The Stormy Sea

The ship creaked and groaned as it tried to fight against the waves crashing at its hull. It had been like that for a week, the ship fighting against the waves and winds to carry its cargo home. The crew did everything they could to stay on course and not to get lost in that storm but they had grown weak. No man could’ve slept in a storm like that. The ship going up and down, left and right, wood groaning and stuff falling and rolling everywhere.

“Jack!” the captain yelled at me, trying the make his voice heard over the sound of the wind. “Where are you? Jack!” He was standing on the upper deck, near a wildly spinning wheel of the helm that shouldn’t be spinning like that.

I ran through the lower deck and up the stairs, tumbling and almost falling a couple of times, and reached him. I saw the wheel turning madly. “We are losing control.” I said to myself and then turned to the captain. “Yes, sir?”

“How’s the crew?” he asked me.

“They are holding on for now Captain.” I answered. “Morale is low and there is talk of being cursed but they trust you Captain.” By then me, captain and the helmsman were trying to fix the wheel to stabilize the ship.

“Just tell them to stay away from seagulls.” Joked the Captain but his laugh was short as a giant wave crashed over the ship. “Well at least it’s not raining anymore.” He said “We need to find land soon, boy. My ship survived so many wars but this storm is something else” he said to me.

I had never seen the Captain like that before. He looked like even he was starting to abandon hope of survival. Three of us managed to take control of the wheel again and tried to adjust course but failed as the dark waves continued to throw the ship in different ways.

I wanted to say something comforting, try to raise moral, but nothing came to my mind. I was really scared too. We already had lost four men to the storm. One of them had fallen from the mast, the other three, off the deck in to the sea, lost in the darkness. Even I almost fell off the deck but the Captain had saved me. “Captain, maybe we …” I started but a shout cut me off.

“A ship! On the horizon. Not far!” the yell came from above. Someone was actually mad enough to climb the mast in this storm. “Port side!”

We rushed that way, trying to see. For a while all I could see was black waves with white foam on them and the dark bluish grey sky. “There!” the Captain pointed somewhere. I followed his finger and saw it.

Like ours, that ship was fighting too. Its white sails full with wind, trying to find a way through the waves. I was trying to see more and I noticed something else. “Wait! Look behind it. Even farther away. Another one!” I shouted.

It was harder to see among the waves but I could make out its outline and sails. “We are not the only ones trying to survive this ungodly storm.” The Captain said. “Let’s concentrate on saving ourselves first. Come, Jack!” he said trying to walk back to the helm without falling to the wooden deck but then he froze and said “Look! Another one!”

Another ship was close by going in a different direction but it was mostly in the same condition with ours. “So many ships. Captain, we must be close to land!” I screamed and tried to look for a silhouette of land somewhere in the horizon.

“Jack, go up a little, get a better view, report everything.” He said to me and then turned to the rest of the crew who were either working or praying to their gods or just trying to see the struggle of the other ships, even betting on which one would go to the depths first. “Keep the sails steady! Secure the cargo!” he started barking orders at the crew.

“Aye Aye Captain!” They obeyed, never questioning his orders.

I made my way through the lower deck and started climbing the main mast. I didn’t intended to go all the way up, scared that the wind would blow me away to the sea. The climb was hard as the ship was constantly getting swayed by the waves, I could still faintly hear the Captain yelling orders on the deck. I made my way to the observation post and tried to see the horizon while holding on for my life.

The ships were still struggling with the waves on the port side. I saw barrels and a part of a ship mast on the sea surface moving freely among the waves and then saw that the ship closest to us was losing the fight. The wind was too strong for her sails.

I turned my gaze towards starboard side and saw it. Among the clouds and the sea, something else. “Land!” I tried to yell but nothing came out as wooden floor of the post suddenly moved beneath my feet and I fell down. I got up and tried to regain my balance and saw the land more clearly. Down on the deck, the Captain and the crew were too busy to notice it.

I gathered my breath and wanted to yell again but saw something else and yelled “Boat! Crash! Starboard!” I saw that the Captain heard me and looked that way. There was a fishing boat that the waves tossed around and it was coming right at us. We hadn’t noticed it before because of our distraction with the other, bigger ships.

