Chapter 3

  The force of the impact and the rollover tossed Nick’s body around like a ragdoll. He felt like he was stuck on a roller coaster, his body twisting and turning, slamming into the taut seat belt, which felt like a heavy line of bricks smashing into his sternum, knocking the air out of him.

  Now that the car had stopped rolling, Nick finally got the strained seatbelt to unlatch with a click, and he fell backwards onto his shoulders and back. The ringing in his ears was too loud to hear much, but he saw that Will had already freed himself and was crawling out of the overturned vehicle. Unable to kick the door open, Nick was about to go for the window when he saw the tiny window-shatter device velcroed to the dashboard right next to the door window and grabbed that instead, pressing the point against the window and pushing the button, causing the window to shatter completely, creating a space for him to crawl out.

  Thank God Will’s so damn thorough, Nick thought as he pulled himself out of the vehicle and staggered to his feet. Almost immediately, the sound of gunfire began to ring out from the other side of the vehicle, and he quickly squatted back down, using the now-burning vehicle as cover.

  “What the freaking hell?” he cursed under his breath as he looked at Topaz, who was calmly hanging upside down in the car and drinking some random concoction. When Topaz saw him, she started to signal at the belt with her hands, pulling at it to show that it was still stuck. Using the emergency car tool still on him, he shattered the glass of the rear passenger door, crawled inside and began to pull at the seatbelt, the blade part of the tool roughly but slowly cutting through the stuck seat belt.

  “Drink this quick!” She shoved a potion at him as he worked on the seat belt. He quickly downed the potion without thinking and went back to cutting the belt.

  Just as he managed to get Topaz free, he heard Will’s voice yelling over the sporadic bursts of gunfire, “Boss!! Boss, you better get your squeeze out of there! I can’t hold them off much longer, and the mage is about to—!”

  Fire suddenly engulfed the entire car, singeing and burning Nick’s clothes as he pulled Topaz from the vehicle. The two of them were thrown back as the car then exploded in a giant ball of flames under the heavy torrent of fire the mage was calling down upon it.

  The explosion hadn’t killed Nick, but it had incinerated much of his clothing and left him covered in burns. Topaz had fared just as badly. She and Nick crawled across the hard, coarse asphalt toward the fields.

  “Plug your nose,” Topaz told Nick as she turned over and sat up on the road, summoning her weapon from her inventory: a hulking grenade launcher loaded with what looked like custom gas canisters. She fired one of the canisters over the burning vehicle the moment the device had finished materializing, only to stash it back in her inventory a moment later.

  “What the hell did you just shoot?” Nick asked as Topaz then stood up, somehow unfazed by the danger of getting shot at, grabbed Nick’s hand, and started pulling him toward the cornfield.

  “A chemical debuff. It’ll disorient them for a bit, sap their strength, and give us maybe a minute or two before they recover enough to come after us. We gotta take advantage of that time,” Topaz told him as the two started fleeing.

  “Will! Run!” Nick shouted as he followed after Topaz. The three ran full tilt across the two-lane road and over a wood fence into a field of tall cornstalks, Nick and Topaz screaming at Will to run faster. Their pursuers followed close behind, shouting in Russian and firing into the air, their bullets tearing through the corn and husks as they sent vegetable debris flying with every shot.

  The field was dense, and the rows of corn seemed to never end as the three weaved through the towering stalks. Nick felt like a rat in a maze desperately searching for an escape route. Nick heard more shouting in Russian behind them, and he glanced back to see two of the men from the SUV sprinting after them with their rifles at ready. He could feel sweat dripping down his face, but he kept running, pushing himself faster than ever before. He felt as if he had been running forever when finally they reached the end of the rows of corn.

  “Where do we go now?” Will asked, bleeding from a wound on his scalp, wheezing, and looking around desperately for an escape route while Topaz frantically watched for any signs of pursuit. Suddenly, Will pointed somewhere to their right, saying, “Over there!” indicating a small gap at the edge of the field leading to a farmhouse barely visible between rows of corn.

