Mage Catalyst (37 page)

My efforts had at least slowed our movement and I could feel the motion of the car get jerkier and more frantic. At least our sideways motion had stopped though. Due to the effort of our contest the car now appeared to be floating several metres above the road. I could feel the tension in the car frame between us as I began a deadly game of tug of war with Vin.
“Devon! What are you doing? Get back in your seat!” Tina screamed frantically, her hands gripping the steering wheel.
I could feel the motion of the car as it slowed and it appeared that I was winning. I was actually pulling the mana thread from around the car. Vin obviously felt so too because in swift motion he released the car and let it plummet back to the ground with an audible crash.
The impact knocked the wind out of me. We were only several metres above the ground, but the shock of the car hitting the surface drove the air straight out of my lungs. I breathed a sigh of relief, which turned out to be premature as Vin wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot.
The sound of a car horn blaring out was the only warning we had before an oncoming car was telekinetically hurled into the front driver’s side of our car. I called out and attempted to throw a shield around the car. Forming a field that large was difficult and I had the shock impact of feeling the field unravel before everything went black.
There was a long monotonous buzzing sound that brought me round.
My head was resting against Tony’s leg and I could feel blood dribbling down the side of my face. There was a smash mark in the window behind Tony. I wasn’t sure if it had been caused by my head or Tony’s. I checked my head and my hand came away red with my blood. It didn’t feel too bad. I only found a small cut on my forehead. It was a small cut but it was certainly determined to bleed. Other than that I was a little shaken but appeared to be okay.
Tony was unconscious in his seat, but didn’t appear to be too badly injured. The seat belt had obviously kept him in his seat. He was the furthest from the impact point. A groggy inspection informed me that the front of the car was a complete mess. I don’t know how hard the other car had hit us, but it must have been hard.
I could see Sarah and Tina, but they weren’t moving. I couldn’t tell how injured they were. I must have nudged Tony as I was moving around as he groaned and opened his eyes.
“What happened?”
“He threw a damned car at us,” I cursed.
“Is Sarah okay?”
“I don’t know,” I replied grimly. “I hope so.”
I pulled on the door lever to Tony’s door as the one on my side was a complete mess. The fact that I hadn’t been in my seat at the moment of impact had probably saved my life. I hurriedly pulled on the door handle to Tony’s door, but I wasn’t overly surprised that this door had jammed too. The whole carcass of the car was a rumpled mess.
I’d heard somewhere that cars are designed to crumple in on themselves to absorb the impact and protect the occupants. Looking at this mess from the inside, I believed it. I took my jacket off and threw it over Tony’s left side to cover him from what I was about to do. The window on his side hadn’t shattered and I didn’t want to shower him with glass.
“Brace yourself,” I ordered Tony as I sent a mana thread smacking against the door frame. The impact of the thread sent the door screaming with a metallic complaint across the road.
The car wreck was sitting on the sidewalk near the shopping centre entrance. The two cars formed a v shaped wreck with the car that had hit us wedged into the driver’s side. I could make out the driver of the other car through a smashed windscreen but he was slumped over the wheel and was unnaturally still.
Several people were approaching the car cautiously. They were looking at me with a strange mixture of fear and concern. They had just seen a car door fly from its hinges and me emerge from the wreckage. The noise must have brought Sarah around as I could hear her groan from the passenger’s front seat. Tina, however, hadn’t moved since the accident. I could see her body, but there were so many rumpled up pieces of wreckage around her that I couldn’t get to her.
“Look after her, I’m sure an ambulance will be on its way,” I ordered as I turned back to Tony.
“Where are you going?” Tony called.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer, I don’t suppose I even knew myself, all I knew was that I had one overwhelming desire.
I’d make Vin pay for this.
I’m not sure I heard people calling out into the car. I vaguely recall someone asking me if anyone was hurt. I know for certain that several other cars had pulled over and I even vaguely recall hearing the sound of an approaching ambulance. But I can’t clearly recall any of the details of the accident. It was all red mist.
I set off an awareness blast which rocketed out from the car and covered the surrounding area. This informed me that Vin had obviously fled into the shopping centre. I burst from the accident site at a fast run using mana threads to enhance my speed. I leapt up the stairs taking several steps at a time and made my way into the centre. I heard from behind me the gasp from people behind me as they witnessed my ascent.
My legs were grudgingly complying at the rough treatment although there was indication that there would be a price to pay later. My head had begun to clear as I ran up the stairs into the shopping centre and the annoying ringing in my ears had begun to subside.
I wasn’t surprised to find that the doors to the centre already had been smashed open. There was a lot of glass on the ground and the metal frame bent almost to a 90 degree angle. The centre had been closed for hours now, although the supermarket was still open at the other end of the centre. This end of the shopping centre was closed and was locked down – entry was prohibited. However, it’s difficult to keep our kind out of somewhere we want to go.
The deserted shopping centre was a good sign. It meant that there’d be no-one to get in my way. The stores had an empty quality that was almost haunting. The main lighting remained on in the centre but the interior lights in all the shops were switched off. This gave the impression of shrouds of darkness where there used to be light.