If this was a calm sea it wouldn’t do any damage to a ship as big as ours but with the power of the waves behind it, who knew. Captain Rabec was trying to steer the ship away from it and as it got closer I saw the man in the fishing boat was trying to adjust his course, fighting madly with the rudder of the boat. While they tried to do something, all I could do was to hang on to the mast and watch, helpless.

For a moment I thought we were saved as both the fishing boat and our galleon turned their bows to different directions. The Captain was still struggling at the helm but it was hopeless as two giant waves lifted both of our vessels and crashed them at each other.

The deafening boom filled my ears as the whole ship shook. I heard screams of men down on the deck and the creaking of wood just seem to go on forever. The fishing boat was nearly on our deck, destroying and crushing men, cannons and other tools alike. I tried to look for the Captain but couldn’t see anything clearly in the chaos of the crash.

Suddenly the waves that have thrown the two vessels at each other lost their power and the boat slid off the ship in to the sea. While it was sliding off, its bow hit the mast and it shook wildly, so wildly that I lost my grip on it and tumbled over the observation post down to the chaos of the deck.

As I went over, in that one moment I saw everything clearly; I saw our ship and the fishing boat going their separate ways and far away other ships still struggling and on the starboard side, the grey storm clouds starting to disappear, leaving their place to a clear blue sky that showed everyone the green cliffs that I had seen before but never able to let the crew know.

“Jack! Son!” I heard Captain Rabec yell on the deck among the cheers of the crew who have seen the land.

“He is alive.” I said to myself, smiling, just before I hit the deck with full speed, suddenly feeling immense pain and then blacking out.

The Case of The Nighthawks

I threw the finished cigarette to the ground and reached into my pocket to get a new one. I got the cigarette out and fumbled my coat pockets for the lighter. I found it got it out and lit it. The flame lit my face up in the dark street but the Woman I was following never noticed me. So we kept walking through the streets and alleys of Manhattan. It was already well past midnight and the streets were mostly deserted.

It was dangerous for a woman to be outside at this hour. Walk down the right back alley in Manhattan and you can find anything, the saying went. Still she walked with a carelessness, and even courage maybe. Of course she had a right to feel safe. Everybody in this corrupt town knew the Woman I was following. Jessica Campbell. The Widow, as the newspaper called her lately. Suddenly she looked back, maybe sensing someone was following her. Luckily, I had the time to go in to an alley and remain unseen. I didn’t have to follow her closely. Her red dress made it easier to spot her from far. I waited a minute and peaked, she was already on her way again. So I went on her trail and we continued touring the streets in the night and my mind started to drift to the facts of the case.

“The Nighthawks have been stolen!” was the headline in most of the newspapers couple weeks ago. The famous businessman Peter Campbell have bought them and brought them from a far away country. Their pictures were in every newspaper, two life sized hawk statues, both black, one made out of Onyx other Obsidian and their beaks and eyes were diamonds. Campbell used them in his new restaurants opening, displayed them and then brought them back to his mansion. Which was a big mistake as the next day his wife called the police crying and shouting, the officer who took the call made out only couple of the words but they were enough, “He is dead… My husband… The birds! The birds are gone too!”

The story was already so good, the reporters didn’t even added stuff to the story to make it look interesting. A rich businessman with alleged ties to the mob died and his most precious treasure’s stolen and the only witness is the widower who inherited his empire. This was all I knew too for a time. I already had my own job to think of so I didn’t thought on it much. Until yesterday, my office phone rang and I got a message from the police chief himself, calling me to the station.

So I went to meet with him. As went through to the station, I saw familiar faces all around. Some greeted me, some acted like I didn’t exist anymore. I saw my old desk, now serving another detective. Then I reached the Chief’s office, knocked and went in.

“Draper! Come on in. Come on in.” he got up and greeted me and pushed me in to an uncomfortable chair then went around his desk to his own place. “Thank you for coming John. I know we haven’t parted ways in the nicest of ways but that’s in the past now.”

“So you have a case for me?” I cut him off and lit another cigarette, looking at him impatiently. I had no intention of staying at that cursed place one second more than I needed to.