  "Topaz, you take Will to the farm and see if you can call for help." Nick reached out a hand and reassuringly patted Topaz’s shoulder. "Try to reach Gold's Guild."

  "What about you? Why can't you call them?" Topaz’s flustered face showed her concern.

  Nick glanced back in the direction where bursts of gunfire still sounded behind them. "They need to be stopped. If we don't do anything, they're going to find us. In this cornfield, I have a chance."

  Topaz gave him a worried look, but then her expression hardened as if she’d come to some decision. She turned to Will and said, “Will, you go to the farm like he said. Call for help.” She turned to Nick, re-equipping the multi-shot grenade launcher from her inventory. “Me and Betsy here will help you, Nick. You may be strong, but these guys aren’t pushovers or low-level monsters. You’re gonna need all the help you can get if we’re going to kill them before they find us.”

  Nick wanted to argue, but these guys had gotten the jump on them, and he had no way to know exactly what that mage’s level was. He would be a fool to turn down help just because he wanted to keep her safe. He nodded, and Topaz smiled at him.

  Will only nodded and moved as quickly as he could towards the farmhouse in the distance.

  Nick watched Will only long enough to be sure he’d be safe. Then he pulled out the two items he had in his inventory: his spear, Weight of Dedication, and the Crown of the Mountaintop. They were his two best items, and unlike the Signet of the Verdant Guardian or Sandals of Hermes, they were too conspicuous to wear all the time. As the spear appeared in his hands, the familiar weight and heft felt comforting. He only wished that he had enough inventory slots to carry a full kit of armor.

  With a shrug, he put the crown on his head, feeling the twelve-point increase to his constitution and five-point increase to magic. He knew the crown would make him more vulnerable to fire, but the boosts to his health and magic were more than worth the tradeoff.

  Nick and Topaz turned back towards the sounds of gunfire and began stalking through the cornfield. They circled around the spot where the last burst of gunfire had come from, closing in on the position until Nick heard voices.

  “I told you to kill them while we had the chance, Oleg! But no, you insist on always playing with the targets, burning them slowly. What will Yulian say if we lose them?” Nick heard them talking in Russian.

  “What can he say? This is strictly off the books. His father would never let him hear the end of this if he knew.”

  “But if they escape, we won’t be paid either.”

  “Yes, yes. I know. So let's keep moving. They can’t hide in this blasted farm forever. Vlad, you go left. Viggo, you go right. We are bound to find them. Shoot into the air if you see them.”

  “What will you do, Oleg?”

  “I will wait here in case they try to backtrack.”

  The two other men grumbled, but Nick could hear them crashing through the cornfield like drunken bulls. Nick wanted to strike the mage, Oleg, immediately, but feared that the fight would draw the attention of the other men. Instead, he signed for him and Topaz to follow the one called Vlad, and the two of them faded back and followed behind the man as he searched through the left side of the field.

  Once he was far enough away from the mage, Nick whispered into Topaz’s ear, “What are you packing for this fight?”

  She turned, and her face was only inches away from his as she answered, “Two sticky grenades, two acid bombs, and one more smoke bomb.”

  Nick thought about the possibilities with the resources available to them. He activated his Emerald Earring of the Moon Drake, which would, for a few minutes, temporarily cure the stat-suppressing effects of the poison that plagued him. “Okay. Then hit him with the acid bomb and try to destroy his gun. I’ll follow up.”

  Topaz nodded and crawled through to the same row that Vlad was searching through. He was still searching blindly through the cornstalks, completely unaware of her presence. In one swift motion, Topaz took one knee, put the butt of the grenade launcher to her shoulder, rotated the barrel, aimed at Vlad, and fired. The cartridge shot out with a soft thump and released a blob of acid.

  Vlad's eyes widened in shock as he instinctively dove for cover when the acid bomb exploded near him. The corrosive liquid had splashed on his equipment and began burning through his gear, melting and destroying his prized rifle with incredible speed. He cursed in anger and frustration before grabbing his pistol at his waist.