Small sounds echo loudly throughout the centre, which you don’t notice during the day because of all the background noise. Without these sounds my footsteps were discordant and distracting. I wasn’t concerned about Vin knowing I was coming. I’d already announced my intentions with my awareness spell. I hadn’t used that much power with the blast and as a result the effect was fading quickly. It was still sufficient for me to find him.

I knew where he was and therefore he obviously knew where I was too. I could still see Vin clearly from the awareness blast I’d used earlier. He appeared to be a floor up from me in the main corridor of shops.
I vaulted onto the side-rail of the escalator, which had been blocked off by a portable barrier, and ran up it. I picked up speed as I ran and latched a mana thread to the top of the roof above me, which allowed me to pull myself into a rough form of leaping flight.
I barrelled from the escalator pit at great speed and leapt high into the main corridor. I could see Vin standing at the other side of the corridor. I didn’t even give him a chance to say anything. I raised a shield around myself and launched a mana thread straight at him from the high angle of my attack. This gave me the perfect angle from which to strike and I bore down on him like an avenging angel striking from the heavens.
Vin countered my thread without too much difficulty which caused me to smash a potted plant display to the left of him into shards. I landed without much magical assistance, relying on my shield to absorb the majority of the impact.

The breath was forced from my body and I felt my legs jerk as I rolled into a tight ball. I curled myself into a somersault forward and launched myself at him again. I’d expected him to block my first strike. My whole plan was him not being prepared for the second. I immediately came back to my feet and launched a second thread, bringing my arms around in a wide round arc. An arc he wouldn’t be able to avoid.
Vin’s face turned from smug condescension into panic as he raised a shield – it had worked! He obviously hadn’t expected me to be able to return the attack so quickly. I watched with a small degree of satisfaction as my mana thread impacted solidly against his shield. This caused him to wince and take several staggered steps back. My victory was short lived however as he immediately countered with a savage strike that I narrowly managed to parry by throwing myself to one side. With a jarring impact our two threads struck each other. I quickly countered again, by sliding my thread around and aiming for his face. However this time he was prepared and easily defended my attack. I noted with some degree of smug triumph that he had retained his shield.
His response was aggressive and fast. His mana thread pounded against mine again and again and I was amazed that my thread was holding against it let alone that I was even still able to block. I’d obviously improved since our last encounter and I had no idea how, or why.
However, as good as I was it still wasn’t good enough.
I was now as fast as him and able to counter his strikes but I couldn’t match him for raw power and what little ground I had gained I was quickly losing. He had already forced to me to retreat back past the escalator pit and to the shops behind me. Although both of us had scored several successful strikes, due to the strength of our shields and the fact that we’d only scored passing shots the shopping centre was actually taking the worst of our fight. Invariably our missed or deflected strikes would hit both shop window frontages or centre decorations. We were quickly leaving a path of broken glass on the floor behind us and a swathe of destruction through the centre.