“Well… Yes, but this have to be discreet. NYPD cannot be seen employing private investigators now. So if you accept to work quietly we can move on to business.” He said, suddenly very serious. I nodded and he went on. “I’m sure you have heard of the Nighthawk murder, as the newspapers put it?” I nodded again. “Good. Our own detective Sterling is on the case but didn’t make much of a progress. I’d give him more time but everyone in this damn city want this case to be closed. So I need someone who can get results and finish this fast. I need you on this case, John.”

I thought for a minute. The case seemed big. It didn’t seem like just a robbery gone wrong. There had to be some deeper plot. Well, I was intrigued. “My usual hourly rate applies and a bonus when I close the case” I said.

“Just send me the bill” he said smiling and I got up to leave. “Detective Sterling is waiting to brief you on the case outside”.

Sterling was waiting for me just outside the office with files in hand. He looked tired and old. “Here are the files, John” he said handing them to me. “All the progress I made is in there. The evidence, the interviews and my notes. Have fun.” He said with a straight face and walked away. He must’ve been pissed that the chief just took his case away from him.

Without saying anything else, I walked out of the building and headed to my office to start my investigation.

The woman suddenly looked back again. I was so deep in my thoughts that I almost didn’t notice but still we were crossing a crowded street and I was far enough to be a part of the crowd. She scanned the crowd for a minute, trying to pick up something but failed, while I just turned around looked to a shop window and smoked. My hat must cover most of my face from that distance I thought to myself. Satisfied that there was nothing wrong, Jessica Campbell started walking again and after a minute I was back on her tail, my thought again drifting to the facts.

So I was in my office, case file papers scattered across my desk. I took a sip from the glass filled with whiskey than put it down and continued reading. So the facts were these: Two Campbell’s were home alone when the thief or the thieves struck. Jessica was already up in the bedroom sleeping and she thought Peter was in the study. When she woke up in the morning she went downstairs, saw bloodstains, followed them and found her husband in a pool of blood. She screamed and went to the phone in the next room and noticed the birds weren’t in their place while she was talking to the officer. “No alibi” I said to myself. “Her being the killer is too obvious though.” There was also man’s bloody shoe print on the floor.

So Sterling first interviewed the widow then went to the right hand man of Peter. Walter White. Him being an ex mobster was a known thing. I had come across of him during one of my investigations couple years ago but he had evaded me. Peter employing him was also the main reason everyone thought he had some shady stuff going on. Also him being filthy rich during war time didn’t help either. Anyway. I slowly went through every material in the file while also going through my pack of smokes and by whiskey. By the time I had finished it was already dark outside. I decided to go out to the Campbell mansion to see the crime scene for myself. So I grabbed my revolver from my desk drawer and went out.

I left my car in a street away from the mansion and started walking to the gate. When I entered to the drive way I saw a woman getting out of the house. She had brown hair and had a red dress on. I immediately recognized her as she came in to the light. She was Jessica Campbell. I drove in to the bushes next to the road and waited without moving. She didn’t see me before and didn’t notice me when she walked past. So I waited a minute or two and decided to tail her instead of checking out the house. “It’s already been weeks” I said to myself. “They must already cleared everything in there” and started walking.

And we walked. Together but far away. Through the dark alleys, streets and busy avenues. She didn’t looked like she just lost her husband. She looked… happy. Still being the wife of Peter Campbell meant something, even after he died, so she was safe to walk in any road without being the target of other nightly dangers.

I took out yet another smoke and checked my watch. Two hours it has been. Going around Manhattan for two hours at night. “Where are you going?” I thought. She looked around once more and then suddenly picked up the pace. She wasn’t wandering anymore. “Now we have a destination” I said.

We walked another ten minutes and I saw where we were headed. “Phillies” it was called. A small diner. It had giant glass windows and the light from the inside illuminated the street. There was a triangular bar in the middle with two coffee machines attached to it. It seemed empty except the guy working behind the bar. Jessica went in without hesitation and sat at a bar stool. I was still outside in the darkness but I saw her talk to the bartender and he nodded, going in to the kitchen.

I waited two more minutes, threw my cigarette away and went in myself. Her face suddenly lit up as I went in through the door but then filled with disappointment. I tipped my hat to her in a friendly way, she put on a fake smile for me while I took a seat on the opposite side of the bar. “She is waiting for someone!” I thought.