  Before Vlad could do more than grab the pistol grip, Nick was behind him, thrusting his spear with every ounce of strength he could muster. The point punched through the man’s tracksuit and through his sternum like it was a chest burster alien. Vlad looked down at the speartip protruding through him dumbly, and then he collapsed, the weight of the body pulling Nick forward as he freed his spear from the man.

  Topaz stared at the body, horrified. But Nick was only reminded of the many times he’d had to kill people in his last life just to stop terrible individuals from harming him or those he cared about. He wasn’t always proud of what he’d had to do to survive, but the experience had hardened him to this kind of stuff.

  He stepped over to Topaz, interposing himself between her and the dead body. “Hey,” he said, snapping his fingers in front of her eyes to get her attention. She blinked hard, shaking her head as she stared blankly at him. He continued, “If this is too much for you, just go. This has to be done, but you don’t have to be part of it.”

  She shook her head, and though the color of her complexion was still slightly greenish, she said, “No. I’m not going to let you do this alone. I couldn’t forgive myself if you got killed trying to protect me. I’m with you.” She peeked around Nick at the body before she turned away. “It was just my first time killing something that wasn’t a monster. It’s different when it's a person, you know?”

  He did know, but they didn’t have time for a counseling session. “Let's go then.”

  She got to her feet and followed Nick as he swept around toward the other gunmen. They found him, mostly because of his annoyed cursing as he stomped through the cornfield. But before Topaz could even set herself up to fire, the man suddenly turned towards them. A grin appeared on his face as he raised his rifle, and Nick didn’t have more than a moment to throw the spear in his hand. The spear pierced through the shoulder of the man the same moment he pulled the trigger of his weapon, sending up a spray of dirt, inches from Topaz as the bullets tore through the field.

  Topaz dove to her right and fired blindly as she rolled to her feet. There was a heavy thump as her weapon fired a round. Her aim was slightly off but the soft explosion of the cartridge released a green sticky blob that expanded as it flew through the air until it was four feet wide. It only partially hit the gunman, but it covered his legs, making it difficult for him to keep his balance as he tried to turn to fire again.

  Nick raced to close the distance between himself and the Russian. He knew that they had to end the fight quickly as the effects from his earring were running out, and the mage had no doubt heard the gunfire. He reached the man in seconds, grabbed the haft of the spear that still protruded from the Russian’s shoulder, and yanked it as he turned. The forces twisted the gunman like he was a top, making him scream in agony as the spear was ripped from his shoulder. His screams were silenced as Weight of Dedication skewered his throat and ended his pain.

  With only one enemy left, Nick tried to play it extra cautiously as the two of them crept as silently as they could away from the second dead gunman. Nick’s eyes searched the dense field of cornstalks as he tried to find the mage.

  “No, you don’t!” Topaz shouted as she unloaded her canister at something behind them. Nick turned around to see the large acid canister dissolve before it could even do anything as a quick reflex casting from the mage incinerated it on the spot a second after it left Topaz’s gun.

  “Die!” the man yelled before he pointed his finger in a gun gesture at Nick. A skull-shaped fireball formed at the fingertip before shooting out like a crackling rocket.

  Nick recognized the tracking-type fireball and knew that running or trying to dodge wouldn’t help. Instead he gathered the magical energy from inside himself, threw out his hands, palms facing outward, and imagined what he wanted his mana to do. In his mind's eye, he saw individual air particles around him slowing down until they were frozen in time, their chilled form condensing around the flaming object, robbing it of its heat energy. Just as he pictured it, the infernal skull hit the gust, freezing in mid-air, its flames extinguished. Its screeching cries echoed around them as it was reduced to nothing with a single, final scream.

  “So you’re a mage too!” Oleg spat out in Russian as his hands started to weave in a casting motion, the air around him shimmering with heat.

  Nick grinned smugly and mustered all of his energy to summon one last burst of cold, right at the mage. The air crackled with ice magic as Nick released his spell and shouted in English, "No, I'm just a personal trainer."

  Oleg reacted fast, finishing his spell and sending out a gout of fire that struck Nick’s spell halfway between them. The opposing magics collided with explosive force, sending Nick staggering back and falling on his rear as superheated steam hit him and burned his raised hands.