The strain of the battle was finally starting to get to me. I’d never used a concentrated thread of mana for this length of time before. The reality of the situation was that although the battle had only lasted a few minutes it felt like several hours had passed. My arms ached from the effort of controlling and directing my attack and my breath was coming out in gasps.
I was physically panting when I made my first mistake.
It was a small mistake, the angle of my thread was wrong and Vin easily slipped his attack underneath it and connected solidly with my side. The shield took the majority of the impact but the dull thump still swept me from my feet and slid me across the ground. Fortunately Vin was obviously too tired to finish the attack and his delay allowed me time to regain my footing. The delay had cost him, but the battle was still far from over.
I pulled myself wearily back to my feet and launched a half-hearted overhead attack at his head. His counter was with his usual speed, causing my thread to obliterate the railings covering the walkway over the gap between this level and the one below.
“I’ve just about finished toying with you, kid!” he snarled.
He appeared confident and proud but I could tell that he was struggling to catch his breath and that this was at best an attempt at intimidation.  I didn’t respond, but instead I pressed forward my attack. The reality of the situation was that I was still losing. Like in our encounter in the train carriage I was being forced to concede ground. There were only three shop lengths before I ran out of mall and unless I did something clever I would lose.
He was just too good at being able to spot and predict my attack angle. His threads now didn’t appear to be any stronger than mine and he didn’t appear to be hitting any harder than me, our fatigue had made us equals in that department. It was just that he appeared to be able to predict and anticipate where I’d attack from with almost preternatural accuracy. Until I neutralised that advantage, I was doomed to defeat. In desperation my mind scrambled to come up with some solution that would allow me to overcome this single element of his attack. In a burst of inspiration I realised what I needed to do. It wasn’t that he was better than me – it was that he had more experience in analysing what I was doing.
I needed to make it harder for him to see what I was doing and I knew just how to do that.
And then, well. Then I’d have to run. There was no way I was going to win this.
The cold reality of the situation had cooled the rage that had fuelled my attack. I had no desire to continue this battle any longer than I had to. It was a desperate gamble – if I were able to distract him, I’d be able to get away. To look at him now, I was sure he wouldn’t pursue this. I’d made my point. He’d have to leave me alone. He’d have to. He had to.

I didn’t even bother blocking his next attack. I simply slid to my knees and rolled forward under his thread, coming up much closer than we’d normally been getting. At almost point blank range. I was almost right under his nose.  I rose with fury from beneath him, the mana building in my hands into a ball of swirling energy and with a flick of my wrist I released. A bright light burst out from my fingers causing me to avert my eyes as the glow spell detonated the mana straight into Vin’s face.
Vin yelled out as the mana detonated right before his eyes and his mana thread disintegrated immediately. He quickly reformed it but the lapse had definitely cost him. The mana was bursting into little flecks of light around us, burning up and falling to the ground creating a virtual symphony of magical noise.
Vin struck out wildly and it was obvious that he was having trouble seeing. Unfortunately for him he’d struck where I’d launched my glow spell from and not where I’d ended up. I was easily able to deflect his strike, sending his mana thread arching about and breaking the ceiling, causing glass to shower down upon us. He made several more wide strikes, almost at random. He was flailing and trying desperately to keep me at bay.
It was easy to avoid this new tactic and I sidestepped to one side and launched my attack. Whipping my mana thread around savagely into a full chest strike I launched my attack with everything I had and watched with satisfaction as the thread tore into Vin’s shield and sent him spiralling back into the shopfront behind him. This showered him with more shards of glass as they fell from the store shopfront.
I didn’t even stop to look, the moment he’d hit the glass I was already running. I was desperately trying to make it to the closest exit. I couldn’t go back the way I’d come as by now there were sure to be ambulances and perhaps even police at the car accident zone. There was another exit that led into the high rise car park on the far side of the shopping centre, from there I could make good my escape. All I needed to do was drop down a flight of stairs and run down a small plaza that would lead me to my destination.  Once I made it into the car park, I’d be okay.