The bartender came back from the kitchen with a sandwich in his hand and put it in front of Jessica and filled a cup with coffee for her then turned to me. “What can I get you?” he asked.

“Just coffee” I said and lit another cigarette. “Heh. These will kill me one day.” I said out loud. Jessica didn’t answer, just stared at the door. My coffee arrived and the bartender continued his cleaning. The two of us just sat there, she waiting for someone and me acting like I was just enjoying a cup of coffee.

I thought of trying to start a conversation with her but decided against it. I preferred anonymity for a while longer. Once I outed myself as a private detective, there was no going back. So we waited.

I was at my second cup when someone else walked through the door. He wore an expensive steel grey suit, had a hat on, his nose looked like a beak and he was thin. He also carried a brief case that looked heavy, he was leaning to the side he was carrying it. “Wally!” said Jessica, excited.

“Walter White!” I thought. Peter’s second in command. I tried not to seem surprised or shocked and kept it to myself. Walter didn’t seem to put much thought on me as Jessica jumped to his arms and kissed him. He quickly pushed her away “Not here!”

Jessica sat at her spot and Walter took the seat next to her, putting the briefcase between them. “I heard that they took that idiotic detective off the case.” He said grimly.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Jessica asked.

“Well, a case this public, they won’t let it go so they must have put someone else on the case. What if he is good?” he said then turned to the guy behind the bar “Coffee for me too.”

“Oh” said Jessica. “Still you are good right?”

Bartender took out another cup and put it down in front of him while he said “Probably. It’s been weeks Jess. The deed is done. The house is clean. You’ll inherit the money soon enough.” He took out a cigarette. “We are good.”

“I hope so.” She answered, taking another bite of her sandwich.

White fumbled around his pockets for a minute than “Where is the damn… Hey buddy do you have a light?” He suddenly asked me.

“Ah yes! Sure.” I murmured, trying to keep calm and fished out my lighter from my pocket and threw it to him. He caught it in the air and lit his cigarette and started to throw it back but then stop. “Hey! Do I know you?” he asked at me squinting, he seemed he was trying to remember.

“Ah, Crap!” I thought to myself and said “Sorry man. One of those faces, I guess” out loud, with a smile.

His expression relaxed and he shrugged, throwing the lighter back at me. I caught it and tried to look like I was minding my own business instead of listening into theirs. I took another sip of my coffee.

“So did you get the tickets?” she asked.

“Yes. As soon as you sign the papers, we can be away.” He answered.

Jessica took the last piece of sandwich from the plate. The bartender came and took the plate from in front of her and started to wash it behind the bar. “So who do you think is now on the case?” she asked.

Walter’s hand with the cigarette was on the bar but I couldn’t see his other hand. I was looking down at the bar while Jessica was getting ready to eat her last piece, with a thinking expression on her face. “I don’t know love” he answered. “Probably someone out of the force, like a private investi… oh fff…” he said suddenly, eyes wide.

For a second everything slowed down. He looked at me with wide eyes, recognizing me. His hand that was behind the bar moved to his belt, to his gun. I too started to reach to my gun, taking it out of it holster. We looked at each other’s eyes. Everything froze for second then started moving again.

He drew faster.

I pushed myself back with the stool, still trying to aim.

Jessica screamed.

He fired. The gun blast deafened our ears, its flash made everything seem brighter.

The bullet went through my hat and through the window behind me.

I fired.

The bullet went through his head. He suddenly started to fall, as I too hit the ground.

Everything suddenly turned back to normal speed. It was over in less than a minute. Walter lied on the ground, his brain slowly spilling on the floor. Apparently, Jessica too fell to the ground, she was still screaming at the top of her lungs. The bartender had hidden behind the bar. “Lady! Shut up!” I yelled at her.

“I’m a private investigator. Call the cops.” I ordered the bartender. “Jessica Campbell! You are under arrest for the murder of Peter Campbell and the theft of the Nighthawk statues” I said. I took out a pair of cuffs from my jacket pocket and cuffed her. She had stopped screaming but still sobbed uncontrollably. I hopped over the dead body of Walter White and took the briefcase from the floor, put it on the bar and opened it. Two black falcons looked back at me. I smiled, “Well, this was easy” I said, closing it. I sat on another stool and turned to the bartender and said “Another coffee please.”

