Battle Mage Chapter 19

The Aftermath from the raid on the museum.Ben begins to work his plans as the battle mages regroup.

Kill the human. In five words or less that has been Ben’s strategy to gain strength. You take a person who is surrounded by the energy of the collective world around them. It could be a hungry kid on the news or a baby who went viral. But those things were hard to track down. A celebrity however was always center in the massive organism that was the human race.

    Their deeds, their actions. All of it was constantly among the mind, sharing the energy of the populace. Step one was to find a celebrity, one who had gathered enough attention that they held in them a massive well of energy. Step two was to kill them. The more horrific, the stronger the darkening among the populace. That energy would then become tainted. Ben, the warlock in training had realized after his first mass killing that with each event he had manipulated, his sense of the arts were getting stronger. He remembered every well from which he drank and he found the voice of reason in his mind smile.

    They say that the war between the person and his id struggle for dominance the more one basks in the dark. Ben did not understand that aspect. He never felt a voice grow in the back of his head telling him to embrace his prime urges. That was likely because that was just who he always was.

    He stood there. Hiding in the old posh district, outside the museum. He had always been watching. The poor fools who call themselves “The Battle Mages” were a reckless lot. He could track them from across town. After murdering that girl and her husband in the mansion, he found his sense of tracking energy had grown exponentially. Even more comedic to him was that not a single one of them could feel him in return.

    Ben closed his eyes as he had become aquainted with each of them. Anna, the wannabe alpha queen of the group. He sensed something from her that made him repulsed by her presence. Whatever it was, she hid it from her friends. She was the kind of girl who Ben hated, authoritive and stubborn. To Ben everything was about power and he spent most of his life being without it.

    Laurence was the man-child of the group. If he wasn’t such a “bro” cliché, he was damn close. All he cared about was sexy women, booze, and being entertaining children as a fake fighter. Pro wrestling was a sick joke and a waste of the magic that was granted to him. What was worse was Laurence was actually happy with this stupid s**t. Jessica was the weak link of the group. A nerd who was content to mediocrity. If he was going to attack the group and make a statement, she would be too unimportant to make a statement out of.

    Then Ben thought of Jules and Lucy.

    The sun was starting to rise and Ben could see straggling cars drive by. The events of the night had washed out. Soon the police would come in to investigate, he would be gone by then. The door on the roof opened up and Ben began to walk down the stairs. The cameras were already off so he had nothing to worry. The electronic pulse was the lowest level of tricks that any beginner could do. The haze of the morning was coming from the glass door window. As he made his way to the center of the jewelry store, his warm threaded glove touched the cold glass plate of some rare something or a rather. The pressure returning to his hand allowed him to rest his body for one second too long as he got lost in thought.

    Jules, that dark haired, dark eyed, pathetic…

    What was it that made this unassuming person the center of the group? What he sensed more than anything, was the energy of the team. Jules was not the strongest of the team, and not the weakest. Everything about him was average at best. There Jules was, being carried off by the group like a martyr to be worshipped. He would live but whenever there was Jules, Ben sensed the entire energy of the group center around him as their anchor.

    The woman called Lucy, she had a dark taint upon her, that he wasn’t sure if anyone knew. He was certain however Jules knew what it was and he must have kept it to himself. Silly little Jules with his secrets. Ben would crash their little kingdom down with the empire he was building. To defeat the group he would start with the dark haired, dark eyed boy. To do that, he would need to know his weakness; his love of his friends, and of course the girl he was training.

    “Put your lovin’ hand out baby…” He began to sing. “I’m beggin‘.”

    Ben finished walking out of the lobby to the main street. It was still mostly empty with the population of one passed out hobo at the other side of the corner. In Ben’s mind the intro had passed and the chorus for the Four Seasons’ song stuck in his head began to play.

    He was riding high. He had went out of his way to seduce some real estate developers. A fancy throne was now awaiting him. He felt like a king. This quiet street was the last status quo afforded to the battle mages that would stand against them. That was if they even knew who he was, they were so f*****g far behind.

    He felt like dancing in the street, though that would be a bit too dramatic, even for him. He was going to play the next act fast and hard until he had everything. His hand touched a light post. He took off his glove so he could feel the cold of the steel. A random thought popped into his head, “What if Jules could beat him?”

    Ben realized he never truly engaged another magic user before. The shadowing and spying had all been childish games. He hid at the bowling alley beside them, and he stalked the park where Jules and Carlos were playing dress up detectives at his crime scene. His heartbeat was pumping harder. This was not a fear as he refused to acknowledge Jules was his equal. There was an anticipation growing in him.

    A car driving by made eye contact with him. It then passed on its way as there was a massive excited grin that would not go away. In the center of the empty street he was picturing fire and ice going against steel and sword. It was a legendary battle that he never really pictured himself being a part of. In such a small area the fate of the entire city could be determined. The hand was gripping harder on the steel. He could feel it wanting to bend to his weight. Good. All those poor pathetic lesser-than’s would never have understood what he could do until it was too late. That was the fate of those who got in his way.

    They would lose. All of them would lose, as he would pick off the group one by one. First he would break Jules’s spirit. Then he would use that momentum to run him through until those dark eyes turned dead. The boy would die knowing he was facing a true alpha predator. Then he would kill Carlos and Anna. Without Jules as a crutch Carlos would die instantly. Anna would be too stupid to fight back after that. Or should he kill Laurence and Jessica second?

