Chapter 10: Attack! (Part 1)
1325 Words
“Can you show me how to do the robe thing now?”
“No.”
Jack and Axel ran through alleyways and above rooftops to evade the guards converging near the bridge to the best of their abilities. The tower was not close; they had to travel from the edge of the district to the centre.
“I mean, not now, like right now, obviously, but after the raid-”
“You have no idea how magic works do you?”
“Uh, learn a spell and then cast it?”
Axel sighed. “Where did you grow up?”
“It’s a place called Nebula.”
“I’ve heard about it.” Axel paused. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry, mate. The people are what matter, and they’re alive; albeit spread out.”
“Well, it all makes sense now; your powers, your lack of knowledge about magic. You remained hidden for a hundred years, right?”
“Hundred and ten,” he corrected. “And not exactly hidden. Bluegate always knew about Nebula. Well, the kings before Dormen did. We had good connections with the city. But when Dormen’s father was killed by an elf and he came into rule, our records were deleted from the archives to prevent the king from attacking us, and we remained hidden for a few years. Then Ender tortured informants and finally found us.” He chuckled. “It seems everyone in the empire has a reason to hate our benevolent king.”
“Yeah, well, he won’t be a problem for long,” Axel said. “And no, magic isn’t that simple. Some people obtain magical powers through genetic mutations, like one of your ancestors; and it’s passed on to the progeny, amplifying in strength. You are the strongest of all your ancestors, and your children would be even more powerful.”
“Oh…” he raised his eyebrows. “We were sent here because we were more powerful than our parents; that actually makes a lot of sense.”
“Of course it does.” They hid behind a gate to let a small squadron of guards pass by, then continued towards the tower. “When genetic mutations are altered through magic, the progeny becomes malleable to any and all types of magic. Their strength depends on how many spell tomes they can read and skills they can study, which they have a natural tenacity for; but of course, the offspring is more powerful than the parent.”
“That would be a mage, I’m guessing. Like you.”
“Correct. Mages can learn magic far more quickly than anyone else; but we need conduits to amplify our powers for bigger spells. Like my staff.”
“Sounds both cool and boring at the same time. Strange.”
“Then there are people who are born without magic. They can also learn magic through tomes, but it takes a lot of time and willpower; not everyone can do it. They can also only master one spell, but depending on how smart they are, they can pick up and cast other simple written spells certain amount of times. Their magic is not passed on to the offspring, and they’re usually not as powerful as people with magic naturally imbibed in them.”
“We have yet to encounter such an individual.”
“You already have. Belle learnt magic, she wasn’t born with them.”
“I thought you said normal people aren’t as powerful as the people born with magic.”
“Usually not as powerful. Belle is exceptionally skilled.”
“Dear God”
“I’ve never seen powers as unique as yours.” They passed through a narrow street. “Twins carrying magical powers… That’s a first. You two can share your powers; that’s also something I’ve never seen before.”
“My parents always said we were special.”
“Have you ever tried to fuse your powers together?”
“We’ve thought about it. Luna’s too scared to try it out, says it could be dangerous. Truth is, we really don’t know. Well, anyway, back to the point… Can you teach me how to do the robe thing? I doubt the spell would be that complicated.”
Axel sighed. “You’ll need to at the very least read a four hundred page book and practice it for a week.”
“I can do that. Wait, how are we going to get a four hundred page spell book?”
“I have one. But remember, it’s like I said: not everyone can do magic.”
“You underestimate my talent, mate!”
The two climbed on the roof of a building, where the other rebels were waiting and took cover. The tower was in sight; it was very tall with four floors and a long spire on top. There were dozens of soldier around the perimeter and even more inside. The rebels had already collected the weapons that Belle had hidden nearby.
“I don’t mean no disrespect, sir,” one of the men said, “But should he be tagging along with us?” He pointed at Axel. “With bounty hunters and assassins chasing after him?”
“Believe me, I thought of the exact same thing,” Axel said. “But the hunters are being taken care of.”
“No need to worry, soldier,” Jack said. “If things go according to plan, there will be no assassins disrupting our raids.”
“Love the optimism sir,” he replied, “But things rarely go according to plan.”
“While that’s true,” Axel said, “We’re about to fight legions of soldiers. I’d rather not think of what if scenarios and focus on the job.”
The rebel sighed. “Right you are, sir.”
Jack examined the tower. “Well, there’s no room for subtlety. We hit them fast and we hit them hard.” He turned to the rebels. “Remember, speed is the key. Once we’ve killed the guards here, we’ll have to run straight to Economic Square and reduce the forces there, then take out the stragglers. If we don’t hurry, they’ll surround us and our raid will be over rather quickly.”
“What’s the strategy?” Axel asked. “What part of the tower do we hit first?”
“The rebels will attack the sentries around the tower,” he explained. “We’ll go into the tower and clear them out floor by floor, starting from the top. Then, of course, we’ll run towards the Square.”
“That’s actually not a bad strategy you’ve come up with.”
“I didn’t come up with it, mate. My sister did. She’s the boring strategist.” He turned his gaze to the tower. “We only get one shot at this. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Axel replied.
“Alright.” Jack turned to the rebels. “Get ready to jump on my command!”
Jack created horizontal force fields that acted as platforms, and ran up them to reach the top of the tower, while Axel flew straight towards it.
Jack created another orb, but this was much larger than the last one. He threw it through the window straight into the room at the top of the tower, and it exploded; the top of the tower blew up in a flurry of bricks, concrete and wood and the spire fell down on the ground. The guards were thrown out of the room to their impending doom below, and the debris buried the sentries who were too slow to move.
“Now!” Jack yelled at his troops. “Attack!”
The rebels yelled as they jumped from the building on the sentries below with their weapons drawn.
Jack and Axel landed on the top of the tower, its roof blown away. Down below, they could hear sounds of battle between the rebels and the guards. The two could only hope that they were on the winning side.
Axel summoned back his staff and thrust it into the floor, and part of it caved in. Axel fell right through, in the middle of a small army of guards who were too panicked and confused to immediately react. He shot a large blast of energy towards one of the corners of the room, annihilating the guards caught in the blast, leaving only large mists of red blood. The corner of the room blew outwards, and with telekinesis Axel held the bricks and rubble in the air to prevent them from raining down on the rebels. Jack quickly jumped in and began cutting through multiple guards with his sword in his right hand and his long knife in reverse grip in his left. Axel hurled the rubble straight at multiple guards, denting their armours and breaking their skulls. Before Axel could engage the remaining in combat, Jack killed all of them.
- Writer