Hunters Prequel

Wendell walked through the dark alley as a short cut. He was in a hurry to reach his flat as it was already late and he didn’t want another fight with his wife. So he hurriedly walked through and around the dumpsters in the alley instead of taking the walk around the block to reach his home like he did for the last five or six years.
He tried his best to not the touch anything or not the disturb anything that lived there. The light at the end of the alley got brighter as he reached the end but before he got out safely to his usual path, he heard a sudden whisper behind him. He didn’t made out the words but didn’t stop either. He started walking with a faster pace to reach the relative safety of the crowded street. All the while thinking “Please don’t let them stab me! Please God, don’t let them stab me!”
“Hey! Wendell! Stop!” came the shout behind him.
He froze for a second; trying to decide should he turn around or just run away. He wasn’t exactly the bravest of the bunch. He was a small fat man with lots of health conditions who worked at a job that had certain dangers to it and one of those dangers were to get his throat slit in a dark alley. In the end he decided that he couldn’t ran away much before that caught up so turned around, gathered al his courage and said “Yes?”
He was waiting for a couple of big guys who were there to rough him up but instead, a young blonde girl that looked like she was in her twenties stood behind him. She slowly walked towards him, putting her hands up to show him she didn’t mean harm. “Sorry for startling you, sir.” She said in a friendly tone. “But I’m looking for someone named Wendell ...”
“What do you want?” he cut her off. Seeing just a girl instead of bunch of hitmen helped his ego and courage immensely. “Yeah, I’m Wendell. Who the fuck’s looking for me?” he said trying to act tough as possible.
“We just want to ask you one simple question.” The girl answered kindly, without responding to his other question.
“Call my secretary and take a fucking appointment! Also these dark alleys are not a place for a young girl like you.” He said. He realized that he really enjoyed bossing around someone instead of how the things usually went. He then turned around to walk back to his house in a relieved state but he bumped in to something and almost fell on his ass.
“Are you a wizard, Wendell?” asked a deep voice while he regained his balance. The man he bumped when he turned around was bigger than he was. He was wearing a dark coat and a black hat. “Or a mage? Have you ever shown any talent or affinity to magic?” he continued asking without caring about Wendell’s scared state.
“Whaaa?” was all he could say. “How could he sneak behind me like that?” he though. He started to sweat. “Magic? Are you fucking crazy or something?” was all he could say.
“Master Rabec, let me handle…” she tried to intervene but with no avail.
“This magic!” Rabec said without listening to her and put out his hand. Suddenly a ball of fire appeared on his palm then it turned in to a little phoenix and flew away a little before vanishing to thin air.
Wendell’s mouth opened and closed a couple times then this time he really fell back on his ass. “I.. I.. What the fuck you want?” he managed.
“We just want to know, Wendell. You see, me and my lovely apprentice here are recruiting for the Order of Hunters. I’m sure you never heard of it before, it is a mostly underground movement but we are always looking for talent and yesterday we heard from our, let’s say talent scouts, that there was one Wendell Gibbs who supposed to have tremendous skill in magic. Is your name not Wendell Gibbs?” said Rabec standing over him.
“Wait! My name’s Wendell…”
“Yes! I just said that!” shouted Rabec. “This is taking too long.” He muttered to himself .
“Master! Just let me talk to him for a second.” Tried to reason the blonde girl.
“Fuck reason!” growled Rabec and pulled out his gun from his inner coat pocket and put it on Wendell’s forehead.
Wendell started whimpering but he couldn’t even find the strength in him to try to move away.
Blondie tried to move towards them but stopped when her eyes met her masters.
