left and right, countered one man, kicked the others or punched them, then retreated some more.

Wanda brandished her sword in the air and held it in position for a little while. I could see it glowing in the distance, but I couldn"t be bothered by it at that moment. I had more, pressing matters, to attend to. My injury had just worsened. I had received two, nearly fatal blows. One sword sc.r.a.ped my ribs and cut my flesh open. Another missed my groin but deprived me of properly using my left leg.

As I parried one man and punished him for his eager thrust, another kicked me in the face. My Fragment started shaking violently, releasing harmful essence I hadn"t a.s.similated yet. I fell on my back. The one who had just kicked me was about to deal the final blow. I knew it was over then. My body ached, in and out. There was nothing I could do anymore.

"That"s what you get for being c.o.c.ky," I reprimanded myself.

A shadow flew past me then. The man who was about to relieve me of my head screamed. I heard guttural growls and angry snarls. Then the men around me scattered, gasping and screaming.

"Wolves!" one of them screamed. In that dark night, wolf howls replaced our grunting and the clanking of swords. Men screamed and tried to escape. I struggled to get to lean on my elbow then looked at what had happened. I couldn"t help but smile.

"Nag, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" I told him. "How did you convince them to join the fight?"

"Wait until you see tonight"s main event," he said.