  He saw the fire mage already casting another spell, but Oleg never finished it as Topaz had circled to the mage’s right side while Nick had been countering Oleg’s spells, and seizing on the moment, fired her remaining sticky grenade right at him. The grenade exploded right in front of the mage, the glob of green goo covering his head and upper body, pinning his arms to his chest and knocking him three feet back onto the ground.

  The fire mage struggled to no avail to free himself, his Russian curses muffled by the translucent, sticky green goo that covered his face. He started trying to burn the goo off him, but it only absorbed the heat, slightly bubbling then hissing as it released the energy.

  Oleg's frantic kicking started to slow as he was deprived of air while Nick, not wanting to lose the advantage, got to his feet, rushed forward, and shoved his spear into the man’s head, cracking it open like a watermelon.

  “We could have questioned him!” Topaz blurted out as she looked up at Nick with a look of confusion and shock.

  “He could have killed us while we were trying to,” Nick said, walking over to the body and cutting away the goo with his spear to search it. A single glance at Topaz told him that she likely thought he was acting like a grave robber, but he didn't care. He needed information about what had prompted this attack.

  Chapter 4

  While Nick was cutting away the goo to get to the man’s corpse, Topaz tossed Nick a familiar red potion.

  “Thanks,” Nick said, taking a momentary break to drink the vial of what he hoped was a healing and stamina potion.

  “So, you gonna tell me when you learned Russian?” Topaz asked as the potion soothed and healed his scalded hands.

  “At the library, just in case Grandfather mail-ordered me a foreign bride. You know, I thought I might want to be able to talk to her,” Nick replied, trying to pass the reply off as a joke since he didn't know how to explain—without coming off as completely crazy—that he learned it in the future through countless interactions with a Russian crime syndicate from whom he was trying to buy less-than-legal parts for Allen’s inventions. He had already been lucky enough that, thanks to circumstances and events, Seo-ah and Allen had believed him. Getting Topaz to believe him too would be too much.

  Topaz stared dumbfounded at Nick for a second. “Seriously? You’re joking, right? There is no way you’d learn Russian on the off chance that your grandfather . . . Oh my god, did he order you a Russian wife after the thing with Catherine?!”

  “What? Of course not. My grandfather is a good, honest, patriotic American—so he got me one made in China,” Nick replied.

  “I can’t . . . I honestly can’t even tell if you’re joking,” Topaz looked exasperated as she shook her head, thankfully having forgotten the initial line of inquiry.

  “Umm . . . I don’t actually know if I am. She might have been born here, but she did say she was from some fancy Chinese-sounding clan with branch families and everything,” Nick replied, thinking for a second about who Jennifer Zhou was. He hadn’t spared her much thought since meeting her briefly in his grandfather’s office.

  “You know what? Nope. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I’m not going to ask anything more about the bizarre, antiquated lifestyles of the rich and ridiculous. Just tell me if the people who tried to kill us said anything important. Like, why were they here maybe?” Topaz said, stepping away from the new-fiancée talk entirely.

  “Well, I’m assuming they were here to kill us,” Nick said as he finished his potion and went back to cutting the goo off of the Russian man’s body.

  “Did they . . . Did they mention my name?”

  “What? Why would they mention you? Would you relax for a moment? We’re going to find out what we need in a minute, I’m sure,” Nick assured Topaz as he paused to look up at her. She had been joking just a moment ago, but now she looked like she might burst into tears.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she blurted out. “I’m so, so sorry. It’s all my fault. You were hurt . . . You were almost killed, and it’s all my fault. I’m so sorry!”

  “Hmm. Well, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Nick replied, but he had no idea what she was talking about and was more focused on what he’d just found. He finished freeing the mage’s phone from a pocket and used the man’s finger to unlock it, only to see his own name and face in an open file. Scrolling down, Nick found several photos of himself. The file even had a list of places Nick was likely to frequent, friends Nick was likely to spend time with, and a very old and expired list of his abilities—the list from when he had still been a Noble Knight.