“I want you to concentrate really hard for me right now. Can you do that Wendell?” said Rabec when he turned his attention back to him.
Wendell nodded.
“Now if you have even the slightest magic in you, in a situation like this it will come out. Excitement and all kind of stuff like that triggers it. So really concentrate on that bullet. Put every ounce of will you have in you to stopping it.” He waited for a moment. “Ready?” he asked and pushed the gun even harder.
Wendell started to cry. He couldn’t helped himself. He though he was sure to die there on a dark alley because some lunatic thought magic was real. His thoughts started to wander to his wife. “That bitch will love this.” He thought. “Me dead in an alley and she gets everything.”
“Wendell, just believe and you can do it. It’s not hard, believe me! Just try!” pleaded the blond girl.
Her calm voice helped and he realized if he was about the die, he might as well try. So he tried to clear his mind of everything but the bullet that was coming for him. He put everything he has to that one single thought. “That bullet will stop before touching my skin!”
Then he felt it. He suddenly felt powerful. He felt that he could actually do it and smiled. “Do it!” he screamed to Rabec.
“Ok.” He answered calmly.
“Wait! No!” screamed the apprentice.
Rabec pulled the trigger.
Wendell was smiling as the bullet travelled through the barrel of the gun. His smile never faded as it reached his forehead and kept going until got out from the back of his head and stuck to the alley wall behind.
“Oh, come on!” apprentice shouted as Wendell’s lifeless corpse collapsed to the ground. “Cant you go for five fuckin minutes without killing people!”
“Well he should’ve stopped it!” said Rabec then turned to the left and said “What wallet? Oh right good thinking.”
“Who are you talking to?” asked the Blonde.
“No one!” said Rabec and crouched to search the corpse for a wallet. He found one in Wendell’s back pocket. Pulled it out and started going through it.
“And this time you killed an actual recruit! You know they’ll get me for this too right?” said his apprentice furiously. Her eye caught Wendell’s blood pooling on the ground and she turned her back feeling sick.
Rabec went through the wallet and all he could say was “Oh, fuck me.” And started laughing. “Jess look at this.” He said and tossed the wallet to his apprentice. She caught it in mid air and looked through it curiously.
“Wendell Gips? Gips? Seriously?” she started laughing too.
“Yes, not Gibbs!” said Rabec coming near her. “This wasn’t the guy. Idiots in the intelligence gave us the wrong place and look at him!” he said pointing at the body.
“That fat fuck was, well, too fat and old to be a recruit. We should’ve guessed it but nothing we can do now.” He said and they started walking towards the end of the alley. “Keep the wallet for a while so they’ll think it’s a robbery.”
“How can magic show us the wrong persons place then?” asked Jess.
“Maybe the scryer though of Gips instead of, you know, Gibbs.” He answered and once more turned to left and said “Of course you can make a mistake!” and continued walking.
“Who are you talking to?” pressed the apperentice.
“No one.” Rabec answered. “Anyways, we still have to recruit Wendell Gibbs”
They continued chatting and walking side by side but stopped at entrance to the alley when they heard a sound behind them. When they turned around they saw a young men getting out of a dumpster and running at the opposite direction as fast as he can.
“Oh shit! There.” Pointed Jess and started running behind him. “Wendell!”
Rabec just moved backward couple steps in to a shadow and disappeared.
Wendell was running for his life. “They want me dead!” was all went through his mind. That crazy blonde chick was after him. He turned his back to look behind and suddenly crashed in to something. While flying back to the ground he saw the man that was near the girl on the far side of the alley was standing over him.
“Hello, Wendell.” He said smiling. “We just wanted to know your thoughts about magic” he said and pulled out his gun.

