Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 58 of 86

Zach struck first. He drove the blade into Malachar's chest with all his weight. White light flared where steel met dark fire. The sorcerer did not fall. He did not even step back. The light broke apart on his skin like water on stone. Zach cut again, faster now, small pulses the way Geneva taught him. Each strike hissed and died. Malachar watched, patient, then swung the skull staff. Violet flame slammed Zach across the chamber. He hit the wall and slid down, ears ringing. "Your little sparks," Malachar said. "Rowan's blade wounded a soul. I am flesh and soul both now." He raised the staff. Dark fire gathered at its tip. Zach could not rise fast enough. He knew the strike would land. Raven moved first. She darted between them and fired her crossbow, drawing Malachar's eye. "Get up!" she shouted. Talon flanked wide, katanas flashing, cutting at the sorcerer's legs. Lyra pushed cold through the air. Ayla knelt beside Zach and pressed her staff to his ribs. Warmth flooded him. The pain drained away. "Alone won't do it," Ayla said. Her blue eyes held his. "You know that. You always did." Zach understood. He had been fighting like one man against a god. He rose. "Circle," he called. "On me." They came. Raven gripped his left arm. Talon leapt back from the sorcerer and took his shoulder. Lyra pressed close, her hand on his wrist. Garrok planted himself behind and set both hands on the blade's pommel over Zach's own. Ayla laid her staff against the steel. The sword drank them in. Cold from Lyra. Speed from Talon. Raven's fury. Garrok's strength. Ayla's mending light. The blade turned white, then whiter, until Zach could not look at it. Malachar's grin faltered. "No." Zach drove forward. The six of them moved as one body behind the strike. The blade found Malachar's chest and did not stop. Light poured through the wound and out his back. It filled his eyes and mouth. The dark fire around him screamed and pulled inward. Malachar dropped the skull staff. It cracked on the black stone. He fell to his knees, then to his side. The horns crumbled. The gold crown split. His body caved into ash, and the ash blew apart. Silence. The tower stopped shaking. Zach lowered the blade. His arms shook, but he stood. "We did it," Raven breathed. "He's gone." Then the ash on the floor moved. It slid together, faster and faster, piling higher than any of them. A shape rose from it. Not the sorcerer they had killed. Something taller. Scales black as pitch. Green fire in the seams of its armor. A long tail lashed the stone. A reptile skull turned toward them, jaws parting. "Fools," it said, in a voice made of many. "Now you see my true form." Zach's grip tightened. The fight was not over. It had only begun again.