    He didn’t have to choose now. His power was growing as was his influence growing over the town. Once he sat on his throne and begun to assemble his court he could even rival the vampire king in power. The city was his to control.

    Two streets down a man crying in self loathing lay down his guard. His aura for all of one second went black and loud. Ben felt it calling to him. He knew who this aura belonged to. It gave him a new idea. This would be the slow careful scalpel slice into the group. His weapon had a name, Luke.


    The sun had rose on a town soon to be engulfed in a new wave of chaos. The Battle Mages knew this. Lucy had been turned away at the hospital as the doctors were deeply concerned that their patient was unconscious and had new bruising upon him. Jessica lured her away with talk of alcohol and a nice place to sit down.

    Anna had put her hand on Carlos’s shoulder unsure if they were even close enough for her to be allowed this much contact with him. She never could read how he would react to her. For Carlos the guilt of almost losing a friend on his watch seemed to burn through any walls he may have built.

    “Is anyone else really worried about what else is out there right now?” Laurence asked. He cut through the silence like a katana. Jessica gave him a look of anger. He was right and she didn’t want to acknowledge it. If they had been so off the mark about the painting, what did they not know about the warlock hiding in the shadows? With Jules out of commision, she curled up thinking about how vulnerable they were.

    And what was the first thing that sent Jules to the hospital?

    The city felt like a dark ocean and they were merely middle sized fish unaware what bigger things were out there. She figured, “f**k it”, and she hit Laurence across the cheek. Laurence looked hurt. She knew what he was saying, “He is my friend too.”

    This would be around the time where they would begin to bicker among them. Lucy was the crying kid in the corner who was being extremely sensitive to their energy and between the lot of them, neither of them felt this was worth giving into anger.

    “I figure I will say some words before we head our separate ways,” Anna had stood up in the center of the room. “He would not want us to stay here all night. Jules was, and is, the nicest person any one of us have ever met.”

    “He saved my life.” Lucy felt she had to say it.

    “Me and Carlos were staring down a Golem. Laurence had been detained by some punk who had tried to sell the lives of his friend. This kid, he picked up a random book and thought that made him a master-class summoner. Jessica, I mean, we were what, third year high school? Jessica had a stomach bug…

    “This s***s,” Jessica interrupted, “That is what they were, and that is what they are called.”

    “Carlos was hit hard, and in that moment, well I mean, this was when we were…” she made a shy smile. “He went down and in one moment, my mind went blank and I threw myself over his body to protect him from the killing blow. It was stupid. I almost got us both killed instead of acting like I should have. Jules, without blinking had pierced the Golem’s core by jumping in front of the two of us.”

    Her ex sat there, almost stunned at recalling the memory. He nodded though in surprise. They had all been hurt before. He knew that Jules would be back. Probably after another day or two of rest.

    “My point is, he wouldn’t want us to be worried right now.”

    “But what about Luke?” Laurence asked.

    “We will adress his actions next we see him.” Carlos let out a slight snarl.

    “The man didn’t just leave Lucy in there to die, he ran away. Like completely ran. He didn’t try to grab us to get help he turned tail. I don‘t care how scared you are. That takes a certain kind of man to…” Laurence was going on a rant.

    Lucy was tuning him out. She felt a shadow creep over her. She felt Luke whisper in her ear for her. It was repulsive. It stank of a bitter desire. It was different from the energy she was used to receiving from him. The tone was less lustful and more consumed. She didn’t know what this feeling was, but maybe, somewhere out there, he was thinking of her and she could sense that.

    “Once you cross that line though, you cannot un-cross it. The id takes over.” Anna had said calmly.

    Carlos wanted to talk back, “How do you know he is under the influence of the id now?”

    Jessica raised her hand, “He could just still be the same a*****e he has always been. There is no fixing that. You can teach an a*****e magic and he will evolve into a magic wielding piece of s**t.”

    “I take offense…” Carlos began.

    Anna put her hand on his shoulder one more time. “I know why you picked him. But I think even you knew, he wasn’t right. Luke always struck me as overly competitive and selfish. He never should have been allowed our secrets.”

    She meant it nice. She couldn’t put any bigger a bow on that sentence. It crushed a part of Carlos’s spirit.

    Anna once again tried to stand tall for her friends. “We have a warlock out there. We don’t know who he or she is. We don’t know what they are after. If they are anything like the past warlocks we have come across, they will continue to move and cause havoc until they are killed. What is worse, he knows who we are. I am going to use my contacts on the paper to see if I can find any new current events that may raise some red flags. This guy kills celebrities. I can garentee he is going to leave some trail.”

    Carlos scratched the back of his head. “That leaves me with city hall. I will be pulling some massive strings to keep the incident at the museum a secret. Also we might be able to learn the movements of big players in the city.”

    
    Inside the hospital room, Jules, once again attached to the bed, thought to himself, “I am going to have to see Sammyel, The vampire king. Surely if there are a group of magic users in town, his court would surely have more information. Also I might be able to find more info in the investigation as Detective Lamont.

    As he lay there, in pain, wanting to close his eyes, he felt the presence of three groups of people that wished him ill. The warlock knew who he was. The Order of Anubis was waiting in the shadows. The third, was an energy based off of jealousy and anger. Before he passed out, he vowed he would protect Lucy from him with his life.

Author's Note

Unedited. This is a return after an absence on my end so I apologize if pacing and style is lacking.