Hunters

The mage stood in the middle of the road. His face was masked and his cape fluttered in the wind. The street was dark except the bright red moon in the sky. That bright red moon was the reason the mage stood in the middle of a dark street while forming a really big fireball in his hand. When I say big, I mean freaking huge. Seriously.
Anyways, the Mage’s targets were at that moment seated behind a car. They were arguing about something but they were too far away to hear. So I concentrated on them instead of the magical pyromaniac on the street. The vision on my scrying orb moved slowly to the car and the voices started to become clearer.
“No way!” yelled a female voice. “I was the bait last time and that ghoul almost bit my hand off!” While she showed her hand, the orbs focus was complete. She was a young girl. Her blonde hair was considerably shorter than the last time I’ve seen it. The ends of her hair were still smoking, just like some parts of her clothes. So she used a protection charm against the fire but still got burned a little.
“That’s my point!” the man next to him argued. “You got way more experience in being the bait than I do. So run now and I’ll shoot the bastard.” He shook the thin glowing wooden stick in his hand. His wand was loaded with power. Just like the girl his clothes have been singed here and there.
Right when the girl was answering, they heard the sound of the fire collecting in the Mage’s hand. I moved the orb vision a little higher and saw the mage in the street was doing his last arrangements on the fireball. He was holding it in both of his hands now and looked almost ready to throw it. From my experiences on the field, that ball would blow up the car and kill the two young hunters behind it.
They realized that too. “Did you heard the Fwoosh? Master always says to wait for a fwoosh before escaping from fire.” Said the girl while panicking. She was looking through the car windows.
The mage yelled a power word that I did not hear properly through the orb and let the ball of fire go.
“Run left, I go right. The one that’s still alive shoots the bastard.” Shouted the man while moving to the edge of the car. “Now!” he screamed when he saw the giant fireball coming at them and they started running to different sides.
The ball hit the car. It exploded. Then the car exploded and the force of the blast threw the hunters to the ground. They both turned their wands to the mage and screamed some random stuff like “Killicus!” and “Shooticus” to help them release the power in their wands. Two bright lights flew from the ends of the wands and hit the mage. The whole street lightened up for a moment with the explosions and the wand shots. Then everything went dark again.
Mage still stood his ground like nothing happened. “Two bolts should’ve gone right through him.” I muttered to myself. I was alone in my study, watching and recording the events as they unfolded in my scrying orb.
The hunters were lying in the ground, trying to gather themselves together. Both the blast and the wand shots dazed them. While they tried to shook off the effect, the dark mage looked up to the moon started laughing.
“While the moon is red, my powers have no end. No magic can hurt me!” he screamed while laughing. He sounded just like how all those other second class egoistical villains with high hopes sounded like. He was dressed all in black, had a cape and mask that covered half his face and gave his voice a Darth Vader effect. Red moon or not I realized that moment that this idiot was going down. No villain with even a little talent and wit, or self-respect, would have been that cliché.
He walked towards them while making his hands glow with red lights. He was conjuring two more fireballs for the hunters. As he approached the fires from explosion drained towards his hands and the two balls of fire formed.
The hunters saw him and got up. “Where the fuck is the master?” the yellow haired girl said. “It would be an insult to all hunters if this guy kills us. I mean look at him!”.
“Well our wands are empty. So we do this old school!” male hunter shouted and two icicles appeared in his hands. He threw them towards the dark mage. They evaporated in mid air without even touching the mage.
“Yes, throw ice to a fire mage. Your stupidity knows no bounds.” The girl said and took a little flask that was hanging from her belt. I recognized the bottle as I was the one gave it to her couple years ago. She opened the lid, whispered the words I thought to her and emptied the container on to the asphalt. Water splashed to the ground and just stayed there.
“So just a bottle of water is better than?” mocked the other hunter who’s name I cannot recall right now. Even I thought that she messed up the incantation for a moment but then the water on the ground started moving on its own. It formed a pool and a water elemental exploded out of it.
The orb vision was still focused on the hunters so I didn’t see it but I wish I could’ve seen the dark mages face as a towering water elemental charged at him. The elemental took a human like appearance and jumped towards the mage. He released the two fire balls and hit the elemental in mid air. Still it didn’t slow down, some parts of it just turned to vapor but before the mage could do anything else, it splashed on him. The human form turned into a globe of water, trapping and drowning the mage inside.
We watched as he swirled inside the globe of water but than a sudden red light appeared inside and a wave of fire evaporated the elemental completely. The fire moved as a wave towards the hunters and once again they flung themselves to the ground. The fire flew over them, melting and destroying the sides of the buildings and the cars it touched. It came right through me and I lost my focus. The image in the orb vanished.
Even though there was no possible way of hurting me still I was so amazed by the power that I have lost control for a second. I started to chant the words of the spell that would reactivate the orb. I put the images of the two hunters in my mind and focused. Silver smokes in the orb started to flutter and move, slowly revealing an image. Before the image or the sound became clear I heard a question from one of the hunters. “Seriously, where the fuck is the Master?”
Yes. Indeed, where the fuck was he? It was just like him to be late but generally he was heroic enough show up just in time to save people and take all the credit while his students stood in the back healing their wounds. I mean the guy did in fact have extreme power but zero sense of responsibility, sadly.
So I cleared the images of the students who were extremely close to dying and focused on their master. His image appeared in my mind, with his black hat and black trench coat and the big wizard staff that started its service as a broomstick handle and the small wand he fashioned out of a drum stick and his big smile as he took the credit.
The mists of the orb once again cleared and I saw him. He was wearing the stuff I just described except for the staff and the wand. He was standing on a roof and looking down to the street where a lot of fireworks were going off. The dark street was getting bright as a day for a second and then turned back to black and then lighted up again. The fire mage was on the two hunters and they were fighting back with everything they had. Still he just stood there watching the action with a little smirk on his face.
Still, it was my duty to record the events so I turned the orb vision down to street and zoomed in. At that instance, the fire mage pushed them with magic and the apprentice hunters flew back, hitting a building wall. They slid off to the ground and activated their protections charms at the last second as the fire closed on them. It seemed that the mage was bored of toying with them and wanted to finish the fight. In the end the moon was going to be red for so long before returning to normal and he still had people to kill and places to rob.
The apprentices had a blue hue on them. Their charms were the only thing keeping them alive but they were running out. They were screaming in pain while the flames circled them and the mage watched. “No magic can stand in my way! I will finish you and the order tonight. Before the moon comes down all of you will burn!” he screamed and started laughing again. Which was a definite overstatement considering the time he wasted on two student hunters. The Order didn’t even know about him until last evening when we found about the prophecy about the moon turning red and giving power to pyromancers across the world for a whole night.
The girl screamed a power word and a chunk of concrete tore itself from the asphalt and flew towards the pyromancer’s back. He heard it and turned around just in time to put up a shield, losing his concentration for the fire on the hunters for a second. The rock hit the shield and fell to the ground without harming him. He turned around furiously and extended his arms towards to the hunters in learning and fire came out of his hands towards to hunters once more. “You will die!” he yelled at them as the apprentices started screaming in pain once more and their charms’ lights dimming.
I couldn’t believe it. They were actually losing. I couldn’t handle their screams any longer so I adjusted the scryer towards their master once more. Just at that moment he jumped down from the roof. He disappeared in to the shadows. I quickly turned back to street level and saw him emerging from the shadows of the opposite building behind the pyromancer.
He slowly walked towards him and asked “So no magic can hurt you, eh? What about this?” He pulled out something out of his coat but the pyromancers body blocked my view.
I quickly moved the orbs view point as the mage turned towards him, delaying the apprentice cooking, and he was so shocked about what the elder hunter was holding that he only said “But, but… you can’t bring that to a wizard duel..”.
The elder hunter was holding a Desert Eagle .50 in his hand.
“Expeliarmus, Bitch!” he said and pulled the trigger.
The pyromancers head exploded towards the apprentices.
As the mage’s now nearly headless body collapsed to the ground, the apprentices and I just watched silently. Their master walked towards them and used his other hand to get two healing potions from one of his other coat pockets and tossed them to his apprentices. They quickly stood up and caught them in mid-air, opened the flasks and drank them.
Her yellow hair slowly grew back to its normal length and the burns on his face slowly disappeared. “Sorry about that.” He said calmly while holstering his weapon. “It took time to find the right weapon to give the dramatic effect. You know, not too big not too small. Anyways, you did fine so good job!”
They just looked at him without any expression and turned and started walking away without saying anything.
“Oh come on! It’s just a little burn!” he shouted behind them smiling.
Up in the sky, the moon was slowly losing its red color and turning back to normal. Than all of a sudden the hunter turned towards me, literally looked at me which was completely impossible.
“Oh but it’s not impossible and we have names you know!”
I was shocked. The scrying crystal orb was supposed to be a one way window to the Order’s watchers to record missions and it was a known fact among hunters but still…
He moved even closer to my screen, still looking at me, he said “Yeah, I don’t care about how shocked you are and shit. Just when writing the report, don’t forget to write my punchline! Expeliarmus, heh, I worked on that since I was looking for a gun.”
He then turned his back and walked towards a buildings shadow, “And my name is not the master, it’s Rabec” he said and disappeared into the shadow.